Late at night, inside Midnight Diner.
Yuzuki was washing dishes. Fortunately, there were only two plates, one of which was his own dinner that he had just made.
While washing those annoying dishes, he couldn't help but sigh.
"I need to find employees soon. Who should I look for?"
He really didn't want to clean and wash dishes again.
He was so lazy; how could he be healthy enough to wash dishes and clean?
Oh, right, could he hire employees?
Yuzuki paused for a moment, arranged the washed plates, wiped his hands, and entered the system to check.
He found the description of the employee function.
Midnight Diner could recruit external employees.
Employees were divided into [External Employees], [Internal Employees], and [Core Employees].
All employees had to start as external employees and gradually be promoted based on their working hours and contributions to the restaurant; direct promotions were not allowed.
External employees did not receive any system benefits, not even contracts.
However, Yuzuki could see the location and health bar of the employees.
Employees could also make some drinks and handle simple ingredients, which would also enhance the deliciousness of Yuzuki's food.
Internal employees could sign contracts, with benefits including protection from Midnight Diner and comprehensive blessing increases based on Yuzuki's strength ratio.
Similarly, after signing a contract, Yuzuki could truly learn the abilities of the employees. This only applied to internal employees; external employees could not do this yet.
At this point, employees could make some small dishes, and they would also have the ability to provide special effects for Yuzuki's food.
Finally, core employees, in addition to the benefits above, the most important thing was that Yuzuki could copy one of their abilities onto himself.
And that could free Yuzuki's hands; the employees could also cook on their own, and it would have the same effect as Yuzuki's cooking.
In this way, Yuzuki could truly become a capitalist.
"It sounds like a god or a subordinate, but it feels more like capitalism. What's going on? I can even get the employees' abilities for free?"
Yuzuki stared at it, his neck feeling itchy, as if he were going to be hanged on a lamp post.
However, for employees, gaining these benefits just by working, what else could they expect? Even the promotion system was very complete; this was a mutually beneficial situation.
After confirming that he could recruit employees, Yuzuki also breathed a sigh of relief.
If he couldn't recruit employees, it would be scarier than being targeted by Kamishiro Rize!
So terrifying!
Boom~!
Suddenly, Yuzuki's sharp hearing caught the sound of a loud explosion.
And it wasn't far away, just a few streets away.
What had happened?
As he pushed the door open, the night was very dark.
Yuzuki jumped onto the roof and looked toward the source of the sound.
He saw a box two streets away.
A... vending machine was fighting a Ghoul.
The vending machine looked like a demon; it had two human legs and was butting heads with a Ghoul.
Yuzuki didn't recognize the Ghoul; he had no impression of it.
The demon vending machine cursed, "Every loser kicks me, so do you! I will eat you!"
The Ghoul, with a pair of blood-red eyes, stared at the demon, unsure how to bite, but the demon could fight.
"Demons might as well die, you trash that only steals our food!"
The two sides fought each other, and Yuzuki found it quite entertaining to watch.
Where could you see this in an anime?
You wouldn't even see it in fan creations!
Two... two creatures were fighting, and body parts were scattered everywhere.
And they had fought from two streets to his street; if they passed through the wall, they could even fight into his store.
In the surrounding buildings, some turned on their lights, looked around, then quickly turned them off and backed away.
Some opened their phones to record videos, while others watched quietly.
At the same time, several Ghouls surged from a distance.
Although the demon's strength was average, and the Ghoul's strength was also average, their fight had destroyed many facilities around, making the area chaotic.
If this happened to his store...
"Tsk." Yuzuki scratched his hair, "What if I practice my new ability?"
He had to get used to his new ability sooner or later, and now he had two perfect test subjects.
It would be easy to eliminate these two quietly.
Makahadoma could do it, and it would leave no trace.
Thinking of this, Yuzuki conjured an ice sword in his hand, then whispered in his heart.
"Makahadoma."
In a moment.
The space around him darkened, and everything around became silent.
The two figures not far from him froze in mid-air.
The next moment.
Yuzuki disappeared from his spot, appeared beside the two figures, swung the ice sword twice, then returned, and the ice sword vanished.
Makahadoma disappeared.
Everything returned to normal.
The two figures that were fighting, still charging at each other, collided and then fell together, lying still and not moving.
The Ghouls that came saw their comrade's corpse and immediately left.
The people in the surrounding buildings were shocked for a moment, then fell silent as well.
Inside the restaurant.
Yuzuki closed the door and took a few deep breaths.
"Stamina consumption is a bit excessive."
"But it felt really enjoyable."
In such a short time, his stamina had decreased drastically.
This was one of the reasons why Esdeath could only use it once a day, and that was after countless training sessions for her.
Closing the door, finishing up.
[ Check-in successful, obtained: Myriad Worlds Food Lottery x1 ]
"Draw it."
[ Congratulations on obtaining: Senzu Bean x1 ]
"Just one?"
Yuzuki took out the Senzu Bean and looked at it, considering it a health potion, then threw it back into the system space as food storage.
....
At the same time.
Inside the Public Security Devil Extermination Special Operations Building.
In a room on the top floor, a red-haired woman in a suit suddenly stopped.
She had golden eyes with concentric circles in her pupils.
Suddenly, she felt something.
But then she felt nothing, yet her sixth sense or intuition told her that something had happened.
Sure enough: Ding-ding~
The next moment, the phone on her desk rang.
The woman answered the call, and a notification came from the other end: "Makima-sama, a demon and a Ghoul are fighting in an alley in District 20, and both have died."
Makima replied calmly, "Mm, I understand."
She then hung up the phone.
After hanging up, Makima stared at the phone, lost in thought, or rather, memory.
She searched for the feeling she had just experienced, then looked at the phone again.
Finally, she used the phone to contact someone else.
"Tell Hayakawa Aki to bring Power tomorrow."
The other party replied, "Haiii!"
Only after everything was ready did Makima stand, gaze at the moonlight outside, and put on her coat, preparing to go home.
In terms of work ethic, she was practically a workaholic.
She firmly suppressed all demons, and if there were Ghouls, she could easily deal with them, doing the CCG's work for them.
Everything about her was good, except for a few slightly bad things.
The next day, during the day.
When Yuzuki woke up and checked his phone, he saw news reports about the demon and Ghoul fight from last night.
The authorities referred to it as a mutual consumption situation, an internal conflict, and mutual destruction.
Yuzuki checked the time.
It was noon, Monday.
He washed his face, bought some ingredients at the market, and then opened the store.