Chapter 188: A Whole City, Just Like That?

After saying her goodbyes, Saten Ruiko departed.

There would be another chance to visit in the future, but for now, there was simply no time.

Takumi chatted briefly with everyone in the group chat before heading to IGO headquarters to find Ichiryu.

At the moment, Ichiryu was busy in his office. Seeing Takumi arrive, he immediately stopped what he was doing.

"Mr. Takumi?"

Someone appearing suddenly in his office like this—aside from Takumi, there were probably few who could pull that off. Especially since Takumi's style didn't match theirs at all.

"Mr. Ichiryu, a pleasure to meet you~!"

Takumi greeted him with a friendly smile. Once Ichiryu confirmed his identity, he chuckled.

"A pleasure to meet you too! What brings you here today?"

Ichiryu got up from his desk and gestured for Takumi to sit down and talk.

"No need for that. I won't be long. I just came to tell you one thing."

Ichiryu paused, intrigued. "Please go ahead."

Takumi wouldn't show up in person unless it was important.

"I need to set up a teleportation gate not far from IGO's premises. It'll connect directly to my world. I'd like to ask for your help in watching over it. A lot of people will be traveling between the two worlds once it's active."

Ichiryu's eyes lit up instantly.

"Of course!"

He agreed without hesitation.

This was too good an opportunity to pass up. He'd been here for a few days already, and he'd talked to Nakiri Senzaemon, who told him Takumi wasn't from this world. That made him all the more curious about Takumi's world.

Now he was hearing about a passageway to it?

How could he say no?

Keeping an eye on it was a small favor in exchange.

Takumi nodded. "Great. Then I won't bother you further. I'll set the gate up and take care of things on my end. We can figure out traffic arrangements between the worlds later."

With that, Takumi vanished on the spot.

Ichiryu immediately picked up his phone to make arrangements. Once the gate was ready, someone needed to be stationed there.

...

Outside, in the area between IGO and the Nakiri estate, Takumi began preparations. He cleared and leveled the area, then claimed the World Gate.

The next moment, a towering, arched gate—fifty meters high and thirty to forty meters wide—materialized in the spot he selected.

Takumi was amazed.

Though the gate looked ordinary, a swirling vortex shimmered in the center. It allowed for bidirectional travel: in one side, out the other.

He nodded in satisfaction.

He still needed to see where this gate connected in his own world, but that could wait. First, there were things to sort out here.

Takumi began collecting his spacecraft and other tech.

He also sent a message to Kevin and the others: if they wanted to return, they could now. The portal was open.

Additionally, he had created a gateway from the Gourmet World to outer space.

Since the Eight Kings didn't want to stay confined to the Gourmet World, he figured they could roam the universe instead.

This world's universe had already merged with that of Toriko's world.

Now, space was teeming with ingredients, and there would only be more in the future. Soon, ingredients would span the entire galaxy.

The resources were abundant.

By the time Takumi had finished handling all this, half an hour had passed.

When he returned to the gate, Ichiryu had already dispatched people to oversee it.

And not just anyone—Ario and Coco, two of the Gourmet Kings, were standing guard.

Zhongli and the others had also arrived.

Even though Takumi hadn't said anything in the group chat, the gate was impossible to miss.

Seeing everyone present, Takumi announced:

"Alright, let's go. Just walk through."

With that, he stepped in first.

Zhongli and the others quickly followed.

They emerged in Takumi's world, in a wilderness area.

The area was already surrounded by Takumi's security robots. As soon as Takumi appeared, the weapons locked onto him.

He sighed in exasperation.

But once they recognized him, the robots lifted their alert.

His control terminal reconnected to the local network.

The unit he brought back had only been a Prometheus subsystem. Now that he was home, the subsystem synced its data with the mainframe.

Prometheus immediately understood what was going on and issued a command for the robots to withdraw.

"This area needs to be developed. We can build a transit hub here."

Prometheus's voice rang out.

She had instantly calculated everything.

This portal was just a few dozen kilometers from Hope City—Takumi's current residence.

Hope City, named by the Holy Maiden, had been built without Takumi's input.

"Give me a blueprint," he said.

If they were doing this, they might as well do it properly.

In a split second, Prometheus generated several design plans.

Takumi picked one and got to work.

The plan centered around the gate as a public plaza, with shops and facilities.

This new city would become a Gourmet Capital.

People from the other world could visit through the portal.

There would even be culinary schools.

To everyone's shock, Takumi immediately began constructing the entire city.

The ground turned to marble.

Buildings sprang up out of nowhere.

Underground drainage systems were instantly installed.

In less than a minute, the entire landscape transformed.

Everyone was speechless.

"With this kind of ability, you'd tank the global real estate market," Fujiwara Chika muttered.

A whole city—just like that?