RHWHEG – Chapter 68 Running a Café

A café.

A speech bubble popped up over Zhou Yao’s head. Inside was the icon of a standard hot Americano—no special requests. Above Tong Hua’s head, the bubble read: “Free plain milk for children.”

Yu Qunqing understood.

At the very center of his console sat a large machine—an extremely expensive fully automatic coffee grinder and brewer. With the push of a button, it could be adjusted to make basic options like coffee, mocha, and latte, with two more basic styles still locked. Beside it was a smaller tabletop milk frother, capable of producing milk foam, cheese foam, and cream to enrich the flavor of the coffee. To the left was the ingredient storage box, holding several kinds of coffee beans and milk. Then came the toppings tray—currently unlocked were milk jelly, agar crystals, and sugar packets. Everything else was still locked.

Yu Qunqing had a strategy booklet at hand, clearly listing the individual ingredients required for each drink. As long as he followed the steps in order, he could combine them correctly. Flipping through the booklet took time, though—once there were more customers later on, players would need to memorize the recipes. Make a mistake, and you wouldn’t get paid.

Before Zhou Yao could figure out what was going on, Yu Qunqing had already started making coffee. The first customer always needed the simplest drink. He scooped a portion of basic coffee beans, poured them into the machine, waited ten seconds, and pressed the button. For now, hot drinks came in paper cups, complete with an insulating sleeve. He set out the Americano, then poured a cup of plain milk, grabbed a stack of napkins, and placed everything on the serving counter.

Players were just players, not service staff. Still, seeing Zhou Yao staring blankly, Yu Qunqing kindly reminded her, “Don’t forget to pay. That’ll be 20 in total.” Even as he said it, he couldn’t help complaining about the system—20 for a plain cup of coffee? The pricing was outrageous.

“Pay? I—I didn’t order anything!” Zhou Yao exclaimed in shock.

Yu Qunqing said, “System, didn’t you explain the situation clearly when you brought the customers here?”

System: “The system does not explain matters to any beings other than the player. Please do not worry about operational issues. This management mini-game supports automatic payment collection and will not leave behind any bugs.”

And so Yu Qunqing watched as several bags of snacks of equivalent value floated out of Zhou Yao’s backpack and landed on the cashier counter.

There was even a label on them: “Please pick up the money as soon as possible~”

Yu Qunqing tapped the air. The snacks were immediately absorbed into the café’s extradimensional savings jar, and a “+20” icon popped up. The mission objective in the top-left corner of his view also changed to “20/100.” Forcibly summoning customers, forcing them to consume, then forcibly collecting payment—this whole process was pure rogue logic typical of management mini-games.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yao, who had just been forcibly put through the entire process, was still dazed.

W-What just happened?

This café was like an abyss, dragging her in without warning. The shop owner guarding it made coffee without asking questions. Sure, it smelled good—but who knew what it was made from! This was half a year into the apocalypse! Most terrifying of all, this handsome shop owner was actually forcing a sale and confiscating her snacks as payment.

Suddenly, Zhou Yao felt her body grow lighter as the force controlling her disappeared. She couldn’t stay standing and collapsed straight into a chair. The café interior was warm and elegant—white hollow-glass chairs and tables, fine checkered tablecloths, and a porcelain vase holding a lily on each table. Everything was so beautiful it felt like a dream.

“Thank you, big brother,” Tong Hua said as she picked up the tray and set it on the table. There was a thick stack of napkins on it. She pulled one out and started wiping her face. Only then did she realize her face was covered in blood. She stared blankly at the napkin stained red.

Since the next batch of customers hadn’t arrived yet, Yu Qunqing asked, “Where did you come from?”

Tong Hua said, “My home is in Weilu City. It’s not livable anymore, so Mom and I ran away…” She pouted, about to cry again. “Mom’s gone…”

Zhou Yao hugged her tightly. “Th-then what is this place, exactly? How is there a café here? Could it be that—there are still… still people alive?”

Ding-ling—

The wind chime at the door rang, and Zhou Yao hurriedly looked toward the entrance.

A man carrying several large bags and wearing a terrified expression stumbled inside. He tried to grab the doorframe, but a huge force shoved him straight in!

“Help—help!” the man shouted at Zhou Yao. He was uncontrollably dragged toward the counter, letting out a horrifying scream. His face twisted from sheer terror into the shape of the famous painting The Scream.

