Chapter 145: Making Fire.
"Who do you think will win this round?"
"Isn’t it obvious? The bear tribe. They’ve been winning for ages, and they’re so good at preparing meals. I doubt anyone can top them."
"Those cursed beastmen are just messing around. Do they think they can even prepare anything edible?"
"What a joke. Just because they randomly picked up some herb, they think they’re on top of the game? What a joke indeed!"
"I can’t wait to see them get beaten by the bear tribe! They don’t stand a single chance."
The contestants had begun stepping onto the scene. They were in the middle of the audition area. As they saw Sunnie and her team walk in, everyone laughed and mocked them.
"Just go home. This is no place for wild beastmen!"
"Get lost!"
"A bunch of jokes! Leave!"
But Sunnie and the rest ignored all the side comments and went to take their positions. Everything was already there, set up for everyone to begin cooking with their ingredients.
Her beast husbands had brought the ingredients they gathered and kept them at the side, while Sunnie also had the ones she purchased from the system stored nearby.
Everyone was warming up to begin cooking. They cross-checked everything to make sure they weren’t missing something essential.
After they were done, they looked up to the judges, who were sitting before them on their designated rocky seats. The judges were mainly older men—elders who were said to have picky tastes and were good at assessing meals.
The boar tribe leader stood before everyone and announced the competition again.
"...This is the last stage of the competition. A cooking competition. And it will determine who will receive the final reward of the contest."
"The rules are simple and straightforward. You are free to use anything and prepare anything within the designated time. But at the end of the day, the best meal that wins the hearts of the judges will ultimately win the round."
After he finished explaining the rules, he turned to the contestants and said, "Let the cooking begin!"
Immediately, everyone turned to their own materials and began cooking.
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Sunnie wanted to start with her first step: boiling the water to make the broth. There were some rocks provided for them at the side. All they needed to do was take them and hit them together to start a fire.
Everyone else had already taken theirs, struck them together, and started boiling or cooking whatever they wanted to make.
But Sunnie took the rocks and hit them together—nothing happened. She tried again and again, hitting and rubbing the rocks together, but still nothing. The fire didn’t start at all.
She was confused as she kept trying, but still nothing. "What’s wrong with this...?"
Her beast husbands noticed and approached to help start the light, but nothing happened. The rock wasn’t producing any flames whatsoever.
"It’s obvious that this rock doesn’t work. They manipulated it and gave you a useless one so you couldn’t start a fire," Zayn observed.
Pissed off, Azure stared in the direction of the others, who already had their fires going. "How pathetic. How low can these people stoop to make you lose?"
"Maybe if we just give them a piece of our mind and beat them all up, they’ll learn not to mess with us," Karl insisted. He was ready to attack everyone there for it.
But Sunnie stopped them. "Let’s not do that now. We don’t have enough time for a mess."
Karl stared at her. "So what do you plan on doing? You can’t prepare anything without a fire."
At that moment, the other beastmen who were already preparing something stared at them. They couldn’t help but giggle and smile at what was happening. Even the audience was talking and laughing.
"They aren’t even preparing anything yet? They can’t even start a fire, and they want to compete? What a joke!"
"They should just quit and leave instead of wasting everyone’s time. So embarrassing!"
"What do they expect to do? Sing and dance?" They were speaking and laughing openly at them.
Sunnie looked up to meet the bear tribe leader’s eyes. He stared at them with a smile and then looked away. It was clear he knew about this.
But Sunnie wasn’t letting them have their way. She summoned her system store.
"I need a lighter," she insisted as the system tab opened for her to make her purchase. Sunnie didn’t even hesitate. She purchased the first lighter she saw, and immediately it appeared in her hands.
Sunnie held the lighter and started the fire with it. Immediately, everyone turned toward her direction, shocked.
One minute they had nothing, and the next, a fire was already burning brightly at her side. Everyone who had been laughing and mocking closed their mouths, speechless. They couldn’t believe their eyes.
"Are we seeing things, or...?" one of the people in the crowd asked. "How did she suddenly start the fire? I didn’t see her hitting any rocks together."
They cleared their eyes and still saw nothing. "Me neither. So how did she do it?"
The other contestants, who were already preparing something, had also paused and stared in shock. They couldn’t believe that she actually had another means of starting a fire without the rocks. They didn’t know what it was. It had happened like magic.
Her beast husbands stared at the little object she had used to start the fire and simply blinked, impressed.
"How did she even do that...?" Eris asked, blinking. He didn’t even understand what he had just seen right before his eyes.
Luka shook his head. He too didn’t seem like he understood a thing either. "I don’t have any idea."
Maren, who was in Azure’s arms watching, couldn’t help but smile and giggle brightly as she stared at the big fire before her.
They all simply watched as Sunnie, who had now started her own fire, proceeded to begin preparing the meal she was making for the contest.