Ch 24: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Hot Spring Bathhouse (12)

The moment he saw the ranking, Yi Han immediately thought: This is bad.

His first reaction was to find the personal settings and quickly disable the option:

“Allow friend requests from strangers.”

He had only just registered his forum username, and in the blink of an eye he had parachuted directly into first place on the rankings.

Not even one minute had passed yet.

But countless idle players scrolling the forums had already realized:

“This is a newbie-stage big shot.”

The instant Yi Han disabled friend requests, the notification bar had already exploded with 999+ friend requests. The app nearly crashed from overload.

Yi Han had to restart it once and clear the notifications before it finally recovered.

Wiping away nonexistent cold sweat, Yi Han entered the forum chat section with an ominous feeling.

The very first thing he saw was the newest trending thread.

It was a discussion about whether this newcomer with a terrifying 99% average score rate was “a retired boxer with severe OCD who loves detective thrillers.”

The thread had been posted three minutes ago.

It already had several hundred replies.

Meanwhile, another hot thread directly beneath it was about his gourmet web shop…

The reply count had already surpassed ten thousand.

Holding his forehead, Yi Han clicked into it and skimmed through the contents.

Then he realized his previous intuition had indeed been correct.

Almost every player who had managed to buy his food was discussing how unbelievably delicious the braised pork was.

Meanwhile, even more players who had failed to buy it were camping like people fighting over train tickets, saving their newbie assistance mission slots.

The moment someone posted that his food shop had opened, everyone would instantly rush into the dungeon.

Unfortunately, players could not access the forums while inside game instances, and Yi Han usually only operated for a single hour.

By the time outside players got the news and entered the dungeon, very few managed to catch the shop still open.

Yet this only intensified their enthusiasm.

The less they could get it, the more desperately they wanted to eat it.

All swearing they had to taste this legendary food someday…

…

In summary, not a single person seemed to care about the food’s special effects.

Yi Han increasingly felt that, given how popular his shop had become on the forums, the system had probably already noticed it long ago…

The players still had not connected the shop to the top-ranked newcomer “Y.”

But because the shop itself was directly linked beneath the system app, some players instead suspected it was official system content and had even urged the system to open business faster.

Yet for some reason, the system had not caused trouble for Yi Han.

Instead, it simply turned a blind eye and silently permitted his little side business.

Yi Han could not understand the reason for this yet.

Still, he decided to proceed cautiously and hurry to reclaim a physical storefront in the Main God Space so he could make money through legitimate channels.

Afterward, Yi Han also browsed the Information Section and Trading Section.

The Information Section was mostly useless to him.

The system restricted player speech and would not allow detailed dungeon-clear procedures to be revealed.

So the posts there mostly consisted of basic escape game knowledge, app function guides, small fitness recommendations, mystery novel suggestions, and similar things.

The Trading Section, meanwhile, was as lively as the chat section.

Many players sold items they obtained in dungeons, or traded for things they needed.

Some players specialized entirely in this kind of business, buying low and reselling items.

Shops run by these players usually carried wider and more complete inventories.

The very first thread Yi Han opened was one such merchant’s latest inventory update.

After carefully browsing, he actually found exactly what he needed.

【Comprehensive Enhancement Spirit Stone for S-Rank Weapons】

【Quality: S-Rank】

【Condition: Brand New】

【Description: Fully enhances an S-rank weapon. After enhancement, weapon quality may be upgraded to S+.】

【A Fragment of a Martial Artist’s Soul】

【Quality: A-Rank】

【Condition: Brand New】

【Description: A remnant soul of a martial artist skilled in flexible weapons. Can attach to flexible weapons, directly linking them to the wielder’s consciousness. After use, weapon quality, flexibility, durability, and resilience can all approach S-rank infinitely. The holder also automatically gains experience in using flexible weapons. Recommended weapons: whips, chains, claw-hooks, rope darts, etc.】

【Item Sharing Contract】

【Quality: C-Rank】

【Condition: Brand New】

【Description: Shares item usage rights with a designated companion/spirit pet/servant.】

Yi Han memorized these keywords and searched for similar items.

