A Sudden Rush of Affection
Kim Tae-hyun suddenly found himself taking a sharp liking to Ju Hyeon-yeong.
She’d chosen an off-meta class, and she liked grinding. If her personality were just a little filthier and more twisted, she’d practically be him.
“Want me to at least teach you a recipe? Or some cooking skills?”
“Huh? No, it’s okay. I enjoy figuring things out on my own.”
“......!”
What was this admirable creature?
Behind them, the blacksmiths were squabbling pathetically, trying to scrape up even a single crumb of benefit. Compared to that, Ju Hyeon-yeong was pure inspiration.
Take notes, you idiots.
“Why are you looking at us like that?”
Kim Ji-sahn, who had been bickering while grabbing Woo Jeong-sik by the collar, noticed Tae-hyun’s stare and turned his head.
“Nothing. It’s nothing. Just work on the armor.”
At that, all three started arguing again.
“I’ll do it!”
“What do you mean, you’ll do it? A young guy should handle this!”
“If you’re going to respect my age, let go of my collar first!”
You are preparing Instant Fish Soup.
Because two chefs are cooking together, a penalty is applied to cooking skill effectiveness.
The final result will vary depending on how well you cooperate.
She’s... actually really good at cooking?
That thought crossed Tae-hyun’s mind as he prepared the ingredients.
No matter how he looked at it, Ju Hyeon-yeong’s hands didn’t belong to a beginner.
Of course, this was a virtual reality game. High-level players often moved with absurd precision even if they didn’t have a related profession. Watch a blacksmith ranker swing a hammer and you’d swear he ran a real forge in real life.
But Ju Hyeon-yeong didn’t seem especially high-level, and yet there wasn’t the slightest waste in her motions. She moved like flowing water—like someone who had trained for over ten years.
When she noticed Tae-hyun staring at her hands, she tilted her head and asked, “Am I doing something wrong?”
“No. I was just thinking you’re good at cooking.”
“I cook in real life too.”
“......!”
So that was it.
Tae-hyun had suspected as much. Nobody got hands like that in a day or two.
“My family always says, ‘You cook in real life, so why are you cooking in a game too?’ But I do it because it’s fun.”
“Exactly. Exactly! You do it because it’s fun!”
Tae-hyun and Ju Hyeon-yeong clicked perfectly.
The two chatted cheerfully as they cooked together.
The dish is complete. You receive a bonus based on the chefs’ cooking skills.
If the evaluation of Instant Fish Soup is high, additional experience will be awarded.
“It’s done! Come eat!”
“Ohh! Thank you!”
As soon as the cooking was finished, the soldiers came crowding over and lined up.
Because Tae-hyun himself was serving them food, they looked deeply flustered.
“Sir, this really isn’t something we should be accepting...”
“Haha. It’s fine. You men fought hard and got us this far. If I can’t do at least this much, what kind of person would that make me?”
Tae-hyun wore a false, saintly smile as he addressed the soldiers.
The soldiers were even more moved.
Your standing within the Kingdom Navy’s 3rd Fleet has increased.
You receive greater effectiveness when commanding soldiers.
Commanding soldiers, my ass...
Tae-hyun had no intention of joining the navy. If he did that now, it would only throw his whole plan into chaos.
Still, there was no downside to getting along with the soldiers. Better evaluations would make future quests easier.
This wasn’t just about clearing the dungeon in front of him. Who knew when he might need the soldiers’ help again?
You never knew how life would turn out.
“Come on, come on. I’ll ladle it out myself. Eat well and keep your strength up.”
“Thank you!”
“You look a little tired. How about I fight in your place?”
“That would be impossible, sir!”
Damn it.
They still wouldn’t let him fight to the end.
The soldiers are extremely satisfied. Your Cooking skill rises significantly.
You have created a dish cooked in cooperation by two chefs for the first time. Bonus granted.
You can now take disciples.
Huh?
Disciple System Unlocked
Current available disciple fields: Speech, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Mechanical Engineering.
