Yanne
The conversation carried a grave weight.
“Park Jinwoo hasn’t noticed anything at all. He still believes he’s inside a game.”
“That’s fortunate. Since it’s a game still in development, make sure to drill into him that he must not brag to anyone about becoming a game tester.”
“Yes, sir. I’ve already instructed him to avoid mentioning it to his family as much as possible. In three days I’ll inform the gaming team that although he was recruited as a tester, he has been reassigned to a regular office position.”
“Good. Handle it cleanly. I’m genuinely curious to see how this friend adapts to that world.”
The moment I stepped into the capsule, a notification pinged.
The development team has sent items to your inventory. A future item shop where you can purchase modern daily necessities and use them inside the game is also planned, so please look forward to it.
It would be pretty entertaining if I could actually buy proper ingredients or modern conveniences from an item shop and use them in-game. In certain MMORPGs, the fishing sub-quest was so satisfying that some players logged in solely to cast a line. Side professions like that were growing in importance across the genre, and it looked like Cliché World had paid attention to the trend.
When I checked my inventory, a gas burner and twelve canisters of butane immediately caught my eye. There was also a full set of pots and pans, dinnerware, plates, cutlery, a knife and cutting board, and an assortment of seasonings. With tools like these, I could finally process ingredients and cook real meals.
A new option for adjusting pain sensitivity has been added. If you dislike extreme pain, you may set it to 0%. However, do not forget: No Pain, No Gain.
I had considered lowering the value after the pain I felt fighting those goblins yesterday, but the “No Pain, No Gain” line at the end of the message bothered me. It probably meant that adjusting the pain slider would lock out certain benefits. Any gamer worth their salt would leave the option untouched. I kept the pain at a full 100% and logged in.
Connecting to Cliché World. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The musty smell of straw rushed into my nose.
Sleep time inside the game can be accelerated. Accelerated time does not affect your actual connection duration. Automatic acceleration will pause if any physical or environmental changes occur.
I tested the fast-forward function once. Because I had burned through my MP spamming healing buffs the day before, I needed to calculate recovery time. Accelerating MP recovery took five real-world hours, but the fast-forward reduced it to five minutes. For my next sleep, I planned to rest normally instead of accelerating. I was curious whether sleeping in-game would actually relieve physical fatigue. Checking these little details was exactly what a game tester was supposed to do.
Even though the sun hadn’t risen yet, I could hear the village women outside. Yanne quietly got up and slipped out. She returned shortly afterward, cradling freshly baked bread. The fragrant aroma woke me completely. After I washed my face at the communal well and sat at the table, Yanne fussed over me, insisting I try the bread while it was still hot from the shared oven.
Before eating, I tore off half the loaf and handed it to her.
“Here, this is your share.”
“Ah, I’m fine. I already ate.”
I felt a pang of pity. I had never actually seen her eat, yet she claimed she already had.
“I can have bread like this anytime, but you can’t. So go on, eat.”
She kept waving her hands, refusing. I wanted to get some food into her somehow. Remembering that this was a village famous for its honey, an idea struck me. I still had the items the development team had sent, so I decided to break them in. I pulled out the gas burner and a butane canister.
When objects suddenly appeared from thin air, Yanne’s eyes widened in shock.
“We’ll need eggs. Is anyone selling them?”
“Eggs?”
Real-time translation patch applied. Food ingredients will be referred to by their proper nouns, but to prevent confusion they have been fixed to standardized automatic translation.
“Ah, eggs. I’ll bring some right away.”
Unlike the first time when she hadn’t understood, Yanne immediately recognized the word and dashed outside. It seemed the game was performing real-time substitution for terms used in different countries. She returned with two eggs, explaining that the person she had healed yesterday gave them for free instead of accepting payment.
I cracked the eggs, whisked them thoroughly with a spoon, and seasoned them with sugar and salt. Then I sliced the bread Yanne had bought and soaked the pieces in the egg mixture. Since it wasn’t sliced bread, it needed time for the liquid to soak all the way through.
“Do we have any oil for cooking?”
“I’ll get some fat from a viva.”
“Viva?”
The word instantly registered in my mind as wild boar.
“The wild-boar fat was free too. Hehe.”
“That’s a relief.”
Thinking of it as a brand-new frying pan, I washed it thoroughly with well water, then rendered the fat to create cooking oil.
“Sniff… Haa… It smells so good.”
Yanne flared her nostrils, already delighted by the aroma of melting fat. Once enough oil had pooled in the pan, I laid the egg-soaked bread slices on it.
Sizzle—sss—
The sound of something frying in a pan never failed to lift my mood. The savory scent of protein browning over heat was enough to make anyone’s mouth water. When I flipped the bread, golden-brown surfaces glistened with oil, stimulating my appetite. I transferred the perfectly toasted slices—crisp and golden on both sides—to a plate, then drizzled honey squeezed from the honey mushrooms over them like syrup. The way the sticky honey cascaded over the French toast was mouthwatering enough to make anyone drool.
