Do you want to buy a bakery?

The night⁠​‌‌‌‍​‍​‌‌⁠⁠⁠‌​⁠‌​⁠‍⁠‍⁠ in Main City was full of neon lights.

An Yu walked back with Qin Zhilu, who asked, “Did High Peak mention they hope you to stay in the Spire?”

An Yu nodded, “I’m still considering it.”

He hesitated for a moment, “Sir, why did you choose me back then? Was it because my genetic entropy is zero?”

“It’s not just the genetic entropy,” Qin Zhilu answered naturally.

“Then…”

“There’s also your mental strength. I heard that during the induction test, your mental strength showed no fluctuation at all. At that moment, I made my decision.”

An Yu was puzzled, “Is that very rare?”

“Unprecedented. It represents absolute will.” Qin Zhilu turned to look at him, “Absolute will, combined with absolute immunity to infection, means you’ve achieved an unbreakable order.”

An Yu felt somewhat bewildered. He felt that although the Commander was looking at him, he wasn’t making direct eye contact but rather seemed to be intently staring into his eyes.

He also saw the reflection of his golden eyes in the glass window across from them.

As he looked at it, his eyes stared back.

“Hm?” Qin Zhilu sensed something was wrong and looked back.

Behind the spotless glass window, wooden bread racks were neatly arranged. Baskets of bread were placed on the racks, with rustic and hearty rye sticks, cute milk buns resembling snowballs, golden puff pastries layered with jam, and fried sweet rings drizzled with cocoa syrup.

A sign behind the window read, “Store for Sale.”

While An Yu was still dazed, Qin Zhilu had already turned around and pushed open the cozy wooden door with his leather globes.

The crisp sound of a bell rang.

“Hello. I want to ask about the price.”

The female owner was, nearly fifty, with a slightly plump figure, and a gentle smile.

“This store is for sale, not for rent, and only to someone who will continue running it as a bakery. 90 million in one lump sum, and it includes all the equipment.”

An Yu was stunned, “90 million?”

90 million could buy half of District 53.

But Qin Zhilu said, “It’s not expensive.”

“Indeed, commercial property prices are different from residential ones. This is the city center, near the core business district, so there’s no shortage of customers during the day. Look, the military provisory headquarter is just five kilometers south. The soldiers like to run at night for extra training, they run all the way from the camp to my place and buy up all the bread.” The owner laughed heartily, “They really eat a lot. Our bakers have to start preparing the evening batch right after lunch, otherwise, we can’t keep up with their appetite.”

“The military…”

An Yu’s gaze suddenly fell on the wall covered with photos of customers. Over a dozen of them were young people in military uniforms.

In the upper right corner, he unexpectedly saw Ling Qiu.

Wearing a faded black tank top tucked into his military pants, he was in the middle of the crowd, holding a partly eaten rye stick, his cheeks puffed out, and smiling at the camera.

The owner sighed, “As long as there’s bread, there’s hope. If my health were better, I wouldn’t be selling this place.”

An Yu felt his heart race.

“Can you lower the price a bit?” he heard himself ask softly.

The owner asked, “How much do you have?”

“Fifty-five million.”

The owner’s smile remained warm as she kindly showed them out.

Back at the Spire, An Yu carefully counted the supplies he brought back from District 53.

The bread he had seized from the Resource Station was all neatly frozen in the small freezer, the two supplements from Bo were quietly placed on the bedside table, and there was also the torn prison uniform.

He fished out half a tentacle from the pocket of the prison uniform and breathed a sigh of relief. He had intentionally left it uneaten, planning to give it to Jiang Xiao as a “Qin Zhilu souvenir” to ease the tension between them.

After taking a shower, An Yu opened the battle achievement points shop.

He wasn’t swayed by high-damage weapons, top-quality ingredients, or artworks. He went straight to what he needed and chose two essentials for himself.

First, he selected the cheapest hoodie from the outerwear section. It had a large hood that could completely cover his head and face, perfect for someone with social anxiety.

The hoodie cost only 199 points, and adding any color would cost an extra 150. An Yu skipped the coloring step without hesitation, keeping the default pure white option.

The second item was high-tech bandages described as: [Able to block most blades — even if cut, the unique material quickly creates surface tension, perfectly connecting the wound beneath the bandage. You can say goodbye to the risk of bleeding to death. It’s like wearable gear, reusable and washable. Two pieces per box.”

A box cost 3,999 points, a price so high it made An Yu feel guilty. He hesitated several times but finally gritted his teeth and made the purchase, recalling the moment when a sharp frog tongue whipped towards his neck from a hundred meters away.

A total of 4,198 points were spent, leaving a balance of 55,894,073 points. To buy the bakery, he still needed more than 34 million points.

The mission to District 53 earned him about a million points, meaning he would need to complete 35 more missions of the same difficulty to save enough money.

An Yu was in a daze holding the terminal, mentally calculating this over and over.

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An Yu’s eyes lit up: Can the apartment you promised be exchanged for the bakery?

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– No. The promised reward is fixed.

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– Not possible.

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– The price is relatively low, so consider it as soon as possible.

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Yet, the bright bakery, the scent of flour in the baskets, and Ling Qiu’s cheerful smile all held a great allure for him.

