"What kind of recipe?"
"Braised giant meatballs, and iron-pot chicken stew. I don't know whether you've heard of them."
Menchi's mind raced at high speed, and in the end, she confirmed that these were dish names she had never heard before.
Menchi wavered.
Roy naturally noticed, so he added more fuel to the fire. "At the moment, all the examinees have already gone out. Gon and the others here are all my friends, so they won't say anything. You should know these are two recipes for dishes that have never appeared before. I can guarantee the authenticity of both recipes. One of them, braised giant meatballs, uses pork as its main ingredient. You can absolutely hunt a Great Stamp in the Milsy Wetlands to verify whether it's real or not. Could it be that this beautiful lady examiner has no interest in trying a novel new dish? I guarantee it'll be absolutely delicious!"
"All right, you two pass!"
Faced with unknown new recipes, Menchi did not hesitate in the slightest and surrendered on the spot.
"Pleasant doing business."
Roy then naturally told her the specific cooking methods for those two dishes.
Menchi was a One-Star Gourmet Hunter and extraordinarily gifted when it came to food. The moment she heard the recipes, she immediately realized that Roy was not lying!
Both sides were satisfied.
After passing, Roy spoke with Android 18 and with Gon's group, who were still struggling with sea fish, then headed outside to bask in the sun.
The moment he stepped out, Roy used his aura to sense the surroundings.
First, naturally, he discovered Satotz hiding on a tree branch and squatting there to watch the show. Then he sensed the movements of the various examinees.
Roy had already memorized the aura of several important examinees earlier, so now it was immediately clear who was where.
However, what made Roy laugh helplessly was that not a single examinee had gone to the riverside to catch fish.
No, there was still one—the bald ninja, the only examinee besides Roy who also knew how to make nigiri sushi.
"Looks like everyone except him went to catch Great Stamps or some other kind of prey. Seems I really managed to lead this entire batch of examinees astray. I wonder how many bizarre versions of nigiri sushi are about to appear. Menchi will definitely be even more furious, won't she?"
As the chief culprit behind all this, Roy felt absolutely no guilt. Instead, he found a warm sunny spot and watched the examinees' performance with great enjoyment.
After a while, the examinees gradually returned to the factory building one after another.
Every single one of them came back carrying grotesque animal carcasses.
Some had brought weird giant frogs from the Milsy Wetlands. Some had brought strange birds that flew through the sky. But most of them had brought Great Stamps!
Looks like they had been thoroughly led off course.
When the bald ninja returned as well, carrying fish, and saw so many bizarre ingredients, he could not help covering his mouth and stifling a laugh.
"Pfft! Yes, this is perfect. Let these examinees get eliminated just like this while I alone pass the exam without a care. Don't laugh! Pfft—"
As Menchi watched the examinees return, all fired up and preparing to go all out, her expression grew uglier and uglier.
Beside her, Buhara—who had already finished making arrangements with Android 18—shuddered when he saw Menchi's expression. He could not help sighing and silently observing three seconds of mourning for the examinees.
After all, Menchi's personality was extremely stubborn, and she was incredibly strict when it came to cooking.
In some respects, stubbornness was the same thing as rigidity and obstinacy.
Nigiri sushi's main ingredient was fish, yet these examinees were using all sorts of bizarre ingredients instead. For Menchi, who was so harsh and inflexible about cooking, there was naturally no way this would make her happy.
So when Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, and Killua presented their finished nigiri sushi to Menchi, they were the first to run straight into the muzzle of the gun and naturally received her completely unreserved criticism.
Leorio's nigiri sushi was even more unfortunate. Because the rice he shaped was crooked and misshapen and looked awful, Menchi did not even bother tasting it. She flung both the dish and the plate away without a second thought.
Then came the grand exhibition of all the examinees' bizarre nigiri sushi creations.
It also had to be said that these examinees were astonishingly gifted in their own way. Even Buhara felt his heart pounding in alarm when he looked at what they had made, so there was no need to mention Menchi.
After mercilessly berating them, Menchi did not taste a single one of their dishes.
That continued until the bald ninja presented his own dish.
By then, Roy had already had enough sunshine and leisurely returned to the cooking venue.
But just as he arrived at the entrance, he discovered that all the examinees who had returned to the exam site were now charging out again.
Roy thought for a moment and more or less understood what had happened.
"What nonsense are you spouting to me?! If you want to make nigiri sushi properly, even a professional chef would need at least ten years of practice! Do you even understand that?!"
Sure enough, the moment he walked in, Roy saw Menchi grabbing Hanzo by the collar and spraying spit everywhere as she yelled at him.
"Looks like Hanzo and his big mouth spilled the method for making nigiri sushi again."
Roy walked forward.
"Roy, you're back?"
Gon greeted him.
"Yeah. Did you all pass?"
Roy responded, then exchanged a glance with Android 18, who was standing to the side acting like a quiet beauty.
And the moment the exam was mentioned, Gon lowered his head.
(End of Chapter)
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