The room, built from ice blocks, was covered in animal skins on the floor, and countless men snored like thunder.
Zhang Wei suddenly sat up and looked around, his unfamiliar surroundings disorienting him.
Wisps of white smoke dispersed into mist, and the temperature was terrifyingly low.
"Didn't I die of illness in Shokugeki no Soma... how could this be..."
"It seems the Treasure Bag still holds secrets I haven't unlocked."
Feeling his strong heartbeat and robust body, Zhang Wei finally believed the fact of another transmigration.
Looking at the thick fur coat he wore, and the bedding made from unknown animal hides, even so, a bone-chilling cold remained.
He exhaled a puff of white frost and frowned, "At least minus 20 degrees... that's already the standard for a cold storage unit."
"How can these people live here?"
Ice houses were usually warm; Zhang Wei had once hunted for ingredients in the far north and lived with the local Eskimos.
But the whistling wind would carry away all accumulated heat.
"With this level of ventilation... people won't last long."
He closed his eyes, and fragmented information emerged one by one.
Ice Hell... dormant volcano... all ingredients of the world frozen here... Gourmet Display Window...
Capture Level... Gourmet Cells... Gourmet Hunter...
After much thought.
"Toriko?"
"There is a beast, its entire body is premium marbled meat..."
"A tree that perpetually grows King Crab meat, its flesh firm and full..."
"A spring of amber brandy, continuously spewing, mellow and potent..."
Comparing his previous life's manga with the residual memories in his body, Zhang Wei basically confirmed his location.
"The glorious era of chefs... wonderful."
He wrapped himself tightly in the animal skin bedding, lay down with a satisfied and yearning smile, and soon fell asleep.
After an unknown period, supervisors, beating gongs and drums and holding whips, burst into the dormitory.
"Room 455, get up and wash!"
The men inside the animal skin bedding only showed slight hesitation before whips descended.
For those who remained motionless, the supervisors could only glance at them, then instruct men to carry away the corpses.
Here, people gave up every night.
Zhang Wei followed the crowd, walking along walls and ceilings made of massive, carved ice blocks, a true marvel of craftsmanship.
Chatting with passersby, Zhang Wei learned that the place they inhabited was not a snow house, but a space carved out from within a colossal glacier.
As far as the eye could see, the gathered crowd gradually exceeded a thousand...
"The space within this glacier is as vast as a stadium, and the height..."
Zhang Wei looked up, a vertical rope ladder disappearing into the unknown.
This place had more than one level!
"A construction of this scale would be extremely difficult to achieve even in the 21st century, the extraordinary power unique to Toriko..."
The water for washing was icy cold; scooping it with his hand, he could feel many ice fragments.
After a simple cleaning, Zhang Wei received breakfast with his identification card.
An energy bar made from chocolate, butter, starch, and salt, tasted quite good, just a bit too frozen.
Looking at the packaging, each bar contained 800 kilocalories.
"Table 107, Ronnie Hsu."
"Yes!"
"118, Zhang Wei."
"Yes!"
"119, Kame da Henshin."
"Yes!"
"Table 120, Kuroma."
After a long pause with no response, the supervisor crossed a line on his notebook.
Clearly, there would be no dinner prepared for Kuroma.
Tables stretched in rows, laden with various knives and cutting boards. Zhang Wei and other laborers were to perform the first step of processing ingredients here.
Ice mammoths weighing several tons dragged plows, and supervisors unloaded sealed boxes from them.
These preservation boxes were extremely expensive, extending storage life while maximally preserving their deliciousness.
Large quantities of rare ingredients were distributed; any one of them could be considered a treasure by an ordinary restaurant.
"Damn! Ghost Face Mushrooms again!"
A groan came from the next table, belonging to the fat and plump Kame da Henshin.
As expected, Zhang Wei was also assigned this item.
Inside the preservation box lay three or four large, brightly colored mushrooms. A large blood-red face on the cap sent shivers down one's spine.
Dense, shriveled sacs covered the stem, containing highly poisonous spores.
Zhang Wei let out a soft "Oh?" and said with a slight smirk, "The Treasure Bag has been triggered?"
"This picky fellow is taking the initiative for the first time."
Taking a deep breath, he softly called out to the Treasure Bag in his mind.
The next moment, the ice walls and snow-covered surfaces vanished.
Eaves, bracket sets, black tiles, red pillars...
On the gigantic palace plaque, the three characters 'Treasure Bag' were written.
