"...Jaden Yuki."
A pleasant female voice reached him.
Not loud. Not sharp.
Just enough to pull him out.
Jaden slowly opened his eyes.
For a brief moment, his mind was blank. Like he had just woken up from a shallow nap layered on top of a longer, stranger dream.
Then his vision cleared.
Wooden tables arranged in rows. Stainless steel counters. The faint but unmistakable smell of food lingering in the air.
And directly in front of him-
A young woman stood there, arms crossed, eyes cold, expression clearly displeased.
This was definitely not his one-room rental apartment.
Not even close.
The scene felt unreal. Too clean. Too structured.
Too much like something out of a dream.
"You're finally awake."
Her voice was calm, but the irritation underneath wasn't subtle.
"Even if I don't expect you to be of any use, a chef should never fall asleep in the kitchen. Even if they're incapable of assisting."
-Erina Nakiri.
The name surfaced in Jaden's mind without effort.
Heiress of the Nakiri family.
Owner of the infamous God's Tongue.
A prodigy standing at the pinnacle of the culinary world.
He knew her.
Or rather-
He had memories of knowing her.
But those memories weren't his.
That fact was clear.
Jaden was certain of who he was supposed to be.
A recently graduated university student. Working part-time at a convenience store. Sending out résumés that rarely received replies.
An orphan. No family. No background worth mentioning.
Not even a single female friend.
And yet here he was.
In a cooking classroom.
At a training camp.
Standing next to an ojou-sama-level genius.
Paired with her.
-This was the kind of scenario that only happened in dreams.
So...
I haven't woken up yet?
A dull throbbing spread through his head.
Seeing his unfocused gaze, Erina let out a small sigh, clearly tired of dealing with him.
"Forget it."
She turned away slightly.
"Just stand there as long as you're not sleeping. This is Totsuki's training camp. The judges are former graduates."
Her tone cooled further.
"Even if you're about to be expelled, you should at least maintain a chef's dignity in your final moments as a student."
With that, she stopped paying attention to him altogether.
She muttered something about how Hisako hadn't been assigned to her group and began preparing the dish required by the judge.
Kojiro Shinomiya.
Even though I couldn't get the best ingredients because of this useless partner, improvising at this level won't be difficult.
That confidence was clear in every movement.
Her posture was straight. Her motions precise.
She started cooking.
Meanwhile-
Something finally clicked in Jaden's mind.
-I'm not dreaming.
I transmigrated.
Or rather...
It felt like he had fallen asleep, dreamed an entire life, and then woken up inside the body of that dream version of himself.
As if his consciousness had simply slid sideways into another track.
Did I sleep myself to death?
The foreign memories flooding his mind answered that question indirectly.
This was real.
The location, the people, the situation.
All real.
This was the training camp of Totsuki Academy.
Totsuki Academy.
The world's top culinary school.
Famous not for its graduation rate, but for its expulsion rate.
Daily examinations. Ruthless standards.
Fail once, and you were gone.
Graduates became world-class chefs.
Those who didn't survive were erased without ceremony.
This training camp wasn't a vacation.
It was hell.
But-
Jaden blinked.
After fully accepting the fact that he had transmigrated, his mind felt strangely clear.
According to the memories, he was already on the brink.
One more E-grade evaluation during the regular curriculum, and he'd be expelled.
The only reason he was even here-
Was because there weren't enough standard classes left.
The last class before the training camp had already given him his second-to-last E-grade.
For other students, this camp was a death march.
For him, it was more like borrowed time.
And even better-
His first assessment was with Erina Nakiri.
Meaning that as long as he didn't actively sabotage things, he could easily pass the first evaluation by riding on her performance alone.
Of course, that didn't mean much.
There was more than one assessment scheduled for today.
He could pass the morning.
Relax at noon.
And then be cleanly expelled in the afternoon.
Perfect timing.
...Hmm.
Realizing this, Jaden felt no tension at all.
None.
He was a transmigrator now.
With the memories of his previous life intact, one thought surfaced clearly:
So what if I'm expelled?
Why would that matter?
Why would I continue being a chef after being reborn?
The current year here was nearly ten years behind his original timeline.
A full decade of foreknowledge.
Why not use that to do literally anything else?
With that thought, the last traces of anxiety disappeared.
Instead, he found himself watching Erina cook with mild curiosity.
Like a tourist.
Detached. Relaxed.
Unconcerned.
He didn't want to be a chef anyway.
Cooking-
His cooking skills in this life, which consistently earned E-grades, were actually better than his skills in his previous life.
Before transmigrating, the only thing he could make was instant noodles.
Cracking an egg into it already felt like advanced technique.
The inherited memories in this body contained plenty of theory.
Knife techniques. Ingredient handling. Flavor balancing.
On paper, it all existed.
In practice, his hands didn't know what to do.
The only thing he could reliably make was a street snack.
Grilled cold noodles.
That was it.
He'd have to be brain-dead for ten years to keep insisting on becoming a chef under these conditions.
-If I don't get expelled, what am I even doing here?
Lowering Totsuki's average standards?
Just as Jaden was fully prepared to treat this entire situation as a temporary stop before moving on to a brighter future-
A voice rang out in his mind.
[System activating...]
[Activation successful]
[Information injection]
Before he could react, a massive stream of information flooded his consciousness.
There was no pain.
Just understanding.
Instant.
Clear.
-A System.
A cheat.
According to the explanation, it functioned like the emulator cheats he used back in his previous life.
In online game terms-
A hack program.
Its function was simple.
Once per day, he could sign in.
Each sign-in granted a completely random reward.
That was all.
After grasping the explanation, Jaden didn't hesitate.
He immediately attempted today's sign-in.
[Sign-in Reward: Skill - Curse]
[Curse: When used on a biological entity, it randomly inflicts a temporary random disease Debuff lasting one hour. When used on a non-biological unit... please test the effect yourself~]
Jaden inhaled sharply.
This wasn't just money or items.
This was supernatural.
If he could sign in abilities like this-
Then what was the point of playing the stock market?
Why bother starting a business?
-Wouldn't it be better to sign in until I become a god among men?
As for the Curse...
He selected the skill without thinking too much.
Pure curiosity.
Like someone who had just obtained power and wanted to test it.
He wasn't planning anything malicious.
He didn't even have a target in mind.
He just-
Didn't expect it to be instant-cast.
He reacted quickly.
Quick enough to avoid directly targeting Erina.
But the skill still landed.
Not on her.
On the dish.
The finished dish in her hands.
This...
Jaden stared at the plate.
The appearance hadn't changed.
It still looked flawless.
The smell-
It felt slightly off.
But only slightly.
His sense of smell wasn't sharp to begin with.
And the dish Erina had prepared wasn't one that relied heavily on aroma.
So maybe it was just his imagination.
Thinking about it that way-
There shouldn't be a problem.
Probably.
With that thought, Jaden followed behind her.
Erina stepped forward and placed the plate in front of the judge.
Kojiro Shinomiya.
"Nine Vegetable Terrine."
Her voice was steady.
"Chef Shinomiya, please have a taste."
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