Ch 7: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Endless Staircase (2)

【Current stage exploration rate: 30%.】

【NPC eliminated *1. +10 points at settlement.】

Seeing these two messages received in the app, Yi Han became even more determined and seriously reminded him again,

“You can keep knocking for the next few doors too. It’s fine. I trust you.”

“T-Then… okay.”

Innocent Jian Lin froze slightly, then blushed and agreed in a daze.

Since this apartment had no recipe or clearance clue, the two left and returned to the stairwell.

Yi Han’s current exploration rate was 30%. Of that, 20% came from room -2001. The other 10% came from the stairwell between the 4th floor and the -20th floor.

With a rough calculation, Yi Han vaguely sensed that something was off.

The stairwell provided 10% exploration. The rooms entered through the 4 knocking chances totaled 80%.

Then there was still 10% left…

Where was it?

Yi Han had entered the game on the 4th floor. Although he had not gone upward, judging by the architectural style of this old residential building, there were at most 2 or 3 floors above. It could not possibly provide another 10%.

His intuition told him that the missing 10% might be related to the path to survival.

But for now, he had no new ideas, so he could only remember it and focus on going upstairs.

This time, the two stopped on the -18th floor.

Yi Han glanced slightly at Jian Lin beside him and saw this luck emperor staring at the doorplate for -1801, as though he sensed something.

“Knock?” Yi Han asked.

The number -18…

Without the minus sign, it could actually be considered a widely favored lucky number. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. But now that it appeared on the doorplate of the negative eighteenth floor of a ghost building, it inevitably made one think of things like the eighteenth level of hell.

No matter how one looked at it, it felt ominous.

Why would the luck emperor choose a number like this?

But facing Yi Han’s questioning gaze, he still nodded.

Seeing Jian Lin’s thoughtful yet not entirely certain expression, Yi Han somehow suddenly got the feeling that this teammate was probably not merely “pretty lucky” as he had said.

He might genuinely possess some ability, bloodline, or item related to luck.

Perhaps it was still low-level at the moment, which was why he doubted his own luck after the first knock. But to Yi Han, the result of the first knock had obviously been good too.

And this time, maybe he really could hit the target again and directly help Yi Han find the recipe.

“Good luck, luck emperor… Help me find this stage’s recipe. If not, another 10-point ghost is fine too.”

Yi Han remained calm on the surface while silently cheering him on inside.

Then Jian Lin took a deep breath and gently knocked on the door.

A moment later, dragging footsteps gradually approached the door.

Click.

Someone opened it.

It was a wrinkled middle-aged man. His face was somewhat fat, and his eyes were abnormally small, tucked beneath his eyelids as he looked the two outside over with obvious ill intent.

…He also seemed to be holding a kitchen knife, its blade still dotted with mysterious bits of minced meat.

“You came at just the right time. Dinner hasn’t started yet. Hurry in.”

The man bared his teeth in a smile. Saying something terrifying, he stepped aside to make way for them.

Yi Han turned his head and sure enough, his teammate’s face was once again filled with awkwardness, clearly thinking he had crashed and burned a second time.

Yi Han took the lead and followed the male homeowner into room -1801.

Just like last time, after both entered, the door was shut behind them.

Only this time, the lights were on. The male homeowner did not scare them like the female ghost had before. Instead, he led the two straight into the kitchen.

The kitchen was filled with a heavy, trapped smell of cooking oil mixed with the raw stench of meat, making people nauseous.

The moment Yi Han entered, he saw a pile of minced meat and bones on the cutting board. Before coming to the door, the male homeowner had probably been chopping them.

Who knew what kind of meat that was…

“We’re making dumplings tonight. Since you’re here, come help me.”

He dropped the kitchen knife onto the cutting board, brought out flour and a kneading board, and immediately filled the already small countertop.

【System Notification: Due to knocking on the wrong door, Forced Task 2 has been triggered. Help the male owner of room -1801 in the kitchen. Failure will result in this game being judged as failed. Success will allow you to return to the stairwell and continue the game.】

Seeing the task content, Yi Han frowned.

Behind the previous door, the NPC only asked them to demonstrate a piano piece. That had a clear completion standard. Whether it sounded good or not, finishing the piece counted as passing.

But behind this door, the task content did not reveal any specific standard.

What exactly counted as helping in the kitchen?

How long did they need to help?

To what extent?

Would making the dumplings be enough, or did they need to cook them and serve them at the table?

Or did they need to make the dumplings to the male homeowner’s satisfaction?

Their main mission to escape the ghost building had a time limit. They could not waste too much time here.

Thinking this, Yi Han turned to look at his teammate.

Jian Lin was very self-aware. He turned around, took an apron from behind the door, put it on, and then began clumsily kneading dough.

After watching him for two seconds, Yi Han knew that Jian Lin was not very good at cooking either.

