Early the next morning.
With a shout of "Holy crap!" and a sensation of weightlessness followed by a fall, Mo Bai opened his eyes in a face-plant posture, half his body on the bed and half on the floor.
"Phew~ it was a nightmare." Mo Bai's dazed eyes regained their clarity.
Perhaps because yesterday's experiences were too stimulating, Mo Bai's worldview had suffered a devastating blow.
Upon crossing over for the first time and seeing Ryougi Shiki, he thought this was a crisis-ridden Type-Moon world. But that didn't matter; as long as he hugged the thigh of the Root itself—Shiki, he wouldn't have to worry about his life... That night, Little Bai gave him a surprise—Midnight Diner: Soul Redemption.
When he saw Ashiya Dōman, he thought this was a world focused on Onmyoji. But that was fine; he wasn't studying that anyway, so he could just hole up... Then Yukikawa Yukie dealt him a blow—get to know Nakiri Erina, the Hope of the Far Eastern culinary world.
Just when he thought he clearly understood that this was merely a world with a bit of supernatural power and spirits, the Inner World slapped him in the face, making him see stars—screw the supernatural, screw the spirits, this is a High Martial Arts world, dammit!
Ice pillars over a hundred meters tall being crushed to dregs without blinking an eye, plus those species on the Ice Continent that had a completely different art style from the Surface World—screw you!
What the man shattered with his qi was not just the Gourmet Showcase, but also Mo Bai's weak and helpless worldview.
"Saving the Ice Continent or whatever... is that really possible?"
Mo Bai sounded melancholy. Every single creature on the Ice Continent seemed strong enough to swallow a combat-power-five weakling like him in one bite. The final scene he saw when leaving the Inner World was the sky-dancing Kushala Daora, the Ukanlos triggering avalanches on the snowfields, and the Ceadeus leaping from the azure sea—a host of liver-aching ice field monsters appearing all at once... The scene was practically a Monster Hunter CG compilation.
Mo Bai recalled the conversation with Ryougi Shiki last night; he was just as lost then.
The black-robed man's words, accompanying the shocking image of the shattering Gourmet Showcase, were deeply imprinted in Mo Bai's heart. Suddenly being asked to save a continent or something was truly absurd.
But—the final reward from the Gourmet Showcase had definitely been accepted, and the scene of the entire ice field's species slaughtering each other in chaos rolled in his mind, lingering for a long time.
Even Mo Bai, who didn't consider himself a good person, felt a sense of guilt.
"Do not worry, take it slowly. If it really cannot be done, it doesn't matter." Ryougi Shiki's expression hadn't changed; she continued to smile lightly, her tone making it sound like a trivial matter. "Destruction and rebirth are inherently part of the cycle of life."
In that moment, Mo Bai truly felt that Ryougi Shiki's figure, though close at hand, was so far out of reach.
"Kukuku! My foolish Old Bai. Have you finally understood the gap between yourself and a World Administrator?"
"A hundred years in your eyes might represent a lifetime, but for those existences, it is merely the blink of an eye."
"How can you date when you're different species?" Little Bai, who was also awake, delivered a timely stab.
"Get lost! What use is a system that can't analyze recipes by taste?!"
"Who asked me to switch professions halfway?" Little Bai didn't take Mo Bai's words to heart. If it had the ability to analyze recipes by taste, would it let Mo Bai stand on its head?
"If you are willing to complete the ingredient database, maybe I'll be able to do it."
Hmm, when that time comes, I'll make Mo Bai call me Papa Little Bai every day.
"Get lost!" Mo Bai threw Little Bai, who was giggling in its fantasies, into the corner.
===
Host: Mo Bai
Chef Rank: Zero Stars
Physique: lv20
Knife Skills: lv6
Heat Control: lv6
Chef Skills: Intuition (Beginner), Purification (Advanced)
Mastered Recipes: Great Sea Soul Repose Noodles (Two-Star), Rainbow Leopard Grouper Sashimi (Five-Star), Shattered Mountains and Rivers! Raging Tempest! (Nine-Star)
Culinary Heart: Propriety
Points: -299999950000
===
After drinking the Century Soup, his physique doubled from LV10 to LV20.
There was also an additional Advanced Purification in his chef skills. Mo Bai guessed it might be related to the stone he swallowed along with the last bit of soup; that mysterious stone was also the key to achieving the Gourmet Showcase.
