CHAPTER 69: 069 LIN BAI’S COOKING SKILLS

"City Lord, can we assign someone else to monitor Lin, the Storekeeper?" Xu Longyun was engrossed in official documents when Zhao Tong pushed open the door and walked in, his face ashen, his legs trembling where he stood.

"What’s wrong?" Xu Longyun was startled by Zhao Tong’s state.

"City Lord, I really can’t take it anymore! Lin, the Storekeeper, he’s not doing a single thing a proper person would do!" Zhao Tong’s tears started to flow before he even finished speaking. A Hidden Guard of the City Lord’s Mansion, a man of iron who wouldn’t so much as blink if stabbed, now looked as pitiful as a child.

"..." Xu Longyun put down the documents, her fine eyebrows knitted slightly. "Did he bully you?"

"He... he forced me to eat the food he cooked." Unpleasant memories flooded his mind, and his stomach churned. He instinctively clutched his belly.

Recalling the taste of Lin Bai’s cooking, Xu Longyun inexplicably felt rather full. She looked sympathetically at her guard and asked, "Is he still cooking?"

"Not anymore." Zhao Tong shook his head, stammering, "He... Mister Lin has started making flour-based dishes now."

"Flour-based dishes?" Xu Longyun raised her head in surprise.

"Yes, steamed buns, noodles, flatbreads, things like that. He makes something different almost every time." As Zhao Tong spoke, he let out an involuntary belch, his complexion growing even more ghastly.

"That shouldn’t be a major issue!" Xu Longyun said. "Although Lin Bai’s cooking is a bit unpalatable, it shouldn’t be a huge problem for you all. During survival training, don’t you even eat raw meat?"

"City Lord, raw meat can at least be swallowed! But the flatbreads Lin, the Storekeeper, makes are harder than blue bricks! When he steams buns, he dumps in a huge handful of baking soda, making the buns bitter and astringent. And the food he makes... it’s even worse than my wife’s cooking..."

Zhao Tong tried to control his expression, but as soon as he spoke, a wave of grievance washed over him, and bitter tears streamed down his face uncontrollably. "City Lord, either you assign someone else to monitor Lin, the Storekeeper, or please, go and persuade him to start alchemy promptly. He really isn’t cut out for cooking! I seriously can’t endure it any longer."

Xu Longyun chuckled. "If you don’t eat, can he actually force you?"

"Not only does he force me to eat, but after I finish, he even asks if it tastes good!" Zhao Tong lamented, his face a mask of misery. "If I dare say a single word about it not tasting good, he immediately goes back to the stove and makes it again, without the slightest hesitation. I can’t stand his enthusiasm anymore..."

Just as they were speaking, Lin Bai walked in from outside, carrying a flatbread. Seeing Zhao Tong, a wide smile instantly spread across his face. He enthusiastically grabbed Zhao Tong’s hand. "Brother Zhao, I knew you’d be here! Come, come, come, try this new flatbread I just made..."

Flatbread?

Xu Longyun stared at the pitch-black, disc-shaped object in Lin Bai’s hand, her throat working as she subconsciously swallowed. "Lin, the Storekeeper, you call *that* a flatbread?"

"Yes! Brother Zhao said the last one was a bit undercooked, so I used a bit more heat this time. I guarantee it’s thoroughly cooked now," Lin Bai said.

It’s not undercooked, alright! It’s completely carbonized! Anyone not an idiot would know this thing is inedible! This guy is definitely doing it on purpose!

Xu Longyun’s temples throbbed. Seeing Zhao Tong’s pleading gaze fixed on her, she said, "Lin, the Storekeeper, Zhao Tong has other official duties. I will assign someone else to you!"

"Absolutely not." Lin Bai shook his head decisively. "I taught Zhao Tong a set of Seven Injury Hands. In return, he promised to be my food taster. If I change people, wouldn’t my Martial Arts instruction have been for nothing?"

"You learned his Martial Arts?" Xu Longyun looked at Zhao Tong.

"City Lord, I was thinking it could add another Cultivation Technique to the Hidden Guard Mansion’s repertoire..." Zhao Tong explained awkwardly.

Having accepted his offerings, you’re now in his debt! You gave him the opening; who else would he exploit but you!

