The Max-Level Chef’s Magical Town Game

In the end, Ye Mu did not get to see Isaac compromise and eat mixed rice. She didn’t understand his strange insistence on this matter, but she could see his inner conflict, which made her feel a bit mischievous.

After everyone finished lunch and left, Ye Mu returned to the kitchen to prepare the dishes for the evening sale.

At the same time, she was also getting ready to catch the thief!

On the day she asked Ivy’s friend to help her buy dishes from Giselle Restaurant, she had already sensed something was off, but she didn’t have concrete evidence yet. Over the next two days, she observed and quietly counted the quantity of dishes she prepared each day, then checked the receipts in the evening, and found that the numbers didn’t match!

For two consecutive days, dishes had silently disappeared, on the first day, eleven portions of two dishes were gone, and on the second day, twelve portions disappeared, costing her thousands of copper coins each day.

Ye Mu wasn’t really a person who would nitpick, she didn’t mind if the employees ate a bit more or occasionally took some food home. If those dozen portions were just being casually taken by them, she wouldn’t have bothered too much—even if they blatantly resold her dishes, she would have let it slide. She could just set a reasonable limit for home amounts as a standard employee benefit.

But the problem was, for the next two days, Giselle Restaurant continued to sell two dishes made with her ingredients. Another restaurant even went so far as to divide her dishes into smaller portions to profit from the price difference.

What was going on? Were they treating her place as a free source of goods?

Isn’t this really too much to handle?

—

In Qiana Town, Isaac, with his maxed-out construction skills, had already built a small residential area with about fifty houses by yesterday. Among them, thirty were simple bungalows, ten were two-story buildings, and ten were two-story buildings with independent yards, which could be sold to relatively well-off mages.

Today, his goal was to build another fifty houses and repair the roads.

The two mages called to help had already heard about his work, they had been holding back all morning, and by evening, Jenna couldn’t help but complain first, “Don’t blame me for being harsh—I’ve never seen anyone as big a fool as you, Lord Isaac.”

Although she was complaining, her hands didn’t stop, quickly laying down a gravel path between the houses, making the area look much nicer.

Seeing her venting, Chase couldn’t hold back either, chiming in, “Exactly! Giving away 10 million and still having to work? I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

“Stop complaining,” Isaac said with an easy smile. “Isn’t this what we’ve always wanted to do? To establish a low-tax territory so that poor people can have a better life?”

“Yes, yes, yes, we want to do this, but can it really work?” Jenna shook her head, sighing repeatedly. “Let’s not even talk about whether Ye Mu can be trusted… Let’s assume she is as kind-hearted as you and will remain trustworthy! But don’t forget, once this news gets out, other lords will not sit by and do nothing.”

Jenna’s expression grew serious. “I hope you don’t forcibly ignore or evade those realities. For a long time, the nobles have been united. Once this low-tax territory is truly established, it won’t just attract the poor, they won’t sit idly by and watch their subjects leave.”

Chase nodded. “Yeah, after all, the subjects are their source of tax revenue. The unity of all territories in imposing heavy taxes is what has led to their current wealth.”

Jenna continued, “So the nobles will see such an incompatible territory as a thorn in their side, and there will be endless troubles. If they accidentally find out who is behind these territories—” Jenna paused, glancing at Isaac meaningfully, “This time, they will definitely cut off any future threats. Have you considered that?”

Isaac was building a fence around a house when Jenna’s words dampened his mood. After a while, he said, “But we can’t just do nothing. You know I’ve tried more reasonable methods, but I failed. Right now, this is the only method I can think of.”

Chase couldn’t hold back. “Then don’t you think this is also a method that is bound to fail?”

“I’ve thought about it,” Isaac admitted, “But Ye Mu makes me feel it’s worth a try.”

“Ah???” Chase and Jenna had never met Ye Mu, only tasting the dishes Isaac had brought back, and they were shocked by his words.

Chase said in disbelief, “She’s a chef?”

What could a chef do that would make you take such a reckless challenge?

Isaac paused his work, turned to look at them, and under the setting sun, his light golden hair caught a glimmer, adding a touch of brightness to the deepening twilight. “Her dishes are very affordable, and her business is thriving every day. I heard that when the landlord tried to raise the rent a few days ago, many customers rushed in to defend her.”

“So I think if such a territory is really established, it should be well-supported. Those who have suffered before will be willing to defend this hard-won new home, and perhaps this territory can continue to develop.”

Chase and Jenna exchanged glances. The former didn’t say anything further, while the latter, with a complex expression, asked, “…Is this why you entrusted this matter to Ye Mu?”

“Perhaps,” Isaac replied somewhat perfunctorily, as he couldn’t clarify it himself.

