"Speaking of which, Wende, where did you learn all these cooking skills?" Welt asked, genuinely curious. It wasn't that he meant to pry, but the flavor... it was remarkably similar to the tastes of his hometown.
"Oh, this? My master taught me everything," Wende said, wiping the corner of his mouth.
In truth, he had specifically learned to cook before transmigrating, all to satisfy the palates of that pack of "unruly sons" in his dorm. He had put in quite a bit of effort back then.
However, under the influence of his Light Cone's memories, it seemed he had also learned a lot of "Cantonese cuisine." He hadn't really tried to cook it yet, but seeing the old man in his memories eat with such relish, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to make some for Old Yang in the future?
"Is that so? Your master... I'd really like to meet him..."
"Uncle Yang, you don't want to meet Wende's master just so you can eat his cooking, do you?" March swallowed the delicious food in her mouth, then looked at Welt with a peculiar expression.
"Err... of course not. I was just a bit curious," Welt said, shaking his head in embarrassment. Thinking about it, his words did seem to carry that kind of implication.
"Burp..."
Stelle let out a satisfied burp, then leaned back lazily in her chair, patting her full stomach.
"Whoa... how is the food all gone..."
Looking at the nearly empty table, March cried out in surprise. Although she was also very full, she could definitely still make room in her snack stomach to eat a little more!
"Oh well, I'm full anyway~ Sigh, that was so nice. I wonder how Miss Tingyun is doing now. She hasn't even tasted Wende's cooking yet."
Leaning back in her chair, March couldn't help but think of Tingyun, who had parted ways with them earlier.
"Miss Tingyun probably went to relax, right? After all, she just got back to the Xianzhou, and she was our guide for so long," Stelle said, her eyes narrowed as she gazed at the soft chandelier above.
"Hm? Stelle, you're acting weird."
"Huh? How am I acting weird?" Stelle looked at the equally confused March.
"I don't know... but it just feels like something's off." March waved her hand vaguely. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she could sense a hint of strangeness.
.........
[Item Obtained: Wende's Breakfast]
[Rarity: Four-Star]
[Effect: Upon use, immediately restores HP for all allies equal to 100% of their Max HP.]
[Description: A sumptuous breakfast, featuring soup dumplings, douhua, wontons, and several light side dishes perfect for the morning. Personally prepared by the Astral Express's logistics specialist, Wende. If you get up late, you'll miss out!]
[—March, if you wake up late, the breakfast will be gone!]
"Look! It's a 'Wende's Breakfast!' I'm just gonna eat it all up!"
Although she said that, Sister Guoguo still chose to carefully store this hard-earned breakfast. After all, the last time she got an item made by Wende was... the last time.
[NGL, the picture looks pretty lavish.]
[Douhua is great, I like it sweet.]
[I like it savory.]
[I like mine sour and spicy...]
[I add condensed milk to mine.]
[???]
[Take your condensed milk and get the hell out of CN!]
[Why are you guys still focused on the douhua?]
[Dude, it's douhua!]
"Is this what I told you to discuss?! How did you all get sidetracked to douhua?"
[A treatise on the brain circuitry of the modern netizen.]
[Indeed.]
.........
After breakfast, Welt dismissed the small teams. Changle was vast, and finding the mastermind behind the Cloud Knight Mara outbreak would be extremely difficult. Splitting up would make it a little easier.
Thus, the four of them split into three groups: Welt and March each went solo, while Wende and Stelle formed a team.
As for the reason why, everyone knew, so there was no need to elaborate.
"Where should we start looking?" Stelle asked, looking at the endless streetscape before her, suddenly feeling a sense of being lost.
"Don't worry, let's just take it slow. Finding this kind of thing depends on fate, after all," Wende said with a very calm mindset. In his view, the mastermind behind this wouldn't be particularly well-hidden. As for why...
He was following Stelle!
Was there anything that could escape Stelle's notice?
The answer was no!
On the streets of Changle, most of the shops were closed due to the Mara and the Stellaron. There were very few people walking around. In this environment, searching for clues was relatively simple.
Mmm... and for Stelle, whose hands aren't exactly clean, it should also be quite "convenient."
Walking along the street, Stelle would occasionally touch a delivery box on the ground, or pick up some scraps of paper and small notes.
Of course, none of it was useful; most were just advertising flyers from the Interastral Peace Corporation.
"It seems we won't be finding anything anytime soon."
Watching Stelle having the time of her life, Wende decisively took out his phone to ask what the other two were doing.
......
"Peng!"
"I'll take that!"
"What kind of garbage tile was that?"
Welt thought these four people were highly suspicious. Everyone else had gone home because of the disaster, yet these four remained outdoors, not letting the crisis interrupt their card game in the slightest.
So, Welt observed them from a distance for a while, and the result... they really were just people playing cards...
So far, Welt had found nothing, but it seemed he had learned a Xianzhou game called Qiongyu Cards.
......
"Hehe, click, click, click! This one is really pretty too! I'll take a picture!"
Street photography enthusiast March was busy capturing the various styles of Xianzhou architecture, seeming to have completely forgotten her original mission to find people acting strangely.
And... it seemed the person acting the strangest right now was her...
.........
"Why do I get the feeling these two are suddenly very unreliable?" Wende's mouth twitched as he looked at the text from Welt and the huge pile of photos sent by March.
"ROAR!!!"
Suddenly, the roar of an abomination, along with Stelle's sharp cry, came from not far away.
When Wende arrived, he found Stelle in an unknown alley, rummaging all over the body of a defeated Mara-Struck Cloud Knight. After feeling around for a while, she finally pulled a letter from its person.
"As expected, going with Stelle's gut was the right call."
Sighing in admiration at the players' protagonist halo, Wende took the envelope Stelle handed him and began to read it carefully.
"This seems to be... a family letter? But this mention of a drug experiment..."
Wende handed the letter back to Stelle and told her to keep it safe. This should be the clue that the man from the Geobalance Commission wanted.