Chapter 162: Flourishing Fame
After Bai Yi announced the reopening of the recovery center, there were finally people who came in for treatment. They were mainly the group of subordinates under Freud's command. These people who were always in battle had the most unstable mental states. Due to the Clearyheart usually provided by the Ministry of Medicine, they didn't think that this was a big problem. However, after the incident at Waimakariri River, these people finally understood that during intense and desperate battles they weren't able to control the changes in their bodies after all.
The stimulation of fresh blood and violence combined with the incongruence in their souls resulted in them easily losing control.
Freud took the lead and came to receive treatment from Bai Yi at once. Bai Yi received him with a smile, but he saw all Freud's subordinates being fearful and uneasy, seemingly afraid that Bai Yi would harm their boss.
"Look at you guys. It isn't like Chairman Bai Yi is our enemy," Freud lectured them.
"But Minister, you will be totally defenseless after being hypnotized!"
"Chairman Bai Yi, what do you think?"
Bai Yi looked at the shoddy acting of this bunch of people and felt that it was very entertaining. This was probably the reason why a majority of them weren't willing to receive treatment from him. Receiving treatment from Bai Yi was the same as putting themselves on the chopping block and waiting to be slaughtered. If Bai Yi really had any malicious intentions, they wouldn't even know how they died.
"You can have some people you trust stand guard outside, but nobody is allowed to watch the treatment process." Bai Yi then turned to Freud and asked jokingly, "Or do you think that I will try to harm you?"
"How can that be! Hahahahaha!" Freud immediately started laughing loudly, but the true thoughts behind his words couldn't be hidden after all. However, since Freud had decided to come to Bai Yi's place, he was already well prepared. After laughing, he patted the shoulders of two of his subordinates and followed Bai Yi inside the huge treatment room.
"Due to the differences in size among evolved humans, the positions of the beds are different as well. This bed is the most suitable for you, get on it," Bai Yi said.
"En." Freud nodded and sat on the bed, waiting for Bai Yi to start his treatment.
Unexpectedly, however, Bai Yi didn't do anything but just sat down on a chair by the bedside. He looked extremely comfortable and started idly chatting with Freud about various things. Hypnosis could be achieved through sounds, words, actions, or using objects to influence the consciousnesses of other people, creating suggestions in their minds. Bai Yi wouldn't purely use his eyes to hypnotize another person, as that would be too tiring.
Freud definitely wanted to see what the deal with Bai Yi's eyes was, so he kept on subconsciously looking at Bai Yi while chatting with him. Bai Yi did not stop him either and just came up with some random topics to chat with him about.
When Freud opened his eyes again, he completely woke up with a start.
The memories of him chatting with Bai Yi slowly floated up to the forefront of his mind, but toward the end, he couldn't remember how he fell asleep at all. Or rather, his consciousness had unknowingly gone into a daze, and he couldn't remember anything that had happened after that. He couldn't even remember whether Bai Yi used his Reverse Flower Eyes in the end. Rubbing his head, Freud slowly stood up and suddenly realized that the sky was already dark.
"What time is it now?" Freud walked out and saw his two subordinates standing guard outside.
The two henchmen saw Freud walk out and couldn't help but exclaim, "Minister!"
"It's already nighttime. That Bai Yi told us to not disturb your sleep. How do you feel now Minister? Do you feel unwell in any way?" One of them asked curiously.
"This... I feel something, but I don't know how to describe it. I'll find Chairman Bai Yi to say my goodbyes," Freud said, slowly feeling out the changes in his body.
"There's no need for that. That Bai Yi said earlier that you can leave directly after waking up, there's no need to look for him," One of them said, and the other henchman nodded in agreement.
"Is that so? Then forget about it, let's go back." Freud nodded and headed out with his two guards, bringing all his subordinates back to his own territory afterward.
While walking on the street, Freud gradually took in the changes in his own body. In the Brutal Phase, due to the incongruence of the body and soul, every evolved lifeform would feel vexed and irritated all the time, as though it wanted to vent something inside its heart but was unable to do so. The feeling of one's nerves being tense all the time yet being unable to find any relief really made things unbearable. It wasn't like suffering from physical injuries, but this awkward feeling just felt abnormally uncomfortable.
However, now Freud didn't have this feeling at all, like all the negative conditions within his body had just disappeared. His steps on the street were incomparably light, and his spirit felt fresh and clear. Even if Freud wasn't medically trained, he could clearly feel that his condition now was very good.
The effects were really too shocking!
But he fell asleep without even knowing how he got hypnotized.
Forget about it! At least there weren't any conflicts or hostility between him and Bai Yi now. If there was time, he felt he should let the bunch of assholes under him receive treatment from Bai Yi as well.
Very quickly, everyone learned that Freud had received treatment from Bai Yi once already, and had even sent his subordinates to receive treatment from him too.Every evolved human that came out of Bai Yi's recovery center could feel the change in their body and mind after experiencing it personally. Gradually, the number of evolved humans going to Bai Yi's recovery center increased.
However, at this time, Bai Yi actually limited the number of people he would see to ten per day. Although he didn't have to use the top-level Reverse Flower Eyes on these clear-headed evolved humans, he still wouldn't be able to take it if there were too many people coming. Moreover, it wasted too much of his time.
As the number of people that visited his recovery center increased, news about the beneficial effects of his hypnosis spread far and wide. The feeling of all the burdens upon and frustrations within one's body completely disappearing was really too relaxing. At this time, the negative rumors about Bai Yi amongst the people vanished without a trace, and everyone was full of praise for him. His fame shot up and became even greater than before. The numbers in queue to visit Bai Yi's recovery center were even marked up to a ridiculous price on the black market.
However, Bai Yi showed absolutely no changes in his demeanor. No matter whether it was when his reputation had crashed or when it shot up now, Bai Yi stayed the same throughout, without a single trace of anger or delight, remaining tranquil and calm.
It was precisely this attitude of his that made many people feel ashamed. Even those who had initially badmouthed Bai Yi gradually had a change of attitude.
Because of the circumstances of this situation, the study of hypnosis also developed rapidly. Consolidating all the knowledge about hypnosis that humans had, everyone realized that Bai Yi wasn't the only one who possessed the power to hypnotize people. Similarly to Bai Yi, there were quite a few other people who changed in certain ways after fusing with other genes. However, the hypnotic ability of these people wasn't as powerful as Bai Yi's, and they required some help from the knowledge regarding hypnosis that modern society had accumulated before.
Slowly, a new profession appeared in New Christchurch—Hypnotist!
Of course, hypnotists had long existed in the world before, it was just that nobody had ever ascribed much importance to them under normal circumstances. The desires of the people were really the greatest motive force in making society move in a certain direction. In New Zealand now, there were already three new professions—Medicinal Maker, Weapon Armor Maker, and Hypnotist.
It was hard to say who was the number one Medicinal Maker or Weapon Armor Maker at the moment, since many people had started to develop and grope about in these fields at the same time. However, when it came to Hypnotists, everyone knew Bai Yi's name. So far, there wasn't anyone that could match Bai Yi's level of ability or fame.
Bai Yi's recovery center changed over time as well, and Bai Yi wasn't the only hypnotist there anymore. Bai Yi would rarely take the initiative to give treatment nowadays, and he would only appear when more important people came to his recovery center. Most of the time, Bai Yi was trying to nurture and fortify his own body.
