Chapter 7. Staff Promotion System & Makima’s Sensing

Late at night, inside the diner—

Hayashi was washing dishes. Thankfully, there were only two sets—one of them being the dinner he made for himself.

As he scrubbed away at the annoying plates, he couldn't help but sigh.

"I really need to hire someone. But who?"

He absolutely hated cleaning and doing dishes.

He was way too lazy for that kind of thing.

Come to think of it, can I even hire staff?

Hayashi paused, finished placing the clean dishes away, dried his hands, and accessed the system interface in his mind.

He found the employee system section.

Turns out, Midnight Diner could indeed hire external staff.

Employees were categorized as: [External Staff], [Internal Staff], and [Core Staff].

All hires had to start as External Staff and could only be promoted through work time and contribution to the diner—no skipping levels.

External Staff received no system benefits, not even contracts.

However, Hayashi could still see their location and HP bars.

They were allowed to make basic drinks or prep simple ingredients—and the food would still retain Hayashi's flavor bonus.

Internal Staff, on the other hand, could sign a contract. Perks included protection from the Midnight Diner and stat boosts proportionate to Hayashi's own power.

Also, once someone signed a contract and became Internal Staff, Hayashi could learn their abilities. This wasn't possible for External Staff.

At that level, they could start preparing small dishes too, still infused with Hayashi's cooking buffs.

Then there was Core Staff.

Beyond all the previous perks, the key difference was that Hayashi could copy one of his own skills to give to them.

They could even cook independently while replicating Hayashi's cooking effect.

That meant Hayashi could finally take a break and fully step into his capitalist era.

"Sounds kinda like gods and their chosen… but why does it also sound like capitalism? And I get to leech their abilities too?"

Hayashi scratched his neck. For some reason, he had a sudden image of himself getting strung up by angry mobs.

Still, for the employees, the deal was a sweet one—free power-ups just by working. A well-structured promotion system. Totally win-win.

Feeling reassured that he could indeed hire people, Hayashi finally relaxed.

If he couldn't hire anyone, that would honestly be scarier than Kamishiro Rize chasing after him.

Truly terrifying!

BOOM!

Suddenly, Hayashi's heightened senses picked up a loud crash.

Not far—just a few streets away.

What the hell?

He pushed the door open. The night was dark and quiet.

Hayashi leapt onto the roof and scanned toward the sound.

And then he saw it—

Just two streets over, a vending machine was fighting a ghoul.

No joke—it was an actual vending machine demon, with two human legs, headbutting a ghoul in a full-on street brawl.

Hayashi didn't recognize the ghoul. Nothing familiar.

The vending machine demon shouted, "Every loser gives me a kick, and you're no different! I'm gonna eat you!"

The ghoul, with glowing red eyes, hesitated—didn't know where to bite—but definitely knew how to fight.

"Damn devils! You parasites stealing our food! Go to hell!"

They started trading blows, and honestly, Hayashi was kind of enjoying the show.

Where else could you see this in anime?

Not even in fanfics.

Limbs were flying everywhere as the two tore each other apart.

Their fight rampaged through several streets, getting dangerously close to Hayashi's own.

They were about to crash into his shop if they jumped one more wall.

People in nearby buildings were peeking through curtains, quickly turning off the lights again.

Some pulled out their phones to record, others just secretly watched.

Several other ghouls were also rushing in from a distance.

While both the demon and the ghoul weren't particularly strong, their chaotic brawl had already trashed a good chunk of the surroundings.

If they messed up his shop...

"Tch." Hayashi scratched his head. "Maybe it's time to test that new ability?"

He'd have to get used to it sooner or later. And right now, he had two perfect test subjects.

Taking them out silently would be easy.

He could just use Mokapotoma—and no one would ever trace it back to him.

With that thought, an ice sword materialized in Hayashi's hand, and he whispered:

"Mokapotoma."

Instantly—

The world darkened. Everything stopped.

The two combatants were frozen in mid-air.

The next moment—

Hayashi vanished, appeared beside them, slashed twice with the ice sword, then returned to his shop. The sword vanished.

Mokapotoma faded.

Time resumed.

The two locked in battle suddenly crashed into each other mid-attack, fell to the ground—and didn't move again.

The approaching ghouls took one look at their fallen comrade and noped out immediately.

The surrounding apartment dwellers went completely silent in awe and fear.

Back inside the diner—

Hayashi closed the door and caught his breath.

"That drained more stamina than I expected."

"But damn, that felt good."

In just a few seconds, his stamina had dropped like crazy.

This was why Esdeath could only use the ability once per day—even after endless training.

He closed up shop.

[Shift Complete. You've earned: Multiverse Food Gacha x1]

"Let's roll."

[Congratulations! You received: Senzu Bean x1]

"One bean?"

Hayashi examined the Senzu Bean. Basically a blood potion. He tossed it back into the system space as a food reserve.

...

Meanwhile—

Inside the Public Safety Devil Hunters HQ—

At the very top floor, a red-haired woman in a business suit suddenly froze.

Her eyes were gold, her pupils layered in concentric rings.

In that instant, she seemed to sense something—

And yet… nothing.

Still, her sixth sense—her intuition—told her something had just happened.

And sure enough—

Riiing~

The phone on her desk rang.

She picked it up.

"Makima-sama," came the voice on the other end, "There was an incident in Ward 20—devil and ghoul clash. Both died."

Makima replied calmly, "Understood."

She hung up immediately.

Then stared at the phone in deep thought—or perhaps memory.

She tried to recall that strange feeling just now.

Then she picked up the receiver again and dialed someone else.

"Tell Aki Hayakawa to bring Power here tomorrow."

The voice on the other end replied, "Hi!"

Once everything was in order, Makima finally stood up, glanced at the moonlight outside, put on her coat, and prepared to head home.

In terms of work ethic, she was basically a model employee.

Relentlessly hunting down every devil—and if a ghoul happened to be around, she'd take care of that too, doing the CCG's job while she was at it.

Everything about her was impressive… except in certain aspects, she could be pretty twisted.

The next day, around noon—

When Hayashi woke up and checked his phone, he saw news coverage about last night's fight between a devil and a ghoul.

The official report described it as a "dog-eat-dog" situation—a violent dispute that ended in mutual destruction.

Hayashi checked the time.

Noon. Monday.

Time to wash up, hit the market for ingredients, and open shop.

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