The translucent screen seemed to waver in front of Jasmine, almost as if it were mocking her as she shoved herself forward and nearly punched straight through it. She couldn’t even blame herself for losing her rationality for a moment. Anyone would be furious after everything she’d suffered in her past life to complete the Chef God’s quests and unlock every feature of the Divine Kitchen, only to be told she had to do it all over again.
She blamed this weakling body.
Even the useless surge of emotions she’d been experiencing since waking up in this world had to be because of it. This body lacked resolve. It lacked strength. It lacked practically everything.
This body needs a bowl of warm sea bass ginger soup before it gets me killed by my own emotions.
Jasmine took a deep breath and focused on the translucent screen that reappeared in front of her.
[Chef God Realm Unlock Requirement: Fill your Guide Resonance (GR) parameter to 10,000 to advance to D-Rank and unlock the Divine Kitchen.]
The next section appeared.
[Methods of Increasing Guide Resonance at Your Current Level:]
[Form a guiding contract with a Sentinel: +3,000 GR]
[Feed your contracted Sentinel dishes from the designated recipes: +150–350 GR]
[Feed your cooking to other living beings: +25 GR]
[Complete occasional emergency quests: Bonus up to +500 GR]
[Guiding contracts require a minimum compatibility rate of 90%.]
[Good luck finding one.]
Jasmine’s eyebrow twitched.
The screen continued.
[As a generous gesture from Chef God, you have also been granted the Divine Kiss ability.]
[If a Sentinel can taste the flavor of an apple while kissing you, you may enter their spiritual realm without consuming mental energy.]
Jasmine raised an eyebrow as she read through the requirements one by one.
Somehow, this seemed easier than the quests she’d been given in her past life. Back then, one of the easiest had involved collecting the brains of one hundred D-Rank zombies and extracting them into poison.
She opened the list of designated recipes and scrolled through them. Nothing looked unusual. They were all normal dishes she’d made hundreds of times before.
The only troublesome part is the ninety-percent compatibility requirement.
Her eyes narrowed.
Why do I feel like I’m missing something?
Then she looked at the Divine Kiss requirement again.
And the kiss...
Jasmine pursed her lips.
I’ve never kissed anyone before. If a kiss can taste like an apple, I suppose it should be crisp and sweet. Interesting.
"Fine, then." Jasmine raised her voice, her tone unimpressed. "You’re sure I can unlock the Divine Kitchen once I reach D-Rank?"
[Yes.]
Jasmine stared at the single word.
Something felt wrong.
The requirements were almost too easy. This didn’t feel like the Chef God she knew—the sadistic bastard who had once made her question whether becoming a chef was worth surviving for.
But whatever.
She just needed to wake up, raise her rank, and collect the damn 10,000 GR.
Jasmine closed her eyes, preparing to return to the real world.
Ding.
The translucent screen chimed again.
She opened one eye.
[You have 13 days to complete the requirements. Failure will result in the loss of the Divine Kitchen as your mental space.]
Jasmine’s eye twitched.
Another line appeared beneath it.
[May your stove burn hotter and your pan never dry.]
[Your most devoted supporter,]
[C.G.]
Jasmine scoffed when she saw the initials.
She knew exactly what that tone meant.
Chef God had always loved pretending his challenges were generous gifts while designing them to push G-69 to her limits. He’d thrown impossible tasks at her simply to see when she would finally admit she wasn’t the best chef alive.
She never had. Giving up had never been in her vocabulary.
Her entire life had been about surviving, whether she won or lost.
So she’d play this game too. Fair and square.
And this time, she was going to live a peaceful life with her own power.
Then a familiar voice began pulling her back from the darkness.
"Jasmine..."
Oleander’s voice grew clearer as her consciousness returned. Jasmine took a deep breath before slowly opening her eyes.
Hazel eyes were the first thing she saw.
She quickly realized she was back in the treatment room. The cables and equipment were gone from her body, and she was no longer strapped to the examination chair. Several men and women in white coats stood around the room with Professor Hatthon among them.
"Can you recognize where you are? And who you are?" Professor Hatthon asked.
"Who am I?" Oleander repeated, glancing at Jasmine.
Jasmine blinked at him.
"I’m Jasmine Trunken. Twenty years old. An E-Rank Guide. This is the Sentinel Bureau." She glanced at Oleander. "And you’re Oleander."
Oleander let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Oh, that’s good." Professor Hatthon smiled brightly. "Thankfully, you don’t seem to have lost your memory twice." His expression shifted with sudden curiosity. "Or... has your memory actually returned?"
The room stiffened.
Everyone seemed to have their own expectation of what Jasmine’s answer should be.
"No." Jasmine sounded almost irritated by the question.
But her attention had already shifted to the strange device wrapped around her wrist, which looked suspiciously similar to the one Oleander wore.
"Is this my BeepAir?" Jasmine asked curiously.