Tai Ji Fist, blade techniques, and Reverse Flower Eyes!
It had already been a year since Bai Yi's team arrived in New Christchurch, and in this one year Bai Yi seemed to become even more gentle. Nobody knew just how much this man who seemed so gentle had changed. And at this time, Bai Yi felt that his team would enter the Hypersomnia Phase soon.
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LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage: All the gene fusion slots have been occupied, the physical state is stable, and the soul has also grown to a compatible level. At this stage, evolved lifeforms would instinctively sense the existence of the soul, and at the same time understand what needed to be done next—harmonizing with the soul again.
To become harmonized with the soul would require constant rebalancing, and this kind of adjustment was best done while sleeping, especially with deep level sleep, womb sleep, or meditative states.
Other than looking for food and eating, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would basically spend all their time sleeping. These lifeforms weren't too threatening, but they were all similarly dangerous.
Although these lifeforms loved to sleep, their sleeping states weren't good, and it was extremely difficult to enter deep level sleep. They would be easily awakened by things like nightmares, which were basically the result of the incongruence of the body and soul. Hence, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would be extremely hostile to anybody that woke them up from their sleep, and possessed a disposition that implied 'I'll kill your whole family if you wake me up'.
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Now, Bai Yi felt that his Hypersomnia Stage was coming. Yeye had said at the start as well that, based on the level of congruence between the body and soul, an evolved lifeform would normally enter the Hypersomnia Stage in three to five years time.
Bai Yi and his team's level of congruence with their souls were all extremely decent, and they were approaching the Hypersomnia Stage within just shy of three years. Not only Bai Yi had this feeling, as all the other people on his team had a vague sense of this as well. This was especially true for the people who had followed Bai Yi from the start like Woolf and Heloise, while others like Vala who had joined later were slightly slower.
The Hypersomnia Phase wouldn't last long, probably only around half a year. When the half a year of the Hypersomnia Phase ended, they would have to meet with the greatest obstacle evolved lifeforms had to face—Metamorphosis!
Bai Yi could still remember the number that Yeye had said at the start... 2.31%!
3 chapters today for GT's 3rd anniversary! It's not a lot but well it's all I can do at the moment with school started and trying to catch up on the chapters I owed during my holiday. Enjoy!
Chapter 163: Other Developments
Bai Yi started to recall the data that Yeye recorded about the Hypersomnia Stage of other evolved lifeforms.
Normally, evolved lifeforms would only sense the existence of the soul during the LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage and naturally wanted to sleep to balance their bodies with their souls. From the start, Bai Yi's team had gradually entered deep level sleep so as to undergo this kind of balancing. Thinking about it, all this was still thanks to the vast quantities of data collected on the experimental subjects in the research facilities. If not for the data gathered from them, there would probably be a lot more evolved humans that fell into the berserk state at this time.
One must know that, according to the numbers from the research facilities, 90% of evolved humans lost control of themselves in the Brutal Phase and fell into the berserk state permanently!
There were probably close to a million evolved humans still surviving in New Zealand, but there were only slightly more than a hundred thousand evolved humans in New Christchurch. Adding in the northern half of New Zealand and the evolved humans randomly dispersed throughout the entire country, there were probably only around three to four hundred thousand evolved humans left that still retained their minds. This number was already three to four times greater than the numbers achieved at the research facilities, and it was all thanks to the data gathered from the experimental subjects.
After Bai Yi released all this information, the large number of evolved humans remaining had started to study and document the changes in their bodies, consolidating everything into a series of ways to relax their tense nerves, relieve stress, and diminish their brutal urges. It was only through all this that such a result had been achieved.
Although there weren't many of them left, there were still quite a few experimental subjects that had escaped from the research facilities in New Zealand. These experimental subjects had all assimilated with the activated cells a step earlier than most of the lifeforms in New Zealand. Hence, people had already discovered some patterns and conditions regarding the Hypersomnia Phase from these experimental subjects.
Hypersomnia Stage: Other than looking for food and eating, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would basically spend all their time sleeping. These lifeforms weren't too threatening, but they were all similarly dangerous.
Although these lifeforms loved to sleep, their sleeping states weren't good, and it was extremely difficult to enter deep level sleep. They would be easily awakened by things like nightmares, which were basically the result of the incongruence of the body and soul. Hence, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would be extremely hostile to anybody that woke them up from their sleep, and possessed a disposition that implied 'I'll kill your whole family if you wake me up'.
Bai Yi felt that they shouldn't find it hard to fall asleep like normal Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms, but would rather sleep like a log. Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms usually spent more than 90% of their time asleep. It wouldn't be a problem if they were easily woken up, but if they really slept without any awareness of their surroundings, it would probably be extremely dangerous for them during this period of time.
...
Bai Yi pondered over the information they had regarding the Hypersomnia Stage, and slowly walked outside. He had already thought about how to get his team through the Hypersomnia Stage. They wouldn't stay in the city, as there were too many people there. That was normally a positive attribute, but now, on the contrary, it made him worried. Although Bai Yi had a high reputation in the city and the few other factions had so far tried to maintain friendly relations with him, the human heart wasn't something so easily grasped.
They were going to leave this city soon, so Bai Yi casually put on a cloak and headed into it.
In a year, New Christchurch had changed greatly through the efforts of all the evolved humans. Its buildings had been reconstructed on their old foundations to fit the new scale of evolved humans, and the general architectural style of New Zealand now gave the city a fantastical and strange feeling. Still, it was precisely such a city that Bai Yi and the rest had built with their own hands.
Bai Yi slowly walked along the street toward the core of the city, observing its newborn appearance. He had on a wide, hooded cloak that covered even his face, so he didn't have to worry about being recognized by other people. Along the way, he noted that although it couldn't be considered as bustling, the city was still quite lively. Many evolved humans had gathered together and made the city seem full of life.
Unknowingly, Bai Yi walked all the way to the food market. Looking at the crowd squeezing upon itself, he couldn't help but laugh. Was it the chef genes in his body that had made him walk all the way this place?
There had already been more than ten types of vegetables discovered in New Zealand by now, and that was basically sufficient for mass consumption. Other than those, various types of mutated evolved lifeforms and plants made the food available in the market both wide in variety and uncertain in properties. Some gluttons had suddenly felt that they were incredibly fortunate after New Zealand stabilized. There were so many ingredients that they had never encountered before, and they were definitely in for a treat now. However, among all these new ingredients, there were a lot of them that could be fatal if they were handled improperly.
Although chef wasn't listed among the three big professions of New Zealand, it was still a very popular job. Food is the God of people1, and no matter what, filling up the stomach was always the most important thing.
Although Bai Yi was himself a chef, he hadn't cooked in a long while. Practically every minute of his time was spent on learning and accumulating knowledge.
Suddenly, Bai Yi found an ingredient that looked like a giant python, but it was actually a plant that was still wriggling around. Evil Vine! It was a carnivorous plant that had plenty of barbs on its surface and was as large around as a human's thigh. It could either photosynthesize for energy or absorb nutrients from hunting other lifeforms—it could wrap itself around a human and consume a person directly.
But, could this thing be eaten?
"Evil Vine?" Bai Yi questioned.
"That's right! Selling it for only 500 Devil coins right now! You want it?" The enthusiastic stall owner asked. "This is something my team hacked off an Evil Vine with great effort! Although this vine is only as thick as a human's thigh, the Evil Vine that we hacked it from was more than ten meters in diameter, and its vines covered the sky and earth! If not for my team being strong enough, we wouldn't have even dared to approach it." This guy saw that Bai Yi was interested and started introducing his product incessantly.
