National destiny: Global tower climbing skills have decreased by 10,000 times.

The chef leaned back in his chair, his mind racing.

There are only two possibilities in this situation: either this person is a truly gifted random player who had a perfect start and just happened to beat him.

If not, then there is only one other possibility left—this person cheated.

However, as a streamer with millions of followers who had been in the business for many years, he quickly calmed down and analyzed the situation.

He soon realized that either possibility was a good thing for him.

If there really is a "genius teenager," he can publicly challenge others in the live broadcast room, connecting for a 1v1 duel, which would be a huge entertainment opportunity.

If he's just a cheater, then his live stream can be a perfect opportunity to expose him, making for an equally explosive show.

Regardless of the situation, as long as he treats it as a script and follows it, it will be beneficial for him.

And here comes a sudden surge of popularity, doesn't it?

He readjusted the microphone, his smile immediately vanished, and he adopted a serious expression tinged with displeasure.

"Brothers, I just asked around."

His voice deepened: "This guy called 'Hei Xi ceal' is neither a professional player nor a streamer's smurf account. Nobody knows him."

The comments section immediately followed the rhythm:

"That must be a passerby?"

"A random passerby? Could there really be a child prodigy?"

"Which random person can break the chef's record?"

"It's probably cheating, right?"

The chef sighed, his tone tinged with grievance:

"I've been playing Spectator for three years, and I've played at least a hundred games on A4 before I finally achieved that record. Now some random player has come along and surpassed it in just one game—do you believe it?"

The live chat exploded with excitement:

"Who would believe that?"

"He's definitely cheating! Or he's exploiting a bug to artificially inflate his stats."

"Report! Report!"

"Post his name out. I want to see who's so arrogant as to try and scam the God of Cookery."

"Let him stream it live! Let's see if he can pull it off a second time!"

As the chef watched the live stream's popularity jump from 1,200 to 1,800 and continue to climb, he felt secretly pleased.

……

Inside the hotel, Ye Fei was still watching a television program.

"Sir, your signature rice bowl is ready. Please enjoy it here."

Ye Fei took the rice bowl without turning his head, picked up his chopsticks automatically, but kept his eyes fixed on the TV.

The host tilted his head slightly and softened his tone:

"Could you tell us more specifically? Before the competition, the outside world expected the Chinese team to finish in the top five, or even secure a top-four finish and strive for a top-three finish. Where do you think things went wrong?"

Ling Xiao remained silent for a few seconds, his hands gripping the table, his knuckles turning slightly white.

"The biggest problem is that our understanding of faulty robots is too shallow." His voice was low and his tone was heavy, as if he was carefully choosing each word.

"Although we have put a lot of effort into the development of fault-tolerant robot systems, we found that we are still far from the world's top level when we got to the competition."

"Especially the teams from Korea and the United States, their understanding of this role is much deeper than ours. Whether it's the rhythm of the ball system or the timing of activating ability cards, they are far ahead."

He paused, then continued, "Secondly, we haven't developed the Crown Prince enough. We're still in the exploratory stage regarding the issue of 'rapidly developing the sword-forging method.'"

"In addition, there are some issues with the synergy between the Warrior and the Necromancer in the support role; the team's coordination is still not good enough..."

The host nodded: "So, what new plans does the Dragon Nation team have for next year's national competition?"

Ling Xiao took a deep breath: "We'll conduct a comprehensive review when we get back. We'll catch up to the world's top-tier standards for faulty robots as soon as possible, increase our development of the Crown Prince, and provide targeted training for the support staff to address their coordination issues..."

The questions the host asked afterwards were mostly about things like the upcoming competition schedule, team adjustments, and the development of new talent; there wasn't anything particularly interesting about that.

The diners in the restaurant picked up their chopsticks again and began to discuss:

"Sigh, another malfunctioning robot." The young man with glasses in the corner shook his head, picked up a piece of braised pork, stuffed it into his mouth, and mumbled indistinctly:

"We keep saying that the robot's understanding of malfunctions is lacking, and we've been saying that for years, but it hasn't caught up."

His friend across from him chimed in:

"What can we do? The United States has already developed the third generation of tactics, while we're still stuck in the second generation. This isn't something we can catch up with overnight."

