Chapter 86: The Daughter Who Didn’t Dare Sleep Alone

Some little tricks didn’t work, and it left Liu Heming feeling down. When he went to the Restaurant to work in the evening, even though sales were good, he couldn’t feel happy.

He saw that the task’s time limit was already half over. Now the System had revealed its “true nature,” and the difficulty of completing this task was greatly increased.

Fried eggs should count as frying. Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet probably belongs to the stir-fry category. Even if he made Candied Sweet Potato or Candied Ginkgo, it still wouldn’t count as one dish. Braised Potato and braised eggs—this blocked the braising method too. No matter what he braised for his daughter, the task wouldn’t be completed.

After returning home, he racked his brains, thinking hard about what to cook for his daughter. Surprisingly, he came up with two dishes.

People tend to have habitual thinking. He wasn’t a trained Chef, so most of the dishes he could make were ones he had seen his mother cook at home or ones he had tried before.

Tossing and turning in bed, he thought of two dishes: one was Jar-Braised Pork, and the other was Cabbage Rolls. These two dishes were made using two different methods—one by braising and the other by steaming—so they should belong to two different categories.

This was a small experiment. If it worked, then the last dish would be easier to figure out. If it didn’t, things would become really difficult. He wouldn’t need to worry about the Restaurant’s business anymore; he would just have to focus on how to cook.

He had a broad mind. After making up his mind, he turned over and fell asleep quickly. What he didn’t know was that the System was also troubled.

It had discovered some of its own problems. You could say these problems were like small bugs in software operation. For example, the task descriptions weren’t very detailed, and task assignments weren’t very timely. Most of the time, tasks were triggered by Liu Heming.

But there was nothing it could do. The entire Database was destroyed, and it was severely damaged itself. It was now operating while damaged, so how could it come up with a perfect training plan?

It could boast to Liu Heming about how amazing it was, but that was for a complete System. In its current state, it really wasn’t up to the task.

Just because it was the System didn’t mean it could randomly assign tasks and rewards to Liu Heming. It had to evaluate the existing objective factors comprehensively and then adjust the task details and rewards.

Now, with little Alex unexpectedly joining in, it made the already confused System even more chaotic. It didn’t even know if a normal System should provide task progress hints after assigning a task. But when it saw Liu Heming happily focusing on making money and forgetting about the tasks, it had no choice but to develop this task progress plugin.

This wasn’t developed for free. In the future, there would be further adjustments in task assignments and rewards, which would greatly increase its workload.

Moreover, as a System, there was a specific requirement: you couldn’t endlessly shower the host with benefits. Otherwise, you could just give a simple task and unlimited rewards. The purpose of the System was to be an auxiliary facility—this was the experience summarized by countless predecessors over the years.

Only by nurturing the host step by step could they truly succeed. Otherwise, you would either drive the host crazy or cause their personality to change—either way, it wouldn’t end well.

Liu Heming thought he had only forgotten about the task related to his daughter, but there was another important thing he had also forgotten: the Appraisal Skill from the first Lucky Grand Draw, which could identify the grade and additional attributes of food. Creating magical food was the true purpose of the Cooking System.

But as the System, it hadn’t forgotten. However, bound by the rules, if Liu Heming didn’t bring it up, it couldn’t give clear hints.

This was a small bug of its own. Because the Lucky Grand Draw that time had awarded the Finger Sweet Potato, its description wasn’t very detailed, and it only referred to food. But the Appraisal Skill wasn’t limited to food—it included all items.

This was its mistake. Now, Liu Heming had forgotten, and it had lost the chance to correct this error.

It was an incomplete System. While nurturing Liu Heming, it also needed to grow gradually. How could it fix this mistake? From the information it had gathered, the best method was to upgrade.

On this planet Earth, many games worked this way: if there was a mistake, just upgrade and it would be fixed. So, it should imitate this method and correct its errors through upgrades. Whenever it found a mistake, it would upgrade once—after all, Liu Heming wouldn’t know what was going on.

The opportunity was this “Task of Pampering the Daughter.” Whether Liu Heming succeeded or failed, it would have to “upgrade” afterward.

Liu Heming, sleeping soundly, had no idea about all this. No matter how imaginative he was, he couldn’t have guessed that the System had so many bugs.

Just as he had fallen asleep, he felt a small body snuggling into his arms. At first, he thought it was the Bear Cubs, but then he realized that wasn’t right. Struggling to open his eyes, he saw his precious daughter lying beside him, holding her doll.

“You little one, why aren’t you sleeping in your own bed?” Liu Heming asked as he covered his daughter with the Blanket.

“Dad, I’m scared. I couldn’t sleep,” the little girl said coquettishly.

“Alright, alright. Then you’ll sleep with Dad today. With Dad here, I can chase away all the big bad guys,” Liu Heming quickly agreed.

When his daughter said she was scared, she really seemed a bit frightened. She wasn’t usually like this when she slept alone.

Liu Heming had been very tired lately. After comforting his daughter, he gently patted her, hoping she would fall asleep. But before Alex could sleep, he fell asleep first.

Alex, who had her eyes closed, opened them again and cautiously looked around the room. She frowned slightly, then snuggled deeper into Liu Heming’s arms.

That wasn’t all. She also waved to the Bear Kids who had come over with her, signaling them to sleep under the bed on her side.

After the Bear Kids came over and nuzzled her little hand, the little girl finally smiled slightly, closed her eyes, and fell into a deep sleep while holding her doll.