Since the Life Skills tab had no additional skills, he closed the tab and looked at the other sections. His Supportive Skills were still blank, but when he opened his Offensive Skills page, Lixin was both surprised and unsurprised by what he saw.

There were his Herba skills, as expected, but there were also two other skills, which surprised him. The first one was

Blunt Weapon Mastery 3/10: Although blunt weapons lack a blade, they are quite effective. Blunt Mastery increases blunt weapons' power. Continuously practice with blunt weapons, day and night, and you will learn to unleash their full potential.

And the second one was:

Pummel LVL 4/10: A strong attack that is able to deliver three powerful strikes to an enemy, leaving them stunned. *Deal -50 HP per blow (Stun duration 30 secs).

'Those are some decent skills,' Lixin mused as he read through the details. 'The second one will definitely come in handy if I ever get into a dangerous situation where a monster gets close.'

He couldn't help but wonder where his Persona had learned these skills. After a few moments of thought, it struck him, recalling a scenario from the cutscene in which Peter asked his Persona to acquire him some herbs, and his Persona had to battle monsters to gather them. 'Maybe that's where Pummel had come from?' He thought.

After all, from what he had seen in the cutscene some special plants could only be gathered from monster corpses. Lixin even saw some monsters protecting certain plants. It only makes sense that his persona has a way to protect itself. If not that would be a major plot hole.

So either Peter taught his Persona or it picked it up. Lixin remembered Zeyu mentioning how some skills weren't taught directly but could be learned by simply doing the task. Which was a neat concept to have in the game in his opinion.

~

Turning to the Racial Skills tab, Lixin wondered if he had any. He already had Luck so he wouldn't be too disappointed if he didn't get any more, but it would definitely be awesome if he did. He clicked open the tab and was excited to find two new Racial Skills.

The skills, however, were grayed out, with the phrase "locked until level 10" next to them. Lixin had to admit that he became curious about what kind of racial skills a Koi like him would acquire. However, he could wait. After all, he'd find out in time.

Lixin glanced over the grayed-out racial skills one final time before exiting the Skills icon. Ready to explore something else, he clicked on the Cooking Journal button.

As someone who loved to cook, this was the icon that he was looking forward to investigating. And the cooking journal didn't disappoint. The screen that popped up looked like a giant recipe book, with pictures of delicious dishes and detailed instructions on how to make them.

The journal was split into two sections—Food and Drink. He chose the food option first. He was surprised to see that his Persona had already learned some decent recipes like:

Milk Bread: Bread baked with fresh milk. It is delicious enough for everyone to enjoy. *  Taste +8 Fullness +15

And

Steamed Carrots: Carrots cooked until they are soft and flavourful. This will make an excellent side dish or snack. *  Taste +4 Fullness +10

There were also around eight more but most required merging existing recipes together to make. The rest of the recipes in the food section were grayed out.

As he wondered what he had to do to unlock them, a question mark at the bottom of each page provided him with a hint.

[Cora:] [Various recipes can be unlocked by learning them from others or attempting specific dishes.]

'That makes sense,' he thought before moving on to the beverages. When he saw that there were only three recipes available, his eyes widened.

Apple Juice: Juice made by squeezing a fresh apple. It's sweet and sour. *  Taste +5 Fullness 5

Lemonade: Juice made by squeezing a fresh lemon. It will make your mouth pucker. *  Taste +6 Fullness 5

Hot Chocolate: A warm glass of hot chocolate with a touch of whipped cream. *  Taste +10 Fullness 10

"That can't be right," he muttered, a frown creasing his face.

His Persona had been working in Peter's tea shop for years and didn't know how to make a cup of tea that couldn't be right. Lixin was going to revisit the food area in case he missed something when he spotted a specialization tab off to the side.

That's when he remembered what he read in the cooking skill's description. Quickly pressing the tab. He was greeted with a notification screen.

[Cora:] [Because there are over ten related recipes, it has become a specialty! All tea-related recipes can now be accessed in Specializations under the Tea tab!]

Intrigued, Lixin exited the notification and clicked on the tab. There were over fifteen recipes unlocked and most of them he had never heard of before.

'Wow, I wonder how many different teas there are,' Lixin wondered. He had a feeling there was probably a lot especially since he would need them for his Herba skill. 'Now that I think about it, do I have the tea recipes I need for the two skills I have?'

Going back to check the two skills, he discovered that he only had one of the four recipes he would need to create tea bags for his skills. He wondered if getting tea recipes was the same as getting food recipes, but he didn't see the small question mark anywhere.

Deciding to worry about it later he decided to move on. Since he knew he didn't have any quests he didn't see the point in checking that out. Instead, he moved his attention to Functions before checking out his profile to fix his stats.

The Game Functions tab was divided into sections. However, instead of being divided into three segments, it was separated into five parts.

These parts were Account Management, Settings, Rankings, The Movies & Music hub, and Camera & Video.

 "Let's see what these are for," Lixin murmured, clicking on the Account Management tab.

