Food with Magic

The father and son on opposite sides of the counter exchanged a look, then both turned back to stare at the customer, who did not so much as glance at them. His fingers tapped rapidly as he rattled off dish names in one breath, as if reciting a menu. Several black lines appeared across both their foreheads.

The son, whose train of thought had been interrupted, hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to greet this seemingly rash customer. He quickly forced a bright, professional smile onto his face. "Sorry, sir, but at this hour... it's already quite late. We've just closed for the day..."

"What did you say?"

Gu Mo's expression froze as he rattled off the menu, and his voice instantly rose by at least a dozen decibels.

Nothing in life was more devastating than such a sudden plunge from the highest high to the lowest low. It was like grinding in a game for days, finally seeing the item drop flash with dazzling golden light, only for the effects to fade and reveal a piece of common-rarity trash.

—Isn't that just toying with my feelings?!

"C-Calm down, sir..."

The boy named Souma seemed to have been intimidated by Gu Mo's imposing presence. He instinctively took a step back, raised both hands in front of himself, and broke into a particularly strained smile. Why did he keep feeling that this customer had not come to eat, but to eat someone?

"..."

"..."

After a brief silence, Gu Mo took a deep breath and looked around the restaurant. Sure enough, just as the person across from him had said, it was clearly already closed for the night.

The tables and chairs had all been arranged. Once the final cleaning was done, they could turn off the lights and lock up.

Since he had arrived too late, there was nothing to be done.

He sighed, undisguised disappointment appearing on his face as he waved a hand. "Sorry for disturbing you..." Though he was terribly disappointed, and though his hunger combined with that strange scent he had never experienced before made it hard for him to restrain himself, he ultimately could not do anything unreasonable.

He turned and headed for the door, determined to find another place and sit down for a proper feast.

Or perhaps he could look around nearby. Birds of a feather flocked together; since they were all running businesses in this area, their standards probably would not differ too much, right?

"Wait, Souma..." The man behind the counter had merely watched without saying anything until now. Suddenly, he spoke up. "How can we turn away a customer? It's just that at this hour, we've used up most of our ingredients. We can only make whatever dishes we still can for you. How does that sound?"

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

"But... all right."

The young man named Souma seemed to want to say something, but seeing his father take that stance, he said no more. Most people naturally did not want to work overtime, because work was merely work, not a hobby they loved.

But he was different. This was his hobby and passion, as well as the life goal he had resolved to pursue forever. So... he had no objections to extending business hours a little.

"Of course, no problem at all. I only have one request: hurry!" Gu Mo nodded repeatedly. It was somewhat different from what he had initially hoped for, but he could not ask for too much at a time like this. He simply wanted a good meal.

"Sure, sure..." The man nodded repeatedly as well, a relaxed and cheerful smile on his face.

At first, he had thought someone had come late at night to challenge the restaurant and deliberately pick a fight. It was not impossible. Recently, a real estate developer called URBAN LIFE seemed to want to develop this part of town, claiming they would build an upscale garden-style residential complex and launching a land acquisition plan aimed at the locals.

Many nearby shops had already been unable to resist the temptation and sold their land. As for those who refused to be bought off with money, the developer would threaten them and use all manner of underhanded methods to obstruct their business. If they would not accept a toast, then they would be forced to drink a forfeit; even if they had to snatch the land, they would take it.

Over the past few days, people from URBAN LIFE had also kept coming by during business hours to harass them, always repeating the same spiel. But because neither father nor son had any intention of shutting down the restaurant, they had not gotten what they wanted. Their next step would probably be to switch to even nastier tactics.

But now, it seemed this was simply a hungry diner who had come looking for food without noticing that they had closed, rather than someone deliberately seeking trouble...

That was good. Simple chefs often liked simple diners.

And so, late at night, Yukihira Restaurant became busy once more. The stove, which had not yet completely gone out, flared back to life. Father and son divided the work with practiced efficiency, swiftly stir-frying dishes and using their limited ingredients to prepare whatever food they could for their final customer.

