PFRG: Chapter 145

The moment the first customer entered, the chandelier above the restaurant flickered a few times in perfect timing with the unstable electric current.

It was when it came to an abrupt stop that Chi Ting raised his head and happened to meet the eyes of the person who came.

The shriveled and thin appearance was almost unrecognizable. After their eyes met, it was almost as if the deep eye sockets had outlined a dark hole. There was no warmth in the cold gaze. Even in the few seconds when their eyes touched, Chi Ting still couldn’t feel the slightest emotional fluctuation. This calm appearance wasn’t just a stable emotion, but more of a feeling.

Finally, this customer was the first to look away and walk leisurely to table number one. As he sat down, the chair made a slight friction sound as it was pulled open. This pierced his eardrums sharply.

“I’ll go,” Hua Qianmei said as she took a step forward in her leather boots and slowly handed the tablet used for ordering to the customer.

She leaned forward slightly, and her tone of voice revealed her attentive service attitude. “Dear customer, welcome to the Cindura Restaurant. Please order.”

The customer reached out to take the tablet, flipped through it a few times, and touched the screen to lock onto a few dishes. After completing the submission, he returned the tablet to Hua Qianmei.

During the whole process, he maintained the same posture without any change. He didn’t even lift his eyelids, as if Hua Qianmei standing in front of him was a piece of insignificant air.

Hua Qianmei’s gaze was almost on the customer. Seeing that he really had no intention of paying any attention to her, she raised an eyebrow slightly, put the tablet back in her arms, and walked back indifferently.

She returned to the reception counter and casually put the tablet back in its original place. She tapped the surface of the counter lightly with her fingertips and stated a confirmed fact to Lu Nanling. “This guest is indeed not a normal person.”

“It is also possible that he simply has no interest in you.” Lu Nanling had already checked the sales of their first order while he was speaking. He looked up and continued, “But comparing the possibilities, the probability that he isn’t a normal person is indeed close to 90%.”

Lou Yueren laughed out loud with interest. “Now it seems that this isn’t just a question of whether one is a normal person or not.”

He glanced over and caught the tablet that Chi Ting handed over at the right time. He took it reluctantly and could only accept his fate to start working. “Okay, let’s follow the order. I will take care of the next 2, 5, and 8.”

Chi Ting added, “Yes, I’m responsible for 3, 6, 9.”

As the second customer sat down, he caught sight of a third person entering the store. He also reached out with a tablet to greet the customer.

It was as if the entry time was arranged with a stopwatch. Starting from the first customer, a new customer entered the store every two minutes. The seating order also started from table 1 and continued one by one in the sequence of 2, 3, and 4.

Overall, this was undoubtedly a very regular process. But it was precisely because it was too regular that it seemed to be following a certain procedure precisely.

In this process, along with this subtle feeling, the appearance of the second customer directly led the stagnant atmosphere inside the restaurant to a climax. Every customer who entered later had an identical face to the first customer.

No matter whether it was a simple t-shirt, retro workwear, or a coat, every customer who came in had different clothes. The only thing that remained unchanged was the same face.

Once Song Xuefeng finished preparing the ingredients according to the list, Ji Xingque carried the incense sticks out of the kitchen on a clean plate. The moment he entered the room and glanced at these similar shrunken faces, he couldn’t help being startled. “Oh my god, what is going on?”

“That is what you saw.” Hua Qianmei took the plate and waved her hand to signal him to hurry up and bring the second order. But she also sighed with emotion. “But I have to say, these guys who look exactly the same really make people feel very… uncomfortable.”

Even Chi Ting had to admit that such a scene was indeed a bit too weird.

The uncomfortable feeling wasn’t only caused by these identical faces, but also by the drowsiness and lifelessness displayed by these customers. Judging from their indicators, the number of human content in these guys was surprisingly low. Combined with the two minute interval and the overly similar appearance and behavioral logic, he couldn’t help thinking of a management game that many players might’ve played.

If this instance was considered a closed program space, those in the instance were like the players operating this business game. It was much more immersive than playing a computer game, the whole process is the same. In the face of a series of pre-set programs, they had to try and obtain as much virtual data as possible to judge the results.

In other words, if the framework was stripped away and looked at from the outside, they might also be part of the virtual data.

After completing the ordering process and returning to the counter, Chi Ting followed Hua Qianmei’s figure all the way to table one.

The plate brought by Ji Xingque had incense sticks of different colors distributed according to the order. A small sacrificial tripod was placed in front of each plate.

After Hua Qianmei had placed the incense sticks one by one on the dining table, she used a lighter to insert the sorted incense sticks into the sacrificial tripod. The fireworks floated up with the burning aroma. In the gradually dispersing smoke, the originally empty plate also presented delicious ‘dishes.’

Hua Qianmei took a quick glance and couldn’t help frowning at the bloody, fresh internal organs on the plate. Before she could take a step away, she heard a few ‘crackling’ sounds from a close distance.

There was a slight pause in the movement of retracting the tray. After a while, she let out a low sound.

The intensive clicking sound continued.

