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During this period, Yuuki received a message from Teppei. He knew that he had already infiltrated NEO and was now following Joie.
Joie was very confident in his own control ability—so he was very at ease with Teppei.
This was why Teppei could send out the message. Among the messages he sent, there was intelligence that Joie was going to attack the Cooking Fest venue later.
After getting this intelligence, Yuuki now had a reason—even without a reason, he would have invited Jiro over. But now that he had a reason, it was even better.
At least he didn't have to make up an excuse.
Just like that, he took Teppei's intelligence and found Setsuno, and had her call Jiro back as well.
"What's so urgent that you called me, Setsu?"
Because she had called so urgently, Jiro had also arrived at the diner very quickly.
"It was Yuuki who was looking for you. He said it was something very important, and it had to do with Teppei. So I called you back. Yuuki, you can talk now!"
Setsuno looked at him. Jiro and Nono were staring at him, waiting for him to explain.
"The matter started with the Four-Beast's attack on the Human World. This attack was not accidental. In fact, the Four-Beast itself was not a newly created creature. It was the same one that was defeated by President Ichiryu back then—"
"Teppei discovered something was wrong at that time—so he tracked the other party and quickly found the problem. The person who regenerated the Four-Beast this time was one of the Gourmet National Treasures—Mohyan Shaishai."
When he said this, the brows of the few of them furrowed directly.
"Yuuki, have you and Teppei confirmed it? Was it really Mohyan Shaishai?"
Setsuno couldn't understand.
Mohyan Shaishai and she were both Gourmet National Treasures. To get this title, besides reaching the peak in one's own field—one had to make great contributions to the Human World.
And as Gourmet National Treasures, they would absolutely not betray the humans of the Human World. This was beyond doubt—she found it hard to believe.
"It was indeed Mohyan Shaishai. But he is in a difficult situation right now. About a month ago, Teppei asked me for help."
"He was tracking the other party, but he was discovered. Then he was attacked. When he woke up again, he was already in the Land of Healing LIFE. It was the Reviver, Pukin, who had saved him."
"But though he was saved, he found that he was being controlled."
As Yuuki spoke, a murderous intent emanated from Setsuno and Jiro.
....
"You two, don't be so anxious. I've already solved his problem. The other party's method of controlling people is to leave a mark on their Gourmet Cells, and then use the infection of the Gourmet Cells to control them."
"I've already repaired the Gourmet Cells on Teppei, so he won't be controlled."
With that, the auras on Setsuno and Jiro gradually stabilized.
"After that, Teppei and I discussed it. He plans to take this opportunity to go undercover by their side and see what they're up to."
"The intelligence he's gotten from there so far is twofold. First, the person controlling him is named Joie. Second, he plans to make a move during the Cooking Fest this time."
Yuuki told the two of them the intelligence Teppei had sent back.
"Joie? I remember this guy. He was very active in the culinary world hundreds of years ago. But his methods were very cruel, even more vicious than the people from the Gourmet Corp—So he was targeted by everyone at that time."
"After that, he disappeared. I originally thought this guy should have been dead long ago. I didn't expect him to still be alive."
Setsuno was quite familiar with Joie.
He had caused a lot of trouble back then, but he had disappeared very quickly. And with no news for hundreds of years, she had thought he was already dead.
Besides Acacia's Students of the Human World and herself, who else could live for hundreds of years?
"That damn kid, Teppei! He just got involved in something like this without even discussing it with us."
Jiro was a bit helpless. He didn't care who Joie was because he had enough confidence that as long as Joie dared to jump out, he could crush him directly.
This wasn't some mysterious confidence—he could really do it.
Of course, Joie had very strong Food Luck, which was Froese's. So it would take him some effort to kill him.
"Since it's already like this, let him stay undercover for now. Yuuki, did you come here just to tell us this?"
Setsuno asked.
"Of course, it's not just this matter. But it is related to it."
"This person named Joie is very strong. So I want to ask Master Jiro to hide in the audience at that time. If this guy really appears, then we'll find a way to get rid of him!"
Yuuki didn't care about the plot. Since there was this opportunity, then they would find a way to kill Joie. Of course, he felt it wouldn't be so easy.
After all, Joie had many life-saving means, like the Life Orb—and his Food Luck.
But in any case, Yuuki was mainly for his own protection.
....
"In that case, I'll take a trip!" Jiro wouldn't let him off so easily. So he directly agreed. If he had the chance at that time, he would really kill Joie.
"Then I'll be troubling you!"
Hearing this, Yuuki was relieved. As long as Joie was taken care of, then the others wouldn't be a problem.
"I didn't expect such a thing to happen at the Cooking Fest!"
