The Devil's Cage

Panda Novel

The blazing flames in the monitor swallowed Kieran’s figure, but in the next moment, he was already walking out safety. He wasn’t even dirty, let alone hurt.

“Flame Resist talent? No, that’s not right. Even if it was Flame Resist, he shouldn’t be this casual, which means… Fire Affinity?”

Eiderburgh stood up and gasped hard, the inconceivable look in his eyes was replaced by astonishment.

As the person in charge of the cafeteria, Eiderburgh knew how important Fire Affinity was to a chef.

“2567, eh?” Eiderburgh recalled everything he knew about this freshman, and he raised his evaluation to a new high.

However, it didn’t mean he would give up the upcoming tests.

When Kieran pushed the office door open, he saw a buff, tall, middle-aged man that looked like a silverback gorilla with a pipe in his mouth. The middle-aged man tilted his head and slanted his eyes as he sized up Kieran from top to bottom.

Eiderburgh’s eyes were sharp and pressuring.

Typical students would feel uneasy from his stare, let alone look him in the eyes.

Kieran, however, looked at Eiderburgh with a level gaze; he even had the courage to size up the office.

The office looked like an ordinary office and had everything that an office should have, but the cubicle was something out of the blue.

As Kieran picked up the smell from the little cubicle, his eyes shone. He was sure, even without opening the door to the cubicle, that behind that door was the transport hub that delivered food from the underground kitchen to the cafeteria above ground, which was coincidentally his goal.

Dok Dok.

Eiderburgh knocked on his desk loudly.

“What do you want here? Given your strength and talents, you can get yourself into a better research lab. Or do you and every other idiot out there think that the cafeteria has a secret beyond sight?” Eiderburgh asked in a less-than-friendly way, his voice cold.

Kieran was not moved, though, and he pointed at the cubicle instead.

“I want to be a food tester,” he said.

“A food tester?” Eiderburgh was shocked.

The cafeteria did have its own food tester, but he had never considered that Kieran’s goal could be to become one. From his original point of view, even if Kieran wanted in the cafeteria whole-heartedly, he must have heard some bullsh*t rumors about the secrets.

With the “help” of those rumors, Kieran would be exactly like the previous students who joined the cafeteria’s kitchen staff. He’d bear the burden willingly for a few months, or even the whole semester, and in the end, leave angrily because of the fruitless outcome.

“Are you sure you want to become a food tester?” Eiderburgh asked again, just to confirm.

“Yes,” Kieran nodded.

Eiderburgh sized up Kieran’s gaze and expression. He paused for a moment before he continued, “A food tester of the cafeteria isn’t like the others in the research lab, you must have a sharp tongue and unimaginable appetite. Do you think you are up for the job?”

“Why don’t we test it out?” Kieran smiled happily.

Kieran had always been careful and never oversold himself in other aspects, but in terms of eating, he had unrivaled confidence in Gluttony.

Eiderburgh somehow felt uneasy when he saw Kieran’s smile. However, after sizing up Kieran and his physique, he discarded the uneasiness. Although there were some abilities that could speed up digestion, it was dependant on the user’s body; hence only a strong body could house a strong digestive system with sound absorption.

Kieran had a straight body and could be considered fit, but only to ordinary people. To Eiderburgh, who had witnessed the bodies of countless gluttonous eaters, Kieran’s physique was far from ideal.

Eiderburgh, with the pipe in his mouth, pointed at the cubicle.

“Of course, we are going to test it out! It’s a test for you! That place is the transfer hub for the dishes. I want you to give it all you got: there’s no need to hold back, so don’t take small bites, eat as much as you can, and display your potential as a food tester!” Eiderburgh said loudly.

He saw Kieran into the transfer hub and waited for a bloated Kieran to return.

He wanted to add more tobacco into his pipe in the meantime as he anticipated how ugly that kid who had had no idea of the immensity of heaven and earth would end up.

However, as he bent down for some tobacco, his communicator rang.