But he only needed to stall for a little time.

Seeing that the male homeowner was instructing from the side and probably could not leave, Yi Han turned and exited the kitchen.

Logically, something like a “recipe” was most likely to be in the kitchen.

But during the few minutes when the task was being issued, he had already looked around. The kitchen was extremely simple. The cabinets and similar areas were exposed, with no recipe he wanted and no other place to hide anything.

He went straight into the bedroom.

Without the homeowner watching him, Yi Han could finally start rummaging around without restraint again.

Wardrobe. Nightstand. Under the bed…

After finding nothing in the secondary bedroom, he moved to the master bedroom.

Because this kind of old apartment had no living room or dining room, the master bedroom was usually used as a combined space for dining table, sofa, television, and bed.

The moment Yi Han entered, he saw a very old round table with foldable sides placed right in the middle of the room.

Several round stools covered in knitted cushions were arranged around it.

There was clearly only one person living here, yet such a large table and so many stools had been prepared. Who exactly was he planning to invite for dinner?

Walking around the dining table, Yi Han saw an old sofa and television behind it.

With just one glance, he spotted a sheet of paper wedged between the sofa cushions, giving off a faint glow.

【Recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumstick】

…The luck emperor really was a luck emperor.

Yi Han could not help glancing toward the kitchen where his teammate was. Not long after he had left, the sound of chopping meat had started up again. They were probably continuing to prepare dinner.

Without hesitating, Yi Han took out the blank recipe book from his system inventory and merged this page into it.

The relevant description then appeared.

【Recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumstick (Learned)】

【Description: After consumption, increases leg muscle strength and jumping ability according to deliciousness. Duration: 2 hours.】

…Eating chicken legs strengthens the legs?

This dish was clearly different from the braised pork.

The effect of braised pork was immediate treatment, healing wounds and restoring health right after consumption.

This chicken drumstick, however, added a buff to the eater, similar to the stat-boosting snacks made by players with cooking skills in traditional games.

This made Yi Han think of a relatively important hidden setting:

The cooldown time for using this type of buff medicine or food.

Anyone who had played games knew that healing potions or buff snacks usually had a cooldown time. Within that period, only the first use of a potion or item would grant the full effect. Drinking again too soon would halve the effect or even make it disappear entirely.

There was also usually a limit to how many buffs could exist on one player at the same time.

If the number reached the limit, then eating again would only overwrite a previous buff instead of increasing the total number.

Yi Han had already considered this issue before.

Because if braised pork could be eaten without limit, then in this escape game, as long as he was not killed instantly on the spot, he could rely on it to resurrect infinitely at full health.

Even for an S-rank item, that should be far too overpowered.

All dishes in this recipe book must have hidden consumption restrictions.

They were simply not written out clearly.

Fortunately, Yi Han had the resentful spirit of the former owner, who understood the rules very well.

His answer was:

The universal hidden cooldown for dishes was 24 hours.

Within 24 hours, a player could only eat 3 dishes.

The same dish could only be eaten once.

With this rule in place, and considering that the honey-glazed chicken drumstick’s buff only lasted 2 hours, Yi Han first bought the ingredients, placed them into the iron pot, waited 1 minute, and removed the finished product.

But he did not eat it immediately.

Instead, he placed it into his inventory for future need.

Now that he had obtained the thing he wanted most, Yi Han no longer had much interest in searching in great detail.

He casually checked the remaining areas and prepared to return to the kitchen.

So far, he had entered rooms twice.

His gains were respectively “10 points” and “Recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumstick.”

But regarding the clearance clue for this stage, there had still been no progress.

As he walked into the kitchen, he was still thinking that after his teammate completed the forced kitchen task, he would use force to threaten the NPC male homeowner and see if he could dig up some clues.

But as soon as he entered, he saw flour everywhere.

On the floor, on the countertop, and on both people cooking.

Bowls and chopsticks lay all over the place in complete chaos.

It looked as though Yi Han had already smashed the place once.

His teammate, still wearing the apron, heard him enter and turned around pale-faced.

Only then did Yi Han clearly see that Jian Lin’s hand was being firmly pinned to the cutting board by the male homeowner. The male homeowner’s other hand held the kitchen knife raised high, poised to chop down.

“What are you doing?!”

Yi Han frowned, pulled out the pot with a reverse grip, and strode forward.

CLANG!

With one thunderous sound, before either of the two present could react, the male homeowner was knocked unconscious on the floor.

Jian Lin stared in shock.

As for the NPC male homeowner, who originally could have survived until the forced task ended and then been violently interrogated for clues…

The system judged him severely injured and completely unable to turn the situation around in this round.

So he vanished on the spot and was forcibly logged off.

【…NPC eliminated *1. +10 points at settlement.】

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Yi Han: …My hand moved too fast. Couldn’t hold it back.

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