Chapter 144

While Mingmei and Mu Chen were having dinner in the game's school cafeteria, the other players gradually arrived, each with a somewhat despondent expression.

Everyone sat close together while eating, and soon they began to talk.

"Cooking is hard."

"As hard as breaking into a black hole!"

"I'd rather switch tasks. Like—"

"Ambushing a Black Beetle Queen."

The Zhen brothers sang in unison, making Lu Xiaoyao even more despairing. She was too weak to argue about switching tasks: "Isn't ambushing the Queen just asking for death?"

"And you think cooking isn't?"

Mingmei glanced at Zhen Po with a surprised look at his sudden insightful comment.

Then she heard him say, "It stinks so bad it's going to kill me."

Mingmei: "..."

She thought he had discovered the Cooking God's dark intentions.

"Actually, it's not so bad, as long as your knife skills are good..."

Yuan Fang, who said this, stared at his fingers covered in cuts and didn't finish his sentence.

Seven out of ten fingers were covered with band-aids, and one was wrapped in a thick bandage.

What came after "as long as your knife skills are good"?

Yuan Fang didn't know yet.

"In the end, we don't understand the ingredients," Lu Gui said with a sigh. "When I saw the white meat that had been broken down, I thought the quality would be pretty good. Who knew it would be like that?"

"Yeah, I thought the meat, even if it wasn't as good as the Queen's, wouldn't be too far off..."

Speaking of which, the players all sighed in unison.

"By the way, I remember yesterday you and Lu Xiaoyao brought back two corpses of the Unnamed Bug B, right?"

Lou Jia then remembered that they had hunted the Unnamed Bug B for energy yesterday. Although there didn't seem to be any meat in the first half of its head, he vaguely remembered that there was meat in the second half.

After all, they were only after the insect core at the time, and they hadn't shown any mercy when they attacked. He had seen meat in the severed lower half of the body.

It was just that the space in their space buttons was limited. They had already filled it with so many Bug A, they couldn't fit any more of the leftovers. Even if they managed to fit some, like they had considered before, it wouldn't be enough to practice with.

"We did. I've already applied for tomorrow's class to learn how to process Bug B ingredients."

Lu Gui clicked his tongue. He had spent the whole afternoon practicing his knife skills, removing the fascia, which made his head buzz.

His hands and brain didn't seem to be on the same page.

His mental power told him the exact location of the fascia, but when he moved his hand, he simply cut the fascia and meat together.

In the end, he got countless pieces of fascia and meat.

It was so funny; he couldn't make a single edible piece!

"How nice~"

The other players looked enviously at the Lu Xiaoyao siblings. At least they had a choice.

As for them... if they didn't go to outer space again later, they might have to keep struggling with this!

"Alas~ We have seasonings, but the meat doesn't taste good."

Yuan Fang blurted out while sighing.

"What seasonings?"

The three-person group who hadn't bought boxed lunches suddenly looked up at Yuan Fang in confusion.

"This..."

Yuan Fang looked awkwardly at Mingmei, who was sitting not far from them eating. Mingmei heard the sound and looked up at the three people who had missed her boxed lunch, and smiled slightly.

Soon, Lu Xiaoyao, Zhen Po, and Lou Jia all realized what they had done!

[Here it comes! The familiar plot again!]

[#Just asking, why do I always have to refuse the boxed lunch?#]

[Hahahaha, I always want to see this part of every livestream. Last time, the daughter bought a boxed lunch at the start, which wasn't as good. This one suits me better~]

[Speaking of which, what was the ending of the last game? The daughter didn't say anything after the livestream ended.]

[I heard from other people who have played the game that the boss is the hotel owner.]

[Ah??? Really?]

[It seems to be the male boss.]

[Huh??? But isn't he the one who sells the boxed lunches?]

[I don't know, they said he's the boss in the game, and that the landlady is a good person.]

[Good lord, I don't understand!]

……

Mingmei silently watched the comments section, which had somehow turned to the previous game again. At the same time, she was glad that her livestream had been shut down because of Da Yao's appearance later on.

At least her image was preserved.

Compared to the joy in the comments, Lu Xiaoyao's mood was really terrible at the moment!

After making a dish in class that made even herself feel suffocated, she inadvertently discovered that she had missed the mysterious merchant.

Looking at the prompt on her game panel that the merchant's selling time was over, Lu Xiaoyao almost cried.

Oh, she was already crying.

She went to Mingmei and vividly and realistically acted out what it meant to say "#If you don't sell me a boxed lunch, I'll cry for you to see~#"

She was crying miserably, but Mingmei really didn't sell it to her.

[Why is the countdown time for selling the same as reality, instead of the same as in the game?]

Mingmei looked at Lu Xiaoyao's pitiful appearance and felt helpless. She talked to Guigui about this.

[What you can't get is the most precious.] Guigui replied, [Only in this way can they cherish it.]

[That's true, but I'm afraid they'll accidentally die before they can buy it a second time.]

[Host, I think you should avoid making casual promises. If it comes true, you'll be the one who suffers.]

"You guys should work hard to practice your cooking skills these two days. Maybe by the time you can buy boxed lunches, you'll have learned enough to use them."

In the end, Mingmei chose to dangle a carrot in front of the players who hadn't bought boxed lunches.

"By the way, those of you who bought boxed lunches with seasonings can also try to make a dish and taste it. Even if it fails, you have to know why you failed, right?"

Then Mingmei began to set a trap for the players who had bought boxed lunches.

It would be best if they failed with the seasonings and could buy them a few more times~

Mu Chen was clear about Mingmei's little plan. He sat next to her, smiled, and echoed, "Indeed, you can try it in advance to see how much bad food the sauce can cover up."

Mingmei heard Mu Chen's words and immediately looked at him with approval in her eyes.

Well done!

Mu Chen: (*￣︶￣)

The next day, after practicing the previous day, Mu Chen's performance in class today was ridiculously good. At least, Mingmei, who was standing outside the door, didn't smell anything wrong.

When Mu Chen came out, their eyes met. She didn't see much information on Mu Chen's face, but the lunchbox he was holding seemed to contain the dish he had made himself?

Ah, today he was already able to make something edible and even take it out for others to taste?

Watching Mu Chen leave, Mingmei turned to look at the Cooking God NPC standing in the room.

Mingmei's eyesight was very good. The expression on the other party's face was still not good.

Mingmei: ???

Gathering her courage, Mingmei curiously asked how the dish he made today was.

As a result, Mingmei shouldn't have asked. As soon as she asked, the Cooking God's face immediately darkened several degrees: "Such delicious sauce tastes good even on shoe pads. How did this guy make the meat as bad as shoe pads?"

Mingmei: ???