NOVEL WEB Chapter 345 – Quality Noodles
Surf and Turf, a classic combo of red meat and seafood, but also the name of the restaurant. Simple and to the point, that is what they have been preparing for near on a million years. The only shame is that sourcing lobsters isn’t exactly an option at the moment. Jason isn’t particularly torn up about it as the shrimp taste divine.
Of course, Jason and Jenny know not to start ordering like crazy. Wouldn’t want to let their observers notice anything. With that in mind, Jason starts with a shrimp pasta appetizer and Jenny goes for a fish soup and lets the waiter choose an aperitif to go with it. The two toughs, on the other hand, are more frugal, both choosing pasta with a creamy seafood sauce. The waiter is polite about it but you can tell she knows who is going to be buying most of the food tonight.
With everything ordered, the guy who had settled Jason’s lack of formal clothing spreads his hands, “So, we all know what is going on here. Especially since if this operation was a ship it would have sunk in the harbor.”
Jenny laughs, “As if we would get down to it right away! We haven’t even received our appetizers. If Jason just spilled his guts right away, we might not get past it. Though we can start on the simple stuff.”
The man shakes his head, “Can I at least get some assurance we will learn something from this?”
Jason puts on an innocent face and in a sing-song child’s voice asks, “Whatever do you, mister?”
The man adjusts his glasses, “You’re as strong as someone taking mil-spec supplements and are using a training dummy that should require an exosuit to train with.”
Jenny shrugs, “Well I didn’t give him any supplements. My boy’s all natural.”
Jason nods, “Just a bunch of exercise!”
This goes back and forth until the food arrives and of course Jason and Jenny aren’t going to ruin such an excellent meal by talking through it. Jason, in particular, is fully focused on his pasta. The shrimp are nice, but the pasta! Oh goodness, the pasta! Kneaded by hand and stretched out using a technique they swear was passed down unchanged since before the industrial revolution.
Jason doesn’t have a clue if this is true or not and doesn’t care. What matters is that the belief that it was is enough to actually impart trace amounts of faith into the pasta. Not being a god, Jason can’t exactly use it, but the presence is like the difference between pasta with and without salt. It really just elevates the natural flavors that come from the ingredients.
With appetizers over, Jason turns to the only guy of the two that has been talking. “So just to confirm, you’re paying for everything we order?”
The man squints, “Everything you eat while here. We aren’t covering for you to get all your meals for the coming week.”
Jason waves his fork at the guy, “So you’re only paying for what I can eat while I’m here?”
The man squinted harder, “Everything you eat while here tonight with me, with tonight meaning until an hour before when time compression is turned back on.”
Jason rolls his eyes, “Of course you’re going to put so many limits on it.”
Then Jason smiles and high fives his mom before turning towards the waiter and ordering three steak and shrimp platters while Jenny orders a few specialty t-bones. The man snorts, “Even if you don’t take it with you, if you order something and don’t eat it you will still pay for it.”
Jason laughs, “Obviously! Don’t worry, you’ll see whether I can eat it or not. For now though, I’m sure you want to hear about my training?”
The man brings his hands together as if to pray, but just rests his forehead on them with his thumbs supporting his chin. After exhaling, he puts them back down on the table and looks up. “That is sort of what we are here for. There is, of course, more but I can’t say anything directly because just knowing whether you know about it in the first place is important.”
With one last chuckle, Jason leans back into his chair and shakes his head. “There had to be more no matter how you slice it. Even if my mom over there didn’t let you watch the security footage from inside the apartment, you would have had enough of a look into my training.
“But that is all besides the point, isn’t it? After all, I didn’t promise to say anything but rather was just invited here to eat some nice food. On the other hand? I’m about to show you my mastery over eating.
“Heh, overeating. I just realized that was a pun. Overeating, like when someone overeats instead of the fact that I have mastered eating. Though I guess by most standards what I’m about to do would be covered under both.
“Anyway, back to my sudden jump in strength, or rather my new ability to better use the strength I had. I was already top of my age group when it came to strength. Not that you would have found that odd. I actually tried when so many neglect their bodies because it won’t be needed in VR.”
The man shrugs, “From our data you weren’t just top of your age group. You were top of almost every other person on the planet who wasn’t in some sort of military group or taking special supplements.”
Jason shrugs back, “Eh, neither of us really care about that. I’ve had enough doctors appointments that we both know that my training methods don’t stack with the other stuff. I could release a training manual that would get others nearly the same results and practically no one would care.
“While the ability to have the strength of a low-mod through natural means is interesting. It is interesting in the same way that people find it interesting that you can vacuum tubes instead of transistors to build a computer. Sure it works, but why bother? Like I said, most people already neglect their bodies, why would they care? The only people who would want my routine are those rare ones who want the results without being rich and are unwilling to join a company who would sponsor them for it.”
