Chapter 7

Luosi was an adventurer in No. 7 Wandering Town. He usually handled supplies for his team, and he was also the one responsible for cooking and healing.

Recently, news of a shop called "Keke Shop" had spread throughout the entire town of No. 7 Wandering Town.

Even the great Town Leader Mo Duoya had personally come out to recommend it to everyone, only fueling everyone's curiosity about the shop.

Today happened to be the shop's official opening day, but the team had taken on a quest, so the captain assigned the task of purchasing supplies to Luosi alone.

Luosi watched his teammates leave for the Adventure Forest. After tidying up, he grabbed a pouch of gold coins and headed for Keke Shop.

The prices at shops like this were generally not cheap, and he'd heard that the owner was a powerful witch. The goods she sold were said to be unavailable even in the imperial capital—specialties unique to her little shop.

Luosi had no doubt about this, after all, the one who said it was Lord Laiensi from the potion shop.

When Luosi arrived at Keke Shop, he noticed some familiar adventurers lingering nearby. But they were all milling about, none of them daring to step inside.

The door of the little wooden house was wide open. Luosi gritted his teeth and walked in.

"Welcome!"

The moment he stepped inside, Luosi was startled by the voice. He followed the sound and saw the black-haired witch sitting there, smiling at him.

"!" In an instant, Luosi's hair stood on end as he frantically reviewed whether he'd done anything impolite.

After all, this was the witch who had disappeared for so long—rumored to be powerful, mysterious, and extremely vindictive.

Rao Ke, on the other hand, was extremely excited. After all, Luosi was the first customer to enter Keke Shop since it officially opened.

Last night, she'd dreamed that the moment she opened the door, a sea of customers surged in, trampling her into a pancake while Sesame Paste wailed and sobbed over her body.

She'd woken up covered in sweat, only to find Sesame Paste and a fluffy little wolf cub lying on top of her.

Rao Ke, sore all over: ...

Well, as they say, dreams are the opposite of reality. Watching the customers outside wandering back and forth with feigned nonchalance, their eyes glued to the little wooden house but none of them daring to step in, Rao Ke had almost gone out to drag people in herself. That was when Luosi gritted his teeth and walked in.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Seeing the silent man in the burlap robe across from her, Rao Ke asked first.

"Feel free to browse on your own and grab a basket if you'd like," Rao Ke said, pointing to the wooden baskets at the door.

"Is there anything that's filling and easy to carry?" Luosi relaxed a bit seeing how gentle Rao Ke's attitude was.

Rao Ke thought for a moment, then came out from behind the counter and led Luosi to the wooden shelves. She introduced him to instant noodles, hot pot base, and canned luncheon meat, explaining how to prepare each one.

"Alright, thank you, shopkeeper. I'll take twenty packs of instant noodles, twenty cans of luncheon meat, and five packs of each hot pot base." Luosi had expected the prices to be steep, but looking them over, they weren't bad—hovering around five silver coins.

"Shopkeeper, are you sure the prices are right?" Luosi couldn't help but ask despite himself.

Rao Ke glanced at him, then smiled and said, "They're right."

Afraid the otherworldly customers might be hesitant to try cola, Rao Ke had prepared a few bottles next to the shelf for sampling.

Rao Ke poured a cup into a small paper cup and handed it to Luosi.

Luosi stared at the pitch-black, bubbling drink and fell silent. It looked a bit like a witch's potion—though he wasn't sure if it had frog legs and pig eyes mixed in.

Seeing the hopeful look in the black-haired witch's eyes, Luosi gritted his teeth and downed the cup.

The black fizzy drink flowed down his throat, and as the bubbles burst in his mouth, Luosi felt himself jolt fully awake.

His eyes lit up immediately, and without hesitation, he ordered twenty cans.

After that, Luosi followed Rao Ke around the entire shop, buying a bit of almost everything. He then happily went to the counter with Rao Ke to check out.

"Welcome back anytime!"

After paying, Rao Ke watched Luosi leave with his arms full of bags.

The moment he stepped out of the shop, Luosi suddenly felt a wave of warmth. He guessed the shop must have a magic formation inside that regulated the temperature.

Truly a great mage, Luosi marveled, and then he was surrounded by the others.

"Luosi, is there really a witch in there?"

"Luosi, are the things inside expensive?"

...

Luosi patiently answered their questions one by one. After everyone thanked him, they filed cautiously into Keke Shop one after another.

Luosi, meanwhile, was satisfied with his haul and hurried home with the bags in tow.

After Luosi left, Rao Ke waited a moment, and then a large wave of customers came flooding in. She got busy again.

Because most of the items were unfamiliar to the customers, Rao Ke ended up explaining things until she was parched.

After finally seeing off the last customer, Rao Ke hurriedly closed the door and flipped the sign to "Closed."

She went up to the living room on the second floor and flopped down onto the sofa. Sesame Paste fetched a bottle of water and handed it to her.

Rao Ke downed the entire bottle in one go.

"This won't do. Sesame Paste, can you look through the Great Compendium of Magic to see if there's a spell that can auto-introduce products?" Rao Ke could feel that her throat would be hoarse by tomorrow, especially since she had the afternoon shift.

Hearing this, Sesame Paste told Xue Qiu to bring over the Great Compendium of Magic.

Xue Qiu was a little wolf about three months old. Its fur was snow-white and soft, with a delicate blue snowflake pattern on its forehead and a pair of blue puppy-dog eyes that were absolutely adorable.

Cute as it was, Xue Qiu would grow into a powerful Frost Heaven Wolf in adulthood, though for now it just looked like a little white pup.

