I Run a Restaurant in a World of Natural Disasters

Chapter 3: Chapter 2: An Impossible Task

Ning He froze for a moment upon hearing the voice. Suddenly remembering something, her leisurely pace turned urgent as she ran toward home.

As she approached the residential area where she rented, Ning He noticed quite a few assessing gazes. By the time she reached her front door, the children playing in the nearby empty lot instantly scattered, hiding far away.

Ning He had no time to pay them any mind. She closed the door immediately after entering the house, went to the ladder behind the bed, climbed up to the attic, and ducked her head to crawl inside.

When Ning He first woke up, this voice claiming to be the Biological Atlas System rang out in her mind. It gave her ten cubic meters of mysterious black mud, claiming it had miraculous effects for planting. Ning He had scattered a handful of seeds and left them alone for a few days. Were they already mature?

Ning He had dismantled the original wooden bed in the attic and repurposed it into a wooden frame. It was filled with twenty centimeters of black mud, with another temporarily unused pile of mud sitting in the corner.

The attic’s lighting was poor, so the electric light was kept on constantly. The moment Ning He entered, she clearly saw the scene before her.

In just a few days, the bare black mud had become lush and verdant.

The seeds Ning He had scattered were a discounted welfare mix bought from an outside store, containing many different varieties.

Looking now, there was spinach, Chinese chives, lettuce, green onions, cilantro, tomatoes, chili peppers, and radishes. Each one was growing vigorously.

The spinach and lettuce had plump leaves and thick stems. The chives and green onions had shot up to a foot high with sturdy stalks. Beneath the jade-green radish leaves, plump white bodies were poking their heads out of the soil.

These few were clearly fully mature.

Even though Ning He hadn’t grown many vegetables in her past life, she knew this growth speed was incredibly unreasonable.

"Host, are you satisfied with these results?"

The system’s slightly smug voice echoed in her mind.

Ning He suppressed the astonishment in her heart. She swiped her finger across a virtual control panel in the empty air, freezing on the last line of the quest log.

"Biological Atlas 0/3000"

"reputation value 0/1000000"

"If I complete the atlas task or reach a million reputation value, I can return to my original world?"

"Yes, Host. By completing either one, you can return. If you complete both, you can also bring one person back with you."

The system’s words were laced with temptation. Ning He gave a soft snort.

’It’s playing me for a fool.’

’No matter which task it is, the difficulty is extremely high. I’d be lucky to finish even one.’

’But working myself to death in this godforsaken place without even a bite of meat to eat? I absolutely have to go back!’

"I understand. Let’s begin, then."

"Understood, Host. Wishing us a happy cooperation! At the same time, to show support for the Host, the system has prepared a novice gift pack along with one hundred experience points that can be used to redeem items in the store. Please accept them."

Ning He’s vision blurred for a second, and a cardboard box suddenly appeared on the floor.

Opening it, she saw a complete set of cooking spices.

Ning He’s emotions fluctuated slightly. She counted the various bottles and jars inside; every type of spice she knew of was present. It truly was a generous gift.

Ning He put the jars away. These meat spices were practically priceless on the market and were better suited to be kept as a hidden trump card.

Then, Ning He browsed the system store.

There weren’t many items, mostly crop seeds and various spices. The exchange rate wasn’t great; one hundred points could only be redeemed for fifty grams of seeds or a small jar of spices.

After some thought, Ning He bought a few seeds for flavoring vegetables and fruits, such as mint, fennel, ginger, and lemon. She then immediately buried them in the black mud to let them grow.

Having taken care of that, Ning He sat down cross-legged and fell deep into thought while facing a bed full of vegetables.

’The only feasible way to make money that I can think of and actually execute is selling food.’

’But with my current financial situation, meat is astronomically expensive. I absolutely can’t afford it. Ordinary people wouldn’t spend a premium at a street stall either. I can only make vegetarian-based snacks.’

’If the main ingredients are vegetables, I can rely on this black mud to produce and sell them myself, saving a massive amount on costs.’

’Right now, the spinach, chives, lettuce, cilantro, and radishes have already matured.’

’The tomatoes and chili peppers have just started bearing fruit. I can’t bear to pick them just yet; I should let them grow a bit more.’

’With scarce seasonings and limited ingredients, there aren’t many snacks I can actually make.’

Fortunately, Ning He used to run a social media channel focused on food content in the past. From visiting restaurants to cooking, her knowledge and experience were vast. She quickly thought of several popular snacks.

Ning He swiftly climbed down the ladder, turned on her computer, and went online to fill out an application for a mobile street stall license.

The Beiluo City officials actually had quite a few supportive policies for food stalls.

They offered low tax rates and discounted stall fees. Dedicated personnel managed and maintained order, and every month, food festivals were set up in various districts to encourage citizens to spend money and feast.

