But Xiao Feng didn't know what it was. In this post-apocalyptic world, all the animals had undergone mutations.
Even pigeons were no longer as gentle and cute as they used to be.
Back in the kitchen, Xiao Feng looked at the remaining wild boar meat, lost in thought.
Because only the system provided a menu, creating something had a significant amplification ability.
Currently, the system had only provided three dishes: Razorback Mountain Goat Meat Bun, braised bloodfang wild boar knuckle, and the recently unlocked red-braised pigeon.
None of these dishes could make use of the remaining wild boar meat.
But that was okay.
After all, Xiao Feng's awakened ability was culinary mastery. Besides the system's menu, Xiao Feng was quite a chef himself.
In Xiao Feng's hands, the wild boar meat could definitely be turned into a series of delicious dishes.
The only drawback was that the dish would only contain ingredients' inherent energy. It wouldn't boost his attack power like the red-braised knuckle.
But deliciousness was enough. Now that he had the system, Xiao Feng's upgrades only required a small amount of energy.
Thinking of an upgrade, Xiao Feng immediately took out all the crystal core from his belongings. From today and from the four guys' bodies, Xiao Feng converted them all into energy.
"100,000!"
Looking at the 100,000 energy he had converted, Xiao Feng was overjoyed.
"But..."
Xiao Feng hesitated. 100,000 could be used to upgrade the resturant, but then he'd have nothing left. Besides, he didn't know what benefits the upgraded resturant would provide. However, upgrading himself only required 1,000 energy.
After some thought, Xiao Feng decided to upgrade himself.
In the next moment, the system's prompt sounded.
"Level Up! Current level: One-star Evolver."
"To advance to the next level, you need 10,000 energy."
"Wow, from one star to two stars, it only requires 1,000 energy, but from two stars to three stars, it takes 10,000!"
This tenfold difference made Xiao Feng feel somewhat overwhelmed.
"No wonder it's so hard for Evolvers to level up. I can't even handle this much energy!"
However, after the upgrade, Xiao Feng felt that his overall qualities had improved. He even gained a new skill. As a life Evolver, his new skill was undoubtedly related to cooking.
Checking his newly evolved skills, one caught his eye.
"Utensil Mastery: Mastery of all kitchen utensils, and using them to attack a target doubles your attack power."
"Interesting!" Xiao Feng's eyes lit up.
"Now..."
Xiao Feng looked at the kitchen knife on the cutting board and slowly picked it up. In his hands, it felt like he'd been using it for years, so comfortable.
Swish!
He raised the knife and brought it down. With a single strike, the cutting board split into two.
"Interesting indeed!"
Satisfied, Xiao Feng put away the knife.
"From now on, I'll use you as a weapon!"
Looking at the requirement for the next level-up, which was 10,000 energy, Xiao Feng held back.
"At the moment, my need for strength isn't very urgent. I'll save up a bit more energy and upgrade the resturant."
Xiao Feng changed the cutting board and placed the unprocessed wild boar on it.
With knife skills that would impress anyone, he quickly butchered the large wild boar.
Blood, brains, trotters, large intestines—every part of the bloodfang wild boar was skillfully separated.
He put the pig brains in a coconut for a delicious brain-boosting dish. The ribs were cut into small pieces for hometown-style marinated ribs.
The pig's tail was chopped into small pieces for soybean-braised pigtail. The spine was used for a large bone stew.
Steamed pork, pork fat scraps, preserved vegetable stewed pork, pork hand with wood ear mushrooms, red-braised pork, cold tossed fragrant mushroom, spicy lungs, beauty pork skin jelly, stir-fried kidneys, sautéed belly, sautéed tripe, and more.
From a single pig, Xiao Feng managed to create over thirty different dishes.
He spent a couple of hours in the kitchen and finally came out. Seeing a table filled with delicious dishes, he sighed.
"But it seems like something is missing!"
Muffled by his murmuring, he was startled when there was a knocking sound at the door of the restaurant.
Thud, thud, thud!
The footsteps approached from outside.
Xiao Feng frowned, "There are at least thirty people out there!"
Now, it was already dark, and anyone bold enough to come to resturant at night with such a large group was either insane or foolish.
"Who are you? I'm an Evolver from Shelter No. 9. Would you please open the door for us?" a deep voice came from outside.
"It's closing time! What time is it, and you're still coming?" Xiao Feng shouted irritably. But seeing the table full of dishes, he changed his mind.
After all, they were customers, and a business shouldn't turn customers away.
So, Xiao Feng got up and opened the door.
A gust of night wind rushed in, bringing with it a murderous aura.
Outside, there were more than ten people, all looking serious and having the appearance of recent battle.
"You!"
The burly man leading them, with a stubbled face and an aura of dominance, said, "I am the commander of Shelter No. 9, not far from here. I'm Bai Meng. I was on my way, and I wanted to take a rest here."
"Rest is fine, but you can't stay overnight, understand?" Xiao Feng made way, allowing more than ten people to enter the restaurant.
More than ten people entered, and the restaurant instantly felt crowded. It was a small place, and with over ten people inside, it felt rather cramped.
Once Bai Meng entered, he was taken aback. He saw three tables pushed together, and they were filled with over thirty delicious dishes.
"gulp!"
All of them involuntarily swallowed their saliva.
In this bleak, dark night, a small resturant lit by dim lights, with over thirty steaming and delicious dishes, was a heartwarming sight to these battle-hardened individuals.
"Do you know we were coming?"
Bai Meng suddenly asked.
"Uh?"
Xiao Feng was caught off guard.
"Do you know we were coming and prepared all these dishes for us?"
Bai Meng watched Xiao Feng warily.
Click, click, click!
In an instant, over twenty people pulled out weapons and aimed them at Xiao Feng.
"Are you all out of your minds? Is it a problem for one person to eat over thirty dishes?"
Xiao Feng immediately scolded angrily,
"What are you waiting for? You think you can have it your way!"
Xiao Feng sat down and took a big bite of a large white bun while enjoying a piece of delicious red-braised pork.
The oil splattered everywhere, making this situation more awkward than fighting a dozen people with guns.
Seeing Xiao Feng unflinchingly eating, facing over a dozen gun muzzles without any fear, Bai Meng and his group became alert.
Waving his hand, they all put down their weapons.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Bai Meng, the commander of Shelter No. 9, not far from here. My sister came to your place today. She's Bai Zhi. Have you seen her?"
"Oh, you mean that girl who came here to rob me?"
Xiao Feng stopped eating and looked at Bai Meng.
"Rob?"
Bai Meng frowned.
Roar!
At that moment, a loud roar came from outside.
Hearing this roar, Xiao Feng couldn't help but complain,
"Why the hell did you provoke that thing outside?"