Chapter 26: Spring Day Festival (1st Update)

Chapter 26: Spring Day Festival (Part 1)

The Sun Town cooking contest is about to begin.

The square is packed with residents and players who have come to participate. This is the first event everyone has attended since arriving in Sun Town.

The cookware is provided uniformly by the competition, with each contestant assigned an individual open-air station. Mr. Mayor personally hands out the tomato ingredients.

The theme is tomatoes—every dish must feature them. Other ingredients are unrestricted but must be brought by contestants, as the competition won't provide them for free.

For the purple briefs!

Mycelium clenches his fist, brimming with fighting spirit, and claims an empty station for himself.

The Would-Be Smoked Fish King and Le Yili are positioned beside and across from Jiang Ye, both curious enough to join the competition as well.

The Would-Be Smoked Fish King digs through his item slot, then scratches his little yellow-haired head, saying, "Damn, I didn't know there was a cooking contest today—I didn't bring anything."

Across from him, Le Yili pulls out a gooey, bouncy blob, squishing it in his hand with a squish, and says, "I only brought some slime gel."

Little Yellow Hair grimaces, covering his mouth: "Stop squishing that, it's gross—looks like a giant booger."

Slime gel drops from defeating slime monsters. Le Yili kills monsters daily, and this is what he's accumulated the most of—a whole bag full.

Le Yili, without changing his expression, tosses the sticky slime gel into the pot in front of him, adds an unwashed tomato, and says, "This will have to do."

Jiang Ye: "..."

Jiang Ye watches, his mushroom cap turning slightly green, and tactfully reminds him, "Won't this upset someone's stomach?"

After contestants finish their dishes, everyone tastes and votes on each other's creations.

"I wouldn't dare eat what he makes," says the Would-Be Smoked Fish King. "His dish is way too slapdash—at best he'll get the Purple Underpants Award!"

Jiang Ye's eyes light up, inwardly shouting, "Give it to me, give it to me, hand over those purple underpants now!"

Le Yili crosses his arms and asks, "So what are you going to make?"

The Would-Be Smoked Fish King's expression freezes. "I, I... I..."

He has hardly any ingredients in his pockets either, and the moment he's asked, his mind goes blank enough to hear an echo.

"Look!" Little Yellow Hair suddenly points ahead. "There's a place to buy ingredients over there! This is great!"

Right beside the platform where the mayor spoke, a small stall has been set up, with a large sign reading "Shop" hanging above it—a temporary store selling ingredients to contestants.

A line of residents and players wanting to buy ingredients has already formed at the shop entrance, at least thirty people long. It seems everyone is short on proper ingredients, and without buying something, they can't make a complete dish.

"Great, let's go buy some too!" says the Would-Be Smoked Fish King.

Le Yili shakes his head: "My tomato's already in the pot. I think my idea is creative enough—you guys go ahead."

Jiang Ye hasn't decided what dish to make yet, his mushroom head empty, so he follows Little Yellow Hair to check out the shop, hoping to find some inspiration.

"So many people."

"How long will this line take?"

"Will we run out of time to cook after buying ingredients?"

The Would-Be Smoked Fish King mutters on and on.

Suddenly, someone up ahead shouts: "What?! How much did you say one egg costs?!"

The man standing behind the shop's cash register says, "My goods are all of the finest quality, and my prices are very reasonable. Sir, you won't regret choosing my products."

The earlier speaker retorts, "An egg for 250, and you tell this young master it's reasonable? You think I'm some kind of fool to be swindled?!"

The argument continues up ahead, and Mushroom curiously pokes his head forward.

That constant "this young master" talk, the tone is unmistakable—it's definitely Lu Ban the Five-Footer.

"An egg costs 250 rupees?" Jiang Ye says in surprise.

Little Yellow Hair tugs at his ear, saying, "Did I hear that right? That's so expensive!"

Jiang Ye has bought eggs before, at the small supermarket. The normal price is 50 rupees per egg—here they're selling them at five times that.

