The final school bell had already rung when Vash stepped out through the school gates.
Students moved around him in groups, talking about homework, exams, teachers, and plans for the evening. Rohan had left a few minutes earlier with Riya, leaving Vash to make his way home alone.
He didn't mind.
His thoughts were somewhere else.
The computer class from the previous day had stayed in his mind. The internet had shown him how much the world had changed while he was unconscious, and the more he learned, the more he realized how much he still didn't know.
But there was another subject he wanted to understand.
Cooking.
Not just cooking food.
His family's cooking.
By the time Vash reached Grandpa's Noodles, the afternoon rush had already begun.
The familiar smell of broth and spices reached him before he even entered.
He put his school bag aside and moved toward the kitchen.
Grandma was preparing noodles.
Vash watched quietly.
Her hands moved with years of practice. She didn't need to measure everything with a scale. She could tell the texture of the dough by touch, judge the heat by watching the surface of the broth, and recognize when an ingredient had cooked enough simply from its smell.
Vash had seen her do it countless times before.
But now he was looking differently.
He wasn't simply watching his grandmother cook.
He was trying to understand why she did everything the way she did.
He remembered the old recipe book.
The pages he had already read.
The instructions about ingredients, preparation, timing, heat, and balance.
The book had taught him that cooking wasn't simply about following a list of instructions. There was knowledge behind every step.
Vash's eyes followed Grandma's hands.
The dough is softer today.
She added flour.
Not too much.
Just enough.
Vash watched the way she mixed it.
She's not trying to make it completely dry.
He understood.
The dough needed to retain enough moisture to remain flexible.
The realization made him smile.
The System appeared quietly.
---
[ADVANCED ANALYSIS]
Subject: Dough Preparation
Observing...
Texture: Identified
Moisture balance: Estimated
Mixing consistency: Identified
Heat and preparation relationship: Understood
---
Vash blinked.
The System wasn't teaching him the recipe.
It was helping him understand what he was already observing.
That difference mattered.
The System can analyze what I see, but I still have to learn it myself.
He liked that.
Grandma continued working.
Vash helped with the simpler preparations, carefully following what he had learned during his previous cooking attempts.
He was still far from his grandmother's level.
Sometimes his knife moved too slowly.
Sometimes he added an ingredient a little too early.
Sometimes he hesitated because he wasn't sure whether something was ready.
But he was improving.
And now he understood why.
Before the accident, cooking had simply been something his grandparents did.
After waking up, it had become a skill.
Now it was becoming a form of knowledge.
---
During a quieter moment, Vash remembered the recipe book again.
He looked toward the old cupboard where Grandma kept several kitchen items.
He had already read some of the book's pages.
There were still many more.
The thought made him curious.
How many recipes are actually in there?
Golden Noodles was only one of them.
There could be soups.
Different noodle dishes.
Sauces.
Chicken recipes.
Vegetable dishes.
Maybe even recipes that his grandparents had never put on the restaurant menu.
Vash suddenly realized something.
He didn't just want to master Golden Noodles.
He wanted to understand everything his family had learned about cooking.
Not because the recipes were valuable.
Because they were part of his family's history.
And because someday, he wanted to create dishes of his own.
---
That evening, after the restaurant became quieter, Vash finally asked Grandma about the recipe book.
She listened while continuing to sort ingredients.
There was no dramatic reaction.
No warning.
No mysterious silence.
To her, it was simply an old family cookbook that had been passed down through generations.
Vash explained that he wanted to learn more recipes from it.
Grandma smiled.
She reminded him that knowing a recipe wasn't the same as knowing how to cook.
The basics came first.
Knife control.
Ingredient preparation.
Heat management.
Timing.
Taste.
Patience.
Vash nodded.
He already understood.
The Golden Noodles had taught him that lesson.
He had failed because he had rushed one part of the process.
He had thought knowing the ingredients would be enough.
It wasn't.
Cooking required control.
Grandma eventually told him that he could continue studying the book as long as he practiced properly and didn't rush into recipes he wasn't ready for.