"But we can't keep failing to reach the finals every year," the bespectacled young man sighed. "Oh well, as long as we stay in the league, that's fine. We'll see next year."

The middle-aged man by the window put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and said to the people at the table:

"I think Ling Xiao is at least quite honest. He admits his mistakes and corrects them, which is better than those who are stubborn even after losing."

"That's true." The person at the table nodded. "The young people on the Zixia team have a good attitude, but their skills are still lacking."

"Let's take it slow. The Dragon Kingdom's political circle has made progress over the years, at least in terms of the crown prince, it's much stronger than before."

"Yes, yes, no matter what, that's our own Chinese team. As long as they're improving, we'll support them no matter what!"

"That's true, I'll always support you anyway."

"..."

Ye Fei kept his head down, eating his rice, but his ears were always perked up, listening to every word of the discussion.

Is China's professional football team ranked seventh globally?

Despite expending a great deal of effort, it still fails to reach world-class standards?

These words were perfectly normal, but to him they sounded strange and amusing.

Is there a gap in the understanding of faulty robots?

Is the development of the heir apparent still insufficient?

Is there a problem with the team's support players' coordination?

Ye Fei shook his head, shoveled the last bite of rice into his mouth, and then left the restaurant.

Haha, interesting!

Back home, Ye Fei took a quick shower, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He had had too much to do all day, and he was really tired.

Fortunately, I had no dreams that night.

The next morning, Ye Fei was woken up by a message notification on his phone.

"Beep beep beep beep beep—"

A series of notification sounds rang incessantly, like a death knell, and the phone vibrated incessantly, causing the bedside table to tremble slightly.

Ye Fei squinted, groggily reaching for his phone. It was a message notification from "Tayu Information".

He clicked on it and was almost startled; the red number in the private message section had somehow changed to "99+".

And as time goes by, this number continues to rise rapidly.

"What happened?"

He paused for a moment, rubbed his eyes, and opened his private message list.

Article :

"Cheater! Do you think someone as bad as you can beat this guy? You'll get banned soon!"

Article :

"Is cheating fun? The chef already said you're definitely using cheats."

Article :

"Breaking a record in one go? Who would believe that? Just delete the account already, don't embarrass yourself."

Ye Fei scrolled down line by line, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"Get the dog out of the tower circle!"

"I've already reported it. You're welcome."

"The Chef's fan club has come to visit and, if we may be so bold as to ask: Is cheating fun?"

"You think you're worthy of trying to scam the God of Cookery?"

He scrolled through more than a dozen entries and roughly figured out what was going on.

Cai Chu, the strongest "observer" in the Dragon Kingdom, was surpassed by him on the leaderboard just yesterday.

He exited private messages, opened the homepage, and saw a prominent post title in the popular section, posted just last night—

Spire Exclusive: "Teenager Prodigy" Surpasses Chef's Three-Year Record Overnight—Cheating or Reality?

The post detailed his ranking record: from A0 to A4, he made it onto the list for all five levels, and with A4, he directly topped the list in China.

Below was a screenshot of Cai Chu's live stream, captioned "The number one observer in China seems to be losing his position."

Ye Fei opened the comments section, and the comment with the most likes was:

"How about you play it live again? Let everyone see your true skill level. Don't hide behind the leaderboard and just rely on cheating to boost your score."

The following comments were unanimously in agreement:

"Live stream +1!"

"Let him broadcast it!"

"The fact that they dare not broadcast it means they have a guilty conscience; the cheating is confirmed."

"Chef Cai said he's willing to watch the whole thing and appreciate your moves frame by frame."

There are a few even harsher ones:

"If I could achieve this score in front of thousands of people, I'd eat the game right now!"

"Stop dreaming, a cheater like him wouldn't dare to stream."

"I suggest the authorities check his backend data; it will immediately tell if he cheated..."

Ye Fei stared at the screen, remaining silent for a long time.

He threw his phone on the bed, looked up at the ceiling, and took a deep breath.

Cheating? Using hacks?

Such achievements are something anyone could easily accomplish. Do you need to cheat to achieve them?

Just then, his phone rang with a new friend request.

He clicked on it and saw that the name of the person who had added him as a friend was:

————『Vegetable Chef』.