Food Wars: Fishing System #250+251: Clearing Earth’s Orbit, the Cosmos Mammoth, and an Ingredient of the Gods

The Cosmic Taipan thrashed with all its might, but its struggles were utterly useless against Yuuki’s Gourmet Divine Punishment—the gap between them was just too vast.

Realizing its brute force was futile, the serpent opened its massive jaws and unleashed a terrifying beam of energy.

There was no doubt about it—if that blast had hit a planet, anything short of a supergiant star would have been vaporized on the spot.

But the attack slammed harmlessly against the Gourmet Divine Punishment. It was completely ineffective.

With a sudden clench of his colossal calorie-formed hand, Yuuki crushed the massive Cosmic Taipan into a writhing ball of scales and muscle. If he hadn't wanted to preserve the meat, that single squeeze would have obliterated it into nothingness.

The higher a creature's Capture Level, the more tenacious its life force—but a stronger opponent wields an even stronger attack. Yuuki’s strike had instantly extinguished the serpent’s life force from within its very cells. No regenerative ability, no matter how potent, could come back from that.

“And that’s that. Cosmic Taipan, CAPTURED.”

Yuuki announced as he stored the serpent in his personal dimension.

“Mr. Yuuki, your strength is just... unreal. To capture a beast with a level in the hundreds of thousands so easily!”

Nono said, her voice filled with awe. She had assumed that even for Yuuki, capturing the Cosmic Taipan would be a difficult, drawn-out battle. She couldn't have been more wrong—he’d finished it in a single move.

The appearance of that calorie hand—larger than a planet—had been an even greater shock than the serpent itself. Back on the Gourmet Satellite, the IGO staff were completely dumbfounded.

They had never imagined Yuuki could be this powerful. It defied all logic.

“Well, I’ve surpassed these creatures by a pretty wide margin now.”

Yuuki said with a smile. He knew it wouldn’t be long before people started speculating about a connection between him and the Gourmet Gods.

It sounded unbelievable, but so was his own meteoric rise in power. As the saying goes, you can’t raise a dragon in a puddle. The ingredients on Earth could, at best, nurture a being with a Capture Level of a hundred thousand or so.

To go any higher, even devouring the entire planet wouldn’t provide enough resources for such a being to be born.

But Yuuki had never left Earth. His power had to have come from somewhere else. And not long ago, they had all witnessed the Gourmet Gods.

Even though the Gods had vanished, they had noticed them before they left. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Sooner or later, someone would connect the dots. But Yuuki didn't care. So what if they knew he'd been noticed by the Gourmet Gods and had received something from them?

The combined might of the entire planet wouldn't be enough to stand up to a single one of his fingers. He could now wield the White Demon’s power without any restraint.

Of course, from his current perspective, even the White Demon’s power wasn't all that impressive. His own divinity had allowed him to perceive a power that transcended the physical plane entirely.

Divinity was a Higher-dimensional force.

No matter how much stronger the Black and White Universes were compared to the others in the five-colored cosmos, they were still bound to their dimension. They could never compare to a higher-dimensional power.

Having attained divinity, Yuuki was destined to quickly surpass the five-colored cosmos and ascend to an even higher plane.

After dealing with the Cosmic Taipan, Yuuki contacted the IGO members on the Gourmet Satellite again, asking them to transmit the coordinates of other powerful creatures in Earth’s vicinity.

The Taipan wasn't the only threat out here—it had just been the closest.

——————

Yuuki planned to eliminate every potential danger in the area, making it safer for future travel.

Following his orders, the IGO staff sprang into action. One by one, Yuuki hunted down the cosmic beasts, capturing them as ingredients.

Most of these creatures were documented in the Blue Nitros' culinary encyclopedia, which covered both the Red and Blue Universes.

When the Blue Nitros first arrived in the Red Universe, they didn't just find Earth and start their work. They had wandered for a long time, searching for a suitable planet, before finally discovering Earth and the Red Nitros living there. That was when their grand plan had begun.

So, they were very familiar with the Red Universe. On average, the creatures here were weaker than those in the Blue Universe.

But there were still many they couldn't handle, which was why they had resorted to their old plan—cooking the planet.

That way, while they still weren't invincible on the planet they were preparing, as long as they didn't provoke a few specific beings, they could do as they pleased.

The Blue Nitros were truly a pathetic bunch—unable to capture high-level ingredients, they had to resort to such roundabout methods.

But their records were now proving incredibly useful to Yuuki. With the support of the IGO’s intelligence network, he quickly cleared the space around Earth of any immediate threats.

Of course, that didn't mean it was completely safe. The universe was full of wandering beasts without territories of their own.

There was no telling when one might drift near Earth. At that point, unless Yuuki returned, the others would be hard-pressed to deal with such a threat.