Mouthwatering aromas drifted through the air.

So fragrant!

Truly, incredibly fragrant!

Sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant, directly facing the counter, Gu Mo waited patiently while also feeling as if he were on pins and needles. He found it difficult to describe the various scents he was smelling. They intertwined with one another, yet remained distinctly separate. It felt as though merely smelling them allowed him to imagine their flavors.

Tender and crisp, spicy and savory, sweet and soft—the color, fragrance, and flavor seemed perfectly united, leaving one with endless aftertastes.

Gu Mo had never experienced anything like this in his life. He had never smelled food with such an aroma, and this was only while it was still being prepared. It was hard to imagine what quality the finished dish would reach... Come to think of it, could cuisine really achieve such an astonishing level?

It was practically magical!

Gu Mo could barely sit still. Every second of waiting felt like unimaginable torment, while a sense of unreal dissonance rose within him—

Was he really so ignorant that he did not know what true gourmet food was like? Just smelling this scent felt like something that should not possibly exist in the real world!

Hmm, come to think of it, he had seen some bizarre news a few days ago. A young man had become obsessed with a nearby restaurant and addicted to its food, so he suspected the owners had tampered with it. When he reported it to the police, it turned out that was indeed the case...

Could he have run into something like that too?

But that sort of thing made people addicted after eating it, not before they had even tasted it, when merely smelling it was already this absurd.

"Here you go, sir. Your Egg Fried Rice. Please enjoy."

As Gu Mo indulged in wild thoughts, the restaurant owner had somehow already come over. With deft movements, he placed a large plate of golden, fragrant Egg Fried Rice, still steaming hot, in front of him.

"...!!"

Gu Mo could scarcely control himself. His body reacted on its own, and all of his previous wild thoughts and concerns vanished in an instant. At that moment, none of them mattered.

He reached for the utensils beside him, his gaze focused on the Egg Fried Rice before him. And... within his field of vision, this plate of Egg Fried Rice possessed attributes similar to the "ID" and "Health Bar" displayed over other people and objects—

"Egg Fried Rice. (100%)"

"Origin: Yukihira Restaurant."

"Quality: Rare."

"Effect 1: Slowly restores a certain amount of health after consumption and slightly enhances physical constitution. Ineffective on those whose constitution attribute exceeds 12."

"Effect 2: Due to an intense feeling of happiness after consumption, there is a small chance of randomly gaining a temporary positive buff. Duration varies. Repeatedly consuming it multiple times within a short period lowers the chance."

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

"Note: Though it does not glow, instead of worrying about radioactive elements, you should be more suspicious that this style of cuisine has been drugged..."

What the hell?

Gu Mo's lips twitched as he looked at the golden text flashing before him. His condition really was getting worse and worse. It felt as though the entire world was being opened in the wrong way.

"What's wrong, sir?" the man asked curiously. This person had clearly been starving just moments ago, looking as though, I don't know who I am, I don't know where I am, I only know that I'm about to go on a killing spree. Why had he frozen up now that he could finally eat?

"N-Nothing..."

Having gradually grown accustomed to such things, Gu Mo shook his head, scooped up a spoonful of fried rice, and put it into his mouth.

The next moment, his mind went blank, and his entire body was struck as though by lightning.

About ten minutes later.

His thoughts and reason slowly returned. His gaze was dazed as he stared blankly at the plate before him. It was completely empty. He had no idea what had just happened, nor when he had finished eating. And not only that—there were three more empty plates beside it.

He did not know how to describe what he had just felt. The impact of the experience had been immensely shocking, so much so that, having experienced such a sensation for the first time, he had temporarily lost the ability to think.

Something was wrong! Very wrong... Could food of this caliber really exist in reality?

That thought instinctively surfaced in his mind, but Gu Mo, now about eighty percent full, could not stop himself from lazily leaning back against the chair. Even his eyes had become bleary, as though he was so satisfied that he did not want to move at all.

A feeling of happiness...

An extraordinarily intense feeling of happiness...

It was as if his whole body had been soaking in a hot spring, immersed in a warm current. He felt pleasantly warm, whether from psychological effects or something else, and seemed on the verge of falling asleep at any moment. Even though his rational mind kept warning him that something was off, he did not want to move.

"Not bad... To enjoy delicious food so purely is a rare kind of happiness."

The owner did not hurry to send him away. Instead, he sat down beside the table. Looking at his final customer, whose eyes seemed somewhat unfocused and dreamy, he could not help laughing softly, his tone carrying a trace of sentiment.

He had long since grown used to it. After all, so many customers came every day, and every one of them lavished praise upon his cooking, becoming utterly intoxicated and immersed in it. Yet reactions as exaggerated as this customer's tonight were rare.

It reminded the man of when he had been young, when he had first made a dish that satisfied him and first received genuine, unfeigned praise from someone else... The bearded man sighed with emotion, wearing an expression of fond reminiscence for his glorious younger days.

"Exactly..." Gu Mo nodded repeatedly, wholly agreeing with the owner. At the same time, he did not hold back his praise. "I've never had food this delicious before. It feels like I've wasted my whole life until now. If I'd known about your restaurant earlier, I definitely wouldn't have ordered takeout every day..."

Come to think of it, he really felt as though he had lost a hundred million. If he had known there was such a restaurant just outside his neighborhood, he would never have stayed home ordering takeout.

But a restaurant of this caliber should never have been unknown. It felt like one could build an entire business district around this selling point alone... No matter how he thought about it, it was extremely strange. As he gradually recovered, he could not ignore the issue.

"Haha, you flatter me..." The owner chuckled. Though he looked very humble, he was still somewhat pleased. As a chef, hearing a diner's praise—exaggerated yet so sincere—was indeed gratifying.

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

Gu Mo hesitated, then asked anyway. He chose to confront his doubts and verify them—if this restaurant had been open for a long time and had always borne this name, then given the level the owner had displayed, it could never possibly have remained unknown...

If it truly had no reputation and no one knew about it, then the problem was serious.

It was highly possible that this restaurant was actually average, and that not only his vision and hearing had gone wrong—even his senses of taste and smell had begun undergoing some kind of mutation...

"Yes, it's always been called that. I'm Joichiro Yukihira, and that's my son, Soma Yukihira... so the restaurant was given this name." The owner did not think much of it and chatted casually. "As for how long it's been open, it's probably been quite a few years..."

Joichiro Yukihira, Soma Yukihira...

Gu Mo raised his brows and watched as the "???" above the father and son's heads rapidly blurred, then cleared, finally becoming the two names the man had just spoken.

—"Joichiro Yukihira (93%)."

—"Soma Yukihira (97%)."

He asked in surprise, "Um, are you two from District 11?"

Joichiro Yukihira froze upon hearing that. What kind of question was that...? They were already in District 11, so why ask whether he was a local? However, the question also made him notice something. He looked the young man across from him up and down, then nodded with a smile.

"Yes, but sir, you seem to be from the Celestial Empire?"

Gu Mo blinked. What kind of question was that...? They had come to the Celestial Empire to open a business, yet they were asking whether a local was from the Celestial Empire. It was rather strange.

But he did not think much of it. He simply nodded as well, glanced again at the young man busying himself by the stove, and could not help saying, "Boss, your Chinese is really good. I didn't even realize you were from District 11 at first. That's seriously impressive..."

They had apparently been running a business here for a long time; otherwise, they could not possibly speak Chinese so fluently.

It was incredibly authentic, without even the slightest strange feeling of foreigners speaking Chinese. He had not realized at all that they were not locals.

Gu Mo gave an objective assessment.

"?"

Joichiro Yukihira froze again, several question marks seemingly popping up above his head. Why had this man been talking nonsense the whole time?

No matter how one looked at it, it was clearly this strange foreign customer whose Japanese was ridiculously fluent. Why was he praising the father and son instead...