Jake spent the afternoon preparing barbecue ingredients for the evening. In order to avoid running out of food like last night, he deliberately prepared a lot of ingredients, both meat and vegetables.
However, Jake still underestimated his own skills. When he arrived at the stall in the evening with his belongings, he found that there were already people waiting for him.
"The boss is here!"
"Boss, give me five skewers of pork belly, two chicken wings, two leeks..."
"Boss, give me a chicken leg, a pig's trotter, two eggplants..."
"Boss, I want..."
Jake hadn't even finished arranging his things, but several people had already surrounded him. These people came early specifically to eat his barbecue.
"Don't worry, let me arrange everything first," Jake said with a smile.
Jake was naturally happy at this moment. Although he knew that his skills had improved and the barbecue tasted much better than before, he never expected to have "fans" so soon. These people were obviously the ones who ate his barbecue yesterday and thought it tasted good, so they came back today. Who wouldn't want repeat customers in business? And they were even the kind of repeat customers who came early and waited here just to eat his food.
"Boss, hurry up, I can't wait!"
"Me too, I was the first one here, I should be first in line!"
"Don't worry, the boss barbecues really fast, don't disturb him." The customers were obviously enthusiastic and full of expectations for Jake's barbecue.
Jake started grilling, and as the sky got darker, more and more people gathered around his stall. Soon, there were quite a few people, and the two newly added tables were already full.
It's not that Jake didn't want to buy more, but he had bought too much and didn't have a place to store it. Moreover, it was inconvenient to keep going back and forth. However, Jake believed that even if there were no seats, with his current skills, business would be much better than before.
The owners of the neighboring barbecue stalls greeted their few customers while looking at Jake's side with envy. Since yesterday, they had noticed that they had fewer customers while Jake's side had gained quite a few. Many customers were attracted to Jake's stall. The distance between the stalls was not far, and suddenly, Jake's business boomed. Naturally, it would arouse envy and jealousy among the other barbecue stall owners.
"He's a newcomer, how good can his skills be? How did he suddenly get so many customers?" someone wondered.
"Yeah, we have been doing this for several years, and he has only been here for a month. How come his business is better than ours?"
"Could it be a trick?"
"Maybe, ah, young people these days always like to play these fancy things, unlike us, who have been down-to-earth, honestly doing business."
"The routine of finding someone dressed as a customer will cost money. Let's see how long he can keep it up!"
"Maybe tomorrow it will return to its previous state."
Several barbecue stall owners, out of jealousy and distrust towards Jake, believed that the so-called "good business" on his side was just an illusion and that Jake had hired people to act as customers.
Jake was unaware of what those barbecue stall owners were thinking. In reality, he couldn't afford to think too much at the moment because he was extremely busy. Yesterday's business was already good, but he found that today's business was even better. From the moment he set up the stall until now, he hadn't stopped for a moment.
Fortunately, Jake had advanced cooking skills. Otherwise, it would be extremely difficult to maintain the good taste of every barbecue in such a rushed manner. Because business was even more booming than Jake had expected, the ingredients he prepared, which he thought were sufficient, were sold out before midnight. And at this moment, there were still many customers waiting in front of his stall.
"I'm sorry, everyone. We've sold out of barbecue for today. If you want to eat, please come back tomorrow," Jake apologized.
"Sold out again? It was sold out early yesterday too. Didn't you prepare more for today?"
"Boss, you don't know how to do business. You're missing out on so much business."
"Yeah, think of a solution, make more!"
The crowd was clearly dissatisfied with Jake's words, especially those who had been waiting for a while and hadn't been able to eat yet.
"I'm really sorry, we've run out of ingredients. I have no way to make more," Jake said. "How about you go to other places?"
He actively redirected the customers to his competitors, which was quite unconventional on Jake's part.
"No, I want to eat yours!"
"That's right, the barbecue at other places can't compare to the one here."
"After eating the barbecue here, I can't even eat the ones from other places anymore. You owe me a compensation, boss."
Jake smiled bitterly. He didn't expect that he couldn't push away the business even if he tried. However, he really had no ingredients left, and even if he wanted to make more, he couldn't. In the end, he could only apologize again and promise to prepare more for tomorrow before finally getting away.
"It seems that I underestimated this advanced cooking skill," Jake packed up and prepared to go back. "Also, should I hire someone to help?"
Although he had to personally grill the barbecue to ensure the taste, others could help with tasks like packaging, fetching ingredients, and skewering. If someone could handle these tasks, it would make things much easier for him.
However, there was no rush for this matter. Jake's business had just started to pick up, and he hadn't saved much money yet. He could continue on his own while searching for suitable candidates. After returning to his residence, he couldn't teleport until it was past midnight. Jake went online and searched for which crops or foods were more popular or had higher prices. He had a large vacant area in the mountains behind the village in the game world, and he hadn't decided what to plant yet. Besides, he didn't have any coins left. It would be a good idea to conduct some research before making a decision.
"For now, I won't ask the village chief for the 500 coins. I'll use the money to buy various seeds first and plant all the empty land in the mountains," Jake thought to himself.
The debt of 500 coins from the old village chief would be paid off within a month. Previously, Jake thought that 500 coins was a lot, but the last trip to the mine brought him over 100 coins in income. This made the pressure of the 500-coin debt less significant for Jake. So, under these circumstances, he naturally wanted to start planting on his vacant land in the mountains as soon as possible. After all, the earlier he planted, the earlier the crops would mature.