According to the rules, each group of players was required to use one ingredient drawn by lottery — an ingredient that had to be incorporated into their dish.
Among the players present, quite a few were professional chefs. This was especially true of the Veteran player groups: right from the start, when the Veterans had been recruiting teammates, they had specifically sought out Newcomer players whose profession was Chef.
A 'Gourmet Sports Meet' — no matter how you thought about it, it felt like it had to be connected to cooking. A Chef would definitely be able to contribute in at least one event.
And now, the fourth event — the final event — 'Cuisine' was exactly that moment for Chefs to demonstrate their ability and value.
A Chef could generally cook a wide variety of ingredients. The quality and flavor might vary from dish to dish, but at the very least they could guarantee that every dish would be edible — nothing catastrophically wrong.
But now, the situation was different.
They were being asked to use ingredients supplied by the Organizer.
And that was a problem.
The Organizer would never provide normal food.
Maybe the ingredients just tasted strange, or smelled foul, and would affect the quality of the dish — but in the grand scheme of things, that was actually the lesser concern. The real fear was that the Organizer's ingredients might be poisonous.
Pufferfish was poisonous, but there were chefs who knew how to prepare it properly.
But ingredients that existed in this world, whose properties were completely unknown — the players had absolutely no way of knowing whether they were toxic or not.
If someone drew a poisonous ingredient and the dish they prepared turned out to be toxic, then… the judges would be in serious danger.
The players serving as judges would be in genuine, life-threatening danger.
A possibility occurred to Lin Ye.
What if a judge died partway through the tasting? How would the scores for the later dishes be handled?
His first thought was simple: just don't eat — hand out scores directly. After all, the player-judges only needed to give a score. They didn't technically have to consume anything.
But was that really allowed?
Could a player who had become a judge actually refuse to taste the dishes they were supposed to evaluate?
Lin Ye suspected there was a very high probability that some rule existed to prevent exactly that.
If you were a judge, how could you not eat?
The Organizer still had a chance to win here, Lin Ye thought quietly to himself.
And what was lurking inside one of those sacks on the stage made his jaw clench.
So the Organizer really had gone and pulled that card.
'Clap, clap, clap, clap…'
The Host Mask Man began to applaud again.
"Dear players, the moment has finally arrived for me to introduce the mandatory ingredients for the fourth event — Cuisine. We had a bit of an unpleasant exchange earlier, and so this time, as compensation for the emotional distress caused to our esteemed guests, I personally submitted a special request — which was approved."
His face was wreathed in smiles, as though he genuinely intended to make it up to the players.
"This time, the ingredient selection will no longer be a blind box situation based purely on luck."
The Host waved his hand, and the other staff members sprang into action, tearing open the various sacks and bags of different sizes that had been arranged on the stage in front of the players.
In short order, the contents of the sacks were laid bare before the players' eyes.
Red, green, yellow — ingredients of every shape and color.
And among them — people.
Yes.
People.
Specifically, the players who had been eliminated in the third round.
The five of them had their mouths covered and their limbs bound with rope. They made muffled whimpering sounds, over and over.
"S-save me…"
"Please, I'm begging you…"
"I… I don't want to die."
They didn't appear to have been physically abused, but their cries for help were faint and weak — the kind of exhaustion that comes from prolonged starvation.
The players' expressions darkened with outrage.
The Organizer had actually brought people up onto the stage.
What was the meaning of this?
They had better not be joking.
"Host, why have you brought people up here?"
"Why, that's because…"
The Host Mask Man laughed. "We're giving our esteemed guests an opportunity. If a guest is willing to kill one of the failed guests, we will give you a tip on how to identify the correct, non-toxic ingredient."
He said 'toxic' outright — openly confirming that some of the ingredients were poisonous.
The players' expressions shifted.
Kill a person. Receive information about which ingredients were safe.
More than a few players were tempted. Sacrificing someone else for your own safety — that wasn't entirely unthinkable.
Besides, these were people who had already failed the Gourmet Sports Meet.
Even if the players didn't kill them, they weren't going to survive anyway. Death was their only end.
