Evolutionary Superstar

In Lin Haoren’s mind, a meal plan for tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s breakfast, and lunch quickly formed.

The Advanced-Level Cooking Skill provided knowledge, skills, and experience comparable to those of a 10-year, professionally trained chef.

The taste from such a level of cooking was something Intermediate-Level Cooking Skill couldn’t compare with.

He definitely had to spoil himself.

Based on his past experience, besides focus, the quality of kitchen tools and ingredients also affected the amount of proficiency gained.

Thus, buying superior ingredients was imperative.

Just thinking about tonight’s dinner got Lin Haoren licking his lips. He briefly paused, then chuckled to himself.

It seemed he was also quite the foodie.

"Organic boy choy, 500 grams for 16 yuan? Why don’t you just rob me? Even takeout doesn’t cost this much..."

"A4 Wagyu beef, 2 kilos for 1,680 yuan? Are they selling meat or gold? Can I even bear to eat this?"

"Black tiger prawns, 1 kilo for 198 yuan? Are these prawns fricken royalty?"

"Organic eggs, a tray of 30 eggs for 65 yuan?! I’ll be damned. This is daylight robbery! Is the farming business so lucrative these days?"

Each time Lin Haoren picked out a premium product, he couldn’t help but curse. The merchants were truly black-hearted.

Even so, he still added the expensive ingredients to his shopping cart.

Ultimately, he spent nearly 5,000 yuan for 2 weeks’ worth of premium groceries. His heart was bleeding, but he still gritted his teeth through the purchase.

He also bought a bunch of plates, cutlery, kitchen utensils, thermal containers, and insulated lunch boxes, totaling another 4,000 yuan.

Oreo’s premium canned foods totaled another 2,500 yuan.

Lin Haoren lamented how easy it was to spend his hard-earned money.

Eh?

Maybe it wasn’t that hard-earned after all.

On the way home, Lin Haoren also realized the inconvenience of his e-bike. It was alright for normal travels, but severely lacking for carrying large amounts of shopping.

He needed a car... or maybe not?

Lin Haoren tried to convince himself that he wouldn’t need one since he had already brought his stuff home.

It was too late to buy a new car for convenience when he had already gone through the inconvenience. As for the future, he didn’t seem to have other needs for now.

Upon arriving home, he washed up, then fired up the stove.

Tonight, he was going to cook up a feast for himself. Let’s see if these premium ingredients are worth their prices!

Thirty minutes later, food was served, and he took the first bite of the A4 wagyu steak.

Lin Haoren was silent for a long time, seemingly still savoring the lingering taste of high-quality beef. It’s over. He had been conquered.

"Mm, the taste is good, better than ordinary beef, but not by much," Lin Haoren seriously critiqued, thinking he could turn ordinary beef into delicious wagyu-like meat through cooking.

This was the power of spices and seasoning.

Of course, the final taste would always fall short of those made with superior-quality ingredients.

He could put up with the slight difference. He wasn’t picky as long as the food was still delicious.

However, the slight difference could actually be a world of difference to others. Mm, it seemed he needed some taste testers to provide feedback from another perspective.

Lin Haoren immediately thought of his pretty, cute neighbor and stored a portion of leftover dinner in thermal containers and insulated lunch boxes.

If Su Xiaoran wasn’t satisfied with her dinner, she might still drop by later to mooch a meal.

Fortunately, he was prepared for that and cooked plenty.

[Washing dishes, cleaning table, and rinsing cat bowl: Housekeeping Skill Proficiency +12]

Lin Haoren felt a little helpless seeing the system messages.

He was a little reluctant to level his Housekeeping Skill, but he didn’t want to turn his home into a junkyard either.

Forget it, let’s not think about it.

Lin Haoren quickly shifted his focus, entering work mode. He pulled up his laptop, preparing to write his new novel under the new pen name, Brightest Star Under Heaven.

Right, how was the response to his old novel’s ending?

Although Lin Haoren wanted to check, it had only been two hours since his mass release.

Even if his readers were fast readers, they couldn’t possibly go through all 60,000 words in two hours, right?

Never mind, let’s just focus on the new novel.

Lin Haoren pondered for a moment.

Since his spirit and intelligence were higher than before, he should try his hand at writing fantasy and let his creativity go wild.

Title: Birth of the Demonic Saint

Within a short time, Lin Haoren figured out the general plot for his new novel.

The story revolved around a protagonist who was given the rare chance of reincarnation after his death.

In his past life, the protagonist was born with the gift of ridding the world of all disease and death through his rare blood.

It was an all-cure with life extension properties.

However, the protagonist was discovered young by unscrupulous capitalists who saw only money, not the greater good for humanity.

His blood saved countless lives, yet the credit never belonged to him.

From birth, life was hell on earth, a routine of pain and torture from having his blood drawn and stimulated.

Death was the greatest mercy, but he lacked even the freedom and power to take his own life. Fortunately, his immortal blood was not inexhaustible as everyone had deemed.

One day, he finally welcomed death’s embrace, only to wake up in an unfamiliar body, wrecked by familiar pain, but surrounded by a foreign world—a battlefield filled with mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.

Unable to live, but also unable to die, the protagonist finally turned his rage and hatred to the heavens.

While designing the protagonist’s character, Lin Haoren made sure it was the complete opposite of himself—or rather, they were both inherently kind.

However, the protagonist never received kindness from the world, only its endless malice.

Thus, a saint turned to darkness, becoming a greater evil in a world that wasn’t kind to life—a war-torn world plagued with diseases and unholy forces.

The heavens granted humanity a chance of salvation, but they snuffed it out with their own hands.

This story served to explore the depths of human greed and malice,

However, it served as a reminder to himself that while one should be kind and compassionate, not everyone deserves it, lest they be taken advantage of.