Yu Qunqing ignored him completely, calmly made a latte, and clicked to collect payment. Several pieces of disaster stone floated out of the man’s bag and landed on the cashier counter. Then a force swept the man aside.

He too collapsed into a chair, staring at Zhou Yao, whose face had gone pale.

Finally, he ran out of breath, coughed violently a few times, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

“You—”

He and Zhou Yao spoke at the same time, then fell silent at the same time.

Ding-ling—

The third customer arrived.

Tong Hua had cried herself tired and was truly thirsty. She took a sip of the plain milk. The warm drink gave her a sense of reassurance in the dead of winter. Staring at the paper cup, she suddenly hiccupped from crying.

By now, Yu Qunqing had memorized all the basic recipes. Fun management mini-games usually had two hidden stages: the first was a practice stage, meant to remind players of new recipes. After the practice came the exam stage, where the difficulty doubled and customers’ requests became dizzyingly complex.

For example, this five-person family—elderly above, children below. They were filthy, and almost slid into place in front of the counter. Five speech bubbles popped up at once!

Now Yu Qunqing had to carefully allocate machine time. The coffee machine had two ports and could make two cups simultaneously. He first selected coffee mode and mocha mode, starting them together, while also turning on the milk frother. Once the coffee was done, he piped a ring of cream on top, then added sugar to the mocha. In the meantime, he restarted the coffee machine. The third cup needed double milk and double sugar; the fourth needed agar crystals; the fifth latte needed cheese foam.

Five cups of coffee were completed in no time. Yu Qunqing placed them on a tray, snapped his fingers, and forcibly collected payment. The customers were then forcibly shoved aside to make room for new ones.

“Congratulations! Player revenue has reached 140! Next stage unlocked!”

A streak of seven-colored light flashed across the console. At this point, the coffee machine unlocked a new mode: cappuccino, which required coffee plus milk. A new bean type—Blue Mountain coffee beans—was added. The milk source expanded to include high-quality Hokkaido milk, and a new topping, coconut milk, was unlocked.

“Stage Two. Target revenue: 1200. Please keep up the good work!”

The menu in the strategy booklet updated. The first customer of Stage Two wanted a coconut latte. Yu Qunqing flipped open the booklet, took coconut milk, high-quality milk, and regular coffee beans, and placed the finished drink on the serving counter.

The customer trembled. “I—I didn’t order anything.”

“You ordered it,” Yu Qunqing replied.

“I really didn’t!” the customer protested.

Yu Qunqing said, “If I say you ordered it, then you ordered it.”

He snapped his fingers and decisively took the payment. A coconut latte was priced at 35 yuan; he took two Disaster Stones from the customer.

“Next—what would you like?” Yu Qunqing asked.

This customer had already seen how the previous one was utterly powerless to resist. He had always been good at reading the room. Though he didn’t know why this humanoid demon was forcing people to buy coffee, maybe the guy simply had a coffee dream. To stay alive, he had to behave.

“A regular Americano will do,” the customer answered cautiously.

Yu Qunqing glanced at the speech bubble above the customer’s head and began making an ultra-sweet cappuccino. He selected Blue Mountain beans, used high-quality milk to whip up dense foam, added a lethal amount of sugar, and finally set it on the pickup counter. Just as he was about to collect payment, the customer stopped him.

Carefully, the man asked, “Didn’t I order a regular Americano?”

Yu Qunqing replied expressionlessly, “I don’t want what you think. I want what I think. This is what you ordered.”

Snap. Payment collected. Next!

The customer, holding the ultra-sweet cappuccino, was pushed aside by an invisible force. He thought: What kind of tyrant coffee shop is this?! But at least he was still alive… He took a sip of the milk foam. The sudden lightness of surviving a catastrophe drained all the strength propping him up. His eyes grew hot with tears. Thank goodness he was alive—if you’re alive, there’s a future. When he thought of everything he’d lost just to survive until now, he couldn’t help but break down crying. Once, he had been poor but had a happy family. Back then, his favorite order was ultra-sweet cappuccino—because life had to find joy amid bitterness; you needed something sweet to have hope. But after the disasters came, everything was gone. Life was nothing but bitterness, day after day of grinding torment.

Now, tasting sweetness again so suddenly, the bitterness cut even deeper, right to the bone.

The next second, several customers carried their trays over and pulled chairs up in front of him.

The tables and chairs in the café were meant for customers to enjoy their drinks, so once they paid, they could move freely. At this moment, Zhou Tiao and several others were seated before him. The newest arrival, named Wen Zhi, wiped his tears at the sight.

