Chapter 325

While everyone was still buzzing over Zonge’s absurd achievement, Haruto walked over to Kagura and Kanna.

"So? How did you two do?"

Kagura was idly playing with her fan. A small basket sat at her feet, filled with more than a dozen bright red Surprise Apples.

"These are all I got."

She pointed at the basket with her fan.

"They’re only in the thirties. Nothing interesting."

Kagura had put quite a bit of effort into frightening them, yet the best results she could manage were only in the thirty-plus range.

She was clearly dissatisfied.

"You did pretty well."

Haruto gave her an encouraging smile.

A Surprise Level in the thirties was already a respectable achievement.

Then he turned toward Kanna.

There was no basket beside her.

Kanna quietly avoided his gaze.

For someone like her, frightening Surprise Apples was genuinely difficult.

She was not the type to scream, make terrifying faces, or deliberately act threatening.

Haruto could not help reaching out and gently patting her head.

"It’s fine, Kanna. Everyone has things they aren’t good at."

Kanna looked up at him, then glanced at the basket beside Kagura.

A faint ripple passed through her eyes.

She wanted to be useful to Haruto too.

Lowering her gaze, Kanna looked at the Mirror of Death in her hands and fell into thought.

She had seen people frighten the apples simply by saying terrifying things.

Words could create fear.

Then...

What about her mirror?

An idea suddenly formed.

Kanna silently walked toward one of the Surprise Apple trees and stared at a round apple hanging from a branch.

The apple looked back at her curiously, its expression slightly puzzled.

Seeing that Kanna intended to try, Haruto said nothing and simply watched from nearby.

Kanna slowly raised the Mirror of Death and aimed its surface toward the apple.

The Surprise Apple stared at its identical reflection in the mirror.

For a moment, it froze.

Then it apparently decided this was amusing.

It began making faces at itself.

It squinted, stuck out its tongue, twisted its mouth, and seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Kanna watched in complete silence, her face expressionless.

Then, just as the apple was enjoying itself the most, the reflection in the mirror suddenly changed.

The reflected apple stopped smiling.

Its face became completely serious.

The real Surprise Apple froze mid-grimace and tilted its head in confusion.

That was only the beginning.

Slowly, translucent pale-yellow apple juice began leaking from the eyes of the reflection.

The juice ran down its cheeks, gathered at its chin, and dripped away.

The real apple’s expression began to change.

Fear appeared in its eyes.

But the image in the mirror continued transforming.

Brown spots appeared across the reflected apple’s face and rapidly spread.

Its once-smooth skin shriveled and lost its shine.

The flesh beneath began to rot and decay.

Within only a few seconds, the apple in the mirror had become a blackened, mold-covered piece of rotten fruit.

And the real Surprise Apple had watched the entire process happen to what appeared to be itself.

Its eyes bulged from their sockets.

Its mouth stretched wide open.

Pure terror consumed its face.

Kanna calmly plucked the apple from the branch and handed it to Haruto.

There was a faint trace of expectation in her eyes.

Haruto noticed immediately.

After taking the apple, he reached out and patted Kanna’s head once more.

"You did great, Kanna."

The corners of Kanna’s lips lifted ever so slightly.

At that moment, Apollon and Tina hurried over.

Apollon carefully examined the apple’s frozen expression before loudly announcing,

"Surprise Level~ Eighty-One~!"

Kanna’s method might have been unusual, but there was no questioning the result.

"Yes!"

Tina nearly burst into tears of joy.

"I finally have something I can actually broadcast!"

She clutched her camera and pointed the lens straight at the Level Eighty-One Surprise Apple.

"This is huge! Absolutely huge news!"

"Ms. Kanna, how did you come up with such an incredible way to frighten a Surprise Apple?"

Tina felt as though she had just climbed out of hell and straight into heaven.

With Kanna’s Level Eighty-One apple, she finally had footage that could actually be aired.

And it was guaranteed to become a sensation.

"Eighty-one?"

Haruto stared at the apple in surprise.

He had expected Kanna’s method to produce a high-level result.

He had not expected her to surpass Zonge.

More importantly, the value of Surprise Apples changed dramatically once they exceeded Level Eighty.

A Level Eighty apple was worth eighty million yen.

