My Food Stall Serves SSS-Grade Delicacies!

.[Previous Objective:

Prepare at least 100 servings each of Chicken Rice Onigiri and Ube Beignets.

Reward: +200 XP, Culinary Guild Reputation (Minor)]

[Current Chef Skill Rank: E ]

[ Food Cart Bonus: Enhances prepared meals by +2 ranks. ]

Her eyes widened. So that's why… Her meals had gone from tasting like simple F-ranked food to tastier B-rank food.

No wonder the crowd hadn't stopped coming.

She pressed a palm to her cheek, feeling heat rise there. "I—I wasn't ready for this."

Lucy gave an encouraging wobble, but Marron barely heard her.

A new menu blinked at the edge of her vision.

[Dear Chef, you have unlocked a new function: Mass Production.

For double the XP, you get double the food. Activate now?]

[YES] [NO]

Marron sat up straighter. "Wait—you mean I can just… double the amount I cook?"

They had just made 100 of the beignets and the onigiri, and sold out. If she used the Mass Production skill, she could still make just 100 and the system would double that.

The text pulsed.

[Confirmation Required: Would you like to use 300 XP to expand your production capacity?]

Her stomach clenched. That was a huge bite into her reserves. But… she thought of Charity's neat columns of numbers, of Borin's warning about adventurers, of Lady Elowen's words echoing in her ears—your crowd will double.

This was her chance to keep up.

She exhaled, her finger hovering before she pressed the glowing confirm symbol.

"Yes, I accept."

[300 XP deducted.]

[Current XP: 1,100]

[Mass Production Unlocked. Double food stock created at the cost of double XP expenditure.]

[Mission Complete: Prove Your Food Can Sell in Whetvale.

Additional Reward Unlocked: Recipe Card - Savory Egg Custard Bowl.

A deliciously creamy egg base that is enhanced with whatever you add to it. Buffs depends on the ingredients added. Options include mushrooms, cheese, garlic, and bacon.]

[Bonus: +200 XP.Culinary Guild Recognition: Minor. Future audience with the Guild deemed inevitable.]

Marron's breath caught as the messages stacked neatly across her vision.

She had done it. One hundred rice balls. One hundred beignets. Gone in a single day.

Her XP total ticked back up.

[ Current XP: 1,300. ]

Marron let her head fall back against the pillow, staring up at the ceiling beams as a shaky laugh escaped her. I actually pulled it off.

The savory custard recipe shimmered in her mind's eye—silky, comforting, yet versatile. She couldn't wait to try it.

But what lingered most was the final line, glowing faintly at the edge of her window.

The Culinary Guild will see meeting you as inevitable.

Her. Marron, who once could barely fry an egg without setting off smoke alarms.

She hugged a pillow tight, grinning into it despite the nerves buzzing in her stomach. Tomorrow would bring twice the work and twice the pressure, but tonight—

Tonight she let herself feel proud.

+

The second day in Whetvale began before sunrise. Marron's hands moved automatically through the motions—shaping rice balls, checking the marinade, kneading the soft purple dough for the beignets. Mass Production had saved her from exhaustion, but the sheer volume still left her arms aching.

By the time she, Mokko, and Lucy rolled the cart into the vendor square, she realized the air already felt different.

There was a line.

Not two or three curious early birds—an honest-to-goodness line of townsfolk and travelers snaking across the cobbled market square, chattering eagerly. She froze halfway down the lane, the cart's wooden wheels catching a rut.

"…They're waiting for me?" she whispered.

Mokko tilted an ear, his grin widening as he took in the chatter. "Sounds like they read Elowyn's review. She wasn't kidding when she said you'd double your customers."

Marron's stomach twisted. "Double? This looks like triple!"

And then her eyes caught on something else—tables across the square displaying violet breads, frosted buns dyed lilac, and even a crude "ube porridge." Nearly every stall had a touch of purple now, though none came close to her glistening, doughy pillows of fried perfection.

Lucy gave a soft, smug wobble.

Mokko laughed outright, grabbing a spare scrap of wood from the cart. With a piece of chalk, he scrawled in bold strokes before holding it up. "If they want to copy you, might as well make it official."

He fastened the makeshift sign beneath Comfort & Crunch.

Home of the Original Ube Beignets.

The words gleamed in the early light, defiant and proud.

Marron blinked at it, then at the crowd. She swallowed hard. "No pressure, right?"

Mokko only chuckled. "Pressure means you're worth copying. And they won't get that far, either."

Marron looked up at him, wondering why he was so sure.

"This thing you call ube doesn't exist in Savoria, as far as I know. We have purple potatoes, but they aren't this mild tasting. They can try imitating you, but unless they're like you, Chef, they can't duplicate this recipe."

She hadn't even considered people thinking her recipe was worth copying.

It's not like it's my recipe, anyway...I just remembered it from some blogs I used to read online. Even during her busiest shifts at her sales director job, she always had time to read about delicious recipes. She wasn't even above reading the long stories people wrote before showing her the actual recipe.

Maybe it's a little parasocial, but I enjoyed reading what the food bloggers were up to before giving me their recipes.

And now, in another world, she even had access to Earth ingredients thanks to her system. And, it looked like only people who reincarnated from Earth would know what exactly she used.

I wonder when I'll meet someone who filled out the same rebirth card in Savoria.

"Marron!"

She turned her head toward the sound, thoughts momentarily broken. The crowd was still there and so were her nerves, but her mind wasn't so frazzled now.

"Yes, Mokko?"

He leaned over the food cart and flipped open the small gold box tucked into its side compartment.

"Marron," he said, ears flicking upward in surprise, "you might want to see this."

She peered over—and froze. The box was crammed with glittering coins, more than she had ever seen in one place. Gold stacked untidily over silver and bronze, spilling against the carved lip of the container.

"I… I don't even remember people paying," Marron whispered. Her stomach lurched at the thought that she might've forgotten the most basic part of business.