Chapter 547

However, there wasn't much information Ron could find online.

After a moment of hesitation, he called Menchi. She seemed to be busy at the time and didn't answer right away, only calling back a little later.

"Ron, is something up?"

Ron briefly explained the situation he encountered.

"Love Sardine, huh..."

Menchi thought for a moment before replying, "The culinary world is actually quite separate from the rest of society. For common ingredients, you can usually find information in the general internet space. But when it comes to ingredients that go beyond ordinary classification, most of the information is circulated only within our field."

"Here, I'll give you a website. Ron, if you come across ingredients you don't recognize, you can search them there. Most ingredients can be found on that site. If it's not even listed there, then it likely doesn't exist."

"Love Sardine is a pretty good ingredient, but I haven't heard any news about that fish group in a long time. If it were active, I would have gotten word. Most likely, it's fake."

After hanging up, Ron once again turned his gaze toward the middle-aged man.

"When it comes to intelligence-gathering capabilities, I'm still somewhat lacking. If I had an ability like Pakunoda's from the Phantom Troupe, or if someone in my team possessed such a skill, I'd be able to directly determine whether that person was lying or telling the truth."

"Nina has some intelligence-gathering ability, but it's not that direct. There are clear limitations."

Ron logged into the site Menchi had provided.

A webpage appeared, showing only a single search bar—nothing else.

He entered the characters for "Love Sardine" and pressed the enter key.

The page redirected to a detailed entry. All the information on the Love Sardine was displayed before Ron.

"A migratory species of fish. Blends into ordinary sardine schools. A distinguishing trait is the red stripe along its belly. Typically, among a school of ten thousand sardines, only one will be a Love Sardine. The taste is excellent. Its roe can be harvested for soup.

Capture Level: 3."

Beside the text, there was also an image, presumably of the Love Sardine.

"Capture Level?" Ron's brow lifted slightly. This was the first time he had encountered that term in this world. In the world of Toriko, "Capture Level" was a metric that accounted for an ingredient's difficulty of capture, rarity, value, and other such factors. The higher the capture level, the more valuable the ingredient usually was.

"I didn't expect that in the Gourmet Paradise circle, ingredient evaluation would also be done based on capture level. I wonder what the highest recorded capture level here is."

"This site really is tightly secured. Other than the search bar, there's nothing else. If you don't know the name, you can't even start a search. It requires exact matches—no fuzzy results. Even a missing character returns nothing. No rankings, no ingredient lists."

Ron's eyes flickered slightly.

With such a closed-off digital ecosystem, it was no surprise that information on these ingredients was so scarce on the open web.

Ron did have one method of accessing backend data—using Chii's tech expertise to hack in.

With Chii's technology, which surpassed the current era of this world, infiltration wouldn't be difficult.

But Ron didn't act immediately. Menchi had only just given him the site, and if he hacked the backend now and was discovered, it would put both him and Menchi in an awkward position.

So Ron decided to wait a while before having Chii move in.

After all, he wasn't in a rush.

Those ingredients would be useful to him—but for now, he had more important things to handle.

Once he fully understood the nature of Gourmet Paradise and created a new Nen Beast—most likely a chef—then, when he found those ingredients, he could maximize their use rather than wasting them.

The middle-aged man had contacted many freelance gourmet hunters. Some, like Ron, refused the job. But others accepted.

Two days later, those hunters he hired began their operations.

On the third day, Ron saw that middle-aged man again.

Compared to before, he had changed his appearance.

Just from the outside, he looked like a completely different person—but Ron still recognized him.

What surprised Ron was that the man had previously seemed like an ordinary person, but now, he was a Nen user—and one who didn't appear weak.

Ron narrowed his eyes slightly.

"How did he manage that?"

The man arrived at the ingredient market of Gourmet Paradise.

The market was divided into two sections—one open to chefs and one open to tourists.

The chef-side needed no explanation.

The tourist-side resembled a normal marketplace; visitors could enter, pick out ingredients, and after payment, bring them to nearby restaurants.

Some restaurants offered cooking services for a processing fee.

Business was split into two sectors, and profits likewise divided. But risks were also distributed.

For tourists, the added bonus was the experience—they could personally select ingredients.

Ron adopted a disguise—not as drastic as Illumi's transformation into Gittarackur, but similar in approach.

In the original story, Illumi had once used this method to disguise himself as Hisoka, giving Hisoka the chance to temporarily distance himself from the rest of the Phantom Troupe.

Ron approached the man's stall.

Displayed on the stand were some enormous shells, with a sign next to them:

*"Silver Coin Shells?"*

Another ingredient Ron had never heard of or seen before.

Noticing Ron's curiosity, the man explained, "These shells have a chance of containing silver coins, like how oysters can produce pearls. Finding a silver coin means good luck."

"But even if it doesn't contain a coin, it's still a great ingredient. Steamed or spicy stir-fried—both work wonderfully."