Chapter 138: Braised Sand Snails

Up until now, Su You felt that these NPCs were no different from real people—their realism far surpassed anything she’d experienced in previous games.

If she didn’t know for sure that this was a digital world, Su You would have thought they were all actual humans... It was precisely because of this high degree of realism that she couldn’t treat them like she did in other games, as if they were just a string of disposable data, unimportant and meaningless if they died.

Although her previous game also claimed to be 90% realistic as a full-dive VR game, 90% is still not 100%. But this digital world was different—Su You could directly confirm that it was 99.99% realistic...

As for why it wasn’t 100%, well, unless none of this was actually data, Su You would always define them as 99.99%... or even 99.99999% real, but never truly 100%.

Speaking of which, the brothers Lyle and Lake were a bit odd—Su You couldn’t quite figure out what kind of NPCs they were.

After all, even though they didn’t have backstories, they had skills and talents, and their talents weren’t any lower than those of special NPCs. Lake’s skill level had even reached a bottleneck. From any angle, they should be considered special NPCs.

...Su You felt something was off, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. After pondering for a while and getting nowhere, she simply gave up.

Maybe this was just another adjustment the digital world made based on actual circumstances. There was no need for her to waste time thinking about it.

...

After that, Su You took her supplies and went to explore the area directly south of her territory.

She spent almost the entire afternoon exploring, finally uncovering the area. The part of the map that had been shrouded in thick fog now revealed its true appearance.

The southern part of the territory seemed to be near the coast, because Su You saw quite a bit of scattered sand on the ground here—the kind of sand that only appeared near underground water holes or coastal areas.

Sand could be collected to make glass, but there was too little of it, and it was mixed with dirt, making it hard to separate. So she couldn’t collect any of this sand.

However, she had previously bought a lot of sand from the merchant caravan. Besides using it to make glass for construction, it could also be used to make glass bottles.

Glass bottles were the most common containers for storing various potions. Su You’s potions had originally been stored in wooden cups, but many potions weren’t suitable for that, as the wood would weaken their effects and even cause potions that normally wouldn’t spoil to go bad after a while.

But if the potions were stored in glass bottles, this problem wouldn’t occur.

“So this is actually a coastline? There might be other monsters here...” Su You frowned and decided not to go any further.

Even though she really wanted to see if there were any other resources at the coast, for safety’s sake, she gave up on advancing.

Glancing at her backpack, which still had plenty of space, Su You didn’t go forward, but she did take the opportunity to gather a lot of other materials nearby.

Besides sand, areas near the coast could also have some special creatures—both animals and plants.

[Obtained Sea Star Grass ×46]

[Obtained Sand Snail ×57]

[Obtained Vine Hemp Greens ×75]

[Obtained Green Silky Threads ×100]

[Obtained Clay ×135]

...

Looking at her now full backpack, and then spotting a crab nest not far away, Su You sighed with a hint of regret.

It just goes to show that for a hoarder player like her, who loves to stockpile and collect everything, no backpack is ever big enough.

Good thing she’d upgraded her backpack before coming out, or she would’ve been able to carry even less—and she’d be even more heartbroken!

Seeing the sky grow darker, Su You made a mental note to come back and raid that crab nest next time, then headed back to her territory.

The first thing she did upon returning was to take out all the ingredients from her backpack and hand them over to Meike.

When Meike saw the pile of “wild grass” and the heap of snail-like things that looked like rocks, his brows furrowed so tightly they almost twisted into a knot. If Su You hadn’t told him these were all ingredients—and excellent ones at that—Meike would have thrown out what he considered a pile of garbage without hesitation.

“You’re sure this stuff is edible?” Meike asked, picking up a sand snail about the size of a ping-pong ball and eyeing its pitch-black shell with distaste. He really couldn’t imagine what part of it could possibly be eaten.

“It’s edible. I have recipes—just follow them.” Other than the size, sand snails were basically the same as the snails she’d eaten before.

The best thing about sand snails was their thin shells and abundant meat—the flesh was thick, springy, and delicious. They didn’t require any special prep and could be cooked directly. Unlike before, you didn’t have to worry about sand if you didn’t clean them thoroughly.

“Here’s the recipe for sand snails.” Besides the sand snails, Su You also gave him recipes for sea star grass, vine hemp greens, and green silky threads.

Sea star grass was similar to kelp, but a bit different—it could be served cold or used in soup.

Vine hemp greens were a wild vegetable with a very refreshing taste. They didn’t need fancy cooking—just a simple stir-fry was delicious.

Green silky threads were also a kind of vegetable, named for their emerald color and thread-like shape. They were cooked much like vine hemp greens—just stir-fry them.

Following Su You’s recipes, Meike, still a bit skeptical, first made a batch of braised sand snails.

The seasonings for the braised sand snails were ones Su You had specially bought from the merchant caravan for Meike.

If you used the workbench to make food, you didn’t need seasonings—the food would still taste great. But if an NPC cooked by hand, no matter how high their skill level, they couldn’t make bland ingredients taste amazing out of thin air.

Su You had bought plenty of seasonings—enough to last a long time—so Meike was quite happy cooking, since he had all the ingredients he could want.

[Braised Sand Snails]

Category: Food

Quality: White

Effect: Restores 15 hunger points

Description: Fragrant and savory, the snail meat is plump and springy—a truly delicious dish.

...

