Chef in the Apocalypse

Despite Jayce’s initial reservations about having Tony come over and learn from him, he actually began to start enjoying the older man’s company. It was like his whole demeanor had been transformed, turning him into an entirely different person.

After some probing, Tony opened up about what he used to do before the Apocalypse descended, adding another layer of shock onto his plate.

It turned out Tony had been a food critic, and a rather famous one at that. Not only did he have an immaculate palette that was able to identify majority of flavors and spices, he had also spent time as a chef in his family restaurant.

Given his ethnic background as an American-Italian, Jayce would have guessed that the restaurant was an Italian one, serving authentic pasta and pizzas. Yet he was wrong.

"Your family restaurant had a Michelin star?" Jayce’s face was aghast. How had he underestimated this man so much.

Tony felt a little embarrassed, but his heart swelled with pride seeing how the talented chef in front of him reacted. "The main chef was my younger sister, I was just the Sous Chef." He answered humbly.

"Yeah, but that’s still amazing man. I always wanted to be the head Chef in a Michelin star restaurant." Jayce lamented, his gaze turning a little forlorn. Obviously his dream was no longer achievable.

Hearing such praise made him think of his younger sister. He could see some similarities between her and the young man in front of him while they were cooking. The love and spirit they put into their craft was mesmerizing, captivating all of his attention.

Tony hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether to say his suggestion out loud.

"M-Master Jayce. How about we open up a restaurant?" he blurted out, yet in the next moment he flushed red with embarrassment.

What kind of stupid question was that? Who could possibly want to eat out at a restaurant in the middle of an Apocalypse? There wasn’t even a currency in this world just yet, what would they charge the customers?

Yet he did not receive a response right away. His gaze fell on Jayce who had stopped what he was doing, his hand now rested upon his chin with a pensive look on his face.

Jayce had flirted with this idea a few times in the past, but he had been far too busy to put it into practice. Yet with the appearance of Tony who had experience running a Michelin star restaurant, he would be free to leave him in charge.

His eyes widened, ’Damn, I could even call it Hell’s Kitchen’ Jayce thought, a grin painting his features.

"Alright, why not?" he responded eventually.

"Yeah, you’re right it was a stupid ide— Huh?" Tony had already resigned himself to being rejected, therefore he was shocked when he actually agreed.

"I said, let’s do it. The restaurant." Jayce reiterated.

Tony felt a wave of excitement wash over him, almost causing him to jump and dance in joy. "T-Thank you Chef!"

Seeing the reaction of the older man, Jayce felt his smile widen. "Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. You’ve got at least the next two weeks to properly learn from me, if I’m not satisfied with your progress then I’ll change my mind." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Tony nodded like a pecking chicken, saying over and over that he will do his best.

Jayce merely smiled, moving onto the next step of his cooking.

***

The next two weeks passed by in a flash as Jayce stuck to his routine of training in the forest and tutoring his soon-to-be Sous Chef Tony.

It was the final day before the appointed two weeks, and Jayce was currently splayed on the ground and dripping wet. He had just finished refining and healing the expanse of meridians surrounding his heart.

These meridians were the ones he left for last, somehow feeling that they would be the toughest and most painful to refine. He was correct.

Every time the mana crashed against those particular meridians, it felt as if he was being stabbed in the heart. Therefore after the first round of healing, he decided to use a larger amount of mana in order to get it over with in one fell swoop.

This turned out to be a bad move as it literally almost killed him. It took a tremendous strength and willpower to remain conscious and convert the mana into Life Mana.

After 8 torturous hours, he was now so exhausted that it took all of his mental capacity to eventually sit up in place. "Damn, there’s got to be an easier way to do this." Jayce muttered in annoyance.

Even if he pioneered this road to strength, there was no way that it could be replicated by another person. Not only did no one have meridians just yet, they also lacked the ability convert their own mana to Life Mana. Well, except for Cleric’s.

However, that was a discussion for a later time. Throughout these two weeks, he had only managed to recreate the Critical Strike two time as a fluke. Whether it was because of his refined meridians or another reason, the strikes ended up hitting a 15x multiplier.

Jayce still felt that his mana was lagging behind, as if he could not utilize it fast enough. Which led him to start meditating at nights before bed in order to increase the level of his Mana Circulation skill. Unfortunately, he had had no success until now.

Now that he had finally finished refining his meridians, he quickly pulled up his system notifications that he had been neglecting while he was almost dying in pain.

[Congratulations, you have cleansed all of your meridians.]

[You have acquired a Purifie# B$dy@@#!]

Jayce’s eyes widened, "What the hell is this? Is the system having a stroke?"

[$@@@#! Error...]

[Unable to send feedback - Please try again later]

Jayce panicked for a moment, quickly trying to bring up his status window. He let out a sigh of relief as it opened as usual without any major changes. He was not ready to lose the assistance of the system just yet.

He opened up his skills list, noticing there were no knew skills.

"Hmm..." Jayce pondered for a moment. It was pretty obvious by the hernia the system had, that it was not able to process this type of strength.

The "Unable to send feedback" error also seemed in line with his theory that the system was linked to something, or someone. This also made him appreciate the Under the Radar skill he had acquired even more greatly.

When he thought about who could possibly be monitoring them through the system, the appearance of the three beings upon the throne flashed into his mind for a moment.

Remembering the pain and suffering they had caused him, he smiled coldly.

"I’ll pay you back one day." He mused.