The little incident at Ye Mu’s restaurant had indeed shown him some light, but when he went to find her, he seemed not to have thought so much, he simply made those suggestions out of a certain intuitive trust.

About an hour later, the three finished the remaining work. Isaac sent messages to inform the dozen or so people he had contacted earlier about the move, specifically emphasizing that there were basically no infrastructure facilities here yet, and the territory hall hadn’t officially started operations.

However, none of the dozen people had any complaints. From their perspective, the “public facilities” of the territory had little to do with them, what troubled them more was the daily worry about taxes. Moving to any territory would be about the same.

This new territory, reportedly, had not yet announced tax rules, and Isaac said that future taxes would not be high.

But they didn’t really care about the future. When each person received the news, they thought simply: having a place to stay for a few days without paying taxes was already great.

Thus, they almost all immediately pressed the button to leave their original territory, bringing their families along to the coordinates Isaac provided.

—

At 5 PM, the Nightfall Restaurant opened on time. Ye Mu, as usual, didn’t worry much during business hours. She went straight up to the second floor and then… jumped out of the back window.

In the game world, jumping from a height generally doesn’t cause problems like fractures, of course, if it’s too high, like jumping off a cliff, one would still die, but the second floor was fine.

Therefore, Ye Mu saw a number above her head indicating -150 health but didn’t pay it much attention and moved next to a back window.

From here, she could see into the dining area where customers were eating, and even the self-service window was in view. She wanted to see who the thief was.

At this moment, several applications to join Qiana Town popped up one after another. Ye Mu recalled Isaac saying he had found over a dozen people and clicked “Agree” all at once.

Through the wall, the delicious aromas of the dishes in the restaurant gradually filled the air.

Today, Ye Mu had prepared dishes that had warming properties, including the earlier mentioned [Farmhouse Stir-fried Pork] and [Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance.]

In the real world, both dishes belong to Hunan cuisine and share similar cooking methods. The [Farmhouse Stir-fried Pork] is made with spiral chili peppers, small hot peppers, and pork belly, while [Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance] additionally requires eggs.

For seasoning, [Farmhouse Stir-fried Pork] must be flavorful, with strong chili peppers and a combination of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and salt.

In this world, since Ye Mu had never seen oyster sauce and light soy sauce was too expensive, she had to make do with dark soy sauce, salt, and white sugar. The aroma was relatively simple, but still decent.

As for the [Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance,] it generally had a milder spiciness, featuring the fresh fragrance of stir-fried eggs and pork belly.

The soul of the seasoning should have been oyster sauce, but without it, Ye Mu made the bold decision to use a small amount of expensive light soy sauce, adding dark soy sauce, salt, and white sugar, repeatedly adjusting the mix. After several versions of different ratios, she finally managed to stir-fry a dish that tasted acceptable.

Tonight, she put both dishes on the menu: [Farmhouse Stir-fried Pork] for those who could handle spicy food, and [Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance] for those who preferred milder flavors but still wanted some warmth.

In internet jargon, this might be described as: digging into underlying logic, conducting comprehensive layouts in vertical fields, and breaking existing barriers through product optimization and iteration… or something like that.

—Perhaps due to boredom while keeping watch, Ye Mu distracted herself with these random thoughts, which led her to recall a comedy movie that once made her laugh so hard, “The Year-End Party Can’t Stop.” Thinking about how she not only had a flourishing restaurant here but was also about to have her own territory made her wonder if she would hold a year-end party in the future.

Or maybe even a Spring Festival Gala!

Just as Ye Mu began to imagine if live streaming could exist in a magical world, the moment she was waiting for finally arrived.

She clearly saw Jeff busy at the window, handing dishes to customers outside, taking them from the closest place at hand. However, the counter next to him was quite long, nearly two meters, making it impossible for him to reach directly from the other end.

But Billy walked by that counter. After he passed, the neatly stacked boxes were missing two!

In this world, people could directly touch items to store them in their backpacks! Just like picking up drops in a game, with a mouse click, you could add them to your inventory!

It was indeed an inside thief!

Ye Mu believed she had always treated her employees well, providing meals and letting them taste new dishes first. She hadn’t hesitated to let them enjoy the expensive braised pork at lunch.

Therefore, seeing this scene of an elbow bending outward made her a bit sad.

However, Billy clearly wasn’t satisfied with just those two boxes. He walked by that counter several more times, quietly stashing over ten portions of food into his backpack.

Afterward, he casually told Ivy he was going back. He never did anything beyond being a kitchen helper, and Ivy had grown accustomed to this, so she didn’t think much of it and said goodbye.

Ye Mu gritted her teeth and cautiously circled around to the front of the building, stealthily following Billy in the night.