"So the gap between Special-Grade cuisine and Nine-Star cuisine lies in a qualitative change caused by a quantitative change."
Inside the Mental Time Chamber, after tasting the Forgiveness Set he had remade, Mo Bai had a realization in his heart.
If the Gourmet Illusion of Nine-Star cuisine is an immersive story, then Special-Grade cuisine is a soul-stirring epic.
The effect of the Culinary Heart can even feed back from the diner's heart to their body.
Only by truly crossing a realm can one understand the path ahead with incomparable clarity. This is completely different from the feelings brought about by listening to others' descriptions.
"However, how should I merge the appetizer, soup, side dish, main course, and dessert—five dishes—into a single dish?" Because of the versatility and compatibility of the Culinary Heart: [Propriety], combined with Intuition and Purification (Advanced), Mo Bai, who had inadvertently crossed that line, understood very clearly how to walk his path forward.
"As expected, do I still need to accumulate a foundation?"
There is no distinction of nobility in cooking, but it is an indisputable fact that ingredients determine the lower limit of a dish.
Just as Dōjima Gin said, the deeper one delves into the culinary world, the more one can perceive the vast boundlessness of the culinary world. To turn ordinary ingredients into Special-Grade cuisine, further processing of the ingredients seemed essential to Mo Bai now.
His Intuition (Beginner) was currently only applicable to the handling of ingredients; perhaps only at the intermediate level could it involve the realm of reprocessing dishes.
"Little Bai, at my current rate of stacking Intuition experience by processing Dream Ingredients, how long will it take to complete the upgrade?"
"Make a guess?"
"Two years?" Mo Bai gave a timeframe he could accept.
"Hehe, do you remember Nakiri Erina whom you just met at noon?"
"Mn."
"She is currently in the third year of Tōtsuki Junior High Department, fifteen years old."
"Her body is that good at fifteen?!" Thinking of the model-like figure of Nakiri Erina he saw today, Mo Bai was greatly shocked.
Three caught-off-guard exclamation marks popped out from Little Bai's shiny blade body; this wasn't the bus to kindergarten!
"How can you be so..."
"Eee—"
After a disgusted onomatopoeia, Little Bai, adhering to the system's habit of speaking with facts, subconsciously compared her to Mo Bai's disciple, that second-year junior high washboard loli, Gokou Ruri.
Alright, Nakiri Erina's development at this age was indeed unscientific.
"Ah, wait! Why the hell am I comparing this?!" Little Bai was startled to realize that its own innocent and cute self had been led into a ditch by Mo Bai. "Can you not derail the topic!"
"Cough cough, I was just speaking from my feelings. Go on, go on." Mo Bai felt awkward for a moment.
"She is fifteen this year, and you know her childhood experiences."
"After that kind of harsh training and the subsequent nurturing by the Nakiri family, her God's Tongue is still only at the Beginner level. While deformed ability development is certainly one of the many reasons, despite the harsh childhood training, the financial nurturing of the Nakiri family, and having a Qilin-level grandfather by her side—under so many propelling forces, she hasn't been able to upgrade in fifteen years."
"You understand now, right?"
"Okay, I understand." Mo Bai pursed his lips, crossed his arms, and propped up his chin with his fist, revealing a thoughtful expression. "It seems upgrading talents in a short time is unrealistic."
Points or whatever didn't exist anyway.
"Sigh! Although I don't want to be a bad person, it seems the fastest way to accumulate a foundation now is to search for recipes and gain inspiration from various recipes." Mo Bai scratched the back of his head and smacked his lips.
Beep beep beep—beep beep beep—
The alarm clock inside the Mental Time Chamber rang.
The electronic alarm clock clearly displayed the current time: 21:00.
"It's already this time." Mo Bai exited the Mental Time Chamber, leapt up from the bed, left the small courtyard, and walked towards the main Hua nation theme restaurant.
At the same time, three pairs of bright eyes stared tightly at Mo Bai's departing back.
