"It's just as incredible as always..."
Evander couldn't help but smile as he stepped out from the alleyway, and the place he emerged, it looked to be a large marketplace. After having finished up his afternoon session of L'Avenir back in the Genshin world, he didn't waste any time and quickly came over to the Toriko world.
Looking at the crowds of bustling people and all of the stalls that were selling all kinds of ingredients, Evander could only sigh at the sight.
"Alright!" Evander slapped both his cheeks before walking to join the crowd. "So, first thing I need to do is restock my ingredients..."
Taking out his phone, he navigated to where he had typed down a list of ingredients he needed and how much of said ingredients he needed.
Naturally, he was gonna see what other ingredients here he may be interested in cooking with. After all, of everything he has used, it could only amount to a small percentage available here at the marketplace.
Whether or not he'd add any new dishes with those new ingredients to the restaurant was one thing, but testing and exposing himself to new ingredients for self-pleasure was another.
"Oh, Evander!"
"Huh?" Evander blinked as he looked up to see someone walking over while waving their hand. "Oh, Tom! How are you?"
"Great as usual!" The one known as Tom smiled brightly as he responded. "What brings you to the World Kitchen today?"
"Just here to restock." Evander replied as he put his phone away. "I'd also like to try cooking some other things. Any suggestions?"
"Hm..." Tom held his chin in thought before snapping his fingers. "Right! We had a big supply of fish come in this morning, so you can be sure they're the absolute freshest! If you're interested, I recommend heading over there."
"Really?" Hearing this, Evander was immediately interested. "I'll definitely check it out then. What about any news on new ingredients out there in the world?"
"Not yet I'm afraid." Tom shook his head with a wry smile on his face. "I'll definitely tell you when I do though, I can assure you that!"
"I'll forward to it then."
"By the way..." Tom spoke up again. "Have you happened to see Toriko around lately? He hasn't been around too much as of late."
"Sorry, can't say I have." Evander shook his head with a shrug of his shoulders. "Knowing him though, he's probably out there stuffing his face. You and I know how gluttonous he is, any news of good food will have him running."
"Sounds like him alright!" Tom gave a laugh as he replied. "I got some work to do, so I better get going. Sorry I couldn't chat for long."
"No worries, good luck, man."
Evander gave a small wave of his hand as Tom walked off elsewhere. Taking his phone back out, Evander once again pulled up the list of ingredients.
"Let's get started. First up..."
(O)———————(O)
The marketplace was like all the other times he'd seen it, always filled to the brim with countless unique ingredients. Ranging from aquatic, land, and avian animals, and of course not forgetting all sorts of fruits and vegetables as well. It was honestly overwhelming.
It had been around two hours since Evander began walking around, and he had finished restocking on what he needed and was now looking for anything knew he might be interested in.
As for where he was keeping all the things he bought, the System's inventory of course.
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[Gourmet Master System]
➢ Status
➢ Inventory (67/100)
➢ Mission
➢ World Travel (Genshin ◇|Toriko ◈)
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This was the system he was given when he first arrived in Teyvat, and it has served him greatly over the rather short time he's had it. It not only provided him with missions and other incredibly useful functions, but even the ability to travel between this world and Teyvat.
As for the finer details, that'll be explained more in the future.
"Tom wasn't kidding, the fish here are as fresh as can be..." Evander marveled as he knelt slightly to observe the fish swimming around in the separated tanks. "What should I get?"
There was a lot of fish here in the marketplace that are either already dead before being brought here, or have been killed and sold after the initial listing on the market. The food here in the Toriko world was much more resilient, for lack of better word.
Even if not kept in a frozen environment, fish could still be sold a good amount of time after death. Evident by how a number of stalls had fish literally on display, not even placed on ice beds or anything. Either just lying on the tables, or hung on the walls.
However, the fact that these fish were still alive here in front of him guaranteed absolutely top quality freshness.
Nothing says a fish is more fresh than if it's still alive and kicking. It made sense though, buying a fully intact ingredient costs despairing more compared to ones that have or will be chopped into separate chunks to be sold.
Naturally, aside from the abnormal ingredients unique to the Toriko world, there were still very ordinary ingredients as well. Though, their quality was still far superior here than anything he could find in Teyvat.
"Let's see..."
Of course, despite this, he wasn't at all going to gamble on quality. After all, if he had the ability, why wouldn't he prefer to guarantee he buys the absolute best amongst the bed of gold? In this case, it came in the form of a certain skill.
Gourmet Analysis.
