Jack removed the helmet and grabbed his belly. He felt like there was a hole burning in his stomach. After the VRX helmet blocked his body's signals for hours, Jack's ignored body retaliated with severe stomach cramps. As he marched to the kitchen, he felt his joints pop and crack, and his shoulders and neck felt stiff.
“If this will be my job now, I need to find a better place to play and take more breaks. Who could have guessed that lying down all day could be this painful?” Jack complained as he grabbed his belly with one hand and massaged his neck with the other.
While Rob's couch wasn't uncomfortable, it was worse than his bed. Spending so many hours in a row lying on the couch wasn't good for his back. Why did he lie to his parents and say he attended handyman school? Now, he would have to play all day in these conditions.
Besides the short running session he'd done a couple of days prior, he hadn't done anything else since then. He would have to go back to exercising. Only running wouldn’t cut it. He would have to strengthen his back and shoulders; otherwise, he would feel stiff and sore all the time.
Groaning, Jack opened and closed cabinet notes, looking for something edible, and a pop of bright yellow caught his eye. There was a Post-it glued to Rob’s kitchen droid.
You seemed busy, so I ate without you. Once you log out, ask the droid for whatever you want to eat. I recommend the bolognese pasta. It’s what I had today.
Jack chuckled as he saw his cousin’s thoughtful, hand-written note. When was the last time he’d seen something written by hand? He couldn’t remember the last time he had written something by hand. Why hadn’t his cousin just sent him a message in-game?
Jack turned toward the droid, an unassuming box of stainless steel with beeping lights. It didn’t look like it could do much, but Jack had seen these on TV. Once this thing got going, there was nothing it couldn’t do in the kitchen, from baking a wedding cake to reorganizing the shelves or cleaning the fridge. It was already well past lunchtime, and Jack, too hungry and tired to think, decided to accept his cousin's suggestion.
“Droid, please make me a bolognese. I like it spicy.”
“Preparing.”
The box shifted and cracked open, revealing a series of mechanical appendages. Once unfolded, the android looked like a spider. It rushed to a cabinet for tomato sauce and flour and grabbed a couple of eggs and vegetables from the fridge. Jack observed the android as it made a little bed of flour, broke two eggs over it, and started mixing dough. These things were something else. It was making the pasta from scratch! Each strand was precisely measured to be the size of the other.
Not even his mother made pasta from scratch. His family just bought it from the supermarket. Admiring the droid’s technique, Jack had to wonder: how many hours would a person have to practice making pasta like this? What if it were in the game? How many hours would a chef player need to work to be able to do what this android was doing? Thinking about this soured his mood. It all felt unfair. Somewhere out there, there had to be a chef who this piece of machinery had replaced.
Still, Jack couldn’t take his eyes off the droid. The stainless steel spider headed over to the package of beef and threw different seasonings onto it, massaged the meat, and let it rest. It then sprayed a disinfectant on its appendages to clean the meat bacteria and headed over to the chopping board to cut vegetables into thin slices. After two tomatoes and one onion, Jack lost interest. He got a glass of tap water and stared out the window, thinking about the game.
He already had found minors number three and four. Bards seemed to have potential, and he was dying to find out how the beekeeper minor would synergize with his other minors. He just hoped that it offset his weaknesses. The idea of being stuck with minors that didn’t go together for ten levels made him anxious. What if these weren’t the right minors for him? Was this something that could be corrected down the road? He had no idea how long it would take him to level 20, but it had to be longer than it had taken him to reach level 10. Would he be stuck with a dead minor if beekeeping didn’t work?
Sighing, Jack went to the bathroom. When he was back, a plate with a colorful meal was sitting next to a tall glass of water with a slice of lemon in it. Jack approached with wide eyes. It smelled amazing.
“Meal ready, sir,” the kitchen droid announced.
“Already? Thanks!”
The android grabbed all the cooking utensils, rinsed them in the sink, and set them in the washing machine. Jack sat on the table and admired the steamy bowl of red pasta, drooling. It was sprinkled with cheese, oregano, and pepper.
Unable to hold it anymore, Jack started eating. The pasta felt silky and smooth. The tomato sauce was acidic and sweet, and the beef was savory and spicy. It was an incredible meal, and Jack felt his grumbling stomach finally calm. Rob was right. It was good. That an android could cook better than his mother was unfair, but it tasted good.
For a moment, Jack just enjoyed the moment. He focused on every bite of this reinvigorating meal while he looked out the window at the nearby trees. Once the meal was nearly over, Jack called out to the android. “Can I have some coffee, please?”
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“Certainly, sir.”
Jack scraped all of the sauce from the plate and glanced at the android. It had just finished putting a pinch of salt in the coffee and was now grating cinnamon. What on earth was he doing? “No sugar, droid.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maybe the android was preparing coffee the way Rob liked it. The spider approached on three legs, set the mug before Jack, and, finding a chip in it, frowned. “Wait a minute.” Jack cracked up. He was inspecting the ceramics as if he was still in the game. Still laughing, he brought the coffee up to his nose. He could smell the fragrant cinnamon. Jack sipped the coffee, afraid it tasted salty. On the contrary, it tasted rich, like chocolate. “Wow. This is great.” The android bowed and took Jack’s dirty plate.
