Food Wars: The Fishing System-Chapter 145: [] - A Baffled Starjun, A Meeting at the Gourmet Corp

Chapter 145: [145] - A Baffled Starjun, A Meeting at the Gourmet Corp

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"A robot? And what’s a Nitro?"

Hearing Jiro’s words, Toriko and Coco looked at him with confusion. They had relaxed slightly, and for a simple reason: Master Jiro was right beside them.

An opponent that was terrifying to them would be nothing special to a powerhouse like him.

"That’s a GT Robo, a robot developed by the Gourmet Corp specifically for capturing ingredients. As for the Nitro, all you need to know is that they are a very special, intelligent race."

"The thing is, the Nitro race possesses exceptionally high intelligence, with a civilization that might even surpass humanity’s. Trying to fool them with a GT Robo disguised to look like one of them is a fool’s errand."

Jiro shook his head, and Yuuki silently agreed. The intelligence gap between the Gourmet Corp and the IGO was just too vast.

The Nitros they knew of were the ones whose ability to speak had been stripped away by the Blue Nitro’s experiments, their intelligence reduced to that of beasts.

In their eyes, the Nitro race had no intelligence of its own. So, they thought that disguising a GT Robo might allow them to trick the Nitros and learn their secrets.

But a Nitro that had lost its reason was completely useless; tricking it would be pointless. As for an intelligent Nitro, none would be foolish enough not to recognize one of their own kind.

So, the Gourmet Corp’s entire operation was a complete waste of effort. This was partly due to their poor intelligence, and partly because Midora, their leader, hadn’t bothered to search for the truth.

After the incident all those years ago, both Ichiryu and Jiro had been constantly investigating what had truly happened. They had both sensed a change in Acacia.

But Midora knew nothing. It wasn’t until the final arc of the story that he finally understood everything. He had been completely lost in his grief over losing Froese.

From the boss down to his subordinates, their understanding of the Nitro was minimal. Although their organization was large, the Gourmet Corp was the first to collapse in the later stages of the story.

"Who are you? And how do you know about the GT Robo?"

Starjun, who had been about to leave without causing trouble, froze upon hearing Jiro’s words. The GT Robo was a core piece of Gourmet Corp technology; even the IGO hadn’t managed to create one.

And the IGO had been desperately trying to capture a new model for research, but they always failed because the GT Robos had a self-destruct mechanism at their core.

If it couldn’t defeat an enemy, the GT Robo would self-destruct to avoid being captured and studied.

At this moment, Starjun didn’t recognize Jiro. That was normal; he had reverted to his middle-aged form, and the outside world still knew him as a little old man.

After Starjun asked his question, Jiro didn’t answer. He was Jiro, after all. Why would he answer to an enemy?

"Not talking? In that case, I’ll just have to capture you and find out!"

Seeing Jiro’s silence, Starjun couldn’t be bothered with more words. He planned to capture him and interrogate him later. As for the two Four Heavenly Kings, Toriko and Coco, he saw them as no threat at all.

They were both too weak right now. Against his GT Robo, they would be instantly defeated.

"Incredible. Truly incredible. I have to admire you. Even the big boss of your Gourmet Corp wouldn’t dare say such a thing, and yet here you are, planning to capture Master Jiro. You can say goodbye to that robot body of yours. Just leave it here!"

Yuuki couldn’t help but give Starjun a thumbs-up. Honestly, to say something like that to Jiro—he could brag about that for the rest of his life.

"Master Jiro? Wait... KNOCKING MASTER JIRO??"

Hearing the name, Starjun was instantly horrified. Though the GT Robo couldn’t show any expression, his panicked cry made it clear just how terrified he was.

"Your Gourmet Corp’s database needs an update. Didn’t that bastard Midora tell you about my characteristics? Yuuki, he’s all yours!"

Jiro shook his head. He could confirm it now: Midora was a completely hands-off leader. Otherwise, his subordinates would have recognized him.

While he could freely switch between his old man, muscular middle-aged, and muscular elderly forms, if Midora had just mentioned it, the Gourmet Corp would have found a way to simulate his appearance.

The fact that they didn’t recognize him meant Midora had never said a word. He didn’t seem to care one bit about the life or death of his underlings.

After all, even Joie wouldn’t dare provoke Jiro, let alone Midora’s cronies.

The moment Jiro finished speaking, the greyish-brown GT Robo chose to flee.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!"

But the next second, a flash of light from a blade streaked through the air. The GT Robo’s body instantly disintegrated into countless parts, followed by a massive explosion.

....

"Connection lost. Was that Jiro’s doing? No, he let that guy named Yuuki do it. That guy’s strength is horrifying... the GT Robo was destroyed before I could even react!"

At Gourmet Corp headquarters, Starjun had already lost his connection to the GT Robo. He should be thankful he hadn’t enabled the pain-sharing function; otherwise, he wouldn’t be feeling so good right now.

"Starjun-sama, I’ve just detected that your GT Robo has gone offline. Did something happen?" the mechanical expert, Joejoe, asked.

"We encountered a very troublesome enemy. Joejoe, the last of the data should still be saved, right?"

Starjun asked, turning to her.

