Irim didn’t pay much attention to other players in Real.
He was solely focused on cooking.
That’s why he didn’t know.
That players could hide their nicknames.
If he hadn’t reunited with ‘Sinking’ in the Spider Forest after a long time, and if Sinking hadn’t told him, he might never have known.
Following Sinking’s instructions, Irim manipulated the system to hide his nickname.
He wasn’t ready for fame just yet.
Lately, selling food to players had given him an unexpected sense of pride.
But if he let that sway him, he’d drift away from the true reason he logged in: to cook.
Irim was wary of that.
He had logged into Real to cook, not to become famous in the game.
“Oh, you caught on quick.”
Sinking gave Irim a thumbs-up for immediately hiding his nickname.
“Thanks to your clear explanation.”
“But, Rice, I heard rumors that you solo-raided the Claw Lizard Princess. Is that true?”
“Ah… Yes, it just happened that way.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. You’re always cooking away, so what skill did you get to do that? Maybe I should switch to cooking too.”
Sinking fell into serious contemplation.
But he wasn’t the type to think long.
He turned his head to gaze into the distance of the forest.
“Now that you’re here, Rice, you’ll probably leave the regional server soon, right?”
“Regional server? What’s that?”
“You didn’t know about that either?”
Sinking stared at the bewildered Irim and shrugged.
“You’re really a subject of study.”
It was astonishing how someone who jumped into Real without researching it was achieving more than anyone else.
“So, a regional server groups players from similar areas together. When you first log in, you choose a server, and if you don’t change it, you’re grouped with users from your region. So, the players you met in the Starting Grassland are all from the Gangwon Province region.”
“Ah, I see.”
“The Spider Forest is still within the regional server for newbies. It’s a consideration for beginners. If too many newbies crowded a small map, there wouldn’t be enough monsters to hunt, and making the map too large would make it hard to leave the newbie zone.”
“I understand.”
“So, once you leave the Spider Forest, you enter the Korean integrated server.”
“There must be a ton of people.”
“After the forest, you’ll walk through fields and reach a small village. But ‘small’ is relative—it’s huge. And apparently, the central square is already bustling with players trading items. It’s become like a marketplace.”
Irim was curious about what this first village in the game would look like.
Real, the virtual reality game, had only been open for about a week.
As a result, over 98% of the continent remained unexplored.
Some advanced players were pioneering new areas and posting about them on the Real Fan Cafe, but the world was so vast that even the outline of the lore wasn’t clear yet.
“Rice, are you staying here longer?”
Irim shook his head.
“No, I’ll head out.”
“Great. Let’s go together.”
“Sure.”
Leaving the Spider Forest, a vast field opened up.
The field was filled with new monsters and animals.
Players were diligently hunting monsters there too.
The field, as large as several sports complexes combined, was half monsters and half players.
It was the moment Irim felt the scale of the integrated server.
Sinking looked around.
“From here on, there are aggressive monsters, so be careful. There’s something called a Killbee, a giant bee. Its tail stinger deals heavy damage, and there’s a 10% chance it stuns you.”
He shared information from the cafe.
Upon hearing that, Irim asked, “Bees? So there must be beehives too?”
“Probably. I haven’t seen one, though.”
“Perfect. I can harvest honey then.”
“Wow, you connect everything to cooking.”
Sinking made a face as if exhausted by Irim’s passion and obsession with cooking.
“Anyway, I’m going to hunt here for a bit. What about you, Rice?”
“Aren’t you going to the village?”
“The posts on the cafe say it’s nothing special. I can’t play often, so I’ll spend my precious time hunting.”
Irim considered doing the same but was more curious about the village.
Or rather, the restaurant in the village.
So, he bid farewell to Sinking.
“Then, let’s meet again if we get the chance, Sinking.”
“Yes. Enjoy the game!”
Irim turned away and headed toward the village in the distance.
Behind him, Sinking suddenly started singing.
“May my heart become a star, shining on you even in the darkness~”
It was ‘Mind Star,’ a song by the popular singer ‘Paul One,’ topping charts on various music sites.
It was so popular that you’d hear it anywhere outside.
