Inflation

Beta Read By - XxNaRutoUcHiHaxX, Agni_Ravan_Asura

—

*tap* *tap*

Yawning from boredom, I kept tapping my finger on the counter while being hunched over the counter.

After sending off my super dense Kohai to her school, I sat down on my chair while waiting for new customers, but alas, none arrived. I kinda expected this, what with the restaurant being brand new and all, so it wasn't really too disappointing as it is to be expected, but still it's a bit boring without doing anything.

Gotta admit though, getting a bunch of customers on the first day did raise my expectations a bit, so I do hope that someone will enter my restaurant soon.

A few minutes later, my wish was granted as someone entered, almost making me jump out of joy.

I looked at the person who walked inside, it was a young man with black hair wearing a black and white jumpsuit with orange stripes and an orange collar. His overall appearance is utterly plain, he wasn't handsome nor was he ugly, but I have to admit his hairstyle definitely needs help, it's terrible.

Not that I would say it out loud, it's a bit rude, not to mention potentially losing a customer which could become a regular if I played my cards right.

Anyway, it's time to greet him.

"Welcome to my establishment, how can I help you?" I said politely.

The young man with the terrible hairstyle blinked, probably processing who the person in front of him was.

Then it clicked.

"Eh? Y-you own this place? No offense but you look really young.."

I let out a chuckle. "It makes sense, after all I'm only 18 and just graduated from high school."

He looked at me with astonishment. "18?! You're literally the same age as me and you already own a business establishment?!…though I can't say that for myself.."

Although he muttered the last part, I could still hear it, and decided to reply. "The building itself is an inheritance from my late parents, same with all the furniture here."

I mean technically, most of the money I used to repair the building is from my late parents inheritance.

Although I did work a part-time job to cover the overall cost.

"L-late parents..? O-oh, sorry!" The young man looked regretful, to which I just laughed it off.

"It's fine, you didn't know, besides it doesn't affect me that much anymore, it's been a long time… anyways, what do you want to order?"

The young man blinked a couple times and embarrassingly said. "Ah, right I was honestly just curious as to why this establishment suddenly appeared besides my parents house, because I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before…anyway, it would be quite rude if I won't order something here, but I don't have much money in my pocket right now so…do you have a dish that cost less than a thousand..?"

I nodded in understanding and thought. 'This guy is definitely from another universe, different japan perhaps.'

"Well we have quite a list of choices, here's the menu."

He sat down at one of the tables as I gave him one of the menus I prepared. Opening the menu, the teen's eyes widened in surprise.

"Is this for real…?" He said in a surprised voice.

"What..?" I was a bit confused.

"Your dishes are cheaper than I expected."

Okay that was unexpected, but now that I think about it, even Mikami-san thought my dishes were cheaper compared to what he usually tries.

I think I have an idea of what's going on.

(E/N: Damn inflation)

"By the way, what year is it?"

The young man looked confused. "You're joking right?"

"No, I am not."

He looked speechless but regardless he answered. "It's 2016."

Hearing that only confirmed my theory, and thought. 'Yeah, there's definitely going to be price inflation in the future.'

"Why did you ask? Everyone knows what year it is, even a shut in- ahem*, unless you're trying to say that you're from another world or something. Nah, there's no way we would have a different timeline."

I think it's time for him to know, I wasn't really planning to keep this a secret to the others, what I mean by 'others' are my customers from another universe.

But of course, people from my world are excluded from this list. I will tell them the truth only if I'm absolutely sure that they can be trusted.

"Well about that…yeah, I'm pretty much from a different timeline, a parallel world from your own." I said with a wry smile.

The young man was stunned in disbelief, that's a pretty understandable reaction.

It took him a few minutes to regain his bearing and shoot me an annoyed look. "You gotta be bullshitting me!"

Again a normal reaction, I mean if he accepted it easily, he was either too gullible or a moron, which clearly he wasn't.

"How about I show you some proof?"

My words made him raise a brow, clearly skeptical, then I went to the door. Before opening the door I asked him , "You said that my establishment was right next to your family house, yes?"

He nodded and replied. "That's right."

"Well, then let me show you that it isn't anywhere near me."

After saying that I opened the door and continued. "Is this neighborhood familiar to you?"

He stood up from the seat and looked through the door and was shocked to see that he was in a different place, instead of a neighborhood filled with houses, it was a city block filled with different kinds of shops.