It literally means “French people’s toast,” so I guess it’s fine to just use the name.
After a brief internal debate, I decided to go with it.
“This is a bread dish called French toast that people from a country called France eat. Try it. It’s hot, so let it cool a little first.”
When I had simply offered her plain bread, Yanne had refused with frantic hand gestures. But the sizzling sounds and irresistible aroma proved too much; she snatched the French toast and took a bite.
“Whoa! It’s so, so soft! Incredibly soft!”
The rich sweetness flooding her mouth left Yanne dazed. It was the first time she had learned that soaking bread in egg, frying it, and adding honey could create something this delicious.
“It’s sweet like honey but also a little salty! The bread I’ve eaten until now doesn’t even deserve to be called bread!”
Since Yanne had gathered honey mushrooms and nibbled on leftover honey scraps, sweetness itself wasn’t new to her. But when that familiar honey was drizzled over bread that had been soaked in egg and perfectly fried, it tasted entirely different. Her mind was filled with the single thought of wanting to keep eating the golden, honey-glazed slices.
“Um, Magician-nim, should I buy another loaf of bread?”
She’s completely hooked on the taste.
“Hahaha. Looks like it suits your palate. Bring more bread and eggs and I’ll make another batch. It doesn’t have to be today’s fresh bread.”
Yanne returned with yesterday’s bread and additional eggs. I cooked another round of French toast. Since I had promised another healing spell, the villagers had gathered in front of the house. I handed each of them a slice.
“That healing magic seems incredible. After you cast it yesterday, I really don’t feel any pain at all. And now you’re even giving us this delicious bread.”
“I knew you could dip bread in honey, but this is my first time trying bread soaked in egg and fried.”
“Is that blue flame magic fire? It gives off heat without any firewood? How fascinating.”
When the villagers marveled at the gas burner, I told them it was a magic tool. They accepted the explanation with wonder, saying magic truly was amazing. It seemed that if I simply claimed modern items were magical artifacts, the game’s setting would handle the rest. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how cleverly designed the system was.
After ten people ate French toast, the bread and eggs ran out. More villagers arrived with additional supplies, and we kept cooking and eating for quite a while. I had Yanne clean up afterward, then applied buffs to the patients again. Since I had used the healing buff yesterday, today I first cast an activation buff followed by the healing one. The people who came for treatment left more gifts, all of which they handed to Yanne.
But after a moment of hesitation, Yanne returned everything to them.
“Those things look like they would help you survive. Why are you giving them back?”
“That’s… I’ve made up my mind. I want to serve you, Magician-nim!”
⊳ Loyalty: High
⊳ Potential: Exceptional
Yanne had received a small shock from the magician named Jinwoo. He had made French toast just to get her to eat, and he shared delicious bread with the entire village without asking for anything in return. She realized he came from a completely different world than her own. And if she followed him, she would be able to eat proper food instead of mushroom scraps left after squeezing honey. Once that thought took root, she no longer hesitated.
“I want to serve you, Magician-nim. Please allow it!!”
No quest window appeared, yet this was essentially the first quest. Rescuing a girl in crisis and taking her into the party—it was such a cliché that I had half-expected it.
“I’ll be traveling all over for various reasons. If you come with me, there will be many difficult days.”
“I’ve already endured a lot of hardship, so I can bear it.”
Seeing Yanne’s determined expression, I found myself nodding. She had already lost her parents and risked her life every day gathering honey mushrooms. Whatever she did with me, it probably wouldn’t be harder than her current life.
“All right. I’ll take you. How many more days until we reach a city?”
“If you walk for about four days you’ll reach Hilter Village, where the market is held. From there, another two days will bring you to Durendal Fief Castle, which has stone walls.”
“Then pack your things. We’ll leave right away.”
“Um, Magician-nim. How much can you store in that space that makes things go shuk and disappear?”
She had seen me storing and retrieving the gas burner and frying pan, so she was asking about the inventory capacity.
“Well, it’s not that I don’t want to carry luggage. It’s just that we’ll have to camp out sometimes, and I’d like to bring everything we might need.”
“It holds quite a lot, but I already have most necessities. Just pack whatever you personally need.”
“Yes.”
Although Yanne said she would only bring what she needed, she was stuffing a large cloth bag with her shabby household items. It felt like I had picked up a fiercely determined young girl who had been acting as the head of her household. I stored the worn-out objects—things you’d rarely even see at a recycling center—into my inventory. After some thought, I also took the table and chairs. Having furniture would be far more comfortable than sitting on the bare ground while camping.
“Um, Magician-nim, do you have any spare funds?”
“You don’t need to worry about travel expenses.”
“That’s not what I meant. The honey we gather in the village can be sold for a much higher price if we take it past Durendal Fief.”
It was simple trade logic, but even young Yanne already understood how to make money.
“I have 100 gold, so buy as much honey as you can with it.”
“Th-that much? Hehe. I’ll go buy the honey!”