Hello, I'm writing a story called Restaurant of The Devourer, you can also read this story at: - Webnovel: https://www.webnovel.com/book/restaurant-of-the-devourer_18784654705997405 - Scribblehub: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/227232/restaurant-of-the-devourer/ - RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/38847/restaurant-of-the-devourer Synopsis: A being that existed before the creation of the multiverse has become bored after a trillion years of devouring universes. He decides to open a restaurant to create food for the enjoyment of others. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Genres: Sci-Fi, Cultivation, Some action Table of Contents: - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4
Chapter 1: Night It was a dark and stormy night in the city of Elysium with rain pouring heavily. Maglev trains were silently speeding throughout the vast city stopping at stations with crowds of people getting on and off. The passengers were silent, they were too busy staring at their holographic screens being projected from their metal wristband. People were watching the news and random videos. A majority of the young adults were watching a recording of an idol group performance. A train stopped at a station, massive metal doors opened with people getting off and continuing their night. The streets were filled with people carrying umbrellas, many buildings were still open for business with holographic displays of what they sold. Some shops had robotic assistants outside that looked like scantily clad women who were trying to attract customers. There were large holographic displays on the sides of large buildings that projected the news and advertisements of the latest technology, skin care products, and energy supplements guaranteeing an advance into the next level. One district of Elysium was particularly full of people with some going into casinos to gamble away their salaries, many were entering brothels, and some shady individuals were meeting up. Drunks were walking around unsteadily and some were vomiting into metal cubes. The cubes collected and directed the vomit into large underground tanks that would later expel the trash into bodies of water. One drunk vomited in an alleyway and passed out. A robot cleaner appeared, cleaned up the mess, and dumped the drunk in a waiting area for passed out drunk people. Exiting the 500,000 square kilometer city, nature was still present with vast expanses of forest and mountain ranges the size of Elysium surrounding the city. The clouds reached a mountain range and they were still pouring down large amounts of rain. A figure could be seen standing on the tallest mountain standing straight up with his mouth open. He tasted some of the rainwater and frowned. "It tastes like water, but I'm getting some flavors that are similar to vomit and shit." The man widened his eyes and cursed, "Fuck! There probably is vomit and shit in the rainwater." The man conjured a black flame and set his body on fire to cleanse himself. His humanoid body turned into ashes and another humanoid body appeared with a cloak covering its body. Although his body doesn't actually have organs to store the rainwater, he still set his body on fire in order to convince himself to forget about the fact that he drank something that had shit, vomit, and probably piss in it. After reforming his body, the man continued his journey towards Elysium while enjoying the beauty of the forest. Except all he saw throughout the night were nocturnal animals killing and getting killed. There was one part of the journey where he saw a tiny mouse-like creature being trapped by a gigantic snake, but then the tiny animal turned into a fucking 20 meter tall demonic being with a black skull that swallowed the surprised snake. The man had finally exited the forest after an hour of sight seeing. The rain had stopped, but the ground was still soaking wet. He walked onto a walkway that led to Elysium with sleek vehicles on a nearby road passing by from time to time. Surprisingly, some other people were waiting in a line to enter the city. They had to pass through a border checkpoint where they gave their identification to the security guards and were scanned for any weapons or illegal items. An incident occurred when one of the people waiting in line was identified to be a criminal that was wanted for murder. The woman ran and several metal automatons along with human cultivators wearing blue uniforms chased after her. She flew into the sky using an energy skill and shot condensed wind blades from time to time at the city guards. The chase ended after 20 seconds with one of the robotic city guards shooting a metal net at the woman. She got tangled in the net and struggled to break free. Suddenly, the metal net started