Ten Tier One Gourmet Jars were now placed before Teuchi. Shen Mo calmly picked up his chopsticks and returned to his bowl of handmade ramen. Though it was simple compared to his system-purchased meals, it was prepared with sincerity and care.
Teuchi, thoroughly humbled but energized by the ramen from the other world, leaned over and opened the cabinet beneath the counter. "I haven't settled on a final goal for my cooking yet," he admitted, "but I at least want every customer who leaves Ichiraku Ramen to leave satisfied."
He pushed a stack of coins across the counter—five hundred thousand Ryo. This was the price for the ten Tier One Jars, equivalent to 30,000 Transaction Points.
"Please."
The moment the money hit the counter, it vanished into Shen Mo's system.
"I'll open them!" Naruto reached out impatiently.
Thwack!
Tsunade landed a perfect, non-lethal punch on Naruto's head. "The jar represents a change in the destiny of the person who opens it," she reminded him, quoting Shen Mo. "These are Teuchi's dreams."
Tsunade returned to her ramen, while the chef, Teuchi, swallowed hard. He looked at the jars—his gateway to the legendary path of the Gourmet Hunter—and slowly, reverently, picked up the first one.
Everyone, even the perpetually stoic Sasuke, leaned forward, staring intently. Shen Mo's earlier theatrics, the awe of the exotic ramen, and Tsunade's implicit trust had made the opening of these simple jars feel like a momentous, fate-altering event.
Teuchi gently unscrewed the lid of the first jar.
Inside was... a box of edamame?
He poured out the contents. It was indeed a small pile of edamame pods.
"What? Just edamame?" Naruto exclaimed in disappointment. "Fifty thousand Ryo for some beans?"
Sasuke frowned, a flicker of profound disappointment in his eyes. Was this man truly just a charlatan, after all the hype?
"These are not ordinary edamame," Tsunade stated, already familiar with the system's bizarre nature.
"Precisely," Shen Mo smiled and nodded. "While your luck is a little poor—these are not highly valuable—they are certainly exotic. Mr. Teuchi, open a shell and take a look."
Teuchi took a pod and cracked it open.
"Ah—!" Sakura let out a small shriek of alarm.
Inside the green shell were perfectly round, white eyeballs. They were unnervingly pristine, with black pupils—eyeballs without any blood or gore.
"This is a special species of edamame called Zhimom," Shen Mo explained smoothly. "Don't let the scary appearance fool you; the flavor is extraordinary. Eaten with alcohol, it releases a unique, pungent aroma. A rare snack for connoisseurs."
These bizarre flavors were, of course, from the Toriko world.
"A snack?" Tsunade's eyes lit up. "This ramen shop has good sake. Bring me some; I want to try this."
A bottle of sake was quickly produced. Tsunade poured a glass for herself, offered a small one to Shen Mo, and then popped one of the gruesome-looking 'eyeballs' into her mouth.
"This... this..." Teuchi's eyes widened immediately upon sampling one. "What a beautiful aroma! The base flavor of the edamame is still there, but under the influence of the sake, it seems to be sprouting a new flavor... It's impossible to describe!"
"See?" Shen Mo shrugged.
"Uncle Teuchi, is it really that good?" Naruto looked from his beloved chef to the strange eyeball bean with confusion and longing.
"I would rather die than eat that!" Sakura shivered.
"If this was used in winemaking... no, in a sake-flavored ramen broth..." Teuchi was already lost in culinary experimentation.
Even Sasuke's gaze showed intense curiosity. Can a jar really hold magical properties? Can it hold something that leads to true power, as this man claimed?
Teuchi carefully placed the Zhimom aside and opened the remaining jars. They contained a collection of equally strange, magical items: a lightweight Vegetable Chopping Sphere, a Sweet Ginger Stick that cleansed the palate entirely, exotic Delicious Spices, and a bottle of Doctor's Aloe Vera that could instantly heal minor injuries. All were unheard-of, profoundly magical items.
Finally, the ninth jar revealed the most valuable item yet: an Incomplete Secret Ingredient Recipe.
"Mr. Shen Mo, why is there only one-third of the formula?" Teuchi asked, his face a mask of frustration and craving. It was the same maddening feeling a deeply invested reader gets when a novel suddenly cuts off.
"Hmph, the same trick again," Tsunade grumbled, recalling her own incomplete medical scroll fragments from her Tier One purchases. "I still haven't pieced together the full medical secrets."
"I am truly sorry," Shen Mo spread his hands. "The price of a Tier One Jar simply isn't enough to afford a complete, game-changing formula."
This forced-fragmentation model was the best psychological tool to encourage repeat spending.
Teuchi carefully tucked the incomplete recipe into his uniform pocket and opened the final jar with intense anticipation.
Inside was a single, bright red fruit.
"Now this is lucky," Shen Mo exclaimed, looking at the fruit. "This is a Zhudan Fruit. The taste is nothing special, but it grants a slight increase in physical strength upon consumption."
The fruit, pulled from a low-level fantasy world, would increase the user's arm strength by about five pounds—a small, but tangible, permanent boost.
"Power boost?" Sasuke's quiet voice cut through the air. "But isn't this the Gourmet Series of jars?"
Sasuke, the ever-attentive analyst, had listened closely. He correctly inferred that different jar series existed and contained related products.
"A chef requires strength," Shen Mo explained, turning to face Sasuke directly. "For instance, the brute strength needed to knead complex doughs."
Sasuke tried to mask his reaction, but his eyes betrayed him. The lure of any artifact that offered a direct, quantifiable path to power—even if disguised as a chef's tool—had clearly registered a powerful, silent beat in his ambitious heart. The merchant had successfully planted a new seed of desire.