173. Revisions Start Here
173. Revisions Start Here
"Hello, subscribers! I'm Jjuang! That video of the Utopia Party stopping the monster wave at Haeundae—you've all seen it, right!?"
On the screen, a pretty, slender woman greeted viewers in an energetic voice.
"I can't even tell you how many times I rewatched that video! It's a full six hours of nothing but catching monsters... and I watched the whole thing completely mesmerized. Hmm, maybe it's because Jin Yu-ha is so handsome? Anyway, I watched the whole thing live, start to finish."
The day after the Haeundae Festival, the video spread across the entire country.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a full-blown syndrome.
The vivid footage of hunters unleashing their abilities to take down monsters was already enough to generate buzz on its own,
and on top of that, the ones who stopped the monster wave were none other than the Utopia Party, whose stock had been skyrocketing lately.
"Right?! Right?! At first it was all flashy and jaw-dropping, but as they settled into a rhythm, it started running like a factory. I just found myself staring blankly at it. How do I put it... it strangely made me feel at peace, like listening to ASMR?"
She glanced sideways at the chat window and nodded.
"If they hadn't been there, a truly catastrophic disaster would have nearly struck the Haeundae area. I'd like to take this opportunity to once again express my gratitude to the Utopia Party, and to all the other hunters who continue to safeguard our citizens!"
She bowed deeply.
Since Jjuang had built up an image of being down-to-earth and courteous, most viewers responded positively to her broadcast.
However, she hadn't started her broadcast just to talk about that.
After all, her main gig was being a YouTuber famous for mukbang—a professional mukbang broadcaster known by the nickname "the Subspace Stomach."
"Hehehe, well, that's enough of a preamble! You're all dying to know why I rushed to start a broadcast today when it's not even my usual day, right!?"
She continued in an excited voice.
"It's because of this, this, this...!"
Ta-da—
The camera, which had been tightly focused on her face, pulled back to reveal the room.
And there on a long table, a massive object covered with a wide white cloth.
It was something nearly the size of three Jjuangs put together.
"Ahaha. Yes, yes, don't rush me. I'm about to reveal it."
Whoosh—
Jjuang responded to the viewers' complaints with casual ease and, without hesitation, whisked away the white cloth.
And a giant Blue Crab was revealed.
The shell was steamed a vivid red, as if it had just come out of the pot.
The visual was overwhelming, plumes of white steam rising from it.
"...Wow. Can you see this? So this is what a monster looks like... I'm actually the type who barely ever leaves the house, so this is really my first time seeing a monster in person! It was really, really, really hard to get this! Buying one whole—wow, the price was just insane!!!"
But.
She then looked at the screen with a determined face.
"I pulled a few strings for you, my subscribers! With an opportunity to eat a whole giant crab this big—if I let this slip by, would I even be Jjuang!?"
She walked slowly toward the table where the Blue Crab was laid out.
"Ahaha, you're asking if I just bought it because I wanted to eat it? I like perceptive subscribers like you too. Hmm... well, people who've eaten it say it tastes heavenly... whether it lives up to the rumors... I'll have to try it to find out, won't I!?"
Faced with that overwhelming visual, even Jjuang couldn't help but look tense.
Hoo—
After a short breath, she leaned in close and took a sniff.
"Hmm, visual—pass. Smell—pass. Now I just need to taste it... Ah, but they say what you eat it with as a side dish is important too, right!?"
Beep.
With that, Jjuang split the broadcast screen in half.
The video that appeared next to her mukbang screen.
One uploaded to the Utopia Channel.
《A Compilation of Jin Yu-ha Moments: Your National Meal Side Dish》
was what it was.
"The people's mealtime companion! It's Jin Yu-ha!"
Clap, clap, clap.
She clapped and started the video.
Sure enough, the moment she put it on, the chat window's firepower shot up like it was ablaze.
"Alright then! Starting now—Whole Steamed Blue Crab! I'm beginning the Mukbang Run!!"
Mukbang Run.
A term meaning you won't end the broadcast until you've eaten everything in front of you.
The sight of her—a woman famous for being a big eater on an entirely different level, normally—scooping up a Blue Crab nearly three times her own body size with a huge spoon was more than enough to drive people wild.
On top of that, after one bite her eyes sparkled in admiration, and then she looked at Jin Yu-ha's face and admired it all over again.
After savoring the crab meat for several hours like that, she mixed an entire pot of rice into the shell.
And only after boiling ramen with the legs did the video finally end.
She always hid her stomach under baggy clothes,
but this time even that couldn't cover it, and she ended the broadcast with a visibly bulging belly.
Her video became a legend in the mukbang world, and it was like pouring oil on a fire that was already blazing.
* * *
"Whoa... seeing this in real life, it's no joke..."
Gulp.
Lee Yu-ri swallowed hard at the sight of the Blue Crab billowing steam right in front of her.