"W-what the hell..?! This isn't my neighborhood!" He exclaimed.

"That's right, and by the way it's still 2004 in my world, that's basically 12 years in the past for you." I explained with a smile.

I found this function yesterday, as I tested it with my other customers, if a person from a different world opens the door in my restaurant it would lead them to their own respective world.

However, I'm a sole exception to this rule because I could open the door that leads to another world as long as my customers are from that world.

Perks that I didn't know existed.

Anyway, it was pretty hilarious to see his reaction.

—

"I can't believe it! Isekai is real?!" The young man, who introduced himself as Natsuki Subaru yelled in excitement.

As someone from the past, I literally have no idea what this 'isekai' meant. It's probably some sort of slang that I have no context of.

"What does Isekai mean exactly?" I asked curiously.

"Wha-?! How could you not- wait, right you're from 2004 back then the term 'Isekai' isn't well-known, understandable. Anyway for simplicity let's say that 'Isekai' is a different term for another world." Subaru explained.

Which I immediately understood, as it wasn't that hard to understand.

"Anyway, if this establishment is called Isekai Restaurant then it would be a very fitting name." Subaru suggested.

A sweatdrop appeared on my forehead, while I don't have a name for my restaurant, to call it 'Isekai Restaurant' is very uncreative, not to mention I have a feeling that title is already taken.

"I would rather not name it that..but if it's up to me then I would like it to be called 'Restaurant Of In Between'." I nodded, truly a fitting name.

(E/N: No)

Subaru shrugged and replied. "Hey, it's your restaurant, you can call it whatever you want, but are you sure you're not a powerful being that was supposed to give me powerful abilities?"

I gave him a deadpan look and said. "For the last time, I'm not, second of all, what's with you thinking that you're a protagonist that was about to go on an epic adventure? This place is just a restaurant that connects other worlds to it, nothing more but if you're really that desperate why not go to Kirito's world."

Subaru looks confused for a moment before asking. "Who's Kirito..?"

Ah, I have to explain this one, don't I?

Oh whatever.

After that I started explaining the things I knew about Kirito and his world.

—

At the end of my explanation Subaru has a strange look on his face. "It sounds like this Kirito guy is some sort of anime protagonist, nerve-gear? VRMMORPG? That sounds like some sci-fi crap going on, not to mention a death game? That sounds like the start of an anime plot to me!"

Now that he mentioned it, it does sound like a plot of an anime.

But it's a bit disrespectful to the guy, I mean I met him myself and to call his life a plot of an anime is rude.

"While it may sound like that, try not to mention that to him, he's literally fighting for his life." I reminded him.

"A-ah, yeah I was just saying that his life is like an anime…but I get what you mean. It's like I'm trying to belittle his life."

Subaru was surprisingly understanding.

Which made me smile, although he's a bit weird he's a good person.

Suddenly the door opened, both of us looked at the entrance and saw the person who we were talking to just a while ago.

It was Kirito.

[ Kirito Lvl. 11 ]

I blinked a couple times before thinking. 'Wait what? He's already 11?! He was like lvl 2 yesterday!'

I'm sure he mentioned that it was really hard for the players in that game to level up, but now he's suddenly lvl 11?

Aside from my surprise, Subaru was staring hard at his usernames and lvl.

His mouth dropped as he exclaimed. "Holy shit! I can see his name and lvl?! That's so cool!"

I smiled wryly at his reaction, but didn't really blame him for that, considering I reacted similarly in the past.

Kirito, who looked amused at Subaru's reaction, turned towards me and asked. "New customer perhaps?"

"Yep, he is. By the way I thought it was hard to lvl up in the game? How come you're lvl 11 when you were only lvl 2 yesterday?"

"Yeah, about that…your food actually gave me a massive exp boost. I only realized it after I left the restaurant."

And that's how Kirito found a 'cheat' through my restaurant.

—

A/N: Since SAO has game logic, it only makes sense that the food gives him a certain boost depending on the dish.

And having those boosts at the beginning of a game is plain cheating.

Support me on P@.treon, even if it's just for a month I'd be really grateful.

P@.treon/charlottes143

There's currently 7 chapter advance

Feel free to join my discord server for announcement and suggestions: https://discord.com/invite/w9DVtQtMzU