“Were you all drawn in by this demonic café too?” Zhou Tiao asked. She had drunk half of the regular Americano in front of her and found it exquisite—exactly the kind she loved most in her memories. That only made her feel more dazed.

“I don’t know why I turned into an electrified subway passage,” Wen Zhi said. “Then I got here really fast. That passage was seriously creepy. This place too…” He looked at the others, his throat choking up again. “But I didn’t know there were still so many people alive. I thought I was the only one left.” He burst into tears again, ashamed of himself.

Zhou Tiao murmured, “I thought after the shelter fell, there’d be nothing left either. Turns out… there are still people.”

At that moment, one customer suddenly looked manic. Trembling, he shook everything out of his backpack and dug out a small radio.

“A shelter? Still alive—there must still be people alive!” he shouted.

He adjusted the frequency, tuning to the shelter’s official channel. As always, the radio emitted nothing but noisy static.

Disappointment showed on Zhou Tiao and the others’ faces. Though they had left familiar places and reunited with their own kind here, where they would go, where they would live, how they would live—everything about the future was an unknown riddle.

Unwilling to give up, the customer turned the dial again. The static suddenly grew louder, and a syllable—something like a woman’s voice—flickered through. Everyone immediately shouted, “Turn it back, turn it back! There was a sound!”

A pair of scarred hands slowly rotated the dial back, like a snail moving house. Everyone’s breathing grew lighter, afraid they might blow the radio apart.

“Welcome to the storytelling program broadcast by the Jiangbei City branch of Polar Bear Company. I Started at Level 99 but Thought I Was Only Level 1. Last time we said…”

Everyone stared in shock, reading pure confusion on each other’s faces.

Another customer, having taken his coffee, stood beside Wen Zhi. His face was ruined, grotesque and terrifying. Now he stared blankly at the radio making sound, as if awaiting some kind of judgment.

The dial continued to turn. The storytelling program faded, replaced by another clear, forceful female voice:

“This is the City Center Residential Zone of Jiangbei City! We are building a new home here! In the face of disasters, we need all of humanity to unite! All survivors are welcome here! The City Center Residential Zone welcomes all survivors! Repeating—”

Cheers erupted in the café. New customers who came in were first startled by the scene, then infected by the wild joy on everyone’s faces; the gloom in their hearts seemed to lift considerably.

“The shelter is still alive!!”

They adjusted the frequency and listened carefully to the community’s broadcast channels: disaster information, entertainment, rescue announcements, even a student council confession wall. Countless different voices poured out of the radio. The people staying in the café shouted in excitement, their cries louder and more resounding than they’d imagined.

Gradually, the café filled up. Everyone looked at these unfamiliar faces and felt it was unbelievable.

So many people were still alive, still waiting.

“This is great! The shelter just moved—I thought I was the only one left in the world,” Zhou Tiao said, gripping Tong Hua’s hand tightly. She secretly vowed to take the little girl somewhere safe; it was Tong Hua who had given her that first spark of hope.

“But where is this place? How far is it from the city center?” someone asked eagerly.

Zhou Tiao suddenly froze. She recalled the road signs she’d seen on the way in, and her face changed.

“This is Shajia Ancient Town on the Fourth Ring Road. The city center… is still very far away.”

The heat in the café gradually faded. People had to brace themselves to face reality—the distant city center residential zone, and the bitterly cold environment.

“Congratulations! Player revenue has reached 1600! Far exceeding the target revenue! You have obtained the title: Coffee Hand! You have obtained a one-time skill: Rapid Clear-Out.

Opening Stage Three. Target revenue: 8000. Please keep up the good work!”

Yu Qunqing took in the changes among the people in the café, then shifted his attention to the changes on the control console.

The coffee machine now had a “Macchiato” mode added. At this point, all basic styles had been unlocked. Arabica beans and Hawaiian beans were added, along with two new milk sources. Add-ons now included cheese sticks, caramel, and rock sugar. A new box was also unlocked: Flavor Fruit Purees, containing green apple, orange, and vanilla purees.

The strategy manual refreshed with over a dozen new coffees, such as green apple–flavored coffee, vanilla mocha, and caramel macchiato. The game difficulty had increased significantly.

And on the console, a bell appeared, labeled “Rapid Clear-Out.” The indicator showed it was usable; all other bells were in cooldown. The description for “Rapid Clear-Out” read:

“Still troubled by how slowly customers leave the café? Press the bell to ring it and urge customers to hurry up and leave!”

