RHWHEG – Chapter 69 Emotion Upload

During the era of disasters, in order to prevent epidemics and parasites, all shelters placed great emphasis on personal hygiene. In正规 shelters, each person’s water ration was divided into drinking water and cleaning water. Even during drought disasters when water resources were scarce, shelters would still dilute disinfectant with water and force everyone to clean themselves. The residential compound, meanwhile, was even more abundant in water resources, and the residents kept themselves very tidy. So whether in his previous life or this one, the two of them both maintained basic cleanliness.

Yu Qunqing had no resistance at all to the vice-captain wearing his clothes; on the contrary, it even catered to some subtle sense of control within him. In the apocalypse, life and death were unpredictable. From the customers’ conversations, Yu Qunqing had just learned that there had actually been another group of refugees who fled to Jiangbei City—something he had never known in his previous life. The differences between the two lives were so numerous that they almost threw his memories into confusion. But She Lulang would never change—he would always stand by his side. That feeling inexplicably put Yu Qunqing at ease.

After She Lulang took off his outer robe, underneath he was wearing Yu Qunqing’s light off-white casual long-sleeved shirt. The cold severity he usually carried in battle immediately softened, replaced with a sense of everyday familiarity that came from long companionship. Yu Qunqing then said in a low voice, “Good taste in clothes.”

She Lulang glanced down again and said in a strange tone, “Do you really have to dress like this…?”

“This is a work uniform!” Yu Qunqing declared solemnly. In the midst of his busy work, he first prepared a cup of hot coffee for the vice-captain—he couldn’t let the vice-captain get cold. It had to be said that when Yu Qunqing put on an apron embroidered with delicate patterns, paired with a black outer robe, he exuded even more of a medieval aristocratic air. When he handed the hot coffee to the vice-captain, She Lulang clearly froze for a moment.

The system quietly shrank into a palm-sized blue screen and floated by Yu Qunqing’s ear:

“Spiritual power has reached the standard—beginning analysis of friend She Lulang’s (real-name verified) game issues. Analysis failed. Analysis failed—”

Yu Qunqing muted the system and said to She Lulang, “This coffee shop is my ability-based dungeon game. Don’t leave—I’ll be done playing very soon.”

She Lulang agreed. A few seconds later, he vaguely felt that he had forgotten something. What was it?

It seemed… he had come here together with a teammate?

On the ground, Lin Luyi: So many people!

Inside the café, Yu Qunqing pressed the bell for “Recruit Staff.” He immediately randomly drew someone from the friendly faction—one of the Mind Library members who had been herding sheep above. His real name had long been forgotten; only his nickname remained: “Xiao Qiu.”

Xiao Qiu had been herding sheep when he suddenly felt his hair stand on end. He was being stared at by some unspeakably terrifying power! He had no choice but to follow the guidance of that overwhelmingly powerful force and come before Yu Qunqing.

Xiao Qiu thought that power came from Yu Qunqing. No wonder Yu Qunqing could get along so harmoniously with the Black God—it turned out they were on the same level. Xiao Qiu’s face went pale. “I—I’m willing to be forever loyal to you. May I ask what you summoned me here for?”

“You’ll be responsible for carrying trays, maintaining order in the café, and attracting customers outside,” Yu Qunqing said, granting game permissions one by one to this temporary worker.

Xiao Qiu immediately straightened his back. “Yes!” A layer of light instantly shimmered over his body. When the light faded, his outfit had changed into a perfectly normal green uniform.

With café staff carrying trays, customers no longer needed to wait at the counter—they could directly find a seat and wait. Yu Qunqing could also see all the waiting customers’ speech bubbles at once.

The staff were also responsible for guiding customers to empty seats, improving seat utilization in the café. When customers left, staff had a chance to collect tips from them.

In other words—secondary charges!

One departing customer watched helplessly as another disaster stone left his possession. In this café, drinking a single cup of coffee cost at least three disaster stones. Sure, anyone who’d survived until now had some savings—but this was dark. Really dark.

Being able to see multiple speech bubbles at once greatly improved Yu Qunqing’s efficiency in making drinks. As usual, he set the coffee machine to its two output modes—latte and mocha—then scooped out a cup of white chocolate powder, added hot water, and put it into the drink blender to mix evenly. He took out two cups of latte and mocha, adding toppings and milk foam in sequence for secondary preparation. At this point, the hot chocolate was ready as well; he added toppings to it, then poured in matcha powder to start the next cup. The three customers’ orders—latte, mocha, and hot chocolate—were all completed at the same time, while disaster stones of different colors flew toward the cashier.