"Hey, Little Bai. LV10 is the limit of human physique, so what is LV20?" Mo Bai's eyes lit up, his mood lifting slightly.
"That's just a physique surpassing the strongest humans." Little Bai felt Mo Bai was acting like a fool. "If you want me to speak truthfully, that's the physique of an Earth-rank Initial Stage martial artist, though you wouldn't understand anyway."
"No, no, no, that's not what I'm asking. I'm saying, if I continuously consume Fantasy Ingredients like Century Soup, can I break the boundaries of life?" Mo Bai's eyes were burning bright.
"You can, but I think... the time it takes you to stack your physique to transcend life boundaries by eating other Fantasy Ingredients would be better spent recreating Century Soup to save the Ice Continent." Little Bai accidentally let it slip. As a former Martial Arts System Sprite, it was very familiar with various processes; the stab earlier was purely because it found Mo Bai annoying and wanted to tempt him into bowing down to the System's glory.
"Hey! So annoying! If I had just gone along with his words earlier, wouldn't I have had another subject to exploit?" As a result, Little Bai hadn't expected to accidentally play itself.
"Holy crap! What do you mean!?" Mo Bai, hearing the implied meaning, got excited.
"Ah, no good. I let it slip." Little Bai looked at Mo Bai blankly as if waking from a dream, but words spoken are like spilt water—how could they be taken back? "Does this guy Old Bai really have some kind of Protagonist Halo? Turning bad luck into good, breaking through in battle, and getting free skills to boot?"
"Little Bai, Bai-Bai, Uncle Bai~"
"Enough, enough, I lose to you." Little Bai was instantly grossed out by Mo Bai's 'beautiful voice'.
"Have you heard of Apotheosis through Faith?"
"Since the Inner World and that Emperor exist, it very likely indicates that the path to godhood in this world is not blocked."
"If you can recreate Century Soup, even if you don't necessarily become a god, you can still condense an Avatar under the faith of the myriad living beings of the Ice Continent."
"Avatar?" Mo Bai didn't GET the point.
"...You can understand it as another shell that transcends the level of life, but..."
"!!!" Mo Bai immediately bounced up; his LV20 physique made him hit the ceiling and rebound!
"I feel that I was born for the great cause of saving the Ice Continent!" Mo Bai, who had tragically been intercepted by the ceiling, didn't care. With his hands behind his back and a lingering tone, his gaze pierced through the window towards the azure sky. "Whenever I think of the Ice Continent still in turmoil, my heart feels like it's being cut by a knife, and I cannot sleep at night."
"Little Bai, are you willing to lend me a hand?" Mo Bai clutched his chest, a hint of earnest tears in the corners of his eyes.
Little Bai admitted that Mo Bai's magnetic deep voice indeed had something to it, but it wasn't a girl. "Do you see my gleaming blade?"
"You mean you're willing to become the sharp blade in my hand to cut through thorns and thistles?" After thinking slightly, Mo Bai revealed an expression of being moved.
"No, what I mean is—bother me again and I'll chop your dog head off with one slash!"
"..."
Slightly embarrassed, Mo Bai finally broke free from the shadowy aftereffects of liver pain caused by spending the whole night fighting various Monster Hunter flagship monsters in starter gear and getting hammered into a little brother.
Sweating a sticky sweat, Mo Bai was no longer sleepy. He went to the bathroom to take a shower, then sat on the sofa with a blank expression.
The phone showed the time: 5:40.
Getting up so early for the first time, Mo Bai really didn't know what to do. The two people who were supposed to be his guides hadn't appeared since he left them at the bar last night, and he had no clue about recreating Century Soup.
"Ding~"
After charging and restarting, the phone received text messages.
Good Morning Angel Sagisawa Fumika: ヾ(?皿?Ｏ＝Ｏ?皿?)ノ Good morning.
Loli Little Disciple Gokou Ruri: The oven from Uncle Wang has been delivered and installed, the bank card has also been received, currently studying the oven manual.
Comparing the two diligent young girls, Mo Bai couldn't help but suspect he was being a bit too much of a slacker.
Just then, a text message arrived from an unknown number.
[Come to Tōtsuki Detached Palace immediately.] The note at the end was Dōjima Gin.
The image of Dōjima Gin, with his delicate features and hulking frame, immediately surfaced in Mo Bai's mind.
"What does he want with me?"
________________________________________
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