Chapter 4

The father and son inside and outside the counter exchanged a glance, then turned their heads to look at the customer who was completely ignoring them, rapidly tapping his fingers and reciting a list of dishes as if he were reciting a menu. Black lines appeared on their foreheads simultaneously.

The son, whose thoughts had been interrupted, hesitated for a moment, took a few steps forward, and greeted the seemingly impulsive customer with a quickly forced sunny smile: "I'm sorry, sir, it's very late now, and we just closed..."

"What did you say?"

Gu Mo, who was reciting the list of dishes, his expression quickly froze, and his voice instantly rose by at least ten decibels.

The ups and downs of life could not be more dramatic. At this moment, he found it very hard to accept, like spending several days in a game to finally see a shiny golden item, only to find out it was a common-quality piece of trash after the special effects faded.

—Isn't this a betrayal of feelings?!

"Calm down, sir..."

The young man named Sōta, probably intimidated by Gu Mo's imposing presence, instinctively took a step back, raised his hands in front of him, and broke out in a cold sweat. His smile became particularly forced. He couldn't help but feel that this customer wasn't here to eat but to devour.

"..."

"..."

After a brief silence, Gu Mo took a deep breath, looked around the store, and realized that it was indeed as the other side had said, clearly already closed for the night.

The tables and chairs were already set, waiting for the final cleaning before turning off the lights and closing the door.

Since he had arrived too late, there was nothing he could do.

He sighed, his face showing undisguised disappointment, and waved his hand: "I'm sorry for the disturbance..." Despite his great disappointment, the hunger and the strange aroma he had never experienced before made him almost unable to control himself, but he couldn't bring himself to act unreasonably.

Turning around, he walked towards the door, determined to find a place to sit down and have a big meal.

Or he could look around nearby. They say people of the same kind gather together, and if they were all in the same area, their standards should be similar, right?

"Wait, Sōta..." The man behind the counter, who had been watching without saying anything, suddenly spoke up, "If he's a customer, how can we turn him away... Although it's late, we can still serve a few dishes. What do you think?"

The last few words were directed at Gu Mo, who had stopped in his tracks.

"But... okay."

The young man named Sōta seemed to want to say something, but seeing his father's stance, he didn't continue. Most people don't like to work overtime because work is just work, not a hobby.

But he was different. This was his hobby and interest, and he had decided to pursue it as a lifelong goal, so... extending the business hours a bit more didn't bother him.

"Of course, I only have one request: as quickly as possible!" Gu Mo nodded repeatedly. Although it was different from what he had initially thought, he couldn't demand too much at this moment. He just wanted to have a good meal.

"Sure, sure..." The man smiled pleasantly and nodded repeatedly.

At first, he thought someone had come to cause trouble in the middle of the night, which wasn't impossible. Recently, a real estate developer called "URBAN LIFE" wanted to develop this area, claiming to build a high-end residential complex and started a land acquisition plan for the town.

Many shops in the area had already succumbed to the temptation and sold their land. For those who refused to be bought out, the developer would threaten and obstruct their business in various despicable ways, forcing them to give up their land.

In recent days, people from URBAN LIFE had been disturbing the business during operating hours, but since the father and son had no intention of closing the restaurant, they had not succeeded. So, they were likely to switch to more underhanded tactics soon.

But now, it seemed this was just a simple customer, who was so hungry that he didn't notice they had closed, and not someone deliberately causing trouble...

This was good; simple chefs often like simple customers.

So, the late-night Kichijōji restaurant became busy again, and the stove, which had not been completely extinguished, was rekindled. The father and son worked efficiently, quickly preparing dishes with the limited ingredients available for the last customer.

A mouth-watering aroma filled the air.

So fragrant!

Really so fragrant!

Sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant, facing the counter, Gu Mo waited patiently but felt increasingly anxious. He found it hard to describe the various scents he was smelling; they intertwined yet remained distinct, and it seemed he could already imagine their flavors just by the smell.

Whether tender and refreshing, spicy and fragrant, or sweet and soft, the colors, flavors, and aromas were perfectly harmonized, leaving a lasting impression.

Gu Mo had never experienced anything like this in his life. He had never smelled such food aromas, and this was just during the preparation process. It was hard to imagine what the final product would be like... Could food really reach such an astonishing level?

It was almost magical!

Gu Mo felt a bit restless, each second of waiting felt like an eternity, and he had a sense of unreality—

Could he really be so ignorant, not knowing what true gourmet food was like? Just the smell seemed impossible in the real world!

By the way, a few days ago, he had read a strange news story about a young man who became addicted to a nearby restaurant, suspecting the owner had done something to the food. The police investigation confirmed it...

Was he experiencing something similar?

But that was about becoming addicted after eating, not just from the smell.

"Here you go, sir, your fried rice. Please enjoy."

While Gu Mo was lost in thought, the restaurant owner had quietly approached and deftly placed a plate of golden, fragrant, steaming fried rice in front of him, which looked quite substantial.

"..."

Gu Mo almost couldn't control himself; his body reacted on its own, and all his previous thoughts and worries vanished in an instant, becoming unimportant.

