Chapter 74 Today’s Special

"Ah... FUCK!!"

Took the pan and aggressively stepped towards the trash can, then turned it over and threw in the eggs.

"I’m fucking following the recipe so why the fuck isn’t it working?!" I yelled into the nothingness—sound echoed through the apartment, making Thundermeow Meowxzimus hiss and hide at the terror.

With utmost preciseness, after sharpening my palm, I opened up the eggs and attempted yet again to make scrambled eggs.

The holographic monitor showed up...

"And..."

[THIS MORNING’S BREAKFAST RECIPE HAS BEEN FULFILLED — CONGRATULATIONS]

"F— FUCK YEAH."

Immediately, yet again threw the eggs into the trash can and left—this was the hardest recipe yet, fucking assholes for making us follow their little "recipes" daily; this was making me miss being outside the walls.

Soyeon [9:23 AM]: Dante, are you coming or not?!

Dante [9:24 AM]: yes babes i am, be quiet now

Ku [9:24 AM]: emojilargemouthopeninsurprise.png

"Tsk!!"

Dante [9:24 AM]: gtfo ku

"Morning, everyone," quietly.

"Morns." "Morning."

"What mission will we be having today?—another parttime minimum wage job?"

"Hmm..." Ku.

"It’s funny you say that, Dante," voiced Nemo as his hand went onto his mask—was he going to take it off?

He slowly lifted the mask by its edge, paused, then lowered it again, just to cheerfully say, "we’ll be helping out in a McDonalds today!"

Immediately, Ku sighed and... "oh, brother"; I complemented that gesture as well... "and suddenly, I find myself missing my old Leader."

Soyeon proceeded to glance at me, and instead of commenting on the new mission, inquired on the gatekept joke I made, "your Leader?—who was he anyway?"

"Ariel—he was a Level 8 Player that unfortunately passed away on a mission with the rest of my former team."

"Oh... Dante... I’m sorry to hear that," Soyeon said sympathetically.

I smiled with closed eyes, made a quick chuckle, then replied, "it’s really nothing—I’m way past the events that happened."

"And you were the only one that came out alive?—ain’t that something?" Ku voiced without looking at us—his tone was also reminiscently nonchalant—he was starting to genuinely remind me of X.

"I was just better, what more can I say to you, Ku?" Ku’s voice sounded naturally nonchalant, meanwhile mine was forcefully and almost comically—that was my card in manipulation.

"Yeah?—don’t you mean just luckier than anyone else?" I allowed him to clap back in snark—worry not, kitten.

"Anyway, team, it’s time to flip some burgers and deal with upset customers!" yelled Nemo as he raised his hand with a single finger pointed towards the ceiling.

A few hours had passed...

"No, Dante, you’re doing it wrong!—follow me carefully, okay?"

Ku stated as his hand went onto mine—in less than one second, I forced my MANA onto it so it would regain blood-flow and warmth; circulation did take a little while to properly apply, but that rule only held true depending on your total MANA output on it.

He was closely behind me—fingers on my palm holding the spatula, he apparently was inclined to show me the proper ropes in flipping burgers successfully.

"Once the burger is resting on the spatula, you have to give your wrist a gentle, upward flick—carefully, now... just like... this..." we did it successfully... "see? it’s not that hard, Dante."

Then as we were done, I did a quick peep around—stood Soyeon, with a slightly gaping mouth that quickly transformed into a lip bite followed by a drooling lick.

"I— I like what I just saw," she said tenderly, allegedly without any sarcasm in her voice—sigh.

"Oh, did you?—if you like boys love you should read The Perfect Knight And..."

My head softly tilted and eyes ran to the ceiling—my palm went onto my chin as well.

"...what was it again?—can’t seem to remember anymore."

"Dante... don’t tell me— don’t tell me you read..."

I had no choice—I had to interrupt her here and stop any possible wrong interpretations.

"No—I don’t read that stuff, I’m straight and I only know that name because I heard it online randomly." Stole X’s nonchalance to the detail—perfectly and unquestionably.

"Aww..." she let out in a puppy voice—my, how disgusting.

"Get on with the work, Players, it’s Saturday and we’re understaffed—hurry, hurry!!" said the manager in charge of us—he didn’t have the most joyous tone either.

Hours more had passed... and it was time to clock out.

"Ahhhh... I’m famished," said Ku as he went down on his butt straight on the ground.

"Being in front of burgers all day didn’t exactly help either," Soyeon added.

Both of them had voices of exhaustion.

"So, children—what do we learn here today?"

"That the burgers are delicious because of the sweat and tears of the people slaving for them?" I quickly replied to Nemo—nonchalantly again, heh.

"No!—what we learned is that you should do your best as Players if you don’t want to be stuck doing a dead-end job like this!"

Ku immediately let out a quick overt snicker just to say, "yeah?—is that why you’re making us take these low-tier jobs as Players?"

Nemo didn’t answer—just glared in annoyance.

You reap what you sow, dear.

Finally, we parted ways and set our ways—yet again I excused myself as they all went to a restaurant, but I didn’t particularly care because of one tiny reason.

And it’s because...

I was admittedly...

Getting excited.

Beyond excited... mmh... mmm...

In fact... a little too excited.

My eyelids fluttered, my pupils went upwards until only the whites of my eyes remained visible... mm...

Ughhh... mmmhhhh... Fisk...

"Are you going to show up now?—will you now?—you have no choice, do you now?—right?"

I began mumbling as I walked across people—a busy crowded street, yet not a single person so much as eyed me.

Then... I was stopped through the magnificent force of a palm that had no force—it was simply held in front of my chest.

My gaze... it slowly descended upon this person.

His face flickered as it transformed.

"Fisk."

I won.

Right?