Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 94 Landslide Victory For The Cooking Demon

Upon re-entering the kitchen, Elizabeth has somewhat surprised to see that there were actually several people gathered to watch her culinary battle. However, as she considered that all these practitioners had trained for just as long as she had, it made sense that several of them were hungry by now.

Elizabeth paid her opponent no mind as she chose to jump over the counter to get to the kitchen and started setting up her prepping area. The result of her actions only deepened the negative impression she had on the ship's cook. But then, just when it seemed like the battle was about to start, Elizabeth was called out.

The cook began introducing the rules of the battle to the audience and upon finishing, as he walked back to his side of the kitchen, without facing Elizabeth he said, "Tsk, tsk! What kind of chef cooks like that? Must be the most sanitary chef in the world~"

Naturally, Elizabeth never claimed to be a chef, nor had she ever donned a chef's outfit, so she never expected there to be a sartorial prerequisite in this kind of battle. However, even if she were called out, there was nothing she could do in this situation, so she just chose to accept whatever ill repute her appearance might bring. She certainly didn't have any chef's clothes in her room or spatial ring, nor was there a chance that she would bow her head and kindly ask the cook if he could spare her a set of cooking attire.

Seeing Elizabeth not care about his comment, the cook's supercilious behavior only intensified as he said, "Alright missy, you're obviously no trained cook and this is starting to turn sad. I won't let you off the hook for the constant disrespect you've shown thus far, but it'll be too sad if things end so overwhelmingly against you." A smile that Elizabeth would recognize from miles away appeared on the man's face as he finished his thought, saying, "Why don't you pick what dishes we'll present?"

'Oh? This ought to be fun~' With dull, lifeless eyes and a smile of her own, Elizabeth turned to the hungry audience before her and said, "Since it's my choice, they can be the ones to order whatever they want..." Hiding behind the dullness in her eyes, there was the resolve to destroy this man and all his integrity…

"...Ok? You all heard her! Begin calling out your orders." For some reason, the look on Elizabeth face brought about ominous feelings; this was the case even without any killing intent changing the world. The ship's cook forced himself to ignore Elizabeth and focus on the various dishes the audience asked for.

Elizabeth also ignored the ship's cook as she shook her head and began cooking herself. Though she was merely a Basic-tier Chef, Elizabeth's skills in the kitchen were not to be trifled with; now more than ever, what with her new assortment of knives. As a reward granted for completing a chef milestone quest the knives she received naturally weren't ordinary kitchen utensils. Rather, when paired with her abilities, the knives were better described as tools for art.

Thus, with the various ingredients acting as the subject, her knives as the brush, and the plates as her canvas, Elizabeth set out to wow both the sight of the audience as well as their taste buds, as she made her performance itself a form of entertainment. The 132.4 units of Speed she had cultivated thus far also played a critical role in beating her opponent, as pairing her movement with Timeworn Eye made led many to question how Elizabeth could even comprehend her actions.

Fish, Beef, Chicken, and Pork. Even if they were in the middle of the ocean sailing with not a land animal for miles, with the yacht's resources, Elizabeth more than matched the cook in culinary diversity. There was not a dish that stumped her and in several cases, her lack of formal training led to presentation unlike anything the cook had seen in his years of experience.

The cook himself wasn't a joke; as someone hired to sustain a yacht full of Martial Society practitioners, he couldn't afford to be anything less than amazing. After staying stuck in the Soldier Stage for years, he resigned his days as a martial artist and used his abilities to rise up the ranks in the culinary world. As a chef, he was world class, but compared to a magical Cook? Even a newbie like Elizabeth utterly outclassed him after she began experimenting with Magic Integration.

From start to finish, Elizabeth thoroughly mopped the floor with his pride as she not only cooked faster, with more precision, and accuracy. But, her dishes were objectively better tasting and balanced. Being superior in speed, it didn't take long for people to start eating and preaching how good her food was; even if at first she gave a bad vibe from not wearing cooking attire. By the time, the cook finished his dishes, everyone was already thoroughly hooked on Elizabeth's spiritual meals, as it was virtually guaranteed that they would. Even if she only used neutral Magic to augment her cooking, when applied alongside the basic-tier principles she had already mastered, the absurdity P once mention started to become apparent.

Every single meal Elizabeth made now raised stats by the dozens and for decent periods of time as well. For these practitioners, it was like taking alchemical pills, only the method of ingestion was actually pleasant. Just like that, from one moment to the next, Elizabeth went from the martial phenom of the dojo, to the heavenly cook everyone wished to curry favor with. Her influence grew so much that several people used this situation to try getting on her good side; avoiding her opponent's cooking and even belittling it as worthless when compared to hers.

The ship's cook couldn't believe this outcome… He started believing that Elizabeth somehow bought the audience out to support her, and that misconception only intensified as the battle progressed with people outright refusing to even taste some of his later dishes. Slowly, he lost his reasoning and his work got sloppy, until the very end where the impossibility of this situation caused his mind to snap and he gave up trying altogether.

In a mix between defeat and denial, he left his area of the kitchen and walked over to try Elizabeth cooking. Elizabeth knew the battle had ended and did the same so as to not completely destroy the poor cook. Though she was initially happy to humiliate him, now that she did so for the first time in real life and to such a brutal extent — literally ruining the source of a man's pride, in front of an audience, no less… — she realized this caused her to feel more pity and shame than actual happiness. Without there being an inkling of challenge present to her in this battle, she couldn't help but feel like she had just finished beating a helpless child.

Elizabeth took a bite from one of the cook's and nodded her head. She couldn't dismiss the quality of his food, judging him to have the potential to be a great spiritual cook if only he had the methods. What she didn't expect however, was for the reaction she'd receive once she turned around to go back to her area of the kitchen.

She saw… the man was seriously crying as he chewed her food. The hand he used to wield his fork opened and static in mid-air as he had dropped it in shock. The juxtaposition between the arrogant wisely cook and the crying mess before her was too much to take in, so Elizabeth could only stand bemused as to what to do next.

As she stood there staring at him, the cook eventually finished eating the mouthful of food, but before he could gorge himself with anymore, he mistakenly made eye contact with Elizabeth and froze unable to do anything. His desires clashed with what remained of his shattered pride, and while he wanted nothing more than to eat a whole plate of her food, part of him couldn't stand the thought of behaving so shamelessly.

Most of not all the people acting as the audience knew of the tantrum he threw at Atid for Elizabeth's disrespect and he had already lost. If he gave in to that subconscious desire to indulge in the food of his opponent on top of everything else… suicide and other acts of extreme negativity may take hold.

It took the entirety of his willpower to let go of his knife and set down the plate of food as he walked over to the large kitchen counter. Very loudly, he said, "Everyone! Listen up!" Not a stranger to boisterous actions, his words quickly caught the attention of everyone. Soon after, he continued saying, "Today…" at that moment, he remembered he still didn't know Elizabeth's name. A recollection that only served to further his regret.

He turned to Elizabeth and gestured to her, continuing, "Today, we had a culinary battle with all of you bearing witness..." Looking on at the crowd and receiving a mix of neutral to disparaging looks, he bit his lip as he continued, "Honestly… we don't need a jury to decide the winner. Even if by some miracle you all turned against her, I wouldn't have it in me to dare claim being a better chef; not that it matters..."

He turned to face only Elizabeth before bowing his head and saying, "I… I apologize and recognize my inferiority as a chef!" Then after holding the bowing position for a couple more seconds, he turned to the audience and repeated his words. When all was said and done, he sulked all the while he walked back over to his area of the kitchen and began cleaning everything up.

Chapter end