CHAPTER 158: [158] - JOURNEY TO THE GOURMET DESERT, A REGION OF CONSTANT WAR (BONUS)

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High-level ingredients were rare in the Human World. Right now, Yuuki had two potential locations in mind. The first was the Gourmet Pyramid, and the second was the former Biotope 1.

The Gourmet Pyramid was once the kingdom of the Red Nitro. It even contained a large number of them in a dormant state.

These Red Nitro were quite tragic. For some unknown reason, they had fallen into a deep sleep, and in the end, they were eaten by their own kind, by Chichi. At that time, Chichi had eaten his own kin out of desperation to go and support Toriko and the others.

He knew that cannibalism among the Nitro had great side effects, but at the time, he couldn’t afford to care. And in the final battle, Chichi did play a huge role.

After eating them, he went to the battlefield and successfully rescued Toriko and the others, though the price was that his own body couldn’t hold up.

The Gourmet Pyramid contained a large number of Special Preparation Ingredients, and even a Super Special Preparation Ingredient like the Salamander Sphinx.

Most critically, it also held the cookbook left by the Golden Chef, Jiji.

Though it was written in the Nitro language, as long as one could hear the voice of ingredients, one could roughly understand its meaning.

This book would be very useful for him—it could improve his culinary skills.

As for the former Biotope 1, its danger level was much higher than the Gourmet Pyramid’s. And there was a Wolf Fire Dragon that he wasn’t sure he could handle.

After all, that thing was from the movie, and creatures from movies generally have inflated power levels. There was also the mysterious Girim, whose strength was not weak either.

So, after thinking it over, Yuuki decided against going to the former Biotope 1 for now. It was better to improve his strength first and then consider these problems.

With that thought, he made his decision: he would go to the Gourmet Desert. At this point in time, Joie shouldn’t have gone to the Gourmet Pyramid yet.

....

"It takes a month to get there by cable car? I don’t have that kind of time to waste!"

Yuuki arrived at the city closest to the Gourmet Desert. To get there, you had to take a cable car. And when they said cable car, they meant one that had entire buildings and villas hanging from it.

The Gourmet Desert was in a very special location, right in the center of the desert. But its edges were plagued by massive sandstorms. A normal person entering would be gone in no time.

So, this massive cable car was built. It connected the central area of the Gourmet Desert with the nearest city. A one-way trip took a month.

It had to be said, the various man-made wonders in the world of Toriko were truly incredible. The sheer scale of this massive cable car was unbelievable, yet the Human World had still managed to build it.

Yuuki naturally wouldn’t take the cable car. A month one way—Toriko, Zebra, and Komatsu had taken it and wasted a lot of time.

He planned to fly there himself. That way, it would be much faster.

By flying, he soon arrived at the city in the desert. But the city didn’t look very good. The reason was simple: it was still in the midst of war.

There were many countries in the desert, and not all of them were members of the IGO. So, war was constant here.

In the original story, after Zebra was released from prison, these countries were forced to temporarily cease fire and join forces to confront him.

The main reason was Zebra himself. He was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. He looked fierce and unapproachable, but when faced with people from poor, war-torn regions, he would choose to help them.

As for those who got in his way, they naturally wouldn’t have a good time.

There was no need for any scruples when dealing with these non-member nations—the IGO wouldn’t interfere. Zebra was arrested mainly because he had driven dozens of dangerous species to extinction.

If you asked Yuuki, dangerous species that had no positive effects whatsoever were better off being wiped out. Keeping them around would only bring trouble and harm.

"What bad luck, to run into a war."

Yuuki shook his head. He didn’t plan to meddle. If he ran into it, he would do something. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t go looking for trouble.

The reason he would act if he saw it was because he wasn’t so cold-blooded as to watch innocent people die and do nothing. The reason he wouldn’t seek it out was because there were too many injustices in this world; he couldn’t manage them all.

And even if he did, how would he manage it? Directly kill the leaders of these warring regions? Then what? What happens after that?

Ichiryu had absolute strength, but why did the IGO he created still have to cater to the leaders of these countries?

It wasn’t that he was afraid of them. It was because he knew very well that these people could manage their own countries. As long as these member nations were stable, it was the best for the common people.

Otherwise, with his military power, he could have just conquered all the countries and unified them.

Conquest and governance were two different things. Yuuki didn’t know the first thing about governance, so he wouldn’t actively provoke such matters.

To get to the Gourmet Pyramid, Toriko and Zebra had rented a Water Storage Camel because it was difficult for them to carry large amounts of supplies. These camels could carry a lot, making it easier for them to move.

But Yuuki didn’t need one. He had everything he needed in his storage space. And he didn’t need any special clothing to withstand the harsh environment. His Gourmet Cells would adapt to everything.

He also needed to adapt to this environment because similar environments existed in the Gourmet World, and quite a few of them.

If he didn’t adapt now, it would be very dangerous when he got there.

"Dangerous species? Since I’ve seen them, I might as well lend a hand!"

On his way to the Gourmet Pyramid—Yuuki passed through some villages. These villages were not having a good time. Not because armies had entered them, but because an enemy nation had released biological weapons here.

These biological weapons were powerful dangerous species.

Though their capture levels weren’t very high, they had an extremely strong desire for destruction. This was the definition of a dangerous species—it brought no benefit to nature or humanity, only harm.

Since he had seen them, Yuuki naturally took action and killed them. After finishing them off, he continued on his way.

