[Enrollment: Red Earth Academy - Small-bodied Wilderness Body Major - First Year - Winter Class] [Credits: 12] [Class rank: 1] [Year rank: 6785 (11741)] ... [Credit points: 1520] [Points: 19]
After her compatibility was updated, Wen Jing gained three credits and remained first in her class.
To be precise, her class ranking had never changed since she entered the academy: she had always been first.
After all, in just half a month, she had ground out almost as many credits as the autumn class students who had enrolled three months earlier. In fact, because of the required class hours, fifty elective credits still hadn't "arrived in her account." Otherwise, her ranking would have put her among the front-runners of the summer class.
Meanwhile, on the panel in Wen Jing's consciousness, her human body's base attributes had all doubled as well.
Health: 20 Strength: 20 Speed: 20 Spirit: 35
It wasn't just because her compatibility had improved, but also because her Wilderness Body had grown stronger. Although the numbers still looked pitiful, at least they had gone from two decimal places to one.
Running along the campus's smooth avenue, Wen Jing once again arrived at her part-time workplace, the Deep Space Vortex.
The restaurant had clearly been specially decorated today. Even from a distance, she could see the promotional billboard for premium members' day.
She made her familiar way through the dining room and into the kitchen.
When the restaurant manager and Master Zhang, who had been pacing in the kitchen, saw Wen Jing, the apprehension on both their faces instantly eased. "We've been waiting for you!"
"Well, here I am." Wen Jing smiled at them.
Today was no ordinary day. It was a big occasion that the Deep Space Vortex had spent quite some time promoting and preparing for. They would be selling dishes made with Wilderness Beast meat, and only the restaurant's premium members could purchase them with points.
Her pay for processing the Wilderness Beast meat today was a full ten thousand credit points, far more than her usual part-time hourly rate of five hundred.
Of course, what mainly attracted her wasn't the pay, but the improvement in her cooking skills she would gain from handling Wilderness Beast meat.
After just three previous shifts at the restaurant, Wen Jing had already learned almost everything Master Zhang had to offer.
Because of the limited quantity of nonsynthetic food in this era, cooking skills were actually less developed than in Wen Jing's previous life.
All those cooking videos she had scrolled through when she was hungry late at night in her past life finally proved useful, making Wen Jing seem astonishingly gifted in Master Zhang's eyes.
Coupled with her perfect control over her body, her hands could follow wherever her eyes went, and her cooking skills advanced by leaps and bounds.
Previously, she had earned two skill points by bringing "Cooking - Knife Skills" and "Cooking - Heat Control" to the mastered level. Today, she intended to push "Cooking - Knife Skills" to the proficient level.
The restaurant manager and Master Zhang opened the freezer secured with two locks and took out the Wilderness Beast meat they had shown her before.
This would be today's main course.
High-end ingredients often needed only simple preparation.
This piece of Wilderness Beast meat would be made into sashimi, served with dipping sauces simmered from various natural ingredients.
Holding a high-strength alloy knife, Wen Jing walked up to the pinkish-white Wilderness Beast meat and calmly raised her blade under the nervous, expectant gazes of the two beside her.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-!
A flurry of afterimages flashed past. Before either of them could even make out her full movements, it was over.
Only when Wen Jing began calmly wiping her knife like a chef in a cooking anime did the two snap out of it and hurry over.
The Wilderness Beast meat lay quietly on the cutting board, seemingly without any other marks.
"But isn't it still un-"
The restaurant manager had barely spoken when what sounded like a crisp cracking noise rang out, followed by a burst of light from the cutting board-
It wasn't an exaggerated metaphor. The activation of energy had truly produced light, and the whole piece of Wilderness Beast meat spread apart neatly like a flower into slices as thin as cicada wings.
[Proficient in "Cooking - Knife Skills," Skill points +2]
Just as Wen Jing had expected, she had previously ground the progress bar past sixty percent using ordinary ingredients, and processing the Wilderness Beast meat this time had taken her straight to the next level.
After all, Wilderness Beast meat really was different from ordinary meat. In fact, before her exploration of the Ancient Wilderness, her strength wouldn't have been enough to pull off that dazzling performance.
Having earned her coworkers' admiration and her money, Wen Jing was about to clock out when the restaurant manager hurried in from the dining room. The moment the manager saw her, he exclaimed with delighted enthusiasm:
"Miss Wen, the Wilderness Beast dish was a tremendous success! The members can't stop praising it, and they'd like you to come out and meet them!"
Wen Jing stopped and frowned. "They need to meet the cook just to eat?"
"Well..." The manager abruptly came to his senses, realizing at once that he wasn't talking to an ordinary chef.
Although diners who enjoyed their food had often invited the chef out to offer praise and tips in the past, the person before him was an Awakened who had come to their restaurant purely to pursue her culinary ideals.
Would she consider this disrespectful?
