"Sister Lisa, you two…" Chen Luo had just called the Herrscher of Sentience back to the bar and hadn't even had time to step into the small kitchen when the doorbell rang behind him.
"Huh, a new customer?" But when Chen Luo turned to look, he saw someone he didn't recognize at all.
"Welcome, welcome. Are you here for a drink, a meal, or both?" Chen Luo asked as he walked behind the bar counter, glancing at the drunk bard sprawled across it.
Venti had really downed ten glasses of Anemo Archon Wine in one go and passed out on the counter, completely unconcerned about anyone stealing his Vision.
Fortunately, the bar's security measures made that impossible, which was why every customer felt safe here.
There was no need to worry about thieves or schemers.
While collecting the ten empty glasses, Chen Luo looked again at the newcomer.
He didn't know this customer, but one thing was certain: they weren't human.
You could tell by the horn on their head and the tail behind them.
But that was perfect. Chen Luo had several achievements tied to non-human patrons—like Friend of Non-Humans.
He wasn't sure how old the guest was, but they definitely didn't look like a child.
"Oh, so you're the proprietor? I came by yesterday during the day and saw the place empty. I thought it was just somewhere to rest. Appearing and disappearing on command—it does make for a decent resting spot." The visitor sized Chen Luo up with interest, then took a seat with practiced ease.
"What you say makes sense, customer. This place is a resting spot during the day and a tavern at night. No matter the delicacy or fine wine, even though my shop is small, it can meet any need."
"Customers can treat this place as a resting inn by day. At night, there's plenty to eat and drink," Chen Luo explained.
"Senti, take Klee over there. Klee, I'll bring your fish in a moment," Chen Luo said to the Herrscher of Sentience and Klee.
"Customer, excuse me for a moment." He stepped into the kitchen and returned immediately with two plates of grilled fish.
One was for Klee, and one for Senti, since the Herrscher of Sentience hadn't eaten either.
"So this inn—or tavern—only offers service at night?" the customer asked thoughtfully.
"That's not exactly it. I just have things to do during the day, so I can only run the bar at night. So, are you here for wine or food?" Chen Luo asked curiously.
From the way the customer spoke, Chen Luo pieced things together: they had visited yesterday in the daytime, found the place empty, treated it as a resting spot, and came again today—this time running into him by coincidence.
Chen Luo hadn't set the bar to notify him for every visitor; he needed a life of his own.
Primogems were something you earned as much as possible, but the opportunities never stopped coming.
During the day, he was always out earning Primogems anyway.
Run the bar from 8 PM until after midnight, serve customers, take commissions. Go home, sleep until around 8 AM. Spend the rest of the day training or handling various tasks.
Chen Luo's summer vacation was incredibly packed.
Maybe other people spent their vacations eating, drinking, and having fun, but his was spent saving the world over and over.
Take today, for example—he had just tamed a dragon.
"Naturally, I'm here for wine. What kinds of wine do you have, and what are the prices?" the customer asked directly.
"What kinds of wine… we have everything. To be honest, there's no wine you can think of that we don't have. As for price—pay whatever you like. If you enjoy it, give a coin or two. If you don't enjoy it—well, that's impossible. In short, as long as you're happy."
Chen Luo was extremely confident in his bar's selection. And if the guest asked for something extremely rare, he could just give them a glass of Void Wine—it would absolutely send them to heaven.
"A tavern that doesn't charge? Isn't that a bit suspicious?" the customer joked.
Chen Luo could tell the guest still had some wariness, especially about the place being "free."
And the more experienced someone was, the more they understood: nothing is ever free.
"Well, you seem like a cautious person. 'All gifts from fate come with a price marked in secret.' Simply put, nothing falls from the sky for no reason."
"This bar does charge, but not in gold, silver, or anything mundane. The price is a wish—a desire. You issue a commission, I complete it. You get what you want and feel satisfied—that satisfaction serves as the payment—and I receive the bar's reward."
"As for the coin or two, that's simply something I, as an ordinary person, enjoy collecting. It doesn't need to be valuable—just interesting." Chen Luo laid everything out openly.
The more someone toyed with schemes, the more they realized the limits of scheming.
Chen Luo hadn't schemed at all—taking advantage of opportunities followed the same principle.
Cooperation leads to mutual benefit. Like with Venti.
Chen Luo wanted Primogems, and Venti knew it.
Venti wanted to drink, and Chen Luo had the wine.
A clean, mutually beneficial deal—perfectly fine.
So Chen Luo remained honest with every customer. Of course, he occasionally used some artistic phrasing to make the truth sound nicer.
Naturally, the reason Chen Luo dared to reveal all these things was because even if he said them, it wouldn't harm him. If they wanted something, they had to generate desire—and generating desire would inevitably allow Chen Luo to obtain Primogems. This was an unsolvable pattern.
Unless they stopped coming to the bar, they could do whatever they wanted.
"Truly a strange way of running a business. But I find myself inexplicably believing it. A glass of wine, please—the best wine you have." The customer waved a hand and spoke, then placed the wine cup they had been holding onto the table.
[Ding! You have a new commission!]
Offering 30 Primogems without even tasting the Void Wine yet—it seemed this person truly was a wine lover.
And coincidentally, Chen Luo liked such people.
Like Venti, and like the one before him now.
"The best wine? Of course." Chen Luo smiled readily.
"Oh, right, let me introduce myself. I'm Chen Luo, the manager of this Midnight Bar." As he took out a glass of Void Wine from under the bar counter, Chen Luo introduced himself.
"Mhm, I'm Ling," the visitor said.
"It seems Ling must come from quite a remarkable place." Walking out from behind the counter, Chen Luo approached Ling while sighing with emotion.