"Before the connection was lost, all data was saved!"

Joejoe nodded. The visuals from the GT Robo were transmitted and stored remotely. In this era, with advanced technology, such data transmission was easy.

"Excellent. Export all the footage. Then, call a meeting. All core members of the Gourmet Corp!"

Starjun ordered. Though he was only a Vice Chef, he could call a meeting for sufficiently urgent matters.

"I understand!"

Joejoe was taken aback. A Vice Chef could indeed call a meeting, but it had to be for something extremely urgent; otherwise, even a Vice Chef would be punished.

She guessed it had to do with his GT Robo going offline, so she immediately exported the data and handed it to him, then notified the other members at headquarters to convene.

As for those not at headquarters, if they could make it back, they would. If not, they would just have to wait for the meeting summary to be sent to them.

....

"Starjun, what happened? For you to call a meeting!"

Head Chef Kuromado asked upon seeing Starjun. Since the Gourmet Corp’s founding, a Vice Chef calling a meeting was an extremely rare event.

Aside from a few special cases, the other times it had happened were for matters of grave importance.

"Let’s wait for the others to arrive before we discuss it."

Starjun wasn’t trying to be mysterious; he just didn’t want to repeat himself. Kuromado nodded and began to snack on the various delicacies others had brought him.

It had to be said, Kuromado’s tastes were quite peculiar; he loved eating all sorts of bugs.

The other members at headquarters soon arrived one by one, their gazes fixed on Starjun, waiting for him to speak.

"Everyone, take a look at this."

Starjun said, playing the last footage captured by the GT Robo.

"Toriko and Coco of the Four Heavenly Kings. You ran into those two? That shouldn’t be enough to call a meeting."

Tommyrod said after seeing them. Although the Four Heavenly Kings were meant to be their counterparts, in his eyes, the Vice Chefs were far stronger.

"It’s not because of them. Keep watching."

Starjun shook his head. The others suppressed their curiosity. Soon, the exchange between Starjun and Jiro played out before them.

"Knocking Master Jiro? That guy is Jiro???"

After hearing Yuuki’s words, the members of the Gourmet Corp erupted. Knocking Master Jiro was an absolute untouchable—they all knew that.

That was why everyone in the Gourmet Corp was required to recognize him. But in their minds, he was supposed to be a little old man. How could he be a middle-aged powerhouse?

"The arrangement of the piercings on his face... it is indeed Knocking Master Jiro. Could it be he used Knocking on himself?"

Kuromado recognized him. The pattern of piercings was the best proof. He never thought Jiro would appear in such a form.

"And it’s not just Jiro. There’s also that guy named Yuuki. My GT Robo was destroyed by him before it even had time to react!"

Starjun said. Because Yuuki’s final attack was too fast and too powerful, all they could see was a flash of a blade, and then the GT Robo was obliterated.

"That name, Yuuki... I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere."

Grinpatch said, scratching his head.

"The Century Soup. He’s the one who made it with Granny Setsuno."

Tommyrod reminded him, and everyone finally remembered. It wasn’t that their memories were bad, but Yuuki’s name had only appeared once in connection with the soup.

"A chef who’s not even on the rankings has that kind of strength? A pity the GT Robo was too weak; we couldn’t gauge his true power."

The group felt a bit helpless. Starjun’s GT Robo could only handle beasts in the 40-50 capture level range. Once beyond that, it was difficult to test an opponent’s strength.

But one thing was certain: Yuuki’s strength was at least over capture level 70; otherwise, he couldn’t have one-shotted the GT Robo so easily.

"He’s not the main point. He is strong, but he’s not a threat. The one we really need to watch out for is Master Jiro. Pass the word to everyone else. We can no longer identify him by his original appearance."

Kuromado said. Although many used GT Robos to move around, most, like Grinpatch, Tommyrod, and the other powerhouses who could enter the Gourmet World, went out themselves.

Only Starjun liked to run around in a GT Robo.

But from this incident, it seemed his decision was the right one. A direct encounter with Jiro would not have ended well.

So, in a way, the GT Robo had saved his life.

The entire Gourmet Corp immediately disseminated the news of Jiro’s transformation, instructing everyone to pay attention to the position of his facial piercings and his standard pompadour hairstyle to identify him.

If they encountered Jiro or Ichiryu, there was only one option: run. Otherwise, death was certain. It didn’t even require a second thought.

....

As the Gourmet Corp mobilized, back in the Cavern Lagoon, Yuuki and the others had collected the Puffer Whales Starjun had captured.

As for the GT Robo, it had been blown to smithereens.

Yuuki had no interest in it; to him, it wasn’t even worth picking up. As for the IGO, they didn’t really need to keep staring at the GT Robo; they had their own advanced biotechnology.

After this, Yuuki and Jiro parted ways with Toriko and the others. Though Toriko and his group wanted to explore the deeper parts of the cave and see the more powerful Devil Serpent, they were stopped.

After all, they were exhausted after fighting a mid-level Devil Serpent, one that wasn’t even the strongest. Though they had gained some experience, going deeper was beyond their capabilities.

So, in the end, the three could only choose to leave.

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