Chapter 12: Cooking Techniques

The little girl stared at the three weapons on Song Jian's body and pouted after a moment, saying, "Although you have many weapons, they are ugly to death. They are not as beautiful as my hand crossbow!"

As she spoke, the little girl showed off her hand crossbow by shaking it twice. A silver glint rippled with the shake, sprinkling out countless silver fine powder, looking quite stunning.

In the game, the higher the item's grade, the more magnificent its appearance. Even without the surface glow, one could guess its quality just by looking at its shape.

The silver-quality hand crossbow had intricate patterns carved on its surface, making it look much more elegant than Song Jian's baseball bat or pistol. Adding the silver glow on top of that was enough to make Song Jian feel somewhat self-conscious.

Song Jian bent down to start picking up the dropped items from the zombies, beginning with ten zombie cores. For this, he took off a gold bracelet from his wrist and placed it on his hand to make room for the zombie cores.

As for materials such as "zombie skeletons," "zombie sharp teeth," and "zombie flesh," they could be stacked together with the ones in his inventory.

Zombie skeletons were small jade-like white bone sections, seemingly carved from white jade, heavy and metal-like in hand; zombie sharp teeth were fang-like pieces as long as a finger, looking as beautiful as the canine teeth of a large wild beast, also white and jade-like; as for zombie flesh, it was a palm-sized piece of thick muscle, without any trace of impurities. When held, it was quite elastic, and there was even a faint scent of fresh grass emanating from it.

"Is that chunk of meat in your hand delicious?" The little girl who had been following Song Jian suddenly swallowed hard and asked softly, her eyes fixed on the "zombie flesh" in Song Jian's hand.

Song Jian, startled by the girl's gaze, hurriedly took out a piece of compressed dry food and handed it to her.

"Here, eat this. This is zombie flesh, and you can't eat it!" Song Jian quickly said.

Thinking about the disgusting smell emanating from the zombie's whole body, could the dropping flesh be edible?

The little girl took the compressed dry food and began to nibble on it slowly, but she still seemed reluctant and said, "It smells quite good. It must be delicious... Can I just have one bite?"

"You really can't eat it..." Seeing the little girl's eyes, Song Jian felt a twinge of pain in his heart. She was so young and yet caught up in this damned game. He didn't know what those promoting the game were thinking, bringing such a small child into it—a crime against heaven!

"Oh, alright." The little girl lowered her head with a sad expression and continued to nibble on the compressed dry food, her eyes occasionally glancing at the "zombie flesh" in Song Jian's hand, clearly still unable to let it go.

Just as Song Jian was about to put the last item into his inventory, he suddenly remembered that the "zombie flesh" was listed as a cooking ingredient, suggesting that it could be used as food.

With this thought, Song Jian's eyes lit up, and he said to the little girl, "Let's go find a place, and I'll cook the zombie... I'll cook this meat for you!"

Hearing Song Jian's words, the little girl's eyes brightened, and she hurriedly stuffed the remaining compressed dry food into her mouth, almost choking on it. She nodded at Song Jian again and again, showing a sweet smile.

...

Song Jian didn't know how long the city had been abandoned, but after searching seven or eight rooms, he hadn't found a usable kitchen.

Song Jian walked in front while the little girl followed closely behind. Along the way, they encountered many zombies, and with their cooperation, they killed them all without injury.

Song Jian found that if both players dealt damage to the same zombie, the experience gained would be proportional to the damage inflicted. Moreover, the total experience of the two players would be 20% more than what one player would get. Clearly, the game encouraged cooperation.

Finally, Song Jian found half a can of liquefied gas in the kitchen of a restaurant, as well as some edible oil that didn't smell strange. He then began to process the zombie meat simply;

Zombie flesh required a cooking skill to use. Though Song Jian didn't have that skill, frying a piece of meat was no problem.

In a short while, the first piece of fried meat was ready. Song Jian didn't know if it tasted good or not, but perhaps due to the ingredients, the fried meat smelled tantalizing and appetizing.

Just as Song Jian put a piece of fried meat onto a plate, a faint milky-white light began to emanate from its surface.

"Fried Meat (White Color): Food, Effect: Out of combat, after eating for 30 seconds, it can increase 60 points of hunger, Vitality recovery speed increased by 10% for 1 hour;"

"Phew, I didn't expect it to be a piece of food with attributes!" Song Jian was overjoyed inside, and thinking of the zombie bones and sharp teeth in his inventory, he also began to yearn for the skills of leatherworking and potion making.

Just then, a red dot appeared in the upper right corner of Song Jian's vision, blinking. When Song Jian focused on the red dot, a semi-transparent message window appeared in front of him.

"System: Congratulations to the player for independently completing a cooking process and obtaining a food item of white quality or higher (including white). You have comprehended the Cooking skill!"

"System: Congratulations to the player for automatically comprehending the 'Fried Meat' recipe. Cooking proficiency has increased by 30 points. From now on, there is a certain chance of increasing the food's grade when making this food."

"Is this for me to eat?" The little girl's face showed joy and excitement—she stared at the plate unblinkingly, sniffing the aroma in the air.

"For you." Song Jian handed the plate to the little girl, watching as she grabbed chunks of hot meat and put them in her mouth, feeling an inexplicable sense of joy.

Watching the little girl enjoy her meal, Song Jian had an idea. He opened his inventory and saw six pieces of "zombie flesh" remaining. Reigniting the fire, pouring oil into the pan, he resumed cooking.

System: You cooked a white-quality food item "Fried Meat", gaining 1 point of proficiency in the Cooking skill;

System: You cooked a white-quality food item "Fried Meat", gaining 1 point of proficiency in the Cooking skill;

...

After spending more than twenty minutes, Song Jian finished all six pieces of fried meat. He stuffed them all together into his inventory. Without any healing potions, these "Fried Meats" could act as healing items, though their effects were weak. It was better than nothing.

By this time, the little girl had finished the entire plate of fried meat. Rubbing her stomach, she let out a satisfied burp and said, "Burp, I'm so full, it's delicious!"

Song Jian smiled slightly, about to speak when the system's prompt sounded in his ear, "Congratulations to the player for successfully surviving twelve hours and obtaining the 'Surviving Against All Odds' achievement!"

"System: Players can exit the game within 30 seconds. If the time is exceeded, the next exit opportunity will be in twelve hours."

"System: Please choose a safe area to exit the game; otherwise, you will bear the consequences!"

Being able to exit the game, Song Jian breathed a sigh of relief. However, looking at the little girl beside him, he began to hesitate.

...