Life Game In Other World
Chapter 659: The Food Producer (Two-in-one Super-sized - , Seeking Monthly Pass)

Chapter 659: Chapter 659: The Food Producer (Two-in-one Super-sized Chapter, Seeking Monthly Pass)

YiXiya got out of the car and walked out of the alleyway.

The brief sunshine flashed by, and the shadows once again enveloped the world.

Jia Xi leaned on the passenger seat’s backrest, gazing through the window at YiXiya’s retreating figure, watching her as she walked away.

Only when YiXiya’s silhouette had completely vanished did Jia Xi fish out a piece of foil that was wrapped around chewing gum from her pocket, turned around, removed the gum that was stuck above the rearview mirror, and revealed the miniature camera aimed inside the car.

"Camera obstruction has been cleared,"

a faint mechanical female voice sounded within the taxi,

"Fast Driving Transportation Group reminds you that the in-car cameras are one of the important components to ensure passenger rights. We will strictly protect customer privacy information, and all video data is securely encrypted. Please do not attempt to block or damage the cameras; if any damage occurs, you may be liable for compensation."

"Grandpa, why did you also stick the earphone on it?"

Jia Xi ignored the sound from the taxi’s main control computer and removed the miniature bluetooth earpiece that was stuck to the gum, and asked with some confusion.

"The earpiece is used to play high-frequency sounds to interfere with the operation of the microphone,"

He Ao explained softly while taking out a tissue and removing the gum that was sticking to the microphone port on the back seat.

Just now, Eve had been using the bluetooth earpiece constantly to disrupt the microphone next to the camera as well as the entire car’s sound collection system.

"Ow!"

Jia Xi nodded her head.

At that moment, the whole taxi trembled slightly and began to move slowly.

When the camera or microphone in the taxi was blocked, the driverless taxi would not start, but the fare would still be calculated.

In fact, this was a ’loophole’ intentionally left by the Fast Driving Transportation Group, allowing customers to temporarily block the vehicle’s data collection devices, thereby turning the driverless taxi into a temporary ’private room’ for use.

And the fare was essentially the ’private room’ usage fee.

Of course, this blockage couldn’t last too long; after more than fifteen minutes, the Fast Driving Transportation Group might remotely sound the alarm.

The taxi slowly drove out of the alley.

He Ao sat in the back row, glanced outside at the street, and at that moment at the alley entrance where he had killed the monster, a large truck was parked, which likely arrived while he and YiXiya were talking.

The rear of the truck was butted into the alley, and one could faintly hear the sound of a large mechanical arm operating, likely towing the Polluted Monster killed by He Ao.

Some workers from the Pollution Cleaning Department were dispersing the crowd around the perimeter.

By the time He Ao came out of the alley, the operation on the truck was nearing its conclusion, the mechanical arm having completely dragged the contents from the alley into the truck’s cargo compartment, all very quickly.

With a crisp closing sound, the large truck started up and turned into the street, and YiXiya, who had been standing nearby, also got into a black sedan.

Some of the Pollution Cleaning Department’s workers stayed behind to wrap things up, while the majority entered the fleet and drove towards the east of the city.

He Ao had the taxi follow at a distance behind the fleet.

During the journey, he switched taxis several times, maintaining the pursuit until he saw the entire fleet enter a towering building surrounded by glass.

This building bore no signage of any group or organization; it stood silently in the shadow of the skyscrapers, like any ordinary office building.

He Ao and Jia Xi got out of the taxi at a spot not too close to this building. From where he alighted, he could still see the building, though it was mostly obscured by other factory buildings.

That building must be the headquarters of the Pollution Cleaning Department.

YiXiya should be safe for a short time.

He Ao glanced at the building, then found a crowded roadside diner nearby and walked over.

After all that had happened, it was getting dark, and the street lamps were lighting up one by one.

"What do you want to eat?"

He Ao stood at the diner’s entrance, turned his head to look at Jia Xi, and asked with a smile.

