“She’s a spirit whose true identity is completely unknown, I tell you.”
“You’re right.”
Hyejin, who had been staring at the spot where Asha vanished, smiled at Seojun before returning to work.
The thought that omurice sales would officially start tomorrow made her both nervous and a little worried.
Would everyone really like ready-made food sold at a convenience store?
In the past, Hyejin had never thought much of convenience store ready-meals.
Most people felt that convenience store food was either soaked in oil, old, or absurdly overpriced for the quality.
Looking at the customers who visited convenience stores, items like instant ramen or triangle kimbap sold well regardless of age or gender, but few people showed interest in fried foods or chicken sold there.
They probably thought it was better to spend that money at a proper restaurant.
Hyejin had felt the same way.
Well, I can understand why coffee from the convenience store machine sells well.
It’s cheap machine-brewed coffee, after all.
But convenience store cooked food never really appealed to me either.
First, I need to break the perception that the quality isn’t worth the price.
Hyejin stared blankly at Seojun as he organized the kitchen tools.
Even though his reputation had hit rock bottom, there was absolutely nothing to criticize about his cooking.
People just needed to recognize that.
It was at that moment.
A small flash of light burst, and Asha appeared.
“Heok, Asha! You went to the mart?”
“Of course. Things like this need to be prepared quickly.”
Behind the proudly chin-raised and even more haughty-looking Asha, employees who appeared to be from the mart carried bags full of ingredients toward the kitchen.
Asha followed them inside but stopped and muttered softly to Seojun.
“…Don’t… waste… ingredients…?”
The voice was too quiet to hear clearly, but it roughly meant “Make sure we don’t have leftover ingredients; adjust the daily quantity carefully.”
A moment later, the mart employees vanished in an instant, and Asha approached Hyejin and opened her mouth.
“By the way, how are we pricing it?”
“Ah, right. I completely forgot about the price. For omurice… actually, the chef should decide something like this. What do you think, Seojun-ssi?”
“The ingredients are simple and it doesn’t take much time, so I think setting it low would be fine.”
“Then 3,000 gold should be good.”
“That seems reasonable.”
Seojun nodded as if convinced by Asha’s decision.
Hyejin had no objections either.
“I’m looking forward to the reaction to the omurice.”
“Of course. Who’s making it, after all? It’ll definitely sell like crazy.”
Hyejin answered confidently and spoke to Seojun.
“Cha Seojun-ssi, I’m counting on you tomorrow. I really think it’s going to sell amazingly!”
***
“They’re selling omurice here? At a convenience store?”
“Is that even edible? Who’s making it? Huh, no way… Chef Cha Seojun?”
Hyejin smiled and nodded.
“I saw on the community that Chef Cha Seojun works here! Last time Hunter Lee Suho was working too—what on earth is this convenience store? Is it secretly a new guild that only gathers SS-ranks?”
Hyejin simply gave another bright smile.
“Omurice? I feel like it’ll be bad. Isn’t it just putting cheese in a paper cup, frying an egg, and calling it omurice?”
Hyejin… smiled even harder this time.
[Omurice freshly made on the spot by a professional chef. Would you like to try it?]
For now, Hyejin was recommending omurice to every single customer who entered the store.
There hadn’t been time to make proper posters, and she had accepted Seojun’s suggestion to test-sell it first.
The hunters’ reactions varied widely.
However, the majority expressed negative opinions, saying they couldn’t trust the taste of omurice sold at a convenience store.
She had somewhat expected this, but facing endless negative comments until she was sick of hearing them, Hyejin still smiled and continued serving customers for the sake of sales.
“Please try it at least once. We’re only selling exactly 20 pieces per day as a limited edition. And only in the morning. It’s a special omurice sold for just 2 hours a day.”
“Hmm, still not really tempting… If it tastes bad, can I get a refund?”
Where in the world do people refund food just because it “tastes bad,” customer?
Hyejin swallowed the words that almost burst out and answered with an even brighter smile.
“We can’t offer refunds, but once you taste it, you’ll definitely come back for more.”
“Eh. Then I won’t buy it.”
The hunters didn’t believe her.
Was pushing sales this aggressively really too much?
Just as Hyejin was about to feel dejected, Seojun walked out of the kitchen as if he had already anticipated the situation.
In his hands was a large tray holding small paper cups filled with sample-sized omurice.
“I made some samples before the official sales start, so please feel free to try them. Any feedback about the taste is welcome.”
That was the moment everything changed.
The hunters’ reactions did a complete 180.
Seojun handed out the paper-cup omurice to them.
The bright yellow, plump omurice gave off a stimulating yet sweet cheese and butter aroma.
At first skeptical, the hunters each picked one up because they were free samples, and the moment they tasted the omurice, they all let out exclamations.
“This is the most delicious omurice I’ve ever had!”
“If this is omurice, what on earth have I been eating until now?”
Even though Seojun was the one who cooked it, Hyejin inexplicably puffed out her chest with pride and smiled.
