Превратившись в пушечное мясо, я хочу лишь одного выжить

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Chapter 1 Cold Wave

"Welcome to the waiting space of the Dimensional Food System. I am your system assistant, Shuangshuang. Please select your first mission dimension."

Ye Xu had just finished showering and was only wearing a towel because she had forgotten to bring clean clothes. As she pushed open the frosted glass door to find some clothes, she was startled to hear a girl's voice and almost thought she had entered the wrong house.

Without bothering to think about what he had just said, Ye Xu slammed the glass door shut again. Due to the force, the door slammed against the wall with a loud bang, then bounced back slightly, revealing an unfamiliar space he had never seen before.

Ye Xu froze, staring in shock at the doorway. His mind raced through countless descriptions from supernatural novels. The bathroom door opened into an unfamiliar, empty room instead of the living room—it was terrifying! Had he encountered a ghost?

Perhaps Ye Xu's expression was too captivating, for even the girl who had just spoken was taken aback. After a long pause, she hesitantly repeated, "Hello, shopkeeper, may I now select the first mission plane?"

Only now did Ye Xu's brain, which had been malfunctioning, finally start working again, and he slowly deciphered the meaning of the two sentences.

—It turns out I wasn't chosen by a survival game, but rather bound to a dimensional system.

Ye Xu breathed a sigh of relief and quickly accepted the situation. Being the manager of a dimensional gourmet restaurant was better than participating in an escape game; at least the former didn't pose a threat to his life.

Following the typical tropes of novels Ye Xu had read, once forcibly bound to a system, there was no way to unbind oneself. Resistance was less effective than submission; this way, one could complete the mission and escape sooner.

So Ye Xu asked, "Could you give me a set of clean clothes first?" It's too inconvenient to be wrapped in a bath towel all the time.

The next second, a tiny sprite, no bigger than a palm, flew over with a set of clothes on its head.

Two minutes later, Ye Xu sat down on the only piece of furniture in the space, the sofa. The little sprite hovered directly opposite him at eye level. This was Shuangshuang, who had just spoken. She was the dimensional system's companion sprite, recently born, and Ye Xu was her first host.

The little fairy Frosty has beautiful long silver-blue hair, and chubby cheeks and limbs. She wears a pretty fairy dress and has a pair of transparent little wings on her back, making her cuter than any figurine.

As a novice store manager's assistant, Shuangshuang had no work experience, but she was very serious. She explained the basic functions of the system to Ye Xu in a step-by-step manner, trying to help the new store manager get started as soon as possible.

The dimensional system requires Ye Xu to open different restaurants in different dimensions. A restaurant cannot be opened twice. He needs to collect enough energy in each dimension to complete the current task and proceed to the next world. Once the total energy bar is full, he can freely choose whether to unbind himself.

Like many protagonists in transmigration novels, Ye Xu was an orphan with no relatives or friends in his original world. He didn't feel any aversion to the tasks assigned by the system; on the contrary, he found them extremely interesting.

"Shall we start the mission now?" Ye Xu asked.

Shuangshuang nodded: "We still need to make some preparations before opening the shop, so we need to go there as soon as possible."

"But I'm a little tired right now," Ye Xu said tactfully. He had just graduated from university and had been looking for a job all day, so he was exhausted.

Shuangshuang hesitated for a moment: "Then, store manager, you should rest for the night, and we'll set off tomorrow."

After saying that, the scene around him changed, and Ye Xu was back in his rented room. He didn't stand on ceremony, quickly cooked and ate dinner, and then went to bed in his bedroom.

After waking up refreshed the next day, Ye Xu summoned Shuangshuang again, indicating that they could start the mission.

"Doesn't the store manager need to eat breakfast?" Shuangshuang asked.

Ye Xu shook his head: "Let's eat over there. Didn't you say you were going to open a restaurant? In that case, I'd like to try the food there."

Shuangshuang accepted the explanation and cheerfully introduced, "Then let's choose a plane first, and then decide on the type of shop to open. Clicking on the plane will show you the corresponding introduction. Choosing a suitable shop can speed up the completion of the task."

Ye Xu followed the instructions and opened the corresponding interface, where hundreds of selectable planes instantly appeared before his eyes. He wasn't impatient; instead, he carefully examined each one.

This is my first time doing a mission, so I can't be careless. Everything is difficult at the beginning, so I need to choose the plane with the lowest difficulty level.

After examining all the planes, Ye Xu finally found one that he felt was suitable as a starting point—

Name: Transi Continent;

Category: Western fantasy magic;

Synopsis: The current plane is experiencing an unprecedented cold wave.

Opening a hot pot restaurant amidst this cold snap is definitely the wisest choice. There shouldn't be any hot pot restaurants in this fantasy world yet, so opening one yourself would be unique.

