Chapter 23: The Devil Fruit in Hand

The time was almost up. On the high platform, a thick-browed, big-eyed, and somewhat simple-looking chef began speaking into the transponder snail in front of him.

The speeches at these events were all the same as in Kado's previous life—monotonous and repetitive, with no variation at all.

After the usual pleasantries, however, the rules the chef was outlining caught Kado's attention for a moment.

"Precious ingredients will be cooked live by renowned chefs."

"After the competition, the top ten contestants who possess rare ingredients will have the priority opportunity to taste the dishes."

"Each supplier of ingredients will also have the chance to sample the prey they captured."

Among the long speech, only these few lines made any sense. It seemed that the Chef's Guild wasn't going to simply confiscate the ingredients and secretly cook them themselves. Instead, they would cook the dishes in front of everyone and allow people to taste the results.

"Heh heh, I wonder what my second-rate Golden Scaled Fish will taste like. I'll make sure to try it properly later," Kado thought to himself, chuckling at the little trick he had pulled off, feeling quite pleased with himself.

After quite a long wait, the person on stage finally thought the time was right and announced the start of the judging.

The impatient crowd let out a collective sigh of relief. The main event of the competition was finally about to begin.

One by one, pirates and other competitors participating in the competition brought their ingredients up to the Chef's Guild's high platform.

Some of the ingredients were frozen in ice blocks to keep them fresh, while others were left exposed, letting the smell of blood and fish spread everywhere.

Kado's Golden Scaled Fish was carefully packed inside a bag, sealed tightly. Kado and the others were worried that something might go wrong at the last minute and cause unexpected complications.

This competition also broadened Kado's horizons quite a bit. He saw many strange and unusual things—whales several dozen meters long, lobsters just a few centimeters in size, crabs as big as millstones. Essentially, anything from the sea could be found here.

What surprised Kado even more was when someone brought a Sea King-type creature to participate in the competition.

Each ingredient was evaluated by the Chef's Guild, and some people's faces fell as they received their assessments. Their ingredients were either not valuable enough or, in some cases, were completely inedible. Many others, however, were beaming with smiles. Although they knew their chances of winning were slim, they were more than happy just to sample the dishes prepared by these famous chefs for free.

"Participation first, competition second, little brother, don't be discouraged. Whether you win the championship or not, it's all the same."

A tall, muscular man, seeing the backpack Kado was carrying, thought that Kado must have received some inedible ingredients that he was too embarrassed to show. He assumed Kado was worried about looking foolish and kindly tried to comfort him.

"Yeah, yeah, definitely," Kado replied.

Chuckling awkwardly, Kado waved off the well-meaning muscular man, wiping the cold sweat from his brow. What kind of nonsense is this? Just because I put the ingredients in a backpack, they automatically think it's too trashy to show?

After standing in line for what felt like ages, it was finally his turn. Kado threw his backpack in front of the judge who had just spoken and loudly shouted:

"Where's the Devil Fruit? Hurry up, I've got things to do!"

"I haven't even looked yet. How would I know what's in here?"

The thick-browed, big-eyed judge shot Kado a resentful glance. Kado shuddered, a chill running down his spine as goosebumps rose all over him.

"God, what have I done to deserve this? I actually have to present my ingredients to a guy like this for evaluation?"

Though Kado was filled with regret, he couldn't just snatch it back from the guy's hands. He had no choice but to let the person in front of him conduct the assessment.

"Been evaluating all morning, and there's nothing good. This is so tiring," the judge muttered, slowly taking the package, ready to take a look.

"Oh my God!"

A sharp, piercing scream echoed across the entire square. The judge looked as if he had just seen a ghost, his face twisted in shock.

"This... this is gold!" The judge stammered, his voice trembling as he looked at the shimmering gold inside the pouch. "No... wait, this is the Golden Scaled Fish."

"My God, this must be the Golden Scaled Fish! A rare, precious ingredient that's only seen once every few decades. I thought these kinds of things only existed in legends, but it's real!"

The judge took a deep breath and spoke in a more composed tone.

"Come, come, let me have a look too!"

"Move aside, let me through!"

"Dammit, who stepped on my foot? Can't you all move a little slower?"

In an instant, over a dozen judges rushed to Kado, surrounding the pouch containing the Golden Scaled Fish. It became a chaotic scene as they crowded around, even pushing Kado aside in the process.

