However, he discovered that he couldn't tear open the packaging!
Even if he was too hungry to have much strength, he shouldn't be unable to open a simple bread wrapper!
He tried tearing it forcefully for a while, and even considered biting it open, but just as he was about to bring the bread to his mouth, he suddenly jerked as if electrocuted, and the bread fell to the ground!
"What are you doing?" someone nearby frowned and said, "Just exchange some items for points and buy the bread properly! You obviously can't eat it without paying points."
"I refuse to believe this nonsense!" the man roared, his eyes growing redder. He bent down to grab the bread from the floor and then dashed towards the supermarket exit!
And indeed, he managed to run outside the supermarket without any hindrance.
The man's heart leapt with joy, thinking this lousy supermarket wasn't all that special after all, and wondering why those people were queuing up to pay.
But when he looked down, he found the bread was gone from his hand.
His pupils constricted as he looked left and right, but it wasn't on the ground either! It was nowhere to be found!
The people in the supermarket burst into laughter at the sight.
"We told you to exchange points and pay properly, but you wouldn't listen," someone mocked, "Did you think you could get it for free? Keep dreaming!"
The man's face turned red with embarrassment. He gritted his teeth and went back into the supermarket.
This time, he wasn't as impulsive as before. He first glanced at the store rules, then at Gu Wanyin sitting at the checkout counter.
Then, he picked up another loaf of bread and went to the back of the queue to wait his turn.
Everyone was efficient, quickly exchanging points and completing their transactions. When it was the man's turn, he rummaged in his pockets and pulled out a pen.
He placed the pen on the machine, which quickly exchanged it for a shopping card with eight points.
"Not enough," Gu Wanyin said flatly. "One loaf of bread costs ten points. You can exchange something else for more points."
"I don't have anything else!" the man exclaimed.
Someone nearby suggested, "If you're really stuck, you could take off your jacket and exchange it for points."
"If I take off my jacket, what will I do when it's cold?" the man shouted angrily, "Are you going to give me your clothes to wear?"
The person who suggested it stepped back, startled by the outburst. "It was just a suggestion. If you don't want to, then don't. Why are you yelling? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!"
The man turned back to Gu Wanyin, gritting his teeth, "It's just two points short, can't you make an exception?"
"No," Gu Wanyin replied, "Those are the supermarket's rules."
"To hell with your rules! Are you going to watch me starve to death? With all this food around, you're quibbling over a point or two. You're a vicious woman! I've had enough of this. I'm buying this with eight points whether you like it or not!"
With that, the man tossed the shopping card towards Gu Wanyin and rushed out with the bread.
As soon as he bolted out of the supermarket, he vanished from everyone's sight.
And the loaf of bread reappeared, intact, back on the shelf.
The onlookers exchanged bewildered glances. Someone asked, "Where did he go?"
"He must have been punished for not following the rules! What a fool."
"Hasn't he heard about what happened at the Peace Hotel?"
"He looked unfamiliar. He must be new to our area."
"Didn't he think that if people could just take food from the supermarket as they pleased, how could the order here be maintained?"
"Just stupid! Who knows how he's survived the apocalypse for so long."
After a brief discussion, the crowd dispersed, some returning to selecting food, others to checking out.
"They even have snow cakes and rice crackers! My goodness, I don't know how long I've been craving these. I thought I'd never eat them again in my life!"
"They have everything, even self-heating hotpots!"
"I'm about to cry. I've been longing for hotpot. I'd be grateful just to have a self-heating one."
"You don't know the half of it! I heard that in the Peace Hotel, there's a hotpot restaurant! The hotpot there is just like before the apocalypse, and it tastes amazing!"
"Not just hotpot, they also have barbecue, rice noodles, and spicy snail noodles!"
"Really? I only heard it could keep zombies at bay. I didn't know they had so many restaurants!"
"That's not all. There's probably a lot more we haven't heard about. Manager Gu said they're about to open a second building soon. I'm planning to finish buying food and then camp out near the Peace Hotel. I can't miss out on a room!"
"I'm coming too!"
...
The supermarket operated 24 hours a day.
However, Gu Wanyin certainly wouldn't stay there all the time. Around 8 PM, she drove back to the hotel.
Cola and Hamburger had already finished their dinner and were doing their homework.
Xu Shi informed her that the newly unlocked luxury presidential suites were also fully occupied.
Although they were more expensive than other room types, they were spacious and luxurious, as well as safe and clean. So despite the higher price, they were in high demand.
When Gu Wanyin first returned to the hotel, she noticed quite a few people around the hotel.
Some had even set up tents.
They were clearly waiting for rooms to become available in the hotel.
However, people beyond the 200-meter radius of the hotel had to be prepared to face zombies and natural disasters at any moment...
It could be described as high risk, high reward.
Gu Wanyin returned to her room, and French Fries immediately pounced on her, meowing and rubbing its head against her.
Her heart melted, and she hugged French Fries, giving it a thorough petting.
Before going to bed that night, Gu Wanyin heard the system's voice.
"Ding! Congratulations, host. Task completed. Rewards unlocked: Hotel Building No. 2; all rooms on the second floor of Hotel Building No. 2; current hotel building is now Building No. 1, all rooms on the 10th floor of Building No. 1 upgraded once; Internet cafe and all its facilities unlocked; bar and all related facilities and ingredients unlocked; public swimming pool and related facilities unlocked; zombie-killing simulation training camp unlocked."
It was only the first day, and already a hundred people had made purchases in the supermarket.
This was to be expected.
Although the number of survivors was incomparable to the human population before the apocalypse, she had promoted in two bases, so most people from those bases would likely come. Plus, people passing by would also check out the supermarket.
For anyone with items to exchange for points, once they entered the supermarket, how could they resist buying something?
...
The next morning, after discussing with the system, Gu Wanyin slightly increased the prices of certain items in the hotel.
Products costing five points or less had their prices doubled.
This meant that bread and instant noodles, which originally cost one point, now cost two, and other items increased similarly.
Products costing between six and thirty points had their prices multiplied by 1.5.
More expensive items remained unchanged for now.
Then, the system broadcast an announcement in the hotel about the price increases for certain items.
