บท 24: 24 - Earning a Favor

Arriving at the address that Mr. Brown had sent him, Gabe was a little surprised by the place. Mr. Brown and Principal Carter, who were a C-Rank and a Peak C-Rank Developer respectively, imagining that they would choose a very luxurious place when they went out to eat, Gabe had been worried about how much money he would have to spend at the place these two professors would go. But looking at the place at the address they'd sent him, Gabe was surprised that it was a lot less extravagant than he'd previously imagined.

The place was still clearly luxurious, Gabe couldn't deny it, but unlike the luxury he'd imagined where things would shine as bright as gold, this place's style of luxury was different. It was what people called understated luxury. Gabe recognized small details, like some plants that were rare and hard to find in Sandstone Bay, of which he had learned when he was researching for Residual Devil, that now surprised him to see here, but luckily the place was much nicer than he had imagined.

Despite being dressed in simple clothes, as he didn't have much money previously, the attendant treated him very well and politely. When he was escorted to Mr. Brown's table, Gabe was surprised by the person sitting next to him.

As much as he had heard of Principal Selena Carter, he had only seen her from afar a few times during the years he studied at Harrington University. But now, being so close to her, even Gabe, who was already a bit used to the good looks of women from his previous world, was surprised by this principal's appearance.

Despite being a university principal, to Gabe's surprise she didn't look older than her late twenties, which was an extremely young age for a university principal and still far too young to be a Peak Rank C Developer!

"Hello Mr. Brown, Mrs. Carter," Gabe greeted with a smile as he walked over to the table where they were sitting and sat down quite casually.

Professor Brown gave Gabe a big smile and waved his hand for him to sit down. "Come on Howard, sit with us. We were just talking about you."

Principal Carter just smiled at Gabe as she nodded at him, to which Gabe returned a smiled back and nodded politely.

"I hope it's all been good things Mr. Brown, haha," Gabe joked as he finished sitting down.

"I don't think I can even think of a bad thing to say about you Howard. Every piece of news that comes into my hands is more surprising than the last, and surprisingly all in a good way!" David Brown said with a big smile on his face.

Despite being 60 years old, David Howard was much more lively and energetic than other people his age, which made most students enjoy taking his classes.

"Perhaps the only bad thing that crosses my mind related to you is the other students complaining about how bad you are making them look, especially the Developer, Nexus Gaming, who was in first place in the competition for University Developers before you took the lead. Apparently he didn't take it so well that the first place reward he already believed would be his had fallen into the hands of someone else he had no idea who it was," Mr. Brown explained.

Hearing about this, Gabe raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Despite it being obvious, Gabe was so focused on developing his game that he didn't even think about the other contestants or his position in the contest after he reached first place. The only times he had paid attention to the other people in the contest was when he had to see how other developers were faring and what kind of ideas they came up with that he could snag in the future.

But despite a slight raise of his eyebrow, Gabe had no other reaction. He didn't feel guilty that his result was so much better than other people's. It didn't make sense for him to limit himself just to please others.

Seeing Gabe's calm and composed reaction, not only was Mr. Brown quite pleased, Principal Carter also lightly nodded her head, showing that she was also pleased with the way this boy was acting.

Seeing some plates arrive at the table, Gabe got a little excited, as he was so hungry.

Watching Gabe's eyes glisten, Mr. Brown laughed and spoke, "Don't worry, lad. We've already ordered several dishes, this is just the starter. When you said you were going out to eat, we decided to order some more food. So let's eat first and talk later; this old body of mine is very hungry, haha!"

With the way that Mr. Brown spoke, Gabe was no longer embarrassed to start eating and ate with the teacher and principal.

Tasting this food, Gabe was even more surprised. These dishes had very simple appearances like omelets, salads, and snacks, but they were all at least 2-3 times tastier than what Gabe had ever tasted before, and not only in this life, but in his other life as well!

Seeing the surprise in Gabe's eyes, Mr. Brown was even more enthusiastic as he explained about each of the dishes and why he liked this restaurant so much. He told Gabe that the restaurant belonged to an old friend of his, an old Rank C Player who retired a few years ago, and that to spend the rest of his life he had decided to open up a restaurant.

As Mr. Brown explained this, the Chef of the restaurant arrived next to their table and started talking to them, explaining the dishes to Gabe and Principal Carter, not knowing who the two of them were, just treating them like young people.

