The Max-Level Chef’s Magical Town Game

“You all eat first, I’m going to work overtime today.” Ye Mu greeted them before going back into the kitchen.

Xibel turned around, “Overtime?”

That wasn’t common, at least, she had never seen Ye Mu work overtime.

In her opinion, Ye Mu’s business seemed pretty laid-back. The restaurant opened only in the evening, with food prep starting at noon, and every day, she prepared a fixed quantity. Once it was sold out, she closed, never making extra for a larger crowd.

Ye Mu sighed, “The temperature dropped suddenly, and everyone is freezing. I’ll try to prepare a bit more so nobody is disappointed.”

“Woohoo!” Nala chimed in, “Oh great chef… your whole body is glowing when you say that!”

Ye Mu chuckled and began cooking. Ingredients in the game had a long shelf life, and with a steady supply from Xibel and the others, she had plenty of pork and eggs in stock, along with ample chili peppers. The tofu couldn’t drop from monsters, she had bought it at the market yesterday, but she had Ivy buy more on the spot. Making 200 servings of [Mapo Tofu] should be fine. She also planned to make another 200 servings of [Spicy Pepper Scrambled Eggs], totaling around 300 servings of each dish available for sale today.

Even if she couldn’t satisfy all customers, they should see she was trying her best, she wasn’t doing any hunger marketing!

That night, the restaurant stayed open until nearly midnight. Customers came in shivering and left glowing with warmth.

Many adventurers had ended their monster hunting early due to the sudden cold snap temperature, and not everyone was prepared with warm clothing. In order to avoid repeating the same mistake tomorrow, many wanted to take home dishes for the next day, with some even trying to order ten or twenty portions at once for later.

To accommodate this, Ye Mu had to reinstate previous purchase limits, allowing each person to buy only three dishes with warming effects, whether dining in or taking out.

Once all the dishes were sold out, Ye Mu finally finished her shift. Today’s earnings were nearly double the usual amount, and everyone was tired, so she gave Ivy, Della, and Jeff each an extra 30 copper coins as a bonus. As for Billy, who never participated in overtime, he had declared his work done hours before opening and had already left, so he didn’t receive a bonus.

After Ivy and the others left, Ye Mu dragged her exhausted body back to her bedroom, realizing that in-game, this meant her stamina was depleted. Checking her stamina bar, she saw it was indeed close to empty.

But it was okay, she had initially been anxious about this when she first entered the game because she didn’t understand the mechanics, fearing that running out of stamina would mean death. After some time, she figured out that only exhausting her health points would lead to death, zero stamina just meant she couldn’t move.

Moreover, stamina could be restored by resting or sleeping, but the recovery speed is slow. It would delay things during monster hunts, but a full night’s sleep would definitely restore it completely.

Ye Mu lay down on the bed, almost drifting into slumber as soon as her eyes closed.

Before falling asleep, her last thought was a heartfelt realization… this world is pretty great!

In the real world, like many online friends, she often thought, “There are so many rich people in the world, why can’t there be one more of me?”

But here, the rich people should eventually include her sooner or later!

—

At the same time, a chilling wind swept through the southwest corner of Dragon Town, which a place Ye Mu had not yet visited.

This was the poorest corner of the town, far away from the bustling city center, where the hustle and bustle of markets, restaurants, and bars had no relation to this area.

And indeed, it had nothing to do with it.

Not only was it far away, but even if it were closer, the residents here simply couldn’t afford to spend money in those places.

They were all too poor, some had lost their fortunes due to accidents, some had gone bankrupt due to long-term illnesses, and others simply lacked the aptitude to level up by hunting monsters and struggled to find decent work to make a living.

Once people fall into poverty, it’s easy for them to become even poorer. The residents here seemed to attract various money-related troubles, forcing them to cut back even further, and any spare change they managed to save was kept for emergencies. They dared not spend it on potential investments that could lead to success.

Thus, their daily food consisted almost entirely of flatbread. While flatbread provided the most fullness, nutritionally, it did little to restore health points. To recover health points, one needed meat, eggs, and dairy, which were too expensive for them, most could only recover slowly while sleeping.

Unlike stamina points, which could be fully restored with a night’s sleep, health points had a maximum recovery limit of only 50% from resting. As a result, many residents lived year-round with only half their health points.

This further limited their ability to work, binding them more tightly to their poverty.

Around 2 in the morning, three figures appeared in the alleys, each cloaked in long, dark capes with hoods pulled low to obscure their faces. Although the capes were of an inconspicuous dark color, the fabric was clearly of high quality, standing in stark contrast to the surrounding dilapidated houses around.

If it weren’t for the quiet of the deep night when everyone else was asleep, they would have undoubtedly attracted attention.

All three of them possessed high agility, even though they paused briefly in front of each run-down house, they completed their run through the entire slum area in under half an hour. Finally, they gathered at the alley’s entrance, two of them having arrived first, while the third was a bit late.

When he finally arrived, the tallest figure asked, “Did you count them?”

The last one replied, “I counted. There were 213 households last winter, and now there are 376. That’s an increase of 163 households. Thankfully, we doubled the amount of coal, otherwise, it wouldn’t be enough to distribute.”

The one who asked the question fell silent for a while before a voice emerged from beneath the hood, “Let’s prepare some healing potions to send over tomorrow, three bottles for each household, for emergencies.”

