I'll also work hard to conquer the dungeon today.

Chapter 692 Mid-Autumn Festival Special Extra: The Mooncake Battle
When players and NPCs take on the challenge of making mooncakes...

[Mid-Autumn Festival Limited Edition Bonus Episode: The Mooncake Battle]

Players vs. NPCs

[Player Group: Ling Tong, Mu Yin, Shui Qi]

[NPC Team: Ji Qi, Shu Ming, Fei Xiu]

[Referees: Mu Yegui, Dao Lin, Xie Er]

[Host: Qi]

[P.S.: This silly side story is completely unrelated to the main story.]

"Welcome to the 'Mooncake Battle' event! I'm your host today, Qi, or you can call me Lord Jealousy." Qi sat on the sofa, holding a microphone and resting his chin on his hand, speaking casually, though he didn't seem very interested.

He wore a burgundy silk shirt, which, as usual, exposed his fair and muscular chest and abdomen, making him both sexy and alluring.

"This competition is specially sponsored by King City Timekeeper Lilia and broadcast by the official video platform of Entertainment Kingdom. I don't want to say anything else, let's get straight to the competition rules and participants. First, the players and our side will each select three people through an unknown vote. They will then make enough mooncakes for three people to eat, in accordance with the theme of this 'Mid-Autumn Festival'. The judges will then score the mooncakes to determine the winner. There are no prizes, no gifts, no participation awards, nothing at all. Now, please welcome the participants to the stage."

"Let's start with the players. From left to right, we have Ling Tong, Mu Yin, and Shui Qi—the red-haired one, the one who stole Ye Gui, and the one who's playing the civil war. Then, we have our side. From left to right, we have Ji Qi, Shu Ming, and Fei Xiu—the one with the foul mouth, the one who's blind, and the one who's shameless. Do you want me to interview them?" Qi Wei glanced at the audience below the stage and said impatiently.

He waited a few seconds and then said, "Alright, I'll grant your request this once in a while. Just one question: Have you ever cooked for yourselves or others? Answer in the order I just introduced them. I'll give you one sentence each."

[Player Group]

Ling Tong was silent for a few seconds, then said in a low voice, "I've done it."

[Qi: I didn't realize. I always thought you were using your looks to your advantage, just a pretty face to bribe the judges.]
Mu Yin raised an eyebrow and asked in return, "Do we still need to do it?"

[Qi: Forget it, raw food enthusiast. Good kids don't have his constitution, so don't try to emulate him. There's no future in following his example.]
Shui Qi pondered for a moment, then asked with a puzzled look, "Does boiling cocoa count?"

[Qi: That's a drink; anyone with hands can make one.]
[NPC Group]

Ji Qi snorted and said, "During the days when you were making terrible food in Lilia, wasn't it me who saved you all? Don't ask such stupid questions."

[Qi: I didn't ask you to answer.]
[Lillia: Disastrous cooking? Is this how you guys describe my food?]
[Qi: ...Let's move on, don't dwell on this.] Luckily, no one voted for Lilia...

Shu Ming squinted and chuckled, saying, "I usually go to restaurants, but I like to brew my own coffee."

[Qi: Does coffee even need to be brewed? At least a kettle can be made with your hands, but you don't even need your hands. Coffee can be brewed with a machine; you can just lift your hand and press a button.]
Fish glanced at Che thoughtfully and said slowly, "I prefer the host position."

[Qi: You've gone off-topic, thank you.]
Interview complete -
"Now you can start making mooncakes. While you're preparing, I'll introduce the judges' table, or rather, the judging panel." Qi turned slightly and lifted one of his long legs.

“Wait, I have a question,” Mu Yin interrupted.

"Speak," Qi said succinctly, glancing coldly at Mu Yin.

“The other side has a food kingdom, this isn’t fair to us,” Mu Yin said, raising his chin and gesturing to Ji Qi from the NPC group.

“Don’t you also have a prince named Ling Tong from a culinary kingdom? How come you’re not starting from the same point?” Qi frowned, annoyed. “Then let’s introduce the judging panel.”

“Wait a minute, I have something to say.” Ji Qi interrupted Qi again and said slowly, “I’m just a temporary worker in the Gourmet Kingdom, I’m not a member of the Gourmet Kingdom. Remember that.”

Qi fell silent for a moment, then looked at the audience without hesitation and asked, "Has Rong Yi arrived yet? Tell your teacher to stop interrupting me."

Ji Qimu said coldly, his face expressionless, "He's feeding the fish in the courtyard."

"Is anyone else interrupting me? Anyone? If you have any questions, ask them now. If you interrupt me again, I'll unleash my 'snakes' to bite you." Qi waited a few seconds and then saw the six people start preparing the ingredients on their own. Only then did he begin interviewing the judging panel.