People in the line start complaining too: "Yeah, that's way too expensive."

"A bag of pasta for 600—is this pasta made of gold?"

"Forget the pasta, this box of beef costs 1250 rupees!"

The scene descends into chaos, and the man behind the cash register steps forward, saying with full confidence, "If you think it's expensive, don't buy it. There's no forced sales in my shop!"

Mushroom tilts his head, finally getting a clear look—it's Boss Bi from Sun Town's largest general store again.

"What a profiteer," Jiang Ye says.

The Would-Be Smoked Fish King says, "This is way too expensive. Forget it, Mushroom, let's go—we'll just make something with whatever we have."

Mushroom nods.

With ingredients this pricey, only a fool would buy them. Besides, Jiang Ye still has some fruits and vegetables in his backpack, just not a wide variety.

Jiang Ye says, "I've got some strawberries, lettuce, and potatoes in my bag. If you really have nothing to cook with, you can take some from me."

Little Yellow Hair waves his hand awkwardly, saying, "No, no—those are things you worked hard to grow. I can't take them."

Many players haven't even managed to grow their first crop yet—whether strawberries or potatoes, they're extremely rare. But for Mushroom, they're no longer anything special.

Every morning, all the vegetables on the farm ripen at once, as if enchanted. By now, Jiang Ye's backpack is stuffed full of various vegetables and fruits.

"I've got it," the Would-Be Smoked Fish King says, struck by a sudden idea. "I'll make tomato fish fillets! I've still got fish in my bag!"

With that, he pulls a fish out of his item slot—it flops around, tail slapping, looking especially lively.

Mushroom quickly sidesteps two paces, nearly getting splashed with fishy water by the tail.

Little Yellow Hair is brimming with confidence: "The big backpack, here I come! Mushroom, what are you making?"

Jiang Ye shakes his head: "Haven't decided yet."

The first prize in this cooking competition is an oil painting portrait of Lord Chief Deity—grand and handsome, but handsome doesn't put food on the table, and most players have little interest in it.

The vast majority of players have their eyes on the 36-slot big backpack, which can hold a ton of stuff.

Only Jiang Ye...

Only Jiang Ye was covertly eyeing that box of purple briefs, slyly scheming to land a consolation prize.

Since he wanted to win a consolation prize, he couldn't make a dish that was too impressive, but it couldn't be too sloppy either. Mushroom was stumped—what exactly should he make?

As they walked back, many contestants had already started cooking, and various smells blended in the air.

Mushroom looked left and right, hoping for a spark of inspiration.

The contestant on the left was making the classic tomato meat sauce pasta, while the player on the right was making tomato egg drop soup.

As for the third contestant, they were chopping a handful of small white mushrooms with a rapid chop-chop-chop, mincing them finely, then tossing the mushrooms and tomatoes into a pan and stir-frying them frantically.

Mushroom: "..." Watching it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Mushroom, smell that—so fragrant, so fragrant."

The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King sniffed the air, his eyes suddenly flashing blue, on the verge of drooling, and said, "What's cooking over there? It smells amazing—I'm smelling meat! Is it beef? I really want to eat it."

It really was fragrant; Jiang Ye inhaled deeply a couple of times.

The two followed the scent over and immediately saw a pot full of beef and tomatoes bubbling and simmering, thick and hearty—it turned out to be a big pot of tomato beef rice stew!

"So fragrant, so fragrant, I really want to eat it..."

Little Yellow Hair murmured, "I can't even remember the last time I had beef."

"Your drool is about to fall into my pot," someone said with a laugh.

Mushroom and Little Yellow Hair looked up together and saw a player in a white suit standing off to the side.

"It's you!!!" Little Yellow Hair snapped.

It was Smoked Fish King—he was the one who made this fragrant tomato beef rice stew.

Ever since Little Yellow Hair learned that this person was Smoked Fish King, he did a complete 180. After all, the two had a grudge over a fishing rod; Little Yellow Hair had been a step too late, and the bargain rod had been snatched up by Smoked Fish King.

