Expanding Horizons

Fang Shi was eating dinner as he checked his transactions for the day on a set of scrolls he had purchased during his last trip into the city. When he bought things from other businesses, he remembered that he didn't see them do this. But in his past life, he had played enough simulation games and knew that a business needed a log. Once he went through the numbers he would compare it to the numbers in his wallet tab, and make sure the totals match.

With this done, he turned his attention to his next task, creating puppets for his store and restaurant. Selecting the task, Fang Shi looked at the contents and noticed three blank ovals underneath the description. He picked the first oval, and a window opened that mirrored a character creation screen. He created a puppet that had the appearance of woman in her early twenties, and and then selected finished.

An achievement notification rang in his mind, and the system said, 'Notice: Puppet created by the host ready to deploy.'

Fang Shi checked the achievements tab and saw:

[New! The Rookie

Hire an employee or build a puppet 1/1

Reward: Create and design the uniform of the shop]

Fang Shi immediately accepted the reward, and another window appeared. Once again, the the design went easy as it used a format he was already familiar with, and he created four sets of uniforms: a summer and winter uniform for men, and for the same for women.

He closed all the open panels, stood up, and looked around the room to notice a new door had appeared. He didn't remember another room being added to the second floor, but when he look at his balcony, he noticed a change. The balcony was slightly smaller than before, and a small closet had appeared. When he slid the door, he saw the female puppet inside with the summer uniform on. This included a random animal mask that Fang Shi included to hide the fact that it was a puppet.

Fang Shi order the puppet to move to a free space so that he could create the next one, and sat down with the system panel. Much later, three more puppets were standing beside the first. One was a young man, another was a woman in her late twenties, and the last was a man in his early thirties. Each puppet was dressed in a black and red uniform with mountains and clouds accents, and animal masks: fox, cat, rabbit, and hawk.

Fang Shi opened the system panel for the last time, but this time he went to the task for the restaurant and filled the three blank ovals with the portraits of the young man, young woman, and the mature woman puppets. The task showed it was completed, and ready for the reward to be accepted.

Fang Shi looked at the fourth puppet, he plan was to assign it to the shop downstairs but he wasn't sure how to assign it.

He asked the system, "How do I assign someone to a position if it isn't currently as task?"

'Question: Did the host create this puppet to watch the store?', the system replied.

"Yes", Fang Shi responded.

'Understood', the system said before a new achievement sound was heard.

He checked the system panel again and found the new achievement:

[New! It was supposed to be my day off

Assign an employee to the store 1/1

Reward: Store Map tab added to panel]

Quickly accepting the reward, the system panel closed to update, and he reopened the panel several minutes later. He selected the new tab, and saw a map of the store displayed by each floor. Each business now sported the same ovals as the quests, and Fang Shi noticed two things: the store still had a blank oval and he placed the last portrait in there. Also, since he still need to accept the reward for completing the restaurant quest, the restaurant wasn't on the map yet.

Fang Shi accepted the reward for the two quest that were complete [I want to be a real Boy], and [The Lamb is Raw], the first was accepted easily, but when trying to accept the second, the system messaged him.

'Notice: construction of the restaurant will take 8 hours, and once complete the host will have to set the menu and the hours, will you proceed?', it told him.

He agreed, and spent another hour setting up a breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu before setting the hours. Now that he had puppets, he realized he could stay open for longer and not compromise his own time, so he set appropriate hours.

He asked the system one last question before sleeping, "I can still tend the shop when I want right?"

'Answer: Yes, but when you wish to attend to different tasks, the system will place the puppet in your place', the system said.

Fang Shi woke up early again to take a trip to the farmer's market. The menu he setup for the restaurant was simplistic, and he had decided to add a few more items for dishes. He didn't want to, but he was going to have to rotate crops every day to ensure he could get the most from his field. He wished he could use the herb garden, but the system was adamant that only spiritual herbs could be grown there.

When he got dressed and ate breakfast on the terrace, he noticed a change that he was higher than he was yesterday. Quickly finishing his meal, he went downstairs and instead of the store, he found the restaurant.

He looked around, and was pleased the the decorations and aesthetics of the place before heading downstairs again and exiting the store.

Once he was at the market, he picked out six more vegetables and fruits to plant, as well as a few more trees. He didn't expect many customers in the beginning, so he figured he could get by with lower quantities of crops. He also bought some ducks, geese, swans, and quail.

When he returned home, the achievement notification tone rang three times, but he needed to open the store. He placed the seeds, seedlings, and trees in a place out of the customer's view and tied all the bigger birds together while placing the cages holding the smaller birds in a place out of the sun.

Fang Shi sat in his seat as the system opened the doors, and it didn't take long for the first customers to arrive. Normally, the first customers were his neighbors, for example, Yang Cheng and his family.

As Yang Cheng and his wife saw the mist burn off and reveal the store, they stared in amazement when the two story building had an extra floor now. Not only that, but this new floor was a restaurant as well.

Yang Cheng came back to his senses, and brought his family inside. He looked towards the place where the rice balls and mochi were kept only to discover it was only bottles of spirit water.

"Owner Fang, why did you stopping selling the rice balls?", Yang Cheng asked.

"Oh, sorry", Fang Shi replied, "Now that the restaurant is open, I moved those items upstairs."

Yang Cheng thanked him, and went upstairs to explore the new floor. When he reached the top of the stairs, he found a room with tables in the middle, shorter tables and sitting mats on the sides, and a row of seats close to the kitchen meant for customers who are by themselves.

