It took three days to recover some HP and extend his lifeline before Mo Bai could barely drag himself back from the brink of total physical depletion, feeling as if his body had been hollowed out.
It doesn't matter if a small shop has many customers, but it can't be packed to the rafters every single moment.
The first day of being fully booked was fine, but by the second day, that mob of foodies actually learned to form a united front. They simply gave up on seating and forcibly turned Mo Bai's little shop into an assembly-line vending stall.
Who could withstand that? Even peak human physical constitution wouldn't be enough.
Even exerting all his strength, all he could see were crowds with no end in sight. The despair of being dominated like that... Mo Bai could still feel a chill rising up his spine just thinking about it now.
"Let's not think about that nonsense for now. Time to head to the Tōtsuki Detached Palace." Temporarily homeless, Mo Bai advanced his plan to enter the Tōtsuki Detached Palace for his study tour.
Dragging his suitcase, Mo Bai left the hotel where he was staying and hailed a taxi to the Tōtsuki Detached Palace.
"Excuse me..." At the resort's guard post, he had just opened his mouth when the bodyguard stuffed a map into his hand.
"You can use the bicycles by the roadside. If you're fast enough, you might still make it." The older bodyguard gave Mo Bai a thumbs-up, his pearly white teeth gleaming. "For burning youth! Run! Young man!"
"I get the feeling this uncle has misunderstood something." Mo Bai glanced at the dozen or so large buildings of vastly different styles standing amidst the mountains and rivers, and a suffocating aura of extravagance hit him right in the face.
Tōtsuki Resort, a super-large-scale institution integrating therapy, cuisine, tourism, and accommodation. It could be called a Disneyland for foodies—every national cuisine was housed in a building brimming with the atmosphere of that nation.
Based on Tōtsuki Academy, it was a miraculous engineering feat achieved by the constant injection of fresh blood.
And the skyscraper situated in the center of these dozen restaurant buildings was the core of the entire Tōtsuki Resort: the Tōtsuki Detached Palace.
"Well, f*** me sideways. Couldn't the management of Tōtsuki Resort put in a little effort and swap the bikes for electric scooters?" Mo Bai panted, the urge to complain accumulating in his heart to the point of bursting.
Such a huge resort and they rely entirely on bicycles for transport?!
F@ck♂you!
Mo Bai wiped the sweat from his forehead, too exhausted to care about anything.
Parking the bicycle at the designated spot, Mo Bai stepped into this oppressively extravagant building with somewhat unsteady steps.
Just as Mo Bai stepped into the lobby, before he could even marvel at its vastness, a good-looking female attendant in high heels jogged hurriedly up to him.
"What took you so long? Give me your documents quickly, I'll handle them for you!" The waitress snatched the documents and suitcase Mo Bai had taken out. "Take the elevator to the third floor, turn left, and go all the way to the end of the corridor."
"Huh?"
"Huh what? Hurry up! Remember, turn left and go to the end!" The waitress practically pushed Mo Bai into the elevator.
Mo Bai looked at the elevator doors reflecting his cheeks, looking completely bewildered.
What the hell? What's going on? What do I do now?
The chime indicating the elevator had reached the third floor interrupted Mo Bai's out-of-body state.
"Or maybe... I should go take a look?" Mo Bai rubbed his chin and pondered.
Life is about having the courage to court death. So, following the waitress's instructions, Mo Bai turned left and walked along the red-carpeted corridor until he reached a pair of iron doors.
"This looks like a cooking lab no matter how I see it, right? Do I really go in?"
In the end, the desire to court death triumphed over reason. Amidst a series of creaking sounds, Mo Bai pulled the doors open.
The intense light that met his eyes made him instinctively shield them, and it took a good while for his vision to recover.
In a space the size of fully four or five football fields, cooking stations were arranged one after another, surrounded by sections of ingredient counters. At this moment, the chefs at the cooking stations all turned their gazes in unison toward the entrance.
On the high speaker's platform, a middle-aged foreigner with a hooked nose and slicked-back hair glanced at his watch. It was three minutes before the assessment started at 9:30. "Lucky kid. Hurry up and choose a cooking station."
"...Oh." To escape the awkwardness of everyone staring at him, Mo Bai quickly chose an unoccupied cooking station and walked in.
"As I just explained, before 12:00 noon, you may use the ingredients on site to prepare a dish or multiple dishes to present to the general managers of the various restaurants seated here. If a general manager approves, you are hired. If not, you may choose to remake the dish and continue the assessment, or choose a manager from a different restaurant."
"However," the meticulous middle-aged foreigner held up three fingers, "you only have these three hours."
"Going over time means failure."
"Now then, begin." The middle-aged foreigner waved his arm down, and the chefs down below rushed toward the surrounding ingredient counters like tigers released from their cages.
What the hell? What's going on? What do I do now?
The 'bewildered triple combo' once again took over Mo Bai's expression.
"Whoa~ Old Bai, what kind of trouble have you stirred up now?" Little Bai had just woken up and saw the scene of chefs rushing everywhere.
"You might not believe this, but... this really isn't my fault." Mo Bai covered his face. Wasn't he just here to submit his study tour qualification? Why did he have to cook again? And the rules this time sounded complicated.
Does he look that much like a generic NPC? Why is everyone treating him like he's here to participate in a culinary assessment?
"Thank you for your hard work, Chef Chapelle." A handsome young man with long hair, ostentatiously tied back in a single ponytail, stood up and pulled out a chair for the middle-aged foreigner.
This flashy young man was no simple character; that much was evident just from the fact that he was sitting in the second seat.
He was the Deputy Head Chef of Tōtsuki Resort, Sena Hiromi. The second-in-command of Tōtsuki Resort, ranking just below Head Chef Dōjima Gin.
"Mm." The stern-faced middle-aged foreigner nodded to show his thanks.
Roland Chapelle, the head of the French Cuisine Department and lecturer at Tōtsuki Academy.
"I thought you were going to fly into a rage and kick out that last chef who came in." Sena Hiromi patted his chest, relieved.
"Heh, I will permit any event within the rules. That young man was not late, so naturally, he is still qualified to take the assessment."
"However, what he missed is his own loss. The pre-assessment rule explanation is sometimes quite important."
"I hope this young man can firmly remember this lesson." Chapelle rested his hands on the table, fingers interlaced, covering half his face.
Amidst the busy chefs, Mo Bai, standing at his stove with a blank expression, looked somewhat out of place.
"Oh, hell! If I reveal my identity now, will I be seen as using a backdoor connection?" Mo Bai felt this was a thorny problem. "It seems the only option is to play along with the mistake."
"Old Bai, look on the bright side. We can harvest another batch of recipes." Little Bai's consolation skills were MAXed out.
"But what should I make? And who should I serve it to?"
"Isn't that simple? Watch me." After a moment of silence, Little Bai began to rattle off the identities of the general managers of the various restaurants at the judges' table as if listing family treasures.
"Damn, when did you get such savage skills?"
"I am a System Sprite, after all!" Little Bai protested against Mo Bai's disdain.
"However, to prepare for the Hokkaido Five-Star Chef assessment, you should find a cuisine style adept at cooking fish. I think Hua nation cuisine is quite good; after all, Hua nation cuisine has numerous methods, and any ingredient can be fitted into it."
"Hua nation cuisine?" Mo Bai thought this was a good idea, but what dish should he present?
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