This was a shop primarily selling large cheese bread.

It’s a specialty of Saint Joen City; the baked bread is sliced open in the middle, then stuffed with cheese and baked again until the cheese completely melts.

The finished cheese bread could be topped with one’s choice of toppings, ranging from vegetable juice, fruit jams, or even a raw egg.

Of course, the most popular option is topped with meatballs.

The side cuts of synthetic meat are mixed with spices and seasonings, shaped into meatballs the size of half a fist, and pan-fried in synthetic vegetable oil until golden brown on all sides, then baked for fifteen to twenty minutes until a charred crust forms. Then it’s used as filling for cheese bread.

Because the synthetic meat scraps are cheap, although not the best in taste, they can develop a certain chewiness after fry-baking, and given how affordable and abundant they are, these fry-baked meatballs are quite popular in Saint Joen City.

This is one of the few ways ordinary people have to quickly ingest a large amount of protein.

A big meatball, paired with cheese bread as a staple, can essentially satisfy the energy needs of high-intensity work.

Most of the customers eating in this shop are employees from nearby Kajet Group factories.

As a food conglomerate, Kajet Group does not provide cheap employee canteens, so the workers have to dine in shops outside the factory or bring their own meals.

On the other hand, the food prices in the surrounding shops aren’t cheap either, and this shop is the least expensive that He Ao could find in the vicinity.

Even so, the price for the same types of food here is about fifteen percent higher than in the Northwest City district where Cito lives.

He Ao looked up at the ’Kajet Property’ sign hanging on the wall of the shop.

Clearly, this shop was a property of the Kajet Group.

Having worked in the food industry for half of his life, Cito had a certain understanding of the entire supply chain. In the food service industry, the rental cost of the shop is one of the main expenses.

The reason why the shops in this area are more expensive than other areas is likely due in large part to the rent.

These minor price fluctuations, reflected in commodity retail prices, might only amount to a difference of one or two federal coins.

However, for employees in grain factories, who generally earn less than five federal coins per hour and around forty federal coins per day, this difference of one or two coins directly determines whether they can eat a large meal, a small one, or fill their stomachs at all.

These factory employees, whose main job is to produce food, often have difficulty eating their fill even near the factory.

Most workers probably bring their own food.

But in fact, in Saint Joen City, even cooking and packing a lunchbox isn’t cheap due to the high cost of food.

Because of the high prices, the average food consumption per person in Saint Joen City is on par with that of Dawn City, where the economy is much more advanced and the average cost of living is considerably higher.

Yet, income in Saint Joen City is much lower than in Dawn City.

"Um,"

While He Ao was organizing the impacts that Kajet Group had on Saint Joen City, Jia Xi, who had been thinking for quite a while, finally made up her mind. She raised her little hand high and pointed to the grilled meatball combo, "Grandpa, I want that one."

"How many portions?"

He Ao glanced at her and asked softly, if he remembered correctly, since she had been working out and training from a young age, the little girl’s digestive ability was also very good.

Uh-huh, and she had a big appetite.

However, Cito, in order to prevent the child from eating too much and harming her health, usually just let her eat a little more than usual.

"Huh?"

Jia Xi’s big eyes widened slightly in confusion.

Then, after hesitating briefly and thinking for a moment, she looked at He Ao and tentatively asked, "Grandpa, can I have three of the ones that come with five extra meatballs?"

"Sure."

He Ao smiled and nodded his head.

Then he took Jia Xi to the shop’s entrance and ordered five servings of meatball cheese bread.

Three for Jia Xi, two for himself.

A large serving of the meatball cheese bread combo wasn’t cheap, selling for 16 federal coins each, costing He Ao 80 federal coins for five servings.

Speaking purely in terms of energy, one serving was basically enough to satisfy an adult’s daily food requirement.

While waiting for the meals to be prepared, He Ao opened the briefcase that YiXiya had given him and took out a wristband linked to a black market account.

