My daily life in various anime crossovers can't possibly be this sci-fi.

“Oh dear, that’s not right. After all, the real purpose of having everyone cook together this time is to deepen our relationships, not just to cook.” Nozomi Tojo said while wiping away the white liquid. “I’ve been observing you lately. You’re good friends with everyone, but you don’t talk to anyone much. When you have free time, you hide in your room composing music or reading. I don’t think that’s a good thing, do you?”

“I will come to see everyone when I have free time.” Maki Nishikino’s expression softened. “It’s just that I’ve been too busy to come.”

"Yes, I know that... Okay, it's clean now." Nozomi Tojo crumpled up the tissue with the sticky liquid and threw it into the trash can. "However, if you're so busy that you don't even have time to play with everyone, you should probably reduce some of the pressure on yourself."

"Okay, I understand." Nishikino Maki nodded, but she didn't really take what she said to heart.

I only have three years. In those three years, I need to make sure I get into the University of Tokyo, become a graduate student at the Clock Tower, and become the best idol... There are so many things to do, even now I feel overwhelmed.

Stress relief? How could that be?

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Chapter 58: A Few Things Happening in the Kitchen (Part 2)

"That's obviously a very casual answer," Tojo thought, hoping for a polite smile from Maki.

However, her family seems to have very strict requirements for her. It's already a struggle for her to find time to be an idol, so she naturally has to put in 300% effort.

What Nozomi Tojo didn't say was that she actually knew Nishikino Maki was staying up late every night. Last night, she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and when she returned to her room, she found that Nishikino Maki's room light had been on the whole time.

Hmm... there's another one staying up late, that's the guy over there processing vegetables.

“Speaking of which, your style of always working hard and having almost no entertainment is quite similar to that guy over there, isn’t it?” Tojo Nozomi pointed to Jiang Jinghua in the distance.

Surprisingly, Maki Nishikino reacted quite excitedly upon hearing his name.

“I’m nothing like that idiot!” Maki Nishikino shook her head. “I’m nothing like that incomprehensible guy!”

Maki Nishikino turned her head to deal with the ingredients in front of her, ignoring Nozomi Tojo. A barely perceptible blush graced her cheeks, making it difficult to tell whether it was there naturally or had appeared because of Nozomi's words.

Tojo Nozomi observed the awkward expression on her junior's face with great interest.

Based on her understanding of Maki over this period of time, if the girl reacted in such a strong way, it would mean that she did have some special feelings for Jiang Jinghua, and at least did not regard him as an ordinary person.

Well... in fact, Jiang Jinghua stayed up even more late than Maki, and for even longer periods of time.

If Maki's efforts are the result of both her family's encouragement and her own personality, then what is the motivation behind Jiang Jinghua's efforts after the passing of both her parents? Tojo Nozomi speculates that perhaps it is the combined effect of her parents' wishes, her own sense of responsibility, guilt, and grief that has shaped Jiang Jinghua into who she is today.

Someone like Jiang Jinghua, who is almost always timid and submissive, must care a great deal about his parents' expectations of him. So, it's not surprising that he would do something like this.

Huh? If these two were to be paired up... wouldn't Maki be the dominant one?

While thinking about some random things, Nozomi Tojo returned to her table with a smile and began to prepare the sashimi and snail slices on the cutting board.

"Hmm, are you alright now?" Just then, Kotori Minami finished bandaging Nico Yazawa's finger. "Well then, I'm going back to cook now."

“…Oh.” Yazawa Nico sat down on the spot like a deflated balloon.

"Well, I've already packed everything up. I'll leave the rest of the salad dressing to you, please." Jiang Jinghua put down the vegetables he was holding and walked over to her.

“…Mm.” Yazawa Nico nodded.

Even though I cut my hand, I should still be able to do something like mixing salad dressing after it's bandaged up.

After Yazawa Nico returned to her post, Jiang Jinghua found an empty spot in the kitchen to chat and began preparing instant noodles. Although it was Japanese cup noodles brought by Hoshizora Rin, the flavor was unexpectedly "braised beef".

The first thing to deal with was the beef. Although there was no way there could be any real beef inside the back, Hoshizora Rin brought a lot of food for grilling, including quite a few beef skewers that they hadn't finished last night. Jiang Jinghua took them out of the vacuum packaging and blanched them briefly in a pot of boiling water.

"Um, Hai... Haiwei, do you have any braised eggs or anything like that in your food bag?" Jiang Jinghua asked.

"Huh? Oh, yes, yes." Umi pulled a hard-boiled egg that looked like a convenience store item from the bag and tossed it to Jiang Jinghua. "Is it for when you're cooking noodles?"

