Chapter 31: Claiming the Upgrade Rewards
Holding her tablet, Ling Jing walked up to the wooden building.
She looked up, taking in the storefront.
It was a charming Chinese-style cottage with a sloping roof, crowned with a hanging signboard that read: “Chinese Restaurant.”
The sign was simple—red characters set against a white backdrop. The font was clean and dignified, rendered in the standard Songti script commonly used in professional offices. It was noticeably larger than the one from her tricycle days, fitting the roof of the wooden cabin just right.
Dusk had not yet fallen. When the bells had tolled, it was six in the evening, and the sun still lingered along the edge of the sky.
Beneath the white barrier free of emerald mist, the warm wood of the building looked soft and inviting.
Not bad at all. Quite lovely, in fact.
Ling Jing was thoroughly pleased with the restaurant storefront she had traded a thousand points for.
Add in the pixel-art layout display on the management panel, and it truly gave off the flavor of a tycoon sim.
The entrance consisted of a pair of glass double doors, decorated with rounded, bubbly characters that read: Welcome. They looked just like the street-facing doors of ordinary restaurants back in the peaceful world she had left behind.
Two stone steps separated the dirt ground from the small threshold before the entrance. Ling Jing stepped up, pushed the glass doors open, and walked inside.
What first met her eyes was an airy, open space.
Presumably the dining area.
It looked to be twenty-odd square meters—not massive by any means.
The room was neat and square, flanked by two large windows on each side that let in abundant natural light.
The interior was bright and airy.
Toward the back stood a counter—a standard cashier station.
Beside the counter was a door bearing a neat sign: [Kitchen].
A square pass-through window was cut into the wall between the kitchen and the cashier area, evidently prepped as a serving hatch.
Pushing through the kitchen door, Ling Jing was greeted by spacious, spotless stainless-steel prep tables, deep sinks, and a large cooktop.
The range was fitted with four burner stations.
For a rudimentary restaurant, the baseline kitchen setup was remarkably solid.
Along the opposite wall stood two tall metal shelving units, high enough to reach the ceiling without completely crowding the perimeter.
Ling Jing eyed the empty gap deliberately left along the wall… No matter how she looked at it, that was space reserved for a refrigerator.
It seemed the rudimentary restaurant didn’t come standard with cold storage, offering only the bare essentials for cooking.
If she wanted a fridge, she would have to buy one from the Mall. If memory served, there was an entire subcategory dedicated to household appliances.
Pushing through the kitchen’s back door, she found herself in a… small room?
Calling it a room wasn’t entirely accurate; strictly speaking, it acted more as a transitional hallway.
There were four doors in total, one of which was the kitchen door she had just stepped through.
She pushed open the door on her left first.
Ah—a bedroom.
A single bed was made with soft, cozy bedding, flanked by a warm wooden wardrobe.
Opening the wardrobe, she found more clothes than had hung in the tent, all matching the comfortable, casual styles she usually favored.
Against the far wall sat a wooden desk and chair, positioned right before a window where the warm evening glow filtered through the glass.
The room was far roomier than the tent, and attached to it was a private bathroom. A glass door separated the shower from the vanity, creating a proper dry-wet split.
Unlike the drab gray floor of the tent, the bedroom in the [Rudimentary Restaurant] was fully laid with hardwood floors. A compact shoe rack stood right by the doorway.
Inside rested several pairs of sneakers for her to swap into, along with a pair of thick, white indoor slippers.
A desk calendar sat by the window, accompanied by a small pen holder containing three pens of different colors.
Evidently meant for drafting plans.
Beside the bed lay a round, fluffy rug in alternating rings of white and yellow.
Perfect for bare feet swinging out of bed in the morning.
The system was surprisingly considerate.
Setting aside the grim reality of the wasteland outside, this bedroom felt genuinely cozy.
Ling Jing nodded in quiet satisfaction. Though she had climbed all the way to CEO of a restaurant conglomerate before crossing over, she was self-made, having clawed her way up through bitter grit.
When it came to food, clothing, and shelter, she wasn’t particularly finicky.
Especially not under the harsh constraints of an apocalypse.
Still, who would turn down the chance to improve their living conditions through their own hard work?
In a wasteland like this, nothing was more deeply comforting than a small, warm bedroom of one’s own.
Sleeping within four proper walls, after all, felt entirely different from hunkering down inside a tent.
Leaving the bedroom, Ling Jing crossed the hall to see what lay behind the door directly opposite.
A storage room.
It was roughly the same size as the bedroom, completely bare of furniture except for several ceiling-high industrial steel racks lining the walls.
Meanwhile, the wider door facing directly across from the kitchen served as the restaurant’s rear exit.
Pushing it open, she was met with the open terrain behind the building.
That completed her tour of the [Rudimentary Restaurant].
Dining hall, cashier counter, commercial kitchen, private bedroom, and dedicated storeroom.
Though the footprint wasn’t immense, every essential function was fully accounted for.
Ling Jing was beginning to feel that those thousand points had been exceptionally well spent.
She walked back to the bedroom, sat down at the desk, and pulled up the system interface.
Now it was time to see what rewards the system had in store for her.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t be another stingy twenty points.
Ling Jing tapped the bouncing gift-box icon in the upper-right corner of the panel.
[Would you like to claim the Establishment Upgrade Reward?] [Yes / No]
Ling Jing tapped [Yes].
[You have received: Decorative Lanterns (Pair) x 1, Grand Opening Floral Basket x 1, Menu Board x 1, Cashier Lucky Cat Figurine x 1!]
“…”
Watching the digital confetti burst across the screen, Ling Jing let out a dry chuckle.
Oh, wow. How terribly generous. At first glance, it looked like a mountain of gifts.
A closer look revealed they were basically promotional freebies.
Oh well. They were free, after all.
The [Rudimentary Restaurant] itself was fantastic, so she wouldn’t split hairs.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth; a freebie was still a win, no matter how cheap.
Since it was all complimentary, she might as well take it.
She tapped on the second bouncing gift box.
[Would you like to claim the Rapid Progression Bundle Reward?] [Yes / No]
Ling Jing tapped [Yes].
[You have received: Automatic Vegetable Slicer (Basic Edition) x 1]
This time, only a single, concise notification popped up.
Hm?
An automatic vegetable slicer?!
Though the bundle yielded only one item, the quality was undeniably high.
If memory served, buying this automatic slicer outright from the Mall cost three hundred points.
Clearly, the Rapid Progression Bundle carried far more weight than the standard upgrade gift.
…In other words, while the management system didn’t openly mandate progression deadlines, advancing quickly yielded hidden perks.
Ling Jing opened Equipment Upgrade to check the specifications of her new piece of hardware.
[Automatic Vegetable Slicer]: 90mm feed chute, 5 cutting blades, adjustable for dice and slices. Standard blades—capable of processing common produce. (Upgradeable)
Hmm… Truth be told, Ling Jing had been mulling over what new dishes to introduce once she moved into a proper restaurant.
Hamstrung by her current raw stock and limited points, her creative leeway was constrained.
Highly refined, multi-step processed dishes were out of the question for now: ingredients were scarce, the prep was too labor-intensive, sourcing supplies from the Mall was cost-prohibitive, and her customers wouldn’t necessarily have the funds to shell out for high-end cuisine anyway.
And right at this moment, the system had handed her an automatic slicer…
It played right into her hands.