The greatest joy of management mini-games was watching your territory expand and your wallet swell. At least, Yu Qunqing was quite happy looking at a four-digit amount. Once money turned into numbers, players rarely cared whether their pricing was too ruthless—they only wished to earn more.

At this moment, the café had just reached full capacity. Yu Qunqing immediately used Quick Clear. One customer was forced to leave before their seat had even warmed up.

Yu Qunqing asked the system, “Can I use the money I earn myself?”

“Hello. The revenue from the game Running a Wonderful Café cannot be used directly,” the system replied. “Fifty percent of the game’s revenue will be deposited into the system’s internal pool. The remaining fifty percent can be directly recharged into any game in the player’s game library.”

At present, the games Yu Qunqing was most short on money for were the two match-three games.

And a single café round could earn more than four digits.

Didn’t that mean he was making a killing?

Yu Qunqing was instantly fired up, waiting for this game to bring in a huge sum.

Suddenly, chaotic noise erupted outside, like tens of thousands of horses charging over. Combined with the echo of the subway tunnel, the sound was deafening.

The system issued a timely warning: “Attention! Player skill—Advertisement Promotion—has taken effect. A large batch of customers is on the way. Please prepare!”

Yu Qunqing said, “Sounds like a zombie siege.”

The people lingering outside the café curiously looked down the tunnel, then hurriedly retreated into the corners. They plastered themselves to the walls in shock, letting people still covered in bits of ice brush past them and rush toward the café. Because those people had suffered a low-temperature explosion, each of them moved stiffly; from afar, they really did look like zombies.

The survivors who looked like zombies were filled with fear and despair. They couldn’t control their own actions at all. What kind of disaster lay inside this café, and what level of power did it possess? It made them line up and walk into the café like lambs entering a slaughterhouse—no right to resist, not even the chance to speak. With just a glance from the shop owner, the item for sale was decided. Then his servants would diligently deliver it.

Summoning without permission, defining wishes without permission, and collecting payment without permission.

And in the end, casually letting them live.

“Could this be a demon’s whimsy of a game?” someone murmured.

And the demon’s server happened to hear it. Xiao Qiu bent down, presenting a thin, translucent porcelain tray, and said in a hoarse voice:

“Of course.”

Ignoring the way the customer’s face instantly lost all color, Xiao Qiu turned and left.

He possessed extraordinary mental-type abilities, but the price was lost memories. The inner worlds of mental-type ability users were all twisted—the stronger they were, the more so. For example, the current strongest, 060, had simply stripped away human self-identity altogether, while Lin Luyi had forgotten everything about his past. All members of the Mind Library were the same: they worshiped strength, yearned for evolution, and lacked the empathy humans should have.

So when they realized they couldn’t defeat the Klein Bottle, they regarded it as a god and willingly worked under Yu Qunqing. They called themselves new humans. Encountering so many old-fashioned humans for the first time, they naturally placed themselves in the same camp as Yu Qunqing and saw other humans as the weak.

Xiao Qiu thought that even if he couldn’t serve the Klein Bottle, following the powerful Yu Qunqing was still a good choice. He had to perform well.

He continued carrying a tray with three drinks to the next customer. One look at this customer’s skin showed frostbite, and her haggard face made it clear she was a refugee.

Heh—refugees. Old humans really are weak beyond belief.

Yet this old human didn’t seem afraid at all. Instead, she looked at him with eyes shining brightly. That made him deeply uncomfortable.

“Mom—”

Tong Hua burst into loud sobs. Her piercing cries tore through the calm atmosphere. The little girl threw herself into the woman’s arms, pouring out all the grievances she had suffered along the way. “I hit my head, I’m bleeding, it hurts so bad—”

Zhou Yao stood at the side, at a loss. She said, “I thought the child was fated to me, so I kept her with me. It’s good that you’re back.”

The mother cried silently. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded strange, thick with sobs. “Sit quickly—there are exactly three cups here.” Holding Tong Hua, she hurriedly placed all the disaster stones she had on Xiao Qiu’s tray.

“Thank you!” she said solemnly and simply. “Thank you for saving us!”

