Chapter 69: Meeting an Old Friend in a Strange Land (First Update)

Morning business at the bar came to an end.

During lunch, the Rotten Vegetable Village Foursome reunited at the Employee Cafeteria on the fifth floor.

This time, alongside his deluxe meal, Yan Jing had bought two extra regular meals.

Seeing their surprised looks, Yan Jing smiled:

"I made a little money."

Although the morning's profits weren't as high as yesterday's from running their black market shop, avoiding commission fees meant Yan Jing still pulled in nearly 300 points.

He spent 40 points on food and gave a small bonus to his two employees, leaving him with 285.

He bought more food today because he felt noticeably hungrier than yesterday.

He figured the others felt about the same.

Moreover, he had discovered that the deluxe meal contained a certain amount of weird energy. Eating it restored a small fraction of the body's weird energy. It was incredibly cost-effective; there was no reason not to choose it.

"Eat up, Mantou. You're still growing."

Yan Jing placed a spare rib in Mantou's bowl and started peeling a crab. "Old Liu, you mentioned yesterday that you were going to ask around about the customers. Did you find anything out?"

"Of course. With this Old Man on the job, could there be any problems?"

Old Master Liu gripped a roasted, bone-in lamb chop in one hand, pulled a notebook from his pocket with the other, and tossed it in front of Yan Jing.

As carefree as ever, he had already forgotten yesterday's little joke over the 10 Eerie Coins. He boasted, "I've completely blended in with those youngsters now. Asking them anything is a breeze."

"We really have to hand it to you, sir!"

Yan Jing finished peeling the crab, divided the meat equally, and placed a portion in Mantou's bowl. He then wiped his hands with a tissue and began reading Old Master Liu's notes.

He still didn't need to memorize them; he relied purely on his automatic recording ability.

Before long, he had flipped through the entire notebook.

During the process, however, Yan Jing noticed something slightly off.

"Old Man, why are two pages torn out here?"

"It's a secret."

Old Liu grinned proudly and leaned back. "You three kids just sit tight and wait to enjoy the good life..."

The group exchanged glances.

"I'll treat for the next meal."

Chen Nian slipped a piece of cucumber under his mask and into his mouth. After chewing, he said slowly, "We should get our hard work bonus for these past few days tomorrow."

"It should be around 100 points."

As soon as he finished speaking, a voice rang out in Mantou's mind.

[They all have something to show for it. Why don't you?]

[Heh, I told you. Let me out, and I guarantee your haul will be bigger than theirs!]

But at that moment, Mantou couldn't hear a word the voice said.

She silently ate the crab meat Yan Jing had peeled for her, a single thought filling her mind.

'Yi Ji peeled this with his own hands...'

She felt a little dizzy, and her forehead and ears were burning up.

Sitting beside her, Yan Jing heard a chime in his ear: [favorability +1]. He instinctively glanced at Mantou.

He noticed something was wrong.

"Mantou, are you okay?"

He naturally reached out and placed a hand on her forehead.

"You seem a bit hot."

[favorability +1]

The prompt rang out again, letting Yan Jing realize the reason for her sudden fever.

So...

He placed his hand on her cheek.

"Your face is burning up too."

[favorability +1]

An idea sparked in Yan Jing's mind.

"Your hand..."

Suddenly, he noticed cracks surfacing on Mantou's arm. He coughed lightly.

"Wait here a second, Mantou. I'll go get you a cup of hot water."

He couldn't farm this any longer; if he kept it up, he was going to spawn a boss.

...

On his way to get water, Yan Jing pondered the favorability floating above Mantou's head.

It had already reached 89/100.

High favorability was definitely a good thing, but Yan Jing stood by his earlier belief: rushing it wasn't necessarily the right approach.

What had just happened was proof of that.

For now, however, favorability and hidden wishes could take a back seat. Finishing the Dungeon quests came first.

He already had a candidate in mind for the final Gluttonous Ghost Banquet quest.

Choosing that boy named Xiao Yan should be foolproof. Then he would set up a backup plan, and a backup plan for that backup plan...

While he was deep in thought, a pleasantly surprised voice reached his ears.

"Mr. Yi Ji?!"

Yan Jing turned around and saw a familiar figure.

The crumpled leather headpiece he wore was covered in mysterious stains. His tail dragged on the ground, and he still had that same wretched look about him. Aside from his face being slightly thinner than before and the fact that he was wearing a waiter's uniform, everything else was exactly as Yan Jing remembered.

"Mr. Tiger?"

Yan Jing stepped forward, looking at Tiger and the spotless plate in front of him.

"Mr. Yi Ji!"

Running into an old friend so far from home, Tiger felt his nose sting with tears. He lunged toward Yan Jing. "Mr. Yi Ji, I never expected to run into you here! Were you also sent here to be an inside man?!"

"An inside man?"

Yan Jing sidestepped slightly, letting Tiger belly-flop onto the floor.

Seeing that Tiger had a lot to say, he told him to come along while he got the hot water.

Along the way, he listened as Tiger explained the ins and outs of the whole situation.

"Are you saying that the Amusement Park was invited to attend the banquet in a few days, but because they only gave out two spots, Zebra and Hippo felt something was fishy and sent you to be an inside man?"

"Yes, exactly!"

Ever since Yan Jing saved the Amusement Park from disaster, Tiger, who had been following him around, saw his status in the park rise day by day. He had already become the third-in-command, right beneath Hippo and Zebra.

The Amusement Park should have been thrilled to be invited to the banquet this time, but the park's leader, Mr. San, wasn't around.

Hippo and Zebra clearly lacked the strength and confidence to handle it themselves. That was why they came up with the idea of sending Tiger to scout things out first.

The method they used, of course, was securing a spot with the ice cream.

And the guarantee provided by the Tower was for Tiger's personal safety.

Tiger had originally thought it was just a business trip. He had been quite happy about it, treating it like an all-expenses-paid vacation.

It was only after he arrived that he realized death wasn't terrifying—what was truly terrifying was starving half to death.

Hearing this gave Yan Jing an idea. Perhaps there was a better candidate for the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet quest...

He looked at the pitiful Tiger beside him and smiled.

"Mr. Tiger, let me buy you a meal."

Seeing Tiger's pleasantly surprised face, Yan Jing's smile turned gentle.

The longer he stayed in the Sun-Swallowing Tower, the more he felt it was a wonderful place.

Anywhere else, getting things done required endless favors and back-and-forth hassle. Here, it was only a matter of whether it cost one meal or two.

A short while later, Old Master Liu and the others noticed that Yan Jing was beaming as he returned with the water. He seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.

Faced with their questions, he offered no explanation:

"It's a secret."

Leaning back, he tilted his head up and said, "You guys just sit tight and wait to enjoy the good life..."

...

...

After running the bar for the entire afternoon as usual, Yan Jing's points reached 745.

He wasn't in a hurry to upgrade to Grade C1. Instead, he spent 45 points to rent a standard single room for three days, choosing a spot right by the stairwell.

Then he spent 90 points buying a total of thirty portions of the deluxe meal, which he stored in the room along with a few other items.

He left the remaining 610 points untouched, saving them all.

Next, he took a trip down to the fifth floor, to the kitchen for the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet.

He closed up shop that night as usual and went to the lounge to 'bother' the waiters for a while. Then, around 8:50 PM, he punctually logged out of the Inner World.

Tonight at 9:00 PM was his scheduled time to meet with Shen Youran for their final discussion on Dungeon intel before entering.