Chapter 2: We Need To Cook

[Congratulations! For completing a set of 15 pushups, you have earned an Uncommon Gacha Coin!]

The burning sensation in my arms eased as I stood up and began doing squats after catching my breath.

A week passed and I learned a few important things about my Gacha powers. It was a mixed bag of good and bad news. The good news was that getting more Gacha Coins was laughably easy. Just about everything else made up the bad news.

[Congratulations! For completing a set of 25 squats, you have earned an Uncommon Gacha Coin!]

[Congratulations! For completing a full workout routine, you have earned a Rare Gacha Coin!]

I just about fell on my ass as the soreness and exhaustion that had been building up for the last half-hour hit me all at once.

With a sigh, I used up all the coins I gained from my workout and, as expected, almost everything I got for my efforts was veritable garbage.

You know what's worse than using up an Uncommon Gacha Coin and getting a pull with a Rarity that's Common? Getting Rarity that's Uncommon and negative… Yeah, the sick bastard who designed my Gacha powers not only made the pools inclusive of lower tiers, but made actively detrimental results possible.

Five out my Uncommon Gacha Coins yielded Common Rarity rewards and of the four that weren't, two had negative scores! One was a fucking used tampon and the other was a rusted metal bat. Fucking useless!

Fortunately, the Gacha Gods were not without their mercy and at least one of the Uncommons as well as the Rare Gacha Coin blessed me with something that was actually useful.

[Results: Rarity — Uncommon 56 | Running (Skill)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 777 | Double Gacha (Perk)]

I was so happy I could sing. Of course, I wouldn't do that at the park where I was currently exercising at. That would be cringe, weird and something only a clinically insane person would follow through with committing towards. But it was an active reflection of my current state of being given what these two pulls would do for me.

Running was simple yet deceptively useful. It didn't give me infinite stamina to run forever like I had once hoped I might have. Instead, it simply negated the amount of stamina I expended while going out for a run. As a new Skill it was Level 1 and only negated 10% of my stamina used to move, but it had potential to level up and improve if I rolled the same Skill again. I knew this because I had already pulled the Skill for Cooking and leveled it up twice.

As for why Running would be useful, well… because running more meant more Gacha Coins. Walking around gave Commons, jogging reasonable distances gave Uncommons and running like some cross-country lunatic gave Rares. I'd probably get the next tier of Gacha's once I improved my running to the point where I was doing olympic-level effort.

Double Gacha, however, was where the real value was at. As a Perk, it changed the nature of my being inherently to do one thing. It doubled the number of Coins I got every time I earned more normal Gacha Coins.

Yay! Now I can gamble and face crushing misery twice as fast!

But for real though, Double Gacha would double my chances of getting good pulls. Good pulls, like the Running Skill I just got, would make it easier for me to get more Gacha Coins and the cycle would feed into itself at a rate that would hopefully see me get to that sweet, sweet ultimate tier pull before I perished for a second time; hopefully.

I made use of my Running Skill as soon as my legs stopped feeling like jello and slowly jogged back to my new apartment, only making a short detour to a convenience store to pick up my dinner for later in the day. Why was the Skill working when I was definitely not moving anywhere close enough to qualify as a run? Hell if I knew, but I wasn't going to complain. The details specified lowering stamina use for movement, so I guess jogging and even walking counted.

Hooray for loopholes!

Back at my new home about 3,700 Lien poorer and a few grocery bags richer. Technically speaking, I wasn't actually any poorer than I was when I woke up because the other Uncommon Gacha I pull before returning just so happened to be a 5,000 Lien Card.

It was absolute bullshit. I mean, seriously, for the effort of completing a set of exercise fit for a normal person I got the equivalent of $50 USD. That's like less than two minutes of working out at my pace. Shit, if it was like that on Earth, I imagined everyone back there would working towards being hella ripped and filthy rich too.

Anyway, I stocked my ingredients away and took a quick shower before lounging in my living room couch for the next couple of hours. Then, when I started to get hungry, I cooked myself a steak with some fries and a salad.

[Congratulations! For cooking a restaurant-quality dish, you have earned two Rare Gacha Coin!]

Nice!

I immediately used it.

[Results: Rarity — Rare -621 | Zombie Store Invasion (Scenario)]

Not nice! Not nice!

I sighed, ignoring my bad luck. Whatever the hell that was, I wasn't going to be messing with it until I got my Aura unlocked. Instead I focused on more positive things, like how easy it had been to get that Rare Gacha Coin from Cooking.