He didn’t immediately open the black market software but used a short-range file transfer to install a remote control terminal of Eve’s onto the wristband.

That way, even if he didn’t wear the wristband, Eve could still project information from it onto his own wristband through remote control.

With this terminal, some tasks that required searching for information could also be run in the background by Eve, sparing him the need to search himself.

With the installation of the control terminal complete, He Ao then tapped on the software labeled ’Black Market.’

This was the only non-system app on the wristband, and the app icon was quite interesting— a closed eye.

This reminded He Ao of ’Wizard.’

’Wizard’ was the general term for a group of people who pursued truth and power during the Catastrophe. Their emblem was the ’Eye of Truth,’ often depicted as an inverted triangle with a closed eye, signifying ’the pursuit of truth.’

Of course, that emblem was later ’borrowed’ by the Grim Reaper. The inverted triangle with an open eye meant ’truth revealed,’ becoming the Grim Reaper’s emblem.

However, the black market’s icon had no inverted triangle, and He Ao was unaware if their use of the eye icon was related to the Wizard’s ’Eye of Truth.’

In the field of mysticism, slight deviations in emblems could point to entirely different meanings.

After He Ao clicked on the app icon, the tightly closed eye flickered, followed by a pitch-black interface popping up.

Then, the screen brightened from dark to light, displaying the likeness of a city under the night sky.

A person shrouded in black, clad in Night Walk combat suit, appeared on screen, lying on top of a high platform, his eye pressed to the scope of what appeared to be a heavy sniper rifle.

Suddenly, he focused with bated breath, looking at an unremarkable place in the night and pulled the trigger.

Bang—

With a loud gunshot, the camera turned to the depths of the night, then quickly zoomed in. Buildings flashed by like illusions, followed by a figure standing in the dim light, appearing on screen.

His entire left chest was penetrated, his eyes wide open as he toppled forward.

As He Ao was wondering about the meaning of this opening screen, the camera switched back to the sniper who had taken the shot.

A woman with big, wavy, curly hair, wearing black thigh-high stockings on her left leg and a black leg band on her right, donned in a cropped camouflage tube-top and matching camouflage micro shorts, stepped out from the night.

She took the heavy rifle from the sniper’s hands, looked towards the camera,

"M93B1, long-range low-light night vision, precise controllable ballistics, intelligent aiming assist system, ultra-high-definition simulation algorithms, the best companion for your missions, for killing and plundering. Yiwis Space System Company’s product, you can trust."

At that moment, a line of small text appeared at the bottom of the screen,

[Click to buy now, confidential and untraceable delivery]

Clearly, this was an opening advertisement.

He Ao: ...

Okay, precise targeting.

He Ao reached out and tapped the ’×’ in the top right corner of the screen.

Those with black market accounts generally have some violent background, making them the perfect demographic for firearm sales.

This ad was likely targeted accurately at potential customers.

If He Ao didn’t guess wrong, inside this Black Market app, there should be a store where one could purchase firearms online.

As the opening advertisement closed, the home page of the app appeared in He Ao’s view, and he immediately noticed the three prominent first-level options at the bottom of the app.

[Forum][Marketplace][My]

He Ao’s gaze swept over the ’Marketplace’.

Indeed, even the black market needs to eat.

Even if the operators might be some major consortiums, those consortiums wouldn’t just pour money into a project that only loses without earning anything.

He Ao glanced at the forum interface on the homepage.

The interface was minimalist, using a card structure, and the design was quite aesthetically pleasing.

Occupying the majority of the screen at the bottom of the homepage were continuously refreshing posts, each marked with a blue tag indicating the content of the post, such as [Bounty Mission], [Intelligence Assistance], [Transport Task], [Item Procurement]...

At the top of the homepage, there were two secondary menu options to choose from, [Task Directory] and [Information Exchange].

Above these two secondary menus, a little higher up in the top right corner of the interface, there was a message icon.

