The opening of the ice cream and the implementation of the new serving system went even smoother than Mag had antic.i.p.ated. The customer base acc.u.mulated by Mamy Restaurant ensured that the ice cream had many customers from the very first day, and with the new serving system, Yabemiya could handle most of the workload on her own. All that was needed was an extra helper responsible for cleaning up the shop and the tables.As Yabemiya was running around serving customers, Babla asked quietly, "What should we do?"
"Just help clean up the tables," Mag said with a smile. Yabemiya was once again putting her exemplary mult.i.tasking skills on display. She was taking orders, handling cash, producing ice creams, and calling out numbers all by herself, making zero errors in the process.
"Miya really is amazing." Sally was stunned as she looked at Yabemiya. Taking care of so many matters at once was far more taxing mentally than working as a waitress at Mamy Restaurant.
"She is. It"s high time I gave her a pay rise." Mag nodded in agreement. Such an exceptional employee was certainly not easy to come by.
After everything was set into motion, Mag bade farewell to Yabemiya and the others before departing.
When he made his way to the entrance, he caught sight of two men in black standing together in a corner. They were rather out of place as they weren"t here for ice creams, nor were they merely spectating. Instead, they were constantly staring at the ice cream machines behind Yabemiya and discussing quietly among themselves in the process.
Mag made a mental note to himself about these two suspicious characters before walking out the door. He wasn"t aggressive enough to pluck these two away for interrogation just because they were looking s.h.i.+fty.
On the way back to the restaurant, Mag visited Mobai"s forge to check on his progress with the steam engine parts. Most of the parts for the steam engine were being made here, so the Mobai"s rate of progress was an important factor of consideration for him.
The half-naked Mobai wiped the sweat off his forehead as he said, "Boss Mag, the degree of accuracy required for the parts you"re ordering is far too high. Even if I work through the night, I"ll only be able to finish them by tomorrow at noon at the earliest."
"Hehe." Lulu gave Mag a bashful smile before continuing to swing his hammer, smas.h.i.+ng it into the block of metal on the anvil before him.
"That"s alright. It"s fine as long as you can get them done before tomorrow night," Mag said with a smile. He was quite pleased with the progress that Mobai was making.
After returning to the restaurant, Mag was just about to begin preparing ingredients when the system"s voice suddenly sounded. "Ding! Congratulations on opening your first branch. Your reward is a pepper steak recipe! Due to the fact that the branch opened is an ice cream shop, you"re also going to receive the hidden prize: a Haagen-Dazs ice cream cake recipe!"
"Pepper steak and ice cream cake? Well done, my son!" Mag"s eyes lit up upon hearing this. He didn"t think that he would receive two rewards from completing one mission. Steak was one of his favorite foods. Even though the roast kebabs were also made from beef, it was still very different from steak.
"Please watch your mouth!" the system protest sternly.
"Your father is very proud of you, system!" Mag nodded in response. The pepper steak dish resolved the issue of a lack of Western dishes on the menu, while the ice cream cake could diversify the ice cream shop"s recipe. As such, both of these were fantastic rewards.
"You"re playing with fire!" The system was starting to sound quite angry.
Mag ignored the enraged system as he smilingly asked, "System, I want to alter my background so it becomes more difficult for people to make out the connection between me and Mag Alex. Do you have any good suggestions? Can you fabricate a suitable background for me?"
As Mamy Restaurant became more and more influential, Mag was naturally going to draw more attention and scrutiny. If someone were to dig up the fact that he had arrived in Chaos City with Amy three years ago, and then lived as a cripple for close to three years thereafter, they would easily be able to draw a connection between him and Mag Alex.
"No! p.i.s.s off!" the system grumbled.
"Then how about you alter the memories of some of the people in this world? For example, you could make everyone who wants to kill me forget about my existence. That way, we"d be able to coexist in harmony and I"d be able to cook in peace." Mag was still unwilling to give up.
"That would break the laws of this world. The system definitely won"t do something like that!" the system refused sternly.
"Alright, looks like I"ll have to figure this out on my own, then." Mag furrowed his brows, deep in thought. It appeared that the system wasn"t willing to help him, so he would have to fabricate a story about himself, and then broadcast it to the general public somehow.
After putting away the pepper beef and ice cream cake recipes in his mind, Mag began to prepare ingredients for the lunch service while contemplating this matter.
He didn"t know what was going to happen during the banquet at the Chamber of Commerce in two days, so he had to make preparations in advance.
After all, his signature style had always been a prophylactic approach.
…
On the first day after the opening of the ice cream shop, 510 ice creams were sold, resulting in 153,000 copper coins of revenue.
Mag"s expression filled with surprise and elation upon hearing Yabemiya report those figures to him.
This was only the first day, and only ice cream was sold. Furthermore, the shop was essentially being run by a single person, yet over 150,000 copper coins had been made, amounting to over 100,000 copper coins in profits alone.
This was an exceptional source of income for Mag.
Mamy Restaurant"s daily revenue in its current state had reached an upper limit. Unless more employees were hired or the restaurant was expanded, it would be very difficult to increase store revenue.
"That"s over 500 kebabs…" Babla gulped with an expression full of yearning.
…
In the bushes outside the ice cream, a thin man in black clothes stuck out his head, and asked, "Boss, are we doing this or not?"
A tall and broad man also stuck out his head from the bushes before shaking his head with a solemn expression as he said, "Let"s wait for a while first. There are still so many people on the streets, and it would be disastrous if we got caught. We have to ensure absolute safety before we act."
10 minutes later.
"Boss, how about now?"
"Let"s keep waiting."
One hour later.
"Boss, how about now?"
"Let"s keep waiting. That drunkard just came out there, and he might see us."
…
The next morning, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.
The thin man scratched the mosquito bites on his face, and feebly asked, "Boss, how about now…"
The only response he received was a series of rumbling snores.
"Dammit! Nothing good has come from following this guy from the Roth Empire!" the thin man grumbled to himself as he stomped his foot. He crawled out of the bushes with a furious expression before glancing at the ice cream with an indignant look in his eyes. He then took a glance at a cleaner holding a broom nearby, and decided to scurry away.
…
"Mistress, the annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce is being held. Are you going to attend this time?"
A slightly eerie voice reverberated in an ancient castle built between two cliffs. A man in black robes that completely concealed his figure and appearance was facing the throne in front of him with his head slightly lowered.
On the throne that was enshrouded in darkness, there was a seductive woman with a pair of vibrant red lips. She smiled as she replied, "Of course I"m going. I want to see if there"s going to be any suitable prey."