"This thing can be eaten?" Bai Yi couldn't help but ask.
"Huh?" Bai Yi's question apparently stumped this guy.
"You don't say? If it can't be eaten why would we bother to catch it? Don't we normally stir-fry vegetables and meat together when we cook? Let me tell you, carnivorous plants contain nutrients from both vegetables and meat, and with these two components fusing together, the taste is much better than just eating simply either vegetables or meat alone. You probably aren't a chef, right? To think that you could ask something like this." This guy gave Bai Yi a disdainful look.
"Let me remind you: you can look around if you aren't a chef, but you must not buy any strange things you see. Otherwise, don't blame anybody else if the food you cook ends up killing someone, because it'll just be that you don't know how to prepare the ingredients." This guy seemed to not be a bad sort, as he actually still reminded Bai Yi to refrain from purchasing strange ingredients.
"Is that so? Thanks a lot then." Bai Yi nodded.
"But how do I prepare this Evil Vine so that it's edible?" Bai Yi asked again.
"I don't know either, I'm not a chef. The chef on my team doesn't know how to handle this thing either. But I ate this once at Devil's Cuisine House. There's a dish there that is precisely this Evil Vine, and the taste isn't bad either." This guy saw that he didn't have much business anyway, and started chatting with Bai Yi.
"As I think about it, ever since New Zealand stabilized, everyone realized that the variety of food increased many times over, but of course the danger of the food increased by many times as well. Generally speaking, ingredients that can be prepared normally—meaning that no matter how you cooked it, it would at least be edible and not poisonous—would be considered typical ingredients. Those ingredients that would be inedible or fatal if prepared incorrectly would be called special preparation ingredients." It had always been a part of human nature to like to lecture others, and this guy started to talk incessantly after he saw Bai Yi sit on a rock beside him.
"Special preparation ingredients!"
"That's right, special preparation ingredients. A normal chef would never be able to handle them. Things such as the Hell Pool Poison Lizard, Evil Vine, Seven-colored Mushroom, Spiked Blowfish..." This guy really knew quite a lot of things, and Bai Yi listened with great interest as well.
Bai Yi only now realized that the professions that had developed weren't just the Medicinal Makers, Weapon Armor Makers, and Hypnotists, but that chefs were also developing and changing. Regretfully, Bai Yi had been seriously putting 100% of his focus into studying biology over the past year, and he wasn't even aware of the developments in his original profession as a chef.
"Then how can I find out the way to prepare these ingredients?" Bai Yi asked. Although Bai Yi had been forced by life's circumstances to become a chef back in the day, he personally didn't dislike the profession and actually rather enjoyed it. Since even culinary arts had developed and changed, Bai Yi of course wanted to learn about these preparation methods as well, even if this was something developed by countless people.
"Difficult, very difficult!" This guy shook his head.
"It's easy to understand why. Normally, these special preparation methods would definitely be treated as a secret by people, and they wouldn't tell you unless you were somebody close to them. In addition, many of the preparation methods can't be used unless you have the prerequisite level of strength and ability. However, I do know of a place that is very skilled in preparing these special ingredients."
"What place?"
"Didn't I mention it just now? Devil's Cuisine House! That place basically doesn't sell any ordinary food, but the prices there are really expensive. My team leader brought us there to eat once, and we almost went broke from ordering just two dishes. You should've seen it then, my team leader's face at that point in time could only be described as miserable." This guy's face was full of teasing smiles when he talked about his team leader. Apparently, this was a very happy and harmonious team, and the team leader definitely must have been a very easy-going person too.
"It's so expensive?"
"Of course, what they're selling is style. They don't sell any ordinary food, and other people don't know how to handle special ingredients either. Do you think it wouldn't be expensive?"
"Then where is this Devil's Cuisine House? I want to take a look," Bai Yi asked, as his interest was already greatly piqued.
"Do you have enough money? The cheapest thing on the menu is at least 2000 Devil coins," This guy asked good-heartedly.
Bai Yi nodded. "En, should be able to eat a few dishes." How could the number only be a few dishes? With Bai Yi's status now, how was it possible that he would be lacking in money? Although Bai Yi usually didn't use much of it, it would be a ridiculous joke to say that he couldn't even afford a meal there.
Devil's Cuisine House—Bai Yi started to walk toward the place mentioned by that guy with great interest.
Chapter 164: Special Preparation Ingredient
When Bai Yi arrived at Devil's Cuisine House, he realized that the place wasn't too lively. Outside the door there was even a notice: 'Buying preparation and cooking methods of special ingredients at high prices, trades are accepted too'.
When Bai Yi entered Devil's Cuisine House, he saw that there were only three customers inside, and the place was very empty. After finding a seat, he picked up the menu on the table. There were more than a hundred dishes on the menu, but Bai Yi could tell with a glance that most of the ingredients were the same—it was just that the way of cooking them was different. He counted 31 different ingredients within the dishes on the menu. This was probably the number of special preparation ingredients that this Devil's Cuisine House had grasped the method of using.
"Welcome! What would you like to eat?" While Bai Yi was looking over the menu, a cat-lady skipped over to him.
"En, I'll have this hundred-legged eyeball roast." Bai Yi pointed at the first item on the menu, the kind that people would know was extremely strange with just a look.
"I'm sorry, you are looking at the wrong side. Today's menu is on the back," This cat-lady reminded him.
"Eh?" Bai Yi was puzzled for a moment and flipped the menu over, realizing that there were only eleven items made from three ingredients. These were all dishes that the menu on the other side had as well.
"I'm sorry, customer, Devil's Cuisine House is different from normal restaurants. It's harder for us to acquire ingredients, so we can't produce all the dishes at any given time. The dishes that we can serve every day are limited, and what we can serve today are just these eleven dishes," The cat-lady explained.
Bai Yi nodded. So that was how it was. The reason why there weren't many customers in this Devil's Cuisine House was not only because things here were expensive, but also because the dishes served were all limited. It was very likely that a customer wouldn't be able to eat what they wanted. Since that was the case, he couldn't waste this opportunity. Bai Yi slid his right hand over the menu and captured the entirety of it in his eyes.
"I want one of everything!" Bai Yi said.
"Everything?"
"En, everything."
"The eleven dishes today will cost 60,000 Devil coins in total." The cat-lady looked at Bai Yi hesitantly. This guy, don't tell me he's here to make trouble or get a free meal?
Bai Yi nodded. "En, I know."
The cat-lady didn't continue to say anything but the distrust in her eyes couldn't be concealed at all. She jogged toward the back of the building, apparently to inform the head chef or boss of this Devil's Cuisine House. Watching the cat-lady running further inside, Bai Yi couldn't help but smile teasingly. Did he really look like somebody who was going to dine and dash? However, the boss here was apparently very professional and didn't suspect him. Even if Bai Yi decided to dine and dash, that was something to be handled at that time. For now, no matter what, Bai Yi was an honored customer.
Very quickly, the first dish was served—Sliced Ghost-faced Mushrooms.
Bai Yi looked at the plate of weird slices being served to him and couldn't help but analyze it seriously. With a look, he saw that on every slice was an abstract image of a ghost face seemingly about to jump out at him. It appeared to be extremely frightening, and Bai Yi had never seen this ingredient of Ghost-faced Mushrooms before.
"Are there any steps to eating this thing?" Bai Yi asked.
"None, you can just eat it directly, we have already prepared it properly." The cat-lady nodded and looked like she was waiting for Bai Yi to be scared to death. The cat-lady's mild excitement couldn't escape Bai Yi's eyes, but he also couldn't understand where her enthusiasm was coming from.
Bai Yi didn't see any cutlery, but he realized that there was a small stalk on the side of every slice. At this time, the cat-lady also told Bai Yi that he could directly hold the stalk with his hand and eat it.
Bai Yi picked up a slice of Ghost-faced Mushroom and put in inside his mouth. At this instant, the excitement in the cat-lady's eyes was even more pronounced. Just what is she playing at... Bai Yi thought in his heart as he bit down on it. The moment Bai Yi bit into it, the Ghost-faced Mushroom in his mouth immediately let out a sharp, terrifying scream, and after that Bai Yi discovered that there was a faint stench in his mouth. This was definitely the taste of blood!
What the hell!
Bai Yi indeed got a fright, but after his body tensed slightly for a moment he immediately relaxed again, appearing perfectly normal. After that, he slowly savored the taste of the Ghost-faced mushroom in his mouth, and the faint stench gradually dissolved as well, turning into a fresh, delicious taste. With every bite the Ghost-faced Mushroom would release a strange sound, just like a blood-curdling scream from a human. Of course, only the first time sounded like a human's scream—the sound became very strange after the Ghost-faced Mushroom was broken down into pieces in Bai Yi's mouth.
"Not bad, very tasty," Bai Yi said and went for another slice of Ghost-faced Mushroom.
Why didn't he get frightened? Normally people who eat the Ghost-faced Mushroom for the first time all get a scare! The cat-lady looked at Bai Yi in puzzlement and walked back into the kitchen patting her head. After that, another ten dishes were prepared and served up continuously. Although the other dishes were strange as well, other than the first Ghost-faced Mushroom dish, the rest of them didn't give him a scare. No matter what, these were only special ingredients, not some kind of horror game.
Bai Yi slowly savored these dishes and nodded approvingly inside his heart. Not just the preparation of these special ingredients, but even the composition of the tastes was all very well done. Bai Yi had to admit that his culinary skills weren't as good as those of this chef.
Although Bai Yi was alone, he still finished this entire table full of dishes completely, without even leaving a drop of soup. Although the Binging Phase had already ended, if evolved humans really wanted to eat to their heart's content, then the amount they could put away in one meal was still terrifying.
Bai Yi placed his chopsticks on the table and lightly breathed out. A random walk around really let me find a good place.
"Bill please," Bai Yi said and took out the newly issued Devil coins of New Zealand. Currency has always been a mark of a civilization's progress. They had started issuing these coins right after their environment had become safer and more stable, as otherwise, they'd really have seemed like primitive people if they continued to use barter trade. After Bai Yi took out a sufficient amount of Devil coins, the cat-lady, who had been unhappy all along, finally started smiling—she'd still thought that Bai Yi wasn't going to pay up.
"Could I meet with the boss and head chef of this Devil's Cuisine House?" Bai Yi asked.
"What do you want to do?!" The cat-lady immediately became very wary like a cat that got its tail stepped on, and watched Bai Yi cautiously.
Suddenly, a female voice came from the second floor, "Bellamy, bring this customer up here."
The cat-lady, who was just like an agitated little cat, immediately calmed down. She then angrily creased her small face and glared at Bai Yi before bringing him upstairs. At this time, Devil's Cuisine House already had no other customers, so he only gave this cat-lady called Bellamy a smile and followed her up.
"I'm curious, what business does this customer have with me?" A woman that wore a chef's uniform and also looked like a cat-lady walked out. However, compared to the young and inexperienced Bellamy, this lady seemed to have a provoking sexiness even after she became an evolved human. Bai Yi could tell that this lady was not only attractive, but powerful as well.
"This Devil's Cuisine House, are you the one in charge of this place?"
"That's right, I'm the store manager and head chef of Devil's Cuisine House." The lady opposite him nodded her head.
"I'm quite interested in the preparation methods used in cooking the special ingredients in your noble1 shop. I'm curious if you are willing to sell them to me?" Bai Yi asked seriously.
The moment Bai Yi finished speaking, the fur on the cat-lady called Bellamy immediately stood up. She revealed her little canines, and her slit-like cat eyes glared directly at Bai Yi. Just by looking at Bellamy's sharp claws, Bai Yi knew that with just a word from the sexy head chef this little cat-lady would immediately pounce onto him, and it would definitely not be some kind of gentle pouncing into his arms.
"Don't be so nervous, I am genuinely asking you if you could sell the preparation methods for these special ingredients. No matter whether you want Devil coins or any other things, that's fine. I believe that as long as it isn't too ridiculous, I will be able to pay the bill," Bai Yi said with a smile as he looked toward the savage little cat-lady and waved his hand lightly.
The initially agitated little cat-lady gradually started to calm down after hearing Bai Yi's words.
The sexy cat-lady head chef shook her head. "That probably won't do, no matter what. The preparation methods for these special ingredients are things that we figured out and developed over a long period of time. Additionally, they are the only unique thing about Devil's Cuisine House. If I teach them to anybody else, then I won't be able to continue to conduct my business."
"You don't have to worry about this problem, because this is just for my personal curiosity. I was a chef before too, it's just that my main occupation isn't as a chef now. I probably won't open a restaurant or anything similar in the future either," Bai Yi said.
"Why should we believe you?" The little cat-lady frowned.
Bai Yi's slightly colored soft fur on his face wasn't considered too unique by now, as many other people had fur on their faces as well. Unless they had seen Bai Yi in person before, it wasn't so easy to recognise him with just a look. Bai Yi heard the cat-lady's words and smiled, pointing to his eyes. Slowly, a flower growing in reverse appeared in them.
Reverse Flower Eyes!
But there was only the appearance of them, and they didn't display any effects. The two cat-ladies who initially thought that he was somewhat familiar were immediately stunned. Reverse Flower Eyes, this was Bai Yi's trademark! So far, nobody had found another person who possessed similar eyes to him.
"B-B-B-Bai Yi!"
The little cat-lady couldn't even speak coherently now. She suddenly took a few steps backward and landed with her butt on the floor.
Bai Yi saw the appearance of the little cat-lady and couldn't help but laugh, before showing her an expression that said 'I didn't do anything to you'. Seeing how Bai Yi reacted, the little cat-lady immediately climbed up and carefully stood, hiding behind the sexy cat-lady chef. To them, Bai Yi was somebody that they could never approach. The ticket to get Bai Yi's personal treatment was also ridiculously expensive.
The head chef was also stunned for a moment, before focusing her mind again. It was actually Bai Yi. Bai Yi's identity, of course, didn't need too much verification—his eyes were the greatest way of identifying him. If this was Bai Yi, then his words before shouldn't be a lie.
Moreover, if this was Bai Yi, then using the special preparation methods to trade for something like getting treated by him personally should be quite attractive to him.
"I am the store manager and head chef of Devil's Cuisine House—Betsy!" The sexy cat-lady chef said.
***
Translator Notes:
Referring to the shop as 'noble' sounds weird here, but it's a respectful way of addressing something in Chinese culture.