Yang Cheng spotted the same shelves as downstairs, holding rice balls and mochi. He also noticed that the prices were different, but couldn't figure out why until he notice a wooden plaque hung above the shelves. Some rice balls were plain, and others had chicken, pork, or beef in the middle. The mochi was similar in that different types of fruit were in the center of the rice cake. Resisting the urge, he grabbed the usual items and walked over to the woman standing were payments were collected.

When Yang Cheng saw the masked woman, he was taken aback, but he placed the amount due down and walked downstairs. He went to his wife, and told her about what she found upstairs, and even though she was tempted by the sweets, they decided to save up and come back another day.

Three young men were walking towards the Heaven and Earth pavilion while discussing the events from the day before. They were Wei Zhang, Li Xiang, and Zhuo Zhen of the Faded Star sect, and they had fallen victim to their senior sister many months ago. They were not sure how, but yesterday, something happened and their minds became clear. When they realized where they were, they bought a bag of low quality spirit rice to not offend the owner and left.

Wei Zhang seethed with anger, "That damn bitch, not only did she charm so many junior brothers, but she took most our resources as well."

Zhuo Zhen looked pained remembering the moment he checked his storage ring, "What's worse is that they only gave her house arrest, and she has to spend the next year in closed cultivation."

"I heard it's because she has a drop of succubus blood", Li Xiang mentioned, "Supposedly, she will build her foundation soon. I heard that the real reason for the house arrest."

Wei Zhang looked angry and dejected, "At least some good came from this, that spirit rice we had yesterday was so delicious, and I could refine the Qi so easily."

The other two nodded in agreement before Li Xiang said, "I only bought it because it was much cheaper than other stores, but now I don't know why. If people knew how effective it is, the owner could easily get twice the price."

"We are nearly there", Zhuo Zhen said, "But in this the place? The name is the same, but I'm fairly sure the building only had two floors before."

"Don't think it's the work of the senior that freed us from that harpy's influence?", Li Xiang suggested.

"It must be", Wei Zhang agreed, "Only a cultivator could build this quickly."

"Restaurant?", Zhuo Zen said before smiling, "That's amazing, they have to use the same ingredients as the store right?"

The three entered the store, and quickly found the stair case going up the second floor.

A you female server wearing a fox mask greeted the trio, "Welcome customers, would you like a table in the middle or on the side?"

"The middle of course", Zhuo Zhen declared.

"Follow me, please", the woman said as she guided them to their table.

The three men had a weird feeling, because their senses told them that this was a mortal. The three of them ignored this, and sat down.

"When you are ready to order, say 'menu'", the waitress taught them, "you can use your sense or hand to control the menu, and once you are ready, confirm your choices using the same menu."

The woman bowed and returned to the 'kitchen', so the three tested what she told them.

"Menu", all three men stated, and a light screen appeared before them.

"Who would build an artifact or array formation for a restaurant", Li Xiang wondered as he closely examined what was in front of him.

Zhuo Zhen used his hand to extend the scroll until it stopped. A message appeared before him:

(Only these meals are sold in the morning, please return in the afternoon or evening to see additional items.)

Wei Zhang was looking at the menu, but there wasn't many options. So he ordered two buns, and was about to order a cup of tea when he noticed that it wasn't there. He was about to get frustrated, when he noticed that they offered a cup of spirit water. He happily ordered this instead.

As the trio discussed rumors in the sect, the young woman returned with three trays. She placed the trays down, and was about to leave when Wei Zhang asked her to stop.

"I don't understand what happened, but why did these two get two buns and I received one?", Wei Zheng demanded to know.

"Pardon me, but my senior expressed to me that you are experiencing a bottleneck right now", the woman replied, "The senior said if you tried to eat two, there could be damage when you broke through."

She bowed and left the three men with looks of amazement on their faces.

"Brother Wei, you are battling against a bottleneck?", Li Xiang asked.

Wei Zhang was embarrassed, but he nodded before quickly eating the bun and drinking the spirit water. A few minutes later, he could feel the bottleneck quickly loosening and he panicked.

He gave a bag of spirit stones to the other two, "Brothers, my breakthrough is happening, here are some stones and a list. I must leave now."

Wei Zhang went and paid for his meal before sprinting back to the sect. The other two were surprised, but they took some time to finish their meal before going downstairs and finishing their shopping.

Fang Shi had finished his day at dusk, so the system had the puppet assigned takeover. He went up to his room with a meal from the second floor, and started eating as he opened the system panel. The achievement tab had a (!) mark from this morning, so he selected the tab. The three entries were as followed:

[New! Life's a Garden, dig it

New! Animal Farm

New! Can't see the Forest from the Trees]

Getting used to this, Fang Shi picked the first one:

[Life's a Garden, dig it

Acquire 10 vegetables to cultivate 11/10

Reward: Vegetable Garden]

Fang Shi grew excited as what this meant, he didn't have to worry about micromanaging his fields to grow all his crops. He immediately accepted the reward, and the system notified him, (Notice: 8 hours is required to complete this task, for convenience, the host can assign how the fields will be seeded beforehand.)

Fang Shi took ten minutes to arrange everything before reading checking the next achievement.

[Animal Farm

Acquire 10 animals 10/10

Reward: pasture/farm/field/pond]

As with the garden, Fang Shi took the time to accept the reward and organize it in advance before looking at the last entry.

Focusing on the last entry, Fang Shi opened it:

[Can't see the Forest from the Trees

Acquire 10 fruit or nut bearing trees 10/10

Reward: Forest Grove]

Fang Shi arranged this the same as the other two before submitting his plan, but he also noticed something. Whether it was the field, garden, or grove, each space consisted of the same six spaces as the original. He contemplated what this meant as he went to sleep.