The system scanned for a long time without any results. Ye Zhizhou noticed that his extended mental power was gradually becoming sluggish, and a strange sense of comfort began to fill his mind. What had initially been an enticing aroma of food suddenly turned into a greasy and cloying scent. After about ten seconds, the food's fragrance transformed into a familiar minty aroma. His mental power, momentarily defenseless, wandered merrily, diligently searching for that familiar spiritual force that had been entwined for decades.
[Scan complete. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, Ten Thousand Blessings Meat, Phoenix Tail Fish Fin, Dried Sea Cucumber with Lian Fu, and Black Chicken Cubes all contain toxins from insects, which can be addictive and have hallucinogenic effects. Long-term consumption can cause brain damage. Recommended antidote: Nine-Clearance Mirage Pill.]
[Anomalies detected in the host's mental fluctuations. Host, please be cautious!]
The sudden appearance of the light screen in front of him snapped Ye Zhizhou back to reality. He quickly woke up from the familiar aura surrounding him, took the antidote the system provided, and then retracted his mental power while pinching his nose.
As his muddled brain gradually cleared, he glanced at the system's prompts and then at the table full of delectable dishes. Nausea welled up in his stomach. "Insect toxins? Are there bugs in these dishes?"
[Preliminary assessment: a mixture of toxins from several types of insects. Specific types require further detailed testing.]
"More than one type?"
[Five or more.]
He took a deep breath, pushing the plate of food nearest to him a little further away. "How do these dishes pass food safety inspections? Just smelling them made me feel so disoriented. Didn't anyone else notice anything wrong among the other diners?"
"The toxic effects tend to lean towards hallucinogenic, and the quantity is minimal, making them difficult to detect. The degree of stimulation experienced by the diners depends on their individual physical constitution. The host, having awakened his mental power and possessing a high-level mental force, is more deeply affected."
"I see."
After the pill had fully taken effect, he cautiously smelled the air in the private room again and found that the familiar minty scent had reverted to the initial aroma of the food.
So, the hallucinogenic effect of these dishes is to make people smell and experience their most beloved and cherished flavors? No wonder the male protagonists were won over by the female lead's cooking so quickly. Just by having a meal, they could feel the taste they loved the most. That was incredible. And now, he had only smelled the scent. If he were to eat these dishes, would he directly experience various sensations of kissing and touching his lover?
The light screen once again interrupted him, blocking his hand as it reached for the chopsticks. "[Please exercise caution with the mission.]"
He snapped out of it, quickly popped another pill into his mouth. It seemed that even his self-control was weakening in the presence of these enticing scents. From what he could gather, although the male protagonists hadn't awakened their mental powers, their minds were certainly sharp. Coupled with their reduced self-control due to the weakening of their senses by the food's aroma… Did the secret recipe left by the protagonist's mother have another name, like the Miaojiang Gu Cultivation Technique?
Not daring to linger any longer in the toxic scents, he quickly got up and left the private room, planning to return to his game. He needed to figure out why the dishes prepared by the protagonist had various enhancement effects in the game.
In another VIP room, a man with a devilishly handsome face but a cold expression picked up a glass of water from the table and splashed the cold water all over his face. When the chaotic feeling in his mind finally dissipated, he wiped his face and stood up angrily. He sneered, "Junzi Ge, these dishes that bring false satisfaction are only for cowards. Get ready to receive complaints!"
After saying that, he walked out. A middle-aged man sitting on the side was dumbfounded by his reaction and hurriedly got up to stop him. He said anxiously, "Vice President Ge, this is not... Vice President Ge? Our business..."
Bang!
The door was closed in front of his eyes.
"What's this! If it weren't for his influential father..." The middle-aged man's expression darkened, and he impatiently pounded on the door.
The young man sitting on the other side pushed up his glasses and spoke coolly, "He doesn't just have an influential father; he also has a money-making brain. The holographic game that's currently all the rage was developed by him, Mr. Wang. Please be careful with your words."
Wang Shu's expression stiffened for a moment. He quickly forced a smile and turned to greet, "Young Master He, I apologize for any inconvenience. The dishes at Junzi Ge are excellent, much better than that place called Fuyuan. Shall we..."
"No 'we'." Young Master He stood up, grabbed his belongings, and headed for the exit. "I think Fuyuan is quite good, especially their recent Imperial Banquets. Those are true culinary delights. As for these... Mr. Ge is known for being picky about food. If he says there's a problem with these dishes, then there must be a problem. Mr. Wang, thank you for your hospitality, but I'm afraid I must take my leave."
The door closed in front of him once again, and Wang Shu's expression couldn't contain his frustration. It twisted as he muttered, "A bunch of damned rich kids! And that Fuyuan, even though I had them cornered before, they managed to turn the tide. Who's funding them when they were on the verge of bankruptcy?"
The door to the private room was knocked twice, and Jun Shujing, wearing a smile, entered with a bottle of wine. Seeing only Wang Shu inside, she paused and asked, "Vice President Ge and Young Master He haven't arrived yet?"