to flash and crackle with arcs of electricity coursing through the net. Unsurprisingly, the woman started screaming and made gurgling sounds with her saliva frothing up. Her skin was charring and the smell of burnt flesh started spreading in the air. The woman was convulsing for a few seconds until she finally died with urine soaking her clothes It was a pretty horrific and disgusting sight for the people still waiting in line. Some people had their jaws drop with their eyes wide open while staring at the red and black corpse. Others just smiled and laughed after seeing what happened to the woman. "That idiot thought that she could escape from the city guards designed to stop peak level stage 3 cultivators. She was at most a mid level stage 2 cultivator considering her speed and power." One man commented to his companions. They laughed, but were a bit scared of the city guards since they were only at the initial levels of stage 3. Our protagonist looked at the corpse and sighed. 'She probably tastes disgusting with all of that urine covering her and the metal net overcooked parts of her body.' He was a being that existed for over a trillion years so he had consumed a large amount of organisms while devouring their planets. Most of the solar systems were absorbed while he used his mist form and he couldn't taste anything. After using his humanoid form to devour planets, he could actually taste everything. The first time he ate a humanoid, it was covered in piss and shit due the fright it had experienced with its planet being devoured. That was not a pleasant memory since the being could taste all of those disgusting fluids. The being left the planet which made all of the inhabitants celebrate, but then he reappeared in his mist form and set the whole planet on fire which he later absorbed. Now where were we? Oh yes, back to the scene where our main character is waiting in line while looking at a charred corpse that smells like the sewer. "Next!" It was finally the main character's turn to enter the city after recalling his first unpleasant memory. "Identification please." "Um." Unfortunately, he had forgotten about creating an identity for himself because his memory is terrible. Since he is an all powerful being that devours galaxies, he doesn't really care to remember about things like identification and illegally entering a city or country. "I don't have any identification because I just entered the planet." "Did you not get registered at one of our space station border checkpoints?" "No." "It is okay sir. Please head to the designated location to register." One of the robotic clerks pointed at a building that had a sign labeled Registration. As the man headed towards the registration building, he heard a loud noise. He turned around and saw one of the mechanical city guards dragging a net that still had the corpse of the criminal in it. One of the human city guards shouted at the robot. "Damn it Carl-72 why are you dragging the body around!" "I'm going to throw it into the trash compactor." "Get one of the robot cleaners to do that. Also, stop using your net on weaklings. It always makes a disgusting mess. The last time you used it on a first stage cultivator at point blank range, the net cut him into chunks of meat and then you electrocuted the dead body. One of the city officials saw the whole thing and almost got you decommissioned." "Alright." The metal automaton seemed sad and waited for a robot cleaner to arrive. Our main character finished registering and named himself, Fu Chen. He also exchanged a few precious metals for credits which was the currency most of the galaxies used. Some people may be wondering where did Fu Chen procure the precious metals from. Well, he used an energy skill called Creation. With enough units of energy, a cultivator can create objects depending on how complex the object is and the skill level of the cultivator. Fu Chen used some of his newly obtained credits to purchase a metal wristband which was a common holographic device. After that, he finally entered the city and legally for once which was a huge accomplishment.
