Luo Zhen Zhen or known as ZhenZhen in the game. While many enjoyed being an adventurer, building a nation, or even playing the game with a lofty ambition by becoming a pro, she did not play the game for that.
She played the game to cook. Yes, her sole passion to join the game was to cook. Chef or Cook was one of many production classes in Tribe Online. Knowing how realistic Tribe Online was, she pre-ordered one gaming pod.
Her luck was good as she could get one Gold Gaming Pod through her connection. Yes, she was someone who joined the game for her passion and hobby. While she was not a professional chef in real life, she was quite famous as she worked in a four stars hotel before she decided to resign as she felt bored with her repetitive work.
She felt that she had stopped growing after a few years of working in the hotel. There was no impressive improvement for her cooking as well hence she resigned. She had earned enough for her to retire early as well, so she resigned and joined the game.
Of course, ZhenZhen's decision to resign earned her an earful scolding from her parents. She threw away her stable work only to play games. Her parents were furious, but she still joined the game anyway.
Luo Zhen Zhen had done his research about Tribe Online. The developer had the ambition to make the second world through Virtual Reality technology and it worked.
She had read the lists of how realistic the game was so she decided to play the game. The reason? She wanted to cook something she could not in real life, tiger meat for example. No one allowed her to butcher the tiger for its meat. She would be jailed if it was known by the officials or police.
On top of that, this was a fantasy game. There was a mythical beast such as a dragon. She wanted to try to cook a Dragon's meat even though it was fake. There were so many things she could do in the game which she could not do in real life.
People would call her silly to make such a decision. Again, she had reached the point where she did not need to worry about money. She had enough for the next thirty years as long as she kept following her financial plan. Moreover, she could also earn the game as a gamer had been acknowledged as a profession.
This had been two weeks in real life or a month in-game time, but it was not as easy as she thought to be a chef in the game. In order for her to be able to cook, she had to get the class.
While the combatant class needed to be level 20 to get their class, it was not the same for the production class. She needed to be an apprentice and learned cooking under an NPC.
So as soon as she entered the game, she did not bother to hunt the monster. She roamed around in the city and did some research about all the restaurants in the city.
After doing all her research, she found a decent restaurant. To her surprise, the game was not as easy as it sounded. She had been doing some research before she played the game, but she failed in an interview six times before she was accepted into one decent restaurant in the outer city.
ZhenZhen thought she would start the apprenticement right after but she was wrong. She started from menial work first, became a cleaning service, dishwasher, and also carried the ingredients they bought from the market.
She endured this for three weeks of in-game time before her effort paid off. ZhenZhen stood in front of the head cook, a lady in her mid-forties with a stern expression, reminding her of her past mentor.
"I have observed you all this time and you are doing well in your probation period so I will end your probation period a week earlier," The Head Cook said to her.
'Yes!' In her imagination, ZhenZhen was jumping happily while she nodded seriously outside. It was not the right time to celebrate.
"However, while your effort to learn is praiseworthy, I am not going to teach someone with no potential to be a cook!" The lady sternly said, "Bring me three rare herbs that can be used for cooking then I will take you as my apprentice!"
"But with two conditions. First, you can't buy the herb from the market or any place. Second, you have to obtain the herb from the wild. Anything else will be talked about after you bring me three rare herbs!" When the lady finished her words, a quest interface appeared in front of ZhenZhen's eyes.
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[Apprentice Cook Quest]
Description: Find three different rare herbs from the wild.
Reward: Become Head Cook Gina's apprentice
Time: 3 days
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"Thank you very much, Head Cook Gina," ZhenZhen excitedly bowed her head toward the lady while a smile formed on her lips.
The Head Cook smiled in satisfaction as she waved her hand, "There's no need to thank me, this is your hard work. You deserve this chance, you can go now."
ZhenZhen bid farewell to the Head Cook and immediately headed toward the north gate. She knew where to find these rare herbs, at Jade Gorge.
She ran toward the gorge, causing her to run out of stamina when she arrived, "This game is too real that even the exhaustion is so real." She had complained about this many times and never tired of complaining.
Jade Gorge was a giant crevice. However, the crevice's wall was covered by plants, completely burying the cliff under the plants. She had read a lot about Jade Gorge. It said the gorge was filled with rare plants. If she wanted to find a rare herb, this was the right place.
Of course, she had to face a big challenge to get the herbs. There was a high risk she would fall into the gorge but she was not worried about it since she was still level 1 and she could also respawn in the city.
There was a small path that led into the crevice. Some people tried to get the rare herbs for their purpose as well, hence the path was made. It was a path for one person to walk. Aside from being narrow, the path was also slippery.
From the native of the city, the gorge had killed over a thousand people. The dread story was not enough to deter ZhenZhen. With great confidence and excitement, ZhenZhen took the path. Alas, the excitement caused misfortune. She was not careful and immediately stepped on the slippery part.
"KHAAAAA!!!" Her scream echoed through the Jade Gorge.
[You have died from poison!]
That was the notification she got after free-falling for a while. When she respawned, she was greeted with a weird sight.
She was not respawned in the city but a village. And in the village, she saw a man doing squats with a big stone on his back.
"Huh!? Where am I?" ZhenZhen blurted out.