LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 950
<950 - Monster Gourmet Championship (3)>
The Monster Gourmet Championship was more fun than Oknodie had vaguely anticipated.
Compared to the disappointing preliminary participants, the finalists who managed to survive after tasting the dishes were impressive!
Unfortunately, one of her targeted finalists forfeited, but there were still plenty of skilled competitors left.
Triple Head Monster of Triduohexabi.
A tiny giant dwarf that reached 3m in height.
A Black Knight clad in cursed armor (not a mob).
A small boy that seemed more suited for a children’s hamburger set than a monster culinary competition.
An elderly man with a face full of wrinkles.
“Everyone looks super strong!!”
Well, they were indeed powerful, being the ones who withstood monster poisoning.
Unlike UZRazka, who forfeited after becoming half-disabled, the other competitors were all in good shape, boasting incredible resistance to poison. To build such resistance, one must have significant strength either physically or magically.
Simply being alive was evidence of power for these food fighter participants.
However, even the strong were still human.
Honestly, this competition was quite something.
“Can we just skip the second dish and move on?”
“My digestion isn’t done yet. Can we take a 3-day break?”
“My stomach hurts too much…”
Seeing the participants’ reactions, the host declared a medical time-out.
“Hey, Jaku. If this continues, we might actually all die.”
“No matter how much Professor Buzhaar treats monster lives like flies, losing this many monsters would put you in danger too, wouldn’t it?”
“Right. The lowly ones can be sacrificed, but if our captain-class monsters are wiped out, it will take ages to recover that gap.”
Jaku was feeling the pressure as well.
“Indeed. Considering the Professor’s temperament, it’s not surprising if he insists on birthing new captain-class monsters to replace the lost ones…”
Jaku shook, quaking at the thought of ending up like the fugitive Alexo.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize, but our finalists have suffered significant harm due to the gourmet dishes. According to the medical staff, we may need to consider forfeiting the competition…”
The professors smiled benevolently.
“The Main Building understands.”
“Kids are like that anyway.”
“Things that taste bad always do.”
“Casualties in a harsh competition are common even for the Foundation.”
“When we traveled with the Warrior Party, some of the competitions felt similar.”
Unexpectedly friendly responses!
If handled well, all the core forces might survive.
With excitement, Jaku began planning for the wrap-up.
But one should always listen to the end of a conversation.
“Well, if Oknodie gets bored, we have no choice but to make the host participate as a contestant.”
“The host might be too old for that.”
“I was already bored with medium-grade culinary ingredients, so bring over a large-grade monster to slaughter directly.”
The professors were setting a stage, as if to say if you’re going to back down, you might as well die in their place!
“Of course, why would the medical staff know about the competition? For someone whose limbs are intact to forfeit? That’s absurd. I’ll just lock the waiting room.”
“Don’t you worry about a runaway. The Foundation’s barrier is set up already.”
“I’ll crush any runner with my ‘eyes’ if I have to.”
With unwanted support from Jonnas and the Destroyer, Jaku had to stifle his tears of gratitude.
Back in the waiting room, the host kicked out all the forfeiture requests from other participants who wanted to give up.
“Ozrazka forfeited, didn’t he?”
“If you want to quit, you should just end up half-disabled like him.”
“…”
Even Jaku, who usually wouldn’t consider any forfeiture, felt this was too much to handle.
The captain-class leaders thought it unfair they had to suffer such torturous dishes because they were stronger than the others again.
Even if they managed to endure some, wouldn’t the accumulated damage eventually take its toll?
The participants were now only able to trust Oknodzie’s fragile physique and youthful appearance.
‘Oknodie may look fine on the outside, but surely he’s really in immense pain on the inside?’
‘The other brigade captains are probably in the same boat. Oknodie must be no different.’
‘With that tiny body, all he can squeeze out is mana control. A mana tool becomes useless once all its mana is expended. Plus, he’s said to use Dark Mana? If he runs out of other mana and only has Dark Mana left, he’ll just end up dead from toxicity!’
Every dish was clearly leaving cumulative damage behind.
A monster petrification stew that couldn’t escape petrification due to low resistance.
A monster tongue steak that temporarily robbed the ability to speak and forcibly tried to morph tongues.
Eating just one dish chipped away at their bodily functions.
Complete resistance required much more than ordinary resistance, demanding mental power and mana consumption.
Thus, the survivors who remained in the finals resisted, bearing the damage in some parts of their bodies or having slight degradation left as a result.
Digestion failure.
Motor function decline.
Speech function decline.
Before long, one of the captain-class participants couldn’t withstand the repeated decline in output and collapsed, spitting blood.
In that moment of losing consciousness, all the side effects they had been controlling rushed to the forefront, engulfing the participant’s body.
A competitor petrified, unable even to ask for help, with their internal organs turned to stone, leaving only consciousness!
‘What happened to Oknodie? What about Oknodie?!’
