Cuisineer Let's Play: Cat-Eared Girl Pom Shuttles Between Dungeons and a Restaurant to Pay Off Her Parents' Debts

The story begins like this. Pom, who has been traveling as an adventurer, finishes exploring some ruins and returns to her hometown of Paell for the first time in a while. She heads to the restaurant her parents run. Waiting at the restaurant is her best friend Biscotti. Her parents have left the restaurant in Biscotti's care and set off on a trip around the world, so starting the next day, Pom will be running the restaurant.

Her parents had sold off all the furniture, so the first job is buying tables and chairs at the carpenter's. The carpenter gave her one table-and-chair set for free. The player says this was a relief, since Pom had no money at all. Next, Pom decides on the seating layout, receives ingredients from Biscotti, who had gone shopping for her, and starts practicing cooking. The first dish she can make is boiled noodles, which the player says "would taste great late at night." Cooking only takes pressing a button in front of the cooking station, and Biscotti liked the result.

Ingredients are gathered in dungeons. Before entering a dungeon, the player takes a walk around town and introduces the shops. There is a tapioca shop run by sisters, a shady-looking shop, an equipment shop the player calls "a rip-off," a barter shop that trades ingredients, a weapon shop run by an inventor who is self-conscious about their height, and a carpenter's in a large building. Each shop is open on set days of the week, and the carpenter's will be closed the next day. It is also revealed at this point that Biscotti's birthday is coming up next week.

The only dungeon available at first is the "Verdant Ruins." For a main weapon, Pom used a spatula she found lying around. In the dungeon, you smash everything in sight, from the surroundings to the animals, and collect the ingredients and materials that drop. When your bag is full, you head home. In town, you can learn recipes by finding people in trouble and solving their problems.

Pom opened the restaurant on day 3. When a customer comes in, you wait for their order, and once the order is in, you cook the dish. The first customer ordered steamed leafy greens. Customers pick up their finished dishes themselves, food-court style, which the player says makes things easy for an owner running the place alone.

However, customers can't come in if there aren't enough seats. The second customer couldn't get in because the restaurant was full. After closing, there was a letter of encouragement on a table congratulating Pom on the opening. It came from an anonymous supporter. The player says that while some customers leave angry, they want to keep the restaurant going for the sake of the people cheering them on.

To add more seats, Pom spent the afternoon chopping wood in the dungeon. At this point the bag is still small, so she heads home as soon as she has gathered a little.

When Pom gets home, a tax official appears, and it turns out her parents left behind a debt of 2,000 coins. The official also hinted that the restaurant could be seized.

On day 5, Pom used the wood she collected to add more seating. Now she no longer angers customers by running out of seats, and business goes smoothly. The lunch rush starts at noon and brings in more customers, and even four seats were still not enough. She somehow got through it and closed a little after 3 p.m. Since the dungeon is only open until 5 p.m., the player jokes that they watched the last customer finish eating "with cold eyes."

Day 7 was Biscotti's birthday, but instead it was Biscotti who sent Pom a present. Pom did a bit of shopping in town, increased the seating to six, and stayed open until evening that day. The day's sales came to 2,161 gold, and she paid the official to clear the debt.

On day 9, Pom wakes up debt-free and heads to the kitchen, only for the official to appear again. This time he tells her about another of her parents' debts: 10,000 coins. Just as she is feeling down, Biscotti happens to show up, and the player playfully wonders whether Biscotti is "the mastermind behind this whole story."

That day, Pom opened the restaurant in the morning and went into the new dungeon, the "Scorching Cave," in the afternoon. She switched to a weapon she picked up at the entrance and decided to fight with it from then on. Here she can get lots of reddish ingredients such as boar, chili peppers, and tomatoes. There is no time limit inside the dungeon, so she packed in as much as she could carry before heading home.

On day 17, she had the carpenter renovate the restaurant, adding more cooking equipment to the kitchen and bringing the seating up to nine. She still runs the place alone, and the player jokingly notes that she has come to be called "the Yellow Flash of Paell" for the way she dashes around the restaurant.

On day 20, she upgraded the cooking facilities, aiming to boost sales with high-end dishes. The dishes she can make at this point include oven-baked mushrooms, grilled beef, baked potatoes, and grilled squid and octopus legs, which the player describes as "tasty-looking, but all cheap recipes." Restaurant by day, dungeon by night, and the money she earns goes back into the restaurant. She repeated this cycle aiming to pay back the 10,000 coins.

On day 25, the season turned to summer. That day's sales came to 3,244 coins, and she finished paying off the 10,000 coins.

On day 26, the official shows up yet again. Her parents had apparently been planning to open another restaurant, and there was a remaining debt of 70,000 coins. Saying "I'm about to break," the player heads to the newly unlocked dungeon to blow off some steam. It is an icy, snowy area along the coast, where lots of seafood such as squid and octopus can be found.

By day 34, further expansions had brought the seating to 18. The restaurant has become a popular eatery. The player says she can manage just fine alone because customers pick up their own food. On the other hand, orders are chosen almost at random from the dishes she can make. Because of that, the player also says there is more and more time where all she can do to boost the day's sales is pray for fast-turnover customers to come in and order expensive dishes. That day's sales came to about 3,000 coins, with about 60,000 coins still remaining.

Day 46 falls in late autumn. Pom had received food orders from local residents, so she prepared dishes for delivery from the morning. After finishing the deliveries she opened for business, keeping the restaurant open from morning until night. That day's sales came to 19,149 coins, an all-time record.

On day 48, a fast-food set became a huge hit, bringing in 7,000 coins from just half a day of business. Her money reached 70,000 coins, and 48 days after taking on her parents' debts, she paid off the last of them. Reflecting that "it's been a long road," the player leaves a parting shot of a line, and for the first time in a while, Pom spent the afternoon doing nothing and slept until the next day.

On day 49, as Pom heads to the kitchen, Biscotti and a fat man appear. The man is arrogant and mocks Pom's restaurant, and it is decided that she will take part in the "Chef League," a cooking competition event he is organizing. The entry fee is apparently 120,000 coins.

The player decides to spend the day gazing at the fountain, and ends this video there. With the debts finally paid off, an even more expensive goal has been set, and the story continues in the next installment.