Xu Longyun shot Zhao Tong an annoyed glare, pondered for a moment, then said, "A true man must stand by his word. Zhao Tong, the City Lord’s Mansion will remember your sacrifice..."

.

"City Lord, he called it the Seven Injury Fist, yet it only has six moves!" Zhao Tong protested urgently.

"Brother Zhao, that’s where you’re mistaken. If you learned the Arm-breaking Knife, would you actually chop off your own arm? If you learned the Crane Control Skill, could you only fight cranes?" Lin Bai retorted. "Seven Injury Hands is just a name. It’s perfectly normal for it to only have six moves."

"..." Utterly exasperated, Xu Longyun looked at the persistently unreasonable Lin Bai and waved her hand. "Go on, Zhao Tong. This is an order."

Lin Bai truly had no other choice. He had toiled over thirty-six dishes until midnight to finally complete them, earning the Fire Gong reward from the Cooking God System and thus collecting all three fundamental culinary skills.

Lin Bai, believing he had mastered Fire Gong and Basic Pill Refinement Technique, thought that by appropriately combining Herbal Medicines based on medical texts, even if he couldn’t refine a good pill, creating even a useless one would be enough to fool the System.

But who knew, if the proportions were wrong, all he managed to produce in the Alchemy Furnace was dregs. The System didn’t fall for it when he mixed the dregs with honey and rolled them into medicinal balls, either.

Helpless, Lin Bai could only turn his attention back to the Cooking God System.

The next task from the Cooking God System was: make eighteen types of flour-based dishes. Without using violence or verbal threats, without using money as a bribe, and without any prior collusion, he must win the approval of the same customer for all of them. The reward was the Food Material Analysis Technique.

Lin Bai believed that his inability to refine pills stemmed from his lack of familiarity with Herbal Medicines. Most food ingredients possessed medicinal properties. If he understood their characteristics, he might be able to refine food-related Pill Medicines like the Fasting Pill or the Vitality-preserving Pill. If he could create even one type, the Dan Fang for the Revitalizing Pill would be his.

However, perhaps the Cooking God System, seeing that his methods for clearing tasks were too unorthodox and not befitting a real chef, had imposed new restrictions this time: no violence, no verbal threats, no prior collusion, and no monetary bribes.

This truly stumped Lin Bai.

During his school days, he ate in the cafeteria, had instant noodles in his dorm, or ordered takeout when he was too lazy to go out. Where would he have learned any proper cooking skills! The few Stir Fry dishes he’d made the day before were hastily learned by watching Master Zhang cook at the Chef’s Divine Food Stall. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even know the basic steps for a Stir Fry.

Making eighteen types of flour-based dishes wasn’t the main problem; he could manage that with some effort. The crucial part was gaining the customer’s approval! Wasn’t this making things deliberately difficult for him? How long would it take for someone with practically zero culinary skill to create eighteen kinds of flour-based dishes that a customer would genuinely approve of? Did he still have time to race against the Players?

If not for these restrictions, getting Players to help complete the task would be the best option; they would do anything for rewards... But without collusion or money, the only reward he could offer Players to get them to say something was ’good’ would be Martial Arts. If they kept refusing to say it was good, would he have to keep rewarding them, allowing Players to exploit a bug and continuously farm Martial Arts from him? He wasn’t the type to suck up to Players!

So, the ones doomed to suffer could only be the Hidden Guards sent by the City Lord to monitor him.

Compared to Players, Hidden Guards were far easier to bully. With just an ordinary Seven Injury Hands technique, Lin Bai had managed to trade for Zhao Tong’s services as a food taster.

Lin Bai knew he had no culinary talent. Gaining Zhao Tong’s approval through skill alone was impossible.

Therefore, he had to do the opposite. If Zhao Tong dared to find fault with his cooking, Lin Bai would deliberately make the next dish even more disgusting. He aimed to push Zhao Tong to the point where, unable to bear it any longer, he would be forced to lie and say it was "good."

But Zhao Tong was an unperceptive blockhead. He could have avoided disaster by simply saying "delicious," yet he stubbornly pointed out shortcomings in every single flour-based dish!

Thus, they fell into an extreme vicious cycle. Lin Bai had to wrack his brains to create increasingly unpalatable food, to the point where he was just short of adding actual feces to the meals...

Damn it all! This guy has clearly never been in a relationship!