After finishing the assessment, Kael and the others headed back toward the lodging building. But before they could even enjoy a single moment of the luxury hotel night, the next exam dropped right on their heads.
"Yuki, Marui, pull yourselves together. We only have one hour."
Ryoko Sakaki looked at Zenji Marui—who was lying flat like a corpse—and Yuki Yoshino, whose expression had gone black-and-white from despair.
Marui was good at cooking and a total theory nerd, but physical strength… yeah, that was his fatal weakness.
As for Yuki, her problem was simple: her fantasies had been shattered. She thought after surviving one exam they'd get to relax in their rooms tonight. Instead, another exam suddenly appeared out of nowhere, completely messing up her plans.
This exam wasn't mentioned anywhere in the manual, so everyone was caught off guard.
Kael actually understood her perfectly. It reminded him of the first time he ever had evening self-study back in school. Being forced to attend extra classes after a full day of lessons, then going home at nine only to do homework, your entire night vanished. Anyone would feel miserable.
"We—we still have an exam?! Right! Right! Let's finish that first!"
The moment Yuki and Marui heard "one hour," they woke up instantly. The steak set exam gave them one hour to produce fifty servings. That was no small task.
Actually, the exam only looked scary. It wasn't that hard once you broke it down.
The portions of the steak sets weren't large. Rice could be cooked in a big batch once.
Steak could also be cooked in batches, how many you could handle depended on personal skill.
Soup could be made in one large pot.
Side dishes were already premade—just plating.
Salads could also be done in bulk.
So while it sounded like each set only had a little more than one minute of time, as long as you worked efficiently, passing wasn't difficult.
In the original story, over six hundred students survived the Training Camp, and after this steak exam the quota was even pushed up to eighty servings. Clearly, the difficulty wasn't actually high.
The only problem was that it hit everyone out of nowhere on the first day.
Kael finished cooking the rice and other components, then moved on to the steaks. Each steak was small enough that he could fit five in one big pan. With two pans going at once, he produced ten servings at a time.
Honestly, with Kael's ability, he could've easily handled ten pans at once.
But there were hundreds of students here and limited space. His station could only support two pans.
So ten servings per batch was his max.
Even so, Kael finished first, and much faster than Erina Nakiri had in the original story. Erina was only just approaching thirty servings when Kael was already done.
"This guy's speed is insane!"
Hearing Gin Dojima's voice, Erina looked over. She was also a Four-Star Chef and had held that rank longer than Kael, yet she was completely outpaced.
What she didn't know was that the rice and soup had actually slowed Kael down.
Unlike others, he didn't have anything like explosive flames to artificially speed up cooking—he could only streamline preparation steps. That helped, but not enough to cut the time dramatically.
"Kael, don't forget, we're meeting in Marui's room tonight!" Just as Kael was about to leave, Yuki called out.
Kael glanced at poor Marui with sympathy. That guy really had it rough. Back in the dorm, his room was constantly used as a gathering spot. Now at the Totsuki Resort, even though every room was identical, Yuki still chose his room.
There wouldn't be any cleaning service either. Students weren't customers—they were just staying here. At most, trash would be collected.
Returning to his room, Kael didn't go to the public bath. He hated bathing with a bunch of guys. Even if Gin Dojima was the only one inside, Kael had no interest in chatting with a muscle-bound dude while soaking together. Showering alone in his own room was way better.
Meanwhile, over in the bathhouse, Gin Dojima was confused.
"…Strange. By now Kael should've definitely finished. Why isn't he here?"
Every year he waited for the first student to show up in the bath. Last year it was Satoshi Isshiki. This year, he was certain it would be Kael.
Yet nobody came.
Just as he was wondering, someone walked in—and to his surprise, it wasn't Kael but Soma Yukihira.
"Looks like I waited for nothing today… well, this isn't bad either. Let's see how far Joichiro's masterpiece of a son can grow."
Gin knew Soma. Joichiro Saiba hadn't really disappeared—he was still active in the culinary world, just not keeping in touch much. Soma was part of the Jewel Generation plan. Senzaemon Nakiri knew; as his right-hand man, Gin also knew.
