Chapter 43 – Performance Rewards
Tang Yu’an looked at Zhou Qi.
If they wanted the “horse” to run, they had to let it eat.
Chi Hao was helping them watch the store, watering plants, feeding the pets, and even cleaning the shop—
Yes, they suddenly realized that if both of them left, there would be no one to do the daily task of cleaning the shop.
With Chi Hao around, Tang Yu’an could assign this daily task to him, allowing them to continue earning spin chances on the Lucky Wheel and maintaining their achievement streaks.
Otherwise, their daily task refresh cards wouldn’t be enough, and they’d have to skip a day or two.
So Chi Hao’s importance suddenly increased.
After a moment, Zhou Qi said, “You can freely use any ingredients in the store.”
Most of the essential items were stored in Tang Yu’an’s portable space anyway. The remaining ingredients, like rice and beans, could be exchanged for in the store or substituted with alternatives.
As for seasonings, Tang Yu’an had stocked up plenty in his portable space, so they had enough for now.
However, Chi Hao’s face fell upon hearing this.
“I don’t know how to cook.” He scratched his red hair, looking dejected.
“What do you eat in the wild?” Tang Yu’an asked curiously.
“Dried rations I carry, wild fruits I find, and… hunting. I can roast meat, but other than that, I haven’t cooked before.”
He didn’t even know how to operate a stove, let alone cook meals.
Hearing Chi Hao’s confession, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but think of someone else—it was just like Uncle Tie Jin, who didn’t even know how to boil an egg!
“There’s meat in the fridge,” Zhou Qi said.
Since they also had Yuan Bao and Black Pearl bringing them meat, offering Chi Hao the leftovers as payment wasn’t a problem.
But Chi Hao still shook his head and asked with a pleading expression, “Could you leave me something tasty?”
Chi Hao’s roasted meat was barely edible, and he was still recovering, so if he didn’t have to cook, it would be best.
“What would you like?”
“These buns are pretty good,” Chi Hao said, pointing at the ones on the table. “And if I could have those stuffed buns from this morning, that would be even better.”
Zhou Qi nodded, finding the request reasonable.
They wouldn’t leave until the day after tomorrow, so they could prepare the filling in advance even if they worked late. The last batch of buns was almost gone anyway, so it was time to restock.
“Alright. How many do you need?” Zhou Qi asked.
“At least three per meal…” Chi Hao, who had seemed eager a moment ago, now felt a bit hesitant.
After all, they’d saved his life, provided him with shelter, and he hadn’t done much in return. Asking for so many buns just for watering plants and feeding pets felt a bit excessive.
Little did he know, his request actually eased Zhou Qi and Tang Yu’an’s concerns.
For someone like Chi Hao, who had never set foot in a kitchen, Zhou Qi was genuinely worried he might accidentally set the store on fire—he’d already experienced the chaos when trying to teach Tie Jin how to make steamed eggs.
So Zhou Qi decided to leave him ten buns per day. Since they’d be gone for five days, he’d prepare 50 buns in total, half whole-wheat and half stuffed.
At around 20 to 30 points per day, and with the ingredients readily available in the store, it was a small price compared to the benefits of maintaining their Lucky Wheel spins and achievement streaks.
“But just to be clear, you need to stay until we return before leaving, and…”
Zhou Qi continued seriously, “Besides watering the plants every day and feeding milk to Yuan Bao and the pets, you’ll also need to absorb heat and maintain the room temperature for optimal plant growth. And don’t forget to clean the store daily…”
He paused, casting a skeptical look at Chi Hao. “You do know how to clean, right?”
What kind of question was that!?
Chi Hao felt a bit embarrassed and nodded firmly. “Of course I know how!”
The training base for ability users had a military-style management system where everyone was responsible for their own chores, a tradition dating back before the apocalypse.
“That’s good to hear.” Zhou Qi nodded.
Seeing the atmosphere tense, Tang Yu’an quickly lightens the mood with a smile. “Brother Chi Hao, do you know the manager of Jufeng Town?”
He remembered Grandpa Li’s guess that the manager of Jufeng Town likely came from Qingmu Fort and also had fire-based powers.
“Yes, I do,” Chi Hao replied without hesitation. Then he looked over Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi carefully and asked, “Have you ever been to a town before?”
Since the manager of Jufeng Town was an old acquaintance of his, and he was on a mission, he found it strange that two kids had been active around the deserted city without the manager notifying him.
Zhou Qi and Tang Yu’an didn’t try to hide the truth.
They had no choice but to admit it; otherwise, they would get caught in the details.
“Yes, this will be our first time trading in a town. An elder is taking us there,” Tang Yu’an explained truthfully.
