Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Secret Plan

To wake up from sleep I one-shotted the zero cola summoned from the point shop, and sank into deep thought.

Functions of the status window that I couldn't grasp at all in modern times, but began to be revealed one by one only after possessing in 20th-century Britain.

This time too there was not a little implication.

【 Impress celebrities with special food (4/99th cycle) 】

First. The fact that two general quests were completed at the same time.

I still couldn't know how many people this quest had to satisfy at once, or whether the number of satisfied people accumulated.

But two succeeded at once? Then the number mentioned here probably has a high possibility of meaning historically famous celebrities one by one. Exactly four people who match the conditions come to mind.

Lord Crookes, the Duke of York, Mr. Tesla, Mr. Edison.

If I gave awe with special food to these four people and fulfilled the quest achievement conditions? Quite plausible, right?

But there still remained an unresolved question.

Clearly at the restaurant opening ceremony there seemed to be more celebrities whose names I had heard at least once in my previous life... Why was only Lord Crookes counted?

And as my restaurant became more and more famous I know several gentry and politicians of London also visited, why wasn't the general quest achieved more? Are there more other conditions?

"I'll have to experiment a bit more to know for sure. For now let's move on."

Second. The opening of a new main quest.

【 Change history with special food (0.42%) 】

A suspicious percentage is attached. Let's call this 'change degree' from now on.

"Does it mean the vegetarian cooking I made influenced the direction of history? Then what about Chicken and Chips?"

Chicken and Chips also caused quite a stir in London? But I get the feeling of why this number appeared.

Some more direct intervention in history. For example, a clear butterfly effect of the degree of reconciling Tesla and Edison who were rivals with each other.

"But the number is strange? Why does it keep changing? Are you a stock?"

What was 0.42% at first suddenly rose to 0.45%, then dropped back to 0.44%. Then in the end it stopped at 0.43%.

"Surely this isn't some trash setting like 'the world's deterrence' intervening, right?"

A setting that often appears in time-slip series creations. If a person with future knowledge influences the past, a time paradox occurs because the determined future changes.

So causality intervenes and returns the future to its original state and whatever... But, from the start if it was going to be like that they shouldn't have possessed me in this world. Already not applicable there.

In fact what I was worried about was separate. That when interrogated about the source of the future items I brought, there is no way to perfectly escape. Because of that I've been careful until now and haven't used the point shop carelessly unless it's a safe situation.

Then do I feel a pang of conscience about utilizing my future knowledge for my money-making and wealth and glory, and the happiness and well-being of my family? Not at all! I'm a person who succeeded with such shamelessness even in my previous life. If you have ability you should use it, am I an idiot?

If I really worried about the butterfly effect that would occur from my actions, I wouldn't have made Chicken and Chips from the start and lived as if dead like a mouse. If it's going to be like that I shouldn't even breathe at all.

"Or it could mean that with this level I still haven't had a clear influence on the future."

Mr. Tesla and Mr. Edison only opened the waterway of conversation by coming to my restaurant, the relationship between the two people has a high possibility of twisting again at any time. If they go back to America right away and fight again? Then it's a matter of time for the change degree to return to 0%.

And if the big frame of history twists with just doing vegetarian cooking once, that's a world that's something wrong.

"In the end, to prevent the change degree from dropping I have to constantly mediate and intervene between those uncles... Tch, annoying. Let's think about this later."

Last third. This is the most annoying.

【 Random Box Confirmation Ticket Fragment A x1 (1/10) 】

My impression was like this.

"Are you really playing a gacha game? Why does something like this come out?"

I roughly get the feeling. As the main quest progress rate rises random box confirmation ticket fragments will come out, so collect 10 of them and reliably obtain the item I want. For example, asthma medicine for Mom or something.

"But what if I suddenly go crazy and want something like a nuclear weapon? Status window, aren't you too naive?"

Of course I have no intention of doing such a thing. Weapons or whatever don't help my becoming rich project at all. What's advantageous to capitalism is still love and peace.

"In the end to obtain this confirmation ticket I have to change world history... But why on earth do I have to do such a thing?"

Of course there's no one who will answer. But I continued muttering to myself.

"By any chance is the reason you sent me to this world to change the unhappy history of the future? But why of all people me? What can I do? What, stop a world war or something?"

I felt like I was crazy right now. But at that moment, somehow I felt like I had spoken the correct answer without knowing.

