Be Careful When Agreeing to Terms and Conditions

1. Mondstadt (1)

I stood there, lost in thought. Paimon, by my side, continued to ignore me. The reason was simple: the mysterious sentence that appeared before me.

[Prologue Act 1 The Foreigner Chasing the Wind]

[As the prologue opens, certain game features are unlocked.]

I knew very little about this world. Although it was a game world, I had fallen into it just as I was about to start playing. Therefore, I only had a few pieces of information, and even those were just basic facts like the protagonist being a traveler named “Lumine” and the mascot character being “Paimon”.

Nevertheless, there were some deductions that could be made from the sudden appearance of a notification. First, the “Prologue” meant that the main story was about to begin. And since it mentioned “some game features”, it meant that I could now use certain functions that were previously unavailable.

The problem was, what did they mean by “some game features”?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out. After all, I had never played this game before.

I felt a headache coming on and turned my gaze slightly.

[Sweet Sweet Flower]

“…Huh?”

On the white petals peeking through the grass in the field, there were big letters written.

Had I ever seen these letters before?

I approached as if enchanted and plucked the white flower. Then, the letters saying “Sweet Sweet Flower” blinked and disappeared right in front of me.

As I stared at the flower in a daze, Paimon, who had been fidgeting next to Lumine, flew over and exclaimed in admiration.

“Wow, this is a Sweet Sweet Flower! You never said anything about looking for it all this time!”

“This flower is called Sweet Sweet Flower?”

“Yeah, it’s a flower commonly used in cooking! Didn’t you know and pick it up?”

No way, even if I had become familiar with the Teyvat continent, I was still fundamentally a foreigner. I didn’t have the opportunity to learn such knowledge.

Then, regardless of my knowledge, the fact that the name of this “Sweet Sweet Flower” appeared in the air meant that what I saw was not an illusion.

Could this be one of the “game features”?

The fact that only the name of the “Sweet Sweet Flower” came to mind among the various weeds meant that this ability was limited to useful materials…

“Siwoo, but why Sweet Sweet Flower? Are you planning to cook something today?”

“Huh? Cooking?”

“Sure, cooking! I’m tired of just consuming rations all the time.”

As Phaemon spoke, she began to whine. No matter how arduous the journey was, was it reasonable to eat unprocessed ingredients without any cooking? Occasionally eating was like having jerky at best. Cooking is the epitome of civilization, and aren’t we living in an age of barbarism now, and so on and so forth.

I turned my gaze to Lumine in bewilderment. It meant to take Phaemon with her. But instead, Lumine’s eyes were sparkling too.

With a face like a child waiting for Santa on Christmas day, she asked me, “Finally, are we going to have a proper meal today?”

Her voice was a bit higher in anticipation than usual. That probably meant she was hoping for a decent meal.

I was at a loss. Of course, I didn’t know how to cook. I often cooked home-cooked meals while living alone, but that was just an Earth story.

I had no idea what ingredients were on the Tibetan continent, what flavors they had, or how they should be prepared. I, who had recently fallen from Earth, knew nothing about it.

If only I had at least one recipe.

“Uh… Well, for now, we don’t have anything. Let’s talk about it later.”

However, betraying the expectant gaze of the two sparkling girls was quite difficult.

I already felt a sense of guilt that I couldn’t be of any help to the team. There was also a slightly self-satisfied feeling at the expectation I hadn’t received in a long time.

And in fact, while traveling, I had met some merchants a few times and picked up a few seasonings. Until now, I had used them to add flavor to tough jerky, and I didn’t think there was much difference from Earth’s ingredients.

I didn’t know the recipe well, but well.

Anyway, I silenced the voice of my conscience. If I fail, I can think about it then, right?

The moment I felt the problem was a bit serious was when Lumine brought a new bird.

As we were about to find a suitable place to start a fire as it was getting dark, out of the blue, a large bird’s carcass was thrown in front of me.

I looked at Lumine with a face that said, “What is this?”

“Ingredients,” Lumine said, scratching her slightly embarrassed cheek as she added.

“Just in case it’s needed.”

Internally, I broke into a cold sweat. Isn’t this too serious?

I don’t know anything about butchering…

As I approached the bird with such thoughts, letters appeared again in the air.

[Bird Meat]

“…Can this be done too?”

