One Piece Gunslinger

Li Ang, as if he had just won a battle, smugly crossed his legs and placed them on the table, completely lacking any manners. It was as if he had the audacity to dine and dash.

However, this also provided a good show for the other customers in the restaurant. Originally, these onlookers wanted to see how Li Ang would be thrown out by the chefs.

As the saying goes, "Buddha is made of gold, and man is made of clothes." These people who frequent high society could easily tell from Li Ang's attire that he was almost certainly there to dine and dash, even if they didn't know that Li Ang had arrived in a small, dilapidated boat.

As it turned out, Li Ang did not fail on the first question. You see, many of the small-time crooks either pretended to be rich or bluntly said they had no money, and these people were all thrown out.

That wasn't all; it only showed that he had some knowledge of this kind of restaurant. But Li Ang then dodged two more traps and even managed to kill Baratie's chefs.

This is something that truly commands respect.

However, Li Ang didn't care. Instead, he enjoyed the attention of the crowd, just like a victorious hero.

Even the man in the suit at the next table tried to strike up a conversation with Li Ang, saying that Li Ang was witty and articulate and wanted to recruit him to work for his chamber of commerce. But Li Ang ruthlessly rejected him in a flash.

As a result, this group of onlookers was even more eager than Li Ang, as if they were waiting for their own dishes rather than Li Ang's.

Even the man in the suit and two other tables of customers, who had clearly finished eating, remained seated, seemingly wanting to see how Li Ang would handle the situation.

Li Ang took in everyone's expectant looks: "What's going on? Are they going to dine and dash on live stream?"

Chapter 178 Failure Within Failure

Li Ang was quite annoyed by the attention he was receiving. He had never expected that simply trying to dine and dash would attract so much attention.

This is actually related to the lack of entertainment options in this world, where life is either miserable or dull.

These upper-class people's most common form of entertainment is nothing more than throwing banquets, dancing, and boasting. Today, they're dining at a seaside restaurant just for that kind of atmosphere, to show off.

The most exciting thing that happened here before was watching these chefs roll up their sleeves, beat up the uninvited guests, and throw them out. They did this to show off their superiority.

Where have you ever seen a scenario where someone outsmarts and outmaneuvers a dine-and-dash customer, and the uninvited guest even manages to turn the tables and win?

Compared to the monotonous plots of the past, this kind of dramatic, back-and-forth storyline, seemingly fraught with hidden dangers, is definitely worth watching for a spectacle.

Those who didn't jump up and applaud, or give a small reward, are considered well-mannered and reserved.

Thinking about it this way, in a world lacking entertainment, the live streaming industry has great potential. Unfortunately, the Revolutionary Army lacks the relevant technology and the control of the World Government, making it impossible for them to succeed.

Just as Li Ang was idly lost in thought, the long-awaited dishes finally arrived.

"Mmm, delicious!" "This is delicious too." "They're all delicious." "No wonder Sanji made this." "What a steal!"

These are Li Ang's inner thoughts.

But none of this affected Li Ang's expression; he remained calm and composed, slowly putting food into his mouth.

"Hmph, how about that? Are you convinced now?" a chef with a big head and thick neck asked through gritted teeth.

"Don't rush, the food hasn't all been served yet. Let me finish eating it little by little first. Wasting food is a bad thing."

This is also why Li Ang doesn't reveal his inner thoughts.

If anyone finds out, I'll be thrown into the sea immediately. Since it's already been proven that it's a floating restaurant, I won't waste any more time arguing with you.

Everyone had figured it out: this guy was just trying to dine and dash. They didn't care about morality anymore; they wouldn't talk to this bastard anymore. If he admitted Sanji's cooking was delicious after he finished eating, they'd just roll up their sleeves and throw him out.

So the chefs and onlookers waited for Li Ang to finish off the food on the table, bit by bit.

"Hmph, you ate it so cleanly, let's see how you explain yourself later."

"It's over. If things continue like this, it will be very difficult for the person who ate and dashed to turn the tables."

Li Ang had no idea that because of him, so many people were paying attention to his meal, and those people were even divided into two groups. Wow, that's impressive.

Just as Li Ang was about to finish the food on the table, the last dish he ordered, seafood fried rice, finally arrived.

In fact, Li Ang is a greedy person. Not only is he greedy, but he also knows how to press his advantage, how to expand his advantage, and how to satisfy his greed.

