The Max-Level Chef’s Magical Town Game

“?”

If emotions in the magical world could be visualized like in comics, a question mark would definitely appear above Isaac’s head.

Everyone unlocks their magic level at six, gaining experience points to enhance their main attributes through battling monsters or practicing life skills.

…How could someone be in their twenties with a main attribute level of only 4?

…If the main attribute is level 4, how did their cooking skill reach level 100?

Isaac’s understanding was shaken at this moment.

He glanced at Ye Mu, feeling confused but maintaining his good upbringing by not voicing it.

After a brief silence, he cleared his throat and said, “I suggest hiding your attribute panel, otherwise, your dazzling cooking skills might attract unwanted attention from thieves.”

“Okay, okay…” Ye Mu quickly interpreted the hidden meaning behind his words: it wasn’t just her cooking skills that would draw attention, but also her complete lack of combat ability!

Feeling embarrassed, she nervously fidgeted with her toes. Previously, when she and Xibel had become friends, their panels were also fully visible, but at that time, she had no knowledge of this world, so she didn’t think much of it. Plus, as an ordinary adventurer, Xibel’s main attribute values far surpassed hers, but her level 100 cooking made it stand out.

Now, however, Isaac was clearly a fellow life skill player who had hidden his main attributes.

With her cooking maxed out at level 100, and Isaac having no maxed skills but balanced development, her string of zeros felt ridiculous.

Flustered, she hurriedly began to hide her attributes, planning to show only her “Cooking Level 100” from now on.

Noticing her discomfort, Isaac said directly, “I’ll come by tonight to redeem a meal. I’m leaving now.”

“Take care!” Ye Mu waved goodbye as he left, then quickly turned and headed into the kitchen.

—What’s there to envy about balanced development! My cooking is maxed out! No one can cook better than me!

She internally shouted to soothe her earlier embarrassment and then set about preparing the evening’s dishes.

Now that she had a proper storefront, an ordering panel, and kitchen helpers, Ye Mu could diversify her menu. She planned to offer three dishes tonight: [Sugar-Coated Tomatoes], [Stir-fried Pork with Green Peppers], and [Scrambled eggs with garlic chives], the last two being new recipes she needed to test first.

For the staple food, she would continue with the [Fried Rice with Sausage] and also offer [White Rice].

Additionally, she planned to make a soup, starting with the simplest: [Tomato Egg Drop Soup].

After finalizing the menu, Ye Mu listed the ingredients needed and went out shopping.

Although she was adding dishes, the ingredients were easy to find, both garlic chives and green peppers were plentiful at various stalls. Unfortunately, most people only knew how to use them for “stir-fried mixed vegetables” or basic boiled or roasted dishes, wasting the unique flavors of the ingredients.

Once she bought the ingredients and returned to the restaurant, Ye Mu immersed herself in cooking. Dishes like [Stir-fried Pork with Green Peppers] and [Scrambled eggs with garlic chives] were exceedingly simple for her. It took her some time to chop the vegetables, but the actual cooking was done in under ten minutes.

After preparing the two dishes, she called the four staff members to taste them.

After all, when it comes to food, nothing is more important than flavor!

As the four children entered the kitchen, four servings were neatly arranged on the island counter. Each was placed in a rectangular tray, accompanied by a bowl of steaming white rice and two small plates.

The dishes not only smelled delightful, but their colors were also far more enticing than those found at the market. The children’s eyes lit up as Ye Mu handed them their utensils, and they began to eat eagerly.

“Hmm…” Ye Mu pulled up a chair, resting her chin on her hand as she watched them enjoy the food.

She originally planned to have them each take a bite of the two dishes and give her detailed feedback, such as whether it was too salty or bland, and whether the eggs and meat were overcooked. But now it seemed unnecessary.

Their speed of eating provided her with the most direct feedback: “Delicious.”

Deliciousness is what matters! As a dish, nothing is more important than being tasty!

Ye Mu couldn’t help but smile, feeling reassured as she waited for them to finish, and started arranging the afternoon kitchen duties.

The kitchen tasks were straightforward, in the game world, there was no need to wash vegetables. Jeff and Billy were responsible for chopping vegetables and meat and cooking rice. Ivy would take charge of serving and collecting payments with Dela assisting. As for shopping for ingredients, Ye Mu handled it herself today but planned to delegate that to the four of them in the future, with Ivy managing the schedule.

