Chapter 324

Toriko walked over to Haruto, still looking surprised.

"I didn’t expect you to get this strong, Haruto!"

"That pressure just now even startled me. Looks like you’ve been eating a lot of good stuff lately."

When Toriko had first met Haruto, the two of them had been fairly close in strength.

Now Haruto had already surpassed him.

For a moment, Toriko could not help wondering whether he had been slacking off on ingredient hunting lately.

"Of course."

Haruto grinned smugly.

"So you’d better work harder, Toriko."

He had traveled through several different worlds and collected enormous amounts of extraordinary ingredients along the way.

Still, Haruto understood that his current lead was only temporary.

Once GOD drew closer to appearing and Toriko truly entered the Gourmet World, gaining access to its ingredients, his strength would skyrocket.

The thought made Haruto even more interested in visiting the Gourmet World himself.

For now, though, gathering more Surprise Apples came first.

"Then I’ll try it too."

Toriko’s expression became serious.

Thanks to Haruto’s demonstration, he now had a good idea of what to do.

He walked up to another Surprise Apple and released his own intimidation.

The apple immediately twisted into an expression of terror.

Toriko seized the right moment and plucked it from the branch, though his face quickly turned disappointed.

Just from the apple’s expression, he could already tell it had not reached Haruto’s level.

Apollon soon confirmed it.

"Surprise Level Fifty-Six~!"

It was still an excellent result, but nowhere near Haruto’s Level Seventy-Five apple.

Apollon did not find that strange.

Across the entire IGO, there were not many people capable of frightening a Surprise Apple all the way to Level Seventy-Five.

He waited a little longer, confirming that neither Haruto nor Toriko seemed likely to obtain anything higher for the moment, then turned to inspect the progress of the other participants.

He had only taken a few steps when his gaze happened to fall across a patch of grass ahead.

Apollon abruptly stopped.

"What is~ this...?"

He hurried over, bent down, and picked up a Surprise Apple with an unusually horrifying expression.

Its eyes were bulging almost completely out of their sockets, as though it had witnessed something beyond comprehension.

Even Apollon could not immediately determine its Surprise Level from appearance alone.

So he simply took a bite.

Crunch.

An overwhelmingly sweet flavor exploded across his tongue.

The rich juice spread through every taste bud like divine nectar, while the deep fruitiness seemed almost capable of penetrating his soul.

Every cell in Apollon’s body rejoiced.

His eyes widened in shock.

"This is... Level E-Eighty~!"

There was a faint unpleasant aftertaste, but Apollon could tell immediately that it did not belong to the apple itself.

Something strange had simply contaminated the surface.

He looked around at the Gourmet Hunters and chefs scattered throughout the orchard, confusion filling his eyes.

As far as he knew, the strongest participants here were Haruto, Toriko, and Teppei.

Haruto was clearly the most powerful among them, yet he had only reached Level Seventy-Five.

Toriko had reached the mid-fifties.

Teppei was roughly comparable to Toriko, perhaps slightly weaker.

Everyone else was nowhere near those three.

There should have been no one capable of producing a Level Eighty Surprise Apple.

"Is there really someone here~ strong enough to reach Level Eighty~?"

Apollon murmured.

Someone that powerful should not have been unknown to him.

Then his expression suddenly turned grave.

"Could someone from the Gourmet Corp~ be here?"

The possibility immediately put him on edge.

As far as Apollon was concerned, the Gourmet Corp was filled with lunatics who would stop at nothing for rare ingredients.

If destroying everything around them helped secure the ingredient they wanted, they would do it without hesitation.

And Surprise Apples required especially unusual capture methods.

If a Gourmet Corp member had infiltrated the island, there was no telling what they might do in pursuit of a higher Surprise Level.

They might even destroy the entire island.

That was something Apollon absolutely could not allow.

"Who could it be~?"

He continued scanning the crowd, trying to identify the hidden powerhouse.

Then—

"AAARGH! I’VE HAD ENOUGH!"

A furious roar filled with frustration rang out nearby.

