[Negative emotions from Song Qing, Zhu Huan, +1+1…]
[Negative emotions from Liu Jiang, Zhang Mao, Hu Tiezhu, +1+1+1…]
[Congratulations, the negative emotional tree you planted has sprouted its first leaf.]
[Congratulations, the negative emotional tree you've planted has grown its first branch.]
[Make three hundred people feel the sense of incompleteness... (Completed; Reward: Dragon-ten strike·Incomplete (Issued))]
[Make one thousand people feel the sense of incompleteness...; Reward: Morning Flight·Incomplete (Not completed yet)]
[Sell the first dish; (Completed) Reward: One tael of Silver (Issued)]
[Deserted Storefront, let at least ten people know about your shop; Reward: Basic Knife Work - Straight Knife Cut (Completed)]
[Famous in the street, let fifty people know about your shop; Reward: Basic Knife Work - Push Knife Cut (Completed)]
[Initial success, let one hundred people know about your shop; Reward: Basic Knife Work - Pull Knife Cut (Completed)]
[Bit Famous, let one thousand people know about your shop; Reward: Basic Knife Work - Saw Knife Cut (Not completed yet)]
…
After laying the groundwork, several Systems began to work in tandem, and thus, Lin Bai became an unfeeling task-completing machine.
He fulfilled tasks one after another, as if swiping through a screen.
Often, a System would present a task, and in the next second, it would be marked as completed.
After all, when you looked at the signboard and couplets, if you didn't feel a sense of incompleteness then, once you sat down on a chair inside, you would surely feel something was missing, right?
When you sang such a song in public, wouldn't you feel a bit embarrassed and ashamed?
When you ordered food and were told that even with a discount, it was still more expensive than outside, it would be a wonder if your mood improved…
You were angry if you didn't eat, and the more you thought about it after eating, the angrier you became…
Even long after leaving the restaurant, when the brainwashing song "You love me, I love you" echoed in your ears or suddenly popped into your mind, you would still contribute a wave of negative emotions.
Indeed, Lin Bai had transformed the Chef's Divine Food Stall into an emotion-harvesting machine, creating a perfect feedback loop.
Moreover, the Cooking God System finally realized its identity. It stopped rewarding Silver and returned to the correct path by awarding knife techniques. This shift, combined with Lin Bai's masterful use of sunk cost and foot-in-the-door marketing effects, brought him continuous wealth.
Therefore, he wasn't worried about his financial chain breaking.
It could certainly be said that Lin Bai, with his small Chef's Divine Food Stall, had already gained a firm footing in Jiamucheng.
It only took ten days, and he didn't bring disgrace upon the transmigrators.
In the end, even if everyone in Jiamucheng had been deceived once, there were still Players to harvest. The title of Dreadful Mansion was no joke.
As long as Ah Piao was around, the Players would be nothing more than one wave of fat sheep after another.
No one could escape Lin Bai's calculations; everyone was his leek.
The only regret was the Chief Supporting Role System.
His big brother Crispy Rice, who had been sent into the City Lord's Mansion by beggars, hadn't had his account deleted.
The task of helping his big brother establish his convictions was still ongoing.
The System issued a new task, another red, time-limited one:
[Big Brother's Career Outlook: Detected that Big Brother has been recruited into the Hidden Guard Team by the City Lord's Mansion. He'd rather be a rooster's head than a phoenix's tail. With Big Brother subservient to another, where do you stand? For your future, please pull Big Brother back from this misguided path within seven days. Task Success Reward: Qi Yun Five. Task Failure Penalty: Deduct Qi Yun Three. Countdown: Seven.]
…
Dumbelldore acted as the doorman at the restaurant's entrance, singing to attract customers, while temporarily hired waiters served patrons inside.
The Chef's Divine Food Stall operated smoothly, no longer requiring Lin Bai to worry about its affairs.
「At this moment.」
He sat under a tree not far from the restaurant, taking stock of his task rewards.
However, when he saw the new task from the Chief Supporting Role System among the cascade of notifications, his joy was instantly diminished.