In the end, he discovered that this seller’s prices were the cheapest, and the delivery wait was relatively short.

Setting himself to anonymous mode, he quickly negotiated the transaction details with the shop owner.

The seller did not currently have the S-rank enhancement stone in stock and needed two days to acquire it.

Conveniently, Yi Han also lacked enough points at the moment.

So the two first signed a trade contract, and Yi Han paid part of the cost as a deposit.

Instantly completing a transaction worth over ten thousand points, the seller was delighted.

Very generously, he gave Yi Han a discount as a major customer and even threw in the Sharing Contract as a free gift.

Thus Yi Han immediately used the contract on his iron pot, then purchased the cheapest housekeeping puppet from the system store.

He taught it to accept orders, buy ingredients, and cook.

This kind of puppet had no soul and never tired. It was merely a household chore tool.

And since Yi Han’s iron pot did not actually require a person to stir-fry manually, the puppet learned extremely quickly.

For the first time, Yi Han had finally freed his own hands.

Now he could make money while lying down.

Two days later, he completed the transaction with the forum merchant and finally obtained both the enhancement stone and the martial artist’s soul fragment.

After strengthening the iron pot, its information completely changed.

【Iron Pot】

【Quality: S+ Rank】

【Condition: Glossy and Brand New】

【Description: Durable and sturdy. Smacks ghost back-of-heads with perfect accuracy.】

Yi Han: …

Unexpectedly, upgrading existing items actually adjusted their descriptions according to how he used them.

As for the martial artist soul fragment, Yi Han used it on the Pet Chain.

Although the chain itself was only B-rank, the fact it could restrain all sorts of bizarre creatures clearly meant it already possessed special properties.

Yi Han had long felt he lacked a proper tool for tying up captives.

So upon seeing a soul fragment specifically meant for enhancing flexible weapons, he immediately decided to make it his off-hand weapon.

After use, the Pet Chain directly jumped tiers and became A+ quality.

After testing it briefly, Yi Han genuinely found it extremely smooth to use, like an extension of his own arm.

Because of the coma and waiting for his weapons to upgrade, Yi Han’s dungeon progression had already been delayed by five days.

Now it was time to hurry into the next stage.

The two-star stages were already unlocked.

After selecting the difficulty, Yi Han suddenly remembered his previous lucky teammate.

Two days had passed.

Yet the other party still had not accepted his friend request.

Actually, Yi Han kind of wanted to duo queue with him…

Although Jian Lin had not displayed any particularly outstanding ability or courage, the guy was genuinely absurdly lucky.

If Yi Han could continue borrowing some of that luck, he felt his point farming speed could climb even higher.

He just did not understand why the other party still had not added him back or replied.

“Don’t tell me he’s still upset…”

Before leaving that instance, Yi Han’s cross-dressing debuff had worn off…

It seemed to have frightened the poor kid badly enough that he immediately disconnected on the spot.

But based on Jian Lin’s personality, even if he mentally collapsed, he probably still would not reject a teammate’s friend request…

Yi Han inexplicably felt something was wrong and searched for Jian Lin’s name again.

This time, however, after typing “Jian Lin,” the system returned a prompt.

【The player you are searching for does not exist.】

Yi Han: ???

He opened the historical clear records again and confirmed the teammate from Endless Staircase had indeed been Jian Lin.

The friend request Yi Han had previously sent was still sitting in the list.

Its status still showed:

Unread.

“The request was sent two days ago, while he was inside the two-star dungeon ‘Mental Hospital.’”

Yi Han sank into thought.

“If he had exited the dungeon, he definitely would have seen the message. He wouldn’t ignore it.”

“But now the message is still unread, and his player profile can no longer be found in the system…”

“So does that mean…”

“He still hasn’t come out of the dungeon?”

“Except he’s no longer a player anymore?”

“He failed the stage and died inside the dungeon…”

“And has now become one of the ghosts inside the Mental Hospital?”

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