Apollon instinctively turned.

Under one of the apple trees, Zonge hurled his axe away in rage.

He glared at the Surprise Apple in front of him, practically breathing fire.

Not only was the apple completely unafraid of him—

Its expression actually seemed faintly contemptuous.

That only made Zonge angrier.

"That’s it! I quit! I’m going home! I’m never coming back to this stupid place!"

His two followers looked at him in confusion.

"Lord Zonge, w-we’re already leaving?"

"This thing isn’t scared of me at all! It’s looking down on me!"

The more Zonge thought about it, the angrier he became.

He spun around and, with disturbing familiarity, pulled down his pants.

"Try this, then! Take my ultimate move!"

Pfffft—

A pale yellow cloud of suspicious gas erupted from behind him.

An indescribably horrifying smell spread through the air.

The Surprise Apple, which had previously looked disdainful, suddenly began convulsing in agony.

Its entire face twisted.

Its eyes bulged from their sockets, filled with terror, pain, and absolute despair.

Apollon’s hand began trembling as he pointed at it.

"Ah~! That’s it! Surprise Level Eighty~!"

So the mysterious Level Eighty apple had not been produced by a Gourmet Corp infiltrator after all.

It had been Zonge.

With a fart.

Apollon knew perfectly well that Surprise Apples could be frightened by all kinds of things, but never in his wildest dreams had he imagined someone harvesting one like this.

Calling it "frightening" almost felt inaccurate.

This was closer to cruel and inhumane torture.

Apollon had shouted so loudly in his shock that everyone nearby heard him.

For an instant, the entire area went silent.

Everyone turned toward Apollon first.

Then, almost in unison, their eyes shifted toward Zonge, who still had not completely pulled his pants back up.

"What?!"

"Level Eighty?!"

"Did Mr. Apollon really just say Level Eighty?!"

Disbelief filled every face.

Zonge had actually captured a Level Eighty Surprise Apple?

Using... that?

Even Zonge himself looked stunned for a moment.

Then realization hit him.

He snatched the Level Eighty apple from Apollon and burst into triumphant laughter.

"HAHAHAHA! MY ERA HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!"

Zonge proudly swept his gaze across the crowd, savoring every shocked stare directed his way.

At market value, a Level Eighty Surprise Apple was priced at one million yen per level.

That meant the apple in his hand was worth a staggering eighty million yen.

Haruto slapped a hand against his forehead, his expression impossible to describe.

"This is ridiculous... absolutely ridiculous..."

He genuinely did not know what else to say.

He had known this would happen.

And yet, after putting in so much effort just to reach Surprise Level Seventy-Five, watching Zonge casually blast an apple to Level Eighty with a single fart still felt unbearably wrong.

Then Haruto suddenly remembered something.

He slowly turned and gave Apollon a strange look.

He knew perfectly well that Apollon had already taken a bite from the Level Eighty apple Zonge had produced.

As a G7 taste master, Haruto could not help wondering whether Apollon had detected any particularly... special flavor.

Still, they barely knew each other, and asking something like that would be far too rude.

Haruto reluctantly suppressed his curiosity.

"L-Level Eighty... it really happened!"

Tina clutched her camera with both hands and aimed it straight at the apple in Zonge’s possession.

A Level Eighty Surprise Apple was absolutely headline material.

If she managed to broadcast this, ratings would explode.

But then—

Tina looked at Zonge, who was still laughing wildly, and her excitement transformed into despair.

"There’s no way I can air this! The station director would kill me!"

She felt cursed.

She had come to Surprise Island expecting the biggest story imaginable, only for it to turn out like this.

How was she supposed to broadcast footage of someone frightening an apple with a fart?

"That guy... really got Level Eighty?"

Toriko scratched his head helplessly as he stared at the smug Zonge.

"I’ve completely lost my motivation now."

After seeing Zonge achieve Level Eighty in such an absurd way, all of Toriko’s previous effort suddenly felt like a joke.

Still, one thing continued to bother him.

He really wanted to know what a Level Eighty Surprise Apple tasted like.