Chapter Thirty-Three: "God of Cookery" — Stephen Chow

Has May arrived?

Chen Feng suddenly snapped back to his senses, leaping up from his bed with excitement written all over his face. “May is here, a new hero is born. I wonder what kind of hero it’ll be this time?” At this thought, he couldn’t suppress his excitement and called out, “System, generate a new extraction character!”

Task is being generated!

The system’s mechanical voice echoed in his ear. Soon after, a new figure appeared on the interface before Chen Feng.

Character Source: “God of Cookery”
Hero Level: Level One
Character: Stephen Chow (Upgradeable, upgrade conditions currently unmet)
Extractable Abilities:
Culinary Skills—Grandmaster-level cooking, mastery of fire granted to humans by the immortals, able to create dishes that are true works of fiery art. Proficient in the eight great culinary traditions of China, capable of bringing out the best in any cuisine, and thoroughly versed in all types of seasonings and recipes. Extraction requires fifty achievement points.
Heavenly Recipe Compendium (Upgradeable)—Drawn from Stephen Chow’s memories in his past life as the God of Cookery, these are recipes officially recorded in the celestial registry, compiled by Stephen Chow himself and remembered as his divine memories awaken. Extraction requires fifty achievement points.

“Stephen Chow? I didn’t expect it to be him!” Chen Feng was filled with surprise. “God of Cookery” is one of Stephen Chow’s classic films, telling the story of how, after achieving fame and fortune, the God of Cookery Stephen Chow loses sight of what truly matters in food, is betrayed by wealthy partners and defeated by his apprentice, Bull Tong, who becomes the new God of Cookery. Stephen Chow falls into destitution but, with the help of the streetwise “Turkey,” regains his confidence. Together, they invent the unique “Exploding Beef Balls” and, by chance, stumble into one of the Shaolin Temple’s thirty-six kitchens, where Stephen Chow masters unparalleled culinary skills and reclaims his title. In essence, it’s a story of gains, losses, and regaining what was lost.

“Wait, what does this mean? Upgradeable?” Chen Feng couldn’t help but be stunned. It was the first time he’d seen such a thing. He instinctively asked, “System, what does ‘Upgradeable’ mean?”

The system’s mechanical voice responded in his ear, “The current hero is a Level One hero, but there is room for advancement. Upon meeting certain conditions, the hero’s level can be raised!”

“There’s such a thing?” Chen Feng was briefly taken aback. Thinking carefully, it did make sense to categorize Stephen Chow by levels. When he first appears, Stephen Chow is just a Level One hero—he can cook but has no other particular skills. But after returning from the Shaolin Temple, he’d probably be able to go toe-to-toe with Captain America. And as for the final scenes with Guanyin Bodhisattva, that’s a whole other level, bordering on the realm of immortals.

Upgradeable—this was his first time encountering such a feature. As for the so-called Heavenly Recipe Compendium, Chen Feng had never heard of it. Although the film calls Stephen Chow the God of Cookery, it never specifies exactly how many dishes he can make. The Heavenly Recipe Compendium piqued Chen Feng’s curiosity, since it was something never shown in the movie, likely something the system itself had fleshed out to enrich the God of Cookery’s world.

Together, the two abilities cost a total of one hundred achievement points.

Chen Feng frowned slightly and suddenly asked, “System, I want to upgrade Stephen Chow. What are the requirements?”

“Host’s authority insufficient. This system will not answer,” the system’s cold voice replied in his ear.

“Damn it!” Chen Feng cursed, feeling as if he’d asked for nothing. Still, he had no choice. If the system didn’t tell him, there were many things he’d never know. But sometimes, even if he did ask, the system simply wouldn’t answer.

“System, what exactly can you tell me, and what won’t you tell me?” Chen Feng pondered for a moment and continued to ask.

After a brief pause, the mechanical voice rang in his ear again. “This system follows three principles. First, protection of the host: if extracting an ability would endanger your life, the system will intervene. Second, if extracting an ability would harm your body but not endanger your life, and the host asks, the system will provide an answer. Third, the system must not violate its rules; for questions beyond the host’s authority, the system will not answer.”

