“How about this?” Hayden said with confidence. “Since my new restaurant will open in a week, I will compete with this small line cook from The Serenade again during the opening ceremony. Hey, Ms. Sears and Christopher, don’t be cowards, and make sure you attend when the time comes!” He even let out a smirk after speaking. In fact, Hayden’s tough attitude took Luna by surprise, but since they had come this far, there was no reason to take her words back, so she nodded and said loudly, “Of course!” “That’s great!” Hayden let out a confident grin before he turned to the group of reporters. “When the time comes, please make sure all of you come too so that you can see how I will expose the true faces of these hypocritical people.” After speaking, Hayden got up and left immediately. Reporters were naturally a group of people who loved all things chaotic. Seeing that the two parties were actually preparing to solve this matter through a face-off, they were overjoyed, and it showed on their excited faces. They were not afraid that things would get worse—in fact, they wanted it to. That way, they would have more content to write, and more magazines sold!All they could think about right now was how to heat things up and blow this out of proportions. After Hayden had left, the group of reporters from food magazines had also left respectively—leaving Christopher, Luna, and Scarlett at The Serenade’s meeting room. Scarlett was obviously still furious; she was still huffing and puffing from the anger, and with her small mouth pouting, she mumbled, “Luna, why are we even competing with him again? That fat pig is too arrogant, and we shouldn’t even bother talking to him at all!” “Yes, we shouldn’t.” Luna nodded in agreement. “But in that situation, this is the best solution. We can't allow those reporters to report exactly what Hayden had said! If they did, we might need to close down The Serenade!” “B-But—” Hearing what Luna had said, Scarlett still wanted to respond, but Luna interrupted her instead. The domineering female manager said, “That’s enough. You don't have to worry too much about it. It’s actually not a big deal after all. The key to solving this predicament is for Chris to defeat Hayden in next week’s competition, and that’s it. Then, whatever comes our way will sort itself out in no time.”Indeed, no matter what Hayden said, as long as Christopher won the competition a week later, everything would be fine. “Are you going to be okay?” Luna turned to Christopher and asked. Am I going to be okay? Of course not! With that thought in mind, Christopher felt a little uneasy. At first, he did defeat Hayden with Dual Wielding, but now, he didn’t know Dual Wielding anymore, and the opportunity of ‘Kitchen God’s status’ was also used when making the ‘Hippocrates Soup’. Right now, he was just a line cook who only knew how to cut potato shreds and only had average cooking skills—how could he even begin to go head-to-head with Hayden? It was true that he had the Thumbs-Up System, and he did have a huge number of ‘thumbs-ups’ with him. However, the points he held were not enough to redeem any product in the Thumbs-Up Online Mall now. Besides, even if Declan Myriad Pharmacy transferred him the 5 million for this month, it wouldn’t be of much help at all. Except for the Parallel Universe Kitchen Appliance and Storage Pack, the second cheapest item in the mall—‘Brewing Accelerators’—was worth 200,000 points. He couldn’t afford to redeem them with the amount he owned now! The only thing Christopher could count on now was to draw the lottery again. That said, even if he could indeed draw some impeccable prize from the lottery, there was too much uncertainty in it. Man, God knows what weird things I’d get from the draw this time. What if they were all irrelevant to the competition? By then, I’d be doomed eternally. Right now, Christopher was feeling exceptionally anxious. Even though he was feeling uneasy, the agreement had been made, and there were so many reporters present, so it was impossible to back out now—the game in a week was inevitable. With that thought in mind, Christopher took a deep breath and responded to Luna’s question. “Don't worry! Ms. Sears, I will definitely do my best. You have my word.” Luna obviously didn’t know what exactly Christopher was thinking when he answered that, not to forget that the ‘Dual Wielding’ skill he used for the previous competition was won from a lottery from a ridiculous mall, and that there was even a time limit to use it. She took Christopher’s ‘do my best’ as self-confidence, so she said, “It's good if you’re confident. Alright, you can prepare for the competition at home these few days; you don’t need to come in for work.” With that, she turned around and left.Once Luna had left... “Hey!” Unlike Luna’s confidence in Christopher, Scarlett had always been suspicious about his Dual Wielding, so she looked at him and said, “Can you really do it? Don’t you even try to lie to me! I’ll have you know that this is a big matter related to the reputation of The Serenade! You have to win, okay? Or else, I’ll hunt you down and kill you!” Kill me, huh? Christopher was speechless. Damn, lady. Your threat sure is one-of-a-kind. However, just as she said, he must win the competition no matter what! Therefore, as a reassurance to Scarlett and, at the same time, a way of cheering himself up, Christopher said, “Don’t worry. I will win!” In the afternoon, Christopher didn’t continue to work at The Serenade but instead left work after he had greeted Luna. He didn’t have the time or the luxury now to spend any more time in the restaurant. As soon as he reached home, Christopher immediately took out his phone and began to draw a lottery. “Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have been rewarded with The Scrolls of Tasting Skills Experience!” “Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have been rewarded with The Scrolls of Choosing Skills Experience!” Ding! Ding! Ding! Christopher started his mode of violent lottery-drawing as the alert tone continuously rang in his mind. Just when he had clicked the ‘draw’ button for the ninth time… “Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have been rewarded with an ingredient from the Mystical World—The Queen Mother of the West's Peach of Immortality!” After the alert tone had introduced the prize, a peach pit that had been gnawed clean appeared right in Christopher’s palm. The Queen Mother of the West's Peach of Immortality! This has got to be good! Christopher thought. However, he didn’t plan to study or look into the peach for now; instead, he threw it casually into the box that he had used for the Hippocrates Soup’s dishwater before he began to draw the lottery again. After getting roughly seven to eight more Scrolls of Experience, the alert tone this time round was finally a little different than before. “Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have been rewarded with the recipe of Bone Broth Detox Soup!” Seconds later, his phone screen went blank again, and he had a copy of the recipe in his mind about how to make this Bone Broth Detox Soup. However, this was not what Christopher had wanted. For the love of God! Christopher screamed in his heart. Gah! Now is not the time to draw these useless things. Can I please get something like a Divine-level Knife Skill? When he finally approached the twentieth time of drawing... The alert tone rang in Christopher’s mind again, and he thought he had finally gotten to draw something good this time round. Unfortunately, for him... “Ding! Warning. The number of times the Host has drawn the lottery has exceeded the daily limit. The system is overheated and is now cooling down. The lottery system is closed. Please wait 168 hours before the next lottery round begins.”“What? Cool down?” Christopher exploded when he heard this. What the f*ck does ‘cool down’ mean? This is not the time to cool down at all! I haven’t gotten what I f*cking wanted! Besides, why would there be a limitation to the number of times drawn? To hell with your limitations. I don’t buy it! Although the system had suggested that the number of daily lottery draws had reached the limit, Christopher did not believe that the system would require ‘cooling down’, so he tried to click the ‘draw’ button again. And the next second... Ding!