The Blue Nitro assigned to the Area 3 had only just separated from the others.
Like Acacia, it chose to head straight for the location of ATOM. The only difference was that instead of waiting in ambush, it had just arrived.
And the moment it did, it saw Kael.
More precisely, it saw Kael already finishing the capture of ATOM.
What truly stunned the Blue Nitro was the method.
They had never seen cooking done like that before.
Whether someone could hear the voice of ingredients or not, processing a substance like ATOM should have been incredibly complicated. A delicate, tedious procedure.
Yet Kael simply stood there and changed the ingredient without doing anything at all.
Effortless.
The Blue Nitro stared, stunned.
Then greed surged.
Their race might lack strong familial instincts, but they still possessed other emotions. Greed among them was anything but rare.
In truth, their issue with emotions was more a kind of dullness than absence.
If someone explained what a feeling was, they could still understand it.
In the original story, when PAIR cried, he even wondered aloud if the liquid leaking from his eyes was saliva.
To beings obsessed with gourmet ingredients, anything that flowed from the body could easily be mistaken for something edible.
That was their emotional dullness.
Not a lack of emotion.
And right now, greed burned hot.
If I could obtain that method...
The Blue Nitro's mind raced.
Such a technique would be priceless to their entire race.
But after a moment, it forced itself to calm down.
"No. I can't rush out now."
The creature muttered to itself in the Back Channel.
"That guy isn't someone I can handle alone. I need to call the others."
Decision made, it prepared to leave and gather reinforcements.
But before it could move...
A hand suddenly pierced through the barrier of space.
The separation between the Spirit World and the outside meant nothing to Kael.
After all, he had consumed NEWS. Even without that, space itself had long since become nothing more than a door he could open or close at will.
And right now, that door had just opened.
Kael reached in and grabbed the Blue Nitro that had been secretly spying on him.
With a violent tug, he dragged it straight out.
"You don't need to go anywhere," Kael said with a pleasant smile. "I'll send the others to keep you company soon."
He tilted his head slightly.
"Oh, and one more thing."
"Your so-called immortality is a joke to me."
His fingers tightened.
The Blue Nitro's soul shattered instantly.
Gone.
Completely erased.
Ordinarily, Blue Nitro could not truly be killed. Even if their bodies were destroyed, as long as appetite still existed in the world, they would eventually resurrect.
But Kael had already stepped onto the path of godhood.
Even if he was still midway through that transformation, he could erase them from the root.
From this moment on, this particular Blue Nitro would never exist again.
Not now.
Not ever.
Kael had no intention of sparing them.
After all, the current disaster in the Blue Universe could largely be traced back to their actions. They were the ones who originally uncovered NEO, only to lose control of it later.
Arrogance ran deep in their species.
In many ways, they resembled the Celestial Dragons from another world. The difference was that Blue Nitro actually possessed overwhelming power and intelligence.
Still, arrogance of that kind made it impossible for them to coexist peacefully with other life.
And there was one thing Kael absolutely could not overlook.
They harvested humans for fuel.
Even if he was gradually becoming the Gourmet God, Kael still saw himself as human.
At his core, that had never changed.
A human watching another species use humans as disposable resources...
There was no way he would let that slide.
Kael was not a saint.
But he wasn't a villain either.
And because of that, the Blue Nitro had already become his enemies from the very beginning.
Every last one of them.
Even those already devoured and trapped within NEO's internal space.
Their personalities were all the same. Ruthless. Willing to do anything to achieve their goals.
Kael had no reason to spare any of them.
After destroying the Blue Nitro, he left.
As long as he didn't deliberately reveal himself, finding his location would be nearly impossible. Only sheer coincidence or patient ambush could uncover him.
His next destination was the Area 1.
More precisely, Area Zero.
His goal was to capture Center.
Once that was done, seven of the Eight Full Course ingredients would be complete.
Only the final one would remain.
Meanwhile, the remaining Blue Nitro were still running around like headless flies.
As for Acacia, after sensing his cell monsters being eliminated one after another, he chose not to act.
He knew perfectly well those creatures were no match for the Eight Kings or for his former disciples.
While Kael headed toward the Area 1...
Events were unfolding elsewhere.
Inside the Area 1 stood NEO's headquarters.
Or rather, what used to be its headquarters.
Now it was nothing but ruins.
After all, Midora had been watching Joie the entire time.
Even though NEO's base was extremely well hidden within the Gourmet World, that secrecy meant little against someone like Midora.
The place radiated the presence of countless powerful individuals.
For someone with Midora's terrifying strength and speed, searching the entire continent multiple times would have been trivial.
And when he found the massive spaceship stationed there...
He didn't hesitate.
Spaceship or not.
Midora blasted it apart.
Completely.
"Dammit!"
Joie's face twisted with rage.
"How did that bastard find this place so quickly?! And he destroyed the spaceship!"
The shock was obvious.
But the anger burned even hotter.
That ship had cost enormous resources to build. The funding alone had come from countless wealthy elites and national leaders.
And now...
All of it was gone.
Reduced to scrap.
Technically, with Frohze's body, Joie could survive in space alone.
But he had no interest in drifting through the cosmos by himself.
Even something as simple as finding food would become a nightmare.
The universe contained plenty of ingredients.
But danger lurked everywhere too.
Which was exactly why the destruction of the ship filled him with such fury.