Chapter 56: Fifty-Thousand-Dollar Soup
The Peninsula’s main kitchen had finally gone quiet. Dinner service was over. The last tickets were done. Rick stood alone at the premium prep station.
He was in a good mood.
While he casually wiped down the pitch-black, Damascus steel blade of his Shadow-Forged Cleaver with a clean white cloth, feeling satisfied with the dominance he had displayed throughout the day, and now nobody in the entire kitchen dared to question his authority anymore.
"Another one bites the dust, yeah another one bites the dust, and another one down, and another one coming up..."
"Hey, I’m gonna get you too, you will also bite the dust..."
He felt completely amused by how easily these arrogant frogs in a well kept walking right into his palms.
’Tomorrow, I am sure I will get another chance,’
Just then, Rick was done cleaning his cleavers and was about to head back up to his penthouse to get some rest, when the familiar system chime violently echoed directly inside his skull
[Ding!]
[Chef Occupation Quest Triggered: The True Master’s Service!]
[Objective: A true heaven-defying Chef does not just cook for the elite, but also delivers absolute salvation to the weak and broken! Deliver a freshly prepared ’Vitality Recovery Broth’ directly to the Grand Horizon Hotel, Room 402!]
[Reward: +3% Chef Occupation Progress, +3000 Mischief Points, $100,000 Cash]
Rick read the text and smiled. The God of Mischief was paying him to make a house call, "Easy money."
He did not really care too much about the $100,000 cash, but 3% progress in occupation was a decent progress he could not skip on.
He grabbed an iron pot and tossed in premium ginseng, crushed ginger, and a some imported bone marrow.
His system-enhanced instincts effortlessly extracted the essence of the ingredients, boiling them down into a thick, golden, nutrient-dense broth in a matter of minutes.
The rich, heavily intoxicating aroma of the Vitality Recovery Broth immediately filled the empty kitchen, carrying the system’s passive mood-enhancing magic, as Rick poured the steaming liquid into a premium thermal container and tightly sealed the lid.
He didn’t bother changing out of his plain black t-shirt and jeans, as he grabbed the thermal bag, took the private VIP elevator directly down to the underground parking garage, and soon the beastly roar of his massive Ducati engine shattered the silence of the garage.
And exactly ten minutes later, Rick pulled over onto the curb right outside the Grand Horizon Hotel, which was a decent high-end establishment but looked like an absolute, pathetic trash can compared to his towering billionaire fortress.
He grabbed the bag and walked straight through the brightly lit lobby, after entering his details.
Rick took the elevator up to the fourth floor, walking down the quiet, carpeted hallway until he stopped directly in front of the heavy wooden door of Room 402. He knocked three times.
"Coming! Just a second!" a familiar voice called out from inside the room, accompanied by the rapid patter of bare feet rushing toward the entrance.
The next second the door clicked and swung open, but instead of a random hotel guest, Rick found himself staring directly down at Emily, his completely delusional and mess of a childhood friend.
On the other hand, Emily was staring at Rick with her jaws wide open. She was clearly not expecting Rick to stand in front of her.
She was wearing a thin, and short white silk robe that was tied entirely too loosely around her small waist.
Because she had rushed to the door, the silk fabric of her robes had parted dangerously wide, exposing the pale cleavage of her breasts, while the extremely short hemline left absolutely nothing to the imagination, clearly revealing the dark fabric of her black lace panties beneath her robes.
All the blood in her body rushed to her face, turning her cheeks a furious, overwhelming shade of crimson red.
"Rick?!" Emily gasped in shock, as her hands instinctively flew up to desperately clutch the edges of her robe, frantically trying to cover her exposed chest. "What... what are you doing here?!"
"Are you saying I am interrupting something, Emily?" Rick replied as his gaze moved up and down her half-naked, trembling body, that made her thighs tremble even more.
