Fried Chicken Is King

【Congratulations on acquiring the new ability: Serious Punch】
【Name: Serious Punch】
【Rarity: SSR】
【Effect: You can look very serious while executing unarmed attacks.】
……
【Congratulations on acquiring the new ability: Battle Mania】
【Name: Battle Mania】
【Rarity: SR】
【Effect: You can display a fanatical expression while fighting others.】
……
【Congratulations on acquiring the new creature: Mahua Vine Penguin】
【Name: Mahua Vine Penguin】
【Rarity: R】
【Effect: As long as they are in the same universe, communication can be established between two Mahua Vine Penguins no matter the distance.】
……

Upon returning home, Joss happily spent all the points he had earned from this mission on gacha pulls. After all, the points required for the next level-up were simply astronomical; rather than slowly hoarding toward that target figure, he might as well indulge in a few pulls for his own amusement.

Though the system's gacha results were indeed thoroughly entertaining.

However, Joss had long since stopped caring about such trivial details, and instead busied himself with eager excitement around the item he had acquired from the system at a hefty price.

The Hellfire Gas Stove!

Crafted from a portion of hellfire he had previously absorbed from the Ghost Rider, combined with system technology, it was a magical gas stove that produced hellfire with the twist of a knob.

Yet, despite being called a gas stove, it actually required no gas at all. As for what the hellfire consumed while burning, only heaven knew; in any case, it could ignite without needing any fuel whatsoever.

However, the stockpile of hellfire was limited, and once it was used up, Joss would have to find Johnny for a refill. Therefore, he had "generously" gifted that signature Gatling gun to the other party, merely waiting to collect dividends in the future.

Besides, that gun originally belonged to Tony Stark anyway, so giving it away caused him not a shred of heartache!

Due to his own culinary incompetence, coupled with the fact that he constantly had to run errands for the arch-demon with whom he had signed a contract, Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze naturally had zero hope of becoming the God of Culinary Ghosts. Thus, Joss took on the responsibility without the slightest psychological burden.

Ah, he had long wanted to try bringing a taste of the anime *Food Wars!* to the Marvel universe, but unfortunately, fried chicken and cola were far too common in this world, and lacking any glowing culinary masterpieces of his own, he had naturally been forced to shelve the idea.

Yet, to his surprise, while his trip to help out hadn't seemed to accomplish much of real importance, this long-standing wish of his was finally fulfilled.

He, Joss, was embarking on the path of the God of Cookery starting today!

After retrieving the hellfire gas stove, Joss also drew a large wok from his spatial inventory.

The Dragon-Crest Wok—clearly the very first UR-grade divine artifact he had ever obtained, yet to be honest, he had almost forgotten about the thing. After all, aside from using it as a blunt instrument to smash people, it had been completely useless.

Yet now, encountering the hellfire, it finally displayed the brilliance of a divine artifact, because it could withstand the power of the hellfire!

An ordinary pot placed over hellfire would instantly be melted into a puddle of iron sludge. Unless Johnny was standing nearby to manipulate it—in which case it could be reforged into a crude skull cauldron for temporary use—the moment Johnny let go, the result would still be the same: complete dissolution.

Now, things were different. With both fire and wok, Joss's hitherto useless heart of a culinary master finally sprang to life.

With an expression of utmost solemnity, he raised his right hand, and the Dragon-Crest Wok steadily settled onto the stove. His left hand swept across a row of oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, lining the seasonings up neatly one by one.

"Alright, next is..." Joss's gaze turned resolute. He slammed his right hand heavily onto the table and shouted, "Tatsumaki-chan~~~~ I've prepared everything for you, you can start cooking now!"

Well, as he had said before, Joss was a man with profound self-awareness. Ever since he demonstrated a record of burning twenty-eight out of thirty skewers of chicken wings, he had decided to seal his knives, extinguish his flames, and permanently retire from the culinary world.

Yet Tatsumaki’s cooking skills were peerless; even ordinary ingredients and utensils in her hands yielded dishes of exquisite deliciousness. Now, augmented by the hellfire and the Dragon-Crest Wok, she could instantly leave any Michelin three-star chef trailing far behind in the dust.

Previously, Joss had no idea she possessed this hidden talent, but now that he knew, he practically pestered her with relentless entreaties every single day to cook for them.

After all, Little Black in his household only knew how to eat and was completely unreliable, while Lilith could cook, but her culinary creations bore no relation to deliciousness whatsoever, serving merely as a bland, viscous paste that was nutritionally balanced and rich.

"Alright, alright. I marinated this batch of chicken wings and drumsticks yesterday using my newly improved recipe. Fry them up in a moment and see how they taste."

However, the few of them gathered here today were not here simply to eat—or rather, not *purely* to eat—but rather to develop a secret-recipe fried chicken exclusively belonging to their small group.

Yes, after pondering numerous possibilities, Joss had ultimately focused his attention on fast foods like fried chicken and cola.

The reason fried chicken could sweep across the globe in both his past life and this world naturally made perfect sense.

Though labeled as fast food, quick service was merely one of its less significant factors. The true reason, when all was said and done, was simply this... the stuff was insanely delicious.

If you had some unwanted ingredients lying around, don't throw them away—just coat them in egg wash and breadcrumbs, drop them into hot oil until golden brown, and even the neighborhood kids would be crying with envy.

That meme had countless variants in Joss's past life, but aside from being humorous, it also conveyed a universal truth:

Deep-fried food just tastes outrageously amazing!

Moreover, since Joss only had a single wok and stove at hand, he had no other means besides deep-frying to sustain the food supply of an entire shop.

The tasting process was filled with a joyful atmosphere. Although the ingredients were all ordinary items bought from a nearby supermarket, under the deep-frying of the hellfire, they seemed refined into immortal elixirs by some legendary mystical flame, making every single bite so delicious it brought tears to one's eyes.

"These are all so overwhelmingly delicious, wuwuwu! Big Sis Tatsumaki, you're an angel!! I completely can't choose which one is better!!"

"Shut up. You'd think a plate tastes delicious, so nobody's expecting you to offer any useful opinions." Joss cast a disdainful glance at Little Black, whose face was smeared with grease, and seized the opportunity of her ranting to swipe the chicken drumstick right off her plate.

"Mmm... The taste of these fried chickens is exceptionally good, it's just a tiny bit too spicy." Lilith covered her mouth with a delicate hand, maintaining a cool and aloof demeanor, though the faint trace of moisture welling in the corners of her eyes betrayed the truth of her spicy ordeal.

Joss hurriedly poured a glass of ice water and handed it to her, falling into silence as he stared at the several large platters of fried chicken before him.

After all, including himself, there were only four people here. Little Black was useless, and Tatsumaki would naturally consider whatever she cooked herself to be the absolute best. Consequently, there weren't many people left who could actually provide objective feedback.

"Should I... take some over to feed the Avengers and see what they think?"