Although somewhat reluctant, Ye Xu finally compromised: "Then let's do it this way."
After hiring his fifth SR, Ye Xu completed another cumulative task, and his experience level was just a hair's breadth away from leveling up. Was the system doing this on purpose? Did it calculate this in advance? Was it constantly tempting him to complete tasks?!
Ye Xu unlocked three items with great displeasure. He randomly selected the others, but he carefully considered the last one, soy milk.
A cup of sweet soy milk is so comforting on a cold day, and luckily the store has unlocked white sugar. I've also gotten fried dough sticks with my ingredient vouchers before; although they're meant for hot pot, they're perfectly fine to soak in soy milk for breakfast.
We could develop affordable breakfast sets to allow budget-conscious passersby to come in, fill their stomachs, and enjoy the warmth of the heating. The restaurant only starts selling hot pot at 10 AM, so we could focus on breakfast business before then.
After successfully completing the order and reaching level 8, Ye Xu received another employee coupon. He felt like he had gotten an SR vegetable-washing robot for free. So, he happily prepared to hire a cleaner to relieve the store manager and thwart his assistant Shuangshuang's conspiracy.
However, before refreshing the card pool, Ye, the part-time cleaner, had to go upstairs to check if there were enough skewers and if any empty plates needed to be cleared away. By the time she finished and returned to the kitchen, ten minutes had passed.
When drawing cards, Ye Xu even dreamed of getting a UR card, and hesitated about whether to hire the UR card first or the cleaner. Unfortunately, even after getting the SR cleaner, there was still no sign of a UR card, which was disappointing.
Ye Xu felt relieved after using up all his coupons. With the next upgrade and order-boosting event still a long way off, he confidently closed the app and asked Shuangshuang to buy him some snacks.
"Give me some potato chips, and some spicy strips. For drinks, I'll have plum juice, something sweet." Ye Xu thought for a moment and added, "And some candy, fruit candy, assorted flavors, I'll take it to feed Tangtang."
After hiring Tangtang, Ye Xu obtained more detailed information and learned that his big jelly was not only sweet but also loved to eat candy, which explained why it was named Tangtang (Sugar Candy).
Ye Xu wasn't sure what flavor it liked best, so she simply bought a mixed flavor. If there was any flavor it didn't like, she would put it on the cashier so customers could take it and eat it when they left, or give it to the children in the neighborhood.
Without the cleaning job, Ye Xu's only remaining task was to help deliver skewers up to the second floor.
The customers were so easy to manage; they rarely made any extra requests and never bothered the waiters for help. So Ye Xu simply put a chair by the stairs on the second floor, sat there eating and playing, and occasionally glanced at the skewers to see if they needed replenishing.
According to Shuangshuang, the system interface can be used like a touchscreen iPad. It has an entertainment section that can satisfy all needs, such as watching dramas, surfing the internet, and playing games, so that store managers won't be bored and bother their employees when they enter ancient or similar worlds.
Ye Xu originally thought he would be forced to give up his phone in this Western fantasy world, but he didn't expect such a pleasant surprise. However, he soon discovered that the entertainment section was filled with an atmosphere of urging people to spend money, even more exaggerated than in modern online worlds.
It's one thing to have to spend money on games, but watching variety shows now requires a membership. And it's not the kind where you can choose not to subscribe and only watch the regular version if you don't; it's the other way around—regardless of whether it's the regular version or the plus version, you have to subscribe to watch them all. The regular version requires 100 points per month for a regular membership, the plus version requires 200 points per month for a premium membership, and there's also a top-tier membership with 300 points for an extra-long bonus episode.
Of course, monthly, quarterly, and annual memberships offer different benefits. Purchasing a full year's membership at once also grants access to many enviable perks.
The membership system shows that the system has finally figured things out.
Ye Xu, who had always been poor and had never subscribed to any website memberships, angrily shut down the variety show. "Only a fool would buy such an expensive membership!"
Three minutes later, Ye Xu found the monthly subscription offer and activated a regular membership for 80 points per month. Reluctantly, he reopened the variety show he had just watched and began to watch it with great interest.
There's no way around it, I have to buy it, otherwise I'll just be staring blankly at the entertainment section.