There's no need to worry too much about whether the indigenous people can accept this new food. Once the aroma of the hot pot wafts out, few people can resist its temptation.

The only problem was that hot pot is eaten with chopsticks, but Western fantasy is a Western setting, and the natives would probably only know how to use knives and forks. But this didn't stump Ye Xu; he quickly came up with another form of hot pot.

You can eat skewers hot pot without chopsticks; you can just hold the skewers and eat them directly. Any food that occasionally falls from the skewers to the bottom of the pot can be scooped out with a slotted spoon and then eaten with a fork.

For the sake of delicious food, I believe everyone will tolerate this little inconvenience.

Before making the selection, Ye Xu specifically asked Shuangshuang what kind of energy the system needed. Shuangshuang told him, "It's the pleasant emotions that diners experience when they enjoy the food; these can be converted into energy and absorbed by the system."

Since that's the case, nothing is more delightful than enjoying a hot pot meal in the freezing cold; such a meal would definitely bring an overwhelming sense of happiness. Ye Xu's last bit of worry was dispelled, and she was completely at ease.

"That's it then," Ye Xu decided. "Won't there be a language barrier in this Western fantasy world?"

Shuangshuang patted her chest and said, "Don't worry, you'll automatically learn these things when you enter the new plane. What you say and write will automatically become the common language of the current plane. However, this mastery is only temporary; you'll forget it after leaving the Western Fantasy plane."

Ye Xu nodded in satisfaction: "That's good, let's set off now."

Transi Continent, Central Coast, City of Biyue.

This place was once a tourist destination with four distinct seasons, each with its own unique charm. Most remarkably, summers weren't too hot and winters weren't too cold. Local residents had almost never seen snow, so when ice and snow spread here three years ago, their first reaction was one of surprise and delight.

But now all that's left is worry. Beautiful scenery can't fill an empty stomach, and life still goes on.

"Damn it!" A mage in a long cloak stomped his foot angrily, knocking the snow off his boots. "This damn weather!"

The mage's companion was a warrior wielding a shield, trembling as he switched the metal shield from his left to his right. The wind outside was so strong that he felt his hands were about to freeze numb.

The warrior breathed on his hands and said to the mage, "Captain, can I put my shield away? It's colder than ice!"

"No," the mage immediately refused. "Without a shield, are you going to use your body to block the wind for me?"

The soldier looked at her with resentment.

As a frail mage, the captain had already made an excuse to put on several layers of warm clothing. Compared to her, he, the armored warrior, was the one truly suffering from the cold. After all, it was difficult to add a padded jacket under the armor; one layer at most, and any more would make it difficult to move.

Seeing that his subordinate was about to explode, the monk quickly changed the subject: "Alright, stop complaining. Instead of wasting time complaining, why don't you think about what to have for dinner tonight? I'm really fed up with cream soup and white bread. Even the best food can't stand eating it every day."

The soldier nodded in agreement, deeply sympathizing. On such a cold day, all he wanted was something hot to eat, but all he could find here was a stew of mixed vegetables and thick soup.

The thought of the vegetable stew from the street-side restaurants immediately killed off most of the soldier's appetite. It wasn't that it was bad, but rather that it wasn't very tasty. It was bland and watery, and you could almost only taste the original flavor of the vegetables.

When ingredients are fresh and in season, they taste delicious no matter how they're cooked. But now, with the weather freezing cold all year round, most vegetables are out of season, and naturally, they don't taste as good.

It's obvious that this is a continent with a lack of delicious food. Or rather, when it comes to stewing, the flavors are rather limited.

The soldier couldn't help but reminisce about the time before the cold wave arrived: "Biyue City has quite a few local delicacies, but unfortunately none of them are suitable for eating in the cold weather."

Even the most delicious pies are only warm when they're fresh out of the oven. Before you can even take a couple of bites, the cold wind turns them into frozen pies, which is incredibly disappointing. Unfortunately, the surrounding shops are all small businesses and don't have the money to make insulated designs, so even if you eat in, the food cools down quickly.

"Damn it, why is it snowing again?!"

The mage's curses shattered the warrior's reverie, and he quickly raised his shield to shield the two men. But this was only a temporary measure; soon a thick layer of snow would accumulate on the shield, making it even colder to the touch, and the warrior wouldn't be able to hold out for long.

"Quick! Let's find a shop and go inside to get out of the snow!"

The two ran towards a nearby shop, and just as they were about to step into a cheese shop, they suddenly smelled a faint aroma. The monk paused, his mouth watering instantly.

"It smells so good..."

The soldier couldn't smell anything, and he looked blankly at the dog-nose captain: "What smells?"

