Chapter Twelve: The Power of the Fried Egg (Part One)

PS: Is anyone out there? Fifty thousand words and only thirteen favorites, and one of them is my own. Could someone reading this book at least pop up and let me know I’m not playing solo? Being alone is truly terrifying!

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The staff at Totsuki Academy were very courteous. After Feng Xue handed the recommendation document he carried to the office staff, he was guided through a small gate. However, the academy was excessively large; if not for the presence of people everywhere, Feng Xue would genuinely worry about getting lost!

As Feng Xue was flipping through the items assigned to his character, the broadcast suddenly sounded: “Students participating in the transfer exam, please assemble at the main hall in front within three minutes…”

“Three minutes? That’s awfully swift!” Feng Xue estimated the distance; it would take an average person at least two or three minutes to run from the plaza to the hall. Fortunately, Feng Xue had undergone the strengthening of the Body-Refining Technique and Gourmet Cells, arriving effortlessly at the main hall.

Inside the hall, he saw what must have been several hundred candidates for the transfer exam, which made Feng Xue’s heart pound even more…

Given the prestige of “Totsuki” in the culinary world, the fact there were only a few hundred candidates was already due to the rigorous initial screening of materials; otherwise, it would truly be a sea of people! In this light, his role as a background character was not so bad. Yet, compared to that, Feng Xue still wished he could have become a student who advanced straight from Totsuki’s junior division.

The reason? Of course, it was the very girl standing before the students—a girl with chestnut hair, well-developed figure, and features so dazzling she could be called “a feast for the eyes.”

Yes, the girl in the student uniform was precisely why Feng Xue felt uneasy at that moment!

“Oh no, it’s her…”

“That’s right, I heard from my brother that she became the only first-year among the ‘Totsuki Elite Ten,’ but I never expected…”

“If she’s overseeing the transfer exam, we’re doomed. If she decides we’re talentless…”

The candidates around Feng Xue, evidently recognizing the girl (though their sources might differ), began whispering anxiously.

Just then, beside the chestnut-haired girl, a secretary-like girl with short pink hair, slightly less striking in figure but still attractive, spoke up: “Silence! Now, let’s clarify the exam process. First, candidates will be divided into groups of ten according to their application numbers for interviews and a second materials screening…”

Feng Xue instantly broke out in a sweat, thinking, “Please stick to the original script! I’m just a background character, there’s no way I could have enough materials for review!”

While sweat gathered on his brow, the chestnut-haired girl, with a typical heiress’s expression, spoke: “Enough! This is too dull. Let’s change things up a bit! Right… Move the cooking stations here!”

“Eh? Yes, right away!” The short-haired secretary, clearly accustomed to the heiress’s whims, immediately had the cooking stations loaded with ingredients brought over.

Seeing this, the waiting candidates grew restless, many sensing trouble, while Feng Xue exhaled in relief.

The chestnut-haired girl walked to the cooking station, smiled slightly, and picked up an egg: “Let’s use this as the main ingredient. Only those who can create a dish that satisfies my tongue will be allowed to pass Totsuki Academy’s transfer exam!”

“What?”

“Egg? Such a simple ingredient…”

“We’re doomed! Satisfy her tongue? She’s the legendary…”

“If she deems you ‘incompetent,’ you’ll never be able to lift your head in the culinary world again!”

Watching the panic around her, the chestnut-haired girl spoke with satisfaction: “Starting now, you have one minute to voluntarily withdraw and give up the exam. After one minute, the exam officially begins!”

Instantly, the once-crowded main hall was like a scene of disaster; countless people rushed for the exit.

Yet there were a few brave souls—one was Feng Xue, who actually felt relieved, and the other was a red-haired, spiky-headed boy with a white bandana tied to his wrist, making his identity obvious…

Feng Xue shook his head helplessly; he had ended up taking the same exam as Soma Yukihira!

He had hoped to be one year ahead of Soma, but fate had him competing with the protagonist after all.

While Feng Xue was lost in thought, Soma casually grabbed a panicked candidate and asked what was happening.

“Let go! Are you crazy? She’s Erina Nakiri, the one with the ‘God Tongue’! Legend says she could distinguish breast milk at three months old, and from childhood served as a taster for world-class restaurants. The giants of the culinary world are her regular clients! She’ll never approve of our cooking, and if she thinks it’s ‘bad,’ the whole culinary world will hear of it!” Jia Ming struggled free from Feng Xue and bolted.

“God Tongue, huh? I wonder how it compares to mine… When it comes to tasting, Gourmet Cells are even pickier!” Feng Xue thought wryly. After all, Gourmet Cells not only had preferred flavors but also peculiar eating habits.

If they were like Sani and loved eating with high-end tableware, that would be fine. But if they liked eating despairing creatures like Neo, that would be truly spartan!

Fortunately, the Gourmet Cells provided by the academy had no food spirits, so basically, whatever Feng Xue found delicious, the cells would too.

