Chapter 63: Bread? Where?

After contemplating for a moment, Chito suggested, "Alright, let's start by making some military rations. But how do we get there?"

"Chii-chan, this is the entrance," Yuuri looked at Chito earnestly, attempting to coax her into using the square pipe nearby.

"Yuu, this is not a suitable passage."

"Tch, it was almost going to be interesting."

"Everyone, follow me," Ishii took the lead, and Senju trailed behind, gathering the pile of taros on the ground.

Descending a few stairs, the four entered a vast underground expanse.

Numerous machines were scattered throughout, connected by conveyor belts that, at present, lay dormant.

The only source of illumination was the overhead lights.

"What are these machines for?" Yuuri, who had overlooked the previous discussion, expressed curiosity about the contraptions surrounding them.

"This is a food production facility, a machine used to produce food," Chito explained to Yuuri in simple words.

"Yes, for instance, Chito, the machine you're standing on is used to crush taro," Ishii reminded, observing Chito atop the conveyor belt.

"Ah!" Chito leaped down in fright, and Yuuri, beside her, noticed two buttons. "Well, what's this?"

Without waiting for an answer, she pressed a button, setting the conveyor belt into rapid motion.

Chito, wide-eyed, stared at the swiftly turning conveyor belt beside her and the continuously rotating crusher.

She cast a stern gaze at Yuuri, who was poking at the machine.

"It can still move." She pressed the adjacent button again, causing the machine to halt.

Pressing it once more, it resumed its operation.

"Don't touch strange things casually!" Chito stepped forward and pinched Yuuri's face, trying to make her realize her mistake.

"Ouch! It hurts!"

"Would you like to try crushing some taro?" Ishii suggested, but Chito shook her head vigorously and denied.

"Look, everyone, there seems to be something down there," Yuuri ran to the railing next to her and looked down, seeming to have discovered something.

"Ahh, Yuu, you are running around again, did you find anything?"

"There is a warehouse for storing taro flour, but there are very few of them now."

While everyone was talking, Yuuri had jumped from the railing to the wall of the warehouse, "It's some powder-like stuff."

"We all know that it is very dangerous for you to do this."

When the three of them descended the stairs next to it and entered the warehouse marked 'Powder' below, they found Yuuri already standing inside and tasting, "Well, it's a bit sweet. This tastes like taro."

"Ah, it is true." Chito also tasted it, and Ishii observed the two of them. "These are taro powder, obtained by processing taro with the machine just now."

"That's it. Chii-chan almost became powder." Yuuri started to tease naturally again, but now they needed to figure out how to consume the taro powder before their meal. "So, these are edible, right?"

"Taro can be eaten boiled. How can we eat these powders? Ishii, do you have any idea?"

"Cook it?" Ishii pushed up her glasses hesitantly, and then Chito turned to look at Yuuri, "Let's bake it."

"I wonder if I can make steamed buns," Senju also stared at the powder and began to have delusional thoughts.

However, it was a bit strange to use this to make steamed buns. In the end, Senju gave up and shared his thoughts.

After confirming the method, Ishii showed them a machine, "This is the oven. Just click here, and there will be fire."

As Ishii continued to operate, rows of flames appeared under a huge square machine in the middle.

Chito looked a little surprised and said, "Oh, is this a machine for grilling things? It should be grilled and eaten."

"Hey, Chii-chan, how do you pronounce this? It's so sweet." Yuuri came over holding half a bag of things.

There were a few symbols on the bag.

"Well, it's granulated sugar, you. Where did you find it?" Chito also took a little and tasted it, and then said with a happy face, "It's so sweet."

"It's on the ground over there."

"I feel like I've seen it there before." Chito was a little confused and turned off the fire next to her.

After hearing this, Senju also came over, "Is there any candy here? There are quite a lot of ingredients."

"Oh, I remembered. It said before that taro is a raw material for military rations." After hearing this, Yuuri began to guess, "Could this also be a raw material for making military rations?"

"You remember the food very clearly," Chito tried to control the oven next to her and then paused, "Ah! I remembered it."

After saying that, she reached out to Senju, who was tasting sugar next to her, "Senju, please bring out a bag of military rations."

"Hmm~ okay" Senju, who was in a good mood after eating sweets, gave her a bag of military rations.

After Chito looked at the bag, she pointed to the line below, "One of the raw materials is sugar, and salt."

"Ah, report, there are other bags," Yuuri next to her said very enthusiastically when she heard that it was something related to eating.

"Really?" Chito held the military rations with a thoughtful look on her face, "Then, sugar, taro, and salt might be able to make military rations."

"Really? It's amazing." Yuuri next to her also had a serious face, just ignore her saliva.

"Okay, let's start cooking." Chito looked for things everywhere.

Senju was a little suspicious of her,

"Chii-chan, have you made similar food?"

"Of course, I helped grandpa bake bread before." Chito said proudly, and Yuuri, who was helping next to her, also recalled, "Those breads are also delicious."

"You remember so clearly about food."

"That was the last time I ate bread before meeting Senju."

"So you made bread. I thought you were always eating military rations."

"Don't look down on me, Senju. I didn't grow up eating military rations. Besides, Senju's bread just has the same name. It's just not baked at all."

Chito held a huge iron basin and started to complain about Senju. In her thoughts, she acknowledged, 'Though yours is delicious.' Then, she spoke aloud, "Just don't do it again next time."

Only then did Senju realize that he had been underestimating her.

Senju looked at her iron basin and said, "Chii-chan, do you want some water?"

Chito replied, "Yes, can you get it ready?"

Senju started constructing an elevated platform adjacent to it, enclosed on three sides at the top, featuring a central water source and a lower pool to facilitate continuous water flow without spillage.

After Chito cleaned the tools, she transferred the powder from the warehouse into a basin, mixed in sugar and salt, stirred the mixture, and proceeded to add water.

"That should do it—add all the ingredients and knead." Chito and Yuuri commenced kneading the dough at the basin's edge, enthusiastically shouting "knead" during the process.

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Hmm, not much going around this chapter...