Chapter 22
Chapter 22
[4. If the flavors of the deep sea do not interest you, you may ask the Barista for a basic set that is not on the menu. It consists of white bread and distilled water.
Please note that the Barista detests preparing the basic set and will aggressively promote other delicious foods.
You must look directly into his eyes and firmly refuse him three consecutive times before he will prepare it for you.]
[5. The café uses only blue tablecloths. If you see a table with a red tablecloth, do not sit there. That table is reserved for VIP customers.]
[6. We accept Rabbit Coins at checkout. If you do not have enough, you may sign the Pledge Agreement at the register and pay with your most treasured memory or three fingers.]
Enjoy your meal!
Lin Yinxi photographed the rules first.
Her phone was her most precious possession. Whenever she went somewhere new, the first thing she checked was whether she could charge it.
She couldn’t charge it here.
Well, then. Not much of a café.
Jellyfish Café had seating both indoors and out. Lin Yinxi first sat in a wicker chair outside.
Yang Shu sat opposite her.
Lin Yinxi looked at the menu on the table.
It listed coffees, desserts, and toppings.
The coffees included lattes, iced Americanos, and more. There was a wide variety of desserts, illustrated with cartoon pictures that made them look delicious.
She could not find the basic set mentioned on the sign outside.
“Judging by the rules, the basic set is the only thing we can eat, but there’s no price listed.” Lin Yinxi studied the menu, frowning slightly. “And rule four says the staff won’t be very willing to make it for us.”
Yang Shu pulled out the menu and laid it on the table. “Come on. Let’s go in and meet this Barista.”
They pushed open Jellyfish Café’s glass door.
Jellyfish wind chimes hanging from it gave a crisp, pleasant ring. Inside, Lin Yinxi smelled scorched, low-quality coffee beans.
She saw the Barista behind the counter. His appearance was… unusual even for an entity.
His upper body was that of a skeletal young man wearing a deep blue apron.
His lower body had completely fused with an enormous metal semiautomatic espresso machine!
More than a dozen transparent high-pressure hoses extended from the machine, roughly driven into the young man’s spine, carotid artery, and stomach.
Scalding, pitch-black espresso continuously pumped through the hoses into his body, taking the place of circulating blood.
His skin was dark red, as though severely scalded. His eyes bulged, and rusty wires stitched the corners of his mouth firmly upward, forcing him into the service industry’s perfect standard smile: eight teeth showing.
Those teeth did not look natural either. It was as though his original teeth had been pulled out, replaced with white shells ground into tooth shapes, and inserted into his mouth.
“Esteemed visitors, welcome. Jellyfish Café offers coffee and refreshments, allowing you a moment’s rest as you admire the marine life.”
“Oh… Praise the great Lord Fly… Such perfect coffee extraction…”
A hiss like steam escaping from a coffee machine came from the Barista’s throat. His hands had been transformed into mechanical arms that repeated the motions of brewing coffee over and over.
Hearing “Lord Fly,” Lin Yinxi remembered [Fly] in the main group.
The entity’s bizarre form resembled Fly’s twisted tastes.
If this really was Fly’s work, then the poor Barista was not an entity native to the scenario, but an unfortunate human who had been transformed.
Yang Shu tried to examine the Barista with his left eye. Instantly, stabbing pain struck it, and it began to bleed.
He saw the Barista emitting intensely concentrated black contamination, especially from his bulging eyes. Meeting them brought terrifying fragments of a laboratory flooding into his mind.
Something that must not be gazed upon existed in the Barista’s memories.
Bloody tears slowly slid down the left half of Yang Shu’s face and dripped from his sharply tapered, jade-like chin onto the floor.
“Mm…” Yang Shu gave a muffled groan of pain.
The food here was sold to visitors.
Lin Yinxi was not truly an entity. She still needed normal food.
So she first removed the blue wristband marking her as an employee, approached the counter, and said, “Hello. Two basic sets, please. My friend and I will pay separately.”
The Barista’s hands stopped brewing coffee.
He slowly raised his head, his bulging eyes fixed on Lin Yinxi.
“Esteemed guests, are you certain you wish to eat something so cheap and devoid of nutrition? It is beneath your distinguished status.”
Despite his hideous appearance, the Barista had a beautiful voice, entrancing as a siren’s song.
With his scalded-red hand, he lifted a plate of dessert beside him.
“This is our freshly made Red Velvet Deep-Sea Mousse. Just one bite will banish all your fatigue and hunger. So sweet, you’ll fall in love…
And it’s so inexpensive. Just one Rabbit Coin. Don’t you want to try it?”
The mousse looked exceptionally delicious.
Lin Yinxi recalled rule four. She had to look directly into the Barista’s eyes and firmly refuse him three consecutive times.
“No, thank you. I only want the basic set.” Overcoming her fear, Lin Yinxi stared into his eyes.
That was the first refusal.
She tried to convince herself those were not eyes. Just imagine those big bulging eyes as two large, bright red persimmons.
Maybe a bite would make them burst with juice.
All right. She really was hungry.
The Barista leaned closer, pressing his face against the glass front of the counter. Black coffee ran from the stitched corners of his mouth. “Then would you like a cup of our classic deep-sea coffee? If you don’t like the basic version, we also have our newly developed jellyfish cold-brew sparkling coffee. So nice and cold…”
Staring into the Barista’s eyes for too long made Lin Yinxi’s breathing quicken and her heart race.
“No, no. I only want the basic set.”
That was the second refusal.
Lin Yinxi forced herself not to look away.
The Barista tried to keep selling. “Guests, you’ve already come inside. How could you pass up our specialties? Our new…”
Slap! Lin Yinxi struck the marble counter with her palm.
She could not maintain eye contact much longer. Her eyes would start to sting.
She needed to save time and stop him from pitching so many things.
Lin Yinxi bit the numb tip of her tongue.
“I said I don’t want it. Don’t you understand plain language?”
Lin Yinxi had always been a person with little energy. She disliked being loud and preferred to speak politely with others.
But the entity before her made politeness impossible.
To stop the Barista’s endless chatter, she had to get irritable, playing a difficult customer in a hurry. “You have ears, don’t you? Since you do, listen properly to what your customers want. Enough of the hard sell. I’ve already said we don’t want anything else. I wouldn’t eat it even if you had dragon meat or immortal flesh. We only want the basic set!”
That was the final refusal.
The high-pressure hoses on the Barista’s body swelled violently with anger. Terrifying. He looked ready to explode with rage.
“You stupid, tasteless customers. I hope you choke to death on the white bread…” the Barista cursed venomously.
Why was he getting so worked up?