The Max-Level Chef’s Magical Town Game

Billy, as before, took a route through deserted alleys, winding his way to the Giselle Restaurant.

Today’s dishes were excellent, [Farmhouse Stir-fried Pork] and [Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance] had strong flavors and enticing aromas. Once sold to other shop owners, they just needed to be stir-fried with some rice for a high resale price, making it very convenient.

So, these two dishes would definitely fetch a good price!

Thinking about his upcoming windfall, Billy whistled happily. Ye Mu, trailing behind, felt so angry she wanted to hit him right then.

Wait a minute, hitting him…

Ye Mu suddenly remembered that this was a magical world.

So hitting him wouldn’t work, and just following Billy to catch him in the act probably wouldn’t work either—her magic level was nowhere near enough to defeat him!

But Billy was just a kid!

Ye Mu was infuriated by this ridiculous situation. While silently following, she started messaging Xibel for backup!

Xibel was quite gossipy. Upon hearing that Ye Mu wanted to catch a thief, she bombarded her with questions. Ye Mu had to explain that it was complicated and told her to hurry to the Giselle Restaurant, she would fill her in on the details later.

Xibel was considerate enough to drop her bowl of “Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance” right away, grabbing her wand and heading out.

About ten minutes later, Ye Mu stopped at the back kitchen window of the Giselle Restaurant. She had just seen Billy enter, but this transaction likely wouldn’t take place in the dining area filled with customers, so the most probable location was the kitchen.

Xibel approached from another path and, upon seeing Ye Mu, slipped into the alley, lowering her voice to ask, “Is it here?”

Ye Mu also whispered back, “Yes, look.”

Xibel peered through the window and spotted Billy.

She asked Ye Mu, “Why don’t you call Isaac for this?”

Ye Mu was puzzled, “Call Isaac for what?”

“?” Xibel glanced at her, realized something, and changed the subject, “What do you plan to do?”

Ye Mu replied, “Wait for them to start the transaction, then we rush in through the window, catch him in the act, and I’ll fire Billy.”

Xibel was taken aback, “Is that it?”

Ye Mu said, “What else?”

Xibel replied, “You could just go and fire him directly, why call me?”

Ye Mu explained, “What if he gets nervous and does something? I can’t take him on. Plus, the restaurant owner is right there, and I definitely can’t take him on.”

“…” Xibel was speechless for a moment. Remembering the culinary god’s rather lackluster combat level, she slowly said with pity, “You do have a point.”

Considering the restaurant owner’s presence, Xibel started worrying that she wouldn’t be able to handle it either. She then messaged a few teammates to come over.

Ye Mu gratefully said, “I owe you all a meal.”

Xibel seized the opportunity, asking, “How about that braised pork from lunch…?” Feeling a bit excessive, she added, “Or just sell it to us, but give us a discount! The attributes on that dish are amazing, having immunity to negative effects is just too good when fighting monsters.”

“Hahaha, sure, let’s eat that, it’s on me!” Ye Mu generously agreed. Meanwhile, the transaction in the kitchen was starting.

They clearly saw Billy open his backpack, taking out one dish after another and neatly placing them on the table. The owner was already ready with the money, packed in a system-generated bag, also placed on the table.

But Billy was dissatisfied: “Today, I want an extra 20%.”

The owner immediately showed his displeasure: “You’re raising the price?!”

Billy pointed at the dishes on the table: “Look at today’s dishes. With some rice, they’re a perfect match. I’m already hungry just smelling them in the store! You just need to stir-fry them with rice and give them a new name to sell, doesn’t that make them worth more?”

“Stop talking nonsense.” The owner waved his hand impatiently, “Which of the previous dishes couldn’t be sold like that? I made those complicated preparations so I wouldn’t be talked about, and today is no different!”

Billy, unwilling to give up the chance to make more money, quickly added, “But look at these attributes!”

Whether he wanted to or not, the owner instinctively glanced at the panel.

The panel displayed:

[Farmhouse Bowl of Fragrance]

—During consumption, it will continuously restore health, mana, and stamina.

—Can restore up to 15,000 health, 5,000 mana, and 500 stamina (total recovery amount is influenced by consumption quantity).

—Grants immunity to “cold” effects for 3 hours after consumption.

—Will continuously restore health for 2 hours after consumption.

This was indeed a dish with impressive stats. Not only was it superior to commonly found food on the market, but it was also significantly stronger than the [Farmhouse Stir-Fried Pork] served at the same time. The continuous health restoration effect was extremely tempting for fragile mages with low health.

Moreover, it wasn’t too spicy, but its warming effect was also quite good, making it suitable for those who couldn’t handle spicy food.

Greed flickered in the owner’s eyes. Looking at these stats, he even felt tempted to eat a portion himself and level up.

Billy noticed the owner’s hesitation and seized the opportunity: “I admit, this dish sells cheaply at Nightfall Restaurant, only 300 copper coins. But Miss Ye is foolish, and I’m not. You can’t expect to take advantage of someone who knows the business.”

“Besides, this dish is bound to be in high demand, you won’t lose out, you know it!”

Outside the window, Ye Mu: ???

Wait, what??? Is this really happening???

You steal my food and call me foolish???

Xibel ground her teeth, “This is too much, I’m going in!” After saying that, she pushed the window open and leaped, triggering the common “double jump” found in various RPG games, landing inside the room the next moment.

“Hey, wait!” Ye Mu wanted to call out to her, but it was already too late.

This didn’t seem too wrong, as they were supposed to rush in during the transaction.

The only small flaw was: their teammates hadn’t arrived yet!

