"The plot has finally begun… but I still don't know if I have a golden finger or not!"
Standing outside the Yukihira Hotel, a young man watched the flurry of activity unfolding within. His name was Daiki—a time traveler.
In his previous life, Daiki ran a small snack bar. He never dreamed he'd end up in another world. The cause? Pure bad luck.
After a trusted gas station went bankrupt, Daiki was forced to switch suppliers. Unfortunately, the new one had faulty equipment. His last memory from that world was the sudden blast of a gas tank explosion—then, darkness.
When he awakened, Daiki found himself reborn… as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Before he could fully come to terms with his new reality, tragedy struck again. The parents who had raised him for only a few short days in this new life died one after another in unrelated accidents.
It reminded him of a common line in the web novels he used to read: "The parents of transmigrators all seem to have high-risk professions." He used to laugh at that trope. Now, living it firsthand, it felt all too real.
Orphaned from the start, Daiki's life could have taken a bleak turn. But fortune smiled on him in one regard—his new parents had been well-established staff members at Totsuki Resort, holding relatively high positions. They left behind a decent inheritance.
Even more fortunate was their close relationship with Dojima Gin. When Daiki was born, Dojima was just 23—already prestigious, but not yet the executive chef or a member of the Totsuki Board of Directors. In his early days at the resort, Daiki's parents had helped him immensely. So when they passed, Dojima took it upon himself to care for the orphaned boy.
As Daiki grew, Dojima arranged for him to enroll in Totsuki Culinary Academy.
Daiki knew exactly where he was. This world was the one from Food Wars! (Shokugeki no Soma)—a story he knew inside and out. Besides running a snack bar, Daiki had been a die-hard fan of novels, anime, and manga. Recognizing the setting, he threw himself wholeheartedly into mastering the culinary arts.
Though he hadn't been a prodigy in his previous life, Daiki had solid fundamentals. Thanks to his past experience and relentless effort, he quickly improved at Totsuki. His skills now stood among the best in his class.
Of course, he was no match for the true monsters—those born with overwhelming talent, like Erina Nakiri and her infamous God Tongue. That ability, while carrying its own burdens, was nothing short of a cheat code. A dish that would take a normal chef days to analyze and refine could be deconstructed in a single bite by her. She could instantly identify flaws and jump straight to improvement.
Then there were other gifted students—Mito Ikumi with her intuitive sense of texture, Hayama Ryo with his unparalleled sense of smell. These weren't full-blown superpowers, but they were leagues above normal human capabilities.
Even after living a second life and training tirelessly since childhood, Daiki was just "excellent"—not "exceptional."
Currently, his skill level was on par with students like Yuuki Yoshino and Ryoko Sakaki, fellow residents of the Polar Star Dormitory.
Yes, Daiki was now a member of the legendary dorm too—not through his own ambition, but by Dojima's arrangement. As an alumnus of Polar Star himself, Dojima naturally placed promising students like Daiki there. He was actually one of the first members of the new generation to join.
In between honing his cooking skills, Daiki had spent years wondering—do I have a golden finger or not? In all the stories he used to read, every transmigrator had some kind of cheat, some supernatural system or talent.
But for over a decade… nothing.
Still, he didn't give up hope.
And today, standing outside the Yukihira Hotel, he wondered—could this be it?
Maybe his cheat only activates when the main plot begins. After all, in the novels he used to read, the conditions to trigger a cheat could be wildly specific. Some were activated from the start. Others required life-or-death battles or special items. But the most common one?
The cheat only activates when the plot begins.
Of course, Daiki couldn't be certain when—or even if—his golden finger would appear. So, just in case, he spent the entire holiday keeping a close eye on the Yukihira Hotel, hoping to witness the moment the plot truly kicked off. If anything was going to trigger his cheat, it would be this.
And today, it happened.
Daiki stood silently as he watched Soma Yukihira triumph over Yaeko Minenosaki with nothing but a plate of food. It was an unmistakable moment—the story had officially begun.
But something struck him as odd. The world he was living in wasn't quite the same as the Food Wars! he remembered from manga and anime.
The original series had a reputation for its… eccentric presentation. Dishes that caused clothes to explode, reactions that bordered on the hallucinogenic—sensory overload used as visual metaphors. But since arriving in this world, Daiki had never seen anything even remotely like that. Not once.
Even the so-called "Medicine King" Soma Yukihira hadn't cooked anything capable of sending someone into a euphoric frenzy. And as far as Daiki could tell, no one in the Nakiri family was teaching such questionable techniques either.
Strangely enough, Daiki felt relieved.
He was a normal person. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life in a world where eating a spoonful of curry could result in spontaneous undressing. During his years at Polaris Dormitory, he had slowly grown close to Yui Tanaka. Their relationship had deepened naturally over time, especially after he helped her work through her chronic stage fright. Now, the two of them were officially dating.
The last thing Daiki wanted was to live in constant fear that some Nakiri-style culinary trick might randomly turn an innocent meal into a spectacle of public embarrassment.
To his great relief, it seemed this world had toned things down.
Mostly.
There was still one element that remained true to canon—the infamous "clothing burst."
But Daiki didn't mind that as much. At least the explosions were symbolic and only affected the person tasting the dish. If someone's clothes ripped themselves apart because the food was that good, well… that was their business, not his.
And then it happened.
[Plot trigger detected. Activating Fishing System… Transmitting system data…]
A synthetic, mechanical voice rang out in Daiki's mind. A translucent screen flickered to life in front of him, suspended in midair.
He froze.
Then blinked.
Then grinned.
"It finally activated…"
A thrill ran through his chest as he realized what was happening.
"I knew it! —every time traveler gets a cheat eventually!"
Heart pounding, Daiki focused all his attention on the shimmering interface before him. Years of waiting. Years of wondering.
At last, his golden finger had arrived.