"I knew it."

Wa Lui Qi was running to his workplace with all of his might. Normally, as soon as he opened his stall, people would line up and five or ten minutes later all of his sandwiches would run out.

But that was when the sandwich price was $2. This morning, he just did a little bit of experiment, selling $2 salad or egg mayo sandwich, $3 tuna or chicken sandwich. $4 meat sandwich. and $5 premium sandwich, filled with the combination of bun, lettuce, grilled cheese, patty, lettuce, bacon, skirt steak, lettuce and bun.

With 48 sandwiches in total. He made three sandwiches for the premium one and nine sandwiches for each other variations.

Lui Qi wouldn't say the result was a disaster since he received $141, but it almost took two hours for him to sell all of his sandwiches. Not like he displeased with it, but it was inefficient.

The variety that ran out first was the $2 sandwiches, followed by tuna then meat, after that chicken and the last one would be premium.

"The $2 sandwiches are already popular since day one, so it might be better for me to double their quantity." Lui Qi muttered. Thanks to 8 point on his focus, right now he didn't have any problem to calculate a simple thing while running on the street.

"And since chicken is the least popular one, maybe I should just scratch it from the menu." Lui Qi muttered, making a mental note on his note. "For premium one, I don't think the price is the problem. But it might be a little bit too heavy to be a breakfast."

In his mind, no matter what happened he would be a fool if he only sold them at $2. Considering he gained a quite large amount of opportunity cost since no matter if he sold them at 2 or 5 bucks, his cost of ingredients was still 10 Mana. Therefore, he still would lose $3 profit per sandwich he sold out. (Author note: opportunity cost is the "cost" incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the alternative choice.)

Anyway, thanks to his Runner class, Lui Qi was able to arrive just at the right time at his workplace.

One might be wondering why Lui Qi didn't just stop his work as a dishwasher, considering he already made a higher income rather than his dishwashing job. He actually had given a thought to that option, but he realized he wouldn't have anything else to do if he stopped working. Not to mention doing this work also considered as an additional income for him.

Without nothing much to do, the day once again turned to night and Lui Qi's shift was over.

It might be because he was on fire and because the wind was blowing a little bit too hard, tonight Wa Lui Qi didn't hang out at the usual alley. Instead, he just lightening his cigarette... it went off because of the breeze, he lightening it again, this time covering the cigarette with his hand, it successfully burned. He then put his earphone on, playing 'Seize the Day' by A7X. And rather than going to his apartment, he walked his way to the shopping district in Chinatown. In his bag, there were three premium sandwiches.

It might be a little bit too hard to sell the premium sandwiches as breakfast, but if he sold them as lunch or maybe dinner, Lui Qi bet it would be popular.

The problem would be he couldn't sell them if he was working as a dishwasher. That was why he planned to find a vendor, either it was a cafe or mini market.

Without any hesitation Lui Qi went to the first store, it was Mr Chang's store. And much to his surprise, even though Lui Qi hadn't finished explaining his proposal. Mr Chang eyes widened when he heard Lui Qi's offer. "Five bucks for three sandwich, the trail mix, the potato chips and the drink?" Mr Chang repeated what Lui Qi had just said.

Even a child, or maybe a person with negative Wisdom could see the money sign shaping on Mr Chang's pupil. "This is homemade, right? If I cut the trail mix, the potato chips and the drink how much it will cost?"

Lui Qi's eye twitched a little bit. '...What a cheapskate.' He thought in his heart. "They came in a package, heck. Even if you cut everything else besides the sandwich, I still won't give you any discount."

It was a hard negotiation... and Lui Qi kinda regretted why he didn't eat Charisma Up food before he went to his store. '...Even though I stopped a robber from robbing your place.' Lui Qi protested in his heart.

In the end, Mr Chang agreed to take 10 lunch bags first and he would decide to keep ordering from Lui Qi.

That was good enough actually. Lui Qi thought he could only sell maybe three or five lunch bags per store, but from Mr Chang store alone he already fulfilled his quota.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

With a grin, Lui Qi left Mr Chang's store and heading back into his apartment. Lui Qi didn't plan to take too much premium sandwich order, because unlike the sandwiches he sold at his own stalls, he needed to create the premium sandwich at a fixed amount of quantity if he did that.

"Maybe I should sell them online? But I need to consider the delivery cost if I do that huh... and not to mention I do not have a ride. No... I should just take one step at a time rather than dashing away in one go."

It was hard to make the gear on Lui Qi's brain stopped rotating, but eventually, he stopped walking over the hard sidewalk below his feet and stopped thinking when he heard someone was calling out to him.

"Mister."

Lui Qi turned his head to where the voice came from, his mini-map showed supposedly there was someone, but he didn't find a single soul.

"Hello~ Mister. Down here." Searching for the source of the voice, Lui Qi noticed it was coming from below and he looked downward.

"..." There was a child standing still in front of him, her height wasn't even reached Lui Qi's waist, and Lui Qi wasn't a tall person either. From her stature, Lui Qi could tell she might be somewhere between seven or maybe eight years old. She was more on the chubby side, her hair was brown and long, loosely hung on her shoulders with a red ribbon placed on each side. She wore a black dress with white frill and covering her head with a black Panama hat. "Are you talking to me?" Asked Lui Qi.

"Yes. There's nobody else in front of me right now except for you, Mister."

'...That makes sense.' Lui Qi thought, but trying to keep a straight face. "Haha... I'm still 19 and you're calling me 'Mister' Do I really look that old?"

The girl only shrugged her shoulder. "Hey, mister. Do you have a phone?" She asked and looked up, showing Lui Qi her big round brown eyes.

"A phone?" 

"Yes. Do you?" 

"Yeah, I have one." Lui Qi started taking his phone out of his pocket and showing it to the girl.

"Please let me borrow it for a little bit." Said the girl. She tiptoed and pointed her palm forward.

"What?" Lui Qi tilted his head, thinking this might be some sort of a new scam or something like that.

But the girl in front of him quickly sensed his suspicion. With a slightly panicked tone, she raised her index finger and said. "I'll just make one phone call. I'm not asking you to let me use it for free, if you let me borrow it, I'll more than happy to compensate you for your trouble."

"...." Lui Qi was taken aback by the fact the girl in front of him can speak like that. Though, he couldn't help but chuckle at himself for thinking she was going to scam him. "Here." Lui Qi bent his knees and gave his phone to the girl in front of him with a smile on his face.

There was a slight delay from the girl side when their eyes met. "Th-thank you. I'll give it right back." She said while using her left hand to tilt her hat a little bit to cover her face, her right hand was grabbing Lui Qi's phone.

Never once in his life, Lui Qi thought he could see someone gesturing their thanks by using a hat... or she just wanted to hide her face. Either way, it was clear enough for Lui Qi the girl in front of him clearly knew manner. "There's no need to rush. Just take your time and return it when you're done."

"You stay right here Mister. I'll go talk over there and come back." She hastily walked a few steps away from Lui Qi. Her shoes created a loud 'tap' sound with each of her steps. 

"You don't have to go that far away." Said Lui Qi. Though, he wouldn't need to worry about her taking his phone away, considering he could surveillance her with his Mini-Map. Under the breeze, he could hear the girl whispering a series of number.

"Man... kids these days sure know how to use technology huh." Lui Qi muttered. He closed his eyes, remembering the time when he was at her age, and it was cool enough if you brought a Gameboy advance into your school. While he was sinking in his own nostalgia, he could feel the cold breeze brushed against his face.

"Ah!"

Lui Qi's eyes snapped open when he heard the girl voice. He turned his face as he noticed on his Mini-Map, the girl was walking toward the street, chasing after her black hat. At the same time, a pair of headlights were heading toward her. The girl only stood still at her place as the big truck rushing toward her.

Much to Lui Qi surprise, his body already moved forward. 'The hell am I doing?! Ah! Whatever!' He thought as he heard people started screaming.

Lui Qi closed his eyes, fully surrender to his fate... he dashed forward and the next thing he felt was a sharp pain jolted on his whole body.

"Urgh... Am I in the other world?" He slowly half-opened his eyes. Though rather than finding himself in a white room with some kind of god greeted him, he was more surprised to find the truck was now on the other side of the street... He felt something was shaking under the clutch of his arms. It was the girl, her body was trembling, her heart was beating loudly, loud enough that even Lui Qi could hear it.

Lui Qi tried to move his body, but there was only pain. 'Ah... right... Dash.' He thought as he saw letter floating around. Then it was black.

The next thing Lui Qi remembered was something like a movie trailer. He heard someone said he got hit by the truck and his body was flown to the mailbox. Then it was black. He saw the flashlight from the passerby phone. Then it was black. Then he heard an ambulance. Then it was black.

"Mister! Please wake up! Mister!" Shouted the girl. "Mister!"

Lui Qi's eyes opened slowly. "Are you..." He stopped for a while, his eyes almost closed again. "Okay?"

"Yes. Because of you..." Tears and snot flooding down her face.

"Good..." Said Lui Qi, forcing his hand to move and wipe the tears from her face. "Mister is pretty tired, so he's going to sleep for a while." He said with a smile... 'I've just raised a death flag, right?'

Then it was black.

His eyes snapped open again when he felt his body was moving and heard the loud ambulance's siren. "Ah... The sandwich!!!" He shouted.

Then it was black.