Chapter 2: Seafood Noodle Soup It was still night for the City of Elysium with most of the people asleep, cultivating, or rushing to finish an 8000 word essay that they procrastinated on. Fu Chen was in a government building applying for the permits and licenses required to build and open a restaurant. After he finished filling out the digital forms, Fu Chen had to pay 13,000 credits for all of the permits and licenses. The site for the restaurant was near the outskirts of the red-light district of Elysium so Fu Chen had to spend 70,000 credits. "This place is actually pretty big considering the price I had to pay." Fu Chen started walking around examining the land where he would construct his restaurant. The land was where a warehouse was once located, but it had blown up around a month ago. The news reported that the warehouse was a secret drug lab and the illegal energy pills that the owners were making had exploded and destroyed the building. Elysium's police force had reported that the energy pill explosion didn't leave anything harmful behind, but most people were still suspicious and avoided the place which was why Fu Chen managed to buy it for such a low price. Fu Chen continued to survey the land and noticed something interesting. "Some rats appeared to have left something interesting underground. hahaHAHAAAaaa!!..." His laugh sounded like a dying animal and his smile was horrific. Luckily, Fu Chen's laughing didn't last long and he started to build his restaurant. A large stone foundation appeared with four giant stone walls topped with a white stone roof that started to rise out of it. Fu Chen had decided to design a simple restaurant so he just created a white stone rectangular prism. A large dining room had black wooden dining chairs and tables spread throughout the space. Black wooden bar stools faced a bar with empty shelves. The floor was white stone tiles. Slightly bright ambient lighting filled the dining room and the waiting room. The source of this light came from energy crystals hanging from the ceiling and from the sunlight that came through the large, clear energy crystal windows. A large waiting area had long, comfortable black couches with cushions. There were four clear energy crystal fountains that contained a liquid that wasn't water. The liquid was slightly sparkling and it seemed to be filled with power. It was pure energy fluid that was flowing in the fountain. The entrance used two large black wood doors with energy crystal panes inserted in the middle of each door. A signboard was located above the entrance with the words, The Abyss Bar & Restaurant. Fu Chen headed towards the kitchen. He opened the black energy crystal door and entered the bright white room. Several large metal refrigerators were built into the right side wall. Other than the metal refrigerators, the wall was made up of energy crystal cabinets. Four metal ovens occupied the back wall and were next to the sink. A 12 burner gas stove took up the front wall which faced towards the dining area. After inspecting all the equipment for fun, Fu Chen started to prepare the first dish for his menu. He opened one of the cabinets which turned out to be a water tank filled with live seafood. A kitchen knife appeared and he quickly opened up all the crustaceans on a wood cutting board. The meat was separated from the shells and the meat was placed back into the tank where it vanished upon contact with the water. Fu Chen took out a large metal pot from another cabinet and filled it a quarter of the way up with a sparkling liquid that came from one of the sink faucets. Then, he turned on another faucet that filled the pot three quarters of the way up with water. The pot filled with water and the energy fluid was placed on one of the stove tops. Fu Chen then took out some miso paste, butter, garlic, ginger, and onions from a cabinet. He sliced the onions on a cutting board and put them in a metal bowl. A metal pan appeared from the same open cabinet where the ingredients came from. Fu Chen put it on the stove and conjured two blue flames to heat up the pot filled with water and the pan. Butter was added to the pan where it started to melt. After all the butter melted, ginger, onions, and garlic were added into the pan which started to let out a savory aroma. He then put in the miso paste and stirred for several minutes and started to cook the shells in the pan. Fu Chen poured the pan of ingredients into the pot of water and energy fluid that was starting to simmer. Several minutes later, the stock was nearly boiling where Fu Chen then decreased the heat of the flames to reduce the liquid to a gentle simmer. As the shellfish stock was gently simmering, Fu Chen opened a cabinet and took out bread flour, vital wheat gluten, sodium carbonate, and salt. He took out a glass bowl and filled it with enough water and energy fluid to create a 37%-hydration noodle dough. The sodium carbonate and salt were stirred and dissolved into the water mixture to create an alkaline solution. Fu Chen combined the vital wheat gluten and bread flour together in a metal bowl and slowly added the alkaline solution into the flour and stirred with chopsticks to incorporate the solution. The process was slow since he only added small amounts of the solution in at a time to hydrate as much of the flour as possible. Small clumps of dough started to form after Fu Chen finished adding the alkaline solution. He started to use his hands to rub clumps of dough together to hydrate