The Gourmet Customizer

Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Ruthless Killer, Su Chen

Looking at the rewards, one was an Active Skill. It sounded pretty badass, almost magical.

The other was an item: the Kitchen God’s Knife. It was definitely on a completely different level from an ordinary kitchen knife. Moreover, this was the first time the system had offered an item-type reward.

The main quest didn’t need to be accepted immediately. If he was having trouble choosing, he could always set it aside and decide later.

For now, the top priority was to handle the upcoming reception properly.

Due to the special nature of this reception, even the seafood had been purchased overnight directly from E Province. To ensure maximum freshness, Su Chen would have to kill and prepare the fish right before cooking.

So... Su Chen didn’t immediately enter the Gourmet Practice Room to start cooking. Instead, he pulled out his phone and opened TikTok.

He searched: "How to kill a fish quickly?"

All sorts of videos quickly appeared. Su Chen found the tutorial with the most likes.

"Like this, like this, and then... like this..."

’Huh, it doesn’t seem that hard.’

After watching it just once, Su Chen went to the Gourmet Practice Room and summoned a hundred live Wuchang Fish.

He casually scooped a fish out of the tank. Before he could even place it on the cutting board, the fish gave a wiggle, slipped from his grasp, and flew back into the tank. It even did a belly-flop, as if mocking him.

’Hey, why are you wriggling? The fish in the video didn’t move at all...’

He exited and watched it again.

Then he re-entered the room to try once more!

This time, Su Chen picked out a fish, grabbed his knife, and without a second thought, gave the fish’s head a couple of whacks. When he tossed it onto the cutting board, the wriggling fish was indeed much more docile.

Mimicking the video, he held the fish by its tail with one hand and used the knife to scrape at it with the other.

Just one scrape!

The blade got completely stuck in the scales and cut a deep gash in the fish’s belly.

’I’d better watch that again...’

Finally, after returning to reality for the ninetieth-something time, Su Chen gave up and decided to pick up his phone and make a call.

"Hello." Su Chen’s voice was ice-cold. "Aunt Fang, on your way back, remember to buy an electric fish scaler. Yes, a cordless, rechargeable one."

He hung up.

Su Chen returned to the Gourmet Practice Room once more.

This time, along with the fish, he also summoned an electric fish scaler. He pressed the stunned fish onto the cutting board and hit the scaler’s power button. With a faint whir from the motor, the geared end began to spin!

In a single pass from tail to head, the dark gray scales were scraped completely clean.

’Technology really does change lives!’

Su Chen couldn’t help but marvel as he looked at the perfectly clean fish.

There was no technology for the next part. Recalling the video, he aimed the knife at the gills. A press, a gouge—that’s how the person in the video had removed the innards from there.

As for Su Chen...

He looked at the fish head he had just mangled with his knife and winced. ’Too much force?’

New fish. Again!

An unknown amount of time passed. Countless dead fish piled up in a corner of the Gourmet Practice Room.

The expression on Su Chen’s face grew colder and colder as his hands became more and more practiced. Every cut landed exactly where he intended.

He glanced up at the timer.

’Two minutes? Not good enough!’

Su Chen’s goal was to clean and gut a fish in under a minute.

Assuming all the seasonings were ready, the faster the fish was prepared, the fresher it would be. There were even legends about fish so expertly killed that they didn’t realize they were dead even after being steamed.

That was just a legend, and Su Chen didn’t really believe it. He just wanted to perfect this one task.

The countdown timer in the Gourmet Practice Room was gone. Su Chen had no idea how much time had passed, only that he was starting to feel mentally drained.

It was a side effect of overexertion.

In the real world, only a moment had passed—perhaps no time at all. But for Su Chen, he had been working for a very long time in that other space.

’Forty-seven seconds? One more. I feel like I can go even faster...’

Cleaning a fish wasn’t like cooking; there wasn’t much to think about. It was all about muscle memory.

He pulled another fish from the tank and smacked its head twice with the back of his knife. The struggling fish immediately grew still. He placed it on the cutting board, and with one ZZZT of the scaler, half its scales were gone.

He flipped the fish over and repeated the process.

With the scales gone, he plunged the tip of his knife into the gills. Su Chen wasn’t consciously controlling his strength at all; he was moving purely on instinct.

Press. Gouge. Flick.

