NOVEL WEB Chapter 192: Damn, This is So Messed Up!
The **God of the Culinary Arts' Magic Spoon** (B-grade) was a spoon used by the God of the Culinary Arts to taste the saltiness of dishes. Over time, it absorbed the God of the Culinary Arts' aura, allowing anyone who ate with it to taste the flaws in their cooking.
Rita had used it many times, and it indeed allowed her to identify what was wrong with her dishes. But the problem was that while she could tell something was wrong, it never gave her a solution! It was like doing a math problem, flipping to the back of the book for the answer, only to find a simple "9" without any explanation of the steps.
It required way too much intuition to figure out the process.
She had long realized that all her talents were focused on alchemy. Whenever Apache gave her a slight hint, she could quickly figure out what went wrong with her potions and how to fix them. Once she made a mistake, she wouldn't make it again—often without needing a detailed explanation. But when it came to cooking…
Whenever she used this magic spoon to taste her 80+ score dishes, the process went something like this:
- Taste a bite: "Oh my God, am I a legendary chef? This is amazing... but something feels off."
- Taste another bite to confirm: "Yes, it's delicious, but yeah, something's a bit wrong."
- Taste another: "No wonder it's only in the 80s, something's definitely not right."
- By the time she finished the whole dish, she still hadn't figured out what exactly was wrong.
She even suspected that this spoon was rated as B-grade just to flatter the God of the Culinary Arts. It was as if the game was being diplomatic.
But the skill **[This Life is Unbearable]** felt different. It didn't require the cook to taste the food themselves, nor did it make them guess. The dish itself would tell you what was wrong—how thoughtful!
Thinking about the conversation she overheard between Rick, Camila, and Henry, and the way they acted around Eleanor, Rita suspected that this skill book might have been intended as a gift for Eleanor from the Taylor family.
That made things awkward. Rita had no qualms about stealing things meant for the main characters—she did so with a clear conscience. But taking something meant for Eleanor left her feeling uneasy. No matter how much she told herself she would treat the old lady as just a distant relative, Rita couldn't forget Eleanor's past help. And this skill book was surely valuable to Eleanor.
However, Rita wasn't about to give it up either.
So, she decided to add Eleanor as a friend via their message history.
There was no way she would outright ask, "If the Taylor family sent you a gift, would you accept it?" Eleanor was too sharp for that—she'd immediately figure out that Rita had swiped something from the Taylors and was now asking out of guilt.
**[Rita]:** Need anything?
**[Eleanor]:** Did you do something you feel guilty about?
**[Rita]:** Just wanted to thank you for all the food you've made me these past few days.
**[Eleanor]:** Thank me? On the eighth day?
**[Rita]:** Recipes? Cooking tools? Ingredients? Skills? Equipment? Items?
**[Eleanor]:** Hmm, seems like you're overthinking things again.
**[Eleanor]:** Something related to the God of the Culinary Arts, whether equipment or tools. I have a talent that makes me stronger the more things I have that the God of the Culinary Arts used.
Without hesitation, Rita sent Eleanor the **Rusty Spatula** and **Gourmet's Bib**, both items she had been wondering how to dispose of.
She didn't send the **God of the Culinary Arts' Magic Spoon**, not because she was reluctant, but because she had stolen it from Rick. She couldn't just hand it over directly, even if it was to Eleanor—it needed to go through someone else first.
**[Eleanor]:** Got it. I really needed these.
With that, Rita headed to the airport. After returning home and reverting to human form, the first thing she did was learn the **[This Life is Unbearable]** skill.
She then made a dish of spicy stir-fried chicken, one of her specialties. The dish came out with a score of 83.
If Eleanor had seen this, she would have definitely scolded Rita for being overconfident—her cooking skills weren't even up to par, yet she was tackling such a delicate dish.
Rita eagerly used **[This Life is Unbearable]** on the fragrant, oily chicken dish.
The next second, the chicken spoke up.
——"This life is unbearable! Do you even know how to cook?! You messed up from the first step! You're turning spicy stir-fried chicken into dry, chewy meat! I've told you a million times, if you want flavor, stop worrying about low-fat, low-calorie nonsense! Find your next adventure on empire
"Where do I even begin? Not enough oil, the oil temperature was too low when you started cooking, you overcooked it by five seconds, the soy sauce wasn't fresh enough, you added the salt too early, you didn't stir it evenly, the cornstarch was too thick—it's like a cow licked it! The Sichuan pepper isn't from this year, and the variety of prickly ash you used is all wrong...
"And the utensils! These chopsticks? Are you kidding me? What back alley did you dig these out of? And the dishware! Your chopsticks and plate don't even match!
Disposable wooden chopsticks with a porcelain plate? Damn it, this is so messed up!!"
Rita & Nivalis, who had flown over excitedly for a meal: …
Her dream of becoming a top chef was shattered.
The next day, as Rita was picking up the pieces of her broken dream, Eleanor sent over her ninth meal—shrimp and bamboo shoot shumai.
As Rita shared the steaming hot shumai with Nivalis, she anonymously listed the **God of the Culinary Arts' Magic Spoon** on the auction house, setting a buyout price of 999 gold and a starting bid of 888 gold.
Rita wasn't planning to pull the spoon from the auction before it sold and pretend to be the buyer. No, she had a better idea.
Rita could be stubborn at times, but her stubbornness was often about making herself feel better rather than preserving her reputation. For example, she didn't want to personally deal with Samuel and Scarlett, not because she cared about appearances, but because she wanted peace of mind.
Now, she planned to have Rick buy the spoon from the auction and gift it to Eleanor. As long as the spoon ended up in Eleanor's hands, she'd feel satisfied. Plus, she'd make some money off Rick in the process.
As for whether this would make Eleanor think better of Rick? Rita was sure it wouldn't.
She knew from her previous life that Eleanor didn't like Rick. Even when she and Rick were kids, Eleanor didn't like him. After they moved to Los Angeles, Eleanor secretly came to see her many times. Rick always thought Eleanor came for him, even telling Rita that their grandmother had come to her senses. But that couldn't have been further from the truth.
Eleanor wasn't visiting Rick, and she certainly hadn't "come to her senses."
Once, while treating Rita to ice cream, Eleanor had even told her that her biggest regret was not shoving Samuel's head into a toilet while he was unconscious. According to Eleanor, Scarlett would have gladly dragged him to the bathroom for it.