The key point is that Ye Xu found out after looking around that video memberships were still the cheapest of all the options, and 300 yuan a month wasn't enough for playing games. Reading novels was slightly better, but without free trial chapters, Ye Xu was reluctant to spend points to buy the beginning chapters.
Video memberships are different; once you subscribe, you can watch anything on the site, and you're sure to find a variety show you like. It's definitely worth the money.
Ye Xu's requirements were very low. He didn't need any premium membership benefits; he was content with variety shows to pass the time and didn't mind watching only the basic episodes. The entertainment section had countless variety shows, almost encompassing all works from every dimension. He could find whatever he wanted to watch, and if they were strictly rated by quality, there would be enough perfect-score shows for Ye Xu to watch for a hundred years.
Saying nothing is enough to bring me joy; those 80 points were well spent.
Shuangshuang: I don't quite understand why you humans like to contradict yourselves so much.
Watching variety shows at double speed didn't stop Ye Xu from helping deliver skewers up and down the stairs. He didn't care about the cleaning truck, though; the robot wouldn't get tired, so he let it climb up and down, carrying dirty dishes back and forth.
With an additional vegetable washer in the kitchen, the other server no longer needed to stay in the kitchen constantly working on the skewer machine. Both the SR-level vegetable washer and the vegetable cutter were highly efficient. After the initial busy period, the workload decreased dramatically, and the two of them could complete the task together.
So another waiter was freed up in the kitchen and went upstairs to serve customers. Seeing this, Ye Xu simply handed over the task of delivering skewers to him as well, becoming a complete hands-off manager.
However, Ye Xu was the kind of person who couldn't sit still. After watching a variety show for a while, he couldn't help but wander around the whole store to see if there was anything he needed help with. However, the robot produced by the system was indeed very useful, and he didn't need to intervene at all.
Manager Ye became increasingly worried. If things continued like this, the store would be fully staffed before any intelligent race employees even joined. What need would he have for hiring intelligent race employees?
It seems we can completely give up on the SSR employees; there's really no reason for Ye Xu to have to hire them.
Around 2 PM, Ye Xu felt a pang of hunger and belatedly realized that she hadn't eaten lunch. Her previous breakfasts had been hastily prepared, consisting of a meat floss bread she'd bought while discussing things with Shuangshuang.
Ye Xu was truly impressed with himself; with so many enticing aromas wafting through the air at the hot pot restaurant, he could still forget about eating. He really didn't know if he had become immune to the smell of the broth after smelling it for so long, or if the aroma of the tomato broth simply wasn't appealing enough to him. If it were a spicy broth, the outcome might have been different.
Thinking about the hotpot he ate last night and the fact that he hadn't eaten properly this morning, Ye Xu didn't dare to just eat anything for lunch, fearing he'd get diarrhea. He took some of the ingredients that the vegetable cutter had already chopped, bought a bowl of white porridge, and used the stove in the kitchen to cook a vegetable porridge.
It's already a bit late for lunch, so I can't eat anything too filling, otherwise I won't be hungry for dinner. Porridge is the best choice; it digests quickly, and by evening I can have a proper meal.
Ye Xu was craving a spicy stir-fry. The hot pot broth and ingredients were so delicious; it would definitely be amazing to use them for a stir-fry. The red chili sauce coated all the ingredients, releasing an irresistible aroma. Add a sprinkle of sesame seeds, chopped green onions, and cilantro, and serve with a bowl of 95-point white rice…
No, my mouth is watering.
With such anticipation, Ye Xu began counting down the days until evening. As a result, more and more customers who had heard the news came to eat hot pot, and business was even better in the evening than during the day, with the shop bustling again.
Ye Xu didn't have time to eat hot pot. She could only grab the leftover porridge from lunch to tide her over, gulp it down, wipe her mouth, and get back to work.
The queue grew longer, and the neighboring shop couldn't accommodate everyone, so they had to pay another shop to serve as a temporary waiting area. With a significant number of customers in both waiting areas combined, someone had to look after them, forcing Ye Xu to shuttle between the two shops repeatedly, nearly freezing to death.
This is too cold. Cold wave weather is definitely not something a normal person can withstand. Without the protection of magical energy, Ye Xu felt he couldn't handle it. He decisively went back to replace the waiter on the first floor and let her take charge of the outings.