all the flour. Fu Chen continued to rub the dough together until all the flour was equally hydrated. The loose dough was wrapped and rolled into a flat sheet with a rolling pin. Fu Chen placed the dough into a refrigerator for it to rest and turned his attention to the shellfish stock. Fifteen minutes had passed since Fu Chen let the stock simmer. The stock's volume had reduced a bit and let out a fragrant seafood aroma. Fu Chen smelled the mouth-watering aroma and smiled normally. He decided to continue simmering the stock for another hour which would be around the same time he finished making his noodles. Forty minutes later, Fu Chen lightly dusted a long cutting board with some flour and took out the noodle dough that was resting in the fridge. He cut the dough into two sheets and used a rolling-pin to roll the dough and folded each sheet in half. They were then rolled to a two millimeter thickness and lightly dusted with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Fu Chen folded the sheets to a size where he could cut the dough into noodles. After cutting the noodles, they were placed in a fridge. The shellfish stock simmered for another twenty minutes and then Fu Chen stopped the fire. He strained the stock into another metal pot and crushed the shells to extract all the rich liquid. The stock would cool down to room temperature and then placed into a fridge. All of the dirty kitchen utensils were placed into a cabinet and vanished. The preparations for the first dish that would be served the first day of the restaurant's opening were done. Fu Chen exited the kitchen and headed towards a hallway that led to his personal room. There was only a bed in the room. He jumped and flopped onto the bed and covered himself with several blankets. After getting comfortable, he closed his eyes and started to sleep. "Ugh, fuck I drank too much last night." A bearded man wearing an unbuttoned short-sleeved bright yellow and dark blue dress shirt slowly staggered out of a resting room for drunk people. After going ten steps out of the room, he ran back in and started to vomit in a metal trash can. Tears started going down his face as he vomited again. "Okay I think I'm finally done." He lurched along the street after cleaning himself with many people looking and pointing at his bright and messy clothes. The man had arrived near the outskirts of the red-light district after twenty minutes of something that can barely be called walking. He noticed a gigantic white building that appeared to be open for business. "The Abyss Bar & Restaurant. Who the fuck came up with a name like that? I might as well try to get some food for my hangover." The interior of the restaurant was bright and the fountains were pleasing to look at. He sat on one of black couches and felt like he could sink in and sighed with happiness. "Good morning sir, welcome to the Abyss Bar & Restaurant." A man wearing a white mask through the dining room doors and entered the waiting room to greet the bearded man with a brightly colored shirt and blue shorts on. The bearded man looked at the two meter tall restaurant host who wore a black suit and black dress pants. He was surprised that he didn't notice the host until he was greeted. "Can I get a table for one please." He was led into the dining room and to one of the tables near the kitchen. A waiter wearing a white dress shirt, black vest, and the same type of mask that the host wore appeared. He clicked a green button on a holographic device on the table. "Here is our menu." A display of the menu appeared with only one item on it. Seafood Noodle Soup: 100 credits. "I guess I'll get one bowl of seafood noodle soup." The man was surprised about the 100 credit price for a bowl of seafood noodle soup, but decided to try it anyway since he already arrived. A medium-sized bowl filled with thick noodles and rich, fragrant broth was placed on the table. The aroma made the man start to salivate. He took a pair of black lacquered chopsticks and a spoon made of an energy crystal. "Slurp." Slurping noises filled the mostly empty dining room. The bearded man put down the bowl and some soup dripped down his beard. He frowned a bit because he definitely couldn't slurp that broth. "Slurp." The man had actually used his hands to lift his slightly long beard filled with a bit of broth towards his mouth and drank the stock. "It appears that you enjoyed our food." The waiter had appeared again and was amused. The bearded man felt a bit awkward getting caught in this position. He dropped his beard and tried to look a bit more proper. "Ah yes, can I get another bowl please?" "Right away sir." Ten minutes later, the same scene happened again despite the man trying to use the spoon to drink all the broth. He had gotten impatient and decided to tilt the bowl of leftover soup into his mouth and had some of it in his beard. 