Chapter 397
Yu Xunge couldn't help but think about the rewards from the plot of "Is This Restaurant Yours?" After all her hard work, she had only earned five World Tombs. The imbalance between effort and reward was too stark, which meant that the bulk of the rewards must still be tied to this Restaurant No. 353.
She stopped chatting with the Octopus Barrel and headed to the kitchen to check the various cooking utensils and the ingredients in the fridge.
Glancing into the neighboring restaurants, she noticed other players were also searching.
17th tier, 85th tier, 15th tier, ??...
85th tier, ??, 17th tier, 85th tier...
Not worth the trouble... Yu Xunge silently withdrew her gaze.
Soon, three chimes echoed from the sky outside.
Their small team also heard the system notification.
[Restaurant No. 353 has randomly generated 8 restaurant rules. Due to the player team's impressive performance in the culinary competition, ranking 353rd, the team can freely modify 4 of these rules.]
[Entering the restaurant after closing time and violating the rules of Restaurant No. 353 more than 3 times will result in annihilation.]
[Closing time in 10 minutes.]
[Closing hours: 01:00 AM - 07:00 AM.]
Is this a game of offense and defense? Or is it a management game where they have to operate in a different way during closing hours?
Restaurant No. 353 randomly generated 8 rules, but they could only modify 4. What about the restaurants ranked lower?
"Entering the restaurant," does that include them as employees?
If it does, then this rule needs to be crafted in a way that won't easily harm their own team, while also preventing those who enter the restaurant without knowledge of the rules from deducing them through observation of their actions.
Yu Xunge exchanged a glance with the Octopus Barrel and the Crab Crab, both of them pondering the same issue.
A beast skin scroll appeared in the air, slowly descending among them, inscribed with the language of the Tianxia (Heavenly Crab), which all present players could understand.
The Little Seahorse was the first to rush over and read the text aloud:
"Rule One: All beings entering Restaurant No. 353 must lick the feet of the Crab Crab."
With a "smack," the Little Seahorse was sent flying by a claw from the Crab Crab.
Crab Crab: "What are you doing at a time like this?!"
Crab Crab carefully unfurled the scroll, revealing the 8 randomly generated rules.
Rule One: All beings entering Restaurant No. 353 must lick the feet of the Crab Crab.
Octopus Barrel & Crab Crab & Yu Xunge: "..."
Crab Crab picked up the Little Seahorse, who was wailing and kicking wildly: "I'm sorry, little sea creature, I thought you were just talking nonsense..."
The Little Seahorse's little feet were stiff: "Lick them!!!"
Yu Xunge said seriously, "This one needs to be changed."
Octopus Barrel nodded: "Yeah, it definitely needs to be changed."
Yu Xunge suggested, "How about we change it to the Little Seahorse having to lick the feet of all beings in Restaurant No. 353?"
Octopus Barrel: "I think that's a good idea."
Little Seahorse: "…I’ll die right here to show you!!!"
They decided to finish reading all 8 rules before making a decision, but the more they read, the more silent they became.
Rule Two: Beings with 8 legs are prohibited from entering Restaurant No. 353.
Octopus Barrel and Crab Crab: …
Rule Three: The color red is prohibited in Restaurant No. 353, including but not limited to orange-red and bright red.
Yu Xunge & Octopus Barrel & Crab Crab: ?
Rule Four: Players of the same race are prohibited from existing simultaneously in Restaurant No. 353; if two players of the same race are present, one will randomly die.
Yu Xunge and Octopus Barrel both sighed in relief at the same time; the former was sure there were no humans here, and the latter's race was wiped out.
However, Crab Crab and Little Seahorse visibly tensed up.
Random death, without even a chance for a duel!
[Chapter 517: Divine Game: Nonsense Restaurant 32]
[Rule Five]: In Restaurant No. 353, any unlocked skills can be traded, seized, or stolen; every being entering Restaurant No. 353 must have their unlocked skills altered at least once.
All teammates, including the Little Seahorse, screamed in unison: "This must be changed!"
Five unlocked slots, whether divine gifted skills or regular skills, everyone would have carefully selected the strongest and most useful ones.
Perhaps divine gifts are intricately linked to one's personality and soul fire; even when faced with stronger and better skills, deep down, everyone still cherished their own divine gifts.
Octopus Barrel and Crab Crab could accept trading, but they absolutely could not accept the possibility of being stolen from or seized.
The same went for Yu Xunge; even knowing that skills modified by the divine game would never be weak, she was unwilling to entertain even the slightest chance of losing her "I Want to Improve So Much."
Not to mention her recent favorites, "Bedtime Fairy Tales" and "Mysterious Powers."