If they killed them now, at least those people's remaining value could be put to use.
But then a player noticed something and found a loophole — just as the thought formed, the Host spoke again.
"Of course — first, there are limited slots. Only five chances. Five, and five only! Second, to ensure that other guests cannot simply follow the chooser's lead, the group that chooses to commit the kill will only receive the tip and relevant information at the very end."
That crushed the plans of several players who had been thinking they could just copy whoever picked the safe ingredient.
The Organizer hadn't mentioned that groups couldn't choose the same ingredient as another group this time — so theoretically, multiple groups could pick the same one.
"Oh, and one more thing — a supplementary rule: each ingredient can only be selected by a maximum of two groups. In other words, once an ingredient has already been chosen by two groups, no other players may select it."
What a trap.
"Among the ingredients here, two-thirds have issues. We hope all our dear readers — I mean guests — will open their eyes wide and use every bit of sight, knowledge, and intuition they possess to select the correct ingredient."
Select? How exactly?
These ingredients looked vaguely familiar at first glance, but on closer inspection they were entirely the kind of thing you'd describe as 'I recognize the category, but I've never seen this specific thing in my life' — bizarre and unfamiliar ingredients.
None of them had any idea where the Organizer had dug up such peculiar specimens.
One player in particular spotted what appeared to be a grey, radish-shaped vegetable — except it had a human face on it.
They assumed it was just shaped that way — until the closed eyes on that face slowly opened, and a faint smile spread across its features.
Was that a plant or an animal?!
Many players were left completely dumbfounded.
Elsewhere, a mushroom with a gaudy, multicolored pattern made it virtually impossible not to wonder whether it was poisonous.
In the real world, the general rule was: the more brightly colored a fungus, the more toxic it is. That principle applied widely.
At first glance, every single ingredient on that stage looked suspicious.
The players were almost starting to think the blind box method would have been better. At least then you didn't have to agonize over it — you got what you got, and that was that. No need to worry. Whoever ended up with the poisonous ingredient was just unlucky.
Then the next sentence hit them like a splash of cold water.
"As the cook, the chef must taste their own dish before it is presented to the judges for evaluation."
The players who had resolved not to eat whatever they cooked felt the blood drain from their faces.
They had firmly decided they wouldn't touch anything they made — that way, it didn't matter whether the ingredients were toxic or not.
But now, this announcement from the Organizer threw everything into doubt.
In any normal situation, they would have trusted the Organizer without question. The Organizer was the rule-maker — whatever the Organizer said, you did.
But after what had just happened, they no longer knew whether to believe this particular announcement.
Maybe they didn't actually need to eat the dish they prepared. Maybe this was just a bluff, a scare tactic. Nothing more.
But if it turned out to be real — if they broke the rule — then their fate wouldn't be anything good, would it?
A dilemma.
Believe it, or don't.
Of course, the ideal solution was to select an ingredient that was definitively non-toxic. If the ingredient was safe, the dish would be safe, and there would be no problem at all.
But how were they supposed to find one?
That was the crux of the problem.
The resolve of many players was beginning to crumble.
Maybe… just kill someone.
As long as they killed someone, they'd get the information on the safe ingredient.
The Host Mask Man sensed the shift in the room's atmosphere. The failure and despondency of a moment ago was replaced by a smile returning to his face.
As long as Lin Ye wasn't involved, the momentum in this room was firmly in his hands.
Right now, faced with the ingredient selection, Lin Ye had no answer.
Unless Lin Ye could clearly identify which ingredients were toxic and which were safe.
But Lin Ye wasn't from this world. How could he possibly recognize the full range of ingredients here, let alone know which were toxic?
"Time is limited. Is there any guest willing to step forward? These people failed the events of this Gourmet Meet — their fate was always going to be death. A guest who ends things for them now is actually doing them a kindness. After all, falling into our hands means a fate worse than death — nothing but pain and suffering. Ending it for them now means ending their suffering early."
Dripping with manipulation.
Lin Ye wasn't the only one who noticed — many of the players present caught it too.
