Chapter 153: The Winner
"And the overall winner of this competition is..."
He paused and stared at all of them, monitoring their expressions, before he finally said, "The bear tribe!"
A loud celebration erupted in the air amongst the bear tribe. They were so happy that they instantly broke out into dancing and cheering. The other contestants joined in celebrating them.
Some of the natives of the bear tribe also celebrated them. But a good number didn’t join in. They stood there staring, and it was obvious they weren’t satisfied with the results.
After witnessing the cooking competition the previous day, it was clear that they believed Sunnie should have won. Even though they didn’t like her at first, their perception had now changed. So they were disappointed to learn that she hadn’t.
Sunnie didn’t look disappointed at all. She had a calm expression, arms folded, as she watched them all celebrate. She had seen this coming, so she didn’t move a muscle. She almost smiled at the results.
But the expressions on her husbands’ faces were telling. They didn’t look happy at all and were clearly pissed off by the unfair results.
"And what the hell is this...?" Eris demanded. "It’s clearly rigged."
"So unfair!" Little Black muttered. "Do they think we’re fools or what?"
While they all complained amongst themselves, Zayn spoke up publicly. "So what do you mean? Are you telling me that their cooking won against hers in the cooking competition?"
Everywhere became calm and quiet. They turned and stared at Zayn, who had a cold expression on his face. It was obvious that he wasn’t buying whatever was happening.
"Yes. That’s it. Do you have any problems with that?" the boar tribe leader demanded.
Zayn scoffed as he asked, "Are you being serious right now?" He stared at the judges. "I’m pretty sure her cooking had more impact than whatever the other person did. And I’m certain the judges also thought the same that day. So it’s interesting why you suddenly postponed the announcement and then announced this. Don’t you think it’s suspicious?"
The boar tribe leader smiled as he said, "So what? We have our criteria for picking a winner. And by our criteria, they won, and your little wifey didn’t. If you have a problem with that, go cry somewhere else."
Zayn folded his arms as he said, "You have criteria? Does that criteria require giving the win to someone who bribes you? Because I’m pretty sure I saw the bear tribe leader coming to you a couple of times for some secret conversations. So that must be it."
Zayn was always moving behind the scenes. He had seen the two of them meeting and talking.
As he announced this, shock filled the expressions of the people around. They began murmuring amongst themselves.
"Is that true?"
"So does that mean it’s a fake result?"
"I also thought the rabbit lady deserved the win instead. Her meal was the best."
"So does that mean the tribe leader was bribed?"
While they discussed, the bear tribe leader approached, pissed off. "And what rubbish are you talking about? Do you mean we can’t even prepare a meal that we have to bribe?"
Zayn stared at him with his dominating gaze. "Isn’t that the obvious truth?"
The bear tribe leader was so pissed that he wanted to attack Zayn, but his own tribesmen held him back.
"You can come and attack. Perhaps then you’ll see why we’re monsters. Because I’ll make sure you don’t live long enough to enjoy any harvest," Zayn threatened as everyone gasped in shock.
Even Sunnie held him back to calm him down.
"You lunatics! Do you think your fancy cooking is better than mine?" the bear tribe leader laughed. "Bunch of jokes! No matter what you do, I’ll always be better. So beat it!"
Sunnie stared at him with a smile. "Better at faking your way to the top? Well, that I can confirm. Because not only did you bribe your way to win, but you also stole the little wild boar we caught to win. What an interesting way to win!"
As she spoke, everyone gasped even more. They stared at each other, whispering.
"So he wasn’t the one who caught it?"
"He stole it from them? How embarrassing!"
"That means they won all three rounds, and the bear tribe didn’t even win anything?"
"Now that’s something!"
The bear tribe leader was furious, with everyone discussing how his tribe was shameless and had no integrity.
He glared at Sunnie and snapped, "Shut up right now, you good-for-nothing rabbit! How dare a lowly monster like you speak to me in that manner?"
But Sunnie had a calm smile as she asked, "What? I don’t remember saying anything wrong. First, you stole that boar we caught and shamelessly submitted it to win. So I’m not even surprised if this whole competition is rigged."
She turned and stared at the boar leader. "If you’re going to make a competition, at least make it fair for everyone to happily join in. Because I can’t stress myself and make my best meal for you all to lick your dirty fingers to and still end up with this mess. What a waste of time."
The boar leader was pissed off as he pointed at Sunnie. "You little bastard! How dare you speak to me like that? Don’t you know this is my territory? You dare look down on me?"
"And what are you going to do about it?" Karl questioned, glaring at the boar leader.
"All you crazy beastmen! You surely don’t know your place at all. You think you’re something, huh?"
The bear leader was so enraged by the insults and shame that he couldn’t control himself. He wanted to get back at Sunnie for the humiliation she had brought upon him. So he turned around, picked up a sharp stick that was lying on the ground, and angrily turned toward Sunnie, raising the stick to smash her with it.