The Max-Level Chef’s Magical Town Game

Isaac’s answer to the question was, “I can provide full financial support.”

Ye Mu was stunned for three seconds and blurted out the next question, “What’s in it for you?!”

Then she asked, “Why don’t you do it yourself?!”

“About that,” Isaac took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, “I’ll answer the second question first—because of some past events, I can’t do this kind of thing, it would draw attention.”

“Oh…” Ye Mu nodded, understanding this point.

From what Isaac just said, it seemed he wanted her to find a place on her own, without a lord, which in a sense would be considered “lawless.” If she guessed correctly, the next step might be for her to become the lord herself.

Such matters were quite conspicuous. If Isaac had offended someone before, it would be easy for that person to find him.

But who had he offended?

Ye Mu looked at Isaac inquiringly, but he showed no signs of wanting to explain. Understanding his silence, she tossed out the first question again: “So what do you gain by letting me do this?”

As she asked, she wondered: Did he offend someone because of debt? Was creating a place to earn money for repayment more convenient?

In the real world, she was just an employee earning a fixed salary and had never started a business for big money. This question is beyond the scope of her questions!

Isaac’s smile faded slightly as he lifted his gaze. His gray-blue eyes suddenly became serious as he looked at her intently: “I have only one requirement.”

Ye Mu asked, “What?”

Isaac said, “If you want to be comfortable in this place, you will need residents. Once the number of residents is sufficient, it will be reported to the king, and you will become the lord.”

Ye Mu realized she had guessed correctly.

Isaac continued, “After becoming the lord, you will have the power to collect taxes. I hope that, regardless of the number of residents, the highest tax you collect won’t exceed 20%.”

Hearing the word “tax,” Ye Mu silently vomited blood and then found it strange.

…What a weird request!!!

She looked at Isaac with a complicated expression: “I don’t quite understand…”

Isaac explained, “As the lord, you collect taxes, keep a small portion to pay to the king, and the rest is yours. However, as an investor in the territory, I hope the tax rate doesn’t exceed 20%.”

Ye Mu asked, “Is that the total tax rate?”

Isaac replied, “Yes.”

Ye Mu continued, “What if I implement a tiered tax rate?”

Isaac looked as confused as a tax office worker: “What’s that?”

“Well… it determines the rate based on tiers,” Ye Mu tried to explain simply. “For example, let’s assume someone is very poor, and we set the ‘poor’ standard at a monthly income of 3,000 copper coins, so they wouldn’t pay taxes, then, for those earning above 3,000, we go to the next tier—like 5,000—where they pay 1%.”

“But it’s not 1% on the full 5,000, the previous 3,000 is still tax-free. It’s 1% on the 2,000 between 3,000 and 5,000, so someone earning 5,000 copper coins pays 20 copper coins in taxes.”

“Then we can divide it into many levels until we reach real high income… for example, those earning over 1 million could perhaps pay a maximum of 45%?”

She explained with gestures, sounding a bit chaotic yet surprisingly clear. Isaac easily applied her explanation: “But it’s not 45% on the entire 1 million, each tier below 1 million is taxed at its respective rate, and the portion above 1 million is taxed at 45%?”

“Exactly,” Ye Mu nodded.

Isaac fell into thought, his eyes narrowing as he pondered for a moment: “That’s quite… creative.”

He was a bit surprised.

Because proposing to establish a territory was a sudden idea of his, he didn’t expect her to directly present a complete and logical tax plan.

He then commented, “Are you trying to rob the rich and give to the poor?”

He hesitated and said, “Wouldn’t that be unfair?”

“Haha.” Ye Mu shook her head this time. “Redistributing wealth might appear as a superficial outcome, but it’s not the fundamental goal. Um… how should I put it?” She tilted her head slightly, thinking. “I believe that as a lord developing the territory, you need to understand the focus.”

“First, you can’t just prioritize your own profits!” Ye Mu didn’t want to show her pain to outsiders, but after feeling this way for several days, she couldn’t help but grit her teeth when she said it.

“Second, developing the territory is meant to improve everyone’s lives. If there’s a uniform tax rate, on one hand, the rich might end up paying less, while the poor wouldn’t contribute much at all, overall tax revenue might actually be lower, making it harder to build the territory.”

“On the other hand, this would be too difficult for the poor, as living has basic costs. For example, in Dragon Town, if I have a house here, the minimum monthly basic expenses might be around 1,000 copper coins, right? If we assume the tax rate is the 20% you mentioned earlier, then if I earn 50,000 a month and pay 20%, I have 40,000 left, making it easy to cover my basic expenses and save some money. But if I earn 1,000 a month and pay 20%, I’m left with only 800. How am I supposed to live?”

“Returning to the question of fairness, can we really claim it’s fair to ignore all these real issues and pursue the same rate? Is it acceptable for the poor to be driven to death?”

Isaac took a deep breath. Ye Mu didn’t know what he was thinking, but she noticed his beautiful eyes sparkled.