Nono shook her head.
This matter felt very big, but she also knew it wasn't something she could get involved in. But for these people to plan to cause trouble at the festival, she was very frustrated.
After all, this was their chefs' Grand event.
"There's nothing to be done about it. The vast majority of the Human World's powerhouses have left. The time of the Gourmet Solar Eclipse is getting closer and closer. All the monsters and demons are coming out now!"
Setsuno said.
The main reason was because of the time. In the past few hundred years, Joie hadn't done anything openly—he had been hiding. But now was different. The time of the Gourmet Solar Eclipse was getting closer and closer.
GOD was about to mature.
And in the eyes of the Nitros, this was the last time...
After all, according to the plan, the Earth would explode, then re-aggregate, and begin to evolve new ingredients again—
As Setsuno's apprentice, Nono also knew that the time of the Gourmet Solar Eclipse was getting closer and closer. The powerhouses of the Human World were entering the Gourmet World to compete for Acacia's Full Course Menu.
....
After chatting for a while and making a plan, Yuuki left.
For the next period of time, everything was calm and peaceful. But everyone knew this was the silence before all hell broke loose.
Even the thick-skinned Toriko knew that something big would happen at the Cooking Fest. After all, Starjun had already arranged to fight him.
He knew Starjun was very strong. Though he hadn't fought him because of Yuuki—he had fought other Vice Chefs and knew that none of them were weak.
Especially Starjun. He always felt that the pressure he brought was much greater than the others. While he himself was constantly getting stronger, Starjun still brought him such a threat.
This made him a little unable to sit still.
For this great battle, he had been constantly accumulating for Food Immersion.
....
With no other major incidents, the Cooking Fest began right on schedule. The venue was a massive island, connected to the mainland by enormous bridges.
Despite the size and number of bridges, the sheer volume of people flocking from all over the world was so immense that it still caused a massive traffic jam.
It couldn't be helped. The number of people gathered here was measured in the billions. Even the IGO couldn't solve a traffic problem of that scale.
Besides, their main focus wasn't on traffic control. The entire perimeter of the island was already surrounded by a legion of Giraffebird.
These beasts, with a capture level of 90, were now impossibly docile.
This was all thanks to Rin. Her talent for taming was truly remarkable—at least, for the beasts of the Human World. Taming those from the Gourmet World was another story entirely.
And the thousands of Giraffebird surrounding the island were just a fraction of the force. For this event—the IGO had actually prepared many more.
The majority were dispersed among the various human-populated cities across the globe.
This was a contingency against Midora's Meteor Spice.
Ichiryu knew his brother's techniques all too well. The area of effect was too vast, and Midora had always held a certain malice towards the Human World.
Midora had been born to be used as pig feed.
It was impossible for him not to resent the world that had created him.
So, Ichiryu had prepared the Giraffebird. If they weren't needed—all the better. He didn't want Midora to use that technique on the Human World.
But just in case, they had to be spread out. If they had all gathered near the Cooking Fest, the Gourmet Corp would probably have taken one look and abandoned their attack plans.
In the original story, the IGO's defensive measures at the festival had been pitifully weak. The Gourmet Corp had broken through and reached the interior in a single encounter.
In the end, the chefs had to fight them off themselves.
Of course, this wasn't Ichiryu's fault. The IGO's power was finite. The Gourmet Corp could focus its attack on a single location—but the IGO was responsible for all of humanity.
....
"Chef Yuuki, we meet again! You're not participating in the festival this time?"
Sunny asked, surprised to see him. Yuuki was a super-powerful chef. And this time, besides Zaus, Yuda and even Setsuno—who hadn't participated in a long time—had all joined in.
Even Komatsu, whom all four of them had acknowledged, was participating. Seeing Yuuki in the audience was a shock.
"I'm sitting this one out. Granny Setsuno is just here to play around anyway. She won't be getting serious."
Yuuki said.
Though he didn't explicitly say he didn't want to bully the other chefs, no one there was an idiot. They all understood his meaning.
After chatting for a while, the Cooking Fest officially began.
The announcer, Munageh, began to introduce the entering chefs.
To participate in this event, you had to be ranked in the top 100. Otherwise, you didn't even have the qualification to compete.
The chefs on this list... the ones at the top were quite legitimate. As for the middle and the back, the rankings were severely inflated.
While you couldn't say all of them were frauds, the majority certainly were.
So, Munageh mainly introduced the top-ranked chefs and a few with very distinct characteristics, like the Bizarre Food Queen, Kopuriko. Not only was her Full Course Menu strange, but so was her attire.
Her outfit was so absurd that Yuuki didn't think many people would want to wear it.
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