Just like before in the Kingdom of Yutakana, Leon's established goal was to persuade Fujitora to join the Revolutionary Army. But after achieving this, Leon didn't stop there and instead extended his reach to the Kingdom of Yutakana. It can be said that he was extremely greedy, simply insatiable.

But Li Ang has a mind that corresponds to greed. It's not that he's greedy blindly, but he only gets greedy when there's a chance of success. He can maintain restraint when it comes to things that are impossible or very risky.

Okay, since Li Ang is greedy, and the sea restaurant Baratie can't cause him any real harm, then it's understandable that Li Ang would be greedy.

If it succeeds, it's a huge profit; if it fails, it's not a loss either. At worst, it's just a matter of escaping in a small, broken boat.

This seafood fried rice was Li Ang's most important step. His goal was to leave in style, not to slink away in disgrace.

This is Li Ang's greed: he not only wants to dine and dash, but he wants to do it legitimately, and he wants you to be completely convinced and utterly convinced of his worth.

To achieve this ambitious goal, we must use this Western-style seafood fried rice as a breakthrough.

When Li Ang saw the menu, he realized that the only dish he knew how to make was seafood fried rice. After all, the sea has everything, but seafood is not lacking. It's a common dish, and even Li Ang, who only knew how to cook Chinese food, eventually learned to make it. Some of the other dishes, however, were completely unfamiliar to him just by looking at their names.

This was just the first step. The second step was something Li Ang deliberately added at the very end, wanting to make it as complete as possible, and he even specified that it should be done last.

From the perspective of the order in which dishes are served, this is actually extremely unscientific.

Although Li Ang didn't understand, he could at least see what the man in the suit next to him was eating. Li Ang could see clearly that these things were all loaded with sauce, so the flavor was very strong.

If you serve a seafood fried rice that is much less flavorful after that, even if the seafood fried rice is delicious, it will be affected by the previous sauce, and the taste will be greatly diminished.

Li Ang was betting on this: that Sanji, young and impetuous, would lose his composure under Li Ang's constant taunts and become somewhat impatient and careless in preparing the final seafood fried rice.

Until a less-than-perfect, even flawed, seafood fried rice was served.

The actual situation was even better than Li Ang had imagined. After just a couple of bites, Li Ang knew he had a very good chance of winning this round.

Just as Li Ang had expected, Sanji was already quite annoyed after being forced to treat Li Ang to a free meal. Li Ang's sarcastic suggestion to add an extra serving of seafood fried rice further enraged Sanji.

In addition, Sanji is exceptionally gifted and knows that no matter how well he prepares this last dish, it will become bland and unremarkable under the intense sauce of the previous dishes.

Fortunately, Sanji didn't put much effort into this last seafood fried rice; he just quickly prepared it and brought it out.

This is because Li Ang took advantage of Sanji's immaturity; he was still too naive and inexperienced. He didn't think things through comprehensively enough and lacked composure, which led him to take advantage of Sanji's situation to trick him. If it were the Sanji from the New World a few years later, Li Ang definitely wouldn't have had the chance.

"However, there are no 'ifs,' and I won this round," Li Ang thought to himself with a cold laugh after taking a couple of bites of rice.

"Excuse me, did that kid make this?" Li Ang put down his spoon and looked up at the chef who was standing guard.

"What's the problem? Everything you ate today was made by me." Before the man could answer, Sanji had already come out from behind the kitchen, wanting to see what else Li Ang had to say.

“I admit, your first three dishes were excellent,” Li Ang said in a deep voice, “but…”

The chefs had already rolled up their sleeves when they heard Li Ang say "I admit it," but when Li Ang added "but," they unconsciously stopped what they were doing.

Li Ang looked around. Great, all the onlookers were watching him. Everyone's attention was on him. It was time to show off his real skills in dining and dashing.

"However, I was very disappointed with the last seafood fried rice. I was still too young and inexperienced when it came to such a common dish as seafood fried rice, and I made a lot of mistakes."

Sanji was not happy about this. Admittedly, he didn't put much effort into making the last seafood fried rice, but it was impossible for him to make any major mistakes.

"Nonsense!" Sanji retorted, and the other chef beside him was even more displeased. "What right do you have to say that Sanji's cooking is bad?"

