I Have An SSS-Rank Service System: Hire Me For Anything!-Chapter 20: A Risky Deal With Five Beauties

Using science to cook was both boring and interesting. It wasn’t Dory’s favorite kind of thing, and then again, he enjoyed trying something that wasn’t totally new and making it seem alien and new.

It was surprisingly refreshing.

Now he felt things would start to align from now on.

’Strange.’

Yet considering a lot of things, he would still have to up his game. He needed to level up from the rudimentary knowledge of things and keep scaling upward if he wanted to meet the economic rate of this world and also surpass it, thus helping a collective few—or maybe the whole world—reach new heights.

If one were to be traditional, Dory would be tagged as someone whose skills and knowledge were now on par with, or a bit surpassing, the characteristics of the economy compared to the last twelve months.

He also couldn’t deny that this feat wouldn’t have been achieved without the help of the Service System.

’Still a small feat, though,’ Dory sighed.

He still had a long way to go. Yet, he felt confident in his goals.

Nothing was going to stop him, because he had an SSS-Rank Service System!

Dory’s moment of reflection was cut short by the sound of approaching footsteps and muffled chatter from outside the shop’s front entrance. He straightened his tunic, though it did little to hide the purple juice stains that had practically become a new pattern on the fabric.

He grabbed the five plates of finished plum wafers, balancing them carefully as he navigated the narrow hallway back into the main storefront.

Liam stepped through the door first, looking slightly winded. Behind him followed a small group of young women from the village. They all stopped in their tracks the moment they saw Dory. To them, he looked less like a professional chef and more like someone who had just survived a violent encounter with a berry patch.

"I found them," Liam said, his voice trailing off as he squinted at Dory’s stained hands. "Dory... are you bleeding? Or is someone I know dead?"

Dory didn’t bother answering. He simply walked toward a small table and set the five plates down in a neat row. "I’ve finished the dishes. Five different profiles for five different girls."

The first one was Lola. She had long yellow hair, was tall, and had yellow eyes. She looked the oldest out of the five girls. The other four were Maya, Dano, Lila, and Lisa.

The last three were the same age as Dory, having brown, purple, and orange colored hair, respectively.

The girls were hesitant to come forward.

Horg, who had been grumpily assessing the bag of coal, wiped his soot-covered hands on his apron and stomped over. He looked at the ruby-red, emerald-green, and amber-colored slices with deep suspicion. The girls huddled behind each other, whispering.

In this village, food was usually brown, gray, or beige. Seeing something that looked like polished glass was, as Dory had thought, entirely alien to them.

"How are we sure this... thing is edible?" Horg scowled.

Dory replied with his usual smile and went to the five plates, then ate one from each. Horg decided not to pester further and went back to working on the coals.

Maya decided to step forward first and took a bite out of the Vanguard Special. For a few seconds, the room was silent. Maya’s jaw moved slowly, then stopped. Her eyes widened, and she stared at Dory with amusement.

"Wow! Did you use magic to cook this?"

Dory’s upper lip twitched. ’I wish.’

Lola stepped forward and tentatively picked the Zest Pepper flavor. She gave an awkward expression at first, but then it softened into the same expression Maya had.

Then the other three also tasted the remaining three flavors separately.

By now, Horg was already done with the assessment of the coals and was now sitting on a stool, taking ragged breaths.

Maya then looked at Dory and raised an eyebrow. Liam had been silent the whole time, ogling Lola—who looked three years older than him—from a small corner beside the door.

Dory rolled his eyes and wanted to address the awkward silence that had settled in the shop after the five ladies tasted the snacks for some unknown reason.

Maya looked at Dory again and raised an eyebrow. Dory flinched at her gaze.

"Huh? What, Maya?"

"Nothing much... just why exactly were we called here? Just to taste the snacks or whatever those heavenly dishes are?"

The other girls nodded in agreement with her question. Liam came out of hiding as Lola sneered at him, and he raised his hand.

"Don’t you dare say something stupid, klutz," Lola scowled.

Horg laughed.

Dory, meanwhile, gestured for him to talk.

Liam hesitated for a while before speaking. "I... I think I know why you called them here."

Dory smiled. "And what might that be?"

Liam now felt confident as an egoistic smile appeared on his face. "You brought them here to strike a DEAL!"

What followed next was the rhythmic sound of palms slapping faces. Only Dory didn’t participate and just kept smiling.

Liam was left dumbfounded. "Huh? Did I say something wrong?"

Dory shook his head sideways. "No, no, but you did state the obvious. Everyone here knows my plan is to strike a deal with them, but what type of deal, its conditions, and much more."

"Ooh." Liam’s cheeks turned red. "My bad."

Lola rolled her eyes. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Maya turned back to Dory. Dory, noticing her gaze again, sighed and cleared his throat.

"Yes, the deal is very simple. The five of you help us here for the next week. I’ll share these recipes, one for each girl, with you and help you in making them for the next week, which will then be sent to your respective shops. After the week, you’ll be given the recipe, twenty coppers’ pay, and maybe a couple of customers dying to have a taste of the new snacks."

The girls didn’t reply immediately, contemplating.

Lola was the first to speak. "What are we supposed to help with, and what is the guarantee that if we love the snacks, our parents or our customers will love them?"

"You’re not supposed to help with much—just lending a hand when needed, and you get to learn how iron ingots are made. As for whether others will love the snacks, it is a really... unpredictable case. So if you don’t make a total earning of thirty-five coppers for the next week from the snacks, your pay is meant to cover for it. So, is it a deal or not?"

They all paused again and glanced at each other, then turned back to Dory.

"DEAL!"