By the time Jack finished eating and managed to go back to the couch, only 30 minutes had passed. He still had 90 minutes left to meet Amari at the rendezvous point. Jack slapped the couch pillows a few times, looking for the most comfortable position, put on the helmet, and let his consciousness return to New Earth.
*
As Jack appeared on the street outside the Pottery Association, he realized that the first thing he had to do before meeting Amari was to eat again. It felt weird to do so after lunch, but he couldn’t go out without an in-game meal. He raced over to Sold&Proper.
Jack turned a corner and spotted the familiar black-and-white awning. Every seat but one along the mahogany counter was occupied. Instead of spotting the clean-shaven, large, tall Chef Gustaf behind the counter, there was someone else.
He hardly recognized her because she was smiling. Her red hair was tucked neatly beneath a new long chef’s hat, and she was handling the different pans, pouring food to the sitting customers with a beaming smile.
It was the player working in the back kitchen the last time he’d visited. How in the world had the bratty, rude player taken Chef Gustaf’s place? Was this a promotion? Or had she taken charge of the restaurant? And what had happened to her? She looked like a different person! Jack took the only empty seat.
Now closer to the chef, his surprise only grew. She seemed different than the last time that he’d seen her. Instead of bickering, she greeted customers with warmth, going out of her way to make them feel welcome. Jack nodded approvingly. If his memory didn’t fail him, her name was Marlene. Seeing such a brat progress and become more likable was a pleasant surprise. Perhaps there was still hope for this rude world.
“Hello, sir. How are you doing on this fine evening? What can we serve you today?” Marlene said with a polite smile.
“I'd like to use a meal voucher.”
She took the item from Jack’s hand. “A special, uh? ONE MORE SPECIAL,” she roared, her voice stripped of all the courtesy she extended to customers.
“Coming right up!” a familiar roar echoed from the kitchen.
Marlene left to attend to the different pans. She grabbed a clean one, poured water from a bottle, and started springing herbs and previously chopped vegetables. Shortly after, Chef Gustaf appeared. The chef, who had placed an order with the pottery association last time and given him the vouchers, handed over a plate of seared algae and fish to Marlene.
“Thanks, chef.”
“You’re welcome, chef!” the tall man responded before disappearing into the kitchen. He was still working here! Chef Gustaf was probably letting Marlene have a go at the front of the restaurant.
Marlene added the newly arrived algae and fish to the pan, added a few more condiments, swooshed the pan's contents up and down, and in under a minute, there was a hot yellow bowl of fish soup before Jack.
“Here you go! One white finnosaurus soup. Enjoy!”
Jack couldn't help but feel some pride, seeing lunch in one of his creations. Somehow, seeing his bowl filled with delicious food stirred him to head back to the Pottery Association and make an improved dinnerware set. He had learned a lot since he had made these bowls. He could do better now. But there was no time for that. Not today.
Jack slurped on the soup. It was salty and savory. The seared algae added a smoky, sweet flavor to the soup, and the chewy chunks of white meat were tender and melted in Jack’s mouth. This girl could cook! Jack found himself torn between which tasted best: the droid-cooked pasta in the real world or the soup prepared for a human in a virtual world.
Jack looked down at his bowl and found that less than half of the soup was left. Glancing at the long mahogany counter, he saw the same was true of the restaurant patrons. Half of the seats were empty.
Seeing Marlene more relaxed, he shrugged, and struck a conversation with her. “How long have you been working here?”
The chef didn’t look up from her pans. “Only a week.”
“That’s a long time.”
“It's a good chain quest. I've reached novice level in the chef profession thanks to it.”
“Wow, that's impressive. Are you going to stay here for good?”
“Oh, no. I want to get my stall by the gate. I'll only need to serve about 50 more happy customers, and I’ll be done here.”
“You seem happy here.”
“Yeah, it's fantastic. You get to work with food all day, and you learn a lot.” She looked up, surprised to see a player chatting with her. “Wait. Don’t I recognize you from somewhere?”
Jack held up the bowl. “I made these.”
“Oh, that’s right! The potter!”
A customer interrupted the conversation. “Chef, what’s the menu for today?”
“Excuse me. New customers.”
“No worries. Bye.”
Seeing Marlene leaving to prepare other delicious dishes and eating this tasty soup, Jack couldn't help but feel slightly envious. It wasn’t just about the food; no matter how much he tried to make his survival stews taste better, they always came out as a meal with no appealing color or smell. He was envious of how happy she looked.
Would he ever be this happy crafting in the game? Jack looked at the empty turmeric yellow bowl before him and down at his belt, where one of his ocarinas hung. He thought for a few moments, and he smiled. He wouldn’t trade his minors for hers. She wasn’t the only one having fun.
You’ve received [White Finnosaurus Soup Buff].
Algae and aquatic plants become easier to harvest;
Common and uncommon fish will struggle less.
The stamina bar is increased by 150;
This buff lasts two hours.
The soup’s buff was alright. Even though he wasn't going to go fishing or anywhere near enough water, he was satisfied with the increase in stamina. To make it even better, the meal had cost him nothing. Jack waved goodbye to the happy red-haired chef and ran in the direction of the city’s gate. It was time to meet the rest of the gang.