If her "I Want to Improve So Much" could steal skills, that would be one thing; she could accept some risk in a back-and-forth exchange, but it couldn't, and Yu Xunge was not pleased about that.
[Rule Six]: Any being entering Restaurant No. 353 can challenge the original employees for a competitive position; the duel methods are: [Chef] - Food Wars; [Cleaner] - Protect the Food Street; [Cashier] - Monopoly Game; the losing side will have their rule violation count increased by 1 and must leave Restaurant No. 353.
[Rule Seven]: Waste is prohibited in Restaurant No. 353.
[Rule Eight]: The number of times Restaurant No. 353 employees can refuse reasonable requests from customers cannot exceed 3.
Rule Five must be changed, and Rules Two, Three, and Eight also needed modification; three slots were instantly gone.
Rule Eight also had to be changed; the concept of "reasonable requests" was too vague, and no one knew what kind of beings the visitors were. The "reasonable" here was too dangerous.
The group stared at Rule One, troubled. All present were high-level players who understood the need for compromise, but licking feet was just...
After a long silence, Yu Xunge suddenly said, "I have a wicked idea, but I don't know if I should say it."
The Little Seahorse had a bad feeling: "Maybe you shouldn't."
Wicked Yu Xunge nodded: "Alright, since you agreed, I'll say it. What if we chop off the Little Seahorse's feet and make soup out of them? If we drink it together, wouldn't that not only fulfill the rule but also ensure that any other beings entering the restaurant would definitely violate the rules?"
Without feet, how could they lick?
Octopus Barrel's eyes lit up instantly, and Crab Crab was excited too: "Little Seahorse! That could work!"
In the underwater world of the Crab Crab, losing limbs was hardly a big deal.
The Little Seahorse looked at Yu Xunge in shock: "…That's so cruel!!!"
Yu Xunge held the Little Seahorse's hands with her thumbs and forefingers, shaking them: "Whatever compensation you want, just say it. Crab Crab will definitely agree."
Crab Crab: "..."
In the end, after promising a hefty allowance, the Little Seahorse tearfully agreed to sacrifice itself.
With that, it easily pulled off its two feet as if taking off shoes and threw them at Yu Xunge: "Here, make foot bath soup! You pests!"
Seizing the moment, Yu Xunge grabbed the two seahorse feet, which looked like freshly cut fingernails, and immediately rushed to the kitchen to start boiling soup. Crab Crab and Octopus Barrel followed, continuing to discuss how to modify the rules.
If the rules were too harsh, no customers would dare to enter.
This gameplay during closing hours was both a crisis and an opportunity; since they had obtained such favorable starting conditions through the culinary competition, they certainly couldn't let it slip away.
Moreover, the ultimate reward of this divine game was based on revenue, and since it seemed they could still operate during closing hours, they had to try to earn something.
In the end, they decided to modify Rules Two, Three, Five, and Eight.
Rule Two: Beings entering Restaurant No. 353 must purchase and consume at least one dish.
Rule Three: Outside of official employees, dining time in Restaurant No. 353 cannot exceed 30 minutes.
Rule Five: In Restaurant No. 353, any unlocked skills can be traded, with both parties agreeing to the trade and without any concealment or deception; each successful trade requires a 1% fee of the wealth carried by the trading parties to be submitted to Restaurant No. 353 as a commission.
Rule Eight: The number of times customers can refuse reasonable requests from Restaurant No. 353 employees cannot exceed 3.
The moment all the rules were modified, the beast skin scroll immediately flew out of the restaurant, hovering at the entrance.
While boiling soup, Yu Xunge had already written two menus. The first menu was based on the existing ingredients in the fridge.
The prices were outrageous: "One random skill," "One World Tomb," or even "One random item."
Of course, there were also normal currencies, but those were even more ridiculous—1%, 2%, 5% of the cash they carried.
However, the second menu only had one dish: "Crab Crab's Seafood Soup," with very flexible pricing: "One scrap of cloth" / "1g crab shell powder" / "1ml octopus slime" / "One piece of trash talk," clearly prepared for their own team.
To be safe, the Little Seahorse had to drink it too.
B8017913: "Do I need to drink it too?"
Yu Xunge: "What do you think? Later, the bubbles will count as you having drunk it."
Crab Crab and Octopus Barrel went to adjust the layout of the restaurant, transforming it from a roadside stall into a small dining hall, while the Little Seahorse watched Yu Xunge boil its own foot soup.
At this moment, only 2 minutes remained until closing time.
Once familiar, the Little Seahorse couldn't keep its mouth shut and asked Yu Xunge, "What kind of beings do you think will come to our restaurant?"
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