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Kaido helped Liyue pick many fruits from the trees. Each holding a large bundle of fruit, the two sat down by the campfire. Kaido had already taken his seat opposite Liyue and was devouring the fruit in a frenzy.
Liyue had just finished eating an apple, her fullness level rising to 23, when a narrator’s dialogue box appeared:
(Some foods can be roasted. Roasting food might make it more delicious and unlock unexpected effects!)
Liyue immediately understood.
Without hesitation, she instructed her character to take an apple and place it over the burning campfire.
...
Kaido was eating an apple.
He was never particular about food. Yet, after enduring some disastrous cooking experiments, he surprisingly found the wild apple delicious!
While he was biting into the apple, Kaido noticed Liyue suddenly stand up, clutching an apple with determination.
Liyue held the apple barehanded and placed it above the fire to roast.
Kaido: ?
Did you also eat the Flame-Flame fruit?
Kaido was confused by the action, thinking Liyue might be about to pull some trick again.
Then, quite predictably yet unexpected at the same time—
Kaido watched flames crawl up the apple and then onto Liyue’s hand. Despite the fire, she didn’t release her grip and remained calm as if the flames didn’t affect her at all.
Kaido: So this girl really does have the Flame-Flame fruit...
The flames spread along Liyue’s clothes, engulfing her entire body. As if only now feeling the heat, she screamed and finally let go of the apple, which had turned to black charcoal.
Only then did Kaido realize she wasn’t the wielder of the Flame-Flame fruit, Heat-Heat fruit, Magma fruit, or any such ability—fire could harm her.
“What kind of idiot are you?!” Kaido shouted in shock as she flailed amidst the flames, dropping the apple he was holding.
He quickly stood up. Thankfully, the sea was not far away. Kaido hurriedly scooped a bucket of water and doused the fiery Liyue.
But unexpectedly, a flash of white light appeared before him.
The bucket of water missed entirely. In the blink of an eye, Kaido found himself back sitting opposite the campfire, still holding the half-eaten apple.
Liyue stood there unharmed.
Kaido’s mouth hung half-open, confused. He took another bite of his apple, chewing absentmindedly before swallowing.
Had he been sitting here the entire time?
He felt like he had intended to do something...
But Kaido couldn’t recall.
Yet nothing had changed— the blonde girl just stood there as before.
He seemed to have forgotten something.
But since it was forgotten, it must not be important.
Whatever, he thought, not wanting to dwell on it.
Kaido relaxed and grabbed another apple, continuing to eat ravenously.
...
Liyue, following system prompts, attempted to roast the apple.
Mainly because the game offered no further clues. How was she supposed to know characters couldn’t just hold apples over the fire? If the game didn’t say, how would players know?
So, for the first time, Liyue suffered fire burns—more importantly, the apple in her hand was roasted to charcoal.
Her full 100 HP was as fragile as paper, instantly dropping to zero upon contact with fire. Liyue watched helplessly as her in-game avatar let out a short “Ah!”—huh, she thought player characters didn’t make sounds.
She soon realized this must be the game’s “death” mechanic. But as a player, she knew the protagonist had unlimited respawns. She wasn’t worried...
Wait, when was her last save?
Oh, she hadn’t saved at all since entering the game.
Liyue panicked instantly. She thought, if I die once, do I have to start over...? Who knew I’d get wiped just by touching fire!
She had been playing for a while, collecting several entries in the compendium, including some extremely rare SSR-level dishes. Restarting now would break her spirit—she might quit altogether.
Thankfully, the game had autosave.
After dying once, she was automatically returned to the previous autosave point—all her items remained intact.
Liyue sighed with relief, saved manually this time with care, then noticed something different:
On character death, the game auto-returns to the previous save. So logically, the burnt apple shouldn’t exist. All her items should have reverted to their previous state.
She looked at the apple in her hand.
[Congratulations! You have obtained a grade N dish: [Completely Charred Apple]!]
[Description: This apple has been burnt to charcoal, unrecognizable even to its own mother.]
[Effect: None.]
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Liyue: “...”
She had wasted an apple that could restore 5 fullness points, producing the lowest grade dish so far.
But at least the compendium had a new entry—this wasn’t a total loss.
Kindly, Liyue offered the apple to Kaido: “Want to eat this?”
Kaido: “?”
Kaido: “What do you take me for?”
Narrator’s box:
(Please do not treat small animals as garbage disposals! They each have their own temperaments, and giving them unwanted gifts lowers your affinity.)
Liyue: “...Oh.”
So it really does lower affinity. No more careless gift-giving.
She clicked on the charred apple.
“I’ll eat it myself then.”
[Eat?]
[Yes.]
Kaido: “??”
The little cow in the avatar window looked surprised: “Why are you eating that?”
Liyue was puzzled: “Because it’s edible, and it has no negative effects.”
Kaido’s expression became complicated, mixing sympathy, guilt, and other emotions.
Liyue didn’t dwell on it, turning her attention back to her earlier discovery for closer study.
She saved again, picked up an apple, and prepared to try roasting once more with bare hands.