‘Sweet Flower’ was a straightforward material that was fine when simply plucked. So, no specialized skills were required for gathering.

But butchering was different. Butchering required its own set of skills. However, the moment my body entertained the thought of harvesting this ‘bird meat,’ the knife was effortlessly drawn from its sheath, which I happened to carry around for self-defense.

It was a knife I carried just in case.

My body, moving on its own accord, playfully toyed with the compact knife, starting to butcher the bird. I cut off the head, drained the blood, and, with Paimon’s excited assistance, placed the neatly prepared bird into a large pot (I couldn’t tell where she got it) filled with boiling water, plucking the feathers as I blanched it.

It was surprisingly smooth movements. Watching my actions, Paimon couldn’t help but express continuous admiration.

“Wow, Xiu. How did you do that? Were you perhaps a chef?”

Even Lumine was looking at me with an intrigued gaze. Well, my movements were quite surprising. I wonder what others would think.

As I gazed at the neatly butchered bird with a slightly overwhelmed feeling, letters appeared in the air again, this time above the simmering pot.

[Cooking]

Cooking is possible too?

I stared at the word ‘cooking’ with a gaze tinged with a bit of awe. Then, unlike before, a larger screen appeared in front of me.

On the translucent screen, various pictures were drawn. Are these all related to cooking? However, most of them had an opaque filter, and there was only one dish with its original color.

[Sweet Chicken Stew] – Bird Meat 2/2, Sweet Flower 2/2

Seeing that only this dish wasn’t obscured by an opaque filter, it seemed to imply that I could only make this dish. And as if confirming that conjecture, when I thought of making ‘Sweet Chicken Stew,’ a translucent curve appeared before my eyes.

Is this a rhythm game?

The cursor was moving from left to right, and there was a specific area marked as if the cursor was supposed to stop when it entered that range.

When the cursor’s border aligned with the area, instinctively, I nodded my head slightly, and my body started moving on its own again.

I seasoned the butchered chicken, grilled it on a hot pan, sliced the sweet flowers finely, mixed them with unknown ingredients, and boiled them in a pot.

The only ingredients I had were a few seasonings, fresh meat, and sweet flowers.

The constant appearance of something from my light bag was like looking into Doraemon’s pocket.

Despite the unusual scene, Lumine and Paimon didn’t seem to find it strange. Maybe they thought I had collected the ingredients beforehand, or it wasn’t anything surprising in the magical continent of Teyvat where magic existed.

Anyway, my movements in cooking were surprisingly skillful, and when the unknown ingredients were added, a delicious smell started to waft.

[Perfect]

[Tasty Sweet Chicken Stew] x1

I put the well-grilled meat on a plate and poured the sweet stew boiled in the pot over it.

The dish didn’t come out exactly as I first saw it. In the first picture I saw, there was clearly a whole roasted chicken, but because the bird Lumine caught was so big, it had to be cooked by dividing it into different parts.

Nevertheless, the appetizing colors and sweet fragrance were real. When the appetizing smell tickled my nose, Paimon flew over as if excited and examined the finished dish from every angle.

And soon, Paimon exclaimed, for the umpteenth time today, without knowing how many times it had been.

“It looks delicious! Xiu, were you hiding this talent?”

“…Well, rather than saying I was hiding it, maybe it’s more accurate to say I didn’t have the opportunity.”

To be precise, it was a function that someone who dropped me here had hidden, not me. I just tested the newly unlocked function.

But Paimon didn’t seem interested in my subtle reaction, as she quickly started bringing the dishes. Lumine also had a pleased expression on her face.

“You’re amazing, Xiu. Honestly, I was surprised.”

Lumine seemed to be in a better mood because of the rare proper meal.

“I thought it was a pillar-direction charm.”

“…Could you not suddenly pick at someone else’s wounds?”

I spoke with a slightly wounded voice. Still, I decided to think of it as Lumine’s way of complimenting me. Compliments from a beauty always make me feel good.

Lumine, as if joking, gave a sly smile and picked up her fork and knife. Since I was also curious about the taste of the dish I made, I followed Lumine and picked up my fork and knife to cut a piece of meat. Paimon was already cutting the meat with a small knife.

And the moment I put a piece of meat in my mouth.

“…Wow,”

An exclamation burst out from an unknown mouth. No, perhaps it was the admiration of all of us.