54: Chapter 54 To move your car, please dial 114 and press 9.

The Grouping of Fate and the First Round: Love and Vegetables

The transparent lottery box reflected colorful light under the lamps. The six "Head Chefs" had varied expressions—some were nervous, some expectant, and there was Bae Joo-hyun’s unchanging composure.

“In order of age, let's start with the eldest Unnie.” Jiang Zhiyu made a "please" gesture, his gaze falling on Bae Joo-hyun.

Bae Joo-hyun did not hesitate for a second. She stepped forward and reached into the box. Her fingertips lingered briefly between several small balls before she steadily pinched one out—a bright yellow ball.

“Irene, yellow,” Jiang Zhiyu announced.

Next was Im Yoona. She took a deep breath, her face still wearing a sweet smile, but her movement as she reached in carried a clear sense of "leaving it to fate." The ball she pulled out was—royal blue.

“Yoona-sunbaenim, blue.”

Then it was Wendy's turn; she drew royal blue.

“Wendy, blue. Yoona-sunbaenim, you two are teammates now.”

Im Yoona and Wendy looked at each other—one with a sly smile, the other with a serious expression—and high-fived.

The fourth was Kang Seulgi. She fumbled around with her eyes closed for a long time before grabbing one—bright yellow.

“Seulgi, yellow. On a team with Irene.”

Kang Seulgi immediately ran to Bae Joo-hyun's side, clutching her frying pan and smiling sillily. “Unnie! We're on the same team!”

The fifth was Joy. She practically skipped over and grabbed one without even looking—royal blue.

“Joy, blue.”

“Yay!” Joy cheered, immediately running to Im Yoona's other side and high-fiving Im Yoona and Wendy in celebration. “Flame Blue Team, assemble!”

Finally, the remaining Yeri didn't need to draw; there was only one bright yellow ball left in the box.

“Yeri, yellow.”

The grouping was settled:

[Royal Blue Team]: Im Yoona, Wendy, Joy

[Bright Yellow Team]: Bae Joo-hyun, Kang Seulgi, Yeri

The bullet chat reacted enthusiastically:

[Yoona + Wendy + Joy! This combination! Intelligence + Vitality + Variety Sense!]

[Bae-Unnie + Seulgi + Yeri! The Cool One + The Silly One + The maknae! Contrast Charm Team!]

[Jiang Zhiyu’s random grouping is amazing! He broke up Red Velvet!]

[I can already sense the internal chemistry of these two teams!]

Jiang Zhiyu looked at the two freshly formed teams, and the curve of his lips seemed to deepen just a tiny bit more than before.

“Very good. The teams are split, and the flames of war are lit.” He clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention back. “Now, let's begin our first resource competition stage—”

The screen behind him switched again, displaying a giant, cartoonish title:

[Round 1: Love and Vegetables (?)]

Subtitle: Do your eyes trust colors?

“The rules for this round are as follows.” Jiang Zhiyu picked up a cue card, his speaking pace steady and clear. “Members of both teams will line up in a row facing the display board. The production team will rapidly show pictures of various vegetables—”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone, lingering for a split second on Bae Joo-hyun’s face in particular.

“—However, the color of the vegetable in the picture is not its original color.”

“For example, we might show a red eggplant or a blue carrot.”

“What you need to do is not say the name of the vegetable, but immediately and accurately say the color shown by the vegetable in the picture.”

“The game will proceed in a relay format. Starting from the first member of each team, you must loudly state the color within two seconds of seeing the picture. If you get it right, it's the next member's turn, and so on. If you say the wrong color or fail to answer in time, that member is out, and it's the next member of the opposing team's turn to continue. When all members of one team have failed, the game ends, and the other side wins.”

“The winning team will receive the first basic ingredient resource pack, including: three packs of high-quality noodles, basic seasoning powders (salt, pepper), and—crucially—priority use of the electric kettle for 5 minutes.”

“The losing team...” Jiang Zhiyu smiled slightly, “...will receive an 'encouragement award'—a packet of wasabi sauce, and the right to witness their opponents using the kettle first.”

“Remember,” he emphasized, “speed is key, but calmness and resistance to interference are more important. Your eyes might deceive your brain, and your inherent impressions of vegetables might interfere with your judgment. Now—”

With a wave of his hand, staff members on both sides immediately pushed out two rotatable display boards covered with cloths.

“Please have each team send out one member as the starting respondent to stand before the boards. Everyone else, line up behind them in order.”

The Royal Blue Team (Im Yoona's team) discussed quickly.

“I'll go first.” Im Yoona volunteered, her eyes sharp. “My reactions are fast.”

“Then I'm second.” Wendy pushed up her glasses. “I need time to observe the patterns.”

