If It's Not Disabled, Is It Enabled?

Now, forget about showing off any manly spirit in front of Officer Sato—he would be lucky not to get laughed at.

A petty person might have taken it out on Yin Kong, but Takagi clearly was not that kind of person. He could only keep sighing inwardly, and the envy in his eyes was entirely genuine.

And for some reason, he suddenly found Yin Kong much more approachable.

It was as if he had gone from being a stranger they had merely crossed paths with to an old friend he got along with quite well.

Sato Miwako also leaned over and curiously touched Yin Kong's arm.

Then she discovered in surprise that while there was indeed a muscular outline beneath Yin Kong's clothes, he looked nothing like the musclebound freak she had imagined.

"Yeah. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd never believe something this outrageous. How did you do it?"

Yin Kong was in a fairly good mood. Although those thirty-five points of Affection EXP had probably gone to waste, Primogems, Mora, and ore were all things he urgently needed. Naturally, he did not mind the minor groping.

"Maybe I was born with immense strength."

That was a lie. Such unbelievable strength could not possibly have been innate.

This was one of the fruits of his hard work over the past two months.

Although the system's character panel did not have a Strength stat, Yin Kong had long discovered that whenever attributes such as his Attack increased, his physical strength and speed would improve to a certain degree as well.

Likewise, whenever his maximum HP increased, his physique and endurance would also be affected.

By now, with all sorts of bonuses, his Attack had already surpassed one hundred points. Compared to the less than ten points he had had when he first arrived in this world, it had increased by more than tenfold.

His strength had not increased tenfold to such an absurd extent, but there was no doubt that it had long surpassed the limits of ordinary people.

"I'm Treasure Tsuruma, the owner of this restaurant. Thank you, the three of you, for your help just now."

While Yin Kong, Takagi, and Sato were chatting, the ramen shop owner quickly came over as well.

He spoke sincerely. Not only did he waive the three of their bills outright, he also said they could get thirty percent off whenever they came here in the future.

"What an enthusiastic owner. What's wrong, Yin Kong?"

After Treasure Tsuruma left, Takagi noticed Yin Kong's expression amid his own admiration.

His new friend, who somehow felt like an old friend, was staring silently at Treasure Tsuruma's retreating back, seemingly lost in thought.

"Owner Treasure... no, it's nothing."

Yin Kong shook his head. Of course, he could not tell them that the number of [Head Spiders] on the man seemed to be the highest in the entire shop.

One of them was even perched directly atop Treasure Tsuruma's head, driving a pair of sharp venomous fangs deep into his brain.

Based on the experience he had accumulated so far, those ghosts and monsters should be unable to harm humans before receiving a response. Still, such a bizarre sight inevitably made Yin Kong frown.

Could it be that, because he was the owner here, he was especially beloved by these [Head Spiders]?

As Yin Kong pondered, the contest finally began.

What surprised him slightly was that Treasure Tsuruma had not chosen some terrifying flavor like devil chili to raise the difficulty, as Takagi had heard.

The ramen used in this contest was perfectly ordinary tonkotsu ramen.

"I can't do this anymore."

Thus, after finishing her second bowl of ramen, Sato was the first to declare herself "defeated."

As for Takagi, he only barely held on through his third bowl before he had no strength left to continue.

"Was it still too much?"

Takagi looked around and saw that the number of empty bowls in front of some people had already reached five, even six.

He immediately clenched his fists and began cheering on Yin Kong, the last hope of their trio.

"Yin Kong, you have to win!"

Sato, on the other hand, noticed that Yin Kong looked somewhat strained and comforted him.

"Don't say that, Takagi. You need to know your limits in a contest like this. It's better not to push yourself too hard."

In her experience, there were no shortage of cases where people had gotten into trouble from overeating.

Yin Kong merely shook his head and explained, "Don't worry. I'm just not used to the flavors here."

That was another lie. In truth, he simply did not like eating out.

Not because of the flavor, but because—

"Can you see it? You can see it, right?"

When a furry little "cutie" crawled into your bowl with a scraping sound and warmly offered you its most sincere greetings, surely anyone would instantly lose all appetite, right?

For that reason, Yin Kong had not eaten outside in a long time.

He just had not expected that the one time he made an exception, he would run into such an awful situation.

Takagi scratched his head, completely oblivious, and said in surprise, "The flavor? I think this place is pretty good."

Even though it was ramen for a competition, the taste was not half-hearted at all.

However, once they remembered that Yin Kong was actually a foreigner, the two of them understood.

Yin Kong was somewhat relieved. Chatting with Takagi and Sato at least helped distract him a little.

After receiving no response at all, the [Head Spider] finally grew tired of him, hopped off his table, and began searching for a new target.

Yin Kong's expression finally relaxed, and he had a chance to focus on the food before him.

Six bowls, seven bowls...

By the eighth bowl, ordinary spectators like Takagi had basically all been eliminated.

Even the remaining "professional contestants" had gradually slowed down.

After all, eating was quite physically demanding too.

Yet Yin Kong alone maintained an unusually steady pace, gradually catching up to and even surpassing the leaders.

Eleven bowls, twelve bowls...

Other than Yin Kong, only four contestants remained.

