Chapter 108: Sneaking in an Evolution?
Total Turnover: [35,764 / 25,600]
Factoring in the official order, she had brought in 12,357 points today.
More than yesterday.
Between yesterday’s first-floor expansion and adding kitchen equipment like the sanitizing cabinets, she had been left with 3,601 points.
Of today’s 12,357 points, purchasing the rain canopies had immediately eaten up 6,250, and she had also topped off the batteries for both robots during business hours.
After claiming her daily quest reward and deducting the maintenance fee, Ling Jing’s point balance stood at 9,508.
The Cashier Box was ready for an upgrade again.
This time, Ling Jing hesitated.
Her previous upgrades had all gone into the Item Exchange Box—the “currency exchange” branch.
She had never touched the “revenue” branch.
As it stood, the variety of materials accepted by the Item Exchange Box had been expanded multiple times, covering a vast spectrum.
There were still plenty of unlockable options left—common things like rocks and natural water bodies with rock-bottom recycling rates, alongside high-value items like solar energy, electricity, quantum fields, and antimatter that felt entirely detached from her current reality.
Then there were categories whose names meant nothing to her at all.
Resentment crystals, dungeon anchors, world origins…
Ling Jing suspected that with enough upgrades, the Item Exchange Box would eventually accept every conceivable substance in existence.
Yet many were either useless or simply inapplicable to her present circumstances.
The unit recycling prices had also been boosted repeatedly.
Perhaps it was time to consider upgrading the revenue growth aspect of the Cashier Box.
As luck would have it, the Rainy Season Time-Limited Quest was set to launch tomorrow.
The quest required 100,000 points in turnover across seven days, averaging roughly 14,300 points per day to hit the mark.
Today’s revenue had set a new high for the Chinese Restaurant, yet it still fell short of that daily target.
Upgrading the Cashier Box would yield a 3% boost to her daily transaction volume.
…On a baseline of around ten thousand, that amounted to over three hundred extra points a day.
And she could keep upgrading it later.
Might as well give it a boost.
Falling short of a limited quest would sting, but missing out because she was off by a couple thousand points would be downright agonizing.
Ling Jing had no idea what the next seven days would bring, nor what variables might emerge.
Best to upgrade what she could and let the chips fall where they may.
[Congratulations! Your Cashier Box has been upgraded!]
[Daily Turnover boosted by 103%!]
The total turnover progress on the Cashier Box jumped to [35,764 / 51,200].
Ding!
[You have upgraded the turnover boost function for the first time. Sub-Cashier Boxes unlocked!]
Sub-Cashier Boxes?
Ling Jing tapped open the tooltip on the panel.
[Description: Has your storefront expanded past the capacity of a single till? You can now deploy multiple Cashier Boxes. Simply select “Add New” under the Cashier Box in Equipment Upgrades to drag and place them anywhere.]
Hmm… essentially extra registers.
She wondered if there was a cap.
She tested it by generating a new one and dragging it onto a table on the right side of the dining hall.
Caicai, standing nearby: ( ⊙▽⊙)?
She generated another, placing it on the Malatang skewer table to the left.
Caicai: (! ⊙▽⊙)
No quantity cap in sight. After placing two, the option to add more remained active.
And it didn’t cost a single point.
A fantastic perk.
Ling Jing tapped “Recall,” and the two new boxes slipped back into the interface.
Being able to deploy extra payment points meant she could expand her points of sale down the line.
Something to revisit later; her stomach was growling.
With the day’s operations wrapped up, dinner came first.
Ling Jing went into the kitchen to grab a pre-made portion of Tomato and Beef Brisket Stew.
Simmered in a clay pot, the brisket was meltingly tender and infused with the rich, tangy tomato broth, pairing wonderfully with rice.
She scooped herself a bowl of steamed rice and polished off dinner.
After eating, she brewed a mug of chrysanthemum tea.
She used the tribute chrysanthemums gathered from her wild foraging run the night before.