“I'll be the anchor!” Joy swung her chili pepper whip (a prop), full of confidence.

Over on the Bright Yellow Team (Bae Joo-hyun's team).

Bae Joo-hyun glanced at the eager Yeri and the somewhat nervous Seulgi, then spoke calmly: “I'll be first. Seulgi second, Yeri last. Yeri, see the color clearly before answering, don't rush.”

“Understood! Unnie!” Yeri nodded.

The starters for both teams took their positions: Im Yoona vs. Bae Joo-hyun.

The two female artists, different in temperament but equally outstanding, looked at each other across the distance of a display board. Im Yoona had a sweet smile, her eyes filled with an eager fighting spirit; Bae Joo-hyun looked cool, her gaze as calm as water, as if this weren't a competition but a routine observation.

Jiang Zhiyu stood between the two teams, holding a timer in his hand.

“Are you both ready?”

The two nodded.

“Round 1: Love and Vegetables—” Jiang Zhiyu drew out his voice, then suddenly pressed the timer, shouting, “Start!”

The staff member whipped away the first card on the board!

A giant picture of a vegetable appeared—an emerald green corn!

(Corn is normally yellow, but the picture was green!)

“Green!” Im Yoona blurted out almost the instant the picture appeared, her reaction extremely fast.

“Correct! Royal Blue Team relay, Wendy get ready!”

The staff quickly flipped to the next one—an orange spinach!

(Spinach is normally dark green, the picture was orange!)

Wendy adjusted her glasses and was slightly stunned, seemingly hit by this counter-intuitive color, but she still shouted in the last second: “Orange!”

“Correct! Royal Blue Team continue, Joy get ready!”

Third card—a purple cucumber!

(Cucumber is normally green, the picture was purple!)

“Purple!” Joy had already been preparing almost when Im Yoona shouted "green," and she answered effortlessly.

The Royal Blue Team had a smooth start, the three of them relaying fluidly.

Now it was the Bright Yellow Team's turn.

A new board was placed in front of Bae Joo-hyun. First card—a yellow eggplant!

“Yellow.” Bae Joo-hyun’s voice was steady, without the slightest hesitation.

“Correct! Bright Yellow Team relay, Seulgi get ready!”

Second card—red broccoli!

Kang Seulgi looked at that bright mass of red, her mouth slightly agape. A flash of confusion crossed her silly face, and she almost blurted out "green," but she braked at the critical moment: “Red, red!”

“Correct! Continue! Yeri get ready!”

Third card—a blue pumpkin!

Yeri looked at that blue-tinted pumpkin, her eyes widening and her small mouth hanging open. She froze for a moment before shouting as time was about to run out: “Blue!”

In the first round, both teams passed smoothly, but the Royal Blue Team was clearly faster, while Seulgi and Yeri from the Bright Yellow Team both had brief stutters.

Jiang Zhiyu stood to the side, observing calmly. His plan was only just beginning.

“Speed up.” He made a gesture to the staff.

The speed of the card flipping increased significantly!

Pink onion! (Im Yoona: “Pink!”)

Black radish! (Wendy: “Black!”)

Cyan tomato! (Joy: “Cyan!”)

On the Bright Yellow Team's side:

White chili pepper! (Bae Joo-hyun: “White!”)

Grey green beans! (Kang Seulgi: “Grey, grey!” Stuttered again)

Orange Chinese cabbage! (Yeri: “Orange!”)

The speed got faster and faster, and the colors became more and more outrageous; there even appeared a rainbow-colored potato (requiring an immediate answer of "rainbow color" or "colorful").

Pressure began to manifest.

The Royal Blue Team, relying on Im Yoona's ultra-fast reactions and Wendy's calm analysis, plus Joy's energy, still managed a fairly smooth relay, though they too began to show thinking time.

The Bright Yellow Team gradually showed signs of fatigue. Bae Joo-hyun remained stable, as if those counter-intuitive colors didn't interfere with her at all. But Kang Seulgi clearly started to get nervous, blinking hard to confirm before each answer. Yeri was getting a bit frantic from the speed, nearly misspeaking twice.

“Alright, now entering the 'Interference Phase'.” Jiang Zhiyu suddenly spoke, making a special gesture to the staff.

The staff member flipping the cards nodded. The subsequent pictures were not only weirdly colored but also included dynamic effects and background interference!

For example, a purple cabbage constantly flashing red and blue lights! (One must ignore the flashing and answer the static primary color "purple")

Or, green garlic with a background of dense, multicolored dots! (One must ignore the background and answer "green")

The difficulty spiked abruptly!

