BXBX NOVEL Chapter 61 - 61: The Next Opponent
“All contestants are present, and now it’s time for me to announce the final score rankings!”
“In the Scoring Competition, the twenty-sixth place is awarded to Zhang Yue, with a score of 77.4!”
As the host’s voice fades, a female contestant slowly steps forward.
She manages to squeeze out a dry smile, but there is no hiding the disappointment in her eyes.
Twenty-sixth place may sound decent, but in reality, she’s last.
She takes the participation medal from the host and hangs it around her neck. Zhang Yue glances at the other competitors and mutters to herself.
She still has a long way to go.
“Zhang Yue, do you have anything to say?”
Hearing this, Zhang Yue takes the microphone from the host and takes a deep breath.
“I will participate in the next City-level Cooking Competition and hope that I will achieve better results!”
“Let’s give Zhang Yue a warm round of applause and our best wishes!” The host takes back the microphone, slightly smiling, “In the next competition, we hope to see Zhang Yue going further.”
“Let’s continue and announce the score of the next contestant!”
“In the Scoring Competition, the twenty-fifth place is awarded to Qi Yu, with a score of 78.3!”
The host approaches another contestant and gives them their participation medal.
Next, the twenty-fourth, twenty-third, twenty-second placements are announced, and so on.
Finally, the ninth-ranked contestant receives the last medal from the host and leaves the stage in disappointment.
Only eight contestants remain on the field.
They are the ones who advanced in this Scoring Competition.
“Let’s give a warm round of applause to the eight contestants still on-site who advanced to the next round!”
Instead of revealing the rankings right away, the host slightly smiles.
“As the top eight of the Scoring Competition, you all will equally receive advancement rewards.”
As his words fade, two figures slowly step onto the stage, each carrying an alloy box that is tightly sealed.
These people are none other than the remarkable trainers who performed a warm-up match while the twenty-six Spirit Chefs were preparing their dishes.
The warm-up match was a side job for them. These two potent Spirit Chefs’ main task was protecting the precious gems in the alloy box.
Under numerous gazes, the alloy box is gradually unlocked and opened. The contestants are met with eight gemstones, cut like glittering diamonds and filled with a blue and purple nebula. Dove-egg-sized gemstones appear through the close-up camera in front of thousands of audience members.
The moment of their appearance, all eight Spirit Chefs can feel the instinctual craving of their Food Spirits towards them.
They arc precious Starstones that only the Spirit Chef Association can bring out, which contain a great amount of Unowned Star Power.
“Contestants, please pick one each and absorb it on-site!” The host loudly instructs.
All eight contestants quickly step up to choose their Starstone from the soft cloth in the box and return to their original spots.
“This is a Starstone.”
Qin Lang inspects carefully, can’t prevent a look of amazement from appearing in his eyes.
It is more beautiful than any gem he has seen in his past life.
Feeling the excited mood from Dan Bao beside him, Qin Lang can’t help but laugh, handing over the Starstone.
“Gudou!”
Yay!
Dan Bao cheers, quickly drawing close.
As the star surrounding it touches the Starstone, a burst of Unowned Star Power, much richer than one victory in a Food Spirit Battle, explodes from the Starstone, flooding into the star around Dan Bao.
In an instant, Dan Bao shows an extremely comfortable expression.
It feels as if it has soaked in a warm bath, feeling warm all over.
By the time the Starstone is completely transparent, appearing like a diamond, the star around Dan Bao has visibly brightened a lot.
Sensing the change in Dan Bao, an expectant look appears on Qin Lang’s face.
Qin Lang didn’t know how many such starstoncs would be needed for Dan Bao to level up from one star to two stars.
“After absorption, please put the starstones that lost their Star Power back.”
The host’s reminder brought Qin Lang back to his senses.
Even the starstones that have been absorbed are collected back?
The control is really strict.
Originally planning to keep the starstones as souvenirs, he shook his head and, like other contestants who had finished absorbing, put the starstone back in the box.
It was not until this moment that the two stern-faced elite trainers breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, they took the box and left the venue without lingering.
The absorption of the starstones happened midway through the announcement of the judging results, like a small interlude.
But it had completely ignited the will to fight among the top eight contestants.
Just advancing from the scoring competition and getting such a precious starstone, what kind of generous rewards would follow if they continued to advance?
For a moment, the eight contenders standing side by side exchanged glances, their eyes burning with a strong desire to win.
They want to keep winning!
That’s exactly what the host wants to see.
The host’s voice rose again. “Now, let us announce the scoring situation of the eight contestants who have advanced from the scoring competition!”
“Eighth place, Xiao He, with a score of 85.3!”
As the host finished speaking, a glimmer of light gathered out of thin air and then flew toward Xiao He, who had walked out two steps.
This was Star Power.
Not only can it be obtained from Food Spirit fights, but it can also be awarded for advancing in competitions.
Watching his Food Spirit cheerfully embrace the incoming Star Power, Xiao He couldn’t help but show a relieved expression on his face.
He was just a tiny bit away from being eliminated.
The ninth place contestant scored 85.1.
In previous years, this score would have been enough to advance smoothly. But there was an abnormal number of high scores this time.
With this in mind, he couldn’t help but look at the four contestants in the field who scored over 90 points.
He just hoped he wouldn’t encounter them in the upcoming elimination competition.-
Thinking about this, Xiao He’s face suddenly twitched.
According to the draw rules of the elimination competition, his hope seemed unlikely to come true.
Damn!
Well, make the best of the worst.
Hopefully he wouldn’t run into Lei Ke!
“Seventh place, Bai Fang, 86.5 points!”
“Sixth place, Qiang Xiaofeng, 87.9 points!”
“Fifth place, Zhang Chen, 88.6 points!”
“Fourth place, Zhu Ming, 91.2 points!”
“Third place, Tang Xie, 92.4 points!”
“Second place, Qin Lang, 93.0 points!”
“First place, Lei Ke .1 points!”
As the host announced the rankings from eighth to first, the crowd responded with increasingly enthusiastic cheers and applause. The higher a Spirit Chef’s rank, the more Star Power they would receive.
Even though Dan Bao had just absorbed more Star Power from the starstones, Dan Bao wasn’t picky at all. It happily flew up high, welcoming this bundle of Star Power that had at least two or three times the amount received from a Food Spirit battle.
Meanwhile, Qin Lang was curiously observing the other seven contestants.
Besides Lei Ke who he had had some understanding of because he performed later and Tang Xie who he already had several competitions with, he wasn’t familiar with the other contestants.
And his opponent in the second round of the elimination competition will be one of them..