Chapter 5: You, Go Cook a Meal for Me
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 5: You, Go Cook a Meal for Me
A starving Xie Bai began rummaging through her inventory, hoping to find something to eat.
Then, she discovered that in her massive inventory, there was only one thing that was even remotely edible.
[Spirit Mass * 20]
[A top-tier item created by compressing powerful souls harvested by a Reaper. It is an excellent soul-type material with various spiritual applications.
If you are truly desperate, it is edible. Consuming it restores a massive amount of Stamina, enough to sustain a normal person for ten days. Additionally, for twenty-four hours after consumption, the user receives significant buffs, including Health Regeneration, Physical Resistance, Magic Resistance, Soul Resistance, and a Movement Speed bonus.]
This was a byproduct of the Reaper. Xie Bai had originally planned to use them to feed Funeral Rites, but now she had no choice but to treat them as emergency rations to fill her stomach.
Unfortunately, due to Gluttony's Curse, Xie Bai couldn't gain any of those buffs by eating the Spirit Mass.
Still, the fact that it could restore her stamina was good enough.
Xie Bai pulled a glob of white Spirit Mass from her inventory and, with a look of slight embarrassment, forced herself to take a bite.
"Gag..."
She almost spat it out instantly but forced herself to stop.
After a brief internal struggle, Xie Bai endured the nausea and managed to swallow it with great difficulty.
"Ugh..."
Xie Bai’s face turned a sickly shade of green.
How should she describe it?
The texture was like a cross between jelly and sticky rice cake—slimy, slippery, and just plain weird.
But that wasn't the worst part!
The worst part was that the damn thing had absolutely no flavor!
It was completely, utterly tasteless.
Even more bland than sugar-free milk tea!
Combined with that bizarre texture, the "disgust factor" was off the charts.
To make matters worse, she couldn't even chew through it; she had to swallow the whole thing in one go.
The strange substance was ice-cold, and the sensation of it sliding down her throat left Xie Bai feeling physically and psychologically repulsed.
"Well, on the bright side, I won't need to eat again for the rest of the day."
Xie Bai patted her chest to settle her stomach, silently vowing never to eat that stuff again.
Her top priority now was to find something—anything—else to eat.
She didn't want to be driven by hunger to eat that "ghost food" ever again.
Xie Bai looked around, but all she saw were dense, crowded trees.
As far as the eye could reach, the scenery was identical. There was no obvious way out.
"But even if I find a town, the negative reputation from Pride's Curse will probably keep me from entering."
"The City Lord would probably kick me out personally the moment I stepped inside."
Xie Bai rubbed her head in frustration, feeling a bit lost.
Was she really destined to live like a savage in the wilderness?
"Ugh, I definitely don't want that!"
Xie Bai shook her head. She remembered that in novels, this was usually the part where a merchant caravan would appear in the forest, get attacked by monsters, and the protagonist would save the day. In gratitude, the caravan would then escort the protagonist to the nearest town.
"But then again..."
Xie Bai looked at her negative Luck stat with a sheepish expression.
Realistically speaking, there was no way something that convenient would happen to her.
Just as Xie Bai was thinking that, a dramatic scene unfolded in the distance.
"Kill him! Don't let that brat get away!"
"Goddammit! This kid actually dared to blow our boss into a latrine! We can't let him go!"
"The boss gave the order! Anyone who catches him alive gets a hundred gold coins!"
"Holy crap, a hundred gold? That's enough to feed me for a year! Get out of my way, I'm gonna be the one to tie him up!"
"Hey, what the hell are you pushing me for? Wait, I tripped... Ah! Stop stepping on me! Ow! Dammit, stop stepping on me!"
"Did I just step on something?"
"You idiot, stop talking and move! Get up there and catch that brat!"
"Son of a... how is this kid so fast? I'm about to collapse."
"The Slime King's territory is just ahead! Charge, boys! We've got the slime-immunity items!"
"Wait, where's my item? Oh crap, where is it? Dammit, I dropped it on the road!"
For some reason, a rowdy mob of foul-mouthed barbarians was swarming toward Xie Bai's location.
And in front of them, a lone figure was running for his life.
If he slowed down even a little, the people behind him would catch him and hack him into mincemeat.
[Edward Lv.15]
[Class: Alchemist]
"Why am I so unlucky today? I was just digging a tunnel for an experiment. How did I end up blowing up a barbarian stronghold?"
Edward was sprinting with everything he had.
As the lead apprentice to the Royal Chief Alchemist, he shouldn't have had anything to do with these barbarians.
But today, in order to complete his thesis on the Underground Magitech Train, he had specifically chosen a "lucky" spot to dig a tunnel for his experiment.
How on earth did he end up blowing up a barbarian base?
"Seriously, which step did I get wrong? Every calculation was normal. How did this accident happen?"
Edward couldn't wrap his head around it.
"The Slime King's territory is right ahead. May Master Roland protect me... let me get back alive."
Edward burst into the Slime King's territory, only to find that there wasn't a single slime in sight.
Instead, there was an incredibly cute white-haired girl standing barefoot in the middle of the clearing.
The girl looked like something out of a dream. Her snowy hair drifted in the breeze, and her crimson eyes were partially hidden, as if she might turn to look at him at any moment.
"Eh?"
Distracted for a split second, Edward tripped over a rock and tumbled across the ground.
That single mistake allowed the barbarians behind him to close the gap.
"He fell! Charge, boys! We're gonna drag this brat back and roast him on a spit!"
"Go! For my hundred gold coins!"
"Screw you, those are mine!"
"Why the hell are you kicking me? We all get the hundred gold!"
In the chaos, several barbarians lunged forward.
Edward spat the dirt out of his mouth just in time to see several ferocious barbarians bearing down on him.
"No way... I only joined Master Roland three years ago. Am I really going to die young?"
Just as Edward looked at the approaching barbarians and prepared to resign himself to fate, the girl in the distance moved.
[Soul Capture Lv.1]
[Triggers a soul shockwave with a radius of Level 10 meters, dealing Level 100 True Damage to all hostile units within range.]
[Cooldown: 1s / Cost: 100 Mana]
Xie Bai designated the barbarians as hostile units and released Soul Capture, consuming 1,000 Mana per second.
-38,000
-38,000
-38,000
-38,000
...
Xie Bai’s Soul Capture was invisible. To an outsider, it looked as if the massive crowd of barbarians simply collapsed for no reason.
"Argh! What the—?!"
"Pfft!"
"What's happening? Why are our warriors dying?!"
"My... my heart hurts..."
"Help me... help me!"
"It's that girl! She's using some kind of evil sorcery! Everyone, run!"
"I can't... I can't move..."
"It hurts... it hurts so much..."
"Pfft!"
"Ugh!"
In an instant, the barbarians fell in droves, leaving a profound impression on the young Edward.
Once he was sure the barbarians were all dead, he looked at Xie Bai in disbelief.
"Who is she? She killed them all with just a thought."
"Looking at the agony on those barbarians' faces... is that the evil magic of the Chaos Church?"
Edward suddenly realized the gravity of the situation.
"Wait, if that's the case, didn't I just jump out of the frying pan and into the fire?!"
Just as Edward was about to scramble up and flee, Xie Bai blurred across the distance and appeared right in front of him.
She rested Funeral Rites against Edward's neck and, in her sweetest voice, uttered the most terrifying words:
"You. Take me to the nearest town, give me all the good stuff you have on you, and then go cook a few dishes for me."
"Otherwise, I'll kill you."