Hmm, I savored the taste of my food. I really was worth something I'd pay a couple dozen bucks for back on Earth at a nice restaurant. More importantly, it gave me an excuse to go looking for a job as a cook or chef somewhere. I mean, I could just cook a bunch at home, but wasting food was a cardinal sin in my eyes and I'd rather not do that if I could help it.

Also, it was getting kind of boring not talking to anyone out of my own volition. At first I thought I'd be happy just browsing the all new internet equivalent of Remnant, but it turns out I'm not inherently misanthropic to the point where I'm content ignoring the existence of all other people. Guess I'm still human enough to feel the urge to socialize.

So, I decided to look for a cooking job the very next day.

…

After waking up and eating a quick simple breakfast, I completed my morning workout and 5K jog. I showered and dressed up appropriately for a cooking job interview. I wasn't sure how the process worked on Earth but on Remnant, apparently no one cared to ask for a background test or resume before running a practical test.

I called five different establishments ranging from a crepe shop to a fine dining restaurant and all of them requested that I show up ready to cook if I seriously wanted a job. It was questionable, but probably reasonable in some twisted way. Who cares who I am if my food is good enough for a Michelin Star? Not that I was sure it was, but the comparison worked.

I showed up to a restaurant called Bistro Cafe. It was a relatively decent restaurant. Not a five-star gourmet critically acclaimed whatever, but a place where a middle-class family might dine out for a special occasion. My hope was that it was not advanced enough that I needed legit chef experience to figure out how to work competently, but not so low brow that the full extent of my Cooking would be suppressed and lower my Gacha Coin earnings.

"Are you serious?" A man tonelessly asked as he approached me. I recognized his voice as the hiring manager from my call with the restaurant yesterday.

"Yes," I held back the eye roll I felt compelled to express.

'Why else would I be here?' I stared at him until he responded.

"Alright," he sighed. "Do you at least know your way around a restaurant kitchen? Any prior experience?"

"No. I am confident I can cooking something good enough for your standards, though."

"Really, now?" He smiled knowingly. "If you're certain, then how about a simple test. I'll give you one chance, kid. Take your pick of any entree from our menu and I'll give you half an hour to make it for my staff to judge. You'll have to wait until our lunch traffic slows, but I'll let you have a go at it. What do you say?" He offered a handshake

"Sounds good." I said as I took his hand, "As long as I can get a recipe or directions from someone. I mean, I think I'm good, but I can't exactly figure out you're dishes at a glance."

"Are you sure?" His grip on my hand tightened. "If you do this, I'm seriously going to have everyone working here take a bite of your food and have them tell you exactly how they think it compares to our standards."

"Great," I responded with a slight smile. "It'll be a great opportunity to get everyone to know how good I am and not question me for being so young when you decide to hire me."

"Ballsy, kid. Or delusion," he let go of my hand. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

When the time came to test my culinary competency, I had long since picked out the dish I wanted to present. Chicken Carbonara. It was simple enough to do well within the time frame they gave me, but complicated enough to a good measure of my cooking skills.

Carbonaras were easy to flub. Cook it too long or wrong and the eggy sauce curdles, don't cook it long enough or wrong (again!) and you'll serve raw egged pasta. How did I know this? Bullshit Gacha magic, probably. This was the first time I'd ever tried making a carbonara personally.

With what seemed like the whole damn restaurant as my witness, I cooked the shit out of that chicken carbonara.

Ooh, bad phrasing…

I meant, I cooked it really well, not that I overcooked it or something equally as tragic.

[Congratulations! For cooking a restaurant-quality dish, you have earned two Rare Gacha Coin!]

See! Even the Gacha Gods agree with me. Hahaha…

"Damn, this is good," one of the cooks said as he at his sample. After my dish had been prepared, it was promptly split up between the entire staff to eat and critique me.

"A little heavy on the salt, though," the sous chef commented.

"Is it? I can't really tell. It tastes good enough to me," a bunny-eared waitress added.

"It is a little extra salty. A little extra spicy too, but well within our standards," the head chef said.

"Cool, so does that mean he gets the job? It's been kind of hectic in here ever since Mei left for that family emergency in Mistral," another cook said.

"It's your call," the hiring manager looked to the head chef.

"Sure," the head chef said. "As long as he passes the usual background check." He turned to me and added, "It's going to be a rough first few weeks as you get used to working in a restaurant kitchen with other people, but as long as you can accept that, I'll be happy to have you as a line cook."

"Where do I sign?" I asked.