1 Is It A System Or A Platform

Arjun was a new age Indian, a young man who carried dreams of following his passions and living a good life, after which he will retire with a cushy pension but alas dreams rarely merged with the reality, but that's moving a little forward.

Let's first get to know Arjun. Till he was 21, he had done what he was supposed to do, he had graduated from high school, attended college and graduated from there too. It was then that he started to diverge from the traditional path, his parents had urged him to do his masters and then find a job after that. But Arjun had decided not to take up that path.

Perhaps you would call his decision foolish but at that time he knew that what he wanted to do was clear, at the ripe age of 21 he decided that he had enough of studying now he was ready to follow his passion and start working, what was his passion you would ask, that would be food, whether it was cooking food, learning about food, growing ingredients for food, he loved all of it.

If he had been in what people like to call a more developed country, his passion would have been understood, encouraged even but alas he was in India, say what you will for the majority of people the profession of a cook was not something glorious, it was to be associated with uneducated labour, harsh working environments and most of all barley any pay. Food was a necessity for sure but not something you could grow rich pursuing, and for millions that are born in barely middle-class families in India, their first goal is to get rich.

So what do you think happened when he told his parents about his decision, and they got pissed, I will spare you the details but let's just say that there was a lot of crying, screaming and shaming involved. Ultimately, the only way Arjun saw to follow his passion was to leave home. Therefore he left home that night.

Perhaps it was immaturity or his only choice that would change depending on from whose point of view you looked at it. But, still, even if there was not a lot of good things to be said about Arjun, one good thing you could say was the fact that he wasn't one of those wishy-washy guys like the people who talk about passion and work but run away after the first time they have to do any real work, he was ready to work and work hard.

He went to Pune, luckily he had not left his P.G. till that time so he at least had a place to sleep, after he got he had started looking for whatever job he could find, there was not a lot of places that were willing to hire a 21-year-old with no experience and those who were, were looking for slave labour at less than minimum wages. But ultimately a ray of sunshine struck upon him, and he met an old man who was running a very run-down restaurant.

After a lot of pleading the old man was willing to give Max a chance and hired him, Arjun worked there for 2 years, he worked 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, he started as a dishwasher but ultimately become a chef. The owner was not some kind of a Masterchef or a genius-level cook, he didn't though Arjun much, but he did teach him all the basics and a love for food.

Arjun was enjoying his life, he had even attempted some communication with his parents, although they were angry, they were at least willing to talk, but then a moment arrived in his life, the old man had a stroke, the doctor told him that his health was in a very bad condition and there was nothing that they could do.

The old man was a little perturbed by this, and then he offered to sell Arjun the restaurant, who knew why perhaps he wanted to live a little bit before he died or he didn't have any successors, who knew, but Arjun was a little apprehensive about this, even though he had lived a very modest living till now and had some money saved up he did not know if it was enough or not.

Ultimately the old man seemed intent and sold him the restaurant at a huge loss, he then started teaching him how to run the business and how things worked, etc.. Arjun started learning and was managing the place soon, then after 1 month the old man a major heart attack and passed away.

Arjun had been very saddened by this and even after 1-week nobody came or even called to collect his body, therefor ultimately Arjun decided to perform the last rites after all the old man had done so much for him. Till now everything looked good, the business had been going well, he was happy. But then something happened, a fast-food chain opened in front of his restaurant, at first the competition wasn't that bad, but soon day by day they started taking his customers, it was like a frog in hot water who did not realize that he was being boiled, ultimately in less than six months, his sales had been so low that the only option was to shut the shop down.

He had experienced a dreaded blow in his life, he was currently 24 years old, and now he was unemployed, he was looking for work but nobody wanted to hire a failed cook, and somewhat deep down he had even received a blow to his confidence too. He was now living on his savings which were dwindling fast, but more importantly, he now had nothing to do all day, he kept going down and down in the circle of despair.

He was now serving solely on extremely cheap food, some days he even went to sleep hungry. Due to his condition, he also had to stop cooking, which perhaps had been the hardest of them all.

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Arjun was in his bed, he had fallen asleep with his phone in his hand. It had been some time since he had a good night's sleep. He was always half-sleeping.

Suddenly, Arjun jumped awake after he heard a very loud ding sound in his head.

Arjun jumped up from his bed yelling who is it. After he looked in his surrounding he saw that there was no one. He was now confused, he had heard a loud sound but there was no one here. Perplexed by this he again lied down.

A message sounded in his head, a world chef system has been installed, the body's position as the host has been confirmed. Begining the introduction program now.

Arjun then felt like he was fainting and soon he fell on the bed and passed out.

