When Jacob had invited the men in, the system had gone off on him over and over again to 'serve the customers', and it had begun to really grind his metaphorical gears.
So once he offered them a meal, he was really glad they had accepted
Now the system would finally shut up.
"You can be really annoying, you know that?" Jacob equipped his apron as he admonished the system, tying it around the back of his waist and walking his way into the kitchen for the first time since he'd got here. He neglected to check out the kitchen yesterday, but he felt that was probably for the best, as the actual state of it was... well, beautiful.
The usual smell of grease that adorned the air he'd been used to had disappeared, replaced by the sweet smell of pine trees that wasn't particularly stronger or weaker at any specific point in the kitchen. Jacob hadn't noticed this smell outside the kitchen, which made him think a bit.
Had the system isolated the scent to permeate only in the kitchen?
It was an interesting line of thought, but either way, Jacob appreciated it - he always hated smelling like grease when he finished a shift, and it wasn't exactly an attractive scent to be social with.
Clean, tiled floors lay in neat rows, the squares themselves being made out of a brown version of the marble adorning the floors in the eating area. Soon enough though, his attention was dragged towards the renewed and rebuilt cookery machines; Jacob couldn't see a single dirty spot, and the machines glistened with mechanical charm that he couldn't help but find aesthetically pleasing.
One thing Jacob had noticed however, was that the Drive Through seemed to be non-existent. Other than the normal windows around the building, Jacob couldn't find any Drive Through locations.
Perhaps that would be something he could unlock later? He was only on the first restaurant upgrade, after all.
"Bah, forget about that. We have customers to serve!" Jacob took his attention away from the restaurant and turned his gaze to the machines, flicking them on as he looked around to find his food stock.
...
"...system."
[The system acknowledges the host, what is it?]
"WHERE THE HELL IS THE FOOD STOCK?!"
Rushing his way into the usual freezer where the meat was kept, and all the other locations they stored the various foodstuffs, Jacob couldn't find even a tiny morsel of food. Everything was bone dry.
[Oh.]
"Yeah 'Oh.' is right you idiot! How do we feed customers with NO FOOD?!" Jacob was getting a bit sick and tired of his system, did they purposefully give him the brainless one? Did working as a McDonald's employee really make him deserving of such torture?
He felt like maybe this was some kind of punishment devised for him being a slave to a big corporation.
After going quiet for a bit, the system suddenly perked up and made a small ding.
[C-Congratulations to the host for uh, achieving an enlightenment!]
"Enlightenment my ass!"
[Shut it! Anyway, the system grants its host food stock for two months! This includes drinks, desserts, and all manner of meals.]
Looking back inside the freezer and some of the cabinets, Jacob found all kinds of food and staples for making the traditional McDonald's meals, putting his worried heart at ease. Looking at them a bit closer though, he couldn't help but think they looked a bit... different?
"Hey system, some of these burger buns don't look like they usually do." Jacob looked at the black window in front of him, eyes squinted in judgement. "You didn't pick up a rotten batch, did you?"
[How rude! The system doesn't have access to ingredients from the host's original world. Therefore, your beloved system has created perfect substitutes using ingredients from this world instead!]
[The buns you are currently holding were created from Deity Wheat, a rare and almost impossible ingredient to discover naturally. The system then cross-bred the Deity Wheat within a spacial farming world with an enhanced time ratio, producing crops that are a hundred times more bountiful and flavourful than the original.]
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Much to Jacob's shock, the system had actually done its job well this time. Putting the buns back where they belong, he then went to the freezer and picked up a box of chicken patties.
"How about these?" Jacob asked, actually rather interested in how the system had substituted the usual meals he cooked.
[Those patties were created from the meat of a Divine Phoenix. Though now rare and endangered, the system had built a pen in the spacial farming world and bred enough of them to last a lifetime - not forgetting to prioritize the Phoenix's that had more delicious meat and produced larger volumes of it, of course.]
The system spoke rather haughtily, as if it were a child who wanted to be praised, but Jacob was still stuck on the first sentence it mentioned.
You're telling me that McDonald's - Overlord of being cheap - will now be selling Phoenix meat to their customers...?
Deciding he didn't want to know any more, Jacob brushed the conversation topic aside and picked up a box of chicken nuggets, along with three medium fries for his hungry customers, and began cooking.
It didn't take long for him to finish up, so once Jacob had finished he quickly put the meals inside their boxes, placed them all on a tray, and walked back out to his customers.
"Sorry for the wait, here's your order!" He approached the table and set the tray down on top of it, the cardboard boxes glistening under the light as they remained coloured in the staple colour pallet used by McDonald's for years.
Though, he should probably get more used to calling it McDaonald's now, hm.
***
"Oh please, it was no trouble at all!" Chen Yu was incredibly surprised at how quickly the meal had come out, usually whenever he visited an inn or food place, it always took 20-30 minutes minimum for the food to arrive. However, with this 'McDaonald's', his food had arrived within nearly five minutes - how crazy was that?
If nothing else though, Chen Yu was suddenly a bit dubious as to the quality of the food now.
How good could something made in five minutes realistically be?
Upon looking at his 'meal' on the tray though, he got confused.
"Excuse me, how exactly am I supposed to eat this?" Chen Yu hadn't seen such weird packaging in his life. It was mostly red and yellow, with a strange looking letter on the top that could seemingly be used to hold it.
"Oh right." The owner made a small apology and brought his fingers to the top of the packaging, opening the box up. "There you go."
Chen Yu gave a small motion of thanks, but felt his breath catch in his lungs as he smelt the food inside the box.
Good Lord! I've never smelt something so hunger-inducing in my whole life!
Drool slowly built up in his mouth as he salivated, he'd never felt such intense desire to eat something before - he'd been at banquets with the royal family on official events, but how come the food here smells so much better?
Without waiting, he placed a hand inside the box and brought out a chicken nugget. Usually he'd question the staff as to what he was eating, but right now he was so hungry he didn't care.
Placing it on his tongue, he pushed it into his mouth and ate the chicken nugget whole, before suddenly pausing in place.
...
His guards looked to him and then to each other, worried about the Castellan's sudden pause and lack of reaction. Yet, just as they were about to arrest the owner for attempted assassination, Chen Yu began to sob - tears falling from his eyes and greatly stumping the guards.
"This! This food!" A big smile spread across his cheeks as he happily cried for the first time since he was a little boy, playing around with his mother as a six-year-old.
His words seemed to have been caught in his throat, incapable of properly describing or explaining how he felt. Standing up suddenly and looking towards the owner, he made a small bow and thanked him profusely as tears continued to drip from his eyes.
"This is what a Happy Meal should be! This is what food should be like! Thank you, venerable Senior, for gracing my taste buds with your exquisite cuisine!"
The guards were... so very confused.