Universe Infinite Canteen

Ma Lu sent Sun He and Lele out the door and then returned to the back kitchen, where he casually took down a five-sided coin and flipped it around.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared in another kitchen, where Ma Lu rolled up his sleeves to reveal four shining metal wires wrapped around his right arm.

The other end of the metal wires was connected to a palm-sized chibi version of Old Wang, which quickly retracted, forming two tiny hands and feet for the chibi Old Wang.

Riding on this contraction, the chibi Old Wang arrived in Ma Lu's palm.

Ma Lu carried it over to the full-sized Old Wang, who at that moment was standing still with his eyes tightly shut.

Ma Lu reached out, parting Old Wang's overcoat to expose the gap on his chest that perfectly matched the shape of the chibi Old Wang.

After he placed the chibi Old Wang back into the gap, the full-sized Old Wang opened his eyes and began to move.

"I never knew before that your real body was so small," Ma Lu said.

"No, this is my body," Old Wang replied, "There isn't what you'd call a 'main body'. If I had to describe it, what you saw just now is actually my 'castrated body'.

"As a silicon-based life form, I can simplify my body by sacrificing part of its function."

"Oh, like modularization, right?"

"Correct. I've given up all functions except for cooking, even some data, so I could minimize my form and join you in the God of Cooking competition," Old Wang explained.

"That really is a smart move. With us teaming up, entering the competition under my identity, you can focus solely on cooking. The interviews and other social interactions which you're not good at I can handle, but..." Ma Lu hesitated, "doesn't this seem a bit unfair to you? After all, if we win the title of God of Cooking, everyone will think that I'm the one who defeated all the other chefs and won the contest, and no one will mention your name."

"I only care about the opportunity to continue to enhance my culinary skills," Old Wang stated, "Titles and winning or losing are meaningless to me, and besides, this is just a remote plane outside of The Grand Alliance, no one else besides you guys would care about this title."

"Tsk, tsk, Old Wang, your honesty can be a bit hurtful sometimes. Being unable to lie is indeed a big problem in daily interactions, but don't worry, I'll take care of that part for you. As everyone knows, I am always very genteel and amicable." Stay updated through My Virtual Library Empire

Ma Lu patted Old Wang on the shoulder, "Also, what you just said is probably the very embodiment of Mr. Sun's words, 'The only enemies of a chef are chefs themselves.' Indeed, only a true chef can understand another chef. It'll be nice to get out there and see the world."

...

After the New Year, not only did the daytime customer traffic at the restaurant increase significantly, but the night scene was also booming.

All the special customers who had previously booked Little Sakura Egg Pudding from Ma Lu came to dine, and seizing the opportunity, Ma Lu also launched Butter Upside-Down Apple Tart and Snakeberry Cotton Candy.

The Butter Upside-Down Apple Tart used Safe House Apples as ingredients. With Old Wang's skillful hands, the resulting apple tart resembled the exterior of a Safe House and even had a metallic sheen.

However, it could be easily cut open with a knife and fork, revealing a soft core.

The Snakeberry Cotton Candy, similar to the cotton candy sold at roadside stalls when he was a child, each one had a unique shape created by Old Wang.

For instance, the one Ma Lu tasted was modeled after Yamamura Kasumi.

After eating it, he was enveloped in a huge bubble, floating in mid-air. Inside the bubble, he turned into a little monster, causing havoc in Tokyo with his fiery breath, before being pacified by the approaching Yamamura Kasumi.

Together, they joined Ghibli and engaged in an earth-shattering battle against the evil Sony, triumphing and getting married on the spot, and even inviting Yuasa Masaki and Hideo Kojima as their witnesses.

In short, in the brief three minutes, Ma Lu had a surreal lucid dream in which he thoroughly enjoyed himself, knowing it was a dream.

When the three minutes were up, the bubble burst, and he landed back on the ground, feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

Ma Lu priced the Butter Upside-Down Apple Tart at 568 Star Currency and the Snakeberry Cotton Candy at 178 Star Currency, in addition to the 399 for Little Sakura Egg Pudding.

By the end of the week, Ma Lu had earned a total of 12,196 Star Currency, and he had now accumulated 10,777 Star Currency on hand, another step closer to paying off his 280,000-debt.

Additionally, Ma Lu received a notification from the World Cooking Federation. The competition for the Asian Region was scheduled for next Thursday, and they had sent him a plane ticket along with the notice.

But at this moment, Ma Lu's attention was caught by something else.

Before he was about to go out to collect ingredients, Lao Hei suddenly showed up.

Lao Hei was dressed quite adorably, her upper body draped in a fluffy fur coat, with a skirt and a pair of coffee-colored long boots.

"What, you're saying those Dimensional Pirates have returned?" Ma Lu asked.

Lao Hei nodded, sitting down on the sofa, her legs together, and placing her handbag on her knees to avoid any mishap.

"Before they left last time, I communicated with them at your request, hoping they could keep an eye out for Free State Grey Energy Bodies and No. 173 Spherical Algae.

"This time, they got lucky. They plundered a transport ship and found about 1,000 pounds of Free State Grey Energy Bodies."

"1,000 pounds?" Ma Lu thought about the previous price Yan Wu had quoted for Free State Grey Energy Bodies, which seemed to be 500 Star Currency per pound.

"So that means these Free State Grey Energy Bodies are worth roughly 500,000 Star Currency, and we had previously supplied them with a batch of food, pricing it at 87,000 Star Currency.

"That means we could get about 174 pounds of Free State Grey Energy Bodies?"

"That's not how you calculate it," Lao Hei pulled out a calculator from her handbag and began tapping on it.

"The price of 500 Star Currency per pound is the price on Earth, but in reality, the market price for Free State Grey Energy Bodies in The Grand Alliance is about 120 Star Currency per pound.

"However, since the loot those Dimensional Pirates have is contraband with shady origins, the purchase price on the black market is generally only one-third of the market price.

"I've asked those Dimensional Pirates. The Black Market traders they work with tend to be even shadier than the average, of course, that's because they're Dimensional Pirates. Doing business with them comes with higher risks of getting caught by The Grand Alliance.

"So the price the Black Market trader offered was only a quarter of the market price, which is 30 Star Currency per pound.

"When calculating the value of this batch of goods, it's clearly more appropriate to use this price, which equals 30,000 Star Currency. Even if we took all the loot, they'd still owe us 57,000."

"Ah, is that so?"

"Correct, those Dimensional Pirates have agreed to this method of calculation, so they're willing to select another item from their spoils for us."