“This actually looks pretty good,” Meike said, looking at the braised sand snails he’d just made. Though his face was calm, he couldn’t hide the pride in his voice.

Su You didn’t even have to guess what he was thinking... Meike was definitely feeling smug about his cooking skills—after all, it was only because he was so good that he could turn a pile of rock-like things into such a tasty dish.

(End of chapter)"

"**141. Night of the Eighth Day**

In truth, Yousen wasn’t even sure if what he felt for Duoya was really that kind of “liking.” But after all, she had saved his life—twice, in fact—so it was only natural that she held a special place in his heart…

After getting a general sense of the situation, Su You cleared her throat to remind them of her presence. Before the two could say anything, she handed Yousen the batch of basic growth fertilizer she’d prepared earlier.

“This is basic growth fertilizer. You’ve farmed before, so you should know what this is. I’ll leave these with you.” With that, Su You didn’t give them a chance to react and headed straight to the tavern to get dinner.

…

Maybe because it was dinnertime, the tavern was bustling. Dolly, the Lyle brothers, Buguo, and Yue were all there, and the members of the merchant caravan had also come for their last meal…

Here, “last” meant they’d be leaving Sunset Territory early the next morning, so there’d be no chance for a second dinner here—unless they returned someday, but who could say if that would ever happen.

The once-empty tavern was now packed, to the point that there weren’t enough tables and chairs to go around. Fortunately, Su You had prepared for this and brought out several brand-new sets from the storeroom.

“Braised sand snails? Starweed meat soup? What are these?” Merchant A stared in surprise at several new wooden boards hanging on the wall—these were Meike’s handiwork.

The boards were about the size and thickness of a smartphone, each with a hole and string for hanging, listing the names and prices of the tavern’s dishes.

They were hung on the stone-needle wall, serving as the menu.

Actually, Meike had put up these boards ever since he became the tavern’s manager, so what surprised everyone wasn’t the boards themselves, but the increased number and the new dishes listed.

Originally, there were eleven boards, divided into three categories based on ingredients:

The first type used only berries: roasted berries, berry juice, dried berries.

The second type used only meat: small roast, large roast, meat soup, small jerky, large jerky.

The third type combined berries and meat: berry roast, deluxe roast, berry meat soup.

Su You herself didn’t think it was necessary to be so detailed, but Meike liked it that way, so she let him be—she couldn’t be bothered to argue with his stubbornness over such trivial matters.

There had been eleven boards, but now there were five more—meaning five new dishes: braised sand snails, starweed meat soup, cold starweed salad, stir-fried vine hemp greens, and stir-fried green silks.

For now, the price was set at 1 copper coin = 10 hunger points. The previous rate of 1 copper = 20 hunger points only applied to territory residents; for outsiders, the price was doubled.

Of course, this was just a temporary pricing scheme. Once the territory opened up, such a blatant price difference wouldn’t be possible. Otherwise, if residents couldn’t resist the temptation to buy food for outsiders and make a profit, it could become a serious problem.

Hearing Merchant A’s question, Meike pointed to the freshly cooked new dishes and explained, “These are all new ingredients the lord found this afternoon. There isn’t much of each, so if you want to try them, you’d better order quickly.”

Meike wasn’t exaggerating about the limited quantities—there were only three servings of braised sand snails left, though the other four dishes still had plenty of ingredients.

Whether it was trust in Meike as a mage or faith in his cooking over the past two days, everyone was eager to give face and at least try one of the new dishes.

Braised sand snails, being the most limited, sold out first. Most people figured they’d just try something else if they missed out, but when the aroma of the braised sand snails wafted through the tavern, regret was inevitable.

Of the three servings, Dolly snagged one, and when Buguo came in right after, Dolly called her over to eat together.

Buguo was a bit reluctant—not because she disliked Dolly (in fact, she had a good impression of her). When Su You had told Buguo to collect clothes and bedding from Dolly, Dolly had even helped carry them to Buguo’s house, worried she couldn’t manage alone.

Buguo’s reluctance was just because she was used to being alone and wasn’t comfortable socializing with strangers… but in the end, Dolly managed to pull her over.

The other two servings went to a traveler and a merchant, respectively.

The rest could only swallow their saliva at the mouthwatering aroma.

Fortunately, with Yue’s help, everyone’s other orders soon arrived, so at least they had something to eat and didn’t have to just watch others enjoy their food.

Thanks to the braised sand snails’ stellar performance, everyone’s expectations for the other four new dishes rose as well.

A few people who’d planned to just get some roast meat decided to splurge and order more dishes after some hesitation.

For a while, the tavern was filled with a chorus of praise.

Meike basked in the compliments, tossing coins into the cash box as he secretly stir-fried the leftover sand snails—too little for a full serving—for himself.

But the aroma was so strong that his “sneaky” act was quickly discovered by the others. Still, everyone was busy eating, and since Meike was a mage, they just shot him a few glances and let it go.

In this cheerful atmosphere, Su You enjoyed her dinner.

…

After dinner, Su You went to the bounty board to adjust some of the mission details.

As for territory tasks, although Su You had told everyone to pick according to their own situation, they’d developed a basic sense of teamwork: they generally avoided taking the same missions as others.

With so few people, division of labor was essential to ensure no resource ran short. If everyone did the same task and gathered the same materials, other supplies would quickly run out, which was unacceptable.

The current arrangement was working well—

Lyle chopped wood. Only when there was too much wood and nowhere to store it would he consider other tasks.

(End of chapter)"

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