Luxury Cafe Owner - Chapter 25 Lottery

“In any case, mention something next time you’re going to open early.” Tom grumbled.

“How? It’s not like I have your number. And no,” He cut Tom off. “I won’t give you my number. I don’t want you bothering me with texts and calls every day.” Ever since he’d experienced Tom’s relentless hounding after his old cell phone number, he’d dreaded going through that again, so he went out and bought a new model smartphone. It even had a touch screen. He justified it to himself as a business expense. However, he’d yet to figure out how he’d use it in the business.

Tom grumbled some more. He’d realized very quickly that Alan had changed numbers as the number he had been calling was no longer in service.

“Well, you could at least make a social media account for the cafe.” He suggested.

Alan hesitated. It seemed like a pretty good way to do things. He could communicate with customers, and even increase awareness of his cafe. He waited, half-expecting the system to tell him not to do it, but it never spoke up. He nodded at Tom. “Alright then, what app should I download?”

Tom explained the various social media apps. Then he helped Alan set up a Twitter account. As they did this the cafe cleared out a little bit as people finished their coffee and hurried off to work. Eventually, Alan finished setting it up.

“Is this really going to work?” He asked Tom doubtfully. Alan was pretty new to social media, and didn’t really understand it. He knew some people heralded it as the greatest form of advertising, but he still had his doubts.

Tom smiled. “You still doubt it even when you’ve already seen the benefits yourself?”

“What do you mean?” Alan asked in confusion.

Tom pulled out his phone and pulled up Gerald’s Twitter feed, showing Alan the tweet about his cafe. “See? You got all of this business today because of a single tweet. It really works.”

The sudden spike in business suddenly made sense to Alan. He saw Gerald had over one million followers on Twitter. If even a small portion of them visited the cafe, he’d earn enough money to pay off his loan.

Alan started to fiddle with his new account, when Tom cleared his throat.

Alan looked up in confusion. “Yes?”

Tom stared helplessly, saying, “Can I get a coffee now?”

Alan suddenly remembered he was still open for business and went and prepared Tom his coffee.

He brought Tom back his coffee. Luckily, the bar seats were mostly still open. It seemed that most customers wanted to sit either at the tables where there were power outlets or in the more comfortable leather armchairs.

The bar was comfortable too, but it obviously involved being observed by the bartender, Alan. These people either felt anxious or were working on private matters that they didn’t want others to observe.

In any case, Tom sat largely alone at the bar, only one lone customer at the far end. Alan kept an eye on them in case they wanted anything. Of course, if they actually did want another cup of coffee he’d have to explain they couldn’t get another one.

Alan sighed, wishing he had more to serve than just coffee.

As he thought of this, he remembered his pending reward. Seeing that Tom was absorbed in his phone and no one seemed to need him, he walked back into the kitchen to collect the reward.

“Congratulations Host. You’ve received a lottery chance. Would you like to play?”

Alan felt confused. “What’s the deal with this lottery?”

The system explained. “Host, now that you’ve completed the tutorial, the system will provide less direct help. It will be up to the Host to figure out how to make the best of the rewards. To that end, the rewards will be random going forward. Of course, they will still be rewards beneficial to the running of a cafe, but it’s up to Host to use them appropriately.”

Alan didn’t fully understand, but he didn’t have a problem with it. Until this point the rewards were essentially random to him anyways, as he never had a choice in them.

Alan chose to play the lottery.

As he did so, a notification popped up. “Your lucky number is: 32.”

With that a number generator featuring numbers 1 to 100 began spinning. It sped up until it moved too fast for him to read the numbers.

Alan didn’t fully understand how the reward would work. As he watched, the number 32 appeared.

The system sent a notification. “Congratulations Host. You have received reward Coffee Cake.”

“Congratulations Host, it seems you have good luck. As your lucky number was selected, you get an additional spin.”

Before Alan could even celebrate his reward, he was informed he had another chance to spin!

This time, he did not receive a lucky number. Instead, the number generator began spinning again.

It landed on the number 10.

“Congratulations Host. You have received reward Espresso.”

Alan quickly went to check the details of his rewards.