Chapter 2: The 1st Mission

Before he even had the chance to see the mission or anything else, Yuan Zhou excitedly stood up and walked two laps around the room. Eventually, he found his actions to be really silly and sat down again. Then he continuously turned his phone on and off again, causing a heavy burden to it.

Numerous thoughts flickered in his mind, but one sentence could summarized his current mood, "Master Chef System? Am I finally going to walk to the peak of my life and become someone?"

He knew this small shop was the achievement of his parents hard work after dozens of years. Unfortunately the shop was in business for less than 2 years before his parents encountered a traffic accident while on their way to purchase goods. He was in his Junior Year when the accident happened. All of a sudden, he became an orphan, a man whose parents were both dead. Due to the tremendous shock caused by his grief, he suffered a mental breakdown and was unable to continue with his studies. He could only suspended his schooling and barely got his graduation certificate a year later.

In this prosperous metropolis, it was impossible to find a decent job with such an education background. Finally, he got a job as a kitchen helper in a big restaurant. In the beginning, he intended to master the cooking skills necessary to continue his father's dreams. But he never thought that even being a cook needed talent.

"Is this system a favorable turn of fate, a new hope? While thinking about that, Yuan Zhou clicked on the preliminary mission with an indescribable emotion.

[Mission] Owning a store of your own

(Mission tip: As a prospective Master Chef, how could you not even have a store of your own? Young man, go and fight for that.)

"What kind of tip is it? What on earth is it trying to tell me? Is this system stupid?" Yuan Zhou couldn't help complaining when he saw the tip in the parentheses after clicked on the mission.

"A store of my own? It seems to be the God's will." Looking at the mission, Yuan Zhou sighed with mixed emotions in his heart.

It could also be his parents' expectations, wishing that he wouldn't leave.

His disordered mind eventually changed into resolution. Yuan Zhou picked up his mobile phone from the table and found Li Li's telephone number from his contacts. After hesitating a while, he dialed the number.

The call was answered after three rings.

"Hello. This is Li Li." A soft female voice spoke through from the other side.

"Hi, hi, hello. This is Yuan Zhou, the boss of the store at No. 14 of Tao Xi Road."

Yuan Zhou has only seen this female customer, whom he was suppose to rent the shop to, once.She had clear features and was dressed in professional business suit with her hair meticulously tied into a chignon. Frankly speaking, even he himself couldn't imagine that she would rent this store without looking at the interior nor even bargaining. Yet, he was going back on his word now, thus felt slightly ashamed of his behavior.

The lady interrupted him at this moment, "Oh. It's you. You are calling to ask about the agreement, aren't you? Hold on a moment, please. I have an emergency to deal with at the moment. Talk to my elder brother. He will be running the store later on anyway."

"I will sign the agreement with you at 1 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, in your store." A rough and arrogant male voice then passed through the telephone to him before he could say anything.

"I'm really sorry. I am calling to tell you that I am not renting my store to you anymore." He got a little unhappy with his rude manner. Thinking of his purpose, however, he laid out his decision directly.

"What do you mean? You just want to increase the rent, right?" The man at the other side sounded a little discontented, but he didn't seem to believe that Yuan Zhou would refuse to rent the store.

After all he knew some facts about the store. The store had been left deserted for more than 2 years, but still hadn't been rented out. One reason was that the street where the store lay was just a simple street rather than a high end street. Various goods were available here for sale, but most were ordinary daily use items, or of lower grade.

Also the location was not good as well. Although there were several office buildings behind of the store and had many white-collar customers, but there was a gourmet street right below those buildings. Moreover, office workers nowadays are too lazy to walk a few additional steps further for their meals. Thus the business of the simple street is really bad.

This was the situation. The person who wanted to rent was no fool. The reason he didn't bargain was definitely because he knew some inside information.

Although his proposal to buy out the store was previously declined, his plan of renting first and buying later would probably get him abundant profits. Furthermore he was well aware of Yuan Zhou's situation, who, as far as he knew, was an orphan and didn't have any influential people backing him up.

"No, actually it's my own problem. Anyhow, we haven't signed the agreement nor have I received any deposit from you. Let's forget about the lease agreement." Hearing that the man believed that he wanted to raise the rent, Yuan Zhou knitted his brows. "Am I a person who likes money?" But he still gave a vague explanation.

"What do you mean? A promise is a promise. How can you eat your words? Do you really think your store is in high demand? Let's do this. I increase 100 RMB every month and you rent the store to me." The man at the other side shouted discontentedly and tried to increase the rent in a rude manner.

"Really, it's not about the rent. I just don't want to rent because I am going to run the store myself."

"Hey, you..."

Yuan Zhou hung up the telephone before the man finished talking. " If he continued talking nonsense, the call will exceed 1 minute and I will have to pay more telephone fee." As mentioned above, Yuan Zhou was not a person who likes money. He was actually a person who loves money. Since there was neither deposit nor any signed agreement, just a call could cancel it.

"Duk Duk Duk"

The high heels made a crisp sound on the wooden floor.After sending off her guest, when Li Li returned home, she found her elder brother scowling at his phone. She couldn't help laughing.

"What's the matter with you? Are you having a quarrel with the phone?" she said.

"The guy told me he would not rent the store to us anymore." Her brother calmed down showing a little discontent on his face.

"Really? Why?" the sister Li Li lifted her brows and asked in surprise.

"The guy said he was going to run that store himself. Forget it. Anyhow, we have already bought out 5 other stores in that area." Her brother's face changed to one of indifference.

"Ok. What do you prepare to do?" Seeing her brother being indifferent, she stopped asking and changed the topic

..............

On the other side, Yuan Zhou cleared his mind with a serious expression and clicked on the telephone in his hand randomly.

"Do I clean the house by myself, or do I clean the house by myself, or do I clean the house by myself?"

"I almost forgot. Every mission should have a reward. So where's my reward?" Yuan Zhou whispered to himself and started to search for the reward on the panel in his mind.

[Reward] God-tier skill for Fried Rice with Eggs

Isn't the God-tier skill of Fried Rice with Eggs still fried rice with an egg? Just like a hegemon in a beggar group is still a beggar. What difference does that make?

"System, do you think this reward really matches the level of my mission?" Yuan Zhou felt really upset the instant he saw the reward in his mind.

The system showed only a sentence, "The most delicious Fried Rice with Eggs in the world."

"How can it be the most delicious?" asked Yuan Zhou seriously.

No explanations were given this time, only a sentence alone was shown there. "Please complete the task first, host."

"Ok, ok. An explanation without explaining anything," Yuan Zhou muttered to himself and continued to look at the panel in his mind. He had been too excited previously to look at it carefully.

"Why is the cooking talent still unknown?"

Yuan Zhou knew he didn't have a high talent on cooking, but what the hell does unknown mean?

"This system doesn't have the ability to detect talent, furthermore people's talents are not fixed and can be changed." The usual text explanation appeared.

"Since you cannot detect talent, why do you show it on the panel?" Yuan Zhou couldn't really understand.

"It looks much better like that." The system paused for a moment before presenting its text response, which aroused Yuan Zhou's suspicions.

To prevent his intelligence quotient from deteriorating due to the system, Yuan Zhou decided to ignore this question and continued to read the panel.

"Five dimensions of cooking?"

The system showed, "Refers in particular to color, flavor, taste, shape and meaning"

However, the glaring words "NOVICE" let Yuan Zhou realize his actual cooking level. He got a little frustrated. But thinking of the already owned system in his mind, he got his confidence back immediately.

So, all he had to do right now was just to begin the mission..