Universe Infinite Canteen

Chapter 118 Repairs and Upgrades

The day after Zhen Ye moved in, the foreman Old He also brought along the renovation workers and started the construction.

Although the minimalist style Ma Lu had chosen this time didn't require major changes, there were still quite a few minor tasks to be done.

Moreover, there was the refurbishing project on the second floor, and just clearing the rubbish that had piled up like small mountains in the rooms and covering the furniture with protective sleeves took almost an entire day.

In the following days, Ma Lu basically ran back and forth between the construction site, school, and his rented apartment.

He had thought he would encounter Yu Yitong again, as from what Ma Lu knew of that woman, she would normally seek retribution as soon as possible after being wronged.

And her boyfriend should have received the traffic violation notice by now, but this time Yu Yitong had yet to show up again, which made Ma Lu slightly concerned.

However, his attention was soon drawn to other more important things.

First of all, Old Wang had leveled up again.

Thanks to the high-star ingredients he had brought back recently, Old Wang's experience had grown rapidly, and he had now upgraded from Level 2 to Level 3.

This also meant that Old Wang's culinary skills had once again improved, with a 50% chance of preparing excellent dishes that would increase the Deliciousness Index by one more star.

Looking at it this way, the chance of achieving a 100% star increase didn't seem so far off anymore.

Additionally, the prospects of repairing the Desktop Breeding Ground and upgrading the Collection Bag again were becoming clear.

Ma Lu planned to restore the normal function of the Desktop Breeding Ground before leaving and to unlock the Collection Bag's ability to carry fresh ingredients, so that his breeding side business could get off the ground upon his return.

Of course, the more free ingredients, the better.

Especially those high-star ingredients, which were too reliant on luck if solely obtained through hunting, and he estimated that they would become even harder to come by once the tide of beasts had passed; breeding was more stable.

Since this operation required not just new points for the upgrades but also a significant number of old points for repairs, buying new items would not be appropriate.

Therefore, Ma Lu contacted several secondhand dealers in the same city.

After adding them on WeChat, he expressed his intention to place a large order mainly for mobile phones, stating the need for them to be in functional condition with appearance being secondary, and then asked them to give him quotes.

He took the lowest offer and used it to negotiate with the others. After haggling to get the lowest price possible and then sending the new quotes to the competitors to repeat the process twice, only two dealers remained.

Ma Lu placed an order for 500 mobile phones with each of these two dealers.

It cost him 100,000 RMB, and the phones he received were of a wide variety, mostly antique models from eight or nine years ago.

Ma Lu fed all these phones to Number 6, eventually gaining approximately 2,900 old points and 700 new points.

The exchange rate of RMB to new points had exceeded the previous 100 to 1 ratio, clearly not as cost-effective as ordering new machines online.

However, he did receive a substantial amount of old points, leaving him only 1,100 points short of the 4,000 needed. After some thought, he contacted one of the dealers with better-condition phones and purchased another 80,000 RMB worth of mobile phones. This time, he specifically asked for nearly new models.

This batch of phones contributed another 1,300 old points and 700 new points for Ma Lu.

With the old points now sufficient and only 200 new points lacking, Ma Lu couldn't be bothered to buy more secondhand goods and directly ordered 20,000 RMB worth of new phones.

After adding everything up, he had spent nearly 200,000 in total, finally gathering enough for the repair and upgrade costs.

And now was the moment to witness a miracle!

Ma Lu placed the damaged Desktop Breeding Ground into Number 6's drum.

After a short while, when he opened the cover again, he had the complete version of the Desktop Breeding Ground.

[Desktop Breeding Ground] Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Level: lv1

Function: Fully automatic breeding ground, small footprint, fast breeding speed, even beginners can get the hang of it quickly.

Provides a full range of ingredient breeding ecosystems, with a current breeding limit of 2000 pounds for each ecosystem.

Upgrade Preview: The next upgrade requires 100 new values, which can increase the breeding limit by 2000 pounds.

After the repair, the Desktop Breeding Ground, which previously only had a volcanic ecosystem available, now has all ecosystems available, and the breeding limit for each ecosystem has increased by 1000 pounds.

Moreover, this is also a high-dimensional artifact that can be upgraded; each upgrade can increase the limit by 2000 pounds.

However, the initial limit of 2000 pounds for each ecosystem is already sufficient for now, so it's not too late to upgrade when the limit is reached sometime in the future.

Ma Lu propped up against the glass case and peered inside. This time, in addition to the volcano, he also saw grasslands, lakes, snowy mountains, swamps, rainforests, deserts... etc., all divided into separate small compartments.

Unfortunately, it was a bit desolate, with no animals in sight; it looked like it was waiting for him to populate it.

But Ma Lu found the scenery alone quite fascinating.

It felt like an ecological terrarium, quite pleasing to the eye just sitting on the desk.

After admiring the Desktop Breeding Ground, Ma Lu put the Collection Bag into the roller on the right side of No. 6 for an upgrade.

The upgraded lv6 Collection Bag's storage limit increased from 800 to 900, and it can finally hold live creatures, but only those ingredients listed in the "Multiverse Ingredients Compendium".

It's probably to prevent people from smuggling through dimensions in such an odd way.

Ma Lu had done quite a bit this week and also hadn't forgotten his main business.

As usual, before setting off, he calculated the profits of The Universe's Number One Snack Stall for the week, totaling 197,763, slightly lower than the previous week.

The main reason was a decrease in the unit price, but he made up for some of it by selling sesame seed cakes for 3 RMB each, eventually losing less than ten thousand RMB.

The costs were roughly the same, 1,492.5, leaving a final revenue of 196,270.5 RMB.

And that was about all the money left in Ma Lu's account.

One can only say he made money quickly and spent it just as fast.

However, after this bout, the only places he should need to spend money on would likely be kitchen equipment, tables, stools, and the signboard.

Especially the kitchen, which, with a Phase Shifter in hand, means setting up two kitchens. Just the thought made Ma Lu feel overwhelmed, but once all this was sorted out, he should be able to start saving a little bit of money.

......

This time before departing, Ma Lu didn't play any games and even took a short nap to fully recharge his energy.

Since this was already the third week after the beast tide, Ma Lu figured that the other side was probably ready to ramp up the intensity.

And he wasn't wrong. When he next opened his eyes, he found himself amidst ruins.

Ma Lu remembered he had last disconnected in Boggy's apartment, and according to the rules he had worked out, when he came back to this dimension, he would reappear at the last place he vanished from.

But the living room where Ma Lu was standing now was only half there; the other half had completely disappeared.

Ma Lu looked towards where the front door should have been, and now there was just an empty space, with the steel bars and concrete nakedly exposed to the air.