Chapter Ninety-Four: Suckling Pig, Sushi, and the Five-Member Squad

Page (1/3)

The second phase of the test was overseen by the gourmet hunters, Buhala and Menqi. Buhala was a towering giant over three meters tall, a massive and bulky man, while Menqi, a spicy girl under 1.6 meters, didn’t even have a thigh as thick as his.

The theme of this phase was cooking. Buhala chose roast suckling pig as his dish, using the wetland specialty—豪鼻 wild boar.

These beasts had bodies nearly as large as half an adult elephant, with noses accounting for a quarter of their mass. When they ran, it was almost like they were destroying the forest’s ecosystem.

Even so, to the remaining hunters, they were just small fry. But Buhala’s stomach had a limited capacity; in other words, whoever hunted, roasted, and presented the pig to the giant first would be the winner. He wasn’t picky anyway.

In the end, 86 candidates passed Buhala’s test.

That meant Buhala had devoured 86 roast suckling pigs, each almost as large as himself.

Hao Ren’s worldview was being continuously updated, and Kurapika kept muttering, “Eating more than your own volume is physically impossible; it’s unscientific!”

Watching the stunned candidates gape at Buhala’s eating prowess, Menqi felt the urge to sell tickets—this would surely bring in a hefty profit.

Next came Menqi’s journey of trials.

Behind Buhala stood a large warehouse that gave Hao Ren a vivid sense of the New Oriental Culinary School, stocked with every pot, pan, and seasoning imaginable.

Sushi, saltwater fish sushi—this was something completely foreign to Hao Ren’s knowledge. Besides, to let the plot unfold smoothly, he wasn’t about to wrinkle his brow over it.

Other players seemed to share the same mindset; compared to the thoughtful, struggling candidates, they appeared far more idle.

Urameshi and Kuwabara, two fools, obviously knew what sushi was, but it was still Kurapika who spilled the beans. His domestic quarrels with Leorio were truly amusing—Kurapika’s IQ definitely seemed dragged down by Leorio.

A crowd surged out, once again slaughtering countless lives in the wetland rivers.

Hao Ren, having gone out with the crowd but returned empty-handed, twirled his kitchen knife again and again. Looking at the freshly steamed white rice in the wooden bucket and recalling there were still plenty of ingredients in his space, he decided to venture out again. Ten minutes later, he returned carrying a large pile of ingredients and an empty clay pot.

Meanwhile, at the examiner Menqi’s station:

“Is this edible?” she said, flipping over Leorio’s confident dish—rice wrapped around live fish.

“You’re on the same level as that number 403!” she said, overturning Xiaojie’s proud creation—rice-covered live fish (Leorio and number 403).

“No way!” Rice and live fish skewers—was that stick freshly carved?

Page (2/3)

“No!” A fish split in two, the knife work seemed decent, but where was the rice?

“Almost, in a way!” Seaweed rice balls—where on earth did that seaweed come from?

Menqi complained as she flipped over plates, veins bulging on her forehead.

Seeing the examiner’s rage about to explode, Hanzō, who had been silently enduring, stroked his smooth scalp and, like a waiter, steadied a plate, preparing to step forward.

“Big brother, look,” Kazemaru tugged at his overconfident elder brother’s collar.

“Hmm? What?” Hanzō noticed Menqi was stuffing a dish from his hometown into her mouth.

Others knew about this too!

The blow wasn’t huge but still within Hanzō’s tolerance.

“No, the flavor is too ordinary. It’s not what I expected. Go back and redo it.”

Menqi waved her hand, dismissing the young man before her.

“Damn it!” Although skilled in cooking, in front of Menqi, who had tasted the world’s finest cuisine, Makoto wasn’t even an amateur.

Irritated, Itō Makoto clenched his fist as he left.

“If only I hadn’t thrown away Kotonoha’s tuna sushi made for me, I’d eat you to death!”

A cloud of resentment enveloped him.

The same resentment plagued another player.

He was the team leader Hao Ren wanted to approach—dressed in a blue tight suit, he too was rejected after presenting his sushi.

“If only I hadn’t thrown away Mizuki’s tuna sushi made for me, I’d eat you to death!”

Same resentment, same words.

“Akihisa-kun, if you hadn’t buried Mizuki’s cooking underground, we probably would have been poisoned by now,” the black-suited member comforted the blue one, kindly patting his shoulder.

“Aikawa Ayumu, how are things on your side? Have you already eaten Sera’s ** steak?” The blue member brushed away the black member’s claw-like hand and launched a counterattack.

Page (3/3)

“Oh, of course! I didn’t leave a single bite—I ate it all! Ahahaha!” The black member’s voice was clearly lying, turning his face away and avoiding eye contact with the blue member’s helmet.

“Huh? Where’s the leopard-print lunchbox Ram made for me?” The yellow member noticed his lunchbox missing from the table.

“There,” the red member who had been watching the scene pointed to the floor.

The pink member lay on the ground, his helmet half open, white foam spilling from the corner of his mouth. Next to the helmet was a half-empty lunchbox missing several star-shaped cookies.

“Anna, may you rest in peace,” the yellow member clasped his hands together in prayer.

“Don’t chop with your hands! No, Chuahara, I’m sorry! Spare me!” The red member suddenly clutched his head and fled. He suffered from severe “hand-chop phobia,” and the yellow member’s clasped hands looked like two sharp blades ready to split him in two.

These five noisy individuals were a rare group of NP players among the lower-level gamers. They had been selected by the main AI from various dungeons as elite operatives, each endowed with a special team talent.

Talent: “Dinosaur Squad Beast Linked,” a team talent granting the five separate guardian weapons and the ability to summon mechanical guardian beasts. The red Beast Linked’s guardian weapon was the Dragon Strike Sword; his guardian beast, a Tyrannosaurus rex. The black had a Mammoth Destroyer Axe and a Mammoth guardian beast. The blue wielded a Triceratops Lance, with a Triceratops guardian beast. The yellow carried dual sabers and a Smilodon guardian beast. The pink had a Pterosaur Bow and a Pterosaur guardian beast.

Summoning guardian weapons consumed no energy, but summoning mechanical guardian beasts required 10 P points to activate, and their existence consumed 1 P point per minute. The beasts could combine and transform, with energy consumption varying accordingly.

When all five were within a 500-meter radius, they shared life force. If one member died, the others’ summoning rights were temporarily sealed. The seal could only be lifted once the main AI selected substitute Beast Linked members.

They called themselves the “Dinosaur Squad Beast Linked,” but outsiders dubbed them the “Death-Seeking Squad Linked,” with the motto, “Life never ends, nor does the quest for death.”

The five were furious but couldn’t argue—why?

The red linked: Sakurai Tomoki.

The black linked: Aikawa Ayumu.

The blue linked: Yoshii Akihisa.

The yellow linked: Moroboshi Ataru.

The pink linked: Oribe Anna.

…It seemed truly impossible to refute.