“Royal Blue Team, Im Yoona, get ready!” Jiang Zhiyu’s voice was cool.

The picture appeared—a brown mushroom against a flowing rainbow-colored halo background!

Im Yoona's eyes focused quickly, trying to strip away the background interference, but the flashing halo made her lose focus for a split second: “Bro, brown!”

"Correct! But the response time is now 1 second. Get ready!"

Next image—a carrot that was naturally bright yellow, but with green afterimages rapidly streaking across its edges!

Wendy furrowed her brows, focusing intently as she struggled to identify it amidst the distracting afterimages: "Yel... Yellow!"

"Correct! Joy, get ready!"

The third image—an orange bell pepper that was rapidly switching between pink and blue (about every 0.5 seconds)! (She needed to catch either color at the moment of switching to answer.)

Joy was stunned; how was she supposed to answer this?! She opened her mouth, hesitating between pink and blue as time flew by—

"Time's up! Joy fails!" Jiang Zhiyu pressed the timer.

"Ah!" Joy stomped her feet in frustration.

Bullet Chat: [This interference is too insane!] [How do you even answer a rapid switch!] [Jiang Zhiyu definitely planted a landmine here!]

"Now it's the Bright Yellow Team's turn!" Jiang Zhiyu turned to Bae Joo-hyun. "Starting with Yeri to take over."

Yeri immediately stood before the prompt board, her small face tense.

The image appeared—a pumpkin that was dark blue but covered in dense, tiny yellow dots!

Yeri was dazzled by those small dots, but she tried her best to focus on the base color: "Bl... Blue!"

"Correct! Joohyun, get ready!"

Next image—on a black background, a red tomato outlined by countless tiny white points of light! (She needed to ignore the light outlines and identify the red subject.)

Bae Joo-hyun's eyes narrowed slightly. Her gaze quickly pierced through those distracting points of light, locking onto the core red area: "Red."

Her voice remained steady, and she was even faster than before.

"Correct! Seulgi, get ready!"

The third image—a yellow broccoli with both purple stripes and green spots, which was slowly rotating! (She needed to ignore the rotation and the localized splotches to judge the overall primary color as yellow.)

Kang Seulgi looked at that slowly rotating, mottled thing, and her brain completely stalled. Yellow? Purple? Green? The rotation made her dizzy... "Yel... Purp... Green..." She stammered incoherently as time ran out.

"Seulgi fails!" Jiang Zhiyu announced.

"S-sorry, Unnie..." Seulgi clutched her frying pan, lowering her head in guilt.

Now, both teams had only two members left who hadn't failed: Royal Blue Team (Im Yoona, Wendy) and Bright Yellow Team (Bae Joo-hyun, Yeri).

But since the last person to answer was Yeri (Bright Yellow Team), it was now the Royal Blue Team's turn—Im Yoona.

"Royal Blue Team, Im Yoona, get ready." Jiang Zhiyu's voice was devoid of emotion. "The images will be even faster."

The staff flipped the card—a bell pepper that was fluorescent pink and shaking violently from side to side!

Im Yoona stared intently at the shaking image, trying to track it: "Pi... Pink!"

"Correct! Wendy, get ready!"

Next image—a purple onion that changed its overall color every 0.3 seconds (cycling through Red-Blue-Yellow)!

Wendy sucked in a breath of cold air; this wasn't even meant for humans to answer! She tried to catch a specific color moment, but the frequency was too fast. Just as she was about to say "Red," it had already turned "Blue"...

"Time's up! Wendy fails!"

The Royal Blue Team was down to only Im Yoona!

Meanwhile, the Bright Yellow Team still had both Bae Joo-hyun and Yeri!

The pressure was entirely on Im Yoona. She needed to answer correctly continuously until both members of the Bright Yellow Team failed in order to win.

"Im Yoona, continue." Jiang Zhiyu looked at her.

The image—a potato that was naturally brown but covered with a layer of translucent, dynamic water ripples with constantly changing colors!

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Im Yoona's forehead. She stared fixedly at the undulating ripples, trying to see through them to the base brown color... "Bro... Brown!"

"Correct! Now it's the Bright Yellow Team's Yeri."

Yeri stood before the prompt board again, her small face serious.

The image—an orange pumpkin composed of countless tiny, colored pixels flashing randomly! (The pixels flashed extremely fast; the overall appearance was orange, but localized noise constantly flickered.)

Yeri's eyes were blurred by the dense flickering. She squeezed her eyes shut and then snapped them open, shouting: "Orange!"

"Correct! Joohyun, get ready!"

The next image was the key to deciding victory or defeat—the screen was split into top and bottom halves. The top half was a static green cucumber, while the bottom half was a mosaic rapidly scrolling through various vegetable color afterimages, with a flickering boundary line in the middle! (She needed to ignore the interference in the bottom half and answer "Green" for the top half.)

