Deliberately Careless

"What side job?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"You'll find out when the time comes. Besides, it might not work out. That depends on your luck."

Oxhead said.

"Oh, right. I can't give you the vest right away."

He still needed it for deliveries. Before leaving the instance, he would leave the vest in the break room.

"That's fine. I'm not in a hurry to use it. It won't help me much unless I complete the whole set."

Cow-Horse said.

"It's a set?"

Liu Zheng asked in surprise.

Dai Lego had never told him about that.

"That's right. It should be a vest, a cap, and a delivery box."

Cow-Horse recalled.

A vest alone was a Perfect-grade item. If he gathered the full set, it had to be at least Epic-grade, right?

Liu Zheng found himself longing for it.

Still, he knew he could only dream about it.

"By the way, who exactly is this legendary deliveryman? Is he from our Restaurant?"

Liu Zheng asked curiously.

"That's right."

Cow-Horse nodded.

"Have you ever met him, boss?"

"No. By the time I got here, he was already gone."

Cow-Horse shook its head.

"Did he quit, or did he die?"

"How would I know? But he worked at the Restaurant for thirty years. If he was going to die, he'd have died long ago."

Cow-Horse said.

"Weren't you planning to save up ten-something years of wages to buy a scalper ticket?"

"You believed that bullshit?"

Cow-Horse rolled its eyes.

"Once I'm back from Paradise Island, I'll have to figure out how to run. If I keep working at the Restaurant, I'll be lucky to live until my little calf is born."

Liu Zheng seemed to catch a trace of sorrow on its broad face.

"There aren't any cameras in the break room, right?"

He looked around.

"No idea. Even if there are, it doesn't matter. Everyone says this stuff."

Cow-Horse said indifferently.

"Is the Restaurant that bad?"

"It's not bad. It's just not easy."

Cow-Horse shook its head.

"Enough talk. There probably won't be any orders today. Go to sleep."

It walked over to its straw mat and lay down. Snores soon filled the room.

Since Cow-Horse said so, Liu Zheng relaxed as well. He found a comfortable position in the corner and fell asleep.

When he woke to the alarm, he still found it hard to believe.

He had actually survived until the second day in this bizarre world.

Other than a few minor issues, he was even doing fairly well.

Could I be a natural-born delivery saint?

Liu Zheng amused himself with the thought.

"What are you so happy about? Hurry up and eat breakfast. We start work soon."

Cow-Horse called out.

"Oh."

He opened the cabinet. Sure enough, there was already an employee meal inside.

It was a bowl of offal noodles made of unidentifiable scraps, topped with a layer of small pink balls that looked very much like apple snail eggs.

Its quality was merely Ordinary, and its only effect was restoring stamina.

"Boss, please help yourself first."

Liu Zheng proactively offered over his meal box.

He knew this was the real reason Cow-Horse had warned him.

"Good. You know what's what."

Cow-Horse lowered its head and sucked away half of it in one breath.

It especially devoured the pink eggs, nearly sucking them all clean.

"Fishman Eggs sure are nice and springy."

Cow-Horse praised.

Its cheeks bulged as it chewed forcefully. The Fishman Eggs crackled in its mouth.

"The rest is yours."

Cow-Horse returned the meal box to Liu Zheng.

"Thank you, boss."

He accepted the box and began eating without changing expression.

Come to think of it, Cow-Horse stealing his food was not entirely a bad thing. He did not want to eat those disgusting eggs anyway.

After finishing the offal noodles, Liu Zheng picked up the bottle of drink.

"Name: Red-Eyed Snake Mackerel Essence"

"Type: Item"

"Quality: Excellent"

"Effect: Produces one thoroughly satisfying bowel movement and can treat certain types of poisoning."

"Remark: At first, he thought it was only a fart."

"Can be taken out of the instance: Yes"

It was a translucent, air-bladder-like plastic container, and the liquid inside gleamed with an oily sheen.

"Isn't this just an enema?"

Liu Zheng said speechlessly.

They put this thing in the employee meal because they were afraid too few people were slacking off in the restroom?

Oh, employees were not allowed to use the restroom in the Restaurant. Never mind.

He tucked the plastic container into his pocket.

Only a ghost would drink that. He would trade it to the French plane tree instead.

After Cow-Horse finished its own employee meal, Ghost Hand came over to assign work.

There were still two orders, but this time Cow-Horse did not let Liu Zheng choose for himself. It simply grabbed one and headed out.

Liu Zheng walked to the door and picked up the remaining one.

"Meal: One Large Intestine Sashimi Platter"

"Address: Room 201, Building 1, Green Laurel Garden Crazy City."

"Time limit: Within one hour."

Why was it another order from Green Laurel Garden?

Liu Zheng frowned.

Though he was unwilling, an order had to be delivered.

He opened the cabinet, changed into the legendary vest, and left the break room.

The moment he opened the meal box on the delivery cart, a terrifying stench flooded his nostrils.

"This reeks way too much, doesn't it?"

Liu Zheng hurriedly used his tentacles to block his nostrils and looked inside the meal box.

More than a dozen varieties of large intestines, each with a different shape and color, were neatly stacked inside. Every intestine looked thin-skinned and generously filled.

"Name: Large Intestine Sashimi Platter"

"Type: Item"

"Quality: Excellent"

"Effect: Restores stamina and heals injuries."

"Remark: Life is unpredictable; a large intestine wraps around a small intestine."

"Can be taken out of the instance: Yes"

First an enema, then large intestine sashimi. Was today determined to torment him with Old Eight's favorites?

Just as Liu Zheng was about to close the meal box, he suddenly felt that something was off.

He opened the item description and carefully examined the remark.

Then, suppressing his disgust, he carefully rummaged through the intestines.

After searching for a while, he finally found one unusual intestine.

It was thinner and longer, with many villus-like protrusions inside.

Obviously, it was a small intestine.

Liu Zheng had learned that knowledge while keeping watch at the hospital.

"So that's what you were waiting for."

Liu Zheng sneered coldly.

He put both the delivery slip and the meal box back on the cart, then returned to the break room.

A few minutes later, Ghost Hand pushed open the wooden panel again.

"Come to think of it, Cow-Horse only seemed to say that I couldn't talk to the people preparing the meals. It never said I couldn't communicate with them."

Watching Ghost Hand slowly reach inside, a thought suddenly occurred to Liu Zheng.

Remembering how he had nearly delivered the wrong meal just now, that thought quickly turned into a blaze of anger.

Bang!

He slammed his fist hard against the door panel.

Ghost Hand seemed startled. Its five fingers suddenly curled up.

"Hahaha!"

Seeing it like that, Liu Zheng burst into delighted laughter.

Ghost Hand set down the delivery slip, gave him a perfectly straight middle finger, then withdrew from the break room.

"Little thing's got quite the temper."

Liu Zheng smiled casually.

After waiting half a minute, he left the break room again. A new meal had already replaced the old one on the delivery cart.

Just in case, he inspected the meal once more.

This time, there was no problem. They were all large intestines, and none were damaged or spoiled.

The item description had also changed subtly.

"Name: Large Intestine Sashimi Platter"

"Type: Item"

"Quality: Excellent"

"Effect: Restores stamina and heals injuries."

"Remark: Was it deliberate, or was it careless?"

"Can be taken out of the instance: Yes"

Taking the meal, Liu Zheng stepped into the dark passageway.