10:00 PM, within the main hall of the Totsuki Enkyu.
The surviving students, having endured countless hardships, stood gathered in the hall.
Compared to the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd from the first day, the group standing here now was notably sparse.
Even before the final assessment had begun, more than half of the students had already been eliminated during this hellish training camp.
It was an absurdly high attrition rate.
Under the weary gaze of the remaining students, Gin Dojima ascended the podium.
"The theme for this exam is to create a new breakfast dish worthy of the guests at the Totsuki Resort."
"Breakfast is the face of a hotel. It is the vital meal that begins a guest's day. I expect you to create a dish that is fresh and full of surprises, something that brightens our guests' spirits."
"The primary ingredient must be eggs. Central, Japanese, Western... any style of cuisine is acceptable."
"You will be required to serve your dishes in a buffet format."
"The evaluation will begin tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM."
"From now until morning, your time is your own. The kitchens will remain open for your use."
"Additional passing criteria will be announced tomorrow."
"Now, begin. Good luck to you all!"
With those final words of encouragement, Gin Dojima stepped down from the stage.
Below the stage, the announcement of the rules triggered an immediate uproar.
Many students could hardly believe their ears.
'It's already late at night... and they want us to develop a brand-new breakfast dish by 6:00 AM? One worthy of resort guests? And there are even more conditions tomorrow?'
'This is insane... the difficulty is higher than any previous test. They just want us to drop out...'
Despite their thoughts, no one dared to disobey.
Having made it this far, none of these students were willing to just pack their bags and go home. Naturally, they would give everything they had to remain at Totsuki Academy.
They would simply have to pull an all-nighter.
That was the consensus among the students.
Except for one.
"I'll be heading back to my room first," Lexon said with a smile to the members of the Polar Star Dormitory.
"Don't go! Lexon! We need you!" Daigo Aoki shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Don't leave us! Don't leave us!" Shoji Sato chimed in like an abandoned wife.
"Lexon..." Yuki Yoshino looked at him with teary eyes.
She clearly hoped Lexon would stay behind and use his God's Tongue to help her refine her dish.
"You all need to understand the meaning behind this exam," Lexon replied with a smile, offering a righteous argument that was impossible to refute.
The group fell silent instantly.
The exam was meant to test a student's individual ability. Constantly relying on others was not the way of a true chef.
Furthermore, during their time at the Polar Star Dormitory, Lexon had already helped them immensely.
If they relied on him now just to scrape through an exam, it would essentially be cheating.
The students who possessed the hearts of true chefs naturally stopped trying to hold him back after that realization.
"I'll do my best on my own!" Yuki Yoshino declared, pulling herself together with a look of determination.
"Yeah! We'll definitely pass this exam too!" Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato shouted in unison.
"But Lexon, shouldn't you do at least a little preparation? The exam requires a brand-new breakfast dish..." Ryoko Sakaki added, her voice tinged with concern.
"It'll be fine," Lexon replied with a gentle smile.
With that, he turned and headed toward his room.
"Suddenly, I kind of want to go back and rest too," Soma Yukihira muttered, watching Lexon's retreating figure.
As someone else aiming for the top of Totsuki, he naturally wanted to be as cool and composed as Lexon.
"Soma?" Megumi Tadokoro looked at him, startled by his comment.
"Ah... don't worry, I'm just thinking out loud," Soma added.
After his Shokugeki with the alumnus, he knew in his heart that he was still far behind Lexon. Doing what Lexon did was impossible for him right now.
At the very least, he wasn't confident enough to go sleep and still serve two hundred portions of a new dish the next morning.
...
The rest period passed in a flash.
The time reached 6:00 AM.
In each of the assessment halls, Gin Dojima's voice suddenly crackled over the speakers.
"I will now announce the two criteria for passing."
Every student at their cooking station pricked up their ears to listen.
"Today's judges include food producers partnered with the Totsuki Resort and their families, as well as staff from the resort's culinary and service departments. You must present a creative dish that earns their approval. That is the first criterion."
"The second criterion is that you must sell at least two hundred portions of your new dish within two hours."
"Any student who fails to sell two hundred portions will be deemed to have failed and will face immediate expulsion!"
The moment the criteria were announced, before the students could even process the information, the doors to the resort swung open, and the guests came flooding in.
The final assessment of the training camp had officially begun.
Inside Hall A.
Erina Nakiri picked up her phone during a brief lull in serving guests.
"How is it? Hisako... is the person I told you to watch out for in your hall?" Erina asked into the receiver.
"No, My Lady..." Hisako's disappointed voice came from the other end.
"I see..." Erina sighed and hung up.
She then turned to Soma Yukihira, who was stationed not far away. "Hey... you, the transfer student named Soma."
"What's up, Lexon's cousin?" Soma, who was currently fretting over why his own dishes weren't selling well, looked over when he heard Erina's voice.
"My cou—no, which hall is Lexon in?" For some reason, Erina found the term 'cousin' a bit difficult to say out loud right now.
"Ah... I don't know which hall he's in either," Soma said, scratching his head.
"You don't know either?" Erina didn't say anything more after getting that response and focused back on serving her guests.
'If he won't accept my Shokugeki, I was hoping to use this exam as a way to compete... I didn't expect we wouldn't even be in the same hall.'
'There's no way I'd lose with this new dish I developed!'
'Dammit...'
'I'll just have to wait until the exam ends to check the rankings.'
She thought to herself with a hint of disappointment.
But the moment that thought crossed Erina's mind, something completely unexpected happened.
Gin Dojima's voice boomed through the speakers once again.
He announced a fact that was almost impossible to believe.
"Hall C: Lexon has reached two hundred portions."
"What?"
Every student in Hall A stared at the speakers in shock.
Is this a joke?
The exam only started ten minutes ago!
Two hundred portions sold in ten minutes? How is that possible? How?!
Erina Nakiri glanced back at her own tally.
Suddenly, she fell silent.
...
Meanwhile, in Hall C.
The entire hall seemed to have been invaded by an intoxicating aroma of gourmet food, immersing everyone in it.
Anyone who caught a whiff felt as if their spirit had been elevated.
An overwhelming urge to eat the dish producing that scent surged within them.
The crowd was a churning sea of people, everyone pushing toward a single direction.
"Another portion over here!"
"I want ten portions!"
"It smells too good! Give it to me!"
"Fifty portions! Fifty! Everyone in my family wants to eat ten each!"
"Move it! I was here first!"
"I was!"
"You want to go, you bastard?!"
The fervent shouts rose one after another. Driven by their passion for the food, the guests were acting like madmen, and a minor riot was nearly breaking out.
"Get in line. No fighting, or I stop selling."
At those calm words, the burgeoning chaos gradually subsided. Everyone obediently began to form a line.
A single queue extended from the entrance deep into the hall, snaking past the cooking stations of every other student.
Yet, almost no one stopped to taste the other students' food. It was as if their minds were occupied only by that one delicious dish.
It felt as though nothing else would satisfy them until they had eaten that specific meal.
Compared to that focal point, the dishes of the other students seemed utterly mediocre and not even worth a taste!
That thought dominated the guests' minds.
Looking at the cooking station that had become the sole center of attention, the other students in Hall C felt a deep, agonizing sense of resentment.
'Why... why did this monster have to be assigned to Hall C?'
'How are we supposed to sell anything... how are we supposed to pass?'
But even as they felt that resentment, they couldn't help but swallow their own saliva.
'God, it really does smell incredible...'
'I want a taste too...'
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]