[Why not?]
The system's cold electronic voice rang out again, carrying a hint of Are you stupid or something?
[All employees we recruit work for the host. It's only right that you pay their wages.]
"I..."
Lin Feng's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty. A whole string of complaints got stuck in his chest, and he nearly had a heart attack on the spot.
"I worked my ass off acting! I racked my brains to fleece these leeks! Every point I earned was soaked in my sweat and acting skills!"
He let out a heart-rending roar in his mind.
"And now you're telling me I have to take the points I earned by risking my life and use them to pay someone else's wages?!"
[Allow me to correct you.]
The system's voice remained as cold and utterly emotionless as ever.
[They aren't 'someone else'.] [They're 'employees'.]
Lin Feng fell silent.
He discovered that he couldn't refute this damned logic.
A few seconds later, his miserly nature once again gained the upper hand, and he began haggling with the system.
"Th-then could their wages be a little lower?"
"Or is there some way I could pay fewer points?"
[Of course.]
This time, the system answered quickly.
[An employee's compensation is tied to their overall qualities, including their strength, rarity, appearance, and bearing.] [If the host wants to pay fewer points, this system can recruit some ordinary staff with relatively weak abilities.]
At that, Lin Feng's eyes lit up at once!
There was hope!
But a strange feeling still stirred in his heart.
Given the Dog System's usual ways, its original goal definitely hadn't been to recruit "ordinary staff."
"Then... who were your original candidates?"
Lin Feng asked offhandedly, simply out of curiosity.
But the system's answer left him with a true understanding of what it meant to drop a bombshell.
[It's simple.]
The system spoke slowly, in the same mild tone one might use to ask whether to have cabbage or radishes for dinner.
[The Goddess of Life, the God of Goodness, and the like.]
The instant Lin Feng heard those names, his brain shut down completely.
His very soul seemed to have been pulled from his body, floating overhead as it watched his petrified face.
The Goddess of Life?
The God of Goodness?
Weren't they some of the most revered and terrifyingly powerful God Kings in the legends of the Divine Realm?!
And you called them "and the like"?!
You want a God King to wait tables in my little hole-in-the-wall restaurant?
Why not just invite the God of Creation to come scrub my toilets?!
The next second, an even more terrifying thought jolted Lin Feng's nearly defunct brain back to life.
Wages!
He suddenly remembered that devilish word!
[Beep!]
The system's cold electronic voice rang in his mind with the precision of a death curse.
[According to this system's preliminary estimate, if the Goddess of Life is hired as the restaurant's head waitress, her monthly salary will be: 999,999 points or items of equivalent value.]
Nearly a million points?
Every month?!
Lin Feng felt his breath abruptly seize.
The whole day yesterday!
He'd been both chef and actor, nearly working himself to death from overexertion. How much had he earned in all?
Fourteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-five points!
Every single point was soaked in the sweat and acting skills of a "deity"!
And now the system was telling him that hiring the Goddess of Life to wait tables would burn through nearly a million points of his hard-earned blood, sweat, and tears every month?
How was that hiring an employee?
It was like bringing home a money-devouring ancestor!
Lin Feng's vision darkened in waves. It felt as if he'd spent an entire year carefully tending his field of leeks, only to watch someone uproot the whole crop—soil and all—before he'd even had a chance to celebrate!
"Wait..."
An even more terrifying thought struck through his jumbled mind like a bolt of black lightning.
He shuddered violently and asked in a quivering voice, almost as if sleep-talking, "in his mind":
"Th-this is one person's salary?"
"The Dog System originally meant to hire several..."
Lin Feng didn't dare think any further.
He felt that if he did, he might have a heart attack on the spot and become history's first system host scared to death by employee wages.
"No!!!"
A roar powerful enough to shake his soul erupted wildly in his heart!
"Dog System! I'm warning you! I don't care whether you originally planned to hire the Goddess of Life or the God of Goodness!"
"Whatever the case! Starting now! This plan is canceled! Immediately! Right this second!"
"Otherwise, I'll set the whole restaurant on fire right here and now! We'll both go down together, and nobody gets to live!"
His voice brimmed with the despair and hysteria of a man on the brink of financial ruin.
[Tsk.]
The system clicked its tongue softly.
[Understood.]
That dismissive tone sent Lin Feng's blood pressure soaring again.
"I don't care!"
Lin Feng let out a marmot-like shriek in his mind!
"Listen up! You can hire people! But you'd better squeeze their wages down as low as they'll go!!"
While Lin Feng was still reminding the system in his mind, the meal of the Title Douluos in the restaurant was also drawing to a close.
Their faces showed contentment. They didn't speak, yet seemed to have reached a sacred understanding.
Every gaze converged, as if by unspoken accord, on the coldest and deepest figure among them.
Ghost Douluo!
The "guide" who had first grasped the meaning of the senior's divine intent!
Under the mixed gazes of reverence and anticipation, Ghost Douluo slowly set down his chopsticks.
As the leader everyone acknowledged, he naturally stepped forward first.
To receive the senior's... blessing!
"Senior, this junior is ready!"
Ghost Douluo's hoarse voice yanked Lin Feng back to reality from his fierce debate with the system over "employee wages."
[Spending: 38,000 Gold Soul Coins.] [System evaluation: This leek is exceptionally good, a model worker among leeks. This system is very satisfied and can bestow a relatively good reward on him.] [Random reward: Martial Soul Tracing—Return to the Origin!] [Host reward: 3,800 Gourmet Points.]
Lin Feng lazily lifted one eyelid a sliver.
Return to the Origin?
It sounded like a decent little reward.
In the end, he merely raised a hand and gave Ghost Douluo's direction a casual, light wave.
A tiny, shadowy point of light, as if it held the secrets at the end of reincarnation, silently sank into Ghost Douluo's brow!
In an instant, Ghost Douluo's body, long shrouded beneath his black robe, shuddered violently!
His gloomy face began to change dramatically, at a speed visible to the naked eye!
The hideous black markings receded inch by inch.
In their place was skin smooth as jade.
His hands, long withered like ghostly claws, were now wrapped in a gentle, faint glow. Their shriveled flesh quickly filled out, while his deathly pale skin gradually regained a warm hue.
The sinister ghostly aura around him melted away like snow beneath the blazing sun.
The whole process lasted no more than a few short breaths.
When the light faded,
the Spirit Hall's Elder Ghost, half man and half ghost, shrouded in a sinister ghostly aura, was gone.
In his place stood a handsome man in a black robe, with an extraordinary bearing and eyes as deep as the starry sky.
He stood there quietly, seeming to blend into the darkness behind him, yet possessing a distinctive bearing that no one could ignore.
This was Ghost Douluo Gui Mei in his original form!
"Ol... Old Ghost?"
Chrysanthemum Douluo's signature orchid-pointing finger froze in midair. For the first time, an expression called "losing one's composure" appeared on his delicate face.
His voice trembled violently, though even he seemed not to notice.