Two Strange Coins was no difficulty,
and twenty could still be considered acceptable,
but for a single player to produce a full two hundred Strange Coins all at once—what kind of level, what kind of tier was that?
Judging by Lin Ye's current nonchalant attitude, these two hundred Strange Coins clearly weren't even his limit.
Two thousand?
Twenty thousand?
No way, surely not!
Could there really be a player capable of earning two thousand, even twenty thousand Strange Coins?
The chef didn't dare even imagine it.
If he possessed that kind of power, just how strong would this player be?
He suddenly realized that he and the others might have kicked an iron plate—picked the wrong person to target.
The look on the chef's face as he gazed at Lin Ye changed completely, unable to conceal the shock and dread in his heart.
He'd assumed the other party was a player—and only an ordinary one at that. A player with real strength would, from the very start, adopt the most direct and decisive violent methods to break the deadlock, rather than acting like this man, who gave off every impression of being a player without any strength, making them feel they could slaughter him as they pleased.
But now they'd guessed wrong. The other party was a ferocious tiger that had been hiding all along, and facing them, this fierce tiger had finally bared its sharp fangs and claws, revealing its most bloody, savage side.
Now that the only girl the other party had been concerned about had already left the dining room, now that he had nothing holding him back, he could boldly and without any worry reveal his truest self.
It was they who were in danger now!
Leave—hurry and leave; hurry and get this player out of the dining room.
If he stayed any longer, they'd be done for.
"Two hundred Strange Coins—you can count them."
Lin Ye's voice broke the calm of the dining room, pulling the chef and waiters back to reality.
"Guest, this…"
"From now on, these two hundred Strange Coins belong to you all,"
Lin Ye pointed. "And this dining room belongs to me now."
"Uh!"
Wanting to buy this dining room with two hundred Strange Coins—how could that ever be possible!
There was no way the chef would agree.
"This… won't do, Guest."
"Oh! Going back on your word?"
Lin Ye's mocking voice rang out, his eyes brimming with a teasing expression. "Who was it just now that agreed out loud? Now that I've produced two hundred Strange Coins, you go back on your word and refuse to sell?"
The chef gritted his teeth.
He really had agreed just now, and thinking back on it, he had no idea why he'd consented as if possessed by some spirit.
This was clearly the sort of agreement he should never have accepted.
A purchase-and-sale contract made inside the dining room was protected and enforced by the dining room's rules.
If one party tried to break the contract, they could easily become the target of the dining room itself.
Even though he was a member of the dining room's staff, it made no difference.
"I—I'm not the manager."
The chef was grasping for an excuse.
"Heh heh."
Lin Ye smiled.
This was within his expectations.
What mattered wasn't whether the sale went through, but the other party's breach of contract.
By Lin Ye's conjecture, so long as a breach of contract occurred within the dining room—especially a breach in a transaction—the breaching party would suffer targeting and restriction from the dining room's rules.
As for whether buying and selling the dining room itself fell under this, Lin Ye didn't know, but the other party had now already broken the agreement, and what came next was the moment for him to take his next step.
"And you!"
Lin Ye looked toward another waiter.
The waiter shook his head vigorously. "I'm just a waiter, I have no authority to decide. This is a matter between you, the guest, and the head chef."
He wanted absolutely no part in it.
He had already keenly sensed the danger involved.
If he got involved, he'd likely be ground to dust.
"Chef, are you sure you want to break the agreement, that you don't intend to sell?"
The topic returned to the chef once more.
The burly chef, at this moment, facing Lin Ye, carried no deterrent force whatsoever.
"..."
This guy intended to force a sale?
No—
even the chef knew this really wasn't Lin Ye forcing a sale,
he really had made a verbal promise just now.
"Guest, please stop putting me in a difficult position. This dining room isn't mine. We—our side is willing to offer fifty Strange Coins as compensation to you."
His heart was bleeding.
Fifty Strange Coins!
"Are you fobbing me off like a beggar?"
The corner of the chef's mouth twitched.
This was fifty Strange Coins!
How did that count as fobbing off a beggar?
But thinking of how Lin Ye had so effortlessly produced two hundred Strange Coins, it really wasn't hard to understand why Lin Ye would call it fobbing off a beggar.
Just what was this man's strength, what was his background, that he could so effortlessly produce two hundred—or even more—Strange Coins?
"Sixty…"
"I'll give you another six hundred Strange Coins—now go die for me."
The chef: ???
