Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Snow Mountain Town 10

Offer everything to the cat!

After Suisui An’s group left, Jiang Qibai was in no rush to return to the Safehouse.

Instead, she turned and headed toward the wrecked hotel.

Unsure of what exactly had transpired inside, Jiang Qibai first released her Shadow Ghost employee, sending it to scout the entire area. Only after confirming it was relatively safe did she slip through the hotel’s main entrance.

Suisui An’s group had fled in such haste that they’d left a wealth of supplies behind. The moment Jiang Qibai stepped inside, she spotted two vending machines tucked into the corner by the stairs to the left of the reception desk, their glass fronts filled with drinks and snacks.

The machines had long since lost power. With a bit of effort, Jiang Qibai smashed the glass and swept all the contents into her Spatial Bracelet.

After ransacking the reception desk, she finally found the Master Key Card that could unlock every room in the hotel. She tucked it into her pocket. Rather than heading straight to the guest rooms, she continued searching the cabinets behind the desk for anything useful.

She found scissors, notebooks, a thermometer, Band-Aids, nail clippers, medicated oil, and a large jar of candy. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

The first floor had no guest rooms—only a cleaning closet, a linen room, and a storage area.

Jiang Qibai was like a rat that had fallen into a rice jar. In the cleaning closet, she grabbed several bottles of bleach and disinfectant, three large rolls of trash bags, and several packs of gloves and masks. The linen closet was stocked with a vast array of sheets, duvet covers, and towels—some freshly stripped and waiting to be laundered, others clean and neatly folded on separate shelves.

She only took a portion of them. She was already starting to worry about the Spatial Bracelet’s storage capacity, so she quickened her pace, hoping to make another trip for supplies before nightfall.

The storage room was filled with boxed goods. It was clear that some of the supplies had already been taken; two of the three shelves were empty.

The remaining shelf held boxes of disposable slippers, toiletries kits containing toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, and soap, small bottles of shampoo and body wash, and unopened towels and bath towels.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Qibai set aside the used towels she had taken from the linen closet.

This hotel didn’t serve breakfast, otherwise Jiang Qibai might have found some food in the kitchen or storage room.

It was impossible to store all the supplies from the storage room in her Spatial Bracelet—there simply wasn’t enough space. Jiang Qibai left most of the items behind, deciding to check the guest rooms first. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

As she climbed the stairs, she felt a wet, sticky sensation beneath her feet. One wrong step and she’d be treading in a pool of blood. Yet, despite the gory scene, the air was filled with a cloyingly sweet fragrance that masked all the metallic tang of blood.

On the second-floor hallway, Jiang Qibai came across a massive corpse.

It was a mountain of flesh, nearly blocking the entire corridor.

Its body was grotesquely bloated, the limbs swollen beyond recognition and seemingly fusing into the torso. Numerous tumor-like growths protruded from its skin, sagging downward under the force of gravity.

The human body has 206 bones, but this mountain of flesh had at least 400. So many of them had burst through the skin, growing outward.

Because of these protruding bone spurs, the monster’s feet couldn’t touch the ground from any angle. It lay dead on its back, its extended ribs piercing through its own spine and spreading outward like the legs of an arthropod, propping its body off the floor.

Jiang Qibai stared at the stark white bone spikes, which resembled the legs of a centipede, and imagined how such a body would move.

Click, click, click. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Like the sound of many pairs of high heels stepping on the ground.

So it was you, Jiang Qibai thought.

This monster was clearly not a Shadow Ghost. Even a Mutated Shadow Ghost wouldn’t mutate to this extent.

As she drew closer, Jiang Qibai saw its name.

[ Blood Terracotta (Deceased) ]

The monster, called a Blood Terracotta, had a large hole in its chest. The wound was deep and gaping, as if something was missing.

She had observed it so thoroughly only to confirm that the Boss monster guarding the inn was completely dead and wouldn’t suddenly reanimate. After verifying that it was indeed dead as could be, Jiang Qibai took a few steps back and turned to swipe the Master Key Card, unlocking the guest room.

The amenities in the inn’s guest rooms were quite basic—each room only had two bottles of mineral water and a pack of tissues, nothing more. Jiang Qibai noticed that most of the rooms were unoccupied. Perhaps the disaster had struck during the town’s tourist off-season? Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

With no further evidence, she could only make such a wild guess.

After stashing a few more cases of bottled water into her Spatial Bracelet, Jiang Qibai finally struck gold in the largest suite.

A mini-fridge.

It wasn’t bolted down, and its size was small enough to fit into her Spatial Bracelet—though she’d have to make some room by taking out some of the supplies she’d already stored.

Jiang Qibai took a moment in the suite to reorganize her gear. She was wearing a hiking backpack she’d scavenged from an outdoor goods store, which she had stuffed to the brim with lightweight, bulky items like puffed snacks and instant noodle cups, packing it so tight she could barely pull the zipper shut.

She could carry a bag in one hand, but she needed to keep at least one hand free for a weapon.

Even so, she couldn’t fit everything in one trip. She’d set her sights on the thick comforter in the suite, so she had to unpack some of her lower-priority supplies, pack them neatly, and set them aside for now.

After quickly transporting her haul back to the Safehouse, Jiang Qibai rushed back to the hotel without a moment’s rest. She retrieved the items she’d left behind and the supplies from the storage room. Before leaving, she returned the Master Key Card to the front desk. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Taking one last look around the lobby to see if she’d missed anything, Jiang Qibai noticed something off about the Lucky Cat on the front desk.

