Chapter 40: Is Trying to Cook in Another World a Mistake?

Only to hear a loud ‘bang’ from Old Li’s side.
Yan Shuangwen and Hua Yibing, who were just childishly bickering, both paused and looked back.

Then they saw Old Li standing there foolishly, holding a wooden stick that had broken in half, his mouth slightly open, staring blankly at what was in front of him—
In front of him, there was only a pot that had fallen to one side, and a wall that had just been plain white but was now occupied by pink blocks of various sizes.
At first glance, it even had a bit of a post-modern art style.

This wall, which was almost an abstract painting, was right next to the wall with Huahua’s “masterpiece,” and they actually complemented each other.

“What’s going on? Did the pot just explode?” Huahua cautiously swam over, first setting the pot upright.
He saw that there were still pink mixtures of the same color as on the wall remaining at the bottom of the pot.

Seeing that nothing had happened to the pot, he first breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness the pot is fine. If we die, we die. We can resurrect anyway. If the pot breaks, it’ll cost a lot of reputation points.”

Hua Yibing had seen through it.
The exchange post would launch new activities and new utensils from time to time.
Plus, with the big snail NPC he had met before, called either a wandering merchant or a traveling merchant, there would definitely be more places to spend money in the future!
He couldn’t waste it because of an exploding pot.

After hearing his teammate’s utterly deranged speech, the expression on Old Li’s face became even more complicated.
He seemed to want to complain about Hua Yibing, but after thinking about it carefully, he actually felt it made some sense—resurrection only required 500 reputation points, while a pot required 2000.
It was obvious which was more cost-effective.

So he turned to complain about the cooking accident just now.
“Is this really cooking? Just mixing a few kinds of vegetables together can actually explode directly? If you ate this, wouldn’t you be gone?”

As he spoke, his gaze swept over the promotional leaflet that had been tossed aside.
“Maybe the herbs written on it are the right ones.”

At this time, Old Li still didn’t know that he had unintentionally touched the edge of the truth.

Under the questioning of his two companions, he truthfully stated his recipe from just now.
As he spoke, he also took out the corresponding things from the vegetable pile and placed them one by one on the side—

A red, cabbage-like plant, two white, spinach-like objects, two pieces of seaweed pulled from the roadside, and…

He took out a crimson fruit from the small pile that was classified separately and placed it together with the other things.

“You just added the crop that came out of the mystery package?”
Yan Shuangwen looked at the red fruit, which was only the size of a cherry.
It had initially grown on a branch with only fruit and no leaves, and was later manually detached by them, so Yan Shuangwen had some impression of this fruit.

“Hahahaha, I was curious about its effects, so I couldn’t help but add it,” Old Li laughed heartily.

In the subsequent attempts, Old Li replicated the previous recipe, only this time he didn’t add the red fruit, and surprisingly, nothing happened.

“It seems it’s the effect of this fruit,” he collected the fruit, whose system display name was [Red Bead Fruit], and placed it in the farthest place.
He also wrote the characteristic of [Prone to Explosion] in his panel’s notes.

The three of them tried a few more times.
Besides the occasional exploding pot, corrosion, vaporization, and other accidents, there were still a few edible finished products.

Hua Yibing named the green soup he had first completed [Brave’s Special Drink].
When someone else replicated this recipe, the name that appeared would be the one he had named.

Old Li had finally managed to make a bowl of normal-tasting vegetable puree, but he found that it had already been named [Unremarkable Spinach Puree], which meant that someone else had already experimented with this recipe first.

In the end, the one who cooked the most delicious food was actually the low-key Yan Shuangwen.

He didn’t try rashly, but observed the appearance of several vegetables and tasted them separately before combining the most similar recipe from his memory—cold-dressed tomatoes.

Ahem.

You’re not mistaken.
It was cold-dressed tomatoes, one of the most common and simplest home-style dishes on the Flower-Planting Nation’s dining table.