"That’s right. We decided to give you a new BeepAir since you lost your previous one." Professor Hatthon smiled eagerly. "The new season will start soon, so you’ll need to go out as a Guide."
"Do you mean I can work?"
"Yes. We’d love to see the performance of a rare Guide like you. There has never been an E-Rank Guide with S-Rank mental purification before. We want to see how that dynamic works during real missions and study your brain waves—"
"Are you saying I’m your test subject right now?"
Jasmine cut him off.
The professor’s excited explanation had already brought back an unpleasant memory of her old life. She knew that look in their eyes. She’d seen it countless times while she was a test subject herself.
"You’re our treasure, Jasmine." Another female professor stepped closer and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
Jasmine gave her a sharp look and shrugged her hand off.
"Treasure?"
"Yes. Your new brain-wave test results are completely different from those recorded two years ago after you graduated from the academy. There’s an unusual gap between your Guide rank and mental purification rank, and this is the first case we’ve ever seen." The woman smiled reassuringly. "We want to study it for the benefit of humanity in Hesperia."
"Will you drug me?"
"No... no, of course not."
"Will you incubate my body and torture me to test my pain tolerance?"
"What kind of barbaric behavior is that? No."
"So what will you do?"
"Your BeepAir will record all the data we need. But we’d like you to visit us once every week for a physical examination. Don’t worry. You’ll only need to sit and sleep. There won’t be any pain."
Pain wasn’t a problem for Jasmine. She had endured worse than most people could imagine.
The problem was being used.
Being treated like a useful object until there was nothing left to take, then discarded.
She wasn’t going to let anyone in this world control her like that.
But to stay in control, she needed power. So—
"Once every two weeks." Jasmine’s tone was firm. "I’m still a murder suspect, so I need to divide my attention too."
She was already certain she could find a way to keep the upper hand.
"About that..." Oleander spoke up. "I submitted your torn clothes as additional evidence. And the Sentinel Bureau has confirmed that you genuinely have amnesia, so they won’t be interrogating you again anytime soon."
Jasmine’s face brightened.
She’d had a feeling those shredded clothes would be useful.
She turned back to the professors, her expression serious again. "But still, once every two weeks. I assume I’m allowed to choose."
She was simply repeating what Oleander had told her earlier—that Hesperia valued the people’s right to express their opinions and make their own choices.
The professors exchanged glances. Their eyes moved between one another as though conducting an entire discussion without saying a word, followed by several small nods.
"Fine," Professor Hatthon finally said.
His smile made Jasmine slightly uncomfortable.
"We’ll do it that way." He paused before adding, "But before you go, could you show us how to do it?"
Jasmine frowned. "Do what?"
"The food you made before coming here. Could you make it again?"
Jasmine narrowed her eyes and looked toward Oleander.
He gave her an awkward look.
"I told them," he said quickly, as though trying to prevent a misunderstanding. "It’s not because I want to eat your food again. There was a strange phenomenon after I ate it. Even one bite increased my mental energy."
Jasmine’s eyes immediately lit up.
"Oh... really?"
So that’s why Chef God gave me a mission to form a contract with a Sentinel.
She thought about the food-related requirements again.
My cooking can affect their mental energy too.
A small smile tugged at her lips.
Maybe Chef God isn’t completely crooked after all.
"Then sure. I’ll make it again."
Relief spread across the professors’ faces as they immediately started gathering ingredients and utensils.
"But, Oleander." Jasmine looked at him. "How do I check my compatibility with you?"
The room froze.
Every movement stopped.
Even Jasmine seemed confused by the sudden silence.
A young male professor finally let out a mocking laugh.
"Oh, Miss Trunken, you’re funny. I know we said you’re a treasure, but that’s taking it a little too far. There has never been a pairing between an E-Rank Guide and an S-Rank Sentinel. The best match you could get would be another E-Rank, or maybe a D-Rank at most."
"Robbin, watch your mouth." Another professor frowned at him. "Who knows? She has S-Rank elements within her. There’s no harm in trying."
"Well, even if she does, I doubt their compatibility would be more than ten percent. Her mental energy is still E-Rank. That’s the difference between heaven and earth."
Oleander cleared his throat.
"Let’s take the compatibility test." His tone left no room for argument.
He turned toward Robbin, who immediately shrank back.
"She’s still under my supervision. I won’t let her make a contract with just any Sentinel."
"Yeah... yeah." Professor Hatthon stepped in before the argument could continue. "There’s no harm in trying. Who knows? We might even discover something new."
He turned toward Jasmine.
"But your BeepAir is still syncing, right? You can use the compatibility-sync function once it reaches one hundred percent. For now, how about we make the food first?"
Jasmine looked down at her BeepAir.
Syncing: 80%
The number changed.
81%.
She nodded twice.
"Sure. Let’s make the food first."
She paused, then looked around at the professors.
"Ah... but I want to make it a little differently this time, and I need a few more ingredients. Can you prepare them?"
Professor Hatthon smiled.
"What do you need?"