Seojun had perfect timing—there were quite a few customers in the store, and the ones who tasted the samples immediately swarmed Hyejin.
“This is insanely good—you said you’re selling them, right? One for me please.”
“Can I take a photo of the omurice and post it on the hunter-only SNS? You deserve to get rich from this!”
“If I order one omurice, can I take a photo with Chef Cha Seojun? My friend is a huge fan!”
“How much is the omurice? Honestly, after all the fuss in the articles I had zero expectations, but this is seriously insane.”
Hyejin responded quickly and calmly with a kind smile and gave Seojun a big thumbs-up.
Seojun looked a bit flustered—perhaps the reaction was different from what he expected—and glanced around before asking them.
“Was the taste really okay?”
They all nodded vigorously.
Only then did Seojun let out a slow breath of relief and speak to Hyejin.
“Can I start making theirs now? But… the price…”
At that exact moment, Hyejin, who had been frantically handling customers, jerked her head up and looked at Asha, who was sprawled across the counter.
They had definitely decided on a price earlier, but she had already forgotten it in the chaos.
Asha shook her head at Hyejin’s blatantly panicked expression, stood up, and slowly tapped her tail on the floor.
Once, twice, three times.
The price was 3,000 gold.
“3,000 gold!”
“3,000 gold!”
Hyejin and Seojun looked at each other and shouted simultaneously, loud enough to startle the waiting customers.
Hyejin quickly returned to her customer-service smile and told the waiting customer.
“One omurice is 3,000 gold.”
The customer tilted their head.
“3,000 gold? For omurice made by Chef Cha Seojun?”
“Yes. Our dungeon convenience store aims to provide high-quality yet affordable food to our customers.”
“Even so, 3,000 gold is really cheap.”
“Seriously! 3,000 gold is only about 3,000 won in real money—and that’s for omurice made by a chef!”
“Give me three please. Can you do takeaway?”
“I’ll have two.”
The gathered customers began placing orders frantically, and Hyejin busily handled the register while Seojun busily cooked.
Takeaway hadn’t been planned, but fortunately the kitchenware Hyejin had ordered included takeaway containers, so they could fulfill the orders without issue.
An hour later, all 20 omurice were beautifully sold out.
***
<Free Board> Anyone tried the omurice sold at the dungeon convenience store?
JeGotNae
<Comments>
– Damn, that tastes insane;; but what even is that place? Two SS-ranks are working part-time there, yet the manager isn’t even famous. Isn’t she Korean?
ㄴㅋㅋㅋㅋ She’s obviously Korean, everyone was super polite to her. Isn’t she an evil boss who found the weaknesses of SS-rank awakeners and forced them to work part-time? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ What weakness could someone like Lee Suho even have
ㄴ Just bought and ate the omurice—it’s heavenly! This isn’t convenience store level. Price is great too, only 3k gold! Everyone come eat! It’s insane!
– Be careful, maybe they put drugs in it. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ YesDaddy~ Stop spreading stupid rumors;; They only sell 20 a day limited, so hunters who want to try hurry up
Taking advantage of a lull with no customers, Hyejin checked the community reaction on the computer in the break area.
Just a few hours ago she hadn’t been sure the omurice would sell, yet Seojun had completely turned the situation around.
“With this much, the promotional effect is definitely solid, right?”
Feeling great, Hyejin hummed lightly as she approached Seojun, who was preparing tomorrow’s omurice ingredients, and tapped his shoulder.
“Excuse me, Cha Seojun-ssi.”
“Ah, yes. Manager. Actually, I wanted to ask something too. How about slicing some tomato for decoration tomorrow?”
“That sounds good! But that’s not the important thing right now. I checked the hunter community and it’s going wild. They say it’s delicious! For the first day of sales, doesn’t this mean we’ve succeeded?”
Seojun gave a small laugh at the extremely excited Hyejin and nodded.
“Yes. It seems like a successful start, I’m relieved.”
Ding-dong
At that moment, a notification sound rang from Hyejin’s status window.
A new notification has arrived.
“What? A new notification?”
Hyejin gave Seojun a quick glance as a greeting and returned to the counter to check the status window.
As the convenience store manager, by hiring a Cooking Master part-timer and generating new revenue for the store,
you have created new profits.
Huh? Hyejin stared at the system window with a dazed expression.
Dungeon 24-Hour Convenience Store Manager Level → Level 2 (NEW!)
Your level has increased due to hiring part-timers and generating revenue.
“It really went up? It can level up like this too?”
When the surprised Hyejin asked Asha, the cat nodded and answered.
“If you think of it like a game, it’ll be easier to understand. Whenever you create special events or achievements that help store sales, the convenience store level will rise too.”
At Asha’s words, the corners of Hyejin’s mouth twitched and then curved into a wide smile.
As if waiting for Asha to finish, another system window popped up.
Congratulations on reaching Convenience Store Manager Level 2.
You can now check the store’s current profits in real time and manage part-time workers.