Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 301: The cheesy couple

Since being surrounded by the army of Liu Zi last time, Ma Zhaodi has deeply felt the terror of human wave tactics.

No matter where he is in the central city, as long as he is spotted by a player, a large number of other players will start to spawn in the surrounding area within three minutes.

Moreover, the crowd was like an endless game of Plants vs. Zombies, wave after wave, with no end in sight. Their enthusiasm reminded him of the glorious days when he fought with other grades for food in the cafeteria back in school.

Ma Zhaodi never expected that, being in the central city, he would personally experience the feeling of being "submerged in a vast ocean of people." He also never expected that Liu Zi's inescapable network would spread throughout the entire central city. What's worse, it seems that Liu Zi from the neighboring city has come looking for someone just for a bite to eat. In order to prevent his plans from being ruined, he had to adopt a purchase restriction strategy—and for this reason, he even joined the group chat for these Liu Zi.

“I’ll give you 90 percent every day. Each of you send one person to collect it, pay the money, and get the food.” He said in the group chat, “Take it and leave. Don’t come and block the road every day, or I’ll be called in for a talk by the Central City Police Department in a couple of days.”

“Why not 100 percent?”

"Don't ask, just think of it as promoting food culture and taking it abroad."

"I want to protest!"

"Protests are ineffective. Go eat your buns. In short, if you see my stall in the city in the future, don't make a fuss or come up to buy anything. I've already given you your share. Be careful when you distribute your food, and don't eat it every meal."

"Oh"

As it turned out, Ma Zhaodi's approach was quite effective. Master-level culinary skills not only enhanced the taste of the food but also significantly improved cooking efficiency, speeding up every step from ingredient preparation to processing and cooking techniques. Now, he only needed to spend one day cooking to barely meet the needs of the children for the next day—at least everyone could eat once every two days.

The rest of the time was basically spent riding his three-wheeled motorcycle around the city aimlessly.

"Check my asset points. Three hundred thousand?"

Ma Zhaodi thought to himself, "Ten times the asset points really bring in money so fast! After deducting the expenses of cooking, buying ingredients, and purchasing skills, the net income reached 300,000 in the first three weeks. When Barry woke up, he felt that his asset points were about to reach several million."

"I have a question," Ma Zhaodi asked the system, "If something goes wrong halfway through this smuggling mission, like being killed by a boss, can I come back?"

[System notification: If you are not recognized as part of this world's timeline during your first attempt to smuggle yourself into the same world, the probability of being caught will increase dramatically when you attempt to smuggle yourself into the same world a second time; and if you are caught and deported, you will no longer be able to smuggle yourself into that world.]

"Got it, just try not to send them."

Ma Zhaodi casually bought an immortal totem—although according to his memory, there shouldn't be any major disasters or villains in Central City before Barry woke up, he didn't intend to gamble. He would have to buy something to save his life sooner or later, so he might as well buy it now.

"Then there's 50,000 left—let's save it for now."

Just as Ma Zhaodi was making plans in his mind, a thin middle-aged man and a woman arrived at the three-wheeled vehicle stall.

"Elizabeth, you should know I still have a lot of work to do today."

“I know, I know.” The woman stuck her tongue out at him. “The great Mr. Denton always has so much work to do. His research concerns the future of all mankind, the tomorrow and hope of this country, and the breakthroughs and progress in the history of human medicine—so, Mr. Denton, when will your research concern your lovely wife?”

Denton sighed; it was clear he couldn't withstand such an onslaught.

“Okay, Elizabeth,” he said. “I know I don’t go out with you very often, I’m sorry.”

"Hmph, I forgive you—as long as you buy me this!" Ma Zhaodi watched the couple approach his tricycle with a blank expression, and suddenly had an urge to turn around and leave.

I'm here to sell food, not to find food. You two randomly grabbed a lucky audience member and started showing off your love. Isn't this kind of indiscriminate attack a bit too much?

Denton spoke first: "Hello, sir—what are these?"

"food."

"Uh, I mean, I know these are food, but what are all these things?"

"dessert."

"electrocution?"

In the past, Ma Zhaodi would probably have given an answer like "traditional Chinese handmade dessert" or "Chinese handmade royal dessert," but now he's a bit too full of dog food (a Chinese slang term for public displays of affection) to bother with this lovey-dovey couple.

But it was clear that Elizabeth was interested in these unusual-looking foods.

“I know, I know!” She raised her hand: “I’ve heard this word before, it’s a word from China.”

Ma Zhaodi raised an eyebrow.

“We call it snacks where I’m from, but if you call it desserts,” he replied. “Even though it’s from a roadside food cart, it’s not cheap.”

"how much is it?"

“The sweet and savory ox-tongue pastry and Yunnan ham mooncake are five dollars each; the sweet Dingsheng cake and peach shortbread are also five dollars each,” Ma Zhaodi said. “Ignoring the cost of ingredients, the taste is actually the same, so we simply set the price the same. However, it still depends on your taste. If you like savory, buy the first two; if you like sweet, buy the latter two.”

"It doesn't actually sound that expensive."

"One dollar and fifty cents is considered expensive here. Where I'm from, things like peach shortbread are much cheaper." Ma Zhaodi curled his lip. "If the food that ordinary people eat is too expensive, who can afford it?"

Denton seemed interested and said to Ma Zhaodi, "Two of each, we want to try them first."

As it turned out, the master-level culinary skills were indeed worth the 120,000 asset points price tag—the couple first spent $40 to sample the pastries, and then spent another $200 to buy ten of each.

"Uh, do you accept credit cards here?" Denton asked, chewing on a piece of Ding Sheng Gao (a type of rice cake).

The soft and sticky Dingsheng cake bursts with a delicate osmanthus fragrance and a sweet red bean paste flavor in your mouth. This batch is made with osmanthus and red bean paste, so it has a beautiful light yellow color.

It's clear that Denton has little resistance to this dessert.

He looked down and rummaged through his wallet: "I don't have that much cash on me; I want to buy more."

"Sorry, it's a small business, we don't accept credit cards." Ma Zhaodi shrugged. "It's already quite unexpected that you're carrying so much cash. If you want it, come back and buy it next time you see it."

(End of this chapter)