"Hello everyone! I'm your host, Arthur, and today I'll be hosting this very special gourmet competition for you!"
As Arthur stepped onto the stage, the audience erupted into cheers.
A normal gourmet competition wouldn't attract this kind of crowd. After all, not everyone enjoyed or understood traditional food competitions.
But this one was different.
"I'm sure everyone already knows that we've invited many famous chefs."
"But at the same time, we've also invited many ordinary cooks."
"And even people who aren't chefs at all."
Arthur paused deliberately.
"The reason is simple."
"This competition isn't about who makes the most delicious food."
He leaned closer to the microphone, lowering his voice as if revealing something frightening.
"It's about who makes the worst-tasting food."
A ripple of excitement spread through the crowd.
Arthur briefly explained the rules, then raised his hand.
"Next, let's welcome our judges!"
"There's no such thing as bad-tasting food in this world-only food lacking nutrition."
"Please welcome our first judge, the wild survival master beloved by everyone-Bear Grylls!"
"As a fun fact, in neighboring Great Xia, Bear Grylls is rumored to have a classic saying-'If you remove the head, you can eat it!'"
A lean man walked onto the stage, waved briefly, and took his seat at the judging panel.
Arthur continued without pause.
"Food is food. It won't attack you."
"No matter what it is, you should eat it with gratitude."
"Our second judge is a gourmet master with over thirty years of judging experience, someone who has eaten every kind of food imaginable, and who once even served as Bear Grylls' survival teammate-A-Long!"
The second judge appeared noticeably older.
As he stepped onto the stage, murmurs of surprise spread through the audience.
He was a genuinely famous gourmet.
One known for encouraging creative cuisine.
"And finally..."
Arthur's expression turned solemn.
"Because of how innovative this competition is, we ultimately could only find three judges."
"Our third judge has a famous quote-'This dish is worse than shit.'"
"And he's rumored to be a man who has actually eaten that kind of thing."
"He's also known as the Magician of Vegetables."
"Please welcome-Kojiro Shinomiya!"
As the name was announced, Kojiro Shinomiya slowly walked out.
He gave a brief greeting and took his seat.
Next, Arthur began introducing the contestants.
Kojiro Shinomiya sat at the judging panel, calmly observing the participants as they entered.
He saw a Totsuki student-someone called the Witch, or something like that.
He saw Joichiro as well.
There were plenty of familiar faces.
In the past, just thinking about the dishes these people made-especially Joichiro's-would've made Kojiro Shinomiya want to withdraw on the spot.
Dark cuisine that had allegedly caused psychological trauma to fellow chefs.
But now-
For the current Kojiro Shinomiya, this level of dark cuisine was naïve.
He had eaten dishes affected by Jaden's ability multiple times.
As long as Jaden himself wasn't here-
Under these rules, what could they possibly serve him?
Feces?
Honestly, Kojiro Shinomiya felt he could probably eat even that now.
He was already strong.
With that mindset, the competition began.
And one by one, he tasted the dishes.
Without changing his expression.
Octopus legs with peanut butter?
Eat it.
Black, foul-smelling soup?
Drink it.
Bread stuffed with bizarre exotic ingredients?
Hmph.
This didn't even qualify as dark cuisine.
At first, the other two judges-Bear Grylls and A-Long-approached the tasting cautiously.
They planned to take only small bites, just enough to show participation.
They both assumed the others would do the same.
But-
They hadn't expected to be seated next to a shit-eater.
No matter how disgusting the dish.
No matter how bizarre the combination.
As long as it was technically edible, Kojiro Shinomiya ate it.
Expressionless.
And worse-
He even seriously critiqued which part of the dish wasn't dark enough.
The pressure on the other two judges skyrocketed.
Damn it.
Is this what a Totsuki elite is like?
You have to eat delicious food.
And you have to eat awful food.
Is that what it means to be well-rounded?
As expected of Totsuki.
Kojiro Shinomiya didn't care what the judges beside him were thinking.
After enduring dishes cursed by Jaden multiple times, he was practically immune to this level of ordinary cooking.
In his eyes-
These so-called dark cuisines were weak.
Until-
After nearly all contestants had presented their dishes, Arthur stepped onto the stage again.
Just as everyone assumed he was about to announce the results, Arthur spoke instead.
"Besides the seventeen contestants on stage..."
"We actually have a special guest contestant."
The audience stirred.
"This person's name is extremely famous in the culinary world."
"Even friends who don't follow gourmet circles should recognize it."
"So, our production team has temporarily concealed his identity."
"We'll present his dish first."
"And see if the judges can recognize him through the dark cuisine he prepared."
Interest spread immediately.
Then-
Under the gaze of the judges and audience-
The production staff brought out three bowls of noodles.
The soup was nearly colorless.
Wide, powdery noodles.
A bit of chopped scallion.
It looked normal.
Simple.
Even delicate.
If one looked closely, faint oil slicks could still be seen on the surface.
Achieving that kind of nearly invisible oil layer with plain boiled water would be incredibly difficult.
The moment Kojiro Shinomiya saw it, he knew.
This soup had been made through precise methods and ingredient combinations.
Boiled to an almost transparent state.
If the flavor had matched the appearance-
He would've seriously considered asking the cook for advice.
However-
Three bowls of noodles.
Dark cuisine.
Extremely famous.
These keywords overlapped.
And Kojiro Shinomiya's face changed instantly.
Because-
In all his experience, there was only one person capable of creating a dish that looked this refined, smelled of nothing-
And tasted indescribably awful.
Bang!
Kojiro Shinomiya stood up abruptly.
The other two judges were still confused.
But the previously expressionless Kojiro Shinomiya now looked outright horrified as he stared at Arthur.
"Did..."
"Did Jaden make these three bowls of noodles!?"