"Hmm... why is it glowing?" Mo Bai muttered, rubbing his chin after closing the lid.
"Heh heh!" Xiao Bai responded with a cold laugh to Mo Bai, who was pretending to be baffled but was actually being shameless.
"As expected of me." Sure enough, Mo Bai's smug nature was exposed in an instant.
If you're not cooking on stage to show off, then what's the point!
"Is my Kona deep-sea water and ice-making equipment ready?" Mo Bai asked an IGO staff member standing by.
"It's all ready! We'll bring it over for you right now!" The IGO staff member gestured towards the staff entrance, and a team in blue uniforms carried a freezer onto the high stage.
The freezer was filled with all sorts of ice molds, and Mo Bai nodded in satisfaction. He opened the temperature-controlled box brought up by another staffer, where green glass bottles that looked like enlarged vials of oral medicine were particularly eye-catching.
Kona deep-sea water (Kona Nigari Water). Each 750ml bottle sold for around 400 USD in the Far East. It was essentially desalinated seawater collected from several thousand feet below the ocean's surface off the coast of Hawaii.
It was said to help with weight loss, stress reduction, and improving skin tone and texture.
"They market it like some kind of health supplement. Rich people really know how to live," Mo Bai remarked, looking at the twelve neatly arranged bottles in the box. He silently opened one.
Gulp, gulp, gulp~ Burp~
Mo Bai smacked his lips. He wasn't sure if it was just psychological, but he could definitely taste a unique flavor of the ocean.
It paired very well with the flavor of seafood.
The image of the White Jade Pavilion's transparent ice dome surfaced in his mind. If only he had glacier ice, too.
Not only could it purify the flavors, but it was also visually stunning.
Unfortunately, even an organization as large as the International Gourmet Organization (IGO) wouldn't prepare glacier ice for an ordinary competition. In a sense, glacier ice was already classified as a special-grade ingredient.
Feeling the gazes gathering on him from all directions, Mo Bai smiled faintly, tightened his grip on Xiao Bai on the cutting board, and took out the two remaining types of fish from the ice pile in the iron basin beside him.
Under the sunlight, the two small fish shimmered, their entire bodies reflecting a silver light.
"Contestant Mo Bai's dish is not yet finished! He has brought out Pacific saury, an ingredient from the end of the current season, and the top-tier Edo-mae ingredient, Sillago fish, also known as the 'Lady of the Beach'!"
Even though he had captured everyone's attention, he, Mo the Scene-Stealer, had to keep showing off!
Fine silver scales flew. Gutting the fish to retrieve the roe and flesh was completed in an instant.
After the necessary cleaning, the peculiar USB-connected kitchen knife in Mo Bai's hand became a vast afterimage. Even the large screen couldn't capture the scene behind that dazzling silver flash.
The rising and falling gasps from the audience showed that they had once again been blown away by Mo the Scene-Stealer.
How does he wield a knife like that without cutting his hands off?
"A Chinese-style decorative cut? Not slices?" Colson, who was just starting to get a clue, wanted to take a closer look, but the bells for serving dishes rang one after another.
The camera switched, showing three chefs panting heavily as they slapped their service bells. They looked like they were running for their lives, as if being chased by some kind of monster.
The three middle-aged and young men who had successfully made it to the plate felt a wave of relief, unbuttoning their collars to catch their breath. The remaining two chefs frantically sped up their cooking.
Their sixth sense, honed by years as chefs, warned them just how terrifying the dish that 18-year-old was about to complete would be.
They could feel the terrifying aura rising from his stockpot. Serving their dishes after that one would be pure suicide.
"Let the judging begin."
Colson shifted his gaze. When he looked back at station one, Mo Bai had already finished his knife work and was now washing and soaking the ice molds with Kona deep-sea water.
"That guy, Old Mo, he couldn't be..." Wang Yao's eye twitched. Those half-egg-shaped ice molds gave him a sense of déjà vu, reminding him of the White Jade Pavilion dish he had made yesterday.
Wang Yao already understood what Mo Bai was planning.
An ice dome made from Kona deep-sea water would cover the fish, which had been scored with a pattern similar to a lychee flower cut. It would dilute the seafood broth just enough to prevent its intense flavor from overpowering the natural taste of the two types of fish.
The idea originated from Wang Yao's White Jade Pavilion, yet it was completely different.
"Hey! Old Bai, the original creator is staring daggers at you from below stage. Daggers, I tell you," Xiao Bai kindly reminded him.
"Damn it, that's blatant plagiarism!!" Mo Bai turned his head and saw Wang Yao glaring at him, his eyes as sharp as blades.
"Heh, can you call what chefs do plagiarism? This is 'inspiration'!" Mo Bai's lips curled into a very punchable, mocking smile. "Come up here and fight me if you've got the guts."
"Just you wait. After the match, I'll smash your damn head in!" Wang Yao growled, cracking his knuckles.
"Tch, brute." Mo Bai cowardly returned his gaze to the ice molds before having a sudden realization. "Holy crap! What am I afraid of him for? Once I win the championship, I'll have Basic Boxing!"
So he turned back again and shot a fierce glare at Wang Yao. "Bring it on! Whoever backs down is a coward!"
Wang Yao: ?!!!
"I think it's not okay." Colson's expression was grim. After tasting Yoshino Takashi's dish, he had no intention of being nice to any of these chefs.
"I think it's okay." Takagaki Kaede's demeanor was as warm as a spring day. After tasting Yoshino Takashi's dish, everything else she ate felt incredibly moving.
"I think it's both okay and not okay." Chiba Eda was lukewarm. After tasting Yoshino Takashi's dish... well, she wasn't the one scoring anyway.
While a heartbroken Osakabehime cried at home, the three chefs left the stage. Harano Katsuya, currently in first place, still lorded over the competition with a high score of 265.
After the strange sight of three bells ringing in quick succession, two more crisp service bells rang out simultaneously.
The two chefs grabbed their dishes and ran as if their lives depended on it.
On the vast red stage, only one contestant remained: Mo Bai.
"Hmm... seems like I'm being targeted?" Placing the ice molds filled with Kona deep-sea water into the blast freezer, Mo Bai looked around and felt the loneliness of a king.
How lonely it is to be invincible, how empty it is to be invincible~
"But it doesn't matter. Even if you served your dishes first today, none of you can escape your doom."
Mo Bai sharpened his knives, ready for the slaughter.
After the dish from the final chef (besides Mo Bai) was judged, Mo Bai decisively slapped the service bell.
The hearts of the chefs who hadn't yet left the stage leaped violently. One of them, who was in the middle of descending the stairs, lost his footing and tumbled right off the stage into the audience. The scene could only be described as tragic.
"Contestant Mo Bai—announces he is ready to serve!"
Waving off the server, Mo Bai strode forward with a swagger that recognized no family, each step like a heavy hammer blow landing on the chefs who thought they had escaped.
From the other chefs' perspective, Mo Bai looked just like a demon, complete with horns sprouting from his forehead and bat-like wings.
"Please introduce your dish." Colson pushed up his glasses, his expression transforming from that of a ferocious Tibetan Mastiff into the angelic smile of a Samoyed.
"The name of the dish is: Shattered Mountains and Rivers! Raging Tempest."
________________________________________
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! 😉