"They've left!" Wang Shu, seeing that it was their business partner, managed to suppress some of his anger and said in a subdued tone, "Who provided the funding to the Fu family? I've already spoken with higher-ups, and there's no way the Fu family could have obtained a loan when they were on the brink of bankruptcy!"
"They've left?" Jun Shujing's smile vanished, and she furrowed her brows as she placed the wine on the table. "How could they leave? How did you manage to mess things up again? Last time with Fu Xia's incident, I let it slide, but this time, the dinner with Vice President Ge is crucial for my gaming business. Can't you use your brain a bit?"
Wang Shu looked at her incredulously, then suddenly sneered, "Jun Shujing, don't get too carried away. Vice President Ge wasn't driven away by me; he left because he was disgusted with your food! You've always been successful with your cooking, right? How did you hit a snag this time? I'm just your business partner, not your subordinate. Watch your tone when you speak to me!" With that, he turned and slammed the door as he left.
Jun Shujing, who had been praised by everyone for some time, was infuriated by his attitude. She said angrily, "Blaming my dishes when you can't handle your affairs properly! How could there be anything wrong with my food?" Finding her confidence and backbone, her emotions quickly settled. She took out her phone and hesitated for a moment before calling the person who indulged her the most, Qi Xing.
This time, she sought out Vice President Ge to ask him to cancel that legendary-level quest or simply ban Ye Zhizhou. Tang Ye and the others had always believed that she wanted to let go of her in-game affairs, so they were supportive of that legendary-level quest. Now, wanting to sabotage the quest, she had to do it secretly.
Back in the game, Ye Zhizhou ignored the uproar in the world chat and used a hidden ID to visit the restaurant opened by the protagonist in the game. He bought a bunch of dishes with enhanced attributes and scanned them one by one with his mental power.
"All contain insectoid toxins, slightly different from their real-world counterparts, with higher toxin activity."
Higher toxin activity? He looked at the exquisitely made small buns in his hand and hesitated for a moment. Then, he took a small bite.
The 80% realism in taste and smell was genuinely felt, and the game's swallowing sensation was very lifelike. After the meat bun went down, his body immediately warmed up. He checked the character panel and found a new buff under the character icon, +10 Constitution for half an hour.
After the fresh aroma in his taste buds faded, a sense of satisfaction and comfort surged in his mind, somewhat different from the floating feeling he experienced in reality. He tasted a spoonful of soup, and the comfortable sensation changed again, this time into a slightly softer comfort, with a +10 Attack buff added under the character icon. He frowned and tried several more dishes, finally confirming that the mental enjoyment brought by the protagonist's dishes was equally effective in the game due to its high level of realism.
He was now seriously questioning whether the bottle he had just drunk was actually pesticide. If so, was he now writhing in pain on the ground?
The comfort-inducing addictive feeling from the food could be explained by the addition of insectoid toxins in the in-game cuisine. But what about these enhancement buffs?
Unconsciously, he walked into the leveling area, and a thought suddenly struck him. This was a game, and the creatures here were all sorts of monsters with various attributes. The protagonist was likely adding the toxins from these creatures to the food. Could it be that because the protagonist added things from these creatures to the food, the dishes also inherited various positive attributes from the creatures themselves? But... many people have tried using monster meat in their dishes, and the results were often poisonous and inedible. So why did only the protagonist's dishes have these enhancement buffs?
It didn't make sense.
He probed the system data carefully, speculated on various possibilities, and finally discovered the real key—the Imperial Gourmet Recipe! The protagonist's dishes would only have various enhancement buffs if they were made following the Imperial Gourmet Recipe, including the pile of food he had just bought—they were all Imperial Gourmet dishes!
The prompt for the legendary-level quest still glittered in the air. He glanced at it, and his train of thought became clearer. He had triggered the legendary-level quest after making an Imperial Gourmet dish. However, the protagonist had made Imperial Gourmet dishes before him, yet they didn't trigger the quest. Why? The only difference between his Imperial Gourmet dish and the protagonist's was that the protagonist added something to his. Consequently, the system determined that the protagonist's Imperial Gourmet dishes couldn't trigger the quest. But the protagonist's dishes were undoubtedly Imperial Gourmet dishes... So if they couldn't trigger the quest, did they only unlock the individual enhancement effects of the Imperial Gourmet? So the enhancement effects of the Imperial Gourmet dishes weren't caused by what the protagonist added, but rather, it was a system setting. The added insectoid toxins only created hallucinogenic sensations in terms of taste and smell...
Remembering what GM Lu had said, "I don't want those people to affect the game's balance," he smirked. Could it really be like this...? So the protagonist's unique "cheat" food was actually a result of the game's high level of realism and quirky settings...
But it still didn't add up. Didn't the protagonist's recipes get leaked? Other players who followed those recipes should not have ingredients like insectoid creatures, and yet, they didn't trigger the legendary-level quest, nor did they gain the buffs.
Suddenly, he remembered the protagonist's words about being wrongly accused in the original plot. This alarmed him, and he quickly opened the game forum to search for the recipes leaked by the protagonist. After carefully reviewing them, his expression turned grim.