"If you..." Already drenched in sweat, the restaurant manager hurried to find the words to explain.
Then Wen Jing spoke again. "That'll cost extra."
Five or six tables of diners sat in the restaurant's crystal-embedded dining room. All were wealthy or influential scions of financial conglomerates, as well as members of the student council.
Tan Junhao and his younger cousin Tan Wenshan sat at the central table of honor.
Tan Junhao leisurely ate a slice of Wilderness Beast meat from his plate. "I've prepared a surprise for you at this team-building event."
"Oh? What is it?" Tan Wenshan forced a smile at his words.
Ever since the last welcome party, he had been suffering from a poor appetite. Only the Wilderness Beast meat before him this time had stirred a little of it.
Before Tan Junhao could answer, Tan Wenshan suddenly shuddered.
Not far away, he saw the restaurant manager approaching with a figure he would never forget.
Chapter 25
The instant he saw Wen Jing behind the restaurant manager, Tan Wenshan instinctively went cold all over, his calves trembling.
"C-Cousin..." Why was she here?
It wasn't just Tan Wenshan. Some of the conglomerate scions attending this student council team-building event were also from the autumn class, and their expressions changed too.
Tan Junhao remained perfectly composed. "I told you, address me by my position at school."
By then, the restaurant manager, who knew nothing of what had happened, had already brought Wen Jing over.
She enthusiastically introduced her to the two of them. "Honored guests, allow me to formally introduce Wen Jing, the special-grade chef contracted by our Deep Space Vortex! Not only is she a culinary genius, but she's also a powerful Awakened."
By the end, the restaurant manager wore a proud expression herself.
Even during recruitment, she had known that the draw of Wilderness Beast meat and an Awakened chef would be absolutely unique.
"Do you see?"
Tan Junhao listened to the restaurant manager's report with a casual smile, but instead of looking at the two of them, he turned to Tan Wenshan.
In an instructive tone, he told Tan Wenshan, "Everyone in this world follows their own path. People on different paths shouldn't have any dealings with one another in the first place. You lowered yourself before, so naturally, you can't blame someone else for defeating you by the rules of that path."
Tan Wenshan stared blankly at his cousin across the table, then stole a glance at Wen Jing, who stood beside them looking puzzled.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him, and he understood.
That's right. So what if she could fight? Didn't she still have to obediently work for their conglomerates?
They sat and ate while Wen Jing stood and worked as a cook. That was the greatest difference between them!
And that wouldn't just be true now. It would be true in the future too.
So what if Wen Jing could fight now? As an F-rank Awakened, as long as she couldn't leave society behind, she would inevitably be constrained by its various rules. And they were the ones who made those rules.
That was the lesson his cousin wanted to teach him today.
With that realization, Tan Wenshan no longer felt cold, and his calves stopped trembling. He felt ready to take on the world again.
He looked at Wen Jing and gave a superior smile.
"Oh? What a coincidence. Isn't this the genius among our first-years?"
At those words, Tan Junhao and the other student council members beside him also gave mocking smiles, their gazes settling on the ponytailed girl standing there.
The atmosphere instantly grew tense.
By now, Wen Jing's name was renowned throughout the student council. Even members who hadn't been present had heard what had happened at this year's welcome party.
Wen Jing, who was feeling pleased about the two thousand in overtime pay arriving in her account, heard his voice and looked up at Tan Wenshan, recognizing him too.
"Oh! You're that what's-his-name!"
She didn't know Tan Wenshan's name. She only remembered that his combat strength had been roughly 0.4 ants.
This woman didn't even know his name!
Tan Wenshan's newfound superiority instantly crumbled, but he quickly put on a deliberately surprised expression.
"Wen Jing, I never expected to see you here! So? We're here to eat. What are you doing here?"
Hearing Tan Wenshan's snide tone, the restaurant manager grew uneasy, wringing her hands tightly and wishing she could turn back time.
Damn it, Miss Wen had clearly only come to work as a chef in pursuit of her culinary aspirations!
She knew nothing of their history. Had she known this would happen, she would definitely have let Wen Jing clock out when she went back to the kitchen to find her.
These people clearly had a grudge against Wen Jing. The restaurant manager couldn't help putting herself in her shoes. If she were an Awakened who ran into an enemy coming to dine while she was working as a chef, only to be mocked like this, it would be an utter humiliation.
Yet the next moment, she heard Wen Jing's proud voice beside her.
"Well, I'm not like you bunch of rice buckets. I'm here to make money!"
"Pfft..."
Tan Junhao, who had just elegantly taken a sip of red wine, choked.
Tan Wenshan felt as though his punch had landed on cotton. His newly regained sense of superiority began to wobble again-put that way, they had just said Wen Jing was working for them, but seen from the other direction, she was making money off them!
Then Wen Jing gave him a subtle smile. "But I remember you don't like eating this, do you?"