Penpen returned from the separate room where she’d been eating her Delicious Steak.
"Dazed... completely dazed..."
"Penpen, get a hold of yourself! Look at your face—you’ve completely lost it!"
"Ah, I take it the Delicious Steak was just that good?"
"It was beyond delicious-ssu... To think such flavors exist... it’s a joy only possible in VR-ssu..."
Penpen muttered this with the blissful expression of a maiden in love. Unfortunately, the object of her affection was a piece of beef.
"One day, I want you to be able to cook a steak like that, Penpen."
"I think it’s impossible-ssu... and yet, I find myself driven to master my Cooking Skill. I can be obsessive about the meat from the moment the animals are raised at my ranch-ssu."
I see. Raising them for meat at Penpen's Ranch was an option too. Not just fresh dairy, but meat as well... what a powerful combination.
That said, I didn't have the slightest clue how to process livestock. But since this was a game, things would probably work out.
"Did you know? Meat becomes more delicious when you age it," Mahariku-san added. "It doesn’t really apply to synthetic meat, but enzymes break down the proteins to increase the umami components. That’s why people used to hang processed meat in cool, dark places for days."
"Whoa! That’s good to know-ssu! You’re so smart, Mahariku-san."
"Huhu, well, I try. Oh, and in the old days, there were places called supermarkets where they sold aged meat like it was the most natural thing in the world."
"A su-supermarket... It must have been a 'super' store, just like the name says-ssu."
"And there were several of those supermarkets in every single town!"
"Like a national chain-ssu!?"
Wait, hold on. "Supermarket" isn't the name of a chain; it's a business model, like a convenience store. And they still exist. Online supermarkets are everywhere. Sure, natural meat is rare, but why were they talking like the concept of a supermarket was some lost civilization?
"Alto. Supermarkets still exist, don't they?"
"Mahariku-san is a sheltered elite, so she’s not well-versed in commoner affairs-dao. I used to be a sheltered girl myself-o. Though now I’m 'enclosed in a box' in a completely different sense-dao!"
"Hahaha, nice joke."
An elite, huh? Mahariku-san certainly had that aura about her.
"What about Penpen, then?"
"She’s probably just playing along with Mahariku-san-o? She supposedly works in that kind of industry, after all-dao."
I see. Mahariku-san's high-class atmosphere must have triggered Penpen's professional hospitality. Pretending not to know something to keep the conversation flowing... Penpen really was a genius.
"In the old days, they had something called liver sashimi," Mahariku-san continued. "Eating the liver raw was considered the pinnacle of flavor."
"Raw meat-ssu!? You’d die doing that-ssu!"
"Yes, naturally there were health hazards, so it was eventually regulated. It was a tragic incident for the culinary world..."
The conversation drifted from meat to history. Liver sashimi... I’d never even heard of it.
"Wait a seco. That’s definitely from before even Mahariku-san was born-o. How do you know about that-dao? Are you actually faking your age...?"
"Oh, Alto. There are plenty of historical reconstruction VR software titles out there. Have you never played 'The Edo' or the 'School Trip Series'? The VR remake of 'Like a Dragon' is particularly excellent."
"I haven't-o."
"You girls have VR gear that can even reproduce taste, so you really should try various things. You’re losing out if you don’t get your money’s worth."
Wait. The only VR equipment I had was a cardboard box designed to hold my mobile phone, which I’d only just received and hadn't even opened. Did Mahariku-san not realize you could play in VR Mode using a standard mobile terminal?
On the flip side, that meant she was using high-spec VR equipment as her baseline. Well, it didn't seem to interfere with the game, so there was no real need to point it out to her.
"That's right, Penpen. Did you forget about the Second Chance?"
"...Hah! That’s right-ssu! I need to see if it arrived in the real world... I'll be right back-ssu!"
With that, Penpen quickly manipulated her menu and logged out to check for a delivery. The remaining Penpen-chan avatar flashed an awkward, bashful smile and scurried into the corner of the room to sit down.
"Do you think it’s actually there? That would be a bit scary, wouldn't it?" Mahariku-san asked.
"You think so-o? Getting a package delivered is pretty normal-dao."
"Our addresses are registered for campaigns and such, so it’s not really a mystery," I added.
"Even so, the delivery is too fast. If it’s already there right after she used the item, just how high-performance are their delivery drones? I wonder if Penpen will be back soon."
"If it actually arrived, she won't be back for at least two hours-o. She’ll be busy eating it-dao."
If it took ten minutes to unbox, cook, and eat it in the real world, that would be a hundred minutes in-game. Throw in the time to savor the experience, and she’d be gone for a while.
"In that case... maybe we should head to the Adventurer's Guild and check the requests. All guilds show the same SP Requests, right?"
"They do-o. I’m close to getting my own Home, so I’ll come along-o. I’ll be your guide-dao!"
"I'll go too. Penpen-chan, tell Penpen we stepped out when she gets back."
"Hihyaa!? Y-Yes... I... understood..."
And so, the three of us headed toward the guild.