Chapter 10
by GideonAfter sincerely offering the game system a round of colorful greetings in her mind, Ye Jiujiu finally calmed down and began to think things through seriously.
Promoting her shop was no longer important. Her top priority now was to survive this instance dungeon until the very end.
Logically speaking, staying inside her hotel room, avoiding going out or socializing, and spending all thirty days as a shut-in really would be the safest and most reliable plan.
But—
NPCs needed to meet their basic survival requirements too, didn’t they?
NPCs with high Constitution stats might be able to try going without food for thirty days, but Ye Jiujiu had reached A+ rank without gaining even the slightest benefit from her Constitution.
Forget thirty days. She had every reason to suspect that she wouldn’t even survive three days without food.
There was no food in the room, and apart from the game-item category, every other section of the system shop had turned gray, displaying an unavailable-for-purchase status.
Ye Jiujiu wasn’t particularly interested in using her second life to experience what it felt like to starve to death.
However, if she wanted to eat, she had only two options: go to the restaurant or contact the private concierge to request room-service delivery.
If she went to the restaurant, there was an eighty to ninety percent chance that the waiters would be players.
There was no need to even mention room service. Ye Jiujiu didn’t have to think twice to know that the person delivering her food would definitely be a player.
Not to mention that room service also required hotel guests to prepare their own rewards for the staff…
She glanced at the item category in the system shop. Even the cheapest player-use item cost 50 points…
Looking at her point balance, which was still below 200, Ye Jiujiu promptly closed the system shop.
Calling room service was out of the question. Absolutely out of the question. Never in a million years.
But going to the restaurant was dangerous too…
Recalling Bai Xing’s skill panel from when he had been an A+-rank player, Ye Jiujiu felt tears welling up in her eyes.
After all, this round’s instance dungeon had only summoned her, not her puppets. Which brought her back to the same conclusion: even ten versions of herself wouldn’t be enough to withstand a single player from this round with one hand.
“Game, are you there?”
After going around in circles without coming up with a single reliable way to survive safely until the end, Ye Jiujiu finally couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Are you sure this is an advancement instance dungeon for the players, rather than a thirty-day survival challenge designed specifically for me?”
Anyone who knew better would say the players were playing the instance dungeon. Anyone who didn’t would probably think the instance dungeon was playing her instead!
The game’s response was as prompt as ever.
“Dear, according to our records, you personally confirmed your participation in this instance dungeon, didn’t you?”
Ye Jiujiu: …
[Beep—]
She ended her conversation with the game system with a smile.
After carefully reading through the Hotel Handbook several more times and committing every single rule to memory—
She thoughtfully closed the handbook.
There was still a chance.
If she couldn’t convert players into her own puppets, weren’t there still NPCs?
As the guest of Room 3-03, she didn’t even need to guess very hard to figure out that the guests in Rooms 3-01 and 3-02 must be the other two A+-rank or S-rank NPCs.
She couldn’t afford to mess with those two. But couldn’t she simply find an opportunity to target an NPC on the second floor instead?
As long as she successfully obtained one puppet, she could control it and have it collect food from the restaurant and deliver it to her room. That way, she could safely lie low until the end.
All things considered, the only truly dangerous part would be the early stages. But with her intelligence, she was confident she could handle it.
A gentle smile spread across her face. Having finally glimpsed a ray of hope, Ye Jiujiu felt capable again.
Now then…
Having resolved the most difficult part of the problem, she finally turned her attention to the room card in her possession.
Although third-floor guests could have their room cards reissued after losing them, the replacement fee was a whopping 1,000 points…
This thing…
What if—just what if—she accidentally lost it?
Would losing the room card really be the only thing she’d lose?
No!
She’d be losing her life!
Therefore, this ticking time bomb of a room card had to be handled with the utmost care.
And as for how to handle it properly…
Ye Jiujiu turned her attention to her skill, Puppet Empowerment.
As expected, the room card was successfully marked and transformed into a puppet under her control.
“Congratulations! You have obtained a permanent item: Snow Village Hotel Room Card 3-03. (Room 3-03 at Snow Village Hotel in the game world has permanently become your exclusive guest room. You will no longer be charged accommodation fees.)”
“Detection: You have become a permanent resident of Snow Village Hotel. Your information has been successfully registered in the hotel’s records, and your room card has been successfully destroyed!”
Hmm?
She had originally only intended to turn the room card into a puppet and then use her Draw and Paint ability to shrink it into something even smaller than a speck of dust so she could hide it away.
She hadn’t expected to receive an additional benefit!
But…
Would this Death Game really allow such a huge loophole to remain right in front of her without doing anything about it?
Although she hadn’t been in the game for very long and hadn’t experienced many instance dungeons, based on her interactions with the game so far…
The more Ye Jiujiu thought about it, the more she felt that this didn’t seem like the Death Game’s usual style.
Just as she was beginning to suspect that something about the situation was too good to be true—
Another system announcement sounded.
“You have attracted the attention of the owner of Snow Village Hotel (the S-rank NPC associated with the Snow Village instance dungeon and the final boss of the current instance). We recommend that you personally visit Room 3-01 and explain the circumstances to the owner.”
Ye Jiujiu: …
All right. She knew there had to be some kind of catch.
Now this felt much more realistic.
An S-rank NPC, huh…
“If I return the room card right now, do you think we can just pretend none of this ever happened?”
Ye Jiujiu asked the game system quite sincerely.
“What do you think?”
After a moment of silence, the game system replied with equal sincerity.
Well, fine then—
Ye Jiujiu slowly fell into deep thought.
After a long while—
“Does this S-rank NPC have any inside information or juicy gossip?”
Although it didn’t understand why Ye Jiujiu was asking…
“That’ll be 10 points, please.”
The game system answered immediately.
This behavior was clearly beyond Ye Jiujiu’s expectations, yet somehow, it also felt entirely predictable.
All she could say was: As expected of you, my dear Death Game!
After promptly deducting 10 points…
The information panel displayed by the game system was exceptionally clear.
[NPC Information]
Name: Tu Jin
Rank: S
Gender: Male
Public Identity: Owner of Snow Village Hotel
Relationship Status: Single
Height: 191 cm
General Reputation: Based on votes cast by female NPCs throughout the game world, he has consistently ranked among the most desirable male NPCs in the Modern World category.
Perhaps feeling that this introduction didn’t quite justify the 10 points she had just paid, the game system hesitated for a moment before secretly adding another line of small text.
P.S. This NPC has a cruel disposition and is naturally arrogant. His eyes see nothing but profit, and he has no room for feelings. His only hobby is collecting points, his only interest is earning points, and the thing he hates most is anyone taking points away from him.
Oh—
Staring at the final few lines describing Tu Jin’s personal interests and preferences, Ye Jiujiu, who was poor but had nevertheless benefited from taking one of his room cards, clearly understood one thing.
All right.
She got it.
If she followed the normal procedures and played by the rules, she would definitely end up kicking the bucket at his hands, wouldn’t she?
In that case, she had no choice.
Ye Jiujiu, who had absolutely no intention of dying, slowly, very slowly, revealed a hypocritical smile.
It seemed she had no choice but to get down to business.
If possible, she really wanted to be a good person.
She didn’t want this either.
She really wasn’t willing to do it.
She was being forced into this!
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