“Cut the garlic chives into small pieces and cut the green pepper into shreds”, Ye Mu patiently demonstrated once. After Jeff and Billy indicated they understood, she left the kitchen confidently. However, before she could go upstairs, Ivy stopped her.

Everyone was still unfamiliar with each other, and Ivy appeared somewhat timid as she hesitated for a while before speaking, “If there’s nothing else, can I help them with the chopping?”

“Ah?” Ye Mu was taken aback and quickly replied, “Let’s keep the tasks divided! Otherwise, you’ll tire yourself out!”

“No…” Ivy shook her head, “These tasks can earn experience points. Chopping vegetables can also increase my cooking skill level. I want to level up, if I can’t be a combat mage in the future, being a chef wouldn’t be bad either.”

Ye Mu: “…”

She realized she still didn’t fully understand this world’s system!

Reluctantly, she agreed to Ivy’s request but stopped Dela, thinking it was too dangerous for a nine-year-old to handle knives, she could help crack eggs at most.

Three hours later, before opening for business, the employees had dinner. Their meal consisted of the same dishes available that day, so they enjoyed the [Stir-fried Pork with Green Peppers] and [Scrambled eggs with garlic chives] again. However, these delicious dishes, which couldn’t be found elsewhere, didn’t bore them even after two servings.

Billy, having devoured his meal in a flash, suddenly noticed the level change in the top left corner and exclaimed, “I think I leveled up!”

Jeff, who ate slowly, nodded after taking a bite of his fried rice, “I leveled up too. I gained quite a bit of experience from chopping vegetables and eating, chopping also unlocked my cooking level.”

Though it was only a level 1 cooking skill, Jeff was still pleased.

Billy’s eyes sparkled with excitement, “When do you think Miss Ye will teach us how to cook? I want to learn how to make these delicious dishes too!”

Ivy frowned at this, “If it were me, I wouldn’t consider teaching. This is a restaurant, it’s about making money from cooking. We should just focus on doing the tasks Miss Ye assigned us and not think too much.”

After all, helping in the kitchen also provided experience points, and eating these rare dishes would give them extra attributes compared to other kids. Ivy was already satisfied.

Hearing this, Billy felt a bit disappointed but didn’t argue. As the opening time approached, Ivy hurriedly finished her employee meal and took Dela to the front of the restaurant.

“Hey, I’m going too!” Jeff chased after them.

With the dishes ready, there was nothing else for him to do in the kitchen, so he preferred to help out. Although serving food and collecting payments offered minimal experience, it was better than doing nothing.

Billy rolled his eyes at this, thinking they were silly—what was so great about being a server? If they could find a way to learn cooking, they’d gain much more experience from making a dish!

At five o’clock sharp, the “Nightfall Restaurant” opened its doors.

Even before opening, many loyal customers had gathered outside, causing a bit of congestion. Once the restaurant doors opened, all six tables were instantly filled. Ivy reacted quickly, rushing to the entrance to block the crowd trying to push in, saying, “It’s full inside! Please form a line to take a number!” As she spoke, she grabbed paper and pen, quickly writing down numbers to distribute, instructing Dela, “You can call the numbers here! Keep an eye inside, call as soon as a table opens up.”

Then she turned to Jeff, “Only we can serve the food!”

“Sure thing!” Jeff readily agreed.

Inside the restaurant, Ye Mu was very satisfied with their initiative to cooperate, and she didn’t mind that Billy hadn’t come to help.

As a boss, it’s already sufficient for employees to complete their assigned tasks. With employees like Ivy and Jeff who are willing to take on more work, she felt lucky and should consider giving them more pay instead of trying to motivate less proactive employees!

Ye Mu exchanged pleasantries with the customers before heading to the kitchen to prepare the dishes as soon as she received the orders.

At table 3, the Xibel team was glad they arrived early and snagged a table right when the restaurant opened. Although there were only four chairs, two of the six team members had to temporarily add an uncomfortable little stool, but that didn’t matter at all!

Xibel glanced at the ordering board, feeling her mouth water in anticipation. Excitedly rubbing her hands together, she said, “Ye Mu said she’ll cover dinner for our whole team for a week. Since we’re six people, it’s reasonable to get two servings of each dish, right? You guys decide between fried rice and plain rice, and I’ll order together.”

“I want fried rice.”

“I’ll just have plain rice.”

The team members quickly made their choices, and Xibel stood up to head towards the ordering panel.

