Chapter 405: Chapter 317: Marbles and Sliders Challenge Begins, Brand-New Rewards

While feeling emotional inside, Lin Chen also had a clear understanding of the culinary skills of formally trained chefs from Great Xia.

His own mediocre skills might be enough to fool foreigners, but definitely couldn’t deceive his peers.

It would be great if the system rewards included enhancements to cooking skills...

As this thought flashed through his mind, he was momentarily stunned, seemingly realizing something, and quickly opened his inventory, taking a deep look at the two Potion Fragments.

He only needed one more to obtain the final type of Potion, but since it didn’t seem to have much use, he had never paid much attention to it.

Moreover, with the recent upgrade of the food truck, the difficulty of the challenge tasks had increased, and his main focus was on that.

Now that he thought about it carefully, the function of the Potion was to enhance his physical condition.

This system obviously wasn’t the kind that would turn him into some sort of superpower user; all the rewards and tasks were centered around culinary skills.

So isn’t there a possibility?

Once he drank all three Potions and his physical condition met the system’s requirements, would rewards related to cooking skills appear?

He felt it was very possible!

Because culinary skills, besides requiring a long period of practice, demand certain psychological and physiological qualities from chefs.

For example, like the simplest task of cutting potato shreds, strict Great Xia chefs would require the shreds to pass through the eye of a needle, and any randomly picked shred must meet this condition.

To achieve such Sword Skills, a chef needs to perfectly control the power and movement of their wrist, visually observe the ingredients closely, and match the tactile feel of cutting—all need to be perfectly synchronized.

If one naturally has shaky hands, poor eyesight, or insufficient power, this would be almost impossible to achieve.

Threading potato shreds is just a basic Sword Skills requirement for Chinese chefs. Even more ridiculous is Wen Si tofu, which he doesn’t even dare to think about; if he were to cut it, he might get so frustrated that he’d smack the tofu into pieces.

Weighing all these factors, the significance of the Potions becomes extremely important.

On one hand, they directly enhance his physical condition and sensory abilities, enabling him to perfectly control his body’s reactions.

On the other hand, the enhancement in abilities also brings stronger confidence.

This is a dual evolution of psychology and physiology.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt his thought process was correct, and combined with his enhanced sixth sense subtly reacting, he couldn’t help but feel excited.

"Potion Fragment! I still need one more Potion Fragment!!"

He quickly pulled up the task list and glanced over it, not seeing any task that rewarded a Potion Fragment.

Lin Chen furrowed his brows, pondering for a moment, his gaze fixating on the task [Master Ball Craftsman].

Only this task had rewards that were relatively more controllable. As long as he consumed enough Challenge Cards to activate it, there was a high probability it would provide a task that rewarded Potion Fragments.

Currently, he held three Challenge Cards, which was definitely not enough, and two... might not be safe enough either.

Should he just go all in?

What if it still wasn’t enough, wouldn’t that just waste three Challenge Cards for nothing?

His overly cautious nature made him a bit hesitant.

Accumulating three Challenge Cards wasn’t that difficult either. All he needed to do was set up his stall a few more times, and he would have them eventually; it was just a matter of time.

But he was also a person with a strong sense of curiosity, and thinking that there was a significant possibility of unlocking new skill rewards after exchanging the Potions, it was like having countless tiny ants crawling in his heart, making him itch with restlessness.

"Whatever, let’s just go for it. If it’s not enough, I’ll just save up more for next time!"

He didn’t hesitate for long, making a decision in just a few seconds.

He had never done this task before. With one Challenge Card, he would most likely only unlock a basic task because it was clearly stated that the base reward was a Recipe Exchange Coupon.

The rewards one level above a Recipe Exchange Coupon were the Food Truck Upgrade Card or Challenge Card, and one level above that were Potion Fragments.

Three cards... should be enough, right?

With this thought in mind, he silently stepped back a few paces, not disturbing Xiao Zhao and Old Chen at work, turned around, and left the kitchen to enter the food truck, closing the door behind him.

The whole world seemed to quiet down at that moment.

"I want to use three Challenge Cards to draw the Master Ball Craftsman task!"

As the thought passed, three cards with golden borders appeared from the void, shattering into countless sparkling stars and beginning to spin, forming a vortex-like state.

As they spun, the sparkling points of light quietly gathered in an instant, then suddenly magnified in his field of vision.

[Ding, you have consumed three Challenge Cards and obtained a three-star Master Ball Craftsman challenge task]

[Master Ball Craftsman (3 stars): Please make squid balls, shrimp balls, and pork balls]

[Challenge requirements: 1. Each of the three balls must include at least one auxiliary ingredient besides the main ingredient; 2. The total number sold must not be less than one thousand; 3. Customer satisfaction must not be lower than 95%]

[If three challenge requirements are met at the time of settlement, it will be considered a successful challenge, and rewards will include Recipe Exchange Coupon*1, Potion Fragment*1, and a prize of three thousand euros]

[If the three challenge requirements cannot be met, the Potion Fragment reward will not be available, and the prize amount will be proportionally deducted]

"Nice!!"

