The tricycle’s new canopy held fast as she rode, as if meeting no wind resistance at all, with zero risk of flipping off. That really made no sense and defied aerodynamics, but since she was already in a place like this, there was no point sweating the details.
Even though today had been packed with killing and upgrading, the tricycle’s increased speed paid off. By the time darkness fell at 9:00 PM, she had covered nearly 370 kilometers! A new record~
After pulling over, Qi Xu decided to start with a nutritious meal. Lately she had been living on eggs and plain noodles with hardly any vegetables or meat, so even though she kept up her workouts and stuck to a regular schedule, her Health had still been rising very slowly.
Qi Xu checked the chat lobby first. No matter the time or place, it was always so busy that you couldn’t even make out the message right before the latest one.
Watching it made Qi Xu dizzy, so she switched straight to the trading hall and ran a search for all food listings.
[Honey-Glazed Roast Meat 300g for Gasoline ×2]
[One Napa Cabbage for Gasoline ×1]
[Stir-Fried Carrots for Any Staple Food]
All three listings had been posted by the same person, so Qi Xu messaged him directly.
“Three units of gasoline and five compressed biscuits for your Honey-Glazed Roast Meat, one Napa Cabbage, and Stir-Fried Carrots.”
China’s Little Master Chef: “Compressed biscuits taste awful, I don’t want them. Do you have any stone? Can you swap them for stone instead?”
Invincible Black Whirlwind: “No problem.”
Qi Xu mulled this over. If this person already needed stone, he must have moved on to furniture and interior upgrades.
Could his Vehicle also be a truck?
After all, it hadn’t been long since she upgraded her own Vehicle, and she was the first player to do so.
A Level 1 Vehicle shouldn’t have room to set up household fixtures.
Still, Qi Xu was only curious and had no interest in prying into anyone’s privacy.
Soon enough, though, her curiosity was answered anyway.
China’s Little Master Chef: “Awesome, I finally finished building my stove! I’ve also got a full set of cookware and all kinds of seasonings! If you get any good ingredients in the future, you can send them to me to cook for you. I’ll just charge a small processing fee. You can tell from my handle—my cooking is freaking amazing.”
Qi Xu was a decent cook herself, but she hadn’t gone out of her way to gather kitchen gear. Cooking also ate up time; as long as food was edible, that was good enough for her.
Invincible Black Whirlwind: “Deal. If I get anything suitable, I’ll definitely come to you.”
China’s Little Master Chef: “I made the Honey-Glazed Roast Meat and Stir-Fried Carrots myself. Give them a try and see how my skills are.” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
The moment Qi Xu claimed the traded items, a rich meaty aroma hit her nose!
Good grief. It belatedly dawned on Qi Xu that since she was no longer in danger of elimination, maybe… she should shift her focus a little toward improving her quality of life?
Tired of plain noodles, Qi Xu went to the trading hall and traded for a bowl of fragrant white rice.
She also had China’s Little Master Chef stir-fry the cabbage for her. One bite of rice, one bite of cabbage, followed by a bite of honey-glazed roast meat…
It tasted downright incredible.
Ready-made dishes sometimes dropped from crates or quest rewards, and in her previous run Qi Xu had eaten almost nothing else. Even so, she had to admit none of that came close to China’s Little Master Chef’s cooking!
It might sound ridiculous, but the food genuinely felt like it had a soul.
It was the same reason food from an automatic cooking machine never smelled as good as something stir-fried by hand!
After finishing her meal, Qi Xu sat back comfortably to digest for a bit and used the downtime to activate the crafting bench’s dismantling function.
Then she pulled all the crates out of her inventory backpack. There were 8 wooden supply crates in total, while the first silver crate she had gotten was still sitting on the tricycle as storage.
Since she was about to open a new one anyway, she dismantled that silver crate too.
In total, she got Wood Block ×16 and Silver Block ×2.
Next, Qi Xu slotted in her sanitary-pad blueprint and checked its requirements.
The sanitary pads needed cotton, and there wasn’t any in the trading hall, so Qi Xu put up two trade listings offering two units of gasoline each.
Right before closing the interface, she spotted someone letting batteries go dirt cheap—two bottles of water for two batteries—and bought those too.
She snatched the listing up almost the instant it appeared.
Moments later, she saw someone tagging her in the chat lobby.
“@Invincible Black Whirlwind, how are your hands that fast? I set it wrong! I meant to trade two batteries for 20 bottles of water!!! I was just about to cancel when it showed the trade went through. Friend, let’s reverse the trade, okay? Please, I’m begging you.”
With that done, Qi Xu got ready to open the Silver Supply Crate.
Her first Silver Supply Crate had given her plenty of good stuff. Hopefully this one wouldn’t disappoint either.
Qi Xu drew her long blade and did two practice swings before prying the chest open. Her base stats had gone up today, so it was better to get a feel for the changes first. You could never be too careful.
She noticed that both her slashes and her turns were a little faster now!
Once she was sure everything felt right, Qi Xu deftly pried open the chest with the tip of her blade. A wild boar burst out at once and charged straight at her.
Qi Xu frowned slightly. A beast like this was tough to deal with because of its thick hide and flesh, though that came with a major upside too: the meat smelled and tasted amazing!
She sidestepped fast, dragging the tip of her blade hard across the boar’s flank. Blood gushed out at once.
The wild boar had no other tricks—it only knew how to charge headlong and didn’t dodge at all. Not wanting to get dragged into a battle of stamina, Qi Xu aimed to end it fast. Instead of backing off, she stepped in and drove her blade straight into the boar’s brain.
She yanked the blade free right away and readied herself for another strike, only to realize the wild boar had already croaked…
Only then did Qi Xu remember that this was one of the perks of the beginner protection period: every monster acted like an idiot that couldn’t dodge, and their health bars weren’t all that thick either.
All of a sudden, Qi Xu felt like a high-level veteran who had wandered back into the starter village. For once, she felt like she could actually play the big shot.
After catching her breath, Qi Xu snapped a photo of the wild boar and sent it to China’s Little Master Chef.
A dead animal carcass could be dismantled directly through the system or butchered by hand. Dismantling it directly was convenient, but the system took a cut like a middleman, so it wasn’t worth it.
A wild boar, for instance, would turn straight into fixed portions of pork that could be taken out and stir-fried whenever needed, except you ended up with much less meat.
That was why Qi Xu messaged him first.
China’s Little Master Chef thought Invincible Black Whirlwind was messaging to praise his cooking skills, only to get hit with something huge instead!
[Dead Wild Boar: Whoa, this piggy weighs a full 300 jin (150 kilograms)! It just died, so the blood’s still warm. Non-toxic, edible, and ready for processing.]
Saliva flooded China’s Little Master Chef’s mouth at once, nearly spilling past his lips.
China’s Little Master Chef: “Boss, whatever you do, don’t dismantle it! Give it to me, give it to me! Tell me what supplies you want! I’ll clean out everything I own to trade for it!”
Invincible Black Whirlwind: “I don’t want your supplies. Give me a menu first. All I want is the dishes you make from it.”
“That’s perfect! Hold on, let me check what I can make with the ingredients I’ve got right now!”
China’s Little Master Chef immediately started digging through his supplies, figuring out what dishes he could whip up on the spot!