Compared to the 100 basic attribute points, the secondary profession of culinary arts interested David Carter even more. The Zhou family had a long tradition of culinary skills. Back when the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing and the Empress Dowager fled west, his great-grandfather was said to have even taken over the imperial kitchen; by his grandfather’s generation, although he no longer worked as a chef, he was a renowned gourmet in Beijing. His father and himself were both first-class foodies; his second sister, after learning a mishmash of cooking skills, went abroad to open a restaurant and still managed to fool the French—one after another, they’d give a thumbs up and exclaim, “Good, China!”

With such a background, William Carter didn’t hesitate to choose culinary arts. The system prompted again: “Secondary profession: Culinary Arts, a total of nine levels, with two upgrade modes to choose from. One: Step-by-step upgrade mode. The first level requires 2 points in Constitution and 2 points in Comprehension; each subsequent level requires more points. The advantage is that with low basic attribute points, you can quickly master this secondary profession, and after upgrading, your basic attribute points remain unchanged and can continue to accumulate. The disadvantage is that it consumes a lot of attribute points. For example, to reach level nine, the consummate God of Cooking, you need to accumulate a total of 100 points in Constitution and 100 points in Comprehension!”

“A single secondary profession requires so many basic attribute points?”

William Carter frowned.

“Two: Bundle upgrade mode. Instantly upgrade culinary skills to the maximum level, consummate, by consuming 100 basic attribute points at once. This upgrade mode will completely consume your basic attribute points. If you do not have an extra point pack, please upgrade with caution, as this will permanently lower your character’s basic attributes…”

Fortunately, the system provided a second upgrade method. William Carter understood that although this method consumed fewer basic attribute points and could instantly max out the secondary profession, it had a major drawback: if he didn’t have the 100-point pack from the newbie gift box and used this method rashly, his character’s basic attributes would be permanently and irreversibly reduced.

However, this system was quite considerate. When triggering the secondary profession, it also gifted 100 attribute points, just like in many games, where the early stages are intentionally designed to benefit the player.

If it were someone else, they might wait to trigger another secondary profession before considering using the point pack—after all, not everyone is interested in culinary arts. But for a foodie like William Carter, there was no need to hesitate. Not to mention anything else, just for the sake of his great-grandfather, this secondary profession was the first choice.

After choosing to max out the secondary profession in one go, since David Carter didn’t have enough basic attribute points, the system automatically used the 100 points from the inventory. As a flash of colorful light passed before his eyes, the “Culinary Arts” entry in the secondary profession section of the character attribute screen appeared in red.

Culinary Arts: Level 9, Consummate God of Cooking. Knife Skills Level 9, Fire Control Level 9, Ingredient Identification Level 9, Ingredient Purification Level 9…

Each item had a detailed description. For example, under Knife Skills, it already included both red and white case knife techniques and carving skills; under Fire Control, it included all kinds of techniques such as frying, stir-frying, roasting, steaming, boiling, etc.; Ingredient Identification was a must-have skill for chefs, but William Carter’s was even more refined. If you gave him a duck now, he could tell where the duck’s ancestors came from, where it lived, its actual residence, its exact age down to years, months, and days, its level of activity, whether it was in heat, whether it was a virgin or not, whether it had any hidden illnesses, whether it had a mistress, and so on… That’s what you call thorough!

The last skill, Ingredient Purification, was a heaven-defying ability. With this skill, William Carter could transform inferior ingredients into top-quality ones. For example, a farmed fish fed with contraceptives could be turned into a grade-one wild fish after William Carter used this skill; or genetically modified soybeans could be transformed into pure, organic, healthy soybeans. With this godly skill, even if all you had was a pile of rotten fish and meat, you could still make a state banquet!

However, such a heaven-defying skill came at a steep price. Using this skill, every pound of ingredient processed would consume 0.3 upgrade potential points, and according to the secondary profession’s settings, William Carter would only earn 0.1 upgrade potential points for painstakingly making a dish—not only would he not profit, he’d actually lose out.

So, before obtaining a 5A-level living environment to fundamentally increase the rate of gaining upgrade potential points, it was best to use this skill sparingly. Moreover, although ingredients purified with this skill could restore the color, aroma, and taste of top-quality ingredients and eliminate harmful substances, they couldn’t truly restore the nutritional content of the ingredients, so it was still not as good as buying genuine top-quality ingredients.

“Delicious, really delicious, so satisfying! Huh? Third Son, why did you stop after just one piece? Are you being selfless like Lei Feng and leaving the rest of this delicious dish for your big brother?”

Grace Bennett had almost finished the entire plate of fragrant marinated pork before noticing that William Carter was lost in thought…

Chapter 7 [Jack Collins]

“You wish. I’m just a bit shocked…”

After exiting the system, William Carter half-pretended as he picked up a piece of marinated pork and stuffed it into his mouth: “I didn’t expect that in a small place like Old Place, there would actually be a special-grade chef. I wonder how much Old Place paid to hire them.”

“It can’t be that exaggerated, right?” Grace Bennett shook his head. “This plate of marinated pork is delicious, but are you sure it’s the work of a special-grade chef?”