“How will each contestant deal with their selection of ingredients? Will we finally witness the birth of a Master Cook? Only time will tell!” The announcer continued.
“Remember, you have ten minutes to prepare the best dish possible! At the end of them, I will personally try all of them and give you a rating from one to ten! Good luck, chefs!”
Prometheus looked down at the charred body, noticing an incredibly small movement on its chest. Moving his paw to the person’s mouth he realized that they were still breathing. Shit, it wants us to cook someone alive? That’s kind of fucked up.
“Do I need to remind you of when you absorbed a human body for its nutrients, dozens of times?” Saul said.
“That’s not the same thing, come on. It’s clearly different. Plus, look at all the other contestants here, they look so afraid and scared,” Theo continued, looking around the room. Arthur was gritting his teeth while telling his children to look away and close their eyes. The fact that the children were being made to see this madness sent a wave of heat and energy through Theo’s mind, who growled at the announcer, swiping at the invisible barrier.
I’m going to fucking kill him, one way or another.
Feeling a rare shred of empathy for the human in front of him, he plunged a claw into their eye socket and into the brain, killing them instantly. Then Theo began growing meat masses from his shoulder to use as better ingredients, and since he could grow plant cells too, he would be able to grow some vegetables. Not all, as he didn’t have the DNA data of most plants, but he could still improvise. As soon as the announcer turned its head at Theo, it ran up and shouted, “No custom ingredients allowed!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Theo growled, continuing to use his own ingredients. The flesh creature shook its head and said, “Using any custom ingredients will cause an automatic disqualification,”
Prometheus removed the masses of flesh he was about to cook with and sighed. I need to win this and make sure Arthur doesn’t get disqualified.
Prometheus began by removing the corpse’s skin and separating the muscles from the bones. He had changed his paws into more dexterous limbs, to cook better. Removing the internal organs, he kept only the liver and the heart. Theo began by turning on the stove, which was gas-powered, and put the liver and heart on a frying pan, using fat from the corpse to prevent the meat from sticking.
He didn’t have any condiments, so he resorted to filtering out the salt in the blood, and drying it, allowing him to use it later. After the liver and heart were done, he prepared a handful of cuts of muscle to accompany the two organs, and when that was done, he organized the various parts into a plate, using the liver and the heart as the central decoration, while putting the strips of meat to the side of the plate. Adding a pinch of salt, Theo raised his head to the floating clock and saw that he had still five minutes left. He used the extra time to check on the other humans.
Only another person had actually begun to cook, that being the woman to his side. She was simply boiling some muscles, and arranging them in a messy pile on a plate. Everyone else wasn’t moving at all, including Arthur. He was gritting his teeth while his knife was hovering over the corpse’s neck, and he finally cut down, resulting in blood spilling everywhere on the tray. Should have gone for the brain…
Prometheus noticed that others also began to start cooking, although nothing impressive. The shapeshifter turned his head back and wanted to speak to Arthur in English, hoping the other humans also didn’t speak it. Wait, the announcer spoke English, do the humans here speak it too?
“Hey, how’s it going?” Theo told the lady, in English.
“W-what?” She turned at him in a flash, speaking in the language used in the Iulan Kingdom. Theo nodded and turned his feline head at Arthur, saying, “Arthur, everything going well?”
The bald man raised his eyes and frowned deeper, “No, shit, I can’t do this!”
“You don’t have a choice! These freaks will kill-“ Arthur gestured for Theo to stop talking as the children were still listening, so he rearranged his words, “The freaks will do terrible things.”
Arthur narrowed his eyes while gritting his teeth, and he finally found the strength to cook a dish from the corpse in front of him. Prometheus nodded, satisfied, waiting for the time to finish. One minute before the end, the announcer walked over to each contestant to ask what they had cooked, and when it arrived at Arthur, who was making a soup with water and blood, the flesh creature pushed the pot on the ground, spilling it all on the ground. Arthur looked at the monstrosity with wide eyes, his face going white. Theo was immobile, looking straight at the announcer, who was acting innocent and apologetic.
The creature jogged over to the front of the room, waiting for the time to end. Theo tried his best to get out of the invisible barrier, but he couldn’t do so regardless of what he tried. An idea sprung up, so he acted upon it, “I need to get an ingredient that fell over there,” Theo said, pointing to the back.
The announcer tilted its head and replied, “Slippery hands, have we? Go ahead, big guy, make it quick,”
The barrier lifted off, and Theo immediately ran around the various tables, eating every single dish the other contestants had prepared, while he ran to the back and began scooping up the soup Arthur had made, putting it back in the pot. Every human was looking at him with frowns, gritted teeth, and red faces. One of them even tried stabbing him, but they were tier-three, so it did nothing. Prometheus returned to his workstation just as the timer ran out, and the announcer looked at Prometheus, completely silent.
Prometheus stared back, keeping eye contact unflinchingly. The fleshy creature began shaking ever so slightly, and pointed a finger at the shapeshifter, shouting, “You cheated!”
Prometheus shrugged his shoulders, which looked interesting on his feline form, while he replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”.
