"Time! Five minutes left!"
Enel glanced at the watch he had bought earlier, his face deathly pale, and fumbled to tear open the foie gras packaging.
Yet when that box of expensive French foie gras, complete with bloody liquid and ice crystals, was finally exposed to the air, Enel froze as though a paralysis spell had been cast on him.
He picked up a spatula, then a spoon, staring blankly at the sizzling pan of oil and the plump piece of foie gras before him...
His eyes were full of... bewilderment and helplessness, as though he held not cooking utensils, but two sticks for stoking a fire.
What lay right before him seemed to be not ingredients, but two circuit boards he could not decipher.
Time ticked away, second by second. The oil in the pan began to smoke, giving off faint crackles.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Enel's forehead, and the hand holding the spatula began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Hey! Sparky! What the fuck are you waiting for?!" Crocodile, who had finally finished wiping the floor, roared at the sight.
He watched Enel stand before the pan like a wooden post, doing nothing, quivering away for who the hell knew what reason.
Then he looked at the food wrappers scattered across the floor, nearly covering half the deck, and that innocent goose, and another surge of fury flared up inside him.
He charged forward in a few strides, seized Enel by the collar, and growled, "Time's almost up! Cook already! Are you trying to get everyone killed?!"
Enel jolted at his roar, as though waking from a dream.
He whipped his head around, his face showing not anger, but a dazed mixture of extreme fear and disbelief.
At the sight of Crocodile, he seemed to clutch at a