My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 63

by Little Panda

Business is Booming

Although the BBQ stall was decided upon, the preparatory work still had to be sorted out. For instance, Huo Keyu had to develop her own secret BBQ sauce and BBQ powder. Meanwhile, the men had to use those storage racks to build a mobile BBQ cart for her team.

The ingredients for the secret BBQ sauce and BBQ powder required fresh spices like scallions, ginger, and garlic, in addition to the seasonings Ren Chenxi provided. Mu Ning and the others had planted their own scallions and ginger, but the rest could only be foraged from the wild. They didn’t need to find every single type; they would just gather as much as they could. After all, the men also needed to collect other materials to build the BBQ cart.

With everyone pitching in to help, Huo Keyu’s BBQ stall finally opened for business on the third night. Over those three days, Du Tian and the other two had picked up a few simple tricks from Huo Keyu so they could help out when she was busy. However, since it was their first time setting up the stall, everyone had prepared themselves for a mediocre turnout. In reality, Huo Keyu’s BBQ stall had the most booming business among all the street food vendors—so booming that Zhang Tongqi, Chen Gu, and the others eventually had to scramble to help out.

Although Huo Keyu priced their meat skewers at ten 1st-order crystal cores each, customers couldn’t resist the generous portions and fresh ingredients. More importantly, the taste of those skewers was absolutely top-notch!

Even before the apocalypse, these skewers could have easily rivaled the fare at any dedicated BBQ restaurant. The reason they were being compared to pre-apocalyptic BBQ restaurants was that absolutely none of the street food in this post-apocalyptic base could hold a candle to Huo Keyu’s cooking.

Take, for example, the braised food stall that sold relatively well among the vendors. According to Chen Gu, the vendor never changed the braising liquid; they just added a little water to it every day, making the flavor quite bland. But a bland taste was the least of its issues. The stall owner would sometimes mix stale meat or vegetables into the pot. Chen Gu had once bitten into a piece of very strange-tasting meat, and he never ate from that braised food stall again.

The same went for a stall selling dry spicy mixed bowls. The reason they sold it dry, without any broth, was that the boss wanted to keep reusing the broth to boil things. Naturally, because they kept adding water, the flavor was unavoidably watered down. Just as unavoidably, that boss also mixed in stale ingredients.

It was the apocalypse; all kinds of food were precious. Many people simply couldn’t bear to throw away meat and vegetables that had been kept for too long. Some cunning stall owners took the opportunity to lightly process these stale ingredients and put them up for sale. Aside from the food itself, various seasonings were even harder to come by. This resulted in a baseline flavor profile among the base’s vendors: every stall owner was extremely stingy, reluctant to add extra seasoning. As a result, most of the street food was far blander than anything from before the apocalypse.

With bland flavors and stale ingredients, the prices for most street food rarely exceeded a single 1st-order crystal core. For the price of one of Huo Keyu’s meat skewers—ten 1st-order crystal cores—a person could eat themselves stuffed at another vendor’s stall!

So, when Huo Keyu first announced her prices, a few ordinary people who had come to inquire immediately turned around and headed for the adjacent stalls. The vendors selling cold tossed salads nearby almost burst out laughing. In the beginning, when Huo Keyu and the other girls had pushed their BBQ cart over, those vendors had originally wanted to chase them away. Regardless of what these newcomers were selling, they simply didn’t want another competitor.

The base was mostly pitch-black at night. There were no streetlights, though the base authorities had tied a few bare light bulbs to trees or wooden poles. In the food stall area, a light bulb was strung up every few stalls. Under the dim yellow glow of the old-fashioned bulbs, the cold salad vendors initially only saw the non-esper ordinary girls like Huo Keyu at the front. They immediately put on fierce expressions, intending to drive them off. But before the words could leave their mouths, they spotted Zhang Tongqi, Wu Tong, and the others following closely behind Huo Keyu. Terrified, the vendors instantly swallowed their threats.

