This world was ruled by the strong.
The weak could only be brutally beaten down by reality when they fought back, whether they were human or not.
The boundary between life and death was often crossed in an instant.
For example, in a corner of the forest, a human was now surrounded by a huge herd of wild boars.
The herd, made up of pigs with pink bodies and vivid, magma-like red markings along their backs, had surrounded a candidate and was closing in step by step.
The candidate clutched a treasure chest tightly in one hand and held a knife in the other.
Faced with the charging wild boars, he had slashed at them a few times, only to realize he couldn't hurt them at all. So he turned and ran.
To an onlooker, the scene looked rather comical.
"Do these wild boars smell a little too delicious...?" Su Wu hovered in midair, watching everything below with clear eyes. His sense of smell was exceptionally sharp, too.
Had Sukuna somehow improved his sense of smell? Was this the nose of a true glutton?
Otherwise, how could he smell the scent of roasted meat coming from the herd of running wild boars dozens of meters below?
And the faster they ran, the more delicious they smelled.
The candidate below gradually slowed down. A dazed, intoxicated expression spread across his face, and drool even trickled from the corner of his mouth. He looked almost foolish.
As he slowed, the herd of wild boars charged straight into him.
They sent him flying into the air. Before he could land, the massive, heavy boars leaped after him with their thick, short legs, piled onto him, then crashed back to the ground.
Before he could even let out a scream, the candidate died in his intoxicated state. The bloodstained treasure chest fell to one side.
A pale hand, with two black stripes around the wrist, picked it up.
"I see. The smell they give off bewilders people..." Su Wu held the treasure chest in one hand and looked at the pigs around him.
The herd grew restless at the sight of another two-legged creature. Their hooves pawed at the grass as if preparing to charge.
Their eyes were bloodshot, and they were seething with rage.
They smelled even more delicious now.
Got it. They were tempting him. What considerate pigs.
"I'll kill one and see how it tastes. If it's good, I can raise them and slaughter them whenever I want." Su Wu's index finger twitched slightly as he held the treasure chest.
The nearest wild boar was instantly sliced into dozens of pork-chop-shaped pieces.
The eyes of the other wild boars, which had been bloodshot just moments before, cleared considerably when they saw their companion die. Their hooves stopped scraping restlessly at the ground, too.
A man and a herd of pigs stared at each other for a moment. Then the wild boars turned and ran.
"Can I eat it as is?" Su Wu didn't chase after them. He simply looked down at the pork on the ground, its grain clearly visible.
These pigs really knew how to make themselves appealing.
The meat was pink and evenly marbled with fat. They even roasted themselves, and the doneness was just right—medium-well.
One bite, and there was no unnecessary flavor, just the meat itself and a hint of sweetness from some kind of fruit?
These pigs were herbivores. They probably ate grass and fruit from the forest.
Wasn't this the perfect ingredient?
Juicy and tender, and it didn't get stuck in his teeth.
"I'll call them Roasted Fragrant Pigs." After finishing an entire pig, Su Wu decided with great satisfaction.
They were exactly what their name suggested: pigs roasted until they smelled delicious.
"Mm, I'm about seventy percent full." He rubbed his stomach and estimated.
He could add them to his recipe collection and figure out how to raise them.
He'd serve the examiners Roasted Fragrant Pig tomorrow morning. He could just slice it up; no need to cook it himself.
Perfect.
Early the next morning, Su Wu carried sliced pork on a large lotus leaf—which he'd plucked from the head of a giant frog in a forest lake—to the examiners' rest area.
On the way, he ran into quite a few other candidates carrying things of their own, acting all mysterious.
Half a night had passed, but the number of candidates hadn't noticeably decreased.
The three examiners were already sitting behind an extra-long table, waiting to eat.
One dish after another was placed on the table, only to be met with one declaration after another: "Disqualified."
"What is this you've made? Poison?"
"You didn't even remove the fish scales or the innards. Do you really think anyone would want to eat this?"
"What is this? It's all vegetables? I don't see any effort at all."
"Are you stupid? That mushroom obviously looks poisonous!"
When Su Wu confidently brought his roasted meat up, the verdict he received was, "Completely disqualified."
"Do you think we're wild animals? You didn't do anything at all. You just sliced up the Roasted Fragrant Pig, didn't you?"
"Absolutely no effort. Definitely disqualified."
"Only wild animals could stomach something like this."
The three examiners tasted a bite, then spoke with utterly picky expressions.
The White-haired boy stood there with his head lowered, his expression inscrutable.
The fingers of the hand by his leg lifted, then lowered again.
Ah, hold it in.
I can't kill the examiners.
His face darkened as he turned around and stood nearby, watching to see if anyone else would pass.
A man with vivid red hair presented his grilled fish and, just as expected, got torn apart for it.
"Disgusting. Even a dog wouldn't eat your grilled fish," Bindo said with a smiling face.
He seemed to know Hisoka.
The criticism he voiced was even harsher than what he'd said to the others.
Su Wu saw an eerie smile appear on Hisoka's face. The playing cards in his hand seemed eager to fly, but in the end, he held back, just as Su Wu had.
Two siblings with ram's horns on their heads and strange clothing also placed their food—a plate of assorted grasses—on the examiners' table.
"You can't eat this grass!"
"Disqualified!"
Hutori slammed the table angrily, as if he were furious.
But those two weren't human, so maybe grass was what they ate... After all, they did have ram's horns on their heads...
Su Wu's objective inner commentary continued.
A blond boy appeared in front of the examiners with his own dish: a grilled fish.
"It smells pretty good..."
"It tastes good, too."
"It has the aroma of apples, herbs, and mushrooms..."
"I stuffed apple slices, mushrooms, and herbs into the fish. I also used apple branches as firewood for grilling it..." The blond boy with a bowl cut explained his method shyly.
"You pass," the three examiners announced in unison.
So that was how it worked. He could do that...
Joyful, confident smiles appeared on the faces of many candidates.
"Don't think you can copy someone else's answer. If you serve us the same grilled fish next time, we'll disqualify you, too," Hutori warned coldly.
His blunt words made quite a few candidates abandon their plans to copy someone else.
What a difficult bunch of people.
By the end of the morning, eighty percent of the candidates wanted to kill the examiners, while the rest had been put through the wringer as well.
The only one to receive a passing grade—the blond boy—had already become prey in the eyes of quite a few people.
They might not know how to cook, but surely someone did?
All they had to do was catch him and make him cook for them, right?
As it happened, Su Wu had the same idea.
Sukuna had Rime to cook for him, and when Gojo Satoru was little, he even had a personal attendant to hold an umbrella for him.
He was Gojo Sukuna. It was perfectly reasonable for him to find a cook, wasn't it?
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