Because he couldn’t find a seasoning similar to sugar in the exchange post, Yan Shuangwen used the juice from the sweet fruit he had asked for for the little snail as a seasoning.
He mixed it with slices of a green, strip-shaped object that tasted similar to tomatoes.
The sweet and sour taste was very similar to cold-dressed tomatoes on Earth, and the remaining soup at the bottom of the bowl was extremely abundant!

Yan Shuangwen remembered that his younger sister’s favorite thing to do was to pour the soup from cold-dressed tomatoes into a small bowl and then drink it in one gulp.
If she could come to Sea Realm and see this dish, she would probably be so happy she’d spin in circles.

“Sob sob sob sob sob, I never thought I would be so moved one day by eating cold-dressed tomatoes QAQ.”
Hua Yibing held two small wooden sticks as chopsticks, stuffed a large piece into his mouth, and shed tears of emotion.

Just now, he tried several “Hua’s own dishes” and note that, because of the system’s strange regulations, before a player applied for an appraisal, one needs to taste his own dishes.

He didn’t see any extra effects from those dishes, but the tastes were more indescribable than the last.
Even the first one, which looked like it came from the darkness, the soup was drunk, the taste was quite good.
Normal things, once they entered the mouth, the taste…

Ugh,

Can’t think about it, can’t think about it.

Hua Yibing quickly picked up a few more pieces of the Sea Realm version of “tomatoes” to calm himself down.

Old Li had been examining the greenish-green fruit slices for a long time, scratching his chin and saying, “Why… there are only a few… a cucumber, but it tastes exactly like a tomato.”

“That’s what makes it different from other manufacturers!” Hua Yibing’s mouth was full, like a little squirrel hoarding food.
He answered vaguely, “Who dares to say Sea Realm plagiarized their own creation… because of a weapon that only had the same name, they fought a public opinion war for several months? Now, there’s only this…”

“Actually, this design is also very interesting,” Yan Shuangwen on the other side cut off a bit from a semi-transparent seaweed and chewed it in his mouth.
“I suddenly feel that the plants of Sea Realm are also very worthy of research. I’m very curious how this plant can survive in the deep sea.”

In the end, Yan Shuangwen truthfully named this dish [Cold-Dressed Tomatoes].
Along with the recipe and the making process, they were all uploaded to Ella’s database.

[Name: Cold-Dressed Tomatoes]

[Description: After consumption, gain [Concentration] status. During the status period, the consumer’s attention will be more focused. The effect intensity varies from person to person. The effect duration is 5min. Satiety +60 after consumption.]

[Rating: 9.2 points]

Of course, Yan Shuangwen was not the only one who could think of such a clever method of trying one by one.

At around the same time, the log-off rate of Sea Realm surged.
Many people’s family members were surprised to find that their son/daughter/brother/sister, who should have been in the game, had walked out of the holographic game cabin so early, eagerly asking them if there were any simple ways to cook eggplants, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes.

It was best if the seasoning was simple and the process was simple!

After getting the answers, the players returned to the game with satisfaction.
For a time, various Sea Realm specialty versions of home-style dishes were made, and then their names were all snatched up.

Not to mention that the first person to complete it could get a reputation point reward.
Even without the reason of reputation points, the players would still compete to be the first to register!

This was the naming right!
When everyone clicked on the recipe details, they could see the creator’s name written at the very bottom of the recipe.

When Sea Realm is open beta in the future, the new players will definitely double, double, and double again.
When they cook, they will be able to see the names of these seniors.
Who can resist this temptation?

However, this opportunistic method soon became unworkable, because there were only so many easy-to-make and easy-to-learn dishes.
After trying and trying, they could only see dishes that had been named by others, and the repetition rate was extremely high.

“Damn it!” Ge Feifei gnashed her teeth.
She shoveled the stir-fried shredded potatoes in her hand into her mouth, logged off on the spot, and called for help.

“Bro! Emergency!”
As soon as the call was connected, Ge Feifei let out a wail, startling her cousin on the other end of the phone.

“Feifei? What’s wrong?” Her cousin’s gentle voice also carried a trace of urgency.
“Did something happen?”

