Chapter 530: Another Wave of New Quests
As Qi Han claimed the final spirit power level reward from Main Quest 9, streams of warm energy surged through his meridians, raising his cultivation to Rank 60 spirit power. The remaining one-level reward would be delayed until after he obtained his sixth spirit ring.
At the same time, Main Quest 9 disappeared from the mission panel, and entirely new quests popped up.
[Main Quest 10: The Birth of a Side Business
Please develop a food-related side business within Han Shi in Shrek City that does not conflict with Han Shi's current operations, and maintain it for one month.
Quest Description: Since Han Shi's reputation in Shrek City has already reached its peak, this system has decided to increase the difficulty for the host!
Quest Rewards: +2 Spirit Power Levels, 2 Random 3-Star Recipes, 2 Random Recipe Drops.]
[Side Quest 10-3: Steps of Conquest II
Please select 3 1-Star recipes (original recipes excluded), teach them to one thousand people, and ensure they can cook Excellent-grade dishes.
Quest Description: Congratulations, Host! The number of natives on Douluo Continent capable of cooking Excellent-grade Egg Fried Rice has now reached ten thousand. Keep up the good work, and conquer Douluo Continent with even more delicious cuisine!
Quest Rewards: +2 Spirit Power Levels, 1 Random Recipe Drop.]
[Time-Limited Quest: Ingredient Acquisition V
Within ten days, please head to the spirit beast gathering region within the Sun Moon Empire: the Evildemon Forest, and independently kill a ten-thousand-year spirit beast, the Three-Eyed Battle Bear.
Quest Description: It's time once again for the once-every-ten-level Ingredient Acquisition. Surely the host has been eagerly anticipating this, right?
Quest Rewards: 1 System Spirit Ring, 4-Star Recipe: Sisters Of Pearl.]
A huge string of question marks practically appeared above Qi Han's head.
"Ru Yi..." He slowly turned toward the little girl beside him, who looked ready to slip away at any moment. "Did you mess with something?"
"Ahahaha, I have no idea what you're talking about." Ru Yi laughed awkwardly. "How could that possibly happen?"
"Oh, cut it out!" Qi Han rolled his eyes, grabbed Ru Yi, and vigorously pinched her chubby cheeks. "I'm already operating breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night supper in Shrek City for eight hours a day, and now you want me to start a side business too?!"
"And you still dare say that?!" Ru Yi rubbed her cheeks indignantly. "You already handed all the breakfast work over to your disciple! Of course I had to find you something new to do. Stop trying to slack off and get back to work!"
Qi Han spoke with heartfelt sorrow, "I'm going to come up with a side business that requires zero effort from me. Don't think you can force me into overtime!"
"Then…" Ru Yi shrugged. "Please, begin your performance~"
"Just you wait," Qi Han muttered resentfully before beginning to think seriously.
Main Quest 10 was one of the prerequisite conditions for advancing to Senior Chef status, so Qi Han had originally been looking forward to it quite a bit.
Although the quest content was completely different from what he had expected, after carefully analyzing it, it didn't actually seem that difficult.
The quest required him to develop a food-related side business and operate it for one month, while also ensuring it didn't conflict with Han Shi's existing operations.
Did such a side business exist?
Actually, yes. Quite a few, in fact.
For example, various snack stalls could count as side businesses, since snacks and proper meals were considered separate categories.
But the problem was that such side businesses would require him to personally run them. He already had to manage two meal services plus late-night supper. Adding snack-stall operations on top of that would create an enormous burden and leave him no time to train in the Training Space.
So any side business that required his direct involvement was unsuitable.
Then what kind of food-related side business existed that wouldn't require him to personally operate it?
After thinking carefully, Qi Han realized there were still plenty of options.
For instance, a pastry shop selling cakes and Western desserts.
The pastries in such a shop didn't need to be made fresh on the spot. They could all be prepared in advance for the day and then sold in limited quantities afterward.
That way, Qi Han wouldn't need to personally run the business. He would only need to bake the cakes and pastries ahead of time, then hire an employee specifically responsible for sales.