"I hope the robot the system provides is reliable and doesn't freeze and shut down due to battery failure just because of a little cold." Ye Xu thought of his old, broken phone that often shut down automatically in the cold wind and couldn't help but feel pained.
Shuangshuang comforted her, "No, at this temperature it will only consume twice as much electricity."
Instead of comforting them, Ye Xu immediately became wary: "They've been working all day and haven't had time to charge. What if they suddenly run out of power and stop working?!"
If the battery runs out, it would be a disaster. The store relies entirely on these robots; if one or two stop working, it's manageable, but if they all run out of power, Ye Xu will go crazy.
"It's not that serious. Under normal circumstances, these robots can work intensively for 24 hours with a full charge, so only the one that goes out is a bit dangerous."
Ye Xu felt a little relieved, but soon began to worry about what to do with the robot that was going out: "Does the store sell spare power supplies?"
I earned tens of thousands of points throughout the day, which should be enough to buy a power bank.
"Buying a power supply is not as good as getting an upgrade," Shuangshuang muttered under her breath. "Hiring more employees is worse than anything else."
That makes sense, but it's not so easy to find the right items to complete. He's already completed most of the upgrade tasks, and he doesn't know if he has enough left.
Amidst his busy schedule, Ye Xu took a moment to check his achievements and discovered that he had unknowingly accumulated enough experience to reach level one. This was an unexpected delight, and without thinking of anything else, he quickly started drawing cards.
"Waiter, waiter, it has to be a waiter!" Ye Xu muttered to himself.
Perhaps the system was tired of being nagged, because the first refresh actually gave out an SR waiter. Ye Xu was overjoyed and quickly hired the person, muttering to himself how lucky he was this time, hoping for even more in the future.
The system coldly thought there wouldn't be a next time; there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Then Ye Xu wished, "Next time I want a waiter, a waiter, a waiter."
System: Got it! Stop nagging! Here you go, okay?
A note from the author:
Outrageous statement: 3,000 words per chapter is too little; there's no way to write any plot at all!
I'll start by increasing the word count to 3900 words in this chapter; let's see if we can add more plot.
Chapter 17 for Sale
With the help of the third waiter, Ye Xu finally had someone to help him with the work that had piled up for drawing cards, and he was able to catch his breath a little.
But there's no chance to slack off; I have to keep helping after my rest.
Shuangshuang knew that given the store manager's personality, he wouldn't try to reach the minimum order amount again after hiring waiters. She was a little disappointed and started thinking about how to persuade the store manager.
The system probably understood the store's earning potential, which is why it charged high interest rates when providing loans. Unfortunately, it encountered a stingy store manager named Ye, who managed to scrape together the start-up capital in a single day through his ingenuity.
Before Shuangshuang could even come up with her explanation, Ye Xu had already spoken up, saying, "I plan to take another level."
Shuangshuang was shocked: "Manager, blink if you've been kidnapped."
Ye Xu looked at her in surprise: "You even know how to use popular internet memes?"
"Of course, I am a knowledgeable little elf." Shuangshuang proudly puffed out her chest.
Ye Xu didn't dwell on the topic. The store wasn't short of money now, so there was no need to be too frugal, lest they be accused of being stingy. Besides, hiring more employees would also increase the efficiency of earning points faster, making it a worthwhile deal.
Shuangshuang didn't care why Ye Xu had come to this realization; she just clapped and cheered with joy, urging the store manager to hurry up, asking if he was going to back out if he was moving so slowly.
Ye Xu was a little speechless. He ignored her and quickly opened the store's backend to filter out the list of unlocked items.
After searching high and low without finding a suitable one, Ye Xu suddenly had an idea when he saw the spicy hot pot base – hot pot base doesn't necessarily have to be used in the restaurant. He could sell the hot pot base at a low price so people could take it home and cook hot pot themselves.
While this will result in some energy loss, some customers will no longer have to wait. Given the current long queues, selling soup base shouldn't significantly impact seating capacity.
Even if this resulted in empty tables in the store, Ye Xu would accept it. His goals were never high; he only needed a small surplus after paying all operating expenses. In any case, he didn't need the items in the system store for the time being.