He Ao clicked on the message icon, and there was no chat window inside, just a line of faint prompt text.

[Any non-task related messages over three days old and messages related to completed tasks over seven days old will be incinerated.]

It seemed that it wasn’t that there was no chat, but that all records were deleted by the app.

"Analyzing software package, parsing data flow,"

At the same time, Eve’s voice also reached He Ao’s ears, "Firewall detected, deciphering, hacking difficulty: extremely high, proceed with the hack?"

Extremely high hacking difficulty meant there was a very high chance of failure during the hack, and there was even the possibility of being traced back.

"No need."

He Ao shook his head and entered a negative command on his bracelet.

The fact that the hacking difficulty was extremely high already indicated some information.

Eve could arbitrarily utilize the computing power of Nolanka Group. Often, she could work miracles with great force. To establish a firewall system that even Eve would have difficulty hacking would require considerable computing power and software and personnel support.

Building such a team and facilities required a significant initial investment, something that typically only large consortiums could afford, and not the weaker ones at that.

He Ao exited the chat interface and clicked on the ’My’ in the bottom menu.

The profile of the account appeared before him.

The account name was ’Listener of the Night’, level 2, with 117 points, and the account had been active for 4 years.

Below that were the customer service and feedback options.

He Ao tried clicking on the level 2 button, and a popup appeared in his view.

[Your current level is lv2. You can view forum information accessible to lv0, lv1, lv2, purchase items from the Marketplace available to lv0, lv1, lv2, and enjoy an exclusive 5% discount for lv2. *Accept more tasks, earn more points, and quickly upgrade your level to gain more privileges and benefits.]

This black market had a lv0 level, presumably for newly registered users.

Information was displayed according to the level, meaning newly registered users could hardly see anything and had to accept tasks, earn points, and complete upgrades before they could see more.

As for the points.

He Ao returned to the forum interface and opened the task list.

He casually opened a lv0 task.

The content of this task was to assassinate a bodyguard from a certain security company, with a bounty of 2000 federal coins and a task score of 10.

This task was specifically noted to allow fast advancement to lv1 upon completion.

Clearly, to enter the black market, one had to make their ’debut’.

Luckily, the account YiXiya had originated from a lone wolf, a level 2 account that had bypassed the need to make a debut.

He Ao exited the task and glanced over the tasks, which were randomly arranged, mostly involving assassination or transportation, and mixed from all cities.

He found the filter option nearby, filtering out all tasks from Saint Joen City, and then he put down his bracelet and entered commands into his bracelet, telling Eve to sort and index all tasks related to Saint Joen City in the background.

He Ao didn’t know if the ’client’ who had asked Vite to set the fire was still active in the black market, but collecting some information could perhaps provide some clues.

After putting away his bracelet, He Ao turned his gaze to Jia Xi next to him.

At the moment, Jia Xi was sitting on a small stool at the entrance of the shop, staring blankly at the big meatballs on someone else’s table.

She quickly noticed that He Ao was watching her, quickly turned her head back, and looked at He Ao, "Grandfather, are you done with your work?"

"Hungry?"

He Ao looked at her and asked with a smile.

"No..."

Jia Xi shook her head, but at that moment, her stomach made a gurgling noise.

He Ao rubbed her little head, placed his hand on the table, "Shall we arm wrestle, Grandpa?"

Arm wrestling was a small game that Cito used to play with his granddaughter, both of whom were fitness enthusiasts and in good physical condition.

"Okay."

Jia Xi stretched out her little hand, grabbed He Ao’s hand, and at first, she exerted a bit more strength, but He Ao’s hand was immovable.

She began to use more force, her face turning redder and even standing up, but she couldn’t budge He Ao’s arm at all.

After about a minute, Jia Xi finally let go, taking a breath, and pouted, "I can’t beat Grandpa."

"Jia Xi is progressing very quickly, soon she’ll surpass her grandfather."

