Chapter Eleven: Specifying the Scope and Pinpointing the Target

"Xiaoyuan, you'll be the head chef in a bit, but there's something I need to make clear first." After confirming Zhuan Xiaoyuan’s position, Feng Guoqing’s expression grew a bit more serious.

"Uncle Feng, please instruct me." Noticing the gravity on Feng Guoqing’s face, Zhuan Xiaoyuan sensed his earnestness. Her own expression turned solemn, showing she was listening intently.

"No matter how delicious a dish you're aiming to create, ingredients must never be wasted. Resources are scarce now. We can't afford to throw away edible ingredients for the sake of flavor." Feng Guoqing walked to the cooking station, picked up the porcelain bowl filled with egg whites—the leftovers from when Zhuan Xiaoyuan had separated eggs earlier—and pointed at its contents.

Seeing the raised bowl, Zhuan Xiaoyuan’s face bloomed with a gentle smile. "Don’t worry, Uncle Feng. I’ll use this as well; I’ll incorporate all of it into tonight’s dishes." In that moment, she radiated earnestness, determination, and an unshakeable confidence in her own abilities. And thus, her life as head chef began.

Time slipped by quietly. Around a quarter past ten at night, after preparing a late-night meal for the frontline team on night duty, Zhuan Xiaoyuan finally made it back to her dormitory. She collapsed onto her bed without even taking off her clothes—she was utterly exhausted.

By now, the effect of her transformation into Erina Nakiri had worn off, and she’d reverted to her original form as a young officer in uniform. Lying on the bed, she desperately didn’t want to move, but the sticky sweat clinging to her skin was intolerable. She had to take a proper bath before she could sleep.

From three in the afternoon, her head chef duties had kept her busy until ten at night. Seven hours of work in total, and though she’d had about an hour’s break in between, the six continuous hours had nearly drained her completely. No wonder the job paid so handsomely—being head chef was both exhausting and demanding. Still, it hadn’t been without rewards, and not just in her pay.

Over the course of the afternoon, Zhuan Xiaoyuan had finally worked out the core abilities and usage limits of her first card: the Culinary Goddess Girl—Erina Nakiri.

As she became more familiar with Erina’s powers and restrictions, new text appeared at the bottom of the previously image-only card:

Erina Nakiri (Culinary Goddess Girl) Support Type

Special Ability: God’s Tongue (Extraordinary taste perception)

Skill: Fantastical Cuisine (Can recreate any dish from memory)

Equipment: Erina’s Favorite Chef’s Knife (Increases speed in ingredient preparation)

Erina’s Special Chef’s Attire (Slightly reduces physical energy consumption)

Cooldown: 150 seconds

There were also stats not shown on the card, such as divine power consumption in transformed state. Based on Zhuan Xiaoyuan’s own tests and calculations, the power drain from being Erina Nakiri was minimal. With her own faith-level divine energy, she could maintain the transformation for over eight hours. In other words, as long as her divine power could keep up, she could essentially stay transformed all day. And as her divine power increased in rank, she’d have more energy and recover faster—perhaps one day her recovery would even outpace consumption.

The results from her first card left her even more eager to uncover the second. Flipping over on her bed, she stretched her right hand toward the ceiling, and a pitch-black card appeared in her palm.

This was the second card, though its transformation target had yet to be determined. That’s right—after seven hours of toil, Zhuan Xiaoyuan had, quite mysteriously, advanced to mid-tier faith level.

After Feng Guoqing sampled her golden fried rice, she’d felt a slight increase in her divine power cap. She’d initially thought it was an illusion and paid it little mind. But when the frontline team began eating dinner and her dishes were carried out one by one, her divine power seemed to surge with each serving, shooting up rapidly. In a short span, she’d broken through from lower faith-level to mid-tier. Only after reaching mid-tier did the growth slow, though it continued steadily. Once her work was completely done and the last shift had finished their late-night meal, her divine power’s growth rate plummeted and finally stilled.

After a whole afternoon of explosive growth, Zhuan Xiaoyuan finally understood why, during her graduation test, the divine-armored warrior present had said with regret that if she could reach faith-level, she’d have a shot at becoming a full-fledged warrior—yet with such faint potential, even reaching faith-level was a struggle.

Faith-level could be rapidly advanced by gaining others’ belief and recognition, hence why the first stage of divine power cultivation was called the faith level.

As acting head chef, Zhuan Xiaoyuan’s fantastical cuisine had given the frontline soldiers a new gustatory experience. Their admiration for her cooking had converted directly into faith energy, absorbed and fused into her divine power. Thus, within a single afternoon, she’d advanced from just entering lower faith-level to reaching mid-tier.

"Alright," she said, springing up from bed in a single smooth motion. She put away the black card, planning to enjoy a good bath—and to take care of certain universally understood personal matters.

For the time being, Zhuan Xiaoyuan didn’t plan to randomly generate a second card character. Upon reaching mid-tier, she’d received a new ability prompt.

Card roles didn’t have to be random; they could be designated.

Except for the first card, which was always randomly generated, from the second onward, each card could randomly generate a character from among all the anime heroines in her memory. It could be an overwhelmingly powerful type she couldn’t use, or another support type like the first.

The second method was to forfeit the ‘card generation right’ at the next advancement, and designate a random character within a chosen category. For example, if she specified a ranged attacker, she might get the Universal Angel Ikaros, Black Rock Shooter, Railgun Misaka Mikoto, Headless Upperclassman Mami Tomoe, or another such heroine.

There was also a third method: save up three card generation chances, and use them all at once to precisely specify a character—consuming three blank cards to generate a specific role. For example, spending three blank cards to obtain the Knight King Artoria card would guarantee a transformation card for Artoria, though whether it would be the blackened, pure white, or regular form would remain unknown—since some characters had multiple states.

As for the blank black card currently in her hand, Zhuan Xiaoyuan intended to keep it in reserve. Who knew when she might need it? She was already prepared to sacrifice her next advancement’s card for a targeted generation. And if it went unused, she could save up three cards and make a precise choice later.

When, after some time, she finally used the card at just the right moment, Zhuan Xiaoyuan would be so grateful she hadn’t squandered this rare opportunity.