“So that’s how it is,” Chen Feng muttered to himself, then asked curiously, “What are the rules?”

“Host’s authority insufficient. No answer permitted,” the system replied mechanically.

Damn!

Chen Feng was seized by an urge to strangle the system.

He glanced at his own interface. Though recent basketball games hadn’t been especially lucrative, his performance had been so stellar that he’d earned quite a bit—about a dozen to twenty achievement points per game. Added to his previous earnings and the points gained from tonight’s sudden display of fighting prowess, he now had a total of eighty-seven achievement points.

Not enough!

Chen Feng exhaled softly. He didn’t extract Stephen Chow’s ability right away, knowing there was no rush. He was well aware of a particular trait of the Grand Extraction System.

If the system differentiated abilities by level, extracting a Level Two ability required ten achievement points. But if he already possessed the Level One version, upgrading to Level Two would only cost five points, and extracting Level One would only require one point.

Extracting Level One first, then Level Two, would save four points.

Previously, he’d extracted Mitsui Hisashi’s fighting skills, then Captain America’s boxing, and finally Jeet Kune Do, saving a lot of achievement points in the process.

Now, even though there were no fictional characters from whom he could extract culinary skills, the system could also extract abilities from real people.

He just needed to select someone suitable in reality—perhaps saving a few points that way as well.

Chen Feng always felt short on achievement points. Every time a new character appeared, even a small extraction would consume all his points at once.

Lying on his bed, he couldn’t be bothered to move. So he simply activated the Grand Extraction System again: “System, expand search across the entire Xue’er District—scan for everyone with culinary skills!”

Beep! Beep!

The system immediately began screening, and in no time, a series of avatars floated before his eyes. Chen Feng scanned through the list. Extracting their culinary skills would cost just one achievement point each, with the cost gradually increasing for more skilled individuals—the highest was eight points.

Eight achievement points—this person’s culinary skill must be quite impressive, considering that the system rated Stephen Chow’s skill at fifty points.

With that, Chen Feng made up his mind. He first extracted one person’s culinary skill, costing him one achievement point, which reduced the cost of extracting the eight-point ability to six points—saving one achievement point.

After extracting the six-point ability, he’d spent a total of seven points.

When Chen Feng’s gaze returned to Stephen Chow’s Grandmaster-level culinary skill, the original fifty-point requirement had dropped to thirty-five points.

“Extract Stephen Chow’s skill!” Without hesitation, Chen Feng chose to extract Stephen Chow’s ability. Instantly, the image of Stephen Chow on the system glowed, and the light shot directly into Chen Feng’s body.

A total of forty-two points were spent—saving him eight points. He now had thirty-five achievement points left.

Murmuring to himself, Chen Feng’s eyes fell on the Heavenly Recipe Compendium, and he froze.

“What the—fifty achievement points, seriously?” Chen Feng stared at the option in confusion. He’d just extracted Stephen Chow’s Grandmaster culinary ability—by rights, he should now be able to cook all eight major Chinese cuisines. Yet the Heavenly Recipe Compendium still cost a full fifty points, with no reduction.

“This really is a bit troublesome!” He exhaled, surprised that extracting the skill hadn’t saved him any points here.

Wait—

Chen Feng frowned tightly, rifling through his memory, and was left dumbfounded. He couldn’t recall the recipes for “Exploding Beef Balls” or “Soul-Stirring Rice.” He knew how to make all sorts of dishes, but not these two.

“Are you kidding me?” he muttered. “Soul-Stirring Rice” he could understand, but how could “Exploding Beef Balls” be missing? In the movie, Stephen Chow made his comeback with “Exploding Beef Balls.” Just a moment ago, Chen Feng had even planned to try making it himself, to see if it could really bounce like a ping-pong ball.

Could it be that “Exploding Beef Balls” is only included in the Heavenly Recipe Compendium?

Examining his remaining achievement points, Chen Feng took a deep breath and calculated quietly. There was another game tomorrow—if luck was on his side, he could probably earn fifteen or sixteen points. By then, he might just have enough to extract it.

(I really love “God of Cookery.” I wonder if everyone else does too?)