"Dragon cubs are only able to go out to hunt for treasure on their own after they reach sub-adulthood. Before that, they have nothing of their own; all those gems and gold coins belong to their parents."
The dragon cubs, having spent their days gazing longingly at their elders' treasure trove, were already incredibly envious. Having been poor for so many years, they were hardly picky; a single gold coin was enough for them to cherish and carefully guard.
Ye Xu: "That sounds a bit tragic."
The kind-hearted shop owner decided to fill the little dragon's nest with more sparkling rhinestone ornaments. Rhinestones are cut from crystal glass and are even cheaper, so they can be purchased in bulk. Due to the difficulty in producing synthetic diamonds, one carat costs 7,000 to 9,000 yuan, so it's not feasible to provide the little dragon with them on a large scale for the time being.
The rhinestone decorations in the system shop were sold in bundles, and Ye Xu and the others gathered on the fifth floor to help choose them, ultimately creating a near-perfect dragon nest for the little dragon Fei Fei. In addition to various "gems," Ye Xu also planned to pile up a small mountain of gold coins in the nest.
"Once we get to the modern world, gold coins will be harder to come by, and collecting them will be a bit of a hassle," Ye Xu sighed.
In the current dimension, gold coins can be directly exchanged, which is very convenient. The key is that this exchange doesn't require finding someone outside; it can be done in the system backend. However, paper money in the modern dimension certainly cannot be directly exchanged for gold items.
Shuangshuang pulled out a calculator and did some calculations, saying, "Recently, the price of gold has been hovering around 375 yuan per gram. One gold coin in the Transi Continent weighs 20 grams, which is equivalent to 7,500. However, in the Transi Continent, it takes 10,000 copper coins to exchange for one gold coin, so the price of gold is higher than in modern times."
The difference was a full quarter, and even including the labor cost of forging the gold coins, it wouldn't be that much. Ye Xu immediately felt that buying gold and making his own coins in the modern world was really cost-effective, and he quickly withdrew his hand from the exchange.
"The next world will definitely be the modern one. Then I'll exchange the copper coins for modern paper money, use it to buy gold, and make my own gold coins." That little trouble is nothing compared to the price difference.
Shuangshuang actively searched for suitable machines for the store manager: "It's troublesome to find someone outside to do it, so why not do it ourselves? There's a machine in the mall that can condense gold, and the store manager can rest assured about the systematic process."
"Buy it!" Ye Xu didn't hesitate; he had to buy it. With a new dragon cub in the shop, it was time to start being more frugal.
Han Yingchen listened to their discussion for a long time before suddenly speaking up: "Actually, there is one possibility."
"What?" Ye Xu asked, bewildered.
"It's about why the Duke's people suddenly ran away," Han Yingchen explained. He had been pondering this question and had finally figured it out. Because he was so engrossed in thinking about it, he hadn't noticed that the conversation had shifted to something else.
Ye Xu didn't expect to hear more. He paused for a moment, then said encouragingly, "Really? Then tell me why."
Han Yingchen was unaffected by his exaggerated acting and answered seriously: "I've heard that dragons don't let their cubs go out alone. If you see a dragon cub, it means there's an adult dragon nearby. What those people are afraid of isn't the dragon cub, but the dragons hiding in the vicinity."
Ye Xu suddenly realized: "They think there's an adult dragon hidden in the shop? They can't fit it, right? Aren't dragons supposed to be huge?"
“You can take human form during your sub-adult stage,” Luna reminded him.
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone stared at Ye Xu. A few question marks appeared above Ye Xu's head. Why were they looking at him?
Shuangshuang whispered, "Do you think those people are treating the shop manager like a dragon?"
Luna asked in confusion, "Isn't he a dragon? He just merged with a dragon's body."
Han Ying paused for a moment. Even though they were both natives of the Western Fantasy Kingdom, he vaguely remembered that the shopkeeper had mentioned that these two types of dragons were not quite the same and should not be the same species.
