FPE Chapter 41

The Restaurant Is Completed

After careful deliberation, the dwarven elves agreed to Fantasy Amusement Park’s invitation.

Several other intelligent races on this continent that had friendly relations with the dwarf elf clan were invited to serve as witnesses — namely the Earth-Treading Dragons, the Puchi Birds, and the Dwarves.

“It wasn’t easy making the trip over,” said an Earth-Treading Dragon.

“That’s true — even the teleportation array ticket prices have gone up,” a Dwarf grumbled.

The Puchi Birds flew overhead, occasionally letting out cries that sounded remarkably like the sound of a human stifling a laugh.

Earth-Treading Dragon: “Have any of you heard of a place called Fantasy Amusement Park?”

Dwarf: “Never.”

Puchi Bird: “Perhaps it comes from another continent on the other side of the Abyss Rift.”

Earth-Treading Dragon: “You’re pulling my tail. Could anything even survive on the other side of the Abyss Rift? I think the dwarven elves have just been fooled — send a few dozen clansmen over to work as cooks, and someone will supposedly help slaughter magic beasts for them. Where in the world does a deal that good exist?”

Dwarf: “Maybe the moment the dwarven elves arrive, they’ll get tossed straight into a pot. Their extraordinary gift is cooking food — maybe their meat tastes especially good!”

Earth-Treading Dragon: “That rumor’s been going around for hundreds of years and people still believe it. Dwarf elf meat does not taste good — it’s sour and foul!”

The Puchi Bird and the Dwarf simultaneously backed away from him, their eyes wide with horror.

The Earth-Treading Dragon flicked his tail dismissively. “When I was young I got into a fight with a dwarf elf and bit him — nearly had my teeth dissolved by the sourness… That look on your faces — did you actually think I ate a whole dwarf elf? Ptui, I’d sooner eat dung than eat a dwarf elf.”

Only then did the Puchi Bird and Dwarf edge back toward him. The Dwarf said, “The dwarven elves have been living underground all these years and they keep getting shorter — I think they’re even shorter than us Dwarves now. Most likely some powerful person passed through and they were desperate to curry favor. All that talk about a free teleportation array and free help killing magic beasts — it’s all hot air.”

The Puchi Bird let out a round of puchi-puchi laughs. “Dwarf, you’re being a bit too harsh on the dwarven elves.”

The Dwarf shook his head. “It’s only because the dwarven elves have been boasting so outrageously. They’re saying this powerful person has a hundred thousand extraordinary beings under their command — even the mightiest Kingdom of Theodore doesn’t have that many extraordinary beings. How could a Fantasy Amusement Park that nobody has ever heard of possibly have that?”

The Earth-Treading Dragon and the Puchi Bird both felt the Dwarf had a point. The Earth-Treading Dragon said, “No use overthinking it — we’re just going over to be witnesses.”

Just then, a message stone on one of the Puchi Bird’s talons lit up. The Puchi Bird curled its claws and responded, “Yes — yes, I’m almost at the dwarven elves’ territory… And there’s more — the dwarven elves are really living it up these days. Apparently they’ve gotten in good with some powerful faction. They’re saying there are one million extraordinary beings!”

Before long, the Earth-Treading Dragon, the Puchi Bird, and the Dwarf arrived at the dwarven elves’ territory and were escorted by a welcoming dwarf elf to a desolate little town.

This place had once been one of the dwarven elves’ settlements, filled with dwarf elf houses of all sizes and distinctive character. The dwarven elves used to cultivate farmland in the town to grow food. In the town’s most prosperous days, quite a few outsiders had made their homes there — they loved dwarf elf cuisine, and every year merchants from various races came to purchase the sauces and condiments the dwarven elves prepared. The constant back-and-forth of their footsteps had worn several wide, flat roads into the hard earth.

But now, the buildings had collapsed. Dust and cobwebs covered everything. The farmland was choked with wild grass. The town gate had fallen, crushed into the earth by the footfall of some enormous unknown creature.

This was a dwarf elf town in the wake of a magic beast attack.

At the sight of it, the Earth-Treading Dragon, the Puchi Bird, and the Dwarf all fell quiet.

In recent years, the magic beasts surging out of the Abyss Rift had grown ever more numerous. If it had been a weaker, smaller race living here instead of the dwarven elves, they would likely have been wiped out long ago. The Earth-Treading Dragon pointed at one of the collapsed dwellings and said, “I used to stay there when I was young.”

The dwarven elves, looking upon their abandoned town, showed little emotion — perhaps they had long since gone numb.

Hohochi said, “The people from Fantasy Amusement Park said they would come today. Let us wait here a while.”

That “while” stretched on for quite some time. During the wait, magic beasts caught the scent of fresh flesh and came charging in hoping for a meal. The dwarven elves were forced to take up their weapons and charge out to meet them. Fortunately, only low-level magic beasts had come, and the dwarven elves who rushed out dealt with them suffering only minor injuries.

By the time the dwarven elves had waited until dusk and were beginning to suspect they’d been stood up, two figures finally appeared on the distant horizon — one woman and one man.

They were two remarkably good-looking humans, their tall frames lean and powerful, the extraordinary factors drifting around them unusually active — clearly individuals of exceptional ability at a glance.

The Earth-Treading Dragon, the Puchi Bird, and the Dwarf all raised their eyes, studying the two humans curiously. When they saw the pair produce materials and begin laying down an expensive teleportation array, everyone was stunned — the dwarven elves really hadn’t been boasting!

The two people from Fantasy Amusement Park set up two teleportation arrays: one near the entrance of the dwarf elf town, and one at the town’s center.