But these four were clearly elites among elites. Their endurance and fighting spirit were enough to astonish everyone present.

Even so, humans had their limits.

After the seventeenth bowl, they too began to show signs of exhaustion.

In the end, when the last mountain-sized competitor crashed to the ground, the entire contest finally came to an end.

"Is it over?"

"Y-Yes!" Looking at Yin Kong, who had not even broken a sweat, Treasure Tsuruma finally snapped out of it and announced in disbelief, "Let us congratulate Mr. Yin Kong on winning this competition!"

Takagi and Sato applauded vigorously, proud as if they had won themselves, while staring in disbelief at the towering stack of empty bowls before Yin Kong.

Wasn't this too ridiculous?

The two estimated that all that ramen combined weighed at least fifteen kilograms, yet Yin Kong looked perfectly fine. His stomach had not even bulged in the slightest.

Especially seeing how effortlessly Yin Kong had handled it, Takagi could not help asking softly, "Say, Yin Kong, you can't still eat more, can you?"

"It's not that exaggerated. I'm actually ninety percent full already."

That was not a lie. If Takagi could see Yin Kong's character panel, he would find that his Satiety was indeed nearly full.

But sometimes, something not being a lie did not mean it was the truth.

Because Satiety in Genshin Impact actually recovered very quickly.

It might take less than ten minutes to go from completely full back to normal.

Of course, ten minutes was actually a very long time in the game.

Unless it was a Local Legend, most battles could basically be finished within half a minute.

Even the twelfth floor of the Spiral Abyss, which tested a player's character investment the most, took less than ten minutes in total for all three chambers at full stars.

But in reality, such a digestion speed was undoubtedly absurd.

Simply put, after Yin Kong finished his fourth bowl of ramen, his Satiety reached ninety percent. Yet before he finished the fifth bowl, it had already recovered to seventy percent.

In other words, as long as he maintained this pace, his Satiety would keep bouncing between ninety and seventy percent.

This was the truth of never being able to reach fullness!

Without that, Yin Kong would not have been so confident.

"Urgh—!"

However, just as everyone was applauding enthusiastically, Kuroda Taro, who was standing among the crowd with an unwilling expression, suddenly collapsed to the ground and began struggling violently.

He clutched his throat with all his strength, his limbs convulsing wildly as though he were drowning. The food he had just eaten kept pouring out of his mouth.

Only a few seconds later, Kuroda Taro stopped struggling altogether.

"This—"

The moment Yin Kong saw this, a bad feeling rose within him.

"Sir, what's wrong? Are you all right?" After asking several times without receiving any response, Takagi could not help looking at Sato. "Could it be food poisoning? Should we call an ambulance?"

Sato checked the man's breathing and pulse with a grave expression, then shook her head.

"No need. He's already dead."

Then she pulled out her badge, held it up before her, and shouted at the shocked crowd.

"We're police officers. Please don't move around, everyone, because this is very likely a case of deliberate murder!"

Chapter 5: If It Wasn't Off, Then It Was On?

"The deceased was Kuroda Taro, male, thirty-four years old, a professional sumo wrestler..."

Not long after Takagi and Sato secured the scene, their superior, the broad-minded and stout Inspector Megure, arrived with the wail of police sirens and began summarizing the case.

"The cause of death was cyanide poisoning. Toxic residue was found in the ramen bowl, so this was undoubtedly a deliberate murder case."

No wonder it topped Beika Town's must-eat rankings.

Yin Kong sat in the suspect area, quietly listening to Inspector Megure's analysis of the case without the slightest change in expression.

It was worth mentioning that Takagi and Sato were sitting there with him as well, doing nothing.

Though they were police officers, they had not been ruled out as suspects either.

Or rather, precisely because they were police officers, they should avoid suspicion even more under these circumstances.

"According to the preliminary investigation, three people had direct contact with the victim's ramen during the entire process: the chef, Mr. Yamagami Osamu; the waitress, Miss Yazaki Nobuko; and Mr. Asamura Tsukasa, who is also a professional sumo wrestler and had just argued with the deceased."

It really was the Detective Conan set. Things had already fast-forwarded to the three-suspect stage.

In fact, because he had just thoroughly beaten up Kuroda Taro, Yin Kong's suspicion was not exactly small either.

However, because he had absolutely no opportunity to touch the man's ramen, he was quickly ruled out as a suspect.

[Daily Quest: The Real Culprit].

Yin Kong truly had not expected that one tiny ramen shop could provide him with two Daily Quests in succession.

Even if they were only Daily Quests, Yin Kong obviously was not in any position to be picky.

His scrutinizing gaze immediately fell on the three main suspects.

First, Yamagami Osamu, the chef, could basically be ruled out.

Unless it had been a random killing, although he prepared the ramen, he had no way to control whose table the poisoned ramen would be delivered to.

Yazaki Nobuko, the waitress, on the other hand, had an opportunity to poison it while serving the food.

Yazaki Nobuko naturally understood that as well. Yin Kong felt she was so nervous she was about to cry.

"Officer, I really didn't kill anyone... I don't even know him. Why would I want to kill him?"

Inspector Megure neither confirmed nor denied it. Based on their current investigation, Yazaki Nobuko and the victim truly had not known each other at all.