Chapter 71: The Summit Sabotage & Absolute Taste (Part - 2)
[ Important Note: Read the next Chapter first. The order of the Chapters got mixed up, I am trying to get it sorted. In the mean time, read "The Summit Sabotage & Absolute Taste" first and then make "The Summit Sabotage & Absolute Taste (Part - 2)" ]
Rick reached out and grabbed the back of the rat’s neck with an iron, bone-crushing grip, violently lifting the man entirely off his feet and dragging him directly into a soundproof, walk-in dry storage pantry, aggressively slamming the heavy steel door shut behind them to completely cut off the noise of the ballroom.
"Ahhh! What are you doing?!" the rat shrieked in pure, unadulterated terror, as Rick violently threw him across the small room, making him crash heavily into a metal shelving unit, completely scattering boxes of dry pasta all over the concrete floor.
"You really thought you could poison my ingredients and just walk away like nothing happened?" Rick whispered lethally, his deep voice dripping with pure, suffocating killing intent, as he took a slow, heavy step toward the trembling saboteur.
"I don’t know what you are talking about!" the rat stammered pathetically, sweating profusely as he desperately tried to crawl backward, entirely refusing to admit his guilt. "I am just a prep cook! You are completely crazy! Let me go!"
Rick did not argue, nor did he waste his breath interrogating the trash, as he lunged forward and violently slammed his heavy boot directly onto the rat’s shin, drawing a loud, agonizing scream of pure pain, before he reached directly into the man’s white apron pocket.
Rick aggressively pulled out a small, clear glass vial, holding it up to the dim pantry light, as he saw exactly three concentrated drops of the highly potent industrial laxative still clinging to the bottom of the glass.
"George must have paid you a massive fortune to actively court death like this," Rick mocked crudely, completely ignoring the rat’s panicked sobbing, as he forcefully grabbed the man by his greasy hair and violently slammed the back of his head against the concrete wall, instantly dazing him.
"No! Please! It was just a prank!" the rat wept hysterically, as his bladder nearly gave out from the sheer, overwhelming terror radiating from Rick’s dark eyes.
"Since you like this secret ingredient so much, you can have the rest," Rick stated coldly, showing absolutely zero mercy, as his large fingers aggressively clamped down on the rat’s jaw, violently squeezing the man’s cheeks until his mouth was forcefully popped wide open.
Rick entirely ignored the rat’s desperate, muffled screams, as he tipped the glass vial completely upside down, ruthlessly pouring the remaining concentrated drops of the industrial toxin directly onto the back of the saboteur’s tongue, before forcefully holding the man’s mouth shut until he was physically forced to swallow the deadly chemical.
The absolute second the poison hit the rat’s stomach, the intense, highly concentrated chemical reaction violently activated, as the man’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, his entire body convulsing with severe, agonizing stomach cramps.
"Urrrgh! Ahhhh!" the rat groaned loudly, dropping to the floor and clutching his stomach in pure, unadulterated agony, as a loud, sickeningly wet sound completely ruined the silence of the pantry, because the man had instantly and violently soiled himself, completely ruining his trousers in a massive, disgusting mess.
Rick let out a dark, disgusted scoff, as he violently kicked the weeping, incapacitated saboteur directly into a small broom closet at the back of the pantry, locking the heavy wooden door from the outside to let the trash rot in his own filth for the rest of the night.
He casually walked over to the small utility sink, washing his hands with hot water and soap, completely unbothered by the brutal retribution he had just delivered, because an apex predator never felt remorse for crushing a venomous insect.
Rick stepped back out of the soundproof pantry and calmly strolled back into the grand ballroom, casually adjusting the cuffs of his tailored black uniform, arriving at his prep station right as the massive digital countdown clock hit zero.
A loud, echoing buzzer signalled the official start of the International Culinary Summit, as the elite crowd erupted into massive cheers, and the rival chefs instantly began shouting orders to their teams, aggressively chopping vegetables and searing meats with flashy movements to show off for the broadcast cameras.
