Universe Infinite Canteen

"No wonder this thing is also popular in another plane," Ma Lu said. "By the way, I also encountered a group of monsters around this cherry tree. Were they also after the fruit on the tree?"

Old Wang said, "What you're talking about must be the Companion Guards. They have a symbiotic relationship with the Drift Fruits: the fruits provide them with the energy they need to survive, and in return, they protect the Drift Fruits and keep intelligent beings from getting close to them.

"Once the strongest individual among the Companion Guards dies, the Drift Fruits immediately prepare to flee. Additionally, before they flee, they will throw a part of their body as bait."

"Ah, so that's what's going on."

"What?"

"Nothing; it's not important." Ma Lu then steered the conversation back to the cherry tree in front of them. "The fruit on this must be ripe now, right? What can they be used for?"

"The flavor of cherries is similar to a mix of almonds and floral scents. It can be paired with many ingredients, but if you want to highlight the cherry's own flavor, desserts are more suitable," Old Wang suggested.

—Little Sakura Egg Pudding.

Ma Lu flipped through the menu and quickly found a dish that interested him. He had all the necessary ingredients, except for Cardcaptor Sakura, and he was well-stocked with the other components. Moreover, this dish had a deliciousness index of six stars.

The only problem was that it caused transformations after eating.

Yes, Ma Lu checked again to confirm; eating it really did cause transformations.

It could only be said that as the ingredients became more bizarre, the effects of the dishes also became more unimaginable.

Clearly, such dishes were not suitable for inclusion in the weekly menu for sale. Fortunately, since the Universe Infinite Canteen had opened, it had hosted numerous guests from Different Dimensions. Word of mouth from these diners had already made it famous among visitors from Different Dimensions.

Ma Lu even created a group specifically for past customers, pulling them all in, and those customers would then invite their friends.

Now, there are almost three hundred people in the group, chatting quite energetically every day. Ma Lu, when idle, would also check in on the chats.

Contrary to his expectation, the content discussed in this group named "What to Eat Today?" wasn't much different from that in other ordinary WeChat groups.

Most of the time, they discussed stocks, real estate, social hot topics, and sports news.

Only occasionally did someone ask where they could get brain maintenance or complain about a neighbor's wife spotting their tail while they were hanging out laundry, reminding Ma Lu that they were not ordinary humans.

After all, it wasn't hard to understand when you give it some thought: these folks came from far and wide, different universes, and they might not know much about other people's homelands.

Moreover, many traveled to Earth to seek refuge or hide, not wanting others to guess their identities. Naturally, they would avoid talking about their pasts as much as possible.

Ma Lu waited until their chat died down a bit and posted a notification saying that the restaurant was planning to introduce the Little Sakura Egg Pudding soon. Soon after, several people messaged him expressing their interest.

By six o'clock in the evening, Ma Lu checked the restaurant's reservation info and found an increase of eleven orders.

He planned to price the Little Sakura Egg Pudding at 399 Star Currency. This way, even if all eleven orders were from individuals dining alone, he would earn at least 4389 Star Currency; spreading the word should make reaching ten thousand not too difficult later.

As for more orders, he didn't have enough cherries for now. Although he had harvested a batch earlier and placed the cherry tree into the Desktop Farm, it would obviously still take some time before it bore fruit again.

Afterward, Ma Lu went back online to play Red Ridge for a while.

The popularity of Red Ridge had reached a new peak during this time, with the highest number of online players exceeding seven thousand.

And this was directly related to Ma Lu; due to Beigong Meng's mistake last time, he was teleported to the wilderness, followed by a massive official rescue operation for Boss Ma.

After rescuing Ma Lu, the situation didn't end there; Baldy and others took him to Nightmare Town specifically to get gifts.

The group stormed into the breeding room of the Evil Weaver, forcibly taking the soul fragments inside.

They even woke up the sleeping grandmother of the Evil Weaver. Baldy managed to teleport Ma Lu back to Earth just before the grandmother arrived.

Later, the folks from the Red Ridge Project Department fled from underground, dodging the spider swarm and the grandmother of the Evil Weaver, and safely returned to Red Ridge Town.

However, their reckless plundering deeply infuriated the grandmother of the Evil Weaver.

In response, she sent troops to attack Red Ridge Town, and Baldy, without hesitation, ordered the project department to urgently launch the expansion pack — the Burning of Nightmare Town.

This initiated a war with Nightmare Town and promised to distribute the town's land to players who made outstanding contributions in the fight.

The players were now boiling with excitement, especially the veteran players who first entered Red Ridge. Although the world still had many places to explore and the details were very realistic, creating a immersive experience,

having lived nearly the same life for such a long time, logging in daily to collect Black Mud and fight Wild Monsters, they were also a bit worn out.

This time, the officially promised Lord and war mode finally launched, which acted like an adrenaline shot directly to the hearts of the players.

Everyone knows that gamers never fear war or death; their only worry was that the world wasn't chaotic enough.

Even though the details of the various rewards in the expansion pack hadn't been fully developed by the project team yet, just the chance to participate in a major battle was enough to excite the players.

Three days ago, the first battle between Red Ridge Town and Nightmare Town had already begun. The players, outnumbering the opposition by ten times, were massacred by fifty Evil Weavers, suffering a crushing defeat.

In the end, it was the original residents of the town who had to step in and drive away those Evil Weavers.

The problem was mainly the colossal disparity in strength; originally, Ma Lu saw Baldy killing those giant spiders as easily as using a lighter to burn ants.

It wasn't that the Evil Weavers were weak, but merely because Baldy, as a Lord of the Abyss and a high-ranking commander, was extremely overpowered, changing the players' feelings of pressure instantly when they faced him.

But the players also had their advantages; if they couldn't win, they could shake more people, not just online but offline players could be rallied too.

And since it was their first raid, a total wipe was quite normal; many even didn't wear gear above green bone level, just wanting to get close to see what skills these giant spiders had.

Once the players deciphered the tactics of the opponents, the strategic masterminds in their ranks began to write guides on how to deal with the Evil Weavers, and by the time the two sides clashed a second time, the pressure was transferred to Nightmare Town's side.

From an initial overpowering to mutually inflicting casualties, overall, the players still died more.

But players could respawn infinitely, whereas each spider that died was truly one less. Your journey continues with My Virtual Library Empire