Chapter 294: Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit
As soon as he set foot on the island, Shanks was overwhelmed by the bustling and noisy atmosphere of the Sinoxia Kingdom, exclaiming in awe.
"It's because the annual 'Sinoxia Gourmet Contest' is taking place." Adrian looked around and said.
"How do you know everything?" Shanks asked, protecting his precious renowned sword, 'Kogarashi,' while looking at Adrian with suspicion.
"If you had noticed the notice board over there, you would understand why I know so much."
Adrian casually pointed towards the entrance of the dock, where a massive billboard dominated the view. On it, in vividly colored ink, were the words "Sinoxia Gourmet Contest" painted in artistic lettering.
Following Adrian's gesture, Shanks saw the enormous notice board and his expression instantly turned awkward.
"Actually, the real strange ones are the people who can't see this billboard," Adrian quipped with a smile.
However, before he could start another round of his spiritual resilience training, a message suddenly appeared on his interface.
[A gourmet contest is detected nearby!]
[Chef skill level maxed, Basic Cooking skill level maxed!]
[You have triggered a C-level job upgrade mission: Master Chef!]
[Mission requirements: Participate in a gourmet contest as a chef and achieve at least a top-three ranking!]
[Mission reward: Chef subclass upgraded to Master Chef, skill: Advanced Cooking!]
Looking at the sudden mission prompt, Adrian's expression remained unchanged, but his mind was racing.
"After triggering the musician's job upgrade mission, now there's another upgrade mission for a subclass!"
"And like the navigator's upgrade mission, this was triggered by specific conditions."
"But 'Master Chef'... such a naming style..."
"Even calling it something like 'Gourmet' would be much better than 'Master Chef'!"
The difficulty of the chef's upgrade mission is rated at C-level, which doesn't seem too high.
The problem is, Adrian had recently appeared in the Kingdom of Reveland, posing as an hidden genius musician.
In just three to five days, his two pieces, "Mariage d'Amour" and "To Elizabeth," had spread like wildfire throughout the Paradise stage.
If it weren't for the dim lighting during the performance and the poor photography technology, Adrian's true identity would have been exposed long ago!
At that point, the World Economic Journal's front page would undoubtedly read: "The entire audience was shocked! The musician who played heavenly piano music was actually the notorious rookie pirate—White Ghost!"
"Do I really need to show my face again, competing in cooking skills with others?"
Adrian shook his head slightly. He wasn't willing.
"It just doesn't seem very reliable..."
"The more pressing issue is, with my actual cooking skills, I'm not even sure I can win…"
Adrian and Shanks slowly followed the crowd towards the island's central avenue, where the "Cocuun Center Open-Air Plaza" served as the arena for the "Sinoxia Gourmet Contest."
It was at this moment that Adrian and Shanks overheard another piece of information from the passing tourists' conversations.
"So it's already the final round of the culinary competition?" Adrian let out a sigh of relief.
Since it's the final, it means no new contestants will be entering the fray.
Honestly, with Adrian's mere level 10 chef's skills, participating in this world-renowned culinary competition and finishing at least in the top three…
Unless Adrian arranged it so there were only two contestants left!
He pulled up his panel again and opened the task section, which showed no information about task failure.
"The career upgrade task hasn't failed! That's good. It means triggering the upgrade task here doesn't mean I have to participate in this culinary competition!"
"So, the question is, where else might there be a culinary competition?"
"The most crucial thing is, with my culinary skills, I need to make it into the top three…"
"This is giving me a headache… Do I have to keep improving my cooking skills amidst daily battles and killings… "
"But this isn't 'Toriko,' there aren't that many rare and powerful ingredients!"
At that moment, Shanks' excited voice suddenly interrupted Adrian's deep contemplation.
"The final round of the culinary competition is a cocktail mixing contest!"
Adrian snapped out of it and glanced at the excited Shanks.
"You like cocktails?"
"I just like drinking!" Shanks replied earnestly.
Adrian asked, "Even so, can you drink the cocktails made by the contestants?"
"Shanks was a bit excited. The little drunkard had already smelled the rich aroma of tequila wafting through the air.
"A passing gentleman said that after the competition, aside from the professional food judges, some lucky audience members would be selected to taste the cocktails made by the finalists!"
"Moreover, the audience's ratings will be included in the contestants' final scores!"
"Quite an objective scoring system," Adrian commented casually. "But with your luck..."
At this point, Adrian closed his mouth, subconsciously recalling the [Advanced Luck Aura]...
Why am I doubting this kid's luck?
