Chapter 66: Gluttonous Ghost Banquet

Thanks to tourists spontaneously pulling in new patrons, business that afternoon was far livelier than it had been in the morning.

Over half an hour ago, Yan Jing had scraped together 800 points. He first upgraded his rank to E1 [Junior Bartender], and then bought out this little shop, which had been in arrears on rent so long that it had entered the purchasing procedure.

Now, he was the boss of this establishment.

This meant that by the time he truly entered the dungeon, he would have a small base of operations.

"Xiao Mei, I hope you work hard and stop slacking off,"

Yan Jing said.

"No... you... this is my shop!"

The waitress named Rose was so furious that the mouth on her belly gaped open. Rows of sharp teeth surfaced from within, her eyes turned blood-red, and killing intent rolled off her:

"Give my shop back to me!"

"Alright. Since you aren't willing, Xiao Mei, the points can still be refunded. I'll just go buy a different shop."

Yan Jing said, "I'll leave this shop's rent debt to you, Xiao Mei. Also, because it went through the mortgage procedure, you'll need to pay an extra 300 points for the buyout fee."

Saying this, Yan Jing picked up the Points Board.

"Boss, I was just joking with you..."

The mouth on Rose's belly snapped shut, and she forced an awkward smile. "Don't mind me, boss."

She had to be joking. Three hundred points plus over two hundred more—the original eight hundred points would instantly be reduced to just over two hundred. And if it weren't for the man in front of her... she would never be able to turn a profit on her own.

The moment she thought about how her massive appetite would quickly drag her back to starving at every meal, Rose compromised without hesitation.

"Excellent. Then go clean up now."

Yan Jing instructed, "Remember, if any customer tries to talk to you, do not answer. All conversation must be handled by me."

That way, even if those customers wanted to complain about the waitress, they would have no grounds to succeed.

Yan Jing had no desire to constantly cycle through subordinates.

Just then, the wind chimes rang.

"Are you still open?"

The suit-wearing man stood at the door, his eyes glassy.

Beside him stood a man with an extremely kind face.

The man in the suit didn't like the guy next to him. He was too kind—so kind that he refused to hurt anyone, and so he constantly lied.

He despised liars, so he had brought the man to this shop.

The man in the suit had it all figured out. Once this guy was knocked out and woke up again, he would ask him what he thought of the Cameraman.

He refused to believe this guy would still have the sheer nerve to say the Cameraman was good after that.

"I'm sorry, it's almost dinnertime,"

Yan Jing replied. Over the course of the afternoon, the man in the suit had pulled in quite a few customers for him.

Hearing Yan Jing say this, the man in the suit shrugged in disappointment:

"Alright, then we'll just have to come back later."

"I wasn't lying to you. This shop really does have a drink that knocks you out the moment you drink it," he told the man beside him.

"I know. I know you didn't lie to me."

The kind-faced man nodded. "You are such an honest and kind person; you never deceive anyone."

Watching the two of them, Yan Jing pondered for a moment and turned to the man in the suit to ask, "May I ask what your purpose was in bringing this gentleman here?"

Hearing this, the man in the suit looked at Yan Jing:

"Your business model won't last very long."

"Even if the people who come here refuse to share their embarrassing stories just to save face, paper cannot wrap fire. People will bring those they dislike here, and naturally, some fools will leak the secret of this place to others."

"Even if they lose face doing it."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Such as the gentleman beside you."

The corners of the suit-wearing man's mouth curled up:

"Two birds with one stone."

"Very well, sir."

Having understood the situation, Yan Jing looked at the kind-faced man:

"Sir, you have been blacklisted. You will affect my business, and furthermore, your words and actions are highly likely to impact my trade. I hope you will not leak any information about this place."

The man nodded:

"Then I really should stay far away from here. I'm very sorry, sir. I apologize for disturbing you."

With that, he turned to leave.

The man in the suit wanted to stop him, but Yan Jing spoke again:

"May I ask, sir, did you purposely bring this gentleman here because you wanted to take revenge on me?"

"Of course."

Having replied on sheer instinct, the smirk on the suit-wearing man's face instantly drooped.

Hearing this, the kind-faced man took off running.

After both men were gone, Yan Jing nodded thoughtfully.

In the Cameraman's memories, the majority of the inner world residents from Virtue Bridge had strange quirks. Today, he had finally seen it for himself.

"Food, food, food!"

Rose stood at the door, having finished cleaning.

She possessed a very adaptable mindset. In just a short amount of time, she had already accepted her transition from boss to employee within a single day, having clearly weighed her priorities.

Titles like boss or employee were empty air; a full stomach was the only truth.

She had decided. Today, she was going to gorge herself.

"No need to rush, Xiao Mei. There's no line at the deluxe meal window."

Yan Jing smiled. "Let's go together. I happen to have a few things to ask you on the way."

"..."

Rose was actually quite reluctant to spend time with Yan Jing.

