NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 - Fried Rice with Sausage
Although Ye Mu hadn’t played games since graduating from college, she still keenly realized she had crossed into a game world.
Just now, while she was looking for a path in the forest, she unexpectedly overheard a conversation from a small team. They discussed character levels as naturally as people in the real world talk about academic qualifications.
In the middle of the conversation, a wild monster suddenly attacked, and Ye Mu who was hiding in the bushes, witnessed the colorful skill being cast.
She didn’t join them because she’s not sure if they were good people, she’s also not sure how strong she was. If she recklessly joined in the fight, she might not only get herself killed but also hinder the team.
So, Ye Mu bent down and quietly slipped away from the bushes. When she reached an open space not far away, she raised her hand and tapped randomly within her field of vision, trying to activate the control panel, but nothing happened.
Ye Mu’s mood gradually became irritated, she muttered to herself, ‘Why can’t I get a personal information panel?!’
Then, with a ding, the personal information panel popped up!
Name: Ye Mu
——–Main Attributes——–
Level: Level 0 (Levels below 10 are in a low-level protection period, and will not be actively attacked by wild monsters)
Health: 327/500
Magic: 0/0
Stamina: 62/500
Defense: 300/300
Endurance: 100/100
——–Secondary Attributes——–
Collection: Level 0
Construction: Level 0
Smelting: Level 0
Forging: Level 0
Pharmaceutical: Level 0
Cooking: Level 100 (Max Level)
Poetry: Level 0
Beast Taming: Level 0
Ye Mu: Ah… What?!
Is this reasonable?!
As an outstanding student from a certain culinary school, she accepted the maxed cooking skill setting, but the issue was that her secondary attributes were maxed while her main attributes were at 0, making her seem like a clueless kindergarten child trying to be a national banquet chef.
…How could such a situation exist in a game?!
Ye Mu shook her head in disbelief and then following the method she just did just now, she silently chanted in her mind, “Skill panel.”
“Real-time map.”
The two panels popped up one after another. The skill panel is predictably empty, and the real-time map shows her current location and the situation within a 2 km radius.
Ye Mu’s gaze landed on the area in the bottom left corner of the map.
That spot was marked with a large cluster of buildings, labeled with four translucent characters: Magic Dragon Town.
Since it was a town, there should be a place like an inn for her to stay temporarily.
Ye Mu minimized the map to the top right corner and followed the mountain path toward the town. Along the way, she encountered several waves of wild monsters, but the “low-level protection” mentioned on her personal info panel was not misleading, those monsters showed no interest in her, not even glancing her way as they passed.
After more than half an hour, Ye Mu successfully arrived at Magic Dragon Town.
At this time, the sun was setting, and it was peak hour for adventurers to return to the town. The city gate was bustling with activity. Following the crowd, Ye Mu noticed that most of the people were heading in the same direction, so she decided to go along and see what was happening.
Eventually, she was led to the market, where vendors were energetically and busy selling dinner.
Her stamina had dropped to 31/500, making it urgent to replenish her energy. In the game, the most common way to recover these stats was by eating or using potions, and Ye Mu’s first choice is obviously food.
She had checked her backpack while going down the mountain. It’s empty except for 500 copper coins, which should be enough for a meal.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Mu stepped into the market with a strong desire to explore the game’s culinary delicacies.
…Then she almost stumbled over the harsh reality.
“Boiled wild boar meat! Freshly boiled wild boar meat! 20 copper coins per serving!”
“Fried chicken! Fried chicken! Only 15 copper coins!”
“Vegetable soup! A must-have for recovering magic! 10 copper coins a serving!”
Amid the continuous shouts, various meat products emitted a strong, raw odor smell. The food at each stall looked like it had only been boiled or fried simply, without any effort to remove the fishy smell, and not even salt was added.
The so-called vegetable soup was just chopped vegetables thrown into water and boiled, with no seasoning whatsoever.
When she passed by a stall selling sausages, Ye Mu felt like she finally saw some “high-end ingredients” and was about to inquire about the price when a mage at the next wooden table, who had just purchased a blood sausage, cut into it and ended up splattered with blood, causing a loud laughter from his teammates.
“……”
Forget this!
Ye Mu fled in panic.
How could a magical game world be filled with such terrible cuisine? Is this some kind of ¹British setting?!
She wanted to laugh, but thinking about having to live in this dreadful place long-term made her unable to smile.
…Maybe she could cook for herself?
That thought lingered in Ye Mu’s mind for only a few seconds before she dismissed it.
Given the state of these awful dishes, she suspected there might not be any seasonings exist in this world.