It sounded as if countless bones were breaking. Translated into a visual effect, one could notice that the previously lifeless first customer had visibly expanded in an instant.

The eyeballs that were originally sunken in the eye sockets protruded outwards at the same time. A sticky liquid could be seen oozing out from them. It was yellowish-white and swirled around the eye sockets, accompanied by a harsh friction sound caused by the continuous collision of teeth.

Undoubtedly, the plates of internal organs that appeared in front of him were quite fresh. Surrounded by thick blood plasma in the plates, the scarlet color was particularly eye-catching. He just changed his previous slow and unhurried movements, stretching out his fingers that had also grown a bit longer. He scooped them up and put them into his mouth with great salivation.

For a moment, the strange chewing sound became the only symphony in the background music of the restaurant.

Such a close distance undoubtedly allowed Hua Qianmei to feel more clearly the dual impact of smell and vision as the bloody smell came towards her. However, she just took two steps back without changing her expression and avoided the splattering blood plasma with incredible agility.

All the glances were directed at her from behind, so Hua Qianmei could guess the other customers’ gazes on her without even turning around. She just glanced at the figure that walked in through the door. After making sure that her clothes weren’t soiled, she swiftly returned to the counter. She put the tray away and casually held the tablet used for ordering. Then she walked towards the next customer she was responsible for with a big smile on her face.

The whole process was done in one go, as if flowing like clouds and water. Seeing her dashing figure, Lou Yueren couldn’t help raising an eyebrow. “Chi Ting, this Sister Mei of yours must’ve been a flight attendant. Her service attitude is pretty good.”

Chi Ting was looking at the messy dining area of the first customer while feeling worried about the subsequent cleaning problem. He obviously became stunned when he heard this. “How did you come to this conclusion?”

Lou Yueren asked, “Isn’t it right?”

“No. But if you insist, she does have something in common with flight attendants. At least, if you look at the literal meaning. Meimei is indeed very good at sending people to heaven.” Chi Ting paused here and gave a sincere suggestion. “So if it isn’t necessary, I suggest you better not provoke her.”

“…….” Lou Yueren’s voice was full of admonition. “I’ll remember it.”

Seeing Ji Xingque coming back, he straightened his body and stepped forward consciously. He took the order of the second customer he was responsible for and delivered it in big strides.

Chi Ting watched Lou Yueren leave. Then he turned and walked towards the counter.

He stood behind Lu Nanling and looked at the pages that the man had already filled with dense writing. He asked, “Have you figured out anything now?”

“Yes, a few things.” Lu Nanling sat in front of the counter and had basically collected all the data since the opening. He drew a few lines on the paper with a pen and tapped it gently. “First of all, I suspect it is a problem with the type of customers. Even though everyone orders different dishes, it can be found that the total sales of each table are the same. In other words, the average customer spending we receive today is actually fixed from the moment they enter the store. This means…”

Chi Ting continued calmly, “It means that if the number of guests we receive is also fixed, our total sales tonight is fixed.”

As he spoke, he glanced at the situation in the restaurant again. The shocking eating scenes didn’t change his calm demeanor at all. He subconsciously stroked the red stone on his chest. People who were familiar with his habits could tell that he was thinking really seriously at this time. “We have to get more sales while having a fixed number of customers. If this happens every day, the most direct way is to increase the number of guests received as much as possible?”

“That’s right, but I think there should be other variables.” Lu Nanling looked steadily at Chi Ting. “For example, the type of customers I mentioned before. From a designer’s point of view, the fact that the same modeling face was used to facilitate unified data management shows that there should be different types of customers in the future. Those customers will have a different average customer spending, if nothing unexpected happens. For example, at the current rate of incense consumption, what will be the result if the ‘food’ is out of stock during business hours in the future? In addition, what method is the safest and most correct to increase the number of guests received?”

“……” Chi Ting cleared his throat and patted Lu Nanleng’s shoulder carefully after being bombarded with a series of questions. “These are all waiting for you to find the answers, Xiao Lu.”

He caught a glimpse of Ji Xingque coming out of the kitchen again. He took the food to table three and handed over the questions to Lu Nanling with confidence. He continued his reception work with a relaxed pace.

In their Dawn team, everyone always had a clear division of labor.

Now with Lu Nanling as the brain of the team, he believed Lu Nanling would be able to provide them with the most perfect instance strategy soon.

However, even though he became a hands-off boss, Chi Ting paid more attention while completing his reception tasks.

A customer came in every two minutes, so the entire restaurant was soon filled.

It was also when the last table was seated that they discovered some new instance rules.

Different batches of guests would only be seated at serial seats. Even if only one person was dining, they would occupy a table of four instead of sharing a table with other customers.
When the restaurant was full, no more customers would come in. Looking outside the door, they could see that people outside were consciously waiting for their number to be called.
These customers not only had a fixed time to enter the store but also a fixed time to dine. Once the first customer finished their meal and left, new customers waiting outside would continue to enter the store.

No matter how they looked at it, this seemed more and more like there was an invisible program that was tightly controlling this instance.

They had to admit, this subtle feeling of becoming a type of electronic pet was really a bit terrible.