Xiao Qiu froze slightly.

“Ding-dong, congratulations to the player for obtaining a random tip of 80.”

The effect of the advertising promotion could only last for one minute. After that minute passed, the customers’ forward movement noticeably slowed. People farther away realized they could break free from the force controlling them. When there were plenty of customers, the game favored summoning those nearby, so the summoning effect on distant people disappeared. The subway passage became rugged and difficult again, with some disasters lurking in the shadows. And there were still fifteen minutes before the next use of advertising promotion.

At this moment, Yu Qunqing successfully cleared the fourth stage. The fifth stage’s target revenue was 50,000. It unlocked a new beverage category—light milk tea—and tea-paired desserts. The coffee machine’s channel was upgraded and could now run three modes at the same time. Yu Qunqing was making three cups of coffee, one mixed drink, and one light milk tea simultaneously—extremely busy.

He also gained a new skill, “Tip Storm.” For one minute after activation, 100% of restaurant customers would leave tips. Yu Qunqing thought it would be most cost-effective to pair it with advertising recruitment, so he didn’t ring the bell right away.

However, every time “Quick Clear” finished cooling down, he would use it once. More and more people stayed in the café, forcing them to explore outward.

After a while, Yu Qunqing obtained a new recruitment opportunity and summoned down a member of the Psychic Library named Xiao Ou. The library had sixteen people in total; the remaining fourteen were still herding sheep aboveground.

During breaks in his serious work, Xiao Ou chatted with Xiao Qiu. Xiao Ou said gravely, “We are the Psychic Library. We possess powerful psychic abilities. Psychic power is the direction of human evolution.”

Xiao Qiu said, “Yes, I’ve always believed that. We have experienced the mystery of the Black God. We know how vast the universe is, and how small we are. We are so fortunate.”

Xiao Ou said, “We rely on the psychic web to find each other, to hone the skill of ‘resonance’ in order to survive in the new era. We are in the same boat, we swear by our minds, and we will never deceive one another.”

Xiao Qiu said, “Yes. We share knowledge and share emotions. That’s how we can surround each other’s spirits and achieve mental resonance.”

Xiao Ou said, “Do you acknowledge that cats are the gods of the world?”

Xiao Qiu became even more serious. “Yes, I acknowledge it!”

“Confirming that this mental synapse has not betrayed our ideology.” Xiao Ou first uploaded this information to the public psychic network. Then, unable to hold back any longer, his gaze was like that of someone scolding a user uploading junk ads to a public cloud drive. “But what exactly did you just share with us? What were you thinking? What kind of damned emotion is this?!”

“I…” Xiao Qiu stammered. “I was thinking…” He lowered his head, revealing a hint of pain. “I was thinking about the possibility of rescuing old humans. I heard… cries for help—”

…

The people who had been forced out of the café cautiously explored the outside world. The Fourth Ring had originally been a land of ruins, with extremely dangerous and complex terrain. But because Yu Qunqing had just activated the five-star scene Zoo and hadn’t begun decorating it yet, what appeared before them was a vast empty clearing abruptly opened up among the ruins—enough for them to stand safely.

They quickly discovered the Psychic Library members herding sheep. Their clothes were all patterned with cats, making them look approachable, but in fact, the librarians ignored everyone. They then found the automobile repair shop, whose doors were tightly shut and inaccessible. The mini-villa next to it didn’t seem to have anything special. Behind the repair shop, however, was a food street and a food mall.

The food street adopted an ancient-style design, with reddish-brown canopies set up along both sides of the road. Two lanterns hung from the eaves of each canopy. At every stall position stood a table bearing a sign: “Hot stall sincerely for rent. For details, please consult staff.”

The food street had nothing but rental advertisements. Some people entered the food mall. Inside, the lighting was bright, with different shops on every floor—but none were open. Every single one was for rent, eerily so. Only one hotpot restaurant was operating, staffed by a library member.

Hot water was free at the hotpot restaurant, and a long line gradually formed in front of it.

The Psychic Library was extremely sensitive to fluctuations in companions’ emotions. This librarian, working part-time as a hotpot server, grew faintly confused as he refilled hot water again and again for the visitors.

Some people asked him how to get to the city-center residential area.