All your Strange Coins are just conjured up out of thin air, aren't they!
He really didn't think Lin Ye was just talking big.
This time, it wasn't that he hadn't thought of gambling on it, but he couldn't afford the gamble—he just couldn't. If Lin Ye really did produce six hundred Strange Coins, he'd probably truly have to go and die.
If he could live, who would want to die?
He still had to dissect more high-quality, delicious ingredients, to enjoy their freshness and flavor—he had no desire to end his life so early.
"I've already paid the Strange Coins, so this dining room is mine now,"
Lin Ye openly declared ownership of the dining room.
"This is you forcing a sale."
"This is a fair, equal-value transaction based on the willingness of both parties."
That was Lin Ye's reply.
Lin Ye had originally wanted to say 'So what if I'm forcing the sale?' or 'That's right, I'm forcing the sale,' but in the end he changed his words.
This dining room would, after all, make its judgments based on the content of both parties' words.
Therefore, the content of his speech had to be watched carefully.
"No, I don't agree,"
"Who was it that spoke just now?"
Lin Ye used Hypnosis once again.
The superpower was taking effect.
The chef struggled for a moment, then slowly nodded. "I said it…"
"I promised that as long as you produced two hundred Strange Coins, I'd sell you the dining room,"
A few seconds later,
the chef abruptly went wide-eyed, full of disbelief.
Why had he said that just now? He should have kept on quibbling, not admitted it.
Sweat trickled down.
The chef realized a possibility—the dining room itself was already exerting an invisible force, making him tell the truth and not break the agreement again.
This was a warning from the dining room.
But, but…
The chef was unwilling. He'd worked so hard to get this dining room into his hands, making it his own source of gourmet ingredients—how could he possibly accept handing the dining room over to a human?
This dining room was his.
"I'm not selling,"
"This is my dining room,"
"If you've got the guts, come and take it by force!"
The chef bellowed twice.
In this moment, he erupted.
Lin Ye revealed a smile.
The other party had crossed the line first,
so next he could deal with this using more direct methods, couldn't he!
"As you wish."
As Lin Ye's words fell,
he stepped forward.
The chef gripped his cleaver tightly, the metallic 'shing-shing' ringing out loud.
"You who haven't paid, become my ingredient. As the head chef, I'll cook you myself,"
Before making his move,
he gave a great shout.
Was he justifying himself?
More than that, it was to conform to the dining room's invisible rules, to gain more for himself—even an absolute advantage.
But would it work?
Lin Ye wasn't certain, but now that things had come to this, now that the chef had erupted and started fighting, all he could do was counterattack.
He'd see whether this Strange Restaurant's rules still protected this chef.
"Boom!"
The chef struck out violently, raising his arm and swinging the cleaver down, a whistling 'whoosh-whoosh' bursting out.
Lin Ye dodged to the side and casually threw a punch.
Thud!
Very hard.
That was Lin Ye's first impression.
The chef's muscles matched the oppressive presence he gave off—long-trained, with tremendous explosive power.
The next second, with a 'swish,' the chef hacked down once more, and in the instant it missed, his whole body lunged a step forward, then his sheer tonnage launched a ferocious charge.
Time Stop, activate!
The world fell into silence.
Lin Ye looked at the chef's ferocious face, drew out his Dagger, and stabbed straight down at the chef's neck.
It wouldn't go in.
Lin Ye frowned and switched to another spot.
The eyes,
but the eyes took no injury.
In the next moment, Lin Ye immediately chose the chef's abdomen and poured in all his strength.
The same sensation—no wound inflicted whatsoever.
Lin Ye realized that ordinary means couldn't harm the chef.
He observed and pondered.
Weapons couldn't deal effective damage to the chef.
Lin Ye raised his fists and dealt the chef two punches.
"Hit him first."
At least it had worked on the waiters.
So the odds of it working on the chef were the highest too.
The Time Stop's duration ran out.
Time's flow returned to normal.
And at this point the lunging chef found that his attack had struck nothing.
Even Lin Ye's figure had vanished.
"Where'd he go?"
The instant this thought surfaced,
a dull, pounding pain came from his head and chest.
"Urgh…"
The strange pain made him instinctively clutch his chest.
He was injured,
he'd been hit.
But when?
The chef had no recollection at all.
He swept his gaze across, but couldn't see Lin Ye.
"Where is he?"
The chef shouted, and turning to look all around, still couldn't catch sight of Lin Ye.
It was as if Lin Ye's figure had completely vanished.
