Gan Lan got up just as the sky began to brighten. She hadn’t slept well.
She was thrilled. After all, it would be her first time leaving the campus, her first time riding a spaceship, and her first time visiting another planet. With so many firsts, it was impossible for her to calm down.
She set up the soup pot, stir-fried the spices, and prepped the snail rice noodles needed for the day’s sales. She had already granted her two apprentices access to her dormitory, so they could come straight in when it was time.
She checked her outfit again. Her clothes were fine—there was hardly anything that could go wrong with a school uniform, anyway. She tied her hair into a neat, refreshing ponytail. The uniform of Mingzong’s Culinary Department was quite attractive: a white skirt suit accented with red lines that looked simple and elegant.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Gan Lan appeared several years younger than her past self. Her features were delicate, and her skin was fair and tender. She had completely recovered from her previously sallow, emaciated state.
Dragging her suitcase, she left the dorm and headed to the school’s designated spaceship landing pad to depart for Banan Star. She had actually considered buying a Space Ring, even a small one, but they were too expensive. She had chosen to give up on the idea.
When Gan Lan arrived, her eyes were immediately drawn to the massive spaceship. Parked on the lawn, it exuded a highly advanced, futuristic feel with its beautiful, flowing lines.
Stepping closer, she reached out to touch a corner of the ship. The moment her fingers made contact, the freezing surface made her yank her hand back.
"The hull contains ice crystals, so it’s extremely cold," Mr. Liang explained with a smile as he walked up beside her.
Gan Lan nodded embarrassedly. "Mr. Liang, what brings you here? Are you coming along too?"
"Let’s go. We’ll board first." Liang Cong led the way, introducing the spaceship’s structure to her. It made Gan Lan’s head spin; she couldn’t understand a word of it.
Liang Cong brought Gan Lan to her assigned room and explained its features, along with things she needed to be mindful of. Once she stowed her suitcase, he said, "Let’s go. We’ll head to the dining hall to meet up with the dean and the others."
Including herself, there were a total of three students heading to Banan Star for the competition. There were also five teachers—making it six staff members if the dean was included. Adding the pilots, maintenance crew, cooks, and other miscellaneous personnel, there were probably close to a hundred people on board. That was what Gan Lan had gathered so far.
"Gan Lan, come, sit here!" The dean patted the chair beside him.
"Thank you, Dean." Gan Lan sat up straight, glancing around at the others and offering them a smiling nod one by one.
"Let’s first discuss the things you need to pay attention to during the competition so you have a basic understanding," the dean began. "Unlike previous years, this will be an elimination tournament with fierce competition. They’ll filter the top one hundred out of a hundred thousand participants. The finals will be held at a different venue—the Red Demon Star."
As soon as the dean finished speaking, one of the teachers exclaimed in surprise.
"What? The official competition is on the Red Demon Star? Are they planning to make the students tackle those Red Demon Shrimp that have overrun half the planet? So many master chefs have met their match there. How could these students possibly come up with a way to handle them?"
"Exactly!" another teacher chimed in. "If you ask me, we should just fire a cannon and blast those creatures into extinction. They’re called shrimp, but they barely have any meat on them. Not only are they a hassle to eat, but they also multiply incredibly fast."
At the mention of the Red Demon Star, the teachers began voicing all sorts of complaints. They seemed to hold a deep-seated grudge against the planet’s creatures. However, Gan Lan managed to glean the situation from their grumbling. It turned out that Banan Star was just the venue for the elimination rounds, while the Red Demon Star would serve as the final battleground.
The rules of the elimination tournament were somewhat similar to the singing competition shows from her past life—except this was a culinary contest rather than a talent search for stars. Ultimately, both were battles of skill.
The Red Demon Star had a massive overpopulation of certain ingredients, with two being the most notorious: a type of shrimp and a type of fish. Despite their abundance, no one liked eating them. The shrimp were small, surprisingly aggressive, and lacked meat. The fish never grew larger than a human’s pinky finger and reproduced at an astonishing rate. These two species had nearly overrun more than half the planet. The local inhabitants had already petitioned the higher-ups to eradicate them completely.
However, the authorities had refused, arguing that these were food sources. Instead, they dispatched several master chefs to research cooking methods in hopes of making the two creatures delicious. Many masters had been unwilling to go, but a few teachers and public-faction masters from Qingtian took up the task. They had developed several recipes that tasted decent enough, yet they still failed to gain acceptance among the majority of the Federation’s citizens.
Over the past few years, these two aquatic species on the Red Demon Star had been ignored, allowing them to multiply faster than ever. Thus, someone came up with an idea: since the master chefs were reluctant to get involved, perhaps the rising stars in the culinary competition could find a way to turn these ingredients into a flavor that the general public could accept.
Returning to her room, Gan Lan went on the Star Network to do some research and actually found some information.
One was a saltwater shrimp that closely resembled the crayfish from her original world. However, while crayfish were freshwater creatures, these lived in the sea. She wondered how their meat would taste.
Gan Lan directly downloaded a sensory tasting video on the Star Network to sample the meat. The texture was slightly different from crayfish, but the discrepancy wasn’t large. The biggest difference lay precisely in their habitats—one thrived in fresh water, and the other in the sea.
She then looked up the other overpopulated little fish. It had a slender body, similar to a silverfish, but it was pitch-black like dark ink. Strangely, it had green eyes, giving it a somewhat eerie appearance.
Gan Lan tasted it as well. Aside from its creepy look, the texture wasn’t bad at all. However, it had far too many bones. The dish she was sampling was a stir-fried version. Since the fish bones couldn’t be swallowed, she could only chew on them to savor the flavor before spitting them out.
Having checked the two key ingredients, Gan Lan stopped her research. Her gaze was gradually drawn to the scenery outside the spaceship.
Planet after planet of varying colors dotted the vast expanse, forming a vibrant, multi-hued ocean against the deep, abyssal blue of space. This had to be the legendary sea of stars.
She was absolutely awestruck by the sight. It was stunning! She couldn’t find any other adjectives beyond marveling at its beauty. Every planet had a unique color. Some were distant, while others seemed close enough to touch if she just reached out a hand.
After gazing out for a long while, Gan Lan rubbed her eyes and began replying to her friends’ messages. To save trouble, she pulled them all into a single group chat. Since the spaceship ride would take two days and she was feeling a bit bored, she decided to chat with them.
It was also a good excuse to browse the Star Network and kill some time. Ever since she arrived in this world, she hadn’t had a single day of rest. Now that she suddenly had nothing to do, she felt as if something was missing.
Come and have some barbecue!: [I’m already on the spaceship. It actually takes two days to reach Banan Star? Doesn’t a parcel delivery arrive in half an hour?]
Feiran: [That’s because cargo transport channels are different from passenger channels. Manned spaceships have to make spatial jumps, whereas objects are sent through teleportation arrays. Does that make sense to you?]
Feiran: [Are the stars outside beautiful?]
Binbin: [Boss Yan’s explanation is on point! Junior, I heard you guys are going to two planets this time: Banan Star and the Red Demon Star?]
Sky Blue: [The Red Demon Star, seriously? What are the higher-ups thinking? Even master chefs refuse to touch that place. If you ask me, they should just blast those overpopulated creatures into extinction with a single cannon shot.]
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