Obviously, he agreed with her, but he seemed not very good at expressing it. After staring at her for a long while, he finally said, “So… back to the original question, what do you think of my suggestion?”

Ye Mu responded, “Ah…”

She returned to her earlier state of daze.

Sorry, I got off topic.

—After saying all that, she had no real intention of accepting Isaac’s proposal to become a lord, she was just hurt by the huge tax issue and used it as a way to express herself!

Seeing Isaac steer the conversation back, she cleared her throat: “Uh… I… I was just saying… This is a big deal, maybe you should… um… right…”

Isaac laughed at her sudden stuttering and didn’t rush her. He stood up, preparing to leave: “It’s okay, you can take your time to consider. I’m always available.”

After saying this, he turned to walk out but paused and turned back: “If you still plan to buy a house in Dragon Town and need someone to renovate it, I can help, I have plenty of free time.”

“Okay… thank you.” Ye Mu realized she had completely forgotten about asking him to help with renovations, but he remembered.

After Isaac left, Ye Mu returned to her own tasks.

Previously, she hadn’t tried the [Advanced Life Potion] or [Advanced Magic Potion] because they were too expensive—just a small bottle cost 1,000 copper coins, which was an astronomical amount when she first arrived in this world.

Later, when she opened her shop, she clearly felt her ability to earn money had improved, but she didn’t dare to spend recklessly. She made a small plan: if her profits exceeded 50,000 copper coins after a month of business, she would buy some advanced potions and also test what various cold-resistant potions were all about.

When the month of business finally ended, the tax issue struck her hard again. In the past few days, not only was she not excited about trying new seasonings, but she also found it hard to enjoy her meals.

After chatting with Isaac, for some reason, her mood seemed to lift a bit.

…Maybe it was because she finally vented her dissatisfaction with the taxes to someone!

So Ye Mu remembered the seasonings again, grabbed her bag, and headed out to the market.

This time, Colin wasn’t selling at his stall anymore, and she didn’t need to call him over specifically, so she just found a stall with decent prices and crouched down to pick out potions.

“Take a look, they’re all top quality!” The stall owner was a kind-looking middle-aged woman who smiled as she opened her information panel, making it visible to customers.

The other information on the panel was hidden, but the “Pharmacy” section displayed level 62, which was a full 20 levels higher than Colin.

“I’d like to look at the [Advanced Life Potion] and [Advanced Magic Potion], along with the cold-resistant potions,” Ye Mu said.

“Oh, here they are.” The stall owner picked out two small bottles from the array of products and handed them to her. “I won’t put out any failed potions for show, if you’re unsure, feel free to open and check.”

“Okay, thank you.” Ye Mu smiled and accepted the small bottles. She first opened the [Advanced Life Potion] to take a look and sniff it.

The previous [Primary Life Potion] was made of white sugar, the [Intermediate Life Potion] was made of granulated sugar, and the [Advanced Life Potion] also had a rich sweetness—just smelling it from the bottle was enough to stimulate her taste buds.

As for its appearance, it looked like small, translucent crystal cubes.

Ah, rock sugar?!

Ye Mu felt ecstatic, and her mind raced with hundreds of dishes suitable for caramelizing sugar and refreshing little desserts that needed rock sugar for flavor.

Then she moved on to the [Advanced Magic Potion].

Since the [Intermediate Magic Potion] was dark soy sauce, when she saw that the [Advanced Magic Potion] was also a rich brown-black color, she had her suspicions. Opening it and taking a closer sniff and look, she confirmed her guess.

It was light soy sauce.

And it was that kind of fresh light soy sauce that, in the real world she came from, would probably be called something like “seafood soy sauce.”

These were all good things!

But… they were just too expensive.

Rock sugar was fine, if she only used it for caramelizing sugar or flavoring desserts, the amount wouldn’t be too much. But light soy sauce was different.

If light soy sauce was to be used properly in cooking, the amount needed would actually be much larger than that of dark soy sauce, which is mainly for color.

However, perhaps she could consider introducing some high-priced dishes.

As Ye Mu was deep in thought, she took the cold-resistant potion that the stall owner had just handed her. Since she had only mentioned wanting cold-resistant potions, the stall owner kindly brought her one each from the primary, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Ye Mu casually opened the primary one, bringing it to her nose for a sniff, and caught a familiar pungent aroma.

But what was that smell…?

She couldn’t recall at first, thinking this potion was basic and wouldn’t be too expensive, so she just tilted her head back and drank it.

“Cough, cough, cough!!!” The next moment, Ye Mu spat it out.

“Holy cow!” She stared in shock at the small bottle in her hand, looking at the faint dark green liquid inside, finally remembering what that familiar smell was.

It was wild mountain pepper—specifically, the “pickled pepper” used in pickled chicken feet and pickled pork skin!!!

The [Primary Cold-Resistant Potion] was nothing but pure pickled pepper juice!!!