Hailstorm Rain, Regret Comes Too Late

Meanwhile, behind the fried chicken cart, Su Mu, Elysia, Remiel, and the grown-up Cyrene sat gathered together.

Remiel kept pulling Silver Soul Coins and Copper Soul Coins from the belly pouch in front of her pocket, with the occasional glittering Gold Soul Coin appearing among them.

Elysia pouted as she looked at the pitifully few Gold Soul Coins.

"Captain, is it really appropriate for us to set up a stall here?"

"It seems like they aren't very rich. They all pay with Copper Soul Coins and Silver Soul Coins."

Su Mu looked at them and patiently explained.

"For now, this is our only option. Going into the city might cost us even more."

"Let's try running the stall for a few days first. It'll be good enough if we make a profit."

He counted the Gold Soul Coins and placed them in a box. After carefully tallying the revenue from one meal, it came to around eighty Gold Soul Coins.

If he could cover breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the usual scattered customers, he could make one hundred and sixty Gold Soul Coins a day—a veritable fortune.

He had not expected to sell so much in such a short time.

Su Mu carefully counted everything, checking it against the unit materials he had purchased in the system space.

Over four or five hours, from a little after eleven at noon until four in the afternoon,

Su Mu said, "This sales volume is already pretty terrifying, but it's probably impossible to double today's revenue again."

"Eh, Captain, why do you say that? Isn't business great today?"

Elysia watched Su Mu put away the Gold Soul Coins one by one.

But Su Mu straightened up and looked at the dark clouds gradually approaching on the horizon.

"Because it's going to rain, you silly girl!"

"We're closing up. Time to pack."

"Would you two customers like anything else? We offer takeout service here."

Remiel immediately stood up upon hearing that and spoke to Tang Ya and Bei Bei.

By then, the two had finally settled their dispute. Tang Ya had eaten two more chickens, because there were exactly two more sets of bones on her side.

Bei Bei was now miserably pulling Gold Soul Coins out of his Soul Tool.

"Eh, we can get takeout too? Great! Fry another ten chickens for us!"

Tang Ya immediately stood up as she spoke and began rummaging through her little treasury.

Before long, a pile of Hidden Weapons had accumulated on the chair. Only then did she find her small stash of Gold Soul Coins in the Spatial Soul Tool Twenty-Four Bridges Bright Moon Night and hand them all over.

"Boss, please fry us some more. I'm begging you."

Su Mu looked at the gleaming Gold Soul Coins. There were a full ten of them.

One fried chicken only cost them three Silver Soul Coins. Ten chickens cost just three Gold Soul Coins, while ten Gold Soul Coins could buy thirty-three fried chickens.

Tang Ya truly was a big customer.

The clouds were still fairly far away. They probably would not leave us soaked in the rain, right?

As Su Mu pondered this, he once more lowered chickens into the fryer one by one.

In barely half an hour, he had packed up all the fried chicken and delivered it to Tang Ya's table.

Elysia and Remiel had already packed up the tables and chairs, turning them upside down and tying them to the top of the cart.

Watching the rain clouds draw steadily closer, Su Mu climbed onto the food cart.

As the vehicle began moving, the system notification sounded: the fixed operating area had disappeared. If summoned employees wished to remain on the field, Gold Soul Coins had to be paid.

Su Mu looked at the ninety-six Gold Soul Coins in his hand and simply could not bear to spend them on something like this. Besides, it was nowhere near enough!

He gritted his teeth and stomped his foot. "Forget it. I can drive the cart back by myself. There's no need to waste money like that."

Su Mu pedaled the bicycle and charged downhill along the dirt road they had taken here.

Passing the small slope in the old district where the food street was located, he gained quite a bit of momentum as he rushed all the way down.

As he passed the modification shop that had just modified his vehicle, he saw the proprietress in a cheongsam, holding an oiled-paper umbrella over her head as she drank tea in a rocking chair outside the shop.

Su Mu merely grinned and called out a greeting. "Boss, wishing you booming business!"

Fei'er waved, seeing Su Mu off.

But the advantage of that downhill slope soon disappeared.

Once he left Heaven Dou City, the dirt road became full of potholes, and more than half of it was uphill.

Su Mu pedaled the bicycle, feeling the cold wind already blowing against his face.

Something was wrong. Why did this feel like an apocalypse road?

"Like starting on an apocalypse road with only a bicycle, and all I can do is sell fried chicken?"

Su Mu shook his head and tossed that evil thought aside.

When he could no longer move the pedals, he got off the bike, pushed against the ground with both feet, activated Martial Soul Possession, and strained to shove the cart uphill.

Then, as that cold wind swept over him, hailstones the size of quail eggs came smashing down. In an instant, he was chilled straight to the core.

Hail and rain, mixed with fierce gusts of wind, battered him relentlessly, forcing Su Mu to crawl back into the cart.

He pulled up the brake and shut the small door to the driver's cabin.

Cold air seeped through the crack in the door. Su Mu's entire body had been soaked through by that burst of rain.

"Pah, what a loss. If I'd known, I would've modified that Soul Power motorcycle first."

"Then I could use Soul Power to travel now, instead of being trapped on this lousy road by the rain, unable to go forward or back."

Su Mu felt regret as he thought about it.

Ten Silver Soul Coins made one Gold Soul Coin, enough to modify a Soul Power motorcycle for himself.

Yet he had insisted on saving that little bit of money, only to suffer here now.

He slumped heavily into the driver's seat and dozed off for a while.

When he woke up, his whole body felt feverish.

Oh no, Soul Masters could catch colds too!

He sneezed, saw that the rain outside had stopped and the wind had gone still, then got out and pushed the food cart, its roof covered in hailstones, up the slope.

Fortunately, once he passed this slope, he could pedal up almost all the remaining inclines.

Before the sky had fully darkened, Su Mu returned to the village.

Seeing the strange looks from the people around him, he could not help wiping his nose. He took the towel originally meant for wiping hands and dried his damp short hair.

What are you looking at? I'm going to be rich someday.

Su Mu secretly felt rather pleased with himself as he pushed the bicycle to his doorway.

Looking at the small gate to the courtyard, it was probably impossible to get the cart inside now. He could only find an iron chain and lock it to his door.

Su Mu got off and arranged everything properly, but his gaze could not help drifting toward Jiang Nannan and the others' house nearby.

The two lights were dark. Since it had rained today, they had probably already gone to bed.

He wiped his nose, sneezed again, and only then went back inside.

He used the large pot in the kitchen to boil a huge pot of hot water and took a hot bath.

Only after drying the water off his body did he lie down under the covers and wrap the blanket tightly around himself.

He was a little cold, but not hungry. His stomach was warm.

The cloth bag containing Gold Soul Coins was warmed beneath his grip, making him sneeze again.

Because of this rain, the clothes he wore today had all been soaked. There was nowhere else in the little cart to store miscellaneous items either. It seemed he still needed to find a Soul Tool.

Su Mu thought about how the system space could only store items selected through system Hextech. As he thought of that, he also wondered when exactly he would be able to hunt a Soul Ring.

His savings had now surpassed one hundred Gold Soul Coins, enough to have three employees accompany him for three hours of overtime work outside.

But whether he could hunt a suitable Soul Ring within three hours was impossible to say.

If he failed, it would mean that those one hundred Gold Soul Coins, along with an entire day's revenue, would be gone just like that.

Thinking this, Su Mu could not help but drift into a deep sleep.

The fever in his head gradually subsided under the regulation of the Life Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul, leaving only the stifling hot sweat that had seeped out beside his pillow and into his bedding...