Chapter 432: Chapter 344: Skill Experience Card, Growth Speed Up-Up

"Look at you, not even fully grasping the resources of your own country, yet competing with us for a meal here. Tsk, tsk, maybe you should go back home for a while."

Raphael didn’t hold back at all, mocking with an air of wishing he’d leave quickly.

Though they appear to get along peacefully now, they are actually genuine competitors.

Getting rid of one would certainly have more advantages than disadvantages.

Nagishiro Sho rolled his eyes dramatically, "Dream on! You act like you know everything, yet you don’t even know pumpkin flowers and cucumber flowers can be eaten!"

"You talk as if you know!"

Seeing the two about to argue, Lin Chen quickly raised a hand to halt them.

"Alright, alright, both of you, calm down. At least you’re both on the same starting line now, aren’t you?"

When everyone had picked a bunch of daylilies and sealed them in bags, Nagishiro Sho was still in shock over the fact that these were hometown products.

"Mr. Nagishiro, where are you from in Sakura?"

"Kyoto."

"Kyoto is a big city, right?"

"Yes."

"If I remember correctly, Sakura doesn’t have a large land area, so the planting areas definitely wouldn’t be in the city, right?"

"That’s right."

"So, where are we now?"

"Radison Farm?"

"Where is Radison Farm located?"

"Uh, in the outskirts around Dieppe."

As Lin Chen threw out several questions, Nagishiro Sho slowly pieced things together.

Right!

Even if daylilies are native to Sakura, that doesn’t mean they’re widely cultivated, it only means they exist on Sakura’s land.

Given that they look like regular flowers and are tucked away in the wild countryside, who would be bored enough to go pick a flower to eat?

After wandering through all the farm areas, two hours had passed.

This was only because John had called for a farm tour car to get around; otherwise, on foot, it might take half a day to cover everything.

"Do you want to visit the fruit area, or should we just take something special back?"

"What fruits do you have?"

John took out a product brochure from the car and handed it over. The three of them huddled together to carefully scan through it.

"Oh, you even have durian here?"

"Duri—Durian?!"

"That thing is a no-go!!"

Nagishiro Sho and Raphael waved their hands simultaneously.

Lin Chen’s eyes lit up, and he smiled slyly, "A qualified chef shouldn’t be biased against ingredients, right? Let’s go pick some durian!"

Ten minutes later.

The two were holding their noses in disgust, yet had to support the two large durians on the table to prevent them from rolling off due to bumps.

"Oh my God, it’s so smelly, I almost can’t breathe!"

"Will my sense of smell go numb because of this? How can anyone like eating this? It’s simply stinkier than crap!"

Unlike their exaggerations, Lin Chen turned his head and smiled, instinctively licking his lips as he stared at the durians in their hands.

When you think about it, it’s been a long time since he had fresh durian.

Although it occasionally appears in the Great Xia Supermarket, they’re all frozen whole and not fresh, so there’s no desire to buy them at all.

People who love durian understand the subtleties involved.

When you don’t see them, you don’t miss them much. But when they suddenly appear right in front of you, and that charming aroma lingers at your nose, his mouth waters uncontrollably as though a floodgates have opened, wishing he could immediately tear it open and gnaw on a few pieces to satisfy himself.

John, who was driving, didn’t react at all, which made Lin Chen curious and pat his shoulder.

"John, can you eat durian?"

"I can," John nodded. "I don’t particularly like it, though; it’s a bit too sweet, and the smell is indeed heavy. Half a piece is usually my limit."

"Don’t tell me even durian can be made into a tasty dish?"

"Of course it can!"

"No way!"

Nagishiro Sho and Raphael immediately shouted.

"A fruit with such a strong taste can be made into a dish? I can’t imagine it!"

"I think there are so many delicious ingredients in the world that missing this one isn’t a big deal..."

"You don’t understand, with strongly scented foods like durian and stinky tofu, there’s only zero times and endless times in life."

Lin Chen confidently patted his chest, "At first, I also thought it was hard to accept, but after trying it once, it wasn’t bad. Not difficult to eat, but not exceptionally good either."

"After a few days, I tried it the second time and felt a higher level of acceptance."

"The third, fourth, fifth time... then you just get addicted, eating whole pieces and still not having enough, needing at least two or three pieces to start."

"Really?"

"I find it hard to believe."

The two of them exchanged dubious glances and, for the rarest of moments, reached a consensus.

Raphael quickly changed the topic: "By the way, Lin, didn’t you say you were going to show me how to make offal dishes? Don’t we need to go to the breeding area for that?"

"No need," John replied without turning his head, "Just go directly to the slaughter area. You can take whatever you need from there. Right now, it’s the busiest time of the day, and they have all sorts, fresh too."