'Spending 200 credits on two bowls of the noodles was worth it. It turns out that the food has a large amount of energy that is easy to absorb. This is way better than the energy supplements and foods that I have tried.' There were several types of energy sources available on the market. Energy crystals were the most commonly used since they were cheap. They were either mined or synthetically created by special machines or by cultivators that had reached stage two or higher by injecting energy into used energy crystals. There were special nutrition bars injected with energy that also existed for cultivators that still wanted to eat something tangible with flavor. However, energy bars that contained the same amount of energy as an energy crystal were more expensive and had to be sealed with special materials to prevent the injected energy to leak out. The most expensive energy source on the market was energy fluid which could come in different flavors. Energy was condensed into liquid form and sealed in expensive containers to prevent energy leakage. Chefs had tried to inject energy into their dishes, but it usually leaked out quickly or the ingredients couldn't handle the amount of energy being injected and would explode. The only viable option for making dishes with energy was by using spirit beast meat. Spirit beasts were animals that cultivated and were hard to kill which made spirit beast dishes very expensive, but they were delicious. A plate of spirit beast meat could easily be sold for around 150 credits so the noodles were actually pretty cheap. "I would like to pay now." This time, the waiter and host didn't appear. A man wearing white chef clothes walked towards the table. He had a fair complexion and an average face that people wouldn't remember in a crowd, but he was 212 cm tall and that was fairly tall compared to the average height of an Elysium male which was 180 cm. "Dear guest, please push the red button on the holographic device to pay." The bearded man pressed the red button and transferred 200 credits. "Will you be dining with us again sir?" "Definitely." "Please tell me your name so we can remember you." "Su Zheng." "Well Su Zheng, thank you for dining at the Abyss Restaurant today." The host and waiter had appeared out of nowhere and bowed with the chef towards Su Zheng. Su Zheng was slightly surprised, but thanked them and left.
Chapter 3: Su Zhenya Su Zheng entered a private drunk resting room and sat on a couch. He used his metal wristband to call someone. "Zhou Ru, can you pick me up? I'm in the closest resting room." Ten minutes later, a part of a waiting room opened up to reveal steps that led to an underground tunnel. It turned out that there was a tunnel underneath the private resting room. In fact, every resting room that Su Zheng owned in the red-light district was connected to the underground tunnel. Su Zheng would usually drink way too much, vomit, pass out, and then have a terrible hangover the next day. So, his secretary decided to have private resting rooms built in the red-light district and had a private underground railroad constructed to transport Su Zheng back to the company building and his house. Su Zheng boarded the train which had another person on board operating it. The other person was fairly short, she was only 160 cm tall with black high heels and had a black pantsuit on. Rectangular glasses rested on her small face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her lips were curled. Su Zheng pretended to not notice that his secretary was pissed. "Zhou Ru! How are you? Thanks for picking me up by the way." He tried to smile and laugh, but stopped after she glared at him. "Do you know how much paperwork you left me with last night when you escaped the office to drink?" "Oh come on, it probably wasn't that much." That was the wrong thing to say. "WASN'T THAT MUCH! I HAD TO SPEND SIX EXTRA HOURS ON FUCKING PAPERWORK!" Zhou Ru kicked Su Zheng in the balls and he collapsed on the floor of the train groaning in pain. "You also forgot about the appointment you had to sign the crystal suit contract with your sister so she's pretty angry. She's still waiting in the company building." Su Zheng's face turned pale. 