“The teleportation array at the entrance has been seeded with materials that attract magic beasts. Any magic beasts that come charging toward the town from the Abyss Rift will be drawn to it, and the moment they step inside, they’ll be instantly transported to our Fantasy Amusement Park — to serve as whetstones for the park’s warrior trainees.” The woman called Chi Xiaozhen explained with a gentle smile. “The teleportation array in the town center is one we’ve set up specifically for the dwarven elves. It activates once a week, allowing the dwarven elves to travel back and forth during that time. Think of it as a little employee benefit from us.”

The Dwarf said in disbelief, “It’s actually a working teleportation array.”

The words had barely left his mouth when the man who had been standing silently beside Chi Xiaozhen spoke up. “Oh? So you didn’t believe in our park’s capabilities?”

The man called Sal exerted considerable pressure on the Dwarf, who hastily shook his head — but then heard Sal say, “It doesn’t matter, though. The opinions of little shrimps aren’t important.”

The Dwarf, who stood 80 centimeters tall: ……

Chi Xiaozhen glanced at Sal and said gently, “I’m sorry — my companion speaks his mind. Whatever comes into his head comes straight out of his mouth. He’s actually a very straightforward, honest person.”

The assembled races: ……

My lady, “honest person” doesn’t quite sound like a compliment the way you said it. Are you really as gentle as you appear?

In any case, with the three other intelligent races as witnesses, the contract between Fantasy Amusement Park and the dwarven elves was smoothly concluded.

During the proceedings, Sal had turned to look the three of them over for a moment and said, “You three each have your own distinctive look. How about coming to work at our park? Same treatment as the dwarven elves.”

The Earth-Treading Dragon, the Puchi Bird, and the Dwarf shook their heads frantically. What a joke — they were supposed to believe that taking a job could get warriors to clear magic beasts for them? There was no such thing as a free lunch!

Seeing this, Sal slowly shook his head. “I hope that one day, you won’t find yourselves too envious of the dwarven elves.”

The three of them looked over at the dwarven elves, their gaze settling especially on Chief Hohochi.

But Chief Hohochi’s face showed no particular joy either. Truth be told, they didn’t fully trust Fantasy Amusement Park. A contract could only bind an ordinary person of good faith — it was no restraint on someone truly wicked and ruthless. The real reason they had agreed to Fantasy Amusement Park’s proposal was fear of its power — not because they were trying to get a bargain, the way those three had assumed!

Chi Xiaozhen put away the contract and smiled. “Then the teleportation array will open in two days. We hope you’ll enjoy the working environment at the park.”

****

Earth. Jin’an City.

With no one interfering and a boss who fully respected the designer’s aesthetic sensibilities, Meng Le’s design work had proceeded smoothly and joyfully. She’d powered through the design plans for the three-story restaurant in a single day, and in the moment she received her boss’s approval, a fierce surge of pride rose in her chest. The instant her sense of personal worth was fulfilled, her sense of belonging to the park grew stronger too.

No client endlessly revising requirements, no repeated blows to her confidence, no tedious back-and-forth revisions in bizarre directions — just her own aesthetic vision and ideas, brought to life freely. This wasn’t work; this was personal artistic creation! And the salary was good, the benefits were generous, the hours weren’t long — this was practically a dream job! If her former classmates who had stayed in the major cities ever found out she’d landed such a reliable position in a small city like Jin’an, their jaws would probably drop.

And yet, even as Meng Le was happy, she was full of worry. That night she dreamed that because her boss and colleagues were too unreliable, the park had gone under, the internet was full of people cursing them out, she’d lost her job and was forced to suffer through the civil service exam — and she jolted awake in a cold panic.

Because of her poor sleep, Meng Le arrived at work the next day yawning widely. Her computer wasn’t even on yet when she suddenly heard the clanging of hammering and the rumble of machinery not far away.

She made a small noise of surprise and turned to look out the window. From the office window she could see a stretch of flat land, and on that land, a construction crew was operating heavy machinery, clearly in the process of building the restaurant.

Meng Le stared for a moment, then rubbed her eyes hard. Was she imagining things? Why did it feel like those workers were moving at double speed?

Just then, Meng Xiaodai called to her, “Le Le, the boss wants you to hurry up and work on the office area design plans.”

Meng Le replied with a couple of “mhm”s and quickly got to work. She worked until five o’clock in the afternoon, and as she packed up to leave, she instinctively glanced out toward the window — and in the next instant her eyes nearly flew out of her head in shock.

The three-story restaurant’s entire framework was already finished!!!

She slapped herself on the side of the head and began to wonder if she was dreaming again. When she came in early the next morning and found the construction crew already doing interior finishing work on the restaurant, she felt she had gone completely numb.

“Le Le, when the construction crew is working, just take a look from here — whatever you do, don’t walk over there, or something very unpleasant could happen.”

Her senior colleague Meng Xiaodai suddenly said this to her.

Meng Le swallowed. Feeling surrounded by mystery, she asked shakily, “What kind of unpleasant thing?”

Meng Xiaodai laughed and gave her a pat. “You’re so silly — obviously you might get hit by steel beams or panels! Besides, there’s a lot of dust over there. Getting your hair dirty is such a bother.”

“Oh — oh, right, of course!” Meng Le let out a breath of relief, thinking she really had been overthinking things. Given how impressive the park’s technology was, finishing a three-story restaurant in a day wasn’t anything to make a fuss over, was it? Stay calm, stay calm.

Over the two days in which Meng Le’s worldview was thoroughly refreshed, the restaurant was completed. All the tableware and fresh ingredients arrived, and the restaurant formally opened for business.