Chapter 503: Pyramid Food Court & Panda Burger Instance.

The individual store owners were led to their very own shop dimensional instances by the instructions in the Pandamonium App, and without exception, all of them were baffled and bedazzled by it. The first to enter their store instance was the collective group of food court store owners accompanied by Jin considering it was the nearest to the elevator.

Unlike the others, they had no idea what their instance would be like. Jin had taken full control over the design of the food court instance. Though some still grumbled internally that they did not have any say in it, their rent was a group collective and therefore significantly lower, leaving little to no room to openly complain. But without any expectations to their store instance, they were left flabbergasted at what was before them.

A giant pyramid with their stalls facing outward in the current cold winter.

One of the penguins came sliding down from the tip of the pyramid and greeted them upon hitting rock bottom (or snow bottom). It introduced them to their new stores and explained that Jin got the inspiration from the ‘healthy’ food pyramid that they were all taught in school.

The penguin iterated that the pyramid was going to be something similar to a competition kind of system. Whoever led in sales would be placed above the others. All of their stores were able to move around in a moment’s notice as demonstrated by a snap of the penguin flippers. Next, they witnessed the blocks of their stalls being shuffled from the bottom to the top.

The fluffy little flightless bird added that everyone would start from the bottom and the moment lunch time was officially over, the stalls would begin to move to their respective places based on the profit sales. As there were ten stores in total, there was currently no problem with the pyramid structure.

The first would be placed at the peak, second and third on the upper level, fourth to sixth on the middle level and the rest would be at the bottom level. In the future, where there are additional stalls, Jin might place another great pyramid or perhaps enlarge the current one to fit the rest.

When the store owners heard that, they were a little disappointed as they argued some of the stores could be superior in profit to the others because of the type of food they were selling. However, Jin had placed a few certain measures to ensure that these rankings would not be permanently skewed towards just one particular criterion.

The penguin told them that the criteria for the top spot would vary and others such as best dressed costume chef for the week, or most healthy choice for the week were also in the rotation. Each time a customer order something, there would be a short, interactive and straightforward survey to attend to while waiting for their food.

The store owners were glad that this would potentially allow each of one to get the top spot at least once. As they listened to the penguin explain everything, they noticed that while it had a winter setting, the place felt relatively warm given the weather outside.

It was cooling for the head and yet still lukewarm for the rest of the body. Some thought that Jin was probably only mimicking the way the weather was outside, but in actual fact, he had already maintained the temperature as well as the amount of wind in the area.

The store owners than glanced around the Great Pyramid and noticed how the seats were all made of stone, making it hard to move the chairs and tables around. (Well granted, they were all cultivators, but it was still a relatively mind gruelling task to move the tables around.)

However, the penguin stated that there should be sufficient seats to cater to different types of people.

For the loners who prefered to eat alone or just wanted a quick meal, Jin had placed multiple rows of single tables, and sadly they were also the furthest from the stores. For families who needed a larger space or a baby seat, there were tables that accommodated such setting.

Lastly, the front few rows were reserved for the elderly. Yet, all these were just the standard amount of seats allocated. The penguin noted to them that because this was a dimensional instance, additional seats could be created in an instant for people to eat should the need arise.

However, what set this particular instance apart from other food courts was one particular initiative which plagued everyone since the advent of restaurants and their small space.

Seat reserving.

The second the customers entered the Food Court dimensional instance, the System would automatically reserve a seat for them and direct them there via Pandamonium. If all the standard seats were taken, the System would create more places without the need for the store owners to do anything.

To allow for this, the customers would have to indicate outside of the statue how many would be joining for one table. Afterwards, it would issue the customers who ‘booked’ the table to have ample time to gather his or her mates for a meal.

This was created because Jin himself hated restaurants where they requiered the full group to be present before being allowed to enter the premise. And that was despite the fact they had already book a reservation in advance. Therefore, Jin was more than happy to eliminate this particular petty trouble when given a chance.

The only thing left was how fast the food could be churned out for the customers. Unlike the Kitchen Instance, which Lynn and her penguins had access to, Jin was not intending to share this capability of keeping their food piping hot with the aid of temporal manipulation storages. (After all, he needed to maintain an edge over his competitors.)

So, if the queue was long, it was all up to them on how to handle the customers. The dungeon supplier had already made sure the pyramid was large enough to accommodate future expansions or for other prospective owners to enter into the food court instance.

On the other hand, Jin had decided to permit each of them to rent one penguin at no cost for the rest of the month of December as a sign of goodwill. (Not precisely that good of a will since the penguins were learning their recipes etc.) Should they wished to hire part timers or rent more of the penguins, he did not mind at all since it was their own particular business.

As the food court store owners entered their individual stores, there were already some supplies from Jin’s agriculture sector. It was merely a carton of samples for everyone to try. It didn’t cost Jin much, but it would make them consider if they wanted to purchase those expensive but high quality food supplies for their business.

Some who had been to Lynn’s restaurant instance had quickly decided to order a week’s worth as a try out through their penguin. Meanwhile, the rest waited for the personal food suppliers to enter their instance to get in.

Speaking about food, Ke Ru was the one that was exempted from the Food Court Shop Instance because of one particular reason. She had had the capital to buy into the Wacdonald franchise.