The fresh blossoms were rinsed clean, blanched in water for a few seconds, drained, and steeped in hot water.
Water brought to a boil and left to cool for a few minutes—around ninety degrees Celsius—was optimal for steeping chrysanthemums.
Blowing gently across the surface, Ling Jing took a sip.
The delicate fragrance of the blossoms drifted into her nose with the rising steam, while the golden liquor coated her palate with a crisp, gentle warmth.
Delicious.
Back when she worked overtime in her previous life, she had always preferred tea over coffee.
Different varieties bloomed with their own distinct aromas.
Chrysanthemum tea also possessed natural properties to clear heat and purge toxins.
Ling Jing planned to introduce it to the restaurant’s menu tomorrow.
Among the specific food categories designated by the Rainy Season quest, detoxification and cold prevention were explicitly listed.
Her scavenged harvest just happened to be tribute chrysanthemums.
This variety was naturally known to inhibit various pathogenic bacteria while providing anti-inflammatory benefits.
Brewed beverages were far simpler to prepare than cooked dishes and carried lower price tags, which should make them a hit with customers.
Still…
Excessive consumption of chrysanthemum tea could irritate the stomach and spleen, so Ling Jing intended to blend in some goji berries to balance out the cooling properties.
The restaurant’s pantry held very few goji berries, which meant another foraging trip into the wilderness was in order.
She had already pinpointed the location of a mutated goji berry monster on the dossier.
Beyond goji berries, Ling Jing also planned to procure… or rather, acquire for free, ingredients like ginger and mint.
Fortunately, all of these were documented in the mutant creature dossier, making tracking them down relatively straightforward.
They were just scattered in different directions, requiring some extra legwork on her electric tricycle.
With dinner finished, she prepared to set out.
The new recipes planned for the Rainy Season quest required fresh ingredients that could only be prepped once she returned from hunting.
Moreover, Ling Jing had no way of knowing how the wilderness would shift once the rains arrived.
Taking advantage of the dry hours tonight, she might as well stockpile additional supplies while she was out.
Marking the coordinates of the mutant flora on the dossier, Ling Jing went to her bedroom to grab a jacket to guard against sudden temperature drops in the wild.
She queued up tasks for both robots.
Fufu was set to prep tomorrow’s dishes, while Caicai took care of the day’s dirty dishes.
Taking her compass, grabbing her thermos filled with brewed chrysanthemum tea, she wheeled the electric tricycle out of storage.
Before leaving, Ling Jing checked on the farm’s status.
Watered the plots, replenished the feed troughs.
The crops and livestock under the [Cultivation] and [Livestock] tabs were all thriving steadily.
Closing the farm panel, Ling Jing hopped onto the tricycle.
Time to bring back a fresh batch of beast and plant cores.
…
The wilderness at night felt noticeably different from yesterday.
A humid, earthy scent hung heavy in the air.
As she rode, Ling Jing could sense significantly more “movement” in the surrounding darkness.
Especially once she put some distance between herself and the Chinese Restaurant.
The mutant flora and fauna seemed far more agitated.
The rising humidity left an uncomfortable, sticky clamminess against her skin.
Hardly refreshing.
Following the bearings noted in the dossier, Ling Jing steered toward the nearest “corpse grass” mutant first.
It wasn’t far—just five kilometers southwest of the restaurant.
The corpse grass mutant possessed long, slender fronds. When she pulled up, it had extended its foliage to full length, locked in a fierce brawl with a neighboring pitcher plant mutant.
Ling Jing plowed straight into them, breaking up the fight in one fell swoop.
Neither mutant would have to worry about who won.
She checked her spoils with deep satisfaction.
The “corpse grass” noted in the files was indeed lemongrass.
In eras before advanced technology, this plant was frequently used for corpse preservation and insect repellent.
It carried an intense aroma.
Wait…
An E-rank plant core?
Hadn’t the dossier classified this lemongrass mutant as F-rank?
Just like that A-rank core from last night, was it sneaking in an evolution on the side?
