Chapter 9: Expulsion
At ten o'clock in the morning, Zhu Yu walked to the store door and gently turned the sign from "Closed" to "Open".
Several players were waiting outside, and when they saw the sign turn, they excitedly pushed the door open.
"It's still warmer in the hot pot restaurant," Duan Tan said to his wife Tao Anhui with emotion as he took off his heavy coat. "The heating in our shelter can't compare to this. Look, there's a fireplace by the wall."
Tao Anhui pursed her chapped lips and looked at the menu on the table: "Let's have a light breakfast. Let's order a clear soup base. This will save our energy for fighting monsters in the afternoon."
“Good idea.”
Duan Tan agreed with his wife's decision and went over to look at the menu with her:
"Yesterday I heard from Lao Ge that the hot pot restaurant has increased its food variety. I came to see what it is... Wait, when did they start serving hot pot snacks? And each dish has additional effects?"
Duan Tan couldn't help but raise his voice slightly when he saw the tempting pictures of crispy pork, brown sugar rice cake, wolf tooth potatoes and crispy fried milk on the menu.
His exclamation attracted other players who had just entered the store or had not yet sat down to gather around.
"Didn't there only a few kinds of hot pot bases before? Now you're selling hot pot snacks too?
"Oh my god, crispy pork is my favorite. It is a must-order item every time I go out for hotpot. It looks so delicious!"
"Oh my god! Each snack has an additional effect. This is a great assist when fighting monsters."
More players gathered around the menu, discussing the contents of the new menu. Some couldn't help but look through the attribute details and excitedly exchanged ideas.
"Wow, crispy pork can increase defense value, which is just right for a fragile profession like me!"
"Brown sugar glutinous rice cake can improve the recovery speed of physical strength. You can consider eating it with the clear soup base!"
"Wolf-tooth potatoes can also increase intelligence points? It would be nice if I could eat one before the college entrance exam."
"Crispy fried milk increases luck points? Haha, this is perfect for me to open a treasure chest. It just so happens that I killed a monster and a bronze treasure chest dropped yesterday!"
While everyone was discussing heatedly, a player with quick eyes and hands had already rushed to the next table to order some hot pot snacks, quickly opened his personal page to take a photo, and sent it to the group chat.
[Player 0553]: Did you see that? The hot pot restaurant has added four new hot pot snacks today [click to view pictures], and each snack has a chance to trigger additional effects!
[Player 1782]: Holy crap! Is this true? I'm so hungry this morning!
[Player 2998]: Wait, what's going on? I didn't see these items when I ordered food online just now?
[Player 4365]: Upstairs, I just asked the owner of the hot pot restaurant, and she said these are exclusive dishes of the offline store and are not available for takeout.
[Player 1023]: Huh? No delivery? This is too much! My luck is so bad. The location that the game sent me at the beginning is far away from the offline hot pot restaurant. I started to rush from the first day of the game, and now I am still a long way away.
[Player 5547]: The socially anxious person who only orders takeout cried like crazy, and felt that the food he couldn't eat tasted better...
[Player 0006]: No, no, no, even though I find it troublesome, I have to crawl over there just for the added effect of the snack (just to kill monsters, definitely not for eating).
[Player 4879]: Hahaha, who would believe that? You are just greedy!
[Player 0006]: Crispy pork + defense, brown sugar rice cake + physical recovery, essential for fighting monsters, how can you not believe me?
[Player 8999]: Tsk, I'll be frank, I'm here for the crispy pork! Even if the additional effect doesn't trigger, at least I can enjoy the food - wait, do any of you offline players know how much these snacks cost? They're too expensive and I can't afford them.
[Player 0553]: I think the price is reasonable. Any four snacks only cost one gold coin.
[Player 3376]: Wow, the hotpot restaurant owner is so nice. The prices are like charity. I will go to the restaurant to support him after I kill the monsters!
[Player 6987]: And me.
[Player 2029]: +1
…
While Zhu Yu was recording the bills of new players brought by old customers, he was secretly checking the group chat messages.
When she saw that many players were attracted by the low prices of hot pot snacks and were planning to go to offline hot pot restaurants, she secretly thanked God that the price she set last night was a wise choice.
Hot pot snacks are available at no cost to the system and are unlimited.
Since the chance of triggering the additional effects of each snack was low and the portion was not large, and she wanted to attract more players to patronize the offline store, she set the super-value price of only one gold coin for any four snacks.
As the news spread quickly, today's business was even more popular than yesterday. Zhu Yu was busy non-stop until two or three o'clock in the afternoon when there were fewer people. He finally had the chance to take a short break.
"Oh~" She looked at the dancing flames in the fireplace, felt sleepy gradually coming over her, and could not help yawning.
Looks like I have to consider hiring a receptionist.
Zhu Yu supported his head and nodded.
Offline hotpot restaurants all require self-service ordering, so there is no need for waiters for the time being, but the front desk can help her reduce a lot of burden.
Zhu Yu kept a faint look of doom on his face, a characteristic of a working man, until the evening, which was also the time of the day when the store had the largest flow of people.
She pinched her brows and was about to be fully alert when there was a sudden commotion in the store.
"I told you, we were the first to see this position, and we just negotiated with you in a nice way, don't be so shameless!"