"But I have to say... Nice outfit, Emily," Rick mocked, his deep voice dripping with sarasm as he did not even try to cover up his gaze, "Did you put this on hoping to UNO reverse and get a tip from the bellboy?"
"Aunt Olivia must be proud. Did you tell her?"
Emily flinched as if he had just slapped her directly across the face, as tears instantly welled up in her eyes, completely shattered by the coldness in his voice.
"No! Rick, it is not what you think!" Emily stammered, taking a step forward, forgetting to hold her robe shut, letting the silk slip off her pale shoulder, as she tried to hold his hand, "I am just... I am here taking care of Roy... Please... Please don’t tell my mother about this!"
I don’t care," Rick however pulled his hand away and was about to ask for his payment when a loud obnoxious voice echoed from the room behind her.
"Emily? Who the fuck is at the door?! Did they finally bring me the soup?"
A few seconds later, Roy limped his way out of the bedroom, taking support from everything along the way. He looked like another mess that Rick had made to bite the dust.
His face was still swollen and purple from the bashing Rick had given him.
And not only that, he had to watch the invincible martial arts expert his father had loaned him, Master Li, get brutally dismantled by the exact same monster in the parking garage.
But the absolute second Roy’s swollen, bloodshot eyes locked onto Rick standing in the doorway holding a simple thermal delivery bag, his heavily concussed, completely delusional brain went into absolute, arrogant overdrive.
Roy paused for a fraction of a second, before throwing his head back and bursting into a loud, wet, coughing laugh that sounded like a dying hyena, who had just watched its prey deliver itself in front of her.
"Hahahah!" He walked upto them until he was beside Emily and then he threw his good arm around her shoulders and laughed until it turned into a wet cough, "Ahahaha! I knew it! Ahahaha! I fucking knew it!"
He pointed at the bag Rick was holding in his hand like it was evidence in a trial.
"Victoria must have finally woken up and kicked you out."
"You dare hit her son? In front of her own staff and guests?"
"Now look at you. Big guy acting so tought in the Peninsula is out here doing soup runs."
"Absolute trash. I told you he was a complete nobody, Emily!" Roy sneered, convinced his own narrative was the absolute truth, "He beat up Tristan, He beat up Master Li and he even dared to go against me? You absolutely don’t know the height of the heavens."
"Rick..." Emily bit her bottom lip hard, she wanted to defend Rick, but in front of Roy, she did not have the courage to do so.
And how could she? Rick acted like he owned the Peninsula hotel that day and now he was deliverying food at her doorstep. She looked back and forth between Roy’s swollen face and Rick’s calm, unbothered expression.
"Roy, leave it. Let him go!!" Emily whispered, trying to pull away from his grip, and pull him back inside the room.
"Why should I shut up?!" Roy roared arrogantly, completely blinded by his anger as he looked down at Rick with absolute disgust, "This bastard humiliated me in front of my friends. Anfd you want me to let him go?"
"Don’t forget Emily who you bel;ong to."
"And if you want to go back to the trash! You can." Roy looked at Emily with narrowed eyes, "But then don’t come crawling back to me when you realize he is just a broke delivery boy!"
Emily bit her bottom lip incredibly hard, as a deep, conflicting hesitation completely washed over her entire body, making her eyes dart nervously back and forth between Roy’s broken face and Rick’s completely unbothered, deadpan expression.
She looked at Rick’s plain clothes and the thermal delivery bag in his hands, and she slowly stopped pulling away, as she ultimately made her choice and leaned her half-naked body back against Roy’s side.
Seeing her submit, Roy smirked.
"You see that, Rick?!" Roy taunted, pointing at Rick’s face, "Your girl belongs entirely to me! She knows exactly who has the money and power."
"Are you angry now?"
"Want to hit me again?"
"Huh...?"
Rick however stood perfectly still in the doorway, completely unbothered by the loud barking of a beat up dog, as he looked at Roy with flat eyes.
"You really love the sound of your own voice, don’t you, Roy?"
"But a dog should know how much they bark before they get beaten to death."