Chapter 102 - 97: New Safe Zone, New Experience

Chapter 102: Chapter 97: New Safe Zone, New Experience

"The Safe Zone has really expanded quite a bit this time!" Shi An reached out and tore open a blue Space Gate. He stepped through the Space Gate and returned to his loyal Safe Zone. However, this time he chose to land outside the shop rather than in the Manager’s Office.

The outside of the shop was not barren; it resembled a garden. Cyan bricks were laid from the shop’s entrance, winding their way outward. A babbling brook flowed past, spanned by an arched bridge. Flower beds were planted at the outermost edge of this area, enclosing the entire Safe Zone like a fence. Further out was the dense, lingering white fog that he used to see when looking outside from within the shop—a fog that somehow brought an ultimate sense of security.

Shi An pushed the door open and entered. The interior of the shop hadn’t changed much compared to before. Now that the Safe Zone’s population was increasing so rapidly, the size of this shop felt a bit small. Fortunately, it could still be expanded. Even if he temporarily lacked the Belief Value to expand it, well, he could always set up more tables and chairs in the small garden outside.

With these thoughts in mind, Shi An completed a lap around the main body of the Safe Zone. The good news was that the Manager’s Office, the tool room, and the storage room had all expanded. His Manager’s Office was no longer as cramped as before. Other than that, Shi An walked through the corridor and arrived at the adjacent employee dormitory area.

It was just a small two-story building with a total of ten single rooms. The rooms couldn’t be called luxurious, but they were definitely above average—clean, tidy, and fully equipped, no different from small single apartments in reality. Although his Safe Zone now possessed a hotel, getting an employee dormitory building for free was still a wonderful thing. Next to the employee dormitory was an ordinary-looking cafeteria. There were no chefs or cafeteria ladies inside; instead, it adopted a self-service model similar to the one inside the Safe Zone’s shop.

Shi An took a look. "Hmm, you can directly pull braised chicken with rice, braised beef noodles, roast goose with rice, Chinese hamburgers, western hamburgers, and so on out of this mysterious black box."

Although it didn’t have everything, he had to admit that the variety was quite comprehensive. Shi An felt hungry just looking at it. It was just past 11:00 p.m. Since he hadn’t gone out for a midnight snack, he really was a little hungry. From now on, he could achieve midnight snack freedom without even leaving his home.

"So this is how the Safe Zone is meant to be used," Shi An said, stroking his chin, feeling that it was highly feasible.

The products in the cafeteria or the beverage shop up front all consumed Dream Dust and Dream Crystals, though not much. The prices of these ordinary foods in his shop weren’t high, but they were still far above cost. In large volumes, they would become an indispensable part of the Safe Zone’s revenue. Considering that members were now spending more and more time in the Safe Zone, this cafeteria could perhaps be opened to the public as well. They couldn’t just eat snacks and pastries for proper meals all the time.

His Safe Zone’s facilities were becoming increasingly complete. Shi An strolled back and forth through the upgraded Safe Zone a few times, examining all the upgrade changes one by one, apart from the system panel notifications. Then...

[Do you wish to construct the special building "Hotel"? Please select a construction location.]

[Selection complete.]

[Hotel under construction.]

[Hotel construction complete.]

To the side of the main shop, a magnificent hotel rose from the ground. It featured Chinese-style architecture with white walls and cyan tiles. The main entrance was a grand festoon gate supported by dark chestnut wooden pillars. A blank plaque hung high above the lintel, and two half-human-tall stone lions crouched by the doorway.

Shi An walked over, passed through the main gate, and stepped into a courtyard. The courtyard was dotted with decorative rocks, pines, cypresses, emerald bamboo, and peonies. In a nearby pond, a few koi fish were swimming leisurely. There were also many plants and special decorations inside that Shi An didn’t recognize.

"Not bad, not bad at all." Shi An was very satisfied.

Even if the buff effects of this hotel were average, just this layout and decoration made building it absolutely worth the price! Compared to the crude Alchemy Workshop next door, the difference was like that between a noble and a pauper.

He thought, "Inside the hotel, the room decorations are also quite high-end, and they come with effects like ’Ningxin’ and ’Slow Injury Recovery.’ But even without these buffs, I believe many members would be willing to spend money to stay here just for the accommodation conditions."

After all, none of those members were short on money. Not to mention a Rich Young Lady like Peaches, or second-generation members of major organizations like Profound Sword and Xi Xue—even Li Wei, Beard, and Duckbill Hat, who came from grassroots backgrounds and were the most ordinary members, could now earn a massive amount of wealth from a single Fallen Dream. The spending power of the members was quite impressive.

Even Shi An himself was somewhat tempted to move in here. In the hotel, besides ordinary rooms, there were also premium rooms and luxury suites. Even after his Manager’s Office had been upgraded, well, it still couldn’t quite compare.

"However, now that there are additional cafeteria and hotel areas, these will all be open to the public in the future. Once they open, my Safe Zone will be a bit short on manpower," he pondered. "It’s about time to start hiring."

Shi An thought to himself, "I don’t necessarily have to look for a Lost Person; they’re too hard to find. I can just recruit directly from the Dream Descenders. Paired with a Dream-Dropping Treasure Pearl and the employee dormitory, one Dream Descender could stay on duty for several days in a single rotation."

