Gu Wanyin thanked Long Yu again, but Long Yu shook her head and said, "You've done me a great favor. Anything I do for you is only right. I merely gave you a gift, there's no need to thank me at all."
After saying this, she smiled at Gu Wanyin once more before leaving.
Gu Wanyin took the box, closed the door, and returned to her room. She sighed to the system, "They're really too grateful! I didn't think much of it when I saved Nine-Tails and the others."
"This is quite good," the system said. "If you ever need anything in the future, the demon realm will be your backup. Plus, the jewelry the Demon King gave you is bound to be very useful."
"System, you're my real backup," Gu Wanyin said as she put away the jewelry box.
"Host, I'm so touched by what you said, but..."
The system trailed off at this point.
Gu Wanyin felt something was off and asked, "But what?"
"It's nothing."
"No, you're definitely hiding something from me," Gu Wanyin said with a frown. "System, we're in this together. Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"Actually... I haven't heard from my doctor in a long time," the system said. "The interstellar side hasn't told me what's going on either, and 066 is working with its doctor to put pressure on me... Although I can still hold out for now, I feel like something's not right."
Gu Wanyin hadn't expected this.
"Don't worry," Gu Wanyin reassured it. "No matter what happens, I'll be with you. Besides, since I've consistently ranked first several times, I should have some say even on the interstellar side, right?"
"Of course," the system said with a hint of pride. "They really treasure you over there now."
"Then there's no problem," Gu Wanyin said with a smile. "Trust me, even if something does happen in the future, no matter how many difficulties we face, we'll face them together."
"Wuwuwu, Host, you're so good to me."
"Stop crying, you're giving me a headache."
...
Despite this conversation, Gu Wanyin and the system lived quite peacefully for the next period of time.
About three months passed, during which Gu Wanyin promoted her business in several more cities and brought back some clients.
She also completed tasks such as receiving fifty clients at the massage parlor, filling up the special building, bringing back one hundred clients from other cities, and so on. Along with the rewards from ranking first twice more, the hotel now had twenty-two main buildings and three special buildings.
It looked like a small community.
As the hotel grew larger and the number of guests increased, the four service staff couldn't keep up. Plus, there was a task to recruit more staff, so Gu Wanyin hired six more.
She carefully selected them, both men and women. Although they had different personalities, none were troublemakers. They all strictly followed hotel rules, worked diligently, and tried to outdo each other in their efforts.
One day, Gu Wanyin flew her plane to the distant E City, a journey that took over four hours.
Following the usual procedure, she played advertisements for the onlooking crowd, introduced the hotel, and let those willing to come with her exchange points for transportation cards before boarding the plane.
E City didn't have many survivor bases, but they were better managed than in other places.
As a result, although many people were very interested in the hotel, they didn't dare take the risk.
They were different from the people in L City. The living conditions in L City were so terrible that most people had almost lost hope, making their lives too painful, so they were willing to take a gamble.
But the people in E City thought that they could manage to get by in their survivor base. Although they still had to face zombies and natural disasters, they might struggle through and survive.
If they got on the plane with Gu Wanyin and it turned out to be a trap, what would they do then?
The hotel sounded so magical that they longed for it, but it also seemed too incredible to be true...
In the end, only about twenty people boarded the plane with Gu Wanyin.
Gu Wanyin continued her promotion for a while longer, but seeing no one else come, she prepared to wrap things up.
There was nothing she could do if these people didn't believe her. She couldn't very well tie them up and force them onto the plane.
Just as Gu Wanyin was about to board, she suddenly heard a man's voice.
"Wait for me, wait for me!"
Gu Wanyin turned to see a tall man running towards her.
The man's clothes were tattered, and he wore a dirty eye patch over his right eye.
He quickly ran up to Gu Wanyin and grinned, "I want to go to your hotel too."
"Sure," Gu Wanyin smiled and took out the machine to exchange points. "Do you have any crystal cores or other items to exchange for points?"
"Yes!"
The man promptly took out a level one crystal core, exchanged it for a thousand points, and got a transportation card.
Gu Wanyin saw that the name on his card was: Wu San.
A very common name.
She didn't pay much attention to it and led the man onto the plane.
Seeing that the guests had found their seats, she went to the cockpit.
Wu San kept his eyes fixed on her back, his gaze full of scrutiny.
After another four-hour flight, the plane landed at the airport near the hotel.
The guests quickly disembarked.
Wu San was the last to leave, getting off the plane with Gu Wanyin.
He deliberately walked behind her.
Seeing that Gu Wanyin never looked back, he pulled out a short knife from his sleeve.
But as he held the knife, he felt some kind of resistance preventing him from getting even an inch closer to Gu Wanyin.
This was truly bizarre!
Wu San's face turned red with anger, but he forced himself to calm down and put the knife away.
No, he couldn't be as rash as before.
He had suffered so much over this period, endured countless hardships, and nearly died several times before finally getting this chance...
He had to keep his cool!
...
Back at the hotel, Gu Wanyin had the staff check in the guests, then retired to her room to rest.
Wu San stood in line, waiting to check in while surveying the hotel lobby.
It was amazing! He never thought he'd see such a nice place in the apocalypse!
Compared to this, the base he used to live in... heh, it was nothing at all!
But how had that girl managed to keep this hotel running for so long, with so many buildings and resources? Hadn't anyone tried to take it from her by force?
In the past, Wu San wouldn't have thought about these things. He always solved problems with violence.
But after the hardships of the past few months, and the strange incident just now, he had no choice but to use his brain.
That Manager Gu was clearly no simple character. If he acted rashly, he might fail again.
He needed to think this through carefully...