He had expected everyone would withdraw and the assessment would end, and the mood would shift to “flirtation” for Erina Nakiri and her assistant Hisako Arato—when suddenly, they felt a pair of piercing eyes staring at them intensely. It wasn’t really Feng Xue’s fault; it was the first time he’d seen such beautifully stylized yuri characters in the second dimension.

Erina turned around, embarrassed and furious, only to find two bold boys still remaining.

“Just need to use egg as the main ingredient, right?” Feng Xue, seeing Erina’s glare, didn’t look further and picked up an egg to ask.

His calm, confident demeanor only made Erina more irritated.

“Very well! You dare challenge my palate? Fine, as long as the main ingredient is egg, you can make anything. But are you sure? You can still withdraw…”

A bulging vein appeared on Erina’s forehead, as she noticed Feng Xue and Soma Yukihira completely ignoring her and already examining the ingredients and utensils.

“Egg, huh…” Feng Xue rubbed his nose. Though he had passed the Gourmet Trials in the Gourmet Temple and could even cook fugu whales with ease, his cooking techniques were simply more refined and stripped of unnecessary movements. After all, in the world of Toriko, chefs won through ingredients; as long as the flavors of the ingredients themselves shined, that was enough. Chefs who could turn ordinary ingredients into century soup, like Komatsu, were extremely rare.

But…

“I actually have an idea for eggs!” Feng Xue picked up a frying pan, added about two cups of water, cracked an egg directly into the pan, and then added a pinch of salt!

“What’s he doing? Is he making poached eggs? Doesn’t he know poached eggs need boiling water to keep their shape? And adding salt now will make the egg whites absorb all the salt—it’ll be unbearably salty!” The secretary muttered under her breath, but the kitchen was small enough that the other three heard her clearly.

Feng Xue ignored her, but Erina’s expression turned strange, for from her vantage point, she saw ripples spreading in the constantly shaken frying pan!

Not the usual concentric circles, but dense, overlapping ripples woven like a fishing net!

“Impossible!” Though she was a chef, she hadn’t skipped physics class. This bizarre phenomenon was a direct challenge to her understanding!

Next, something even more astonishing happened—the water in Feng Xue’s pan began to boil!

For a chef, water and fire are the most important partners; she could estimate how long it would take for a pot of water to boil at a glance. Yet the water in Feng Xue’s pan completely defied her expectations, boiling in an impossibly short time!

Hisako Arato, the secretary, finally noticed the problem, her cute eyes wide with shock. Feng Xue worried they might pop right out!

In less than three minutes, Feng Xue had changed the water three times and fried four eggs. These eggs were perfectly round, nothing like the usual flat poached eggs, but closer to hard-boiled eggs—no, even hard-boiled eggs couldn’t achieve such a spherical shape!

“You’ve got to be kidding! Who would eat such commoners’ fare, something not even street vendors would dare to serve!” Erina slammed the table, and the four round eggs bounced up and then wobbled back onto the plate—so adorable they looked more like toys than food.

“I went to the trouble of making them, wouldn’t you at least try one?” Feng Xue offered an egg to Erina, leaving the other three untouched.

While Erina struggled with whether to eat the round egg, Soma Yukihira had finished preparing his dish—a bowl of freshly cooked rice, with a topping of scrambled eggs and a golden cube of chicken-stock jelly, presented on a tray to Erina.

Feng Xue once again marveled at the unreliability of this world; as in the original, even with ready-made dashi and chicken wings, making meat jelly would take at least an hour with a freezer, two hours with ice—yet Soma managed it in less than half an hour. What a… Yes, Erina did ponder for half an hour! (I won’t admit I tried making transforming egg rice myself!)

Leaving aside Feng Xue’s speechlessness, Hisako Arato examined the rice and scrambled eggs closely, her face darkening: “This is… egg rice?”

“That’s right! Soma’s special, transforming egg rice!”

Not noticing Erina’s expression, Soma continued: “Hmph, from childhood, the only dishes placed before me were sophisticated, flavorful, and aromatic haute cuisine. Now you third-rate cooks expect to insult me with poached eggs and egg rice? How boring! No need for judging!”

With that, she tried to turn away, but Soma shook the scrambled egg in front of her, revealing the golden cubes of chicken-stock jelly beneath…

A person with the “God Tongue” naturally had a keen sense of smell; Erina immediately realized this was concentrated chicken stock set into jelly!

Soma placed the scrambled egg and jelly atop the steaming rice. Under the heat, the jelly melted, soaking into the rice and eggs… The rich aroma instantly wafted out!

Erina, unable to resist, picked up her chopsticks and tasted a bite, immediately entering a sort of transcendental state…

With just a mouthful of egg rice, it was as if she ascended, or even experienced something indecent… Truly worthy of being the Medicine King!

Yet after that moment of bliss, Erina’s expression turned stubborn, and Feng Xue, a seasoned observer, could tell a tsundere outburst was coming!

Indeed, despite her obvious enjoyment, Erina maintained a hard front: “Disgusting, absolutely disgusting! Unqualified, not passed!”

“Huh?” Soma dragged out the sound in disbelief.