2 Tracks and Classes

Nil managed to reach their classroom on time. He was wearing the casual uniform of the university: a single-breasted navy blue suit with the university insignia on the right side. Nil left the buttons undone, revealing his blue necktie with silver lining details and a neatly pressed white long-sleeve polo that highlighted his well-toned chest.

Nil was labeled as one of the infamous people in his classroom. He was one of the shameless types, but he was also respectably intelligent and strong in academics, cooking, and battle, thanks to his high entrance exam grade. Nil was also listed among the top schoolboy crushes in the newest batch of students. With his deep black hair brushed up in a tousled manner, a chiseled face exuding a manly aura, and a small grin that formed on his lips whenever he caught a girl staring at him, Nil made the standard uniform look more like the attire of a badass prince at a ball or gala.

"Brother Nil! Stop acting so cool!" exclaimed a pudgy young boy wearing thick glasses and messy, curled brown hair. He tossed a bottle of iced coffee to Nil.

Nil immediately caught the bottle thrown at him. "Morning caffeine, my bro!" he replied.

"Good morning, Brother Mirone!" Nil greeted his buddy with a flash of a smile.

"Hey, hey, hey! I heard from the guards you barely made it in last night and you were covered with bruises. What's with the hype mood this morning?" Mirone asked, confused.

Nil only answered with a shrug and a smile as he showed the ingredients that were assigned to him.

"As expected from you!" praised Mirone.

'GBS inspect Mirone!' commanded Nil within his thoughts. Right after a fraction of a second, a digitalized statistics of Mirone surfaced from his field of view.

Name: Mirone Taro

Level: 6 (Novice)

STR: 17 | INT: 30 | DEX: 15 | PREP SKILL: Novice | COOKING SKILL: Novice

'Ohh, I see! Gastro points would only be unique for me, just like how the system says so,' thought Nil inwardly.

"Brother Nil!" Mirone patted Nil's shoulder, noticing Nil's moment of spacing out.

Ding! Dong!

The sound of the school bell brought Nil back to his senses, indicating that classes were about to start.

A few minutes later, the sliding door of their classroom opened, and their professor, Miss Laura, stepped in.

Every student started to fix themselves and took their seats in an orderly manner, especially the boys who admired and fantasized about their professor.

Miss Laura was a 28-year-old rank A All-Rounder hired by the university to teach the new aspiring students who took the track of an Infrastructure Master, a Mainline Master Chef, or a Battle Chef.

A dignified aura reverberated around her sculpted body, which was tapered at the waist, exposing her curves in the navy blue pencil-cut skirt that was leveled above her knee. Her eye-catching bosom was highlighted by the plain fitted white long sleeves, capturing every man's attention. With bow-arched eyebrows paired with delicately brushed-up eyelashes, her visual appearance was complex. Her heart-shaped carmine-red lips seemed so soft when touched, together with her bouncy scarlet-red hair that tumbled on her shoulders, resembling a ruby crown. She was aptly titled the Scarlet Hunter whenever she stepped onto the front lines of the gourmet industry.

'Wheeew! As imposing as ever, my, my, my, Miss Laura, if I were at my past life's age, I would hit on you!'

Nil didn't dare to say it out loud, knowing how strong Laura was despite her beauty. The system flashed a summary of Laura's statistics, but it was rather vague. It only meant that Laura was on a very different realm, way above Nil's.

"For today, we will make use of the ingredients you gathered on your first task," Laura started the class with her usual suppressing aura, making every student focused not only on her body and looks but also on her very words.

Everyone was excited after hearing the announcement of their homeroom adviser. It was their sole purpose for enrolling in this university despite being far away from their homelands.

It had only been a week since the opening of classes, and everyone barely knew each other. In class 1-E, half the number of students were taking the track of a Mainline Chef.

The track of Mainline Chefs, like Mirone, who had been too lazy to train and only loved the passion of cooking, specializes in turning raw ingredients into something unique and edible. Either it was strengthening, healing, or aesthetic food. They also specialize in marketing ingredients like how do materials and ingredients will cost on the big market.

The other half of the class were like Nil, who enjoyed the taste of risk in gathering ingredients and hunting beasts as a raw ingredient and cooking them right after. This type of class was called the Battle Chef.

The last track of study would be the infrastructure major, who focuses on developing state-of-the-art pieces of equipment for battle, prepping, and cooking. Ranging from basic containers of food to the exquisite variety of knives, to different weapons like gauntlets or swords, and clothing that is specifically made for a certain scenario or in a special environment. In short, the Infrastructure Masters were the backbone of this gourmet era.

And some special cases, like the case of Laura, were to be an all-rounder. It was a very unpopular track for the difficulty of studying and learning all 3 aspects was taxing and required not only talent and skill but also strong determination. Those who were successful on this track, who reached the C rank and above, instantly became famous for the whole nation to know.

In the corner of the room, Nil, who was silently organizing his thoughts, wore a rare stoic expression on his face.

'I shouldn't do too many things on this task, or else on Laura's level, she will doubt my skills and suspect me of pulling some tricks,' Nil inwardly thought. After having the Gastro-Battle system as his aide last night, the final warning of the system was that it should not be revealed to anyone, even the slightest idea, for it may cause the biggest trouble or even death for the user, who this time was Nil.

"I need to stay as low-key as I can. I shouldn't waste this second life of mine. After all, I was lucky to be reborn in an almost similar civilization in my world, modern and state-of-the-art technology, sexy teens of my age, buildings with AC rather than old warring kingdoms and empires like the main characters from what I've always read from web novels and watched from anime." Nil was rejoicing again. He only knew that this world of Gourmetopia only revolved around hunting for food, advertising of equipment and chefs, and the rest was just like his normal past life world... or so he thought.