The announcer began shaking more and more, eventually causing the floor and tables near him to move slightly. It then stopped and began laughing. “You can’t cheat! You can’t cheat! You can’t cheat!”
Prometheus shrugged again and said, “Only me and Arthur have prepared dishes, the others don’t have anything, so we won. Let us go,”
The announcer jittered his head, like a broken clock, and rotated its head three-hundred-sixty degrees, while laughing all the while. It then snapped its fingers, and screams began erupting around the room. Every human present began having their skin peel off. And that included his family.
“We won by the rules!” Theo shouted, causing the whole building to shake.
The announcer began snickering and pointed at Theo, snapping its fingers, “The game is over, cheaters are no fun.”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Theo felt ‘something’ try to peel off his skin, but he felt his Anomalous Resistance push off against the attack. He immediately ran to Arthur, but the barrier prevented him from doing so. The announcer began laughing ever louder, clapping its hands.
“Cheaters get what they deserve!”
Arthur and the others were screaming in agony as they were being skinned alive, while their eyes and teeth were getting plucked out, causing immense bleeding. No, No, No!
Prometheus could only watch as his family was turned into bloody creatures, their skin removed, eyeballs gouged out. The same thing happened with everyone else present, except Prometheus. What…no…I’ve been…trying so… long…
The screams died down as dozens of skinless and bloody bodies lay on the ground, unmoving. He stood still, body leaning over the impenetrable barrier, eyes on the motionless corpses. He had failed. His only mission in life, to protect his owners had truly and utterly failed. His Supernality sense allowed him to see their Souls break down into hundreds of fragments, and dissipate into the air. Blood pooled under them, forming a crimson pond. The announcer walked over to him and clapped his shoulder, its hand leaving a bloody hand mark on Theo’s fur.
“May they rest in peace, right?” It then laughed once again.
A shockwave exploded from the announcer’s face, as Theo’s paw struggled against the invisible barrier that protected the fleshy creature. It staggered a bit backward and clapped its hands, exclaiming, “Today’s session of Cook Masters has ended quite unexpectedly with no winners, so see you tomorrow!”
The crowd gasped and frowned.
Prometheus’ world became black once again.
- - -
He was outside. Right where he had been kidnapped alongside Arthur and the kids. He looked at the ground, and his thought processes ground to a halt. His mind was blank. His Core stopped its operations, and his cells slowly starved, leaving a messy pile of dust covering Theo’s Core and roots. It looked like a stranded jellyfish. Saul almost said something, before stopping and remaining silent. Another couple of hours passed, and the Unsafe Hours ended. Sayuri and Zilch walked over to Prometheus, sending a mental communication in alarm at seeing his immobile form,
“Theo, are you alright?!” Zilch asked.
When no reply came, Saul replied on Theo’s part, “He’s okay, give him some time,”
Zilch froze for a moment and continued, “Are you Theo’s Soul?”
Saul nodded and replied, “Yes. Prometheus went through something…tough. His owners were killed,”
Sayuri interrupted, hand going for the katana, “Who killed them?”
Saul sighed internally, “I don’t really know, it looked like a bunch of skinless things from the Unsafe Hours. It’s not something we can go against,”
“What?! What happened?!” The deathworm asked, after which Saul explained briefly what had happened. Sayuri looked down with her eyes closed, and Zilch looked around uncertainly.
“What can we do for him?” The worm asked once again.
“Nothing, for now. I think he’s in shock. Try to take care of him as much as possible,”
ZIlch and Sayuri nodded and picked up Theo’s Core, which was surprisingly heavy, and moved to join Giuseppe, who was still sleeping alone on the ground.
- - -
Zilch wasn’t sure what to do. Prometheus had lost his family, which the deathworm had met before, so he needed to help his friend. The human that Theo had decided to take with them, Giuseppe, frowned even deeper than the rest of them, and he asked, “What happened to him?”
“His family was killed during the Unsafe Hours, apparently,” Zilch replied. He looked over at Sayuri, who was carrying Theo’s Core with her one good arm. The samurai and Zilch had gotten friendlier in the past few days, but the same couldn’t be said for Giuseppe. The human didn’t say anything most of the time, so Zilch didn’t have many opportunities to sympathize with him. Either way, Prometheus wanted him with them, so Zilch wouldn’t complain.
“So what do we do now?” The deathworm asked the others.
Sayuri was the one to reply, “We need to move. Even if the General is dead, the Army will surely send someone after us. That man from yesterday will also look for us. The titles we got should make us harder to find, but we should still be cautious. Prometheus wanted us to move that way, so we’ll follow his directions,”
Zilch nodded, looking at the ‘Deserter of the Monster Army’ title. He had gotten it earlier after they had escaped from the fortress. The deathworm looked at the rest of his Status, proud of the progress he had made;
Name:
Zilch
Stats:
Body: 16
Mind: 15
Soul: 12
Skills:
Medium-rank Stealth lvl 2
Medium-rank Burrowing lvl 5
Low-rank Danger sense lvl 2
Low-rank Acting lvl 3
Low-rank Mental Fortitude lvl 3
Low-rank Sculpting lvl 2
Traits:
Earth-softening
Titles:
Deserter of the Monster Army: You will be harder to find by the Monster Army. Additionally, you are more resilient and deal more damage to any member of the Monster Army.