Even as they grew stronger through their own cosmic explorations, their progress would eventually slow as the power from their Appetite Demons was exhausted.

Only Toriko, with both the Blue and White Demons still inside him, could continue to develop their power.

And with the White Demon acting as his bodyguard, as long as he didn't go looking for trouble, his chances of running into real danger in space were relatively low.

With the area cleared, Yuuki and Nono ventured deeper into the cosmos.

The Gourmet Hunters who left Earth after them found their initial journeys much safer. The IGO, however, provided less intelligence support to non-members.

After all, their resources and manpower were limited. They couldn’t help everyone.

——————

As they traveled into deep space, Yuuki charted a course with two specific ingredients as his final destinations—the End Mammoth and the Cosmos Mammoth.

The End Mammoth was an ingredient from Toriko’s Full Course Menu in the original story. He had only managed to taste it by taking a bite out of Acacia during their final confrontation.

At that time, Acacia had treated everything as an ingredient—including Toriko.

But Toriko, fueled by his ravenous appetite and rage, had turned the tables and treated Acacia as an ingredient instead.

Acacia must have been completely blindsided. A true father-son moment, in a twisted way. Toriko’s stunt was ridiculous—but he actually managed to taste the End Mammoth. The power of a protagonist, truly beyond reason.

The End Mammoth was a unique ingredient even in the Blue Universe—and Yuuki was intrigued.

Through the Gourmet Satellite, he had located a trail. He also discovered that this route would not only lead him to the End Mammoth but also to another ingredient—the Cosmos Mammoth.

The Cosmos Mammoth was also in the Blue Nitros' encyclopedia. It was a super-massive creature, the size of a star, and more importantly, they traveled in herds.

They could run freely through space, and because of their immense size and numbers, their stampedes looked like a flowing river of stars.

The world of Toriko was just that absurd. According to the encyclopedia, these Cosmos Mammoths had a Capture Level in the tens of millions.

Though Yuuki's own Capture Level was only in the millions, he was growing at an incredible rate, which was why he dared to set his sights on them.

In contrast, Don Slime, Ichiryu, and the others were targeting creatures with Capture Levels just over ten thousand.

They weren't Yuuki. Their strength had its limits.

Jiro was a bit stronger, able to handle creatures in the tens of thousands.

Don Slime's revival had significantly impacted Ichiryu. Although he still had Gourmet Cells, he could no longer develop his Appetite Demon, which limited his potential.

Jiro, on the other hand, had already fused with his demon. Empowered by the legendary eight ingredients, his strength had reached the tens of thousands. But in the vastness of space, the difference between ten thousand and a few tens of thousands was negligible.

Sometime after they had all left, the Four Heavenly Kings also departed from Earth. Once in space, the gap between Toriko and the others began to widen.

With three Appetite Demons inside him—including the incredibly powerful White Demon—Toriko could continuously draw out their power, far surpassing the other Kings.

But none of them could compare to Yuuki. He was growing stronger at a visible, daily rate. Divinity was just that powerful—a force from a higher dimension.

His power was skyrocketing, but for now, it was a gift he couldn't share. He could only continue to grow stronger on his own.

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By the time he found the End Mammoth, his cell level had already broken ten million, and his true combat power was even more terrifying.

It was a qualitative leap in power. He couldn't even begin to imagine how strong he had become.

Capturing the End Mammoth was easy. Its own combat strength wasn't particularly high. The main difficulty was its extreme rarity.

Even in the vastness of the universe, they were incredibly scarce. Finding one, even with the Gourmet Satellite, required a stroke of luck.

With the End Mammoth secured, Yuuki turned his attention to the Cosmos Mammoths. Guided by the satellite, he located a herd stampeding through the cosmos.

"This feels strangely familiar—like the first time I saw a Regal Mammoth back in the Human World."

Yuuki remarked, gazing at the colossal beasts moving through the void. When he first arrived in the world of Toriko, though he already had a decent foundation of strength, he had never seen anything so massive. The Regal Mammoth, over a kilometer in size, had left a deep impression on him.

Now, though he had left Earth, he was once again faced with a creature of unbelievable scale.

He had seen beasts the size of planets before, and plenty of them, but they were nothing compared to the Cosmos Mammoths.

These creatures were the size of stars. They were, by far, the largest ingredient he had ever encountered.

“They’re enormous. I’ve seen the encyclopedia, but to see them in person... they truly live up to their name.”

Nono said, watching the countless massive figures moving through space.

Even though they could see them now, getting close would take a long time. These were star-sized mammoths.

There was an old saying: "The mountain you see is a horse-ride away." The same applied here.

Yuuki soon realized that the juvenile Giant Shell couldn't even begin to keep up with them.

Because of their size, a single step covered a vast distance. The Giant Shell was too slow.

It seemed he would have to go on his own.