“Yes, that’s right.” Jiang Jinghua took the braised egg, cut it in half, and set it aside for later use.

After the beef was cooked, Jiang Jinghua poured out the water in the pot that had been mixed with the beef's blood, filled a new pot with water, threw the beef into the pot, and put the lid on.

Although Jiang Jinghua had virtually no experience in cooking, he had cooked instant noodles several times. Cup noodles made simply by boiling water always tasted strange, and the texture was very similar to the plastic cups used to hold noodles. Therefore, for Jiang Jinghua, who frequently ate instant noodles as a daily food, learning how to make them taste good was a very practical skill.

After briefly boiling the beef in the pot, the boiling water will also contain some beef fat. Then add the noodles and halved braised eggs, and cook until the noodles become translucent. Finally, add the seasoning packet, along with some other unusual seasonings, carrot slices or spring greens, and sprinkle with chopped green onions. This will create a bowl that looks quite authentic, a fake braised beef noodle soup.

While the beef was cooking, Jiang Jinghua didn't have much to do, so he started wandering around the kitchen, helping out whoever needed it.

About fifteen minutes later, Jiang Jinghua returned to his table and added everything in at once. All that was left was to cook it for a few more minutes, and the dish would be ready.

In fact, by this time, the food everyone was preparing was almost finished. Maki had already put the pasta in the oven, Hanayo and Rin were enthusiastically frying rice in a wok, Ayase Eli's pan-fried cod was ready to be plated, and she was now sprinkling salt and pepper on it; Tojo Nozomi was preparing the last few rice balls, Honoka was pacing around in front of the steamer for steaming desserts, Umi's tempura made with shrimp coated in flour was sizzling and rolling in the oil, and Minami Kotori's steamed egg made with a large amount of seafood was also almost finished.

In short, we're not far from the official start of the meal.

The dishes everyone made looked incredibly delicious… completely different from someone like me who could only cook instant noodles. After wandering around the kitchen several times, Jiang Jinghua came to this conclusion.

Although everyone in μ's seemed happy to treat him like one of their own, Jiang Jinghua himself couldn't convince himself to do so. It's no wonder they're idols... any one of these nine members gives off a feeling of being "so perfect they don't seem real."

"Ah! They're finally cooked!" Honoka took all the steamed wagashi out of the steamer. "I'm done first!"

"Actually, we finished cooking here a long time ago," the two third-year students said, pointing to the dishes laid out in front of them. "We just didn't say it."

"...Phew, we're done here too!" Rin and Hanayo pointed excitedly to the two large pots of fried rice behind them. "Everyone should be almost done, right?"

"Yes, we've finished preparing everything here." Minami Kotori nodded. "Well then, I think it's time to eat, isn't it?"

"Hooray!" The loudest shout came from Honoka, followed by the two first-year students.

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Chapter 59, Section 59: Dinner for the Special Attack on Lala People EX

Ten people sat around an empty table in the downstairs cafeteria, and on the table were ten dishes, each with a different style, prepared by the ten people.

"Hmm, you've been busy for quite a while now, everyone must be starving by now, right?" Tojo Nozomi looked at everyone with a smile. "So, shall we begin?"

"Let's get started!"

After everyone shouted this, they began their meals, some more refined and some more uncouth.

"Hmm, let me try what processed cup noodles taste like, meow..." Hoshizora Rin said as she stood up from her chair and pulled the noodles that Jiang Jinghua had cooked earlier in front of her. "I've never eaten cooked instant noodles before... Eek meow!"

When she hurriedly picked up a large clump of noodles with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth... to be honest, her eyes had already gleamed several times in the past few days, but to be honest, if the light in her eyes before was like the light of a flashlight, then the brightness of the light projected into her eyes now was comparable to the searchlight installed on a helicopter!

"Meow! This... I absolutely refuse to acknowledge this as cup noodles, meow!" Hoshizora Rin stared intently at Jiang Jinghua with fanatical eyes. "This... this completely transcends the concept of 'convenience food'! It's absolutely out of the ordinary!"

"Huh?" Jiang Jinghua's mouth gaped open slightly in astonishment. "Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Of course it does, meow!" Rin Hoshizora slammed her hand on the table. "Instant noodles boiled in hot water don't have that plasticky texture like regular instant noodles, nor do they have that weird, greasy fried smell. They're practically on par with real ramen! And what's even more incredible is the broth!"

“Noodle soup…” Jiang Jinghua looked at Lin, who was guzzling down the noodle soup in front of him, “That’s just instant noodle soup…”

"No! It's definitely not just instant noodle soup!" Hoshizora Rin declared. "You could never taste this rich flavor in instant noodle soup! What exactly did you add to it, Jinghua-kun?"