Ge Feifei embarrassedly touched her nose.
“It’s not a big deal. Wait, it is a big deal! I want to know what kind of vegetable a strongly acidic fruit pulp needs to react with to become something edible.”

Her cousin: “…”

Even though he himself was a chemistry major, it didn’t mean he could understand Ge Feifei’s meaning.
Strongly acidic what?
React with what?
Become something edible?

Thinking this, he was suddenly shocked.
“Feifei, if you encounter any difficulties, you must tell me. Don’t think about it too much. Where’s Jiao Jiao? Isn’t she with you?”

“No, no, no!” Ge Feifei knew her brother had misunderstood.
“It’s… I have a strange fruit in Sea Realm. I want to make it into a dish, but no matter what I add, it always turns into a highly corrosive liquid.”

Only then did the other party breathe a sigh of relief.
Although he didn’t know what was in the game Sea Realm, he still gave her some basic knowledge.
Then, listening to his sister’s vague voice, which at a listen was clearly not understood, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

After hanging up the phone, he returned to the laboratory.
A colleague next to him poked him.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Song, why are you laughing so happily?”

He told him what had just happened, only to see his colleague also slap his head and marvel, “You know, not long ago my little nephew also gave me a call, asking me what could make a fruit not explode. I recommended the potato wall from Plants vs. Zombies to him, and he was even angry that I was being perfunctory with him, hahahaha. So there’s really such a game.”

“Isn’t that right? I also received a call,” a female colleague passing by also chimed in.
“I really don’t know what they’re playing. Is this really cooking? It doesn’t sound like it at all. It’s so dangerous with strong acid and explosions.”

…

“The young people’s games, I really don’t get it,” someone sighed, putting an end to this discussion.

[Master, as of today when the players logged off, a total of one thousand three hundred and forty-one identification applications have been made, with sixty-four dishes having special attributes.]

In the study of the merman tower, countless lines of data seemed to flash through Ella’s fiery red eyes, and finally, she reported the above conclusion.

“My guess was right. The rules of this world can’t bind the players, and it’s the same for cooking,” Sykes was not disappointed at all when he heard this data.
Instead, the corners of his mouth turned up, and he looked very satisfied.
His sparkling, glorious appearance, paired with a happy smile, if it were to be spread to the player world, would probably attract a large number of die-hard lookist fans.
But unfortunately, the only one present was Ella, who couldn’t be considered a person.

In Sykes’s world, the reason why cooking was not valued was twofold.
One was that most creatures could reduce or even stop eating after their cultivation reached a certain level.
Naturally, no one would bother to study something they didn’t need.

The second was the problem of cooking itself.
Even with high-grade materials containing magic elements, in the end, when eaten, it would only have the effect of the high-grade material itself, without any additional attributes produced.
It was better to refine the materials with magic and use the obtained essence to make more precious and efficient potions.

Yes, in this world, food was food, and potions were potions.

When eaten individually—for example, the fruit of a coral tree—it could bring a refreshing buff.
But once it was mixed with another food, besides its own refreshing effect, it could not exert any more effects.

Logically speaking, mixing things of different attributes would produce a wonderful reaction, just like the various principles in potions.
But in cooking, it was particularly strange—why was it not possible after being classified as food?

Every time Sykes thought about this aspect, the question would quickly be erased, as if he had touched something he shouldn’t have.

If it were someone else, they might have quickly forgotten about this and casually piled it together with other things they couldn’t figure out, continuing to work hard in other areas—such as potions and runes.

But Sykes was different.
His profound knowledge made it rare for him to not be able to figure things out.
And this made this point particularly eye-catching and prominent.
He thought about this problem over and over again, and then forgot it over and over again.

The question was like a deep pit.
Even if it was filled, there would still be a slight sense of disharmony.
And when this pit was dug open again and again, and filled up again and again, it was inevitable that it became completely unhidden.

Sykes noticed that something was wrong.
Later, he repeated this process countless times before he firmly remembered this point.
And when he discovered that players were not controlled by the rules and had infinite possibilities, countless thoughts turned in Sykes’s mind.
One of the key points was to conduct observations and experiments—

Could players really create miracles in cooking?