Chapter 162: Flourishing Fame
After Bai Yi announced the reopening of the recovery center, there were finally people who came in for treatment. They were mainly the group of subordinates under Freud's command. These people who were always in battle had the most unstable mental states. Due to the Clearyheart usually provided by the Ministry of Medicine, they didn't think that this was a big problem. However, after the incident at Waimakariri River, these people finally understood that during intense and desperate battles they weren't able to control the changes in their bodies after all.
The stimulation of fresh blood and violence combined with the incongruence in their souls resulted in them easily losing control.
Freud took the lead and came to receive treatment from Bai Yi at once. Bai Yi received him with a smile, but he saw all Freud's subordinates being fearful and uneasy, seemingly afraid that Bai Yi would harm their boss.
"Look at you guys. It isn't like Chairman Bai Yi is our enemy," Freud lectured them.
"But Minister, you will be totally defenseless after being hypnotized!"
"Chairman Bai Yi, what do you think?"
Bai Yi looked at the shoddy acting of this bunch of people and felt that it was very entertaining. This was probably the reason why a majority of them weren't willing to receive treatment from him. Receiving treatment from Bai Yi was the same as putting themselves on the chopping block and waiting to be slaughtered. If Bai Yi really had any malicious intentions, they wouldn't even know how they died.
"You can have some people you trust stand guard outside, but nobody is allowed to watch the treatment process." Bai Yi then turned to Freud and asked jokingly, "Or do you think that I will try to harm you?"
"How can that be! Hahahahaha!" Freud immediately started laughing loudly, but the true thoughts behind his words couldn't be hidden after all. However, since Freud had decided to come to Bai Yi's place, he was already well prepared. After laughing, he patted the shoulders of two of his subordinates and followed Bai Yi inside the huge treatment room.
"Due to the differences in size among evolved humans, the positions of the beds are different as well. This bed is the most suitable for you, get on it," Bai Yi said.
"En." Freud nodded and sat on the bed, waiting for Bai Yi to start his treatment.
Unexpectedly, however, Bai Yi didn't do anything but just sat down on a chair by the bedside. He looked extremely comfortable and started idly chatting with Freud about various things. Hypnosis could be achieved through sounds, words, actions, or using objects to influence the consciousnesses of other people, creating suggestions in their minds. Bai Yi wouldn't purely use his eyes to hypnotize another person, as that would be too tiring.
Freud definitely wanted to see what the deal with Bai Yi's eyes was, so he kept on subconsciously looking at Bai Yi while chatting with him. Bai Yi did not stop him either and just came up with some random topics to chat with him about.
When Freud opened his eyes again, he completely woke up with a start.
The memories of him chatting with Bai Yi slowly floated up to the forefront of his mind, but toward the end, he couldn't remember how he fell asleep at all. Or rather, his consciousness had unknowingly gone into a daze, and he couldn't remember anything that had happened after that. He couldn't even remember whether Bai Yi used his Reverse Flower Eyes in the end. Rubbing his head, Freud slowly stood up and suddenly realized that the sky was already dark.
"What time is it now?" Freud walked out and saw his two subordinates standing guard outside.
The two henchmen saw Freud walk out and couldn't help but exclaim, "Minister!"
"It's already nighttime. That Bai Yi told us to not disturb your sleep. How do you feel now Minister? Do you feel unwell in any way?" One of them asked curiously.
"This... I feel something, but I don't know how to describe it. I'll find Chairman Bai Yi to say my goodbyes," Freud said, slowly feeling out the changes in his body.
"There's no need for that. That Bai Yi said earlier that you can leave directly after waking up, there's no need to look for him," One of them said, and the other henchman nodded in agreement.
"Is that so? Then forget about it, let's go back." Freud nodded and headed out with his two guards, bringing all his subordinates back to his own territory afterward.
While walking on the street, Freud gradually took in the changes in his own body. In the Brutal Phase, due to the incongruence of the body and soul, every evolved lifeform would feel vexed and irritated all the time, as though it wanted to vent something inside its heart but was unable to do so. The feeling of one's nerves being tense all the time yet being unable to find any relief really made things unbearable. It wasn't like suffering from physical injuries, but this awkward feeling just felt abnormally uncomfortable.
However, now Freud didn't have this feeling at all, like all the negative conditions within his body had just disappeared. His steps on the street were incomparably light, and his spirit felt fresh and clear. Even if Freud wasn't medically trained, he could clearly feel that his condition now was very good.
The effects were really too shocking!
But he fell asleep without even knowing how he got hypnotized.
Forget about it! At least there weren't any conflicts or hostility between him and Bai Yi now. If there was time, he felt he should let the bunch of assholes under him receive treatment from Bai Yi as well.
Very quickly, everyone learned that Freud had received treatment from Bai Yi once already, and had even sent his subordinates to receive treatment from him too.Every evolved human that came out of Bai Yi's recovery center could feel the change in their body and mind after experiencing it personally. Gradually, the number of evolved humans going to Bai Yi's recovery center increased.
However, at this time, Bai Yi actually limited the number of people he would see to ten per day. Although he didn't have to use the top-level Reverse Flower Eyes on these clear-headed evolved humans, he still wouldn't be able to take it if there were too many people coming. Moreover, it wasted too much of his time.
As the number of people that visited his recovery center increased, news about the beneficial effects of his hypnosis spread far and wide. The feeling of all the burdens upon and frustrations within one's body completely disappearing was really too relaxing. At this time, the negative rumors about Bai Yi amongst the people vanished without a trace, and everyone was full of praise for him. His fame shot up and became even greater than before. The numbers in queue to visit Bai Yi's recovery center were even marked up to a ridiculous price on the black market.
However, Bai Yi showed absolutely no changes in his demeanor. No matter whether it was when his reputation had crashed or when it shot up now, Bai Yi stayed the same throughout, without a single trace of anger or delight, remaining tranquil and calm.
It was precisely this attitude of his that made many people feel ashamed. Even those who had initially badmouthed Bai Yi gradually had a change of attitude.
Because of the circumstances of this situation, the study of hypnosis also developed rapidly. Consolidating all the knowledge about hypnosis that humans had, everyone realized that Bai Yi wasn't the only one who possessed the power to hypnotize people. Similarly to Bai Yi, there were quite a few other people who changed in certain ways after fusing with other genes. However, the hypnotic ability of these people wasn't as powerful as Bai Yi's, and they required some help from the knowledge regarding hypnosis that modern society had accumulated before.
Slowly, a new profession appeared in New Christchurch—Hypnotist!
Of course, hypnotists had long existed in the world before, it was just that nobody had ever ascribed much importance to them under normal circumstances. The desires of the people were really the greatest motive force in making society move in a certain direction. In New Zealand now, there were already three new professions—Medicinal Maker, Weapon Armor Maker, and Hypnotist.
It was hard to say who was the number one Medicinal Maker or Weapon Armor Maker at the moment, since many people had started to develop and grope about in these fields at the same time. However, when it came to Hypnotists, everyone knew Bai Yi's name. So far, there wasn't anyone that could match Bai Yi's level of ability or fame.
Bai Yi's recovery center changed over time as well, and Bai Yi wasn't the only hypnotist there anymore. Bai Yi would rarely take the initiative to give treatment nowadays, and he would only appear when more important people came to his recovery center. Most of the time, Bai Yi was trying to nurture and fortify his own body.
Tai Ji Fist, blade techniques, and Reverse Flower Eyes!