“…some butter from the beef chunks, some MSG and salt, some soy sauce, and a tiny bit of vinegar,” Jiang Jinghua said. “That’s all.”

"Impossible!" Rin still refused to accept the truth. "You must have added something strange to it, meow!"

"Ahem." Jiang Jinghua looked at the rest of the group. "I didn't lie at all. I really just threw in some seasonings casually. The idea that it tastes good is just Lin's imagination..."

"You'll know what it tastes like once you try it yourself." Sonoda Umi took a bowl of noodles from Hoshizora Rin and took a bite herself.

"How is it?" Minami Kotori asked.

"It's alright." Sonoda Umi nodded. "Although it's probably not as exaggerated as Rin said, it's still pretty good overall. At least Jinghua-kun's view that he 'can't cook at all' is completely wrong."

“Is that so…” Jiang Jinghua shook his head. “My only understanding of ‘how to make food taste good’ is that ‘if you want to make delicious food, you have to add more salt, more oil, and more MSG.’”

"Alright, alright, stop harping on Jiang's noodles, okay?" Yazawa Nico said, picking up a piece of tempura from the table and stuffing it into her mouth. "We have ten dishes here!"

“I already said it.” Jiang Jinghua nodded. “What’s the point of always fretting about someone like me whose cooking skills are so bad that I can only make do with instant noodles?”

From this moment on, dinner officially begins.

Surprisingly (yet predictably), all nine of them seemed to have quite good cooking skills, at least passable. Jiang Jinghua was easy to please, as evidenced by the fact that he never got tired of eating convenience foods. Therefore, despite his lack of appreciation for refined flavors, he considered their cooking—perfectly seasoned and flawlessly prepared—to be quite delicious.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's so boring eating without talking!" Honoka, who could never stand being alone, suddenly said, "Shouldn't we take advantage of this time to talk about Love Live? Like what kind of music we should compose?"

“Although I don’t think it’s a good time to talk during a meal,” Ayase Eli said, “it’s good that you, Honoka, are so mindful of making the most of your time. Okay then, let’s use this mealtime to discuss these issues a little.”

“Since we’re going to discuss this,” Maki Nishikino stood up from her chair, “I’ll go get the recent analysis results.”

"Jinghua-kun, as a fan, you should also give your opinions properly, okay?" Honoka turned her head.

"...I'll try my best."

……

Meanwhile, in a certain place.

"Love Live... Ah."

Pushkin Konovich Minalinsky stared at the pink-themed promotional page on his phone screen and muttered to himself.

Despite being half Japanese, the man sitting on the wooden chair, who appeared to be around forty years old, was unmistakably Russian. Beneath his red-starred military cap was a head of gleaming, meticulously combed blond hair; a high-bridged nose, dark blue eyes, and a rugged, chiseled face all unmistakably identified him as Eastern European. His military green uniform, though faded from washing, was almost wrinkle-free; a red, star-shaped medal with a gold border on his chest bore the hammer and sickle and the inscription "GRU 'P' Department."

School idols... the strange culture of capitalism. As a parent with relatively conservative views, Colonel Pushkin Konovich Minalinsky couldn't help but feel a very complicated emotion when he looked at the scantily clad, smiling girls on the screen and thought about how his own daughter was also involved in these bizarre things from the West.

However, every culture has its own value. You can choose not to understand or accept it, but you have no right to forbid others from understanding or accepting it. Besides, there's nothing wrong with girls liking to sing and dance.

It's better than having to deal with those extremely dangerous anomalies every day, like I do.

"Knock, knock."

Pushkin smiled and closed the webpage, adjusting his expression to a working state.

"Please come in."

Walking in from outside was a middle-aged man, also dressed in a military green uniform. This man's appearance was far worse than Pushkin's: he was short and stout, with small eyes, and worse, he was bald... Fortunately, his military cap perfectly concealed his baldness.

"Comrade Beria, do you know why I called you here?" Pushkin stood up and asked.

“I think it’s very clear.” Lieutenant Colonel Beria Sverdlov nodded. “Comrade, you’ve been designated as the head of ‘Project 714’?”

“Yes. So, I hope to have a good talk with my old friend about the details of this troublesome project.” Pushkin nodded. “This concerns a grudge we had with a certain country more than seventy years ago, and the question of where our homeland should go in the next seventy years.”

Beria sat down opposite Pushkin.

"Comrade, I now have considerable autonomy, and therefore I have the authority to appoint you as my assistant," Pushkin said. "Therefore, with a single command from me now, you are qualified to be involved in the project. As you are involved in the project, you have the right and the responsibility to hear and remember everything I am about to say. This information is classified as highly confidential, even to comrades within the Party, so please treat it with utmost care."

"The story begins seventy-three years ago..."

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