Chapter 187
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: Side Effects
The PD of the cooking show Masked Chef was in a bind.
He didn't want to suspect the staff he was working with.
But the evidence that someone had swapped out the sauce was right there in front of him. The general audience couldn't have tampered with it, so it had to be one of the staff members.
And right now, the most suspicious one was standing in front of him.
Na Gang-in made a suggestion to the PD.
"You can figure out where the switched bottle is on your own. If it were me, I'd start by checking that guy's movements."
With that, Na Gang-in slipped away from the scene.
"They're all people I don't know except for Chef Oh. They can't figure out who I am just from hearing my voice a bit."
Na Gang-in headed outside. From behind, he could hear the PD grilling the staff member.
Chef Oh Gyu-cheol followed Na Gang-in and asked,
"Are you okay leaving without checking the investigation results?"
He already knew the results. He just couldn't submit the evidence, but he had the eyewitness footage on video.
"It's not my business anyway. I'm just a one-time guest today."
Oh Gyu-cheol looked flustered.
"What? One time? You have to come back for the next match, right?"
"Huh?"
"You won today, didn't you? That's one win."
"Oh? Oh? Ah..."
His original plan had been to have a casual cooking showdown with a top contender and then bow out gracefully.
But after the competition started, he discovered the opponent had pulled a dirty trick. Annoyed, he'd gone all out and ended up winning.
"This isn't what I wanted..."
AI Jeon Ji-in scolded him.
"Hey, you won too."
"Should I just cut open my stomach?"
Na Gang-in said to Oh Gyu-cheol,
"I'm pretty busy, so I won't be able to appear anymore. Reset the wins and losses and bring in new contestants from the next round."
"No, but you beat a three-time winner and got your first victory..."
"Among those three wins, there were probably more matches with tricks like today's. What does it even mean? Besides, since this was my debut, no one will care if I drop out."
The incident where the three-time champion of the cable show Masked Chef bribed a staff member to sabotage a rival made headlines.
Too many people had seen Na Gang-in catch the culprit on the spot and the PD interrogating the staff for it to be hushed up.
Masked Chef was one of the higher-rated programs on cable TV. The network had no intention of canceling it over this.
An emergency meeting was called to discuss countermeasures.
"Should we get all the articles taken down?"
"You think every media outlet will pull them just because we ask? We're not a major broadcast network."
"If this happened on major TV, it'd be even harder to suppress. Everyone would be buzzing about it."
"They're already buzzing about our story. We don't have much pull, but we do have decent ratings."
Another idea came up.
"Should we just call it all a misunderstanding and sweep it under the rug?"
"With that many witnesses? No way."
The station director glared at PD Park and vented his frustration.
"Damn that PD Park. Why'd he have to catch that guy right in front of everyone and blow this up?"
PD Park shrank back and defended himself.
"The contestant caught him in the act on site. What was I supposed to do?"
"You should've talked him down quietly!"
"There were tons of witnesses."
A new suggestion emerged.
"Hold on. What if we hype up that contestant instead?"
The director's face twisted.
"You want to make this mess bigger when I'm already going insane? Are you crazy?"
"No, hear me out. We frame it as a hero bursting in to snipe the villain lurking in Masked Chef."
The director's expression softened.
"Huh? Explain that in detail."
The network issued a statement. But it centered on the Iron Chef's exploits.
The story hit online community boards, racking up comments.
The incident even made online news. But more people learned about how it was resolved through the internet than from the news itself.
As the story spread, more people started checking out the show.
Viewers couldn't taste the dishes made on the show. But they could at least see the dessert from the final showdown.
Photos and short clips of the dessert spread widely online. People who saw them went back to watch the show.
Ratings for reruns on cable skyrocketed.
Masked Chef often aired reruns on other cable channels, and those saw significant boosts too.
The viewer reactions got PD Park fired up.
"This is what they call a blessing in disguise!"
The network execs were thrilled too.
"We'll pump up the budget—make it properly from now on! Let's turn Masked Chef into our flagship show!"
PD Park shouted,
"Just leave it to me. The next episode will be a real showstopper!"
"You better!"
The director grinned broadly.
"The Iron Chef not only stopped trash like Gumiho from judging but boosted our show too. He's a true benefactor to the program. Hahaha."
"You're telling me."
The director gave an order.
"Set up a meeting. We at least need to say thanks."
PD Park hesitated.
"Uh... Director, only one judge who scouted him knows the contestant's identity. I don't even know who it is. How am I supposed to..."
"Right. The production team only finds out after they win or lose, yeah?"
"Yes. That's our show's unique hook—fair, square, no room for corruption. Pure live combat!"
"That bastard Gumiho nearly ruined a gem like that with his schemes. Ugh."
"Tell me about it."
The director instructed,
"Then talk to the scouting judge and ask him to take good care of the Iron Chef. He's the hope of your show, and your show's the hope of our network."
PD Park bellowed again.
