Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 174: Skyrocketing Fame Points

Chapter 174: 174: Skyrocketing Fame Points

Midnight.

After sending off the slightly tipsy television host Chiyoda Aichi into a taxi, Xia Yu walked home under the streetlights. He glanced at a lady’s business card in his hand in the light before casually slipping it into his pocket.

Social niceties were set aside for the moment. Xia Yu’s main concern, of course, was still the gains from the Food Duel.

He checked the system logs.

"System: You defeated the Five-Star Chef Lancelot."

"System: The Seven-star Saber·Breaking Army has been added to your inventory as a reward for completing the Food Duel task."

"System: Cooking level lv20→lv24."

Besides the known kitchen knife, the four-level leap in cooking skills secretly surprised Xia Yu.

When he defeated Si Yingshi last time, he did not gain any cooking experience because the system had not specified a clear objective; he was only asked to present himself before the faculty and students at Far Moon, and Xia Yu chose the simplest and most direct approach.

But this time, the nature of the Food Duel was entirely different. Xia Yu gambled with his home and his tiny restaurant, akin to a life-and-death battle. The system would have been too stingy not to award more cooking experience.

Perfect timing, the four free Talent Points he gained were all invested into the "Spice Inequality."

This meant that "Spice Inequality" became the second cooking skill, after "Bursting Flame," to reach a max level of 10.

"I finally maxed out two blue culinary skills..." Xia Yu felt no joy at all, instead feeling a vague sense of helplessness at not seeing the way forward.

Even though the skills were maxed out, whether it was "Bursting Flame" or "Spice Inequality," Xia Yu felt he had only grasped part of the essence. There was an invisible chasm separating him from the realms of Ya Kan and Mira of the "Five Tigers."

Currently, these two culinary skills were just of blue quality.

Growth potential!

Thinking of the keywords from the system’s data when he purchased the Skill Book, Xia Yu had an inkling.

The blue quality was certainly not the pinnacle of "Bursting Flame" and "Spice Inequality," but the question was how to advance these already maxed-out culinary skills?

"It should be missing a key item." Xia Yu didn’t dwell on it, very straightforwardly consulting the system.

"The host needs to pass the Special Grade assessment and the Special Grade restaurant evaluation to obtain a culinary skill upgrade gem," the system mechanically replied.

"..."

Ellipses flashed through Xia Yu’s mind.

The crucial point wasn’t the upgrade gem itself but that this gem could only be obtained through the Special Grade assessment?

"Can’t it be purchased with Fame Points?" he asked with a frown.

"Sorry, this item is currently unavailable in the Chef God Store," the system said.

Xia Yu had to suppress the thought.

It seemed he shouldn’t think about upgrading "Bursting Flame" and "Spice Inequality" to purple quality in the short term.

Oh right!

Thinking of the recipe he created on the Food Battle Stage—"Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage," Xia Yu then browsed the system logs, soon revealing a satisfied smile.

"’Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage’: A recipe that combines the ’Flame’ and ’Spice’ culinary skills, its appearance is artistic and its inner construction full of secrets. The flame and spice meld together inseparably, creating a chaotic and explosive taste. ’Subordinate’ Special Grade cuisine quality!"

Though this recipe was also purple, it was a light purple, different from the deep purple of the previous "Nine Feathered Phoenix."

The upper limit of "Nine Feathered Phoenix" recipe’s potential is Special Level Three Stars.

The Spice Nine-layered Construction Method within it was actually learned by Xia Yu from Dojima Yin in secret. The spices and flames in the recipe were separated. The Spice Nine-layered Construction Method alone could challenge the extreme domain, opening the taste treasure of humanity.

But Xia Yu was very content. A person must know satisfaction.

The highlight of the "Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage" lay in breaking away from the constraints of the original Chinese cuisine recipe and adding his own elements. To put it simply, it was a grand experiment, and it bore fruit—

Transforming a blue recipe into a purple one!

So, is there hope for further improving purple recipes to the level of golden recipes in the future?

Wait!

Thinking too far ahead!

Xia Yu promptly reined in his runaway thoughts and checked the reward for his self-created recipe:

"System: The ingredient section of the Chef God Store has unlocked two new ingredients..."

Another unlock of new ingredients?

He quickly opened the store, staring at the information in a daze.

"[Land Shark Back Fin]: Already processed into fish fin, a Special-grade Fantasy Ingredient. Each sheet of fins sells for 300 points of Fame."

"[Fish Fin Mushroom]: The latest discovery among plant-based Fantasy Ingredients, with a strong natural fish fin flavor. Priced at 100 points of Fame per pound (500 grams)."

Wasn’t this the ingredient Lancelot had in his stockpile?

Unable to help it, Xia Yu swallowed some saliva. If he used ’Land Shark Back Fin’ and ’Fish Fin Mushroom’ to further refine the "Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage" recipe, who knows...

He dared not continue imagining wildly.

"Too expensive! Too expensive!" Xia Yu could only shake his head.

A pound of Fish Fin Mushroom cost 100 points of Fame. Buying several pounds to practice equaled burning up a blue recipe, just imagining it made Xia Yu’s heart ache.

"Right—"

He suddenly slapped his forehead in realization.

He participated in a public Food Duel today and won spectacularly, in front of so many spectators and with the live broadcast on a culinary television show, surely there should be quite a sum of Fame coming in, right?

"System, how many Fame Points do I currently have available?" he asked.

"The host has 13,110 points of Fame available..."

"Wait!" Xia Yu thought he misheard, "Repeat that."

"13,110 points," the system mechanically repeated.

Oh my, more than ten thousand points?

Xia Yu’s pupils contracted. He quickly opened the system log, then was dumbfounded.

After the recipe reward information, there was line after line of Fame Points gained reminders.

Each message added +10 points. How many were there in total to reach over ten thousand points? Xia Yu didn’t count them carefully; knowing the source of this Fame was enough.

After the initial shock came ecstasy.

The Fame Points were surely to increase continuously as the Food Duel event continued to ferment. Tonight was just a big outburst. In a few days, television stations would broadcast the wonderfully edited Food Duel footage, attracting another batch of viewers captured by Xia Yu, who would then learn that there was an unknown Chinese Restaurant here in the Taidong District.

That’s the advantage of being on TV.

In this era of information, news, whether good or bad, spreads very fast. Before the Food Duel footage aired, a heated discussion likely already started on Twitter.

Xia Yu pursed his lips, took out his phone, and opened his Twitter account that he hadn’t logged into for a long time, finding a bunch of people mentioning him.

"Congratulations on a spectacular victory." Golden-haired twin-tail Sazama Eri openly mentioned him using her ’Bai Muying’ account and shared her thoughts on watching the Food Duel, with hundreds of retweets already.

"This guy is the chef Xia Yu on stage today, catch him with a master ball!"

Ren Xue also joined in, using her famous UP Master account to mention Xia Yu, gaining him thousands of followers on Twitter inexplicably.

Shuigu Jun and An Yilun also joined the capturing action.

Hmm.

Xia Yu noticed a few special private messages.

"Instructor Xia, follow me, I’ll follow back. I am Yoshino Yuuki..."

"I’m Reiko..."

"Umm, Instructor Xia, I am Xijian Run. About the invitation to the Food Battle Stage today, do you remember? Please, please follow my account—"

Whether he knew them or not, Far Moon faculty and students found his Twitter ID. Xia Yu followed many people in one go. Returning to the small restaurant, just when he was about to put his phone away, another private message came through.

"Add me."

Just two, very haughty words.