It’s an Academic Fact That Rankers Are Model Students – Chapter 87

Chapter 87: BlackChef’s Alley Restaurant: Study Villa (2)

The dish looked like it had been hit by bullets, its surface distorted in places.

However, the japchae inside, steaming with fragrant heat, looked absolutely delicious.

[BlackChef’s Signature Spicy Stir-fried Pork with Vegetables]

▶Made with freshly stir-fried pork and vegetables using Kingdom of Italia peppers. Delicious but quite spicy.

▶Strength increases and stamina decreases depending on the level of spiciness felt in the mouth. The effect disappears when the spiciness subsides.

▶Restores 30% of fullness.

▶Item Grade: High

BlackChef suddenly offered him food.

He seemed crazy.

His way of speaking was strange, and it was impossible to grasp his intentions for invading the territory.

But one thing was certain.

This is what he was saying:

“The food’s getting cold. Eat up.”

『The Energy Tower is hard to break through and what? I dodged everything and even cooked? Look at this. It’s nothing special.』

Kyung-joon turned his head slightly, frowning so subtly that BlackChef wouldn’t notice.

“No, thank you. I’m full.”

“Ah, it’s delicious. This is something you can keep eating even when you’re full. Chomp chomp chomp.”

BlackChef ate the japchae with great relish.

Kyung-joon, listening to the sounds while staring intently at the fishing float on the lake, asked,

“By the way, how did you bypass the Beginner’s Village entry restriction?”

“Normally, I don’t talk much while eating. Isn’t this funny? A Wanderer can go anywhere, you see. Hahaha. Why am I laughing?”

“Hahaha, there’s nothing our chef can’t do.”

“Well, that’s right. Cooking is all about doing everything, you know. Hahaha.”

“Hahaha. Is that so? I didn’t know that.”

“Hahaha, the life of a chef is always a rough one.”

“Hahahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

The two continued to laugh endlessly.

After about 10 seconds of laughter,

They both stopped laughing abruptly as if they had promised.

And then immediately.

“You never hired a chef in your territory?”

Wooong!

A dark mana gathered in Kyung-joon’s right hand in an instant.

“Then shall we move on to the main course?”

Srng.

The moment BlackChef’s sashimi knife on his right hip revealed half of its blade.

Tug.

“Huh?”

“Oh.”

Something took the bait on the fishing rod.

Tug, tug.

Tug! Tug! Tug!

“It’s a big one!”

Tadadak!

As if they were going to miss it, both of them immediately put away their mana and weapons and looked at the fishing rod.

Tug! Tug!

It was Kyung-joon’s fishing rod that was being pulled.

“Ha! So what was that about fishing?”

Kyung-joon scoffed, pointing at BlackChef’s motionless fishing rod.

Of course, BlackChef didn’t just stand there and take it.

“It’s not like you’re going to catch all these fish right now and pile them up at home. Sometimes they bite, sometimes they don’t. But you know what, boss? There’s a difference between not catching anything and fishing.”

BlackChef believed that even though Kyung-joon had seized the opportunity, he wouldn’t be able to reel it in.

He was a Unique grade fishing skill holder!

On the other hand, Kyung-joon didn’t even have a common grade fishing skill, let alone any fishing skill at all.

Kyung-joon said, struggling with the fishing rod,

“Well, you’re right, this is my first time fishing…… but there’s such a thing as beginner’s luck.”

Beginner’s luck!

It’s the luck of the beginner!

Kyung-joon was going to bet on it…..

‘…Bullsh|t. I don’t believe in luck.’

[Rare Skill 『Summon Water Spirit (Lv.5)』 ]

[Summoning the lower water spirit Undine.]

Kyung-joon secretly summoned Bangwool into the water so that BlackChef wouldn’t notice.

‘Bangwool, do me a favor.’

━Mumu!

[Bangwool controls the water currents to restrict the fish’s movement.]

Although he didn’t have any fishing skills, Kyung-joon could use all sorts of tricks with the skills he did have!

It was really sneaky, but he could feel the force on the fishing rod decrease rapidly.

Kyung-joon pulled the fishing rod with all his might.

Shhwip!

“Yes! It’s a whopper!”

A plump fish, seemingly over 50cm long, emerged from the lake.

Seeing this, BlackChef began to explain as if to show off.

“Bass. As you all know, it’s really easy to catch. I wasn’t going to say this, but…… You don’t even need a fishing rod because trout and bass are so easy to catch. If you look at my past videos, you’ll see how to catch them with your bare hands.”

“Oh, you make videos too?”

Kyung-joon half-ignored the crazy man’s words and replied casually.

He had to reel in the big one he had caught before he lost it.

Splash, splash.

Using his high dexterity, he struggled with it for a while, and then, the moment the tension on the line loosened slightly!

He pulled with all his might!

“Gotcha!”

Splash!

The large bass leaped high into the air once more!

“Now, if I just move it to the ground……! What?”

At that moment.

Swoosh.

Suddenly, a dark shadow fell over the surface of the lake……

━Ogogogogog!

(That bass, I’ll take it!)

Kuwahhhhh! Chomp!

A giant snake-like head shot out of the water and snatched the bass he had just caught.

Swoosh.

The unidentified snake head then disappeared gracefully back into the lake.

Kyung-joon stared intently at the scene.

“Hmm.”

