[A Bowl Of Fish Soup Noodles V: That’s right~ Congratulations on discovering the Easter egg! All the dishes currently available for cooking in “Taoyuan Restaurant” were created using real data collected with the assistance of the Food Research Institute.
So, if you struggle to cook in the real world or often fail, as long as you accumulate enough proficiency in the game, you can enjoy the fun of becoming a god of cooking! =w=]
The moment Yu Mian’s StarBlog post was published, it turned into a perfect wave of advertising.
Especially for those kitchen killers who had previously blown up their kitchens, suddenly, their spirits were reignited.
Was this the beauty of the gaming world?
As long as you put in the effort, you could succeed!
No more worrying about burning the house down.
So, as the first wave of positive player feedback spread, the game’s initially modest download count started snowballing.
Not to mention, the price of 50 star coins was really tempting. Who could resist spending 50 star coins to try out such a rich game?
The popularity of the live broadcast rooms of countless gaming anchors also began to rise.
Especially the well-known anchor, Chili. After a full week of pulling all-nighters and grinding relentlessly, he became the first player to clear the first main plotline mission, opening up a game interface with a higher degree of freedom.
“Fuck, I can actually decorate the restaurant now! These furniture and decorations are so beautiful. Bamboo chairs, bamboo tables, gazebos, floral fountains…”
Chili excitedly flipped through the decor store to show his live broadcast audience, and the exclamations and screams in the barrage never stopped.
[I’m doomed, my shopping desire is exploding. I was already envious of Boss Lu Zhen for having mountains, rivers, and pandas, but now with the game “Taoyuan Restaurant”, Boss Lu Zhen has granted me the power…]
[Wait, there are different themes?! QAQ Everything looks so beautiful, and right now, only the fresh bamboo style furniture is available, which means more styles are coming in the future?]
[I’m already planning how to decorate my guest rooms. I think I can design different styles of rooms to cater to different customers. Gold coins, I need more gold coins! Time to go crazy planting crops and selling food!]
Originally, the process of planting, harvesting, cooking, and selling dishes was already engaging enough. Now a gold coin mall purchasing channel has been opened, allowing players to use the gold coins they earn to obtain more rewards, which naturally made it more interesting.
Everyone was complaining that there were not enough gold coins, and they wished they could use all their limited time to earn more gold coins.
“Well, even simple furniture placement games on web platforms like 5366 could keep people entertained for an entire afternoon.”
After the update, Yu Mian rested his chin on his hand, feeling inexplicably nostalgic.
Meanwhile, Huo Yan, who had downloaded the game, had been playing since morning and had yet to stop, almost forgetting to eat dinner.
Qiao Ni had called him hundreds of times before he reluctantly logged out for a bit.
Even while eating, he kept checking various forums for strategies. When he couldn’t find what he needed, he even tried to beg Yu Mian for insider help.
“Brother Yu Mian, I want durian seeds too! And cocoa seeds! Chocolate is just too delicious!”
Huo Yan was practically glued to him like a stubborn piece of taffy.
In response to this, Yu Mian could only respond helplessly that Producer Derqin was fair and selfless.
Aside from internal testing accounts having all achievements unlocked, even the development team had no cheat codes.
After all, nothing tasted sweeter than something you earned yourself.
“And if you keep playing like this, I’m afraid the youth protection mode is going to kick in soon.”
Yu Mian glanced at Qiao Ni beside them and let out a faint reminder, which immediately froze Huo Yan in place.
Even in the interstellar era, there was no escaping the youth gaming restrictions.
[Harrison: This new game of yours is unexpectedly effective. Now, we don’t even need to mention certain seeds in the book. We can just release them directly in the game and let people experience them firsthand before making a purchase.]
Uncle Harrison from the Food Research Institute quickly realized that with the launch of “Taoyuan Restaurant”, their institute’s various cultivation projects could now be introduced to the public in a much more flexible way.
After all, no matter how frequently Yu Mian updated “God of Cooking,” the pace of the novel’s serialization simply couldn’t keep up with the sheer variety of new crop seeds.
Now, with this game, everyone was learning how to farm. Any new seeds introduced in the game would naturally boost real-life seed sales as well.
[Fish: If you need anything, just let Derqin know. Once the information is entered into the system, it can be rolled out in the next update.]
