Although the wounds on his body looked mostly healed on the surface, moving still hurt. After all, the bones inside still needed time to recover; even a Space Marine, as a living weapon of war, required sufficient nutrients as the foundation for their self-healing abilities.
Considering that the Cunning Hares' finances were already in a state of sustainable over-exploitation, adding an extra food expense was only making things worse. Although everyone in the Cunning Hares was good at making money, they were equally careless at spending it. For example, Nicole buying a seven-figure set of luxury cosmetics, Anby burning an entire month's food budget trying to win a prize from a claw machine, Billy choosing low-quality parts because he spent too much on rare merch, and Nekomata needing to support her whole gang of feline brethren—also a significant expense.
Ignis was certainly one of the major earners, but he was also the most ruthless spender. Most of his savings were blown on gun maintenance and custom ammunition, followed by steel stockpiles for his workshop and various books and newspapers useful for understanding the culture of New Eridu, plus a recently ordered shipment of ether explosives. To upgrade his firepower, everything he earned from the Blacksmith Association had practically vanished immediately, leaving him painfully broke.
So Billy's proposal for an all-you-can-eat buffet became an important item on the Cunning Hares' recent schedule, mainly to ease their massive financial pressure and fill the empty stomachs caused by cutting down on food expenses.
The biggest reason, of course, was that Nicole felt bad for her adopted son and had no problem giving herself one more day off from cooking.
Thus, at the command of the Cunning Hares' leader, her four elite subordinates boarded a public transportation vehicle worth several million and headed straight for the buffet restaurant.
"Welcome, five guests in total. Please come inside." The well-trained server showed a commercial smile that looked a bit distorted from muscle fatigue.
When Ignis bent down to pass through the entrance, the server felt a sudden and intense sense of foreboding.
The manager at the register happened to see the nearly three-meter-tall giant walk in and froze; they had never served anyone of that scale before.
But after years of training, the staff immediately guided them to the special seats designed for large Thiren.
Then he saw Nicole take out five discount vouchers—large-amount ones that were notoriously hard to obtain. He stiffly accepted them, and the pink-haired woman's smile looked, to him, like an omen of some terrifying curse.
"Hope you enjoy your meal." After taking the cash, he made a request to Nicole. "I noticed that among your group… there is someone unusually tall…"
Before he could finish, Nicole's expression darkened. "What? You're refusing service? Or limiting? Can't handle a buffet?"
"No, no, of course not."
As a buffet manager, he had naturally faced many competitive eaters before. They knew that feeding such customers properly had never once resulted in a loss.
"If possible, may we film some footage for promotional use? If we can capture them eating heartily and post it online, it usually attracts large numbers of customers."
"I see." Nicole's smile returned as she fished a business card from her pocket. "Of course you may. Here's my card. And that person just now is an official employee of our Gentle House Human Resource Dispatch Agency."
"If you want to use his likeness for commercial promotion—" Nicole rubbed her thumb against her index finger. "He's an important employee of our company and a personal friend of mine. If his face appears in that video…"
"You'll pay extra!"
Transforming instantly into the Queen of Surcharges, Nicole named her price without hesitation. "How about this rate? And if your video becomes a hit later, we can discuss additional profit-sharing."
Fortunately, the manager had the authority to use promotional funds. After some bargaining, Nicole left the register completely satisfied.
The giant stood out dramatically in the restaurant. His seat was in the center, giving him the aura of overlooking a mountain range. Billy waved at Nicole. "Boss! Over here!"
As a made-to-order buffet, this place had an excellent reputation, though naturally its price matched. Seeing her employees excitedly looking around and chatting animatedly, Nicole couldn't help smiling.
That was—until the food carts arrived.
Yes. Carts.
Pushed by Billy's encouragement, Ignis told the server he wanted one hundred servings—of every dish that interested him.
As a result, several carts filled with sashimi arrived first, forming a small convoy. As for the hot dishes, the chefs commented that today felt like catering for a large group, perhaps a massive group.
Several servers were assigned to this table. There was so much food that arranging it became a logistical problem, so they eventually left one server dedicated solely to clearing plates and delivering dishes.