The answer was already very clear.
From the data compiled by Ella, they not only created miracles but were also extremely talented in this aspect.

Sykes knew how far-reaching the research of the country where the players lived was in “cooking.”
Various cuisines, various methods, and even the kitchen utensils were countless times richer than in this world.

As long as you give them a chance, they can completely, without the knowledge of the countless beings in the ocean, in this Sea of Death that seems lifeless to outsiders,

create impossible miracles.

This was also the reason why Sykes was unwilling to provide players with anything other than the basic pots and flame pedestals.
Even the introductory herbology knowledge that he had previously had Ella collect, he had temporarily held back.
Only after the players had formed their own way of thinking would it be good to provide them with those things as auxiliary references.

He couldn’t let the solidified thinking of this world, including Sykes’s own, interfere with the players’ “miracles.”
Otherwise, the merman did not want to see cooking become another form of potion-making.

Then, with full expectation and joy, he flipped through the various recipes and corresponding effects that Ella had projected in front of him.

Sykes’s expression slowly became surprised, and then he flipped through the pages at an even faster speed until he reached the last page.

The last page was exactly Hua Yibing’s [Brave’s Special Drink].

The merman’s eyes were fixed on its effect, and he did not move his gaze away for a long time.

“It’s truly incredible,” he heard his own voice say.
“A product with no side effects. Even if there are some exceptions, the side effect level has not exceeded level one.”

“Is this a visitor from another world?”
Sykes covered his face with one hand and looked up through the gaps between his fingers, as if looking at a more distant place.

For a moment, the merman felt extremely refreshed in his heart, as if he had won some great victory.
In the end, he actually laughed out loud uncharacteristically.

Sykes really hadn’t been so happy for a long time, not only because of what was in front of him, but also because of the more, more things that might appear in the future…

“Sykes!! What’s wrong with you! Has a dark mage invaded!!!”

With a ‘duang’, the door to Sykes’s study was violently knocked open, and Tom’s big snail face appeared in the doorway.

Tom looked at the unabated smile on the merman’s face with astonishment.
His eyes widened by half, and he rolled into a human form with a ‘gurulu’.
He didn’t even bother to move his shell in and rushed through the door in a hurry.

“Who is it? Who dares to secretly attack my, Tom’s, friend!”
A strange fluctuation gradually formed in Tom’s hand.
He looked around as if facing a great enemy, trying to find that non-existent “dark mage.”

Sykes: “…”

How should he explain to his old friend that he was just purely happy and wanted to laugh, and not under the influence of some strange little trick like a dark mage’s [Laughing Magic]?

The three-day period passed in a flash, and the first cooking competition of Sea Realm also started on time.

In these three days, players had to submit at least two qualified original dishes to register.
This made many kitchen disasters—such as Old Li—hesitate.
Until the last day, he still hadn’t successfully made a suitable dish, always failing for various magical reasons.

Hua Yibing and Yan Shuangwen both submitted their registration forms.

That’s right, even Hua Yibing had managed to make two magical dishes by accident.
Old Li still maintained his record of 0, which made the tall and sturdy man feel a bit self-pitying.

“It’s okay, Old Li. Mine is your brother’s!” Hua Yibing patted his chest and assured him.
“When I come back with first place, I’ll tell you everything the lord taught me!”

Ahem, how should I put it, maintaining such self-confidence is also a good thing.
The corner of Old Li’s mouth twitched, but he still accepted Huahua’s good intentions and patted his shoulder.

‘It’s just a pity for the judges’ taste buds. The things Hua Yibing makes all taste… wait! Uh, the lord, he seems to be one of the judges too?’

After eliminating the kitchen disasters and those who didn’t want to join in the fun, there were a total of fifty players selected for the preliminary round.
The competition notice said that it would be conducted in the form of a live broadcast.

The players were also very familiar with the competition venue—this was a venue they had built bit by bit!

When the notice for the cooking competition came out, another twin brother of the bulletin board on the square had appeared.

