"I'm sorry, I can only fire you." The famous chef Randy Newman looked at his sous chef with a hint of regret.
"Chef, you know very well that it was the fault of the intern. I have been your sous chef for two years. Pushing the blame on me, aren't you destroying my career?" Carl asked with a hint of hurt in his voice.
Randy was a globally recognized chef superstar, and when Carl had finally managed to become his sous chef after so many years of hard work, he had wholeheartedly accepted Randy as his master. Yet now, to save his own skin Randy had thrown him under the bus.
"Emily was the one in charge of the dishes to the Michelin judges, yet you are putting the blame on me so maliciously?" Carl asked again.
"Emily is the daughter of Master Chef Coulomb. You tell me, which one am I worse off dealing with? My restaurants three star michelin rating has already been ruined and I have to work hard to regain my reputation." Randy sighed.
"You are a talented chef Carl, unfortunately talent isn't everything." Randy sighed.
Carl shook his head in disappointment. He picked up his dear cooking set and left the restaurant. At this moment, his reputation was in tatters and no credible restaurant was willing to hire him. Even his own social media page was being trolled by foodies for ruining Randy's reputation.
In the gourmet industry, reputation is everything. Unfortunately, for no fault of his, Carl had been pushed into the pit of hell.
With no options left, Carl decided to return to his hometown, planet Noah. Noah was a small and relatively backward planet in the Human Galactic Federation. It was the equivalent of a backward village.
Only Carl knew how many trials and tribulations he had gone through to engage his passion in cooking, eventually managing to become a sous chef on the human home world - Earth.
He had been so dedicated, that he didn't even get the chance to visit his parents funerals when they were declared missing during an expedition to an undiscovered planet.
Carl was from the Lune family, which had a renowned military history. However, Carl had no talents as a warrior for the human race, but instead pursued his passions for cooking. With his parents passing, he was left as the sole inheritor of their isolated property, a large swathe of untouched virgin forests at the center of which was a large mansion.
The years had been unkind to the mansion. Even his parents rarely used the mansion and used to be posted on border outposts of Military Base planets. Carl roamed around the forest, remembering his early childhood.
He was 24 now, and he had stayed away from this planet for way longer than he ever stayed in it as anything other than a holiday home. Still, he had a subtle nostalgia for the peace and tranquility that the place offered.
[Activated Multiverse Cuisine System]
[Binding to host]
[Contract established]
Suddenly, Carl heard a terrifying noise inside his head and he could see the dialogue boxes. "Was some chip secretly implanted within me? I don't think so. What sort of neural technology is this?" He wondered.
[System Level - 1]
[Current options - 1 daily lottery]
[You can try your luck to obtain anything from the myriad universes!]
Carl sighed. He wondered what kind of things this lottery had. He willed the lottery, since he had an option to use the lottery daily.
[Activating lottery.... you obtained an Energy Chicken.]
Suddenly a huge chicken the size of a man popped out of a wormhole right in front of Carl. The chicken looked around, dumbfounded at the sudden change in it's environment.
It saw Carl and attributed this sudden change to Carl, but no matter what, all it could think was that this human was too weak. This was a chicken which had some wisdom and it immediately imagined that Carl was hiding its true ability to trick itself and thus became extremely fearful.
Carl was momentarily stunned by the size of the chicken, but not too surprised. Humans had explored the galaxy and found countless alien species. Finding an extra large chicken wasn't something special. The only unusual thing was the tail feathers of this chicken were like a rainbow.
Carl saw that the chicken was actually demurely following him, so he led it to the kitchen of the mansion,where he took out his chef's knife. When the chicken saw the knife it trembled, but in front of this God that could wield the power of space itself, it did not dare protest. This was absolute suppression by fear!
Carl saw the chicken looking at him with fear and hesitated, but eventually he slayed it using the knife. Surprisingly the chicken didn't resist and was easily killed.
The chicken was as big as he himself was. Lifting it up was extremely difficult, but he eventually persevered. He began cleaning up the bird's carcass, creating appropriate sized cuts after cleaning out the feathers and the organs.
He found that the rainbow feathers were extremely sharp and hard. They almost felt like weapons stronger than his chef's knife, so he collected them and kept them aside. Apart from that, he made sorted the meat out carefully before storing it properly in the cooling system.
He only took out a very small portion, deciding to make a simple meal for himself. He cooked it in a temperate gravy, letting it marinate and simmer, deciding to eat it with baguette and some boiled carrots and haricot vertes.
Sitting down in his dilapidated house, Carl sighed and began taking a bite of the chicken. However, immediately, his eyes bulged out. The meat was actually like a gelatinous jelly that melted in his mouth, exploding into subtle flavors and triggered a dopamine rush.
"Goodness. This meat is really a top quality meat. It can compete with some of the most priced chicken meats in the market, its taste almost feels insidiously addictive. The taste is very subtle and the flavor has even infused into the gravy, giving it a very different taste that I have never encountered before." Carl sighed.
"If I can get such items daily in a lottery... may be I can regain my reputation. But with limited quantities, what I will have to rely on is exclusivity." Carl quickly analyzed.
"I can plant my own vegetables here and try to cultivate mushrooms, serve exclusive farm fresh food along with the produce from the lottery. This is my chance!" Carl smiled with excitement.
Carl set to work, ordering for all kinds of seeds and plantations of various vegetables. He organized for the clearing of a bit of the land near the mansion to set up the herb garden. With today's technology, all this was done in no time through a third party online. Carl did not hesitate to use up his savings for this matter.
Instead, he further contracted house repair services to remodel the interiors. All the weeds and grasses growing inside were removed and the interior was made of polished red wood, giving an ancient yet sleek look. Carl organized for walls to be replaced by large windows that let light in as well as the sights of the forest.
Within a day, the plot of land had rapid changes and Carl spent a significant amount of his savings on the project.
This was the first step. Now he would slowly build an inventory and then launch his new cooking project.
At dinner, he once again took out a portion of the chicken and grilled it. He wanted to experiment different styles to see which was more appropriate and found that grill changed the taste of the meat drastically. The flavors that came out of the meat were much more different than when marinated into a gravy, yet equally tasty.
Carl thanked his stars that he had already installed a master kitchen in this house along with a cold storage, so he could experiment all kinds of meals.
As he went to sleep, Carl had a new hope take birth in his heart.