But then he noticed something else—the mammoths' trajectory was strange.

“Nono, do you see that? It looks like they’re running towards something.”

Yuuki said. He had been observing their movements. Before, they had moved erratically, constantly changing direction.

But now, they were moving in a perfectly straight line, as if charging towards a specific target.

——————

“Towards something?”

Nono looked at the massive herd and noticed it too. Just as Yuuki had said, they were moving in a dead straight line, rushing towards an unseen destination.

“Mr. Yuuki, let me contact the Gourmet Satellite.”

Nono found it strange as well. Yuuki nodded in agreement. Contacting the satellite was the best move.

His own senses couldn't compare to a satellite that could observe the entire universe.

Soon, Nono made contact. Because of her high-level clearance, the satellite team responded immediately.

They didn’t even need to locate them—the satellite was already tracking them in real-time. That was the benefit of having top-level authority.

Following Yuuki’s request, the IGO team began observing the Cosmos Mammoths’ movements and immediately transmitted the data back to them.

“Just as I thought. They’re heading for something. And they’re moving at three times their normal speed. This can’t be a coincidence. But the satellite can’t see their target. Interesting. Nono, let’s go check it out.”

With that, Yuuki activated his own power, taking the juvenile Giant Shell and Nono with him, easily outpacing the mammoths.

It didn't take long for him to reach the front of the herd. There, he saw one mammoth that was clearly larger than the rest. This had to be the Mammoth King.

It was natural for a herd to have a leader. Its aura was incredibly powerful, several times stronger than the other mammoths. This didn't surprise Yuuki.

It was normal for individuals within the same species to have different levels of strength. On Earth, the gap between the Eight Kings and their own kind was immense. Seeing the same thing in space was to be expected.

Led by their king, the herd charged forward like a massive arrow. Anything in their path was in for a bad time.

They had already left their territory. With their immense size and numbers, they left a trail of destruction in their wake. Planets were pulverized, and any other creatures were devoured by the Mammoth King or the others.

Waste not, want not. The Cosmos Mammoth herd was a force of nature. Anything that got in their way was either destroyed or eaten.

“Tsk, tsk... this makes a plague of locusts look tame.”

Yuuki couldn't help but think about how fragile Earth would be in the cosmos without its "Cosmic Delicacy" status acting as a shield.

He was strong enough to fend off attacks, but he wasn't omnipotent.

In a situation like this, if he were off exploring and this herd charged towards Earth, the IGO would likely have a hard time detecting them in time.

They were incredibly fast and massive. By the time the Gourmet Satellite spotted them, it might be too late for him to get back.

“It’s terrifying. Those planets had so much life, and now... it’s all gone.”

Nono watched, but she was powerless to change anything. She could only bear witness.

“This is just the way the universe works, Nono. We don’t need to interfere.”

Yuuki said with a smile. Perhaps the natural state of the universe was chaos. Humanity’s rules were their own. He didn't believe humans were the be-all and end-all.

Of course, with enough power, you could make your own rules. In this world of survival of the fittest, strength was absolute.

Yuuki and Nono followed the herd for over a month before they finally stopped. The Mammoth King at the front seemed to be searching for something.

But there was nothing around them. The Mammoth King could only roar in frustration.

“I see. So that’s what they’re looking for. This Mammoth King is something else.”

Yuuki said, observing what the creature was searching for.

“Mr. Yuuki, did you find what they’re looking for?”

Nono asked, confused. She couldn't see anything, and neither could the satellite. All they could see was the herd, stopped in the middle of nowhere.

“There’s a very special ingredient here. This Mammoth King is powerful enough to sense its presence, but unfortunately for it, even if it can sense it, it can never obtain it.”

Yuuki explained. Before his eyes, there was a massive piece of meat, roughly the same size as the Mammoth King, floating in space. But the mammoths couldn’t touch it—they passed right through it.

It was as if the meat was an illusion. Yuuki knew exactly what was going on.

“This is an ingredient of the Gods—the kind of food the Gourmet Gods themselves eat. Like them, it exists in a higher dimension.”

“Beings from this dimension can’t touch it.”

The Mammoth King was indeed powerful—so powerful it could sense the ingredient's existence. But it was destined to never have it. To obtain such an ingredient, you needed divinity.

Only by having one foot in a higher dimension could you capture it.

And Yuuki guessed that this wasn't even a complete ingredient of the Gods, but merely a scrap. The size was all wrong.

The Gourmet Gods were measured in light-years. The Mammoth King, though enormous, was nothing compared to that. This piece of meat was relatively small. It had to be a crumb that had fallen from a larger meal.

But even as a scrap, it was still terrifyingly powerful—at least, for Yuuki, who had not yet reached the level of a God himself.

He decided then and there—he would take this divine ingredient, and he would capture the Cosmos Mammoth King as well.