Time Bro, the Gaming Master

With the gummy bears sweeping through the grill like a whirlwind, the meat skewers on the grill were quickly devoured, leaving only the last skewer in Nanxu's hand.

After finishing her meal, she looked longingly at the skewer of meat in Nan Xu's hand, her eyes revealing a clear desire.

She knew this might lower the NPCs' favorability... but that meat skewer was just so delicious, she couldn't resist!

Just as Nan Xu was pondering whether he should simply give the skewer of grilled meat to the gummy bear, he heard a series of hurried footsteps.

"Huff...ha..." Xiaoyao Suifeng gasped for breath, "Big Boss Nanxu...you really are here!"

"Oh? What are you doing here?" Nan Xu asked curiously.

Xiaoyao Suifeng's expression brightened; Boss Nanxu really did remember him!

He quickly said, "Brother Nanxu, after you left the village, I decided to go find you, but you left too fast and I couldn't keep up..."

"Just now, I smelled a particularly fragrant aroma, so I followed the scent here."

As he spoke, he took out a lot of ingredients from his bag: "These are the ingredients I found on the road. I feel that many of them are of pretty high quality. Nanxu, could you take a look?"

"No problem, no problem." Nan Xu smiled slightly and accepted the ingredients from Xiaoyao Suifeng.

After examining each one, Nan Xu showed a surprised expression.

Although the highest quality among them is only grade six or seven, many of the ingredients come from places that are extremely dangerous for a novice like Xiaoyao Suifeng.

Looking at the tattered marks on Xiaoyao Suifeng's clothes, Nanxu guessed that he had suffered a lot during this wilderness exploration.

To put it bluntly, it's a miracle he wasn't killed and returned to the respawn point.

"These are all very good ingredients, thank you for your hard work," Nan Xu said sincerely.

As a former gamer, he could empathize with this experience.

He looked up and asked Xiaoyao Suifeng, "What do you want to exchange them for?"

Xiaoyao Suifeng's eyes lit up. It was worth all the effort he put into collecting ingredients; he had finally raised the world's protagonist's favorability!

He quickly patted his chest and said, "No trouble at all! Whatever you need, sir, I'll go through fire and water to find it for you!"

"As for what to exchange it for..."

Xiaoyao Suifeng swallowed hard, looking at the meat skewers in Nanxu's hand: "Boss, is this okay?"

He wondered if it was just his imagination because he had been starving in the game for too long, but the aroma of this meat skewer seemed much more intense than the last time.

"You want this? No problem, just one serving of Grade 6 ingredients will do." Nan Xu generously handed over the skewers in his hand.

Xiaoyao Suifeng happily accepted the skewers, and because he was so hungry, he swallowed them whole like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit.

As soon as he swallowed it, he regretted it and slapped his thigh.

The smell he had just experienced was indeed not an illusion; these skewers were even better than the first ones he had ever eaten!

That was a mistake; we should have tried more flavors!

Xiaoyao Suifeng was immersed in regret, and even exchanging for several seventh-grade cooking skills afterward did not make him happy.

With a heavy heart, he bid farewell to Nanxu and planned to log off somewhere.

Just then, a soft voice came from behind:

"Um... hello sir, may I ask where you found these ingredients?"

Xiaoyao turned his head and saw that it was the female player who seemed to have a good relationship with Nanxu. Her ID above her head was 【Little Bear Gummy】.

Behind her followed a large group of players from the same starting village as her.

……

Early the next morning.

"A very fruitful harvest indeed."

Nan Xu looked at the ingredients that were gradually accumulating in the food bag and showed a satisfied expression.

He's only visited a few villages and he's already collected so much food and experience. When he goes to Wanling later, he'll make a fortune!

In addition, his fire skills and seasoning attributes also increased accordingly, reaching LV37 and LV38 respectively.

After bidding farewell to the players as usual and promising to meet again in Wanling, Nanxu continued his journey.

Meanwhile, the players in the village also took action at the same time.

"Brother Xiaoyao, the really big wild boar you mentioned, is it in this direction?" A male player rubbed his hands together, eager to try.

"That's right! That wild boar knocked me off the cliff in one go, but luckily I've learned a light-body skill, so I used the momentum to avoid dying instantly," Xiaoyao Suifeng nodded. "I estimate that wild boar was at least a sixth-rank beast!"

These words excited the players. Although they didn't have the same luck as Little Gummy Bear, Xiaoyao Suifeng had managed to exchange a sixth-grade kebab for sixth-grade ingredients!

The grilled skewers smelled so good, just the aroma alone made my mouth water... Finally, they had the chance to eat them!

Moreover, it is said that the kebab can give people a stamina recovery buff that lasts for a very long time, and can also directly increase attribute values!

Thinking of this, all the players looked at the gummy bear responsible for looting the corpses, their eyes filled with anticipation.

Please, you absolutely must find some good ingredients!

For this plan, they specifically sought out Nanxu to learn some high-attack cooking skills and invested a large amount of experience points.

Success or failure hinges on this!

Thus, led by Xiaoyao Suifeng, the players' Great Wild Boar King Extermination Team set off in a grand procession.

But when they finally arrived at the area where the giant wild boar was found after several hours of trekking, they discovered a shocking scene.

The colossal beast, weighing several tons, lay bleeding on the ground, its eyes lifeless, and it had breathed its last.

On the back of the giant boar sat a player dressed in simple beginner's clothing, covered in blood.

"I can't believe I've run into other players here?" The player looked surprised.

Then, as if he had breathed a sigh of relief, he said, "You've come at the right time. I just took down this BOSS, but it was too heavy for one person to carry back."

"You guys help me break down the loot and transport it to town, and you can keep 60% of the dropped items, how about that?"

Above his head was a rather artistic ID—【The Vanishing Time】.

Upon seeing this ID, Xiaoyao Suifeng was the first to get excited: "Holy crap, it's Brother Shiguang!"

The next moment, the players behind him also showed the same expression.

Only the gummy bears were a little confused: "Who is Brother Time?"

"That's him! The professional champion of the virtual reality games 'Martial Arts' and 'Gods' Realm'! His dominance is off the charts, and he's known in the industry as the 'Great Demon King'—[The Vanishing Time]!"

Xiaoyao Suifeng was excited, his words coming out like a machine gun: "Damn, he just entered the game and he can already solo kill a wild boar that's at least level 30 with his skills. No wonder he's called the Demon King, he's absolutely awesome!"

"You flatter me, you flatter me." Brother Shiguang waved his hand modestly. "Actually, this monster isn't hard to beat. Its attack speed is very slow, and it only has a little bit of health. In terms of strength, it's definitely not level 30. It should be some kind of welfare monster."

At this point, the players realized that this wild boar did not have tusks and did not seem very aggressive. Apart from its large size and the mushrooms growing on its back, it did not have anything special about it.

...Wait, a mushroom is growing on my back?

"Wow, this is a rare ingredient!" Using the knowledge she'd learned from Nanxu, the gummy bear gave her assessment: "It's called Mushroom Pig, its meat is a sixth-grade ingredient, and the mushroom on its back is a fifth-grade one!"

Upon hearing this, the players' eyes lit up.

It's important to understand that a monster's strength is not necessarily proportional to its rarity as food.

The ingredients dropped by powerful monsters are mostly valuable, and the same is true for the ingredients dropped by weak but rare monsters.

"It's our duty, Brother Time!" The players instantly became excited.

"It's just a pig that's a little heavier, isn't it?"

"Watch us get it done!"