Universe Infinite Canteen

Three days had passed since Ma Lu's last trip to purchase ingredients.

Upon returning to the living room, he immediately poured the big bag of seeds sent by the Heavenly Dragon Sect into the Desktop Farm.

Through the farm's automatic sorting system, most seeds were dispatched to mountain or lake ecologies, with a small part going to swamp and cave ecologies...

According to Han Guangzhong, these secret medicines grew very slowly compared to ordinary plants, taking at least three to five years to be barely usable.

However, Ma Lu's Desktop Farm itself came with a growth acceleration feature. Three days had passed, and the planted seeds had all germinated, some even reaching palm height.

By this account, it wouldn't take too much longer for them to mature. Your journey continues at My Virtual Library Empire

Meanwhile, the first skin, called Blood Feast, priced at 28, with 2 new move modules, had been launched by Red Ridge.

One was a forward lunge and the other a backstab, both moves used by Coconut Jelly during the execution of Beigong Meng.

However, the players were not real Blood Demons but merely skinned skeletons, so whether the lunge or the backstab, without Coconut Jelly's speed and strength, they were just for show.

But most people buy skins for coolness, and the Blood Demon's design was really slick. Adding these moves made it even cooler, and with a price of 38, plenty of people were still willing to pay.

The project team reported that within 24 hours of the skin's launch, it had sold 2700 sets, considering the game had a total of 14,000+ registered users.

This conversion rate was quite impressive, and it was only the first day; sales were definitely expected to increase.

Under the agreement previously made with Baldy, this portion of the operational income was treated as consultant bonuses, linked to the share of total online users.

Ma Lu calculated that he could take 60% of the operational income, which could reach 70% by the end of the month, that is, 72000.

Of course, this was just one day's earnings; it would definitely increase. Conservatively estimated, breaking a hundred thousand should be no problem.

If this had been just after college when he was still job searching, this money would have been a fortune to him.

But now, it was just the daily net profit of the Universe Infinite Canteen. Ma Lu wasn't particularly moved, only considering the future promising.

That afternoon, he was listlessly flipping through the "Compendium of Zero-Tier Spells" at the counter when He Xiaoqian walked over.

"Boss."

"Hmm?"

He Xiaoqian lowered her voice and said, "There are two customers over there… they don't seem like ordinary people."

Ma Lu was startled, initially thinking that those strange customers from Different Dimensions had lost their minds and come to dine during the day.

But following He Xiaoqian's gaze, he only saw a man and a woman sitting quietly by the glass window eating.

Ma Lu watched them for a while but couldn't see anything unusual, so he asked He Xiaoqian.

"What's abnormal about them? Do they have two tongues, or do they ruminate while eating?"

"Ah, it's not that unusual," He Xiaoqian replied, "I mean they could likely be food critics."

She paused, then explained, "Boss, I've been a waitress for almost two months now. I'm quite accurate at reading people. We've had some food critics here before, and the way they eat is quite different from ordinary people.

"How so?"

"Ordinary people who encounter food that suits their taste can't help but gobble it down, eating more and more, but food critics generally start with small bites, chewing slowly, allowing their taste buds to fully experience the flavors of the food.

"They also try to distinguish the ingredients and seasonings used, as well as the freshness of the ingredients."

"You're quite observant," Ma Lu remarked. "I think you could be a food critic too."

"Eh, me?" He Xiaoqian quickly waved her hands, "I can't do it. I just loudly say it's delicious when I encounter tasty food. I can't articulate what exactly is good or taste what exactly is in it."

"Well, speaking of which," Ma Lu said, "food critics aren't that unusual. Our restaurant is so popular; attracting food critics is quite normal.

"There've been many foodie livestreamers who came here to broadcast while eating. There was one guy named Zhang Yang. He's pretty famous, said to be an amazing food critic.

"After eating, he even wrote an article praising us, calling us a 'disruptor in the food industry,' hahaha."

"Those two don't seem to be personal food critics," He Xiaoqian said.

"Are there food critics that aren't individual?"

"Yes," He Xiaoqian nodded, "I chatted with a foodie livestreamer who visited us before. She told me some critics do not make a career out of it, nor do they seek to build a social media presence or accumulate followers.

"Many of them have regular jobs, some even being chefs at star-rated hotels or teachers at culinary schools.

"They are hired by some organizations or institutions that pay them to dine at designated restaurants and give scores."

Ma Lu raised his eyebrows, quickly thinking of a name, and scoffed.

"Meiping Website. They dared to write nonsense about me on their site last time, and I haven't settled that account yet. Now they dare send people to my place, heh."

As Ma Lu spoke, he stood up to approach the man and woman, and He Xiaoqian quickly grabbed him.

"Boss, don't be rash. I'm just speculating. And even if they are not independent food critics, they might not necessarily be from Meiping Website."

"Why not ask them directly?"

Ma Lu spoke and walked towards them, and He Xiaoqian, though reluctantly as an employee, could only follow behind.

Ma Lu approached the table by the window and started, "How do you find the food today?"

"It's very good," said the male customer, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

The female customer also nodded, saying, "The food here really lives up to its reputation."

"Is that so? How did you hear about my restaurant?"

The man and woman exchanged a quick glance, then responded,

"Online. Your restaurant is very popular on short video platforms. We decided to come here after watching some food vloggers' review videos."

"Ah, that's good. I thought you were agents sent by Meiping Website, but it looks like it was just a misunderstanding."

"Agents… what?" The female customer looked perplexed.

"Agents. There are only two things I despise in this world, war and Meiping Website."

"Ah, but surely Meiping Website isn't as bad as war," the male customer couldn't help commenting.

"You're right. I thought it over again, and I'm actually not that against war."