Chapter 123: Love and Hate

The loud bang didn’t just destroy the treasure chest Su You was about to open—it also startled everyone else in the territory.

Duoya wasn’t in the territory and still hadn’t returned, so she had no idea what had happened and was still out hunting in the forest.

Doli had been repairing the things Su You had deliberately broken earlier, hoping to improve her repair skills. But the sudden explosion made the wooden cup she was working on—already almost “healed”—shatter in her hands, leaving her completely dumbfounded.

This was the first time in her life that not only had she failed to repair something, but she’d actually managed to blow it to pieces—so badly that there was no way to put it back together.

Even though Doli knew it wasn’t her fault and that she’d been affected by something outside, she was still in a bad mood—just like Su You.

As for the brothers Lyle and Lake, they were both practicing their skills near the territory.

One was working on his carpentry by carving wooden figures, while the other was training his defense skills. After the explosion, Lyle nearly cut his finger with his carving knife, and Lake stumbled and almost fell flat on his face.

Then there were the merchants at the inn. Since the inn was right next to the territory wall—basically at the edge of the territory—they heard the noise even more clearly and loudly than Su You and the others.

A group of them had just finished eating and were chatting happily, when the sudden bang scared several people so badly they fell right off their chairs.

Yun Li frowned and led a few people out to check what was going on, only to run into Su You and Lyle, who were also heading out to investigate.

They exchanged glances and nodded to each other, then, with unspoken agreement, all headed toward the main gate.

Whether it was coincidence or not, as soon as Lyle pushed open the gate, a fireball shot straight toward him. He didn’t have time to dodge, but luckily someone next to him pulled him out of the way, so the fireball missed him.

Otherwise, judging by the direction of the attack, even though this was a digital world and he wouldn’t be disfigured or seriously injured, he’d definitely have lost a lot of HP.

While everyone else was still wondering what was happening outside and why there were fireballs, Su You already knew who was behind all this.

A fireball… who else could pull that off but a fire mage?

And when it came to fire mages, besides the one Su You had just recruited—Meike—who else could it be?

Since it was almost certainly Meike outside, Su You also figured out what had caused the commotion.

Among fire spells, there’s one called “Explosion”—it always makes a huge racket when cast.

Even if it wasn’t Explosion, it had to be some other high-level spell capable of making that kind of noise.

There are quite a few such spells, but they’re all advanced magic—ordinary mages can’t learn them. But since Meike hadn’t officially joined the territory yet, his power hadn’t been restricted, which meant he was still a high-level mage. For someone like Meike, casting this kind of spell was no problem at all.

“There’s probably a fire mage fighting outside. To avoid getting caught in the crossfire, you’d all better stay put for now.” Su You said this to everyone, then turned to Lyle: “You stay here and keep watch. I’m going to grab something. If anyone wants to come in, let them, but make sure you ask what’s going on outside first.”

“Yes, my lord,” Lyle nodded, then stood guard behind the now-closed stone gate.

Yun Li and her group wanted to go out and take a look, but they weren’t reckless. After Su You’s warning, their curiosity faded.

“You two stay here, the rest of you go back,” Yun Li picked two people with combat skills to stay and help Lyle guard the gate.

Even though she had nothing to do with this territory, they were staying here for now, so she was willing to lend a hand where she could. But if things got out of hand, she wasn’t about to play the hero. Leaving these two behind wasn’t just to help—it was also to keep tabs on the situation.

If anything went wrong, they’d report to her, and she could make plans accordingly.

What kind of creature could go toe-to-toe with a fire mage of this caliber?

And could this fire mage actually win against whatever it was?

Yun Li felt uneasy. She hoped nothing bad would happen, but wishing alone wouldn’t solve anything.

Not knowing what was really going on, she instinctively hoped the fire mage would win. After all, the mage was human, and unless he was one of those rare extremists, he probably wouldn’t attack them.

But as for the creature fighting the mage—who knew what it might do?

While Yun Li anxiously returned to the inn and told the others what had happened, Su You was already rummaging through a chest and found what she needed—a high-level cooking skill book.

As mentioned before, Meike had a borderline obsessive passion for cooking. When Su You recruited NPCs, she’d always find their weaknesses or preferences and use those to win them over.

Since Meike loved cooking, she’d just give him a high-level cooking skill book.

With this book, Meike wouldn’t become completely loyal to the territory or blindly follow Su You’s orders, but combined with a few promises (like providing ingredients and a kitchen for him to cook in), persuading him to join shouldn’t be hard.

As for getting him to actually listen after that, Su You would have to work on raising his favor and loyalty herself.

Of course, even without the skill book, Su You had other ways to tempt Meike to stay—it would just cost more.

For example, she could let him use up a ton of ingredients, and put up with his “experimental” cooking from time to time…

The problem was, she couldn’t let her annoyance show. In other areas it was fine, but if she showed any displeasure about his cooking, his favorability would drop. Not by much—just a point or two, and it would bounce back in a few days—but it was still annoying.

And as annoying as he was, he was also incredibly useful. That’s why Meike was one of those NPCs Su You both loved and hated.

Thanks to the anonymous reader for the tip!

(End of chapter)"

"124. Little Black Bug

……

All in all, Su You suddenly felt rather glad that she’d managed to get her hands on this advanced cooking skill book.