The three motions were as smooth as flowing water. He slid the blade lightly into the fish’s belly, inserted his other hand, and with just the right amount of force, pulled out all the guts.

He glanced at the timer he had set.

’Thirty-nine seconds? At this speed, I should be better than most fishmongers, right?’

Su Chen rinsed the cleaned fish with satisfaction. The moment he turned off the faucet, a line of text materialized before his eyes!

It was a system notification!

[Congratulations, you have unlocked the achievement: Perfection of a Single Task (Consecutively Cleaned Fish: 1000/1000)]

[Achievement Reward: Title, Precise Strike]

[Title Effect: Fast, Ruthless, Accurate]

At the same time, Su Chen noticed that in the [Items] section of his system panel, a medal-shaped object had appeared. It was probably the title he had just been awarded.

He decided not to examine the new item just yet. A rough estimate told him that at an average of ninety seconds per fish, one thousand fish meant he had already been in the Gourmet Practice Room for over twenty-four hours!

It seemed the actual cooking would have to wait. He needed to get out and relax in the real world for a bit.

Otherwise, his brain might get a sense of temporal dislocation.

Back in reality, Su Chen stretched out of habit. He felt a sudden impulse to clean a fish right away, just to test his new skills.

’Some activity would be good, though.’

Su Chen took out his phone and called Aunt Fang.

"Boss! Don’t worry, I’ve already bought the scaler you wanted."

"Okay," Su Chen replied. "Where are you and Xiaobin shopping? I’ll come take a look."

Since coming to this world, Su Chen had been cooped up in the company. This was a perfect opportunity to get out, stretch his legs, and clear his head. He could also supervise Aunt Fang’s procurement.

"We’re at the Jingzhou Market. Why don’t you come on over? Give me a call when you get here."

Su Chen agreed, hung up, and casually grabbed a suit jacket to put on as he headed for the door.

Before he even reached the elevators, he heard a commotion outside.

"Move it this way! Are you an idiot? Can’t you carry it in vertically?"

"To the left, to the left! Damn it! Do you even know how to move furniture?"

’What’s going on?’

Su Chen walked toward the sound and saw a woman in a white suit standing near the company’s abandoned reception desk.

"And you are?"

"Ling Shuyu."

The name sounded a little familiar. Su Chen turned to look at the people carrying tables into the office. "They’re..."

"Where’s your boss? Didn’t he tell you?" the woman in the white suit said coolly.

Su Chen couldn’t help but frown. "I am the boss here."

He took a closer look at her. She had shoulder-length black hair that fell naturally, with one side obscuring half her face and the other tucked behind her ear.

She had an apathetic-looking face, somewhat resembling a singer Su Chen knew of named Liu Xijun.

Paired with her pure white casual suit, she gave off an imposing aura.

"Oh," Ling Shuyu said calmly. "Don’t we have a contract? We’re dining here in two days, and we also need to borrow your office and conference room. I saw you don’t have anything here, so we had to bring our own things over."

Su Chen understood. This must be the client Bai Xiaobo had been dealing with.

’If that’s the case, she must have told Bai Xiaobo they were moving things in. How did that idiot forget to mention it to me?’

’His bonus is toast!’

’Since she’s my moneybags, I’d better be nice.’

"Right, well, I’ll let you get to it," Su Chen said with a smile. "I was just heading out."

There was nothing valuable in the office, so he wasn’t too worried.

"Where are you going?" Ling Shuyu asked casually, but she regretted it the moment the words left her mouth.

’What do I care where he’s going...’

’I just wanted to know, if the boss leaves, what about my pickled fish for lunch?’

’I specifically had everyone move things this morning just for the sake of lunch.’

Su Chen was taken aback by the random question. "I’m going out to purchase ingredients for the event in two days. It’s better to inspect some things myself."

Ling Shuyu gave a slight nod, approving of his responsible attitude. "I’ll go too. You’re right, it’s better to inspect some things personally."

Seeing Su Chen’s confusion, she added, "This client is very important to us. The meal may be a minor detail, but it still needs to be perfect."

"Oh," Su Chen said, not adding anything else.

Inwardly, however, he was a little scornful.

’So she doesn’t trust me and wants to keep an eye on things. You already gave me a budget of thirty thousand, and I’m definitely not giving that back, heh heh!’

’Fine, let her come!’