There was some kind of D-War monster living in the lake.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

“Wow, Ogopogo. I can’t believe I’m seeing this here.”

BlackChef exclaimed, looking at the spot where the monster had submerged.

“Ogopogo?”

“Ogopogo! You usually only find them in the Francois River Basin. Well, judging by its size, it’s not fully grown yet. It’ll be about a month before it comes up here, but it came here.”

Every summer, juvenile Ogopogo migrate downstream from their original habitat to grow.

In the process, they devour countless fish.

By the time they reach the Francois River Basin, they grow to well over 100 meters in length and reach adulthood.

Even now, many people are said to be flocking to the Francois River Basin for the Ogopogo Raid.

“I see. But why did it come to my lake?”

“Oh, Ogopogo loves clean water. That’s why they only grow in clean water from melted perennial snow, right?”

Splash, splash!

BlackChef vigorously splashed the lake water with his hands.

“Oh, oh! Look at this! I can tell just by looking at it that there are a lot of fish and the water is very clear. The Ogopogo must love it here!”

Clean water and an abundance of food.

That was the perfect description of Kyung-joon’s Study Villa lake – hereafter referred to as the Lake Study.

Normally, having a lot of fish and clean water quality are mutually exclusive.

If the water quality is too clean, there are too few organic nutrients for many fish to survive.

But the Lake Study was different.

He had deliberately scattered food that fish would like to keep them in the Lake Study.

At the same time, he had placed Garbage-Eating Slime at the bottom of the lake to maintain clean water quality.

In other words, there was no other lake as clean and habitable for fish as the Lake Study.

‘That’s why that Ogopogo decided to make its nest here.’

He finally understood why fish weren’t caught easily despite the lake being teeming with them.

It was all because of that Ogopogo.

That thing was eating all the fish in the Lake Study.

“That thing’s going to eat all the fish in our village. I have to catch it.”

Kyung-joon made up his mind.

BlackChef shook his head at this.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, boss. That Ogopogo in front of you is at least a 100-man raid boss. It’s not something a normal party can handle. Absolutely not. Ah, but then again……”

BlackChef knew so much about the Ogopogo Raid because he had personally sought out the Ogopogo as a chef.

He had been on his way down the river to the Francois River Basin to catch the Ogopogo just a few days ago.

That’s when he stumbled upon Kyung-joon’s territory and, intrigued, decided to pay him an impromptu visit.

“It’s better to leave it alone unless you’re really confident. If you leave it alone, it’ll grow up and leave on its own. It’s already crowded enough down south, so maybe it can cook there. They’re all clueless about cooking anyway. But then again, just because you’re a bad cook doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cook.”

“Hmm.”

Kyung-joon rested his chin on his hand and pondered for a moment.

If he left it alone, it would eventually leave on its own, but all the fish he had painstakingly gathered would be devoured.

It was better to catch it before then.

It was still before it became an adult, and he had a rough idea of how to catch it…

Kyung-joon finished his thoughts and asked BlackChef,

“Then how about we just catch it together?”

Thump, thump.

He walked towards the lake and bent down.

What he picked up was not his own broken fishing rod, but BlackChef’s sleek-looking fishing rod.

Kyung-joon examined BlackChef’s fishing rod, turning it over and over in his hands, and continued,

“The rod is good, but the line is not so good. If I change the line to something stronger…… something that won’t break…… can we catch that Ogopo-thingy?”

BlackChef looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

And then, as if he had grasped the situation, he asked back,

“Huh, this is rich. I may be a fisherman, but I’m a chef at heart. It’s not impossible, but it’s really, really difficult. Do you have any idea how much that thing weighs? How are you going to pull it all the way out? Just try fishing a few times yourself, and you’ll take back those words.”

BlackChef was saying that while it wasn’t impossible, it would be extremely difficult to pull it completely out of the water.

It was an obvious statement.

Once it was out of the water, it would lose its buoyancy and become incredibly heavy.

But he didn’t say it was ‘impossible’.

‘Making the impossible possible is easy.’

Impossible and possible are never absolute.

Depending on the conditions, depending on the assumptions.

Things can always change.

Keeping that in mind.

Kyung-joon asked BlackChef a more specific question.

“Then let me rephrase the question. Can you pull it up above the water for a very short time? Just 1-2 seconds is enough.”

BlackChef finally realized what Kyung-joon was getting at.

This guy was serious about catching it!

A raid monster that hundreds of people would team up to fight!

And he wanted to do it right here, right now!

Kyung-joon added with a smirk,

“Don’t you want to eat it fresh?”

The two stared at each other in silence.

Ripples spread across the lake, and a cool breeze ruffled their hair.

Then, the moment the wind died down.

Srng!

BlackChef drew his Chinese cleaver and sashimi knife from his waist!

Thud! Thunk!

“Nice!”

A cutting board had appeared on the ground where the knives had been plunged.

A very large cutting board, the likes of which he couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of dish it would be used for.

But Kyung-joon could vaguely picture it.

The Ogopogo would definitely end up on top of that.

Kuuk.

BlackChef tightened his chef’s headband and said confidently.

It was perhaps the first thing he said that made perfect sense.

“Leave the fishing and the cooking to me.”

Kyung-joon chuckled and began disassembling BlackChef’s fishing rod.

“Then I’ll take care of the fishing rod and the ingredients.”

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