"Alright, so the order is, seating, menu, and waters, then orders," Megan repeated back to me, her eyes looking off into the distance as she tried to remember everything I had told her, "And if they ask for recommendations, I should suggest the Steak Frites, and then the salmon."
I grinned as Megan looked at me for feedback, "You got it all."
Megan let out a sigh of relief, "Oh, good, maybe I won't screw everything up then."
"Maybe, but you'll probably make a few mistakes," | replied with a shrug, "Which is fine as long as people get their food in a reasonable time, everything should turn out fine. Just make sure to read back people's orders to avoid any mix-ups."
"A-alright," Megan nodded with a smile, "I-I'm gonna go start dressing the tables, I-if that's alright with you."
"Taking initiative, I like it," I answered with a wink, "You get on that and I'll finish prepping for service."
Megan nodded before quickly turning around and making her way out of the kitchen. I watched her leave, primarily because I loved the way she looked in jeans, but it also gave me a chance to pull up the window that I had glanced at yesterday without fully trying to understand it.
[Profile: Megan Griffin]
Status:
Affection: 15/100
Lust: 20/100
Bond: Strangers
Rank: F
Bio:
Personality: Unknown
Kink(s): Unknown
Pact: None
"Alright, system, tell me what I'm looking at," I muttered under my breath as I returned to my task of preparing the potatoes for frying and mashing, depending on the order that came in.
[Took you long enough, I've been waiting for this since yesterday. Okay, so this is a profile, think of it like a property manual, but for a person. To create one, you need to get the person's first name and have some form of skin-to-skin contact. After that, you can pull it up at any time with a thought. Now getting into the meat of things, you have affection, bond, lust, and rank. Affection is simply how much a person likes you on a scale from 0-100. When you reach certain affection benchmarks, your bond level will increase, which has the chance to reveal certain parts of their bio more on that later. Also, since everyone is different and unique, these benchmarks are on a case-by-case basis. Some people will only open up when they trust you without a fault, others are open books. And while there's no exact way to tell where someone might fall on that scale, looking at their rank is a great way to get a general idea. The lower someone's rank the easier it is to befriend them and vice versa, with F being the lowest then in increasing difficulty D, C, B, A and finally S. Lust operates similarly but only represent the sexual attraction a person has towards you which may or may not increase in accordance with affection, against case by case basis.]
"And can I assume there is some qualitative increase that comes with a higher difficulty?" I asked as I picked up a paring knife and started to peel the spuds I had washed earlier, gripping the blade between thumb and forefinger.
[Yes, which brings us to the bio portion of the profile, which includes the person's personality, kinks, and pacts. Initially, they're redacted, but you can unlock them by increasing your affection with the person. Personality types are essentially guides that you can use to infer how to approach that person. Though with your race, you're basically a living cheat code when it comes to social interactions and seduction. Kinks are essentially the same, but for r18 stuff, though they do increase the benefits you get from satisfying your partner, so keep track of those. Finally, there are pacts that you can only unlock the option to make after reaching the maximum affection and lust level. Using your demonic magic, you can form a pact, turning someone into a thrall and binding them to you for all eternity. This grants them some benefits while also increasing your strength and power as an incubus, the degree to which depends on the person's rank with benefits increasing exponentially with rank.]
"That's what I thought," I muttered as I tossed the final peeled potato into a pot before gathering up all the skins and throwing them into the trash. "That's everything I need to know?"
[About the profile system, yeah, as for life in general, absolutely not, but you're welcome anyway.]
I shook my head as with a final snide comment, my system's voice assistant went silent, leaving me to focus on my work, which I was somewhat thankful fo,r seeing as there were only fifteen minutes before opening and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. Though I was probably being over cautious, "It's only our first day open, and I barely did any advertising, what are the chances we're packed?"
---
"Uh, I just sat booth 3 and took their order. They want two steaks with mash and asparagus, a grilled salmon with broccolini, and a Steak Frites."
I turned around as Megan walked into the kitchen and pinned up another receipt on the spinning wheel suspended above the serving table, where I placed three plates on a tray. "Thank you, and this is for table 4, two grilled salmon with broccolini and a Caesar salad."
"Table 4, got it," Megan repeated, confirming what I said as she picked up the tray, spreading out her fingers to distribute the weight before making her way back out of the kitchen.
We were in such a rush that I didn't even have time to watch her walk away as I turned my attention back to the grill grabbing a pair of tongs just in time to save a pair of flank steaks from becoming well done, 'And here I was worrying about if I had ordered too many ingredients before service.'
Ever since opening, it had been a non-stop flow of customers coming through the door. For a moment, I wondered how any of this was possible before I realized that I was ultimately in a simulated world where the rules of reality and common sense could be suspended at any time. It was then that I started to do a little math, keeping track of the time and the number of tickets.
Before long, I had a decent formula to calculate the number of customers that would be walking through the front door tonight. Everything had clicked into place when the clock struck six, and I counted 29 orders. It might have seemed random, but after taking 26, the max capacity of the restaurant, applying the fifteen percent total bonus to cooking speed from the grill, my cooking skill, and rounding down from 29.9, it all made sense. And when 29 orders turned into 58 at eight o'clock, I was confident in my assessment. Every two hours, I would get the max capacity of the restaurant plus my cooking speed bonus rounded down. Meaning that if I closed at ten like planned, I would be taking a total of 87 orders.
It was a daunting number to think about; luckily, cooking food nonstop didn't leave me much time to do much of anything but cook. My world had shrunk to peeling potatoes, scaling fish, and chopping up lettuce, and I had never felt more fulfilled. Every movement and action had a tangible purpose and result, dependent on my effort and expertise. It was the direct tie between cause and effect that I found so engaging, 'Well, they did quite literally read my soul to create this reality. It's only right that I find it more engaging than a 9-5 desk job.'
--[Megan's POV]--
"Alright, that's the last table," I announced with a relieved sigh as I stumbled into the kitchen and leaned against the service table, propping myself up with one hand, "At one point, I wondered if they would ever stop coming."
"Well, I think in most scenarios that's better than not coming at all, don't you think?" Ramon asked with a completely straight face as he walked over while wiping off his hands, "Need any help cleaning off tables?"
I blinked almost entirely missing his question, as my mind was still reeling from his earlier innuendo, which I couldn't tell had been on purpose or not, "Huh…o-oh no everything is done up front…I was actually coming back here to ask if you needed help."
Ramon looked around the kitchen and shook his head, "Nope, everything is scrubbed down and ready for tomorrow."
"Oh yeah, tomorrow," I muttered, "I kinda forgot that I would have to do all of this again."
"Don't think you're cut out for it?" Ramon asked with a grin, and I quickly shook my head, "N-no, that's not what I was saying! I definitely want to work here!"
Ramon chuckled, "Relax, the job is yours, and hopefully I'll be able to find someone to fill the other waitstaff position soon to take a bit of the load off of you."
"W-well you don't have to be in too much of a rush considering I just made like two hundred dollars in tips tonight," I joked trying to lighten the mood, and much to my relief Ramon chuckled, "Can't blame you there, so how about this…see if any of your friends would want to work here, and then you can pool your tips and split them evenly."
I paused at Ramon's offer, and while I would like to say it was his generosity that made me freeze, in reality, it was the possessive wellspring of emotions that surged inside me like a fire. I didn't want to share Ramon with anybody. But after a second, I realized he had offered me a golden opportunity, "That sounds great, thanks, Ramon."
The man smiled at me once more making my heart skip a beat, "No problem, Megan. Now you make sure you get home safe, alright."
I nodded and muttered a hasty goodbye, though before I left the kitchen I snuck a quick glance and couldn't help but smile as I found Ramon's eyes firmly fixed on my ass.
Hesitating, I bit my lip before throwing caution to the wind and putting a little extra sway in my hips. I watched as Ramon's eyebrows rose and he glanced up to find me watching him. Though instead of being embarrassed or ashamed, the roguish devil only smiled and sent a wink my way and I quickly sped up and left before my heart could jump out of my chest.