Chapter 9
The Majestic Strawberry
“I didn’t go in because I wanted to!”
Really.
Sori rubbed her reddened earlobes and glared at John. How could a tiny hand pack so much punch?
John, showing his anger, puffed up his tiny cheeks and bristled the spines on his back sharply. He loved combing his spines so much that they practically shone.
“What if the restaurant owner leaves the shop during business hours! You don’t even know the basics, the basics!”
“No, John. That’s not my fault. It’s because the Happiness Restaurant leveled up on its own. If it hadn’t, opening the storage room wouldn’t suddenly lead to a dungeon. Think about it.”
Sori protested confidently.
“The tutorial dungeon can appear on command, sure, but wandering around in there as if you’re setting up house during business hours? That must’ve been someone else.”
“Oh… yeah.”
Sori avoided John’s gaze. Well, duh.
“Ask the system about that. Who would’ve given me a quest in there if not the system?”
She shrugged, which only made John angrier.
“And you chose to do that quest during business hours! You left the restaurant empty for thirty whole minutes at lunch!”
Eek.
Bang―
Before his sharp, bristling spines could strike her body, Sori barely blocked them with a tray.
Phew. Can’t get hit twice.
Porcupine spines are terrifying.
Sori, trying to change the subject while John huffed, said,
“John, since there are no customers… do you happen to know anything about the runaway former boss?”
John, wobbling under the tray, touched his forehead and looked up at Sori. Another unnecessary question, he seemed to say.
But for Sori, it was natural to ask.
She’d suddenly become the owner of a restaurant, having no idea what she was doing. If the previous owner planned to hand it over, at least they should’ve told her what was in the fridge.
Ah, of course, she could be grateful for having awakened too. After all, rewards poured in every time she completed a quest!
And if she learned how to enter the tutorial dungeon on command, she’d no longer have to worry about obtaining monster meat!
“Do you want to know?”
John straightened up and asked solemnly.
“You really know?”
She asked just in case, but he seemed to actually know something. Sori sat politely in her chair and faced him.
“You can’t just ask empty-handed.”
For the first time, her assistant demanded a “fee.”
Sori’s ears, which had been perked, drooped in disappointment. She remembered the system message: give your assistant a favorite food, and they’ll put more effort into helping.
“Alright. Strawberries, then. I’ll bring strawberries.”
She replied curtly, recalling how John had lunged for food like he hadn’t eaten in days.
“No.”
Apparently, she had guessed wrong. There was something he liked even more than strawberries?
Sori looked at him with a mix of surprise and exasperation.
“You expect to settle this with just that? You shameless awakened one.”
John’s tiny hands trembled.
“You’ll need the Majestic Strawberry.”
…Okay, there’s a fancy name, but it’s still just a strawberry.
“Isn’t it still just a strawberry?”
Sori shrugged, feigning disbelief.
“Hey! How dare you insult the Majestic Strawberry! One pack costs a whopping 50 gold—it’s precious!”
“W-what? 50 gold…?”
Sori’s eyes went wide. In other words, this was a type of strawberry ordinary people couldn’t buy. And it was fifty times more expensive than normal.
She thought hard. Was she really going to spend 50 gold just to get information about the former boss?
She already knew the previous owner was awakened. Even without them saying it, ordinary humans couldn’t create letters where the words moved on their own.
But what Sori really wanted to know was one thing:
Why me?
That information alone would be worth more than 50 gold.
But she doubted John would directly tell her that. Still, if she could get even some fragmented clues, it would be worth it.
“I’m just going to pick the poor flea’s liver clean, huh… sniffle.”
Better try bargaining first.
“You said you caught some slimes in the dungeon?”
John clicked his tongue, looking disgusted. Bargaining failed already.
“No, you can’t just go scavenging a poor flea’s ingredients! Sniffle!”
“Trying to cheat me in front of me? Open your balance!”
“Balance?”
A system window appeared.
Balance: 500 gold
Note: Amounts received in WON are instantly converted to gold.
“How much is this?”
Wow. I earned a lot in one day! Am I going to be a building owner soon?
She forced her gaping mouth closed.
“Not that much, anyway!”
Pretending not to be impressed.
“If you keep spending on food, it’ll run out fast. Better save it for when it’s really needed.”
She tried to justify it. Not entirely wrong. John shook his head.
“Did you sell the byproducts?”
“Byproducts?”
“Didn’t sell the unnecessary stuff, what were you going to do with it?”
“Oh.”
She remembered collecting slime slime.
“Tsk tsk. You could get gold by selling it on the market.”
Amazing.
“Wow, thanks for the tip.”
She opened the Hunter Market. As John said, there were already plenty of posts about selling byproducts.
“But I don’t know what price to set. Should I just price it appropriately? I need 50 gold. Should I sell it for 50 gold?”
“Do as you see fit. I don’t know about such trivial things.”
Ridiculous.
“Sell it for 50 gold?”
Slime (F) Slime Extract X1: 50 gold
Transaction completed! 50 gold has been deposited. Check now?
As soon as she listed it, the sale was complete. Her head felt dizzy with excitement. I want to go back into the tutorial dungeon!
“Ahhh!”
John’s expression while eating the Majestic Strawberry was pure bliss. Holding the strawberry in his arms, almost as big as himself, and stuffing his cheeks full!
Sori restrained the urge to poke his plump cheeks, cleared her throat, and asked,
“Is it really that good? What does it taste like?”
He was too busy eating to answer.
“Can I have a bite?”
She reached for the Majestic Strawberry, which looked no different from an ordinary one.
Slap.
John quickly batted her hand away and blocked the strawberry. The spines on his back stood on end—a warning.
“No one touches my food!”
“Wow, you’re really petty, huh? Then hurry up and tell me. About the former boss.”
John said nothing until he had nearly finished the strawberries. When he finally had only one left, he rubbed his bloated belly and spoke.
“The system has issued a warrant.”
Sori’s eyes widened. This was not the answer she expected.
“A warrant? What kind of person are they? Weren’t they just a restaurant owner?”
“Under system law, I cannot reveal detailed personal information. But I can tell you they attempted to steal some system information.”
What the hell.
“Steal it? What kind of info? That’s why they ran away?”
“That much I don’t know. I haven’t been inside their head, but… you could see it that way.”
She was flustered.
“So I was chosen as a substitute?”
“Perhaps. Ahhh!”
John took a powerful bite of the last strawberry.
“That’s all I know.”
He didn’t seem so malicious after all, but Sori’s head started throbbing with a strange mix of betrayal and confusion.
Slime (F) Carcass X1 — Expiry: 22h 20m. Store in Freezer (C)?
Slime (F) Roast X5 — Expiry: 99h 20m.
A new line of text scattered across her view.
“Ah, right. Slime meat!”
She hurriedly put all the slime meat byproducts into the fridge. As soon as she took them out of the inventory, a rich, savory smell filled the air. Nicely roasted.
I didn’t even know they had an expiry date.
But from the start, she seemed to be hitting obstacles.
“Why won’t the roasts go in?”
First-stage cooked ingredients cannot be stored in Freezer (C)!
“…What?”
So she’d have to sell everything in time?
“Wait, wait!”
Sori raised her hand.
“Then I can just sell it on the Hunter Market, right?”
First-stage cooked ingredients cannot be traded!
“….”
So the first slime meat she had painstakingly obtained might all go to waste before any customers came. What could she do?
Today, the first customer was the last. She wouldn’t be lying if she said she was disappointed. There’s a difference in mindset between being a part-timer and being the owner.
No matter how lazy a boss wants to be, they wouldn’t hope for zero customers.
Of course, if one customer came and left a tip ten times the meal cost, she might not want more—but still!
“Why aren’t more customers coming?”
“You said you only wanted one customer and then close the shop. Changed your mind already? Tsk tsk.”
John gave a look of disdain.
“Hey, that was only something I could do if I had the Value of Cooking skill. I can’t refuse customers if I can’t even get tips. Do you want me to fail?”
Failing while taking on this old restaurant wasn’t part of her plan. She couldn’t risk going from aspiring rich to sitting in debt.
Plus, she now had five slime meats she couldn’t store in the fridge—that was the most urgent problem.
“John, do you know how to dispose of monster meat?”
Sori asked. She suspected she couldn’t just throw it in a regular trash bag like from a supermarket.
She’d seen news about dungeon management offices struggling with people illegally dumping dungeon byproducts.
“Of course you have to put it in a byproduct bag. You really don’t know much, do you, awakened one?”
“Ah, alright, stop lecturing. I was just an ordinary person until yesterday.”
John ignored her protests, took a big bite of a banana, and looked satisfied.
“You really only care about eating. Let’s see… I need a byproduct bag.”
She opened the Hunter Market.
Byproduct Bag
Searching revealed various sizes, from single bags to sets.
“This size should be enough. 20 liters.”
Click.
Byproduct Bag (20L) X1: 300 gold
“….”
She was momentarily speechless.
“Wait, 300 gold for a trash bag?!”
Ah, now she understood why illegal dumping was so common.
Of course, she had no intention of doing that herself.
I don’t want to get marked by the system for illegal dumping!
John had warned her.
“Never even thought about it!”
Well, a model citizen like me doesn’t do illegal dumping anyway!
Still, spending all the gold earned from quests and food on byproduct bags was absurd.
I can’t just waste it all.
Then there was only one solution.
“I need to get a lot of customers quickly.”
Within three days.
“This is serious.”
Word of Mouth Is My Happiness (C)
—If one customer is satisfied, five more will hear about it.
For this nearly empty restaurant, that was exactly what she needed.