"I don't know." The monk's eyes searched around and quickly found the source of the fragrance.

It was a shop with a door made of large panes of glass. Glass itself isn't particularly expensive, but getting such a large, intact pane requires connections. Their angle wasn't ideal; they couldn't see inside the glass, only feeling a slight warmth through the bright light.

The food at this shop didn't look cheap, but for the sake of good food, the mage was willing to splurge occasionally. She grabbed the warrior: "Come on, let's go take a look."

The soldier, completely bewildered, was led to the glass door of a shop five stores away from the cheese shop. Only then did he finally smell the aroma and understand why his captain had insisted on coming through the snow. He strode forward and pushed open the door, and a wave of warmth immediately washed over them, dispelling the chill that had enveloped them.

Welcome!

The moment the door was pushed open, the loudspeaker hanging by the door automatically emitted a welcoming sound. The mage looked up, finding it somewhat novel; was this a new type of phonograph made by an alchemist?

A tiny, palm-sized fingertip sprite was flitting about in front of a steaming hot pot. Upon noticing someone approaching, it quickly called out, "Shopkeeper, a customer has arrived."

The young and handsome shop owner stopped cooking the tripe and turned his head to look over: "Sorry, our shop will not officially open for business until tomorrow."

The monk then noticed a prominent sign hanging at the entrance, clearly displaying the opening hours. They hadn't looked at it carefully before, having overlooked it in their haste to get in.

A note from the author:

As usual: This story has no romantic pairing, no romantic pairing, no romantic pairing. Please do not try to create any pairings.

My writing style is a bit wordy, and I'm trying my best to overcome this. Don't be too hard on yourself if you can't stand it! OTZ

Chapter 2 Stinginess

Half an hour ago, Ye Xu had just entered the current plane.

The time difference between the Transi continent and the modern world is quite significant; it's early morning in the modern world, but here it's already evening. The aroma of food wafting from the surrounding shops gradually made Ye Xu, who had just woken up, feel a pang of hunger.

As it was getting dark and the shop wasn't ready, opening now was definitely not a realistic option. So Ye Xu simply hung up a sign at the door announcing that the shop would open tomorrow, and went to have dinner first.

Ye Xu had planned to taste his own hot pot beforehand, and if it wasn't good, he would try to improve the broth recipe. Eating hot pot right after waking up is a bit unhealthy, but hot pot lovers don't care about that.

Full of anticipation, Ye Xu arrived at the kitchen, only to be dumbfounded. There was no hot pot base in the restaurant! The kitchen was spotless, like a newly renovated house; there wasn't even a knife, let alone any seasonings or ingredients.

"It's okay," Ye Xu comforted himself. "It's normal that not everything is available when the shop is newly opened. Just buy what you need. You can't open a shop without any start-up capital, right?"

Ye Xu looked at Shuangshuang, who then guided him to open the shop account. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the account balance was a capital 0.

"Uh..." The system is so stingy!

“It’s like this.” Shuangshuang didn’t know why she felt a little guilty and weak. “The system provides loan services, and the interest is calculated based on a 30-year mortgage.”

What's the difference between that and robbery? Other people can choose the term when taking out a mortgage, but this one just uses the maximum term.

Ye Xu was an orphan who had faced countless difficulties since childhood, so he naturally wouldn't be discouraged by such a small matter. After pondering for a moment, he took the initiative to propose a solution.

"I still have some savings in the original plane. Can I transfer that money to my shop account?" Ye Xu asked.

Shuangshuang nodded: "That's possible, but..."

Ye Xu listened attentively.

"There are two types of currency in the dimensional system. One is a universal currency for each dimension, which is recalculated based on purchasing power after changing dimensions. The other is a token derived from energy, called points. Every bit of emotional energy that a store acquires will be converted into corresponding points and deposited into the store's account."

Ye Xu understood: "My savings can only be deposited into my currency account, not my points account. Is the amount of money I can buy relatively limited? If I want to start a business, I still need to spend points?"

"That's right." Shuangshuang felt even more ashamed.

The only use of regular currency is to purchase goods on the kitchen control panel. Since the goods are purchased from other dimensions, the suppliers do not need points, only currency.

The control panel is decent, but the only annoying thing is that it only sells agricultural products, processed food and drinks, and even sauce packets; nothing else. If you want to buy tools or other items, you have to spend points in the system shop.

The points mall offers both magical items and regular goods, and payment must be made using points; other currencies are not accepted. In addition, points can be used to unlock or upgrade permissions for shops; for example, kitchen utensils must be unlocked using points.

Ye Xu opened the store's backend and took a look. The list of items to be unlocked was huge, and the prices all started at 100 points. It seemed impossible to play without taking out a loan.