'Oh no, I'm screwed.' The train finally arrived at an entrance. The walls opened up and the two people walked up the stairs to a skyscraper with the name Mysticrystal Corporation. Su Zheng was actually the sole owner of an energy crystal company with Zhou Ru as his secretary. His company mined and created energy crystals. They then used them to produce technology for the military and cultivators for the whole Azula Galactic Empire. Elysium was the capital city of the main planet and the entire Azula Galactic Empire which meant that many powerful and important people lived in the city. Su Zheng and Zhou Ru stepped into an elevator and it started to rise up to the top floor. The whole time of the elevator ride, Su Zheng was swaying around and twirling his beard while muttering. "It will be fine. It's going to be alright. I'm not afraid. Why should I be afraid? I'm the owner of a multi trillion credit company that regularly deals with the military. I'm a peak stage six cultivator. Everything's going to be fine..... I'm super fucked." "Ding!" The elevator doors opened and revealed a large office with windows that allowed a person to view the whole city of Elysium. There were several expensive couches and a table made of wood from a rare ten million year old energy tree. The furniture in the office could easily reach a price of thirty million credits. A woman that appeared to be in her mid-twenties was sitting on one of the couches, drinking some tea from a crystal cup. She was staring intently at an empty desk that faced the couches and table. She was specifically staring at the desk plaque with the name Su Zheng printed in gold. "Clink" The woman placed the cup on a plate on the wood table. "Gulp" Su Zheng swallowed and trembled. "Hi sister, what brings you here?" He nervously smiled, but then realized what he just said. 'Oh no.' The woman slowly turned her head towards Su Zheng. "Well dear brother, it appears that you are becoming more and more forgetful." "I.. I'm sorry about last night. I promise that I'll stop forgetting stuff." Su Zhenya stood up. She was fairly tall since she was 185 cm without high heels on. She wore a black dress that accentuated her nice figure and contrasted with her fair complexion. Her face displayed a smile that didn't reach her eyes as she walked towards Su Zheng. "Don't worry brother. I'm your sister. I'll help you with your memory problems." "Ah no. Please don't. I can have Zhou Ru help me. She is my assistant after all." "Ding" Su Zheng turned around and saw Zhou Ru in the elevator waving at him as the doors closed. He faced forward again and saw his sister nearly reaching him. He started to cry and accepted his punishment. His screams couldn't escape the soundproof office. "I've learned my lesson sister." Su Zheng was sitting on a couch and had bruises everywhere. Su Zhenya was a mid-level stage 7 cultivator with a lot of combat experience who could easily beat up her little brother that liked to drink alcohol and disliked fighting. "Let's sign the Model-6 crystal suit production contract now." Not only was Su Zhenya a talented fighter, she was also a skilled energy crystal tool designer that mainly designed new weapons and crystal suits. Weapons used by cultivators were powered by energy crystals or consumed the user's energy to release energy skills. Crystal suits were exoskeleton armors that were powered by energy crystals and energy liquid. Su Zheng's company provided the materials and produced the weapons and crystal suits that were designed by them or were designed by Su Zhenya since she wasn't an employee of the Mysticrystal Corporation. She also designed weapons and crystal suits for the Azula Galactic Empire so she was very rich. "Now that that's done sister, I found a recently opened restaurant that serves a delicious noodle soup that uses high level spirit shellfish." "Oh, let's go there for dinner. If it's good enough, I'll forgive you." 'Yes!' Su Zheng was happy because his sister was a big seafood fan and he also wanted to go back to the restaurant. "Where is the restaurant located, brother?" "In the outskirts of the red-light district. I found it when I was searching for a food place to cure my hangover from drinking too much alcohol last night." 'Oh fuck.' "So. You went out to drink and forgot about our contract!" Su Zheng started screaming again in the office.
Chapter 4: Spicy Beef Curry Fu Chen was humming while searing spirit cattle bones in a large pot. There were still some bits of meat on the bones that were browning. A buttery, meaty aroma spread through the kitchen. He tossed in some carrots, onions, and garlic in. After several minutes, the vegetable started to brown and Fu Chen turned the heat off. The bones and vegetables were removed revealing a pan full of brown bits called fond and juices that came from the bones and vegetables. He turned the heat back on and added tomato paste. While stirring, some water was added and the mixture was brought to a simmer. The bones and vegetables were added back into the pot along with water and energy liquid. Bay leaves and black peppercorns were also tossed in. Fu Chen controlled the heat and slowly brought the pot to a boil. He skimmed any foamy scum that appeared at the top of the pot. The heat was reduced and Fu Chen let the beef stock gently simmer for