— — — — — —
"Where the hell is this newbie from, anyway?"
"Can you not talk to yourself like a lunatic and just say it out loud?"
"Cooking? Wait—don't tell me he's from a food anime?"
Everyone looked at Hentai Renzo's smug, pervy grin and felt the urge to punch him in the face.
This guy's been slacking off every day, still hasn't managed to get the Time-Stop Pocket Watch.
His brain's only ever thinking one thing: 'Which woman should I go after today?'
...
"So that's how it is?"
By now, the newbie had more or less digested his new memories. He looked around in shock and said, "Wait, we're all the same person from different worlds? Damn, that scared the crap outta me!"
"And you!"
He turned to Hentai Renzo, face full of disbelief. "Did you enjoy messing with me just now?! I seriously thought I got dropped into some weirdo's sick fantasy world! You're such a damn perv, man!"
"Hahaha!"
Hentai Renzo didn't feel the least bit ashamed—he just laughed, patting the newbie on the shoulder. "Come on, it was just a bit of fun! Besides, that feeling—didn't it give you a nice surprise?"
The newbie rolled his eyes hard. "Yeah, a great surprise, thanks. Screw off, will ya! You damn lucky bastard, getting isekai'd into a world like that. I'm so jea— cough—I mean, disgusted by you!"
"Ha! You totally meant the first part!"
Hentai Renzo scoffed and went back to high-five everyone to finish the memory-sharing process.
"...Huh?"
"Whoa! That world, huh? Now that's interesting!"
Everyone suddenly understood where the newbie came from.
Pirate Renzo grinned and looked him up and down. "So you're from the world of Cooking Master Boy? And you're Pai-sensei's disciple? Not bad, not bad at all!"
(A/N: Too bad this isn't Food Wars! Oh well—this anime is called Shin Chūka Ichiban! And Pai is the MC's mother of this world, known as Fairy of Cuisine.)
"Your world has got glowing food, right? Perfect timing! My world's overflowing with ingredients, and I've been needing someone with some serious kitchen skills."
Pirate Renzo was okay at cooking, but if you said his food was actually good… that'd be a lie. Now with the newbie around, he was already on the road to claim the title of "World's Greatest Chef" in his world.
The newbie scratched his head and chuckled. "Can't compare with you guys! Most of you come from high-tech or supernatural worlds. Mine's just your average cooking anime world!"
"And honestly, my cooking skills aren't anything special—yet!"
"But now that I've got your abilities, there's actually hope for me! I'll seriously train and get good at this!"
"Right now, Pai-sensei's in a rough spot. After Shouan betrayed her and stole all the money from Kikkaro Restaurant, she's been trying to earn it back. She's completely exhausted and ended up falling ill."
Chef Renzo had been helping out before, but since his talent wasn't anything extraordinary, he couldn't really make high-end dishes. He mostly ran errands and did grunt work.
But that's all different now.
He had everyone's skills and memories. Strong swordsmanship, incredible body control, heightened senses—you name it. Learning to cook well should be a breeze.
He could even heal his teacher and learn even more advanced techniques and dishes from her, helping Kikkaro Restaurant out of its crisis.
Of course… if he wanted, he could just use the Fantasy Creation cheat to conjure up gold.
"Make sure to teach that bastard Shouan a lesson, too! If I remember right, he comes back later, yeah? Don't let him off easy!" Demon Slayer Renzo reminded him.
He hated traitors the most.
"Absolutely!" the newbie—now dubbed Chef Renzo—nodded firmly.
"Whether it's Shouan or the Dark Cooking Society, I won't let any of them go unpunished! I'm also gonna collect all those legendary cooking tools!"
"And I'm gonna take it further—combine cooking with supernatural power and create a new Way of the Super Chef!"
Eventually, he even hoped to bring his Sensei and the others along that path to make their world even more amazing.
"Now that's a great idea!" Aizen gave him a thumbs-up. "Plenty of fantasy stories have similar power systems. Wishing you success!"
"Still, not gonna lie, you were pretty useless before," Pirate Renzo couldn't help but roast him. "You knew the original story, and you still let Shouan steal the money? Come on!"
"Yeah, yeah…" Chef Renzo shrugged. "You'll see in my memories—I really tried. But what could I do?"
"I couldn't rat him out before anything happened. My Sensei is too kind—she wouldn't believe me, and she might've even scolded me instead."
"She's not the kind of person who'd accept accusations against a fellow disciple, no matter what."
"And I couldn't beat Shouan back then. But that's all gonna change. He's gonna pay."
Uchiha Renzo and Eevee both rolled their eyes. Honestly, the dude was pretty weak before. Total underdog.
"Do your best! Just follow my example!" Pirate Renzo puffed out his chest.
"Yeah, right!" Uchiha Renzo fired back. "Didn't you get caught by pirates the second you arrived? Almost got sold into slavery, too! If me and Eevee hadn't shown up, you'd be stuck as some Celestial Dragon's pet by now!"
Pirate Renzo: "..."
"Let's not bring that up—we're still friends, right? It's not like I wanted to get caught the moment I arrived!"
"Then what about the newbie?" Eevee added. "Same thing. He wasn't gifted at the start, and picking a fight would've just gotten him killed."
"Honestly, I kinda want to see what would've happened if Pirate Renzo didn't get his cheat powers. That'd be hilarious!" Hermione chuckled, eyes narrowing mischievously.
Pirate Renzo looked horrified. "You're a devil, woman!"
"...Wait, there's a girl among us?"
It was only now that the newbie noticed Hermione.
He'd only skimmed the shared memories, hadn't fully processed everything yet.
"What's wrong with that? You act like women can't be isekai'd too!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "There's even one who got reborn as a Pokémon! And another one as a giant snake!"
She stood up. "Anyway, I'm going back to research."
Before leaving, she reminded Fairy Tail Renzo, "Don't forget to bring me what I asked for. I'm getting impatient."
"Almost done!" Fairy Tail Renzo nodded. "Satellite system's up, and I've got a lead on a wyvern. Give me a month—I'll send you everything, including the analyzed data."
"Fine. One month." Hermione nodded and left.
She knew how hard it was to fully analyze pure dragon blood, especially after refining it. One month, including the hunting process? Pretty reasonable.
"That's it for today—let's wrap up." Aizen stood up. "Let's all keep pushing through the remaining Reiatsu decoding tasks. Later!"
One by one, everyone started leaving.
"Hey newbie, make sure to level up your cooking fast!"
Pirate Renzo reminded him before leaving.
"Got it! I'm heading out too!" the newbie nodded and hurried off.
He still had to go heal his Sensei.
.
.
.