My chest felt hot. Even if I do nothing, in the end I'll face that unhappy future someday. Until now I just tried to forget until it became certain...

"Well, if it goes like this in ten years a great war will definitely break out. If I don't flee to America by then I'll also get involved in the middle of it."

An age just right to be dragged to the battlefield. And at that time how absurdly the world would roll I sufficiently knew with the common sense learned in high school world history class.

Even if I somehow don't get dragged into the war, I can't be free from the aftermath.

The bombing of the Zeppelin airships that struck London Britain, the maritime air raid of U-boats. Even if I avoid the ravages of the First World War, in the Second World War there's Hitler.

The large-scale London Blitz.

A ruthless rocket attack enough to completely change the map of London. Even if our family is alive until then this damage can never be avoided. I might have to chew shoe leather because there's nothing to eat.

Even if I luckily avoid the world wars, what about the Great Depression? The Spanish flu?

"I'm going crazy. What I know how to do is only Korean cooking? Just take out a nuclear weapon or something from the random box. Then I'll throw that in Berlin and come back."

Who on earth am I talking to right now?

"Even without this quest I was going to twist history for money-making anyway, what meaning is there? Is it telling me to work harder?"

Until now I've lived as the skilled chef Jean-Paul Durand and only fried Chicken and Chips, but in fact there was one more plan I had secretly prepared.

The second stage of my becoming rich project. The first was setting up a proper restaurant... The second plan is a side job.

A side job worth touching some money. Fortunately the restaurant has entered a stable period, and as much as I've grasped a clue to solving the refrigerator problem, now it seems okay to pay attention to the side job.

The reason I saved the large amount of profits received as dividends from Mr. Henry without spending a single penny was also because of this.

"With that won't the main quest also be solved automatically... Well, I'll know if I wait and see."

Can I greatly change Britain's food market with the future knowledge I have? Of course! I'm prepared to cause another stir and feel no pang of conscience at all.

"Then before the full-scale start shall I open the random box for a change of mood? Please don't let trash-like things come out."

【 Spin Spin Random Box x2 】

Two delivery boxes tightly wrapped with tape fell in front of my eyes.

I tore one of them without hesitation. The item inside the box was...

An item I can absolutely never forget.

I looked inside the box with absurd eyes.

"What, why did a magazine come out?"

Monthly Vogue. April issue.

A super famous magazine dealing with various topics such as not only fashion but culture, art, movies, music, and social issues.

I don't even know if it's published in the current era. Since I've never seen it once at the stall while doing newspaper selling.

But there was a separate reason this magazine was special to me.

"Heh, to see this photo again."

Somehow the tip of my nose stings a little. On the front of the magazine was printed the appearance of my previous life holding a frying pan and smiling. Age around late 20s? Still young, a splendid time. And I didn't even gain weight.

Right, this was the first Vogue magazine that carried my interview when I was just starting to become famous as a chef.

But a strange d�j� vu that came at the moment.

"Wait a minute, why did this come out from the random box?"

I hurriedly opened the safe and took out the tumbler and engineering calculator summoned so far.

Looking at them lined up like this now I know for sure.

The condition for items popping out from the random box, and why I felt familiar when I first saw them.

"...These are all items I owned in my previous life."

No one answered, but now I'm certain.

It was certain that items I owned in my previous life in some way popped out from the random box. It's the same condition as only ingredients I had used or encountered even once being summonable from the point shop.

There's only one way to reliably verify this deduction.

"Let's open the last box. If an item I had also comes out from there, my guess is correct."

Rip.

And the item inside the box was... honestly something that transcended my imagination, completely unexpected!

The moment I saw it, I felt like my heart would burst from excitement!

Ultimate happiness!

"Saint George, the Virgin Mary, even God the Father, thank you all!!"

I made the sign of the cross seeking a religion I don't even believe in.

Because the item I took out was worth that much!

"Patek Philippe watch! And that in the skeleton version! In my previous life I only wore it for barely a month!"

I hugged the box and spun around happily!

What came out of the delivery box was a wristwatch that boasted tremendous value even in my previous life. And that completely new, in a state intactly packaged in a high-quality leather box.

It was the only item I flexed in my previous life! Moreover even then I couldn't get a new product so I bought a used repaired model with a premium, but this time a new product!

The Ferrari I rode? Ah, that was a rental with company money. Unless I'm crazy would I ride a supercar with my own pure money?