He pointed out the direction and said there was no need to worry—many people had already gone that way, so survival difficulty wouldn’t be too high. Hearing this, a strange light flashed in that person’s eyes. Had he still been in a normal pre-apocalypse state, he would have known that it was hope.

He unconsciously said, “Take more hot water! Don’t worry—once you’re farther from here, it won’t be that cold!”

Strange emotions were transmitted to the public psychic network.

Among the members herding sheep, someone suddenly received harassment from others.

“Little nephew, it’s me! I’m your uncle!” A man anxiously grabbed one of the library members, speaking sorrowfully. “It’s so good you’re still alive! Weilu City fell—thank goodness you weren’t there. It’s good that you’re safe with these people… You’ve gotten so thin.”

The grabbed member looked at this stranger, confusion rising in his heart.

Emotions accumulated bit by bit, shared, and finally turned into the last burst of motivation.

The Psychic Library members understood each other tacitly. Some stayed behind to continue herding sheep, while others carried unfamiliar emotions, representing all their minds, and sprinted into the subway passage. The meaning of their lives seemed to have split into another interpretation.

“Though it is very moving, that’s true.”

Lin Luyi led the Queen Bee, lost in the crowd. She Luolang had run too fast, and as soon as they arrived here, they got separated. And there were so many people here—felt like twice as many as in the residential area! Packed so tightly they couldn’t even stand properly. Thinking of the Psychic Library, he couldn’t help muttering to himself:

“Don’t treat the public psychic network like your private cloud drive!!”

The Psychic Library hadn’t yet gotten used to days when outsiders accessed the psychic network.

At present, the shared game time for Running the Wonderful Café had half an hour remaining.

Yu Qunqing once again used “Advertising Promotion” and “Recruit Staff.” At the same time, he gained a new skill—“Efficiency Doubled.” All waiting times at the control console were halved. He could barely even see his own movements.

After several rounds of “Quick Clear,” more and more people gathered on the ground, already exceeding a thousand. Some who had just come out of the café proactively greeted the Psychic Library members, saying their cats were really cute.

Meanwhile, a group of a hundred people who knew each other replenished their hot water at the hotpot restaurant and decided to continue toward the city center, searching for their final place to settle.

The demon game could only shift human trajectories by a certain angle. Those who could truly save humanity were humans themselves.

…

“Shared game Running the Wonderful Café has ended. Thank you for playing.

Calculating your game results, please wait…

Hello. A total of 76,545 equivalent paid-currency points has been credited to your account. Please allocate them to your favorite games within three hours.”

Seventy thousand-plus gems—just thinking about it felt like possessing the power to whale through Match-Three. If played well, there might even be leftovers to allocate to other games. Succeeding at whaling without spending money—this feeling was just too joyful!

Yu Qunqing brewed one last cup of light milk tea for Lin Luyi and added a lethal amount of sugar.

Lin Luyi was extremely satisfied inside, but still voiced some dissatisfaction. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here? I searched for ages.” Chewing on the jelly, he suddenly grew suspicious. “Yu Qunqing, why are you wearing She Luolang’s outer robe?”

The effect of Yu Qunqing’s gorgeous apron had disappeared, making it look as though he and She Luolang had swapped clothes.

Both fell silent.

Yu Qunqing changed the subject. “Did you come here for something special?”

“Someone wanted to use the car repair privilege. I guessed it had something to do with this place, so I brought that junk car over.” Lin Luyi tugged at the enormous Queen Bee, indicating how great it was to have a space dedicated to transport.

“Then I’ll use it later,” Yu Qunqing said. “After that, we’ll go back together—with these outside…”

He did a quick mental calculation. He and the system split the revenue evenly, each cup of coffee ranged from 20 to 50, plus some repeat customers—so probably around four thousand people?

The residential area only had sixteen hundred people. Looks like the area’s ecosystem would need rebalancing again. But Yu Qunqing had never really cared much about that. A trace of hesitation crossed his mind—perhaps humans in different environments would head toward different endings.

“We’ll go back together with the survivors outside,” She Luolang said. “A lot of people came this time. There should be many who need shared housing.”

Lin Luyi said, “Isn’t that obvious? I’ve always lived together with Sun Min’s family. What’s the big deal about cohabitation?”

Yu Qunqing also felt there was nothing wrong with that. He looked toward the most conspicuous presence outside—the Eight-Legged Frostfall—and said, “Next time we come back, we’ll saw off one of its legs.”