Universe Infinite Canteen

"Here's the Chef's special vitality mushroom pumpkin soup for you, please enjoy,"

33, who was revising her professional knowledge, was drawn by a rich aroma. She put down her book and looked towards the table, where she saw a bowl of golden, thick soup.

"A bowl of pumpkin soup for 588 Star Currency, if it doesn't taste good, I'm going to be really mad."

33 picked up a spoon, scooped some soup, and first smelled it under her nose. With her extensive knowledge in poisons, she confirmed there wasn't any poison in the soup.

Only then did she drink it with relief, and her eyebrows relaxed.

"The texture is creamy, the pumpkin is ground very finely, the taste of the cream is also rich, and there's a faint garlic aroma. The chef must have roasted the pumpkin before making the soup, a smart move. That way, the cellulose gets broken down into sugars at high temperatures, further enhancing the sweetness.

"Besides the outstanding sweetness, the pumpkin in the bowl also contains a very abundant vitality. While drinking the soup, it felt like the pumpkins that had been stirred and ground into juice seemed to come alive again. Could it be... Energized Plants?"

"Exactly. The Chef's special vitality mushroom pumpkin soup uses freshly picked Demon Grinder Pumpkins, which are a very powerful type of Energized Plant," Ma Lu said.

"I know, I once used the vines of the Demon Grinder Pumpkin to make a trap that helped a rich businessman kill his wife so that he and his mistress could get married smoothly the week after the funeral.

"A year later, I was hired to kill his new wife too, to allow his next mistress to take her place. Then the third year, I got a new job...

"In our line of work, most clients are one-off, but high-quality and stable customers like him, who place orders every year, are rare, so I remember that good man well."

While speaking, 33 tried another bite of the fried mushroom in the center of the plate. "Hmm, this is also an Energized Plant. Don't tell me, let me guess, is it the Chicken Mushroom?"

"No, it's the Sticky Cap Ox Liver Mushroom."

"Ah, now I remember," 33 snapped her fingers, "The slime they secrete is really useful, can be used to make sticky bombs."

33 finished the Sticky Cap Ox Liver Mushrooms with the cheese on top, and also the gifted piece of bread, dipping it in the leftover pumpkin soup.

It was then that Ma Lu served the second dish.

"Super satisfying meatballs."

This time 33 hadn't even started eating. Just by the aroma, she guessed the ingredient, and said in surprise, "This is... Earth Dragon meat? Is that not only found in the desert? And it has to be that kind with at least two suns, a very scorching desert.

"You weren't lying, it seems you really do have some channels to get ingredients from other planes."

33 cut into the meatball, and as the outer crust opened up, it was like a bomb being ignited. The fragrant aroma of the meat exploded inside the restaurant, violently rushing into 33's high and proud nose.

"It really takes me back. One time, my target was hiding deep in the desert. I couldn't use regular transportation to get to his bunker, as he'd been setting up for several years in advance, scattering over a hundred radar stations in the desert, specially designed to detect nearby mechanical devices.

"In the end, I tamed an Earth Dragon, and riding on that Earth Dragon, I reached the target's hiding spot."

"But infiltrating his heavily guarded fortress was not easy, fortunately, I knew he had a fondness for Earth Dragon Meat," Old Wang explained. "So I had my Earth Dragon stay active outside his fortress, making noises."

"He really couldn't resist," Old Wang reflected, "and sent people out to hunt the Earth Dragon. I hid beneath the sandy ground and, seizing the opportunity when one of his men was off guard, I slaughtered the guy, changed into his clothes, and followed the Hunting Team back into the fortress with their prey."

"That night, the target was very pleased and had the Chef prepare a lavish dinner with the hunted Earth Dragon. I was pleased too, and while they were all gathered together, a single grenade took care of everyone attending the dinner."

"......"

After 33 finished the meatballs, Ma Lu brought out another dish from the kitchen.

33 looked at the colorful mix in the bowl and once again couldn't make out what it was.

"Eight Treasures Fuling Tofu, this is a medicinal dish," Ma Lu introduced.

"Medicinal dish?" 33's brows quivered slightly, those two words seemed to remind her of something again.

Ma Lu and Lao Hei were prepared to listen to 33 continue recalling her experiences as an Assassin, but 33 unexpectedly stopped talking about her profession and said instead.

"From the two dishes before, I'm already convinced that there is a Cosmic Chef in your restaurant. However, as far as I know, even among Cosmic Chefs, not many are good at medicinal dishes. I remember there is a Cosmic Chef in my memory who is very good at them.

"No, it's not just medicinal dishes, he's very skilled at almost all types of cuisines. He's the only seven-star Cosmic Chef in the entire Multiverse, known as the man standing at the pinnacle of cooking."

"What's his name?" Ma Lu asked.

"ψ." 33 replied, "Speaking of which, I haven't heard about him for a while. His restaurant, Universe's Edge, seems to have been closed too. I wonder what he's been busy with recently."

"Have you ever met him, do you know what he looks like?" Ma Lu's interest piqued as he asked further.

"No one has ever seen ψ, he's a character with quite a peculiar temperament. But talented people are all like that, willful and unrestrained, too lazy to interact with the common mediocrity of the world. The few scientists I've killed were also like that.

"I was pointing a gun at their heads, and they still asked me if I could wait a bit, saying they had experiments unfinished, explaining to me how important those experiments were, how they could affect thousands of people and so on."

"In a way, I'm the same type of person, so I can quite understand them. They devoted their whole lives to their passions, unable to make room in their eyes for anything else."

33 began to drone on again, talking about the people she had killed.

No wonder she needed to see a psychologist, given how she blabbered on.

Old Wang's identity had always been a mystery. At first, when Ma Lu heard 33 speak in this manner, he suspected Old Wang might be ψ. But as he listened further, he felt it didn't quite fit. True, Old Wang did seem quite fond of cooking, but not to the extent that he would neglect everything else.

He would even watch TV dramas at home from time to time and didn't shy away from the mundane interactions of common folk. He had even recently learned how to subscribe to short dramas through his Alipay, becoming more and more like a normal person.

But what really made Ma Lu feel Old Wang wasn't ψ was the next thing 33 said.

"The food your restaurant produces is also quite good, far exceeding my expectations. It could even rank in the middle amongst the restaurants with Cosmic Chefs I've eaten at. But compared to ψ, it still has a good way to go."