"Well, I think it's better to let this topic go completely." Ye Xu realized that he was better off not digging into it, because if he continued, he would be forced to join the Western Dragon Clan.
But Han Yingchen deliberately brought this up not simply to answer the shopkeeper's question, but because he had another important deduction to make: "Have you ever thought about it? Since the dragon cubs are accompanied by giant dragons, what about the parent of the one next to you?"
Ye Xu: "..."
Oh no, I forgot about that! He kidnapped someone's kid! Won't the parents go crazy?!
"System, system, help is needed!" Ye Xu quickly called out to the system, wanting to know how to resolve this matter. The gacha pool was created by the system; it should have considered these things beforehand.
Helplessly, the system directed Ye Xu to open the card-drawing interface and let him flip the cards.
Ye Xu had only flipped one card before finding the little dragon cub Fei Fei, and influenced by his dragon nature, he couldn't take his eyes off Fei Fei. Later, he was distracted by the commotion below and didn't even bother to flip the other two cards.
Only when the system reminded him did Ye Xu realize that he hadn't finished flipping the cards.
"What do you mean?" Ye Xu had a bad feeling and reached out with trembling hands to flip through the other two sheets. "These two aren't Fei Fei's parents, are they?"
Although it would be very impressive to form a dragon army, he couldn't afford to support them! Each one of them requires gems. He could manage to feed a young dragon that had never seen the world, but he probably couldn't keep up with an adult dragon.
The others were also surprised. Were gems and gold coins really that useful? The quantity wasn't even specified, yet several dragons were still tricked into applying. Shouldn't the dragon race improve their anti-fraud awareness?
The cards were flipped, and indeed two adult dragons appeared. However, they were clearly not Feifei's parents; they were probably from other dragon species, because neither of them looked like Crystal.
Checking their profiles, sure enough, they had nothing to do with Feifei; at most, they came from the same Dragon Valley. Could it be that the system had precisely targeted the job postings into Dragon Valley, causing the entire valley to go crazy with interest and vying for the position?
It wasn't difficult to verify this. Ye Xu clicked refresh, and sure enough, three more dragon cards appeared in the next round.
"I don't think now is the time to make the store the second Dragon Valley," Ye Xu said with difficulty.
Not all of these dragons are UR cards; most are SSRs. Even the tempting URs are too expensive for Ye Xu to raise, and he certainly doesn't want to start with a bunch of money-devouring beasts.
There's a significant difference between UR pets and UR employees. I'm going to a normal modern world soon, and it's inconvenient for a group of dragons to show themselves. Even though employee vouchers aren't so scarce now, it's not a reason to squander them.
Shuangshuang helped translate: "The shopkeeper doesn't want to spend money on these dragons."
The dragons clearly thought Ye Xu was a sucker; otherwise, with so many gems in their own caves, why would they care about the salary Ye Xu set? Just by looking at the profile of any adult dragon, you can see their blatant ambition in the salary section.
—Salary: 1000 points, gems (will stop if less than 10) and gold coins (will run away if less than 1000).
That's so real, it's like they could actually provide a lot of help to the store if they didn't strike.
Luna was stunned for a moment after reading it, then firmly stated that the shopkeeper's decision was extremely wise. Dragons are greedy creatures; adult dragons eat a lot and can't be cute, so hiring them would be a waste. We absolutely cannot indulge these guys.
“Right!” Ye Xu felt he had found a kindred spirit. “You can pick a few dragon cubs to hire based on their appearance, but forget about giant dragons.”
Ye Xu really wanted another crystal dragon cub to make a pair. Anyway, Dragon Valley already knew about the dimensional shop's recruitment, so Fei Fei's parents probably wouldn't try to come and cause him trouble. It wouldn't matter if he didn't hire them.
When refreshing the card pool, Ye Xu repeatedly asked the system for confirmation: "These dragons aren't from the Transi continent, are they?"
