Tess' eyes were red, and tears were on the verge of overflowing. "Waaaah! You mean boss! My dad entrusted me to you, and you said you'd take good care of me... but you're making me work like an ox or a horse..."
Wayne acted as if he hadn't seen a thing. He pulled three cooking recipes from his pocket. "These three are my personal favorites. Learn these as a priority; I'm sure you'll love them too. If there's anything else you want to learn, feel free to ask Chef Thomas. If he doesn't know how to make it, I'll find another chef to teach you."
Seeing those three recipes, Tess realized Wayne had come "prepared." This was a premeditated plot. Her heart sank halfway.
She took the recipes, and when she looked at them, the tears actually started to fall.
"Succulent Pork Ribs... 2 portions of fresh pork ribs... After cleaning, strike repeatedly with the back of a knife to break down the texture and sinews, ensuring a tender mouthfeel... sniff..."
"Clam Chowder... one portion of freshwater clam meat with one portion of ice-cold milk... Clams must be soaked in cold water to spit out sand first... then... waaaah..."
"Delicious Chocolate Cake..."
"8 units of flour, 4 portions of ice-cold milk, 4 portions of sweet spices, 8 small eggs, a glass of Port wine, 3 Mageroyal..."
Tess slammed the recipes onto the table and wailed, "What is this?! The first two only had two or three ingredients, but why does this one have so many! Waaaah! The boss is bullying me!"
Wayne chuckled. "If you keep crying, everyone's going to stare. Don't overact."
Tess: "I'll cry if I want to! I'll cry! I'd rather be caught by villains than make this! My dad would come save me anyway."
Ignoring her tantrum, Wayne continued calmly, "Two meals a day. In exchange: an independent bedroom so you don't have to sleep on the floor anymore, plus a dedicated computer station for yourself. You can play whenever you're free, for as long as you want. How about it?"
Whoosh...
Tess wiped away her tears and snot instantly. "Deal! No take-backs!"
As the two ate and chatted, everything back at the net cafe remained orderly, both for the customers inside and the crowd queuing outside.
The incident with Cassus had just happened, and with those big shots still sitting inside—plus the way Cassus had mysteriously suffered a setback—no one dared to stir up trouble and go looking for a headache.
While a few spellcasters were still engrossed in Heroes of Might and Magic III and Harry Potter, most of the others had turned their interest toward Saint Seiya.
Although they noticed after watching for a while that the formula for each episode was similar—a crisis occurs, the protagonists make a cool entrance, a powerful enemy appears, the protagonists get beaten to a pulp, and at the critical moment, they remember Miss Saori Kido (the reincarnation of Athena), their "Cosmo" explodes, and they finish the opponent with a heroic strike before recovering fully to face the next crisis.
Despite the pattern, the audience watched with great anticipation. They were drawn by the writer's imagination regarding the next powerful enemy and captivated by the protagonists' moves, wanting to see just how far these Bronze Saints could evolve.
For the people of this world, these things were incredibly fresh. One must remember that the few plays once performed in the Opera House of Karazhan had vanished along with the explosion of magical energy that turned the surrounding area into an inaccessible, dangerous tower of death.
Current Stormwind entertainment consisted of trite, or even vulgar, songs, dances, and dramas. Those were mostly watched by pretentious upper-class nobles who didn't truly enjoy them but used such "elegant" occasions as social platforms to bolster their noble status and vanity. They had long since lost touch with the tastes of the common people.
The remaining options were old-fashioned activities.
For example, a half-day tour of the Stormwind canals...
The Deeprun Tram experience and the Great Loch Ness Monster Adventure...
A three-day cruise on a Stormwind Royal vessel...
And certain underground "black pit" fighting tournaments.
As for the cross-faction world arena duels that were popular with the masses, the severe tension between the Alliance and the Horde due to King Varian's disappearance meant that both sides strictly forbade the other's citizens from approaching their capital cities. Such events could only be held in remote neutral territories, which ordinary citizens had no means of reaching.
Consequently, after Wayne's net cafe gained a bit of fame—boosted further by the duel between the Grand Marshal and the Pandaren master—it had become a burgeoning hot spot.
Wayne's expansion plan was imperative.
It happened that Amy was bored and feeling restless at the Wizard Sanctum. Having bound her Hearthstone to the Lion's Pride Inn, she teleported over. Seeing Wayne and Tess discussing the layout and planning for the new shop, she joined in.
The three of them chatted until nightfall. During the discussion, Tess would occasionally run out to register customers, collect money, and arrange stations as people finished their sessions, then return to the conversation.
Amy truly lived up to her reputation as a top-tier student and a genius mage. Compared to Tess—who had seen much of the world and possessed an explosive but wild, disjointed imagination—Amy's thinking was clearly more meticulous. She considered practicality and efficiency.
For instance, she suggested placing the machines in rows, much like the long tables in a library, and setting up dedicated four-station "team zones" to accommodate the 4-player cooperative mode of Monster Hunter.
Wayne couldn't help but wonder how the rigid Old Marlin had fathered such a clever daughter.
He kept sketching and marking on paper. By the end of the night, he had produced a floor plan for a three-story net cafe, even incorporating designs for the outdoor streaming and queuing areas.
Filled with anticipation for the new net cafe, Amy bid them both farewell and vanished into a magical silhouette of teleportation.
After returning to the net cafe, Wayne entered Monster Hunter, which he hadn't played in a while. Tess was a bit puzzled, but Wayne told her that the day for the Hogger subjugation was not far off. He had to clear Monster Hunter as quickly as possible to be fully prepared.
Tess didn't understand what the giant wyverns in the game had to do with a pack of gnolls, but Wayne didn't answer her. Instead, he had Tess tally the day's accounts and put them in the safe while he began farming the Fatalis over and over.
Midnight...
1 AM...
2 AM...
Wayne was still farming, having lost count of how many times he'd done it. Tess, unable to stay awake any longer, had already fallen asleep on her floor mat.
A little after 3 AM, the vending machine finally sent an alert to him while he was in-game:
[Unidentified individual wandering nearby]
Wayne paused the game, took off his glasses, and turned to open the door.
A "whoosh" sound approached as a figure blended with the environment gradually emerged from stealth.
He pulled back his hood, revealing capable, short brown hair with a stray lock of bangs falling across his forehead.
His azure eyes glanced at Tess, who was fast asleep on the floor. He seemed pleased that his arrival hadn't disturbed his disciple's dreams, yet he was also surprised that Wayne could detect his presence through the walls while he was stealthed.
He nodded to Wayne, indicating the surroundings were safe. Wayne invited him in, closed the door, and had him sit down. He then placed the glasses on the man, opened Monster Hunter, and shared his screen with him.
In a flash of darkness and light, the blue-eyed man suddenly found himself standing in the ruins of Castle Schrade, watching the young man who had just been sitting beside him frantically firing a light bowgun at a massive black dragon.
At that moment, Wayne finally spoke, his voice a strained, loud shout:
"I bet you never expected our second meeting to happen like this!"