In the kitchen, Ye Mu quickly realized the unscientific aspects of running a restaurant.

The restaurants in the game world were quite different from those in reality, here, dishes could be prepared in advance. Although they could “expire,” most had a shelf life of 3 to 7 days, with some kinds lasting up to 10, 30, or even 60 days. Within their shelf life, the quality remained unchanged.

So, while she was busy preparing ingredients in the afternoon, by the time the restaurant opened for business, her job became simply placing the ordered dishes into trays for serving, making her work much lighter, which could be completely delegated to the employees.

However, customer dining still required time, just like in the real world, leading to long waits for those outside. Her reputation was gradually rising, and with the limited number of dishes she could prepare each day, it was likely that some customers would end up waiting a long time without getting a meal, which would be bad for the brand’s reputation.

In contrast, there hadn’t been this problem when she was selling food on the street. Back then, although the dishes were also not enough to sell every day, customers bought their meals and left quickly, reducing wait times and grievances for those who couldn’t get a table.

“This one is for table 1!” Ye Mu thought as she prepared another dish for Jeff and asked, “Has the mage who came to set up the sign this afternoon arrived?”

“Not yet, but don’t worry! The dishes he wants have already been prepared! I’ll give them to him as soon as he arrives!” Jeff replied energetically.

“Send him an extra serving of tomato egg drop soup,” Ye Mu instructed, “Tell him I need to talk to him, and ask him to come to the kitchen.”

“Got it!” Jeff agreed, taking the soup Ye Mu mentioned and placing it in his backpack before quickly heading out with the tray for table 1.

Twenty minutes later, Ye Mu waited for Isaac.

The kitchen was open, but Isaac still knocked twice at the entrance island table as a formality. Hearing the sound, Ye Mu turned around. He pointed to a nearby low cabinet, saying, “Can I have dinner here?”

“Of course, please sit down,” Ye Mu said, unable to hide her smile.

Isaac was already a good-looking mage, and with his polite demeanor, Ye Mu found him very pleasant to be around.

After receiving permission, Isaac pulled up a chair beside the cabinet. As he took out the dish Jeff had given him, he said, “Thank you for the complimentary soup. They said you needed to talk to me. What’s it about?”

“Oh, I was wondering if it’s convenient to install a window at the entrance of the dining hall?” Ye Mu asked.

“A window?” Isaac glanced toward the entrance. “Aren’t there windows on the sides?”

“There are, but not like that,” Ye Mu explained. “I want to create a window specifically for selling food—larger than the current ones—with the upper part open and the lower part covered with glass. It would have a small counter inside, allowing outside customers to see the dishes available for sale.”

She gestured as she spoke: “It would be great to have a long counter next to it for displaying the pre-portioned dishes, making it easier to serve. Do you think that would work?”

Isaac envisioned what she described and nodded. “That’s feasible. The upper part could be designed as a sliding window, making it easier to close when the restaurant shuts at night.”

“Fantastic!” Ye Mu smiled. “What’s your price?”

“Hmm…” Isaac drew out the sound as he thoughtfully estimated, “Including labor and materials, twelve meals with two dishes each.”

Ye Mu pressed, “How long will it take to complete?”

Isaac smiled. “I’ll start working after you finish your service, and I can wrap it up in half an hour.”

Ye Mu was taken aback: “….”

Half an hour? Your construction timelines in this game world are quite unreasonable!

She nodded again, “That’s so fast! Then I’ll send you a complimentary soup with each meal!”

The two sides happily agreed, and just then, it was time for a new wave of customers to arrive. Ye Mu busied herself preparing ingredients for them, letting Isaac enjoy his meal and call for her if needed.

Isaac smiled and thanked her, and only after she turned to start her work did he begin to eat.

He carefully scooped a spoonful of the unfamiliar dish, unable to identify the cooking methods or seasonings due to his low culinary skill level, only vaguely recognizing it as shredded bell pepper and meat.

As he tasted the dish, the rich flavors burst in his mouth. Isaac couldn’t help but take a deep breath, a smile spreading across his face. Intrigued, he scooped another spoonful, placing it at the corner of his rice, and diligently mixed it in. He then added a scoop of the soup, carefully drizzling it over the rice he had just mixed.

Ye Mu while preparing dishes, casually glanced back and happened to catch him in the act of pouring the soup.

…It was just mixing rice, yet his expression was so earnest, as if he were conducting some precise experiment!