Xue Qiu had been brought back from the Adventure Forest by Sesame Paste yesterday.

According to Sesame Paste, Xue Qiu's mother had been in a fight with a Giant Forest Python. The python had ambushed her and bitten her neck. In her dying moments, she handed Xue Qiu over to Sesame Paste so it could survive.

Rao Ke figured the shop wouldn't mind one more dog... well, wolf, and besides, Xue Qiu was really cute. So she decided to let it stay.

She'd expected the little wolf to be wary after losing its mother, but Xue Qiu had taken to Rao Ke immediately.

It acted like it owned the place. Last night, when it saw Sesame Paste hop onto Rao Ke's body, it crawled up too, giving Rao Ke nightmares all night.

Now, seeing Rao Ke come upstairs, Xue Qiu, who had been playing with a ball in the corner, immediately whimpered and trotted over with its favorite little yellow ball, dropping it at Rao Ke's feet to play.

Rao Ke bent down to pet Xue Qiu. All the toys Xue Qiu had now were the ones she'd originally bought for Sesame Paste, but Sesame Paste had never shown any interest in them—it was all about the game console and cola.

"You can't use any of these anyway. I'll just go ask the next-door tech system for two simple service robots." After flipping through the entire book, Sesame Paste found that any usable spells were far beyond Rao Ke's current skill level, so it just decided to go get something useful from the neighbor instead.

As soon as it finished speaking, a rift tore open in the air, and a package dropped out.

"Whoa, that's amazing, Sesame Paste!" Rao Ke looked at it with admiration.

Beside her, Xue Qiu imitated Rao Ke, staring at Sesame Paste with its big, shiny doggy eyes.

Sesame Paste puffed out its little belly proudly. "It's nothing. After this, cola's on the house for me, right?"

"Isn't it already on the house?" Rao Ke muttered under her breath, then smiled and agreed anyway. "So, do we need to pay it back or something?"

Sesame Paste waved a paw. "No need. It lost to me at cards so many times. Two robots is already letting it off easy."

"And if we need more robots later, we can get them from it. Its host's inventions are pretty decent."

Rao Ke took out a knife and unpacked the two robots. One was white, one was black. They were about a meter tall, boxy in shape, but with smooth, rounded lines.

At the top was a rotating black-screen head, with short little limbs below.

She powered them on, and the black screen of their heads immediately displayed two round, glowing blue eyes that looked incredibly cute.

"You'll be called Heitang, and you'll be Baitang."

Looking at the two square little robots, those names popped into her head unbeknownst to her.

"Got it, thank you, Master~"

Both Baitang's and Heitang's blue bean-shaped eyes curved into smiling eyes.

Meanwhile, Luosi had made it home with three big bags. He put everything away first, then started preparing lunch. The teammates would probably be back soon.

Luosi planned to try the instant noodles for lunch, and the hot pot for dinner.

The team had five people total, so Luosi took out five packs of noodles, two cans of luncheon meat, five eggs from gugu chickens, and some wild vegetables.

When the other four members of the team trudged home, exhausted and starving, they were greeted by an incredibly rich aroma.

"Who's cooking something that smells this good?" Captain Hongci sniffed the air, feeling a bit hungry.

"No idea. Hurry up and get back—Luosi probably has dinner ready by now," Lulushi said, also surprised. She hadn't heard of anyone with that level of cooking skill moving in nearby.

The four of them hurried home, only to find that the closer they got, the stronger the aroma in the air became.

They exchanged glances, a thought forming in their minds, and quickened their pace.

"This is from that Keke Shop."

"Yeah, it's really cheap. You just cook it like this, super easy!"

...

When the four reached the front door, they saw that the house was surrounded by neighbors, packed so tightly they couldn't move. In the middle, Luosi's voice could be heard endlessly explaining.

"Make way, make way!"

As soon as Hongci spoke, the neighbors who had been badgering Luosi scattered in fear. Nobody wanted to provoke that crazy woman.

Having gotten their answers anyway, the neighbors planned to rush over to Keke Shop right away to buy that delicacy called "instant noodles."

After driving off those annoying neighbors, Luosi let out a sigh of relief.

"Honestly, Luosi, you're too soft-hearted." Hongci looked at Luosi's gentle smile and sighed, then perked up again. "What did you cook that smells so good? We were gone for just one day—did the Food God bless you or something?"

"No, it's instant noodles from Keke Shop," Luosi explained with a smile.

"Smells amazing! Come on, let's eat!" Hongci practically bounded inside.

Luosi exchanged smiles with the other three, shaking their heads.

"Oh, by the way, the shopkeeper said it tastes even better with iced cola. Lulushi, could you chill these?" Luosi grabbed five bottles of cola and shoved them into Lulushi's arms.

Lulushi fixed her bright blue eyes on Luosi for a moment, then obediently began to chill the cola.

"Everyone, dig in!" Hongci ladled the noodles into five bowls and was already happily eating from her own.

Hongci had always been willing to splurge on good food. Back in the royal capital, she used to visit the most popular restaurant every week to taste their signature magically-enhanced beast steak, which cost a whopping five hundred gold coins a serving.

Since following the Seventh Princess to this little town, Hongci hadn't enjoyed any fine dining. But right now, she felt she'd made the right choice—how else would she have stumbled upon such exquisite food?

The other four also ate with their heads down, not looking up, and with the iced cola to wash it down, they felt like they'd died and gone to heaven.

"Let's try the hot pot tonight. The shopkeeper recommended that too—she said it's just as delicious as the instant noodles!"