Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 110 Cosplaying Fiora? Five slashes per second? The ultimate mastery of swordsmanship! (First update of 3K)
"???"

Listening to the specific instructions in the earphones, and looking at the yellow waiting light that lit up next to Xia Ming.

The middle-aged proctor was a little confused.
"He drew the 'Cucumber in a Raincoat' item, right? And the time limit is 10 minutes, isn't it?"

A slightly overweight proctor next to him nodded.

"Yes, among these questions, this one is considered very difficult. The only ones more difficult are 'Wheat Ear with Yellow Throat' in 13 minutes and 'Wheat Ear with Kidney' in 10 minutes."

The middle-aged proctor nodded.

The three invigilators were all transferred from the local culinary academy and had trained many students themselves.

In culinary schools, cucumber slices are usually a basic knife skill exercise; the challenge lies in how evenly they can be sliced ​​and how long they can be stretched.
"蓑衣黄瓜" (蓑衣黄瓜) is made by slicing cucumbers into thin slices of 0.2-0.3cm, cutting them at different angles on both sides, so that the cucumber can be stretched to 2-3 times its original length without breaking.

Generally speaking, the basic graduation certificate from a school, "Hua 1 Level", requires that the piece be stretched to about 2.5 times its original length and cut as evenly as possible.

The higher-grade "Hua 2" requires a ratio of 3 times or more and also demands a certain level of uniformity in the cutting.

The proctor himself can cut cucumbers 4.5 times their original length, and when he's in a good state, he can cut them almost 5 times their original length.

He is a "Level 4" chef and also the dean of students at the school, having seen countless newcomers cut "strawberry cucumbers".

In his view, this operation tests a chef's basic skills, the ability to "cut evenly". It is generally not difficult in private, but in competitions or exams, especially timed exams, it involves a matter of mindset.

One of the difficulties of the "cucumber in a raincoat" question compared to other questions is that its trial-and-error cost is higher.

Whether it's Guan Chongyun's diced carrots or Qiao Ruoning's wheat ear and yellow throat, they have one thing in common: they can be cut into pieces.

Needless to say, dicing is a given. The test question Qiao Ruoning received required candidates to cut a relatively standard piece of wheat ear yellow throat within 18 minutes.

Since the beef throat used in the competition is sliced ​​into pieces of 2-4cm, 18 minutes is considered quite ample time.

Even if you make two mistakes, it's still enough to make a third one.

After all, it's just a preliminary selection process, so the difficulty of the questions won't be too outrageous. Otherwise, if they were to give us a simple test, the contestants would basically be eliminated.

But "蓑衣黄瓜" is different.

Normally, the standard for a beginner making "cucumber with a straw raincoat" is 70 to 80 cuts on both sides, which is a total of 160 cuts.

对于一个“华1级”厨师来说，切一条的时间在7~8分钟左右，“华2级”能压缩到6分钟内。

At this point, the maximum that 160 dollars can achieve is 2.5 times, which is just enough to qualify as "Hua 1 level".

If you make a mistake, there's no going back unless you cut incredibly fast.
Xia Ming pressed the bell just 1 minute and 47 seconds after the exam questions were released. Assuming the price was $160, that means he earned $1.5 per second.

This can no longer be described as "skilled with a knife"; it is definitely "exquisite".

Thinking of this, the middle-aged proctor frowned.

"They wouldn't be here on purpose to cause trouble, would they? Come with me, let's go see what this 'straw raincoat cucumber' is all about."

Just as the middle-aged proctor was walking towards Xia Ming's stove, the surveillance camera in the room also turned in that direction.

"New Chef Competition, in the Control Room"

Because thousands of people need to be accommodated for the preliminary selection at the same time, and the competition venues are numerous and varied, it is difficult to guarantee the quality of the live broadcast from the main perspective if we rely on human perspective to make the judgment.

Therefore, the broadcast of this "New Chef Competition" incorporated the latest version of "Doubao x Leijianling AI" for support.

With the help of this AI, the camera will automatically capture the "interesting" parts as determined by the backend, and classify them according to the situation, switching and pushing the queuing perspective accordingly.

This greatly reduces the cost of manpower monitoring and makes the entire broadcast of the game smoother.

After all, viewers are watching a live stream, not a documentary!
If a scene involving tens of thousands of people is not approached from "several points," it will inevitably turn into a disaster.

To this end, the staff accurately identified 88 "star contestants" from among more than 8 participants.

When judging contestants on camera, "celebrity contestants" have priority over ordinary people. This can be considered a kind of hidden resource allocation, but for the sake of the overall situation, this approach is indeed more in line with reality.

The list that "Shi Ping Dao" obtained earlier was actually the list of these "star players".

But he was also careful; of the 88 contestants, he only released 50, leaving the other 38 unlisted.

Guan Chongyun is the "star player" who received invisible support. Although some people recognize Qiao Ruoning, she is not actually on the list. It's just that her disguise is too obvious.

Xia Ming, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.
At this moment, the camera that was originally broadcasting the scene of Guan Chongyun wielding the broadsword, determined that Xia Ming had handed in his paper early, so it also shifted its view to Xia Ming.

Subsequently, it will automatically calculate the popularity of netizens during the live broadcast and use the most rigorous data to determine whether to switch scenes.

Netizens were initially watching the swordplay, but then they were surprised to find Xia Ming submitting his paper in just over a minute, and they started discussing it amongst themselves.