It had already been a year since Bai Yi's team arrived in New Christchurch, and in this one year Bai Yi seemed to become even more gentle. Nobody knew just how much this man who seemed so gentle had changed. And at this time, Bai Yi felt that his team would enter the Hypersomnia Phase soon.
______________________________________________________________
LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage: All the gene fusion slots have been occupied, the physical state is stable, and the soul has also grown to a compatible level. At this stage, evolved lifeforms would instinctively sense the existence of the soul, and at the same time understand what needed to be done next—harmonizing with the soul again.
To become harmonized with the soul would require constant rebalancing, and this kind of adjustment was best done while sleeping, especially with deep level sleep, womb sleep, or meditative states.
Other than looking for food and eating, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would basically spend all their time sleeping. These lifeforms weren't too threatening, but they were all similarly dangerous.
Although these lifeforms loved to sleep, their sleeping states weren't good, and it was extremely difficult to enter deep level sleep. They would be easily awakened by things like nightmares, which were basically the result of the incongruence of the body and soul. Hence, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would be extremely hostile to anybody that woke them up from their sleep, and possessed a disposition that implied 'I'll kill your whole family if you wake me up'.
___________________________________________________________
Now, Bai Yi felt that his Hypersomnia Stage was coming. Yeye had said at the start as well that, based on the level of congruence between the body and soul, an evolved lifeform would normally enter the Hypersomnia Stage in three to five years time.
Bai Yi and his team's level of congruence with their souls were all extremely decent, and they were approaching the Hypersomnia Stage within just shy of three years. Not only Bai Yi had this feeling, as all the other people on his team had a vague sense of this as well. This was especially true for the people who had followed Bai Yi from the start like Woolf and Heloise, while others like Vala who had joined later were slightly slower.
The Hypersomnia Phase wouldn't last long, probably only around half a year. When the half a year of the Hypersomnia Phase ended, they would have to meet with the greatest obstacle evolved lifeforms had to face—Metamorphosis!
Bai Yi could still remember the number that Yeye had said at the start... 2.31%!
3 chapters today for GT's 3rd anniversary! It's not a lot but well it's all I can do at the moment with school started and trying to catch up on the chapters I owed during my holiday. Enjoy!
Chapter 163: Other Developments
Bai Yi started to recall the data that Yeye recorded about the Hypersomnia Stage of other evolved lifeforms.
Normally, evolved lifeforms would only sense the existence of the soul during the LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage and naturally wanted to sleep to balance their bodies with their souls. From the start, Bai Yi's team had gradually entered deep level sleep so as to undergo this kind of balancing. Thinking about it, all this was still thanks to the vast quantities of data collected on the experimental subjects in the research facilities. If not for the data gathered from them, there would probably be a lot more evolved humans that fell into the berserk state at this time.
One must know that, according to the numbers from the research facilities, 90% of evolved humans lost control of themselves in the Brutal Phase and fell into the berserk state permanently!
There were probably close to a million evolved humans still surviving in New Zealand, but there were only slightly more than a hundred thousand evolved humans in New Christchurch. Adding in the northern half of New Zealand and the evolved humans randomly dispersed throughout the entire country, there were probably only around three to four hundred thousand evolved humans left that still retained their minds. This number was already three to four times greater than the numbers achieved at the research facilities, and it was all thanks to the data gathered from the experimental subjects.
After Bai Yi released all this information, the large number of evolved humans remaining had started to study and document the changes in their bodies, consolidating everything into a series of ways to relax their tense nerves, relieve stress, and diminish their brutal urges. It was only through all this that such a result had been achieved.
Although there weren't many of them left, there were still quite a few experimental subjects that had escaped from the research facilities in New Zealand. These experimental subjects had all assimilated with the activated cells a step earlier than most of the lifeforms in New Zealand. Hence, people had already discovered some patterns and conditions regarding the Hypersomnia Phase from these experimental subjects.
Hypersomnia Stage: Other than looking for food and eating, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would basically spend all their time sleeping. These lifeforms weren't too threatening, but they were all similarly dangerous.
Although these lifeforms loved to sleep, their sleeping states weren't good, and it was extremely difficult to enter deep level sleep. They would be easily awakened by things like nightmares, which were basically the result of the incongruence of the body and soul. Hence, Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms would be extremely hostile to anybody that woke them up from their sleep, and possessed a disposition that implied 'I'll kill your whole family if you wake me up'.
Bai Yi felt that they shouldn't find it hard to fall asleep like normal Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms, but would rather sleep like a log. Hypersomnia Stage lifeforms usually spent more than 90% of their time asleep. It wouldn't be a problem if they were easily woken up, but if they really slept without any awareness of their surroundings, it would probably be extremely dangerous for them during this period of time.
...
Bai Yi pondered over the information they had regarding the Hypersomnia Stage, and slowly walked outside. He had already thought about how to get his team through the Hypersomnia Stage. They wouldn't stay in the city, as there were too many people there. That was normally a positive attribute, but now, on the contrary, it made him worried. Although Bai Yi had a high reputation in the city and the few other factions had so far tried to maintain friendly relations with him, the human heart wasn't something so easily grasped.
They were going to leave this city soon, so Bai Yi casually put on a cloak and headed into it.
In a year, New Christchurch had changed greatly through the efforts of all the evolved humans. Its buildings had been reconstructed on their old foundations to fit the new scale of evolved humans, and the general architectural style of New Zealand now gave the city a fantastical and strange feeling. Still, it was precisely such a city that Bai Yi and the rest had built with their own hands.
Bai Yi slowly walked along the street toward the core of the city, observing its newborn appearance. He had on a wide, hooded cloak that covered even his face, so he didn't have to worry about being recognized by other people. Along the way, he noted that although it couldn't be considered as bustling, the city was still quite lively. Many evolved humans had gathered together and made the city seem full of life.
Unknowingly, Bai Yi walked all the way to the food market. Looking at the crowd squeezing upon itself, he couldn't help but laugh. Was it the chef genes in his body that had made him walk all the way this place?
There had already been more than ten types of vegetables discovered in New Zealand by now, and that was basically sufficient for mass consumption. Other than those, various types of mutated evolved lifeforms and plants made the food available in the market both wide in variety and uncertain in properties. Some gluttons had suddenly felt that they were incredibly fortunate after New Zealand stabilized. There were so many ingredients that they had never encountered before, and they were definitely in for a treat now. However, among all these new ingredients, there were a lot of them that could be fatal if they were handled improperly.
Although chef wasn't listed among the three big professions of New Zealand, it was still a very popular job. Food is the God of people1, and no matter what, filling up the stomach was always the most important thing.
Although Bai Yi was himself a chef, he hadn't cooked in a long while. Practically every minute of his time was spent on learning and accumulating knowledge.
Suddenly, Bai Yi found an ingredient that looked like a giant python, but it was actually a plant that was still wriggling around. Evil Vine! It was a carnivorous plant that had plenty of barbs on its surface and was as large around as a human's thigh. It could either photosynthesize for energy or absorb nutrients from hunting other lifeforms—it could wrap itself around a human and consume a person directly.
But, could this thing be eaten?
"Evil Vine?" Bai Yi questioned.