He Ao chuckled and reached out to stroke her small head.

"The meal for the two over there is ready."

At that moment, a loud shout came from behind the counter.

"Go get it."

He Ao smiled and looked at Jia Xi.

"Mm-hmm."

Distracted by the food, Jia Xi nodded eagerly and darted off with the speed of an arrow.

A man who had been watching the old and young arm-wrestling with interest, stepped aside to let Jia Xi pass, only to feel a gust of wind whoosh by him.

He spun around, looking bewildered at the surroundings.

He had just been wondering how much strength a little girl and an older man could have, or how fast they could move, before something suddenly shot past him.

Seeing that the man wasn’t injured, He Ao returned his gaze and placed the arm he used for arm-wrestling under the table, rubbing the muscles on his elbow.

He had actually wanted to test Jia Xi’s current physical condition.

Now his physical condition was close to 10, and with a burst of effort, he could reach near 20 in strength. Adding to that his control of physical power, his single-arm strength could easily surpass 20.

Yet even so, Jia Xi almost overpowered him.

This proved that Jia Xi’s physical condition had likely already reached around 20.

The girl herself had no lack of talent, and after undergoing He Ao’s marrow cleansing and bone-refining, she gained a terrifying enhancement.

She had been working out with Cito since she was little, effectively building up her body, which meant she might also have a period of rapid improvement in the early stages of her training.

These two factors combined to showcase Jia Xi’s terrifying growth rate.

Next, he would need to teach her further training and some practical combat skills.

While He Ao was contemplating this, Jia Xi quickly returned with the meal. Her small frame scampered towards him, holding a stack of meal boxes taller than her head.

During this process, the little girl, losing her balance, slipped and leaned forward, sending the meal boxes she was holding flying.

She quickly reached out to catch the meal boxes, hugging them with one hand above and one below, her legs tensed, and she exerted force instantly.

The tiny figure performed a beautiful front flip in the air, landing right in front of He Ao.

Little drops of soup drizzled from the air, some sprinkling on the youngster’s cheek.

"Hehe."

She looked at He Ao and giggled, "Grandpa, I’m pretty awesome, right?"

She had never learned how to do a front flip, and the motion she made just now was simply mimicking scenes from the television, instinctively executed under stress.

"Impressive."

He Ao glanced at the four packed boxes in her arms, smiled, and shook his head. He lifted his cane, swinging it gently as if caressing willow branches in a spring breeze, directing it horizontally into the air.

Bang—

The meal box that had been tossed in the air landed perfectly on the tip of He Ao’s cane.

The slender cane steadily supported the large, heavy meal box, and the soup droplets that had scattered in the air flew back into the box as He Ao moved his cane.

The lifted lid of the meal box gently closed following the motion of the cane.

"Holy shit, that’s amazing."

The man who had just spun around again, watching the commotion, couldn’t help but blurt out upon witnessing the scene.

Originally attracted by the little girl’s front flip, he didn’t expect the seemingly gentle old man next to her to be even more impressive.

By this time, the attention of the people around was drawn over by the noise.

He Ao retracted his cane, using it to support the meal box and handed it to Jia Xi, stacking it on top of the other four.

Then he reached into his pocket, took out a clean silk handkerchief, and handed it to Jia Xi, meanwhile taking all the packed boxes from her hands.

"Let’s go eat somewhere else."

Carrying the stack of meal boxes with one hand, he looked at the crowd that had gathered and slowly stood up.

"Alright!"

Jia Xi wiped her face with the handkerchief, picked up her suitcase, and followed He Ao’s footsteps.

The crowd naturally parted to let them through.

The figures of the old man and the child gradually disappeared into the night.

Hum—

Just as He Ao was moving away from the crowd, his wristband vibrated.

"Grandpa, is it a message from Sister YiXiya?"

Jia Xi walked beside him, peering curiously and asked.

"Mhm."

He Ao looked at his wristband and nodded lightly.