Suddenly, the little cow’s eyes widened, and it jumped up: “Wait!”
Liyue looked at it, curious.
“Are you really going to roast that apple? Don’t burn it again! I bet I can do it better!”
Kaido said, “Let me do it!”
For some reason, the little cow suddenly seemed interested in roasting apples. It reached out, demanding, “Give me the apple, I’ll roast it!”
Liyue didn’t hand over her apple but pointed behind Kaido: “There are more apples over there. If you want to try roasting, you can use those…”
Kaido glanced over at the pile of apples behind him—about ten or so, heaped like a small mountain.
Kaido: “...”
Kaido: “...I prefer the one in your hand.”
Liyue stopped refusing and handed the apple over: “Consider this a gift from me.”
Kaido: “...”
Kaido didn’t reply but grabbed a stick, skewered the apple, and placed it over the fire.
“So that’s how you roast an apple!” Liyue exclaimed in surprise.
The NPC was actually smarter than her!
Still, she persistently poked Kaido: “Is this apple a gift from me to you?”
Kaido: “...” What a dumb question.
Liyue pressed on: “Does this apple count as...”
“Yeah, it does,” Kaido impatiently interrupted. “Enough already.”
“Oh,” Liyue squatted beside Kaido, still prodding: “Then why isn’t your affection increasing?”
Kaido: “........”
As if on cue, another narrator box appeared:
(Kaido’s affection for you +1. Current affection: 22.)
Liyue was satisfied.
Narrator box:
(Kaido finds you annoying and reduces your affection by 2. Current affection: 20.)
Liyue: ???
Kaido handed the roasted apple still on the stick back to Liyue, mainly worried her intelligence might lead her to grab the hot apple barehanded and get burned.
Liyue accepted the apple.
[Congratulations! You have obtained a grade N dish: [Roasted Apple]!]
[Description: While not expertly cooked, roasting an apple doesn’t require much skill.]
[Effect: Fullness +5.]
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[Eat?]
[Yes.]
Liyue took a bite of the roasted apple, watching her fullness rise. Another prompt appeared:
(Kaido’s affection for you +5. Current affection: 25.)
Liyue looked at Kaido in amazement.
I gave him a gift and only got +1 affection, but he gave me a gift and I got +5?
Wow, what a selfless little animal!
But thinking about real draft oxen, they truly are silent, selfless companions to humans...
Liyue understood. She was moved to tears.
It seemed that to raise Kaido’s affection, she should get more gifts from him!
While pondering how to boost Kaido’s affection and recruit new islanders, she prepared to continue her experiment.
She grabbed a stick from the ground and said to Kaido, “I’ve figured out how to roast apples completely!”
Like Kaido, she skewered an apple on the stick and placed it over the fire.
...And because she stood too close—almost stepping into the fire—
The little cow’s avatar showed an exclamation mark above its head. It had just sat down, probably barely warming itself, and now hurriedly stood again.
Unsurprisingly, Liyue again transformed into her burning human form and died—reloading the save.
Since her last manual save, the game seemed to have autosaved once more. She now had an extra item: the stick Kaido had used to skewer the apple. Her fullness remained at 28.
Kaido stayed seated where he had been.
Watching Kaido’s calm face, then recalling the exclamation mark above his head earlier, Liyue remembered a common question in gaming:
When a player dies and reloads, do NPCs who witnessed the death retain memory and choose to keep silent, or do they also lose all memory along with the player’s reload?
But Liyue didn’t dwell on it.
Playing games was about relaxing.jpg
Though she hadn’t meant to die, she wanted to test the save system.
Her reload confirmed:
When a player dies and reloads, consumed items disappear;
But gained items remain.
What about reloading a manual save?
Might as well try. Liyue opened the menu and clicked on her previous manual save.
Only after clicking did she remember...
Darn, Kaido had just increased her affection by 4 points in total.
Sure enough,
Reloading to the last manual save restored all consumed items—like the apples she had eaten—and even the burnt apple she had eaten reappeared in her hand.
At the same time, Kaido’s affection bonus disappeared, returning to 21.
Oh well, just 4 points. No big deal.jpg
Liyue decisively ate the burnt apple, once again catching the little cow’s shocked expression.
Now familiar with the process, Liyue said to Kaido, “Hello Kaido, I’m Liyue.”
Kaido: “...”
Come to think of it, they hadn’t formally introduced themselves; this was the first time Kaido heard her name.
...Wait, then how did she know his?
Had she never seen his bounty poster?
Kaido reluctantly said his name: “...Kaido.”
“Hello Kaido, I hope you can make up for the 4 affection points you just took from me,” Liyue handed the stick and apple to him. “So please roast me an apple, thanks.”
Kaido took the apple, wearing a puzzled expression: What kind of sudden madness is this girl showing now??
...No, wait.
From earlier until now, she had just quietly sat there eating apples. The only odd thing was eating a burnt apple that suddenly appeared in her hand.
Kaido felt his mind was a bit muddled.
...Wasn’t she acting fairly normal?
Then why did I say “again”??