Ding! Your shoulder muscles have received an external blow.
Resistance to physical attacks, plus one. Current progress, one out of ten. Current level,
beginner.
What? Was this even possible? Uh, Dad, why don't you hit me again? Brad, I never knew
you were into such things. Anyway, hurry up and finish the soup. We don't want to keep
the customers waiting.
After saying that, Morris returned to his work and whistled a short tune, obviously in a
good mood after seeing Aiden's improved knife skills. Aiden shook his head slightly and
dumped the chicken into a large pot of simmering broth. What followed was the usual
process of chicken noodle soup.
This cooking method was a secret recipe passed down from Aiden's grandfather and had
remained the same for decades. However, just as Aiden was about to complete one of
the steps, his hand instinctively stopped in mid-action. Suddenly, a strange feeling
throbbed in his head, as if a voice was telling him, this is not the right way to make
chicken soup.
There is another way to make this even more delicious. After a moment of thought,
Aiden finally understood that this was probably the effects of his leveled-up proficiency
in cooking. He set down the current seasoning in his hand and skipped ahead to another
ingredient.
Following that, the same feeling continued to appear many times. After changing the
steps of the recipe, the entire cooking process had been completely changed beyond
recognition by him. Coincidentally, Clara just happened to bump into Aiden in the kitchen
during this process.
Are you crazy? She asked. How many times have I told you this? Why did you think
adding lemon juice was a good idea? If you cook the soup this way, the flavor will be
completely wrong. Drawn over by the commotion, Morris, too, sighed at the pot of soup.
What are we going to do? Morris asked. At that moment, a customer out front yelled,
Hey, is my soup ready yet? I'm going to starve to death. If you don't serve me soon, I'm
going to leave.
Right away, Clara replied with a forced smile. She then turned her head and glared
fiercely at Aiden. If the customers are scared off by the lemon in this chicken soup, I'm
going to beat your ass.
Aiden calmly said, Mom, I can guarantee he'll want even more after he eats this. Clara
did not have the time to pay him any more attention as she hurried out of the hall with
the bowl of chicken noodle soup in her hands. Morris, seemingly worried about the soup, secretly observed the customer's reaction through the kitchen door.
Your soup is ready, sir. Enjoy your meal. The customer was bald and wore a large gold
chain around his neck.
The fierce look on his face was ferocious as he emitted an intense aura from his body.
Clara placed the chicken noodle soup in front of him, then moved to clear off another
table nearby, wrinkling her apron with her fingers in suspense. She nervously peeked at
the customer's reaction, preparing to apologize at any time if the customer was
unsatisfied.
The speed at which you serve the food really is slow, to the point where I'm going to
starve to death. If I wasn't just passing by, I never would have come to this kind of small
restaurant to eat in the first place. After mumbling out his complaints, he dug into the
bowl of soup.
With a loud slurping noise, he sucked a bundle of noodles into his mouth. The customer
suddenly widened his eyes and froze in his spot. Crap! After rushing toward the
customer, Clara bowed deeply and apologized.
I'm very sorry. We made a small mistake. If you don't mind, we'll get you a new one right
away.
As the customer raised his head, he looked at Clara in a dazed and asked, Madam, what
are you talking about? Immediately after, he slurped down the bowl of noodles like a
vacuum. Soon, he devoured all the noodles, chicken, and vegetables from the bowl. After
finishing the noodles, the man lifted the bowl to his lips and gulped down the rest of the
broth.
Reluctantly, he put down the empty bowl and licked his lips. Then he said to Clara, who
stood there in shock, Madam, I want another bowl. You should have told me it would be
so delicious earlier.
I would have even been willing to wait for half a day longer. Pack up three servings of
the same noodles. No, six servings to go.
Please. Such delicious soup. I must bring back for my brothers to have a taste.
After that, he scratched his head and muttered, What the hell? To think that there's
actually such delicious chicken soup in this world. How come I didn't notice your store
before? Clara, still in a daze, had already walked back into the kitchen before she could
hear his question. She held the empty bowl in confusion, still intrigued by the customer's
reaction.
To think that Aiden's soup, which did not follow their family recipe, would actually receive such praise. Did this guy's taste buds work? Morris was just as dumbfounded as
Clara. Neither of them spoke as they turned their gazes to Aiden.
Aiden shrugged his shoulders and stated, I told you he would want more afterward. Now
do you believe me? How did you do that? Morris looked at Aiden as if he was looking at a
different person. Clara was even more straightforward.
Are you really my dumb son? Have you been possessed? Shoo! Go away! How can you
talk to your own son like that? Aiden shooed them away before serving another bowl of
soup. After making his first pot and gaining more experience, Aiden was already thinking
about how to further improve the next pot. Ding! Cooking ability plus one.
With the help of the system's prompt, Aiden quickly finished preparing the seven orders
of soup and started another pot as if he was performing some sort of magic trick. During
the entire process, Morris and Clara observed him without blinking an eye. Watching him
cook, they realized that Aiden had not changed the ingredients of the recipe much at all,
aside from the lemon.
Mostly, he only changed the order in which he added in the ingredients and seasonings.
Despite that, he was still able to transform the boring chicken noodle soup into some
sort of divine dish. Could it be that their son really had the talent to be a chef? Son, I
don't think you need to enter university anymore.
I might as well send you to the New South Culinary School to learn culinary arts in the
future. Aiden rolled his eyes at his two parents and said, stop messing around. Your son
is someone who will accomplish great things in the future.
That night, Morris and Clara researched and analyzed the soup Aiden had made. The two
of them attempted to cook the soup according to the family's original recipe. However,
no matter what they did, it did not taste as good as what Aiden had cooked.
After attempting the recipe again and again, they had used up all of the remaining
onions and carrots. Aiden, go and buy more carrots and onions. Aiden accepted his fate
obediently when faced with his two parents.
He left the restaurant and headed to the supermarket on the neighboring street to buy
more vegetables. There was a shortcut to the supermarket, but no one would have to
walk through a dark alley. Since there were a lot of hooligans gathered in this alley,
Aiden usually would not dare to use that path.
Now that he possessed the system, however, his confidence had significantly increased.
Today, he planned to test the waters of this alley with his newfound abilities. The
streetlights in the alley had not been maintained and had been broken for quite a while.
With the entire alley nearly pitch black, one could barely see anything ahead or even around them. Halfway through the dark alley, Aiden suddenly heard an anxious female
voice cry out, Help!