Disciples gain skill levels comparatively quickly.
You receive bonuses based on your disciple’s skill growth.
Pass.
Disciple or not, he had no intention of increasing the number of annoying people around him right now. He already had more than enough going on to drive him insane.
“What’s wrong?”
“A weird window popped up.”
“A weird window?”
“Come to think of it, do you know about the disciple system?”
“I’ve heard of it. It’s like a master-disciple arrangement where you help someone grow faster, right?”
Huh. So it’s pretty well known?
Tae-hyun tilted his head. This was a system that hadn’t existed in Fantasy Online 1.
“Was it always common knowledge?”
“I heard the big guilds use it to raise people.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
“That’s impressive.”
“What is?”
“The disciple window popped up for you, didn’t it? If you’re not good enough, it hardly ever appears.”
“So there are conditions for teaching disciples too?”
“I don’t think the exact requirements were ever revealed. I’m guessing it has something to do with skill level, player level, fame, stuff like that...”
Tae-hyun got the general idea. It probably only appeared once certain thresholds had been crossed.
Well, obviously. Letting a level 1 nobody teach someone would be ridiculous.
“Want to become my disciple?”
“Huh? Is that really okay?”
Tae-hyun saw huge potential in Ju Hyeon-yeong.
She loved her class, enjoyed boring grind work, and kept moving forward without wavering. People like that were the ones who really made it big.
The only thing that bothered him was how upright she was.
If only she had a slightly more underhanded personality, she’d be a perfect fit for me.
A thoroughly evil thought.
If Ju Hyeon-yeong had heard it, she’d have been completely dumbfounded. Too kind a personality being a problem? What kind of nonsense was that?
If she became his disciple, it wouldn’t be a loss for Tae-hyun either. If she grew quickly, bonuses would naturally come back to him.
“I don’t mind. There’s just one problem—I’m not actually a chef class.”
“If you’re good at cooking, it doesn’t matter whether your class is Chef or not. What does class matter?”
Tae-hyun felt dazzled all over again.
“All right. Then let’s do it.”
Invite Ju Hyeon-yeong as your Cooking disciple?
“I’ll invite her.”
Ju Hyeon-yeong has become your disciple.
You will receive additional bonuses according to Ju Hyeon-yeong’s growth.
You do not possess a Chef class. A penalty is applied to your role as master.
The penalty is negated by the Legendary Class Avatar of Archisus.
“Huh?”
Ju Hyeon-yeong seemed startled too, as if she’d checked her own message window.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your name wasn’t Kim Tae-san? It was Kim Tae-hyun?”
Ah, crap.
Apparently the master-disciple system displayed real names. Since this was his first time using it, he hadn’t considered that.
“Kim Tae-san is an alias.”
“Why use an alias?”
“If I go around using my real name, too many annoying people start bothering me.”
“Ah. That makes sense. Still, isn’t that a shame? You did all those good things and became popular. Streamers work incredibly hard just to get even one moment like that.”
“I don’t stream... more importantly, hold on. What do you mean, I did good things and became popular?”
“Huh? Oh, I mean, Mr. Kim Tae-san...”
“It’s fine if you just call me Kim Tae-hyun. Just be careful when other people are around.”
“Okay, okay. You gathered everyone and brought them here, after all. It was a quest people normally wouldn’t have been able to get, but thanks to you everyone got to participate.”
“Hmm... that’s an incredibly positive interpretation. Go on. And?”
While everyone else grumbled and cursed, Ju Hyeon-yeong had cooked away with a positive attitude, so her reaction was completely different.
“And when the pirates captured us, you came to rescue us. And when we broke through the Specter Warriors and escaped, you fought by yourself, so everyone’s grateful.”
“Mm... well... yeah. I guess...”
Tae-hyun’s words kept trailing off.
So this was how it had turned out?
He had originally planned to do openly bad things. That was why he’d been using the alias Kim Tae-san in the first place.
