"And..."
"If you participate, we can better identify the level of these students."
"If it's far worse than what you are now, then there's no need to choose them."
Nakiri Alice said this while looking at the students who were entering the Autumn Election venue one after another.
Yes, she came back this time not only to join in the fun but also because she had a task given by Takumi: to expand the number of chefs again.
This was mainly because Dimension City would start a new round of expansion after winter.
When the outer city is built, a group of new immigrants will also be recruited, and the number will not be small.
Considering that among these new people, there may be very few who can cook, the canteen should naturally prepare in advance while there is still time, so as not to be in a rush later.
Takumi handed this task to Nakiri Alice. After all, she had done it once before, so she had the experience. Coupled with the home-field advantage of the Nakiri family, she was the most suitable person to handle it.
And this time, Takumi also gave Nakiri Alice greater authority, almost giving her full responsibility, allowing her to choose newcomers freely.
The reason was that the number of people needed for the expansion was a bit too large. Nakiri Alice was worried that the resources of the Nakiri family were not enough, and she was afraid that she wouldn't find enough loyal people willing to give up their current stability to start over in a strange place, or even become wage earners.
So she suggested to Takumi that he relax the requirements for the newcomers' cooking skills and planned to select some recruits from Totsuki Academy.
Anyway, there was still some time before the end of winter. If their cooking skills weren't good enough, they could use this period for training.
If Yuuki Asuna could become a qualified chef from a novice in a short period of time, let alone these students in Totsuki Academy who had both talent and skills. The only difference between the students was their strength level. After arriving in Dimension City and improving their physical capabilities, their cooking skills would naturally improve by leaps and bounds.
Nakiri Alice was very confident in this and even promised Takumi that she would definitely be able to train all the newcomers well before they were needed.
Then Takumi's approval was obtained, which was the scene she encountered when Esdeath brought the three girls back with Najenda.
In fact, the reason why Takumi agreed was not entirely because of Nakiri Alice's guarantee.
Instead, he felt that the cooking skills of this new batch of newcomers need not be so high, or could even be set very low.
After all, the number of new immigrants planned to be recruited next year was too large. Once successful, Dimension City's population would increase forty or fifty times over.
Faced with such a huge number of people, ten or twenty chefs would definitely not be able to handle it.
Therefore, when Takumi gave Nakiri Alice this task, he never thought about how many senior chefs they should recruit. Instead, they needed to recruit a large number of qualified cooks.
So what was Takumi's qualification standard?
The answer is that they only needed to cook food that was not unpalatable!
Yes, you read that right, it was that low. Any student from Totsuki could achieve this.
This was the result of full consideration of practical needs.
If so many immigrants really flowed into Dimension City at one time, just managing the food, clothing, housing, and transportation would be difficult enough. If they could just get by, it would already be very good; there was no need for luxury.
This was especially true considering that the main targets of this group of immigrants were the Misaka Sisters, people who didn't even know common sense and were troublesome to educate.
Takumi didn't even plan to prepare elaborate meals. He intended to ask the production team to make a batch of self-produced instant noodles in the winter, and then let these immigrants eat instant noodles for a few days.
After a few days, when the immigrants were mostly settled, they could build their own fires to cook, and then Dimension City would only need to distribute ingredients to everyone.
But the Misaka Sisters were in a special situation. Even if they were settled, they couldn't cook by themselves, so the city could only expand the canteen.
However, Nakiri Alice obviously would not just randomly recruit a group of people to go back and make up the numbers just because the standards set by Takumi were low.
Even if she had to choose from Totsuki's students, she would choose seriously.
First, it depended on character.
Nakiri Alice didn't want to bring an ungrateful person to Dimension City and cause any trouble for herself or her family.
Second was loyalty.
Those who were willing to work for the Nakiri family, even if they were just accepting a favor, would be given priority. Such people would be more likely to obey her, making it easier for her to take charge of this team of chefs.
If they didn't even acknowledge the favor, then their character was not good; they were either selfish or just blind, so they could be ruled out directly.
Finally, it was out of consideration for face.
Those with poor cooking skills must also be excluded, so as not to embarrass the world of Shokugeki in Dimension City and lose face in front of other worlds.
Although this had no impact on the locals, she and the others still had to hang out in Dimension City, so for the sake of everyone's reputation, people who were not good at cooking had to be excluded.
Just through her screening, most of the students in Totsuki would be eliminated.
After all, with Totsuki's terrifying elimination rate and cruel Shokugeki system, it was difficult for the students at the bottom to have much love for their alma mater.
It was hard for them to continue working in Totsuki, where they had to take the risk of being eliminated. Being expelled was equivalent to being labeled as unqualified, leaving them with no bright future in the culinary industry for the rest of their lives. It would be strange for them to be grateful to Totsuki.
Only a few people who managed to graduate and get the golden sign of a Totsuki diploma to protect their future would be grateful.
Moreover, even if they were a graduate or a prospective graduate, their character might not be that good.
Most of the second and third-year students in Totsuki had long been brainwashed by the cruel Shokugeki system, and they were almost entirely profit-seeking.
