CH 53

After spending 300G on this, she regret it.

The mentality of playing games is always about spending more and more. Once you spend the first 300, will you stop at the second or third?

The higher the sunk cost in the early stage, the more intense the reluctance will be when you have to give up later. In the end, you will be forced into a mentality where you feel like you wasted all the effort you put in before not spending any money.

In theory, if it weren’t for the temptation of the little octopus, and if the crystal ball where the octopus currently lives didn’t have a time limit of only 24 hours, she could wait until she finished the next two daily quests before considering upgrading her fishpond.

But precisely because of the temptation of the little octopus, the early investment has become a sunk cost with a disguised lure. This is why she just spent 300G.

Although her projection showed no expression and could not express her true feelings, Shen Cheng let out a faint sigh. For some reason, Li Weilan heard a sense of ominous exhaustion in her sigh.

A sense of foreboding surged in Li Weilan’s heart. He quickly stepped forward and moved the little octopus, who was about to climb out of the crystal ball happily and jump into its new home, to one side. He blocked its view with a box before whispering, “Is there some kind of benefit exchange in the fishpond?”

He’s so sharp!

Shen Cheng did not expect that the AI would notice this. At this moment, she was even a little surprised. Is cub really just a character in the game? Can an AI really do something so considerate, careful, and delicate as observing her?

But after thinking about it for a moment, she realized that she just spent 300, and the game may have sensed her recharge. They might have sent cub out to comfort her to prevent her from leaving the game.

Shen Cheng knew that she felt a little bit heartbroken.

Although it’s understandable to feel sorry for someone who spends money on a game, blaming them for it — even if it’s just directed at a virtual character like cub — is not an acceptable attitude.

Shen Cheng smiled and said, “It’s like… um… similar to your credit points!”

“Money?” Li Weilan couldn’t believe that this was the answer he got.

Credit points were still important in the apocalypse, but in their world, the currency for exchanging these things was still money. So, was she still living in a safe and calm world?

He hesitated and asked tentatively, “Do you need money?”

Shen Cheng chuckled silently.

Cub’s eyes widened with cautious probing, as if afraid that his question would hurt her self-esteem.

Who doesn’t need money?

The upper limit of financial freedom is 1 billion, which is an amount she wouldn’t be able to earn even if she worked for a hundred years.

With her gentle laughter, Li Weilan immediately understood, and then a vague sense of numbness and bitterness washed over him.

Her laughter contained a touch of self-mockery. Presumably, there wasn’t much money in her life.

She needed money, but she was still willing to spend what little she had on the base. Ultimately, it was all for him.

He was important to her!

With this confidence, Li Weilan blurted out his next sentence: “Can I help you earn more money?”

“Eh?” Shen Cheng stared at the screen with wide eyes, stunned.

Did cub just say he wants to help me make money?

Although the game company had credit points and RMB exchange, the base was newly established. If cub helped Noah earn too many credit points in large quantities, it would definitely arouse suspicion from other bases. There was a limit to how much he could earn, so how could he make money?

The next sentence from Li Weilan plunged Shen Cheng deeper into confusion: “What do you usually do? Is there anything here that can be exchanged for money in your world?”

Shen Cheng had thought about this question before.

The concrete amount she produced each day was only one orange, which was worth only a few bucks at most. Of course, this was not a way to make a living.

As for concretizing things like gold and diamonds, let alone expensive jewelry, which was also hard currency in the end times, even the glittering jewels in the game might be shoddy goods and might not be worth much in the real world.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

She never thought of getting rich by concretization. So she asked Li Weilan, “Why do you think someone else can sell things at 1.5 times the price of mine, even though their goods aren’t as good as mine?”

There was a small stall opened next to her fruit stall during these few days. The owner of that stall was a pretty girl who was good at talking and had many advantages in setting up her stall.

She bought a highlight lamp and made her fruits shine brightly. The cut fruit tray looked clean and tidy. Some of Shen Cheng’s customers were diverted by that girl, and her business was not as good as when she just started.

The girl’s fruit plate was priced higher than hers, and Shen Cheng even saw twice that the girl had cut up almost-rotten watermelon before setting up her stall — obviously the cost would be lower.

But the other girl’s profit was higher than hers, and she sold better than her. If you don’t accept it, you’re out of luck!

Her words were a bit vague, but Li Weilan understood immediately: her life wasn’t as good as he imagined it to be.

She had to sell things with others?

What was she selling?

Doubts emerged one by one in his mind, but Li Weilan quickly guessed the reason: “If I was your customer, what would you sell to me?”

Watermelon!?

Shen Cheng was stunned.

What fruit did cub like to eat?

She seemed to really not know!

As she hesitated, another thought dawned on Li Weilan: did the things she sold also exist in their world?

He felt that his previous guess about her was completely wrong, and perhaps her world wasn’t much different from his own.