What's this guy doing? He finished his exam in just over a minute! He's a culinary genius reincarnated!

[The questions must have been quite easy; I saw someone hand in their paper in just two minutes on the slice-writing section.]

[I saw that too. The final cut wasn't great, but it seems like they barely passed.] [It's the preliminary round, so it's normal for the questions to be a bit basic, considering there are several more rounds of selection later.]

Just as netizens were chatting, the middle-aged proctor came to Xia Ming's side.

At this moment, Xia Ming had already put away the knife, and a whole cucumber was placed on the table.

The middle-aged proctor first instinctively estimated the length of the cucumber to be about 30cm, and then paused in surprise.

The cucumber in front of me showed no signs of being cut; its skin was intact and it looked fresh and juicy.

The middle-aged proctor glanced at Xia Ming, his eyes clearly conveying an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?"

Xia Ming, seeing this, was not in a hurry and gestured for the proctor to touch the cucumber first.

The middle-aged proctor reached out his hand with a suspicious look. When his hand touched the cucumber, he only slightly moved it, and a small crack appeared at the end of the cucumber.

"this???"

The middle-aged proctor couldn't believe it. He instinctively wanted to utter a slang term, but then suddenly remembered that he was both a proctor and a judge.

As the invigilator, he was not allowed to make any noise while the other candidates were taking the exam.
So, the instant he uttered the word "this," he abruptly shut his mouth and swallowed the rest of the word back.

Then he took a deep breath and looked at the cucumber in front of him.

At this moment, a small crack had appeared at the end of the cucumber, through which the pale green cucumber flesh could be vaguely seen. Just by looking at the location of this crack, the middle-aged proctor felt that he had encountered a tough opponent.

He rubbed his hands together, then picked up the cucumber by the tail and gently pulled it back.

In his hand, the whole cucumber instantly transformed into a light ribbon, casting a green glow along the direction of his arm's movement.

In the blink of an eye, this 30cm cucumber was stretched to more than half a meter long, but looking at the lengthened part, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The middle-aged proctor turned his head to look at his right hand, which was pulled to the side of his face. Under the incandescent light, the cucumber-like part of the cover was so thin that it was translucent, and it was perfectly neat.

He couldn't help but shiver, then turned his gaze to the fat proctor beside him, and pointed his left finger at the head of the cucumber.

The fat proctor was much younger and of a lower rank than the middle-aged proctor. He had never seen such a "cucumber in a raincoat" before and was stunned on the spot.

It took him a few seconds to react before he reached out shakily to grab the cucumber head.

Judging from his actions, it didn't seem like he was taking an assessment; rather, it looked more like he was touching a fragile crystal ball.

Xia Ming didn't reach out at all. He had unparalleled confidence in his knife skills. As long as the two proctors followed the normal procedures, there was no way there would be any problems.

Off-camera, netizens were even more taken aback by the middle-aged proctor's latte art.

【Huh? A cucumber wrapped in a straw raincoat?】

[Holy crap, that must be over half a meter tall! What kind of technology is that?!]

[That's not the worst part. He finished in less than two minutes! I couldn't even cut it as fast as a special machine for cutting straw raincoats!]

Calm down. I work in the kitchen equipment industry. All I can say is that machines can cut faster, but they simply can't cut that thin.

The middle-aged proctor's actions have immediately aroused endless anticipation among netizens.

By zooming in, you can see that a large part of Xia Ming's cutting board has not been fully stretched. At this moment, they are all wondering how long this cucumber can be stretched.

Not only netizens, but even the middle-aged proctor standing nearby was unsure how things were going.
Because, based on his internal estimation, the cucumber in front of him was very likely cut to be over 1.2 meters long.
What does this mean? It means that a 30cm cucumber "expanded" four times its original size after being processed for more than 1 minute and 40 seconds.
What's even more impressive is that the joints between the slices are incredibly resilient, meaning that each slice of cucumber is cut perfectly neatly, even better than a machine.

Just as he was guessing, the fat proctor next to him finally picked up the cucumber head.

Then, as his hand waved in mid-air, his head split into tiny pieces of straw raincoat, and in the blink of an eye, he ran more than half a meter away.

However, in the middle of the stretching, a small portion was not extended.

The middle-aged proctor finally breathed a sigh of relief.
4 times?
No no no.
In this scenario, the guaranteed growth rate is at least 5 times, or even 6 times.
Thinking that I, a "Level 4" chef, could only cut the slices to 4-5 times their original size, I couldn't help but laugh for some reason.

Just now, he had momentarily thought Xia Ming was a clown, but now it seemed that it was he who had turned red as a ball.

"Where did these freaks come from? Sometimes the difference between people is even greater than the difference between people and dogs."

With a sigh in his heart, the middle-aged proctor casually switched the tail part he was holding in his right hand to his left, and then carefully lifted the middle part into the air with his right hand.

As the very center of the cucumber was fully stretched, the middle-aged proctor estimated that the final length of the cucumber would be over 1.5 meters.

Based on his many years of teaching and practical experience, to achieve this length, the cucumber would need to be cut more than 500 times on both sides.
The middle-aged proctor, having finished his calculations, was completely stunned, with only a trembling voice echoing in his mind.

“1分47秒，切了500多刀按照时间计算1秒钟下刀4.8到5次.”

"Is this really something a human could do?"

(End of this chapter)