Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 242

Chapter 242

Gu Huaiwei tossed Liu Guoqing some beef jerky, Mineral Water, bandages, and anti-inflammatory medicine. Under his frightened, overwhelmed gaze, she left with a breezy turn before he could even finish stammering his thanks.

She did not let it delay her schedule in the slightest.

Outside Hot Spring Mansion, the sky had already gone dark. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Gray Mist Town had barely seen the sun at all.

Whether inside the Instance or outside it, the place was always gloomy. This damned weather was like a damp, cold padded coat draped over one’s shoulders, seeping chill straight into the bones.

Gu Huaiwei moved fast enough that she arrived just as the convenience store was closing and the braised meat stall owner was setting up.

The convenience store and the braised meat shop had the same owner.

By day, he ran the convenience store. At night, he set up a stall right outside its entrance.

The owner pushing the braised meat cart was stirring a steaming cauldron with a ladle. His bloated body looked as if it might burst the grease-stained chef’s uniform stretched over it.

His face shone with oil, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and his thick arms had a waxy yellow sheen. When he shouted his pitch, spit flew everywhere. Gu Huaiwei could see scraps of meat stuck between his yellow teeth.

“Customer… ka-ka-ka… would you like a serving of braised meat rice? Mine is cheap. Once you go inside the mansion, one meal costs ten times what I charge here.”

Gu Huaiwei stood in front of the stall and looked toward the cauldron.

The pot was filled with braising sauce, bubbling and steaming. The dark red broth churned, with strands of hair and bits of fingernail floating inside. As for the raw meat hanging on the stall, the way the chunks were connected to bone did not look like pork no matter how she looked at it.

She thought she saw a severed finger.

There was still a ring on it.

It looked like the ring worn by the young Trial-taker who had spoken to her the last time she brought Bai Miemie here for a bath.

“I want to see the director of Hot Spring Mansion,” Gu Huaiwei said bluntly.

Fat Cook threw the big iron ladle into the pot, picked up the cleaver beside him, grabbed a piece of raw meat from the cart, and began chopping it on the cutting board with loud, heavy thuds.

“This is a braised meat rice stall! I make it so delicious, and I use the tenderest meat. What right do you have not to buy any? Ka-ka-ka… If you aren’t buying, what are you doing here?”

Fat Cook seemed utterly furious.

It was less like he was chopping meat and more like he was chopping up his own resentment.

“Every single one of you only knows how to ask about my brother… ka-ka-ka… How much more capable can he be than me? He just opened a big bathhouse. What’s so amazing about that?”

“Once my brother dies early, won’t that big bathhouse all belong to me anyway?”

“Did he think letting me run a little convenience store was charity? I have skills of my own! My braised meat rice can make anyone who eats it unable to forget the taste! Ssshaa, ssshaa… ka-ka-ka… the most tender, plump, beautiful meat… ka-ka-ka…”

Fat Cook stuck out his greasy tongue and licked the cleaver he had been using to chop the raw meat.

“Letting those students with sick parents come here for part-time jobs… ka-ka-ka… What a complete idiot! Those students are nothing but trouble. Sooner or later, they’ll ruin all the business here!”

“Don’t you think so… ka-ka-ka… Why are you just standing there without saying anything? Are you also planning to complain that my stall is dirty, just like those hateful students?”

Fat Cook suddenly stopped. He raised the knife and aimed it at Gu Huaiwei’s forehead. His fingernails were packed with grease and grime, and the smile on his face twisted grotesquely.
So it turned out the owner of the braised meat stall and the Director of the Hot Spring Mansion were brothers.

The Director of the Hot Spring Mansion was the capable one. He knew how to make money, so he had helped his useless younger brother set up a small shop at the entrance of the mansion, letting him earn a little pocket money too.

But the younger brother seemed to hate what his older brother had done.

He was supposed to run the little shop in peace, but he insisted on opening a braised meat stall too.

“Where is the Director of the Hot Spring Mansion?” Gu Huaiwei asked again, her expression calm.

The question seemed to enrage Fat Cook.

The cleaver he used to chop bones came hacking straight down at the center of Gu Huaiwei’s forehead.

“If you won’t buy my braised meat rice, I’ll turn you into braised meat… ka-ka-ka!”

The dagger hidden in Gu Huaiwei’s sleeve slid from its sheath and blocked Fat Cook’s bone cleaver.

Fat Cook was terrifyingly strong, but Gu Huaiwei caught the attack with just one hand.

A Trial-taker could not resist Anomaly damage if they violated the Rules.

According to the Rules, Gu Huaiwei was not allowed to ask Fat Cook directly about his brother’s whereabouts.

She could only probe indirectly.

But Gu Huaiwei had never bothered to look for the Rules of the Instance at all.

Fat Cook had clearly never encountered a situation like this before.

The murky eyeballs hidden beneath his heavy lids shifted stiffly.

He had clearly smelled the scent of a human on Gu Huaiwei.

But if this was a “human,” how had she just done that?

Why hadn’t she turned into chunks of meat? Why hadn’t she screamed and run away?

Seeing the entire Anomaly freeze in place, Gu Huaiwei pulled the bone cleaver out of his hand. Then she rose onto her tiptoes, grabbed him by the collar, pressed his head onto the chopping board, and held the cleaver against his neck.

“I wonder how much Lifespan pig’s head meat would sell for at your stall?”

Fat Cook began to struggle in panic.

He actually felt as if he were being pinned down by a High-level Anomaly.

“B-Brother… ka-ka-ka… there’s a monster!” Fat Cook blustered, all bark and no bite. Like a New Year’s pig about to be slaughtered, he flailed his short, thick arms and legs, knocking over the scalding pot of braised meat beside him.

From the very bottom of the pot rolled out a head that had already been cooked through.

That head belonged to one of the Trial-taker participants they had seen before.

Gu Huaiwei sliced lightly into Fat Cook’s neck with the cleaver and found the texture rather good. She really could cut through it.

When she cut him, no blood flowed from the wound. Instead, fragrant braised meat sauce oozed out.

“My brother went out to purchase raw ingredients. He’s preparing for the upcoming Banquet… ka-ka-ka… Don’t chop off my head! It took me so long to collect all this meat sauce, and it’s going to spill out!”

“I’m just a little boy with a dream of making braised meat rice… ka-ka-ka… Let me go!”

“The merchant who contracted the mine will visit the Hot Spring Mansion tonight. My brother will come out to receive him personally.”

“At the VIP bath on the top floor. It’s not open to the public… ka-ka-ka… That’s where you’ll be able to see my brother!”

So there were private baths upstairs after all.

She hadn’t found them last time.

Gu Huaiwei looked at Bai Miemie, who was obediently following by her side, and said, “This Instance has been hiding all the good stuff. Come on. Let’s go soak in the private baths too.”