Chapter 49: Alone
“Congratulations, young lady! You’ve successfully passed the preliminary round. Here is your reward,” the event coordinator said enthusiastically, handing over a pouch of silver and a fresh ingredient along with a gilded card. “The finals will be held in the suburbs of the imperial capital in three days. Present this invitation at the regional yamen, and you can use the government teleportation array to reach the capital for free.”
Lu Yunxi peered into the pouch and found a crisp stack of ten silver coins. Fishing was undeniably much easier than hunting! She then checked the provided ingredient. It was a radiant purple-grade fish, the absolute highest quality tier she had ever encountered in the wild.
A manic wave of motivation washed over her. She had already pocketed ten silver just for passing the qualifiers, so if she managed to place in the grand finals…
At that exact thought, the persistent ache in her lower back vanished, and her legs suddenly felt re-energized. Oblivious to the fading twilight, she raced back down to the riverbank to frantically grind her proficiency metrics.
A full day and night bled away.
Staring at her proficiency bar as it hovered on the precipice of a breakthrough, Yunxi stubbornly persevered for three grueling, uninterrupted days. When the dust finally settled, her fishing skill officially cracked the advanced threshold. She managed to snatch a pathetic thirty minutes of sleep before rushing straight to the grand finals, dragging two heavy, dark circles under her eyes.
The pristine lake outside the imperial capital.
In stark contrast to the chaotic swarm of the preliminary rounds, only ten elite finalists stood along the docks. The spectator stands, however, were packed to maximum capacity. A dense mass of players and native NPCs hemmed in the arena, whispering and staring at the contestants as if they were monkeys performing at a carnival.
Because Yunxi had lost track of time during her brief nap, she was the second-to-last finalist to arrive on the stage.
Taking her position at the rear, she watched the contestants ahead of her step into the light one by one, eliciting deafening roars of excitement from the onlookers.
“Oh my god! Look at her dress! She looks like a literal immortal fairy. It’s so gorgeous! Sisters, find out what merchant sells that, we’re buying it together!”
“Let’s go, Second Brother! Second Brother is the absolute best! You’ve got this win in the bag!”
“…Our next contestant, the Elegant Nobleman, needs no formal introduction. He currently dominates the server as the undisputed number one master on the painting leaderboards! Dressed in immaculate white silk, he truly embodies his title of elegance.”
The exact moment Lu Yunxi stepped into her designated square, the host’s voice boomed over the magic amplifiers. “Oh! A wildcard contestant has taken the stage! She is the solitary female competitor in this bracket, and… wow, she is shrouded in complete mystery! Our logistics team hasn’t even located this young lady’s name on any of the public leaderboards!”
The absolute last competitor to arrive crossed the threshold at the final second. Dressed in dramatic black robes, he rhythmically waved a decorative paper fan, sauntering onto the platform with a theatrical, calculated smile. “My deepest apologies for making you all wait. I was unexpectedly detained on my journey. Please, forgive my tardiness.”
Unfortunately, his attempt to project a suave persona fell slightly flat—likely due to a lack of actual practice with historical accessories. After delivering his grand line, he tried to snap the fan shut with a fluid, one-handed flick, but the mechanism jammed. In the end, he was forced to awkwardly use both hands to pry the fan back open, stiltedly waving it back and forth to salvage his pride.
Lu Yunxi: …
Once every finalist settled into their respective stations, the playful atmosphere vanished, replaced by an intense, collective focus as they cast their lines into the deep water.
Following a grueling, fiercely contested—well, actually, an incredibly tedious and silent—endurance match, Lu Yunxi successfully clinched undisputed first place.
“Let us offer our grandest congratulations to this young maiden!” the official commentator announced, hoisting Yunxi’s arm into the air with a brilliant, sweeping smile.
Reclaiming her hand, Yunxi clutched her winnings—a massive prize of one hundred silver coins and an extraordinary, orange-quality fish. Her smile was so wide her face ached.
Back in her private quarters, Lu Yunxi literally jumped three feet into the air the moment her cooking pot chimed!
She! Lu Yunxi! Had finally ascended to the rank of master chef!
It had been an agonizing journey! She had survived countless hardships and structural bottlenecks… well, alright, it hadn’t actually been that difficult.
After maxing out the absolute ceiling of her advanced cooking proficiency, she had used her tournament prize—the orange-quality fish—to craft a flawless, orange-tier delicacy. The successful execution instantly shattered the final barrier, upgrading her cook profession to the master tier. It was the first master-level milestone she had ever achieved since entering this world!
The exact second the system registered her promotion, she truly understood just how absurdly powerful a master-tier title was.
