Chapter 130: The Bibi Dumpling Bug
"So this is the Bibi Dumpling Bug?"
Atashino looked on with curiosity. She had heard that it was a super special cooking ingredient. You had to toss it into the air and make it spin; the more times it spun, the better it tasted. It was like a circus trick, but the difficulty was extremely high. If you couldn’t keep up, the Bibi Dumpling Bug would suddenly become heavier or accelerate, and it would slip from your grasp and fall to the ground.
Atashino gave it a try. Tossing it up was normal, but as it came down, it accelerated without warning. She couldn’t keep up, and the Bibi Dumpling Bug fell to the ground, smashing a small crater.
"The level of one’s Ape Dance can be seen from the number of Bibi Dumplings you can juggle," Kenji explained. "If you can skillfully juggle three, you’ve mastered the basics."
He also made his first attempt and, unsurprisingly, failed to catch it. Even having mastered Food Honor was useless here. Only when one’s cells were unified could they successfully catch it. Kenji could also use his foresight to predict its trajectory, but since this was training for Ape Dance, he certainly couldn’t use such a shortcut.
"Three of them?" Atashino took a deep breath. This was indeed very challenging, but to become stronger, she would continue.
In the manga, the reason Toriko and the other three were able to master it in such a short time was thanks to the Ape King’s rage, which scared them so much they saw their lives flash before their eyes. The fear instantly unified all 60 trillion of their cells.
As expected of a super special cooking ingredient, the difficulty of preparing the Bibi Dumpling Bug was demanding. The other tricks were manageable, but when it released its poison gas, their bodies would instinctively dodge, and the bug would fall to the ground. They could only try again and again, grasping the knack for it while sensing the changes in the cells within their bodies.
Kenji began to accelerate time.
Kenji could juggle 65 Bibi Dumpling Bugs, a feat only achievable by someone at the Master level. Atashino could juggle 51, which was also Master-rank. Ape Dance had many levels, and the Master rank was the one just below the Ape King’s own. This wasn’t their limit, but the limit of the number of Bibi Dumpling Bugs they had. After learning Ape Dance, Kenji didn’t bother going back to the 100G Mountains.
"This flavor is really something else. The gushing texture really catches you off guard," Kenji said after biting into a Bibi Dumpling Bug. Good heavens, a silky pulp exploded in his mouth. An ordinary person would have a hard time getting used to it at first (think of the white grubs Bear Grylls eats).
However, the taste was delicious. There was no strange odor, just a mellow flavor that lingered in the mouth. The texture was like a dango. If you could get over the initial slimy, greasy sensation, the taste was quite good, and its protein content was N times that of beef.
"It tastes very good," Atashino nodded.
"Now that I’ve mastered Ape Dance, I should be the strongest among the Biotope 0 staff," Atashino said with confidence. "Of course, that’s excluding you and the President, Kenji."
After you ate the salad, AIR, your strength already surpassed the other staff members.
Suddenly, a blade of frosty energy flew towards them, cutting through the air, its target Kenji.
Kenji casually batted it aside, and the blade of light instantly dissipated into motes of light in the air.
The two of them turned to look towards Shokurin Temple. A gash had appeared on the wall. Kenji knew it was a sword slash from Hoshimi Miyabi; after all, of the people he knew, only she had the frost attribute.
"Sorry about that! I didn’t expect a casual swing to have that much power," Hoshimi Miyabi said apologetically, leaping over to Kenji’s side in a few bounds. She felt that she was much stronger than before, and her use of energy was far more efficient. Even with an ordinary katana, Miyabi felt she could produce the same effect.
"No worries. After training in Food Honor, you can bring out the original power of your techniques," Kenji said with a wave of his hand.
He wondered what the Eulogists would think if they had to face the current Hoshimi Miyabi. After mastering Food Honor, her strength should rank among the top few of all Hollow Hunters.
"I think so too. My energy efficiency now is on a completely different level," Miyabi said. This trip was not in vain.
"Oh no! I damaged the wall of Shokurin Temple!" Miyabi’s face changed as she suddenly remembered the gash.
When she turned to look, the gash had already disappeared. Was its self-repair ability that strong?
"Miyabi, are you planning to continue your Food Honor training here?" Kenji asked.
"Not for now. I need to go back and see how things are. Without me, the pressure on Yan and the others might be a bit much," Miyabi said, shaking her head.
Yuzhen: That’s right! I support this!
When going on missions with the Section Chief, all she had to do was clean up the battlefield. Ethereals and the like were the Chief’s training targets. Section 6 goes on a rampage; Miyabi does the rampaging, and the rest of them just make the noise.
"If you want to learn more in the future, you can come back anytime. Shokurin Temple will always welcome you."
There was no discrimination at Shokurin Temple. As long as you were willing to learn and could persevere, they would generously teach you Food Honor.
"I’ll remember that." Miyabi nodded, her fox ears twitching.
Miyabi’s ears really were long, probably more than ten centimeters. He wondered how they measured her height during physicals. Did they press her ears down, or did they include the length of her ears in the total measurement? She was tall (with looks + combat power), 170cm including the ears, and her heels weren’t short either.
"I feel like you’re thinking something very rude," Hoshimi Miyabi said, looking at Kenji with a blank expression. For some reason, she felt very annoyed.
"Your feeling is wrong," Kenji said, shaking his head without a change in expression.
The group members had all returned to their own worlds. If learned, the ability of Food Honor was very helpful in battle. For experienced chefs, it allowed them to process ingredients by intuition.
"Toriko, how’s your learning going?"
Toriko had arrived half a month ago. Among the training ingredients Ichiryu had arranged for him, to get the Bubble Fruit, he first had to learn Food Honor. Although Coco and the others didn’t come to Shokurin Temple, they would all be able to learn Food Honor as well.
"Not bad. I’m getting the hang of it," Toriko said calmly. The training ingredients Old Man Ichiryu had arranged were indeed exactly what he needed. In the process, he was able to adapt to many environments in advance: low-oxygen and low-temperature environments, high-gravity environments, hot and dry environments, and so on. One could only imagine how long the old man had spent planning their training.
The key was that the training menu for each of the Four Heavenly Kings was different, with no repetition. It wouldn’t be long before he and Komatsu reached the pinnacle of Food Honor.
"Kenji, have you seen that Bubble Fruit?" Toriko asked, puzzled. He had been here for so many days but hadn’t seen any trace of it.
"I’ve seen it. When Master Chin comes to find you, you can go and capture it," Kenji nodded. Not only have I seen it, I captured it a long time ago. I just haven’t had time to have Atashino cook it because we’ve been practicing Ape Dance.