If not, he can stay here until he accumulates 1 billion points, as everyone plans. Otherwise, if the dragons find out his location and come looking for him, he won't be able to escape so easily and will probably be forced to form a contract with those thugs.
The system, thoroughly annoyed, could only indicate the specific plane of origin in the dragons' data cards. Ye Xu, seeing that they were indeed not from the Transi continent, was relieved.
Unfortunately, after farming for a long time, he didn't get a second Crystal Dragon Hatchling, but he did get quite a few other hatchlings. Ye Xu felt that he probably wouldn't get any more today, so he decided to stop now.
Adding gems to the salary really worked wonders; after refreshing so many times, not a single other card appeared. This put a lot of pressure on Ye Xu, so before closing the hiring interface, he secretly deleted the physical salary item, planning to add it back later when he wanted to contract a dragon again.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye. After the Duke's mansion's previous humiliation, those who still had ulterior motives fell silent and dared not cause any more trouble.
However, given how much the Duke had lost face this time, how could he possibly remain completely unmoved?
If he couldn't cause trouble for Ye Xu, couldn't he go after those guys who had encouraged him to offend the Dragon Clan? Therefore, even if the shopkeepers wanted to do something at this moment, they had no energy left.
The people who were targeted by the Duke changed from Ye Xu in the plan to themselves, which can be described as shooting themselves in the foot. Several shops went bankrupt within two days.
Ye Xu had originally been thinking about whether he should do something to punish the people involved, but it turned out he didn't need to do anything at all.
If he had come, the investigation alone would have taken a lot of time, and his departure date would probably have had to be postponed. Now that so much trouble has been saved, Ye Xu is quite satisfied.
“But the Duke himself wasn’t punished,” Shuangshuang said, a little annoyed. “He only lost face a little.”
Luna shook her head: "He also lost many capable subordinates, and he will have to keep a low profile in aristocratic circles from now on."
While others are dukes with many capable subordinates, he has none, which will undoubtedly affect his standing among the nobles. Furthermore, the duke will likely struggle to recruit new adventurers in the future, as everyone fears incurring the wrath of the dragons.
With a chronic shortage of capable subordinates, the Duke's life will not be easy. He even has to start worrying about his personal safety; perhaps an enemy will take the opportunity to assassinate him, and he clearly doesn't have enough manpower to protect him.
Shuangshuang stopped being angry after hearing this and went downstairs to supervise the robot's work with satisfaction.
They had given advance notice of their departure, and business had been booming these past few days because of it. With nothing much to do, Ye Xu started tidying up the warehouse.
The system warehouse and system backpack are the same, with stackable storage compartments. Many items in the store are of a uniform style and can be stacked directly, which is very convenient.
However, adding more grids is expensive. Ye Xu is currently in debt and can't afford to spend money recklessly.
The new world definitely won't have hot pot restaurants, so what to do with the utensils that were prepared for hot pot is a problem.
After calculating the price difference between selling the surplus items and buying them back when needed, and comparing it with the cost of increasing warehouse space, Ye Xu decided to sell the items later to save space.
It's not yet decided what kind of shop will be opened in the next dimension, and Ye Xu can't be sure which items he definitely won't need. Since he can take the whole shop with him, he'll mark it and separate the items he definitely needs.
The inventory was completed quickly, and then it was just a matter of waiting. At 10 p.m., the hot pot restaurant closed on time.
Some customers didn't realize at first that today was the last day of business as advertised, and left quite readily. But when Ye Xu started having the robots give away the leftover ingredients and pre-prepared broth recipes from the kitchen to the surrounding neighbors and the people in line for free, they suddenly realized that it was time to leave.
"Are you really leaving?" Someone was embarrassed to take the ingredients, but they were forced to put them in their hands, and they looked at everyone with reluctance.
Ye Xu had gone upstairs early on; he didn't like dealing with such scenes of separation.
Having grown up in an orphanage, Ye Xu had witnessed far too many partings and deaths. Some other children were adopted, but many more died from illnesses that couldn't be cured.