She hadn't realized it when they were busy fighting and catching them, but now that she thought of it as food, the sheer size was truly overwhelming.
"Hey, sweetie. But is it really okay for us to be here? I've heard this stuff has been causing a huge commotion lately... and the price is no joke, apparently."
"Ma'am, it's fine. Please don't hold back. There's far too much here for just us to eat. Wouldn't it be better to enjoy it together than to let it go to waste?"
"O-oh, 'ma'am'... ahem! W-well, if my son-in-law Jin says so..."
A professional mukbang YouTuber's broadcast had recently been a massive hit,
and in response, the Utopia Party members had asked to try it too.
But the quantity was so large and the size so big that even the entire Utopia Party couldn't handle one on their own.
So they called Lee Yu-ri's family, with whom they were living, and set up a meal in the yard!
Jin Yu-ha had wanted to use this to try out other dishes—crab tanghulu, crab shaved ice, innards pudding, and various bizarre desserts—
but he ran into fierce opposition from the party members who wanted to eat it the same way as on Jjuang's broadcast, and his plans were ultimately thwarted.
And a smile bloomed on Shin Se-hee's face—she who managed the party's finances.
"Hehe, thanks to that YouTuber, we were able to make some really decent profits."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yes, thanks to her, the number of people wanting to buy whole Blue Crabs went up, and the ones we portioned out sold out completely in ten minutes."
"Ah, right—you said for the ones that weren't presentable, you just extracted the meat and sold that?"
"Yes, there was nothing we could do about the ones that some ignorantly muscle-bound doggy smashed to pieces."
"Hey, don't be like that. If you portion it out and sell it cheap, even ordinary people can eat it, even if it is a bit pricey."
"...Well, I suppose that's true."
Shin Se-hee pouted for a moment, then quickly composed herself and nodded.
"Anyway, I should send a personal thank-you to Jjuang. Since it's a monster, we had a bit of a headache with people suspecting demonic energy contamination. But she went so far as to boil ramen with the broth and even mix rice right into the innards, and that completely cleared up the issue."
"Alright, enough of that—let's eat."
As if they'd been waiting for exactly those words, the party members all reached out at once.
I should dig in too.
I likewise cut a thick piece of crab meat with a knife and picked it up with a fork.
'So this is the Blue Crab—the one rumored to be the most delicious thing in all of Velvetsra?'
And I brought it to my mouth.
'Whoa.'
My mouth fell open before I knew it.
The chewy texture that clung to my mouth.
The elastic bounce of the meat pushing back against my teeth.
And the incredibly deep crab flavor.
They'd done nothing but steam it, yet the flavor was overwhelming.
'This is absolutely insane...'
And the others all shared my impression.
"...Whoa."
"...Heh."
"...Hmm."
"...Oh my."
"...This is crazy."
The party members had their mouths hanging open and their eyes sparkling.
And after chewing the crab for a moment, they immediately turned their gazes toward me.
Hmm.
...I didn't need anyone to tell me why the party members were acting this way.
"As expected—truly the national side dish."
I told you, I know without being told.
* * *
While the name Utopia was spreading and their influence and capital were on a steady upward trajectory,
time passed quietly,
and summer break came to an end.
Meaning, it was time to be active at the academy again.
"The little chicks who were still cadet candidates in basic training have grown quite a lot in just half a year."
On the day of the opening ceremony, Chairwoman Rina stood on the podium before the assembled first-years and spoke.
As she did, her gaze lingered on me for a brief moment.
But she quickly averted her eyes.
"From now on, you will each form your own parties, or join existing ones, and be able to select and accept the requests that come into the academy."
At Chairwoman Rina's words, I could feel the excitement around me beginning to heat up.
Party creation.
Originally, in Velvet School Life, until the Midterm Evaluation, you were forced to progress the story with randomly assigned characters from your roster.
Meaning, the real game only started after the Midterm Evaluation.
But in my case, I had been mistaken for a Demonized Human even before enrolling, and as compensation for that, I'd gained party creation authority right after entering the academy.
And that was Utopia.
But even Utopia hadn't been able to take on requests and carry out missions.
We had only been able to clear the dungeons outside.
And that was to be expected. No matter how indebted Chairwoman Rina was to me,
if she'd permitted even that, it would have caused serious problems with fairness, so it couldn't be helped.
'Well, thanks to that, I was able to recruit well-balanced party members before anyone else could snatch them up, and I put them through intense combat training in advance, so I'm way ahead of the game.'
Lee Yu-ri, Shin Se-hee, Kang Do-hee, Im Ga-eul, Sofia.
At this point, it would be nearly impossible to find a better combination.
'Hmm, now that I think about it, there were a few decent requests with pretty good rewards. I should sort those out.'
As I listened to Rina's words, I thought about the requests I'd need to take on.