The camera faithfully recorded Mo Bai's ugly expression.
In front of the television, the moment Mo Bai placed the Leopard Coral Grouper on the cutting board, Wang Xiang sat stunned, letting scalding hot tea drip from the table onto his pants.
"Dad! Something's wrong!" The three Wang brothers burst through the door from the next room in a panic.
"It's over. The second low-temperature aging was too cold..." Wang Xiang felt as if his heavy limbs had lost all their strength.
After an animal dies, its muscles remain active, supplied by a local source of energy. This energy is stored in the form of sugar crystals called glycogen.
The enzymes within the muscles continue to consume and break down this energy supply.
Eating a fish too soon after it has died is like eating it alive; the muscles are still working, tightly bound together. Not only that, but it also lacks flavor, as the proteins have not yet broken down into amino acids.
Amino acids are the substances that allow people to taste umami.
Then, once the glycogen is depleted, the fish enters a state of rigor mortis. It isn't until the enzymes in the fish decompose the proteins, making the flesh soft and tender, that the flavor reaches its peak of perfection.
This process of perfecting the fish is called "aging."
Wang Xiang had exhausted himself at sea to catch the two best fish—a Leopard Coral Grouper and a yellowtail—both of which he aged himself, watching over them nearly twenty-four hours a day without rest.
The yellowtail was still slumbering in the -52°C frozen world of the fish storage, awaiting the final battle the day after tomorrow.
But he had never imagined that the Leopard Coral Grouper, the first to be presented, would have a problem.
As an old fisherman who had dealt with fish for half his life, Wang Xiang understood the true purpose of submitting an aged fish for the pre-competition test.
It wasn't about turning in a fish that was already perfectly aged, but rather one that would reach perfect aging on the day of the competition. This was the real test.
Naturally, Wang Xiang had taken the lead and submitted a Leopard Coral Grouper timed to finish aging at nine in the morning on the first day of the Group A competition.
But who would have thought that the Leopard Coral Grouper—which, while not as high-quality as the bluefin tuna, was still the second-best fish in Group A—would be mishandled by the staff?
Zero-degree aging was definitely out of the question now; it could only be accelerated at room temperature.
But even an old master like him couldn't pinpoint the exact moment for room-temperature aging. Could he really trust the eighteen-year-old Mo Bai?
Wang Xiang closed his eyes in resignation. He had never found the red of a Leopard Coral Grouper so vexing. Only a faint, lingering hope in his heart offered a silent prayer.
"Don't touch it. At room temperature, this Leopard Coral Grouper needs at least another hour and a half to age."
On site, Colson, the bald man in sunglasses who had a clearer view, also had a dark expression, his salt-and-pepper beard trembling.
He had personally identified every fish before placing them in the freezer himself. Now that a contestant's fish had a problem, wasn't this a slap in his face?
If this weren't a live broadcast, his explosive temper would have compelled him to stop the competition on the spot and find the employee who made the mistake.
"Is something wrong, Mr. Colson?" Takagaki Kaede asked cautiously after turning off her earpiece.
She didn't know why, but after the camera angle changed, the expressions of the two food critics beside her were not good.
"The second low-temperature preservation aging was off by 3°C." The sweet-looking miko's words shocked Colson and Takagaki Kaede. Then, while holding a tabby cat in her arms, she even deduced the time. "If aged at room temperature, it will need another two hours and thirty minutes."
"No, perhaps another five minutes more."
"Huh? I-Is that right, Mr. Colson?" Takagaki Kaede's clear, cyan eyes looked toward the bald Colson, impressed but bewildered. The miko's display of skill had left her completely stunned.
Figuring out the fish's storage problem and aging time just by looking at it from so far away?
Are all chefs this terrifying nowadays?
"Y-Yes," Colson replied, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? I could only guess it needed more than two hours to age. How could I be like this young lady, who's precise down to the minute and even stated the exact temperature difference?"
Colson felt like he had wasted his entire life.
"Oh, that wasn't me who said it." Sensing two pairs of eyes staring at her as if she were a rare animal, the sweet miko, Chiba Eda, lifted the front paws of the cat in her arms. "Lord Kitty told me."
"Meow~" As if saying hello, the plump tabby cat let out a cry while yawning.
"Wow! So cute!" Little stars sparkled in Takagaki Kaede's eyes.
Colson, however, looked rather distressed. He recalled the rumors among his IGO colleagues about shrines, and a drop of sweat immediately trickled down his forehead.
The little miko didn't seem to be lying, which meant the truth could only be...
Holy hell! This tabby cat couldn't possibly be... that, could it?!
Colson stared straight ahead, his muscles tensed, trying his best to diminish his own presence.
===
"Was this sabotage, or just a simple mistake by the staff?" Mo Bai scanned his surroundings but couldn't find anyone looking his way.
"Hey, Host. How did you know there was a problem with the fish?" Xiao Bai was curious about the unscientific talent Mo Bai had displayed.
"What do you mean, 'how did I know'? I just knew." Mo Bai gave Xiao Bai a sidelong glance.
"Practice makes perfect? If that's the explanation, I guess it makes sense." But Xiao Bai still felt something was off, as if a Bronze-tier player had become a Challenger overnight. It was just too absurd.
"Huh? Contestant Mo Bai from the Wang Family's Auspicious Fish Shop doesn't look too well. Did something happen?" Kasuga Yanagi looked quizzically at the vibrant red Leopard Coral Grouper on the cutting board.
Unfortunately, at her level, she couldn't see anything wrong with it at all.
"Contestant Mo Bai is approaching a staff member. Is he finally going to start cooking?"
The camera followed Mo Bai to the staff member's side. After they spoke, the staffer's jaw dropped, unable to process it for a moment.
Finally, the staff member walked off-camera and returned with—a deck chair.
"A-A deck chair?!" Kasuga Yanagi's exclamation cracked. "Did Contestant Mo Bai not get enough rest yesterday? Is it really okay to leave the fish out at room temperature like that?!"
Hearing Kasuga Yanagi's outcry, Mo Bai gave a thumbs-up to the camera.
"No problem, it's all good!"
He calmly closed his eyes, basking in the sunlight.
"Xiao Bai, activate the Mental Time Chamber."
"Wake me up in two hours and twenty minutes."
Mo Bai's voice was frighteningly calm.
"Whether it was an accident or sabotage, it doesn't matter."
"Twenty minutes to prepare the sauce and twenty minutes for the sashimi is more than enough."
Inside the Mental Time Chamber, Mo Bai's knife moved as if it had wings, and a faint radiance seemed to flow around his body.
If Xiao Bai were to open Mo Bai's personal status panel at that moment, it would discover skills slowly materializing in the previously blank chef skills section.
At the same time, back in the arena, the bell signaling the completion of a dish had already rung.
"I'm finished." Harano Katsuya raised his arm after pressing the button to serve his dish.
Harano Katsuya, holding a significant advantage in ingredient quality, was the first to serve his dish!
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