This was one of the abilities that the system had given him by default, it was a simple but unbelievably useful ability.
It allowed him to know all the specific information regarding the ingredient in front of him, even down to nutritional levels and even in-depth biological information like nerves and potential injuries or defects.
The only downside was that he could only use it on a single ingredient at a time, so he had to keep track of the fish as he used it. Whether or not you consider it an advantage or not, the information given for each ingredient was different each time for every ingredient, even if they were the same.
In other words, the info given for one apple most likely won't be the same as another apple of the same type. That aside, Evander was looking at the swimming Striped Salmons in the massive container of water, some huge fish they were.
Considering how rare these fish were, it wasn't surprising to see that there were only four here.
Not the fish itself, but more specifically, living Striped Salmon. After all, most will kill the fish to extract caviar, the fact that these ones were alive could be considered a big gamble by the stall owner.
Who knows if one of these had the Golden Caviar.
.
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Gourmet Analysis
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Name: Striped Salmon
Evaluation: [Freshness: S] [Quality: A]
Price: 2000 (100g)
Capture Level: 1 (Below)
Biometrics: [Type: Fish] [Length: 96cm] [Weight: 35kg]
Habitat: Freshwater, Rivers, Oceans
More Details: [Nutritional Levels] [Biology]
Description: A species of salmons that travels in schools. Only one in several hundred produce Golden Caviar, making them rather rare and expensive. This particular fish appears to have a large amount of caviar stored within
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.
Although there were indeed differences between them, they were all indeed very high quality Striped Salmons just like the one analyzed above. Even though he checked the in-depth biological information, although it told him it had caviar inside, it didn't tell him what type.
'Just a shame it doesn't show me what kind of caviar it has, not like it's gonna matter either way...' Evander smiled before looking at the nearby salesman. "Excuse me, I'd like to purchase all four of these!"
"All of them?" The seller looked shocked after hearing this as he walked over. "A-Are you sure?"
"Yep, I'll take them all."
After confirming Evander's desire to make the purchase, with a bit of difficulty, the seller eventually managed to properly weigh each of the fish on his scale. The size of the four fish didn't really help either.
"O-Okay... that'll be a total of two-hundred and seventy-eight million!"
Hearing the cost, Evander could only smile bitterly as he took out a card before using it to pay for the four fish on the card scanner the seller took out. They were just as horrendously expensive as expected.
If he wasn't the Gourmet Hunter that he was, these four fish would easily be enough to drive him to bankruptcy and more.
Honestly, he was amazed the owner didn't raise the price since they were still alive.
It was at times like this that he couldn't help but disdain Toriko, that dude was so lucky having that black card to pay for everything he wanted. Even though there would most likely be people who would try and steal them from him, he was more than capable of protecting himself.
'Speaking of which...'
Evander narrowed his eyes as he sensed a few eyes staring at him from behind, casually looking over his shoulder, he could see some people eyeing him up. Based on their expressions alone, you could easily come to the conclusion that they had anything but pure intentions towards him.
Evander, instead of being wary, simply gave a small feral grin as an icy-blue aura rose up from his body along with even particles of frost dropping to the ground. Seeing this, the individuals staring at him all seemed to stiffen up before quickly leaving the scene.
Evander chuckled as his aura receded.
'Gotta love the power of intimidation.'
(O)———————(O)
While Evander was busy off in the Toriko world, a certain journalist from the Steambird once again proved her efficiency as a reporter. The moment she got back from her interview, she wrote nonstop to finish the papers and more.
With how hot of a topic L'Avenir was right now, she'd deeply regret it if someone else publishes a report before her. She simply couldn't let it happen!
After finishing writing the report, Charlotte had it all edited with the help of Euphrasie before having it approved for publication. Only a few more steps were needed before it could officially be published and put on shelves and distributed to the public tomorrow.
"Yes, this is perfect!" Charlotte smiled brightly as she looked through the paper in her hands. "This may be an even bigger hit than Escoffier was!"
Speaking of her friend, Charlotte was still rather concerned after learning of the former's sentence to the Fortress of Meropide. Although the sentence isn't too long, the fact that she was in an environment filled with criminals, Charlotte couldn't help but worry.
"Now that I think about it, her time should be up soon..." Charlotte muttered before looking at the papers she had just placed onto the table. "I wonder how she'd react to all this."
Looking at the separated sheets of paper on the table, all about L'Avenir and its owner, she knew that someone like Escoffier would no doubt be interested.
[IMAGE: Steambird Report]