Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Raffaello's Secret Recipe
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"No, I already ate."
Hae-jin told Raffaello, who had suggested they eat together.
That he had already eaten.
Raffaello jumped in surprise at Hae-jin's response.
"Huh?!"
"Why are you so shocked?"
"Well... I prepared a whole meal thinking we'd eat with you, bro."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
The idea that Raffaello had laid out a spread just to eat with him.
Any normal person would be touched by the gesture and take at least one bite.
But Hae-jin told Raffaello firmly.
"I'm not eating."
"Huh?"
Raffaello feigned confusion at Hae-jin's blunt refusal.
Hae-jin repeated himself.
"Didn't I just say? I already ate."
"Oh, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, nothing to be done about it then. I'll prepare dinner for you later."
Raffaello accepted that he couldn't eat now since he'd already had lunch.
But instead of letting it end there, he suddenly offered to make dinner.
Hae-jin fell silent at those words.
"......"
He was at a loss for words hearing Raffaello insist on dinner after lunch was off the table.
Hae-jin thought to himself.
[Even if I say it's because your food sucks, it won't make a difference, will it?]
Even before his regression, the party members had desperately tried to stop Raffaello whenever he offered to cook.
Of course, they hadn't stopped him from the start.
How could they refuse when the youngest in the party wanted to treat his hyungs and noonas to a meal?
So at first, everyone ate his food without knowing what to expect.
But the moment they scooped a bite into their mouths.
They all felt a dizzying vertigo.
Everything on the table was so bad—like getting electrocuted or poisoned—that they debated whether to spit it out while trembling.
Still, they held it together and ate at first.
After all, it was the maknae’s first time cooking for them.
But once Raffaello got a taste of them eating it, he wouldn't stop.
Twice, three times, four, five.
Everyone gritted their teeth through it because it was the maknae cooking.
Hae-jin recalled the conversation that came up after a week of enduring Raffaello's meals, when Lee Sang finally brought it up.
"Raffaello, I'll handle cooking from now on."
"Huh? Hyung, why all of a sudden?"
"Can I be honest?"
"Honest about what?"
"Your cooking sucks."
"......Huh?"
"Your cooking really sucks."
"But everyone ate it fine for a whole week..."
"Bro, noona—they endured it because the maknae worked hard to make it. It sucks."
"......For real, bro, noona?"
"......Sorry, we can't take it anymore. Lee Sang will cook from now on."
"......"
That was how meal prep duties shifted from Raffaello to Lee Sang for Hae-jin's party.
Raffaello had looked pretty down for a while after...
Recalling that time, Hae-jin thought.
[Wouldn't it be better to sort this out now rather than have him mope in the middle of the Trials' Arena?]
With that in mind, Hae-jin agreed to have dinner with Raffaello.
He couldn't just refuse without eating and tell him he sucked at cooking, right?
[Yeah, just eat this one meal.]
He'd eat it now and lay it out straight afterward.
Like taking one for the team, sparing the future party members from suffering.
"Tell him straight: 'No more cooking for you.'"
That way, the party members who joined later wouldn't have to touch Raffaello's food.
Still, it was a mystery.
The guy was smart with great dexterity—he could make delicious food just by following recipes. But he always insisted on "creativity," ignoring recipes, swapping ingredients, or changing cooking methods, resulting in weird crap every time.
[Just follow the damn recipe... How does such a smart guy not get this?]
Anyway, to revoke Raffaello's cooking privileges, Hae-jin decided to share that first dinner.
[Waste of ingredients, but... it's gotta be done once.]
This was just one of the pains a regressor had to endure.
"Here, dig in, bro!"
Dinner time came, and Raffaello had prepared the meal after all.
It was quite the feast.
At least ten courses, by the look of it.
The surprising part was that Raffaello, who wasn't Italian, had made Korean food.
Seeing it, Hae-jin wondered.
[This guy knows how to make Korean food?]
In the Trials' Arena before, Raffaello had stuck to Western dishes.
All of them disastrously mangled.
But Korean food from Raffaello?
Even the smell and presentation looked decent.
For a moment, Hae-jin was tempted.
[Even Raffaello... does okay with Korean food?]
He recalled his pre-regression experience.
It wasn't inedible, but it was always at the level of "Do I really have to eat this?"
That memory flashed back, and Hae-jin steeled himself.
[I have to make sure Raffaello never touches cooking.]
But to do that, he had to eat it once.
Raffaello watched Hae-jin staring blankly at the food.
"Hm? Aren't you gonna eat, bro?"
"......Of course I am."
Answering Raffaello, Hae-jin scooped some kimchi jjigae from the bowl in front of him and poured it over a bed of pristine white rice.
He then scooped up some of the rice soaked in kimchi jjigae.
He ate it, about to blurt out his prepared line reflexively.
But then.
"What... is this...?"
His original line was supposed to be, "What the hell is this taste?"