The dim great hall was endless, resembling the exhibition halls of the Forbidden City, or a grand hall where an emperor held court.
It was fully equipped with kitchen facilities such as preparation tables, stoves, and sinks...
The stoves burned with never-extinguishing flames, and the clear water seemed inexhaustible.
Along both sides of the hall stood over two hundred display platforms, most of them featuring dishes, with only a few top-tier ingredients being recorded.
All were Zhang Wei's most prized collections.
Swim bladders of the croaker fish from the southeastern coast...
The king of sea treasures, sea cucumber...
Kobe A5 marbled beef...
Italian Alba white truffle...
Bluefin tuna...
Any one of these would drive gourmets and chefs to madness.
For example, ordinary French foie gras, matsutake mushrooms, etc., evoked no reaction from the Treasure Bag.
While these items, yearned for by diners and chefs, were commonplace to Zhang Wei.
Ingredients and dishes stored in the Treasure Bag would be perfectly replicated after a certain period.
Repeated storage would refine the ingredient information, not only bringing the quality of the stored items up to the highest level but also shortening the replication cycle.
For instance, in his previous life, Zhang Wei had obtained bluefin tuna four times, shortening the replication time from thirty days to nineteen and a half days.
The bluefin tuna in the display case, a composite of the advantages of four, was exceptionally plump.
Besides ingredients and dishes, Zhang Wei's collection also included kitchenware of the world's finest craftsmanship.
Clothing, spatulas, serving knives, etc...
These were all filled with Zhang Wei's memories, each imbued with considerable effort.
He withdrew his consciousness from the Treasure Bag; only thirty seconds had passed outside.
The time flow between the inside and outside was a tenfold difference.
He glanced at Kame da Henshin beside him, who was cautiously handling a Ghost Face Mushroom with great concentration.
His knife skills were surprisingly good; in his previous life, he would likely be a three-star chef.
Yet, even so, he was struggling with the Ghost Face Mushroom, his frozen fingers even trembling slightly.
"Hey, table 118, stop daydreaming!"
"Don't delay the work schedule, I don't need to tell you about the punishment, right?"
Zhang Wei smiled gently, "No rush, just learning from my colleagues' experience, it won't take long."
His words were neither humble nor arrogant, his tone confident and relaxed.
In this strictly hierarchical Ice Hell... it was quite rare.
The supervisor was somewhat displeased.
Rank always trumped others; these laborers were all deferential, weren't they?
Just a mere laborer who died at some unknown time!
The supervisor was also at the bottom of the Ice Hell.
Except for not having to labor, their living conditions were no different from Zhang Wei's, and the cold would still claim their lives.
But fortunately, with the laborers for comparison, their lives seemed bearable.
The supervisor said mournfully, "If you don't finish the task today, you'll get your share of the whip!"
Under the supervisor's inexplicable gaze, Zhang Wei picked up a Ghost Face Mushroom again.
Taking a deep breath, he mentally reviewed the helpful information from the Treasure Bag while recalling Kame da Henshin's handling method.
"Prefers darkness... moist roots... cut along the texture of the stem..."
"Gentle... hold the mushroom cap at the quarter mark..."
"The sac has a membrane... gently pull from top to bottom..."
Single-minded, Zhang Wei focused all his mind, body, spirit, and energy on processing the ingredient before him.
He rubbed his frozen hands to make them agile.
Ignoring his surroundings, his spirit and energy converged in one place.
The fine wire knife in his hand slowly pierced the gap between the sacs, using the sharp steel wire to scoop out the sacs...
"Hoo~"
Completed!
For his first attempt, his speed was no less than Kame da Henshin's beside him!
After all, Zhang Wei was a man who had once reigned supreme on Blue Star and in Shokugeki no Soma!
So long?
The higher the grade of the ingredient, the longer the replication time.
Zhang Wei's longest replication time was for the swim bladder of the croaker fish from the Yangtze River's Pearl River Estuary, which he had only obtained once in his life.
Even the top-tier ingredients on Blue Star took no more than 35 days to replicate.
As expected of the gourmet world, it easily surpassed!
Zhang Wei did not know that ingredients with capture levels were also extremely rare in this world.
Why else would ordinary ingredients be sent here?
But it didn't matter; repeated storage could reduce replication time, and there were still many mushrooms.
Looking at the remaining three Ghost Face Mushrooms, Zhang Wei, unusually, showed some interest.