Chapter 124. A Restaurant Like This Exists?! (3)
“W-Wait!”
Realizing how serious the situation was, Nova hurriedly tried to stop her.
But Victoria was already shoving the chicken-breast pie, drenched in the mysterious potion, toward the middle-aged woman.
“Go on. Try it.”
The liquid coating the pie bubbled ominously and even gave off suspicious black smoke.
The woman hesitated.
“U-Um... I think I’m fine without eating it.”
“Oh, come on. Our chef worked so hard on this.”
“It’d be a shame if you didn’t try it!”
Victoria stared at her with wide eyes and strongly urged her on.
Unable to withstand the pressure, the woman carefully broke off a corner of the pie.
“Well then...”
Looking reluctant, she put the piece covered in Victoria’s special topping into her mouth.
Gulp.
The faint sound of the pie sliding down her throat echoed through the restaurant.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
A piercing scream immediately shook the entire place.
Yukgap came running out in alarm.
“What happened?!”
Nova hurriedly explained.
“Victoria poured something on the chicken-breast pie!”
“What?!”
Yukgap quickly examined the middle-aged woman who had eaten it.
Her body twisted, swelled, and shrank repeatedly as though someone were kneading clay.
Her very skeletal structure was clearly changing.
Yukgap felt a strange sense of familiarity.
“No way...”
The woman’s back suddenly straightened.
Her frame broadened dramatically.
Then rock-like muscles bulged all over her body.
In moments, the once ordinary middle-aged woman had transformed into a towering mass of muscle.
She stared down at her new body in amazement.
“This is... incredible.”
Victoria asked meaningfully,
“How do you feel?”
“Power!”
The woman clenched her fists.
“My whole body is overflowing with power!”
Unable to contain herself, she let out a beast-like roar.
Victoria calmly nodded.
“Of course. What you just ate contained a collection of stem cells that regrow bone and muscle.”
“The legendary WWE champion Grandma King awakened after eating the same thing.”
The frail woman troubled by her rebellious child was gone.
In her place stood a beast who had awakened to the call of muscle.
She clenched one fist with determination.
“My muscles and bones are speaking to me!”
“They’re telling me to beat that rude brat into shape!”
“From today on, if my child refuses to listen to me, I’ll start using force!”
“After getting smacked around a few times, I’m sure my child will realize that having a peaceful conversation is actually the happier option!”
“Exactly!”
Victoria enthusiastically agreed.
“True respect is born from fear!”
“If a rotten kid screams at their mother, the fist is the answer!”
The middle-aged woman smiled brightly and gave a casual farewell.
“Well then, I’m off to teach my child some manners!”
With those words, she charged out of Restaurant Shelley.
Heavy thud, thud, thud sounds continued as the ground shook beneath her footsteps.
Victoria watched her leave with a satisfied smile.
“Hehehe.”
“And that’s another problem solved.”
“I’m delighted that Restaurant Shelley’s philosophy of love and peace can spread like this.”
Beside her, the host had silently watched everything unfold with a face frozen in shock.
She turned to the director.
“Director... what do we do?”
The director looked equally horrified.
He muttered,
“...Bring out the next guest.”
“Why would you put something like that on a chicken-breast pie?!”
Yukgap immediately confronted Victoria.
But she refused to back down.
“Didn’t you hear what she said?”
“That kid screamed at their mother and even acted like they were going to punch her!”
“This is the Land of Eastern Courtesy!”
“How could I just let that slide?”
“You said Restaurant Shelley’s philosophy was love and peace!”
At Yukgap’s accusation, Victoria avoided his eyes and made an excuse.
“Love and peace are ultimately completed through overwhelming force.”
“What kind of ridiculous logic is that?”
Nova finally stepped in.
“Victoria, I understand what you were trying to do, but you can’t just use alchemical drugs however you want.”
“Think about how shocked the viewers are going to be.”
Yukgap agreed.
“Exactly.”
“If you keep doing that, people will think our restaurant is some suspicious place that secretly puts weird drugs in the food.”
Anyone would panic after watching a middle-aged woman’s entire skeleton change from eating a drug-soaked pie.
For the sake of Restaurant Shelley’s continued business, they could not allow something like that to happen again.
“We’re resuming filming!”
A voice announced that the cameras were about to roll again.
The moment they heard it, Yukgap and Nova both turned toward Victoria.
“Please, just do this normally this time, okay?”
“No sudden stunts.”
“Understood?”
Victoria pouted.
“...Fine.”
“I won’t do anything.”
She sat back in front of the camera, pretending nothing had happened.
The host and director did the same, smoothly resuming the shoot as though nothing unusual had occurred.
In a sense, they were true professionals.
“All right, shall we meet our next guest?”
The host spoke brightly.
The second guest who had been waiting off-camera awkwardly stepped forward.
“Hehehe. Hello.”
He was a short, overweight man.
His hair was already noticeably thinning and turning gray.
Victoria remembered Yukgap and Nova’s warnings and smiled brightly.
“Nice to meet you.”
“What brings you to Restaurant Shelley?”
“Well... the truth is... there’s a woman I have a crush on.”
The man twisted his body bashfully.
The moment Victoria heard the word love, her voice shot up.
