Max Level Chef (Slice-of-life-ish OPMC in a video game world) [No AI Usage]

When I learned that the world-famous video game Transcendent Legends was shutting down, I didn't think that much of it.  I'd played it for most of its twenty-five-year life, but recently it had become a chore.  So when I logged into the game one last time, all I wanted to do was give my character Quietude a proper send-off.I wasn't expecting to wake up in the game - in his body, five hundred years later.Now I have to figure out how Quietude's stats and Skills work in this world, avoid telling anyone that I'm from a world that thought this world was a video game, and try to make enough money to get by.But hey, I'm one of only seventeen characters to have ever reached the maximum level of one thousand.  It shouldn't be that hard, right? --- Cover art by amaimanis_ on VGen. What to expect: - 3000-4000 word chapters twice a week (Thursdays/Sundays).- Lots and lots of cooking (and the odd bit of miscellaneous crafting).  Minor disclaimer; I am neither a chef nor a scientist and most of the recipes here are powered by things I found on the internet.  If any of them don't make sense, blame the magic video game world.- OPMC in a video game world - a world that he knows a lot about.- A good-natured MC who tries to help people he encounters without revealing his true strength.- Clever combinations of abilities.- Slow-paced slice of life; while there are more major events that the MC gets involved in that bubble along, once they come to a head they will usually be resolved within a chapter or two.- Progression, in the form of the MC gathering equipment and the secondary main characters (in book 2 onwards) gaining levels in a more traditional progression sense.- No AI anything. What not to expect: - Any sex scenes.  Characters may have relationships, but anything NSFW will be off screen.- The MC being a loner.  From partway through book 2 onwards he starts travelling with specific people long-term, but even in book 1 he usually has a few people travelling with him. Current writing status: Books 1, 2 and 3 complete.