Smoked Fish King's dish was almost ready, and he said, "Come on over and taste it later."

"Pfft, who'd want to eat that? It looks disgusting!" Little Yellow Hair scoffed, saying, "Mushroom, let's go—let's go make our own."

Jiang Ye nodded.

Just as he was about to turn, Mushroom was bumped from behind and nearly tumbled over.

"Brother! Brother!"

She didn't apologize and didn't seem to notice she'd bumped into him. She shoved past Jiang Ye and said to Smoked Fish King, "Brother! Can you give me some of your beef? You have so much—just give me some!"

Little Yellow Hair caught Mushroom and asked, "Are you okay?"

Jiang Ye said, "I'm fine." Turning around, he saw a pretty girl with flowing wavy hair.

The girl spoke in a sweet, wheedling tone, "Brother! I didn't bring any ingredients—can you give me some beef and an egg too?"

Wait, this is...

Jiang Ye suddenly realized her voice sounded familiar—could she be the Blue Iceland he had blocked?

"Brother, can you give me a fish too?" she said to Little Yellow Hair.

Little Yellow Hair looked disgusted and said, "Who are you? Why should I give you anything for free? You just bumped into my friend and haven't even apologized."

"Brother, you're so stingy—what kind of man are you?" the girl said loudly.

Hearing that, Little Yellow Hair instantly flew off the handle.

The girl snorted coldly and said, "So you're friends after all—both stingy and pathetic! And ugly too!"

Before Jiang Ye could say a word, the girl was already pointing right in his face and laying into him.

Mushroom said, "So you really are that Blue Iceland who's always begging for stuff."

She clearly recognized Jiang Ye too. Mushroom Soup had appeared on the system's main screen a few times and was fairly well-known on the server.

Little Yellow Hair had a hot temper and shot back, "Who are you calling ugly? You're the ugly one—shameless and hideous!"

He glanced at Jiang Ye beside him, and his cheeks suddenly went red, adding, "Our Mushroom is way prettier than you!"

Blue Iceland failed to get the beef and fish, rolled her eyes, muttered "weirdo," and turned to leave.

"She sure runs fast!" Little Yellow Hair said. "What a jerk."

Beside them, Smoked Fish King stood with his arms crossed, watching the drama unfold.

Little Yellow Hair glared at him and said, "What're you staring at?"

Smoked Fish King said with a knowing smirk, "So you like the Mushroom Soup type."

"Don't—don't talk nonsense!" Little Yellow Hair stammered, his face redder than a tomato, saying, "You're out of your mind—don't say things like that! Mushroom... Mushroom is, is a gorgeous woman! I'm just stating the facts!"

Jiang Ye: "..." A gorgeous woman?

"Gorgeous woman?" Smoked Fish King raised an eyebrow and snickered, saying, "Mushroom is a man."

Jiang Ye had long noticed that after putting on the transformation ring, different people saw him differently, but most people saw Mushroom as male—only The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King was the exception.

"What did you say?"

Little Yellow Hair was shocked and instinctively wanted to argue. But Jiang Ye beside him nodded at that moment.

Little Yellow Hair was stunned, rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again, stared at Jiang Ye, and said, "...Damn, I... I... I misunderstood..."

Jiang Ye was really curious about what he looked like in Little Yellow Hair's eyes.

Little Yellow Hair stammered an apology, saying, "What I mean is, Mushroom, you're so good-looking that I got confused. I'm such an idiot!"

Mushroom gave a generous wave of his hyphae and said, "It's fine." As long as the misunderstanding was cleared up.

Little Yellow Hair sighed in relief and said, "Mushroom, you're not mad—you're really a good person."

He even let out a couple of goofy laughs, his face even redder than before.

His hyphae curled into a question mark, and Jiang Ye's heart skipped a beat—what was going on? The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King looked awkward, and why did he seem even more flustered than before?