Rick did not rush, as he lazily grabbed the heavy, poisoned slab of Emperor Bluefin Tuna, completely throwing the entire hundred-thousand-dollar piece of meat directly into the nearby garbage can with a loud thud, instantly causing a massive gasp of pure, unadulterated horror to ripple through the wealthy audience and the judges’ table.
"Did he just throw away the Emperor Bluefin?!" one of the wealthy critics shouted in absolute shock, as the live broadcast cameras aggressively zoomed in on Rick’s station. "Has he completely lost his mind?! That is a hundred thousand dollars in the trash!"
Rick entirely ignored the chaotic murmurs, as he simply accessed his system inventory with a swift mental command, instantly materializing a fresh, completely uncontaminated, two-hundred-pound slab of premium Yellowfin Tuna directly onto his cutting board out of thin air, completely bypassing the sabotage without breaking a single drop of sweat.
Before the audience could even process the sudden, impossible appearance of the massive fish, Rick turned his head and locked his dark, predatory eyes directly onto Victoria standing in the crowd, before letting his gaze shift over to the highly flustered Lexi at the judge’s table.
"I only serve absolute, uncontaminated perfection to the women who belong in my dining room," Rick declared arrogantly, shooting Victoria a highly confident, wicked wink that made the elegant Chairwoman blush ever so slightly under her corporate facade.
Hearing his flirtatious words and seeing the wink directed at Victoria, Lexi’s jealousy violently flared up again, as she bit her bottom lip in pure frustration, but her inner walls actively spasmed, because his unapologetic, heaven-defying arrogance was simply too intoxicating to resist.
Rick turned back to his cutting board, as he reached into his black leather roll and slowly pulled out his pitch-black, bone-handled Shadow-Forged Cleavers.
The absolute second the heavy, Damascus steel blades hit the bright lights of the ballroom, a terrifying, oppressive aura of pure, murderous mastery violently washed over the entire crowd, instantly silencing the murmurs and whispers.
Rick instantly activated his Culinary Mastery, as his hands violently turned into a blinding, terrifying blur of dark motion, completely bypassing any flashy, useless techniques that the rival chefs were currently performing.
SLASH! CRACK! SWISH!
The indestructible dark blades sliced through the thick, heavy bone and dense red muscle of the massive tuna like a hot knife slicing through warm butter, as the sheer, visceral sound of perfect cuts violently echoed through the quieted ballroom.
He wielded the heavy cleavers with machine-like, flawless precision, perfectly separating the absolute most premium cuts of meat in massive, geometric slabs that looked like they were carved by a literal laser beam, moving so incredibly fast that the high-definition broadcast cameras completely failed to capture the individual movements of his hands.
The rival Michelin-starred chefs working at the adjacent stations slowly stopped chopping, as their jaws literally dropped to the stainless-steel counters, entirely paralyzed in pure, unadulterated shock, because they were actively witnessing a level of knife skills that completely defied the laws of human physics.
Lexi’s breath hitched violently in her throat, as she watched the raw, alpha dominance of his movements, her inner thighs aggressively slicking with wetness right there at the judge’s table, completely mesmerized by the culinary god dominating the entire room.
Rick flipped the massive fish with one hand, violently driving the cleaver down the spine to entirely remove the remaining meat without wasting a single microscopic ounce of flesh, entirely treating the heavy blades as a seamless extension of his own body.
Exactly forty-five seconds after he began, Rick aggressively slammed the pitch-black cleavers directly onto the steel table with a deafening clack, completely finishing the entire butchering process, as perfectly portioned, identical cuts of premium tuna rested flawlessly on his prep station.
The entire grand ballroom was completely dead silent, absolutely frozen in sheer, mind-shattering awe, as the elite crowd, the arrogant rivals, and the live television audience stared at the man in the black uniform, fully realizing they were not watching a normal cooking competition, but rather a complete, merciless slaughter orchestrated by a literal culinary emperor.