Looking at Tang Yu’an’s young, fair face, Chi Hao couldn’t help but say, “How about you stay here with me, An An?”
Tang Yu’an: “…”
Why did everyone say that!
This time, Zhou Qi spoke up in his defense, “It’s fine. We’ll be careful.”
Chi Hao’s concern made Zhou Qi feel less wary of him, as it seemed he genuinely cared for Tang Yu’an’s well-being.
“You’d better be,” Chi Hao said, looking at the two kids with a mixture of worry and helplessness. He was the type to repay kindness and couldn’t bear the thought of his rescuers being in danger.
After a moment’s thought, he asked, “When are you leaving?”
“We’ll be heading out early in the morning.”
“Alright, I’ll write you a certificate. If you run into trouble, show it to the manager of Jufeng Town. She’ll help you.”
Surprised at the unexpected support, Tang Yu’an beamed. “Great! Thank you, Brother Chi Hao!”
Then he handed Chi Hao another whole-wheat bun.
“Don’t mention it—you saved me, after all.” Finally feeling like he’d partially repaid them, Chi Hao was in a good mood.
They chatted as the sky outside grew completely dark.
“For dinner, let’s have stir-fried bean sprouts.”
Zhou Qi went into the kitchen and pulled out the plastic tray of bean sprouts he’d been growing.
The light-blocking cloth on top had been pushed up completely, and as he lifted it, he revealed tender bean sprouts with green tips.
The sprouts were crowded together, with only a few slightly yellowish ones; the rest were growing well.
They looked fresh, tender, and delicious.
Tang Yu’an cheered, “Yes! Finally, stir-fried bean sprouts!”
“Stir-fried bean sprouts? What kind of dish is that?” Chi Hao perked up, craning his neck to look at the fresh sprouts. “Did you grow these?”
“Yes,” Tang Yu’an nodded. “Stir-fried bean sprouts are crispy, refreshing, and perfect for hot weather.”
Chi Hao couldn’t help swallowing, and suddenly the whole-wheat bun in his hand didn’t seem as appealing.
Looking at the lush bean sprouts, Tang Yu’an said, “Brother Qi, we should grow more next time. I feel like there’s never enough to eat.”
“Good idea. This was just a test run. Now that it’s successful, we’ll grow more.”
Though bean sprouts aren’t as nutritious as leafy greens, they taste great, help clear heat, and prevent internal heat buildup, which is perfect for this hot weather.
Zhou Qi harvested the sprouts and set them aside, then scooped out more mung beans to soak.
While soybeans can also be sprouted, he and Tang Yu’an preferred mung bean sprouts; they’re more tender and don’t have the hardness of soybean sprouts.
Seeing the two plastic trays filled with mung beans, Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but feel a deep satisfaction.
Chi Hao watched them with a hint of envy.
In the resource-scarce wasteland, it was rare to see two kids living such a comfortable life.
“If you’re well-provided for in the store, why take the risk of going to the town?” Chi Hao asked, puzzled.
If they attracted dangerous people who followed them back to the store, could they defend it?
Would that mysterious merchant even help them?
“Brother Chi Hao, if we don’t complete our performance tasks, all these benefits we enjoy could be taken away,” Tang Yu’an explained casually, emphasizing the importance of maintaining their performance.
Chi Hao remembered that performance was indeed a requirement.
He’d only just been recruited, so his performance expectations were low due to a newbie protection period. But these two had been working for the mysterious merchant for years, so their performance requirements must be much higher.
The population around the deserted city wasn’t enough to meet their needs, so they had to venture into town to find more customers.
Indeed, everyone has their struggles in the apocalypse world.
*
At dinner, Tang Yu’an finally got to enjoy the stir-fried bean sprouts he’d been craving.
Freshly picked, they were exceptionally tender and crisp. With garlic and scallions, they were savory, perfectly seasoned, and very appetizing.
Chi Hao realized that the boy hadn’t been lying. The stir-fried bean sprouts were delicious and far superior to anything he’d tasted in the cafeteria.
Seeing the cooked bean sprouts jogged his memory—it was something served in the cafeteria, but nowhere near as good.
There, it was mushy and bland, with nothing like the impressive taste here.
He couldn’t help but feel a little sad that they’d be leaving for town the next day, meaning he’d miss out on these delicious meals for a few days.
But remembering he still had three meals tomorrow, he felt happy again.
After dinner, they started preparing the filling for the buns.
With Chi Hao still weak, his health only up to 32%, Tang Yu’an didn’t make him help.
Chi Hao just watched from the side, radiating heat to keep the two warm.
Once the filling was prepared, a tired Tang Yu’an climbed up to the attic. He was so sleepy that he didn’t even count the day’s gains before drifting off.
Early the next morning, as soon as he opened his eyes, a system notification popped up.