Once it opened, he saw that it contained his personal information like his name, address, and POD number. Aside from that, it had his bank information, which, if he read correctly, he could connect to WDapp. From what he learned during his research, the WDApp was an app connected to auction houses in the game world.

Players can buy almost anything under one roof, from items to equipment. They could even trade currency for real money. He even found out that people could sell food there as well.

However, besides rare dishes, not many were sold since the food is perishable and short-lived. Lixin knew that if he wanted to make a name for himself by selling food in the game, the first obstacle would be making his food last longer.

"I've got to take it one step at a time. No one can run before they can crawl," Lixin said to himself, as he connected his bank account to the game's WDApp.

Once he got confirmation, he closed the Account Management section and moved to the Settings tab. It intrigued him that he could change the VR game's settings. 

Shaking his head in mild disbelief, Lixin clicked on the section. As his eyes scanned the list of settings, he only saw the regular ones you'd find on any social media website. These included turning off friend invites, only receiving messages from friends, etc. 

So far they all seem normal. Nothing of interest, or at least not until he came across a word that stood out to him.

'Textures?' Lixin pondered, stopping mid-scroll to check it out. 'Is it possible for me to change the textures of this game?'  

As he clicked on it, he realized he could. Reading the description, Lixin saw that there were two types of texture in the game.

One was called Ultra-realistic, it was the texture he was seeing now that made everything appear so life-like and the other was Semi-realistic.

As Lixin looked around the living room through the transparent screen, he realized he didn't want to play with the ultra-realistic texture. 

Although it looked amazing, he knew that if he had to fight some humanoid monster or antagonistic NPCs, his mind would have trouble differentiating between reality and fiction. 

So after some thought, Lixin switched his texture setting to semi-realistic, and as soon as he did he could see the difference. Although the living room still looked realistic, things became more stylized. 

If he had to compare it to anything, the semi-realistic texture was the hamburger that appears on the TV compared to the one bought from the store. 

It was only a slight adjustment, but it was enough for him to separate reality from virtual reality.

'Yes, I prefer it this way,' Lixin thought, scrolling down to the next setting: the pain level. It captured his attention quickly. 'No wonder my body ached when I arrived.'

Clicking on it, he saw that it was set to 100%. 'Well, that'll be turned down. However, it wouldn't be fun if it was all the way down, so maybe 50%.'

After putting the pain setting to 50%, he moved on to the next one which was Gore. Shaking his head at the setting he finally realized why there was an age limit of 16 for this game.

However, he wasn't a child and didn't mind the gore. After all he had been through, a bit of blood and guts was nothing. After leaving the percent alone, he moved on to the next setting.

Once he browsed through them all, he closed the tab. He still had three other sections to go through in Functions, but after looking at them, he decided against checking out Rankings. It was useless for him now anyway.

Because, one, he had just started and two, he hadn't learned Solar's in-game name yet. He monitored her progress through PLight's website. But he wouldn't get any real information on her until the brand ambassadors were all out of beginner's towns.

When he opened the Movie & Music Hub, there was a huge selection of movies and songs. He thought to himself how handy it would be to use this when he had nothing else to do.

And the last one was Camera & Video. However, as he opened the tab he saw there were many settings. Deciding to mess with it later, he closed everything.

And last but not least he clicked on his character profile. It still looked the same as it did before. The only difference was that his stats had changed.

Name: Fortuitous Fish              Race: Koi

Title: N/A                                  

Level: 2    Exp: 0/200     Skill Points: 5 ←-- (+5 each Lvl)

HP: 110/110      MP: 110/110         SP: 110/110 ←- (+10 each Lvl)

Char: 5      Str: 5             Int: 5        Dex: 5   Mental: 5

Fullness: 85% 

Special: 

Luck: 10 

Coins: 0 Gold 0 Silver 100 Bronze

'Now where should I place my skill points?' Lixin thought about it for a bit trying to decide where they would be most beneficial. A couple of minutes passed before he made his decision.

Name: Fortuitous Fish              Race: Koi

Title: N/A                                  

Level: 2    Exp: 0/200     Skill Points: 0 ←-- (+5 each Lvl)

HP: 110/110      MP: 110/110         SP: 110/110 ←- (+10 each Lvl)

Char: 6      Str: 5             Int: 8        Dex: 5   Mental: 6

Fullness: 84% 

Special: 

Luck: 10 

Coins: 0 Gold 0 Silver 100 Bronze

'This seems right,' he thought, looking at his choice.

Lixin exited the Cora, satisfied with his stats, only to find he had no idea what to do next. He stood up, thinking this was his chance to further explore the place, but he was interrupted by knocking coming from the door.

~

Author says:

MomoCatt: Were you able to take that all in?

Lixin: Most of it, but luckily it will come back up again so I won’t forget.

MomoCatt: True. So when can I try your Milk Bread?

Lixin: You might have to wait a bit. I don’t think I can cook just yet.