But somehow, he’d ended up a hero in everyone’s eyes.
That’s... a weird feeling.
He’d been treated like a hero in Fantasy Online 1 too, but that had been because he’d carved up rankers in bizarre ways as a blacksmith—not because he’d helped people.
If anyone was famous for kindness, it had been Lee Se-yeon, not him.
“Anyway, I’ve got no intention of streaming, so I don’t care much about that kind of popularity.”
“That’s amazing. Most gamers care at least a little.”
“Popularity doesn’t put food on the table. In the end, what decides everything is skill.”
No amount of popularity would save you from losing a one-on-one fight.
But Ju Hyeon-yeong seemed to interpret his words differently, because her expression filled with admiration again.
“That really makes sense. You mean instead of worrying about popularity and stuff like that, you should focus on your own play. I think that’s absolutely right. I should remember that.”
“That’s not wrong, but... do you really have to repeat it back like that?”
“Wait a second. Could you say it again so I can write it down?”
“Don’t do that...!”
Hearing his own words repeated back like some profound quote was strangely embarrassing.
“Huh? Why?”
“No... it’s nothing. Let’s get back to cooking. If I’m going to teach you here, how exactly does that work?”
Teach-able Cooking skills: Ingredient Appraisal, Poison Crafting.
You are currently receiving class bonuses from Avatar of Archisus and bonus effects from Luck while cooking.
If you teach cooking, these two bonuses can be taught as separate skills.
Cooking that changes according to the user’s Luck.
The true skill of a chef lies in creating exquisite dishes even when ingredients are added freely and at random.
Cooking that changes according to the user’s Divinity.
A method of cooking for believers who serve a god; recipes vary according to that order’s fame.
There is currently no religious order. Divine Cooking cannot be taught.
Ah, so that’s how it works.
Whenever Tae-hyun cooked, he received a heavy bonus from his Luck stat. The masterpiece-quality dish from earlier had come not just from his Cooking skill, but from Luck as well.
It seemed that when he taught those methods to another person, they got converted into actual skills like this.
> First, teach Ingredient Appraisal and Poison Crafting.
> Then teach Cooking of Luck.
“Oh! A skill appeared.”
Ju Hyeon-yeong looked fascinated as she checked the newly appeared skill windows.
“Ingredient Appraisal—wow, this one looks good. Poison Crafting. Poison Crafting?”
Seeing the skill called Poison Crafting, Ju Hyeon-yeong looked puzzled.
“Why would a cooking skill include Poison Crafting?”
“Chefs might need to make poison now and then. Learn it. Learn it.”
“I-I don’t think that’s ever going to happen...”
“Think of it like spitting in the food of somebody you hate.”
Tae-hyun’s absurd sophistry somehow sounded plausible if you listened long enough.
Ju Hyeon-yeong nodded, half hypnotized.
“Cooking of Luck? Uh... I barely have any Luck stat.”
“It’ll go up a little as you train it, so practice it whenever you can. Better to have it than not.”
“Is the Luck stat actually useful? Everyone says it’s terrible.”
“Who... knows?”
Tae-hyun carefully controlled his expression as he answered.
He had dumped everything into Luck himself, but he couldn’t exactly go around telling other people, “Luck is amazing!”
How could he recommend a stat that only became truly effective after you pushed it past a thousand?
He was lucky enough not to get treated like a lunatic already.
Ju Hyeon-yeong immediately started trying out the skills she had learned.
In truth, Tae-hyun liked Poison Crafting more than Ingredient Appraisal, but Ju Hyeon-yeong ignored the poison skill and used Ingredient Appraisal on everything in sight.
The difference in character was obvious.
She really is someone with a large heart.
That was what Ju Hyeon-yeong thought.
He had gathered players together and given them access to a valuable quest. When they had fallen into danger, he had stepped forward first to protect them. And despite all that, he didn’t care about popularity, using an alias and hiding behind a mask.
Only someone truly broad-minded could act like that.