A hairline crack ran down the ceramic cat’s body, and something inside was glimmering with a faint light.

Jiang Qibai stepped forward and pried the crack open. The Lucky Cat split apart, revealing a smaller, far more exquisite ceramic cat inside. The light she’d seen had been coming from the inner cat’s eyes.

Who would hide a nesting doll inside a Lucky Cat?

Then, as she took a closer look, Jiang Qibai’s eyes lit up.

[ Robbery Cat Grade: A-rank Item Description: The Robbery Cat accepts all offerings as its birthright but promises absolutely nothing in return. Note: Humans, surrender everything to the cat! ]

It’s an A-rank item! But she couldn’t figure out what it actually did.

Jiang Qibai studied the Robbery Cat. Unlike a traditional Lucky Cat, its paw wasn’t waving up and down. Instead, it was stretched straight out, paired with a smug, upturned grin and squinted eyes that gave it a look of utter, unrepentant audacity. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

So it really just robs people and does nothing else?

Back at the Safehouse, Jiang Qibai first placed the Robbery Cat from her backpack on the top shelf of the small cart. Still unwilling to give up, she examined it thoroughly again, inside and out, but found no hidden mechanisms. She had no idea how to use it.

Well, it’s an A-rank Item after all. I’ll just leave it here for now.

Next came the frantic task of organizing her supplies. The trip to the hotel had left her with an unprecedentedly abundant stock of basic daily necessities. Since her Safehouse lacked any decent storage cabinets, she had to spread most of the items out on the floor, leaving barely any room to step.

Before entering the Dungeon, Jiang Qibai would have found this scene messy and cluttered. But now, all she felt was a sense of satisfaction—the kind of security that made her smile foolishly just glancing at it out of the corner of her eye.

After working for a while, her stomach was already rumbling with hunger. Jiang Qibai boiled water in her small pot and added two instant noodle cakes; her appetite had clearly grown much larger these past few days. Since she had been on the run all day, she could only make do with some dry rations, making the dinner she ate back at the Safehouse her biggest meal of the day.

Once the water boiled, Jiang Qibai added the handful of bok choy Sister Huang had thrown in for free. The small bunch, already meager, shrank even more after being blanched. She held the small pot with both hands, cherishing every single bite of noodles and greens. She didn’t waste a drop, drinking the broth to the last sip.

Only after finishing her meal did the System’s notification remind her that she hadn’t claimed her daily mission rewards. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

[ You have received: Square Bathroom Mirror ×1 Protein Energy Bar ×3 Bottled Water ×2 ]

The rewards for today’s low-difficulty daily mission were clearly insufficient, not even covering her basic daily consumption. Any player hoping to rely solely on mission rewards for their daily supplies was bound to be disappointed.

After eating, Jiang Qibai continued organizing her supplies. When she flipped open the notebooks she’d taken from the inn, she found one filled with handwritten notes.

It seemed to be the innkeeper’s ledger. Jiang Qibai flipped through a few pages.

The records were kept so haphazardly that it looked less like a professional ledger and more like a personal memo. The early pages mostly listed routine expenses: staff salaries, maintenance costs, and restocking of daily supplies.

Around June of last year, the inn had undergone a massive renovation funded by a loan, costing a small fortune.

After the renovations, the innkeeper had waited with bated breath for winter—the peak season for the entire Snow Mountain Town.

But reality was far from what he’d hoped. This winter, tourism in Snow Mountain Town plummeted, and the inn’s business crashed. Beside every unavoidable daily expense he recorded, the innkeeper scrawled a few lines of bitter complaints. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

One day, his frustration boiled over. He wrote a scathing accusation, claiming a counterfeit “Snow Mountain Town” had stolen their business.

This counterfeit town, newly completed, was located just a short distance from the real Snow Mountain Town. Rumor had it that a major corporation had invested in its development, creating a more sophisticated tourism infrastructure. Ski resorts and observation decks seemed to have sprouted from the ground overnight. With an overwhelming marketing blitz, tourists flocked to the new site.

In comparison, the original Snow Mountain Town suffered from poor accessibility and aging facilities. Its scenery, while beautiful, wasn’t unique enough to compete. It had been utterly abandoned by the tourists.

Business continued to dwindle, and the innkeeper’s mood grew increasingly unstable. His handwriting became a frantic scrawl, and Jiang Qibai struggled to decipher the useful information hidden within.

The records mentioned a mining company. It seemed some kind of mineral deposit lay buried beneath Snow Mountain Town. Previously, development had been halted out of concern for the tourism industry. A company called Tuoxin Mining had repeatedly attempted to partner with the town, only to be decisively rejected each time. The innkeeper had even written in an earlier entry that if the mayor dared to agree to the partnership, he would rally everyone to protest at the mayor’s office.

But as the number of tourists plummeted, the innkeeper’s resolve crumbled. After hearing that Tuoxin Mining’s arrival would not only pay the townspeople—whose main income relied on tourism—a large sum of money but also provide ongoing dividends, he began actively pushing for the deal.

He wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Tuoxin Mining smoothly entered Snow Mountain Town and began its mining operations.

Sure enough, the innkeeper received his compensation. And one day, the dividends arrived. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

The records ended abruptly there.