Pokémon, but cultural invasion.

She muttered to herself, "What's the intention behind this design?"

Onions can not only be thrown on the ground, but also thrown very far, and if the distance is right, they can even be thrown into the hands of a Röntgen cat.

"Boss, won't we get complaints if we just throw the ingredients on the ground like this?"

"Hurry up and show some energy, or you'll be sitting at the same table as Xiaoxia."

"What do you mean? Are you looking down on us Kanto Cerulean beauties?"

Qishu also discovered a strange mechanism: the logic of the cooking pot is not that the player takes the ingredients to start it, but that the gas stove will ignite automatically when the onion touches the pot.

The player's role is simply to move the onions onto the pot.

"Why is that? Izumi no game has any random designs; every design has its own little tricks."

No... Qishu recalled some of his little schemes, which were purely for tormenting others and taking revenge on society.

"do not care."

The door to the next level had opened, and she followed it out.

It's called the next level, but it's actually right next to the restaurant.

Pushing open the restaurant door, you'll find a road marked with zebra crossings.

The kitchen seemed to have been moved to a crossroads, with cutting boards, pots, and sinks on the left side of the zebra crossing, and storage cabinets, fire extinguishers, and serving vents on the right.

When the three contestants saw this scene, they were all briefly confused. Who came up with the idea of ​​cooking on the street?

The zebra crossing between the two areas was bustling with people, including young people pushing wheelchairs.

Who made this game? I wonder who would come to the kitchen on the main street to pick up food.

"No wonder it's called the 'Naughty Kitchen,' I get it now. Hurry up and go into the bathroom to cook!"

"The first level was alright, but the second level revealed their true colors."

"There are more types of ingredients now, so I feel like this game will get really difficult later on."

The second challenge was also a two-person challenge, with the contestants changing partners and throwing themselves into the cooking process.

Xiaoxia climbed out of the abyss and watched Psyduck being replaced, feeling a sense of redemption as if she had finally escaped her misery.

Compared to the first level, the second level adds tomatoes as an ingredient, but fortunately, the recipe for tomato soup is just as simple as that for onion soup.

Lulina and Swamp King, and Kiku and Momonga are all at the forefront of progress, neck and neck.

They chop vegetables, cook soup, plate food, and serve it on the busy street.

The two made the most of every minute, their teamwork with the Pokémon was skillful enough, and their actions were a pleasure to watch.

Unlike the others who were racing with all their might, Cynthia was completely relaxed and having fun.

She and the Flower Rock Monster were not in a hurry. The latter had extremely precise control over psychic powers, so they would not be left with no hands to use.

In a relaxed state, Cynthia can understand what the Rockruff is planning to do next just by looking at the game screen, and the same is true for the Rockruff.

In a sense, the mutual understanding mentioned in the battle refers to their current state.

"Maintaining this state for a long time is very beneficial for communication between trainers and Pokémon."

After reaching her conclusion, Cynthia found it absurd: "Could a game that emphasizes cooperation really cultivate teamwork?"

Traditionally, this is an effect that can only be achieved by trainers and Pokémon battling together.

Even if the synergy developed in the game isn't suitable for real-world combat, it can still help novice trainers get started more easily in actual battles.

This reminded Cynthia of some ancient training methods, such as sitting under a waterfall with a Pokémon and enduring the impact of the water, which is essentially a search for a shortcut to communicating with one's mind.

Just when she thought this tranquility would continue, the situation changed again when the game reached the third level.

The game's difficulty suddenly increased, and Overcooked officially revealed its true colors.

The main menu item for this level is hamburgers, and the preparation process suddenly becomes complicated.

A complete hamburger is made by placing the bun, grilled patty, chopped lettuce, tomato, and cheese all together on a plate.

It seems that different customer tastes have also been taken into account, as the menu sometimes includes burgers that do not require tomatoes or cheese.

Besides bread and steak, which are essential, the other three items are randomly selected.

There are as many as four frying pans and as many as four players.

Contestants not only have to deal with a variety of menu changes, but also have to adapt to a sudden increase in the number of Pokémon partners.

Since it's a four-player level, the menu refresh rate is greatly increased.

In this situation, a single mistake could lead to the unfortunate situation of the menu being completely full.

Lulina and Xiaoju were the first to enter the level, and they were also the first to feel the pressure.

Trainers are used to taking on a commanding role, so Lulina's first thought was to assign tasks.

The Berserker Turtle was in charge of frying the steaks, the Armored Warrior was in charge of chopping vegetables, and the Swamp King was in charge of getting the ingredients and washing the dishes.

Finally, she was in charge of making the hamburgers and delivering them.

Xiaoju had a similar idea, but when they actually started to take action, everything went wrong.

The chibi-style characters and three Pokémon run around in the kitchen, and they might bump into each other if you're not careful.

The division of labor sounded wonderful, but the sudden rise in ground destroyed it all.

They and the audience were still wondering why there was no partition cabinet in this level when suddenly a crack running across the kitchen appeared on the floor.

Snorlax used Earthquake.

With a rumbling sound, the right half of the kitchen was raised high, while the left half sank in.

Pokémon focused on their assigned tasks caused their single-threaded CPUs to burn out on the spot.

The trainer instructed it to cut meat, but it can't get to the cutting board. What should it do?

The Berserker Turtle and the Swamp King immediately went into a malfunction.

The kitchen, with one side higher than the other, resembled a divided battlefield, only returning to its original state a few seconds later.

