Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Haruto continued deeper into the passage.

The inside of the Regal Mammoth was like an enormous maze, with twisting corridors and branching paths everywhere.

One wrong turn could leave him hopelessly lost, so every so often, he used his kitchen knife to carve a mark into the fleshy wall.

Fortunately, food was never a problem.

Whenever he got hungry, he simply cut off another piece of the wall, roasted it over his alcohol stove, and seasoned it with salt ground from the Salt Oranges.

Every meal tasted like something from a world-class restaurant.

For water, he relied on the supply he had brought with him.

In this way, Haruto spent two full days navigating the Regal Mammoth’s body.

It was not entirely without danger.

On the second day, he encountered another parasite—a monstrous creature nearly twenty meters long and a meter thick, resembling some kind of prehistoric python.

Fortunately, it merely glanced at him before slithering away.

Thinking back on it afterward, Haruto supposed that made sense.

Compared to the flesh of the Regal Mammoth, there was probably nothing appetizing about him.

Still, the encounter proved that his earlier assumption had been wrong. The mammoth’s body was far from completely safe.

Early on the third morning, Haruto rounded another corner and suddenly found the passage ahead flooded with light.

At the same time, an impossibly rich aroma rushed toward him, so dense it almost felt tangible.

It was unlike anything he had smelled before—deep, elegant, and intoxicating, as though every delicious flavor in the world had been distilled into a single fragrance.

Even the finest perfume would have seemed dull beside it.

One breath was enough to send a shiver through his soul and magnify his hunger a hundredfold.

"It’s Jewel Meat!"

Haruto’s eyes lit up, and he broke into a run toward the source of the glow.

After squeezing through one final narrow passage, he emerged into a wide chamber.

At its center stood a huge, rounded mass of meat over two meters tall.

A thin golden radiance covered its surface, making it sparkle as though dusted with powdered gold.

Juices slowly rolled down its sides, each glistening like a precious gem before striking the floor with a clear, delicate drip.

...

Haruto’s breathing quickened.

For several long moments, he could only stand there, staring at the Jewel Meat as though his feet had been nailed to the ground.

Eventually, he approached with trembling steps and drew his kitchen knife. He pressed the blade gently against its surface.

The instant it broke through the outer layer, an even richer burst of fragrance filled the chamber.

Haruto’s head spun, leaving him feeling almost drunk.

He cut away a small piece and cradled it in his palm. Its warm weight made his heart hammer against his ribs.

The meat shimmered with the rainbow sheen of mother-of-pearl, while the juices running between its fibers looked like molten amber.

Haruto swallowed hard.

He could not hold himself back any longer!

Opening his mouth, he sank his teeth into it.

The moment they pierced the Jewel Meat, Haruto felt as though he had been dragged into a whirlpool of flavor.

Warm juices burst across his tongue first, carrying a taste so layered and complex that he could barely comprehend it.

With the first few chews came the soft, juicy tenderness of fillet.

Then the rich sweetness of marbled sirloin fat melted across his tongue.

As he continued chewing, it developed the hearty texture and satisfying spring of shoulder meat, followed by the long, lingering depth found only in the finest organ meats.

There was also the savory richness of pork, the full-bodied flavor of beef, the delicacy of lamb, and the clean freshness of fish.

It was as though every virtue of every kind of meat had been brought together in one perfect bite.

Countless flavors bloomed across his tongue, while an indescribable sense of satisfaction spread through his entire body.

Even his pores seemed to relax beneath the pleasure.

Haruto completely lost himself in the legendary taste of the Treasure of the Ancient World.

"So good... This is way too good..."

His mouth still full, Haruto could barely get the words out.

Tears slipped from the corners of his eyes—not from sadness, but from sheer happiness and fulfillment.

He had never imagined food could taste this incredible.

In that moment, all his fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty vanished beneath the overwhelming pleasure of the Jewel Meat!

...

Lost in its flavor, Haruto began chewing at a speed far beyond what any ordinary person should have been capable of.

His throat swallowed almost on its own, and the Jewel Meat in his hands rapidly disappeared.

What he did not realize was that an extraordinary transformation had already begun inside his body.

A faint golden light appeared within him.

At its center was a strange golden cell, less than a micrometer in diameter, yet radiating an astonishing amount of energy.

It had originated from the highly active Gourmet Cells contained within the Jewel Meat.

The moment that single Gourmet Cell awakened inside Haruto..... it displayed terrifying aggression.

His ordinary cells were completely helpless against it, like ants standing before an elephant.

The Gourmet Cell gave the slightest tremor, and the surrounding cells were drawn toward it as though caught in the pull of a black hole.

One after another, they were broken down and consumed.

At the same time, the Jewel Meat Haruto had swallowed was being converted at incredible speed within his digestive system.

Vast amounts of energy surged toward the Gourmet Cell like molten lava.

Nourished by that energy, the cell began to change rapidly.

Only three seconds later, it completed its first division.

One Gourmet Cell became two.

The pair immediately continued devouring the ordinary cells around them, along with the tremendous energy supplied by the Jewel Meat.

The moment the second cell appeared, both began dividing again without pause.

A second division.

Then a third.

A fourth...

...

The Gourmet Cells multiplied faster and faster, spreading through Haruto’s body like wildfire.

Everywhere they reached, his ordinary cells were either absorbed or transformed.

His blood vessels widened.

His bones were rebuilt.

His muscle fibers were rewoven into something denser, tougher, and far more powerful.

Haruto’s body temperature gradually climbed, and sweat soaked through his clothes.

Yet he remained so absorbed in the taste of the Jewel Meat that he noticed none of it.

The tremendous energy being consumed by the transformation created an equally tremendous hunger, driving him to keep tearing into the Jewel Meat and feeding the changes taking place inside him.

It was a silent evolution, but also a struggle between life and death.

The Gourmet Cells had first been discovered by the Gourmet God Acacia within the Phantom Jellyfish of the deep sea, but in truth, they had already become inseparable from the natural order of this world.

They could push a living being to an entirely new level of existence, but they also possessed an appetite as voracious as any demon’s.

Haruto’s original cells were far too weak to resist such highly active Gourmet Cells.

Without enough energy to sustain them, the cells would soon turn on him and devour his entire body from within.

Fortunately, the Jewel Meat before him was the perfect source of nourishment.

Known as the Treasure of the Ancient World, Jewel Meat not only combined the finest qualities of every kind of meat, but also contained an immense reserve of energy—exactly what Haruto needed to survive this dangerous cellular rebirth.

Haruto had no idea how much time had passed.

Eventually, a heavy sense of fullness settled over him. He finally stopped chewing and let out a deeply satisfied burp.

By then, the Gourmet Cells had finished rebuilding his entire body.

They no longer divided wildly. Instead, they spread evenly throughout him, working together like the gears of an impossibly precise machine.

The remaining energy was stored away, becoming the foundation that would sustain his newly transformed body.

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