Fifth Meal - Sweet and Sour Pork (1)

"Are you seriously telling me that you haven't gotten any information at all?!"

The man in the black suit and sunglasses being yelled at couldn't help revealing an awkward look because there was nothing he could say.

If he admitted it, he would be yelled at.

If he denied it, he would be yelled at.

So the only thing he could do was awkwardly stand there in front of his boss.

But even this was a wrong option.

Seeing him stand there awkwardly made his boss even madder.

The boss picked up the folder that the man in sunglasses had presented to him and threw it at his head as he roared, "If you don't get me any new information by the end of the week, you're fired!"

The man in sunglasses just revealed a bitter smile, but he knew better than to say anything. If he did say something, all he would do was anger his boss and he would suffer more.

It was better to just let the boss vent his anger because he was also facing pressure from the upper brass for new information.

The various other countries had all made different technological announcements during this period and their country was the only one that hadn't made a new announcement, so it made them look very foolish.

So naturally all of this fell onto their heads since they were the ones that had contact with that restaurant.

After he finished venting, the boss looked at the time and said, "Go, the restaurant's about to open." Then as the man in sunglasses was about to leave, the boss added, "Watch out for those people from China and Japan, they really are good at getting information from that place. If it seems like they're about to get something good, make your way in and take that information from them."

The man in sunglasses revealed a bitter smile when he heard this, but he still waved his hand to show that he had heard his boss.

After leaving the building that their offices were in, the man walked a few blocks before arriving at a restaurant that had a dog's paw on the door.

This seemed like a very normal restaurant, but once he went through the door, it was like a completely different world. After all, there were all kinds of creatures here that he had only read about in fantasy novels and had never existed on Earth before this restaurant became famous.

As for how this restaurant became famous…

It was a very strange story.

It happened one day when there was a story on social media about a restaurant that had elves and orcs. There were even pictures that came with that story, so naturally it piqued everyone's interests.

Soon, more and more people went to that restaurant and confirmed that indeed, there were elves and orcs that were at that restaurant. But it wasn't just that, there were many other fantasy species that were also in that restaurant.

With this kind of draw, it didn't take long before this restaurant became famous to the point where even the mainstream media was covering it. They received reports that were broadcast on national and international news.

Once this kind of coverage was reached, it attracted the attention of governments of different countries.

The governments weren't interested in the novelty of fantasy races, but rather something much more different. They were interested in the practical use of magic that these fantasy races controlled.

In the different reports, there were many examples of the different fantasy races using magic to do things that would be considered impossible in this modern world.

This kind of power naturally piqued the interests of the various governments and they wanted it for themselves.

So they started sending spies to this restaurant to see what kind of information they could get.

At the same time, they banned normal people from entering the restaurant and even sent the military to blockade it so that normal people couldn't enter during normal business hours.

With the decrease in customers, it was hard for the restaurant not to notice and soon they started kicking out the spies that made things difficult for the other customers.

The countries that these spies were from were furious that a small restaurant like this would dare do something like this, so they started moving in the dark. They began using their influence to impose all kinds of sanctions on this store that would make it almost impossible for this store to keep operating.

Their logic was that if they couldn't get the secrets of this store, they would make sure that no one else could get them.

Not to mention that if they forced the store to the brink of closing, they would be able to swoop in and take over. They didn't believe that they would be able to make contact with the fantasy world races if the owner wasn't there.

But in the end, this store was still around to this day.

So how did that happen?

It was very simple and it only took a single night that was later known as the Dark Night.

The entire world suddenly fell into darkness, but it wasn't an eclipse that did this. It was as if something had suddenly blocked out the sun and thrown the entire world into chaos.

Many people even thought that it was the end of the world, but nothing happened to the world.

Instead, it was the leader of every government and army in the world that disappeared in a single moment.

No one knew where they went, but when they came back after five minutes, they all had this strange black collar around their neck.

None of the people that were kidnapped were willing to discuss what had happened, but after the Dark Night ended, all of the governments stopped sanctioning the restaurant. They withdrew all their troops and only sent a single spy to the shop each day as if they had an unspoken agreement.

Anyone that knew anything understood immediately what happened…

This restaurant had enough power to threaten all of the world's governments and military bodies at once…

Just what kind of background did this restaurant have?