The only problem was that Qi Han didn't know how to make any of those pastries.
Although most of them belonged to the 1-Star recipe category, meaning Qi Han could directly purchase the recipes, they were all rather expensive...
To buy enough dessert recipes to properly operate a pastry shop would probably cost over a million gold coins.
And besides, baking pastries wasn't easy work either. Even with futuristic tech equipment accelerating the baking process, it still wasn't something simple.
At the end of the day, he would still need to personally handle the baking.
Of course, Qi Han had other options.
For example, opening a milk tea shop or an ice cream shop.
Compared to a pastry shop, milk tea and ice cream stores were naturally much more convenient for him.
He would only need to prepare the various ingredients in advance and hand them over to specially trained employees, allowing him to quietly slack off while still reaping the benefits.
Milk tea powder, tapioca pearls, taro paste, crispy toppings, fresh fruits and tea bags for fruit teas, and the various raw materials required for making ice cream—under the aid of the system's futuristic technology, all of these could be produced quickly. He would only need to restock ingredients every few days, and trained employees could easily make qualified milk tea or ice cream.
However, such a side business did place certain requirements on the employees' abilities. At minimum, they would need to be around Qin Yue and Qin Yao's level to be competent.
After all, products from the system were always top quality. Even milk tea and ice cream couldn't be casually thrown together carelessly.
Beyond these choices, Qi Han actually had plenty of other options as well.
After all, in his previous life he had seen far too many food-related industries. Even simply copying one of them wholesale would make completing Main Quest 10 incredibly easy.
There was no rush, anyway. Because of the Ingredient Acquisition Quest, Qi Han couldn't return to Douluo Continent for the moment, so he could take his time thinking about it.
As for Side Quest 10-3, which arrived together with Main Quest 10, it actually wasn't difficult for him either.
Before this, Qi Han had already completed a teaching-related quest once.
Back then, he had taught people how to make Egg Fried Rice, and the quest was completed after one thousand people successfully mastered Excellent-grade Egg Fried Rice.
This time, the requirements of Side Quest 10-3 hadn't fundamentally changed. It still required one thousand people to successfully master Excellent-grade dishes before the quest could be completed.
The only difference was that this time he had to teach 3 1-Star recipes.
For Qi Han, that wasn't much of a problem.
However, one detail mentioned in the quest description caught his interest.
The number of natives who had mastered Excellent-grade Egg Fried Rice had already reached ten thousand?
Back when he publicly taught the recipe, there hadn't even been ten thousand participants.
Clearly, there was only one explanation for reaching ten thousand people.
Those who had already mastered Excellent-grade Egg Fried Rice must have passed the technique on to others, and over time this chain of teaching had gradually led to the current number.
Qi Han was delighted and deeply gratified by this development.
Why did he suddenly feel such a strange sense of accomplishment?
Afterward, Qi Han looked toward the rewards for the Main Quest and Side Quest.
There, he saw a familiar reward type that had not appeared for a very long time.
Random Recipe Drops.
After successfully advancing to Intermediate Chef, Random Recipe Drops had become guaranteed to start at the 3-Star level. However, ever since then, he seemed to have never obtained another Random Recipe Drop—until now.
Naturally, a Random Recipe Drop starting at 3-Star quality was superior to an ordinary random 3-Star recipe.
Although this Main Quest no longer rewarded a 4-Star recipe, it did provide two Random Recipe Drops, which Qi Han considered pretty decent.
As for the single Random Recipe Drop rewarded by the Side Quest, he was equally satisfied with it.
Thus, Qi Han silently shifted his gaze toward the Ingredient Acquisition Quest.
The Three-Eyed Battle Bear was a top-tier bear-type spirit beast possessing both powerful mental attributes and terrifying physical strength.
And the Evildemon Forest was the largest spirit beast forest within the Sun Moon Continent, as well as the territory of the Evileye Tyrant Emperor, a terrifying spirit beast with a cultivation level of eight hundred thousand years.
This Ingredient Acquisition Quest was extremely dangerous.