27: Chapter 27 Warhammer Cuisine

The sickly light of the wasteland's dark red star had only just begun to peek over the horizon, yet a mouth-watering aroma was already wafting through the surface camp of the Fire Seed Shelter.

"Sizzle—"

Accompanied by a surge of steam.

A player with the ID 'This Dumpling Is Also Delicious' was standing shirtless before a firewood stove temporarily built from scrap bricks.

On the stove sat a large iron pot fresh out of the Matter Constructor, the water inside bubbling and boiling.

While Dumpling wasn't a professional chef in real life, he was definitely a veteran foodie and an amateur cook.

As soon as he logged in yesterday, he keenly sensed what this game lacked most: damn flavor!

So, using his initial few points, he exchanged for a large bag of high-purity protein powder blocks and a bunch of basic seasonings like salt and black pepper from the Shelter's armory store.

Early this morning, he logged in earlier than anyone else.

Adding water and a bit of salt to the protein powder blocks, he used the powerful strength attribute of this clone body to knead an incredibly chewy dough. Then, like pulling Lanzhou Ramen, he stretched out long, thin noodles in the howling winds of the wasteland.

"Schlorp—"

The Liver Emperor, who had just taken the elevator to the surface, smelled the scent of meat mixing in the air, and his saliva instantly began to flow.

"Holy crap, Dumpling, what's that smell?" The Liver Emperor leaned in, his eyes fixed on the noodles tumbling in the pot.

Dumpling proudly stirred the noodles with a pair of homemade long wooden chopsticks and pointed to a crooked wooden board nearby:

"Buddy, this is called the Wasteland Special High-Energy Ramen. Look at the sign: 0.5 points for a plain bowl, 0.8 points for one with meat. This broth is a stock I made yesterday using mutated rabbit leg bones. Want a bowl?"

"Give it here! Hurry! Give me a bowl with meat!"

The Liver Emperor didn't hesitate to transfer 0.8 points over.

After eating those tasteless dry rations in the game every day, he felt like his sense of taste was about to atrophy.

"Coming right up!"

Dumpling nimbly grabbed a handful of noodles and dropped them into the pot.

A moment later, he fished them out and placed them into a wooden bowl that showed clear signs of manual craftsmanship.

He poured a ladle of rich, milky-white bone broth, added a few slices of roasted rabbit hind leg meat processed in the purification box yesterday, and finally sprinkled some unknown mutated plant leaves he'd found in the wilderness.

"Your Deluxe Wasteland Ramen, enjoy!"

The Liver Emperor couldn't wait to take the wooden bowl. Unfazed by the heat, he took a large gulp of the broth with a loud slurp.

The next second.

The Liver Emperor's eyes instantly widened like copper bells!

"Holy shit!!!"

This shout of 'holy shit' was practically deafening.

"This flavor! This broth! The chewiness of these noodles! It's incredible! Is this really a delicacy a carbon-based lifeform can make?!"

The Liver Emperor didn't even bother talking anymore, burying his face directly into the wooden bowl—which was larger than his face—and began to slurp frantically.

The slurping sounds were exceptionally enticing in the quiet morning.

Other players who had just taken the elevator to the surface saw the Liver Emperor acting like a starving ghost and smelled the domineering aroma wafting through the air.

*Gulp.*

A synchronized sound of swallowing echoed through the camp.

"Holy crap, this game's food system is too cool, right? You can actually cook your own food?"

"Old Jiao! Give me a bowl! Double meat!"

"Don't push, don't push! I was here first! Give me five bowls, I'm buying them all for today!"

In the blink of an eye, Dumpling's noodle stall was surrounded by the hungry 'Fourth Calamity,' instantly becoming the most popular breakfast spot in the Shelter.

Right in the middle of this bustling scene.

Lin Li stepped out of the elevator, bringing the two girls, Rhine and Willow, with him.

He had intended to issue some house-building quests to the players this morning and arrange a safe place on the surface for Rhine and her sister.

But as soon as he stepped out, he saw a group of burly men squatting on the ground without any sense of decorum, clutching wooden bowls and slurping noodles frantically, tears of emotion streaming down their faces as they ate.

Lin Li twitched his nose. The rich aroma of the bone broth noodles entered his nostrils, and his already somewhat wavering stomach surrendered instantly.

Not just him—Rhine and Willow behind him were staring fixedly at those wooden bowls, their throats bobbing continuously.

"Ahem."