Vash felt satisfied.
That was all he wanted.
A chance to learn.
---
Later that night, Vash sat at the restaurant's empty table with his notebook.
He began writing.
Cooking Development
1. Understand ingredients.
2. Learn preparation.
3. Control heat.
4. Understand timing.
5. Practice repeatedly.
He stared at the list.
Then he added another line.
6. Learn every recipe in the family book.
Vash smiled.
It looked ambitious.
Maybe too ambitious.
But he didn't mind.
He had already spent two years doing nothing while his body remained trapped in darkness.
Now he wanted to learn everything he could.
His eyes shifted toward the kitchen.
Grandma was still working.
Grandpa was counting the day's money at the counter.
The restaurant wasn't large.
The equipment wasn't modern.
Their phones were old.
Their resources were limited.
But this place contained something Vash couldn't find on the internet.
Experience.
Knowledge that had been passed down through years of cooking.
He wanted to preserve it.
Maybe even improve it.
The System appeared.
---
[SKILL DEVELOPMENT]
Cooking — Basic
Practical Understanding: Improving
Recipe Recognition: Improving
Ingredient Knowledge: Improving
Heat Control: Developing
---
Vash looked at the interface.
Then another section appeared.
---
[KNOWLEDGE INDEX UPDATED]
Academic Knowledge: Developing
Business Knowledge: Developing
Technology Knowledge: Developing
General Knowledge: Developing
Culinary Knowledge: New
Progress: Basic
---
Vash's eyebrows rose.
"Culinary Knowledge..."
He smiled.
Another part of his world had been added to the system.
He looked at his hands.
They were still not as steady or skilled as Grandma's.
But they were stronger than before.
His rehabilitation was progressing.
His mind was progressing.
His cooking was progressing.
Everything seemed to be moving forward, little by little.
Then the system displayed his latest status.
---
[ORDINARY SYSTEM]
Host: Vash
Age: 14
Level: 1
Physical Attributes
Strength: 6.0 / 10
Agility: 5.0 / 10
Endurance: 4.0 / 10
Reaction: 5.0 / 10
Mental Attributes
Intelligence: 6.0 / 10
Memory: 7.0 / 10
Comprehension: 6.0 / 10
Concentration: 4.0 / 10
Recovery Data
Rehabilitation Progress: 5.0 / 10
Walking Stability: 5.5 / 10
Balance: 5.3 / 10
Skills
Cooking: Basic
Mathematics: Basic
English: Basic
Science: Basic
Social Studies: Basic
Business Management: Beginner
Computer Fundamentals: Basic
Knowledge Index
Academic Knowledge: Developing
Business Knowledge: Developing
Technology Knowledge: Developing
General Knowledge: Developing
Culinary Knowledge: Basic
Business Development
Current Business: Grandpa's Noodles
Business Planning: Beginner
Financial Analysis: Basic
Investment Planning: Partially Unlocked
System Points
50 / 100
System Integrity
18%
Condition
Damaged
---
Vash stared at the interface for several seconds.
Fifty points.
Halfway to the next milestone.
He remembered how meaningless the System had seemed when he first woke up.
Back then, he had barely been able to stand.
Now he could walk around the restaurant.
He was back in school.
He had learned about computers.
He was beginning to understand business.
And he was learning his family's cooking.
Vash closed the interface.
His eyes moved toward the cupboard where the old recipe book was stored.
There were still many pages he hadn't studied.
Many recipes he hadn't understood.
And one recipe in particular still demanded his attention.
Golden Noodles.
He had tried it before.
He had failed.
But failure no longer bothered him the way it once had.
He had learned something important.
There was no need to rush.
He didn't have to master everything in one day.
He only had to improve.
One lesson.
One recipe.
One mistake.
One improvement at a time.
Vash opened his notebook again.
Under his cooking goals, he wrote one final sentence.
Master the basics first. Then learn the next recipe.
He closed the notebook.
Tomorrow, he would continue.