Chapter 3

喂喂！

The middle-aged man's attitude of taking the lead made Xia Yu quite annoyed.

The guy who ate half of his midnight snack should at least pay a price. After some thought, Xia Yu could only stretch out his hand and say, "Money—"

"Money?" The middle-aged man was taken aback.

Xia Yu pointed to the empty bowl, "Paying for food is a natural principle."

"How much?"

"Hmm, let me think. This is today's limited midnight snack, only two bowls. You ate one, so I'll charge you 10,000 yen." Xia Yu casually said, tapping his chin.

He just wanted to deliberately provoke this impolite guy.

No matter if he was a regular customer or someone else, Xia Yu wouldn't be polite to the person who ate half of his most sumptuous meal of the day, filled with resentment.

Slap.

To his surprise, the middle-aged man didn't haggle or talk nonsense. He took out his wallet from his dark gray overcoat pocket, pulled out a 10,000 yen note, and placed it on the table, smiling slightly, "If I can eat Mr. Xia's dishes every day with money, I would be willing to go bankrupt."

Xia Yu was speechless.

In Tokyo, a regular bowl of ramen usually costs about 600 to 700 yen, which is about 40 RMB.

10,000 yen is about 600 RMB, enough to buy more than ten bowls of ordinary ramen.

Needless to say, someone who can spend 10,000 yen on ramen is definitely a tycoon. Xia Yu didn't hesitate at all and stuffed the 10,000 yen note into his pocket.

Damn, he had been living on store-bought bread every day, all because the old man was too stingy, giving him only 1,000 yen for daily expenses.

What does 1,000 yen mean?

A store-bought bento costs 400 yen, and a cup of instant noodles costs 100 to 250 yen. Of course, since he could ride his bicycle to school, he saved on daily train fares. Otherwise, Xia Yu would have to skip at least one meal a day.

The bitter part was that Xia Yu had to frequently check for store discounts. When he saw half-price bentos that were about to expire, he would instantly turn into a bicycle speedster. Perhaps it was luck, but he had never had food poisoning from eating expired bentos.

In short, for a穿越者 (穿越者 means "穿越者" in Chinese, which can be translated as "穿越者" in English, but it's better to use "穿越者" to maintain the original meaning and context. Here, it refers to someone who has traveled through time or to a different world.) to end up in such a state was quite rare. Xia Yu put his hand in his pocket, his fingertips constantly rubbing the smooth surface of the 10,000 yen note, already thinking about where to go for a hearty meal to replenish his nutrition.

"Are you Xia Yu?"

The middle-aged man put away his wallet and continued to look at him with interest, asking.

"Absolutely!"

At this moment, Xia Yu found the middle-aged man's face much more pleasant to look at.

Nodding, the middle-aged man didn't ask any more questions but looked at the old man in the kitchen and called out, "Mr. Xia—"

The old man slowly walked out from the back kitchen, standing behind the counter with his arms crossed, looking cool.

"Mr. Kamihara, what can I do for you?" the old man asked.

"Mr. Xia, is this your grandson?" The middle-aged man pointed at Xia Yu standing beside him. Seeing the old man nod, he smiled lightly, "I agree to the task you entrusted me with. However, since he is your grandson, I would like to see his cooking skills. After all, you are leaving, and I need a replacement."

"Come in—" The old man beckoned to the stunned Xia Yu, his face full of authority.

Xia Yu subconsciously walked through the shop to the kitchen.

He completely missed the middle-aged man's words, currently excited by the task prompt given by the Cooking God System:

"Make a midnight snack that satisfies Kamihara Masato, and the host can complete the initial task."

Standing in front of the cooking station in the kitchen, Xia Yu soon looked bewildered.

He had no idea how to cook!

He couldn't help but look to the old man for help, but the old man still stood with his arms crossed, looking cool, "When I was your age, I was already a head chef, independently supporting the Xia family's reputation. Now it's your turn."

Screw you!

Xia Yu was almost ready to curse. Damn it, when did you ever teach me to cook? You always treated me like a servant!

Also, can you stop using phrases like "When I was your age," the times are different, you know!

As if sensing his thoughts, the old man shook his head, "Do you think I cooked different midnight snacks for you every night for nothing? This is the simplest and most free-form dish. If you haven't mastered at least one or two cooking methods, it means you haven't put your heart into improving your cooking skills... You have lost the soul of the Xia family!"

The old man's tone became more serious.

With pressure from both the system and the old man, Xia Yu took a deep breath, realizing he had to take the plunge.

The question was, what dish, or rather, what midnight snack?

A thought crossed his mind.

Slap. Xia Yu clenched his left hand into a fist and slammed it into his right palm, "Ramen! The beef ramen I just ate! That's it!"

He turned and shouted to the shop, "Mr. Kamihara, do you mind having another bowl of beef ramen?"

Kamihara Masato sat quietly, and in the small shop, he had of course heard the conversation between the grandfather and grandson.

It seemed that the next generation of the Xia family wasn't very skilled in cooking. He could see Xia Yu's nervousness, and from the old man's stern face, Kamihara Masato couldn't discern any inner emotions.

"Of course not if it's delicious," Kamihara Masato smiled in response.

"Please wait a moment..."

Xia Yu stood in front of the cooking station, his chin resting on his hand. In front of him was high-gluten flour for ramen, and a large pot of water was already on the gas stove, soon to boil and steam.

The first step in making ramen was to solve the noodle problem.

The shop didn't have ready-made noodles, so he had to make them himself. Making good ramen undoubtedly required proficient basic skills: kneading the dough, stretching the dough, rolling the dough, pulling the noodles, boiling them, and serving them... Each step would affect the final texture and couldn't be taken lightly.

"System: You have an unclaimed beginner's package. It is recommended that you claim it first and then start making your first dish."

What the heck is a beginner's package?

His train of thought was interrupted, but Xia Yu wasn't annoyed; instead, he was full of curiosity.

Ding.

A clear sound echoed in his mind, and a tree-like talent diagram, similar to a game, appeared on Xia Yu's retina.

Cooking Level lv2.

Unused Talent Points: 1.

"…When did my cooking level go from lv1 to lv2? Hmm, I got 1 talent point from leveling up?" Xia Yu was stunned.

So the Cooking God System gave him a detailed system log:

2016/7/20, 7:36 PM, the host processed ten meat ingredients, gaining 10 experience points.

2016/7/20, 8:20 PM, the host processed ten seafood ingredients, gaining 10 experience points.

2016/7/20, 9:00 PM, the host processed ten vegetable ingredients, gaining 10 experience points.

...

The system log recorded until past midnight.

Upgrading from lv1 to lv2 only required 100 experience points, but upgrading from lv2 to lv3 required ten times as much, 1,000 experience points.

"Claim the beginner's package!" Xia Yu decided to claim the package first.

"System: The host has received one free virtual wheel spin."

A wheel interface popped up, with detailed text descriptions on the side.

[Ingredients]: Obtain high-quality ingredients from the Cooking God System.

[Utensils]: Obtain high-quality utensils from the Cooking God System.

[Recipes]: Obtain blue-quality or higher recipes from the Cooking God System.

[Consumables]: Obtain one-time consumable items.

[Special]: Extremely low probability, obtain super talents like 'God's Tongue' or 'God's Hands'.

Good grief, God's Tongue?

Xia Yu was a bit disoriented. This was like something from "Food Wars"!

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