168: Chapter 168 Shen Nan: Just one game?!

Before he knew it, evening had arrived in the game world.

The warm yellow lights of the sushi restaurant flickered on. A few soy sauce bottles sat on the wooden counter, and Ukiyo-e style decorative paintings hung on the walls.

Banjo, who wore a headband and looked much like a middle-aged uncle, was sharpening a knife at the cutting board in the kitchen. Seeing Dave enter, he said in a muffled voice:

"We're about to open, Dave!"

The first thing to do before opening was for Shen Nan to be responsible for setting the menu.

He opened his backpack to take a look. Among the fish he had just caught, the Parrotfish was marked with small text that said "Recommended for sushi."

He tried clicking it, and a list of recipes popped up on the right side of the screen. Parrotfish Nigiri: unit price over two hundred gold coins, one fish required per serving.

The menu could hold four dishes in total. He added the Parrotfish Nigiri, and after a moment of thought, chose to add Sea Bream Sashimi and a Batfish Gunkan Maki. As for the fourth dish, he really couldn't scrape anything else together.

Looking back and forth, he simply dragged the only two remaining Blue Tangs from his backpack onto the menu. He'd sell them for now; maybe someone would actually like them?

After finalizing the menu, he spoke with Banjo, and then officially began his first night of business.

Shen Nan had originally thought that since the game focused on underwater adventure, the sushi restaurant management part would be very simple.

But as it turned out, he might have oversimplified things.

As the door curtain was lifted, seven or eight customers swarmed in, each with a different icon floating above their head.

Teacups, sushi plates, ordering bubbles—each one was even a different color.

He instinctively walked toward the customer with the teacup icon first.

He had seen this in reviews before; customers who wanted tea had lower patience, so pouring tea had to be the priority.

Pouring tea was a minigame in itself.

Dave picked up the teapot and poured into the cup. There was a green line at the edge of the cup, and the tea had to reach exactly that line for it to be considered "Perfect."

He held down the 'S' key, the tea rose, and he let go just as it reached the green line.

Just a little short.

A little bit more.

Full.

The word "Perfect" popped up on the screen. The customer nodded in satisfaction, and Shen Nan subconsciously nodded along in satisfaction as well.

Before he could get too proud of himself, the customers nearby started rushing their orders.

Three customers raised their hands at the same time: one wanted tea, and two ordered Parrotfish Nigiri.

He hurried to the serving counter. Banjo had just placed two servings of sushi out, and he picked up the plates, jogging all the way to the customers.

Just as he set the plates down, the customer at the table by the window finished eating, leaving behind a pile of dirty dishes. He had to run over and quickly alternate between clicking the left and right keys to clean them.

While he was busy with that, the wasabi on the right-hand prep station unexpectedly ran out.

Without wasabi, Banjo wouldn't put out any dishes, leaving the customers who had already ordered just waiting.

Shen Nan quickly controlled Dave to run over and refill the wasabi. As he passed by, he noticed two more new customers had entered the shop. One of them specifically wanted tea and was already impatiently tapping on the table.

He felt a bit overwhelmed and realized for the first time that his previous assumption was wrong—the restaurant management aspect of this game didn't seem that simple; it wasn't just for show.

He hurriedly increased his hand speed to deliver the two remaining cups of tea first, then scrambled back to the serving counter to continue carrying dishes.

It was this chaotic on the very first night.

For a moment, Shen Nan couldn't even imagine how much busier he would be as the game reached the mid-to-late stages.

But busy as it was...

Shen Nan truly and deeply experienced the fun of restaurant management games, a genre he rarely played before, through all the hustle and bustle.

When business hours ended, Banjo calculated the day's income.

The total revenue was eight hundred and thirty gold coins. After deducting costs and overhead, the net profit was barely over two hundred. It seemed like very little.

And in reality...

This amount of money really wasn't much.

But looking at the small sushi restaurant with its warm yellow lights and relaxed atmosphere...

For some reason, a happy and content smile unconsciously appeared on Shen Nan's face.

When the next day came, Ellie's photography request finally appeared.

He deliberately dove more carefully than before. After swimming west from the shallow coral reef area for about three minutes, he finally saw a blue glowing diamond-shaped marker above a dark red rock crevice.

Only when he got closer did he realize they were two clumps of Tengusa growing against the rock. Nearby, a few red starfish lay on the sandy seabed, their five-pointed shapes looking quite silly.

He quickly pressed the 'C' key to open his phone and take a photo. After confirming the quest progress bar had increased, he continued exploring along the edge of the reef.

It was in this area near the shipwreck remains that he had his first direct encounter with an aggressive fish.

A Three-toothed Shark!

It was large and looked incredibly imposing, and it was also extremely fast. Arching its body, it suddenly lunged out from the shadows on the right and slammed into his waist.

Red light flashed at the edge of the screen, and his oxygen level plummeted by a third.

Shen Nan was startled by this sudden attack. He instinctively mashed the spacebar to dodge and struck back with a Harpoon.

It hit, but it didn't seem to do much good. The shark shook its body, arched again, and charged forward with extreme ferocity.

He held down the mouse button to charge up and landed another hit. It wasn't until the third strike that he finally killed the big guy. Picking it up, he saw it weighed four kilograms and was only two-star quality.

He cursed in frustration.

Looking at that shark's posture, he had thought it would definitely be three stars! You've got to be kidding me!

If you were to ask if Shen Nan wanted to provoke this fierce-looking shark, he definitely didn't.

But he had no choice; the thing was charging at him to eat him. Whether he wanted to provoke it or not, he had to fight back.

He took the shark's head back with him.

That night, Banjo used the Three-toothed Shark's head to make Whole Roasted Three-toothed Shark Head. Although the shark's quality wasn't three stars, the effect was still excellent. The satisfaction numbers popping up over the diners' heads were much higher than the previous night.

Watching the happy scene in the sushi restaurant where both host and guests were enjoying themselves...

Shen Nan happily ordered some takeout during a break, grabbed a bottle of soda, and continued to immerse himself in the immense joy the game brought him.

He didn't even know how long he had been playing.

When Shen Nan stretched his limbs to relax, a quick glance outside left him stunned to find that the sky had long since turned pitch black.

"Holy crap..."

He instinctively cursed and quickly grabbed his phone to check the time, only to find that it was already 11:40 PM. He had actually played until this time without even realizing it?

Thinking about the early meeting tomorrow...

Although he was incredibly reluctant, after much hesitation, Shen Nan let out a breath and prepared to close the game and go to bed like a good boy.

But just as his finger was about to click the exit button, a small icon notification suddenly lit up in the menu on the right side of the screen. It was something he didn't recognize.

Clicking into it, the main screen of Dave's old-fashioned mobile phone popped up.

Not only could he flip through the contacts and look at the photo album—it had many features—but it even freaking had several built-in minigames.

Looking at this...

Shen Nan immediately fell into a state of great hesitation. After thinking for a long while, he muttered to himself:

"Just one game?"

In an instant, he made up his mind and nodded with certainty:

"Yeah, just one more game!"