Speaking of offal, Nagishiro Sho got excited too, and the look he cast at Raphael suddenly became a little peculiar.

"Hehe, you’re walking right into it, you can’t blame others for this."

"?"

Raphael shivered all over, as a sense of foreboding enveloped his heart.

"What do you mean, have you already tried offal dishes? What are they?"

"Of course, we Sakura People naturally like eating offal dishes, or rather all of Asia does. It’s just you Westerners who don’t really eat them."

"If we’re talking types, besides the ones you routinely eat, last week I also tried pig intestines and pig brains..."

"Stop!!"

Before he could continue, just hearing about pig intestines and pig brains made Raphael’s face go a bit pale.

He now felt like he was paying for his actions, enduring durians was already a challenge, and now there’s this even heavier tasting stuff...

Would he end up suffocated here?

Lin Chen was planning a surprise for Chef Raphael when suddenly, the system tally for the Maruko Challenge interrupted his thoughts.

As he anticipated, he received the highest-tier reward with an overwhelmingly positive feedback rating of just over ninety-nine percent.

The remaining diners who didn’t leave feedback were undoubtedly those who didn’t get their fill, as he was used to that by now.

[Ding, you have received a Recipe Exchange Coupon*1, a Skill Experience Card*1, and a prize of three thousand euros]

Without hesitation, he summoned this brand-new item card with a thought.

[Skill Experience Card (Basic): Can be used on a target with a favorability of over 50. After use, it randomly copies one of the target’s specialty attributes. This function only applies to culinary and related skills.]

[Usage Instructions]

[1. The copied skill proficiency will be 20% of the target’s proficiency. The proficiency can be increased by repeating the copying of the same skill or through personal practice.]

[2. Three Basic Cards can be combined into an Intermediate Card, increasing the copied skill proficiency to 50%. Three Intermediate Cards can be combined into an Advanced Card, which fully copies the proficiency.]

[3. Basic Cards will randomly copy a skill from the target. If the copied skill proficiency is lower than that of the user’s existing skills, it will be automatically re-drawn. Intermediate Cards allow for viewing and selection of three skills to randomly copy; Advanced Cards can directly lock onto a skill for copying.]

"What the...?"

Lin Chen couldn’t believe his eyes.

Was this the benefit of having an Intermediate Food Truck, the ability to directly copy culinary skills from others?

What exactly are related skills?

In relation to culinary skills...

His gaze fell onto John.

Animal and plant-related should count, right?

He had no issues with having to improve or re-draw copied skill proficiency on his own. After all, all abilities get better with practice. Nobody becomes an expert the moment they start learning.

"No way, the Basic Card seems too random. If I end up drawing a skill that’s of no use to me, wouldn’t it be a waste?"

"Wait, according to the skill card’s description, as long as my skill proficiency is higher than the target’s, the draw will be voided, and it will automatically redo the draw."

"This means that if I use this card, I’ll either gain a brand new culinary skill or related skill, or I’ll enhance the proficiency of my existing skills."

"Doesn’t this mean if the skills I have are numerous and comprehensive enough, and their proficiency is high, the random draw could essentially become a targeted draw?"

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. He didn’t feel that he had any glaring weaknesses right now — sword skills could be one, but fooling foreigners with it shouldn’t be a problem.

Oh right, he wasn’t too good at noodle-making, baking, or pastries either.

At this thought, his gaze inconspicuously shifted away from John and turned to the two head chefs behind him.

Both of them were seasoned chefs with ten or twenty years of experience; whichever skill they had would undoubtedly surpass his, right?

Why not draw one to test the waters?

[Nagishiro Sho: 76]

[Raphael: 83]

As he clicked on the Skill Experience Card, two numbers quietly appeared above their heads, unsurprisingly representing their favorability towards him.

Then he glanced at John in front of him.

[John: 75]

Why is this guy so high?

He was a bit confused since they’d only known each other for less than a month, and only recently became familiar with each other.

Was it just because he liked to eat?

Nagishiro Sho needed him, so a higher favorability was normal.

Chef Raphael had been with him for five years, practically watching him grow as a mentor, so his high favorability was also understandable.

"Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Higher scores mean they genuinely see me as a friend, and with these intuitive numbers, I won’t have to worry about being backstabbed in friendships in the future."

Shifting his attention back to the two chefs behind him, he was hesitating over whose skills would be more worthwhile to draw.

Nagishiro Sho, like himself, was Asian, so they probably had many similar skills, and the Sakura People were undoubtedly skilled in cutting and handling seafood, which he certainly couldn’t match.

Raphael Chef, on the other hand, had extensive years of experience and was especially adept in French pastries.

Desserts were one of his weaknesses, and if he could draw that, it would be like hitting the jackpot.