Haven Online

The first thing Xinya noticed as he stepped out from the root cellar was the warm breeze on his skin. Compared to the coldness of the cellar, it felt quite pleasant.

Stretching his arms up above his head, Xinya let out a sigh of pleasure, because it had been a good day. They had found so many great discoveries on this damaged farm of his that he couldn't help but feel completely satisfied with his purchase.

Although he still felt a tinge of guilt about stealing this land from the player who would have bought it in his previous life. But as the saying goes, first come first serve. 

"Drifting Cloud, what kind of snack are you going to make for me?" Melting Snow asked as he skipped up the last few steps of the cellar stairs and over to his friend's side. 

Looking over towards his greedy wolf pup, Xinya pondered that himself. Wondering which one of his recipes he should try to make. 

"Something delicious, of course," he stated, going over to the cellar hatch and resealing it before walking back towards the campsite. "But before I can make anything, we should reset our camp." 

"Leave it to me!" Melting Snow exclaimed jogging past Xinya to where the fire pit was. "I will get everything on this end ready; just focus on cooking." 

With a shake of his head, Xinya smiled in bemusement as he watched the boy. If Melting Snow was this big of a glutton now, he could only imagine how he will be after the update.

'I need to upgrade my farm before then, so I will be able to plant more things,' Xinya mused while glancing up at the darkening sky.

Checking the time, he realized that they were down there for longer than he thought. But it did work out in his favor since after he cooks the snack for Melting Snow, they could head into town when the sun rises.

~

"Can I help you with anything?" Melting Snow asked while running over to where Xinya was standing. He had just finished setting up the camp and saw that the green-haired man had transformed his cupcake wagon into a makeshift kitchen again.

"You sure can," smiled Xinya, waving for the boy to come closer to him. "I'm always in need of a good assistant chef."

"Well, that's me! So what do you need me to do?" Questioned Melting Snow as he looked down at all the ingredients laid out on the counter in wonder.

"Before doing anything, I need to double-check to see if I have all the ingredients I will need," Xinya replied while clicking on the recipe icon in his interface.

After a couple of seconds of scrolling through his recipe list, he finally found what he was looking for.

Sweet Orange Butter Cream Bun: This is an orange-peel flavored bread dough filled with delicious melted buttercream. It has a butter base that is well balanced by the refreshing orange zest. This small sweet bun is excellent to eat on cold days with a cup of black tea. *+70 Sta +10 Hp 

Ingredients Needed: 180g bread flour, 20g top flour, 25g fine sugar, 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast ...

Xinya made sure he had everything he needed laying out in front of him before turning his attention back to the boy.

"Alright, Melting Snow, this is what I need you to do," Xinya said as he handed the furry-eared boy some measuring tools. "I'm going to need you to measure each of the items exactly as I say. Can you do it?"

"You can count on me! There is one thing I don't mess around with, and that is food." Melting Snow replied seriously.

It took a couple of minutes to measure all of the ingredients since there were many of them, but working together, the two of them got it done faster than Xinya ever could have alone.

"There you go, everything is measured perfectly," Melting Snow stated proudly. "Is there anything else I can help with?"

"No, I can take it from here, But thank you for all your help," Xinya replied, giving the boy a gentle pat on the head. 

Giving the green-haired man a beaming smile, Melting Snow said, "It was no problem at all. If you need me for anything else, I will be by the fire catching up on the latest gossip in the forums."

"Alright, have fun. I will call you when the buns are done," Xinya chuckled as he watched the boy skip over to one of the chairs by the fire pit.

~

Since this was only his second time making this dessert, Xinya decided to turn Assist mode on that was located in his recipe list. Assist mode was handy because it would read the recipe out to him so that he doesn't have to keep looking at the instructions while cooking.

He really wished he knew about the recipe menu before. It would have helped him a lot when he was making that giant cake. 'Oh well, you live, and you learn.'

While listening to the mechanical voice of the system, he began to cook.

The first thing Xinya did was collect the fresh orange peels that he had Melting Snow prepare and started to cut them into thin strips. Once they were finely chopped, he put them to the side in a bowl.

Opening the small pink fridge that was nearby, Xinya grabbed a bottle of cold fresh milk. Pouring the liquid into his handy rice cooker, he pressed the 'Keep warm' function, knowing that it would take up to 6 minutes before the milk would become condensed.

Once six minutes had passed, he removed the milk from the cooker and put it in another bowl. 

After checking the milk with a cooking thermometer, to make sure that it did not exceed 38 degrees Celsius. He sprinkled some dry yeast over the surface of the milk mixture. 

Covering the bowl with a lid, Xinya put it off to the side, letting it stand for about 10 minutes. Switching on some music, he listened to it while he waited.

When the 10 minutes had gone by, he grabbed a large bowl and started to mix the other ingredients together, while slowly pouring in the milk mixture. 

He stirred the dough in one direction until it started to form into a lump. While waiting for the batter to rise, he continued to pick out songs for his fishing playlist.

After 15 minutes had gone by, he transferred the dough to the floured worktop he prepared and began kneading the mixture until it became smooth.

Rolling out the dough, Xinya added the softened butter to it. And once again begin to knead so that he could incorporate the butter fully into the dough.

When that was complete, he placed the dough in a greased mixing bowl and set it to the side so he could prepare the filling.

In a new bowl, he began to cream some softened butter with a hand whisk until it looked a very light yellow. He added in some fine sugar and salt and whisked it until it was light and fluffy.

Once it was fluffy enough, he added in a beaten egg and blended it well. When the egg was incorporated, he proceeded to add in some corn starch and mixed that in as well. 

When it was thoroughly mixed, he transferred the filling into a piping bag. Then using a metal tray, he made two long horizontal cylinder shapes. 

Because he needed the buttercream to harden, he stored them in his kitchen flash freezer for a minute. 

After they had hardened, he divided the buttercream into 10 equal portions and put them to the side.

Picking up the bowl, he left the dough in, he took it out and placed it onto the floured tabletop. Rolling it out, he divided it into 10 equal portions as well.

Once they were divided, he rolled out each of the portions and placed the hardened buttermilk in the middle of the dough. 

Sealing the dough tightly, so the buttercream was no longer able to be seen, Xinya began to shape the raw dough within his palm.

When all ten of the doughs were shaped, he placed them in paper liners and put them on a tin tray.

He had already preheated the oven, so after brushing a coat of egg wash over the dough's surface, he stuck them straight in the oven.

After setting his timer for 20 minutes, Xinya once again began to search for songs while he waited. 'Hopefully, these buns will taste as good as they did when I first made them.'

~

AN: I hope you are hungry!