Universe Infinite Canteen

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Today, the patrons who came in for a meal all noticed the Germilai 3111 Knight Coffee Machine by the counter.

So they asked Ma Lu, filled with enthusiasm, whether the Universe Infinite Canteen was about to introduce coffee, and involuntarily showed their disappointment when he denied it.

Moreover, now that more than a dozen people were asking him every day when the cat pee beer would be available, Ma Lu realized that despite having soup on the menu, there was still a substantial demand for beverages.

So he could only promise to get the cat pee beer on the shelves as soon as possible.

However, even though the cat pee beer was delicious, with the daily customer traffic at Universe Infinite Canteen, even if Mr. Furball urinated blood, it could only satisfy a small portion of people.

Furthermore, he had to supply it to guests from different dimensions, and for tonight's BBQ party, Ma Lu had been storing cat pee beer for nearly a week.

He figured he might need to develop some new drinks, but that would have to wait until the energized plants in the Desktop Farm had grown some more.

...

Once a person gets busy, time always seems to fly by exceptionally fast.

Ma Lu opened the canteen at 11 AM and only closed for one and a half hours from 3 to 4:30 PM.

After eating the staff meal with He Xiaoqian and the three part-time students, and resting for a while, he reopened the canteen at 4 PM and went back to work.

It was until 7:49 PM that he saw off the last customer. Then, the three part-time students left for school one after another, and after cleaning up, He Xiaoqian also departed.

By then, it was 8:30 PM.

Ma Lu pulled down the newly installed curtains and covered all the windows in the canteen.

Seeing he had some time, he first went to see Zhen Ye and brought her dinner, then swung by Mr. Furball's place to pick him up.

Although Mr. Furball insisted he was fine, Ma Lu decided to take him out to clear his mind anyway.

Yesterday, he had expressed his desire to attend a singles' party, which Ma Lu couldn't find, but there happened to be a BBQ party at the canteen tonight—after all, they were both parties, so it seemed close enough.

Soon after they returned to the canteen, the guest for tonight finally made his appearance.

His manner of arrival was quite special; Ma Lu received a text message, which was a link to a website with a signature at the end—your forever good friend.

Ma Lu recognized the name; it was the person who had made the reservation this time.

So he clicked on the website link, which then redirected him to a BiliBili video.

It was a cartoon animation, but it looked very old-fashioned compared to today's animations, with significantly lower resolution and frame rates.

Ma Lu glanced at the duration, which was just over seven minutes.

The animation began with a steamboat traveling on a river, with a steam whistle, a smoking chimney, and an exaggeratedly shaped paddle wheel.

Then, the camera shifted to a mouse wearing pants and boots, sailing the boat while whistling cheerfully.

Even though the mouse's appearance differed somewhat from the one everyone is familiar with today because the company behind it had been tweaking its design over the years to make it cuter and more popular,

Ma Lu still recognized it right away.

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There was no helping it, mainly because it was just too famous. Some people might not know who the current Secretary-General of the United Nations is, but they would definitely be able to name it.

—Mickey, it tooted its whistle and then suddenly gave Ma Lu, who was off-screen, a mischievous wink.

Just as Ma Lu was feeling somewhat astonished, this most famous mouse in the world reached out of the screen, grabbed onto the frame of his phone, and jumped out of the animation.

Mr. Furball, upon witnessing this scene, widened his eyes and let out a string of kitty swear words.

"Meow meow meow? Did I drink too much this afternoon? I just saw a cartoon character crawl out of your phone!!!"

"Oh, a talking cat! Are you the boss here?" The cartoon mouse with round ears extended his hand, "Nice to meet you."

After saying this, he turned to Ma Lu, "And you must be that legendary universe chef, right?"

"Uh..."

"I'm just kidding." The cartoon mouse said, and then burst into laughter, his whole body shaking with the laughter, and his tiny legs moving as if doing a tap dance on the ground.

"I know you, you're the boss. Yan Wu mentioned you to me; he said you're a native of this dimension." The cartoon mouse finished laughing and extended his hand to shake Ma Lu's.

The feel of its palm was a bit strange, like squeezing a sponge, yet also like grasping a bar of soap.

"And you, my dear friend, must certainly be the new universe chef!" he said while turning toward Mr. Furball.

"I'm not," the Ragdoll cat shook his head, "I'm just a middle-aged cat with nothing to my name."

"Oh, don't be discouraged, my friend, whether you're rich as Croesus or penniless, there's at least one thing everyone can possess."

"Death?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"No, of course not, it's happiness; I can make you happy. Don't believe me? Watch this." The cartoon mouse said as he twisted his body and began to sing with exaggerated steps.

"We stroll along the shaded lanes, laughing and talking, life is so beautiful, hopping and jumping all day long~ Everything is as sweet as cotton candy~"

Having said that, he somehow pulled out a cotton candy and passed it over, "Consider this our welcome gift."

Mr. Furball didn't take it, "…Since I learned to serve myself cat food at 8 years old, I stopped watching cartoons."

"That's too bad." The cartoon mouse said, "You remind me of a friend of mine, he's also coming tonight, you should talk to him, because, like you, he's not happy either." Continue your journey with empire

"I'm not unhappy, I'm just sober about life."

"Is that friend you mentioned Donald Duck?" Ma Lu inquired curiously, "So, all of you actually exist? And weren't created by Walt Disney?"

Having said that, he turned to the Ragdoll cat, "Now I start to think you're making sense about Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi being the masterminds behind all this."

"Of course, we're real." The cartoon mouse said, "But at the same time, we do have creators, which isn't contradictory. It might be a bit complicated to explain. Something happened in the universe we used to live in, so we decided to move and settle here."

"When did you guys move here?"

"About 70 years ago, I guess." The cartoon mouse recalled, "Although it wasn't as early as Yan Wu, we've indeed been here for a while and have brought a lot of laughter and joy to this world."