Michael squeezed through two Elephant-folks just to get through to the kitchen area.
Walking inside, he saw Tony, Remy, and the rest of the chefs sweating profusely as they worked tirelessly in cooking more chickens. Michael felt bad for the little kid as he plucked out the feathers on a frozen chicken.
They were so busy that they didn't even have time to greet Michael.
"Sorry, Michael. We're way behind schedule," Tony replied. "Some of our customers have already been waiting for a whole candle—sorry, a whole hour!"
The restaurant was already equipped with a mechanical clock, which made timekeeping much more accurate, but seemed to only exacerbate the time pressure even more.
"Why are there so many people waiting inside? Didn't you prepare enough chicken for them?"
"We did, boss," one of the Rebornian Chefs replied. "But they don't have a place to sit in. Most of them are even eating on the floor."
Even when people received their order after thirty or more minutes, they would have to wait even longer as they looked for a table to sit in. This only worsened the congestion inside the restaurant.
Some of them even resorted to eating on the floor or eating standing up, which wasn't a very pleasant experience.
Michael didn't anticipate this problem. He designed restaurants like the fast food establishments in his previous life, where the occupancy was only a hundred or less people inside.
He thought he'd be able to solve the problem before things got too out of hand. Unfortunately, the problem of the Golden Road, the Bastard Bandits, and even the Fairies occupied him for far too long that he was completely unable to help the restaurant to become a true fast-food establishment.
For now though, Michael decided to help Tony and the chefs by offering his magic to them.
Suddenly, thirty-plus chickens levitated out of the chicken and floated in the air. A thousand invisible hands made out of pure mana plucked out all the feathers from its skin before slathering them in a mixture of Tony's special flavoring.
And with a simple Fire spell, Michael burned the chickens at an extremely hot temperature enough to melt even metal for a moment, cooking it to perfection in just a few seconds.
Tony, Remy, and the other chefs stared in awe at Michael's amazing display of precise magic. A simple wrong input of Fire mana or immersing it a few milliseconds later would have burned the chickens into char.
But somehow, Michael was able to cook the chickens to perfection without a single bit of burned chicken skin.
"Woah!"
"CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! Finally, our chickens!"
"Woooh!"
Even customers waiting outside the counter cheered as they saw the fully cooked McTony's chicken get levitated into the counter for everyone to take.
And once all of that was over, he went outside and created temporary tables and chairs made out of granite on the ground.
He personally escorted all the standing customers to their own tables, solving the congestion inside the restaurant.
A few hours later, the rush of customers had finally come to an end. Tony and the other chefs found some breathing room and collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath as they overcame yet another hard day at work.
"Haaa…haaa…it would be helpful if you can do that everyday," Tony said, half-joking and half-serious.
Michael understood that the congestion of people inside the restaurant was a problem that would eventually come and bite them in the ass.
The point of the restaurant was to give everyone a pleasant experience of eating while on the road. But having to stand around in a place full of people was the exact opposite of that.
"I should have implemented the take-out section of the restaurant," Michael muttered to himself.
He was about to do it before, but he was rudely interrupted by the bandits who ambushed the restaurant. After that, he was so caught up with his business in the East forest that he was unable to bring it up with Tony again.
But now that he had some time, he could finally teach it to Tony and the rest of the chefs.
"I know how to solve your problem," he said to Tony.
"How?"
"Just cook more chicken early in the day."
"But where will the customers eat?"
Michael smiled. "Whereever they want to. On the road, while walking, while on their carriages. Anywhere."
"What?! How will that even be possible?"
Michael raised his hand, creating a magic circle that rotated around his wrist, which summoned a projection of a malleable piece of paper made out of nothing but Light mana.
This projection floated in the air, waiting for Michael's instructions.
[Downloading folding instructions for a take-out box…]
Suddenly, his head was filled with knowledge from his previous world, allowing him to skillfully fold and manipulate the Light mana paper into a small box that was reminiscent of all the take-out boxes Michael had ordered in another lifetime.
"What's that?" Tony asked as he looked at the Light box floating above Michael's palm.
"This is a take-out box," Michael explained. "This is where we'll put the chicken and serve it to our customers."
"How?"
To answer his question, Michael opened the box to reveal that it was actually made out of two connected open boxes.
The left half of the box contained a projection of McTony's chicken. And on the other half was kitchen utensils, a fork and a knife, made out of a very thin wood material.
"Woah…" Remy muttered out. His eyes gleamed as he was the first one to realize the potential of this take-out box.
"This take-out box is not just a container, but it's also a plate as well. As long as they have this, then they can eat anywhere they want. They can take it back home, they can eat it on the road, or they can even eat it on the side of the road.
They don't have to wait inside the restaurant, they can take it anywhere and whenever they want."
Tony's eyes grew larger as he looked at the take-out box. He was starting to realize how Michael was able to create such a successful company at such a young age. His ideas were truly innovative!
"That's amazing, Michael!" Tony praised.
"As incredible as always, boss!" the other Rebornian chefs applauded.
"Hey mister Michael. How are we going to create this take-out box?" Remy asked. "How do you fold it again?"
The little boy was extremely curious about the take-out box and immediately wanted to construct one himself.
However, the answer to his question gave Michael another headache.
"I'll hire more workers to learn how to fold the boxes and they'll be the one in charge of all the take-out orders. You all just focus on cooking chicken. You guys don't have to worry about anything."
Even though he said that, he was the one who was worrying the most.
After all, in order to create those take-out boxes, he had to create another factory and assembly line to create enough products to keep up with the supply.
However, creating another factory would need more materials to construct.
Just when he thought he was about to solve his resource problem, another problem suddenly reared its head.