This was the ultimate test of attention and resistance to interference!

Bae Joo-hyun's gaze instantly locked onto the static green cucumber in the upper half, as if she had automatically blocked out the crazily scrolling mosaic and the flickering line below. Her focus was incredibly intense, without a hint of hesitation:

"Green."

Clear, steady, and without even raising her volume.

"Correct!" Jiang Zhiyu announced, but immediately added, "But the game continues! Im Yoona, it's your turn!"

Im Yoona was already feeling a bit tired; the letdown after high concentration was setting in. A new image appeared—a normal red tomato, but next to it was a very small, constantly jumping blue arrow pointing off-screen to attract attention!

It was a psychological trap! Using an irrelevant dynamic element to draw attention, making you ignore the subject!

Im Yoona's gaze was indeed drawn to the jumping blue arrow for a split second. By the time she reacted to look at the main subject, the tomato, time was already up!

"Re... Time's up! Im Yoona fails!"

"Royal Blue Team, all members failed!" Jiang Zhiyu raised his voice. "The first stage, 'Love and Vegetables,' the winning team is—"

"Bright Yellow Team! Bae Joo-hyun, Kang Seulgi, Kim Yerim!"

"Yay!!!" Yeri was the first to jump up and cheer, rushing over to hug Bae Joo-hyun. "Unnie, we won!"

Kang Seulgi also gave a silly smile, breathing a sigh of relief.

Bae Joo-hyun's face still didn't show much of a reaction, though the curve of her lips seemed to soften ever so slightly. She gently patted Yeri's back, but her gaze went past her cheering teammates to look at the frustrated Im Yoona across from her, and... Jiang Zhiyu, who was standing at the judge's seat, calmly recording something.

Jiang Zhiyu closed the scoreboard in his hand and looked up, meeting Bae Joo-hyun's eyes perfectly.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, as if to say: See, I told you, games need 'surprises.'

Bae Joo-hyun calmly looked away, as if that brief confrontation had never happened.

But the victory in the first stage, as well as the incredible calm and focus she displayed under high-pressure interference, had been clearly transmitted to all viewers through the live stream.

The Bright Yellow Team had secured the crucial first set of resources.

And Jiang Zhiyu's 'game' had only just begun to reveal the tip of the iceberg of its difficulty and... malice.

The bullet chat was already going wild:

[Bae-Unnie is amazing! What kind of composure was that!]

[Was that last split-screen question even meant for humans?!]

[Jiang Zhiyu must be a devil! These questions are designed so perversely!]

[Poor Yoona! She got tricked by that arrow!]

[Looking forward to the next segments more and more!]

[Bright Yellow Team got the hot water priority! The situation is getting interesting!]

Stage Two: Sauce Packet Duel—The Favor and Wrath of the Gods

The lingering excitement of the first stage hadn't fully dissipated. The Bright Yellow Team (Bae Joo-hyun's team) had just received the 'First Basic Ingredient Resource Pack' from the staff—three packs of high-quality noodles, a small jar of salt and pepper mix, and the crucial, metallic-glinting '5-Minute Hot Water Kettle Priority' timer.

Yeri held the timer, unable to put it down. Seulgi was dorkily studying the noodle packaging, while Bae Joo-hyun carefully placed the resource pack in their team's designated cooking area.

The atmosphere of the Royal Blue Team (Im Yoona's team) was slightly heavy. Im Yoona had her arms crossed, her beautiful brows slightly furrowed, clearly still brooding over that final 'blue arrow trap.' Wendy was pushing up her glasses, recording something in her notebook, seemingly analyzing their previous mistakes. Joy, however, recovered quickly, swinging her chili whip (prop) and making a 'just you wait' face toward the Bright Yellow Team.

Jiang Zhiyu took all of this in. He walked to the center of the area, holding a... strangely shaped mini box that looked like some kind of ancient shrine.

"Congratulations to the Bright Yellow Team for their first win." His tone was flat, lacking much congratulatory warmth. "But the road of cooking is long. Simply having noodles and hot water priority is far from enough. What is the soul of instant noodles?"

He looked around at everyone and answered his own question: "It's the sauce."

"A perfectly balanced sauce packet can turn the mundane into the miraculous, elevating a simple bowl of noodles to the level of art." Jiang Zhiyu's tone carried a rare hint of almost operatic exaggeration, but combined with his deadpan face, it had a weirdly persuasive quality. "Therefore, in the second stage, we will face the soul of instant noodles—the sauce packet!"

The screen behind him lit up, displaying a new title: