Our Cafe is Open as Usual - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1

On the outskirts of the capital city of the Jeonen Kingdom, there existed one famous cafe.

Its name was none other than ‘Yonggari Cafe’!

It was so famous that not only the nobles of the Jenen Kingdom but even the commoners all knew about it. Thanks to this, the place was always packed with customers.

Especially famous was the content of the bulletin board boldly attached to the cafe’s front door.

[Customers are welcome! Please come in!

Troublesome customers whose names are written below are banned from entry!]

The owner of this bold cafe was Leilah Token.

She was currently raking in money from the Jenen Kingdom.

She had one secret.

You are spreading influence throughout the world!

Current influence: 57%

World restoration rate: 30%

*Gather more customers.

*If influence drops below 50%, debuffs will occur.

“This was supposed to be a game about rebuilding a failing cafe…!”

She was saving a world on the brink of collapse.

* * *

That one sentence was the beginning.

“Got any fun part-time job games? Give me a recommendation.”

Those words I said when I asked my friend to recommend a game.

“Hey, you already work so many jobs, what kind of game are you asking for recommendations for?”

Saying I was peculiar as always, my friend recommended a game that was popular these days.

It was called [Basha’s Cafe].

I immediately looked up reviews for the game.

The reviews were full of praise saying the NPCs were charming, the mascot was cute, and the mini-games that often appeared in ads were fun.

“Wow, 59,000 reviews with an overall rating of 4.7 stars? That’s really amazing.”

Also, the promotional photos showed off romantic fantasy-style settings.

Just from what was visible, you could tell at a glance that the developers put tremendous effort into the game.

‘This looks like it’ll be worth playing, right?’

At least it seemed sufficient for vicarious satisfaction.

As a way to briefly turn away from the hellish reality I was living in.

‘Let me lie down and rest for a bit, then head to the convenience store night shift…’

Oh, and I had a cafe part-time job in the morning. Today I also had a tutoring center grading job in the afternoon.

A life of nothing but work, work, and more work.

The reason I, still a new member of society, was doing all this was a predictable story.

The eldest daughter of a dirt-poor family. And parents who passed away leaving only massive debt, plus a younger sibling who was still immature.

It was the unfortunate ending of working day and night to pay off debt, interest, and living expenses.

I was the protagonist of that unfortunate story.

Thanks to that, from simple cafe part-time work to small side jobs like gluing eyes onto dolls!

There wasn’t a job I hadn’t tried. Getting nosebleeds every morning was routine, and the days I slept well could be counted on one hand.

But the hardest thing to endure was this.

‘Even working this much, my bank account is still in the negative.’

That’s why I suddenly asked for a game recommendation.

At least in a game, I could see money accumulating as much as I worked. I wanted to get vicarious satisfaction that way.

So I quickly touched the game download button without hesitation. The game seemed to have a large file size, as it took quite a while.

After what felt like a couple hours of downloading, I launched the game installed on my phone.

Could I play the game right away? I wondered, but,

“Of course.”

As if there would be a game without additional downloads!

What I faced was a loading screen decorated with animations typical of tycoon games.

At the top of the screen, the game’s name was written in cute font. And below that stood a kindly smiling grandmother with a cute hamster on her shoulder.

By the way.

“The graphics are good?”

That’s pretty important.

Even before playing the game, I felt satisfied and tapped the game’s loading screen.

Then a sentence popped up at the bottom of the screen.

“Hmm, it would be disappointing without it.”

It was the TIP that could make the game more enjoyable!

I started reading the TIPs that appeared one by one.

[Be careful not to let your energy run out!]

[Through farming, you can obtain ingredients directly!]

[If you need help, call Hugh, the all-purpose helper!]

[Through the shop, you can purchase helpful items.]

[You can actively interact with the residents of the Jenen Kingdom.]

And so on.

The content was similar to TIPs from other tycoon games.

There were also sentences that seemed to be spoken by game characters.

“Oh, nice attention to detail.”

Are there any other tips?

I tapped the screen once more.

At that moment.