“Master Lu, thanks to the invaluable advice you granted our kitchen staff last week, the standard of our restaurant’s menu has vastly improved. We would be profoundly honored if you would grace our establishment tonight to critique our seasonal menu.”
“Master Lu, I have journeyed from the distant peaks of Mount XX. Word of your legendary culinary arts has spread across the provinces, and I have traveled specifically to seek your wisdom. Could you please grant me a few words of guidance?”
“Master Lu, it is an absolute privilege to welcome your esteemed presence into our humble shop! Please, take the seat of honor. I will personally whip up a bowl of our signature house noodles for you immediately—it is our absolute pride!”
“…”
To put it simply, Lu Yunxi’s daily existence became intensely satisfying. Of course, she would fiercely swear under oath that her happiness was strictly professional, and had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she could score unlimited free food wherever she went!
Still, seeing how profoundly earnest and respectful the local merchants were, she graciously left them with highly effective, transformative pointers.
As she integrated further into the capital’s high society, she gradually realized that while advanced-tier culinary professionals were relatively common, master chefs were an absolute myth. The transition from advanced to master was a monumental wall that the vast majority of professionals would never scale in their lifetimes.
According to public logs, there were only two or three active master chefs in the entire empire. Aside from Yunxi, who had just broken through, no one even knew where the other masters had vanished to in their endless quest to forage for god-tier ingredients!
A sudden wave of understanding washed over her. No wonder the capital was groveling at her feet. The moment she stepped outside her door, local syndicates fought to provide her with luxury carriages; whenever she browsed a boutique, the owners scrambled to deliver the garments to her estate completely free of charge. Her food, wardrobe, housing, and travel expenses were entirely subsidized by high society!
However, after indulging in this decadent, pampered lifestyle for a couple of weeks, she reached her absolute limit. No sane individual enjoys having their private movements scrutinized by a trailing entourage every single day! The moment she intercepted a fascinating rumor on the local networks, Yunxi packed a light satchel and slipped out of the imperial capital under the cover of night.
Following a grueling, half-month trek across the provinces, she finally located the coordinates outlined in the player community forums.
Although her status as a master chef granted her unlimited, free access to the imperial teleportation arrays, the landmark detailed in the forum threads was buried deep within an uncharted mountain range far from any civilian settlement. She had wasted days simply running in circles trying to navigate the confusing mountain ridges.
Crouching low within a dense thicket of brush, Yunxi quietly watched the heavy flow of players navigating the valley.
Though this area had once been an abandoned, untamed wilderness, the player base had transformed it into a roaring hive of commerce, buzzing with a population that easily eclipsed a standard regional hub. Parties of three to five players were marching past her hiding spot, shouting strategy coordinates as they headed toward a looming cave mouth. The moment they crossed the threshold, they vanished into thin air, as if piercing an invisible barrier.
She observed their entry patterns for a while to pinpoint the exact coordinates of the instance gate before opening her system forum interface to carefully review the strategy guide.
[Crucial Tactical Overview for the Bandit Stronghold Dungeon:]
First, when configuring your party layout, ensure your vanguard includes a high-defense, high-health tank class. The instance boss utilizes devastating AoE physical strikes; without a dedicated shield-bearer to absorb the impact, your entire party will be wiped instantly!
Second, the boss’s secondary attack pattern involves…
Reading to this point, the text abruptly cut off. In its place, a glowing system prompt materialized:
[To unlock the remaining tactical parameters of this thread, please click here to process a premium content payment.]
Yunxi stared blankly at the word “payment,” a wave of profound disappointment washing over her. After all, she was a native NPC embedded within the system framework; where on earth was she supposed to procure real-world currency to clear a Starnet transaction fee?
It appeared she would have to brute-force the instance entirely blind.
She gritted her teeth, weighing her options. Making a final decision, she resolved to manufacture an emergency stockpile of high-tier consumables before risking an entry. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! It’s time to turn this bicycle into a motorcycle!
After all, the strongest players currently gathering outside the cave mouth only reached a maximum level of Level 28, whereas her own personal metrics had already scaled into the mid-thirties. Combined with her Purple-tier healing spell and her newly acquired blue-grade defensive shield, she possessed more than enough utility to squeak through.
Yunxi spent an hour organizing her spatial inventory, positioning a massive supply of practice-tier steamed buns—which she had baked during her training to rapidly restore health and mana points—into an easily accessible quick-slot grid. Reclaiming her bow and arrows, she broke cover and strode purposefully into the cave mouth.
Fortunately, the instance gate didn’t enforce a party-count restriction to trigger the event. Moving entirely alone, Lu Yunxi stepped through the invisible barrier and successfully entered the dungeon.
