Chapter: The Food God's New Employee
In Bailu Town, a small restaurant barely fifty square meters wide was packed with people.
"Boss, is my small portion ready?"
"Boss, where's our double portion?"
"Boss Cheng Yu, I've been waiting almost half an hour now. Come on!"
The voices overlapped into a constant buzz of impatience.
Behind the counter, Cheng Yu stood at the stove, slowly stirring the fried rice in his wok. The spatula scraped against the metal with rhythmic precision, completely unhurried despite the noise.
A few minutes later, golden grains of rice glistened under the kitchen lights, each one perfectly separated and coated in egg. The aroma alone could make someone's stomach growl.
He scooped the fried rice onto several plates with practiced ease, then pushed through the curtain separating the kitchen from the dining area.
"Small portion, light on the green onions. Who ordered that?"
A young mercenary with an oversized knife strapped to his back shot up from his seat. "Me! That's mine!"
Cheng Yu walked over and set the bowl in front of him.
The mercenary's rough expression softened immediately. He sat down and took his first bite, and the flavors hit his tongue like a revelation. A grin spread across his weathered face.
[Positive Emotion Value +5]
The cold, electronic notification echoed in Cheng Yu's mind.
Half a year ago, Cheng Yu had died. Somehow, he'd gone from being a 996-grind office worker on Earth to waking up in this Western fantasy world called the Celsis Continent. And he hadn't come empty-handed—he'd awakened something called the Strongest Food God System, complete with max-level cooking skills right from the start.
The rules were simple: make people happy with food, earn positive emotion points, then exchange those points for items in the system shop.
From corporate slave to free man with actual cheat codes.
Cheng Yu's assessment? Good riddance to the old life.
Based on what he'd observed over the past six months, the Celsis Continent was resource-rich but culinarily bankrupt. A genuine food desert.
Common folk survived on potatoes. Boiled potatoes, fried potato cakes, grilled potatoes, dried potatoes, potato salad... you name it, they'd figured out a way to make it with potatoes.
The nobles and wealthy merchants ate slightly better, but their cooks were still amateurs. Ingredients were treated with all the finesse of a blacksmith hammering iron.
With max-level cooking skills backing him up, Cheng Yu had made a name for himself in Bailu Town with just egg fried rice. Word spread fast. Now customers lined up every day, and his wallet had gotten noticeably heavier.
At a table near the door, a fat merchant with a bushy mustache bounced his leg impatiently. "Brother Cheng Yu, I've been waiting almost half an hour. Is mine ready yet?"
"Coming right up," Cheng Yu said smoothly.
He wasn't actually that slow. Sometimes he dragged things out on purpose.
Hunger amplified satisfaction. The system gave him more emotion points when people were starving versus when they were merely peckish. A starving person could find plain steamed buns delicious, while someone full wouldn't care if you served them a feast.
Basic economics, really.
Ten minutes crawled by.
Finally, Cheng Yu walked over with a plate piled high with fried rice, wearing his customer-service smile. "Sorry for the wait."
"Finally!" Marcus grabbed a spoon but immediately abandoned it. Instead, he opened his mouth wide and dove face-first into the plate like a human excavator.
"Marcus, slow down. I'm not responsible if you choke to death."
As a regular customer, Marcus at least deserved a warning. Dead customers don't come back to spend money.
[Positive Emotion Value +11]
Marcus surfaced from his plate, his expression bright as a sunflower.
"Brother Cheng Yu, every time I come here, I wait half an hour minimum. Why don't you buy a slave from me to help out?"
Marcus clearly thought Cheng Yu was overwhelmed by the workload, hence the delays.
"Buy a slave?"
Cheng Yu paused.
Business had been picking up lately. He'd been thinking about hiring someone anyway.
Now that Marcus mentioned it, buying a slave actually made more financial sense.
According to Black Sun Empire law, regular employees came with strings attached: wages, mandatory days off, no overtime allowed, and compensation for workplace injuries.