Skipping forward a few years and coming to the present day, this man in sunglasses was one of the spies sent by one of the countries and it was his job to get information from this restaurant.

Through the years, with the information that they've gotten, the many different countries have been able to develop all kinds of new technology.

While they still haven't figured out how to harness magic energy yet, they were getting closer with each passing day as they gained more and more information with the people from the restaurant.

As for the things that they've made, they were all things that were for pedestrian use. There wasn't a single thing that they've invented that was for military use.

That was because there was a rule in the restaurant and the otherworlders followed that rule.

As the man in sunglasses came in, he couldn't help giving a sigh seeing the spy from Japan happily talking to the cute elves and mermaids and the spy from China talking to cute cultivator girls. He was filled with envy the moment that he saw this, but he couldn't do anything about it…

China and Japan were filled with novels that were from this genre, so they had a lot of materials to draw on. Those countries brought together their best writers to devise all kinds of possible scenarios to talk to these otherworlders.

As for the other countries, while they slowly adopted the cultures of these countries later on, they still didn't have enough skilled writers to give them enough material to work with. So most of the spies of the other countries fell behind the spies of China and Japan when it came to gathering information.

But this couldn't be blamed on them.

They were professional spies that were trained for espionage, not in reading fantasy novels, so it was hard for them to fit into this crowd.

After he finished staring at the other spies, the man in sunglasses made his way over to his usual table where there were other lonely dogs waiting for him.

One was a man in a lab coat who was hunched over a baked potato, another was a well dressed man who had sharp teeth that was biting into a large steak, and the last one was a handsome young man in full armour and a large sword on his back that had a large pizza in front of him.

Well, not all of them were single dogs since the well dressed man was someone with a family.

It was just too bad that his family, namely his wife and daughter had abandoned him to go talk to the friends that they had made at the restaurant. So it wasn't that wrong to call him a single dog right now.

Seeing the man in the sunglasses come over, the three of them all waved at him.

During his time here, these were a few of the friends that he had been able to make.

Of course, the main reason that they had been able to become friends was because they were all single dogs that didn't have a girlfriend.

Baked Potato was too engrossed in his research to find someone, Rare Steak was abandoned by his daughters and wife, and Chicken Caesar Pizza might have been a handsome young man, but he had problems talking to women and could never approach them.

They found comfort in each other's loneliness and had become quick friends.

After greeting them, the man in sunglasses sat down and gave his order to Yami.

"Sweet and sour pork, please."

As he gave his order, there was a strong tone of reverence in his voice.

That was because while others didn't know, he knew since he was a high ranking government official.

The one that had caused the Dark Night incident was none other than this girl in the black dress that was currently taking his order.

Only after Yami was gone did he finally let out a sigh and relax.

He turned to his friends and asked, "How has it been going lately?"

Chicken Caesar Pizza was the first to speak as he gave a sigh and said, "I tried talking to another woman today, but before I could say anything, her boyfriend came and I just froze up. They looked at me with strange looks that I couldn't take and I had no choice but to walk away…"

Sweet and Sour Pork couldn't help looking at him with a sympathetic smile.

Even though this young man was very handsome, his inability to talk to women had completely destroyed his self confidence. It really was a waste of this perfect appearance that he had…

From time to time, Sweet and Sour Pork couldn't help cursing Chicken Caesar Pizza for his handsomeness.

But he still comforted him by patting him on the shoulder and saying, "Chicken Caesar Pizza, it's alright, there's always next time."

Chicken Caesar Pizza looked up at him with a tearful look and said, "I've already failed a thousand times, how could the next time be better?"

Sweet and Sour Pork revealed a wise look and said, "We have a saying in this world. There are plenty of fish in the sea."

Chicken Caesar Pizza revealed a confused look, "What does fish in the sea have to do with this?"

Sweet and Sour Pork revealed a smile before explaining, "It just means that there are plenty of other girls, so you shouldn't give up."

Chicken Caesar Pizza looked at him with a doubtful look, but it did feel good having a friend to confide in, so he gave a nod and said, "I will keep trying."

Sweet and Sour Pork was about to give him some more tips, but before he could, his food had come.

It was a steaming hot plate of sweet and sour pork with a bowl of rice on the side.