"Oh my god, it's real! This is really the Golden Scaled Fish!"

"I'm exhausted just thinking about it! I never imagined I'd live to see the day I could cook such a legendary ingredient!" An elderly man said, tears streaming down his face.

"Who said you get to cook it? What qualifications do you have?" the other old man scolded. "I've never liked you. If anyone's cooking it, it's me. With your terrible skills, cooking the Golden Scaled Fish would be a waste!"

"Everyone, don't fight! There's enough for everyone. Just to be clear, I want the fish head!"

"I want the loin!"

"I want the fish tail!"

"Why do you get the tail? I want it too! Perfect for making my signature braised fish tail!"

In an instant, chaos erupted once again.

The crowd around watched the unprecedented scene in the center, all dumbfounded. On the platform, some of the judges were pulling and tugging at each other, some were shouting insults, and in one corner, they had even started fighting.

"Stop it, all of you!"

Kado shouted loudly, and finally, the bickering judges stopped.

"Now is not the time for you to fight over the food. Hurry up and give me the Devil Fruit. If you don't give it to me, none of you will have the chance to cook this Golden Scaled Fish," Kado said.

"Oh, right! What are you waiting for? Hurry up and give it to him!"

"But... the hunting competition isn't over yet."

"What are you waiting for? It's already amazing that such a legendary ingredient has appeared. Are you expecting another one to show up and compete with this one?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant..."

"Then hurry up and give it to him!" The old men urged loudly.

The effeminate judge froze for a moment, then pulled out a women's handbag from his chest. From inside, he took out something about the size of an apple and handed it to Kado.

"Here, this is yours. The Golden-scaled Fish is ours now," the effeminate judge said, then suddenly turned around and lunged at the Golden-scaled Fish. "You bastards, leave some for me!"

"What? That's it? It's this easy to get it?" Kado stared at the Devil Fruit in front of him, his face full of disbelief. "Damn, if I had known they weren't keeping it in some secret place, I would've just stolen it myself long ago. Why go through all this trouble?"

Kado regretted deeply. He hadn't expected that these chefs would casually place the Devil Fruit in such a women's handbag. Originally, he thought these guys would definitely keep the Devil Fruit safe, hiding it in some secret place.

Kado turned his head and glanced at the pirate crew below the stage, eyeing him greedily. After thinking for a moment, he casually popped the Devil Fruit into his mouth.

"Damn, this is disgusting! What the hell is this taste?"

An indescribable taste spread through Kado's body as soon as he bit into the Devil Fruit, like when he accidentally ate a rotten egg in the past—so disgusting it was almost unbearable.

"As expected, this thing really is disgusting. Looks like it's definitely a genuine Devil Fruit," Kado thought to himself. In the anime from his past life, it was said that Devil Fruits were always awful-tasting and came in different shapes. The apple-shaped object in his hand should indeed be a Devil Fruit.

Suppressing the discomfort, Kado forced himself to finish eating the Devil Fruit. He couldn't help but want to test out his new abilities, but there were too many people around here, making it unsuitable for an experiment. Kado stretched his legs and waved at Fite and Sanchi, then immediately ran towards the direction of the Kado Ship.

"Quick, chase him! This kid's trying to run! Boss Snow Bear said no matter what, we must capture him!" shouted one of the Snow Bear Pirates.

"Brothers, follow me! This guy has the Devil Fruit, we need to grab it from him!" shouted the pirate who still didn't know Kado had already eaten the Devil Fruit.

"How dare you defeat our captain! I'll make you wish you were never born!" yelled a member of the Green Hat Pirate Crew, the remnants of a defeated group.

"Brothers, let's surround him and watch! There's a show to see!" said a member of the crowd of onlookers, the pirates who were just there to watch the spectacle.

"Damn it, I knew these guys weren't up to anything good!"

Kado glanced over his shoulder at the swarming pirates behind him, his legs picking up speed as he sprinted away in a blur.

"What kind of ability is this?"

Kado pinched himself, but felt no change—it definitely wasn't Logia type.

"Zoan type, transformation!"

Kado shouted, and immediately afterward, he blushed in embarrassment. "Damn it, why am I still saying a spell out loud?!"

His body felt exactly the same as usual, with no noticeable changes. It was clear now that it wasn't a Zoan-type ability.

That left only one possibility—the Paramecia type. As Kado ran, he began examining his own body more carefully.

End of chapter

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