Jin roughly knew that buying a major franchise name was a big headache as the big honchos usually dictated how Ke Ru would have to manage her store. That meant that the dimensional instance would also have to follow these specific Wacdonald’s guidelines.

But Jin felt it was a waste to use a dimension instance to do something so boring. So he proposed to start Ke Ru’s very own particular fast food restaurant at 75% of the cost that she had to fork out for the franchise contract and Jin promised to provide her 75% of the profits in return as well as give her the ability to make any decision she wanted for the store.

However, Lynn would have the final say on the quality of food that would be served since it carried the name of the Panda with it. Ke Ru wholeheartedly agreed on this condition because she had tasted how superior Lynn’s food items were. With Lynn giving her input and even create some recipes for the fast food restaurant, the new restaurant manager’s money was more or less guaranteed.

On a separate note, Lynn was delighted she was able to create a Western food menu as the Penguin Cultivator always had had some ideas with regards to that particular cuisine. She just lacked the confidence to put it in her menu because it was not up to her personal standards.

Ke Ru, however, begged to differ even though Lynn insisted, so Ke Ru just accepted the fact that it was the woes of a perfectionist.

Luckily, there were no western food stalls in the Food Court Instance as previously the store owners in Tiangong Shopping District had recognised that Wacdonalds was more or less dominating the western food scene.

There had been some who attempted to create such a stall in the district but ended up losing money with their prices either being too big compared to their competitor, or the quality taking a hike to ensure the price point.

Ultimately by creating this fast food restaurant instance which Ke Ru had aptly named ‘Panda Burger’, it provided an avenue for Lynn to improve her western cuisine (despite it being called fast food) and the penguins were mainly responsible for most of the cooking. Ke Ru still maintained most of her past employees who were willing to enter this new phase with her.

It was a bit costly, but with the money she was saving by foregoing to extend her contract with Wacdonalds after the loss of her store she managed, Ke Ru had the foresight to see its potential. Thus, she was willing to take a bet on this new venture. As long as the food standard was there, and the price was right, people would come in masses.

Thankfully, the price was more than reasonable in Panda Burger. It was slightly more expensive than her previous Wacdonalds, but the System had already predicted that the fast food mega chain would inadvertently increase their prices in the coming months.

Besides, the System was confident that the prices were decent enough, given their superior products.

Oh and the dimensional shop instance? Since it was named Panda Burger, it was obvious that the instance was shaped as a …Burger. Yeap, when Ke Ru first entered the instance, all she saw was a Big Fat Triple Stacked Burger House right in front of them. Ke Ru hesitated for a while before she went towards the burger house and tried to pluck out a piece of the burger bun that was at the base of the Burger House.

Unfortunately, it did not work, and Lynn who had been in the vicinity helping her penguins to prepare the food items told her it didn’t work that way. “Wait what?! It does not work THAT way?! You mean you can actually bite a piece off that?!” Ke Ru asked, and Lynn nodded her head with a wide smile.

“Remember how you listed that you wanted to make the Burger meal set unique? Well, there you go.” Lynn took out a set of three spatulas coloured bronze, silver and gold. She handed the bronze one to her and asked her to ‘scoop’ the bread out.

Ke Ru did what was told, and at that moment, she indeed took a piece of the bread bun out! It was crunchy and tasty (also slightly hot). “This is a fantastic idea… and equally unhygienic. I love the idea but aren’t we just asking for the Health Inspector to take us out?” Ke Ru asked worriedly and Lynn pondered for a moment.

“That is why we we will be limiting the areas where you can ‘scoop’ them, so it will be regulated by the Panda NPCs. It’s a trial to see how our citizens react. Worst case we can always explain the gimmick by this being a Dungeon Instance, I guess.” Lynn answered as these spatulas could be redeemed via a voucher on the Pandamonium App when they approach the section where the Panda NPCs were located.

Ke Ru reminded her not to underestimate their fellow Chinese people for being greedy and ‘innovative’ when it came to free stuff which Lynn wholeheartedly agreed and said it would be a promotional trial.

While the furniture for the customers was on the upper floors from the bread bun level, Ke Ru realised there were not many places for people to sit. That was when Lynn told her to follow her to the highest ‘mayonnaise level’. Upon reaching, they saw the top bun covering as the roof. Lynn pretended to press a few buttons on her Pandamonium App, and suddenly the top bun flew upwards.

Somehow, a whole new level of Pork Bacon came falling from the sky! It stacked right on top of the mayonnaise level, and a staircase gradually descended right in front of them. Ke Ru was surprised by the level design and how the Burger House could accommodate more customers.

She also noticed that the Panda NPCs not only handled the spatula event but were also used to distributing food on that particular floor. All the customers needed to do was to the Pandamonium App to order and then show their order number to the NPCs.

And then Lynn showed Ke Ru the most important feature of Burger House which every level would have…

The Exit.

Each level was equipped with a tube slide leading the customers to eventually land in a gigantic ball pool where there was a Panda NPCs there as well to ensure no customers or children getting hurt within the ball pool. (As the number of levels expanded, so would the number of slides and subsequently the size of the ball pool.) And the elderlies? Reserved on the first floor as usual!

“Jin better have those toys ready too for the happy kids’ meal!” Ke Ru mentioned jokingly to Lynn, who relayed the message to the System. It was a kid and adult friendly fast food restaurant which Ke Ru could foresee it would be a hit and she was delighted to have bet on Jin.