Winter makes it easy to fall ill. Although most ailments can be instantly cured with potions, the people here can’t afford medicine, and many minor illnesses eventually lead to long-term negative effects.

The person who spoke clearly had made up his mind and turned to leave after finishing his statement. The remaining two were taken aback, then hurriedly chased after him: “…Sir!” The one responsible for counting the heads caught up first and urgently advised, “This expense is too high, your mine has been confiscated, and you’re already at a loss!”

The person in front remained unfazed, “I’ll think of another way.”

“But you can’t help!” The man blocked his path, forcing him to stop. “You know the lord keeps raising taxes, and the number of poor people will only increase! How much can we help with just ourselves? Once the harsh winter is over, what will we do about the summer heat? Not to mention monster invasions. This temporary help… it’s hard to say whether we’re helping them or prolonging their suffering.”

The last statement made the gray-blue eyes beneath the hood tremble.

Then there was a long silence.

As the silence lasted for a long time, it became awkward, and the chill brought by the cold wind deepened. The female mage, who had remained quiet, cleared her throat and awkwardly broke the stalemate with a sigh, “Cough… it would be nice to have a lord who doesn’t impose harsh taxes…”

As she spoke, her companions shot her a glare. Suddenly realizing her mistake, she abruptly closed her mouth.

But it was too late. A heavy sigh escaped from beneath the hood, and they all heard him say, “You’ve worked hard. Go back and rest.”

After saying that, he took out a teleportation rune stone and tossed it into the air, and disappeared instantly.

The two subordinates stayed behind, momentarily stunned. The one responsible for counting heads exclaimed angrily, “What are you talking about, a lord who doesn’t impose harsh taxes?!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!!” The female mage hugged her head and ran away, “I was dizzy and my brain isn’t working! Ahhh, I’m such an idiot!!!”

—

The next day, the weather was still just as cold as before, but many adventurers no longer complained. With rosy cheeks, they set off towards the Dragon Mountains, even feeling a bit of anticipation for the chill to come…

Because when the chill arrived, it meant the warming buff from breakfast would wear off, and they could have lunch!

Mapo tofu, spicy pepper scrambled eggs, served with fragrant rice! In the depths of winter, happiness was this simple!

Before long, it was noon, and various adventuring teams began to find places to rest and eat. Many groups had great harvest with their backpacks filled with monster materials.

If there were no cold-resistant food, they would either have to drink expensive and eye-watering warming potions or take brief breaks by the campfire, making it hard to achieve such bounty.

Amid the mouth-watering aroma of the meals, a hunting team composed entirely of ranged mages gradually became angry.

They came from the other side of the Dragon Mountains, from Falling Sunset Town, which was also their most convenient hunting ground. The vastness of the mountains and the abundance of monsters meant there had never been any territorial disputes between the two towns, they coexisted peacefully.

But now, they were on the brink of breaking down.

…Did Dragon Town suddenly gain a lot of nobles?!

Why were there teams formed by nobles everywhere, with the air filled with the high-end aroma of noble cuisine?!

What they cared about wasn’t the taste, but as commoners, they wanted to keep their distance from the nobles to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Especially those nobles with short tempers, they preferred to avoid any encounters altogether, as they could end up in serious danger if someone decided to take out their frustrations on them!

But now nobles were everywhere, and there was no escaping them!!!

After avoiding the aroma of meals unrelated to them for the fifteenth time, the captain pushed through some low shrubs and spotted the sixteenth “noble team.”

“Damn it…!” He swore in frustration, feeling his stamina depleting rapidly, and decided to give up. “I’m just going to rest here! If I get killed, it’s just my bad luck!!!”

His teammates had no objections to this.

After dodging for fifteen times, everyone was too exhausted and needed to take a break.

But their commotion caught the attention of the nearby team. Just as they settled on the ground, the bushes behind the captain were pushed aside. “Sorry to interrupt…”

Everyone tensed and turned to look. The other party seemed nervous too, glancing at them before cautiously surveying the surroundings, speaking politely, “We just heard something about ‘get killed.’ Is there a powerful monster lurking nearby?”

“Uh… huh?” The captain wanted to respond, but his mind was a bit foggy.

It was a common reaction for a commoner facing a noble for the first time.

He stammered for a while, leaving the other party confused. The young female mage who had come to inquire frowned and explained, “Uh, don’t worry, we have no intention of stealing monsters, we just want to be safe.”

“N-no, no, there’s no monster…” the captain finally managed to get out a sentence.

The mage was taken aback. “Then why would you get killed?”

“I mean…” The captain swallowed hard, instinctively glancing at her teammates, wanting to avoid the topic, but he couldn’t escape under their gaze.

In the end, he could only force himself to say, “I mean… we don’t mean to disturb you noble ladies while you’re dining, right now, um…”

“Noble ladies?” The female mage picked up on those words and immediately understood.

She turned in surprise to look at her teammates, who also understood. They exchanged glances for a second and burst into laughter: “Hahahahaha!!!”

The poor Falling Sunset Town team was left dazed by the laughter, but the kind-hearted female mage crouched down and patted the captain’s shoulder. “It’s a misunderstanding, we’re not nobles, just ordinary residents of Dragon Town!” As she spoke, she realized how the misunderstanding had occurred and raised the fragrant food in her hand. “This is from the restaurant… I know it sounds unbelievable, but I swear it’s true! If you don’t believe me, you can go to the town to see for yourself! Don’t be so nervous!”