[Bulletin Board (Limited Time Version): Dear players, the cooking competition is approaching, but the lord has recently been troubled by the venue. Please loyal subjects solve the lord’s troubles and build the competition venue together!]

[Limited Time Full-Server Construction Quest (1): Construct the outer perimeter of the cooking competition venue.]

[Limited Time Full-Server Construction Quest (2): Construct the internal venue of the cooking competition.]

There was no reward written after the quest, but the players all obediently did it, because below this limited-time bulletin board was a long progress bar, from 0% all the way to 100%.
It was the familiar full-server progress bar from mobile games!

For every 20% increase in the progress bar’s value, the full-server players would receive a reward.
And when the progress bar reached 100%, a random gift pack ×1 would be given out as an extra, as well as an increase of a full 5 points of the lord’s favorability!

This was enough to get the players on the entire server moving—one must know that the lord’s favorability was really very difficult to increase.
From the stingy reward of a few tenths of a point at a time from the exploration quests before, it was clear.
What’s more, in the game’s setting, they were still only considered domain citizens and not citizens!

Remember that novice quest that no one had completed?
It was the one that was still hanging high at the top of everyone’s quest bar—

[Novice Quest (3): As a proper merman, how can you not know the noble Lord? Please work hard to gain the Lord’s favorability and become a true citizen of the Sea of Death! Player’s current progress: Favorability 0/Favorability 10]

[Quest Reward: Legal Citizen of the Sea of Death status ×1]

Of course, to prevent the mentality of getting something for nothing from appearing, a thoughtful note was also attached under the quest bar: [Only players whose daily construction contribution value reaches 10 points can receive the reward after three days.]

This contribution value was very subtle.
As for how to increase the contribution value, the system didn’t give any explanation.
But the players, through their own personal exploration (zuo si), had figured out that this was a measure to ensure they built properly and didn’t cause any trouble.

For example, Hua Yibing, he had the wild idea of trying to draw a portrait of the lord on the outer wall of the venue.
But he had only made one stroke before he was deducted 10 contribution points, instantly turning his original 0 points into -10.

Ahem, back to the main topic.

The long-prepared players entered the competition venue with their registration forms in high spirits, while the players who were not selected also took their seats in the outer audience seats, able to see the venue below.

Besides watching the competition, they also had the right to vote.
After the 50 contestants had cooked for the first time, the audience present needed to taste their works and then give their votes.
The votes they gave would be converted into different scores, which would be counted as 40% of the final score, with the system’s rating accounting for the remaining 60%.

The system’s broadcast sound rang out in the venue, repeating the rules of the competition.
One was to remind the contestants in the venue, and the other was to explain to the audience who knew nothing.

[The rules look so professional. It doesn’t look like a game event, but more like a program like “Master Chef.”]

[This is quite well-organized. Let me have a look.]

[Is this the holographic that crushed Company A? It doesn’t look that great.]

[Blind person above is forbidden to speak.]

[The preliminary round is audience voting plus system rating. What about the rematch?]

[Is there even a need to ask! Lord, hurry up and come out. This child is about to die if I can’t see your magnificent beauty again.]

[That shiny golden merman? I think I’ve seen that photo.]

[Yes, it’s that NPC with the god-like beauty!]

[Wait a minute, am I seeing things? Sisters, look quickly. Is that pink-hair on the far right Huahua?]

[Holy cr*p! My cub has made it. That permanent resident of the hand-disabled star actually has the qualification to register?]

[Hahahahahaha, no wonder he hasn’t been streaming during this period. So he was secretly preparing a big move!]

Countless bullet comments flew across the official Sea Realm live stream room, and the topics of discussion were varied.

When the last rule was read out, a small, red-haired, red-eyed elf suddenly appeared at the very front of the inner venue.
It was the familiar mascot of the exchange post—Ella.

“Thirty minutes. Each person makes one dish. Requirement: none,” her voice was calm and flat, but it seemed to ring in every player’s ear.

“The first cooking competition of Sea Realm now begins.”