Lin Chen excitedly clenched his fist and swung it hard in the air.

His judgment was indeed correct!

After calming down, he immediately read the challenge requirements again carefully and started to think about some key points that needed attention.

"Auxiliary ingredients, does that mean the balls have to have flavor? I remember making these smooth balls requires adding fat, and the balls made with fat have a more elastic and fragrant texture."

"Does fat count as an auxiliary ingredient?"

"If it counts, it would be a bit silly, the system wouldn’t leave such an obvious loophole for me."

"Whatever, assume it doesn’t count, and add another ingredient, maybe some fish roe with the squid, it won’t affect the taste and can enhance the umami."

"What should I add to the shrimp? It seems that shrimp paste in hotpot is usually pure, without much flavor... Oh, I remember seeing dragon fruit shrimp paste in a food vlog, but is that really edible?"

"Let’s hold off on the shrimp paste for now and see if there’s other inspiration, pork balls are easier, you can add mushrooms or add cilantro and century egg, there are many flavors."

"Wait, cilantro and century egg... forget it, to be safe, better not consider those two, although adding them doesn’t affect the original flavor, but just in case? Let’s stick with mushrooms."

He hadn’t been to Chaoshan, so he wasn’t familiar with handmade smooth balls; the only thing he could think of was the various ball flavors he had tried in hotpot restaurant mala soup shops.

Glancing at the time, it was still early, he decided to hide in the car and go online to watch videos to see how Chaoshan people make these smooth balls.

He watched for a good half hour before he finally had some idea.

Just as the time was almost right, he directly started boiling water, saving some time for the steamed bun stage later.

Cock’s Comb Dumplings are fried and need an oil pan, just yesterday’s leftover oil from frying starch sausages can be used, and the unsold starch sausages can be sold too.

Just getting off the car, he happened to run into Old Chen and Xiao Zhao, who were moving ingredients outside, and Dais and Elsa were also helping on the side.

Lin Chen nodded as a greeting.

"Have you done a taste test?"

"Not yet, but I’ve made soup dumplings hundreds of times, even with my eyes closed it’ll taste the same, the only issue is whether foreign guests will like it."

Zhao Shun answered confidently, then pointed at Old Chen: "The filling in Cock’s Comb Dumpling is like normal fried dumplings, green onion and pork, plus a bit of sweet potato starch, Old Chen’s seasoned filling surely won’t be a problem. I think maybe fried food might be more suited to foreign palates?"

"I’ve already boiled the water, there’s leftover oil in the kitchen from yesterday, you two prepare some for everyone to taste, just in case there’s a need to adjust the filling."

"Okay."

Such a requirement is normal, even without him saying it, Zhao Shun planned to do some taste testing before setting up his stall, which is the basic quality of a qualified chef.

If you haven’t tasted something and aren’t confident, you absolutely cannot serve it to guests.

After unloading the first batch of goods, Old Chen and the two women immediately ran back to the kitchen to continue moving, while Zhao Shun got a steamer basket and started wrapping soup dumplings.

Lin Chen wasn’t speaking, just standing by quietly watching his movements.

A spoonful of meat filling covered in aspic was placed in the center of the skin, fingers moving back and forth, and within a few blinks, a delicate and full soup dumpling was wrapped.

Compared to the big buns Lin Chen made earlier, the soup dumplings were much smaller, and each pleat was almost completely uniform, with a small circle rising like a volcano in the center, the most typical and common soup dumpling shape.

Within just a couple of minutes, the steamer was neatly filled with a dozen soup dumplings, each one uniform in size and appearance, looking like exquisite pieces of art.

Lin Chen couldn’t help but be amazed.

No wonder he is a pastry specialist, his skills truly are impeccable.

If he can make the appearance this refined, the taste surely won’t be far off.

Sweet soup dumplings he had tried in the country before didn’t quite suit his taste, eating three or four made him feel a bit greasy, and he had to dip them in vinegar to get them down.

But with foreigners’ love for sugar, it might just be perfect?

After wrapping twenty soup dumplings in one go, Zhao Shun covered the steamer and placed it over hot water to begin steaming, then took a shiny piece of dough from the box, pressing and stretching it with his palm and index finger into a very thin sheet.

He grabbed a bit of green onion pork filling and spread it in the middle of the dough, then covered it with a small handful of chopped sweet potato vermicelli, folding the dough over like a blanket, completely wrapping the filling.

Then he gently pulled the sides with his fingers, allowing the dough to naturally expand and sink with gravity, forming an irregular dumpling shape.

He stopped after making five, just as Old Chen climbed up with two buckets of oil.

"Old Chen, come see how it’s done, it’s very simple."

"Oh, oh, coming right up, I’ll heat the oil first~"