"Now we'll begin interviewing the judging panel, from left to right: Mu Yegui, Xie Er, Daolin, my dear, petty dog ​​Sa, and the replica of Lanlos who gets angry just by looking at his face."

Sher glanced at Che casually, his expression indifferent, and said lightly, "Jealousy. We can have a good go at the next kingdom asset assessment." Che smiled provocatively at Sher and said, "Go ahead, it's not my job to calculate it anyway."

Shel looked at him with pity and said, "As expected, shamelessness knows no bounds. How many administrators have you had this month?"

"Sorry, this one will last for another half a month," Qi said, picking at his ear.

Just as the two were exchanging insults, two loud bangs were heard, and a thick cloud of smoke covered the entire competition venue, making it impossible to distinguish between people and animals.

"Anyone with common sense wouldn't pour flour into a pressure cooker and then put it on the fire to cook! Are you cooking a meal or making a bomb?!" Shui Qi's voice, filled with gritted teeth, came from the white smoke.

"Didn't Ling Tong say to pour flour?" Mu Yin retorted confidently, without a trace of guilt.

"What a coincidence! Our pot exploded too, for reasons unknown," Ji Qi said weakly, seemingly having lost all hope in the world.

Just then, a large, translucent white fish swam through the air, and wherever it went, all the white smoke disappeared.

Rong Yi slowly walked over, holding a long pipe in one hand while glancing at everyone present. Finally, her gaze fell on the translucent white fish swimming happily in the air. She apologized in a completely unashamed tone, "Excuse me, have you seen my Baiyu? I was playing with the fish when it suddenly ran over. I'll take it out now."

Ji Qi: "..." I want to beat him to death.

Qi covered his forehead, waved his hand uncomfortably, and said, "Don't film the performance accident. Cut this scene out in post-production."

Three hours later.

The two sides finally finished making the mooncakes and placed them in front of the three judges.

Qi stood up and walked to the judges' table, asking, "Begin introducing your mooncakes."

Ling Tong looked at the mooncakes in front of the three people and said in turn, "Meat, meat, meat."

Qi: "??? Say that again?"

"Mooncakes made from my blood and energized meat, mooncakes made from energized meat, fresh meat mooncakes," Ling Tong said, looking at the mooncakes in front of Mu Yegui, Xie Er, and Dao Lin.

Qi took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then said, "Let's start tasting and then rate it. The maximum score is ten."
-
Player Group Rating -
Mu Yegui: 10 (likes Ling Tong's blood)

Sher: 5 (I'm also from Samuro)
Daolin: 1 (The meat is fine, but why are there strange things in it? I tasted chocolate lava and a piece of salt in the fresh meat mooncake. Don't let those two, who don't have a normal sense of taste, put things in randomly, okay? Or are you two deliberately messing with me?)
Total score: 16 points
-
Rating complete -
Ling Tong glanced at her two self-righteous teammates, then slowly turned her head away, seemingly trying to avoid seeing them.

"Ji Qi, please begin your introduction," Qi said with a cold face.

“Red bean paste mooncakes with Kesmea grass, five-nut mooncakes with Kesmea grass, and regular coffee mooncakes.” Ji Qi confidently pointed to the mooncakes in front of Xie Er and Mu Yegui and said, “These are my masterpieces. The coffee ones were made by Shu Ming and Fei Xiu.”
-
NPC Group - Rating -
Mu Yegui: 2 (It tastes strange, not good)

Sher: 1 (Seventh Uncle, I've said before that I hate weird things, and I don't like anything except meat.)
Daolin: 10 (The coffee mooncake is not a regular mooncake, thank you, but after what happened earlier, I'm okay with it now. At least it tastes normal, without any strange additives.)
Total score: 13 points
-
Rating complete -
Ji Qi rolled his eyes at the two of them and said, "Do you have any objections to the mooncakes I made?"

Mu Yegui glanced at Ji Qi and then said, "It's not tasty."

Sher sighed softly, "If we didn't add Kesmea grass, we might not be able to taste it and give it a high score. After all, if there's no taste, it's all the same. But as long as we can taste it, our standards will become very high. If it's not meat, I'd even give it 0 points. 1 point is for sentiment, and 2 points is for hard work."

"Give me some grass, Sher. If you're still picky, go eat what Lilia makes." Ji Qi frowned sharply, annoyed.

Shel: "..." That's really unnecessary.

The player group won the competition with 16 points.

[The solo interview about Fei will be next time.]

Xie Er addressed Ji Qi as either "Seventh Brother" or "Ji Qi" in normal times, but as "Seventh Uncle" when he was serious.

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(End of this chapter)