Smoked Fish King spoke up from the side: "Sorry to interrupt, but there's not much time left in the competition. If you want to participate, you'd better start cooking soon."

"Oh no!" Little Yellow Hair suddenly remembered and said, "Mushroom, let's hurry up and cook!"

They returned to their spot, and The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King decided to make tomato fish fillets, already starting to work with great vigor.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Little Yellow Hair didn't bother cleaning the fish—he just chopped it into chunks and tossed it in the pot with the tomatoes.

Le Yili watched from across the way, enjoying the show, and teased, "Your tomato fish chunks don't even look as good as my tomato slime."

Little Yellow Hair said, "I'm not like you."

Jiang Ye gave a dry laugh—they really were pretty much the same.

Mushroom thought for a moment, already having an idea. His hyphae picked up a bright red tomato, felt it, then pulled a lemon from his item slot.

The lemon was something Jiang Ye had gotten earlier in a barter, trading firewood with Smoked Fish King, and he'd never used it since.

The hyphae searched through the item slot again and pulled out a jar of honey.

"That smells great."

Le Yili was drawn in by the scent of honey—the entire square was filled with its fragrance.

Jiang Ye planned to make honey-lemon candied tomatoes!

Most contestants went with savory tomato dishes; someone like Jiang Ye making a sweet tomato dish was super rare.

The hyphae briefly blanched the tomatoes in hot water to peel them, then cut them up. He drizzled lots of honey over them with a spoon, squeezed in a little lemon juice, and put them in the fridge to chill. The honey-lemon candied tomatoes were done.

Jiang Ye clapped his hands—all done.

Mushroom was confident his candied tomatoes would taste great, but the dish was so simple it might win something, just not anything great.

"Whoa, Mushroom." Little Yellow Hair flustered, surprised. "You're done? That fast?"

Jiang Ye nodded, then looked over at the pot in front of Little Yellow Hair...

"You might want to add some water—I smell something burning," Mushroom reminded him helpfully.

Little Yellow Hair lifted the lid, and sure enough, the pot was dry.

Le Yili snickered, "It's turning into dried-out fish chunks."

Crackle...

Crackle—

Splash—

A strange sound came from overhead.

Just as Little Yellow Hair opened the lid, before he could add water, it started to rain...

Mushroom felt his umbrella cap get pelted several times—thump, thump, thump—in a steady rhythm.

Spring in Sun Town brought frequent rain, Jiang Ye thought. He'd forgotten to check the weather forecast this morning—turns out it was going to rain.

"Oh man, my fish!" Little Yellow Hair wailed.

The rain wasn't heavy, but the tomato fish slices that got rained on were definitely ruined.

"Don't worry," Le Yili said. "Look—the rain doesn't get to the food."

The hyphae rubbed his eyes, and Mushroom took a closer look. Sure enough!

The square was open-air, and rain pattered down, but when it fell toward the pots and plates, it seemed to be blocked by some invisible barrier.

Le Yili said, "This is a game, after all—there are bound to be some differences from real life."

Little Yellow Hair breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, thank goodness."

"Your hair..." Mushroom raised a hypha and pointed at the yellow mop on The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King.

Little Yellow Hair grabbed at it...

Wet and limp, it had been plastered into a bowl cut by the rain.

Mushroom also felt his own umbrella cap—so wet.

The dishes wouldn't be ruined, but the players and residents were all drenched, looking like drowned rats—totally pathetic and hilarious.

Mushroom looked left and right, puzzled. "It's raining, but everyone's so calm. Why isn't anyone using an umbrella or a raincoat?"

Some players who didn't want to get wet had run under the eaves to take shelter, but all the residents were completely unfazed, going about their business as if this were totally normal.

Le Yili said, "As far as I know, this game doesn't have umbrellas or raincoats as items. Everyone just gets rained on—it dries out naturally once the sun comes out the next day."

Jiang Ye said in surprise, "There's no umbrella or raincoat mechanic, but I have a raincoat blueprint."