several hours while stirring from time to time. Fu Chen removed the pot from the heat and let it cool down to room temperature. Then, he strained the contents of the pot and was left with a stock in several large glass jars that gave off a pleasant, meaty aroma. A pleasant smile could be seen on his face. A cabinet door was opened and a large amount of spices appeared. Cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon sticks, star anise, cumin seeds, and nutmeg. They were placed in a spice grinder and ground into a curry powder. Fu Chen opened another cabinet and took out garlic and onions. He opened a fridge which had ginger roots and many small chilies that were a ghastly shade of dark red. Fu Chen diced the onions, crushed the garlic, and grated the ginger. They were added into a pan and dry roasted over medium heat for several minutes until their color darkened. He took the aromatics out of the pan and put them into a blender with the horrific looking chilies. Fu Chen added enough water to form a red paste and stopped the blender. He took out a bowl and mixed the curry paste and powder together. Setting that aside, a refrigerator was opened with large pieces of chuck roast on several fixed shelves. A lot of connective tissue could be seen in the meat. Chuck roast is a cut of beef from the shoulder area of the spirit cattle which gets a lot of exercise and that leads to increased amounts of connective tissue. The large amounts of connective tissue make the beef tougher. This was ideal for slow cooked dishes like the spicy beef curry that Fu Chen was making. He cut the chuck roast into chunks ideal for eating with a spoon. Fu Chen placed a heavy-bottom metal pot on the stove and heated it over medium-high heat. As the pot slowly absorbed and distributed the heat evenly, Fu Chen took out some butter and onions. The butter was cut into cubes and the onions were diced. He put the cubed butter into the pot where it started to melt. While the butter melted, Fu Chen seasoned the chuck roast chunks with ground salt and pepper. "Hiss..." The chunks of beef were being seared in the pot of butter. They started to brown and released a savory and buttery beef aroma. The browned beef was transferred to a plate with more butter and several diced onions added. After the onions caramelized, Fu Chen scraped up the fond and added some tomato paste in along with all of his curry paste. He took out several jars of his beef stock and poured it into the pot. The chunks of browned chuck roast were also added back in. Fu Chen covered the pot and let it slowly simmer for four hours. Twenty-five minutes before the curry was finished, Fu Chen put in cubes of peeled potatoes in and put the lid back on. Four hours later, the lid was taken off the pot to reveal a thick reddish brown liquid with chunks of potato and braised beef. The large amounts of collagen in the chuck roast which is a type of connective tissue had broken down into gelatin. The connective tissues breaking down allowed the chuck roast fibers to separate and give the "fall-apart" texture. Fu Chen ladled some of the curry into a small bowl that had freshly cooked rice in it. Tears started going down his face, but he continued to eat the curry and rice. The horrific dark red chilies that went in the curry paste had made the curry very spicy, but the spiciness didn't overpower the rich beefy flavor of the dish. The cubes of potato and rice gave a nice contrasting texture to curry and tender beef. He licked the bowl clean, used a finger to clean his cheeks that had some curry on them, and licked it. "Slurp" 'I taste great.' (( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) All of the unused parts of ingredients disappeared along with the dirty dishes. The spicy beef curry and rice were kept in pots that were slightly heated to keep the food warm and ready to be served for dinner. Fu Chen unlocked the entrance of the restaurant and went back into his kitchen. He closed his eyes and started to hum a tune. The masked host and waiter materialized out of the walls and took their respective places. They stood still and didn't show any movements just like mannequins. Fifteen minutes passed. The masked host trembled and started to move. The entrance doors opened. A clean-shaven man and two women of vastly different heights could be seen in front of the entrance "Welcome dear guests, to the Abyss Bar & Restaurant. I will be your host today. Let me show you to your table." He bowed and gestured toward the dining room. Then, he started walking towards a table near the kitchen entrance. The masked waiter quivered and started moving.
Please put chapters here in spoilers to avoid putting off future visitors of the thread due to crawling through posts. It should help you land some more feedback here on NU.