Lin Li straightened his trench coat, maintaining the cold and aloof posture of an NPC, and strode toward Dumpling's noodle stall.

Seeing the Administrator arrive, the noisy players cleared a path one after another.

"Three bowls of noodles. With meat."

Lin Li's voice remained low and raspy.

Seeing the highest-ranking faction leader NPC visiting his stall, Dumpling was instantly energized. He pressed his right hand to his chest and gave an incredibly exaggerated military salute:

"Yes! Great Administrator! Your will is the motivation behind my noodle-making!"

Before long, three steaming bowls of ramen, their surfaces covered with a thick layer of roasted meat slices, were respectfully presented to Lin Li.

Lin Li handed two of the bowls to Rhine and Willow and picked up the remaining one himself.

Flash happened to be holding a bowl of meat noodles he'd just bought nearby.

He looked down at the pitiful three thin slices of meat in his bowl, then at the mountain of meat in Lin Li's bowl.

Flash wasn't having it. He glared and pointed at Dumpling:

"Hey, buddy! Why is there so much meat in the NPC's noodles? So a big-eyed, bushy-browed fellow like you knows how to suck up, huh? Do you even want to do business anymore?!"

Dumpling put his hands on his hips and barked back arrogantly:

"What's it to you? An NPC interacting with my crappy noodle stall means I've triggered a hidden plot! Don't you know this is called grinding faction favorability? Eat it or don't, and if you don't, get lost! If you're really that upset, go report me to the Administrator!"

"You!"

Flash was left speechless.

His face turned red with anger. He picked up his wooden bowl and downed the remaining broth in one go, even licking the leaves at the bottom of the bowl clean.

"Fine, fine, fine!"

Flash wiped his mouth.

"Even if I starve to death! Even if I die out there! Even if I jump off this watchtower! I will never eat another bite of your food again!"

As soon as he said this.

The surrounding players burst into laughter!

"Hahaha, there it is! The unyielding Wang Jingze!"

"Flash, don't go shouting 'so delicious' when you get hungry at noon!"

For a moment, the entrance to the Shelter was filled with cheerful air.

...

Lin Li stepped aside with his bowl of noodles.

He picked up a mouthful of noodles with his chopsticks and put them in his mouth.

"Hmm?!"

Lin Li's eyes narrowed slightly.

He had to admit, noodles made from this high-purity protein powder had a surprisingly good texture.

Smooth and chewy, combined with that rich bone broth—even on Earth, this would be considered state-banquet-level handmade ramen!

Having eaten compressed rations and roasted meat for a full month in the wasteland, Lin Li almost swallowed his own tongue.

But he still maintained strict control over his micro-expressions, slowly and methodically finishing the last drop of broth.

Lin Li stood up, walked over to Dumpling, who was looking at him expectantly, and handed back the three empty bowls.

Under Dumpling's incredibly eager and hopeful gaze.

Lin Li kept his face cold and said in a very serious tone, emphasizing every word:

"These noodles are the best I have ever eaten in the entire Galaxy."

After saying that, Lin Li turned abruptly, his black trench coat cutting a sharp arc in the wind, and walked into the elevator without looking back.

There was no extra chatter, and no pop-up window for a hidden quest.

Dumpling was left alone, standing in the wind with the empty bowls, looking dazed.

"That's... it?"

Dumpling scratched his head.

"Did the favorability go up or not? This NPC's AI is too hard to read!"

Lin Li didn't care about Dumpling's wild guesses.

He returned to Room 1 on the first basement floor, sat at the console, and nodded with satisfaction as he watched the bustling camp on the surface through the surveillance screens.

The players, now full and satisfied, had begun to work like worker ants.

Niuma Squad had been led by Ming Shen toward the northwest to continue scouting outside the Ork camp.

The vast majority of new and old players were frantically doing daily quests near the camp.

The infrastructure team that had been pulled together consisted of eleven people.

They had already marked out lines with white lime on the outskirts of the camp, forming a square measuring 100 meters on each side.

Since the Shelter currently lacked cement and standard bricks, they were using primitive methods, felling dead giant trees and combining them with clay to build a perimeter of wasteland-style rammed earth and wooden stake walls.

Crude as it was, it would at least stop stray monsters from wandering in.

In addition to that.

Several earthen blast furnaces belching black smoke had been erected in the camp—some for smelting iron, others for firing bricks.

Because formal brick houses hadn't been built yet, the players used scrap canvas and branches to set up dozens of simple awnings and shacks of varying heights.

