Chapter 22: Auto Detailing

Wen Ruyan patted her shoulder reassuringly, while Zhu Ou watched Mo Yubai with a look of concern.

“It’s okay, Sister Mo. Don’t blame yourself. They were just stupid.”

Mo Yubai looked up, pointing at herself in confusion. “Me? Blame myself? Don’t worry, my moral standards have always been on a slippery slope. I never waste energy on self-doubt!

“When things go wrong, I blame the heavens, the earth, society, and the air, but never myself! Besides…”

At this, she paused slightly, cupping her face in her hands and saying proudly,

“Whether it’s on Blue Star or in this dump of an environment, the fact that I can still live every day with a smile, not lash out at society, and even do a little good now and then makes me absolutely amazing. I’m practically the definition of beautiful inside and out!”

Zhu Ou fidgeted awkwardly. She had thought Sister Mo was feeling guilty after hearing those nonsensical accusations. She had worried for nothing!

Hearing Mo Yubai’s words, a flash of admiration and worship instantly crossed Wen Ruyan’s eyes.

She loved this kind of straightforward, slightly unhinged style. It gave her the comforting sense of finding a kindred spirit!

After all, though she seemed socially anxious, she was actually a ruthless person of few words.

She had always detested moral hijacking, self-aggrandizement, and excessive self-doubt, and could never get along with people like that.

Mo Yubai didn’t notice their reactions. She relaxed and sank back into the sofa, saying casually,

“Whatever, I can’t be bothered with those trivial matters. Ou Ou, send out the water exchange message again. Let’s get to work!”

“On it!”

They busied themselves all night, only snapping out of it when the warm morning sunlight streamed into the room.

“Ahhh! I didn’t even get to sleep a single night in such an expensive Presidential Suite!” Zhu Ou wailed, clutching her head in agony.

Knock, knock. A knock sounded at the door.

Mo Yubai opened the door. Her eyes lit up when she saw A1 standing outside, and she smiled in greeting. “Good morning, A1.”

Today, A1 wore a white suit. Beneath her silver-framed glasses hung an emerald cone pendant, giving her an even colder, more detached aura, full of intellectual beauty.

She gave Mo Yubai a textbook smile, then bowed. “Good morning, Ms. Mo.”

Mo Yubai watched this with bright eyes, feeling much of her fatigue from the long night melt away. Beautiful people really were a sight for sore eyes!

Pulling herself together, Mo Yubai told A1 to return in an hour, and that breakfast could be served then as well.

A1 stared at the closed door with an unreadable expression, lines of code flashing across her eyes. What a passionate and beautiful firework of a soul.

Mo Yubai returned to the room and quickly helped Zhu Ou and Wen Ruyan clean up the mess scattered across the floor, taking stock of their various resources.

Because so many players had been scammed out of their resources, with blueprints being hit the hardest, their haul for the night was rather mediocre.

Still, a business with zero overhead was always profitable no matter what!

In the end, at Zhu Ou and Wen Ruyan’s insistence, they split the traded resources fifty-fifty, with Mo Yubai taking five shares and Wen Ruyan and Zhu Ou taking the other five together.

In truth, Mo Yubai had already acquired 120 stone vats filled with water and 30 plastic buckets of water tonight.

The 122 plastic bottles were also filled with purified water, so she wasn’t lacking in water resources.

But Zhu Ou and Wen Ruyan insisted. They had even suggested at first that Mo Yubai take sixty percent, leaving them with twenty percent each!

Mo Yubai couldn’t possibly agree to that. Just the fact that she had used their Workbenches for free all night, combined with the metaphysical boost Zhu Ou’s words had given her in finding the Service Area, made it out of the question!

Unfortunately, after much back-and-forth, she could only compromise on taking five shares, which got her 200 bottles of mineral water!

On top of that, Wen Ruyan had gifted her a box of compressed biscuits. Although Mo Yubai didn’t really like the taste, she accepted the gesture. At least they were filling!

