Universe Infinite Canteen

Ma Lu had raised silkworms and chicks when he was a kid, and even two rabbits, but this was his first time raising a washing machine.

Luckily, Number 6 didn't need to be walked, and it didn't defecate all over the place, saving quite a bit of trouble.

Most of the time, it just sat on the balcony like a regular washing machine, basking in the sun.

It was only when Ma Lu and Old Wang got home at night that it would rattle its way to the door to greet them.

Because of this, Little Brother Yang from downstairs came to complain several times, until Ma Lu ordered four noise-cancelling foot pads and fitted them onto Number 6, which somewhat resolved the noise issue.

During this time, Ma Lu also kept buying electronic products online to feed Number 6, and concluded that, for the same expense, a mobile phone provided the most "newness".

All in all, Ma Lu had spent nearly 27,000 yuan to gather another 200 newness points, and this time he still chose to upgrade his Collection Bag.

Even though the Chef's Knife and the Traveler's Bracelet also had good effects after upgrading, at this stage neither increasing damage nor extending the stay duration was as urgent for Ma Lu as increasing the storage limit.

Because more ingredients meant higher turnover and profit margins.

Ma Lu did some calculations and found that this week, The Universe's Number One Snack Stall had accrued 44,492 in revenue from the Giant Claw Lord Barbecue, with a profit of 43,794.3.

In addition, the 50 pounds of Sickle-Horned Antelope Meat had been made into kebabs and, after the Giant Claw Lord Barbecue sold out, had bolstered the stall, bringing in almost 4,000 yuan for Ma Lu.

That meant he had earned at least 47,000 yuan this week, and if he could increase the stock by 50%, he could roughly break even on his investment in one go, and from then on it would be pure profit.

There was no reason not to continue.

However, this meant his wallet took a heavy hit. Apart from Number 6's electronic feed, he had to buy an even bigger freezer, as well as cover the daily electric bills and expenses on a new TV and game cartridges… In the end, his bank account had less than 14,000 yuan left.

He still needed to keep making money.

Ma Lu thought about the 400 newness points needed to upgrade the Collection Bag from level 3 to level 4.

Suddenly, it was time to resupply again, and before leaving, Ma Lu received another piece of good news.

During this time with both men venturing out to set up their stall, Old Wang had cooked almost 3,000 snack portions, and his cooking experience was continuously increasing.

Especially the ★★ culinary rating Giant Claw Lord Barbecue had contributed 231,994 experience points, bringing Old Wang close to the threshold of leveling up.

If nothing unexpected happened, he should be able to upgrade his Chef level by next week.

......

[Ding! You have a new notification, please check it in time.]

Standing in the limitless desert once more, Ma Lu was becoming increasingly unfazed. He ignored the notification, opened the scanning feature of his bracelet first, and scanned the surroundings.

After confirming there were no dangerous prey nearby, he then walked over to a cylindrical structure that looked like a mailbox.

This was what Boggy referred to as a storage point, built by the Hunter's Guild for hunters to send and retrieve items while in the desert, with the guild charging a certain fee based on the weight and volume of the stored items.

Before leaving last time, Boggy had stored a batch of supplies and weapons in it. Ma Lu entered the password, then stepped back a few paces.

About three minutes later, the ground began to vibrate.

The mailbox-like structure started to rise, with a 20 cubic meter storage container attached underneath it. Gravel trickled down from the four corners of the container.

Half a minute or so later, the container came to a stop above the ground.

Ma Lu stepped forward, opened the door of the container, found the Hunting Clothes inside that he had picked up last time and put them on, and then took out a black Small Hand Crossbow.

While a chef's knife is sharp enough to cut through any ingredient, it is limited to a length of just thirty centimeters and can only be used for close combat.

It isn't as safe as ranged weapons, and for an ordinary person like Ma Lu who has almost no combat skills, the farther away you stand, the less likely you are to get killed.

The original owner of this black hand crossbow was a woman with a wolf's head tattooed on her neck, who was taken down by Boggy before she could even unleash her telekinesis in the previous battle. Now, her weapon had been passed down to Ma Lu at a bargain.

Like most hunting gear, this hand crossbow is electrically powered, using a motor to compress air that powers the crossbow bolts, with an effective range of about 15-20 meters.

Due to the added weight of the battery, it weighs more than a typical hand crossbow, but its power has not increased much.

Boggy speculated that the woman with the wolf's head tattoo might have had psychic powers related to the crossbow, which could increase the lethality of the bolts.

Boggy didn't have much interest in this small hand crossbow, but Ma Lu actually liked it quite a bit.

The issue with weight could be resolved by increasing his strength attribute, and although he didn't have psychic power, dealing damage wasn't a bother in the Meat Pigeon system.

Ma Lu attached the new weapon to his waist, grabbed two bags of crossbow bolts and some supplies, and after a bit of thought, took an extra set of hunting clothes as a spare before returning to the container's entrance.

To his left was a desert motorcycle.

It was the most common form of transportation used by hunters, with powerful electric motors and tracks that allowed them to traverse the desert. Their extended bodies provided ample load space, and high-density batteries made long journeys feasible.

And most importantly, it looked really cool; Ma Lu had wanted to try riding one for a long time.

Yet in the Giant Curtain, even the cheapest electric car sold for over 50,000 Electric Degrees, and Ma Lu couldn't scrape together that much money in the short term.

It wasn't until he encountered Baldy and his gang that his motorcycle dream was realized.

Ma Lu straddled the bike, turned the key, and started up the steel beast beneath him.

He had already ridden this motorcycle on the way to the storage point. Its controls were not complicated and similar to a regular motorcycle, making it easy to get used to, but driving it well was another matter.

Ma Lu donned his goggles and drove the motorcycle out of the container, only then checking the messages on his Traveler's Bracelet.

It was a summary of the last hunt.

In the previous round of hunting, he had obtained a total of 60 blessings. Although the total was less than the first time, the quality was much higher. There were 13 White Blessings, 42 Blue Blessings, and as many as 5 Purple Blessings.

Final score—933, more than triple that of last time.

So, when the Strange Object Store refreshed this time, he had much more room to choose from.

Ma Lu patiently looked at each item, finding the store full of oddities with various uses, yet it seemed like something was missing from each.

That is until his gaze fell upon the last item in the store—"Heartbeat Lottery."

Function: Each time a blessing option appears, one blessing at random has a 15% chance to be replaced by a higher quality blessing, a 70% chance to remain unchanged, and a 15% chance to be replaced by a lower quality one.

Price: 888

It's you! Ma Lu's eyes lit up, and without a moment's hesitation, he paid the points.

He admitted to himself that there was an element of gambling involved. The Heartbeat Lottery gave equal chances, 15% each, for blessings to improve or worsen, and mathematically speaking, it seemed like a busy folly.

But in reality, the benefits of gambling on high-level blessings far outweighed the penalties for losing. After all, there are usually three blessings to choose from, so if one does worsen, there are still two others to fall back on.

And if you win the gamble, especially in high-stakes bets—Blue turning to Purple, or Purple to Gold—that's a huge profit!