Chapter 807: Chapter 807

Lin Baici looked around the stadium and judged by the flags that half of the contestants hadn’t finished eating.

"You call this a big eater contest? This is torture!"

"Exactly, who eats raw meat? They might as well call it a survival challenge."

"If it were cooked meat, I could eat twenty pounds!" This content belongs to novel⁂fire.net

The complaints were numerous, with disgruntled voices rising from all sides.

Eating raw was a dietary habit unfamiliar to many countries.

"Why hasn’t the broadcast asked them to leave the field?"

Li Yintong immediately spotted the oversight.

"Because the broadcast just said this is the first battle!"

Gu Qingqiu explained.

Tai Mei scratched her head, full of question marks.

"This is the first round of the first battle of the big eater challenge; I bet there’ll be multiple rounds of eating!"

Lin Baici looked at her schoolmate Gu, impressed by her quick thinking.

Huang Jinxiang felt the trouble brewing, guessing from the ’raw beef’ as an ingredient that what followed wouldn’t be anything pleasant.

The organizers didn’t make the contestants wait long. Crews clad in white lab coats with chef hats appeared again, each pushing a trolley with an iron barrel one meter in diameter and one and a half meters high in front of the food carts.

On the barrel, there was a picture of a crab and the words "Gold Crab Aquatic Products".

They must be the sponsors.

"Are we eating seafood next?"

"This stuff is really expensive!"

"If it’s lobster, I can eat until the organizers go bankrupt!"

The contestants chattered away.

As the staff left the field, the broadcast started.

"The second battle of the big eater challenge is called ’Pufferfish Dance’!"

"Those who did not finish the raw beef will get eliminated unless they successfully eat twenty pufferfish!"

"Those who finished the meat only need to eat ten pufferfish to advance!"

"Time limit: two hours!"

The broadcast played three times, clear and concise.

The contestants immediately ran towards the iron barrels next to their food carts.

"Are the pufferfish alive?"

Gu Qingqiu looked at the barrels and sensed something was amiss.

Indeed, when everyone lifted the lids of the barrels and saw the live pufferfish inside, cursing and complaints erupted instantly.

"How can we eat these pufferfish if they haven’t been processed?"

"Are they expecting us to do it ourselves?"

"Don’t you know pufferfish are poisonous? Only specialized chefs and restaurants are allowed to sell pufferfish!"

The contestants argued.

Lin Baici walked up to the barrel and saw that it contained clear water with more than twenty pufferfish about a foot long each.

White bellies, light brown backs, and spots all over.

"Huang Jinxiang, do you know how to prepare pufferfish?"

Quan Sangin looked towards the Harbor Cuisine chef.

"Do you know how niche this ingredient is?"

Huang Jinxiang rolled his eyes: "I’m good with shark fins, but this thing, whoever wants it!"

Kim Myungjin frowned: "Does your staff know how?"

"We don’t sell pufferfish at our restaurant!"

Han Suying looked at the pufferfish in the barrel, never imagining that such an ingredient would be used, knowing that eating it improperly processed could be fatal.

Everyone felt a bit desperate, sensing trouble ahead, but then the Lady Boss spoke up again.

"I learned how to do it when I was young, following my grandfather’s work, but my skills have become rusty. I could still handle it, though it definitely wouldn’t be clean!"

Huang Jinxiang felt a turnaround and laughed heartily: "Being able to handle it is enough!"

Quan Sangin and Kim Jinsoo were completely dazed. What did Huang Jinxiang mean? Surely they weren’t expected to eat it, right?

Even the God Hunters with their robust physique would struggle to survive after eating a dozen poisonous pufferfish!

"Brother Lin, the Yellowstone Group has started processing the pufferfish!"

Li Yintong alerted, implying that it was no time to be kind and to make Kim Jinsoo, the disposable pawn, take charge—if she dared refuse, she’d be finished on the spot.

Lin Baici looked over and saw the Great Shaman herself taking action.

She stretched out her hand and plucked a pufferfish from the barrel, then placed it on a cutting board beside her, picked up a knife, and began bleeding the fish.

[Delicious pufferfish meat, when perfectly processed and eaten raw, provides not only a culinary delight but also contains some non-lethal toxins that numb the nerves, turning any external stimulation into pleasure and intensifying sensory experience.]

[In short, consumers would lose themselves in bliss, completely elated!]

Lin Baici, who had been thinking the big challenge was a regulatory mess due to the mad cow beef, hesitated again because the pufferfish meat seemed like an excellent way to purify the contaminated beef.

"Brother Lin, your friend is processing the pufferfish!"

In Xia Hongyao’s group, Yi Jisheng was handling a pufferfish, poked it casually with a knife, barely bled it out, and started cutting the meat.

Didn’t even peel the skin off.

"Little Linzi, pufferfish are poisonous, you should give up!"

Xia Hongyao suggested, "Yi Jisheng says he’ll eat it!"

"Xia Tuan, this isn’t a joke, it can kill people!"

Huang Jinxiang was unaware of Yi Jisheng’s real identity and was worried.

"Perhaps he has some Divine Grace for detoxification."

Quan Sangin reassured and tried convincing Lin Baici, "Don’t waste Xia Tuan’s kindness!"

After speaking, Lin Baici opened his travel bag, using it as a cover, and took out a mask and an apron from the Black Tripod Bowl.

Quan Sangin’s face immediately turned into one of abject misery; he wished he could smack his own mouth for speaking too much.

Why did I have to run my mouth!

"Eat with ease, it won’t kill you!"

Lin Baici put on the Butcher’s Mask, and when he once again picked up a kitchen knife, it was as if he had a spiritual connection with the blade, able to wield it as if it were an extension of his arm.