In her previous save file, she’d actually considered giving Meike a cooking skill book as well, but at that time Meike had already reached his skill limit, and every single one of his skills was maxed out.

She couldn’t bear to use an item to erase any of those powerful combat skills just to let him learn a cooking skill that was neither here nor there and would never reach max level anyway… Plus, she’d only recruited Meike when her territory was already fairly prosperous, so she wasn’t worried about him wasting ingredients—she wasn’t short on supplies.

But now, things were different. Meike had just arrived, so he definitely didn’t have many skills yet. Teaching him cooking wouldn’t be a problem.

Su You tossed the skill book into her inventory, then walked out of Residential House 4.

But just as she stepped out the door, she seemed to sense something dart past her feet with a whoosh.

Before she could react and figure out what had just happened, she saw Lyle rushing over to her, looking anxious.

“My lord, are you alright?”

Su You shook her head, about to turn around and see what exactly had just shot past her, when suddenly—boom!—the main gate of the territory was blown open.

Su You: ?!

Her eyelid twitched. Looking up, she saw a middle-aged man in a tattered mage’s robe—someone who looked vaguely familiar—storming into the territory with an imposing air.

“Where’s that little black bug?! Get out here, you! Stealing my food and then complaining about it—just you wait, I’ll roast you into a steak and show you what real gourmet food tastes like!”

“If you’ve got the guts to say my cooking is bad, then you’ve got the guts to come out and face me! What are you hiding for?!”

Su You: ……

Well… even though Su You didn’t know exactly what had happened, based on her understanding of Meike and the information in his words, she could more or less guess the situation.

The “little black bug” Meike mentioned was probably the creature he’d just fought, and the fight had started because the “little black bug” said Meike’s cooking was bad…

Yeah, that made sense. Meike wasn’t angry because the “little black bug” stole his food, but because it said his cooking tasted awful.

Maybe other people wouldn’t understand Meike’s logic, but Su You did… Well, actually, she didn’t really understand it either, but she knew that’s just how Meike’s mind worked.

But regardless, that was no excuse for Meike to go smashing up her territory.

“Lyle.” Su You pointed behind her, at Residential House 4. “Something just ran in there. See if you can catch it. If you can’t, that’s fine—your safety comes first. Just block it inside and don’t let it escape.”

Lyle hesitated—a rare thing, as he usually followed Su You’s orders without question—because there was still a very dangerous person here.

Su You could see the worry in his eyes, but she didn’t have time to explain. She just indicated that she’d be fine, then walked toward Meike.

Her confidence didn’t come from the skill book, but from the system’s protection.

Any NPC recruited from the tavern, no matter how eccentric their behavior, would have an extremely low desire to attack the person who recruited them.

Unless someone deliberately provoked them, they would never attack unprompted.

Of course, it was possible that the data-driven world could delete this bit of programming, but even if it did, Meike wasn’t a violent person. His aggression was only directed at those who mocked his cooking or disrupted him while he was cooking… or at other creatures.

Under normal circumstances, he would never harm the innocent. So Su You was unlikely to be in any danger—unless she lost her mind and started mocking his cooking like that “little black bug.”

Lyle didn’t know any of this, so naturally he was worried. But when he saw Su You safely walk up to Meike, he hesitated, then chose to follow her instructions and went into Residential House 4 to look for the “thing” she’d mentioned that had slipped inside.

……

Meanwhile, Su You had already reached Meike.

Although Meike was angry about his cooking being insulted, most of his rage had already been vented in the earlier fight. The reason he’d blown open the gate and rushed in now was simply an instinctive reaction to chase the “little black bug”—he didn’t actually have any grudge or ill will toward the territory itself.

So when he saw Su You, his attitude wasn’t exactly friendly, but he wasn’t as furious as before either.

Su You knew Meike’s temperament well. She wasn’t sure if he was exactly the same as before, but his current attitude said it all.

He didn’t attack Su You, but he didn’t apologize either.

“Consider this your compensation for the damage to your territory. Where’s your lord? Tell them to come out. Some stinking creature ran into your territory—I’m going to drag it out.” Meike tossed Su You a gold coin, sounding a bit annoyed, his eyes darting around as if searching for the “little black bug” that had insulted his cooking.

Su You didn’t stand on ceremony—she put the gold coin straight into her backpack.

Seeing this, Meike frowned, about to say something, but Su You spoke first.

“I’m the lord here. I accept your compensation. If you want to look for that so-called stinker in my territory, I won’t stop you, but you can’t make a mess, and you absolutely can’t…” Su You pointed at the blasted stone gate. “…randomly destroy buildings in my territory.”

Meike had thought she was just someone trying to pocket the gold coin, but she’d actually said she was the lord…

He found it a little odd, but didn’t say much. Whoever the lord was, it didn’t matter to him—this wasn’t his territory anyway. What mattered most right now was finding the guy who dared say his cooking was bad.

“I’m just here to find that stinker. As long as your territory doesn’t shelter it, I won’t cause any trouble.” With that, Meike snorted, glanced around at the territory, and after seeing how simple and sparse the place was, quickly got a basic sense of it.

It was a small territory, but that was fine—fewer buildings, smaller area, easier to search.

Just as he was about to go check each building, Su You suddenly called out to him.

“I just saw a black shadow dart into that house. Why not check there first?”

(End of chapter)"

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---