"BOINK!" Rake woke up with a start.
"Where am i?" He asked as he looked around the place. The room was alien to him. It was filthy and the smell assaulted his nose that he almost vomited on the spot.
The last thing he remembered was passing out while celebrating a Friday night out with his friends. There were booze and girls as usual and Rake loved the attention he got from the ladies.
Tsk Tsk. If only he could get to cheat to his girlfriend and not feel guilty about it afterwards then it would have been perfect.
"Hello?" and there was nothing.
"Was i abducted or something?" Rake thought.
"Welcome to the Divine Realms, host." a second voice was heard in the confines of the horrid chambers.
"Who are you?" asked Rake. He searched for the source of the sound and immediately realized that there was no one else around but him.
The small space was filled with dirty laundry and it smelt like a thousand rats had died in the place at the same time.
"I am called the Ultimate Cooking System, host." replied the bodiless voice.
"Ultimate Cooking what?" Rake queried once more.
"Ultimate Cooking System, host."
"The Fuck! Please tell me this is a joke!" Rake panicked and he felt his heart race. He even had trouble breathing with each passing moment.
"I'm afraid not, host." the cold voice replied.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Frederick!"
"IAN!"
"DANNY!"
"WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?!"
"HEAVEN!"
Rake roared in tears after he called the last word out. This was the name of his beloved girlfriend for almost 10 years already.
Rake's sobs echoed inside the room and he stayed there for almost two hours before made another action. He tried to stand up but his legs failed him halfway.
"Is my original body dead?" Rake muttered softly. He comprehended at this time that this was not his true body. It was far too small. Rake was an avid reader in the past and knew of cases like this. But this only happened in web novels and it was not real.
His heart broke when he gathered that he was one of the luckless fellow for fate to play with him like this.
"Affirmative, host. The excessive drinking you did last night has..." the system started.
"Can i go back?" but Rake interrupted in mid speech.
"Affirmative, host. With the Ultimate Cooking System, you can return to your world."
"But how about the time? Is a day here equivalent to a day in my past world?" Rake asked.
Heaven was an extremely beautiful girl and he knew that with him dead, the vultures would kill themselves for the pickings that he'd left behind.
The most probable first attempters would definitely be his friends. He'd always flaunted his doll and those cock brains would drool behind Heaven like starved hyenas.
"I can't let them get, Heaven! I have to save her. She's all mine! Mine! MINE!" Rake raved within.
"Negative, host. A day here would approximately be a thousand days in your world."
"Aren't you a powerful system? Can you do anything to stop the time there until i get back." Rake was desperate. Strength was slowly coming back to his numb limbs. He could get to the door but he was afraid to validate everything.
Behind those was a whole new world. He did not like it and kept rejecting it, even now.
"The system can loan you shop points, host. But beware, the interest will be phenomenal."
"Do it!" Rake commanded.
Based on the light novels he'd read in the past the host was always the master in the relationship over the system.
Of course there were a few exceptions but he prayed this was not one among those where the system was a wicked bastard who would drive the main character nuts with its stick and whip attitude.
"Be a carrot system please." Rake muttered under his breath.
"Affirmative, host.
Loan application - 1,000,000 shop points...
Processing...
Loan application granted...
Are you sure to spend all shop points to pause space, time and matter on your previous world, host?"
"Yes, I'm sure!" Rake confirmed in a hard voice.
"Congratulations, host. Your current loan payable is 100,000,000 shop points. You need to pay it in full before you can transfer to a second world from here."
"Good. What do i need to do?" Rake acted as if he didn't hear the huge amount.
What was in his mind was how to earn those points back and get the hell out of here and back to the waiting fragrant arms of his girlfriend, Heaven.
"You only need to learn how to cook and sell your product to willing customers, host. Corresponding shop points shall be given with how much you'll be able to earn." answered the voice in Rake's ears.
The speaker was female and it soothed the troubled feelings of Rake a bit. He was about to ask more questions but realized something else.
"Am i the one who's stinking like a dead zombie?" Rake exclaimed.
"Affirmative, host. Your current body was in the state of decomposition already before the system relinquished it for further use. Do you want to acquire a body of your liking?"
"It isn't free, right?"
"Affirmative, host. You can loan some more shop points to avail to the service. Do you wish to request a second loan amount for the day, host?" the system asked like a trained salesperson that she was.
"Forget it. So where is my restaurant?" Transmigrated characters especially in a cooking genre always have a place of their own. Rake had read a prodigious amount of web novels in his pastime and knew of this ineffaceable boon.
He stood up from his downed form and his legs wobbled a bit but he quickly got used to his much shorter physique.
From his height before of 6 foot 7 inches, he was now five feet flat. The glaring change was so uncomfortable that he could only wish that he retained a portion of his natural charm in the past.