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An Yu discovered he could see his friends’ “Moments,” which were different from publicly available profile updates. Moments could only be viewed by mutual friends.

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@Grape: Writing reports for District 53 missions is indeed a tough job that should be left to the Commanders. We plants can’t handle it.

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The photo was taken from the top of the Spire, showing the grand and peaceful Main City under the night sky, and the center of the composition happened to be the church.

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On the day they returned to Main City, Zhu Tao was completely exhausted. The pride of being the Spire’s top healer made him bitter about not being able to heal An Yu at the last moment, and he shut himself in his room, sulking.

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That post received comments from all the high-level officers, even Qin Zhilu replied with a “Congratulations.”

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The upper floors of the Spire seemed much warmer than what the outside world perceived.

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Qin Zhilu’s profile picture was a deep black, and his account was created ten years ago in May 2138. Since its creation, he had only posted twice.

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While he was lost in thought, there was a sudden knock at the door. The door wasn’t fully closed and slid open from the latch, revealing Qin Zhilu standing outside.

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“I haven’t decided yet…” An Yu hesitated. “Can I have more time to think about it?”

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In a year, the bakery should have a considerable income.

An Yu’s eyes brightened. “What about the interest and the deadline?”

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After sleeping for a few days, his control wasn’t perfect, and he was a little unskilled.

As a result, he almost ended up nose-to-nose with the Commander.

Qin Zhilu was silent for a moment. “Actually, you could have just answered verbally.”

“…Oh.”

An Yu took a step back, trying to be as polite as possible. “I can still use my abilities actively, but there are some limitations. For example, after that teleportation, I feel a bit hungry, and…”

He paused with a guilty conscience, “I kind of want to fall asleep right here.”

However, he realized Qin Zhilu wasn’t listening to him at all. Instead, the commander was frowning at the floor.

An Yu followed his gaze—lying on the ground was half a blackened octopus tentacle.

Qin Zhilu’s expression was very complicated.

“You didn’t finish it and brought it back?” He paused.

“It might not be very fresh anymore. Maybe you should throw it away?”

An Yu immediately picked up the tentacle and put it back in his pocket. “I want to keep it.” He looked warily at Qin Zhilu. “I’m going to keep it forever.”

Qin Zhilu was taken aback. “Keep it forever?”

“It’s very important. My future sense of security depends on it.”

An Yu covered his pocket. “Can I keep it?”

He looked righteous and sincere, completely unlike someone who liked collecting mutated body parts of his Commander.

The next morning, An Yu finally decided to accept the loan to buy the bakery and planned to find the Commander to sign a written agreement.

As soon as he opened the door, he found a huge black box on the ground. He lifted the lid and was puzzled by what he saw inside.

—It was a black octopus plush toy, half as tall as a person, with a dozen soft tentacles bundled up inside the box.

Confused, he lifted the plush toy out of the box. The tentacles naturally drooped and lightly brushed against him. It was hard to tell if he was hugging the octopus or if the octopus was hugging him.

An Yu searched for the product code in the Spire’s mall and found it—[Octopus-shaped Sleep Aid Toy made with 1800 strands of long-staple cotton using traditional weaving techniques for a top-tier skin-friendly feel. The soft, adorable octopus smile is meant to relax both body and mind, and the black color is designed to blend perfectly into the night. The gentle, delicate tentacles wrap around you, helping you sleep peacefully. Price: 12,999 points (can be re-sold for 30% of its price)]

An Yu’s puzzled golden eyes lit up instantly upon seeing the price.

Qin Zhilu came out from the next door and paused slightly. “This is a small gift for completing the mission. If you don’t like it…”

“I like it.”

12,999 points, reselling it would net 9,099 points.

An Yu hugged the octopus tighter. “Thank you, sir. It’s mine now.”

[Loose Pages from an Useless Book] 16 Grapes and Bo

The high-level juniors of the Spire have quite a bad record.

They often do things they shouldn’t, and most of the time, they have their Commander’s backing.

For instance, Grape is envious of human society, so Wind takes him to wander unmanned supermarkets and midnight amusement park every few nights.

In this regard, High Peak can only turn a blind eye to this.

Bo longs even more than Grape to return to human society.

But he is too aloof. Because it’s explicitly forbidden, he never steps out of line.

When he’s sad, he runs alone to a narrow little window at the top of the Spire, longingly gazing at his old school.

Every once in a while, the logistics team finds several rows of empty soda cans up there.

Bo rarely reveals his emotions directly.

Whenever Xi De detects his mood swings, he takes him to the beach to set off fireworks.

Even though everyone thought Bo doesn’t enjoy such childish activities, they have to admit that the blazing fireworks reflected in his eyes looked particularly beautiful.

It seemed to light up that child’s lonely eyes.

“Sorrow is hushed into peace in my heart like the evening among the silent trees. — Tagore, “Stray Birds”

M1zushi: author references the book “Stray Bird”

Some notable quotes from it:

“THINGS look phantastic in this dimness of the dusk–the spires whose bases are lost in the dark and tree tops like blots of ink. I shall wait for the morning and wake up to see thy city in the light.”

“Let him only see the thorns who has eyes to see the rose.”