In the management minigame, the restaurant’s seating is also a hidden free resource, allowing customers to sit down and enjoy their drinks. But if too many customers accumulate, there won’t be seats for newcomers; satisfaction drops, and they’re likely to leave angrily.

Because incoming customers were extremely reluctant to place orders, the system thoughtfully changed the path from the entrance to the bar into a conveyor belt. New customers didn’t need to walk—just stand there and be transported straight to Yu Qunqing for the transaction! Without any action on their part, they could pay and receive their favorite drink directly. It was incredibly convenient!

Yu Qunqing also began multitasking. First, the two outlets of the coffee machine were, of course, busy at all times—mostly black coffee and lattes. Some players, when playing restaurant-management games, like to prepare part of the menu in advance. In reality, this is a huge waste of time, because there’s no guarantee the next order will be what you pre-made, leaving slots idle. The most efficient method is to make each order as it comes, while memorizing all the recipes.

After setting the modes on the two coffee machines, Yu Qunqing used the waiting time to prepare fruit purées and separate out the add-ins to be used. At this point, both coffee outlets were ready; he added the purée for a second blend. Then he tapped the milk frother, preparing whipped cream and foam toppings. By the time the coffee, purée, and add-ins were fully mixed, the frother was ready as well. The timing was perfect to the fraction of a second—a thick but not cloying milk cap floated like a cloud above the latte.

Yu Qunqing placed the drinks on the pickup counter. This time he didn’t do any fancy money-collecting tricks; with a simple curl of his hand, the equivalent value automatically entered his account. The system even cheerfully added a coin-scattering sound effect—just listening to it made players happy.

But after finishing this round, the café was full. A “Full Capacity” notice flashed at the top of his vision, indicating he needed to wait or use a skill before serving the next customer.

Yu Qunqing hesitated for a moment, then clicked the bell for “Quick Clear.”

Once again, everyone inside the café felt that inexplicable force! They all stood up and filed toward the door in unison. As soon as they stepped outside, the restraining force vanished; some of those who exited first even had their heels stepped off by those coming out behind them.

The people outside looked into the café through the glass.

The gorgeously dressed shop manager was still hard at work. His expression was neither joyful nor sorrowful, cut off from everyone else’s world, wholly devoted to coffee. He did not hesitate to use power—he had even transformed a subway passage to summon customers. Yet the place where he used that power was so peculiar: inside this café. He clearly could have charged much more, yet he strictly adhered to the prices on the menu. This strange contrast gave everyone a powerful sense of the inhuman.

Many people asserted that no matter what species the shop manager inside belonged to, he must be a pleasure-seeking demon, addicted to the joy of making coffee. Look—this café might be small, but it was elegant and beautiful; perhaps it was the demon’s fortress.

“It’s so cold outside,” some people said, shivering.

“There seem to be buildings outside too—what are those?” Some began climbing outward along the sloped passage. Forced to gather together, people had no choice but to struggle to face the cold reality laid out before them.

More customers, stiff and rigid, stood on the conveyor belt, being delivered to Yu Qunqing one after another.

Yu Qunqing swept a glance at the new customers: cheese latte with sea-salt milk cap and sugar drizzle—two cups. He pulled out paper cups, scooped coffee beans, and poured them into the machine. Customers were piling up faster and faster; before long, a long line formed in front of the bar. Yu Qunqing had to hurry. He made a mistake once. The customer said in panic that it was fine if it was wrong—he was willing to pay anyway. But Yu Qunqing directly tossed the defective drink and remade it.

As a result, the waiting line grew even longer.

At last, he scraped together a turnover of 8,000. The system chimed with a notification:

“Congratulations on reaching Stage Four. Target turnover: 14,000.

Unlocked workstation—Solid Drink Powder category. Players can now make powdered beverages other than coffee!

Unlocked skills—Recruit Staff, Quick Clear, Advertising Promotion. Each skill has a cooldown; please use them wisely.”

The workstation changed dramatically once again. On the counter appeared three kinds of drink powders—white chocolate powder, matcha powder, and brûlée cake powder—along with a beverage blender.

That bell was Yu Qunqing’s skill interface; at present, all skills were available.

Recruit Staff: recruit one random friendly-alignment person. Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Quick Clear: cooldown 3 minutes.
Advertising Promotion: use advertising effects to attract a large number of customers. Cooldown: 15 minutes.

