Erina ultimately agreed in the end, then called the Nakiri family in the afternoon. After setting a time with Mutou Judai, she went back.
After all, she still needed to tell her grandfather about the expulsion—the one who was a daughter-con and granddaughter-con, and had even single-handedly organized the Golden Age for his daughter and granddaughter.
Although as the first Nakiri family member to enroll at Totsuki, and because she was God's Tongue, which was equivalent to a benchmark for the culinary world, her expulsion wouldn't cause large-scale public opinion. Even if there was public opinion, the Nakiri family's PR would either suppress it or let it die down with cold treatment. But it was still necessary to explain things to the family a little.
Then Erina, who took Shokugeki quite seriously, would probably go back to prepare a bit for the Shokugeki.
As for Mutou Judai...
After Erina left, he tidied up the house a bit and took a shower.
He looked up what he could do now and checked what popular light novels existed in this world, to see if he could become a plagiarist or something—
"Love Metronome, Fantasy Demon Blade Chronicles... Wow, these are all completely unheard-of things. It seems like plagiarizing light novels might have potential?"
Thinking this, Mutou Judai sat in front of his computer for a while.
Then he realized this problem.
"Hmm... surprisingly, I can't think of a single word to write..."
He had originally planned to write something like Sword Art Online. He did remember the general plot, but when it came time to actually put pen to paper, looking at the blank document, he had no idea which word to start with.
Moreover...
"Going directly to submit for major awards and such would be very problematic. I'd have to start with a web version like Sword Art Online and update slowly... Just thinking about having to update daily with no holidays makes me feel extremely immersed, and I'm already tired before I've even started writing..."
Thinking of this, Mutou Judai sighed.
But he knew the principle that any job would be tiring, so relying on his strong willpower, he forced himself to sit in front of the computer—then played games until evening, and when he got sleepy, he went to sleep!
High EQ: Sword Art Online is about writing online games, so I'm playing online games for research material!
Hehe, slacked off, slacked off.
Mutou Judai, as a representative of carefree people, slept until the next morning, and was still awakened by the system's sign-in notification.
—Sign-in.
After opening his eyes, Mutou Judai listlessly selected sign-in.
Then...
[Sign-in reward: Limited scope self-selected template (one)]
Hm!?
Seeing this reward, Mutou Judai became alert.
After he opened this reward, several options popped up.
[Available panels: Chef, Fighter, Novelist, Manga Artist, Musician]
Seeing this panel, Mutou Judai was stunned for a moment.
This afternoon he would have a Shokugeki with Erina, and now the panels included Chef—if he selected it, would he become that kind of overpowered protagonist character?
Hmm—eliminated!
Being reborn ten years in the past in a parallel world, with so many things he could do, but insisting on being a chef—this would be loving the chef profession too deeply.
If he had been a chef in his previous life and was very familiar with chef development over the next ten years, then he might really choose it.
But the key was that he knew nothing about it.
So forget about chef.
Musician... this one was also eliminated. Same reasoning—there was no need to prioritize something he completely didn't understand, wasn't particularly needed now, and didn't especially like. He could wait for future sign-in rewards.
Novelist and Manga Artist—
These two had the greatest appeal for Mutou Judai.
After all, he had impressions of many works that didn't exist in this world but were hugely popular in his previous world—light novels, manga, and such things he had seen quite a few of.
The key problem blocking him in this area right now was that he couldn't write at all!
As for drawing, he couldn't even draw a smooth stick figure!
If these two panels could improve his professional skills, they would indeed be very good.
However—
"Fighter, huh... I can learn writing novels and drawing manga myself later. But fighter... with my sub-healthy physique, I definitely have no talent in this area. Anyway, this side's me has some savings from frequent part-time work and can live for a while. Maybe I should first choose this one that would be hard to learn through later study, and leave the others for future sign-in rewards."
Because he could sign in once every day.
So right now, Mutou Judai directly chose Fighter.
Then as the Fighter panel was selected, the other four panels disappeared, and a character panel was generated on the panel he had chosen.
[Character Panel (Fighter): Jack Hanma (from the work Baki)]
Hm!?
Initially, Mutou Judai thought it would be a panel generated with him as the main character, but he never expected this panel to be randomly generated from such characters.
Damn!
—Kakarot is also a fighter!
Why didn't I get a Kakarot panel!
Even if not Kakarot, at least give me one who can shoot energy blasts!
Jack Hanma...
This guy wasn't exactly weak in Baki either.
He also inherited the Hanma blood of Hanma Yujiro, the strongest creature on Earth's surface.
Moreover, looking at the panel description—hmm, it was completely Jack Hanma's peak period power!
However...
Although Jack Hanma's template gave him many techniques, and because of having Hanma blood, he could use powerful imagination to simulate battles with opponents and had strong learning ability for others' techniques.
But... Jack Hanma's signature method was a fighting technique called Beast Style...
Okay, no more rhetoric—to put it bluntly, it was biting people!
In Baki, a scene that left a deep impression on Mutou Judai was Jack Hanma crawling on the ground, chasing an elderly fighter and biting him...
When he saw this scene, Mutou Judai had repeatedly wondered—is this even fighting?
Especially since this guy's bite was so good he could even crush coconut shells...
This kind of fighting technique...
"Sigh—forget it, anyway the physical enhancement is obtained, and Hanma blood's learning ability for fighting as the benefit brought by this panel is enough. Biting people... anyway I won't fight with that level of fighters, and this world doesn't have underground fighting arenas like in Baki, so forget it."
Mutou Judai waved his hand, then looked at the panel showing he had currently received ten percent, and this panel would automatically receive ten percent each day, requiring ten days to fully receive everything. He closed the panel and stopped paying attention to it.
He got up, put on clothes, tidied his somewhat messy hair, then planned to go downstairs to buy ingredients for the Shokugeki with Erina.
Perhaps by coincidence, just as he went downstairs, he saw a car stop at the apartment entrance, and then Erina got out of the car carrying a box.
"Are you planning to run away?"
Seeing Mutou Judai seemingly preparing to go out, Erina snorted lightly, while Mutou Judai pointed to the convenience store nearby.
"No, I'm going to buy ingredients for the Shokugeki."