No, these leaked recipes were not Imperial Gourmet dishes. Having lived two lifetimes in ancient times, he had cooked Imperial Gourmet dishes himself, and he could roughly speculate what the dishes would look like. They were definitely different from what the protagonist had sold. To prevent any misunderstandings, he rented a kitchen from the game store, followed the leaked recipe to cook a meal, and then went to Junzi Ge to order the same dish. After tasting both dishes side by side, he completely confirmed his suspicion.
They were truly different. The leaked recipes either had one missing ingredient or the cooking process was incorrect, or they mixed two similar ingredients. He put down his chopsticks, his expression unsightly. It was highly likely that the protagonist had wronged Fu Xia when it came to leaking the recipes...
[You have gained the Weakness effect x1, Bleeding effect x1, Slow effect x1, Blindness effect x1...]
A long string of negative notifications appeared, and his body suddenly felt heavy. His vision blurred, and he became dizzy and weak. He was taken aback and was about to call out to Tang Ye when he suddenly remembered that this was just a game. He quickly calmed down and opened the character panel to check his character's status. Underneath the character icon, all the previous enhancement buffs had disappeared, replaced by various negative effects with varying durations.
"What's going on?"
Tang Ye lay quietly in his backpack and didn't answer him.
After asking the question, he came to his senses and wordlessly wiped his face. Since other players adding insectoid creature carcasses to food would result in poisonous dishes, it didn't make sense that the protagonist's dishes wouldn't...
[Your friend, GM Lu, is online.]
GM Lu: You've been online for hours and haven't completed a single task. Are you looking for trouble?
"...This persistent GM."
GM Lu: And you've also eaten a bunch of random things. Are you really that hungry and gluttonous?
GM Lu: Stay where you are.
[Your friend GM Lu has gone offline.]
One minute later, the handsome but cold-faced guy with the alternate character, No. 003, appeared in front of him, pulled him onto a Condor, and flew toward the largest NPC-owned restaurant in the city.
"...Little buddy, I'm really not that hungry."
"First, throw away all the food in your backpack before saying that."
"... "
The Condor landed at the entrance of the restaurant, and the handsome but cold-faced guy put away his mount, crossed his arms, and sat across from him. "The flavors of these dishes are all simulated by top-notch chefs outside the game. They are guaranteed to taste better than the random stuff you bought, and there are no negative buffs. Eat up, and then go do your tasks."
He glanced at the menu prices and felt a bit uneasy. The items sold in the NPC restaurant were indeed delicious, but they were super expensive. Would this little buddy have the money to pay the bill later? He didn't want to end up washing dishes in the kitchen...
Seeing his distrustful gaze, the cold-faced guy's expression turned even colder. He drew his long knife. "Level down to 0 or offline PK, your choice."
He decisively picked up his chopsticks and started eating, both worried about not having money to pay the bill and delighted that there was no need to worry about getting fat or overeating in the game. He could indulge in as much food as he wanted, a paradise for food lovers and a dream come true for those trying to lose weight!
Half an hour later, all the dishes on the table were empty. The cold-faced guy paid the bill without blinking an eye, placed the knife on the table, and looked at him with a stern expression. "Now that you're full, go and work. And remember, no more eating random stuff."
He moved his mouth as if to retort but refrained. He couldn't bring himself to be angry with this GM for some reason. He reluctantly opened the 26th task level.
The task suspended in mid-air once again started frantically flashing, and the name 'Ye Zhizhou' filled the screen.
The cold-faced guy sat alone at the dining table, silently reciting the name 'Ye Zhizhou.' Then, he furrowed his brow, pressed his temples, and sighed. He glanced at the empty plates left behind by the NPCs, and a smile formed on his face. "You really can eat, and you haven't changed a bit. Always craving..."
His words trailed off, and he stopped abruptly, his headache intensifying. "...Who... who was it... that I just remembered... Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" The air distorted for a moment, and he disappeared into the game.
In an office building in the city center, Ge Lu, who had been forcefully ejected from the game, sat up from his game pod. His face was frosty.
His assistant heard the commotion and cautiously entered the room, noticing Ge Lu's terrifying expression. He nervously asked, "Vice President, did you... have another... should I call Dr. Chen?"
Ge Lu stared at him coldly and said in a chilling tone, "I need the real-life information of the player who triggered the legendary-level quest, immediately."
The assistant's voice grew even softer, "But Vice President, you said not to casually access players' information..."
Ge Lu squinted and suddenly smirked, "Then send him some rewards, praise him for triggering the hidden quest and maintaining game balance. I'll personally send the gifts. Now, can I have his real-life information?"
The assistant shuddered at his sinister smile and nodded hurriedly. "Of course, of course. I'll go retrieve his information."
The office fell silent once more. Ge Lu covered his eyes with his hand, leaned against the side of the game pod, and muttered in a low voice, "Ye Zhizhou... Where have I heard that name before... and that person in the dream... Who was it..."