Ecstasy - 61

A/N: You know what? I take back what I said a few chapters ago, this is definitely my greatest chapter of all time. You guys, I spent 4 hours writing and editing it to perfection. Hope y'all enjoy my damn hard work!

I woke up early the next morning ready to write!

Going up to our study spot, I was actually the first one there for a change in pace, and so, I took the best seat, which was the couch in the middle of the barrier.

After sitting down and claiming my spot, I started scribbling away.

Of course, I was just making drafts on paper. I would later copy them onto the public cafe's computer.

No way was I gonna do anything digital that was related to my novel anywhere close to where I was living.

Yep, not gonna happen.

Anyways, I started writing more chapters of, "The Writer's Perspective" By: Ashen_ji.

(A/N: Credit to RammyBoyz for the name.)

I spent the rest of the morning, the afternoon, and the early evening writing, before packing up reluctantly to go and get something to eat, as I was getting really hungry.

(A/N: If you don't remember, he doesn't have anything on Monday's except for when it's the first Monday of each month.)

Snapping my fingers, I instantly turned into a raven, and descended down to the bottom of the valley between the two canyons.

(A/N: Fun fact, I can't snap, myself 😂)

It took me about 30 minutes, even with flying.

Now that I thought about it, I should have turned into a peregrine falcon or something, cause they were the fastest animals in existence during a dive, which was basically what I had to do when going from the study spot to Market Street, just a straight up and down descent.

Well, whatever, I would just do that next time.

Walking down the street, looking for anything that could catch my eye, I saw a small noodle stand in a small alleyway.

It was literally just a one person wooden stand, with a one person low table and a short ass stool set up next to it, both pieces of furniture made of flimsy plastic.

But seeing this reminded me of home...

Not stopping my feet, I took a sharp right down into the alley.

Seeing the middle aged man that had East Asian features and a grizzled face, I couldn't help but feel... comfort.

"What do you sell, sir?"

"Just plain Shoyu Ramen. Regular or spicy?"

"Spicy please."

"One spicy, coming right up."

I took a seat on the plastic stool and watched as he took some batter out of the underside of the cart and started cutting it up into thin, circular noodles right in front of my eyes.

Putting them in hot water to boil, he waited the perfect amount of time (I knew this as I had made ramen countless times in my past life) before taking the noodles out.

Usually, I would have drenched them in cold water at this point, so as to make it so that the noodles didn't cook anymore and ruin their perfect, chewy, QQ perfection, but the middle aged man instead used magic to cool the noodles quickly, making soaking the noodles a second time unnecessary.

(A/N: If y'all don't know what QQ means, then y'all just uncultured af.)

Quickly sliding the noodles into a nice ceramic bowl, he then expertly ladled the broth into the bowl, filling it almost to the tippy top before stopping.

Then, the man cut a perfect Ajitsuke Tamago in half and placed it on top of the broth, making sure the surface tension and the noodles holding up the egg didn't cause the broth to spill over.

Then, he carefully placed two pieces of dried seaweed, some mushroom, and three pieces of chashu into the ramen bowl in the same manner as the technique above.

Finishing the bowl of perfect ramen by sprinkling some chopped green onions on top, he then somehow brought the bowl down to my table without spilling anything.

"Enjoy!"

Taking out the wooden pair of chopsticks out of the plastic wrapping, I snapped them apart before bringing them back together in front of me.

"Itadakimasu."

Saying "itadakimasu" for the first time in such a long time, with the bowl of steaming hot ramen, the smell just gently wafting into my face, I couldn't help but let out a single tear.

Combined with the setting and the way it was served, I was just... overwhelmed by emotions of homesickness.

'I really do miss home, and my sister...'

Shaking my head, not wanting to think about sad things any more, I focused my attention back onto the perfection in front of me.

"What are you waiting for? Dig in kid!"

The first thing I did was put my chopsticks in a "not using them" position in my hand before grabbing the two sides of the bowl.

