"You are looking at her."Amy looked at the middle-aged man and nodded.
"Uh…" The man looked at Amy solemnly, and then scratched his head. "Is the owner of this restaurant your father?"
Mag heard the conversation at the door and came out. "May I help you?" he asked, looking at the man in the Catering a.s.sociation uniform.
The Catering a.s.sociation had disappeared from his life for a long time. After the last battle for the ranking, it was said that the Catering a.s.sociation was reorganizing. They had announced to the public that the food compet.i.tion had been stopped indefinitely, and that the Catering a.s.sociation would take on a new look after the rectification. Mag hadn"t heard anything about the Catering a.s.sociation for three months.
The man"s face brightened when he saw Mag.
"You must be the owner of Mamy Restaurant!" he said, excited. "You see, the Catering a.s.sociation, after reorganization and improvement, is ready to launch an entirely new food compet.i.tion, and now we"re looking for partic.i.p.ating restaurants. In the last compet.i.tion, five dishes of Mamy Restaurant entered the top 100. Really impressive. Will you partic.i.p.ate in this new food compet.i.tion?"
"A new food compet.i.tion?" Mag looked at the man, thoughtful.
Now that his restaurant was famous, there was no need to increase its popularity through food ranking. Besides, if the procedure was as tedious as before and required him to pay for his own tickets, he had no desire to partic.i.p.ate.
Seeing the hesitation on Mag"s face, the man hurriedly said, "The rules of the compet.i.tion are totally different from those before. Because of the notorious fraud in the past, the result of the compet.i.tion is no longer decided by guests" votes, but by a review group of 12 anonymous experts, who will eat in each restaurant and then make a fair evaluation. They will rate the dining environment and the taste of food, and then we"ll get the final rankings.
"In addition to the rankings of 30 best restaurants, there are also five sub rankings, each of which have 20 spots. They are: meat dish rankings, aquatic dish rankings, soup rankings, veggie dish rankings, and snack rankings.
"No partic.i.p.ating restaurant needs to pay any fees. The food reviewers will eat in the restaurants as ordinary guests, and will not inform the restaurants. All partic.i.p.ating restaurants must be willing to accept the evaluation from them."
"The rules sure have changed a lot." Mag nodded slightly. These criteria were similar to those of the Michelin restaurants. Anonymous food reviewers could largely avoid the occurrence of fraud and do a more objective evaluation of food.
Having overall rankings and five sub rankings was really convenient. After all, the original purpose of food rankings was to better recommend delicious food to customers. The food a.s.sociation seemed to have returned to its original pa.s.sion.
Of course, the more important thing was the simplification of the process. Restaurants only needed to sign up, and didn"t have to spend manpower and money on the compet.i.tion. That was undoubtedly a significant improvement to the previous Catering a.s.sociation.
Yet Mag was still not interested. His restaurant needed to limit the flow of customers now, so there was no point in continuing to attract customers. He was not one who wanted to be the first in everything.
"New mission!" the system called out suddenly when Mag was about to politely decline. "Take part in the compet.i.tion and win first place in all the rankings!"
"What?!" Mag replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Your reward for mission completion: a chance at the G.o.d of Cookery upgrade wheel. Your punishment for mission failure: dance to Gokuraku Jodo in front of the restaurant in female attire."
It was all Mag could do not to curse.
"How can you be so despicable, System?!" Mag fumed. Maybe he could take the first place in the overall rankings and four sub rankings, but he could never win the veggie dish rankings, not when he had no veggie dishes whatsoever on the menu!
Mag had not even the slightest hope of accomplis.h.i.+ng the mission; he couldn"t avoid the punishment of dancing to Gokuraku Jodo in female attire.
"I"m positive you"ll find a way to do the impossible," the system, smiling. "You"ll become a great G.o.d…
"…or a fantastic drag queen."
"You smug son of a…" Mag crushed out his anger as the middle-aged man looked at him with great expectations. "Sign me up," he said at last.
The man"s face lit up immediately. "Great! This is the agreement. Please sign here if there is no problem." He handed a piece of paper to Mag.
Mag skimmed the terms. The agreement was simple; it was similar to what the staff had said before. There were no additional terms. It was just to confirm that the restaurant partic.i.p.ated in the compet.i.tion and accepted the evaluation from the reviewers. He signed his name and the name of his restaurant.
"I"m sure Mamy Restaurant will get a great ranking," the staff said sincerely, and took his leave.
Mag gave a dry smile.
Getting the top spot in all six rankings. The system was really pus.h.i.+ng him to his limits.
"System, explain to me, why are you so determined to see me dance to Gokuraku Jodo in female clothing?" Mag demanded as he walked back into the restaurant in a bad mood.
"Your task has been released. You should focus on finis.h.i.+ng it. As for your question, I choose not to answer it." Mag could hear a smile in its voice.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Mag mumbled.
Mag rubbed his brow with his thumb and forefinger. He was confident he would win the overall rankings and four sub rankings, but how could he manage to take the first spot in the veggie dish rankings? The only dish that hadn"t been launched was Peking Duck, but there was no way a Peking Duck would pa.s.s for a veggie dis.h.!.+
Firis was waiting expectantly for Mag to teach her how to cook, but when she saw his furrowed brow, she became nervous and uneasy. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked hesitantly in a small voice.
Yet Mag was so preoccupied with his own thoughts, he seemed not to hear her. "Maybe I can stir-fry some bean sprouts."
Firis"s cheeks turned red in a split second. Bean Sprout was the nickname used only by her princess, so when she heard Mag say it, she couldn"t help but feel embarra.s.sed.
"Bean sprout?" Amy echoed, looking at Firis with her big eyes. "Big Sister Bean Sprout? I like the sound of it!"
Firis opened her mouth and closed it. She looked at Amy"s innocent face and nodded with a wry smile.
By then, Mag had remembered himself. He cleared his mind and turned to Firis. "Let"s go to the market and buy some ingredients for you to practice your cooking skills."
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