"That's right! Selling it for only 500 Devil coins right now! You want it?" The enthusiastic stall owner asked. "This is something my team hacked off an Evil Vine with great effort! Although this vine is only as thick as a human's thigh, the Evil Vine that we hacked it from was more than ten meters in diameter, and its vines covered the sky and earth! If not for my team being strong enough, we wouldn't have even dared to approach it." This guy saw that Bai Yi was interested and started introducing his product incessantly.
"This thing can be eaten?" Bai Yi couldn't help but ask.
"Huh?" Bai Yi's question apparently stumped this guy.
"You don't say? If it can't be eaten why would we bother to catch it? Don't we normally stir-fry vegetables and meat together when we cook? Let me tell you, carnivorous plants contain nutrients from both vegetables and meat, and with these two components fusing together, the taste is much better than just eating simply either vegetables or meat alone. You probably aren't a chef, right? To think that you could ask something like this." This guy gave Bai Yi a disdainful look.
"Let me remind you: you can look around if you aren't a chef, but you must not buy any strange things you see. Otherwise, don't blame anybody else if the food you cook ends up killing someone, because it'll just be that you don't know how to prepare the ingredients." This guy seemed to not be a bad sort, as he actually still reminded Bai Yi to refrain from purchasing strange ingredients.
"Is that so? Thanks a lot then." Bai Yi nodded.
"But how do I prepare this Evil Vine so that it's edible?" Bai Yi asked again.
"I don't know either, I'm not a chef. The chef on my team doesn't know how to handle this thing either. But I ate this once at Devil's Cuisine House. There's a dish there that is precisely this Evil Vine, and the taste isn't bad either." This guy saw that he didn't have much business anyway, and started chatting with Bai Yi.
"As I think about it, ever since New Zealand stabilized, everyone realized that the variety of food increased many times over, but of course the danger of the food increased by many times as well. Generally speaking, ingredients that can be prepared normally—meaning that no matter how you cooked it, it would at least be edible and not poisonous—would be considered typical ingredients. Those ingredients that would be inedible or fatal if prepared incorrectly would be called special preparation ingredients." It had always been a part of human nature to like to lecture others, and this guy started to talk incessantly after he saw Bai Yi sit on a rock beside him.
"Special preparation ingredients!"
"That's right, special preparation ingredients. A normal chef would never be able to handle them. Things such as the Hell Pool Poison Lizard, Evil Vine, Seven-colored Mushroom, Spiked Blowfish..." This guy really knew quite a lot of things, and Bai Yi listened with great interest as well.
Bai Yi only now realized that the professions that had developed weren't just the Medicinal Makers, Weapon Armor Makers, and Hypnotists, but that chefs were also developing and changing. Regretfully, Bai Yi had been seriously putting 100% of his focus into studying biology over the past year, and he wasn't even aware of the developments in his original profession as a chef.
"Then how can I find out the way to prepare these ingredients?" Bai Yi asked. Although Bai Yi had been forced by life's circumstances to become a chef back in the day, he personally didn't dislike the profession and actually rather enjoyed it. Since even culinary arts had developed and changed, Bai Yi of course wanted to learn about these preparation methods as well, even if this was something developed by countless people.
"Difficult, very difficult!" This guy shook his head.
"It's easy to understand why. Normally, these special preparation methods would definitely be treated as a secret by people, and they wouldn't tell you unless you were somebody close to them. In addition, many of the preparation methods can't be used unless you have the prerequisite level of strength and ability. However, I do know of a place that is very skilled in preparing these special ingredients."
"What place?"
"Didn't I mention it just now? Devil's Cuisine House! That place basically doesn't sell any ordinary food, but the prices there are really expensive. My team leader brought us there to eat once, and we almost went broke from ordering just two dishes. You should've seen it then, my team leader's face at that point in time could only be described as miserable." This guy's face was full of teasing smiles when he talked about his team leader. Apparently, this was a very happy and harmonious team, and the team leader definitely must have been a very easy-going person too.
"It's so expensive?"
"Of course, what they're selling is style. They don't sell any ordinary food, and other people don't know how to handle special ingredients either. Do you think it wouldn't be expensive?"
"Then where is this Devil's Cuisine House? I want to take a look," Bai Yi asked, as his interest was already greatly piqued.
"Do you have enough money? The cheapest thing on the menu is at least 2000 Devil coins," This guy asked good-heartedly.
Bai Yi nodded. "En, should be able to eat a few dishes." How could the number only be a few dishes? With Bai Yi's status now, how was it possible that he would be lacking in money? Although Bai Yi usually didn't use much of it, it would be a ridiculous joke to say that he couldn't even afford a meal there.
Devil's Cuisine House—Bai Yi started to walk toward the place mentioned by that guy with great interest.
Chapter 164: Special Preparation Ingredient
When Bai Yi arrived at Devil's Cuisine House, he realized that the place wasn't too lively. Outside the door there was even a notice: 'Buying preparation and cooking methods of special ingredients at high prices, trades are accepted too'.
When Bai Yi entered Devil's Cuisine House, he saw that there were only three customers inside, and the place was very empty. After finding a seat, he picked up the menu on the table. There were more than a hundred dishes on the menu, but Bai Yi could tell with a glance that most of the ingredients were the same—it was just that the way of cooking them was different. He counted 31 different ingredients within the dishes on the menu. This was probably the number of special preparation ingredients that this Devil's Cuisine House had grasped the method of using.
"Welcome! What would you like to eat?" While Bai Yi was looking over the menu, a cat-lady skipped over to him.
"En, I'll have this hundred-legged eyeball roast." Bai Yi pointed at the first item on the menu, the kind that people would know was extremely strange with just a look.
"I'm sorry, you are looking at the wrong side. Today's menu is on the back," This cat-lady reminded him.
"Eh?" Bai Yi was puzzled for a moment and flipped the menu over, realizing that there were only eleven items made from three ingredients. These were all dishes that the menu on the other side had as well.
"I'm sorry, customer, Devil's Cuisine House is different from normal restaurants. It's harder for us to acquire ingredients, so we can't produce all the dishes at any given time. The dishes that we can serve every day are limited, and what we can serve today are just these eleven dishes," The cat-lady explained.
Bai Yi nodded. So that was how it was. The reason why there weren't many customers in this Devil's Cuisine House was not only because things here were expensive, but also because the dishes served were all limited. It was very likely that a customer wouldn't be able to eat what they wanted. Since that was the case, he couldn't waste this opportunity. Bai Yi slid his right hand over the menu and captured the entirety of it in his eyes.
"I want one of everything!" Bai Yi said.
"Everything?"
"En, everything."
"The eleven dishes today will cost 60,000 Devil coins in total." The cat-lady looked at Bai Yi hesitantly. This guy, don't tell me he's here to make trouble or get a free meal?
Bai Yi nodded. "En, I know."
The cat-lady didn't continue to say anything but the distrust in her eyes couldn't be concealed at all. She jogged toward the back of the building, apparently to inform the head chef or boss of this Devil's Cuisine House. Watching the cat-lady running further inside, Bai Yi couldn't help but smile teasingly. Did he really look like somebody who was going to dine and dash? However, the boss here was apparently very professional and didn't suspect him. Even if Bai Yi decided to dine and dash, that was something to be handled at that time. For now, no matter what, Bai Yi was an honored customer.
Very quickly, the first dish was served—Sliced Ghost-faced Mushrooms.
Bai Yi looked at the plate of weird slices being served to him and couldn't help but analyze it seriously. With a look, he saw that on every slice was an abstract image of a ghost face seemingly about to jump out at him. It appeared to be extremely frightening, and Bai Yi had never seen this ingredient of Ghost-faced Mushrooms before.
