"Aden Square Food Rankings?" Mai Ge opened the door, glanced at the two middle-aged men in red vests, shook his head, and said, "Not interested." He then closed the door.
"Hmm?" Alvin and Luther exchanged glances, both somewhat surprised. Newly opened restaurants are usually very keen on things like food rankings, since entering the top 100 is like having an extra advertising opportunity to reach all diners, which can directly increase revenue.
Of course, it's practically impossible for a new restaurant to break into the top 100, but there's never been a boss who refused without even thinking about it.
"Luther, let's go. It seems this boss is quite self-aware. If a restaurant that's only been open for a little over ten days can make the list, people will start questioning the authority of our food rankings again." Alvin closed his notebook, looking a little unhappy.
"You know what, none of the restaurants in Aden Square have ever used such a large piece of crystal as decoration. May be they have a lot of money." Luther said, pointing to the floor to ceiling glass next to him, somewhat surprised.
Mai Ge had no interest in the so-called food rankings. These were usually for customers who didn't have much of their own opinions and wanted to find good food on their own. And generally, the restaurants on the list weren't the ones with the best or most unique food, but rather the ones with the most people dining in and the most moderate prices, because only they could get a large number of votes.
The real culinary delights are often hidden among the lower-ranked restaurants on the list, and some restaurants don't even appear on the list at all. They are hidden in some corner of the city, waiting for customers to discover them on their own.
Of course, the most important thing is that Mai Ge no longer has to worry about customers. Rather than receiving a large number of tourists everyday because of his high ranking, he prefers to serve familiar faces with spending power. After all, he can only provide so much food each day, so why does he need so much attention?
"Ding! The system has issued a new task: Please ensure that one of your restaurant's dishes enters the top 30 of the Aden Square Food Rankings this month. Reward for successful task: A Häagen-Dazs ice cream set meal recipe! Penalty for failure: A fine of 10,000 gold coins!" Just then, the system's voice suddenly rang out.
"Wait a minute, System, what did you just say was the penalty for task failure?" Mai Ge stopped abruptly, feeling like he'd misheard something.
"Task failure penalty: A fine of 10,000 gold coins!" the system repeated.
"Damn it, System! I know you like money, but could you not be so obvious about it?! What system fines you for failing a task?!" Mai Ge roared inwardly, but still opened the door and said somewhat awkwardly to the two men who were turning to leave, "Wait a minute, I've been thinking about it, and I'm actually a little interested."
"Hmm?" Alvin and Luther turned around to look at Mai Ge, somewhat puzzled.
"Boss, do you mean you're going to participate in this Aden Square Food Rankings competition?" Luther asked.
"Yes, do I need to do anything?" Mai Ge smiled and nodded, inwardly cursing, "Poverty really is the original sin. For ten thousand gold coins, I have to bow down to the system."
Of course, the Häagen-Dazs ice cream combo also tempted Mai Ge. It's a favorite among kids, and Amy would definitely love it. It would be so cute to watch the little one eat ice cream.
"Top 30 on the list should be a piece of cake, right?" Mai Ge was full of confidence. He didn't believe there was any dish in Aden Square that could taste better than his. Let alone top 30, just in terms of taste, he felt that taking the top three spots should be no problem.
Both men were of medium build, around forty years old, with protruding bellies, indicating they ate quite a lot. Their red vests had a pot and a spoon embroidered on the chest, and the words "Aden Square Catering Association" embroidered on the back. The man on the left was carrying a cloth bag.
"If you want to participate, you'll need to pay a registration fee of five gold coins first. Then we'll add your restaurant to the preliminary list for this ranking. Starting tomorrow, customers will vote with their slips for ten days. Finally, the top one hundred restaurants with the most votes and scores will be selected as the featured restaurants for this month's ranking." Alvin looked up at the restaurant's name, opened his notebook and wrote it down, then naturally extended his hand to Mai Ge.
"That's all?" Mai Ge didn't rush to pay. Asking him to pay five gold coins just for writing a restaurant name in his notebook seemed like a rip-off.
"Of course not, but the rest of the process will begin after we collect the registration fee." Luther smiled.
"Five gold coins." Mai Ge hesitated for a moment, then took out five gold coins from his pocket and handed them to Alvin. It seemed that they were already very familiar with this process. They held it once a month, and the registration fees alone brought in a lot of money.
"Very good. Here are the voting slips. Boss, after each bill, you can give one of these slips to the customer. They can use these slips to rate and vote on the restaurant's food. The final vote count is based on all customer reviews, and then a cumulative score is calculated by combining the number of customers and the amount spent, thus creating a ranking." Luther pulled two stacks of small cards, each five centimeters wide and ten centimeters long, from his cloth bag, and extended his other hand to Mai Ge, smiling, "These are slips with the association's special magical anti-counterfeiting mark. One hundred slips per stack, one gold coin per stack. How many stacks do you need, boss?"
"Holy crap! There's definitely a profit chain behind this. A single slip costs one copper coin. Restaurants with high customer traffic must be spending tens of thousands on slips. And that doesn't even include the cost of hiring shills. They probably can't even get into the top ten without spending tens or hundreds of thousands, right?" Mai Ge raised an eyebrow. It seemed he had underestimated the problem and thought the otherworldly merchants were too naive. They were much better at these kinds of tricks.
"How many slips do I usually need to get into the top 30?" Mai Ge asked tentatively.
"Top 30? That's hard to say. If the restaurant's dishes are expensive, two or three thousand might be enough. But if it's like scallion pancakes, which cost five copper coins a serving, even ten thousand might not be enough to get into the top 100. However, if it's your restaurant, I suggest you buy less, it's a waste if you don't use them all." Luther glanced at Mai Ge with some surprise. He hadn't expected that this young boss, who wasn't interested, would actually want to get into the top 30 of the rankings.
It's worth noting that all of the top 30 restaurants on this month's list are established establishments that have been around for over three years, and they are all quite large. Most of them even display the emblem of the Aden Square Merchants' Union at their entrances. For a small restaurant that has just opened to try and get a piece of the pie is simply wishful thinking.
"Okay, then give me two thousand slips first." Mai Ge thought for a moment and nodded.