Slaves, though? Different story.
The law classified slaves as private property. No wages required. Unlimited overtime permitted.
"You know what, my store could use the help."
Cheng Yu nodded.
"Perfect! Come with me to the slave dungeon this afternoon. Since we're friends, I'll give you ten percent off."
Marcus was already calculating. With another person working here, he'd get his fried rice faster next visit.
That afternoon, Cheng Yu closed up shop and followed Marcus to pick out a slave.
The carriage rattled along the dirt road for about an hour before they arrived at a private manor ten kilometers outside Bailu Town.
A dozen muscular guards holding spears flanked the manor gates.
Marcus led Cheng Yu down into the basement. This was where they kept the slaves—merchandise collected from all over the region before being shipped off to slave markets in the bigger cities.
The air down here was thick and damp, heavy with mildew. Rows of iron-barred cells lined both sides of the corridor. Inside, human slaves sat in the shadows—defeated soldiers from conquered nations, poverty-stricken people who'd sold themselves, and unlucky civilians who'd been kidnapped and trafficked.
As they walked, Marcus asked, "What kind of slave are you looking for, Brother Cheng Yu?"
"Someone capable," Cheng Yu said casually.
"Capable?"
Marcus stroked his mustache, and a lecherous grin spread across his round face. He picked up his pace, leading Cheng Yu deeper into the dungeon.
Ten minutes later, they passed through an iron gate into the furthest section.
The Celsis Continent was home to many races—not just humans, but elves, demons, dwarves, dragons, mermaids, and beastfolk. The continent itself was divided roughly into four territories: the eastern human empires, the western elven Sacred Kingdom, the northern Demon Domain, and the southern beastfolk tribes.
This deepest corridor was lined with small individual cells, each one holding a beastfolk slave. Mostly young women.
Beastfolk were rare in border towns like Bailu. In his six months here, Cheng Yu had only seen them once before.
Curious, he approached one of the cells and peered inside.
A woman sat inside, her hair disheveled. Her upper body was human, but below the waist, she had a snake's tail coiled on the ground like a garden hose. Her vertical pupils glowed faintly green in the darkness.
The southern beastfolk territories were made up of countless tribes—snake tribe, fox tribe, cat tribe, wing tribe, and more.
This woman was clearly from the snake tribe.
"Interested in the snake woman, Brother Cheng Yu?" Marcus asked with a grin.
"She's interesting, but my customers probably wouldn't be."
A half-snake server would likely send diners running for the door.
Maybe another time, Cheng Yu thought.
He moved to the next cell.
Inside sat a tall, striking girl with crimson eyes and messy white hair. A pair of fluffy white animal ears poked up from her head, and a snow-white tail curled behind her. She was hunched against the wall, arms wrapped around her knees. Shackles bound her wrists and ankles, chains bolted to the stone.
"Holy shit. Actual animal ears."
"Oh? Brother Cheng Yu likes this one?"
Seeing Cheng Yu's reaction, Marcus chuckled.
Cheng Yu nodded.
Who could resist a beautiful white-haired, red-eyed wolf girl?
"Her name is Mina. She's from the Silver Wolf Clan, nineteen years old. Prettiest beastfolk we've got down here," Marcus said.
"How much?"
"Normally a hundred gold coins. With the discount, ninety."
"Damn, that's expensive."
On the Celsis Continent, the currency breakdown was simple: 1 gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10,000 copper coins. One copper coin could buy an egg, roughly equivalent to one yuan back on Earth. That made one gold coin worth about ten thousand yuan. A hundred gold coins? That was a million.
The average worker in the Black Sun Empire earned 3,000 to 5,000 copper coins a month. A hundred gold coins was serious money.
"Young, beautiful beastfolk girls are always in demand," Marcus said. "Plus, she's still a virgin."
Cheng Yu had been running the restaurant for six months and saved up over a hundred gold coins. He could afford the wolf girl.
He just had one question.
"Can she work?"