Chapter 172: Biotope 0
SCREE—
The Cryophoenix soared through the skies of the Gourmet World, letting out a clear and melodious cry. Wherever it passed, a heavy snow would fall from the heavens. Having reached the level of an Eight King, the Cryophoenix could now influence the weather with even greater ease. With a body length of nearly five thousand meters, it was even larger than the Bird King, one of the Eight Kings, blotting out the sun as it flew, though it did not possess the Bird King's "Crow King's Shadow" technique.
The Gourmet World's Third Area, also known as the Cloud Area, was a region covered by a vast expanse of white clouds. After the drink, ATOM, erupted, it would flow over the cloud layer, creating a most peculiar landscape.
"IGO's Biotope 0. I've never been here before."
Biotope 0 was located atop a giant Cloud Tree, a special, super-giant plant that could grow to tens of thousands of meters. It appeared to be made of light, fluffy clouds, but the weight it could bear was astonishing.
"Little brother Kenji! I didn't expect you to come to Biotope 0! This is the first time we've met, eh?" Yosaku was at Biotope 0 and greeted him enthusiastically. Unlike in the manga, the Gourmet Corp. had not gone to war with the IGO this time, so the staff had not been sneak-attacked and taken offline.
"The Saiseiya Yosaku. Teppei has mentioned you," Kenji said with a nod and a smile. He was a wild and unrestrained man who loved to break boring rules. Zebra's prison meal set had been provided by Yosaku.
"The Cryophoenix... is this your partner, little brother Kenji?" Yosaku asked in surprise, looking at the divine and majestic Icy. He was one of the few who knew of this creature. As a Saiseiya, his job was to regenerate all kinds of ingredients and creatures; he was certainly aware of many endangered and even legendary beings.
"She's Atashino's partner. My partner is a Battle Wolf," Kenji said.
"Atashino, huh? I haven't seen her in a long time. What's she up to now?"
"She's in the Sixth Area right now, cooking Another."
Yosaku took a drag from two cigars at once, puffing out a cloud of smoke. "When you put it like that, it makes us other staff of Biotope 0 seem pretty useless, doesn't it?"
Kenji didn't know what to say to that. The staff of IGO's Biotope 0 were supposed to be on par with the executives of the Gourmet Corp., not necessarily for cooking Acacia's Full Course. Ichiryu also knew very well that the threshold for cooking Acacia's menu was not just high. Besides a promising chef like Atashino and specialists like Yosaku and Melk who were in charge of regenerating ingredients and grinding knives, many of the staff were just there to fill the numbers.
"This thing we're standing on... it must be the Cloud Mud, right?" Kenji asked, stomping on the soft white cloud beneath his feet.
"That's right. This is our main way of getting up the Cloud Tree," Yosaku said. Unless you could fly, it wasn't easy to get to the biotope at the top of the tree.
The Cloud Mud was a special creature with the properties of a cloud that could carry people into the sky.
Plop—
Round chocolate balls began to fall, followed by marshmallows, gummies, milk candies, jewel candies, and so on.
"Delicious. There are even clouds above the clouds. The Gourmet World is truly magical," Kenji said, eating a honeydew-flavored marshmallow. The sweet taste sent his dopamine levels soaring.
"It's quite common. Sometimes it rains dumplings, sometimes noodles, sometimes tangyuan... they're all very magical sights," Yosaku said.
Kenji broke into a cold sweat. He had never seen it rain dumplings. Dumplings falling from the sky... that was certainly a peculiar sight.
"Have you seen Coco and the others?"
Yosaku shook his head. "The location of the drink, ATOM, is some distance from here. They haven't been here."
"SCREE!"
The Cryophoenix let out a cry. Kenji and Yosaku looked over. A giant black bird, about two thousand meters long, had appeared.
"A Black King Crow. The second-in-command of the Emperor Crows, second only to the Bird King. Its Capture Level is over 5000," Yosaku explained.
CRACKLE—
To appear so brazenly in its field of vision... Icy took it as a direct provocation. It unleashed a breath of extreme cold. The cloud layer instantly turned into an ice field, and the freezing temperature caused a heavy snow to fall from the heavens.
The Black King Crow flapped its wings, making a right-angle turn to dodge the breath. It had sensed a fatal threat from it. If it had been hit, it would have died. It gave Icy a wary look, then turned and fled.
The situation is tense, let's scram!
Probably only its own Bird King could deal with this thing.
"Amazing," Yosaku praised. The frozen cloud layer was rapidly descending, but it wouldn't be long before the gap was refilled and restored.
"Do you think it's going to go call its parents?" Kenji asked with a laugh.
Black King Crow: Boss! A bird is bullying me!
Bird King: Who?! Who dares to bully my little brother?! Let me at them—
Black King Crow: A big, all-blue bird, even bigger than you, boss.
Bird King: On second thought, it was definitely you who was stirring up trouble.
Bird King's inner thought: An Eight-King-level Cryophoenix? How am I supposed to fight that? You're trying to trick me into getting killed so you can replace me as the boss, aren't you?
"I don't think it would go that far," Yosaku said, though he wasn't sure about these kinds of beasts.
"Come on in and have a seat. Welcome to Biotope 0."
[Ghost of the Uchiha]: "I've resurrected Hashirama with Edo Tensei, but that blockhead doesn't approve of me. Does anyone have any good ideas?"
Madara had a massive headache. Hashirama actually didn't understand his desire to unify the ninja world. His heart ached. For the past few years, he had been trying to sort out the mess in Konoha. It was truly rotten to the core. He wasn't good at handling this kind of thing and could only take it slow.
[Gudako]: "Forcefully kiss him. Make him shy."
[Galactic Baseballer]: "Propose to Hashirama directly."
Two abstract suggestions were offered, encouraging Madara to love bravely.
[Ghost of the Uchiha]: "..."
[Ghost of the Uchiha]: "Susanoo warning."
These two abstract creatures... Madara was helpless against them.
[Little Monster]: "A man... and a man... kissing? Proposing?"
The innocent Erii didn't understand, but she was inexplicably and greatly shocked. Forbidden Knowledge was being revealed to her in a very special way, entering her brain.
[Star Forger]: "You two abstract beings, be normal."
[Star Forger]: "When you've unified the ninja world, you can just slap him in the face with reality."
[Ghost of the Uchiha]: "That makes sense."
[Ghost of the Uchiha]: "When the time comes, I'll resurrect the innately evil Tobirama and make him go scoop out the great cesspools."
[The Destroyer]: "Why don't you just feed him crap directly?"
[Ghost of the Uchiha]: "That is indeed a good idea."
Anything that could torment Tobirama, Madara would gladly agree to.
[Crash-Test Pilot]: "Today's chat group really has a certain... flavor to it. I'm out, I'm out."
[Lady Justice]: "Ew, that sounds disgusting."
[Stank]: "Tsukasa, are you feeling alright?"
[The Destroyer]: "Shut up, Stank! Believe it or not, I'll Rider Kick you into oblivion!"
[Stank]: "My Mirror Dimension is not to be trifled with either."
[Miss Pink Elf♪]: "Don't fight, you can't kill each other anyway ♪."
[Stank]: "..."
[The Destroyer]: "..."
The two of them were speechless. It was just trash talk. Group members couldn't harm each other.
Ellie, you really know how to break up a fight.
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