Chapter 800: Hiring (Final Three Days—Requesting Monthly Votes)

Les stared at Lu Mi, asking with confusion:

"Can you make decisions for the owner here?"

"Yes, because I'm the owner." Lu Mi smiled and pointed to himself.

The cannibal chef Les grew even more puzzled:

"Didn't we arrive in Morola together?"

It's been less than an hour.

Lu Mi tilted his head and pointed his chin toward the destroyed bar area:

"I fought the original owner here and won this bar from him."

Les's eyes suddenly lit up:

"Did he die? Where's his body?"

"The Enforcers took it away—probably to the graveyard for burial." Lu Mi walked to the edge of the hall, picked up a still-intact chair, and placed it beside the bar's ruins.

Les sighed in disappointment, then followed Lu Mi's suggestion and entered the kitchen to begin cooking.

Lu Mi wandered over to the bar area, searching for the two pieces of "steak" he and Abris hadn't eaten.

They, along with their plates, had been shredded by the violent explosion and scattered among the debris, all charred and carbonized.

Lu Mi studied them for a while and found none of the "steak" fragments exhibited the peculiar writhing growth—hearing the fire, they'd lost even the subtle connection present in corpses, as if utterly dead and no longer part of the "pus-swollen severed hand."

"These probably don't need to be recovered…"

"High-temperature flames suppress the self-healing ability of this detached flesh, but I'm unsure how much effect it has on the corpse itself…"

"Then again, the detached flesh must only have limited self-healing—if it could regenerate a whole new severed hand from every scrap, the severed hand wouldn't need to recover its entire body…"

After pondering a while, Lu Mi went back to the hall's edge, picked up an overturned small round table, and placed it beside the chair.

He sat down and waited patiently for Les to prepare lunch.

As moments passed, Les brought out a mixed salad, creamy mashed potatoes rich with aroma, and other dishes.

Lu Mi scooped up a spoonful of mashed potatoes and put it in his mouth; the texture was extraordinarily smooth, the starch, the sweetness of cream, and the richness of fat combining into a flavor he couldn't stop eating.

"Good cooking." Lu Mi raised his left hand and gave a thumbs-up.

Les stood beside him, grinning foolishly:

"I used to own a restaurant."

"A cannibal restaurant?" Lu Mi joked, slightly provocative.

Les shook his head:

"Back then, I was a normal chef—with excellent, still-human-level culinary skills."

"Then why did you start eating people?" Lu Mi didn't ask directly when he'd turned to a Xieshen worshipper.

He didn't even know which Xieshen corresponded to the "Gourmet" path.

Les's expression darkened:

"My wife had a friend who constantly preached the virtues of luxury life to her, introduced her to so-called upper-class members, even incited her to have an affair, squander money, and secretly mortgage my restaurant—her goal from the start was my restaurant.

"After losing the restaurant, that friend cut off all contact with my wife. My wife finally woke up, but she was too cowardly—she just set fire to the restaurant and burned herself alive.

"At that time, a customer who greatly admired my cooking and often dined at our restaurant found me, asked if I wanted revenge, offered to help me, and said someone with my level of culinary skill as a human ought to worship the God of Cuisine, the great 'Devouring Vortex.'

"Afterward, I received a blessing and gradually grew stronger.

"Once I became a true 'Chef,' I found that woman and turned her into the most satisfying meal of my life.

"Since that day, I've grown fond of eating the flesh of the damned, and gained the ability to judge who deserves to die."

"Was that woman a Xieshen worshipper?" Lu Mi, hearing this, strongly suspected Les's first victim was an Enabler's blessing recipient.

Perhaps Les's restaurant had been part of some transaction.

"Yes," Les had already gleaned this information from the woman's flesh, "she worshipped the so-called 'Truth.' She was still weak when she met my wife."

As expected… Lu Mi smiled.

The ability to judge who deserves to die is useful—when I capture another Enabler of Rank 7 or higher, I'll hand them over to Ludwig for cooking.

After finishing Les's meal, Lu Mi nodded in satisfaction:

"I'll hire you as the bartender's chef. Let's discuss salary and duties."

"Alright." Les assumed an attentive posture.

Lu Mi picked up a white napkin and wiped his mouth:

"There's still a good stock of wine in the cellar. Clean up the bar, rebuild it, arrange the bottles on it, then handle hiring and managing bartenders and waiters, and reestablish contact with suppliers."

"That's the manager's job," Les said—he'd run a restaurant before.

Lu Mi smiled:

"Yes. Chef and manager.

"All profits from the bar's operations, after costs, are yours."

"And what about you?" Les had never seen such an owner.

He didn't want the money?