Next, Ning He took out a pen and paper, quickly calculated the various expenses for starting a food stall, and finalized her shopping list for the next day.

After finishing all this, Ning He felt a bit hungry.

Although she really wanted to go to a noodle shop and eat a piping hot bowl of egg and vegetable noodles, Ning He ultimately just obediently grabbed a packet of nutrient powder and mixed it with hot water for dinner.

The small packet of powder rapidly absorbed the water and expanded into a full bowl. The added artificial strawberry flavoring made it slightly more palatable.

While choking down the mush, Ning He listened to the system explain the details of the two tasks.

"...Simply put, the Host only needs to come into contact with mutated species, and the system will complete the atlas entry within a few seconds. As for reputation value, as long as others generate any sort of positive emotion toward the Host, the Host will gain one point of reputation. Positive emotions include but are not limited to: gratitude, admiration, affection, appreciation, recognition..."

The more Ning He listened, the more her heart sank.

’Given the original owner’s public reputation, I can just declare this so-called reputation task a lost cause.’

’Meanwhile, the atlas task requires collecting the mutated creatures of this world, but since the city is a safe zone, such things don’t exist here.’

’If I want to collect them, I have to leave the city.’

In Beiluo City, ordinary people were not allowed to casually leave the city limits.

The outside world was full of danger. The Mecha Team had to be fully armed every time they went out on a mission. If she ran out there all by herself, it would certainly be suicide.

Based on the information she currently knew, there were only two ways to leave the city:

First was hiring a security company to escort her out of the city to collect the various creatures. But the fees were astronomically high; typically, only massive corporations and billionaires could afford them.

Second was going through the Mecha Academy.

The academy had several secure fortresses outside the city, as well as outposts situated even further away to scout conditions. These places also needed chefs. If she could secure one of these spots, she could leave the city legitimately and then look for opportunities to start the atlas task.

But the academy usually selected chefs from the Third-level Stall in the cafeteria. Even if she managed to scrape together enough money to rent a Zero-level stall, she would still have to find a way to upgrade the Zero-level Stall to a Third-level Stall.

Stall upgrades required achieving the highest comprehensive rating for three consecutive months. In the original owner’s memories, no one had ever accomplished such a massive leap in upgrades.

’It’s so difficult right from the start. I really can’t catch a break.’

’Forget it. Let’s just fill my stomach first.’

Ning He scraped her way through dinner and turned on the TV.

She understood far too little about this world, and the TV could nicely provide the information she needed. This was especially true for the hourly news programs, which covered information ranging from livelihood and economy to society and technology. Over the past two days, Ning He had learned a lot of basic facts through them.

At the moment, the news was reporting on the progress of the emergency repairs to the water supply pipelines outside the city.

To establish a safe haven like Beiluo City with nearly a million residents, the primary requirement was having a clean and massive water source nearby.

Beiluo City’s water supply reservoir was located thirty kilometers outside the city. A localized earthquake had occurred yesterday, rupturing the supply pipelines and drastically reducing the city’s water supply. The Mecha Armament Department had dispatched a team to conduct emergency repairs immediately. Since it was an urgent matter, the news naturally broadcasted real-time updates on the situation.

Looking at the footage captured by the drone cameras, Ning He suddenly raised her brow.

The Mecha Team captain being interviewed by the reporter on camera was around thirty years old. With thick eyebrows and eagle-like eyes, he exuded a commanding presence without being angry.

’I couldn’t be remembering incorrectly.’

’It’s the man who fished me out of the river the other day.’

His name was on the screen: Lieutenant Colonel Jean Leo.

Lieutenant Colonel Leo was concise and to the point. His single sentence about restoring the city’s water supply before dark made a noticeable wave of relief seep into the reporter’s subsequent voice.

Ning He wasn’t familiar with this lieutenant colonel’s past exploits, but judging from the reporter’s reaction, she could guess that he must be a reliable person.

’He really is reliable.’

’The water where I jumped into the river was so turbulent, yet he still managed to rescue me so quickly. He used first aid to rapidly restore my consciousness. His capabilities are absolutely outstanding.’

’At the time, he left without leaving behind any contact information.’

’Nameless heroes are admirable, but according to the original owner’s memories, they actually knew each other.’

’This Lieutenant Colonel Leo is a senior commander at the Mecha Academy. He can be seen in the cafeteria every day, and he used to have a good teacher-student relationship with Qiu Luo. It’s impossible for him to not have any impression of me.’

’Rescuing me only to leave without a word... I can only guess that he didn’t want to have any further involvement with me.’

’It seems the original owner really was quite unlikable.’

’Everyone is just dying to stay as far away from her as possible.’

Ning He twitched the corners of her mouth, turned off the TV, and rolled over to sleep.

She had no time to worry about all that. Tomorrow, she still needed to go shopping for supplies and set up her food stall.

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