The game session lasted only one hour. Yu Qunqing had reached Stage Four in just over ten minutes. To make the most of the skills, of course he needed to use the longest-cooldown skill immediately. Yu Qunqing pressed the Advertising bell. The system prompted him to wait—advertisements were being released.

In the subway tunnels unseen by Yu Qunqing, advertising lightboards lit up one by one. Colorful characters cycled through: “Double-Tailed Game Café Welcomes You.” The lightboards stretched all along the subway tunnel, all the way to its end.

At the end of Line 13, a group of people had once suffered a brutal attack from the Eight-Legged Frostfall’s icy mist. In that instant, five thousand people were coated in white frost. A dozen seconds later, some broke free, their eyes bloodshot as they looked at their companions. Frostbite damage was irreversible. Some, in critical moments, could protect themselves with abilities and thus survived—but others were not so lucky.

“See if anyone’s still alive!” shouted an ability user temporarily acting as leader. They tried to rescue their frozen companions, but couldn’t tell who had died instantly and who could still be saved; it seemed that everyone they pulled out died anyway. Despair deepened in their hearts.

Suddenly, some who were merely frozen stiff trembled violently, making rescue much easier for the other ability users. The number of survivors increased dramatically.

“It’s so cold—where can we even go—”

“Go underground! There are tunnels underground!” a plain-looking woman shouted. “My daughter is underground too!”

After the low-temperature explosion, temperatures in the area rebounded slightly. The more than three thousand survivors used this window to move as much as possible. Someone peered into a tunnel—and by accident saw a rainbow-colored billboard. In that instant, his mind was completely seized and dragged into a mysterious abyss, filled with pleasure and fragrance, like a human paradise. A thought appeared in his mind out of nowhere:

What an attractive advertisement!

So the man who had glimpsed the ad immediately squeezed himself into the tunnel and sprinted away. He needed to hurry and go spend money!

The others couldn’t stop him in time. They could only quickly clear the obstacles blocking the tunnel entrance—and then come face to face with the rainbow lightboard.

……

At this moment, She Lulang and Lin Luyi arrived at the new base on the Fourth Ring.

Lin Luyi was startled by the sudden appearance of people before him, while She Lulang felt a surge of anxiety and immediately searched for Yu Qunqing. He saw the sunken slope with an incongruous café on it and instantly thought of Yu Qunqing’s ability.

“Yu Qunqing—”

She Lulang pushed open the café door in a hurry and spotted Yu Qunqing busy behind the bar at a glance. Relief washed over him, and he hurried over. As the lights gradually brightened, Yu Qunqing’s attire became more and more conspicuous.

The system seemed to give She Lulang preferential treatment, granting him slightly higher permissions than ordinary customers. Only then could he easily walk up to Yu Qunqing.

The moment Yu Qunqing saw the vice-captain, he wanted to tease him: “Kitchen area—customers looking for service, please wait patiently.”

She Lulang’s words came to an abrupt halt. His expression suddenly froze, and his gaze slowly, inch by inch, moved downward.

Yu Qunqing followed his line of sight and glanced down as well—right, he had almost forgotten he was still wearing that exquisite, gorgeous apron.

Just as he was about to say something, he saw the usually stone-faced She Lulang straighten his gaze, stopping upright above the neck with deliberate propriety—yet his ears were suspiciously red. Yu Qunqing pressed the coffee machine button and began wondering why the vice-captain was acting like this.

Then, the next second, She Lulang took off his black robe and neatly draped it over Yu Qunqing’s shoulders.

Yu Qunqing: ?

She Lulang looked distracted, even a little dizzy. He didn’t know why he had done it; his mind held only one thought: he was done for. It turned out that no matter what Yu Qunqing wore, no matter what he became, his heart would only be stirred more deeply. He had thought before that he was attracted to Yu Qunqing’s soul—but today’s reaction seemed to prove that he actually had a very worldly heart.

Yu Qunqing was stunned. Was the vice-captain worried he might be cold here?

That explanation might make sense. Still, Yu Qunqing cared more about something else. For convenience, She Lulang usually acted in loose black robes; there was a whole stack of similar styles at home—who knew where he’d collected them. Yu Qunqing had sometimes wondered what She Lulang wore underneath, but it wasn’t convenient to ask. Today, he finally found out—and the answer didn’t surprise him at all.

She Lulang had lived with him before; of course, he was wearing Yu Qunqing’s clothes now.