After all, most of the children who end up in orphanages these days have incurable diseases. Many of the children who can be cured have already been adopted, which has led to an even more desperate atmosphere among the remaining patients in the orphanage.
Last time in Biyue City, the guests were very reluctant to leave. At that time, it was just a move to another city, and Ye Xu even thought he would have a chance to come back and visit. This time, however, it was really time to leave, and he didn't even go back to Biyue City, which he had said he would return to.
Ye Xu sat silently on the sofa in the large living room on the fifth floor, playing games, somewhat absentmindedly. He hoped this part would end quickly; he didn't want to face the sentimental scenes, even though he knew that avoiding them wasn't a good choice.
Everyone was busy downstairs, and considerately, no one came to call the store manager down for a chat.
Perhaps due to the oppressive atmosphere, the system couldn't stand it any longer. With a ding, the achievement panel popped up, using dazzling light effects to remind Ye Xu to quickly claim the reward for completing his first dimensional management challenge.
[Completed 1/1 of the 1-type shop management guide]
[Perfect Management of 1 Type of Shop 1/1 (Completed)]
Completing the level rewards 100 million points, while perfect management rewards 1 billion. These two tasks offer a huge number of points, allowing Ye Xu to level up twice.
Ye Xu paused for a moment, then closed the interface after claiming the upgrade gift pack and went back to playing the game. He wasn't in the mood to see what was in the gift pack; he figured it would be the same few things again.
The system paused for a moment, then pressed on. It paused the game, brought up Ye Xu's inventory, and urged him to open it.
"Uh..." Ye Xu said helplessly, "Why are you so persistent?"
The system still didn't respond, only telling him to open the packs. Both packs were for level 20 and above, so he got a total of 6 employee coupons, 6000 points, and 2 encounter coupons.
[Encounter Ticket]: Can guide you to the location of an excellent UR employee, but the store manager needs to use personal charm to persuade the employee to join the company.
Ye Xu was utterly shocked. He remembered that the original reward wasn't an Encounter Ticket, but a regular ingredient ticket. Had the system given him a special treatment? This ticket looked incredibly powerful!
For over a month prior, Ye Xu had been unable to obtain any wild UR characters. His last UR was Crystal Dragon Fei Fei, but Fei Fei wasn't obtained through luck; he was foolishly attracted by gold coins and gems, so it didn't count.
"So there's another way to interact with UR characters. No wonder the drop rate in the gacha pool is so low." Ye Xu's mood brightened again. He silently remembered how kind the system had been to him and decided to be more respectful to it in the future.
—For example, giving a compliment every day as a matter of routine.
System: Thank you, no need.
The noise downstairs continued for a long time. The customers, reluctant to leave the hot pot restaurant, were unwilling to go. In the end, seeing that it was too late, they had no choice but to go home. Only after the restaurant doors closed did Ye Xu go downstairs to meet up with the staff.
"Should we pack our things and leave tonight, or get some sleep and leave tomorrow morning?" Ye Xu asked for everyone's opinion.
Everyone else was indifferent, so Ye Xu followed the original plan and returned to the transit space first. He pressed the teleportation button, and the entire shop disappeared from the spot.
Some time passed after Ye Xu and his companions left before the royal family of the Transi Continent learned of the Duke's offense against the dragons. The king was terrified and immediately ordered the Duke's title to be stripped as a gesture of goodwill towards the dragons.
This incident further amplified the fearsome reputation of the dragon race throughout the main storyline. By the time the dragons heard about it, the discussions had already ended, and the opportunity to clarify the situation had been missed.
The dragons were utterly bewildered: "When did that duke offend our dragon race?"
"I haven't heard of that. The rumor is that he thought the dragon cub was cute and wanted to take it back to raise, but he was mistaken for someone trying to kill the cub and was attacked by a dragon. But our cub has never left Dragon Valley, and no dragon has ever gone out before."
"Damn it, this must be a conspiracy by the human royal family!" A furious dragon spewed a mouthful of fire.