In the entire base, there was hardly anyone who didn’t recognize Mu Ning, the 5th-order dual-system esper. Naturally, they were also exceedingly familiar with Zhang Tongqi, Wu Tong, and the rest who ran around behind her all day. Although Mu Ning hadn’t come tonight, those cold salad vendors still greeted the group attentively, then watched helplessly as Huo Keyu and the others unceremoniously commandeered the spot right next to theirs.

At first, these vendors had long faces, terrified that their business tonight would be impacted by the neighboring BBQ stall. As it turned out, the first wave of prospective customers was scared straight over to their stalls by that price tag of ten 1st-order crystal cores. Hah! So they hadn’t come to steal business, but to deliver it!

Huo Keyu didn’t feel much when the first batch of customers left. Their meat skewers were priced high to begin with, and she hadn’t expected many customers to be willing to spend so many crystal cores on a luxury—especially ordinary people without esper abilities. Watching the customers leave, Chen Gu turned his head, glanced at the neighboring cold salad stall whose business was picking up, and told Huo Keyu to grill a few skewers for them first to satisfy their cravings.

They had eaten these meat skewers at home a few times, and the taste was simply incomparable to the other snack stalls. Chen Gu firmly believed that if they took the lead in eating the BBQ skewers, there was no way they wouldn’t attract other espers with spending power.

Sure enough, as the aroma from the BBQ stall began to drift through the air, quite a few customers trickled in. Upon asking the price—hey, it was really expensive. But… these chunks of meat were so big! There was so much seasoning sprinkled on them! And those guys nearby were eating them with such relish!

It had been two years since the apocalypse began. Most espers in the base were above the 2nd-order, and they all had the basic ability to acquire 1st-order crystal cores. Moreover, the reproduction rate of mutated beasts in the wild far exceeded that of humans. For some powerful esper squads, obtaining ten 1st-order crystal cores was merely a moment’s work. Consequently, a long line began to form around the corner for Huo Keyu’s BBQ stall.

Next door, the cold salad stall owners who had initially gloated were now stewing in jealousy while hopelessly gulping down their own saliva. In the end, even they couldn’t withstand the domineering aroma of the roasted meat. With bitter expressions, they bought a single skewer for themselves, splitting it among several people. Each person only got a tiny bite of meat, but… it was so fucking¹ delicious! The ingredients were so generous; no wonder it sold for such a high price!

For their first time setting up the stall, Huo Keyu and the others hadn’t prepared many meat skewers, so within half an hour, all 200 skewers were completely sold out. As Huo Keyu’s group packed up the stall, the people still waiting in line who hadn’t gotten a chance to eat grumbled regretfully. They clamored for Huo Keyu not to be so stingy tomorrow night and to prepare more meat skewers. Making them smell the aroma without letting them eat the meat was just too cruel!

The two young girls, Du Tian and Yue Yue, smiled and nodded in agreement, their sweet words expressing hope that everyone would continue to patronize their BBQ stall the following night.

Two hundred meat skewers had earned them 2,000 1st-order crystal cores. To say they earned a lot was technically true, but… minus the cost of the meat and the painstakingly prepared dry rubs and marinades, was the profit really that much? Ren Chenxi even worried that, given how lavishly Huo Keyu squandered the seasonings, what would they do when their massive stockpile ran out? Therefore, even though Ren Chenxi still had several inventory slots full of various seasonings, she opened the Apocalypse Mall and searched for the prices of condiments.

Fortunately, while seasonings were sold at quite a high price in the Apocalypse Mall—for example, a bottle of peanut oil cost 1,000 crystal stones—Ren Chenxi was a 50% Off Grand Member. She could buy it for just 500 crystal stones! Moreover, their “bottle” of peanut oil was actually a super-sized jug! One jug held ten liters!

Thank goodness. They could afford to squander it. They could definitely afford to squander it~

Huo Keyu insisted that the 2,000 1st-order crystal cores be added to the communal funds. After all, ordinary people like them essentially had no use for crystal cores other than paying rent or buying things. Right now, they didn’t need to pay rent, and there wasn’t really anything worth buying. They might as well exchange the crystal cores for higher-order ones to upgrade their esper abilities! However, thinking about it was one thing; actually exchanging them was not an easy task.

