However, Arato Hisako was also a top-tier chef in the culinary world with extraordinary abilities, even holding a pivotal position in the entire culinary industry.
Usually when she stomped her feet in the culinary world, the entire industry would shake.
Although she was still young, she already had her own status and mentality.
So even though she knew victory was almost impossible.
Arato Hisako still adjusted her mindset, looking at Hayashi with blazing eyes full of fighting spirit, clenching her little fists as she said seriously:
"Hayashi-kun, please give it your all and use your full strength to compete seriously with me in this cooking match."
"I believe I can definitely catch up to you."
Arato Hisako's eyes were full of determination, and even Hayashi was unconsciously infected by it, immediately taking it seriously as he said:
"Alright, then for the third match, how shall we compete?"
Hayashi still gave this choice to Arato Hisako.
Whether choosing to compete with existing dishes.
Or having her prepare an unfamiliar dish to give to Hayashi for on-site competition - both were acceptable.
Arato Hisako naturally chose what was advantageous to her.
Of course she would give Hayashi the one masterpiece dish she had invented, to争取 a chance at victory.
At this time, Arato Hisako said with extremely determined eyes:
"Hayashi-kun, this dish I invented is called Onsen Tamago."
Hearing this, Hayashi's eyes lit up.
Just hearing the name of this dish.
He knew it must be a very heartwarming dish.
And indeed it was.
Arato Hisako explained clearly to Hayashi all the ingredients, seasonings, and preparation methods needed for this dish.
The main ingredients for this dish were tofu, fresh shrimp, eggs, etc.
The difficulty in preparation lay in making this dish taste delicious.
The broth had to be made perfectly, bringing the broth's flavor to its optimal state.
It not only had to be delicious but also completely integrate into the tofu - and this was just the first step's difficulty.
The second step's greatest difficulty was preparing a sauce.
This sauce had to be sprinkled on top of the tofu at the end.
It seemed like only two difficulties, but the actual preparation difficulty was no less than making a top-tier dish.
Moreover, these two difficulties were equivalent to two final top-tier dishes.
It seemed like one plus one, but actually the difficulty was much greater than the sum.
After all, continuously making two top-tier dishes while expending enormous energy was challenging even for the most top-tier chefs.
Even most top-tier chefs found it difficult to continuously make two top-tier dishes.
During the preparation process, they had to rest for half an hour to an hour to restore their mental state to optimal condition before continuing.
Otherwise, they couldn't present the most delicious flavor.
So the difficulty was at the highest level.
And Hayashi had already made two top-tier dishes before, each extremely difficult.
Moreover, Nakiri Erina's second dark cuisine creation was even more mentally exhausting, requiring extreme focus.
Just look at how Nakiri Erina was already sweating profusely after making that dark cuisine, her body still weak and exhausted.
Because although her mental state was good today, it was still bedtime and she was getting a bit sleepy.
Although this slight drowsiness wasn't enough to "knock her down."
Even for her, it could be said to have no substantial impact.
But even so, it still increased her pressure during preparation.
Yet Hayashi appeared calm and composed throughout the entire process, as if unaffected by anything.
This point alone was enough to shock the three girls, because only by personally cooking could one know how much difficulty and hardship was involved.
After all, being a chef in an ordinary restaurant, it was impossible to make top-tier dishes for every meal.
And even if making top-tier dishes, customers had to pre-order and chefs had to prepare in advance.
If customers wanted to eat top-tier dishes, they had to spend big money to make reservations.
After completing one reserved high-level or top-tier dish, chefs weren't allowed to make another top-tier dish within two to three hours.
Because they couldn't exert their full strength.
For this reason, one could imagine how difficult it was to continuously make several top-tier dishes and bring them all to perfect condition.
And now after Hayashi completed his preparations, still in this late-night state where drowsiness was overwhelming, he could still handle it so easily.
This also amazed the three girls.
And this was also the point where Arato Hisako felt she had the best chance of winning.
She was betting that Hayashi's energy was insufficient now.
Moreover, this Onsen Tamago dish took an extremely long time, directly extended to one hour.
Because she simply couldn't complete it within half an hour.
Having made this for so long, with her experience, the fastest she could achieve was forty-five minutes.
Any shorter time would only make this dish extremely unsuccessful.
And with longer time, Hayashi's energy would be even harder to sustain.
This was why Arato Hisako was so confident at this moment.
Moreover, while explaining this dish's preparation process to Hayashi, Arato Hisako deliberately explained those two difficult points to Hayashi several times, just to delay time and make Hayashi more tired.
It had to be said, Arato Hisako had quite a few little schemes.
The three people - Tohru, Kanna, and Takanashi Rikka - all simultaneously opened their mouths and yawned, their faces full of drowsiness.
To say they weren't sleepy would be a lie - they just wanted to have a good sleep now.
Tohru yawned and said:
"Hayashi-kun, Hisako, are you ready yet?"
"If you don't start soon, I'm going to fall asleep."
Kanna beside her cutely lowered her little head, swaying her body and head, her two eyes already drowsily narrowed to slits as she said weakly:
"Kanna too."
Takanashi Rikka similarly nodded, indicating she could barely hold on either.
Then Kanna and Takanashi Rikka leaned shoulder to shoulder, head to head, snuggling together and falling asleep.
Even Hayashi couldn't help but smile and shake his head, saying:
"It seems tonight's competition can only be temporarily suspended."
As soon as these words came out, Arato Hisako, who had just been full of confidence and prepared to compete with Hayashi, was immediately shocked and stunned.
Her two eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Hayashi.
Please, did it have to be such coincidence?
The opportunity she had worked so hard to get, and the only possible chance for victory, was just gone like this?
Once Hayashi recovered his energy, wouldn't she definitely lose?
Arato Hisako was extremely unwilling and immediately objected:
"No, this competition must continue!"
Arato Hisako was extremely serious about cooking and competitions, especially since this was a cooking competition - she had to give it her all and try every possible way to争取 victory, absolutely impossible to easily give up an opportunity within reach.