The Late Cook Ascends the Tower - The Late Cook Ascends the Tower chapter 12

12 – Episode 12. Unfair Transaction

[Cooking/Life Card: Combine items to create a Item. The stats of the created item are determined randomly.]

Cooking cards are classified as living cards.

And as far as I know, the life card could be used anywhere.

Unlike attack cards and defense cards that require certain triggers to be used in the village, life cards can be activated from the start in the village, in the safe zone, or even during battles with monsters.

Of course, the important thing is that it is possible to cook inside the tower.

What if you could cook with the acquired items when you are out of stamina and unable to move?

When an unmatchable enemy appears in front of you, other jobs require you to cry and eat mustard, but I am different.

It’s enough to just reverse the tower to your heart’s content and then use cooking to treat the returnees.

Cooking’s stats only recover 2 HP and heal 4 return soldiers.

I can’t say it’s a big number for a job perk, but…

For me, who knows the size of the Eternity Tower, I see infinite possibilities comparable to nuclear fusion power generation.

On the other hand, I still have only 10 slots in my inventory, so I can’t use it properly.

When I level up later, I’ll have to think about whether to invest in greed, which increases my inventory, or combat ability.

Well, just thinking about the direction of growth like this means that there is progress.

I am very satisfied.

“Why? Why? Cooking is ruined!?”

“Who ruins a dish? As long as I was in charge, success was predetermined from the beginning.”

“Oh… So arrogant. You mean well made?”

“Yes. With this amount, you can probably get about 300 gold.”

“Really? 300 Gold or something!? Wow!!”

Ah, that’s a surprise.

Your voice tone is very high.

As soon as she heard me, Dana covered her mouth with both hands.

With his eyes wide open like a rainbow, he jumps up and hits me on the shoulder with that terrifying power.

What’s so good about it?

I didn’t even say a word about giving money.

They interrupted to watch the show without wanting to, and they just toiled all night, and when they said that the food was good, they jumped around like that.

How much boredom accumulates before a person becomes like that?

The more I get to know you, the more I think you’re a weird kid.

But… I have to say something.

“Thank you. I don’t know what would have happened if I had burned it at the last minute. I owe you.”

“Ahem… Are you admitting it now? Like I said, two were better than one.”

“Yes. This time.”

“Ugh… Just admit it. His personality is really strange.”

My pride was hurt when I heard that kind of thing from a kid with a weird personality.

Anyway, it’s my mistake this time, so I’ll admit it.

But starting tomorrow, I’ll return to the cool me who refuses help from others.

Okay then, now that we’ve passed the challenge, it’s time to move on to the next step.

Sales.

No matter how good you cook, if you can’t turn it into money, you’re an opponent.

From now on, I have to find a customer in this town who will buy my food.

Of course by myself!

Cleaning up the messy kitchen, clearing up afterburn, and saying goodbye to Dana.

“You worked hard all night. I’m leaving now, so you get some sleep too. Oh, the kitchen was well used.”

“Go to the store already? I could rent a room, but I can sleep…”

“Go.”

I owed a lot just for renting the kitchen and watching over the meat all night long.

My pride won’t allow me to go beyond this.

I was about to leave the kitchen, but Dana grabbed my collar from behind.

It’s not tough either.

But…

‘Sibal…’

The original plan was to coolly ignore it and leave, but I didn’t even budge.

He just grabbed the clothes with his index finger…

“Why?”

“Dohyun-ah. I have something to say… About the price of that dish…”

“Ask for some? So, shall we start a bloody battle from now on? I am prepared to risk my life.”

“Not that! Actually, this town… That…”

Dana didn’t let go of my collar like that, and she couldn’t say it easily either.

Looking at his expression, he doesn’t seem to be ripping off anything, and he hasn’t done anything wrong with me.

But when I see you making such an apologetic expression…

Somehow, I think I know what Dana wants to say.

Actually, I expected it from the beginning.

The reason I told Dana the price of her food in the first place was to get this reaction.

What Dana wants to tell me is this.

“No one in town has that much money. Is that what you want to say?”

“Oh! How did you know?”

As expected, that’s why you put on an apologetic expression.

It’s not that he did anything wrong, but his personality is really strange.

Dana seems to be genuinely curious about how I knew, but this is something that can be known with a little thought.

The starting gold in TOE is 100 gold for everyone.

Besides, from the moment I came to this village, I was suffering from returning soldiers, so how did I get 300 gold?

Anyone with that level of skill would have left the village right away, otherwise they would have bought a weapon.

I predicted it even before I started cooking.

Of course I thought of a solution!

In order to implement that solution, we need an experiment from now on…

As for the experiment…

“hehehe… I think you need me.”

But at that moment, Dana said with a strange smile.

As if the apologetic expression from a moment ago was a build-up, now he is busy boasting with his hand on his waist.

“What is it this time? There is no one living in this town, so give it to me for free, what is this?”

