Chapter 138
[Task progress: 200/500]
[Remaining days: 2]
[Congratulations, Host, on exceeding today’s goal! The Culinary God App walks with you—keep it up!]
Before closing, Jian Yunlan noted that the initial seven or eight customers had brought seventy newcomers.
Including the first solo diner, eighty people had visited Simple Porridge today.
And those eighty had bought two hundred bowls—averaging over two per person!
Some had even grabbed five or ten to-go!
With word-of-mouth like this, tomorrow’s sales would skyrocket…
The future was bright!
Packing up, Jian Yunlan bid farewell to lingering customers and headed home, swinging his empty bucket cheerfully.
“By my calculations, Lord Taotie should have finished training the rookie mercenaries and returned by now, right? I wonder how he’s adapting?”
With this thought, Jian Yunlan pushed open the door to the dormitory.
He had expected to be greeted by an empty, cold silence upon entering. Instead, the scene before him was the opposite of what he’d imagined.
A small lamp was lit inside.
Taotie had been back for a while.
The dormitory was extremely cramped, so Taotie’s nearly two-meter-tall frame seemed utterly out of place, looking stifled from head to toe in the tiny space.
His silver hair cascaded loosely, and his golden eyes were half-lidded with drowsiness. When he spotted Jian Yunlan, however, his eyes brightened slightly. He let out a yawn and mumbled, “Human, I’ve warmed up the bed for you…”
With that, he shifted to the side, making room for Jian Yunlan on the narrow bed.
Jian Yunlan: “…”
Is it normal for a boss to share a bed with an employee? Asking for a friend. Urgent.
*
Meanwhile, in the Multiverse Live Broadcast Room.
[This dimensional erosion was way too sudden. And it’s a high-risk apocalyptic dimension—has anyone heard of The Abnormal Era before?]
[I think it’s a danmei (BL) novel with non-human characters, yandere tropes, and dogblood drama (?)].
[What? I thought it was supposed to be some thrilling survival story, but it’s just a dogblood novel dimension? Boring, moving on ==].
[No matter the genre, an apocalyptic dimension is still an apocalyptic dimension—the casualty rate is over 95%. And this one even has Cthulhu-like contaminants (panic)].
[Plus, any dimension that triggers an erosion warning has a casualty rate double that of a normal apocalyptic dimension…].
[Holy shit, and there are still people volunteering to take this on?! Are they all insane?!].
…Not long ago, the warning of an apocalyptic dimensional erosion had shocked the entire Multiverse.
After all, it had been nearly fifty years since the last dimensional erosion.
The residents of the Multiverse had grown accustomed to their carefree, greenhouse-like lives, even forgetting just how special—and dangerous—their world was, serving as the hub connecting all other dimensions.
Fortunately, after the erosion warning was issued, a wave of volunteers stepped forward, willingly entering The Abnormal Era to take on the challenge and save the world.
The Multiverse Live Broadcast Room simultaneously launched a “Saviors’ Zone,” dedicated to livestreaming the exploits of these dimension-hopping challengers in the apocalyptic world.
Since the fate of the Multiverse itself hung in the balance, the “Saviors’ Zone” naturally became the hottest section of the entire Multiverse Live Broadcast Room.
Even viewers who had never watched dimension-hopping streams before would occasionally drop by to check on the challengers’ progress.
As a result, the moment the Saviors’ Zone opened, countless viewers flooded in—over a billion were now watching live!
And the Multiverse Live Broadcast Room knew exactly what it was doing, bringing in veteran dimension-hopping commentator Old K to explain each challenger’s progress and strategies.
Saviors’ Zone.
“Hello everyone, I’m Old K,” a chubby man with a beer belly said cheerfully into the microphone, smiling at the camera.
“Today marks the first day of The Abnormal Era challenge. Sixteen dimension-hoppers have voluntarily accepted the mission to enter this apocalyptic world and shoulder the responsibility of saving it.”
As Old K spoke, sixteen small screens appeared one by one on the main display.
Each screen showed a similar backdrop—the apocalyptic world—but the content varied depending on the challengers’ actions.
“Now, let me briefly introduce these sixteen challengers and their current mission progress.”
Old K tapped the screen lightly, and one by one, the faces of the challengers appeared on their respective screens.
Before Old K could even begin his explanations, the comments section exploded:
[?????? Is that who I think it is???]
[My youth is coming back…]
[Wait, is that the top player from the infinite flow dimension, the only one to ever clear it all—the Thorn Queen, Lin Lin?! Sis, why are YOU here too ahhhh!!!]