The group began walking at first, speeding up after Giuseppe had agreed to ride on top of Zilch, while Sayuri was running on foot using [Enhancement] with every step she made. She’s much better than me at using that technique. I should learn an invisibility technique, that would be a perfect addition to my build. With my Stealth and Burrowing skills, I could ambush enemies without them even knowing what had happened. I need to focus my training on ambushing tactics and techniques. Also, my burrowing skill is about to rank up, I need to work on that.
Zilch felt the link of Influence with his three Earth Golems, following him underground dutifully. Ever since he had seen that Earth Golem back in the bandit raid, he had tried to make a similar ability, and with the major’s help, he had done it. It did have some drawbacks, such as needing to personally sculpt each Golem, and the fact that once broken they needed to be replaced, but other than those it was a formidable ability. The tier-up had only made them stronger.
“Do you need me to carry him now?” Zilch asked to Sayuri, who was slowing down from the weight of Theo’s core.
“No… I can continue,” She replied. She probably wouldn’t let me help even if she was on death’s door, Zilch thought while chuckling. Their surroundings began to change as they continued walking through the day, with the gravel plains slowly shifting into purple sand, reminding Zilch of the first time he had met Prometheus.
Hah, that day he absolutely destroyed a Deathworm in less than a minute. Well, those monsters aren’t exactly smart, but it was impressive nonetheless. Most monsters weren’t sapient, with exceptions like Zilch, Sayuri, and the Monster Army being in the minority. Thanks to him I awakened my intangibility, too. He did a lot for me. And what did I do for him?
Zilch sighed. I should make myself more useful.
Neither of them remembered the map of the continent with great detail, but Zilch did remember where the western border of the Monster Army was, so he had a vague idea of where to go. They went around the Purple Desert and entered the Airfalls, which was nothing more than a lush jungle with large chunks of glowing crystals and waterfalls flowing upwards into the sky. It took them around three days to get there, in which Theo hadn’t uttered a single word, even when they talked to him.
“We should settle down here somewhere, we need to rest and organize ourselves,” Sayuri suggested, which the others found reasonable. The jungle had short trees with wide, yellow leaves and thick trunks. Dense yellow vegetation and vines slowed their progress, but Sayuri used her Katana and ability to cut through it without much issue. Any monster they came across was too weak to pose a threat, and the only tier four they found they dispatched easily. Continuing their search through the short jungle, they heard sounds of rushing water in the distance, so they approached it, finding a massive chasm with a waterfall. I didn’t go down inside it, instead, the water rose into the air as soon as it moved past the edge of the chasm. Where does the water even go? Does it just disappear in the sky?
They decided to settle down on the base of the chasm, which seemed to have a cave system, so they jumped down. It was around two hundred meters deep, so they reached the floor in just a moment. Zilch used his Earth-softening trait to cushion his fall, while Sayuri was simply too light to receive any damage on their fall. Giuseppe, on the other hand, crashed on the ground with a disgusting sound of bones breaking. Is that his brain?! Did he split his skull open?!
Giuseppe’s organs that had spilled out slowly floated to their rightful place, while his wounds closed off in just a couple of seconds. “Everything alright?” Zilch asked.
Giuseppe nodded, saying, “I’m not lucky enough to die from something like this,”
Zilch whipped his tail on the ground. Why is he so…ungrateful?! He literally can’t die, and the only thing he wants is death itself! How does that make any sense?!
Finding the courage to speak, the deathworm asked Giuseppe, “Can I ask you something?”
The immortal man nodded.
“Why do you want to die?”
Giuseppe looked at the ground, and after a minute of silence, he replied, “I don’t want to live. There’s nothing worth living for in my life,”
“Don’t you have a family? Friends?”
Giuseppe shook his head, “My family died in a car crash while they were going to the airport for a vacation. The only reason I didn’t go with them was because I was too sick. When I got that call from the police…” Giuseppe’s face reddened suddenly, and he sniffed. Zilch didn’t know what a car or an airport were, but he still didn’t interrupt the human.
“When I got that call… I didn’t know what to do. I felt lost. I still do. My girlfriend broke up with me soon after, because she needed to ‘find herself’. And, next thing I know, I’m on this new planet, being carried by other people like a current. I see no reason why I should want to live any day longer. I’m useless, I have no purpose other than wasting space and oxygen,”
Zilch nodded. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say, but he still tried his best, “Maybe you can find your purpose,”
Giuseppe looked at him and said, “What?”
“You know, life doesn’t really have a purpose, except maybe tiering up, but even that is debatable. I think you should just make an achievable goal and pursue that,”
Giuseppe looked at the ground with reddened eyes and asked, “What’s your purpose?”
“Me?” Zilch asked. Giuseppe nodded, so the deathworm thought about it and said, “I…I want to stop being a coward. I want to become brave like Theo,”
The group spent the rest of the day scouting the caves to find a good place to rest for a while, trying to talk to Prometheus in the meantime. He never replied.