Gabe and Principal Carter just acted natural and listened to the story this man told about his adventures in which he discovered some of the recipes they were tasting. Meanwhile, Mr. Brown was left laughing at how his old friend was treating the woman next to him. But no one had informed the man that this seemingly young woman was the Dean of Harrington University, as the atmosphere was very pleasant between them and no one wanted to spoil it.

This continued until the friend of Mr. Brown said something that surprised the three of them:

"Hey David, you have to help me with something," Old Harold, the chef, said as he looked at his friend.

Seeing his friend's somewhat serious manner, David was a bit surprised and curious as to what favor this friend of his wanted to ask. "What is it, Harold?"

Harold was a little embarrassed to explain what he wanted, as he looked at Gabe, until he said in a low voice, "Can you get Developer EA's contact number for me?"

Hearing Harold's question, not only was Mr. Brown surprised, but so too were Gabe and Principal Carter, especially when they saw the slightly embarrassed look on Eugene's face as he looked at Gabe. They all were wondering if he had already recognized Gabe's identity.

"What do you want EA's contact information for?" David asked, confused.

"It seems that one of our cooks who is an F Rank Player discovered a secret zone within Residual Devil where players can learn cooking skills. After that cook discovered this, his cooking skills improved a lot, and seeing that, other cooks have also started playing Residual Devil to improve their cooking skills, and now the non-Player cooks are feeling a bit shortchanged," Harold said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Pffft, haha! Are you kidding? Did that really happen?!" David started to laugh out loud as he listened to this story and looked back and forth between Harold and Gabe.

Seeing how David's gaze was flickering between him and the young man sitting in front of him, Harold was a little embarrassed and apologized. "Sorry to bring up another Developer at this point, young man, but this really is something that's giving me a bit of trouble."

Gabe was even more surprised by this man's reaction as David started to laugh even louder. Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe noticed that even Principal Carter was having to control herself from bursting out in laughter like Mr. Brown was doing.

Harold was even more embarrassed and confused by what was happening, but before he could say anything, a cacophony of noise from the kitchen interrupted the entertaining moment.

"Chef Cooper, it's impossible to continue cooking here! The interns are starting to develop dishes on their own during working hours and are delaying the development of dishes ordered by customers because of this!" a man in a chef's outfit complained as he approached.

Beside the man, a girl of about 18 held a slightly sullen expression. "I was just trying out a recipe I learned from Residual Devil, no big deal. I'll pay for those ingredients later…"

"The problem isn't the ingredients, girl, it's that you're doing it during working hours and disrupting the restaurant's operation! Some of the customers' orders were delayed because of you!" The man said annoyed.

Seeing the two fighting in front of his friend, Harold became irritated and apologized to the table as he walked away to deal with these two members of his staff.

As Harold walked away, David was finally getting his laughter under control and looked at Gabe with a surprised expression.

"Was that also your fault, Howard?" David asked with a smile on his face.

Gabe was a little embarrassed. He didn't imagine that an Easter Egg he had put in Residual Devil would be the reason for so much fighting in a restaurant so soon after he had added it. But he was quite surprised that a chef who had awakened Mana but didn't decide to be Players had discovered the Easter Egg in such a short time.

"I think partially?" Gabe answered with a little uncertainty, "I actually added an option like that, something like an Easter Egg, as I like to call it. This one was a hidden NPC that teaches players how to cook and prepare medicine to make it easier for them to play."

Hearing Gabe's explanation, both Mr. Brown and Principal Carter raised their eyebrows slightly.

"To teach the player how to prepare food and medicine you made an NPC who has real cooking knowledge, and players can learn this knowledge by playing the game?! That's fantastic, boy! I never thought that skills other than skills used in combat could be taught in a game! And here you are, proving me wrong yet again!" Mr. Brown said with a bright glint in his eyes.

Principal Carter alongside Mr. Brown, her eyes were also shining upon hearing this explanation.

As a Peak Rank C Developer, Selena Carter didn't need just Mana Units to be able to move up to become a Developer Rank B; she also needed inspiration. And only a little inspiration was missing to become a Developer Rank B in the future. While that Inspiration came quickly for some people, for others it sometimes took several years.

Selena was at Peak Rank C a year ago, but she never achieved anything that could inspire that improvement for her, but now, with this simple line from Gabe Howard, a 22 year old young man who was 6 years younger than her, she finally saw a path she could use to rise from a Developer Rank C to a Developer Rank B!

Unbeknownst to Gabe, he had earned himself a huge favor from Selena Carter, a favor he would be very grateful to cash in on in the future.

//NunuNote//

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