[Weekly tasks have been refreshed. Please check the task panel.]
[Seven-Day Sale has been refreshed. Please check the store panel.]
Wow! It’s finally refreshed!
Tang Yu’an eagerly opened the system panel.
[Weekly Tasks (Refreshed every 7 days at 00:00)]
[1. Complete transactions and earn profits (0/30)]
[2. Cultivate 3 loyal customers (0/3)]
It seemed the difficulty of the tasks had doubled with his level-up. The first task wasn’t too hard, but the second would be more challenging.
He already had six loyal customers, but the task panel showed 0, meaning he’d need to turn three new customers into loyal ones to complete the task.
Since they were heading to town tomorrow, it should be easy to find new customers there.
As for whether it would double again next week… he’d deal with that when the time came. He’d figure out a solution.
Tang Yu’an closed the panel and opened the Seven-Day Sale.
[Seven-Day Sale (Refresh time remaining: 6 days, 17 hours)]
[1. Effective Cold Medicine (2/2): 100 points for 3 tablets]
[Description: Tech-side product ]
[Effect: Cures all symptoms caused by a cold]
[2. Basic Restoration Potion (1/1): 200 points per bottle ]
[Description: Magic-side product]
[Effect: Each bottle can be used 10 times, restoring 10% of the user’s psionic energy per use]
Tang Yu’an blinked at the second item.
Restores 10% energy per use?
Psionic energy… he’d seen that term before. The crystal was named a Psionic Stone, so does that mean this potion restores abilities?
Like Grandma Guo, whose ability can only stimulate one fruit tree at a time—if she drank this Basic Restoration Potion, would it restore all her energy, letting her grow another fruit tree?
Wow, this seems like a great item!
When Tang Yu’an woke up, Zhou Qi was folding his blanket. Seeing that Tang Yu’an hadn’t moved but was staring into space, Zhou Qi knew he was checking the system panel.
He took out his phone and typed a message for Tang Yu’an to read: [Weekly tasks refreshed?]
It was inconvenient having an outsider at home.
Tang Yu’an hadn’t taken out the shade umbrella since its use was limited, and it was still early in the day, so he didn’t want to waste a usage.
Tang Yu’an nodded and then took the phone to type a reply: [The Seven-Day Sale refreshed too.]
Zhou Qi: [I saw that.]
Tang Yu’an: [Should we buy it?]
Zhou Qi: [It’s a good item; of course we should.]
Tang Yu’an: [Definitely valuable, but it’s a shame we can’t use it ourselves.]
Zhou Qi smiled and continued typing: “We might not need it, but someone else could.”
Tang Yu’an blinked in confusion and then realized, pointing downstairs.
Zhou Qi nodded.
Tang Yu’an typed: [Should we trade it with him directly?]
Zhou Qi: [Can we put it in the employee store and let him buy it with points?]
Tang Yu’an agreed. That would be safer, so they’d only reveal basic resources to Chi Hao.
He opened the employee benefits and performance panels and found both options available.
Tang Yu’an typed: [There are two ways: one, we put it in the store as a benefit. If he meets the points requirement, he can redeem it.]
[The other is to set it as a performance reward. For instance, if he reaches a long-term target in transactions and points earned, he could unlock it automatically.]
Zhou Qi pondered the difference between the two methods.
He then asked: [If he redeems it as a benefit, who gets the points?]
Tang Yu’an blinked; it wasn’t written in the rules!
A simple test would solve it.
He placed an item in Zhou Qi’s store as a benefit with a cost of one point.
Once set, the item disappeared from the store. Zhou Qi redeemed it with one point, but Tang Yu’an didn’t receive any point increase.
Tang Yu’an: [So the system takes the points.]
Zhou Qi: [That’s what it looks like.]
If they set the potion at 200 points, and with Chi Hao’s current salary and commission, it would take about a month for him to earn enough points to redeem it.
Those 200 points would all go to the system as a fee.
The second option was to issue it as a performance reward, requiring a certain number of transactions and points earned.
If they set a high target, like 50 transactions and 5,000 points, when Chi Hao returned to the fort, he could quickly accumulate the points by trading crystals, possibly reaching the goal in one transaction.
However, the transaction requirement would maximize their gains.
After all, each transaction contributes to experience points, and only profitable sales count, so he couldn’t use loss-leader sales to reach the goal.
Thus, 50 transactions would yield about 150 experience points, enough for Tang Yu’an to level up twice.
In summary, issuing the reward based on performance would give Tang Yu’an, as the store owner, up to 150 experience points and 4,250 points. Chi Hao would also gain commission and stock points along with the potion.
Clearly, the performance-based option was more advantageous.