The captain-class participants, their leisure gone, hurriedly turned their gazes toward Oknodie.
“Um… Yami! My score~~ is full marks! One more bowl, please!”
While others struggled even to finish one plate, Oknodie was asking for a refill.
In this world, some high specs just couldn’t be explained by logic.
‘Are you seriously trying to kill us all?’
‘Are you prepared for the aftermath?’
With the silent pressure from the captains, Jaku set about formulating an emergency plan.
Forfeiture was not an option.
Oknodie couldn’t fall first.
Then the area he had to intervene in was the ‘Monster Chef.’
That maniac who was creating those dishes.
“You all. From now on, lower the risk level of the dishes.”
“Huh?”
“Make dishes that don’t kill the eater as much!”
“Wouldn’t that lack the proper craftsmanship?”
“For a dish that will be remembered for a long time, we are prepared to risk our lives. Please don’t worry about our lives, Jaku!”
“I’m not worried about your lives; I’m worried about the captain-class monsters who will die if they eat this!”
The monsters, secretly wishing for the extermination of those captain classes who thought they could bully them because they were strong, were left feeling quite disappointed.
Jaku had inadvertently set up what could be seen as a legal frazzling time, reflected as open murder towards superiors!
All the monster chefs were satisfied they wouldn’t die as much, and the captain-classes would suffer less, leading to an urgent patch of lowered risk.
“Uh. What is this?”
“It’s sushi. Topped with monster meat.”
“But the topping is just salmon sushi!”
“What are you talking about? Look closely at the small black dots sprinkled between the salmon.”
“Gasp. Is this monster cells?”
“Exactly. This is gourmet sushi with monster cells. As long as there’s even 1mg of monster cells contained, it is classified as monster cuisine and gourmet dish!”
Oknodie, still with an angry face, lifted a well-blended banana shake.
“But this is really a banana shake!”
“So it tastes like banana, right?”
“It’s a bit strange, though…”
“Because 1ml of monster essence was added.”
“That little?!”
“Even if it’s just 1ml of monster essence, it is classified as a monster drink and gourmet drink!”
The nefarious side of food law created by corporate marketing!
Legally sound but suddenly lowered quality in dishes left Oknodie sulking.
“Legally, it might be fine, but it would just classify as normal salmon sushi and regular banana shake in the food compendium without a separate dish…”
Upon seeing Oknodie’s sulking demeanor, Jonnas immediately filed a complaint with the host.
“Which country’s food classification law is this competition following?”
“We are following the Empire’s FDA classification law.”
“Please wait 5 minutes.”
What would happen after waiting 5 minutes?
Jaku remained relaxed.
Jonnas drew out a communication magic tool and immediately mobilized all his connections.
“Is the crime file of the FDA Minister still on the Foundation’s secret computing network? Yes. Please send that file along with a family photo to Director Mana Board, requesting an amendment to the law. Yes. The content concerns revising the food labeling standards for taste and aroma additives and announcing a special law.”
“The director might not comply easily? I recall a retired assassin maid in that neighborhood. Let’s ask Leaf for help to contact that maid and deliver a candy to the director’s family.”
“Poison candy? No, just regular candy, but send a separate email with an analysis sheet of toxic candy’s components and the antidote, threatening him. This should make the FDA director cooperate.”
Oknodie had a butler with loyalty 100%, who treasured him dearly, but he was also once a part of the Foundation.
Using old connections and industry knowledge, he could pull off such a task solo.
Jonnas wasn’t just any candidate for the Foundation’s next director – he was chosen by Chairman First Wahyhiemhai!
Ding ding.
With Jonnas’s unusual communications, Jaku, who had been anxiously anticipating, was soon horrified to see the data transmitted to him on his mana board.
“What in the world?!”
“Just as you see.”
“Currently, the Empire’s FDA has announced that ‘taste addition’ and ‘aroma addition’ will be classified as similar non-formal foods rather than legitimate ones?!”
“Thus, these dishes, now classified as similar gourmet dishes rather than monster gourmet dishes, are no longer suitable for this competition, so we request an additional review of other dishes.”
“Next! Next time, we will definitely reflect on this matter!”
“…Really?”
“Yes, yes! It’s possible that chefs participating in our competition didn’t anticipate the recent changes in Empire law, so they might not have been sufficiently prepared!”
Jaku underestimated the professors’ capacity for action.
“Don’t worry. I happened to hunt a monster for the competition.”
“What, a large-grade monster within 5 minutes?!”
In just 5 minutes, Michael dropped the corpse of a large-grade monster in the open ground.
“Now, you won’t be saying you can’t cook because you lack ingredients.”
Though it could begin freely, the competition wasn’t just about the ending!
With smiles of satisfaction from Oknodie, who saw normalization of the gourmet dishes, and Jonnas nodding approvingly.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the participants and the audience, the tournament could continue successfully!