A male player wearing a vest and with a large tattoo on his back stood at the table, his tone clearly threatening.
There was a short companion next to him, with his arms folded and a sneer on his face, obviously looking for trouble.
Zhu Yu quickly opened the personal panels of the two people. The tattooed man was called Yin Hua, and the short man was called Liang Maocai. Both of them were E level, and they were both assassins.
She then checked the information of several players with whom they had clashed.
There were several F-level players sitting at the table, only one of them was a combat profession, and the others were life-related professions.
The players were obviously a little nervous, but they still answered bravely: "We were here first, isn't it unreasonable for you to occupy the seats by force?"
"Hey, reasonable?" Liang Maocai sneered, his eyes full of disdain, "Do we need to reason with you for the sake of our brother's reputation? If you don't want to cause trouble, just give up your seat. Also, we want all the dishes you ordered just now."
The F-level player's face changed slightly, and his voice became a little panicked: "We ordered our own food, why should we give it to you? And doesn't the rule of the hot pot restaurant say that only the person who ordered the food can enjoy those additional effects? It's useless for you to grab it!"
"Just because we are higher level than you." Yin Hua sneered provocatively, pressing forward step by step, "We don't care about any additional effects, we just don't want you to eat. Don't let us do it, and don't blame us for taking a fancy to your monster outside when the time comes."
Upon hearing this, except for the F-level players, the faces of the nearby players immediately turned grim.
"Hey, how did Xiao Zhu and the others run into these two guys?"
A player shook his head and cast a sympathetic look towards the helpless F-level players.
"What's going on?" Duan Tan and Tao Anhui, a couple sitting nearby, had just arrived at the hot pot restaurant today and were completely confused by the scene before them.
"These two people rely on their profession of assassins and their special professional skills, so they often sneak attack others when they are about to kill monsters. They have long been notorious. Anyway, next time you meet them, it is better to stay away from them."
"Isn't this too disgusting? Don't games have any control over this?" Tao Anhui's face showed obvious disgust.
"There's no way to control it. They don't attack players directly, they just skirt the rules and take advantage of loopholes in the game."
“…How shameless.”
These players were sitting not far from Zhu Yu. Zhu Yu heard everything clearly from behind. She frowned, and the tiredness she had just felt was instantly swept away.
When the F-level players saw this, they knew that due to the bad reputation of these two people, no one dared to come out to help them.
Faced with constant verbal threats, they could only helplessly stand up from their seats and prepare to leave.
Just then, a voice interrupted their conversation like a cold wind.
"My dear guest," Zhu Yu walked over and said calmly but without question, "Threats and bullying are not welcome here. If you continue to make trouble, I will ask you to leave."
Yin Hua and Liang Maocai turned to look at Zhu Yu, exchanged glances with each other, and showed a hint of surprise on their faces, as if they did not expect that the NPC of the hot pot restaurant, who always seemed to be a tool, would stand up to maintain order.
"You——" Yin Hua was about to step forward to speak, but Liang Maocai quickly pulled him back and whispered, "Brother Hua, she is an NPC in the game after all..."
"What's wrong with the game NPC? Anyway, the game rules only say that players can't attack each other, but they don't say that players can't attack NPCs."
Yin Hua Leng took a step forward, looking Zhu Yu up and down, with an ambiguous smile on his face: "We haven't broken any rules. You are just a little female NPC, and you don't seem to have any ability. What can you do to us?"
"You really didn't break the rules of the game." Zhu Yu tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and then the next second when the two people opposite him showed smug smiles, he said coldly:
“But this is my territory.”
"roll."
As soon as he finished speaking, before Yin Hua could react, he and his companions were suddenly attacked by a huge force. They were thrown away and fell straight out of the door of the hot pot restaurant.
The store instantly fell into silence, and the surrounding players looked at the scene in amazement. No one had expected such a situation to happen.
The two men who had been so arrogant just now were now lying on the ground in a miserable state, their faces filled with shock and anger.
Yin Hua struggled to get up from the ground, his face livid, and he gritted his teeth and said, "You dare to do this to us, believe it or not, we——"
"I don't believe it." Zhu Yu interrupted him before he could finish. "You have been blacklisted. You can never enter a hot pot restaurant again, and you can't make online purchases."
The players around came back to their senses from the shock and began to discuss in low voices.
"These two guys really deserve it. I've disliked them for a long time!"
"I didn't expect that the boss, who usually looks so gentle, would get so angry and throw them out directly!"
"Hahaha, this is so satisfying. These two brothers will never be able to enter the hot pot restaurant again."
Zhu Yu quietly watched the two players leave in embarrassment, then turned around calmly and returned to the hot pot restaurant to continue business.
Perhaps her actions just now frightened others. In the next few hours, not only did no one dare to make trouble, but even the voices in the store seemed to be a little quieter than usual.
Finally, it was closing time. Zhu Yu looked at today's turnover. After deducting all costs, there was a net profit of 5,222 gold coins.
Although the bulk of the revenue still comes from online food delivery, the offline net revenue plus the revenue from hot pot and snacks has more than quadrupled compared to yesterday.
Seeing that her plan was gradually working, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but rise slightly.
After a simple dinner, Zhu Yu changed out of his work clothes and walked out of the hot pot restaurant holding the ironwood bow he had received from the foundry master in the afternoon.
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