And her living environment wasn’t much better than his either.

She wasn’t the kind of deity he had imagined before, who wouldn’t eat meat and was aloof from the world. In her world, she also had to work hard and diligently to earn her daily meals.

So, during the time she wasn’t paying attention to him, was she just busy trying to survive?

“Sometimes selling the best things isn’t necessary, but rather selling what’s most suitable.” Li Weilan used himself as an example, a blush creeping onto his face. “For me, the best clothes are uniforms because my needs are comfort, durability, and mobility. But for Fu Yanzhou, it might be pure white cotton, with not a single thread out of place. So…” He blinked, “Which one do you usually sell?”

Shen Cheng paused.

She silently understood Li Weilan’s meaning, suddenly realizing why sometimes she put in all her effort but customers still might not be satisfied.

The main customers for buying fruit plates were young girls who might not be that sensitive to prices, but they want fruit for weight loss, sweetness, and good flavor that could even help with fat loss.

So, it’s not necessarily about offering the best quality products to meet customers’ needs, but it’s important to consider their preferences and do the right match.

Shen Cheng’s heart was filled with excitement: Oh my god, what kind of magical game is this? I am even learning business from a character?

300 yuan to buy a money-making secret recipe?

At this moment, she felt a strong sense of dissonance: When she looked at the cartoonish and delicate game, for some reason, she seemed to be seeing this real and detailed world through her own projected eyes.

This feeling only flashed by.

Shen Cheng promptly thanked cub seriously, saying, “I understand, I will try again.”

“Promise me,” but cub insisted, looking at her, “Take care of yourself first, okay?”

Shen Cheng said softly, “Okay,” but her eyes were slightly warm.

Sometimes people are moved by trivial and subtle things, even just a caring word that can bring tears to one’s eyes. Shen Cheng feels that even during her toughest and most hopeless moments, if someone could have said “take care of yourself first” in exchange for 300 yuan, she would have been willing to pick up garbage for a long time to earn that money.

Because behind these words, she could feel the concern and care from the speaker.

At this moment, Li Weilan finally went to get the little octopus that had been protesting by tapping on the glass wall, and started putting it into the tank.

As Quan Quan slowly crawled and flailed its remaining tentacles, it protested, “Hey, I agreed to let you eat the tentacle I threw away, but you guys are whispering behind my back! You ate my body part and kept secrets from me. Hmph, I’m going to be moody!”

“…Why does this octopus talk so much?” Shen Cheng wondered.

She was glad that Li Weilan couldn’t understand Quan Quan’s words, or he would have been annoyed just like her.

As for eating Quan Quan’s leftover tentacle, it was not necessary.

Now that they knew Quan Quan was a sentient being, eating its body parts felt creepy, like eating human flesh. It was forgivable when they didn’t know, but now that they did…it just felt weird.

After crawling into the tank, Quan Quan leisurely swam around the pool and enjoyed the spaciousness and comfortable water temperature. The other decorations in the crystal ball, such as aquatic plants, rocks, and lotus leaves, fell out with Quan Quan and settled in the tank, adding a touch of greenery to the base.

Satisfied, Quan Quan looked around and opened its mouth, spitting out a bunch of colorful fish. With just one glance, there were probably thousands of them, and Shen Cheng wondered how they could fit inside its stomach.

Quan Quan lazily waved its little tentacle and patted its chest, “Don’t worry about the fish pond I’m taking care of! Just let me know when you want to eat fish!”

Shen Cheng took a look at the “Intermediate Fish Pond” in the base. The current data provided by the game is “Output: 20 fish/daily,” and they are mostly larger fish like grass carp and silver carp that can supply several people with meat from just one fish. At this moment, Shen Cheng didn’t think that spending 300 yuan on in-game purchases was too much.

Beside him, Fu Yanzhou rushed over upon hearing the base announcement and stared wide-eyed at the fish swimming in the pool. He had never seen such a large fish pond before, even in a particularly large base!

At first glance, it looked very delicious!

His decision to come to Noah was absolutely right!

The taste of fresh fish was probably something only those in Noah could experience at this time, right?

Although he didn’t know how they managed to succeed, and they weren’t even mutated fish from the end times but rather ordinary edible fish from before the apocalypse, Fu Yanzhou’s current passion was not to explore but to think, “Hmm… when can we eat it? I’m a little hungry.”

On this day, all the survivors in Noah Base had bread and grilled fish for their meal. It was an extremely rare delicacy in the post-apocalyptic world, and a small portion was distributed to the survivors waiting for approval outside the base. As for the prisoners who were used as low-level examples and only had the minimum ration to eat in the power generation room, they could only smell the aroma, but they couldn’t eat it. They were all going crazy.

Sandy: Cub, stop being so smart and cute and all that. Translator about to melt with Cheng Cheng hehe