Adrian looked ahead to the crowded Cocuun Center Open-Air Plaza, where the final stage was surrounded by a sea of spectators, so densely packed that it was questionable if an ant could squeeze in!
At this moment, he and Shanks were still about two or three hundred meters from the edge of the stage.
Shaking his head, Adrian reached out and gently patted Shanks on the shoulder.
"If you really want to be a lucky audience member, then I can only wish you the best of luck."
As soon as he finished speaking, Adrian's figure suddenly disappeared.
After a moment of dumbfoundedness, Shanks instantly realized that Adrian wasn't planning to compete for the lucky audience spot with him.
"This is great! One less strong competitor!"
A fiery determination rose in Shank's eyes as he turned to look at the front of the crowd.
"I'm definitely going to get the champion's personally mixed cocktail!"
The next moment, Shanks took a deep breath and charged into the crowd like a wild boar.
Meanwhile, Adrian quietly appeared on the rooftop of a nearby hotel, just a few dozen meters from Cocuun Center Open-Air Plaza. From his vantage point, he could clearly see the actions of the finalists.
"As expected!"
"The Charlotte family brats!"
Adrian's eyes narrowed as he focused on the peculiar individuals on the final stage below.
In the upper right corner of the arena stood a three-story VIP building.
At the top of the building, a tall man with thick, fiery orange hair styled in three flame-like points stood, his chin adorned with a short beard. He wore only a cloak over his upper body, vivid orange pants below, and pointed orange shoes on his feet.
Next to this orange-clad man was another burly man of similar stature. He had short yellow hair and wore an earring. Dressed in a thick blue fur-lined coat with shoulder decorations resembling two rice cakes, he also had a cloak on his back and knee-high orange leather boots.
These two were none other than Charlotte Linlin's third and fourth sons from Totto Land, the "Minister of Browned Food" and the "Minister of Beans," Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Daifuku!
Additionally, they were the siblings of Charlotte Katakuri!
Adrian couldn't help but wonder how Katakuri ended up with two brothers who looked completely different from him.
However, given Charlotte Linlin's genes… and her surprising number of husbands, and their diligent yearly breeding.
Ahem… It wasn't really that surprising!
"The members of the Charlotte family openly appearing in the Gourmet Kingdom, and at the finals of the Sinoxia Gourmet Competition no less."
Adrian stood on the edge of the rooftop, the breeze ruffling his hair.
"Are they looking to recruit some skilled chefs to satisfy Charlotte Linlin's palate?"
A red light flashed in his eyes as Adrian activated his Observation Haki.
His advanced Observation Haki silently scanned the entire arena, observing everything.
In just a few moments, Adrian gathered the intelligence he sought.
The reason today's Sinoxia Gourmet Competition attracted such a large audience was not only because of the prestigious name of the Gourmet Kingdom but also because the event organizers had offered a rare food-type Devil Fruit as the prize!
"I see now... the Paramecia-type Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit!" {Wring-Wring Fruit}
Adrian understood everything.
The Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit, despite its rather frivolous name, was indeed a legitimate Devil Fruit.
In fact...
It really was!
Juicing was a real power!
Ahem!
The Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit's ability allowed its user to drain moisture from anything they touched, producing corresponding juices.
Of course, "juice" was more of a special metaphor. In reality, the juice was the moisture from the enemy's body.
Moreover, the Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit user could become immune to all poisons, able to expel any toxins from their body by squeezing them out.
In the original work, this Paramecia-type Devil Fruit belonged to Charlotte Linlin's fourteenth daughter, Charlotte Smoothie.
A white-haired, long-legged, juicing femme fatale.
Adrian recalled the scene he sensed with his Observation Haki, not finding any young woman with such characteristics, and shook his head.
"That's right, Charlotte Smoothie is only fifteen now. It's normal she hasn't eaten the Devil Fruit yet."
"Probably after this event, the Charlotte family will acquire this food-type Devil Fruit and, through family competition, bestow it upon Smoothie."
After pondering for a moment, Adrian waved his hand gently, causing ripples to appear in the air as he brought out the little fox Love from the solid fortress.
"Adrian-sama! Is there something you need?" Love looked at Adrian, slightly confused.
"Weren't you saying there might be a competition?"
"It's actually just a gourmet competition." Adrian grabbed the scruff of the little fox's neck, placing her on his right side, then pointed below.
"A gourmet competition!" Love's eyes lit up, and she immediately looked down at the contest.
"Actually, I brought you out to discuss something else." Adrian patted Love's head.
The little chef had been working hard in his crew for quite some time, and it seemed it was time to reward her.
"Love, how would you like to have a food-type Devil Fruit?"