Yu Mian was also quite happy about Uncle Harrison’s excitement.
[Harrison: The only downside is that your game is too addictive. Some people are even secretly logging in during work… or showing up yawning all day because they played too much.]
Harrison’s final complaint made Yu Mian chuckle.
What Yu Mian didn’t tell him was that if things were already like this now, they were only going to get worse.
Because at this very moment, he and Derqin were discussing the next step in community interaction for players.
[Fish: Once most players reach Level 30, we could introduce a social interaction system, like, say, allowing them to steal crops from each other. What do you think?]
‘S-Steal crops?’
Derqin was originally considering interactive features such as home visits, living with friends, or recipe sharing…but he never expected Fish Soup Noodles to suggest such a “diabolical” mechanic.
[Fish: I mean, if a crop is fully grown but left unharvested, why not let diligent friends log in and help out? This way, it increases player activity and “deepens” their friendships.]
Yu Mian didn’t know much about game design, but he had certainly played enough games.
Back then, crop-stealing games had been all the rage. Newspapers even ran front-page stories about young people setting alarms for 3 AM just to steal crops from their friends.
Was this the collapse of morality or the downfall of humanity?!
Most importantly, Yu Mian still remembered how those big game companies were questioning whether a life simulation game like “Taoyuan Restaurant” would be engaging enough to keep players awake and the little “evil” thought in his mind only grew stronger.
That’s right, even though we’re a life simulation game, not only will we not make players sleepy while playing, but we’ll also have them thinking about logging in even when they’re asleep.
[Derqin: Uh, that actually sounds very feasible and interesting.]
‘And also very evil…’
The image of Fish Soup Noodles in Derrqin’s mind suddenly shifted from being gentle and kind to having a subtle wicked undertone.
But instead of feeling repelled, he was even more curious, what was going on?
[Derqin: And now that I think about it, since players can meet each other in-game, we could also add new customization options to the mall, like using gold coins to change hairstyles in Taoyuan Town, buy clothes, and so on?]
[Fish: That’s right, absolutely perfect!]
Yu Mian also noticed that whenever he talked about the game with Derqin, the usually aloof developer would become much more natural in his speech. Sometimes he even talked so much that it caught Yu Mian off guard.
He really didn’t seem to be that old.
“How does it look? It’s pretty well-decorated, right?”
Yu Mian himself was also playing “Taoyuan Restaurant”.
His in-game ID was “Dozing Off,” and his chibi-style holographic avatar had slightly long, light chestnut-colored hair. The strands that hung by his ears swayed gently in the wind.
At this moment, Yu Mian was showing off his home layout and warehouse to Huo Ting.
“And I’m already at Level 30. With the next update, I’ll unlock the community interaction feature. You better level up fast too, so I can visit your garden.”
‘And conveniently steal your crops.’
Yu Mian glanced at Huo Ting’s light brain, trying to see what level he had reached.
Since he had originally encouraged him to help boost the first day sales of “Taoyuan Restaurant”, Huo Ting had naturally downloaded the game.
“…”
Huo Ting simply granted Yu Mian access to his personal light brain.
When Yu Mian linked to the device, he was shocked to discover that Huo Ting was also Level 30!
More importantly, this guy’s game interface showed signs of obsessive perfectionism.
Every single ingredient in his warehouse was neatly stacked in bundles of 99.
Compared to Huo Yan’s mess of a hoarder’s warehouse, where he couldn’t bear to throw anything away, Huo Ting’s inventory was absolutely immaculate. If Huo Yan saw it, he’d probably scream and want to start over.
“But this setup has no aesthetic sense at all! Why do you have a hundred stone pillars in your hall?”
Yu Mian realized that aside from the three required sets of tables and chairs, Huo Ting had filled the entire restaurant with stone pillars. Neatly lined up, wall to wall!
“They give the highest overall rating boost.”
It was an optimized calculation.
“If the overall rating exceeds 5000, you unlock higher-level missions.”
Seeing his rating increase, Huo Ting immediately used his five newly available furniture slots to purchase five more stone pillars and placed them in the restaurant without hesitation.
Yu Mian looked at the sea of stone pillars, then at Huo Ting.
Suddenly, he was tempted to ask Derqin to remove the rating bonus of these pillars in the next update. At the very least, fix this bug.