In short, these 2,000 1st-order crystal cores were temporarily put into storage.

On their first day setting up the stall, they sold all 200 meat skewers cleanly. Consequently, on the second night, Huo Keyu and the others prepared 500 meat skewers, which similarly sold out entirely. The third day was the same; 500 meat skewers quickly sold out within half an hour. Furthermore, that night, Qi Sheng brought a group of people over, becoming their biggest customer. His group alone bought over 300 meat skewers in a single night.

Originally, Qi Sheng had come over to support her friend’s business as a favor to Ren Chenxi for selling him the generators and engines. However, in the process of showing support, they became completely captivated by the delicious skewers. After that, things spiraled out of control; disregarding the people waiting in line behind them, they simply lingered at the stall until they had eaten every last remaining skewer.

Over the course of three consecutive days, 700 meat skewers had been sold. Although Ren Chenxi mentioned that she still had meat stockpiled in her inventory, Mu Ning figured that since they hadn’t gone out in three days, they should head out tomorrow to hunt some mutated beasts, and perhaps see if they could acquire some 3rd-order or higher crystal cores along the way.

During these three days, Ren Chenxi used her free card draw attempts to pull another two R-rank Explosion Cards, five Greasy Cards, three Flash Cards, and five Costume Cards. The five Costume Cards were then synthesized by Ren Chenxi into one R-rank Explosion Card. Since the cards were obtained through free draws after all, Ren Chenxi felt that it was quite worth it overall.

And during these three days, Ren Chenxi naturally hadn’t forgotten about her daily quests. After discovering that she could complete the ‘make Mu Ning smile’ quest with a one-hundred-percent success rate no matter what method she used—as long as she got Mu Ning to smile—Ren Chenxi simply stopped trying to be creative. She would just wake up in the morning and ask Mu Ning to give her a smile. Mu Ning would very cooperatively smile, the quest would be completed, and Ren Chenxi smoothly obtained an SR-rank Recovery Card.

After that, the system likely caught on to this quest bug. When the dailies refreshed the next day, the ‘make Mu Ning smile’ quest was gone. In its place were a ‘Good morning kiss’ quest and a ‘Good night kiss’ quest…

Ren Chenxi had no other choice but to abandon those two quests and focus entirely on the ‘Make a loving breakfast’ quest instead. As a result, for two consecutive mornings, the enthusiastic Zhang Tongqi and Wu Tong woke up early and cooked breakfast. Sun Jia’s injuries had been improving over the past couple of days, and her drug addiction truly hadn’t flared up again. To express their gratitude to Ren Chenxi, everyone simply took over the cooking for all three meals of the day.

Because of Zhang Tongqi and the others’ enthusiasm and attentiveness, Ren Chenxi only managed to complete the loving breakfast quest once, obtaining a single SR-rank Shield Card. Ren Chenxi’s heartfelt desire to synthesize two SSR-rank Explosion Cards ultimately failed to materialize.

On the fourth day, Ren Chenxi made a point to wake up bright and early, getting out of bed a little past 5:00 AM to make breakfast. She had no other choice. Last night, she had purposely stayed up until midnight, using her five card draw opportunities to pull one R-rank Explosion Card, three Greasy Cards, and one Flash Card. Having amassed too many Greasy Cards, Ren Chenxi consecutively used fifteen of them before finally synthesizing an R-rank Explosion Card; her previous two attempts had resulted in an Illusion Card and an Acceleration Card, respectively. Having painstakingly scraped together five R-rank Explosion Cards, Ren Chenxi immediately synthesized them into an SR-rank Explosion Card. This meant she now had nine SR-rank Explosion Cards. As it happened, the refreshed ‘Make a loving breakfast’ daily quest offered an SR-rank Explosion Card as its reward. Therefore, she absolutely had to secure this card this morning!

The author has something to say:

Xixi: Babe, give this master a smile~

Mutou: Okay, master~ *////▽////*