Lu Mi stood up, stretched his body, and said casually:

"You handle my three meals, arrange for someone to clean my room, procure special ingredients and prepare dishes or cocktails that grant me corresponding traits—and I don't eat human flesh."

Les stared at Lu Mi for several seconds, then said gravely:

"You seem to understand the 'Chef's' abilities well."

Lu Mi glanced at the sky, now clear of rain, and smiled as he walked toward the bar's exit:

"The original owner of this bar was a 'Depriver.' Too bad—he lost his life to me and can't share culinary insights with you."

And my godson is the Angel of your path.

Les fell silent. Only as Lu Mi neared the exit did he look at his back and reply:

"I'll run this bar well."

Lu Mi didn't turn around—he raised his right hand and waved lightly, acknowledging the reply.

Outside, the streets still held deep puddles; pedestrians walked mostly along the raised sidewalks, while the sky above shone bright with sunlight, as if the storm had never happened.

Following the subtle connection of the contract mark, Lu Mi walked toward the suspected location of the "pus-swollen severed hand's" head.

Around a corner, he saw a corpse, drenched and still, beneath a stele carved with books—it was Viejepan, the gloomy rapist and murderer who'd been exiled to Morola alongside Lu Mi and others.

His limbs had been severed at the joints, his pants stripped off, his groin a bloody mess, the most vital part gone.

His eyes were wide open, frozen in pain and despair.

"Oh, lost a duel?" Lu Mi smiled silently.

He nearly whistled in appreciation for the duel he hadn't seen.

It must have been spectacular—anyone who died deserved a toast.

"Looks like that collector, Zhu Li, is stronger… Both she and Viejepan had unspoken motives—no, openly intended to provoke a duel…" Lu Mi suspected Zhu Li was a Follower—such precise blade work wasn't humanly possible.

As for Viejepan, he couldn't tell yet—if he was one, his Follower trait had surely been taken.

"That woman is formidable." A voice suddenly sounded beside Lu Mi.

It came from a gentleman approaching from the side of the small square.

He wore a half-high silk top hat, a white shirt, a woolen sweater, and a tailored overcoat, with a tie and a walking cane in hand.

He was just over thirty, with a lean face, gentle blue eyes, the kind of refined upper-class gentleman shaped by excellent education.

Of course, in Morola, there were no good people—only bad ones and worse ones.

"Did you see their fight?" Lu Mi asked casually.

The gentleman smiled and replied:

"They first went to the restaurant near the square to borrow revolvers for the duel, but the waiter told them too many duels had been scheduled today—every revolver had been lent out, leaving only two longswords.

"That woman was formidable—the man blocked only three strikes before being knocked down, his limbs severed, his pants stripped off."

So Viejepan didn't seem to be a Follower… Lu Mi turned his gaze from the corpse to the gentleman and asked with a smile:

"What's your name?"

The gentleman placed his hand over his chest and bowed:

"Call me Guxin—or 'Count.'

"I heard you killed Wolms?"

"Wolms, the thief?" Lu Mi smiled. "He was struck by lightning—has nothing to do with me. If I'd killed him, the Enforcers would've arrested me already."

Guxin smiled faintly:

"There are ways to deceive the Enforcers."

You've noticed how rigid and procedural the Enforcers are? Lu Mi thought for a few seconds, then decided to be "honest":

"Wolms died from bad luck—he stole an item from me that attracts lightning during rain."

"Then you can't be blamed," Guxin said, understanding.

He asked warmly:

"What's your name? Where are you staying?"

"Louis. Staying at the 'Carnivore' Bar." Lu Mi answered truthfully.

Guxin nodded slightly:

"Watch out for Bayen, the bar's owner and chef—he's dangerous. He eats people."

Lu Mi smiled:

"He's already dead."

Gu Xin paused, then smiled back:

"You're more interesting than I expected. I hope you can bring long-overdue vitality to Morola."

Lumian did not pursue the topic, instead smoothly extracting information:

"In Morola, besides Hera Beg from the Church of Knowledge, who else should I watch out for?"

Guxin did not hesitate, answering directly:

"Vanack, owner of Dades Agricultural Company, monopolizes the grain supply from surrounding farms to Morola. He was once an experimental subject, but suddenly escaped and now behaves like a normal person."

"He is the most dangerous person in Morola."

Someone who became an experimental subject and then returned to normal? And the Church of Knowledge didn't intervene when Vanack left the experimental group? Isn't this exactly what I need? Lumian nodded thoughtfully and said:

"Who is the second most dangerous person in Morola?"

Guxin replied with the same smile:

"They say it's me."

ps: Final three days—please vote for monthly tickets!

(End of chapter)