I~Have~No~Buns~

[Venti: The God War of old left very few Gods still alive on the Teyvat Continent, and almost all of them were sealed away.]

[Venti: Even if there were any surviving Gods who had not been sealed, they had lost the God War and thus forfeited their qualification to become one of the Seven Archons. So new gods would not be chosen from among the Gods.]

[Venti: If nothing unexpected happened, then among the current gods, only the Geo Archon and Electro Archon were Gods by birth.]

[Venti: Although the other gods had their own God names, they were not actually born as Gods.]

[Navia: So that was how it was? Does that mean Lady Furina was a god who ascended from humanity?]

[Furina: That's right. I was a familiar of Egeria, the first Hydro Archon.]

[Furina: Before she departed, Egeria, the first Hydro Archon, passed the position and power of the Hydro Archon on to me.]

[Furina: That was how I became Furina de Fontaine, the present "Queen of all sides, all waters, all people, and all laws."]

Furina finally let out a sigh of relief. At last, she had managed to patch up this lie. (Though it was not entirely a lie.)

The video continued.

The moment Zhongli heard the words "True Death," it was as if some conditioned reflex had been triggered.

Zhongli slammed the table. "True Death! Of course you should go to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor!"

Nahida looked at the flyer in Zhongli's hand and remarked, "You're quite dedicated..."

[Hu Tao: As expected of our Guest Official! You actually accomplished so easily what even I, the director, couldn't do! (Advertising, that is.)]

[Hu Tao: In that case, let's learn a little about...]

[Hu Tao has been muted.]

[System: I told you not to act like I don't exist!!!]

[Zhongli: Sigh~ Director...]

An elaborate transition...

Ei sampled the dishes on the table and could not help praising them. "Liyue's cuisine truly lives up to its reputation!"

"Indeed!" Furina held a rabbit-shaped mound of mashed potatoes. "Look at this dessert. It's mashed potatoes shaped like a rabbit. I can barely bring myself to eat it."

"The name is quite interesting too!" Venti chimed in. "It's actually called Rabbit Mash."

[Lumine: Fine for that pun!]

[Cyno: "Mashed potatoes," "Rabbit Mash"—haha, that's really funny.]

[Tighnari: ...]

[Cyno: Tighnari, why aren't you laughing? Couldn't find the funny part? Let me tell you, the funny part is...]

[Tighnari: Shut up!]

Seeing that they enjoyed Liyue cuisine, Zhongli explained with some pride, "Liyue dishes emphasize harmony between color, aroma, flavor, presentation, and tableware. The name of a dish is also an important part of the dining experience."

"Interesting." Ei picked up some glass noodles with her chopsticks. "For example, this dish being called Ants Climbing a Tree creates quite a vivid image."

The glass noodles on Ei's chopsticks were the color of bark because of the sauce, while the minced meat resembled ants crawling up a tree.

"Yes, this dish is especially popular." Zhongli glanced at the Ants Climbing a Tree in Ei's hand and agreed.

"Really? Is it because the name is good?" Venti asked Zhongli.

"No." Zhongli answered Venti expressionlessly. "It's because she has a lot of fans."

Venti was instantly covered in black lines...

[Kiana: Was that supposed to be a cold joke?]

[Stelle: What a cold joke.]

[Cyno: I see! Since this dish is mainly made from glass noodles, it has "a lot of fans"! I've learned something.]

As if sensing that the atmosphere was awkward, Zhongli continued explaining. "In short, Liyue cuisine not only emphasizes the process of enjoying food, but also brings out the food's inherent benefits during cooking, making it greatly beneficial to the body."

[Kamisato Ayaka: Could this be what Liyue calls medicinal cuisine?]

[Xiangling: No, this wouldn't count as true medicinal cuisine. It's just an ordinary home-cooked dish.]

[Xiangling: Of course! There is genuine medicinal cuisine too.]

[Fu Hua: Shenzhou has this kind of cuisine as well.]

[Bailu: Our Luofu Xianzhou has it too!]

[Jing Yuan: But speaking of which, Liyue's style feels very similar to that of our Xianzhou.]

[Otto: As far as I know, the Shenzhou of our world used to have that kind of style as well.]

[Zhongli: What a coincidence. Or perhaps our three worlds are connected somehow...]

Upon hearing that these dishes had such effects, Venti immediately perked up. "Oh? Really? Then what effect does this dish have?"

Zhongli replied calmly, "Critical hit rate increased by 10%."

"Uh..." Venti was speechless.

[Silver Wolf: Critical hit rate? That sounds like a game.]

[System: Didn't I say earlier that your worlds had been adapted into games? If so, isn't it perfectly normal for there to be dishes that increase critical hit rate?]

The atmosphere became awkward once again... Seeing that no one spoke, Nahida suddenly thought of a certain General Mahamatra under her command in an attempt to break the silence, and immediately got an idea.

"Speaking of food, I thought of a story!"

Seeing that the little Dendro Archon seemed to be about to tell a story, Furina's curiosity was instantly piqued.

"Oh! What story?"

Nahida did not intend to keep them in suspense.

"Paimon, Barbatos, and Morax were eating in Liyue."

"Paimon finished all the meat, then said, 'I love eating meat!'"

"Barbatos finished all the wine, then said, 'I love drinking wine!'"

"Morax finished all the buns, then what did he say?"

"Eh! What did he say?" Furina's curiosity was thoroughly hooked.

Seeing Furina's curious expression, Nahida continued, "I~have~no~buns~"

In an instant, it was as if the god of some uninvited nation had descended upon the room. The temperature immediately dropped by several degrees.

Seeing that the atmosphere seemed even more awkward, Nahida was a little puzzled. "Eh? Wasn't it funny? Cyno clearly said it was super funny..."

[Asta: So... where's the funny part? Can someone explain it?]

[Cyno: Let me explain.]

[Cyno: In our world, the common currency is called Mora, and Mora was created by Morax, Liyue's Geo Archon.]

[Theresa: So... Morax is basically a money-printing machine?]

[Zhongli: You could see it that way.]

[Kiana: So the punchline is that the money-printing machine has no money?]

[Cyno: That's right. That's what it means.]

[Venti: But that should be impossible. The old man only needs a little divine power to create Mora. He doesn't even need divine power—he could just scrape off some dandruff. There's practically no cost at all.]

[Marvika: Exactly, how could the god who creates Mora possibly run out of Mora! Hahaha...]

[Hu Tao: ...]

Hu Tao slowly turned to look at Zhongli...