Two hours later...
Dragon Soul Town, 'Mistletoe' Tavern
"Boss! Another barrel of Snakehead Blue!"
"Coming right up!"
"Boss, where's our fried schnitzel?"
"Just a moment, just a moment, it'll be ready!"
"Boss, is my roasted Moon Badger ready?"
"Just a moment, just a moment, it'll be ready soon."
"Boss, my cabbage..."
"Just a moment!"
"Boss..."
Even though it was past midnight, business here was still booming. All dozen or so small tables were full, and one could vaguely see many people still queuing outside.
【Ah! Who can save me?!】
The Half-Orc boss, Deli, who was so busy his feet barely touched the ground, let out a desperate sigh from his throat, placing a barrel of strong liquor in front of two Half-Dragon customers. He shouted towards the kitchen: "Are the dishes for tables 7, 9, and 14 ready?!"
"Not even close!" A full-throated voice responded, "If you're not busy, come help out!"
"Get lost, I'm not much more relaxed here than you!" Boss Deli was so tired he was almost spitting venom. As he angrily roared with his neck craned, he secretly swore that he absolutely had to hire an assistant within the next two days. Otherwise, even if he could barely manage being both the boss and a waiter, the kitchen's efficiency was simply too slow!
【What if these starving fellows roast me if this continues?!】
Deli turned his head to avoid several hungry and piercing gazes, and bitterly cursed the outsiders who had recently formed a group to cause trouble in the town.
Although the local Half-Dragon guard eventually easily eliminated those people, the other two taverns in town suffered heavy losses during that incident and temporarily closed their doors.
Following the principle that competitors are rivals, Deli was quite happy at the time...
But his happiness lasted less than half a day before he discovered a very bad reality.
That was, if he continued to insist on the cost-effectiveness principle of having only one cook, his own establishment would probably not survive!
"Um..."
【But hiring a proper chef is very expensive!】
"Hello...?"
【So anyone who can cook will do! The most important thing is that they're cheap!】
"Excuse me, are you the boss here, Mr. Deli Bapi?"
【But no one has come to apply until now... Hmm?】
Deli, who had been in a daze, finally realized someone was calling him. He looked closely and saw a girl with a pair of wings on her back and a hood, standing gracefully in front of him, vigorously waving her fair little hand.
"Ah, I'm Deli." Deli curiously sized up the young girl (he guessed) in front of him, whose face was only partially visible, and asked, "And you are?"
Seeing that the other party was no longer ignoring her, the girl immediately pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment from her pocket and asked with a cheerful smile, "Are you still hiring?"
"Hiring?" Deli was taken aback, then subconsciously glanced at the 'flyer' in her hand, and suddenly realized, "You want to be a chef here?"
"Yes!" The young girl nodded vigorously, "My name is Ye Ge, and I am a ch...ef..."
As she spoke the last two words, her voice suddenly became a little timid.
That's right! The hooded, winged girl who appeared before Deli was none other than Ji Xiaoge! Blessed with the well-deserved The Fallen City talent in both the game and reality, and also possessing the Killer Cuisine talent in both worlds!
"A chef, huh~" Deli's eyes were sharp; he immediately saw that the young girl in front of him seemed to lack confidence. He slowly asked, "Not very skilled at cooking, are you?"
The young girl nodded, then brought her two small hands together in front of her and clasped them tightly: "But I will try my best!"
"Tsk tsk, that attitude is quite good." Deli, who had been in a panic just moments before, was now as steady as an Old Mage. He nodded to Ji Xiaoge and said, "And I do indeed need people here, so keeping you isn't out of the question, but..."
The young girl quickly asked, "But what?"
"But the treatment might not be so good." Deli tried to raise the price.
The result...
"It's okay!" Ji Xiaoge said with a beaming smile, "Just let me cook!"
【Holy crap, is there such a good thing!?】
Deli was instantly overjoyed and was about to arrange the girl to help in the kitchen without a second thought, but then...
Bang!
The tavern door was forcefully pushed open from outside. Two figures, one tall and one short, appeared at the entrance, both panting and looking pale.
The tall one wore a wizard's robe, with white hair and beard, male, and an odd-shaped staff on his back that emitted a faint wisp of black smoke. He looked about seventy or eighty years old and held an iron chain in his hand.
The short one was half-crouching on the ground, with a pair of pointed grey beast ears and a fluffy tail of the same color, female, looking about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a pretty and delicate face and a graceful figure. But her large eyes, which seemed to speak, were somehow shrouded in a hazy mist, looking as if she was about to cry at any moment, and...
Around her snow-white neck, there was a large collar, connected to a heavy iron chain, the other end of which was held in the hand of the seemingly virtuous old man beside her.
"Boss, please bring a plate of braised meat and a mug of ale." The old man, pulling the girl inside, shouted, "And three catties of large bones, two catties boiled soft and chopped, and one catty for soup."
"Woof." The girl beside him also barked, and surprisingly...
【She's been trained to the point where she can't even speak human language!】
Ji Xiaoge, who detested evil, felt her heart burning with rage at this moment. She no longer cared to speak to the boss in front of her. Gritting her silver teeth, she turned to face the tall, thin old man and sharply cried, "Shameless!"
"Huh?"
The old man looked at her with a bewildered expression, and it took him a while to react with an 'Ah.'
The dog-girl beside him, however, weakly shook her head at Ji Xiaoge: "Hungry!"
【How pitiful!】
Ji Xiaoge and the surrounding customers couldn't help but think so at this moment. That sorrowful, tearful 'hungry' seemed to contain a thousand words, countless blood and tears, making one almost afraid to imagine what this little girl, who couldn't even speak clearly, had gone through!
At least in the mind of a certain young girl, who had been corrupted by various literary works, a tragic story of over a hundred thousand words had already been conjured up.
Any one of which could cause a huge public outcry!
A cruel and unscrupulous master, a pitiful girl who couldn't even get a full meal, a cold basement, a collar symbolizing humiliation, insane potion experiments, a victim of evil alchemy, the right to speak normally deprived, unanswered cries for help, a life of darkness...
【Damn it, I must save her!】
Ji Xiaoge subconsciously took a step forward, but then suddenly realized that although others' eyes were also filled with anger, no one stepped forward righteously, not even the few adventurers who looked quite strong, silently turned their heads away.
Seeking advantage and avoiding harm is the instinct of all intelligent beings. Few people would choose the seemingly romantic 'seeing injustice on the road, drawing a sword to help.' This situation does not only happen in the real world; wherever there is 'intelligence' and 'instinct,' this kind of thing will exist...
And in Innocent World, where despite having a basic moral system, the social structure is not highly developed, this phenomenon is even more common.
It's not that people don't see 'good' and 'evil,' but the cost of truly 'doing good' for others, disregarding one's own interests and even life, is far higher than 'doing evil,' which is difficult to talk about but surprisingly easy to do.
Of course, in the eyes of most people, if they have an overwhelming advantage in strength when facing evil forces, they naturally wouldn't mind casually punishing the other party and then receiving spiritual, reputational, or material rewards such as 'peace of mind,' 'flowers and applause,' and 'throwing oneself into one's arms.'
Such actions might also be commendable, but true greatness should belong to those who are willing to pay a huge price to 'do good.'
Just look at that Old Mage. Putting everything else aside, his sage-like appearance alone was enough to extinguish the desire to 'draw a sword to help' in the hearts of most people present.
The older a mage, the more formidable he is; this is a recognized fact.
Just by his age, looking like he had one foot in the grave, he could easily suppress all the onlookers present.
But...
Someone didn't care!
"Let that girl go!" Ji Xiaoge didn't care so much. Even if no one stood with her, it wouldn't stop her from wanting to beat up that perverted old man. This had nothing to do with whether it was a 'game world,' nothing to do with her appearance, family background, or strength; it was simply that she couldn't stand it!
Simply unable to stand it, simply wanting to help—these were all her reasons for forgetting all risks at this moment.
"Let her go?" The old man looked at the chain in his hand and hesitated.
The girl, however, gently shook her head and whispered, "No, hungry, Woof hungry..."
The old man smiled slightly at the girl: "Alright, though the outcome is subtle, you're finally being sensible."
【Afraid of not having food? How pitiful.】
Ji Xiaoge, however, could no longer bear to watch. Her pair of snow-white wings suddenly unfurled, and she floated up, hovering in mid-air for a few seconds before swiftly darting towards the old man in front of her.