Bringing the bowl up to my lips, my hands trembling, spilling some of the precious broth down the sides, I put my mouth to the rim, and then lightly inclined the bowl.

The broth flowed into my mouth.

🤯

I died.

Well, just kidding, but I really did feel like I died and had somehow been sent to heaven.

There was an explosion of flavors in my mouth, the savoriness of the soy sauce, the richness of the special seafood, the deep current of the chicken, and the spiciness that just cut through everything, ah, this was a moment I would never forget for the rest of my life.

I was in pure bliss.

After putting the bowl back down, I switched my chopstick's position to "ready".

Then, I dug in.

It was a cacophony of flavors, textures, and smells that just somehow, just somehow, all intertwined with each other and completely and utterly created a devastating experience for the mouth, where, you just had to slurp noodle after noodle, take bite after bite of the chashu, and we shouldn't forget about bringing the bowl to our mouth to take a sip every once in a while.

Then, I created the perfect bite.

Placing a little bit of all the layers of the bowl of ramen at the edge of the bowl, I brought it up to my lips and used my chopsticks to shove everything in whilst simultaneously guzzling the broth.

Bam! There was the salty punch of the soup.

Bong! There was the fatty pillow of the Chashu.

Ding! There was the gentle massage of the egg.

Dong! There was the stretchy texture of the mushroom.

Ping! There was the QQ of the noodles.

Pong! There was the freshness of the green onion that rounded the whole dish out, tenderly cutting through the rest of the flavors.

Maybe, just maybe, I might have wished to die at this point in time.

'Who cares about surviving?'

'Who cares about reading?'

'Who cares about girlfriends?'

'Who cares about waifus?'

'Who cares about drugs?'

'Who cares about sex?'

'Who the fuck cares about life?'

I was done.

And so, I offed myself.

When the Reader Descends Into the Novel With a System: End

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Just kidding!

Well, one half of my mind did.

But then, the other half stopped me from fully penetrating my neck with the chopsticks in my hand.

There was also the help of the cart owner too, who used magic to freeze the water around my neck into ice, preventing the chopsticks from stabbing through.

Whew, that was a close one.

After this crazy experience, I profusely thanked the creator of the godly ramen, and then left, as I needed to sleep this high off.

Not even my OCD could prevent my urges as I just flew home and jumped into bed without taking a shower or anything, even with my shoes still on.

The next morning, I woke up with some, well, a lot of suspicious stains covering the bedsheets around my nether region.

Weird right?

<Godly Ramen Maker's POV>

I had such an interesting customer today.

It was a young boy, and for some reason, he had chosen my cart to eat at, out of all the restaurants on Market Street.

He had actually been my first new customer in a year!

Well, it was kind of expected, as at least one student from each new class would try out my ramen once, and then keep coming back afterwards.

It honestly wasn't that good of a business, but, I kept doing it cause I loved it.

'But, about that boy... There's definitely something different about him... My instincts are almost shouting right now...'

Closing my cart for the day, I put the entirety of the set-up into my storage ring before leaving the area.

Quickly going back to my home, I got onto my computer and searched up my new customer's face in the Information Affair's Catalogue of Known or Suspected Spies (IACKSS).

And, just like I thought, there was a hit in the system.

[Kurayami Akimitsu - 15 years old

Stigmas: ???

Status: Unknown (Vanished without a trace two months back. Possibly dead.)

Degree of Suspicion: Highly Suspected

Danger Level: 4/10

Notes: The subject has a highly trained body. They are also close friends with the Imperial Princess.

File Code: 212]

'What an interesting feller...'

This boy was definitely a threat to the boss.

And it was my job to find out if he was recruitable, or if he needed to be eliminated.

I left to go get his file from the File Library.

But, what the man didn't notice was that there had been someone following him through his shadow this whole time.

The next day, somewhere in between his house and the File Library of the Information Affairs, the man disappeared.