After he answered it, the message stunned Eiderburgh.

“The Index of Eat? Are you sure?” Eiderburgh asked in furrowed brows.

“I’m not, but pay attention to it,” the voice on the other side of the communicator answered.

“Wait, I’ll be right there.” Eiderburgh then stood up, pressed some buttons on his desk, and walked towards the secret door in his office—it allowed him to reach his destination quicker.

As for Kieran?

Although he couldn’t be the first to see how ugly Kieran will be, Eiderburgh believed he would have the chance in the future.

After all, when Eiderburgh entered the information for confirmation on his desk, Kieran was already part of the cafeteria.

…

The cafeteria was above ground.

The freshmen with their meal vouchers were lined up in an orderly fashion and waited patiently.

It was the first time they entered the cafeteria, so the environment was a little new for them, and everything was so fresh and exciting. As freshmen, they didn’t know how long it usually took for the dishes to be served, so they did not complain or rant at all.

On the other hand, 2nd-year and 3rd-year students were discussing fiercely, and dissatisfaction broke out.

“What is going on today?”

“Why is it taking so long for the dishes to be served?”

“It usually takes 5 minutes, but now it’s already been half an hour!”

“Half an hour? I’ve been waiting for 45 minutes!”

“The day is getting dark soon!”

“Am I walking in the dark today?”

“In the dark? Forget it! I don’t want to vanish without a sign.”

“But I’m hungry!”

…

The ceaseless clatters grew louder, and eventually, the freshmen joined the clatters after they knew what happened. The clatters evolved into clamors.

The clamors continued to grow, and the dissatisfaction caused by hungry grew and spread over the entire cafeteria.

Fortunately, before the situation got out of control, the members of the E Block Student Council arrived under Gutti’s lead.

“QUIET!” Gutti shouted at the students, and all of the chatters quiet down right away.

All of the students in Theorate knew never to oppose the folks from Student Council unless they wished not to graduate.

The hungry students turned their attention to Gutti, and he sought a solution to the problem.

“Maintain order!”

Gutti wasn’t afraid of being looked at by a thousand pairs of eyes, she turned around and gave her orders to the Student Council member before he strode down to the kitchen.

Although she wasn’t the Branch Leader anymore, her position as 3rd year and member of the Student Council allowed her to enter without hindrance—she made her way to the outer area of the kitchen, where the ingredients were being washed and cut.

“I have to ask the Head Chef for permission for your entry,” the student who had guided Kieran before told Gutti.

“Fine,” Gutti did not throw a tantrum as it was a reasonable request, but the wait was far longer than she had expected.

5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes…

20 minutes later, Gutti furrowed her brows.

It wasn’t the first time she had been down here, and she knew the structure of the kitchen well. Although it was big, it only required a 5 minutes stride to Eiderburgh’s office from it, not this long…

As thoughts bloomed in her mind, Gutti stopped her hesitance and pushed the door opened.

The heat, much hotter than she had remembered, assaulted her, forcing her to readjust her breath. She then saw the unconscious messenger; he wasn’t attacked but was knocked out by the heat.

Gutti grabbed the messenger and located the cause of the problem: the frying woks dancing in the flames and stew pots spitting steam endlessly.

The flames burned twice as hot, and the steam was twice as fast. It was why the temperature in the kitchen rose that high.

Gutti saw to it that dish after dish was delivered into the transfer hub, but doubts troubled her mind even more. Under her watch, there were almost 60 servings delivered into the hub per minute, and the numbers were climbing.

Although she did not receive any news from her communicator, the alarm above the ground was still on.

What happened?

Gutti delivered the unconscious messenger back outside, stepped into the kitchen again, and went straight to Eiderburgh’s office.

Dok Dok Dok.

“Head Chef, it’s Gutti,” she said politely after the knock, but she received no answer.

Gutti furrowed her beautiful brows.

Dok Dok Dok.

