Chapter 180: Chapter 180: Winning a Bright Future

"But before that mutant beast crawled out of Fang Peng, he’d never killed anyone or drank any blood."

After saying this, Shen Lu nodded, sure of herself. "That’s right. He never drank any blood."

Fang Peng had only ever hurt Mrs. Fang, and he was quickly subdued and tied up by Wang Daguo. He only escaped the Fang family’s home on the day he broke free from the steel ropes.

During the few hours of his escape, Shen Lu was also certain Fang Peng hadn’t hurt anyone, because when they caught him, there were no fresh bloodstains on his body.

The rest goes without saying. After just one night, things went wrong the very next day.

Fu Cheng paused, his gaze turning serious: Are you sure he never drank any blood?

"I’ll stake my reputation on it. He didn’t." Shen Lu stroked her chin. "Could it be that the mutant beast inside him was some kind of prodigy? That it skipped its infancy and went straight to its growth stage the moment it emerged?"

Fu Cheng: Impossible.

’How could it reach its growth stage right after being born?’

Fu Cheng frowned, then he remembered something else.

Fu Cheng: That morning, didn’t you have Ye Fan feed Fang Peng something?

"I think so. I had Ye Fan feed him a bowl of noodles."

’Back then, I didn’t know there was a mutant beast inside Fang Peng. I just treated him like a patient who’d been poisoned. After catching the guy, giving him a meal wasn’t going too far, was it?’

A flash of inspiration struck. Just before Fu Cheng could send his message, Shen Lu exclaimed, "Don’t tell me... it was because of that bowl of noodles?!"

Seeing that she had figured it out, Fu Cheng deleted the message he was typing.

"A bowl of noodles... has that much power?" Shen Lu was bewildered. "I only knew the food from my shop was nutritious, but this is a little too much, isn’t it?"

Fu Cheng stared at Shen Lu for a few seconds before slowly typing out a few words.

Fu Cheng: You only know your food is nutritious?

"Yeah, and only because Sister Cai told me." Shen Lu smiled sheepishly. "Didn’t Xiao Lang fail to awaken his powers because of malnutrition before? He almost died and had to get injections at the clinic for days. But then he started eating my food every day, and his nutritional levels slowly recovered. It got to the point where Doctor Xiao kept pestering Sister Cai, asking what she’d been feeding Xiao Lang to make him recover so well."

Fu Cheng sighed in resignation.

’He didn’t know whether to call her lucky or just incredibly oblivious. After all this time, she had absolutely no idea how magical the things she sold were.’

Fu Cheng: Shen Lu, the food from your shop isn’t just nutritious. It also has a calming and healing effect on the Spiritual Sea. Do you have any idea how precious that is to a Superpower User?

Shen Lu’s eyes widened in an instant, her face a mask of utter astonishment.

"A c-calming and healing effect on the Spiritual Sea? Are you sure you’re talking about my food?"

Fu Cheng: I’m sure of it. The fact that I’m recovering now is also thanks to you.

In that instant, a lot of things suddenly clicked into place for Shen Lu.

’No wonder when she first met Xue Can, he attacked her after drinking the mint water, demanding to know where it came from.’

’And the Bai Family Siblings, who would run to the Lower City District to buy her food whenever they had free time.’

’So, any Superpower User who has eaten her food knows it has a calming effect on the Spiritual Sea, right?’

Shen Lu’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

’This was not good!’

’Right now, her shop was in the Lower City District, and most Superpower Users lived in the Upper City District, so for the time being, only a small number of them knew about this.’

’But as long as she kept the shop open, word would eventually get out!’

’As the old saying goes, "Humans die for wealth as birds die for food." There was no telling how many people would covet her food then. Worse, the leadership of the Imperial Capital Survival Base might even take action.’

’Things like human rights were basically nonexistent in this world. Unless you had absolute status and power, you were just a pawn at the mercy of others.’

’The thought of being locked in a dark room in the near future, forced to cook day and night, made Shen Lu’s heart sink further and further.’

Shen Lu complained to the system, "I’m just an ordinary person! I definitely don’t have the ability to turn normal food into some miracle cure. The problem must be with the ingredients you’re providing."

The system felt wronged.

[Host, our system has absolutely not added anything to the ingredients that shouldn’t be there. Our ingredients are all-natural, pollution-free, and highly nutritious. We simply want to provide our Host with the best ingredients possible.]

[Furthermore, I have a personal opinion on the matter. Perhaps it’s because the things in this world are too impure? The food people eat contains too many impurities and harmful substances that accumulate in the body, which could certainly lead to all sorts of problems.]

The system was earnestly trying to clear its name. It was a respectable system, after all; it wouldn’t engage in any shady business!

Shen Lu thought it over and felt the system had a point.

’But even if it had a point, that didn’t solve her problem.’

Shen Lu: "This shop... this mission... can I just quit?"

Her face scrunched up in distress. "If I keep this up, I’m afraid I’ll lose my freedom."

[Don’t be afraid, Host! You’re quite safe right now, aren’t you? Just work hard on your missions, save up Lottery Tickets, and try to get the shop’s defense level up to ten as soon as possible. When that happens, forget about the entire Imperial City’s army coming to get you—even if the whole planet exploded, your shop would be perfectly fine!]

[And as the owner of this shop, you just have to stay inside to be completely safe and sound, free from any harm.]

[Hearing that, aren’t you feeling more motivated?]

[Come on, Host! Let’s charge forward together!]

Shen Lu: _(:з」∠)_

’So after all that, it still comes down to relying on the luck of the draw.’

’What if she couldn’t get the shop’s defense level up to ten before those people with malicious intent came to grab her?’

’Would she have no choice but to be captured and turned into a slave cook?’

Shen Lu cried two thick streams of tears in her heart.

But after calming down and thinking about it, she realized her only option was to keep moving forward.

’After all, if she retreated now, with her current abilities, she probably wouldn’t survive the cataclysm a few years down the line anyway.’

’But if she tested her luck, she might just win herself a bright future.’

Fu Cheng watched her, silent, her little face all scrunched up. In just one minute, she had sighed eighteen times.

’She was just a seventeen-year-old girl, after all. What he said must have made her think of other things; otherwise, she wouldn’t look so worried.’

’Besides being worried, she must be scared too, right?’

Fu Cheng lifted his hand and placed it on the back of Shen Lu’s. He struggled to force two words from his throat: "Don’t... be afraid."

’If the day ever came when things spun out of control, anyone who wanted to harm Shen Lu would have to get through him first—over his dead body.’

A resolute look flashed in the man’s eyes. Never before had he felt such a powerful desire to protect someone.

Shen Lu composed herself, bit her lip, and nodded. "I know being scared is useless. I’ll think of a way to cover this up."

’For example, she could mix in some local ingredients to reduce the proportion of the system’s ingredients. That should dilute the calming effect on the Spiritual Sea quite a bit.’

’Shen Lu was suddenly reminded of the time she went to the Bai family’s home to cook a feast. Thank goodness she hadn’t given in to Bai Lei’s request to bring her own ingredients. Otherwise, she’d probably already be locked away in a dark room by now.’

Shen Lu shivered violently, feeling as though she had just narrowly escaped a disaster.

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