"Are there any steps to eating this thing?" Bai Yi asked.
"None, you can just eat it directly, we have already prepared it properly." The cat-lady nodded and looked like she was waiting for Bai Yi to be scared to death. The cat-lady's mild excitement couldn't escape Bai Yi's eyes, but he also couldn't understand where her enthusiasm was coming from.
Bai Yi didn't see any cutlery, but he realized that there was a small stalk on the side of every slice. At this time, the cat-lady also told Bai Yi that he could directly hold the stalk with his hand and eat it.
Bai Yi picked up a slice of Ghost-faced Mushroom and put in inside his mouth. At this instant, the excitement in the cat-lady's eyes was even more pronounced. Just what is she playing at... Bai Yi thought in his heart as he bit down on it. The moment Bai Yi bit into it, the Ghost-faced Mushroom in his mouth immediately let out a sharp, terrifying scream, and after that Bai Yi discovered that there was a faint stench in his mouth. This was definitely the taste of blood!
What the hell!
Bai Yi indeed got a fright, but after his body tensed slightly for a moment he immediately relaxed again, appearing perfectly normal. After that, he slowly savored the taste of the Ghost-faced mushroom in his mouth, and the faint stench gradually dissolved as well, turning into a fresh, delicious taste. With every bite the Ghost-faced Mushroom would release a strange sound, just like a blood-curdling scream from a human. Of course, only the first time sounded like a human's scream—the sound became very strange after the Ghost-faced Mushroom was broken down into pieces in Bai Yi's mouth.
"Not bad, very tasty," Bai Yi said and went for another slice of Ghost-faced Mushroom.
Why didn't he get frightened? Normally people who eat the Ghost-faced Mushroom for the first time all get a scare! The cat-lady looked at Bai Yi in puzzlement and walked back into the kitchen patting her head. After that, another ten dishes were prepared and served up continuously. Although the other dishes were strange as well, other than the first Ghost-faced Mushroom dish, the rest of them didn't give him a scare. No matter what, these were only special ingredients, not some kind of horror game.
Bai Yi slowly savored these dishes and nodded approvingly inside his heart. Not just the preparation of these special ingredients, but even the composition of the tastes was all very well done. Bai Yi had to admit that his culinary skills weren't as good as those of this chef.
Although Bai Yi was alone, he still finished this entire table full of dishes completely, without even leaving a drop of soup. Although the Binging Phase had already ended, if evolved humans really wanted to eat to their heart's content, then the amount they could put away in one meal was still terrifying.
Bai Yi placed his chopsticks on the table and lightly breathed out. A random walk around really let me find a good place.
"Bill please," Bai Yi said and took out the newly issued Devil coins of New Zealand. Currency has always been a mark of a civilization's progress. They had started issuing these coins right after their environment had become safer and more stable, as otherwise, they'd really have seemed like primitive people if they continued to use barter trade. After Bai Yi took out a sufficient amount of Devil coins, the cat-lady, who had been unhappy all along, finally started smiling—she'd still thought that Bai Yi wasn't going to pay up.
"Could I meet with the boss and head chef of this Devil's Cuisine House?" Bai Yi asked.
"What do you want to do?!" The cat-lady immediately became very wary like a cat that got its tail stepped on, and watched Bai Yi cautiously.
Suddenly, a female voice came from the second floor, "Bellamy, bring this customer up here."
The cat-lady, who was just like an agitated little cat, immediately calmed down. She then angrily creased her small face and glared at Bai Yi before bringing him upstairs. At this time, Devil's Cuisine House already had no other customers, so he only gave this cat-lady called Bellamy a smile and followed her up.
"I'm curious, what business does this customer have with me?" A woman that wore a chef's uniform and also looked like a cat-lady walked out. However, compared to the young and inexperienced Bellamy, this lady seemed to have a provoking sexiness even after she became an evolved human. Bai Yi could tell that this lady was not only attractive, but powerful as well.
"This Devil's Cuisine House, are you the one in charge of this place?"
"That's right, I'm the store manager and head chef of Devil's Cuisine House." The lady opposite him nodded her head.
"I'm quite interested in the preparation methods used in cooking the special ingredients in your noble1 shop. I'm curious if you are willing to sell them to me?" Bai Yi asked seriously.
The moment Bai Yi finished speaking, the fur on the cat-lady called Bellamy immediately stood up. She revealed her little canines, and her slit-like cat eyes glared directly at Bai Yi. Just by looking at Bellamy's sharp claws, Bai Yi knew that with just a word from the sexy head chef this little cat-lady would immediately pounce onto him, and it would definitely not be some kind of gentle pouncing into his arms.
"Don't be so nervous, I am genuinely asking you if you could sell the preparation methods for these special ingredients. No matter whether you want Devil coins or any other things, that's fine. I believe that as long as it isn't too ridiculous, I will be able to pay the bill," Bai Yi said with a smile as he looked toward the savage little cat-lady and waved his hand lightly.
The initially agitated little cat-lady gradually started to calm down after hearing Bai Yi's words.
The sexy cat-lady head chef shook her head. "That probably won't do, no matter what. The preparation methods for these special ingredients are things that we figured out and developed over a long period of time. Additionally, they are the only unique thing about Devil's Cuisine House. If I teach them to anybody else, then I won't be able to continue to conduct my business."
"You don't have to worry about this problem, because this is just for my personal curiosity. I was a chef before too, it's just that my main occupation isn't as a chef now. I probably won't open a restaurant or anything similar in the future either," Bai Yi said.
"Why should we believe you?" The little cat-lady frowned.
Bai Yi's slightly colored soft fur on his face wasn't considered too unique by now, as many other people had fur on their faces as well. Unless they had seen Bai Yi in person before, it wasn't so easy to recognise him with just a look. Bai Yi heard the cat-lady's words and smiled, pointing to his eyes. Slowly, a flower growing in reverse appeared in them.
Reverse Flower Eyes!
But there was only the appearance of them, and they didn't display any effects. The two cat-ladies who initially thought that he was somewhat familiar were immediately stunned. Reverse Flower Eyes, this was Bai Yi's trademark! So far, nobody had found another person who possessed similar eyes to him.
"B-B-B-Bai Yi!"
The little cat-lady couldn't even speak coherently now. She suddenly took a few steps backward and landed with her butt on the floor.
Bai Yi saw the appearance of the little cat-lady and couldn't help but laugh, before showing her an expression that said 'I didn't do anything to you'. Seeing how Bai Yi reacted, the little cat-lady immediately climbed up and carefully stood, hiding behind the sexy cat-lady chef. To them, Bai Yi was somebody that they could never approach. The ticket to get Bai Yi's personal treatment was also ridiculously expensive.
The head chef was also stunned for a moment, before focusing her mind again. It was actually Bai Yi. Bai Yi's identity, of course, didn't need too much verification—his eyes were the greatest way of identifying him. If this was Bai Yi, then his words before shouldn't be a lie.
Moreover, if this was Bai Yi, then using the special preparation methods to trade for something like getting treated by him personally should be quite attractive to him.
"I am the store manager and head chef of Devil's Cuisine House—Betsy!" The sexy cat-lady chef said.
***
Translator Notes:
Referring to the shop as 'noble' sounds weird here, but it's a respectful way of addressing something in Chinese culture.