The damn System even deducts Qi Yun?
It really doesn't consider the user's feelings at all! It only rewarded four points of Qi Yun in total, but if anything goes wrong, it deducts three points right away.
If tasks are constantly left incomplete, will the score even drop into the negatives?
Complaining aside, Lin Bai had to consider how to salvage his big brother's career. Its current smooth sailing was so pronounced that he couldn't guarantee it wasn't related to the Qi Yun rewarded by the System.
If it's deducted until it becomes negative, who knows what would happen?
Stepping on dog poop when leaving the house?
Choking on water while drinking it!
The Systems he carried, which had appeared out of nowhere, came with both benefits and risks.
Opportunity and risk always coexist; Lin Bai understood this.
Moreover, having been unceremoniously saddled with a bunch of Systems for no reason, Lin Bai clearly knew that, for now, he was no match for whatever lurked behind them.
If he wanted to know the truth, one way was to grow stronger himself; another was to disrupt the game board and, step by step, probe the bottom line of the hidden manipulator…
Lin Bai was pursuing both methods simultaneously.
All the absurd ways he completed tasks were his attempts to probe the entity behind the scenes.
Of course, all of this was predicated on survival. Even as a pawn, he had to survive. Only by living to the end would he have a chance to find out who was pulling the strings.
…
"My big brother actually joined the City Lord's Mansion as a Hidden Guard? Did he accidentally trigger a hidden profession? I didn't expect to have played a part in his success. That ingrate, he didn't even come to thank me!"
A broken kitchen knife flipped up and down in Lin Bai's hand, as nimbly as a pen he used to twirl in class.
Just like with the Incomplete System, the knife skills rewarded by the Cooking God System required no practice; they could be used immediately.
The most direct consequence was that Lin Bai had become fond of playing with kitchen knives…
"Am I already going to be dealing with the city's upper echelons so soon?" Lin Bai sighed, looking at his bustling and thriving shop, and murmured, "I'm not ready yet!"
The tasks from the Chief Supporting Role System revealed some hidden information to Lin Bai.
On the surface, two types of personnel maintained order in Jiamucheng. One type was the constables, primarily responsible for public security within the city—handling petty theft, illegal street vending, and the like. The constables were under the jurisdiction of the Public Security Bureau. The other type was the City Guard Army, responsible for the overall defense and safety of Jiamucheng. The powerful City Guard Army was under the control of the City Lord.
Lin Bai had never heard of Hidden Guards, but from various films and literary works, he could guess that this profession likely involved espionage and assassination—existences that operated in the shadows.
For a Player, discovering a hidden profession at level one was indeed fortunate.
But realistically, a level-one Player like Crispy Rice being recruited into the City Lord's Mansion as a Hidden Guard was somewhat abnormal.
The only reasonable explanation was that the City Lord already knew about the unique characteristics of Players and was intentionally recruiting and cultivating them, utilizing their high growth potential to complete tasks.
And if the City Lord knew to utilize Players and wanted them to grow, he would undoubtedly provide them with resources. Therefore, Crispy Rice should be training and gaining experience at this moment.
Unless he was on a mission, the likelihood of him making an appearance was extremely low…
"That was rash!" Lin Bai muttered to himself, somewhat regretting his impulsive decision to acknowledge this big brother. Now, his big brother had not only failed to become an asset but had instead turned into a stumbling block. He was truly screwed.
"Thankfully, there are still seven days. If I work hard on the tasks, I should be able to fleece some more benefits from the System," Lin Bai said, looking at his shop again.
With less than five years of Inner Strength, the incomplete Dragon-ten strike, and his kitchen knife skills, it wasn't wise to provoke the City Lord's Mansion recklessly. At the very least, he needed to acquire the incomplete Qinggong, Morning Flight, first.
Every time he thought about the reward being the Morning Flight skill, Lin Bai felt a wave of depression.
He wasn't sure if this Qinggong was an incomplete version of 'Flying on Grass,' or if it literally meant it could only be used in the morning.
Both scenarios could certainly be considered 'incomplete'…