Could he have already left the dining room?
The chef immediately looked toward the waiter.
The waiter shook his head hard. "I don't know, I didn't see where he went either. Why would he suddenly disappear?"
He didn't understand—he completely didn't understand.
How could a person just suddenly vanish?
"Has he already left the dining room?"
the waiter suddenly said, putting forward a possibility.
"Impossible. Even if he were leaving the dining room, there's no way there'd be no trace or sound at all."
He had to still be in the dining room.
Just hidden away somewhere.
"Heh heh, don't think you're safe just because you've hidden,"
"Come on! Let's play a nice game of cat and mouse."
"Once I catch you, I'll… butcher you! Hahaha…"
The confidence he'd lost suddenly came back.
The other party had a high IQ, but facing them, he had no good methods or means in terms of force.
The chef sneered endlessly inwardly.
As a player, he was strong; all those Strange Coins had been obtained through his own ability,
he boldly guessed that the other party had relied on his own intellect to obtain hundreds or thousands of Strange Coins,
but that didn't mean his combat strength was high too.
The dining room could no longer provide him full protection, no longer letting him form a crushing power gap over the guest player,
but since the other party was weak in combat, there was nothing the man could do to him.
Hahahaha,
a development he'd never expected at all.
He'd thought the other party was strong in combat too, able to rely on powerful force to crush him now that he lacked the dining room's protection.
But now it was obvious the other party didn't have that kind of strength.
"You think that just because you've seen through the dining room's rules you can easily deal with us?"
"Not a chance."
"Now you'll pay the price for it."
"I'm going to slice every piece of flesh on your body into thin cuts,"
"use the finest marinade,"
"and make the most delicious grilled meat,"
"How I look forward to it!"
The chef even made a slurping sound.
He kept his eyes wide open, scrutinizing every spot in the dining room, trying to find that hidden figure.
Nothing, nothing,
still nothing.
Could he really have already left the dining room?
A few minutes later, the chef couldn't help voicing this very doubt.
Several waiters had returned too, and at the chef's demand they tried to search,
but they still failed to find any sign of Lin Ye.
"He really… must have left!"
"He's probably gone,"
"It's been several minutes already."
The waiters had already given up.
They'd searched everywhere and found nothing; the constant tension had worn them out, body and mind, and they wanted it over with sooner.
It was at this moment,
Lin Ye dropped out of his state of Invisibility.
Though the Stranges had guessed there was a high chance he was in the dining room, they had no effective means of finding him.
For instance, if he were the one to discover an enemy mysteriously vanishing without a trace, he would eventually link it to mysterious means like Invisibility.
But these few seemed to lack knowledge in this area, never connecting it with Invisibility and turning transparent.
These Stranges had intelligence, but their intelligence was limited.
Of course, Lin Ye guessed it was also related to experience.
The problem, however, lay in how to deal with the chef.
Just as the chef had cackled, he lacked the means to break through the chef's defense.
"Over there."
A waiter's shout suddenly rang out,
he'd spotted Lin Ye's presence.
The other Stranges and the chef all looked over,
the burly chef immediately charged over with a savage grin. "Hahaha, I knew you couldn't have left—become my ingredient!"
The cleaver in his hand sliced through the air with a whoosh.
The chef swung it ferociously.
'Boom…'
A table was split apart with a thunderous crack.
"Hurry, get over there and seize him for me,"
The chef shouted, ordering the rest of the waiters to come forward and grab Lin Ye too.
But the waiters didn't step forward; they all stayed put.
"Deal with him, don't worry about the dining room's rules."
But they hesitated, staying where they were.
"Useless trash."
The chef cursed viciously and once again raised his blade to go at it.
But he quickly lost sight of Lin Ye again.
"Get out here!"
"Stop hiding,"
"Let's have a real, all-out fight. If I die, you get to leave; if you die, you'll stay here and become my ingredient."
He shouted, full of confidence and quite sincere.
As far as he was concerned, the chef was convinced he could easily deal with Lin Ye.
If Lin Ye had any way to defeat and finish him, there was no way he'd still be skulking around hiding like this.
"Are you sure?"
A faint, level voice drifted over.
"Of course."
He turned his head and saw Lin Ye, now revealed.
"Good."
"Become my ingredient."
But in the next moment,
he saw the smile at the corner of Lin Ye's mouth.
That was the smile of victory.
A chill surfaced down his back.
In this moment, the chef panicked, a sense of foreboding spreading unceasingly.
...
...
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