Li Ang had to give these chefs a thumbs up. He couldn't have walked out in such glory today without the help of these incompetent teammates. With teammates like you around, Sanji had no chance of winning against him.

"Good question. What right do I have to say this dish is bad? I'm a chef myself!"

Surprise, not unexpected?

Ignoring the surprised expressions of the others, Li Ang continued to explain: "Seafood fried rice is easy to make and uses readily available ingredients. Not only restaurants and taverns, but many ordinary people also know how to make it at home."

But even such a widely popular and extremely common dish is not an easy task to master. Some people have even spent their entire lives making seafood fried rice without ever getting the hang of it, destined to work in small pubs their entire lives.

Using such a common yet complex dish to gauge a chef's skill and expertise is an excellent approach.

At this moment, Sanji and the other chefs suddenly realized, "Damn it, this guy is a chef! No wonder he's so knowledgeable about dining and dashing. And judging from his current behavior, we've fallen for his trap again."

"Then tell me what I did wrong." But Sanji was still not giving up and asked with a dark face.

“Since you’ve asked so sincerely, I’ll mercifully tell you. And let you understand that seafood fried rice isn’t something an inexperienced kid like you can make.” Li Ang picked up a plate from the table, stirring the food with a spoon as he spoke:

"First of all, the sausages and chicken breast inside weren't fresh enough; they tasted neither like sausages nor chicken. I can understand that, since this is on the open sea, and keeping things fresh is difficult."

But in order to cover it up, you deliberately added ketchup, hoping to mask the tomato flavor.

You're being incredibly naive. You didn't cut the sausage and chicken into small enough pieces, so the tomato sauce flavor only stayed on the surface and didn't penetrate at all. It was diluted after steaming.

You made perfectly good diced chicken and sausage that tasted neither meaty nor tomatoy. What a failure!

The rice here was steamed for too long, resulting in soft, mushy grains that lacked any chewiness. What a failure!

The celery wasn't properly trimmed; it had too many fibers, so it was a failure!

The umami flavor is very strong, which means the seafood soup is well-made; however, since it's already so rich, there's no need to add any more salt! A complete failure!

The worst part is this shrimp; the vein wasn't even completely removed! Are you kidding me? You actually dared to put it on the table!

Chapter 179 Textbook-Style Fried Rice

If we look at this matter from a different perspective, not on Li Ang's side, nor on the side of the chef or the onlookers, but stepping back and observing from an outsider's, god-like viewpoint...

Then you can draw this conclusion: Li Ang's character is quite low.

Not only did they freeload, but they also cursed the cook after they were full.

This is intolerable! This streamer has no manners; I've reported him.

So, is Sanji's seafood fried rice really that bad? Actually, no.

It can only be said that Li Ang's standards were too high. Many of the original minor flaws were magnified by Li Ang, which made Sanji's seafood fried rice seem like such a failure.

Of course, Li Ang used his silver tongue to completely humiliate others. Not to mention Sanji, even some of the other chefs were a little unconvinced.

However, Li Ang was well aware of their little schemes. Just as everyone was recovering from Li Ang's rapid-fire remarks and preparing to refute him,

Li Ang preemptively shut them up: "You probably just think I'm talking nonsense, so I'll just let you lose convincingly. Where's the kitchen? Can I borrow it?"

Although Li Ang pointed out where the kitchen was, he didn't stand on ceremony and went straight to the back.

"Oh, by the way, you'll have to eat this failed dish yourself. Only by personally eating hundreds or thousands of your own failed attempts can you one day present a finished product to your customers."

Li Ang didn't forget to hand the barely touched seafood fried rice to Sanji, who was still in a daze, before swaggering into the kitchen.

"Well done! You came to the right place today; we've encountered something so interesting."

On the other hand, these customers were still savoring the memory of Li Ang's all-out attack and charge through the enemy ranks. Though they didn't say it aloud, they were already incredibly excited.

Only then did the dazed Sanji remember to follow him into the kitchen. Leaving a stranger alone in the kitchen was simply inappropriate.

As Li Ang's primary target, Sanji was naturally the first to be attacked. Li Ang was hit hard by the words, but a chef without a little self-confidence is not a good fighter.

Sanji quickly recovered from Li Ang's aggressive words. The strong self-confidence he had built up over the years was not crushed in that instant, otherwise it would be too worthless.