Nan Xu is indeed the protagonist of the world!

"Village chief, is there any mission?"

"Is there anything we can help you with? We'll do anything for experience points!"

Are there any monster spawn points nearby?

Are there any free beginner weapons?

The village chief of Miaoshan Village was at his wit's end looking at the group of chattering outsiders in front of him.

"Wait a minute... take your time, one by one, tell me where you're from?" he asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Village Chief, we are people from outside the secular world," the head of Tianfu explained after thinking for a moment.

"Outsiders?" Upon hearing this, the village chief frowned. "Could it be... that you are the Seekers of Taste mentioned by the immortal in the dream?"

Last night, in his sleep, he vaguely dreamed of an immortal who told him that some strange people would come to his village tomorrow.

The immortal also told him that these people were called "Taste Seekers," who were people outside the secular world. They could be motivated to do some things by paying them a reward, but otherwise they could be treated as ordinary people.

"The Flavor Seeker? Yes, that's the name." The head of Tianfu nodded.

On the official website of Chef Soul, players are always referred to as "Taste Seekers".

After thinking for a moment, the village chief finally decided to follow the immortal's instructions: "If you are willing, there are some chores to do in the village, but I have nothing of value to offer, so I am afraid I can only give you some mundane rewards such as copper coins and silver."

Hearing this, the players became even more excited: "Great! We're not picky, we can do any job!"

Soon, the players received their desired tasks and happily went off to complete them.

But the leader of Tianfu remained standing in the same spot, without leaving.

"Young hero, what brings you here?" the village chief asked cautiously.

"I'd like to ask, are there any chefs in the village?" The head of Tianfu asked sincerely. "To be honest, I've been interested in cooking since I was a child and have always wanted to become a chef."

"I want to try and see if I can become an apprentice and learn a trade."

"This... this place is remote, and there are no chefs of any rank here." The village chief looked troubled.

"If you really want to hone your culinary skills, why not find one of the butchers in the village and practice your knife skills? Or, you could try your luck in the nearby county town..."

"I see, I was being presumptuous." The leader of Tianfu remained very polite. He knew that this kind of deeply immersive virtual game emphasized a sense of presence, and a polite attitude was very important.

In the end, he accepted the task of helping the butcher kill chickens, intending to gain some experience points first.

Just then, a red dot suddenly lit up in his friends list.

[逍遥随风: Dude, guess who I just saw?]

[Xiaoyao Suifeng: It's Nanxu! He's near the grove of trees where we spawned!]

[逍遥随风: He has a food tasting quest. Not only can you taste his cooking for free, but you also get experience points! I'm leading him towards the entrance of the newbie village, hurry up!]

The head of Tianfu's household immediately lit up and promptly put the butcher's task out of his mind.

Nan Xu, that's Nan Xu!

After watching the trailer, he was almost 100% certain that Nanxu was one of the main characters in the game.

The protagonist of the world has arrived!

……

When Nanxu arrived at the village entrance with Xiaoyao Suifeng's guidance, there were already six players standing there.

It seems that all the players in this beginner village are probably here.

Nan Xu was not surprised at all. He had already seen Xiaoyao Suifeng's post on the forum titled "[I met Nan Xu on the first day of the closed beta. He really is the protagonist of the world!]".

The post was nothing more than a lavish praise on him, including a short essay of five or six hundred words detailing how delicious the skewers were.

Combined with Xiaoyao Suifeng's exquisite screenshot skills, this post instantly went viral across the entire forum.

Below the post, players who didn't get beta access were all wailing:

"Waaaaah, I want to eat it so badly! Why didn't I get a beta test qualification?!"

"You're not allowed to eat it! Let me eat it!"

"Chef Soul Official! How could you bear to subject us to this kind of torture? Are you even human?!"

Players who had access to the closed beta also began to lament:

"Why is it that Nanxu spawns near your spawn point, while we only get the village elder here?"

"I just tried the ninth-grade dish in this game, and it tastes better than most restaurants outside... I can't imagine how delicious the sixth-grade dish would be. I'm so jealous."

"Damn those European dogs!"

"A group is robbing Xiaoyao Suifeng BBQ Skewers, 1 in 10000!"

The post quickly rose to the top of the trending list, and the other players from the same newbie village as Xiaoyao Suifeng were naturally able to recognize him by his forum ID.

"They're here!" The players were excited to see Xiaoyao Suifeng and Nanxu walking one after the other.

The head chef of Tianfu took the lead and went to greet him: "You must be Chef Nanxu. We are friends of Xiaoyao Suifeng and we all admire your culinary skills very much."

"Yes, yes." Another player nodded repeatedly. "I heard you're looking for people to taste your dishes. Just leave it to us!"

"I wouldn't dare call myself a master chef," Nan Xu smiled. "However... I do need some people to help me taste-test the dishes."

With that, he released the task he had already prepared.

In addition to experience points, this mission reward also included personal goodwill.

Wow, I'm getting a good impression!

Players were ecstatic to see the opportunity to gain favor with NPCs of world-class status.

At the same time, Nan Xu also clicked "settlement" for Xiaoyao Suifeng's task.

Anyway, his post has already been published, so the purpose of publicity has been achieved.

"What? That's it?"

Xiaoyao Suifeng was a little disappointed. He originally posted the message to invite a few more players from nearby newbie villages to get more experience, but he didn't expect the quest to be completed so quickly.

But the next moment, a panel that lit up in front of him swept away all his negative emotions.

"NPC Shop!"

Xiaoyao Suifeng became excited instantly and opened the shop panel without hesitation.

Depending on the NPC's level of favorability towards you, you can exchange the following items with this NPC...

At first glance, the dense array of ingredients and culinary techniques almost filled his entire field of vision!

"My goodness..." Xiaoyao Suifeng gasped.

"What's up, bro?" Tianfu's leader asked in the player chat, "What reward did Nanxu give you?"

"Once his favorability rating increases, an NPC shop will be unlocked, offering seventh-grade cooking skills and ingredients!" Xiaoyao Suifeng exclaimed in amazement. "And this is just the lowest-level shop; as favorability rating increases further, even more items will likely be added!"

"Rank 7?" The leader of Tianfu was also shocked. They hadn't even left the newbie village yet, and they could already exchange for items at level 30 or 40?

"It's a pity it seems a bit expensive. It requires five portions of ingredients of the same grade, and each portion must have a quality score of no less than 70... Moreover, learning cooking skills requires quite a lot of experience." Xiaoyao Suifeng continued to browse the shop.

"It's nothing, just some ingredients. We're making a huge profit trading ingredients for cooking skills!"

The head of Tianfu was excited. He made a decision immediately: after having Nanxu taste the food and unlock the favorability shop, he would immediately go to the vicinity to find ingredients!

At this moment, Nan Xu had already taken out some kitchen utensils and ingredients from the food bag and set up a small stall at the entrance of the village.

He snapped his fingers and lit a fire, a move that immediately drew gasps of amazement from the players.

"Wow, that's so cool! I want to learn that!"

Nan Xu smiled slightly. This was a new fire control posture he had mastered after upgrading the Fire Refining Palm to LV5. Although it had no practical use, it looked very cool.

"Don't worry, everyone, you'll learn these cooking skills sooner or later..."