After all, normal people probably wouldn't have a pair of horns that looked like dragon horns—and a tail.
"Oh? How so?" Not only was Chen Luo looking at Ling curiously, Ling was also looking at Chen Luo with equal curiosity.
In fact, even the other two customers seemed a bit strange to Ling, as they had no particularly obvious physical traits.
"I just feel that your world and my world probably aren't the same. Oh, I forgot to tell you: here, you can encounter beings of any kind and from different worlds. You can even encounter ordinary people." Chen Luo placed the wine glass in front of the other, sat down opposite them, and spoke.
In this bar, it was really hard to find an ordinary person. Or rather, an ordinary person mixing in here would seem particularly extraordinary.
"Sharing a drink with beings from other worlds? That's quite a temptation. And I wonder how the mountains and rivers of other worlds differ from those of this one." Hearing this, the other party stroked their chin, seemingly quite interested.
"Um, Miss Ling, if I may ask a somewhat presumptuous question: are you a dragon?" Chen Luo stared at the horns on her head, hesitated for a moment, and finally voiced the doubt in his heart.
"Dragon? Mmm, I suppose you could say so?" Ling's answer was somewhat ambiguous.
[Master, found it.] Just as Chen Luo was sitting opposite her, the consciousness of Void Archives appeared beside him.
"Tell me," Chen Luo said in his heart.
"Ling is a 6-star Supporter-class Summoner-branch Operator from the game Arknights. Her background is somewhat unusual. She doesn't have parents in the true sense; she evolved from a mysterious existence called Sui and has a total of 12 siblings.
"And the number 12 is very significant in Yan, the in-game counterpart of China—the Twelve Zodiac Animals, 12 months…"
"As for her identity and race, she should be a 'dragon,' but not entirely. It's probably like the saying 'The dragon begets nine offspring, each different.' The dragon's nine children are all dragons, but can't be completely called dragons. The data isn't fully public, so it can't be determined."
"And she is extremely fond of drinking—can drink a thousand cups without getting drunk—and has excellent drinking etiquette. She is quite a high-quality customer."
This time, the form that appeared was Big Bronya—or perhaps Big Prometheus. Presenting a set of data only Chen Luo could see, she gave him a brief explanation.
"Probably a dragon… no wonder her initial favorability is quite high. Otherwise, she wouldn't have adapted so quickly to this place that looks so much like a black shop." Chen Luo nodded inwardly.
And his gaze drifted to the achievement he had obtained just a few hours ago and its advancement path.
[Dragon Tamer]
And the special skill attached to it: [Dragon's Reverse Scale]
[Dragon Rider]: Transform a dragon into a mount.
Mmm… a mount.
"What is it? Why are you looking at me so strangely?" Ling asked.
Ling felt this shopkeeper was exceptionally pleasant to look at, hence the question.
Sometimes, asking isn't because of a bad relationship—but because of a good one.
"I just feel we have a particularly special connection. You're a wine lover, and I'm a bar owner. Especially since just this morning, I saw a dragon, and now in the afternoon, I see another one."
And I just got the Dragon Tamer achievement, and then you show up.
"Oh? A dragon? A dragon from another world?" If Chen Luo hadn't mentioned it, it would have been nothing, but after he said so, she became interested.
"Yes, a dragon from another world." Chen Luo nodded.
"Different worlds have different definitions of 'dragon,' but most can be divided into two types. I categorize them as Eastern Dragons and Western Dragons. They can also be called Shenlong and Giant Dragons. Shenlong look like this—they are long and serpentine. They have a camel's head, deer antlers, shrimp eyes, a carp's mouth, a turtle's neck, a snake's body, fish scales, a clam's belly, a carp's spine, tiger paws, eagle claws, and a carp's tail."
"And the dragon I encountered this morning was a Giant Dragon, or Western Dragon. It looks like a handsome lizard with several pairs of wings." As he explained, Chen Luo used the Herrscher of Reason's authority to construct two images in his hand.
"And looking at you, customer, you seem like a Shenlong—and moreover, a high-level dragon race. Just based on such a fated connection, I've decided we are definitely going to be friends." Chen Luo tapped the table with his fingers.
To achieve the Dragon's Reverse Scale achievement, Chen Luo needed the friendship of a high-level dragon. 'High-level' here didn't necessarily refer to bloodline purity—mainly strength.
After all, there are countless worlds with countless types of dragons. Some worlds barely have any, so bloodline standards become meaningless.
Although Chen Luo didn't know what qualified as a high-level draconic creature, he knew for certain that sub-dragons or drakes used to pull carts like horses definitely weren't high-level.
"Is that so? Then other worlds really are wondrous. Alright, back to the topic—what is this glass of wine called?" The dragon lady pointed to the wine before her, clear as water.
"This wine? It's a specialty of the bar, only available here. It's called Void Wine. Its biggest characteristic is that it can become the wine that most perfectly matches the drinker's expectations."
"This wine has two modes. One is that I prepare it, and the result is wildly imaginative. The other is that you drink it directly, and it transforms into your favorite kind of wine. So, customer, which would you prefer?" Chen Luo asked, glancing at the colorless Void Wine.
"I see. Today has truly been eye-opening. Then let's have a glass of the wildly imaginative wine. I'm very curious how such a wine tastes," Ling said.
"Of course. Then, customer, aside from drinking wine, what are your hobbies?"
"Hobbies? Traveling the mountains and rivers, and… dreaming. Probably." Ling considered for a moment.
"Mmm, they are rather unrestrained hobbies."
Simply put, it meant not doing proper work.
By common sense, such people would starve sooner or later.
"Two sets: one called 'Drink to Live, Dream to Die,' the other 'Butterfly Dream.' Choose one?" From a professional mixologist's perspective, Chen Luo offered two choices.