Flaaaash!

The loading screen disappeared, and bright light burst from the phone screen.

It was so intense that I couldn’t even keep my eyes open properly.

It wasn’t the kind of light that should appear just because the main game screen was loading. So I had no choice but to reflexively squeeze my eyes shut.

Without knowing what was happening.

* * *

“You’re here, my granddaughter!”

At some unfamiliar voice, I opened my eyes with a start.

What I faced was.

“…Huh?”

A very kindly smiling… that Basha from the loading screen I kept seeing, standing there with a bright smile.

‘…What’s going on?’

Why is Basha standing right in front of me?

Did I fall asleep in the meantime? So I’m having this kind of dream?

I couldn’t believe the situation before my eyes and blinked.

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly then opened them, and rubbed my eyes with my hands, but Basha remained there.

Wondering if it might be a dream, I even tried pinching my cheek.

“Ow!”

Since I could feel the pain completely, it wasn’t a dream.

‘…Then what is this?’

Is this that possession thing I’ve only heard about?

But usually people get possessed into romance fantasy novels and end up with the male lead!

Or they get possessed into games they’ve already thoroughly enjoyed with nothing left to experience!

‘Why did I…’

Get possessed into a tycoon game I just finished downloading?

Yes, looking at this situation… I was definitely possessed into a game! I understood that much for certain.

But since it still felt strangely unreal, I made a stupid expression and scratched my head. Then Basha clicked her tongue and shook her head.

“Oh my, the journey here must have been long and tiring? The child has lost her mind, completely lost it.”

“….”

“Snap out of it, Lailah!”

It was a loud shout that rang through my head.

Only then was I able to come to my senses. As I wiped the stupid expression off my face, Basha poured out words as if she had been waiting.

“Lailah, my granddaughter. There’s a mountain of work you need to do, so please keep your wits about you.

At this rate, you might get scammed somewhere, really….”

As I listened quietly, I muttered one word that stuck in my ears.

“…I’m your granddaughter?”

Among all those game reviews I read, I never saw the word granddaughter?

What the hell is this about?

I blinked rapidly in confusion. Then Basha shot me an incredulous look and shook her head.

“Are you still half asleep? Tsk tsk.”

“….”

“You are my granddaughter, Leilah Token.”

“…What?”

“I’m your grandmother, Basha Token. I was planning to leave everything to you and go back to my hometown to recuperate since my health isn’t good….

How did my clever granddaughter end up like this?”

Basha looked at me with worried eyes. Sighing deeply, she gently patted my shoulder.

“You remember that you have to run the cafe in place of this old woman from now on, right?”

Along with Basha’s voice drilling into my head.

“…Huh?”

My gaze naturally turned to the building behind her.

As if someone had intended it.

“…Crazy.”

Am I seeing this correctly…?

A building that looks like it would crumble like a sandcastle if you touched it… is this really it?

I couldn’t believe my eyes and looked around.

On the vast expanse of land, the only thing that could be called a cafe building was that completely ruined building I was looking at.

It seemed to have been a two-story building, but the roof had disappeared somewhere and wasn’t even visible.

The exterior walls were full of large, deep cracks.

Even in its completely ruined state, as if proudly claiming to be a cafe, a cafe sign split in half hung pitifully.

Meanwhile, where the cafe’s front door should have been was completely open, revealing the entire interior. The inside was even more of a mess than the exterior.

Whether the building itself had been flooded or some monster had grabbed and shaken the building… A building that would be too good to call a ruin was welcoming me.

‘Even in the game photos and review photos, it wasn’t this miserable….

Isn’t this level basically fraud…? Is this what possession fraud is?’

Even being generous… even if I thought of it as the trendy exposed concrete interior, this really wasn’t it. I looked back and forth between Basha and the completely ruined building in disbelief.

That’s when it happened.

Ding!

With the sound, a status window popped up in front of my eyes.

Main Quest

Run the cafe in place of Basha!

-Transform the building before you into the best cafe in Jenen Kingdom within one year.

Reward: Survival

Failure: Death

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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