Lin Baici reached out, swiftly grabbed a puffer fish from the bucket, pressed it onto the cutting board, then with his right hand holding the knife, he patted the puffer fish’s head twice.

The puffer fish inflated like a balloon being blown up, bulging out in the blink of an eye.

This was utilizing the puffer fish’s defensive instincts.

Lin Baici’s knife slid across the puffer fish’s belly.

The fish skin burst open, rolling aside, and because Lin Baici’s control of force was just right, he didn’t damage the flesh or blood vessels, so no blood flowed.

Lin Baici flipped the fish skin upwards, pulling it towards the dorsal fin area, then sliced horizontally with force, and in one swift motion, a ten-meter long fin along with the skin was removed.

At this time, the fish was still alive.

Lin Baici thrust the knife into the puffer fish’s head, then immediately lifted it up, pointing the fish head downward, and as he pulled out the knife, the blood spurted out.

Fish blood, gleaming with a hint of blue light, splashed onto the cutting board.

The puffer fish, hurt, began to twist violently, thrashing its tail—this action caused all the blood inside to flow out.

Huang Jinxiang was dumbfounded, as if he had seen a monkey preparing a full imperial feast: "No way, God Lin, you know how to do this too?"

Lin Baici was so skilled in his movements, as if he had been a fishmonger for thirty years in his past life and hadn’t drunk the Mengpo Soup when crossing the Naihe Bridge, his skills completely intact.

Tai Mei clapped her hands, and even the members of several nearby teams couldn’t help but applaud upon seeing Lin Baici slaughtering the fish.

Their actions flowed as smoothly as moving clouds and flowing water, not only skillful but also exuding an ultimate sense of beauty that made onlookers feel as if they were watching a courtly dance performance.

The process of Lin Baici slaughtering the fish was more like a ritualistic performance!

"Great Shaman, you must look!"

The African girl tugged at Xia Qila’s sleeve.

The Great Shaman turned his head and saw Lin Baici killing the fish.

"It’s nothing but the use of Taboo things!"

Okocha snorted, his expression disdainful.

"Oppa, the sky is vast, the earth is wide, and there are many skilled people!

The Great Shaman admonished, "The same Taboo thing, in different people’s hands, will yield different effects!"

"Just look at that young man’s eyes!"

"Focused, giving his all!"

The Butcher’s Mask was a Taboo thing Lin Baici obtained in the game "Maid Mayhem"; while wearing it, he would instantly master dissection, possessing surgical skills akin to Culinary Butchering.

No matter the creature, he could dissect and divide it flawlessly, perfectly processing it, and furthermore, such processed ingredients would not rot for seven days.

Wearing this mask bestows +1 deterrence to beasts.

As they say, the ultimate butcher, slaughters all things.

At this moment, the puffer fish in Lin Baici’s hand was not just a puffer fish anymore, it was the ocean, the world, even life itself, every cut representing spring and autumn, a slice signifying the passing years!

The puffer fish was quickly separated and sliced into sashimi, neatly arranged on a plate.

In just three minutes, a puffer fish had been completely processed.

Lin Baici twirled his knife and with a flick of his wrist,

he stuck it into the ginkgo wood cutting board.

There was silence around for a few seconds, then came a spontaneous round of applause.

"He must be a fish-killing fairy, right?"

"This knife work is too beautiful, too magnificent!"

Everyone applauded for Lin Baici’s superb skills.

"Oppa, do another one!"

A woman, full of enthusiasm, shouted toward Lin Baici.

Lin Baici carried the plates over to the serving cart, then tossed the Gluttonous Apron to Quan Sangin.

"Wear this, and you’ll be able to eat it!"

Putting on this apron increases appetite, making even the most distasteful foods seem appealing and inciting a strong desire to eat.

Pickiness in food simply doesn’t exist.

Wearing it, the food ingested, even if it’s several fried chickens, will have a healing effect, particularly powerful for physical injuries.

"Why wear an apron? Just looking at this sashimi makes one drool!"

Li Yintong was not just giving a compliment; she truly felt an urge to taste it.

Quan Sangin didn’t dare to ask if it was poisonous, and instead made a face to Kim Jinsoo, signaling her to ask, while he took the apron, put it on, and using chopsticks, picked up a slice of sashimi, and placed it in his mouth.

The fish meat was cool, al dente, chewy, and most importantly, lacked any fishy odor. Had he not watched Lin Baici slaughter the puffer fish, he would not have been able to tell what meat it was.

After swallowing, Quan Sangin immediately felt hungrier, his worry of being poisoned dispelled by the sensation of hunger, and he started to eat the meat voraciously.

"Holy crap, eating with such relish?"

Huang Jinxiang was astonished.

Kim Jinsoo was also startled, feeling that Quan Sangin was controlled by the Taboo thing: "God Lin, is this mask a Taboo thing that helps in food preparation?"

"Yes," Lin Baici nodded. "So eat without worry!"

He went to the bucket and scooped up another puffer fish, starting the butchery. The process was as elegantly efficient as mercury spilling across the floor.

"Xiba, from now on if anyone claims to be the pinnacle of the culinary world, I’ll have a bone to pick with them. Clearly, the people from Nine States are!"

"Nonsense, when people from Nine States were enjoying Imperial feasts, the Europa People were still munching on dark bread and mashed potatoes!"

"If we’re talking about gourmet skills, the people from Nine States are absolutely NO.1!"

The competitors were abuzz with discussion. When it comes to cooking, the combined cookbooks of nations across the world probably couldn’t match the vastness of the Nine States’ cuisine.