"Just trust me!"
Oh Gyu-cheol explained awkwardly,
"PD Park, the Iron Chef is quitting our show..."
"Pardon?"
Na Gang-in had already declared to Oh Gyu-cheol that he wouldn't appear on Masked Chef anymore.
PD Park asked with a panicked look,
"Chef Oh, what do you mean? You row when the tide comes in, not jump ship the second it does!"
Oh Gyu-cheol didn't know why Na Gang-in wanted out. But he figured it wasn't a normal reason.
He's no ordinary guy, so his reasons won't be ordinary either.
Oh Gyu-cheol made up an excuse.
"He joined thinking our show was fair, but lost interest after seeing it get swayed by scum like Gumiho..."
"No, we can't lose him now! Not at this crucial time! Who is he? Which restaurant? I'll meet him and convince him!"
Only Oh Gyu-cheol, who scouted him, knew Iron Chef's identity.
"You know it has to stay secret, right?"
"Come on, he appeared, won once, and now this? Where's the integrity...?"
"We lost integrity first. One of our staff was bribed, remember?"
"W-well, yeah, but..."
"And our show has risks by design, right? No formal contracts."
"We didn't expect anyone to bail mid-way..."
Chefs appear on cooking shows to gain fame. If they never joined, fine—but no one anticipated a contestant winning and then quitting.
PD Park pleaded desperately,
"I can cover for anyone else refusing. Say they hurt their hand or whatever. But not Iron Chef. You have to come back. It's the only way I—and the show—survive."
Oh Gyu-cheol said uncertainly,
"I'll try to persuade him."
As the Masked Chef buzz went viral online, Shin Eun-ha looked up the video of the final dessert being made.
She marveled as she watched.
"Wow, skills are no joke. He made a real mountain and river out of cake."
Admiring it, she tilted her head.
"Huh? But that place looks familiar from somewhere."
The terrain depicted on the cake felt oddly recognizable.
At the PC bang next to her, Yi Bo-ra peered over at the monitor.
"No idea."
Na Gang-in had recreated the mountains around the Gangwon-do set from Sunny Day.
Yi Bo-ra hadn't been in the movie, so she naturally didn't recognize the mountain.
Shin Eun-ha tilted her head again.
"It definitely feels like somewhere I've seen... Where was it?"
Yi Bo-ra brought up something else.
"Oppa Gang-in's good at making food fast too."
"Right?"
"But his desserts look plain. This guy's are stylish even in shape."
Shin Eun-ha defended Na Gang-in.
"Still, Oppa Gang-in's would taste better. This one's probably all looks, no flavor."
She never suspected Iron Chef was Na Gang-in. His desserts were flashy, while Na Gang-in's looked like hardtack.
Director Son Tae-min called Na Gang-in.
"Gang-in, that was you, right?"
"Iron Chef. That was you, right?"
"The mountain on that cake from the show—it's the one at the Gangwon-do set. I know it well. I pushed to build the set there."
"It really was you?"
Son Tae-min smacked his lips.
"Make me one too then? Something to show off at home."
"Heh heh heh. Thanks."
After hanging up, Son Tae-min opened the scenario for his upcoming film.
"Gotta tweak the dessert-making scene a bit. Change it from top taste but plain looks to artistic in appearance too."
Na Gang-in visited a general hospital near his place.
Kwon Soo-yeon had undergone secret surgery at her uncle Son Seong-hyeon's hospital, then transferred the next day to a private room here.
The hospital had VIP rooms. As the daughter of Yulmyeong Bio president Kwon Dong-jin, she could afford them.
But she chose a standard private room to minimize attention.
Same reason she avoided shared rooms—too risky for info leaks.
Na Gang-in first met外科 Director Lee Jeong-ho.
Lee Jeong-ho explained Kwon Soo-yeon's condition. Sharing patient info was illegal, but after the illicit surgery, he didn't sweat it.
"The surgery was a perfect success."
"Glad to hear it."
Lee Jeong-ho looked conflicted.
"But... the patient's recovery is incredibly fast. She's already recovered a lot."
His daughter Lee Yeon-ji had the same disease and surgery. Hers had been quick too.
Na Gang-in asked,
"How fast?"
"Not normal recovery speed."
"Has this happened before?"
"I rechecked data from mild cases. Even those with minor infections recovered quickly post-surgery. But..."
Only two severe cases succeeded so far: Lee Yeon-ji and Kwon Soo-yeon.
"Plenty of mild successes, but none recovered this fast."
"At this point, we can say superhuman recovery is inherent to the disease."
"Only two severe cases—no real stats. It's not a disease that follows common sense anyway. Still... I suspect a connection."
"You'll research it then."
Lee Jeong-ho shook his head.
"Hard to experiment on my own daughter..."
"Ah, fair enough."
"I've looked at her CTs, MRIs, surgery tissue samples, and post-recovery blood."
AI Jeon Ji-in chimed in.
"Yeah."