But… wouldn’t that be a bit mean?
“Is there a problem with this?”
Huo Ting also sensed Yu Mian’s contemplative gaze and realized that his dancing in front of the leader of the development team might lead to a game balance adjustment.
“Uh… technically, no, but you’re playing purely for stats. You haven’t considered aesthetics at all.”
“Does aesthetic value have a rating?”
“…”
Faced with Huo Ting’s subconscious question, Yu Mian suddenly realized that this was something that should be added in the next major update…maybe a manual scoring system to balance things out.
Seeing Yu Mian’s mind racing, Huo Ting couldn’t help but chuckle.
“If you want to change it, you can log into my account.”
“But doing that is risky. What if I decide to empty out your entire warehouse after the next update?”
Yu Mian had to admit that, even without using any internal developer cheat codes, Huo Ting’s near-perfect player inventory was really tempting.
Wouldn’t it be great to come here and “purchase” goods directly?
Meanwhile, the release of “Taoyuan Restaurant” and the ongoing updates of “God of Cooking” fed into each other, driving even more popularity.
Over the next few months, Yu Mian would continue updating the main text of “God of Cooking”, and many new elements and plotlines will also be incorporated into the game. Occasionally, the game will even provide sneak peeks of upcoming plot developments, giving players a basic idea of what to expect in the original novel.
In a way, this also freed Yu Mian from the need to live broadcast every time, since players could now learn by directly making dishes in the game. That was much easier than just watching Fish Soup Noodles cook, right?
But some fans, who were more interested in watching Fish Soup Noodles cook than playing the game, started complaining.
[I just want to watch Teacher Fish Soup Noodles cook, okay?! Wuuu, you guys don’t understand this empty feeling in my heart!]
[At least do one live broadcast a month! This was obviously a fan benefit…you can’t stop just because of the game!]
In the end, Yu Mian decided that he would do occasional cooking live broadcasts featuring particularly interesting dishes, treating them as small rewards for loyal fans.
Meanwhile, the massive success of “Taoyuan Restaurant”, adapted from “God of Cooking”, left several major gaming companies feeling strange and complicated.
“Who could have guessed this kind of game would get so many players? These people who never lift a finger at home, why are they suddenly so obsessed with farming in a game?”
“And I can’t find any cool or trendy elements. I can only say that the overall look is very retro…”
Nobody had anticipated that a cyber farming game would take over like this.
Aren’t you players supposed to prefer thrilling mecha battles?
So why are all of you hooked on farming?!
“Still, there’s no need to panic just yet. It could just be a temporary trend. After all, there’s never been a game like this before. Plus, with a price of 50 star coins, most people don’t think twice before buying it.”
But looking at “Taoyuan Restaurant”, which had already reached the top five in first-week sales, these companies couldn’t help but feel restless.
The most important thing was that the quality of the first game produced by this newly established game company made a strong impression, which undoubtedly proved that Fish Soup Noodles’ books could indeed be adapted into a game.
Would there be any opportunities to acquire the copyrights to other works in the future for game adaptations?
Now, looking back at Fish Soup Noodles’ other works, people started brainstorming whether they could also be adapted into unique yet highly playable games like “Taoyuan Restaurant”.
“This game is really fun, but the only concern is, once players level up, will they start to feel a sense of boredom?”
Since the release of “Taoyuan Restaurant”, the anchor Chili had been playing it non-stop, so he naturally noticed this potential issue with the game.
However, when the new feature, which involved stealing crops, was added in the next big update, the entire gaming community was shocked.
No one had expected a life simulation game, with no combat elements, to suddenly become so competitive.
[Fuck, who is it….ahhhh, I had 20 vanilla plants, and now I’m down to 10!? I’m losing it!]
[Help, did I add you as a friend just so you could steal my crops? Just wait, I’ll steal them back from you sooner or later!]
[Hahaha, stealing crops is actually so satisfying, who gets it? I didn’t get any durian seeds, but I stole some from a friend’s farm, hahaha!]
Barov, the hardcore farming enthusiast, had recently made checking “Taoyuan Restaurant” his first task every morning when he woke up.
After today’s big update, he looked at his vegetable garden in horror.
[System notification: Player Derqin has stolen 10 durians from you.]
‘This brat!? He even dared to not let go of his own father’s vegetable garden?!!’