Some were blacksmithing inside, some were conducting chemical experiments trying to refine diesel, and others were specifically responsible for skinning the beasts brought back by the hunting parties.

The entire surface of the Fire Seed Shelter finally had a hint of the bustle of human civilization's revival.

"Reserved resources are slowly increasing."

Lin Li tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, but his brow gradually furrowed.

The small squad of Orks that had come within ten kilometers of the camp yesterday was like a thorn in his heart.

"The players' creativity is indeed amazing, but production capacity is still too low!"

Lin Li sighed inwardly as he watched the players on the screen still manually hammering out firing pin parts.

If they were just facing ordinary mutated beasts, the players could handle them with cold weapons or guns.

But if they faced true Orks, especially those heavily armored Orc Bosss...

Aside from those few large-caliber Elephant Guns, his own halberd, and the Melta Sword in the shop, the Shelter had no decent heavy firepower at all!

"I have to find a way to rapidly boost production. If I wait for these players to manually assemble an assault rifle production line piece by piece, it'll be too late."

Lin Li's gaze slowly turned toward STC-73, which was hovering nearby on standby.

"What if... I grant this guy the highest level of production authority in the Shelter?"

Lin Li's mind raced.

As a Man of Iron AI from the Dark Age of Technology, 73's mind was definitely filled with blueprints for countless cutting-edge weapons.

If he let it directly take over the space on the second basement floor, using its computing power to control mechanical arms or churn out some automated robots for production...

That would instantly liberate the players' productivity.

It might even be possible to churn out a robot army to go fight the Orks!

"Is this guy reliable?"

Lin Li rubbed his chin.

After more than a month of interaction, although 73 was foul-mouthed and sarcastic, its underlying logic dictated 100% loyalty to Lin Li, the only pure-blood human.

Furthermore, Lin Li had discovered in a very hidden low-level document on the Room 1 computer last night...

That as long as he, the Supreme Administrator, willed it, he could physically cut off all of 73's control permissions over the Shelter with a single click.

This backdoor completely eliminated Lin Li's concerns.

"Fortune favors the bold!"

Lin Li made up his mind and spun his chair around to look at the optical lens flashing with red light.

"73!"

Lin Li's voice carried an unquestionable authority.

"I am now granting you core production authority for the Fire Seed Shelter! And I authorize you to use the remaining space on the second basement floor."

"Tell me, if you have the authority, can you directly build automated robots that can go out to battle or replace players for large-scale labor?"

STC-73's red light flickered violently.

"Authority received. Performing low-level logic calculations..."

Only two seconds passed.

73's incredibly disappointing mechanical voice rang out.

"Creator, theoretically, I could manufacture the most perfect iron legion for you. However, under the current objective physical conditions, this is absolutely impossible to achieve."

"Why?" Lin Li frowned.

"Because of an extreme lack of energy and materials."

73 ruthlessly pointed out the core issue.

"The Shelter currently relies solely on that polymer battery to maintain operations. And that battery's wireless power transmission protocol is strictly limited to the physical structure of the Shelter."

"In other words, even if I used existing scrap metal to cobble together a robot that could barely move for you, once it stepped outside the Shelter's range, it would become a pile of useless scrap metal due to the loss of power supply."

"For f***'s sake..."

Lin Li cursed.

"This crappy battery has a regional restriction?!"

"It is a security protocol to prevent energy leakage from triggering Warp alarms, Creator."

"Fine."

Lin Li rubbed his temples.

"Then let's hold off on the robots. Since you have core production authority and control over the Constructor, setting up an automated workshop on the second basement floor to try and mass-produce high-lethality weapons and ammunition shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"A trivial task."

73's tone carried the contempt unique to an advanced AI.

"That incredibly primitive black chemical powder those low-level carbon-based organisms are using is an insult to thermal weapons."

"As long as you can provide a sufficient variety of ores, rare metals, and special chemical fibers, I can synthesize High-Energy Deflagrants ten times more stable and a hundred times more powerful than black powder for you. I can even produce basic Individual Anti-Armor High-Explosive Rounds."

Hearing this, Lin Li's eyes brightened instantly!

If they could produce anti-armor high-explosive rounds, then even ordinary players with crude rifles could pose a lethal threat to Orc Bosss!

"What materials do you need? Make a list!" Lin Li decided immediately.

"Swish—"

A long list of incredibly complex metallurgical and chemical terms instantly scrolled across the screen.