“Head Chef, it’s Gutti,” she repeated, but the same thing happened.

After two futile attempts, Gutti dialed the caller to the office but still received no answer.

Instead, she received a call from Shela about the situation above ground.

“G-Gutti, hurry up. The sky is turning dark soon, and the tension is very high up here.”

“If the alarm is still on, I’m afraid trouble might break out,” Shela said in a hurried tone, and her words fueled Gutti’s decision.

Gutti was never a hesitant person; otherwise, she wouldn’t be the Branch Leader of E Block in the first place.

Bang!

A loud bang later, the door of the office was kicked open.

Gutti stepped in, and a glance at the empty office later, she placed her attention on the transfer hub.

She wasn’t concerned about the empty office, but the chewing and munching coming from the transfer hub were attracting attention.

The door to the hub was unlocked, Gutti opened it easily and then saw a person that she’d never expect.

“2567… Branch Leader.”

The name had been uttered out of shock, and Gutti had to reach an assessment of the situation before she could add the title to the name.

It wasn’t a requirement, but her habitual question followed. “Why are you here?”

Gutti saw Kieran sitting at a table, his hands moving in a flurry, whipping up a series of afterimages. One couldn’t even tell which was his real hand. His tornado-like hands were sweeping all the food into his mouth, and Gutti was utterly astonished by it.

The speed of his hands was too much for her eyes to comprehend, and a breath’s time later, several dishes were swept clean.

The most astonishing thing was that Kieran’s body, despite him gobbling food down like a tornado, did not even change. He was still as fit as Gutti remembered.

The washing sink was full, and the whole hub was full of plates. Gutti couldn’t help but widen her eyes even larger.

Where did all the food go?

The question arose in her heart, and she asked in a blank tone, “This… This all… you…”

Before the question could even form, she stopped. Other than Kieran, there was no one else in the hub, and although it seemed impossible, the fact before her eyes was that outrageous.

“Please stop! If you continue eating, a riot will break out at the cafeteria.”

Gutti hadn’t forgotten her duty, but Kieran would not be moved.

“This is the test Eiderburgh gave me. He wanted me to go all out, eat as much as I can. I have to show my potential as a food tester!” Kieran said all righteously.

Test? Gutti was stunned.

Gutti immediately thought of a rumor that she heard earlier: rumor has it that the cafeteria in E Block housed a special and powerful Eat Technique, and only those who got through the tests of the cafeteria were allowed to possess it.

But, according to the rumor, this Eat Technique should be in the kitchen, not the hub.

So what is going on here?

The question came into her mind automatically, but she wasn’t slow in her response.

She took her communicator, “Shela, get someone to tell Head Chef Eiderburgh about what happened here!”

Gutti did not stop Kieran. Their respective positions had determined that her efforts would not bear fruit.

More so, Kieran’s answer told her that finding Eiderburgh was the best way to solve this problem.

“Noted, Gutti!”

Gutti slightly heaved a breath after the reply from the communicator.

But when she looked up and saw how fast Kieran was eating, she became afraid again. He was eating faster than before as if he was going to swallow even the plates.

Gutti had some thoughts in her mind about the increased eating speed though, it seemed like 2567 ate faster after her conversation with Shela, could it be…

Head Chef Eiderburgh was cheated?

Impossible! Eiderburgh wasn’t senile. He might look reckless and boorish, but he was very delicate and meticulous. He would not be cheated that easily.

Gutti shook her head and discarded the thought out of her mind.

Gutti’s eyes at Kieran became different, and she realized that she was still underestimating the First Seat freshman. She clenched her fist.

“The stronger you are, the more I want to catch up to you!”

Gutti’s eyes were firm. Kieran caught the little changes in Gutti, but he didn’t care.

He knew this might be the last time he could eat freely in the cafeteria. When the Head Chef got back, even if he wasn’t shoved out of the cafeteria, it may be hard for him to enter the hub again.

Then… he would eat his heart out!