At the crack of dawn, all was still and silent. A faint glimmer on the eastern horizon carefully seeped into the pale blue canopy of the sky.
As a ray of morning light pierced through the thin mist, a new day gradually arrived from the distance.
"Haaaah~~"
Driven by his biological clock, the red-eyed young man climbed out of bed.
He pulled open the curtains and took a deep breath of the slightly cool air.
His head, still a bit groggy from overindulging in a few "little games" last night, cleared up instantly.
Yes, because of the bet, he had earned the right to make some requests that would make a girl feel embarrassed.
And then—
Then, naturally, he had used that right without a moment's hesitation.
His night had roughly consisted of getting Sirin into a cat-eared maid outfit and then playing a live-action version of Nekopara.
After that, he had Ana change into an apron, and they went to the kitchen together to prepare breakfast in advance.
The process is not suitable for disclosure.
All in all, Li Zihan had a rather fragrant and steamy night.
It was a pity they were still asleep.
Li Zihan felt a little unsatisfied.
Due to the physically taxing nature of live-action cosplay and cooking, both Sirin and Ana had yet to wake up. Otherwise, he felt he could have played a few games in the morning that he didn't get around to last night.
What a shame.
Not wanting to disturb his lovers' rest, the boy walked over to the refrigerator, found some fresh ingredients, and contemplated whether he should prepare three full English breakfasts—the final bastion of Great Britain's culinary world.
He and Ana had indeed tried to make breakfast last night.
But—
That breakfast was never finished.
A problem arose midway through; for example, kneading dough with four hands turned into kneading a different kind of... dough.
And then, naturally, other things unfolded.
So, after waking up, Li Zihan could only start making breakfast from scratch.
However—
It wasn't good to always make an English breakfast.
Having lived underground in London for years, he seemed to have been infected by the locals. If he were to join a Chinese transmigrator chat group, he'd probably be kicked out due to his pitiful cooking skills. The boy sighed internally.
If only Rita, Bronya, or Mei were here.
Among the girls he knew, there were three who were skilled at cooking.
Rita, Bronya, and the Rice Herrscher.
Although Rita was a klutz who constantly messed things up and was ridiculously reckless, almost like a berserker, her culinary skills were frighteningly high. She outclassed every chef Li Zihan had ever met.
Then there was Bronya.
Bronya was a genius, talented in all fields, and that naturally included cooking. Her skills were on par with the head chef of a top-tier restaurant.
And finally, there was Miss Mei, who was crushed by Rita and Bronya in the culinary department and probably no longer had the right to call herself the Rice Herrscher. Still, her cooking was quite good, and making home-style dishes was a piece of cake for her.
Should I try going back and bringing someone over? the boy wondered. In many ways, he was quite similar to Rita, but when it came to daily life, he was utterly incapable of taking care of people and even needed to be taken care of himself.
He had found five bugs in the system, which meant he had five seamless world-travel charges. He had used one, so four remained.
Using up two charges to pull a few people over seemed like a good idea.
They would have to come to this world sooner or later to get the God-Slayer buff anyway, so bringing them over now wouldn't be a bad thing.
This was especially true for Bronya and Rita.
Neither of them had Herrscher adaptability. One was a pseudo-Herrscher of Reason, and the other was the floor for S-rank Valkyries. They desperately needed the God-Slayer buff to enhance their strength.
Therefore, bringing them here was a necessity.
The boy, who clearly wouldn't sweat two teleportation charges, thought it over.
But, having the girls who liked him cook for his other girls...
The image of one of his lovers cooking in the kitchen while he was at the dining table doing things with other girls—
Isn't that a bit stimu—ahem, inappropriate?
Although Rita and Bronya, who had always just wanted to be his mistresses, wouldn't mind, Miss Mei would definitely fly into a rage.
The boy's expression turned a bit strange as he vaguely recalled that Miss Sirin got almost all her meals, aside from late-night snacks, by freeloading off Miss Mei.
Eat your food, drink your drinks, and then roll in the sheets with your fiancé at night...
For some reason, Li Zihan suddenly felt that Mei could acknowledge Otto as her godfather, obtain the name Apocalypse, and succeed him as the Schicksal Overseer when he retired.
"Forget it, I'll just be self-reliant."
He felt that if Mei ever found out what Sirin did behind her back while she was asleep, the two of them would definitely come to blows. The boy sighed in his heart.
And so—
The boy, who might have a slight misunderstanding of the term "self-reliant," called out into the void.
"Hey, hey, System, do you have any gourmet-related enhancements?"
Out of nowhere, Mr. System was summoned.
"Hey, hey, hey, didn't you just say you were going to be self-reliant?" the System asked, dumbfounded as it looked at its host who had just been muttering that very phrase to himself.
"Don't worry about the details."
The words came out of the boy's mouth with incredible self-assurance.
"Just tell me if you have it or not."
"I do," the System, whose hardware was quite impressive but lacked much in the way of software features, replied bluntly. "But you have to draw it from a compensation chest."
Everything has to be drawn from a compensation chest... Are you a heartless apology machine?
Listening to the System's curt reply, Li Zihan felt an inexplicable urge to retort.
"In that case, I'll just go summon the man with the iconic back."
The boy, who still had a summoning ticket whose connection to a god had been exhausted, shrugged his shoulders.
He was already quite proficient at summoning Servants and using Command Spells to make them hand over their power or combat experience.
Gilgamesh and Cú Chulainn could testify to that.
Unfortunately, Gilgamesh's ability to collect all the treasures of the world was a sublimation of his personal legend.
Li Zihan felt a tinge of regret at this thought. Because Gilgamesh's will had been shattered, all he had managed to get from him was Ea, whose true name he still didn't know, and the Clairvoyance that resided in his body.
But that sort of thing wasn't really important anyway.
The boy, who was essentially complaining after having profited handsomely, thought to himself and pulled a summoning ticket from his pocket.
Next, it was time to use the Origin Bullet from his catalyst-daddy, Emiya Kiritsugu, as a medium to summon Archer.
"Hey, hey, hey, didn't you say you were going to integrate the Far East's magical world and use them as a springboard to hunt Susanoo and the Sage Ape King?" the System asked, astonished by Li Zihan's reaction. "Aren't you going to find them?"
"That's right, I do need them for support."
The boy, who had beaten Kusanagi Godou to become the King of the Far East, did not deny this.
"But why should I go to them?"
The boy, who planned to use other means if he didn't receive a show of sincerity within a day, questioned the System with a strange look.
Beside him, black and red mist coalesced, transforming into scattering feathers.