Chapter 452: The Absolutely Absurd Peony Fish Fillet
Qi Han never expected that this new round of missions wouldn't just make him start off completely broke, it actually demanded that he buy his own storefront.
Buying a storefront… wouldn't that cost at least a hundred thousand gold coins to start with?
And when he arrived, he only had ten gold coins on him…
Oh, and those ten were sponsored by Ru Yi.
Damn it!
Qi Han's face darkened. He could feel how malicious this mission really was.
Putting aside everything else, just this "buy a storefront" Side Quest alone was unbelievably hard for him to complete.
Without a storefront, how was he supposed to start operating his business?
If he didn't operate, how was he supposed to earn money to buy a storefront?
That was a certified deadlock.
"You could set up a street stall and sell barbecue for money," Ru Yi said with a cheeky grin.
"I feel like this entire mission is just trying to make me run a street stall, isn't it?" Qi Han's face grew darker and darker. "Would running a street stall count towards Main Quest 9's business hours?"
"Nope. The requirement specifies operating under the name 'Han Shi,' so you must have a storefront."
"Well done. Truly impressive. Really living up to your reputation," Qi Han gritted his teeth, his expression turning even darker.
"Thank you for the compliment," Ru Yi said, clearly sensing Qi Han's resentment—looking all the more pleased.
Once a mission was issued, unless it contained some major flaw, it couldn't be changed. Even though Qi Han was full of complaints, he could only swallow them and accept it.
But he definitely planned to find a way to ruin Ru Yi's little scheme!
Make him a humble street vendor?
Keep dreaming.
Flipping back to the front of the mission page, to Main Quest 8, Qi Han finally felt a bit better.
It was time for the section everyone loved—claiming mission rewards!
He quickly tapped to claim the Spirit Power level reward. A familiar warmth flowed through his body. His Spirit Power surged again, rising from level 51 straight to level 53.
At the Spirit King stage, the total volume of Spirit Power was already considerable. With that power surging again, a strong sense of accomplishment welled up in his chest.
Sure, this Spirit Power wasn't something he had painstakingly cultivated, but he had painstakingly completed system missions for it, so that counted too!
Either way, he had worked very hard.
Next, Qi Han reached to claim five 3 Star Optional Recipe Fragments.
From earlier missions, he had already accumulated ten 3 Star Optional Recipe Fragments, enough to redeem a recipe. But since he couldn't decide which one, and the shop already had plenty of 3 Star dishes, he just kept saving them.
Now that he'd gotten five more, he planned to continue hoarding them for later.
And finally came the reward everyone was most excited about—
4 Star Random Recipe Drop x1.
It was Qi Han's first time obtaining such a prize. As a flash of light bloomed, he instantly entered the system space. Before him appeared—for the first time—a pure black roulette wheel.
Just thinking about how every option on that wheel was a 4 Star level dish made him tremble with excitement.
After all, the prerequisite to advancing to Advanced Chef was simply to master three 4 Star recipes.
He already had two. With one more, he would have all three!
Taking a deep breath, he nervously watched the roulette spin. As it slowed, the pointer landed on a segment, which rapidly zoomed into focus.
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.jpg
Beautiful pull!
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was a Fujian dish, one of the regional cuisines Qi Han hadn't worked with much yet. But he was far from unfamiliar with it.
Legend had it that this soup was so fragrant that even a monk would abandon his years of cultivation just to vault over a wall and taste it—China's number one soup. Who could not know of it?
He hadn't expected to draw it here, but his heart was full of joy.
After the lottery draw, Qi Han became even more excited. He had waited so long for Main Quest 8 to finally be completed, and now a brand-new Main Quest and Side Quests had appeared.
Even though these missions were absurd to the point of being scammy, Qi Han still rolled around on the bed, overwhelmed with emotion…
And then promptly fell asleep.
After all, with Ru Yi's high-tech sleep-cheat bed, it was impossible to stay awake even if he tried.
…
Although Main Quest 9 suggested he should set off immediately for the Sun Moon Continent, Qi Han wanted to stay one more day. His reasoning was simple—based on his estimate, one more day of practice should be enough to complete the Peony Fish Fillet.
Besides, leaving Shrek City for the Sun Moon Continent was bound to be a long trip. The mission alone required him to operate there for a full month, not to mention he still had no solution at all for the Side Quest 10 "buy a shopfront" issue.
So conservatively speaking, he would need to request at least two months of leave.
If he had to take time off for that long, he naturally needed to inform his customers in advance. So Qi Han decided to delay departure by one day: first, to notify the customers ahead of time; second, to hopefully complete the cooking practice for Peony Fish Fillet and produce a test batch to see what kind of heavenly phenomenon a 4 Star recipe would trigger.
With Qi Han's current level of culinary skill, his estimates rarely missed. Before the afternoon business hours began, he exited the training space wearing a bright, satisfied grin.
Peony Fish Fillet: mastered!
However… the dish was not quite what he expected, it's just a tiny bit different.
The difference wasn't in the dish itself, but in the price, the sales model, and the special effect.
The price of Peony Fish Fillet was… seventy thousand gold coins!
While 3 Star dishes already cost in the thousands, Qi Han had guessed that 4 Star dishes might break into five digits. At most he dared imagine maybe ten to twenty thousand. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect a selling price of seventy thousand.
And according to Ru Yi, this was considered mid-range among 4 Star recipes…
Good lord. Qi Han could only marvel at how absurd it was.
At this point it felt like daylight robbery.
If the price was ridiculous, then the sales model was even worse.
One serving every thirty days.
This was the first limited-edition dish in Han Shi's history, and the limit was brutal.
Normal limited releases would say something like "X servings per day." But this dish? One serving per thirty days.
Of course, Ru Yi had given a reason: the ingredients for 4 Star recipes were extremely difficult to cultivate. Even with her thousandfold accelerated micro-world, they couldn't be mass-produced.
So not just Peony Fish Fillet, every future 4 Star dish would follow the one-serving-every-thirty-days rule.
Qi Han found the logic acceptable.
4 Star ingredients were at the ten-thousand-year level. Even with thousandfold acceleration, that still meant ten years of growth time. Not only did it cost more, it also took far longer. Without a limit, the micro-world would go bald trying to keep up.
After thinking for a moment, Qi Han accepted the restriction.
Growing ingredients in a micro-world was definitely no easy task.
As for the special effect of Peony Fish Fillet…
Qi Han felt it was also just a tiny bit broken.
Peony Fish Fillet Effect: Eternal Bloom: restores the eater's appearance to their peak and permanently maintains it. Partially effective.
This effect was basically eternal beauty: eat the dish and your appearance would return to its prime and then stay there forever.
The "partially effective" note meant that even a single bite would trigger the effect.
Although this special effect had zero benefit for cultivation, Qi Han had a feeling that once released, this dish would instantly spark a frenzy among customers.
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Note:
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Jumps_Over_the_Wall
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