Otherwise, why does no one use them? Even a haphazard meal would taste better than boiled meat in plain water!
A skilled cook can’t work without ingredients.
If seasonings didn’t exist, she won’t be able to cook anything delicious even if her cooking skills are at their best.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Mu decided to settle for potions to replenish her energy.
In the real world, people couldn’t survive solely on potions, but in the game world, as long as they restored stats, eating or drinking potions was just a matter of form, with no essential difference.
Ye Mu found a less crowded potion stall and looked around. Life, magic, and stamina potions were categorized into primary, intermediate, and advanced levels. They’re priced at 30 copper coins, 550 copper coins, and 1200 copper coins respectively. The food prices were comparatively lower, but since her limits were low and she didn’t have any magic points, it wouldn’t cost much.
Thinking about those dark cuisine, Ye Mu quickly made her decision: “I’ll take one [Primary Life Potion] and one [Primary Stamina Potion].”
“Sure thing, that’ll be 60 copper coins.” The stall owner cheerfully accepted her payment and handed her two small glass bottles, each containing only a few milliliters.
The [Primary Life Potion] was a white, translucent solid, while the [Primary Stamina Potion] was a light brown liquid.
Looking at her precariously low stamina, Ye Mu first opened the bottle of liquid and took a sip.
“???”
“!!!”
The potion hadn’t been swallowed yet, but the stimulation to her taste buds made Ye Mu’s pupils tremble as she stared wide-eyed at the remaining half bottle of liquid: Isn’t this rice wine?!
For a moment, Ye Mu suspected she had been tricked, but glancing at her panel, she saw that her stamina, which had been approaching its limit, was now fully restored.
She paused, her gaze falling on the [Primary Life Potion], which was made up of countless tiny white particles.
This time, her curiosity made her cautious. She opened the bottle, poured a small amount of particles into her palm, and put them into her mouth.
The particles quickly dissolved, and a sweet taste spread across her lips. If she disregarded the issue of her health points rising and judged solely by taste, this was completely… white sugar!
If the [Primary Stamina Potion] was rice wine and the [Primary Life Potion] was white sugar, then…
“I want another [Primary Magic Potion]!” Ye Mu excitedly took out her coins, buying a potion that, from her perspective, was of no real use.
The stall owner quickly handed over another small bottle, which, like the [Primary Life Potion], contained white particles but were even smaller.
Ye Mu poured out a little to taste.
Indeed!
The [Primary Magic Potion] had the taste of salt!!!
After being nearly driven to vomit by the dark cuisine, Ye Mu’s heart raced with excitement as she carefully stored the remaining potions, turning around and walking into the food area.
There were stalls in the market selling raw ingredients. Since there was no manpower for processing, buying raw ingredients was significantly cheaper than buying ready-made food, and many residents with cooking skills would buy ingredients to cook for themselves.
Ye Mu looked around, buying a handful of green onions, a carrot, a cucumber, and three eggs. Then she returned to the ready-made food stall to purchase a serving of rice and a sausage.
The total cost is 28 copper coins.
Counting the cost of the potions, she had already spent over 100 copper coins out of her initial 500, making Ye Mu a little anxious since she felt she was gambling a bit.
—Although she found potions that tasted like sugar and salt, she wasn’t sure if they could really be used as seasonings. What if they lost their flavor or even disappeared when cooked? That would mean she wasted her money.
However, for the sake of long-term survival, it was a gamble worth taking.
Afterward, in order to save money, Ye Mu checked the map and visited several inns in the town, ultimately choosing the “Brave Inn,” located near the city gate.
This inn was small, with only a dozen rooms, each tiny and furnished with a simple wooden single bed and a small wooden table. Fortunately, it was kept very clean.
The lodging fee here was 100 copper coins per night, which was slightly more expensive than another nearby inn, but it allowed guests to use the kitchen, which was very important to Ye Mu.
After spending some time wandering between the inns, when Ye Mu paid at the Brave Inn, most of the other guests had already finished their dinners and returned to their rooms to rest, with only a few chatting in the common area. The kitchen was completely empty.
As soon as Ye Mu entered the kitchen, she got busy: she diced the carrot and cucumber, chopped the green onions, cracked the three eggs into a bowl, added a little water, and mixed them before adding a bit of the [Primary Magic Potion]—which was salt for seasoning.
In the common area, the few adventurers were still chatting. A tired water mage lay back on the sofa, saying, “I think this isn’t going to work. We should find a healer, or else it will be too easy to fail!”
The light mage next to him immediately agreed, “Yeah, yeah, without any healing, it’s all on me to tank the monsters, and it’s such a mess!”