"What?!" Little Yellow Hair's eyes lit up. "Then make one and put it on! This rain is way too heavy—I don't want to get soaked and then have to dry off."

Mushroom had gotten the raincoat blueprint in a dream, but couldn't craft it yet.

Jiang Ye said awkwardly, "I don't have enough materials. One raincoat needs two slime gels."

Making a raincoat required 1 hypha and 2 slime gels. Jiang Ye had tons of hyphae, but only 1 slime gel—not enough to craft a single raincoat.

Le Yili immediately pulled out a handful of slime gels and handed them over. "Here, take these—there are ten slime gels. I want to trade them for a raincoat."

Mushroom nodded immediately—deal!

"Make raincoat?"

"Raincoat made successfully!"

Ten slime gels could make five raincoats. Jiang Ye immediately crafted three and gave one to Little Yellow Hair and one to Le Yili.

Putting on the raincoat, the rain was blocked out, and his wet hair under the coat instantly dried and fluffed up. Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief—he felt much better, no longer all soggy.

Little Yellow Hair looked a bit embarrassed. "I didn't contribute any materials, so let me buy it from you. How much for the raincoat?"

Jiang Ye had no idea what slime gels were worth, so he hesitated, not sure what to say.

Little Yellow Hair pulled out some rupees. "Uh... I only have 600 rupees left. Is that enough?"

"That's too much," Jiang Ye said.

Jiang Ye refused to take it, his hyphae waving back and forth.

Just then, Smoked Fish King walked up to them. He'd been all sharp in his suit and very gentlemanly moments ago, but now he was a drowned rat—which made him look especially ridiculous.

Little Yellow Hair burst out laughing at the bedraggled Smoked Fish King. "Your look is way too funny!"

Smoked Fish King, grim-faced, wiped the rain from his face, ignoring Little Yellow Hair's taunts, and said to Jiang Ye, "Is the raincoat 600 each? I'd like to buy one."

"You want to buy one?" Jiang Ye asked in surprise.

The mushroom sprang into action, immediately hand-crafting a new raincoat and selling it to Smoked Fish King for 600.

Another player nearby saw this and said, "Are there more raincoats? 600? Isn't that a bit pricey?"

Little Yellow Hair quickly chimed in, "600 rupees and you call that expensive? This is a rare item—other than from our mushroom here, you can't get it anywhere else! And if you check Boss Bi's shop, his eggs sell for 250, and beef costs over a thousand rupees! So when you compare, isn't the raincoat a steal?"

"Then, uh, I'll take one too. I hate getting rained on—it ruins my hair." And with that, the player bought the fifth raincoat for 600 rupees.

Soon, another person walked over and said, "A raincoat? I've never seen one before. Can I get one? I'd like to buy one too."

And it turned out to be Mr. Mayor himself.

Jiang Ye looked at Mr. Mayor—Santa Claus himself—and said, looking uncomfortable, "There are none left."

Ten slime gels only made five raincoats, and they sold out within a minute. There was no material left to hand-craft more raincoats.

Mr. Mayor said dejectedly, "None left? How can that be?"

The people behind him chimed in, "Yeah, I want to buy a raincoat too."

Many residents and players gathered around, all asking Jiang Ye at once if he had any raincoats left.

"Are there really none left? How about I pay 700 rupees for one?" said Lu Ban the Five-Footer.

Jiang Ye said, "There really are none."

Just then, Le Yi Li walked over and said, "I still have some slime gel here. How about we partner up to sell raincoats?"

Jiang Ye's eyes lit up, and he nodded eagerly.

Le Yi Li didn't have the raincoat blueprint, so despite having slime gel, he couldn't make them. The raincoat blueprint was one of a kind—extremely valuable.

They worked out a deal: Le Yi Li would sell slime gel to Jiang Ye at 100 rupees each, and Jiang Ye would sell the raincoats at 600 rupees apiece.