Unlocking all the food items wouldn't give enough experience, and the remaining tasks were all very expensive. Ye Xu knew he couldn't bear to waste his points, so he simply entrusted the task to Shuangshuang, letting her collect the necessary items so he could avoid seeing it.
Having come up with the idea of selling base materials, Ye Xu decided to get started immediately.
Ye Xu purchased a large quantity of tomato-based broth and a small quantity of spicy broth from the purchasing panel. The former was easy to sell, but most customers hadn't tried the latter and might not be willing to buy it. Therefore, he planned to sell the tomato-based broth first, and then hold a tasting event when he had time, inviting everyone to try the spicy hot pot and see if he could open up sales channels.
However, after getting the base ingredients, Ye Xu discovered a problem that urgently needed to be solved—the restaurant would clean out all the residue from the base ingredients before serving them, which meant that the original packaging had to be removed.
Once the packaging is removed, it needs to be re-sterilized and resealed before it can be sold. Even if it's not removed, it can't be sold directly, since there are no plastic products on the Transi continent yet.
To solve this problem, Ye Xu had to spend money to buy another packaging machine, and then upgrade it several times to add an automatic sterilization function. The packaging containers needed to be purchased separately, and after much thought, Ye Xu chose ceramic jars.
The weight isn't a problem; everyone has storage magic items. The main issue is the high cost of the ceramic jars. Ye Xu plans to set a super low price for the hot pot base as a thank-you promotion, lest the base end up being less expensive than the jars themselves.
What should we do?
Ye Xu couldn't think of anything for the time being, so he could only use the system's backpack to pack some base materials and take them to the shop next door for a trial sale. It would be great if customers had their own containers, since the packing machine could fit any kind of container.
"Hey, the little boss is here." Most of the customers in the waiting area didn't recognize Ye Xu, but there were one or two familiar faces among them who greeted him as soon as they saw him.
Ye Xu nodded in acknowledgment, walked over and exchanged a few pleasantries, then took out a ceramic jar. He planned to test the broth with regular customers first to see if it would sell well, while new customers who had only tasted one bowl of soup might not be able to make a purchase.
When a regular customer heard that the owner was actually buying the base ingredients directly, his eyes lit up: "Give me ten portions!"
"Aren't you afraid that buying so many will cause them to spoil?" Ye Xu asked.
A regular customer waved his hand: "The weather is so cold, it won't spoil even if you leave it for months."
Ye Xu overlooked this point. Although there is no air conditioning on the Transi Continent, isn't the outdoors a natural freezer? The temperature might be even lower than that of a refrigerator freezer, so preserving some base ingredients is not a problem at all. Hot pot base ingredients themselves can be frozen for a long time.
“Okay then.” Ye Xu readily agreed, then asked, “Do you have your own pottery? Buying a ceramic pot from the shop isn’t cheap.”
The regular customer was an adventurer with plenty of money, so he was quite dismissive: "How expensive can a clay pot be? This pot of yours is quite well made. It will look nice to display at home and store other things in it."
Since the customer didn't mind the price, Ye Xu was happy to save himself the trouble and sold him ten cans. However, after buying the base, the customer didn't choose to go home and cook for himself. He argued, "The food at home doesn't taste as good as what you serve. Anyway, the food at your store is cheaper. It's okay to wait a while. I've already waited so long."
That made a lot of sense, and Ye Xu couldn't refute it. Fine, if the customer doesn't want to leave, then so be it; at least it'll bring profit to the hot pot restaurant. He'd continue selling his broth base.
After interacting with regular customers, many of the surrounding customers understood why the owner had come over. Most of the customers who weren't short of money were tempted, but they didn't dare to buy a lot at once. Even though they had tasted the free tomato soup and found it delicious, they were worried that the ones sold in the jars wouldn't be as good as those in the store.
Most people only bought one jar, and some who waited a long time left after buying the last bit of material. Only about half of the customers were willing to stay. These people generally had no objection to the price of the jars and were also looking for a nice ceramic jar to store things at home.
Ye Xu browsed around and noticed that some customers were interested but didn't make a purchase. He had to go over and ask them why, and they said apologetically that they didn't bring any containers with them.