Michael had only planned to come here to gain greater power because he was currently too much of a useless waste. But no matter how he thought about it, he never expected that Cook God would prepare a lecture about gods for him.
As for the reason, Michael understood it was because he didn't seem like a god at all. But this couldn't be blamed on him because just yesterday he was still a human.
"The reason gods live long is very simple. It's thanks to responsibility. If responsibility is infinite, then the soul will also be infinite."
"Huh???"
The more Michael listened, the less he felt any of this had anything to do with him. He didn't have any kind of responsibility, yet he still became a genie anyway. Besides, the system had assured him there was no way to kill a genie.
All the thoughts in Michael's head, Cook God could know. Slowly, he would answer all the questions for this young and strange god.
"Time will wear everything down. Mountains will erode, rivers will dry up, life will slowly fade… Even the soul is no exception. Responsibility is the infinite energy that protects the soul from being worn down by the endless passage of years."
The more Michael listened, the more confused he got. He understood mountains eroding, he understood rivers drying up, and he understood life fading. But how could the soul be worn down?
That thing couldn't be touched or felt. It didn't undergo chemical reactions or physical impacts, so how could it be worn down?
"Oh, forget it. Once you live long enough, you'll naturally understand. You've only lived a few decades so you won't get it. Wait until you've lived a few thousand years, then you'll naturally understand what I just said."
Cook God wrapped up this topic like that. Then cut a small piece of dragon meat. He clapped his hands once and that piece of meat landed perfectly in Michael's mouth.
"Try it. This thing is extinct so on the continent there's no chance to eat it anymore… Ah no, as I recall, when I died, there was still one dragon alive."
Michael resisted a little at first, but the extremely strong aroma spreading inside his mouth made him unable to help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.
Even though he was a soul, his senses when using this body were no worse than a real body. So he couldn't help but take a bite.
The moment his teeth lightly touched the piece of meat, it crumbled apart. This softness was way too unreasonable because with a body that massive, its meat should have been extremely tough.
Normally, the softest meat would definitely have streaks of fat running through it, but oddly enough, this piece of meat didn't have a single bit of fat visible. This strange structure made Michael feel like it wasn't organic food.
An explosion of miraculous flavor happened in his mouth. Not stopping at taste, Michael also felt his spirit was incredibly refreshed. He even began to suspect that Cook God cooked using banned addictive substances to create this kind of sensation.
"Hey, thinking like that is slandering me. What you ate isn't organic food at all. It's dense energy that has been shaped into meat. It's an energy monster, not an animal. The two are completely different."
The one who held the title of the continent's number one chef for millions of years would certainly never allow himself to be slandered for cooking with addictive substances. The completely natural flavor enhanced by top-tier skill could not be insulted.
Michael understood some of it and didn't understand some of it, but the key point that the entire body of an energy monster was made of energy, he did understand. That refreshing feeling was due to a large amount of energy flowing into his body.
Of course, this space only let him feel the sensation. He didn't have a physical body, so it would be strange if he actually absorbed it.
"If dragon meat has this much energy, eating it would level up really fast, right?"
Michael had learned before that: Energy is not naturally created or destroyed; it only transfers from one place to another.
Although the dragon species had gone extinct, nine-star energy monsters still existed. If he could eat a whole one, he should at least level up to eighty.
The size of those energy monsters was indeed huge, but he was sure eating was much faster than training to gain exp the usual way.
Cook God didn't expect Michael to think so quickly. He clearly just ate something delicious, yet instead of thinking about the flavor, he was thinking about ways to increase his strength.
"No way. Eating these things only recovers energy quickly; it won't level you up. That's just how the rules are. You can't find loopholes."
Cook God's words once again poured cold water on Michael's budding dream.
"What kind of strength did you have when you were born? I can see you're not human, so you definitely weren't a human who trained to become this."
"I never had a weak phase because I was always at the peak."
Cook God didn't answer directly. Instead, he said an extremely arrogant sentence that made Michael 'die' of jealousy.
"F*ck, clearly we're both gods, so why am I such a useless waste?"
It would definitely be a lie to say he wasn't frustrated. He thought becoming a genie would grant him some power, but the truth was so cruel to him. Right now, let alone power, even a physical body he had to wait for the system to give him before he could have one.
"Ha ha ha, isn't being weak just temporary? In a few decades, I think I'll use my talent to achieve god-level power. By then you'll also be a god with real strength. I've wanted to experience the feeling of leveling up my whole life but never got to."
Actually, Cook God also wanted to experience the feeling of leveling up, but unfortunately he never got the chance. This was the 'struggle' of a god who was already max level the moment he was born.
"Damn it, you're clearly showing off. Hurry up and give me another piece of dragon meat. If not, I won't let this go."
No longer questioning the matter of strength, Michael's thoughts returned to the dragon meat. That delicacy was beyond his imagination.
It was a culinary masterpiece created by natural forces. Even though Cook God had a part in preparing it, the ingredients were still the most important.