However, despite the minor disagreement over splitting the resources, everyone was extremely satisfied with breakfast that morning!

They feasted on delicious steamed buns, fried dough sticks, clay oven rolls, meat pies, diced radishes, rice noodle rolls, and savory crepes, leaving nothing behind. It was just a pity that the hotel didn’t allow takeout, or they would have been even happier.

At 8:00 AM, they entered the Medical Pod together and selected the fatigue removal mode.

Instantly, the exhaustion of the night and the weakness of sleep deprivation vanished, leaving them feeling completely refreshed!

Zhu Ou looked at the Medical Pod longingly. “Sigh, if only I could take this thing with me. I wouldn’t have to sleep anymore, and I’d instantly have eight more hours than everyone else!”

Mo Yubai pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dream on. Even if the Medical Pod can clear your fatigue, as long as your species hasn’t mutated, you still need to sleep.”

Wen Ruyan chimed in at the right moment. “Although we feel refreshed right now, it’s likely just a form of neurological trickery. Our bodies haven’t actually rested.”

Mo Yubai nodded in agreement. “Doing it once in a while is fine, but if you keep it up, you’ll end up dropping dead while feeling perfectly refreshed!”

Zhu Ou’s smile vanished. She pulled her hands away from the Medical Pod, saying with lingering fear,

“I didn’t expect that beneath its high-tech exterior, it’s just like Zhao Facai, a total scam artist!”

Mo Yubai and Wen Ruyan were both amused by her words. Shaking their heads helplessly, they began packing their things.

As soon as they finished packing, Zhu Ou and Wen Ruyan said their goodbyes to Mo Yubai. Their gold coins weren’t enough to support another day’s stay.

Besides, they wanted to open more treasure chests on this final day of the novice period to stockpile resources.

Led by A1, Mo Yubai headed to the auto detailing shop next to the parking lot to retrieve her tricycle.

“Welcome, Ms. Mo. Your vehicle’s detailing is complete. Would you like me to walk you through the upgrades?”

The robot from yesterday, B3333, first looked at A1 behind Mo Yubai in disbelief.

Under A1’s warning glance, he suppressed his shock and asked.

“Sure, please do.” Mo Yubai looked at her transformed ride with delight, completely failing to notice B3333’s odd behavior.

“Very well, I will explain it to you now.”

Pushing down his confusion, B3333 began to introduce the modified Electric Tricycle in detail.

“We have installed solar power generation equipment on it. In sunny areas like deserts, it can achieve complete self-sufficiency.”

“Look here. This is a bionic octopus claw for automatic treasure chest retrieval, similar to the one sold in the system mall for 9,999 gold.

“During the day, you can keep driving without stopping. It will automatically collect treasure chests, and it can even bypass low-level guardian monsters to grab the chests directly.”

“And this is the Sonic Cleaning Master, which uses sonic vibrations to automatically shake dirt off the vehicle’s body.”

“This is the Smart Extreme Accelerator, which can push the Electric Tricycle to a top speed of 200 km/h…”

Mo Yubai listened to B3333’s non-stop explanation with her mouth agape, feeling like her horizons had truly been broadened.

Was this still a plain old tricycle? And was this even logical? That speed could practically rival a car!

Most importantly, with so many good things on it, she was almost reluctant to upgrade it to the Level 4 Pickled Pepper Fish Head^[1].

She opened the game panel to check the requirements for upgrading to the Level 4 Pickled Pepper Fish Head.

Iron Block: 208/160, Battery: 130/100, Plastic: 43/50, Rubber: 18/40, Leather: 0/35, Glass: 12/30.

Well, she was still far off, so never mind.

“B3333, can I ask what happens to these devices when I upgrade the vehicle later?” Mo Yubai asked the little robot.

“When you upgrade in the future, some of these devices will automatically adjust to fit the new vehicle, while others will detach.”