"Oh! Premium tuna, nya!" Nekomata's eyes glittered at the slabs of otoro on the plates. "And crab legs!"
"Go ahead." Nicole, happy from earning a bonus, urged everyone to dig in.
"Okay, nya!" Nekomata immediately scooped up several slices and stuffed them into her mouth, savoring them. "The fat! It's amazing, nya!"
Anby continued taking tiny bites, though at incredible speed, emptying her plate in moments.
Billy, despite being a robot, shoveled food into his mouth in big handfuls, occasionally offering comments.
"I'm curious—can you actually taste anything?" Ignis watched the robot constantly stuffing himself with seafood and sashimi.
"Of course I can. I have taste receptors. Maybe they're not as sensitive as a human's, but they send enough signals for my cognitive core to simulate flavor." Billy tossed several shrimp into his mouth—shell included. "Everything I eat gets used in the biomass furnace to generate power. It's not a waste."
"I can't fully sense the flavor, but the process itself—especially eating with friends—is very enjoyable." The robot said this while stuffing in several crab legs.
Ignis would never understand what simulated taste felt like to a robot, but Billy was right: eating heartily with friends was extremely enjoyable.
Although the restaurant provided their largest forks, they were still small for Ignis. He piled several plates of sashimi together and stuffed them all into his mouth.
Nekomata was right—the fish here was extremely fresh, delicious without needing any seasoning. Most importantly, today was a buffet. No need to worry about the Engel coefficient. He could eat freely.
As an injured warrior needing massive nutrients to recover, Ignis taught this buffet restaurant a lesson on how to properly host a Space Marine.
Hundreds of plates took him less than ten minutes. His eating could barely be called "eating"—it was closer to swallowing. He shoved the food in, chewed twice to appreciate the flavor, then gulped it down.
To be honest, he somewhat resembled a pelican.
His bold eating style quickly attracted surrounding customers, who recorded videos. Ignis, not hiding at all, demonstrated what it meant to eat a whole chicken in one bite—grabbing a crispy roast chicken, stuffing it in, and reducing it instantly.
Seeing this, the manager was inspired and hurried over with the restaurant's business phone to start a mukbang livestream.
That day, many curious viewers witnessed a jaw-dropping eating show: three bites for an entire pig, whole fish swallowed bones and all, three bites for a roast lamb leg—all with no spitting anything out.
Some questioned whether it was fake eating, but the camera always showed his adam's apple—or rather, Ignis was so tall that, to keep him in focus, the frame only captured his mouth, making the swallowing clearly visible. No trick was possible.
Because the mukbang livestream performed so well, the manager quietly launched a group bundle vouchers in the stream. They sold out instantly. Nicole noticed, of course; after finishing her meal, she was already off negotiating revenue shares.
Ignis stacked several tomahawk steaks together, tilted them into his mouth, chewed just enough to crush the bone, and swallowed.
His eating style earned a warning for dangerous behavior, then drew the attention of upper-level moderators. Since it was deemed too hazardous—children might imitate it—the mukbang livestream was forcibly terminated.
Even so, the group bundle vouchers in the stream's shopping cart were already gone.
After all, the giant showcased every item. From the way he ate, it was obvious that the food was genuine and tasted good.
Not long after, video platforms were filled with clips, spawning a flood of comments and bullet-screens. Many immediately accused it of fake eating or AI-generated footage.
But none of that mattered to Ignis. The restaurant had already lifted the time limit, recording plenty of promotional material.
Ignis dumped the last few plates of lamb into his mouth and looked eagerly at the fourth server helping clear dishes.
She appeared terrified and quickly contacted the kitchen, only to be told that the chefs were exhausted and couldn't produce more dishes. If he insisted on continuing, they could only provide pre-made items.
Ignis patted his eighty-percent-full stomach, stretched, and gave a big thumbs-up to the recording phone.
Later, an urban legend started to spread throughout New Eridu's buffet circles: a black, humanoid giant who would either eat a restaurant completely out of ingredients—or exhaust every chef inside.