Of course, Kael had no idea Gin was waiting for him at the bathhouse. After everyone finished their steak exam, they all gathered in Marui's room.
"…Why does Marui's room always feel scarier than the others?"
Yuki said the moment she stepped inside. Marui was speechless. He had barely gotten back himself—he didn't even have time to tidy up. And the room was already spotless! Just… not spotless enough for him.
"Aren't you guys hungry? We haven't even had dinner yet. Should we make something? I can't believe we have to handle our own meals."
Everyone froze. They had been so busy feeding those athletes earlier that they'd forgotten to eat.
"No need to worry about that. You're forgetting where we are."
Alice smiled as she pulled out her phone and sent a huge menu to everyone.
"Pick whatever you want. Tell me, and I'll have it delivered."
The moment she said that, Yuki stared at her with sparkling eyes.
"As expected of Alice! Finally we get to enjoy the resort's services!"
She was practically crying. The only thing she'd been looking forward to was the resort experience, but aside from rooms, none of the high-class service was available to students. There was even a fixed lights-out time. It was stricter than their dorm.
The only consolation was that the rooms were large and luxurious.
Everyone quickly picked their meals. Alice confirmed the order, made a call, and soon everything was delivered.
"These dishes are really good. The chefs must be Five-Star Chefs."
One bite was enough for Kael to identify the level of whoever made the food.
"By the way… have you guys heard about Shinomiya-senpai's exam?"
While everyone ate, Shun Ibusaki suddenly spoke up.
"Shinomiya-senpai? Did something happen?"
Except for Kael, everyone looked confused.
"I heard it from a friend. He took Shinomiya-senpai's exam today. Apparently… it's terrifying."
"He gives everyone a recipe and the ingredients. But mixed in with the ingredients are faulty ones and the number of good ingredients matches the number of students."
Shun explained everything he heard.
"Ah… testing eyesight and crisis handling, huh? That doesn't sound too bad. Is the recipe difficult?"
They immediately understood the concept. Spot bad ingredients; if not, fix them using your skills. Pretty normal trial.
"That's the problem. The number of good ingredients matches the number of students. So no matter what, someone will end up with faulty ingredients."
"If they fix the ingredients themselves, that should be fine. But Shinomiya-senpai doesn't allow altering the recipe."
"If you follow the recipe exactly, you fail. But if you change it, you also fail."
By now everyone understood the real issue.
"So basically, if you don't fight for good ingredients, you're doomed."
Alice frowned. Nothing about this exam made sense.
"What is that?! If you can't grab good ingredients, you get expelled?! That's insane!"
Yuki and the others were stunned. They had experienced difficult exams from other alumni, but Kojiro Shinomiya's wasn't just difficult—it was malicious.
It was especially cruel to girls. A food-grab free-for-all favored guys, not girls.
In the original story, if Soma Yukihira wasn't the fearless type, Shinomiya's problem probably wouldn't have been discovered until the end of the camp.
Totsuki's rules were harsh but always logical. Shinomiya's exam? Nowhere near reasonable.
"What do we do then? What if we can't grab any good ingredients? Isn't that automatic expulsion?!"
Yuki panicked. The one most terrified, of course, was Megumi Tadokoro.
Even though Megumi wasn't nervous anymore, she wasn't strong-willed or forceful. The moment tomorrow's exam started, every student would be fighting desperately for ingredients.
"Alice, do you have Dojima-senpai's contact info?"
Kael suddenly asked.
"I do. You're thinking of reporting him?"
Alice was already scrolling through her phone.
"Of course. Everyone knows this exam wouldn't pass any formal review. All we have to do is report Kojiro Shinomiya, and Gin Dojima will take care of him."
Kael smiled. He had zero intention of confronting Shinomiya directly, he wasn't strong enough yet. In the original story, Megumi and Soma survived only because Shinomiya chose to spare them after Megumi's dish moved him.
But this wasn't the anime. There was no guarantee Megumi's dish would "awaken" him here.
If it didn't work, she'd be expelled, maybe Soma too.
Kael wasn't going to gamble with that. The best solution was to deal with the root of the problem: report Shinomiya and let Dojima handle him.