He went straight into the depths of the Gourmet Desert. The temperature here was constantly rising. A normal person staying here would be like being in an oven; they would be dead in minutes. But Yuuki’s Gourmet Cells were constantly adapting to the environment.

As his cells adapted, he gradually stopped feeling the intense heat. The moisture in his body wouldn’t evaporate quickly. Everything felt as if he had returned to a normal area.

This was the power of his Gourmet Cells. Anyone else’s might need a lot of time to adapt, but for him, it was simple.

His adaptability was far stronger than others’.

He also encountered many beasts along the way, but in front of him, they were nothing. And he had concealed his aura the entire way, so they couldn’t even detect him.

....

Just like that, he arrived at the Gourmet Pyramid. The so-called Gourmet Pyramid was actually a massive city.

This city was built by the Red Nitro who lived here back then. But as the Red Nitro went into dormancy, this place became a ruin, buried under a large amount of sand, with only a small spire left.

This spire was actually the top of the tallest building in the city.

There was only one path into the Gourmet Pyramid. In the original story, Zebra had used his Echo-location map to walk in. One wrong step and you would fall into the surrounding quicksand.

That single path was actually the outer wall of the city. It was the only way to the Gourmet Pyramid.

Yuuki had flown in, so he didn’t need to worry about such things.

....

Upon entering the Gourmet Pyramid, he found it was like a giant maze. Yuuki wouldn’t follow the rules and walk through it. He just violently broke through. As for whether it would be destroyed, no one came here anyway, and Joie would destroy it later, so there was no need to preserve it.

Along the way, he also encountered many Special Preparation Ingredients. These were all raised by the Red Nitro back then. But after the Red Nitro became a thing of the past, these creatures had multiplied on their own in the city.

This place had now become a paradise for these ingredients. Yuuki just used Knocking on them. After all, the ingredients here were, at the very least, Special Preparation Ingredients.

Any mistake in the preparation method would make them taste incredibly bad.

And the appearance of the ingredients here was hard to describe. In the anime, their appearances were beautified. In the manga, they were ferocious and strange. Some of them looked so bizarre that he couldn’t even bring himself to eat them.

So, he had no intention of capturing that portion. The capture level of these special ingredients wasn’t high, at most around 50-60.

A level like that couldn’t activate his Gourmet Cells, but if the quantity was enough, it could still raise his cell level quite a bit.

The Cell level was key. No matter how strong his actual combat power was, it was still based on his cell level.

It was similar to the Saiyans in the world of Dragon Ball.

No matter how strong they were after transforming, the multiplier was based on their base combat power. The higher the base, the stronger the transformation.

Yuuki was the same, which was why he had come here.

After harvesting a large number of ingredients, he finally arrived at one of his destinations: the place where Jiji’s cookbook was stored.

It recorded the preparation methods for various ingredients. Though he couldn’t quite understand the text, by listening to the voices of the ingredients, he could roughly read its contents.

"When cooking, the temperature and the position of the roasting need to be paid attention to. Otherwise, the roasted ingredient will not only have a bad taste but also a terrible texture."

Yuuki looked at the contents recorded on it. At this moment, he even began to substitute these contents into the text, trying to reverse-engineer the meaning of the Nitro language.

After all, he might need to use the Nitro language when he went to the Gourmet World later. Though this cookbook wouldn’t allow him to completely learn all the characters of the Red Nitro race, learning a rough idea was enough.

He could also go to the three great chefs to learn, but he had no relationship with them. They were on good terms with Ichiryu, which was why they had helped Toriko and the others in the original story.

Otherwise, getting help from the Red Nitro was almost impossible.

After reverse-engineering some of the text, Yuuki put the cookbook away and then opened a sarcophagus. Inside lay a dormant Red Nitro.

"A pity. I don’t know what the effects of these Red Nitro are. Though strictly speaking, all the creatures in this world are ingredients, I can’t hear their voices."

Yuuki glanced at it and then paid it no more mind. He found that even after releasing the limits of his Ki, he still couldn’t hear them speak.

He wasn’t sure what the consequences of eating them would be.

In the original story, Zebra and the others were stopped when they wanted to eat them. The only ones who had eaten Nitro were NEO, Chichi, and Jiro.

As for whether the Eight Kings had eaten them, he wasn’t sure. But in the original story, the Monkey King didn’t eat Pair (Nitro) even after seriously injuring it, so he probably hadn’t.

The only human who had eaten them was Jiro, and the end result was that he had become a living Appetite Demon.

Even the Blue Nitro hadn’t seen such a thing.

If it could directly increase his strength, he wouldn’t mind eating them. But he wasn’t sure if he would become neither human nor ghost after eating them.

After all, though the fully unsealed Jiro became a young man, in the process, he looked as strange as could be, no different from a monster.

Yuuki had many ways to get stronger, but he really didn’t want to touch the Nitro race without being able to hear the voice of the ingredient.

As for Toriko and the others eating Chichi’s flesh in the end, that was because Chichi had actively let them eat it. And at that time, he had also used a cooking utensil to process it.

So, it was uncertain whether it needed to be processed before eating.

In short, unless absolutely necessary, it was best not to touch the flesh of the Nitro.

No longer paying attention to the dormant Red Nitro, Yuuki went directly to find the strongest creature here:

The Salamander Sphinx, with a capture level of over 90.

In the Human World, a creature of this level, approaching 100, was quite rare. The cola within its body was also his target.

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