Although they could set a higher price for the potion in the store, that would likely dampen employee motivation since saving up for an expensive, uncertain potion might not seem worthwhile.
The performance target, on the other hand, was more like an achievement reward; even if he didn’t need it, meeting the target would feel like a free bonus, which could be more motivating.
Zhou Qi finally suggested: [Let’s go with the second option.]
Tang Yu’an, reading through his analysis, nodded in agreement. He redeemed the Basic Restoration Potion and then set up a long-term performance goal for Chi Hao.
However, after some thought, he decided not to send it immediately.
If he got too excited and rushed out to make deals, what would happen to the daily cleaning? They still needed someone to handle it while they were away.
Better to wait until they returned from the town.
After finishing their discussion, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi packed up and went downstairs.
Chi Hao was still asleep, and upon being disturbed, only glanced at them before pulling the blanket over his face—it was just past six in the morning, and he wanted to sleep a bit longer.
Zhou Qi started making breakfast while Tang Yu’an checked on the three little ones, giving them milk and meat buns.
[“Wang Cai” loyalty +5]
[“Wang Cai” is full, searched around and found 73 points]
[Points +73, balance: 2974]
Yesterday, they’d left so early that they missed the cat’s daily reset time, and last night Wang Cai had fallen asleep early, so they hadn’t claimed its daily points.
Now, before eight o’clock, yesterday’s reward was still active.
Tang Yu’an happily rubbed Wang Cai’s head and began sweeping the floor. After breakfast, he and Zhou Qi left the house just before 7:30.
“Brother Chi Hao, we’re heading out.”
“This early?” Chi Hao sat up, now unable to sleep. “Will you be back by noon?”
“We should be; we still need to come back to make the buns.”
Tang Yu’an waved goodbye to him, made a final gesture, then left the store.
Chi Hao sat for a while, then slowly dragged his weakened body up from the floor, thinking he’d go take a look outside the store. However…
Yuan Bao was sitting in front of him, staring at him with cold eyes.
The moment Chi Hao lifted his foot, the little dog bared its teeth; when he lowered it, the dog resumed its indifferent expression.
Chi Hao couldn’t help but laugh.
What was this little puppy trying to do? Was it actually trying to intimidate him?
“Woof, woof!”
At that moment, Yin Bi came over, clearly emboldened now that it had an “ally.” It stood next to Yuan Bao, barking louder than before.
“Woof, woof! Grr—woof, woof!”
Seeing this, Wang Cai joined in the chorus of warnings.
Suddenly, the store was filled with a cacophony of barking and meowing.
“…”
Chi Hao looked at the three pets, feeling the ache in his chest, and decided to hold back.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of these little creatures, but if he accidentally injured one while trying to shoo them away, he wouldn’t know how to explain it to the two kids.
Once he was fully healed, he’d see if they dared to act all high and mighty again!
*
Abandoned Parking Lot
Black Pearl lay atop a car, leisurely licking its paws, when its ears suddenly twitched, and it glanced toward the entrance of the parking lot.
Its tail swished lightly as it realized the two human boys hadn’t left yet. Moving gracefully, it headed to the entrance, but when it reached the food tray, it was surprised to find—
The two human boys hadn’t left but were waiting for it.
“Black Pearl, we’re leaving tomorrow,” the little human said to it.
Black Pearl’s tail stopped swishing as it stared at the boy, eyes narrowing slightly.
Leaving? Where?
Then, the boy continued, “We’ll be back in about five or six days. When we return, we’ll bring more treats, so you don’t have to come by the store to find us.”
This way, they’d avoid any conflict with Chi Hao.
The boy waved goodbye to it, then turned to leave with the other boy.
Black Pearl watched the boys’ backs as they walked away.
The whole time, it didn’t react, but its tail flicked back and forth in a way that wasn’t as relaxed as before, revealing a hint of displeasure.
After a long while, Black Pearl looked away.
It finished the treats the boy had left but didn’t return to the abandoned parking lot as usual. Instead, it sat there, its icy golden eyes fixed on the direction the boys had left.
Five or six days… how long was that?
Unfamiliar with human concepts of time, the cat fell into a long contemplation.
*
On the road, Tang Yu’an lay on Zhou Qi’s back, feeling like he’d forgotten something.
They were on their way to Grandma Guo’s house… Ah, that’s it!
Tang Yu’an quickly opened the sales page. If items weren’t sold within 24 hours, they’d automatically be returned, and he’d forgotten to list new items last night…
Huh?
[Available Points: 500]
Tang Yu’an looked at the account balance, his eyes widening as he scrolled through the sales record.
[21:31:50]
[Sold “Mutant Lantern Fruit” x1, Points Available: +500]
The mutant lantern fruit had sold last night?
And it had sold for 500 points for just one fruit?!