Instead, Hae-jin was genuinely flustered after tasting Raffaello's kimchi jjigae and white rice.
Why?
[......It's delicious...?]
For real.
Raffaello's white rice and kimchi jjigae were tastier than any Hae-jin had ever had.
His pupils shook from the shock.
The flavor was nothing like he'd expected.
Seeing Hae-jin's flustered reaction, Raffaello tilted his head.
"Why?"
"No, just... it's good."
"Hehe, really? Glad to hear it. I learned the recipe on YouTube and made it while you were out, bro."
"You followed the recipe?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Uh, well..."
It was weird.
The Raffaello Hae-jin knew never followed recipes.
Like with magic or alchemy, he approached cooking with intense experimentation.
Even when begged to follow recipes, he'd refuse, saying it wasn't fun.
So hearing this Raffaello claim he'd followed the recipe made Hae-jin jump.
Naturally, Raffaello, unaware of the context, wondered why the reaction.
"Why?"
"Well, you know how to make Western food too, right?"
"I mastered Western food ages ago."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
"......"
Hae-jin fell silent for a moment.
He had no choice.
Raffaello's words about mastering Western food brought back memories.
"No, just follow the recipe, right?"
"I've already mastered it—what fun is following the recipe? And you can't discover new flavors that way."
"......"
Honestly, back then the party thought he was just making excuses for sucking at cooking.
But tasting this Korean food suddenly made it convincing.
He followed the recipe because he hadn't mastered Korean food yet?
Then maybe what Raffaello had told the party was true.
He butchered Western food because he'd mastered it.
Like Picasso, kinda?
Some say of Picasso's paintings.
"Why's this kid-level painter famous?"
But those in the know knew.
Picasso was a genius who mastered classical art as a child.
Only after mastering everything did he become the cubist painter the public knows.
Not sure if the comparison fit, but maybe Raffaello had that Picasso-like genius in cooking?
Maybe the flavors he aimed for shattered conventions like cubism, and the party just couldn't get it.
Hae-jin tested his theory.
"So you follow recipes for Western food too?"
"Nah, what's the fun in following recipes for mastered dishes?"
"Fun..."
It sounded right from how he said it.
Watching Raffaello, Hae-jin thought.
[No, if he can cook properly, maybe he should handle meals?]
With that, Hae-jin called out.
"Raffaello."
"Yeah, bro?"
"Do your fun experiments when you're eating alone."
"Huh?"
"If you want to treat me to Western food, follow the recipe."
"Eh? Western food?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm, but that's no fun..."
That damn "fun" talk again.
How much suffering had the party endured for a week because of it?
[To learn this only after regressing.]
Risking life in trials, unknowingly serving as Raffaello's guinea pigs.
Now that he knew, Hae-jin was determined to shut that down.
"Am I here for your amusement?"
"No, that's not it, but..."
Raffaello wilted at Hae-jin's tone, like he was being mocked.
Hae-jin stated firmly.
"I won't stop your cooking experiments. But I pass on being your lab rat."
"Ung... Got it. So when I make Western food for you, bro, I'll do it by the book?"
"Yeah. I'm curious what your proper Western food tastes like. How about Western tomorrow?"
Hae-jin knew exactly how to handle Raffaello.
Appeal to his Sage-like curiosity about solving puzzles.
And sure enough.
Raffaello's eyes lit up when Hae-jin said he was curious.
"Oh? You're curious?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome! Western it is tomorrow!"
"Good. For now, let's eat what's here."
"Yeah!"
And so Hae-jin began eating the spread Raffaello prepared.
He thought.
[Ha, Joo-hyuk would be pissed if he saw this. Who knew Raffaello could cook this well?]
For some reason, Hae-jin could almost hear Joo-hyuk.
"Raffaello, you jerk! You only fed me the bad stuff!"
Joo-hyuk was something else too.
Never figured out the secret behind Raffaello's food all this time.
The day of the third Trials' Arena arrived before long.
In the meantime, Hae-jin had finished adapting Damian's swordplay to dual wielding and briefed his future party members on what to do in the third trial.
Mastering Damian's swordplay had only taken three days.
But Hae-jin spent four more days with him, refining the dual-wield style based on it.
In that state, he awaited the third Trials' Arena.
Midnight came.
March 1, 2030.
Once again, massive electronic billboards descended from the skies over Earth.
The billboards tossed a brief message to the Players.
[The Third Trial begins.]
After the announcement of the third trial's start, the Players vanished from Earth.
Their visions gradually shifted to medieval European-style villages, each different.
This time, Players from each zone weren't scattered randomly—they were gathered in one village.
Seeing the third Trials' Arena, Hae-jin thought.
[They've all job-changed, so now it's time to face monsters for real.]
The third trial was none other than "Monster Defense."
Those Hae-jin had informed already knew, but the other Players learned now.
A system window appeared before the Players.
Content: Players who succeeded in job change, protect your lives from the monsters.
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