Of course, Dream Descenders weren’t mere beasts of burden. During their shifts, there had to be at least two people rotating. Factoring in the "vacation time" when they returned to reality, a single position would require at least a four-person rotation.

But that wasn’t a big problem either. Manager Shi could still afford that little bit of salary.

Shi An was very satisfied with the hotel. But he hadn’t expected the hotel to give him a pleasant surprise as well.

[Prompt: You own a hotel with premium accommodation. The Safe Zone has a small probability of attracting special guests.]

"Special guests?" Shi An was surprised. "What counts as a special guest?"

Dream Descenders clearly weren’t. But since they were called guests, they wouldn’t be anomalies or ghosts, either. It seemed there were still many mysteries Deep in the Nightmare that he didn’t understand.

Shi An called for Hair Ghost and Lin Xiao. Earlier, when the Safe Zone was upgrading, the two of them felt as if they had taken a nap. By the time they woke up, the Safe Zone had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.

Shi An said, "No need to be surprised. Our Safe Zone just underwent a little bit of a minor renovation. Look at your senior, Blood Hand Seal—it’s very used to this."

Shi An pointed at Xue, who was standing still like a sculpture.

Blood Hand Seal was currently pretending to be a statue to slack off and wouldn’t retort.

The two of them were speechless. "Right, right, right."

Not long after the Safe Zone’s promotion was completed, the scenery outside the shop’s floor-to-ceiling windows began to change. It shifted from the exterior view of an island to a gloomy Nightmare block.

Soon, two Dream Descenders walked in with faces full of excitement. The location they entered through was still the main shop door of the business area. If they wanted to head to the small garden outside or the hotel, they would need to use another entrance.

Shi An thought to himself, "It seems that this shop is the absolute core, the central hub where the entire Safe Zone connects to the Nightmare World."

These two Dream Descenders were clearly regular customers; they weren’t the least bit surprised by the Safe Zone manifesting within the Nightmare. They only felt lucky. Lucky to have encountered the Safe Zone once again. But as soon as they stepped inside, they were surprised. The Safe Zone was actually this deserted?

This was...

"A great thing!"

"No, what I mean is, since there are so few people right now, does that mean no one is competing to rent the Training Ground?"

The Dream Descender who spoke had already visited the Safe Zone twice. But even so, he still hadn’t managed to snag a slot to use the Training Ground even once. There was nothing he could do about it; his Fallen Dream would only last two or three, maybe three or four hours at a time, yet the queue time to rent the Training Ground often far exceeded three or four hours.

However, the Dream Descenders had absolutely no doubts about the miraculous effects of the Training Ground! Any Dream Descender who had witnessed the Safe Zone’s wonders probably wouldn’t doubt it. So, he had painstakingly gone out to conquer Nightmares, saving money and accumulating Contribution Points in the hope of acquiring a member identity as soon as possible. He originally hadn’t held out any hope for a Training Ground slot, thinking he would just wait until he got promoted to a member and wore a Dream-Dropping Pearl before fiercely waiting in line.

He never expected to strike it lucky today. Walking up to Shi An, he respectfully took out a small bottle of Dream Dust. "Manager, is there a vacancy in the Training Ground? We’d like to rent a room for two hours."

Shi An had Hair Ghost collect the money and said to them, "Go ahead."

Joy appeared on their faces as they couldn’t wait to head toward the Training Ground. Astoundingly, they hadn’t even noticed the changes to the Safe Zone.

Shi An was speechless.

Soon, the second, third, and fourth batches of Dream Descenders arrived one after another. After the Safe Zone was upgraded, the number of Nightmare Worlds it could simultaneously connect to had increased significantly. These people were all prospective members and regular customers, or at least had one old regular in their squad. As they entered one by one and saw the deserted shop, they all immediately asked if there were still vacancies in the Training Ground.

Upon seeing that there were vacancies, each of them hastily fished out their money to buy a ticket, terrified that they would be snatched up if they were even a step too slow.

Shi An thought, "The Training Ground is still too powerful, especially for Middle-Low Tier Dream Descenders. By training inside for two hours, a Senior Dream Descender at the Fusion Stage can undergo an earth-shattering transformation."

It was a transformation capable of altering one’s destiny. Once they became stronger, even if they failed to reach the Safe Zone for one or two Nightmares, their survival rate would still be drastically improved. It was no wonder they were so afraid of missing out by being too slow.

It was just...

He thought to himself, "Out of all these Dream Descenders, not a single one noticed that the Safe Zone has undergone a massive change. Is that normal?" His brand-new v3.1 Safe Zone was still waiting to make a stunning debut, but in the end, no one cared.

"Good evening, Manager~!"

His old acquaintances, Xi Xue and Peaches, also arrived. Less than a day had passed since their last Fallen Dream, yet they had descended once again. Logically speaking, Dream-Dropping Pearls also had a "resistance" limit, making it impossible to constantly experience Fallen Dreams. The foundation of a major organization truly was deep. These two were also incredibly hardcore about the grind.

Behind Xi Xue and Peaches, they each led three teammates. They were clearly utilizing teaming items to maximize the value of their Member Cards. Among the other six people, there were men and women, both old and young, but without exception, all were core members of the Wizard’s House. They were either Direct Lineage rising stars or mid-to-high-level veterans.

"However, you guys are a step too late. The Training Ground is already fully booked. The earliest available room will require waiting in line for over an hour."