But for those players who were already wavering, the Host's words were serving a different purpose: they added a veneer of righteousness and justification to the act they were considering.
It reduced the moral burden. Lightened the guilt and sense of wrongdoing weighing on their conscience.
And yet, even now, no player took that step.
No one wanted to be the first.
"Mr. Zero,"
The Host Mask Man suddenly turned toward Lin Ye, addressing him directly.
"If Mr. Zero were to step forward, the Organizer would provide special consideration — five pieces of information in total. You could share them with whoever you choose, and we would inform the designated recipients accordingly."
Holy—
If Lin Ye acted, he'd receive five pieces of information.
This was the Organizer trying to lure Lin Ye into action.
No — not just a lure. This was a calculated move to use the other players' moral pressure to coerce Lin Ye into acting.
Up to this point, Lin Ye had consistently projected the image of someone who thought for the group, who put others first. And now, the Host Mask Man was attempting to shatter that image in the eyes of the players.
Whatever Lin Ye did — act or refuse — his image was about to take a hit.
And that was exactly what the Host Mask Man needed.
The players who had already been itching to act turned their gazes toward Lin Ye.
They watched expectantly, waiting for him to make his choice.
When Lin Ye showed no reaction, they exchanged glances, subtle urgency flickering in their eyes, silently urging him to agree.
If Lin Ye acted alone, he could secure five pieces of information — that was an objectively excellent deal.
"Not interested,"
But Lin Ye's reply hit the room like a door slamming shut.
A flat, clean refusal. No room for negotiation.
"Z-Zero… Brother Zero, how about… you do it? I'll take the blame. Saving even one life is worth it, right?"
"We don't want to do it ourselves either, but they're already going to die. If they don't die now, they'll just suffer more later."
"If the Host hadn't failed to pick me, I'd definitely have agreed by now…"
Several players couldn't hold back any longer and began speaking up.
Even with reservations, they opened their mouths.
Getting someone else to do it was always better than doing it yourself, wasn't it?
Lin Ye swept the room with his gaze. "Not remotely interested. And let me make this explicitly clear: if anyone is planning to use murder to obtain ingredient information, I will not provide any assistance during the actual event."
That was Lin Ye's declaration of opposition.
At those words, the eyes of the five bound, gagged failed players brimmed with tears. They were barely holding back sobs.
They had watched the reactions of the other players — the pity, the sympathy, and also the mockery and the killing intent. But someone who was genuinely willing to stand up for them? There had been none. Until Lin Ye.
Lin Ye's stature grew even taller in their eyes.
But there was still a small faction of players murmuring among themselves.
"Once we have the toxic ingredient information, we won't need his help anyway."
"We had high hopes for you. Fine, you don't want to agree — whatever. But now you're going to stop us too?"
"We just want to survive and clear the game. There's nothing wrong with that."
"They're losers. They'd die for nothing anyway."
After having received Lin Ye's help — directly or indirectly — these same people were now openly mocking him.
It spoke volumes about the true nature of those players.
Having concluded that Lin Ye was no longer a reliable asset, and that survival now depended on their own choice to kill for 'ingredient information,' they cut ties decisively.
They wanted to live. They wanted to live well.
Someone shifted, taking a step forward.
The first to react was Cold Frost. She understood that if Lin Ye intended to protect the failed players, then the right thing to do was to stand up and back that intent with action.
Faced with Cold Frost — a LV5 player — the advancing players froze instantly, not daring to move further.
In terms of combat, they were simply no match for her.
Charging forward was pointless. They couldn't win. They'd only get beaten down — badly — or worse, killed.
In this room, only a handful of the Veterans could hope to trade blows with Cold Frost. Everyone else didn't need to think twice about it.
The room fell into silence.
The Host Mask Man cursed Lin Ye internally. Whenever that man showed up and interfered, nothing ever went right.
"The ingredient selection will now begin. We'll go in order of ranking from the third event — starting with first-place Group 26. Please proceed with your selection."
The Host Mask Man urged Lin Ye's trio to get moving and stop disrupting the others.
