Low murmurs rose from the crowd.
"Who is that?"
"Alice's contracted freelance Gourmet Hunter?"
"Never seen him before—he doesn't seem to have shown up in the past."
The students of the Moon Institute might not be clear about Alice's identity, but everyone present here was well aware. Anyone qualified to be here was already among the higher echelons of Gourmet Paradise. At the very least, they were part of the core elite. But none of them had any information on Ron. He had never appeared in Gourmet Paradise before—this was his first time.
"Did Senior Linne have them participate in the Councilor Candidate Selection Tournament too?"
"Isn't that a bit early? Alice is still so young."
"Her contracted freelance Gourmet Hunter doesn't look much older either. How much strength could the two of them possibly have?"
Just then, a middle-aged woman pushed a wheelchair to the front of the group. Seated in the wheelchair was none other than Linne.
"Lady Linne!"
All eyes turned toward Linne as the crowd bowed in respect. As the Speaker of the Gourmet Paradise Council, Linne's position here was extremely high—comparable to a monarch in a sovereign kingdom.
Linne gave a slight nod.
"I believe everyone already understands the situation, so I won't repeat it. For certain reasons, the number of councilors has been drastically reduced. At present, there are three vacant seats."
"The purpose of this Councilor Candidate Selection Tournament is to choose three suitable candidates. After passing a probationary evaluation, they will become official councilors."
A councilor's position carried enormous weight within Gourmet Paradise. The entire Gourmet Paradise was governed by the Council, with Linne as the Speaker and nine councillors beneath her.
Upon hearing this, Ron's brows lifted slightly. Back during the incident with the Fallen One, Ron had already suspected that something within Gourmet Paradise had gone awry. Linne hadn't gone into detail at the time, but now Ron realized—three councillors had likely been involved. Barring any surprises, they had probably already been dealt with by Linne.
No matter how gentle Linne might appear, she was still a powerful Nen user—an adventurer who had ventured to the Dark Continent, a true licensed Hunter, and the ruler of Gourmet Paradise. When the time came to act, she would never show unnecessary mercy.
"Three councilors were purged, yet Gourmet Paradise remains stable, with almost no visible change. That alone is proof of Senior Linne's strength and capability."
Linne gave a gesture. The middle-aged woman stepped forward and placed a tray in front of everyone, on which thirty metallic rods were arranged—exactly matching the number of participating teams in the tournament.
"This Councilor Candidate Tournament will take place in Gourmet Secret Realm No. 4. In a moment, you will be sent directly there. If anything happens during the process—if you need to withdraw, or if you've already acquired the ingredients you sought—you can use the metal rod to return to Gourmet Paradise."
"After that, you will prepare your dishes. I will personally score each team's dish. The three highest-scoring teams will automatically become councilor candidates."
"This time, the requirement is to produce three different dishes. Let it begin."
The middle-aged woman distributed the rods to the teams.
"Ron, you take it." Alice said.
Not only in Ron and Alice's team—every team had their freelance Gourmet Hunter carry the rod. The reason was simple. While chefs were also Nen users and had decent strength, they couldn't compare to freelance Gourmet Hunters. Hunters were purely combat-focused, whereas a chef's Nen ability leaned more toward auxiliary or tool-based use. Alice's abilities, for example, were almost entirely service-oriented, centered on cooking. That said, Alice still possessed strong combat ability—her knife skills, when she wielded a chef's knife, were fierce and powerful, similar to Menchi.
When faced with danger, a Gourmet Hunter's judgment and reflexes were far sharper. Once all the rods were distributed, the middle-aged woman lifted the tray in her hands.
In the next moment, a beam of light burst out from the tray and enveloped Ron and the others. Ron immediately felt something pulling at his body. Alice instinctively grasped his hand. Ron didn't pull away—he tightened his grip.
Boom!
Ron quickly stabilized his footing, landing with both feet on the ground, still holding Alice's hand. The two of them had already left Gourmet Paradise and arrived at a completely different place.
Gourmet Secret Realm No. 4.
The process reminded Ron of the game Greed Island. In that game, players were physically transported to the island using Nen. Greed Island was a real place—player's bodies were teleported to it. Ron suspected this Gourmet Secret Realm worked in a similar fashion. On Greed Island, many of the cards had remarkable abilities—it was unlikely only Ging Freecss's team had those. Other Nen users surely possessed similar abilities.
Ron glanced at the metal rod in his hand, then slipped it into his pocket. Alice looked around. The area was a dense forest, emanating a raw, primal atmosphere, with subtle but ever-present traces of danger.
"Alice, do you know much about the Gourmet Secret Realm?" Ron asked.
Alice nodded.
"The Gourmet Secret Realm is a resource bank for Gourmet Paradise. It contains many rare ingredients—some naturally occurring, others artificially cultivated."
"No. 4 is the most complex of all the realms. But it's also the most resource-rich."
Alice's voice carried clear excitement.
"I've wanted to come here for a long time, but Grandma never allowed it. Now I finally get my wish—this is amazing."
Ron asked,
"Alice, what's the highest capture level of an ingredient here?"
"There's something called the Barkslong—its capture level is twelve." Alice paused and added,
"Capture level is based on how difficult it is to obtain an ingredient. Except for a few that depend on luck, most rely purely on strength."
"If we convert that to a Nen-user scale:
Levels one to three correspond to D-rank,
Three to six to C-rank,
Six to nine to B-rank,
Nine to twelve to A-rank."
"Barkslong... it's very difficult to capture."
Alice's expression turned serious.
"Ron, I don't think we should try for something that hard. The risk is too great. If we slip up, we might not make it out alive."