A new day, a new beginning.
Mo Bai sat at his shop's entrance, devouring his breakfast. The few pedestrians on the shopping street painted a desolate picture.
Based on his month and a half of experience, he knew today was destined to be another day with zero income.
This commercial street was in its twilight years. Aside from some local housewives who came to buy ingredients before evening, there was practically no foot traffic.
In this situation, even if Mo Bai's culinary skills were god-like, he could only stare helplessly.
"Xiao Bai, how's it going with those recipes you were supposed to be finding for me?" Behind Mo Bai, Xiao Bai was also feasting away, the noodles in the bowl before the cleaver vanishing at a strangely rapid pace.
"You think it's that easy? A miss is as good as a mile, you know?" The noodle bowl lifted into the air on its own, and with a few gulps, the remaining broth disappeared completely.
"The secret to a recipe lies in the precise ratio of ingredients, heat control, seasoning style, and so on. Stricter recipes even specify the order in which ingredients are added, their cut shapes, and even their region of origin."
"Change just one of these things, and the entire flavor profile will be thrown off."
"Let's not even talk about whether the dishes from Cooking Master Boy can be recreated. The most awkward part right now is that the recipes from Cooking Master Boy only describe the main ingredients and the flavor. The most damn important parts—the ratios, the side ingredients, the heat control—are all missing."
"And I can't find any records of the recipes online either."
"Heh, it'd be strange if you could." After realizing that Food Wars! also had a foothold in this world, Mo Bai had completely given up hope of getting recipes from the internet.
After all, to a chef, a recipe was the equivalent of a master's ultimate, secret technique in a wuxia novel.
"So you've been staying up all night for a month since crossing over with me, and it was all for nothing?" Mo Bai's gaze could be summed up in one word: 'weakling.'
"Have I really sunk so low as to be scorned by my own host?"
But... what could it do? The guy had an administrator backing him up.
Becoming the very thing it hated, Xiao Bai shed silent tears inwardly while desperately defending its reputation. "Of course not! I have gotten some things done!"
With that, Xiao Bai displayed the character status screen.
===
Host: Mo Bai
Chef Level: Zero-Star
Physique: lv10
Knife Skills: lv5
Heat Control: lv5
Chef Skills: None
Mastered Recipes: Sea Soul Repose Noodles (Two-Star)
Culinary Heart: Propriety
Points: -300,000,000,000
===
"I created this status sheet based on the IGO's chef evaluation standards."
"As for the specific values, I hacked into the IGO database and used the Shokugeki videos of various masters as an analysis library to assess you." Xiao Bai did its best to hype up the brilliance of these forty-seven characters, not counting spaces or punctuation.
Mo Bai automatically tuned out Xiao Bai's voice. Those three fives and the long string of zeros below them made his head ache.
"How exactly are these points calculated?"
He'd been selflessly exorcising demons with his heartfelt cooking for nearly a month, and his three-hundred-billion-point debt hadn't budged at all?
"Where did all the points from my exorcisms go?!" Mo Bai slid the door shut, blocking the view from the outside, his anger flaring.
Faced with Mo Bai's questioning, Xiao Bai remained calm and unhurried.
It wasn't its fault, so why should it be afraid?
"I think I need to explain the concept of points to you."
"Points are energy. All kinds of energy."
"The points from your demon exorcism missions are actually the residual life essence left over after a malevolent spirit preys on a living being."
"I haven't touched a single drop of that essence; it's all been channeled into your body. Otherwise, how do you think a weakling like you, a normal person, could beat a malevolent spirit to death with your bare fists?"
"That... does make sense."
Mo Bai, who had indeed felt his body growing stronger over the past month, accepted Xiao Bai's explanation.
"Are there any other ways to pay back the points?"
"Cooking!" Sensing that its host wasn't entirely heartless, Xiao Bai perked up. "Serve customers!"
"The more delicious your food is, and the more it stirs people's hearts, the more Heart Power you can obtain from your patrons."
"And energy is points!"
Having surfed the web for a month, how could Xiao Bai not know that chefs held a high status in this world? If there was no potential in it, would it really be quietly working for Mo Bai to reconstruct the system? It would have probably been testing the limits of self-destruction long ago.
Heart Power—all-natural, pollution-free, and one of the few renewable energy sources.
Xiao Bai understood that as long as Mo Bai rose to prominence, it would have an endless, renewable resource to tap into.
What was the point of brawling like some kind of primitive? Not only did it make the system nervous, but the host could also die on the spot.
Such a peaceful, stable, and green method of harvesting... Xiao Bai had only ever dreamed of it.
Who needs to be a martial arts system?
Overlord! I don't want to be a martial arts system anymore!
"If you don't have anything else to do, take me to the library. I need to gather some data."
Xiao 'Studying-Makes-Me-Happy' Bai.
With no business at the small shop, Mo Bai didn't question it. He slid Xiao Bai into its special sheath, locked the door, and left.
Not far from the shopping street was a decent-sized bookstore. Thanks to the street's decline, this bookstore's business was equally bleak.
"Huh? They got a new cashier?" Upon entering the bookstore, Mo Bai noticed a petite, black-haired girl bowing slightly behind the counter.
The girl's snow-white skin and jet-black Hime-cut hair formed a stark contrast, making her look all the more fresh and lovely.
A beauty mark near her left eye added a touch of glamour to her appearance.
Nodding to the cute girl, Mo Bai walked into the labyrinth of bookshelves.
"What book are you looking for?"
"Go straight ahead. There should be a special section for cookbooks here."
"Huh? Bookstores have a section like that?" Mo Bai was dumbfounded, but on second thought, it didn't seem all that surprising.
In the world of Food Wars!, chefs held a very high status. It was certainly possible for a bookstore to cater to the market by creating a dedicated section.
Suddenly, Mo Bai found himself intensely interested in the cookbook section.
...
Ten minutes later, Mo Bai fled the cookbook section in a panic, clutching an encyclopedia of ingredients, and retreated to a desk in the public area.
Sitting in a chair, Mo Bai rubbed his eyes.
Recalling the visual pollution of seeing entire shelves filled with 'Dōjima Gin's Grand Invitation,' his mind couldn't find peace for a long time.
Tōtsuki was famous as the preeminent culinary academy in the Far East, so seven out of every ten cookbooks had names connected to it.
As Tōtsuki's most famous graduate, as well as the Head Chef and a board member of the Tōtsuki Resort, Dōjima Gin naturally had no shortage of admirers.
It's just that his appearance was far too masculine and muscular, and the photographers seemed to have deliberately emphasized this quality on the covers.
Whatever others thought, as a die-hard straight man, Mo Bai would absolutely never buy one.
He felt it wouldn't even be safe to use for wiping his ass.
"Can't you find the contents of this book online?"
"It's online, but you have to pay to view the full version."
The moment money was mentioned, Mo Bai's heart sank.
If his rich patron didn't come by to give him business, what was he supposed to do?
Flipping through the book, the distracted Mo Bai didn't notice that the girl with long hair covering her eyes, sitting opposite him, was staring at him with her delicate brows furrowed.
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