004. Yanneu.
“Bak Jinu hasn’t noticed a thing. He thinks he’s inside a game.”
“That’s fortunate. Since it’s a game in development, make sure to warn him firmly not to brag to those around him about becoming a game tester.”
“Yes. I’ve told him not to mention it to his family as much as possible. And I plan to inform the game company officials in three days that although he was recruited as a tester, he has been transferred to a general administrative position.”
“Good. Handle it cleanly. I’m curious to see how this friend will adapt to that world.”
***
[Ding-dong!]
The moment I entered the capsule, an alarm sounded.
[The development team has sent items to your inventory. Please look forward to the item shop scheduled for the future, where you will be able to purchase modern daily necessities and use them in-game.]
It seemed like it would be quite fun if I could properly purchase ingredients and modern goods from the item shop.
In some MMORPGs, there were even users who logged in just to fish, claiming that the feel of the fishing available as a sub-quest was excellent.
The trend was for games to gradually increase the weight given to such sub-professions, and it seemed Cliche World had paid attention to that aspect as well.
Checking my inventory to see what items were inside, I immediately spotted a gas burner and twelve butane gas canisters.
There was also a set containing various pots and frying pans, as well as bowls, a plate set, a cutlery set, a knife and cutting board, and a seasoning set.
With this level of tools, it seemed I could process ingredients and make proper meals.
[Ding-dong! An option to adjust pain intensity 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 halving the value because I hated the pain I’d felt fighting goblins yesterday, but the words “No Pain, No Gain” attached to the back of the notification window bothered me for some reason.
Most likely, there was a mechanic where adjusting the pain setting would prevent me from obtaining things I could otherwise gain.
A gamer with any ambition for the game would never touch the pain option.
I, too, logged in leaving the pain setting at 100%.
[Connecting to Cliche World. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.]
The musty smell of straw rushed into my nose.
[In-game sleep time can be fast-forwarded. Even if you fast-forward, your connection time will not change. Fast-forward will automatically stop when there are physical or environmental changes.]
I tried fast-forwarding once.
It was because I had used up almost all my MP casting healing buffs, so I needed to calculate the MP recovery time as well.
It took five hours to fully recover my MP via fast-forward. Of course, because I used fast-forward, it was substituted with five minutes.
Next time I slept, I planned to sleep without fast-forwarding.
I was curious whether sleeping in the game would relieve actual fatigue.
Checking these kinds of miscellaneous things was the natural duty of a game tester.
The sun hadn’t even risen, but I could hear the voices of the village women outside.
Yanneu quietly got up and went outside, returning before long with well-baked bread cradled in her arms.
As if the savory smell of bread had woken me, I got up too.
After washing my face at the communal well and sitting at the table, Yanneu eagerly urged me to hurry and eat the freshly baked bread from the communal oven while it was hot.
Before eating, I tore off half the bread and handed it to Yanneu.
“Here, this is your share.”
“Ah, I’m fine. I already ate.”
I felt sorry for Yanneu, claiming she’d already eaten when I’d never seen her eat.
“I can eat bread like this anytime, but you can’t. So eat up.”
I wanted to somehow get Yanneu to eat, who kept waving her hands saying she wouldn’t, when I remembered this was a village abundant with honey and got a good idea.
Since I’d just received items in my inventory, I decided to try them out and took out the burner and butane gas.
Yanneu jumped in surprise as items popped out one after another from empty air.
“I’ll need eggs. Do you think anyone sells them?”
“Eggs?”
[Chime! A real-time translation patch has been applied. In the case of ingredients, they are referred to by their proper nouns, but to avoid confusion, they have been converted into fixed automatic-translation nouns.]
“Ah, eggs. I’ll bring them right away.”
Unlike at first when she hadn’t understood, Yanneu immediately comprehended “eggs” and went outside.
It seemed the game settings and words used in each country were being replaced and translated in real time.
Yanneu returned holding two eggs, saying the person she’d treated yesterday had given them to her free of charge.
I cracked the eggs, beat them well with a spoon, added sugar and salt, then cut the bread Yanneu had bought and soaked it in the egg wash.
Since it wasn’t sliced bread, the egg wash needed time to soak deep inside the loaf.
“Don’t you have any cooking oil?”
“I’ll fetch some Bibba fat.”
“Bibba?”
At that, I immediately recognized that “bibba” was the word for wild boar.
“They gave me wild boar fat for free, too. Hehe.”
“That’s fortunate.”
Thinking of it as a new frying pan, I washed it clean with well water, then placed the fat on it to render the oil.
“Sniff, sniff… Hyaah… it smells so good.”
Yanneu flared her nostrils in delight at the mere smell of the fat cooking.
Once the fat properly rendered and oil pooled in the frying pan, I placed the bread pieces thoroughly soaked in egg wash on top.
[Sizzle~ Sizzle~~]
The sound of something cooking sizzling from the frying pan was a sound that lifted one’s mood no matter when one heard it.
And the savory aroma of protein cooking over the fire made saliva pool in one’s mouth.
When I flipped the bread, the remaining oil bubbled on the nicely browned surface, stimulating the appetite.