"Going out this late, there must be something fishy." Miyamoto Yayako leapt out of the room window. "It's definitely related to that phone call."
Yukikawa Yukie pushed open the door, her expression incomparably excited like a young girl blinded by love at this age. "A private rendezvous at night or something, that's too romantic."
"..." Feeling the gossip light shining in the eyes of Miyamoto Yayako and Yukikawa Yukie, Luo Ziyan, staring with wide eyes, had her head covered in black lines.
She was really just doing her best to maintain her responsibility as a bodyguard.
"Little Luo Luo, hurry up and follow-duck!" Yukikawa Yukie stood at the door, waving frantically at the distracted Luo Ziyan.
"...Coming."
To repeat it once more, she was really just maintaining her responsibility as a bodyguard. There was a world of difference between her and these two unreliable fellows.
"Interesting."
After the three left, the window of Bai Zishu's room was also opened from the inside. With such a big commotion happening in the courtyard, it couldn't be hidden from her at all.
Bai Zishu sat on the windowsill, her long, beautiful legs dangling idly. Her bewitching peach-blossom eyes were filled with interest, and then, with a push of both hands, her entire person floated out of the small courtyard.
"Maybe this is youth." Zhang Yu, who had heard Mo Bai's unhidden footsteps followed by the movements of the various parties, stood by the window and shook his head before lying back down on the bed.
Under the night color, a peculiar scene unfolded with the three parties lined up like grasshoppers on a string, maintaining their distance.
"Chef Mo Bai, do you wish to use the Branch Hall?" The patrol security guard of the Hua nation cuisine theme restaurant actively greeted Mo Bai.
"Mn, help me register it."
"Okay."
Having completed the clock-in work, Mo Bai was the first to enter the Hua nation theme restaurant.
"Let's go." Seeing that Mo Bai had already entered the Hua nation style building, Luo Ziyan beckoned the two to follow, but unexpectedly, just as she stepped out of the green belt, she was dragged back by the two behind her.
"...What are you doing?"
"Shh!" Yukikawa Yukie held her index finger vertically in front of her mouth, signaling Luo Ziyan to lower her volume.
"We are stalking. If Highness Mo Bai finds out, it won't be good." Miyamoto Yayako stuck her head out from behind the green belt to observe the security guard's situation and whispered.
Seeing the two who were completely immersed in the atmosphere and enjoying themselves tirelessly, totally forgetting their own identities, Luo Ziyan felt that her state of mind, usually calm as an ancient well, was being affected.
These two... were they really a miko and an IGO Investigator? Or did they add points to everything but intelligence?
"So what?" Luo Ziyan calmed the ridicule rising in her heart and spoke.
"As stalkers, naturally we have to infiltrate-da." Yukikawa Yukie gave a thumbs up with a solemn expression.
"..."
Luo Ziyan, with a crow flying over her head, squatted down and picked up a stone from the green belt.
Whoosh~
The small pebble cut through the air, and the security guard fell in response to the sound.
"Let's go." Luo Ziyan glanced at the two dumbfounded people and walked out of the green belt.
"Is... is this the Hua nation style of infiltration?" The two stared blankly at Luo Ziyan's back. Only when the latter entered the building did the two wake up as if from a dream and hurriedly followed.
"Why did I trip?" A while later, the security guard climbed up from the ground, unable to make heads or tails of it.
Suddenly, the sound of a strong wind came from beside his ear.
The security guard turned hurriedly, but his flashlight swept over a patch of pale clothing hem.
"Gulp, what was that thing just now?" Under the silent night color, the security guard, maintaining a stiff posture of getting up, felt a little cold.
The waiters who were still doing cleanup work inside the building all shivered in unison at this moment.
________________________________________
Get rewarded for helping with our community goals!
🎯 Reward for all: +1 bonus chapter at 50 Powerstones.
🚀 Tier Reward: Help us reach 20 members for +5 chapters on all stories!
👻 Join the crew by searching Ms. Medusa on (P). You know the spot! 😉