It was because she currently harbored an inexplicable sense of dread toward him.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly why. This Cameraman completely matched her aesthetic tastes; he always wore a smile, treated people politely, and possessed an incredibly stable temperament, yet she just felt...

He was terrifying.

This man was rotten to the core!

But Yan Jing was the boss. He was in charge of a portion of her daily performance evaluation.

Even though she was firmly convinced Yan Jing was just here to mess around for a day or two before leaving, she ultimately nodded:

"Okay, boss."

...

Thus, the two of them walked at the tail end of the crowd, heading up to the fifth floor at a leisurely pace.

"Boss, whatever you want to ask, just say it."

As the two of them walked in silence, Rose felt the awkward atmosphere and couldn't help but speak up.

From what she could remember, it had been a very long time since she had called someone else "boss."

"It's nothing important. I just wanted to ask you, how much do you know about the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet?"

Yan Jing asked.

"I know about it."

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. She thought he was going to ask something crazy, but it was just the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet.

"The Gluttonous Ghost Banquet is held in the far corner of the Employee Cafeteria on the fifth floor. It takes place every day at dinnertime. If you're interested, boss, I can take you to see it right now,"

Rose explained.

"That would be perfect."

Yan Jing nodded.

The two of them stepped into the emergency stairwell, and Yan Jing continued, "Xiao Mei, where are you from?"

"Me? I'm a tower inhabitant."

Rose was a little confused.

"A tower inhabitant... Were you born in the Sun-Swallowing Tower?"

"Yeah. The vast majority of the Tower's employees are tower inhabitants."

Rose nodded, stating it as a matter of fact:

"I was born in the Tower. My dad and mom were also born in the Tower, and my grandpa and grandma were born in the Tower too."

"So I'm a purebred tower inhabitant."

Yan Jing nodded. "In that case, have you guys never thought about leaving the Tower?"

"Leave the Tower?"

Remembering something, Rose shivered. Her face paled as she said, "We can't, boss. We're not like you. If we aren't in the Tower, we'll die."

"Is that so?"

Yan Jing was a bit puzzled. "I feel like being in the Tower would cause that exact problem. It seems like people just get hungrier and hungrier in the Tower."

"The Tower makes us hungry, but it won't let us starve to death,"

Rose said, lifting her shirt to reveal the tightly shut mouth on her stomach.

"We're different from you, boss. We were born bearing Sin."

"Only in a Domain of Sin can we properly atone. The moment we leave this Domain, our only ultimate end is losing control."

Rose went on to explain in further detail.

Simply put, the first tier abilities of Gluttony were hunger endurance and an enormous appetite.

Their enormous appetite allowed them to increase their strength and recover their stamina by consuming massive amounts of food, while their hunger endurance enhanced their survivability and gave them the ability to control themselves.

But aside from these two abilities, Gluttony possessed certain side effects, just like all Inner World Pathways.

The side effect of the Gluttony Pathway was an unending sense of hunger.

In the Sun-Swallowing Tower, governed by the Employee Handbook, these inner world residents of the Gluttony system starved every day, but they could rely on their hunger endurance to live relatively peaceful and stable lives.

Once they left the Tower and lost those restrictions, fleeing to other Domains, they would still feel hungrier and hungrier—even if it was slightly better than being in the Tower.

This resulted in only one usual fate for them.

That was to be slaughtered by the people of other Domains.

"So you've never left the Tower, Xiao Mei,"

Yan Jing noted.

"Right. But I've never thought about leaving it either."

After Rose spoke, Yan Jing nodded and didn't press the matter.

The two of them made their way to a corner of the Employee Cafeteria.

After using the walkie-talkie to inform the others that he wouldn't be attending tonight's gathering, Yan Jing unexpectedly received their replies. Aside from Mantou, every single one of them was surprisingly opting out of the meetup as well.

"Boss, we're here."

Rose pointed at several massive round tables ahead.

A cluster of creatures with an extreme degree of mutation sat around the tables.

They all uniformly possessed short limbs and bloated bodies, looking like a swarm of giant dark purple toads.

Most notably, their mouths took up two-thirds of their faces and constantly dripped with saliva.

Nearby, waiters approached the tables carrying enormous platters.

But the moment the food-laden plates were set down, those creatures' massive bodies became unnaturally agile. Just like that Gluttonous Weird named Tao Qi, their short limbs launched them like springs toward the dishes on the table.

In the blink of an eye, the mountain of food in the center of the platters vanished without a trace, as if it had evaporated into thin air.

"These Gluttonous Weirds are actually all deformed offspring."

Rose whispered, "Their hunger endurance is practically zero, but their enormous appetite is quite a bit stronger than ours."

"Inside the Tower, aside from them, there's another extreme. Their hunger endurance is much stronger than ours, so they were chosen to be the Tower's..."

"Security guards."

Hearing this, Yan Jing's eyes flickered.