A Level Eighty-One apple, however, was worth ten million yen multiplied by its Surprise Level.

Eight hundred and ten million yen.

Kanna had just earned more than eight hundred million with a mirror trick?

Haruto stared at her for a moment, unsure what to say.

He had struggled his way to Level Seventy-Five.

Zonge farted his way to Level Eighty.

Kanna showed an apple a mirror and reached Eighty-One.

This world was becoming increasingly ridiculous.

Unfortunately, when Kanna tried the same method again, the next several Surprise Apples she harvested only reached the thirty-plus range.

Haruto could only attribute the difference to the individual personalities of the apples.

That Level Eighty-One specimen had probably been an unusually sensitive individual that was particularly terrified by Kanna’s method.

Of course, Kanna’s Food Luck had likely played a role as well.

Once every Surprise Apple had been harvested, Haruto, Kagura, Kanna, Toriko, and Komatsu left the farm.

Terry and Yun the Wall Penguin followed behind them.

Before long, everyone boarded Tom’s speedboat at the harbor.

The engine roared to life, and the group began heading back toward the mainland.

Haruto looked around at everyone before taking out Kanna’s Level Eighty-One Surprise Apple.

A delicate, refreshing fruit fragrance immediately spread through the air, awakening everyone’s appetite.

All eyes turned toward it.

"Let’s share this one."

Haruto brought out Myriad Worlds.

A cold gleam flashed.

In an instant, the Surprise Apple had been divided evenly into eight wedges, revealing glossy, translucent flesh glistening with juice.

There were six people traveling together, plus Terry and Yun.

Eight portions.

Exactly enough for everyone.

"Time to eat."

Haruto picked up the first slice and placed it in his mouth.

The others quickly followed.

The moment the cool, delicate flesh touched his tongue, an overwhelming sweetness exploded across his palate.

Rich juice flooded his mouth and flowed smoothly down his throat without even the slightest hint of cloying heaviness.

The sweetness was clean and pure, unfolding layer after layer until every taste bud had been completely enveloped.

Every cell in Haruto’s body seemed to awaken at once.

Unlike the thin, straightforward sweetness of an ordinary fruit, the Level Eighty-One Surprise Apple possessed astonishing depth.

Its sweetness was full-bodied and mellow, layered with a lingering fruity fragrance that remained long after each bite.

The flavor was richer than any fruit Haruto had ever tasted.

His Gourmet Cells stirred violently.

A warm, almost intoxicating comfort spread throughout his body as every cell celebrated the extraordinary ingredient.

"Delicious!"

Haruto slowly chewed, savoring the lingering fragrance.

"As expected of a Level Eighty-One Surprise Apple."

The only disappointment was that even this extraordinary flavor still failed to trigger another evolution in his Gourmet Cells.

"Yeah... this kind of sweetness is incredible."

Toriko already had tears streaming down his face.

"It’s rich, refreshing, and unbelievably deep... It’s good enough to stand beside Rainbow Fruit!"

By the time the speedboat reached the shore and everyone returned to the mainland, they had all had time to settle down.

Haruto, Kagura, and Kanna then said goodbye to Toriko and Komatsu.

Once the two had left, Haruto suddenly found himself at a loss.

For a moment, he genuinely had no idea where to go next.

The Human World was enormous and still contained countless top-tier ingredients.

But searching for them without any specific destination would be slow, inefficient, and frustrating.

Haruto stood in thought for a long time, mentally sorting through every possible route.

Eventually, a bold idea surfaced.

The Gourmet World.

It was vastly larger than the Human World and contained ingredients of a quality the Human World could never match.

Of course, Haruto had no intention of recklessly charging into its deepest regions.

The Gourmet World was filled with monstrous beasts and lethal environments.

With his current overall strength, venturing too far inside would be nothing short of suicidal.

But the border regions where the Gourmet World met the Human World were different.

The danger there was comparatively manageable, the resident beasts were weaker, and yet the ingredients were already far superior to most of what could be found in the Human World.

Haruto believed his current strength should be enough to survive along the outer edges.

And if he ever encountered something truly beyond his ability to handle, he could simply leave the Toriko world altogether.

With that escape route available, Haruto no longer had much reason to hesitate.