Chapter 501: A Malicious New Side Quest
[Side Quest 10-1: The Temptation of Delicacies (Completed)
Reward: +2 Spirit Power Levels (Claimable), 3-Star Optional Recipe Fragments ×3 (Claimable).]
It had already been three days since Meng Yun became a waitress at Han Shi.
The job of a waitress was indeed not complicated—it was just a bit busy during business hours. After three days of practice, Meng Yun had already shed the nervousness and awkwardness she had when she first arrived, becoming a qualified Han Shi employee.
With a waitress helping take orders, serve dishes, and clean, Qi Han's efficiency improved significantly. Naturally, the number of customers the small restaurant could serve increased, and Han Shi's business became even better than before.
Coincidentally, with the imperial edict being posted, many people in Mingdu City had begun paying attention to Mingke Street. As a result, the completion speed of Side Quest 10-1 was extremely fast. After the lunch service on the twelfth day of Han Shi's operation, Qi Han's quest panel changed.
It's here, it's here!
With a delighted expression, he claimed the Spirit Power level reward. Feeling the Spirit Power within his body surge and grow through his meridians, his level jumped from 55 to 57. A hint of joy immediately appeared on his face.
Before he knew it, Level 60 was not far away.
After calming himself, Qi Han casually claimed the remaining reward: the 3-Star Optional Recipe Fragments.
At this point, he had exactly eighteen 3-Star recipe fragments—enough to exchange for two 3-Star recipes.
But there was no rush.
He hadn't even finished his current 4-Star recipes yet. Zilong Sheds His Armor was still incomplete, and after that, there was still Buddha Jumps Over the Wall waiting for him.
Moreover, there didn't seem to be any urgent need for 3-Star recipes in the short term, so he could save them for later.
Who knows, maybe one day he'd urgently need a specific 3-Star recipe?
The completion speed of the side quest was twice as fast as Qi Han had expected, which was naturally something to be happy about. But he soon realized that Ru Yi's sneaky "backstab" of giving him troublesome quests… seemed to be more than just one.
As Side Quest 10-1 disappeared, a brand-new quest quickly popped up on the panel.
[Side Quest 10-2: Overwhelming Praise
Without any form of guidance, have 5,000 diners from the Sun Moon Empire voluntarily recommend Han Shi.
Description: Let the residents of Mingdu City take this recommendation hit!
Reward: +2 Spirit Power Levels, 2-Star Optional Recipe Fragments ×16
Progress: 302 / 5000.]
If Qi Han were still in his previous mindset of "keeping a low profile and getting rich quietly," he would probably be wailing right now.
But after completing Side Quest 10-1, he already couldn't stay low-key anymore. At this point, he simply went with the flow—his mentality completely giving up resistance.
This new side quest was also something he had never encountered before—it required diners to voluntarily recommend Han Shi.
"Recommend" here meant word-of-mouth promotion. In other words, the quest required 5,000 customers to actively recommend Han Shi to others.
It was certainly a fresh type of quest. But after calmly analyzing it, Qi Han immediately felt both the difficulty of the task and the malice behind it from Ru Yi.
First, the quest explicitly specified "diners from the Sun Moon Empire," meaning Qi Han couldn't return to the Douluo Continent to complete it. To finish Side Quest 10-2, he would have to remain in Mingdu City the entire time.
Second, the quest clearly imposed a restriction: no guidance whatsoever. That meant Qi Han couldn't use any method to ask or hint at customers to promote his restaurant. He could only rely on them doing it voluntarily.
Not every diner would take the initiative to do something like this.
It was just like reading a good book—many people would keep reading it themselves, but only a small portion would recommend it to others.
Qi Han had just completed the task of reaching 1,000 returning customers, which meant that Han Shi now had just reached 1,000 diners who had visited more than once. Among them, those most likely to recommend Han Shi to others were clearly these returning customers.
The current quest progress showed just over 300 recommendations, meaning only about 30% of returning customers had recommended the restaurant—and that was already because Han Shi's dishes were flavors they had never experienced before. For a normal restaurant, the ratio would likely be much lower.
Based on this ratio, to reach 5,000 diners who voluntarily recommended Han Shi, it would roughly require over 16,000 returning customers…
That was definitely not an easy task. After all, it had taken Qi Han twelve days just to reach 1,000 returning customers, and now he needed to increase that number by more than tenfold.
At present, his Main Quest of operating for thirty days only had eighteen days left. But achieving such explosive growth in returning customers within eighteen days was practically impossible.
This also meant that his original plan of leaving after thirty days would most likely fall through. Until Side Quest 10-2 was completed, he probably wouldn't be able to leave…
All he could do now was hope that the 5,000 recommending diners would be reached as soon as possible.
Thinking of this, Qi Han immediately entered the training space and grabbed a certain giggling little girl, giving her a good spanking.
What a disaster!
…
Although the new quest was extremely frustrating and filled Qi Han with resentment, he quickly calmed himself and continued practicing Zilong Sheds His Armor. In the blink of an eye, the entire afternoon passed. Only when Ru Yi reminded him that Meng Yun had arrived did he step out of the training space.
"Good afternoon, boss!"
After a few days of working together, Meng Yun and Qi Han had gradually become more familiar. She greeted him with a light smile.
"Good afternoon." Qi Han smiled slightly, then closed the door. As he looked at Meng Yun, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Although he had been in Mingdu City for a while, he still didn't know much about it.
At first, he had wanted to keep a low profile. Later, he became busy with business. For various reasons, he still hadn't had the chance to explore the city and was quite unfamiliar with it.
But Meng Yun was a local of Mingdu City. Having lived here for over a decade, she certainly knew the place far better than he did.
Perhaps she might have some ideas about Side Quest 10-2 that he hadn't thought of?
"Ru Yi, asking this won't violate the quest rules, right?" Just to be safe, Qi Han decided to check first.
"It won't. But you cannot have Meng Yun hint to customers to promote the restaurant, otherwise it will still count as you violating the rules," Ru Yi replied quickly.
That was fine. Qi Han hadn't planned to have her hint at customers anyway.
What difference would that make from him doing it himself?
"Meng Yun, do you know any way to quickly increase our restaurant's popularity?" After a moment of thought, Qi Han asked.
Increasing popularity and increasing voluntary recommendations were essentially similar—the difference was just in how the question was phrased.
"Huh?" Meng Yun was slightly stunned, not expecting the boss to ask such a question. "Boss, how about I ask the customers during service to help promote our restaurant?"
"No, no." Qi Han shook his head like a rattle drum. "That approach would annoy customers and reduce their dining satisfaction. It's not advisable."
If Meng Yun actually did that, Qi Han would immediately violate the quest rules, so he quickly came up with a reason to shut down this dangerous idea.
Hearing this, Meng Yun felt it made sense. She frowned in thought for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up.
"Boss, I've got an idea!"