In this chapter, we're introduced to a new character named "Mantaro" . He's the kind of guy who likes to challenge people to eat more than they're willing to eat. In this case, he's going to eat as many ramen balls as he can in order to get a free ranking in the next week's paper. Mantaro is super excited to be eating so many balls, but he can't seem to figure out how to eat them all at once. So, instead, he tells us that he'll sit down and watch the guy eat as he pleases. He tells the guy that he can choose from three different kinds of ramen: "soft normal very hard" , "very hard soft" and "soft very hard". Mantaro orders three extra balls of ramen, which is 750 yen, and he thanks the guy for eating so much. He says that if he can eat seven extra balls, he can beat anyone else in the paper by a wide margin. But if he wants to compete, he needs to order another bowl of ramen. He asks the guy to choose between soft and hard, but the guy says he can only choose between hard and soft. He wants to know how hard it is to eat so many noodles, and the guy tells him that it's hard to eat too many noodles. He then tells the man that he has to eat fast, because he came with a stomach full of fried rice, which means that he doesn't have to eat very much. The guy says that's because he eats too fast, and then he says that the guy is eating too hard, because the noodles are too hard to absorb the soup . The man says that he eats so fast because he has an empty stomach, and so he can