The Pokémon returned to their posts to perform their duties, but the few seconds they were delayed were real.

Lulina made a quick judgment: if the kitchen had to stop for several seconds every time a crack appeared, the frequently refreshed menu would soon overwhelm the customer satisfaction rating.

While it's unclear what the consequences of stockpiling menu items will be, it's definitely not a good thing.

To make matters worse, the menu for the third level is slightly different for each item, and she has to run back and forth between the frying pan, cutting board, cabinet, and sink.

Time is ticking away, and the menu is piling up every second.

If we can't come up with a solution faster than Xiaoju, we'll undoubtedly fall far behind.

Fortunately, a traitor in the live chat tipped them off in time.

"Report: Xiaoju'er's kitchen is also a mess, and they are even more overwhelmed. The advantage is with us."

"Well done! Investigate further and report back!"

At first, all the messages were good news, but the tone changed drastically a few seconds later.

"No, the Strange Tree has caught up!"

"what's the situation?"

"Qishu's live stream is progressing by leaps and bounds. It seems she has found a solution, but all I saw before was a mess of ingredients."

"What's the solution? Go and steal it!"

"It's pre-made food!"

An insider frantically typed in the comments: "Pre-made dishes, she discovered how to make pre-made dishes."

Upon seeing these three large characters, Lulina's mind immediately went blank.

What are pre-cooked meals?

Does pre-cooked food even exist in this world?

Chapter 99 High Emotional Intelligence: This is the Mechanism

When Qishu and her electric-type friends entered the third level, she learned from the comments that she was currently in fourth place.

Except for Misty, who was dragged down by Psyduck, everyone else was ahead of her.

However, Qishu was not flustered; this was the price she paid for testing the game's features at the start.

Since she started streaming games, she has been cramming a lot of knowledge about games.

Especially on the day the trial of "Plant Ghost" ended, Qi Shu discovered that someone had actually completed the game before him, even though he had logged in half an hour earlier.

This was unacceptable to her, but it also made her begin to learn about the niche hobby of "speedrunning games".

She discovered that in speedrun challenges of any game, the fastest finishers often exploited game bugs.

Rather than calling it a bug, Qishu prefers to call it a mechanism.

While ordinary players are still using their meticulous skills to manually improve by a fraction of a second, speedrunners have already left them far behind by using the mechanics.

Izumi no Kijima's games have very few bugs, but he's the kind of wicked guy who secretly leaves behind mechanics, calling them Easter eggs.

She had played through all the games he designed, so she was quite confident that Overcooked also contained similar Easter eggs.

Fortunately, the miraculous tree was indeed found.

She discovered that ingredients could be thrown directly on the floor or on the table.

And when the character being controlled gets close to the cooking utensils, such as a frying pan.

Press "Throw" again, and the ingredients will be stuck around the model in the frying pan.

What all the steaming and cooking appliances in the kitchen have in common is that they automatically cook the ingredients on the molds.

In other words, by placing a bunch of meat patties on a frying pan model, players can obtain an automatic meat-frying machine by periodically removing the cooked meat.

The advantage of this is that it greatly reduces the number of steps players need to move around in the kitchen. The meat chops do not need to be repeatedly taken from the storage cabinet; taking enough at once is enough to meet the requirements of the entire level.

So the audience saw mountains of meat patties piled up on four frying pans.

The overlapping models blocked the sizzling oil from the pot, and only four green progress bars at the bottom were visible.

"Mr. Qi, a meat wholesaler at AAA, is a lucky man for meat lovers."

"No, the streamer is doomed. So many meat patties piled up there will cause the model to jam. Players won't be able to pick up the cooked pieces when they press the pick-up button. The frying pan will catch fire soon, and the kitchen will be a complete mess."

"Does the person in front know so much because they saw Xia's live stream next door?"

It's worth mentioning that Xiaoxia drew Psyduck again in the third round.

This time, however, Psyduck wasn't spacing out; viewers could tell it genuinely wanted to help.

It's a pity that it would have been better not to help at all.

Psyduck took a bunch of food from the storage cabinet and threw it on the ground, obstructing traffic and affecting the normal operation of other Pokémon.

The lettuce that fell in front of the frying pan went unnoticed at first, until the starfish tried to pick up the cooked steak but instead picked up the lettuce.

Only then did everyone realize how serious the situation had become.

I'm not sure how Overcooked works, but in the chaotic kitchen, wasting two or three seconds can have fatal consequences.

The burnt pork chops caught fire, and the flames quickly spread to other ingredients and the cabinet.

Xiaoxia was looking for a fire extinguisher when she was surprised to find it in Psyduck's hand.

It frantically wandered around the kitchen clutching a fire extinguisher, a scene straight out of hell.

Misty, unable to bear it any longer, flicked Psyduck on the head.

The latter, with a splitting headache, used his mental powers to miraculously control the handle and extinguish the fire, thus improving the situation.

Because they had witnessed how Xiaoxia's kitchen caught fire, the audience condemned Qishu's four frying pans to death.

If you pile up so many meat patties, it would probably take ten fire extinguishers to put out a fire.

As the green progress bar reached its end, the aroma of cooked pork chops filled the air, and viewers who enjoyed the spectacle thought they were about to witness another great show.

The electric frog, carrying a plate, walked by and precisely took the cooked pork chop.

When the empty frying pan comes into contact with the raw meat, it automatically enters the cooking state.