Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 304 - 303: The Invitation of the Manga Artist

Chapter 304: Chapter 303: The Invitation of the Manga Artist

"Those food media are too despicable!"

Mashiro Takumi handed over the latest issue of a gourmet magazine to Xia Yu, "Yu, take a look at this!"

"A Food Review Conference magazine?"

After flipping through it briefly, Xia Yu also furrowed his brows.

Having attended elementary, middle, and high school in Neon, his Japanese proficiency was of course no issue. Moreover, after his soul had transmigrated and he obtained another mature soul, his language skills had skyrocketed. Speaking of which, his painful accent in English had finally been forcibly corrected over these one or two years.

The Food Review Conference magazine’s headline was an article about a visit to a popular restaurant.

The section on Xia’s branch was right after the first page flip, with the title in bold and blackened—

"Under the Acclaimed Name, In Fact, It’s Hard to Live Up To!"

Ignoring a bunch of nonsense, Xia Yu frowned at several critiques that could be described as "biting":

"...Service? I don’t know what’s up with this restaurant’s manager, but perhaps to cut costs, they only had 2 servers, and they were students without much real work experience at that, carrying an air of arrogance, not treating the customers as though they were gods. Let’s not even talk about the slow service, getting a pot of tea refilled took forever!"

"If it were a scoring system out of 10, my rating for them... would be zero!"

"Yes, a zero!"

The writer seemed quite pleased with himself, at least in Xia Yu’s opinion. His impression of the article was terrible, extremely terrible, even nauseating. If there were no outsiders present, he might just flip them the middle finger directly.

Although he had anticipated that the branch would receive some negative feedback, he hadn’t expected this writer to stoop so low!

The Ten Masters of Far Moon as servers, inexperienced? That’s just making things up and blindly smearing!

Moreover, Ichise Hui and Kobayakawa Ryodan had received formal professional training; their attitude toward customers was definitely on point, much better than his own as both the manager and head chef.

After a brief scan, Xia Yu took a deep breath to calm down, the corners of his mouth curling into a faint smile.

"Truly a ’professional’ magazine!"

He returned the magazine to Mashiro Takumi, emphasizing the word "professional" sarcastically. This was, of course, a mockery of the strategy used by the Food Review Conference, which played the unequal dissemination of information to their advantage, mixing truth and fiction so well that even he almost developed a distaste for his own branch. A full-scale brainwashing tactic.

"Come in—"

Xia Yu gestured Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku into the establishment.

He didn’t head into the kitchen but sat at the counter with the two of them, letting Koga Shoji and Tang Yeyan get on with the food preparation.

"You two have been coming in quite often these days," Xia Yu said, casting a slightly surprised look. "Do high school students these days have so much pocket money? Eating at my place every day..."

Hearing this, Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku’s expressions twitched.

You still realize your little shop’s prices are quite high! Also, Boss Xia, you’re a high school student too!

They complained in their minds. The two exchanged glances, both hesitating on how to broach the subject.

"What’s up? You seem troubled," Xia Yu chuckled, observing the small movements of this ’CP’ duo and surmising that they came with a purpose.

He was quite curious.

Mashiro Takumi was an artist, having won a minister’s award at the age of seven—he could be considered a prodigy in the art world, extremely talented.

Takagi Shuutoku, with his brown hair and glasses, giving off the aura of an honors student, liked to write and often won awards.

The biggest thing they had in common was their goal to become manga artists!

So, they collaborated under the pen name ’Asagaki Yume’, and it seemed they had three works published so far. For them, high school-aged as they were, it was quite an achievement. At least in his previous life, Xia Yu had been engrossed in playing League of Legends and drawing Onmyoji cards at this age!

But Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku were clearly not satisfied with just this level of success.

"That’s the thing..."

After a brief silence, Mashiro Takumi mustered his courage and began to discuss their concept for the fourth work.

"Chefs and cuisine have always been one of the most popular themes, and it’s also the mainstream in the manga world. Our third work, ’This World Relies on Money and Wisdom,’ was a niche manga, but it managed to stand out and was ultimately published in ’Red Circle Jump’..."

"But our niche work was disastrously defeated in the popularity polls by a formidable opponent!"

Mashiro Takumi said this, his tone involuntarily sunk a little, his palm placed on the bar counter gripped tight, resentfully saying, "That guy is incredible, a true manga genius, invited by ’Weekly Shonen Jump’ to debut in Tokyo with a serialized work!"

"So you want to create a mainstream work to truly defeat him?" Xia Yu slightly smiled and then pointed at herself, "But this is your challenge and dream, what does it have to do with me?"

He was quite puzzled.

"Please! Boss Xia! You must help us!"

Mashiro Takumi knelt crisply on the stool and bowed deeply, "Our new work on chefs and cuisine needs your professional guidance as a chef..."

At this point, Xia Yu understood.

It turned out they wanted his collaboration in creating a manga work.

Culinary-themed manga, like the original source of ’Food Wars!,’ has professional culinary researchers overseeing it.

Seeing Xia Yu rest his chin on his hand and look quite interested, Takagi Shuutoku immediately handed over his manuscript to Xia Yu.

It was roughly the story of a Neon youth striving for the pinnacle of cooking, defeating a host of enemies along the way.

A very orthodox hot-blooded mainstream style, interspersed with countless culinary battles.

Wait a minute!

Going back to the outline, Xia Yu saw the main character’s setting and couldn’t help but laugh and cry.

No wonder there was such a strong sense of déjà vu.

This main character named Akashi Yuichi, sixteen years old, a high school student, had a small family shop, his parents had passed away, and he lived with his grandmother to protect the family’s only asset.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Xia Yu gave Takagi Shuutoku a dissatisfied look, "Are you sure it’s alright to copy like this?"

Who knew Takagi Shuutoku would push up his black-framed glasses and say, "Boss Xia, this protagonist is indeed based on you. Takumi and I discussed it; such a background provides a story worth telling, more dramatic."

Completely serious.

"This is bullshit!" Xia Yu couldn’t help but retort.

Story potential?

Upon further thought, from a creator’s perspective, it seemed to have some appeal; after all, Xingping Chuangzhen’s character also had a family shop and a powerful support figure.

Xingping’s support was his dad.

Akashi Yuichi’s support was his grandmother.

Xia Yu scratched his face, begrudgingly thinking, "Does the old man count as my support?"

"How about it?"

Mashiro Takumi and Takagi Shuutoku’s gazes shone as they looked toward him.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Xia Yu didn’t rush to answer.

Although he had a good relationship with these two young guys, personal favors were one thing and business was another.

"How about this, I can help for free, but on one condition," Xia Yu had a plan in mind and smilingly said, "Change the manga protagonist’s setting a bit, make the street where the protagonist lives more specific, locate it in Tokyo’s Taito District, Ueno Station, Ameyoko. When it comes to drawing, you can also go based on the street’s actual scenes, it’s actually easier with real scenery, right..."

"Ah!"

Mashiro Takumi exclaimed.

Takagi Shuutoku, after the shock, seemed to have an epiphany.