The crowd quieted down upon hearing the broadcast. It was Ma Wenzhou who finally broke the silence.
"All right, let these two youngsters go to their competition first. It’s just a minor squabble; there’s no need to escalate things to this point." Ma Wenzhou waved at Gan Lan and Ge Feng. "You two head to your match. Leave the rest to us."
Hearing this, Gan Lan glanced at Dean Chu. He nodded at her and said, "Go on."
Gan Lan nodded in return and turned to enter the competition venue. As Ge Feng passed by her, he turned his head, shot her a disdainful look, and walked briskly away.
Gan Lan felt completely unfazed, even wanting to laugh a little. "Why is this guy so childish?" she thought. "Does he think he’s the only one with backers?"
Walking to Arena 99, today’s top 100 selection match was being held across one hundred arenas simultaneously. The competition theme was unified. After the match, ten thousand participants would be ranked together through a voting process, and only the top one hundred would advance to the finals.
Gan Lan inspected her cooking utensils as usual. This was her third time here. With only one hundred people in Arena 99, it seemed increasingly empty, as if there was no one around.
Arena Broadcast: [All contestants are in position. The competition theme will now be announced.]
Arena Broadcast: [Most common ingredients have their own unique aromas—some fragrant, some sweet, or some subtle. Some may even have various unpleasant fishy or bitter tastes. These are all things we can accept and handle well. As long as the right seasonings are used, they can be transformed into delicious flavors.]
Gan Lan’s heart skipped a beat when she heard this. Sure enough, it was a special ingredient—perhaps even something she couldn’t accept or hadn’t cooked before. This made her a bit nervous as she listened to the broadcast repeat three times.
She stared at her pot, lost in thought. Then, the clear broadcast sounded in her ears again.
Arena Broadcast: [Our Federation Star System also has a variety of special, foul-smelling ingredients. The most famous ones are the stinky fish from Yangyu Star, such as rays, Gu fish, and so on. Today’s theme features these fish that emit a distinct stench. You must preserve their unique flavors while making them delicious to eat, allowing people to overlook their peculiar odor.]
Gan Lan was speechless. Back when she read the materials on special ingredients, she had thought Yangyu Star was a magical planet—one permeated with all sorts of unacceptable, pungent odors.
Most of the fish emitting strange stenches were concentrated on Yangyu Star. However, the people there seemed to have broken noses; they couldn’t smell it at all. Or perhaps they had just gotten used to the smell.
Gan Lan opened the ten kinds of somewhat suffocating fish that the competition organizers had teleported over. Even separated by the water tanks, she felt like she was already suffocating.
She had specifically researched these fish, even going out of her way to find video materials. Having smelled them before, she had felt completely ill at the time, marveling at how truly bizarre this world was.
In her original world, stinky mandarin fish was specially fermented. But these fish naturally carried this stench while still alive. She was really going to suffocate...
Arena Broadcast: [You have thirty minutes to select your fish. The official competition will begin in half an hour. The match duration is three hours. Exceeding the time limit will be considered a forfeit.]
Hearing this, Gan Lan realized she only had half an hour to choose. She hurriedly opened the videos featuring sashimi made from these ten types of stinky fish and held her breath as she began to taste the sensory data. First was the Gu fish, because it looked somewhat like the mandarin fish from her original world, although the former was a saltwater fish and the latter was freshwater.
Picking up a slice of Gu fish sashimi, she noticed the meat had a slight blue tint. It looked beautiful, but the smell made her want to vomit...
Gan Lan shoved it directly into her mouth and chewed slowly. The fishy taste was overpowering, mixed with a strange, nauseating stench. She actually spat it out. She had truly never eaten anything with such an unacceptable flavor!
Seeing Gan Lan’s pained expression, the viewers in her livestream room burst out laughing, then proceeded to commend her courage.
Yes, this ten-thousand-to-one-hundred selection match was livestreamed the entire time. The Isolation Shield would only be activated once the streamers began preparing their ingredients and seasonings, preventing the viewers from seeing their cooking techniques and ingredient ratios.
However, viewers could chat via the on-screen comments, which the streamer couldn’t see. As soon as the competition began, audiences flocked to the livestreams of their favorite contestants, though they could also watch other competitors simultaneously.
Gan Lan’s livestream room was titled: [Contestant No. 9 - Freshman from the Culinary Department of Mingyang Star Comprehensive University.]
Her fans were concentrated in this room. More than half of the usernames were familiar to Gan Lan, while the rest were people who had recently noticed her or had been drawn in and began supporting her after her last two matches.
Of course, there were also unfamiliar viewers just casually browsing, Ge Feng’s fans coming to scout the enemy, and fans of other contestants. As a result, the popularity of Gan Lan’s livestream room remained quite high.
Tomorrow Won’t Come: [I’m such a genius. The moment I heard the competition theme, I turned off the taste-testing function in advance. Even though our junior schoolmate looks a bit pitiful right now, what should I do? I just can’t help but laugh!]
Gloomy Sky: [This theme is way too tricky. I watched several streamers at the same time, but this one is the bravest. She actually started by eating the most notoriously stinky and disgusting Gu fish. Now, just thinking about that taste makes me want to gag.]
Time Is Wrong: [I’m really curious about what the commenter above went through. How could you be so crazy as to try that kind of...]
Ge Feng I Want To Marry You: [Heh! I really can’t figure out how my husband could have a conflict with this kind of person. He is clearly a gentle and gentlemanly man! It must be this foul-smelling woman who made him unable to tolerate her!]
Binbin: [To the commenter above, what kind of parents raised a creature like you with a mouth stinkier than a Gu fish? Stop coming out here and polluting the air. Seeing you, I suddenly feel that the taste of the Gu fish isn’t all that unacceptable!]
Ge Feng Is My Life: [Heh! Is this the level of class Contestant No. 9’s fans have? We were just telling the truth. Can’t people even tell the truth nowadays?]
Binbin: [Class? You’re talking to me about class? Have you seen any of No. 9’s fans going to your No. 3 Ge Feng’s livestream? What a joke! Not a single one, because we disdain watching the livestream of a defeated loser!]
...
[Foodie Group]
Sky Blue: [I never expected to open my junior schoolmate’s competition livestream right after class, only to see our classmate Wang Bin taking on an entire army by himself. He alone managed to roast Ge Feng’s fans until they were speechless. It makes my attempts to cheer feel so powerless.]
Handsome Mingyu: [I didn’t expect Gan Lan’s sister Binbin to be this fierce either. Truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover! No way, I can’t fall behind!]
Hot Pot Balls: [How could a war without gunpowder like this lack my presence? I just finished my training and won’t even take a shower. I’m joining the battle immediately!]
...
The war in the comments didn’t affect Gan Lan. She was still miserably struggling against the various terrifying fish, yet to select one that was slightly less unbearable.