He reached for the utensils and focused on the fried rice in front of him. In his field of vision, the plate of fried rice had attributes similar to an "ID" and "health bar"—

"Fried Rice (100%)"

"Origin: Kichijōji Restaurant"

"Quality: Rare"

"Effect 1: Consuming it can slowly restore a certain amount of health and slightly enhance physical attributes, ineffective for attributes over 12 points."

"Effect 2: Consuming it can cause a strong sense of happiness, with a small chance of randomly gaining a temporary positive buff, with the duration varying and the probability decreasing with repeated consumption within a short time."

"Additional Effect: Consuming it can grant a certain amount of experience points based on quality (this effect can only be triggered once every three days for the same dish)."

"Note: Although it doesn't glow, you should be more concerned about whether this type of dish contains drugs rather than worrying about radioactive elements..."

...

What the hell?

Gu Mo's mouth twitched, looking at the golden text. His problem was getting more serious, and the world seemed to be opening up in a completely different way.

"What's wrong, sir?" The man asked, puzzled. This person had been so hungry, looking like he was about to "go on a killing spree," but now that he could finally eat, he was just standing there.

"Nothing, nothing..."

Gu Mo, who had become somewhat accustomed to the strange phenomena, shook his head and scooped a spoonful of fried rice into his mouth.

The next moment, his mind went blank, and he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

About ten minutes later.

His thoughts and rationality slowly returned. His eyes were dazed, and he stared at the empty plate in front of him, not knowing what had happened or when he had finished eating. Not only that, but there were three other empty plates beside him.

He couldn't describe his experience; the shock was so intense that it temporarily robbed him of his ability to think.

There's a problem! A big problem... Could such a level of gourmet food really exist in the real world?

This thought popped into his mind, but Gu Mo, who was already 80% full, couldn't help but lean back in his chair, his eyes becoming drowsy, as if he was too satisfied to move.

Happiness...

Intense happiness...

He felt as if he were soaking in a hot spring, enveloped in warmth, and almost ready to fall asleep. Despite his rational mind telling him something was off, he didn't want to move.

"Very nice... Enjoying food so simply is a rare kind of happiness."

The owner didn't rush to kick him out but sat down at the table, looking at the last customer with a dazed expression, and chuckled, his tone tinged with nostalgia.

Although he was used to it, as he saw many customers every day, each one praising and enjoying his food, the customer's exaggerated reaction tonight was rare.

This made the man recall his younger days, the first time he made a dish that satisfied him and received genuine praise from someone else... The bearded man sighed, lost in memories of his past.

"Yes..." Gu Mo nodded in agreement, lavishing praise on the owner, "I've never eaten such delicious food. I feel like I've been living a wasted life. If I had known about your restaurant earlier, I wouldn't have been ordering takeout every day..."

Thinking about it, he felt like he had lost a fortune. If he had known there was such a restaurant outside his neighborhood, he wouldn't have stayed at home eating takeout.

But a restaurant of this level shouldn't be unknown. It should have become a local attraction... As he gradually recovered, he couldn't ignore this point.

"Ha ha, you flatter me..." The owner laughed, though he looked modest, he was clearly pleased. As a chef, hearing sincere praise from a customer, even if exaggerated, was indeed comforting.

"By the way, boss, has the restaurant always been called this? How long has it been open?"

Gu Mo hesitated but decided to ask, wanting to verify his doubts—If the restaurant had been open for a long time and always had this name, given the owner's skill, it shouldn't be unknown...

If it had no reputation and no one knew about it, then there was a serious problem.

It was possible that the restaurant was just average, and he was not only experiencing visual and auditory issues but also taste and smell abnormalities...

"Yes, it's always been called this. I'm Kichijōji Seiichirō, and that's my son, Kichijōji Sōta... So we named the restaurant after us." The owner didn't think much of it and continued chatting, "As for how long it's been open, it's been quite a while..."

Kichijōji Seiichirō, Kichijōji Sōta...

Gu Mo raised an eyebrow, watching the "???" above their heads blur and then become clear, finally showing the names the owner had just mentioned.

—Kichijōji Seiichirō (93%)

—Kichijōji Sōta (97%)

He was surprised: "Are you from Area 11?"

Kichijōji Seiichirō was taken aback by the question—since he was already in Area 11, why ask if he was from there? But the customer's question made him realize something. He looked the young man up and down and nodded with a smile:

"Yes, but you seem to be from China?"

Gu Mo blinked, the question was strange—coming to China to do business and asking if the locals were Chinese was odd.

But he didn't think much about it, just nodded and glanced at the young man busy at the stove, saying, "Your Chinese is really good, I didn't even notice you were from Area 11. That's really impressive..."

It seemed they had been running the restaurant for a long time, otherwise, they wouldn't speak such fluent Chinese.

It was so natural, without the strange accent that foreigners often have, making him think they were locals at first.

Gu Mo made an objective assessment.

"?"

Kichijōji Seiichirō was taken aback again, his head topped with question marks. Why was this person talking nonsense?

It seemed the foreign customer's Japanese was too fluent, and he was praising them instead...