Valvesteen remains silent...
He gives her a deep look, and thinks to himself. 'I felt the same, I felt the same when I took that bite, I automatically thought about that place, I felt something I had never felt before... Like I belonged to somewhere else.
Could it be...'
"Alright Nina, I understand. I really do, but I think if you keep on eating it will turn out really bad for you. Have you checked if there are any repercussions to that?" He asks.
Nina. "...No, I didn't."
Valvesteen lets out a sigh. "...Check now, ask the watch."
When she did, the watch displayed the following answer.
· In case of overconsumption, the player risks losing his sense of taste for an extended period of time.
· Self-consumed food regenerates only once a week
· Shortage of food will cause clients' dissatisfaction, which will impact the player negatively.
...
"You see! I told you It will be bad. Imagine If I didn't come here and you binged everything until there was nothing left. Not only you'd fail your mission, but you'd have lost the ability to taste food, which is essential in your task."
Nina can say nothing but listen and realize her mistake, but it's more about who's saying it than anything else, she would not accept being scolded or told what to do by any other person.
"...Anyways, can you spot something interesting in this message?" He asks her.
Nina takes another look and reads it again. "... It says that the food I ate will regenerate only one time in the span of 7 days, does that mean it regenerates on a higher rate if I don't consume it?"
Valvesteen. "Yes, seems like it, the question remains still, who'll consume it? Clearly you aren't meant to, since there are drawbacks to that."
Nina. "Right..."
"Focus on the last line, It will give you somewhat of an answer." He tells her, in an omniscient way.
Nina. "...Clients! I'm supposed to have clients that will eat the meals I'll cook!"
Valvesteen. "Exactly. We should've guessed it earlier honestly, all those tables indicate that you will receive people who would order food from you."
"But who will my clients be? Can it be you?" She asks.
"I am not sure, but we can..." Before he could finish his sentence, someone rang the bell from outside!
Nina, a bit surprised. "Who could it be?"
"Probably one of the others, I'll go check." Replies Grey.
Nina. "Wait, I'll go with you."
The moment they gone out of the food store; the sound of the door opening cracked their eardrums.
They froze in their place for a second.
'...No voice can be heard, usually the guys say some lame shit as a way of greeting, and Rosaleen at least would talk to herself out loud. Could it be...' Valvesteen thought to himself.
Scared, Nina holds his arm tightly while he advanced, the next turn leads directly to the reception place.
With a careful look, he turns... '..Just like I predicted. It is them who will be the clients!'
Nina gulped back a scream the moment her eyes saw the visitors.
"Calm down Nina, they're harmless." Says Valvesteen.
Nina. "...Not to my eyes at least, I can hardly look at them from this short distance!"
Valvesteen. "Yeah, I understand, but they don't seem to even react to our presence, they're just sitting silently in the tables."
Nina. "So, what should we do now?"
Valvesteen. "What do you mean by "we"? This is your mission Nina, If you haven't figured it out yet, these are your clients. Your mission is to serve them food."
Nina takes another look at the zombie-like citizens of the city, and notices something!
"Look! There is something on top of their heads!!"
"Hm? I see nothing!" Valvesteen replies.
"No there is, it's like a green circle! Am I the only one able to see it?" She asks.
Valvesteen. "...If it's not some form of hallucination caused by the overdose of food, then yeah probably. It might be something related to your mission."
Struggling to look, she tries to describe what she's seeing. "The circle seems to slowly get empty from within, I can barely see it from here but I think there is a time clock as well!"
"Maybe we should get closer so you can see it more clearly." He proposes.
Nina, hesitantly. "...Alright!"
Slowly they do so, the colorless lifeless citizen do not react still, and there are about 9 of them.
"I can see it now." She declares, with a low tone. "03:54 is the number on it right now, on top of all of them."
Valvesteen. "It's probably the amount of time they spent sitting in the table and waiting."
With her eyes wide open. "...No, the clock is moving down!"
"Is that so? Then it's a countdown, I think the clock symbolizes the time they are willing to wait before you serve them what they came here for." He concludes.
Nina. "Yes, I think so too. But how can I know what do they want? They don't even speak or move!"
Valvesteen. "How about you ask them first?"
"But... they scare me..." She looks at Grey with a sad worried face, as if she's begging him to do it himself. Yet, he doesn't entertain her thought, "Go ask them Nina."
"Ugh... Alright."
Slowly, she walks in the middle between the tables, until she stood right in front of the two the clients are taking. '...The green color is slowly turning to yellow as the clock is running out.' She notices.
Channeling her courage, she lets out the question. "... Hello! Is there anything you want?"
Finally, they react by lifting their eyes and heads so slowly towards her, to which she got intimidated by.
However, they do not say a word!
*00:59*
The yellow turned red! And a visible change in their facial expressions has occurred.
"It seems like asking them won't result in anything beneficial, they're getting upset." Valvesteen says, as he drags her back from her hand.
Nina. "I think I understand the colors now, the circle becomes red once the time is about to run out."
Valvesteen. "That's good, at least you're getting to understand the parameters of the game. We're still at the beginning, we have a long way to go before figuring it all out it seems..."
Suddenly, the clients expressed their anger by exhaling loudly and mumbling non-understandable words under their nose! They stood up and begun leaving one after the other, while the two Artists watched.
The moment the last one of them stepped outside the restaurant, Nina's watch displayed a new notification!