In the previous moment, Billy was still engaged in a clever negotiation when his face suddenly went pale, and he panickedly threw out a fireball.

“Boom!”

Xibel, being at a much higher level, effortlessly dodged the fireball, which smashed into the wall.

Xibel rushed up and grabbed Billy by the ear: “You traitor!”

Billy cried out in pain: “Ouch, ouch, ouch!”

A few steps away, Ye Mu was struggling to climb through the window.

…This game is so detailed, even climbing through a window is affected by level. Xibel had gracefully entered in one leap, but it was a completely different story for her.

In Ye Mu’s imagination, she envisioned herself leaping into the kitchen as agilely as Xibel and shouting, “You’re fired!” But that scene was impossible to play out.

After a lot of effort, she finally managed to get through, panting and exhausted, and with all her strength, she managed to say, “Y-You’re fired…”

“…” Xibel, still holding Billy by the ear, showed a look of pity. Just as Ye Mu noticed her expression change, Xibel’s face suddenly shifted: “Watch out!”

—In an instant, Ye Mu didn’t have time to react, she only felt a figure flash in front of her, followed by a loud “clang.”

When Ye Mu focused again, she saw Xibel had already moved in front of her, her right leg bent forward, left leg back, holding a shield in a blocking stance.

Two half-meter-long ice spikes were embedded in her shield, clearly a frost spell.

Xibel exclaimed in shock: “Fuck? Using a big move like that? Are you insane?!”

However, the owner showed no signs of stopping, he started gathering energy again, his hands glowing blue: “It has nothing to do with you—she’s not leaving today!”

“?!”

“???!”

Xibel turned to glance at Ye Mu, and both of them had looks of astonishment.

To them, it seemed like just a matter of catching a thief and firing someone, it wasn’t anything major.

Although catching him in the act would inevitably embarrass the owner a bit, with no one else around in the kitchen, a small conflict was normal, it wasn’t like anyone would kill to cover it up!

Little did they know, this owner had long wanted Ye Mu’s life.

Earlier, when a group of idle shopkeepers were venting their frustrations, he had been the first to suggest hiring someone to kill her.

Now that he saw Ye Mu in person, his rage reached its peak. Before they could say anything else, he unleashed another wave of spells.

“Bang, bang, bang!” The incoming ice spikes were laboriously blocked by Xibel.

“Thud, thud, thud!” Twelve ice balls struck simultaneously. Xibel couldn’t completely block them, and while she did her best to protect Ye Mu, one ice ball flew over her shoulder and hit Ye Mu, causing her arm to sting and a number to pop up above her head: -200!

At that very moment, Billy let out a heart-wrenching scream: “Ah—”

Ye Mu turned to see Billy had been knocked to the ground, blood gushing from his head, with a huge number appearing above him: -1200!

The number was dark red, indicating a critical hit.

It was unclear whether he had been accidentally hit by the owner’s spell or if it was from an ice ball deflected by Xibel.

…Ye Mu couldn’t help but feel a bit smug.

Serves you right for stealing food and betraying your own! At just fourteen, engaging in such things—it’s only fair you learn a lesson!

Billy was genuinely panicking. As he saw the owner frantically casting spells again, he frantically tried to escape but was hit by another ice ball that had bounced off Xibel’s shield, losing another 500 health and entering a near-death state.

In this world, entering a near-death state temporarily grants immunity to damage, but once the state is lifted, there’s a long period of the [Weak] debuff, drastically reducing all stat limits.

As for when the negative effects can be lifted, it depends on the level. For a low-level kid like Billy, it usually takes a long time to recover.

Of course, there are potions available that can directly remove such negative effects, but they are expensive. If he goes to buy a potion, all the effort he put into stealing for the past few days would be in vain.

“Run first!” Xibel shouted, blocking Ye Mu and retreating toward the window, while Ye Mu hurriedly started climbing through the window again.

Meanwhile, several customers were drawn by the sounds of the fight and curiously ran to the kitchen, not sure of what was happening.

Why was there a fight while they were just trying to eat?

Seeing them, the owner had a sudden idea: “Help me catch the thief!!!”

Xibel was furious: “Are you shouting thief while stealing yourself?!”

But in the eyes of the customers, the owner’s words were clearly more credible.

As a result, numerous magical orbs came flying in, shattering the shield in Xibel’s hands and causing her health to drop dramatically.

Realizing the situation was bad, Xibel was trying to figure out how to escape when a voice rang out from outside: “What the hell is going on?!”

Xibel and Ye Mu, who was still climbing through the window, immediately breathed a sigh of relief as Ye Mu quickly squatted down to make way for several teammates who were rushing in.

The situation suddenly shifted, and the two sides were now evenly matched. Seeing they were losing, the customers hesitated and started to retreat, not wanting to lose health and experience while trying to eat.

Noticing this, the squad began to pull back as well, with Leah, the tank of the team and the one with the highest health, directly lifting Ye Mu and jumping out.

“Don’t run!!!” The owner, still furious, shouted angrily. But seeing that the customers no longer supported him, he reluctantly stopped at the window.

The squad ran for a block before stopping when they saw no one was pursuing them.

Nala looked at Ye Mu with a complicated expression: “What’s going on? Why does the culinary god attract so much hate?”

Ye Mu thought to herself, I didn’t expect this either!

But it was pointless to discuss this now.

When it comes to things beyond her control, she didn’t like wasting time analyzing the reasons and preferred to focus her energy on solving the problem.

For example, right now, someone hated her enough to want her dead, what practical significance was there in tracing the origins of that hatred?