Welcome Drink Showcase: Part 2
As 5 PM approached, when the second part of the Welcome Drink Showcase was scheduled, the Isekai Survival Gallery's post regeneration speed began to accelerate.
A expressionless elf youth sat in his one-room apartment.
Deep dark circles under his handsome face created a gloomy atmosphere.
"Hoo... time to start the stream, huh..."
Hate-pic pulverizer, the legendary admin who handles the work of five alone, the gallery's last bastion.
His identity, known by many titles, was none other than
Padak High-Performance Eraser,
commonly known as Goseongji.
He had earned Joodak's recognition solely through his gallery moderation skills, dooming him to eternal padak duty.
But he didn't particularly mind.
He had no real skills anyway and was a shut-in community addict, so he felt lucky to have this job.
Otherwise, he might have been ousted in shelter competition and forcibly drafted long ago.
"At least the padak pay is good..."
That's right... in this world, 'padaks' were essentially paid slaves!!
Not all padaks got paid—only full-time ones like High-Performance Eraser with no other job got living expense stipends.
The rumors in the gallery about Joodak and padak salaries being XXXX coins weren't entirely wrong.
Regardless of public opinion, it was a satisfying job for him.
But lately... he had a worry.
"Work's been too hard these days..."
He managed the gallery on just 3 hours of sleep a day, but since the Dungeon Master appeared in the shelter, post regen rates had gone insane.
Along with that, a frenzy of hate-pics... The reason you couldn't see many in the gallery was his lightning-fast deletions.
But even High-Performance Eraser needed rest.
Deleting hundreds of hate-pics daily had led to burnout.
'Please, just one day off...'
He deleted even while shitting 21 hours a day or eating—always in the gallery.
The other admins knew, but.
Even with his heavy labor, vacation requests were denied.
'These people definitely have no intention of letting me rest...'
There were dozens of padaks in the gallery; missing one wouldn't cause issues.
They just didn't want to see more hate-pics themselves.
Unlike him with only moderation talent, other padaks had real-world skills, power, or strength.
'I can only do gallery stuff, so I gotta work hard at this...'
Rationalizing it that way, his days of deleting hate-pics continued.
Then one day.
He saw a post Sticky Thing Lover uploaded in the admin chat yesterday and thought.
This is my chance.
The new healing space in the shelter, the park? He wasn't that interested.
He just wanted to legally slack off from padak work.
He figured streaming would be easier than moderating.
"Obviously, anyone can see the gallery's gonna explode today..."
After hearing Dungeon Master's plans from padak Sticky Thing Lover, his first thought was.
'Ah... yeah, 100% gallery meltdown... moderation's gonna be hell...'
And he was convinced joining the broadcast team was the right call.
Time reached 4:55 PM.
"Shall we start."
Goseongji manipulated the community to launch the stream screen.
Community broadcast alerts rang out, and gallery users flooded the relay room one by one.
Seeing the flood of chats, Goseongji greeted with an emotionless robot-like blank face.
"Hello, everyone. High-Performance Eraser here. It's been a while."
He shook the two dungeon tickets in his hand.
"Got two tickets. Stream'll run about 4 hours. Shall we go?"
Riiip—
As he tore the ticket, a light enveloped Goseongji.
When he opened his eyes, what he saw was...
A large, beautiful lake and its surrounding scenery.
The spawn point was slightly elevated, giving a full view of the landscape.
The setting sun's light reflected off the lake.
Goseongji glanced at the chat, then spoke in a flat monotone, utterly unmoved by the lake's beauty.
"Hold on. We'll start once everyone arrives."
As he spoke, light shimmered behind him, and people gathered one by one.
They reacted variously to the Starlight Lake Park view.
"Oh! This is Starlight Lake Park! Perfect to bring Vera!"
"Vera-hyung! Long time. Doing well?"
"Victor! Knew you'd come too!!"
"Haha! No tournament winner would miss this!"
The two, who knew each other, chatted excitedly.
"O... ooooh!!! Lake! Lake!!! Sniff... ugh... fuck, why am I tearing up... heuk..."
A man overwhelmed by emotion at the beautiful lake.
"Mm! A massive lake...! Does the era of water fun arrive in the shelter? I wanna swim right now, itching!"
A man pondering future activities while gazing at the lake.
"...Honey, are you watching? Reminds me of the lake we went to in your lifetime..."
A man reminiscing on an irretrievable past, and more.
All sorts of emotions welled up as people stared at the lake.
Its surface mirrored their inner selves, drawing out feelings.
Except one.
High-Performance Eraser showed no emotion even looking at it.
Nearly 50 people gathered at spawn, including contest judge padaks.
They all wore masks.
"Goseongji, time to proceed."
"Yeah. Everyone, move separately and broadcast so viewers see the park from all angles. Dungeon Master instructed first to the stall after entry, so head to that visible stall."
"Everyone! Dungeon Master prepared a gift before free time—follow me!"
At the masked padak's words, people buzzed and moved.
"Gift? Besides contest rewards and tickets?"
"Yeah? Can't be coins or tickets overlapping rewards..."
"Hm, inner cores?"
"Nah, salt makes more sense. He's not just dungeon lord but salt lord now."
They speculated while walking.
"What do you think, Vera-hyung?"
"Hmm... Dungeon Hwang wouldn't give old stuff. Always pursues new things."
Viewers shared opinions, curiosity peaking about the gift.
The temporary stall was close to spawn, so they arrived quickly.
"Welcome! Visitors!! I'm the dwarf working with Dungeon Master. Call me Worker No. 1!"
The masked dwarf, Granite Fist Worker No. 1, greeted the experience team.
"...Worker No. 1, we heard Dungeon Master left a gift here..."
Instead of answering Goseongji's question, Granite Fist offered a glass of liquid.
"This is...?"
Ice floated in the glass with red liquid.
"Heh heh... this is Dungeon Master's gift! Sweet welcome drink! Welcome to Starlight Lake Park!!"
"Ah... I see... colored sugar water?"
"Try it."
Goseongji brought the welcome drink from Granite Fist to his lips.
His blank eyes widened hugely at the tangy sweet aroma tickling his nose.
"......?!"
Viewers spotted his reaction first.
Chat questions didn't register.
High-Performance Eraser sipped tentatively.
Gulp—
One sip, eyes nearly popping as he stared at the glass in disbelief. He sipped again.
Gulp gulp—
Now other padaks and winners grew curious.
"...That ain't sugar water?"
"...Never seen Goseongji react like that even once, what the..."
"What is it? Tell us, Goseongji."
Gulp gulp gulp—
Ignoring the chatter, Goseongji downed it in one go, staring alternately at the empty glass and dwarf.
His eyes wide, mouth agape.
The stone-faced man's reaction sent chat into chaos.
In a trembling voice, Goseongji asked Worker No. 1 as if confirming his suspicion.
"Th-this... this can't be..."
"Correct. Fruit juice."
The venue froze at Worker No. 1's casual bombshell.
"Huh...?"
"What?"
"Pardon...?"
"???"