[Holy shit holy shit holy shit look at the third from the left—isn’t that the legendary 100% completion rate ace streamer from the Multiverse Live Broadcast Room? I thought he retired ages ago to live a quiet life, but…]
[And Bai Chen, the ‘Dragon Pride Killer’ who crushed every overpowered protagonist in male-oriented dimensions! Didn’t she absorb all their golden fingers (cheats) and become invincible?!]
[With a lineup like this, I think we’re safe.]
[This is an all-star team!!!]
[Wait, why is there one random—]
“Ahem,” Old K cleared his throat, waiting for the audience’s discussion to gradually subside before continuing his commentary. “As you’ve probably noticed, many of these faces are quite familiar.”
“Yes, many of the volunteers who stepped forward this time are legendary, highly experienced dimension-hoppers!”
Then, Old K proceeded to introduce each of the challengers one by one, detailing their actions and progress on the first day in The Abnormal Era.
The dimensional erosion warning had already indicated that this would be a high-difficulty, dangerous world. Yet, those who dared to accept the challenge were almost all individuals with extraordinary skills.
Among them were retired top-tier infinite flow players, former grand slam-winning dimension-hopping strategists, and even a ratings queen whose streams always dominated the charts…
“Almost every challenger has their own fanbase, and the moment their streams went live, millions of fans flocked to watch,” Old K explained.
“Since they’re all seasoned dimension-hoppers, their first-day strategies are largely similar—”
“Mostly lying low, adapting to the environment, and gathering information by interacting with various characters.”
Indeed, looking across all sixteen streams, it was clear that most challengers followed a nearly identical approach.
Arriving in a brand-new, perilous apocalyptic world and acting recklessly? Of course not.
In high-risk apocalyptic settings, the more impulsive you are, the more likely you are to be hunted down and eliminated early.
“As we can see, all the veterans have unanimously chosen to move discreetly within the Eastern Base, disguising themselves as ordinary refugees. They’re first mapping out the base’s layout while extracting key intel from NPCs through conversation.”
“This is an extremely wise strategy,” Old K remarked, lighting a cigarette with satisfaction. “In a life-or-death apocalypse, information and intelligence mean everything.”
“For example, this challenger, Lin Lin, has already quietly gathered a wealth of intel in just one day.”
“All this information was extracted through conversations with NPCs like base mercenaries, logistics personnel, prison guards, and black-market vendors…”
Old K went through each of the sixteen streams in order.
By now, a full day had passed, and the challengers in the apocalyptic world had fallen asleep. The Multiverse Live Broadcast Room had edited together highlights from each challenger’s day.
Currently playing on screen were the best moments of the challengers’ actions throughout the day.
[The veterans are all playing it safe.]
[Better safe than sorry—caution is good.]
[Has no one noticed that one stream in the corner looks a bit… off? I feel like they’re…]
[N-No way…?]
Since most of the streams looked very similar, more and more viewers found their attention drawn to one particular broadcast that stood out for its… unusual approach.
Many couldn’t help but rub their eyes.
Were they seeing things? Was that challenger really…?
Soon, Old K reached that very distinctive stream.
Glancing at the “familiar” scene, he confidently began his commentary based on past experience:
“Next up, we have dimension-hopper ‘Jian Yunlan,’ the least experienced among the sixteen challengers. However, reports show he has an impressive 100% clearance rate and has already amassed a massive fanbase shortly after his debut. A rising star with great potential!”
“From the footage, we can see that this challenger, like the others, is gathering intel by interacting with NPCs.”
“For instance, right now, he’s using the excuse of buying porridge to chat with a black-market porridge vendor NPC—”
On screen, a black-market vendor wearing an apron stood in front of his porridge stall, smiling warmly as he hawked steaming hot century egg lean pork porridge to passing mercenaries.
Above his head floated the words: Simple Porridge Stall.
The warm glow of the lights, the fragrant porridge, the flicker of warmth in the cold night—the entire stall exuded a cozy atmosphere.
“Wow, this vendor NPC is really good-looking. What a waste for someone with that face to just be an NPC,” Old K remarked offhandedly. “But where’s our dimension-hopper?”
…Since the previous challengers had all been seen conversing with various NPCs to gather intel, Old K naturally assumed that this black-market porridge vendor was just another NPC in the apocalyptic world—and that the real Jian Yunlan was somewhere off-screen, waiting to approach him for a chat.
But no matter how long he waited, the camera remained fixed on this “NPC” vendor, unmoving.
Old K couldn’t help but frown in confusion:
“That’s odd. Why is the camera just focused on this NPC? Where’s the dimension-hopper?”
So Old K going be surprised that the NPC selling the simple porridge food stall is Jian Yunlan; the dimensional hopper and not comment on his porridge?