Lin Ye knew as well that if a player truly resolved to act, there was no way they could stand guard indefinitely.
He simply turned, before heading toward the ingredient area, and fixed the few restless, itching players with a long, measured look. It was a warning.
Faced with that warning, several players felt a jolt run through them. Even now, Lin Ye still commanded a certain authority. His warning gave them pause.
Lin Ye, Cold Frost, and Miss Nakiri made their way into the ingredient selection area.
There were many ingredients of every variety — numerous types, all different. Many were brightly colored, fragrant and enticing, their delicate aromas drifting through the air as if beckoning something.
"Generally, green vegetables tend to be less problematic,"
Miss Nakiri said, "but even the vegetables here are hard to be sure about."
She picked up a rod-shaped green vegetable, but the moment it was in her hand, a strange, yielding softness registered — the kind of texture that comes from something spoiled.
It killed any desire to use it.
"This mushroom is black — that should be fine, right?"
Cold Frost pointed at a mushroom.
Miss Nakiri picked it up and gave it a sniff.
A foul stench hit her immediately.
She set it down at once, a flicker of distaste in her eyes.
"It would be very difficult to make a decent dish with this."
Without knowing the properties of this mushroom, figuring out how to eliminate its stench using real-world culinary knowledge in a short time — even Miss Nakiri had no idea how to approach it.
If they chose this mushroom, she would need to try every method available to neutralize the smell.
Under normal circumstances, she would rely on tasting to determine its fundamental flavor profile.
But with the ingredient potentially being toxic, how could she dare eat it?
Lin Ye looked over the ingredients laid out before them. He knew that with his Superpower: Devour, even if every single ingredient was poisonous, none of it would harm him.
The problem was: he could eat them without issue, but he had no way of determining from that whether they were toxic or not. His ability neutralized the poison — it didn't let him identify it.
He couldn't make that judgment.
"If only we could determine whether an ingredient was toxic by its taste,"
Miss Nakiri, hearing that, froze for a moment.
At this of all moments—
A scream tore through the air, followed by a dull, heavy thud.
"Clap, clap, clap…"
"Congratulations, congratulations,"
The Host Mask Man smiled and applauded. "The guest will receive one piece of non-toxic ingredient information from us, delivered after all other players have made their selections. You have absolutely nothing to worry about regarding ingredient toxicity."
A player had done it.
One of the failed players was dead.
Upon realizing what had happened, many players instinctively moved away. But others were now wavering even more violently.
There were only five chances, and one was already gone. Four left.
If they didn't act soon, someone else would beat them to it.
'Crack…'
A Veteran player moved.
The Newcomers in their group reacted with a mixture of helplessness and quiet relief. They were the beneficiaries, ultimately. They had no standing to say anything.
Miss Nakiri witnessed the scene, and felt her understanding of human nature deepen a little further.
"Zero, shouldn't we step in to stop them?"
Cold Frost said.
"Only if we kill them ourselves."
Lin Ye replied.
"What about other options?"
"Unless we can find a way to identify the toxicity of the ingredients — by smell, by taste, by some kind of sensory information to determine which are poisonous and which aren't."
Cold Frost knew there was no other answer.
"I could actually make a rough judgment by tasting them myself, but eating a lot of it…"
Lin Ye and Miss Nakiri's eyes met at the same moment.
In that instant, the same thought struck them both.
The two of them shared Taste.
"You… that's incredibly dangerous."
"I ate an entire octopus and didn't feel a thing."
And beyond the octopus — there had been other ingredients. Back in the first event, 'Rice Bucket,' Lin Ye had eaten a large variety of things.
"But those ingredients are toxic—"
Even if the first event's ingredients carried some toxicity, their potency had at least been limited. The ingredients here were a different matter entirely.
"Relax. I'm not going to gamble with my own life."
His primary concern here was the safety of the player-judges.
If they actually died before delivering their scores, everyone including him would likely be eliminated.
Moments later, the entire room witnessed something that left them stunned into silence.
They watched Lin Ye begin eating the ingredients.
For a heartbeat, the entire venue went dead quiet.
...
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