Ye Mu was immersed in her cooking world, slicing the sausage and frying it in the pan.
She had no idea what the cooking oil in this world was, so she hadn’t bought any oil and could only make do by frying some fat out of the sausage.
Without any seasonings, the sausage had a strong, raw smell as it cooked, and Ye Mu frowned at the stench, but the people in the common area seemed to have gotten used to it and continued chatting.
Once the sausage was cooked, Ye Mu took it out, placed it back on the cutting board, chopped it into small pieces, and then put it in a bowl, adding two spoonfuls of rice wine and a pinch of chopped green onions to remove the fishy smell.
The stove was still hot, and the fat released from the sausage continued to emit a foul odor. Ye Mu grabbed more green onions and tossed them in, and the stench immediately dissipated, replaced by the fragrant aroma of green onions.
After struggling with the smell for a while, Ye Mu finally took a deep breath, smiled, and began to scramble the eggs.
Once the eggs were out of the pan, she added the diced carrot and cucumber, stir-frying them together, and finally added the cooked eggs and sausage pieces to mix.
As the fragrant aroma of the food wafted through the air, Ye Mu didn’t notice when the conversations in the common area stopped.
The tired-looking water mage’s eyes brightened a little as he twitched his nose, “What smells so good?”
“How strange, I just finished eating, but this smell is making me hungry!” The light mage felt uneasy because of the unfamiliar scent. “Is it some kind of unknown negative effect?”
“But I don’t know why… I still think it smells really wonderful.” The fire mage, looking dazed, proposed another idea, “Maybe it’s not a negative effect, maybe it’s a positive buff?”
In the steamy kitchen, Ye Mu skillfully added another sprinkle of fine salt to her fried rice. When the fried rice was finished, she gained 20 experience points.
She had bought only small amounts of each ingredient, and there was just one serving of rice, but when combined, it became a large pot of fried rice, enough for at least two meals.
So she filled two plates, putting one directly into her backpack, which turned into a small icon. She took a spoonful from the remaining plate and tasted it—delicious! She had won the gamble!
The added potions had not lost their effect, they had fully served their purpose as seasonings. The [Primary Stamina Potion], like ordinary rice wine, had helped eliminate the smell of the sausage when paired with the green onions. The [Primary Magic Potion] was also quite effective as salt, providing just the right amount of flavor to the fried rice.
Having felt healed from her earlier ordeal at the market, Ye Mu carried the plate in one hand and a spoon in the other, humming a cheerful tune as she walked into the common area.
In the common area, aside from the sofa where the few mages were seated, there were several proper dining tables. Ye Mu chose a nearby table and started her meal.
Three meters away, on the sofa, the mages exchanged glances.
They watched Ye Mu from a distance, seeing the colorful food on her plate, vaguely identifying some rice, but none could say what it was called when mixed with the other ingredients.
But even so, they couldn’t help but feel their stomachs growl and tears of hunger spilling from the corners of their mouths.
Just as they wondered if the food she was eating might be problematic, each of them clearly saw the numbers popping up above her head.
Red numbers: [ +10 ][ +10 ][ +10 ], indicating her health was continuously restoring,
Blue numbers: [ +10 ][ +10 ][ +10 ], showing her magic points were increasing,
Yellow numbers: [ +10 ][ +10 ][ +10 ], representing her stamina…
The game’s notification effects were simple and straightforward, even if a player had no points in a particular attribute or if that attribute was already full, the relevant bonuses would still appear when eating food related to those attributes.
Ye Mu felt a pang of regret as she suddenly remembered that she had already fully restored her stamina after drinking half a bottle of the [Primary Stamina Potion] and that she had no magic points to begin with. She felt that she wasted quite a bit of attributes.
Just then, a line of white text popped up: [Exp +100]!
This was the experience point bonus.
When the words [Level up!] appeared, a circle of golden light briefly shone on the ground beside her.
This was the level-up notification.
Ye Mu paused for a moment, opened her panel, and was pleasantly surprised to see her main attribute had risen from “Level 0” to “Level 1,” and her magic points had been unlocked. She now had a maximum of 100 magic points!
In the sofa area, the team members who had witnessed all of this could no longer hold back. The fire mage leaped forward, drawn by the enticing aroma of the mixed food, and rushed to the table. “Excuse me… Excuse me… What are you eating?! Can you sell me a portion?!”
“I’ll give you 200 copper coins!”
¹”British setting” in this context refers to a stereotype or cultural reference to British cuisine, which is often humorously criticized for being bland or unappetizing.