"Huh?" The old man... well, at this point, everyone has probably guessed. Jia Deka quickly retreated several steps, pulling Ya Ya, and repeatedly waved his hands, saying, "Miss, I'm afraid you've misunderstood!"
Ji Xiaoge's originally somewhat clumsy flying skills became incredibly smooth in her surge of anger. The wings on her back moved as if they were extensions of her arms, suddenly accelerating in mid-air, her graceful figure sweeping forward with a fragrant breeze.
"Woof!" Ya Ya was also a little anxious now, and quickly said loudly, "Woof hungry! Wang Dejia is not a Woof person!"
Honestly, if her common tongue were a bit more standard, Ji Xiaoge's hair-splitting pancake probably wouldn't have been swung out...
Yes, dear readers, you did not mishear, I said pancake!
Although Ji Xiaoge only had one profession, and that was a chef, this did not mean she had no means of attack. Under her extremely extraordinary cooking talent, a chef, originally a life skill profession in Innocent World, could also fight!
With a flick of her slender hand, she somehow pulled out an oval-shaped flat object and raised her hand to strike at Jia Deka!
"What kind of weapon is this?!" The latter, who was quite well-informed, immediately panicked. He subconsciously raised his arm to block, and the fairly good quality robe was directly torn at the cuff. His strong, muscular arm was also left with a bloody mark by the sharp, circular weapon!
Ji Xiaoge sneered and backhanded towards Jia Deka's left hand, which was holding Ya Ya: "This is not a weapon!"
She wasn't lying...
【Scallion Iron-Cutting Flower Armor-Piercing Pancake】
Creator: Ye Ge
Consumable/Equipment
Usage: HP -5%, has a certain chance to cause silence
Equip: Low attack power, has a certain chance to apply bleeding effect to target when hit
Equip Restriction: Possesses the Self-Production and Self-Sale talent
【Note: Eat my pancake! Or... eat my pancake?】
That's right, this thing was indeed not a weapon!
Although this pancake was not only extremely sharp, but also had attack power, could pierce armor, and could make the target bleed, it was not strictly speaking a weapon!
At least in Ji Xiaoge's eyes, it was food!
If it weren't for the urgent situation, she wouldn't want to use the food she had painstakingly cooked for combat...
But now was a special circumstance!
【I must save that girl! At least create an opportunity for her to escape!】
Ji Xiaoge thought so, and the pancake in her hand, combined with modern women's martial arts, flew up and down. Her offensive was so fierce that even the experienced Jia Deka was momentarily flustered, repeatedly retreating and avoiding her sharp edge!
And the other customers, seeing the two fighting, hesitated for a moment, then resolutely stood up, and then... ran out without looking back!
"Pay up!" Deli, who had been somewhat stunned, immediately snapped back to reality, cursing and yelling as he chased after them.
The entire tavern instantly became empty.
A few minutes later, accompanied by a small fireball from Jia Deka, Ji Xiaoge's Scallion Iron-Cutting Flower Armor-Piercing Pancake shattered with a clang.
"Little girl!" Jia Deka sighed helplessly, "Calm down!"
His experience was, after all, far richer than Ji Xiaoge's. In just a few minutes, he saw that the girl in front of him actually had no combat skills, so he simply found an opening and slapped a fireball onto the pancake, and indeed, the effect was excellent!
But...
"Is being able to bake pancakes so amazing?" Ji Xiaoge pouted, and with a gentle flick of her small hands, she produced another strange weapon that Jia Deka had never seen before!
【Is it a blunt weapon this time? What is this girl's background?!】
Jia Deka cautiously pulled Ya Ya back two steps, feeling a bit flustered...
"Again!"
Ji Xiaoge's wings vibrated again, and she gripped the two round, oddly shaped blunt weapons in her hands, smashing them down at Jia Deka!
...
【Miscellaneous Strong Grain Hardened Steamed Bun】
Creator: Ye Ge
Consumable/Equipment
Usage: HP -3%, has a certain chance to cause suffocation
Equip: Low attack power, has a certain chance to stun target when hitting the head
Equip Restriction: Possesses the Self-Production and Self-Sale talent
【Note: Have a steamed bun, huh? You say you can't bite it? No problem, it's good for sharpening knives at home too.】
Chapter 112: End