Then what is this watch? Honestly it wasn't worth buying with a large sum. It's all brand power and bubble.

But... the watch was a kind of confidence to me. Proof that I had succeeded this much socially.

Of course whether I wore an expensive one or a cheap one no one recognized. There was even a person who asked if such a watch is a million won. But as long as I was wearing this watch I was upright to myself.

Anyway, I always felt uneasy because I bought it with a big heart but couldn't wear it much, but now I feel like I'm flying! I won't sell it even if you give me a hundred million dollars!

"Phew... Then shall I try it on once?"

A moment later having found composure, I wore the wristwatch on my wrist and tightened it. It fit perfectly as if made for this wrist. In my previous life I have a memory of it being a bit awkward, but this time it was surprisingly natural. As if it was originally this place.

I feel like I'm powerfully buffed somehow! Confidence suddenly rising!

Isn't this also a modern item so I have to hide it? There were wristwatches even in 1901! Or not? Are the wristwatches still too crude? Then I'll enjoy it a bit more and take it off. I'll wear it secretly.

It's not because I'm afraid of it being taken! Because if it breaks I can't fix it!

"Wait, then in the end my guess was correct? The items that come out from the random box are..."

It means things I owned in some way.

The tumbler was also one I received as a gift and put in the warehouse, and the engineering calculator was also an item I funded because it looked fun. The magazine? Of course I bought it since the first interview was carried. Though I didn't properly read it.

But this result made one more important fact clearer.

"...Asthma medicine absolutely won't come out from the random box."

Not even asthma medicine, I couldn't even expect penicillin. Probably if I'm lucky Tylenol or general cold medicine level?

Strangely I was a person who was so healthy in my previous life that I almost never bought and ate medicine. I only stocked Tylenol for emergency, and never ate it once. So I might have neglected health checkups too.

"In the end the only thing I can rely on is this side."

Random box confirmation ticket.

It meant I have to progress the main quest to obtain Mom's asthma medicine.

But would changing history with food be that easy?

Of course, there is a method I thought of in advance. My second becoming rich plan.

The day before yesterday, a letter came from my regular workshop. The content was that the production of the ordered machine was completed so come and check.

What did I make? Of course an item that doesn't exist yet in this era. I confirmed and was convinced two or three times of what doesn't exist. I poured all the money I earned into the commission fee, and made it while even receiving an advance from Mr. Henry because it was short.

Are you curious? A mere chef like me, what can I make? Not an inventor and not a mechanical engineering major either.

But even such me had exactly one invention of a simple principle that I could confidently implement. Something I'm still desperately wanting right now. In fact it's correct that I made it because I needed it.

Excluding the refrigerator, the number 1 kitchen essential household appliance I picked.

The companion of all modern housewives and chefs.

An item I can't understand why it still hasn't been developed in this era by common sense.

Electric grinder.

Without this honestly one-third of modern Western and Korean cooking is really annoying to make. Especially, I desperately felt the necessity when doing tofu cooking.

What's the side job? Of course an inventor. Cooking inventor Jean-Paul Durand. To make big money in this era you absolutely have to invent like Mr. Edison. Lord Crookes also became rich through invention, right?

Anyway I was thinking of touching the eating habits of the British a bit with this invention.

###

The next morning, as soon as I opened my eyes I knocked on Mr. Henry's office in the next building.

He had just come to work and was about to drink a cup of coffee, and came out yawning unlike a gentleman.

"Young Jean, what's the matter from early morning?"

"Mr. Henry, please introduce a bakery company president who has some money, anyone related to a lawyer is fine."

"What? Suddenly what are you saying?"

I slightly showed him the paper I sketched. Not all of it, just a very small part.

"I'm going to sell the patent rights of the mechanical device I made and the newly devised food. By any chance do you have thoughts of investing? I'll specially give the rights to Mr. Henry as a commemoration too."

"Suddenly what is that talk? What did you make again? Surely you're not trying to sell the Chicken and Chips patent rights, right?"

"No way. This item will cause a big innovation in the London cooking world. If you're curious please do the network introduction first. Even if it's Mr. Henry I can't just tell you this time."

I added one more word to urge him.

"But I guarantee this will hit more than Chicken and Chips. And make even bigger money. I'll bet my honor and the galbijjim recipe together."

I was thinking of making it that way. Even mobilizing all the marketing techniques learned and mastered in modern times.