“Free? Hee hee… Would you say something like that even after seeing this?”

Then she opened the pocket on her skirt to me.

I see golden coins in the pocket. Quite a lot of that too.

“How is it? It’s the money I saved up. A whopping 327 gold!”

“Where did you get this?”

“I collected it while running errands for the sister at the store.”

Well, the tavern npc has money.

I didn’t expect this.

Originally, the original Dana just talked to me and talked to me, but there was no trading function.

But you have money? Did you do the work and get paid?

This was new information again.

In the game, only equivalent exchange was possible according to the golden rule, but maybe there is a way to earn money in return for work in this world.

I’ll look into that later.

For now, Dana’s money comes first.

“Did you intend to buy my food from the beginning?”

“It wasn’t like that from the beginning… It looks so delicious! And I’ve seen them make it so hard, it’s really too much to not even know the taste!”

“So are you going to live?”

“Yes! Will you sell me one?”

“How much will you pay? 300 Gold is my guess, I don’t know the list price. If you do it wrong, the money may evaporate, and maybe the amount of cooking may evaporate.”

Since I became possessed by the game, I was most worried about this part.

Merchant NPCs give the exact price of an item first, but other players or non-Golden Rule guild NPCs don’t know the exact price.

This means that even if I make a good item with a production card, I cannot trade it recklessly.

So I needed to collect more and more 1,000 gold.

If you get a membership card from the store owner, you can immediately know the price.

But not now.

If the money evaporates while doing business with Dana right now, that’s fine.

I took the loss and figured out the list price, so that’s okay. It’s not even my money anyway.

But what if the food evaporates?

It’s okay if the recovery effect remains even if the amount of food evaporates.

If the recovery effect disappears in the process of evaporation, it will be a big problem.

That’s why… It’s not something you’d carelessly risk all your money on.

“You can lose money. Do you know?”

“It’s okay. I have nothing to spend money on anyway.”

“I’m going to make money off this deal and leave town. And I’ll make money elsewhere. But you’ll still be in this town, so is it okay to spend it all like that?”

“Yes!”

To be honest, it’s not a business that I lose money.

327 Gold per dish makes a lot of money, and even if it evaporates a little, it’s only one out of seven.

So accept it right away.

Turn over the dishes.

Received 327 gold.

I just need to check the results…

Why does the snout keep moving on its own…

“Why? You can live well without this dish, right? It’s not even a matter of life, so why do you have to live like that?”

Sibeol.

I have to sell it quickly when I get drunk on the smell and roll my eyes.

I was the fool who opened the way to escape even with all the hukou in front of me.

It seems that just working together for one night has weakened his heart.

But… Dana didn’t change her eyes after hearing my words.

On the contrary, he answered in a more determined voice than I did.

“There is no reason, so give me one quickly. I will give you all this money.”

“What if the food evaporates?”

“It’s okay though. Instead, if my money stays and evaporates, it means I paid too much. Can you do one favor of mine?”

“What kind of favor?”

“If that happens, you will eat it too.”

“What kind of bullsh*t all of a sudden. Why am I jumping out of there?”

“No~ That’s right. What if I ate the dish and it was delicious enough to die for! But wouldn’t it be unfair if only I knew the taste? So you should eat too.”

This is really strange.

From noble mtl dot com

It’s strange no matter how you think about it.

Okay, let’s say that’s the reason for buying food.

Let’s say you spend all your money because you just want to lose money.

But if you lose money, you want me to cook for you instead?

The reason is… Because you want to know the taste together?

Is that really the reason?

Ha…

Now I get it.

Now I can be really sure.

I hate him.

The point of being ruthlessly kind, the point of talking to me first even if I don’t talk to you.

I hate those things to the point of death.

I don’t like it when I’m alone because she keeps looking at Dana.

I’ll have to sell it right away and leave this town.

If I stay here all the time… I feel uneasy.

The terrible thought that I might get caught up in him and go back to my old self.

So, this is the last time I’m going to match him.

Really.

“100 Gold.”

“Why 100 gold?”

“Just pay 100 gold.”

“What!? Then what if all the food evaporates!”

“There is no such thing. I will get all the full price by any means.”

“Then why do you only want to pay 100 gold?”

“Because I’m going to subdivide.”

“Subdivision? What is it?”

It’s crazy that even if you don’t talk about all the wealth, you can taste it.

I checked with your mother’s pot.

Even if you make a dish, you are free to divide it up.

If there is no one to buy because the price is high, you can divide it into several pieces and sell them separately!

In the process, his abilities might be blown away.

But it doesn’t matter.

I’ll be able to fulfill both your tenacity to taste and my purpose to make money.

Of course, under the premise that the experiment succeeds…

I took out [Large Grilled Bone Meat] From my inventory.

Then he grabbed Jessica again.

‘Tell me Jessica…!”

Is my judgment correct?