Just like the rebels and the Elite Ten in the original work, when the benefits were right, they dared to betray without hesitation.
Therefore, after screening, there were really not many candidates left, and they were mainly freshmen.
These people had not yet been brainwashed by the system, and their thoughts were relatively pure.
This was also the reason why Nakiri Alice came back to select people specifically during the Autumn Election.
Because this way, they could better check the cooking skills of these candidates.
"Want me to compete?"
Yuuki Asuna couldn't help but be stunned when she heard this, and then said with some resistance, "This doesn't seem to be within my work specifications, right?"
She didn't like this kind of publicity.
This was mainly because of the Nero Festival she participated in last time.
She really didn't expect that the game would be broadcast back to Dimension City.
After she fought all the way to win the championship and returned to Dimension City, she was greeted with a wave of ridicule. When people met her in person, they called her "Champion," which made her extremely embarrassed.
And she couldn't avoid this kind of ridicule; working in the cafeteria, she had to face everyone in Dimension City almost every time she went to work, and she had no choice but to hide.
Not to mention, there was a woman with rather nasty taste, Hinako, who teased her the most.
Yuuki Asuna endured it for a long time, and finally got through the heat of the joke until barely anyone mentioned it again.
But this social crisis, essentially a social death, succeeded in giving Yuuki Asuna a very negative impression of the word "competition." So much so that she even secretly decided not to participate in any competitions from now on.
"And I'm on vacation now. I'm just here with you to have some fun."
Yuuki Asuna was not actually the executor of the recruitment expansion mission. She was just invited by Nakiri Alice to visit and play.
Not only did it have nothing to do with the mission, but she was also still on vacation and had no obligation to help Nakiri Alice. Not to mention, it was something she hated.
"Don't say that."
Nakiri Alice hugged Yuuki Asuna's arm eagerly. "As far as our relationship is concerned, do we have to do things in such a business-like manner?"
"Besides, since you are here to play, how can you not experience the special projects here?"
"What a great opportunity this is. If you miss it this time, you will have to wait until next year."
"Moreover, there is no broadcast this time. Except for you and me, no one in Dimension City will know about it."
"No, those new people will know."
Despite her strong resistance, Yuuki Asuna instantly found the loophole in Nakiri Alice's words.
People in Dimension City might not know it now, but the newly recruited chefs would definitely know it. When the time came, the newcomers would talk about it outside, and wouldn't everyone know about it again?
"This is easy to handle. When the time comes, I will ask the newcomers not to say anything."
Nakiri Alice said this as if it were a simple matter; she would just seal their lips.
"But..." Yuuki Asuna still wanted to refuse.
Nakiri Alice directly used her trump card.
"Don't forget, you owed me a favor last time, and the time before that. Aren't these enough for you to help me once?"
Yuuki Asuna: "..."
You've already mentioned this; could she still refuse?!
There were two main types of favors that Nakiri Alice was talking about.
One was during the Nero Festival. She got first place in the end mainly because Nakiri Alice yielded to her.
This was not actually Nakiri Alice's gratuitous generosity, but Yuuki Asuna's initiative to request it from Nakiri Alice because she hoped to use the win to apply to Takumi for the Divine Path System.
The second one was more recent.
The inner city residential area was completed recently, and Nakiri Alice, Inui Hinako, and the other cooks were preparing to move out of their original low-rent housing.
Seeing this, Yuuki Asuna also wanted to move together.
As a result, she found out embarrassingly that she didn't have enough money.
Because before that, she saw that the balance in her account was increasing, so she couldn't help but spend some money. She ordered two sets of clothes from Bulma, and she spent thousands in one go.
Even if she settled her salary in advance with Riveria, the new house was cheap, but her funds were still not enough.
Finally, she thought about it and decided to retrieve a fund that belonged to her.
These were the funds she had collected in the Sword World (SAO), but in the end, she failed to bring entertainment resources to Dimension City.
But she didn't dare to go back.
The psychological shadow caused by her parents was greater than the social death after the Nero Festival. This made Yuuki Asuna afraid to go back to face her parents. Even if her strength was no longer what it used to be, it would be difficult to overcome the obstacles in her heart.
So she found her best friend, Nakiri Alice, to give her courage.
Finally, relying on the invisibility cloak that Nakiri Alice temporarily borrowed from Sue Storm, she quietly obtained the items, returned to Dimension City to exchange them for money, and then successfully moved into a new house with Nakiri Alice and the others.
At the same time, it also allowed her to overcome some psychological shadows.
After taking this trip, she realized firsthand that her parents, who were like two insurmountable mountains in front of her in the past, were actually nothing to her now, and she could handle them easily.
Because Nakiri Alice played a big role in this matter, Yuuki Asuna owed another favor.
Both things were of great significance to Yuuki Asuna, so the debt of gratitude was naturally great.
With these two favors, not to mention just letting her participate in a competition, it was enough to make her fight an enemy.
Therefore, when it came to these two favors, Yuuki Asuna could only be manipulated by Nakiri Alice.
"Okay, I agree, okay?"
"That's great. I'll go get it arranged right away."