When she was assigned to Group F, Sakaki Ryoko had originally intended to partner with Tadokoro Megumi.
After all, for something like a cooking assessment, partnering with someone more familiar would lead to better synergy and more efficient work.
However, after Ryoko saw Tadokoro Megumi walk towards Yukihira Soma, Ryoko smiled meaningfully and decided to just find a female student with similar academic performance to partner with.
But soon, Ryoko spotted Seiya in the crowd, who was being avoided by others as if he were a plague, so a smile quickly appeared on her face again, and she politely declined others, slowly walking towards Seiya.
The entire Totsuki Resort is quite large, and although the ingredients here are inferior to dream ingredients, their quality is far superior to ordinary ingredients.
When Seiya and Ryoko arrived at the river, they found that the narrow river channel was almost completely packed with people.
Because the instructor Inui Hinako's assessment required them to obtain ingredients from nature and cook a Japanese-style dish within a certain time limit.
Compared to searching for rare wild game, fish in the stream were undoubtedly one of the easiest main ingredients for students to obtain.
"Yo, Seiya, you guys are here too! Come quickly and help, the situation here is a bit tricky, just Tadokoro Megumi and I can't handle it."
As soon as they reached the shallow area of the stream, Seiya and Ryoko encountered Yukihira Soma and Tadokoro Megumi, who had also come to the river to catch fish.
At this moment, both Tadokoro Megumi and Chuang Zhen had their pant legs rolled up to their knees, trying to encircle the swimming fish in the stream from left and right, but each time the fish skillfully dodged them.
The stream, less than half a meter deep, was crystal clear, allowing them to even see the constantly swimming fish with their naked eyes.
However, while the wild stream fish had extremely delicious meat, it was not an easy task to catch them bare-handed without the proper tools.
Yukihira Soma, as a male, and having helped out in his family's restaurant since childhood, had good physical stamina, which was a given.
But for girls like Tadokoro Megumi, and the pampered young masters of Totsuki, facing these swimming fish in the stream was almost completely impossible.
Seeing that Tadokoro Megumi's clothes were soaked and she was panting from trying to catch fish, Ryoko, after glancing at the fish in the stream, also proactively took off her shoes, rolled up her pant legs, and walked into the stream.
The stream fish were extremely agile, but due to the encirclement of the three, one unlucky fish was finally caught bare-handed by Yukihira Soma.
And in just that short time, Ryoko and Tadokoro Megumi, who were completely soaked and somewhat out of breath, understood why the others had given up on catching fish in the shallow area and had gone to fish in the deeper water.
Although the fish in the stream were clearly visible, it was not easy to catch the agile fish in the water bare-handed using only human strength.
Moreover, running in the water consumed more physical energy due to the resistance of the current.
Leaving aside Yukihira Soma, who was a male, after several attempts to encircle the fish, the physically weaker Tadokoro Megumi and Ryoko were already starting to struggle.
Ryoko was even worse off than Tadokoro Megumi, as she carried a significant “burden” that Tadokoro Megumi did not; every time she bent down to catch fish, the great weight, influenced by gravity, consumed even more of her physical energy.
And it wasn't until Ryoko and Tadokoro Megumi were completely soaked, even revealing a lot in the process, that Seiya, watching the clumsy trio from the shore, couldn't bear it anymore.
"You guys are doing it wrong; you should observe the fish's movements more and suppress your aura, reducing your presence."
Seeing that Seiya not only didn't join their fish-catching efforts but also acted like he was lecturing them on fishing techniques, Yukihira Soma immediately felt a bit indignant.
"Observe the fish's movements, suppress your aura—is that even possible?"
"Bang—!"
As a huge splash of water erupted in front of Seiya, Yukihira Soma's words were cut short, and the three of them, Ryoko, Tadokoro Megumi, and Chuang Zhen, stared in surprise as a struggling stream fish appeared in Seiya's hand.
After precisely tossing the stream fish into the bucket on the shore, Seiya slowly walked to the area where the stream fish were most concentrated.
And then...
"Bang—bang—bang—bang!"
Each time Seiya plunged his hand into the water, a huge splash of water would directly erupt due to the powerful impact.
Then, Yukihira Soma and the other two were utterly astonished spectators, watching as each time Seiya's hand entered the water and then re-emerged, it would hold another lively stream fish.
In just a few minutes, the stream fish in the bucket on the shore were already overflowing.
And the surrounding Totsuki students who witnessed Seiya catching fish bare-handed were all dumbfounded; if they hadn't tried to catch fish earlier and failed, they might even think that the stream fish here were quite easy to catch.
"Seiya, how on earth did you do that?"
Looking at the full bucket of stream fish, Yukihira Soma was greatly disheartened; the three of them had wasted so much effort just to barely catch one stream fish.
Yet, Seiya had already caught a full bucket in the time it took them to exchange a few words.
"Didn't I just say? You need to observe the fish's movements, and then..."
"Alright, stop talking, I get it. Sometimes I really wonder, are you even human?!
Leaving aside these absurd reflexes, can a normal person catching fish by hand cause splashes several meters high?"
After glancing at the other Totsuki students staring at him with dumbfounded expressions, Seiya realized he had gone a bit overboard.
This was the Human World, not the Gourmet World where dangerous creatures roamed. His previous method of catching fish was honed from catching the dream ingredients, Puffer Whale, in the Gourmet World. But here in the Human World, his recent fish-catching operation was somewhat astonishing.
The Puffer Whale is a rare dream ingredients with a capture level as high as 29. It poses little danger itself; its high capture level is solely due to the difficulty of catching it.
Puffer Whales generally live in the deep sea and only swim to shallow waters during their spawning season, which occurs once every ten years.
To capture this type of fish dream ingredients, one needs sufficient speed to kill it instantly before it reacts; otherwise, if it is startled, its internal poison sacs will rupture, rendering it worthless.
It is worth noting that after capturing a Puffer Whale, removing its internal poison sacs is even more difficult.
At that time, even Seiya's level of knife skills ruined many Puffer Whales just to taste this delicacy.
A Puffer Whale whose poison sacs haven't been removed sells for as much as one hundred million yen, but if its internal poison sacs can be removed, the Puffer Whale turns golden, and its value soars to one billion yen per fish.
Seiya caught quite a few back then, but only four were successfully processed for their poison sacs. Since he didn't know their value, they all ended up in his and Minezaki's stomachs.
