The competition had a straightforward structure. At the center of the venue lay the Food Area, with the Cooking Area located on the outer edges. Separating the two was a special reinforced iron net.
Contestants would enter the Food Area through a designated entrance, cross through it while hunting for ingredients, then exit at the other end to reach the Cooking Area. There, they would find special kitchen tools provided by the event, and they would be required to cook a dish using only the ingredients they had gathered.
Importantly, all ingredients and seasonings had to come from the Food Area. If anyone was caught using outside items, it would be considered a violation, resulting in immediate disqualification and additional penalties.
The competition had a strict one-week time limit. While contestants could choose to exit early, staying past the deadline would automatically disqualify them.
For Nen users like them, crossing the Food Area itself wouldn't take long—at most two days. The remaining time was meant for properly securing high-quality ingredients.
Each team had a designated number. Larry and Menchi's team was #66, and as they scanned the crowd, they spotted some familiar faces—Lika and Gel. They had been assigned #67, right after them.
The Food Area was divided into four distinct terrains: forest, desert, wetland, and ice field.
Each section had a clear boundary, but some areas contained a natural blend of overlapping environments.
The first challenge upon entering? The desert.
Stretching out before them were endless rolling sand dunes, the hot wind carrying fine grains of yellow sand across the landscape. In this vast golden expanse, only a few scattered cacti broke up the monotony, their green forms standing in stark contrast to the surroundings.
Compared to the other terrains, the desert had fewer valuable ingredients, so most contestants had their sights set on the regions beyond it.
As the majority of the competitors sprinted forward, eager to get through as fast as possible, Larry and Menchi, as usual, took a different approach.
"How is it? The fur of Arcanine is pretty soft, right?" Larry grinned, stroking the Pokémon's head as it ran.
"Yeah! And it's really warm." Menchi was experiencing an Arcanine ride for the first time, and she was clearly impressed. Despite its incredible speed, the ride was incredibly smooth—there was hardly any shaking at all.
The moment Arcanine appeared, many contestants nearby instinctively backed away. Even though they weren't directly threatened, they couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of caution, as if they were standing next to a dangerous, man-eating beast.
That reaction was due to Arcanine's ability—Intimidate.
Of course, Larry had already instructed it to suppress the effect, otherwise, it would scare away all the potential food sources.
As the group continued deeper into the desert, the local wildlife began taking notice of their presence. Even though they had no intention of starting trouble, it seemed the desert itself wasn't going to let them pass so easily.
"Oh?" Larry suddenly tilted his head, his sharp gaze locking onto a specific spot beneath the sand. His aura had picked up something big moving underground. Not just anywhere, either—it was right in the middle of the densest crowd of contestants.
As soon as the first group of people realized something was wrong and bolted, the rest quickly caught on and followed suit. But the ones who lacked sharp instincts—the weakest among them—didn't have the luxury of escaping in time.
Then, out of nowhere, a tiny black dot formed beneath their feet. Before anyone could react, it expanded at an alarming speed. In the blink of an eye, the ground gave way to a massive vortex of quicksand, swallowing nearly a third of the contestants. If not for those who managed to flee earlier, even more people would have been caught in its pull.
Panic set in as everyone scrambled to escape. Channeling their aura into their feet, many contestants launched themselves away from the quicksand, barely avoiding a disastrous fate. But before they could catch their breath, a new nightmare emerged.
A deep roar tore through the desert air.
A massive shadow loomed over the battlefield, blocking out the sunlight and casting an eerie darkness over the already terrified contestants. Then, it finally revealed itself—a monstrous creature, its body grotesquely oversized and insect-like.
Its head was adorned with three blood-red eyes and a hideous, almost human-like face. Its bloated body was riddled with dark holes, and six thick, jagged limbs scraped against the shifting sands.
The sheer size and presence of the creature froze many in place, their courage dissolving into fear. "A giant antlion…" Menchi's voice trembled as she stared up at the beast. "There are only a handful of these in all six continents… They usually burrow deep in the desert." She swallowed hard. "I never thought we'd run into such a high-level threat right off the bat!"
Larry, however, had a very different reaction. "Can we eat it?" he asked, his tone casual.
Menchi hesitated before answering. "...It's not tasty."
Larry sighed. "Then it's only worth hunting, huh?"
Before Menchi could even process his words, Larry vanished from the back of his wind-speed dog in a blur, leaving her stunned.
Her eyes widened as she followed his trajectory—he was already mid-air, descending straight toward the giant antlion at an insane speed.
A moment later, an overwhelming aura erupted from his body, sending a suffocating pressure rippling across the entire battlefield.
The first to feel it was the antlion itself, but the shockwave extended far beyond. Everyone—whether they were standing, running, or watching from afar—felt their bodies lock up under the sheer weight of Larry's presence.
The desert fell silent.
"What… what is that?!" A chill ran down the spines of every contestant as they instinctively recognized the threat level of the aura enveloping them. It was suffocating, like being trapped in an ice-cold abyss with no way out.
From below, Gel looked up, her sharp gaze locked onto Larry's descending figure. Her breath hitched. "Is that really Larry…?" she muttered in disbelief.
She had sensed plenty of strong fighters in her life, but this was on another level entirely. No… even Chairman Netero never gave off a presence this terrifying.
Larry's aura burned with raw intensity, so bright that it was almost blinding. Gel squinted, trying to keep her eyes on him despite the overwhelming force pressing down on her.
Up in the sky, Larry's eyes gleamed with excitement as he gazed at the so-called "desert tyrant."
A monstrous, steel-like entity seemed to materialize behind him—an illusion formed by his sheer presence, radiating an aura of destruction.
Then, as the air around him crackled with energy, orange-red Aura surged around his right arm, condensing into a force so dense it warped the space around it. With a roar, he drove his fist straight into the antlion's skull.
BOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic. The antlion's head crumpled inward, its once-terrifying face contorting into something even more gruesome. The force of the blow sent shockwaves tearing through the air, and the creature's enormous body slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash.