"Is this thing any good for the ghosts?"
Without giving it much thought, Richard temporarily stored it in his tool belt and, carrying the dish, returned to the table.
"Sir, your dish. Please enjoy."
Richard carefully placed the dish on the table and lifted the lid.
The bandaged ghost looked at the mushy black brain cooked inside, grabbed it with its hand, and stuffed it into its mouth, splattering an unknown liquid all over the table.
Halfway through the meal, the bandage-covered ghost trembled slightly. Lifting its head, eyes obscured by bandages, Richard could still feel its gaze filled with a bewildered, sorrowful air.
Dead as it was, still waiting for that girl to find him...
A piece of ghost currency was pushed forward.
Not resembling coins nor hell money.
Ghost coins, the currency of horror games.
As the saying goes, money can make the ghost push the millstone. Ghost coins have many uses, especially for trading with ghosts, serving as a bridge for initiating conversation, especially useful for players.
Of course, dying for money could also bring trouble!
Richard was slightly stunned.
Was this a tip for him?
Nodding, Richard pocketed the ghost currency. "Enjoy your meal, sir."
After withdrawing, Richard took out the ghost coin, noticing its value was actually 100.
Quite the generous tip!
"Rich ghost, eh." Richard clicked his tongue.
"Congratulations on completing your first delivery mission. The customer's feedback: Satisfied."
"Second order, please proceed to Table 2 to fulfill the customer's request."
"Two more to go, and today's tasks will be completed. Keep it up."
Pondering, Richard moved aside.
While passing through the corridor, he happened to meet Rachel, who was holding a dish full of glossy eyeballs that blinked.
Her complexion told him she was scared out of her wits.
"Richard, you've completed the first order?" Rachel was surprised and envious, wishing she had such strong resilience.
"Done. Now off to the second table. How about you?"
"I'm okay. Made some mistakes because of nerves, but the customer was nice about it," Rachel said with a lingering fear.
"But Alexa... when he was serving, accidentally dropped a finger on the back of a customer's hand, and that ghost plucked off his right hand!"
"Really? That's quite unlucky," Richard said with little change in expression.
Alexa wasn't close to him and had tried to bully Richard at school, who was less noticeable. Hearing this news, Richard felt calm inside.
"By the way, where's Simon?"
"I don't know, but I ran into Arianna, and she said he seems to be a janitor, responsible for the west area."
"And apparently, being a janitor is even more dangerous than being a waiter!"
Richard nodded, "Got it. You go ahead with your tasks."
Rachel hurried back into the restaurant, still visibly shaken.
For Richard, rather than worrying about Simon, it was better to focus on completing his missions.
The customers at the second table appeared to be a couple.
Sitting face to face, both emotionless, their eyes staring like dead fish, their pale skin writhing as if maggots were squirming underneath.
The atmosphere couldn't get any more eerie.
Their ordered dishes all related to organs.
Richard's mouth twitched, repulsed by the imagery, and he took the order to the kitchen.
The chef was different, not as malicious as the first, quickly preparing the dish to be served.
The feedback was average.
Richard didn't mind, as long as it wasn't a negative review.
The reason so many got bad reviews was that their excessive nervousness led to frequent mistakes. A bad review was minor compared to losing one's life.
Richard didn't realize his resistance to psychological pressure was extraordinary, perhaps innate.
But he had forgotten everything about his childhood, only knowing he had parents and a sister in college.
With an increasingly proficient service attitude, he also quickly completed the third table.
Then, Richard waited in the lobby for the results.
Passing by various ghosts, many showed a greedy gleam, but seeing his uniform, they had to retract their food-gazing looks.
It was like seeing a crab that had been bought and priced for someone else.
Soon, a bell echoed through the restaurant.
The ghosts gradually left, and in the blink of an eye, the restaurant returned to its eerie quietness.
Rachel and Alexa also came to the restaurant.
Rachel looked as if she had been reborn, tears of excitement nearly falling.
Alexa looked gloomy and fearful.
His right hand was gone, the stump was neat, without bandages or bleeding.
It was as if a limb of a puppet had been detached.
"It shoved my right hand into its belly and took it!" Alexa roared in anguish.
"Look on the bright side, at least it was a painless amputation. Otherwise, in a place like this, the pain would have killed you," Richard glanced at him.
Seeing Richard unharmed and even optimistic, Alexa's face flushed with indignation: "Why didn't anything happen to you?"
"I'm just that good."
A battered Pinocchio puppet approached, its movements accompanied by creaking sounds.
"I am the manager of Hell's Restaurant's east gate. You all performed quite well today, at least you survived."
"3697 performed the best, receiving two satisfactions and an average review, named the first day's outstanding employee. Here is your reward."
3697 was Richard's employee number.
A stack of ghost coins appeared in Richard's hand, totaling 300 ghost coins!
Rachel and Alexa also received ghost coins, 100 and 20, respectively.
In this game, they would also experience hunger and fatigue, and ghost coins could provide them with food, though it wasn't the only way.
"After a hard day's work, please follow the instructions to your dormitory for rest."
"Tomorrow is a new day. Continue to work hard!"
With that, the Pinocchio creaked away.
"I'm so hungry, let's go eat something first," Rachel said, eyes wide with hunger.
"Round the corner, I remember there's a vending machine. Let's go." Richard was also hungry, feeling like he had done a day's worth of physical labor despite only making three deliveries.
In the corridor, the vending machine had a ferocious ghost face, displaying the food and prices inside.
"Beef jerky, compressed biscuits, Coke... they have these things?" Rachel's mouth watered, finally seeing something normal in this horror world.
Richard bought a pack of beef jerky for 50 ghost coins.
Rachel opted for sour fish soup for 80 ghost coins.
With only a crumpled twenty, Alexa could only afford a compressed biscuit.
However, when the food dropped, all three were dumbfounded.
The beef jerky was a palm-sized piece of moldy rotten meat.
The sour fish soup was dark green, the fish unidentified and fanged.
The compressed biscuit appeared somewhat normal but was halved in size, shrunk.
"Why only 20?"
Richard looked displeased.
He had inserted a 100-value ghost coin but was returned with 20, losing 30 in the process!
Rachel also lost 20.
A vending machine that not only fails to deliver but also embezzles money?
With one hand gone, Alexa's mood was already foul, facing the scarcely filling compressed biscuits, he became even more enraged.
Rushing up, he began to kick and punch the vending machine: "You piece of crap! Dare to scam me, believe I'll dismantle you?"
The next second, the vending machine suddenly came to life, its ghostly face writhing menacingly, opening terrifying bloodshot eyes, staring fiercely at Richard and his companions.
"You insolent rats, dare to yell at me?"