Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 44 (Patreon)

Chapter 44: Control Power

Cutting into symmetrical threads was the thought in Luo's mind.

The transparent sphere in the palm covered the potato, and after a moment, the faint light dispersed, leaving the potato on the cutting board motionless.

Luo knew the ability had definitely worked, and upon touching the potato, he saw it immediately split into several irregular chunks on the cutting board.

“…”

Watching this scene, Luo was at a loss for words.

Despite intending to cut it into threads, the result was just a few randomly sliced chunks of potato, which was far from what he had imagined.

In that instant, Luo realized how weak his control power was, feeling indignant, he grabbed another potato and placed it on the cutting board, starting by peeling it…

In the midst of the white light, the potato’s skin was slowly peeled off by God's Hand, taking about the same amount of time as the first potato.

Unfortunately, without a stopwatch, if practicing in large quantities, he could only rely on his sense to judge whether there was any improvement.

After peeling, Luo once again used God's Hand on the untouched potato on the cutting board.

Hiss…

With a slight sound, not only was the potato divided into several pieces, but even the thick wooden cutting board underneath suffered.

Luo didn't notice the cutting board was also affected; he frowned at the still failed potato, pushing it aside, and took another potato.

Peeling, slicing into threads…

The process was repeated over and over, Luo only felt tired after trying with more than twenty potatoes. He sighed deeply and sat down on the ground, leaning back and lying down, slightly panting.

“How could this be…”

Luo silently stared at the ceiling.

Over twenty potatoes, peeling was always successful but took longer, whereas slicing into threads ended quickly but the results were poor, at best resulting in a dozen or so chunks.

With such outcomes, not to mention slicing into threads, even slicing them was impossible.

Luo's brows slowly furrowed, wondering where the problem lied that led to this outcome.

Since awakening God's Hand, the first time was used against an enemy, intending to directly excavate Cook’s heart and sever his wrists.

God's Hand, following his will, indeed succeeded in separating Cook’s heart and wrists. Since it was so easy to achieve with a person as a target, why was a mere potato so difficult?

What was the difference between the two…

Luo slowly closed his eyes, recovering his depleted strength while pondering the difference.

The control power of Nen? The quality of the target? The quantity of the target?

If there really was a difference, quality was one aspect, but when it came to control power, the key issue should be… quantity!

To slice a potato into threads, the entire target needs to be divided into countless parts, thus increasing the difficulty of the operation. But in terms of quality, the hardness of a potato is far less than Cook’s body wrapped in a small amount of aura.

That is to say, to effectively use God's Hand's ability, at least the control over aura needs to be mastered.

Currently, God's Hand is like an untamed king of beasts, fierce and ferocious, but not heeding Luo’s commands.

It's also like a robot with thirty complex commands; Luo can issue one command in a second, but issuing ten, twenty, or even thirty commands in a specific order in a second is far from achievable.

“Although I'd like to try again, my aura is almost exhausted, and… I seem to be a bit complacent.”

Luo exhaled deeply, turned his head to look at the pile of ruined potatoes in the corner, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Defeating Cook, a scholar who had just begun to learn, with the identity of a novice, and using God's Hand to make Hisoka look foolish, seemed to have made him somewhat complacent.

As Cook said, Luo was just a rookie who couldn't even use Ten proficiently. However, Luo was able to awaken Nen abilities on such an unsteady foundation, whether it was his talent or the merit of the white smoke script.

These were Luo’s assets, his starting line, and advantage far beyond others. If he did not cherish and strive, he would lose everything sooner or later.

“There are three or four more months.”

Luo patted his cheeks, stood up, and looked at the more than twenty potatoes destroyed beside the stove, apologizing in his heart to Uvogin and the others.

Originally, he intended to make shredded potato fried with smoked meat, but now it could only be potato stew with smoked meat, a dish on the verge of stepping into the realm of dark cuisine.

Luo glanced at the middle-aged fat man still motionless on the floor, unwilling to pull out the kitchen knife, directly started a fire to cook.

The available ingredients were pitifully few, almost all irregular chunks of potato, and the smoked meat cut into chunks with Luo's remaining aura.

The spices and seasonings were also sparse. Everything was simplified, just controlling the overall flavor was enough, mainly focusing on stewing the potatoes until soft.

Luo was efficient in his movements, quickly completing the steps of stir-frying the white small hot peppers and smoked meat in oil, adding water and potatoes, then adding seasonings, covering with a lid, and waiting for the potatoes to soften.

After finishing these steps, Luo didn't have the mind to watch the fire. He used this time to recall the process of cutting more than twenty potatoes with God's Hand.

From the first to the last one, there was progress, but it wasn't very noticeable, and there were both good and bad outcomes.

Where did the difference between the good and bad results lie?

Finding this out and then intensifying training was the next step. However, there were only so many times Luo could train, no matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn't find a precise direction.

"Finish eating and rest up. Continue training once the aura is restored, but probably can't use potatoes anymore, might try with stones."

Luo exhaled, making a decision.

Time passed bit by bit, and the aroma of potato stew with smoked meat gradually filled the air.

Luo lifted the lid, glanced at it, and judged the potatoes were soft. He rubbed a bit of salt into the steaming pot, stirred it several times, and then poured the contents into a prepared large bowl.

At that moment, Luo looked at the middle-aged fat man still lying on the ground, thinking that he still hadn't woken up and using the kitchen next time seemed unlikely.

Luo shook his head, no longer dwelling on it, found bowls and chopsticks, and filled a large bowl with a lot of rice, then left a stack of banknotes on the cutting board before leaving the kitchen.

He delivered the food to the infirmary as fast as he could, where he was met with the resentful stares of Machi and several others.

"Ah..."

Luo placed the food on the table, earnestly explaining, "I got lost."

In truth, getting lost was one thing, but practicing control power with potatoes was the real reason.

Machi gave Luo a skeptical look and then picked up a bowl to serve herself rice.

Uvogin, disregarding his injuries, got out of bed, walked to the table, also took a bowl to serve himself rice, and started eating.

Seeing this, Nobunaga was dumbfounded and said, "Hey, serve some for me too."

"What's the rush, here it comes… huh?"

After Uvogin took a bite of potato, his eyes widened in surprise, and then instinctively looked towards Machi, who was also looking at him at that moment.

After a brief moment of eye contact, they suddenly, as if by unspoken agreement, sped up their pace of shoveling rice and grabbing potatoes, seemingly forgetting about Nobunaga.

Luo, having served his portion first, stepped aside and began eating quietly. This dish, almost stepping into the realm of dark cuisine, wasn’t something he'd wolf down like Machi and the others.

"Hey, can you stop eating and serve some for me?"

Watching Uvogin act as if he didn't hear him, Nobunaga was flabbergasted.

Luo, seeing this, couldn't help but laugh, finding the scene truly amusing, perhaps… it was a reversal of expectations.

"If Uvogin and Nobunaga's injuries heal a bit faster, by September, there won't be a shortage of people to spar with."

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