Le Yi Li had tons of slime gel he never used, but now it was finally coming in handy.

So the mushroom got to work hand-crafting raincoats, while Little Yellow Hair started hollering nearby, "Raincoats! Get your raincoats! 600 rupees each! First come, first served! Limited stock! Once they're gone, they're gone!"

"Raincoats! Selling raincoats! Wear one and you'll stay dry! Wear one and you won't end up soaked!"

"Get your raincoats while they last!"

Residents and players alike crowded around the square, lining up to buy raincoats. The line was way longer than the one for the pop-up shop earlier.

Boss Bi stood outside his shop with his hands on his hips and demanded, "What are they peddling over there? I'm the sponsor of this cooking contest! The mayor promised my shop would be the only one selling ingredients here—this is against the rules!"

The clerk explained, "Boss, they're not selling ingredients—they're selling raincoats!"

"Raincoats?" Boss Bi was completely floored.

Jiang Ye kept cranking out raincoats, his mycelium nearly smoking from the friction.

It never ended—absolutely never!

Little Yellow Hair's voice was getting hoarse from all the shouting, and he said, "Mushroom, speed it up—the line's getting long back here."

"I'm going as fast as I can," Jiang Ye said. All eight hands were working!

Le Yi Li just kept supplying slime gel, standing off to the side, muttering, "57... 58... 59..."

Little Yellow Hair teased, "What are you counting? Help me hawk these things too."

Le Yi Li said, "I'm keeping count to see how many we've sold."

The line for raincoats was long, but it slowly started to shrink. The mushroom was drenched in sweat from the effort, and in the end, they sold a whopping 78 raincoats in one stretch!

Le Yi Li said, "78."

"Oh my god!" Little Yellow Hair gasped dramatically. "That's a ton of money!"

Jiang Ye was shocked too—that really was a lot of cash.

78 raincoats raked in a total of 46,800 rupees. Of course, 15,600 rupees had to go to Le Yi Li for the materials.

That meant Jiang Ye pocketed 31,200 rupees in one go—over thirty grand!

The mushroom was thrilled and stunned at the same time. He looked over at The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King and said, "Thanks for helping me hawk these earlier. I should cut you in on some of the rupees."

"Nah." Little Yellow Hair shook his head. "You never charged me for my raincoat, so consider that my pay. Besides, you've got to fix up your house and pay for the inn. This money's all yours—I can't take it."

Little Yellow Hair flat-out refused the money and changed the subject, saying, "Hey, look—they're about to announce the winners!"

While Jiang Ye was cranking out raincoats and counting cash, the cooking contest was also wrapping up. All the dishes were set out on a raised platform covered in red carpet, and residents and contestants alike went up to taste and vote.

Jiang Ye looked out and saw a sea of raincoats—everyone was wearing the clear raincoats he'd hand-made. It was quite a sight.

"Everyone, settle down! Settle down!" Mr. Mayor, in his clear raincoat, raised both hands for silence. "Voting for this cooking contest is now closed. Time to announce the first-place winner!"

Little Yellow Hair laughed. "I don't care about first place. I just want that big backpack."

The mushroom nodded, thinking, I just want those purple shorts!

His mycelium quivered with excitement.

Mr. Mayor announced in a booming voice, "The winning dish is... Honey-Lemon Candied Tomatoes!"

"What?" Jiang Ye was stunned. He turned to Little Yellow Hair. "What did he say?"

Little Yellow Hair shouted excitedly, "Mushroom! First place! Honey Lemon Candied Tomatoes took first! That's you, mushroom!"

Mr. Mayor smiled and said, "Let's congratulate Mr. Mushroom Chowder on taking first place!"

The mushroom stood frozen in place.

Jiang Ye: "..." He couldn't believe it. Wait... this wasn't supposed to happen—something had to be wrong!

Little Yellow Hair urged excitedly, "Mushroom, the mayor's calling you up to get your prize! You can take that handsome Chief Deity home now!"