Arjun was now in a blank space then a screen popped up in front of him, then a voice started,

"Congratulations to the host, you have been given a World Food System. This system is a system made for people passionate about food but is down on their luck. This system can be very useful and the ways you can use it are only limited by your imagination. But remember even the greatest opportunities can be wasted if you do not work hard enough. Now the introduction to the system will begin"

Arjun was just standing there stunned, he did not know what was happening, he started yelling a lot, he thought that he had finally gone crazy or at least entered into some sort of coma and he was just dreaming all this. He was agitated for a little while but ultimately he calmed down by the voice.

The voice then begin the introduction

"The system is a platform built for promoting and advancing the culinary arts as far as they can, the current era has been detected to be a primitive era, thus a lot of the capabilities of the system have been permanently disabled. Now the system is going to explain the current ways the host can use the system."

Although still confused Arjun started paying attention

"First of all the host should know that this is not some kind of a cheat system or an OP power of some sort but rather is just an extremely advanced platform that may seem like magic to the host. The system provides a platform for everything food-related. From ingredients to equipment, to even labors, everything is available on the system."

"The system has been installed as an app on the host's phone. From now on the host can access the system directly from the phone for better convenience at no extra charge."

"Now the platforms functioning, the system works like any other shopping platform out there. The host can access the products through the search bar, or based on categories. The options are limitless. The product price is converted to the host's currency automatically and if the host buys something the amount will be directly deducted from the bank account."Arjun was hearing the voice was saying he getting more and more confused after the voice had said about transaction details, Arjun thought that how would that even work and would it cause tax problems later on.

The system seemingly read his thoughts and suddenly said: "The host does not have to worry about any of that, the system will take care of everything, the money laundering methods that the system has are not even thought of in this era after all the host's job is to focus on food how will he do that if he has to worry about bureaucracy."

Arjun agreed with this. Then the system continued

"Good, now let's continue, the amount will be automatically deducted. The delivery time of the order of the host will vary from product to product and the size of the order, but small orders of most products should arrive instantly. The host after some experience can even sell his products on the system but that will be later. Right now the host's sole focus should be to get back on his feet and get working again. Feel free to get accustomed with the system app on your phone at your speed, and if you have any questions feel free to ask them on our help section, our customer representatives are waiting eagerly to assist you"

After this Arjun again felt his mind go blank and he woke in his bed. He was feeling very confused, he did not know whether what happened just now was real or not, he instantly took out his phone and saw that now there was a new app on his home screen simply named System.

Arjun clicked on the app, the app opened, it was a lot like the other e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, etc.. He was now wondering whether this was some kind of a scam or not.

He started browsing the system, it had a lot of categories, like fruits, vegetables, kitchen equipment, etc. Arjun then browsed some products that were listed. He opened the fruits section and started browsing through some fruits. After some time to try the system, he selected a jackfruit, he was then presented with a lot of sellers, he chose the recommended ones. Till now he had not been impressed at all, this seemed like any other app to him.

This was till he pressed te view section, he was suddenly transported into a white void where a full ripe jackfruit was in front of a table in front of him.

"This is the inspection page" a voice sounded

"The host can inspect the products he has chosen to buy here, the product will arrive exactly in the same state to the host, feel free to inspect" after which the voice silenced

Arjun was surprised, he let his curiosity get the better of him and sat down on the chair and started examining the fruit. He first started sniffing the fruit, he noticed a very strong pungent smell from the jackfruit, Arjun knew by this smell alone that the fruit will be of very good quality, he then opened the jackfruit and saw that the flesh inside was ripe yellow, Arjun was very pleased with the quality of the fruit. He then wanted to check the taste but as soon as he put his mouth on the fruit, an error message appeared in front of him

"Please do not consume the product, it is strictly forbidden," said the voice

Arjun understood and put the fruit down, he was now finished with his inspection.

Now he wanted to exit but he did not know how, so he yelled asking for the way to exit

"Just imagine exit in your mind" replied the voice.

Arjun imagined exit and he returned to his bed. Now Arjun wanted to try the jackfruit, he immediately placed the order, it cost him 300 rupees. Then after 2 minutes the bell of his rung.

Arjun stood up and opened the door, he saw that a delivery man was standing in front of him and he was carrying a jackfruit.

"Mr.Arjun," said the deliveryman

"Yes" replied Arjun

"Your delivery" he then handed him the fruit

Arjun took the fruit and asked him "Do you not need me to sign something"

"No, sir" replied the deliveryman

"Than how you know that you are delivering to the right customer," asked Arjun

"We always know sir" replied the deliveryman

"Ok, then thank you, bye" after which Arjun shut the door

He took the Jackfruit to his room, where he cut the fruit open, he saw that the fruit was the same as he had seen, it smelled the same and it even looked the same when cutting open.

Arjun was amazed by the technology, he took a bite of the fruit and was stunned, this was amazing, he then proceeded to eat the fruit, the fruit tasted so good, he was surprised about this fact given the season and the availability of the jackfruit.

After he cleaned up and went to bed he decided that he will not let this opportunity slip away, he will make use of this and turn his life around.

From tomorrow he will open his restaurant again.