Chapter 38: Self-Service Shopping

“Please, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have tried to guilt-trip anyone. I was just venting, I didn’t mean any harm.”

“Too late. Call me the Chat Judge^[1]!”

The players in the chat channel were already used to this kind of behavior, where people would hunt someone down across the network over a minor disagreement. They simply ignored it and continued discussing the milk tea shop’s new items.

After all, everyone was extremely hostile in this terrible survival game. With so many conflicts, taking someone’s life over a slight disagreement had become completely normal.

The Internet Celebrity Milk Tea Shop had already upgraded to level seven. There were now over thirty kinds of drinks on the menu, five more types of small cakes, and a wider variety of ice cream flavors. The merchandise area had also added notebooks, ornaments, blind boxes, and various other products.

Fortunately, as the milk tea shop upgraded, the front counter could now automatically restock and handle payments. Combined with the self-service model in the merchandise area, Mo Yubai and Zhu Ou were still able to manage the workload of making milk tea despite the growing number of customers.

Mo Yubai and Zhu Ou were working at breakneck speed. They tossed freshly cut fruit into plastic cups, poured in the prepared energy water, shook them vigorously, and placed them into the automatic sealing machine to be delivered to the waiting little monsters at the front counter.

By this point, Mo Yubai had no time to worry about the players. She had realized that players did not have a patience stat, meaning they would not get impatient even after a long wait, nor would they complain if they got the wrong order.

So, Mo Yubai simply treated the players like trash cans, dumping all the accidentally ruined or extra drinks onto them.

Traumatized by the sight of the rabbit sucking out souls, the players were dead silent. Even though they noticed how half-heartedly the three cats were serving them, they were angry but dared not speak out!

Only after Mo Yubai and the others finished all the orders for the monsters did they leisurely start working on the players’ orders.

Looking at the ingredients that had to be opened one by one, Mo Yubai had a sudden stroke of inspiration. She spent three hundred gold coins to buy an automatic vending machine.

She stocked the vending machine with the ingredients for each milk tea, sorted by category, and placed it in an out-of-the-way corner. This allowed the players to shop for themselves and mix their own drinks with the raw ingredients!

Sure enough, as soon as the vending machine appeared, most players rushed over to get their items themselves. Only a few players near the front of the queue still chose the handmade option.

Once this batch of players was completely cleared out, Mo Yubai turned on the vending machine’s auto-restock mode and ignored it.

She turned around and sat down at the small break bar with Wen Ruyan and Zhu Ou. Checking the time, she saw it was already two in the afternoon. No wonder she felt hungry.

She pulled out three cups of prepared lemonade, ten skewers of cumin beef, three hamburgers, three bowls of river snail rice noodles, vanilla cakes, and fresh durian meat. Time to eat!

“Oh, Sister Mo, I really wouldn’t dare try a cumin beef grape drink, but these separate ingredients are absolutely delicious!” Zhu Ou said, happily gnawing a cumin beef skewer clean.

Mo Yubai looked at the grease smeared around her mouth and handed her a napkin with a helpless smile. “Eat slowly. There’s plenty more if you want.”

Wen Ruyan had been scooping ice cream all morning but felt no fatigue. After all, her status as the second strongest combatant was no joke.

She happily took a bite of river snail rice noodles, followed by a sip of lemonade, practically bubbling with joy.

Mo Yubai also picked up her bowl and slurped the noodles. The taste of junk food was incomparable to a proper meal, and she had missed it so much!

After finishing their hearty lunch, Mo Yubai checked the morning’s sales.

Only a minority of players actually entered the physical shop. Most still had to buy pre-made milk tea from the Cat Snack Shop.

Her shop had sold 1,800 cups of milk tea in the morning, while the Cat Snack Shop had sold double that amount, 3,600 cups.

There were also countless ice creams, small cakes, and merchandise items, all doubled in sales through the Cat Snack Shop! Doubled!

On top of that, the payments from the players and monsters visiting the physical shop, as well as the players ordering from the Cat Snack Shop, were all doubled!

Double Coins was simply amazing!

Suppressing her excitement, Mo Yubai cleaned up the shop with her companions, hung up the open sign, and resumed business!

Soon, a steady stream of little monsters flooded into the Internet Celebrity Milk Tea Shop. Fortunately, Mo Yubai’s vending machine helped divert the crowd.

At least most of the players went to get their own drinks, relieving a lot of pressure.

But as the Internet Celebrity Milk Tea Shop upgraded to level nine, there were simply too many customers, and their patience stats were dropping too fast. They couldn’t keep up!

Soon, the first little monster whose patience hit zero appeared. Its three eyes, originally pink, turned red, and flames erupted from its head. It cursed angrily, “I’ve never seen a milk tea shop this slow! I wish I could turn back time and never set foot in this place!”

After shouting, it stormed off. Before Mo Yubai could even recover from the sight of its angry, waddling departure, she was hit with a heavy blow by a suddenly appearing large orange cat!

[Meow~ A customer has left in anger and left a negative review. Customer traffic has decreased by 10%, customer patience has decreased by 10%, and you have been fined 1,000 gold coins!]

The plump orange cat was incredibly cute, with sleek, glossy fur. It lazily licked its paw, but its words were exceptionally painful.

Mo Yubai silently clutched her chest, a look of agony appearing on her tabby cat face. My precious money!

Before she had time to think, a second monster whose patience had run out appeared!

“Oh my god, I never thought I’d drink something so disgusting…”

It turned out that in her panic after hearing about the fine, Zhu Ou had accidentally made a river snail strawberry milkshake instead of a river snail blueberry milkshake, and had mistakenly placed it on the automatic conveyor belt!

[Meow~ Two customers have left in anger and left negative reviews. Customer traffic has decreased by 20%, customer patience has decreased by 20%, and you have been fined 2,000 gold coins!]

The fat orange cat immediately began its broadcast with glee, its bead-like eyes filled with amusement.

Seeing Zhu Ou looking so guilty she was on the verge of tears, Mo Yubai shook her head to reassure her.

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s inevitable to make mistakes at this speed. Trust me, you’re doing great.”

Zhu Ou opened her mouth to speak but stopped. She pursed her lips and lowered her head to continue making milk tea quickly.

Mo Yubai ignored the fat orange cat and renegotiated the division of labor with Zhu Ou.

She would handle tossing the cups and ingredients, while Zhu Ou would only be responsible for pouring in the energy water and placing them on the conveyor belt.

Mo Yubai worked with the speed of a knife-thrower. She pulled out a whole bag of plastic cups and whipped them onto the table one by one.

Then, her brain working at high speed, she grouped the same milk tea ingredients together and tossed them into the cups.

Zhu Ou followed closely behind, quickly pouring energy water into the cups before picking up a row and placing them onto the conveyor belt.

With this assembly line system, their speed increased dramatically. Even though the customers’ patience stats were still dropping rapidly, they could now deliver the drinks just in the nick of time.

Wen Ruyan was also working like crazy. Fortunately, the ice cream machine had an infinite supply and didn’t need restocking, and the cake station had upgraded to be fully automated. She only had to tap a button to dispense a cake instead of making it herself. Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have been able to keep up!

Time flew by, and soon it was six in the evening. The milk tea shop had finally upgraded to level ten!