So after some deliberation, Nakiri Erina and Arato Hisako decided to seize these only two opportunities for victory and maximize their potential.
This way their girls' team could defeat Hayashi and get one up on him.
Otherwise, trying to surpass Hayashi with their cooking skills would be nothing but a pipe dream.
So Nakiri Erina, who had several signature dishes in her arsenal, naturally stepped up to battle.
At the same time, she had Arato Hisako carefully review her own researched signature dish - her one and only specialty - making sure not to make even the slightest error.
Standing before Hayashi, Nakiri Erina's eyes were full of fighting spirit as she said excitedly and enthusiastically:
"Hayashi-kun, I'll be challenging you in this round."
Hayashi smiled slightly and nodded:
"Alright."
In the following time, Hayashi and Nakiri Erina only needed to coordinate as he learned Nakiri Erina's second unique dish that she had invented herself.
And this second dish was earth-shattering and ghost-weeping.
If the first "Little Rabbit Be Good" dish still fell within the normal range of top-tier cuisine that could be encountered, using ingredients that were all quite good and appetite-inducing.
Then the second dish made people tremble all over, feel chills down their spine, and experience despair as if falling into an ice cellar.
Hayashi stared at Nakiri Erina in disbelief:
"Erina, you're not joking, are you?"
"This second dish of yours - are you sure it's not dark cuisine?"
Hayashi was extremely speechless, feeling like Nakiri Erina had just been telling him a ghost story.
But Nakiri Erina at this moment had a mischievous smile, her eyes full of excitement and confidence:
"Hayashi-kun, if I want to beat you, don't I need to bring out something earth-shattering and ghost-weeping?"
"Otherwise, how could there be any chance of victory?"
"Hayashi-kun, you're absolutely right - this second dish is dark cuisine!"
Hayashi: ?!!!
Hayashi was speechless. Erina wasn't even pretending anymore.
Since it was dark cuisine, how would they compete? Who could make it taste worse?
His system's passive ability made even the worst result "acceptable," so wouldn't he definitely lose?
But of course, the actual situation wasn't like this.
Nakiri Erina crossed her little arms and proudly lifted her head, then continued:
"Hayashi-kun, any chef with extremely rich cooking experience."
"Just hearing about my ingredients and proportions would definitely think it's dark cuisine."
"And initially, it indeed is."
Pausing here, Nakiri Erina continued:
"But later, through repeated experiments, I finally discovered a very interesting point."
"That is, the processing of the second and third ingredients, as well as the sixth and seventh ingredients before they go into the pot, must be done perfectly, to an extremely detailed degree."
"Including these four ingredients - when combined in pairs into two groups of ingredients, the timing of when they go into the pot has extremely precise requirements."
"If there's even the slightest deviation, it becomes dark cuisine."
"Conversely, it becomes top-tier cuisine."
After hearing this, Hayashi couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Nakiri Erina was really ruthless.
Hayashi gave Nakiri Erina a thumbs up.
No wonder she was so confident - she was waiting for him here.
This dish was full of traps, and not a single step could be wrong.
Even the slightest error would result in complete failure.
This dish was extremely complex. Just hearing it once, Hayashi already discovered that to make it well, one would need extensive preliminary training and experimentation.
Only after mastering this dish to perfection would there be a slim possibility of controlling the time to around twenty-five minutes.
Going slightly slower, one or two hours would be common.
Moreover, since Hayashi was making it for the first time, completing it within half an hour would be extremely difficult.
And if he couldn't grasp the timing properly, even with the system's passive skill assistance, the best result would just be "acceptable."
For Tohru, Kanna, and Takanashi Rikka, the taste they could experience would just be acceptable at most - it wouldn't amaze them.
According to Nakiri Erina, once this dish succeeded, it would be top-tier cuisine far surpassing the "Little Rabbit Be Good" dish.
For a moment, not only was Hayashi extremely surprised.
The other girls were all dumbfounded, shocked to the extreme, all looking at Nakiri Erina in amazement.
At this moment, Nakiri Erina was like a god-like existence in their eyes.
Especially Takanashi Touka, who was filled with admiration.
In her eyes, Nakiri Erina had become a god-level chef comparable to Hayashi.
Erina was too amazing!
Takanashi Touka's heart was full of envy.
This was also the first time she truly felt worship toward Nakiri Erina.
Only by personally entering the culinary field could one know how difficult it was to create a new dish on the path walked by countless predecessors.
The difficulty was no less than inventing super technology capable of carrying people.
Because cuisine itself covered numerous types of ingredients and seasonings, and after so many people's development, the dishes that could be developed were almost saturated.
Trying to create even one more new dish was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Yet Nakiri Erina had created over ten dishes.
If this didn't count as a miraculous chef, then what would?
Moreover, culinary invention was even more difficult than technological invention.
Because technology itself covered extremely broad fields, with countless materials involved in each field, providing many directions.
Although the probability of inventing something new in a certain direction was low, there was still opportunity.
And from the technology explosion to now had only been about a hundred years.
But cuisine had been developing for thousands of years, covering a relatively smaller scope, so the difficulty could be imagined.
Because of this, for Nakiri Erina to invent a dish that seemed like dark cuisine but was actually top-tier super cuisine under these circumstances was simply unbelievable.
And now she was bringing out this dish to defeat Hayashi.
For a moment, everyone present focused their gazes on Hayashi, doubting his culinary skills for the first time.
After all, in these people's view, the challenge Nakiri Erina presented to Hayashi was almost certainly destined to fail and impossible to succeed.
At least in their eyes, even if a god were to make it, there would only be a slim possibility of success.
And no matter how amazing Hayashi was, he was ultimately just human.
At this time, Hayashi couldn't help but feel admiration, smiling and applauding:
"Erina, your invention is really amazing. Now I'm already feeling some pressure."
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