I placed the bread, cooked golden-brown on both sides with egg coating, onto a plate, then brought honey squeezed from honey mushrooms and drizzled it over like syrup.
The sight of the French toast with honey flowing stickily was mouthwatering enough to make anyone drool.
*It means French people’s toast; can I just call it by the name?*
I worried over it briefly, but decided to just use the name.
“Here, this is French toast, a bread recipe French people eat. Try it. It’s hot, so let it cool.”
Yanneu had waved her hands refusing when I simply told her to eat bread, but unable to endure the sound and smell of it cooking, she quickly took the French toast and ate it.
“Uwaaa, i-it’s soft! It’s so soft!”
Yanneu was nearly dazed by the rich sweetness filling her mouth.
It was the first time she realized that soaking bread in egg wash, grilling it, and spreading honey on it could taste this amazing.
“It tastes as sweet as honey yet savory, so the bread I’ve eaten all this time doesn’t feel like bread at all!”
Yanneu wasn’t particularly moved by the sweetness itself, having nibbled on scraps of honey while harvesting honey mushrooms.
However, with honey spread over bread coated in egg and grilled, even the honey she always ate felt like a different flavor.
Her head was filled with nothing but the desire to keep eating the sweet honey spread over the golden-brown bread.
“Um, Magician-nim, shall I go buy more bread?”
*She’s, she’s fallen for the taste of bread.*
“Hahaha. It seems to suit your taste. If you bring more bread and eggs, I’ll make more. It doesn’t matter if the bread wasn’t baked today.”
When Yanneu fetched more of yesterday’s bread and eggs, I made French toast again.
Since I’d said I would cast healing magic again, the villagers had arrived in front of the house, and I handed each of them a slice of French toast.
“Healing magic is truly amazing. Thanks to the spell you cast yesterday, I don’t think anything hurts at all. And on top of that, you’re giving us such delicious bread.”
“I knew about dipping bread in honey, but this is the first time I’ve eaten it grilled with egg wash.”
“Is that blue flame magical fire? It gives off that much heat without any firewood? How fascinating.”
The villagers marveled at the gas burner, so when I said it was a magic item, they all nodded in agreement, remarking how amazing magic was.
It seemed I could just lie and call modern items magic items, and thinking about it, I felt the game settings were quite unique.
After about ten people ate French toast, the bread and eggs quickly ran out, but others brought more bread and eggs, and we grilled and ate for quite a while.
I had Yanneu clean up, then cast buffs on the patients again.
Since I’d given healing buffs yesterday, today I first cast vitality buffs on the patients, then healing buffs.
The people who came for treatment set down items in a flurry again, and I gave them all to Yanneu.
However, Yanneu pondered for a moment, then returned them to the people.
“Those would help you get by. Why are you giving them back?”
“Well… I’ve made up my mind. I want to serve you, Magician-nim!”
***
Yanneu had received a small shock from the magician, Jinu.
Making French toast to feed her, and sharing delicious bread with the villagers without any condition—through these acts, she felt he was a person from a different world than herself.
And when she thought that if she followed Jinu, she could eat proper food instead of the mushroom scraps left after squeezing honey, she no longer hesitated.
“I want to serve you, Magician-nim. Please allow me!”
A quest window didn’t pop up, but this was no different from the first quest.
Saving a girl in crisis and having her join the party.
Since this was Cliche World, I had expected it to some degree.
“I have to wander around for various reasons, so there will be many hardships if you come with me.”
“I’ve already been through many hardships, so I can endure.”
At Yanneu’s declaration that she could endure well, I nodded.
Having already lost her parents and risking her life to harvest honey mushrooms, whatever she did likely wouldn’t be harder than her current life.
“Fine. I’ll take you. How much farther until we reach the city from here?”
“If you walk for about four days, there’s Hilteo Village, where a market is held. From there, if you go two more days, there is the walled castle of Dyurendal Territory.”
“Then pack your things. We’re leaving right away.”
“Um, Magician-nim. How many things can you put in that thing that goes whoosh and disappears?”
She was asking about that space after seeing me put the gas burner and frying pan in and out of my inventory.
“It’s not that I don’t want to carry luggage, but there may be times we have to sleep outside on the way, so I want to take everything we need.”
“It fits a lot, but I have pretty much everything, so you only need to pack what you need.”
“Yeees.”
Though Yanneu said she would only pack what she needed, she was stuffing shabby household belongings into a large cloth bag.
It felt like I’d taken in a young girl head-of-household with the tenacious spirit of a survivor.
I placed worn-out items into my inventory that you’d be hard-pressed to find even at a recycling center, and after some deliberation, I added a table and chairs as well.
It was because having a table and chairs would be more comfortable than doing everything on bare ground when camping out.
“Um, Magician-nim, do you perhaps have some spare funds?”
“You don’t have to worry about travel expenses.”
“That’s not it. If we sell the honey harvested in the village after passing Dyurendal Territory, we can sell it for a higher price.”
It was simple trade, but young Yanneu knew how to make money.
“I have 100 gold on hand, so buy as much honey as you can.”
“Th-that much? Hehe. I’ll go buy honey!”