No one at karaoke skipped it, regardless of gender.
Its simple yet familiar and charming melody even made it trend among elementary school kids.
Thus, ‘Mind Star’ was the ultimate trendy song these days.
But Irim, living a life far removed from trends, had no idea what the song was.
As Sinking sang, a new power surged through his body.
His profession was Bard.
He had the ability to grant buffs through song.
The village, surrounded by a large wooden fence, was named ‘Tirko.’
Irim entered the village.
In typical RPG games, entering a village would trigger an NPC to give a quest, and completing it would build relationships, leading to more quests.
But this village had none of that.
Most players who started the game hadn’t received any quests here.
However, not everyone had zero quests.
A few had received quests from the artificial intelligence characters, or NPCs, in the village.
They just kept it secret.
Irim first wandered around the village.
As Sinking had said, it was quite large, and just looking around took about 30 minutes.
There were many regular houses and various shops.
Weapon shops, armor shops, general stores, inns, clothing stores, grocery stores, restaurants, and even a temple.
Irim headed to the grocery store, noting its location.
He pulled the handle of the somewhat dilapidated building, but the door wouldn’t open.
Click.
It was locked from inside.
Not open for business?
It was a strange village.
The overall atmosphere felt subdued, and after exploring for quite a while, Irim noticed there were only adult NPCs.
Not a single child NPC.
It can’t be that the developers were too lazy to make kids and skipped them.
Finding it odd, Irim headed to the restaurant.
Fortunately, the restaurant door wasn’t locked.
“Welcome.”
As Irim entered, a middle-aged woman at the counter greeted him.
Irim looked above her head.
‘Rozelan’ was written there.
She was the owner of this restaurant.
The interior was quite spacious, with many tables.
But only two tables were occupied.
The occupants were dipping tough bread into watery soup, their faces showing they were eating just to survive.
Irim sat at an empty table, and Rozelan approached.
“What’ll it be? Just so you know, we only have bread and soup. One or the other? Or both?”
“Both.”
Rozelan nodded and headed to the kitchen.
Meanwhile, the players who had filled their stomachs left money on the table and exited.
Now, Irim was the only one in the restaurant.
Rozelan emerged from the kitchen, placed a bowl of cold soup and a loaf of bread on Irim’s table, and returned to the counter.
Irim took a sip of the soup.
Hmm.
It was almost like plain water.
He tore off a piece of bread and ate it.
It was dry, tough, and tasteless.
It felt like chewing Styrofoam.
No wonder the restaurant was empty.
And there were no other restaurants in the village.
So, players opted to hunt and eat in the wild rather than pay for this.
Irim disliked eating bad food.
He could force down a certain level, but this was too much.
After some thought, he pulled salt, two chicken skewers, a fried egg, and a Dagger from his inventory.
He seasoned the watery soup with salt.
Slurp.
Much better.
With the right amount of salt, the soup’s flavor improved significantly.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Irim removed the meat from the chicken skewers and added it to the soup.
Food stored in the inventory right after making didn’t spoil or cool; it retained its fresh state.
So, the chicken skewer meat was full of smoky aroma and juices.
Irim crushed the skewers slightly and mixed them into the soup.
The juices from the meat flowed out, melting into the soup.
As a bonus, a subtle smokiness was added.
Irim tasted the soup again.
This is it.
The plain water soup had transformed into a fine chicken soup.
Now for the bread.
He gripped the Dagger and sliced the bread in half.
He dipped the cut side into the soup and pulled it out.
The exterior remained firm, but the interior absorbed the soup, becoming soft and moist.
Irim placed a fried egg and chicken skewer meat inside, forming a burger.
“Here goes.”
He took a big bite of the bread.
The bland bread, now soaked in soup, was savory, and the chicken skewer and egg inside provided a nice texture and flavor when chewed with the bread.
Not bad.
Irim quickly devoured the reborn soup and bread.
It felt like the most meal-like meal since logging into this world.
As he looked at the empty plate with satisfaction and was about to leave money and stand up—
“Excuse me, wait a moment.”
Rozelan called out to him.
“Are you… a chef?”
Above Rozelan’s head, a yellow question mark floated.