Chapter 13
Chapter 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: The Small Ball Tossed Up by the Foreign Worker
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sangjin toweled off his hair while checking out the purchase review Woojin had shoved in his face.
"Huh? What's this? A YouTube link?"
"Looks like it. Come here and watch it with me. Aren't you curious what they filmed?"
It was billed as a video purchase review, but Sangjin's expression wasn't great.
"What's wrong?"
"Shopping malls let you post video reviews too, but they went out of their way... You think this is some scheme to boost their YouTube views?"
"Huh? Could be. Still, we gotta check it out. It's our product—what if they trashed it?"
"True enough."
Figuring it wouldn't hurt to take a look first, Sangjin started watching the review alongside Woojin.
"Shall I play it?"
Woojin clicked the video link.
His latest-model phone loaded the YouTube app in a flash and began playback.
"Let's see... The title's... 'Must-Buy! My Own Money Goblin Chopsticks Honest Review! Emotion Warning!' Already hate the vibe..."
It had every trendy YouTube title gimmick crammed in.
Brushing off the cheap mass-produced feel of the title, the brothers settled in to watch.
The dark screen shook with camera jitter for a moment before brightening to reveal a bushy-haired man with tanned skin.
"Not a live stream... No editing at all... It's totally raw footage...?"
The man waved energetically and started his greeting.
The man grinned broadly, and in his right hand was the Goblin Chopsticks bought from Woosang Shop.
"Oh? He's holding our chopsticks!"
Seeing their product on video gave it a whole new feel.
After the greeting, the man named Jaya continued.
Surprisingly fluent in Korean for a foreigner, the man dove straight into the main point.
Jaya said that and close-upped the Goblin Chopsticks for the camera.
Seeing their product in a YouTube video gave Woojin a strange sense of fulfillment.
"Ugh... Our product on YouTube..."
"Bro... Nothing good about it. This guy's got 2 subscribers. Family alone would make 10."
Ignoring Sangjin's grumbling, Woojin kept watching.
The man then panned the smartphone camera—presumably—to show the food laid out on the table.
Curiously, the spread resembled the foods Woojin and Sangjin had used in their experiments.
Whole kimchi, perilla leaf pickles, raw green beans—even glass marbles.
Jaya from Sri Lanka kept talking.
Four years in and still can't use chopsticks? Unthinkable for a Korean.
But Sangjin cleared up Woojin's curiosity somewhat.
"Sri Lanka's next to India. No chopstick culture there. They eat with hands, so utensils are totally alien."
"Ah? So that's why after four years he still can't use them?"
"Eh... You could see it that way to understand. Four years in Korea and can't use chopsticks? Makes no sense. It's not that he can't— he just didn't."
Undeterred by Sangjin's sharp critique, Jaya on screen pressed on.
With that, the man started using the chopsticks. He showed himself eating rice dishes with them, Korean-style.
It looked just like a seasoned Korean. He split the whole kimchi lengthwise with chopsticks, wrapped it in rice, and popped it in his mouth!
Then he peeled off a perilla leaf pickle, wrapped rice, and in it went!
The utterly ordinary footage started boring Woojin and Sangjin.
"Sangjin... Isn't this just some foreigner who's lived in Korea four years doing a plain mukbang?"
"...Yeah. Bad luck, and folks'll call it a paid shill."
They let out brief "oohs" at him picking up green beans and even glass marbles, but that was it.
Even Woojin thought Lv.3 chopstick skill was just "really good at chopsticks."
Fine for a foreigner, but nothing special for a Korean.
Not worth burning time on.
Still, amid it all, Sangjin grasped the chopsticks' special trait.
"Bro, when you did Lv.2 enhancement, you said it was just really good chopstick use, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Hoo... This is interesting."
"What is?"
"The Lv.3 Chopstick Skill on those chopsticks. For a Korean, it's just 'good at chopsticks.' But for that foreigner? A whole new world."
"What do you mean?"
"Koreans like you already have Lv.2-3 chopstick mastery built into your body, so Lv.3 skill doesn't wow you. But that foreigner?"
Woojin finally got it.
"His chopstick level was 0, and it jumped straight to 3?"
Sangjin snapped his fingers with a pop!
"Bingo! That's why he's experiencing a revelation."
"Hoo... That's a fun fact."
The video was nothing special, but Woojin was genuinely grateful to Jaya.
"Still, this is awesome. From his perspective, he put real effort into the review. Might get shill accusations, but I should DM him thanks when we send more chopsticks."
Woojin said that and moved to end the video.
It was only halfway done.
Probably more picking stuff up after that.
Then Jaya's voice came from the video.
"Last part," Woojin decided to watch a bit more.
And Jaya's next action left him dumbfounded.
"???? What the hell is he doing...?"
"...Beats me...?"
Jaya from Sri Lanka was grunting as he wedged the Goblin Chopsticks between his toes.
Their eyes met in sheer bewilderment.
Chopsticks on toes? Never saw that coming.
Regardless of Woojin and Sangjin's shock, Jaya on screen fitted the chopsticks snugly to his right foot, flashing his white teeth—stark against his tan skin—and grinning.
Repeatedly urging viewers to watch closely, Jaya lifted his chopstick-clad right foot onto the table and began picking up food.
The foreign worker's chopstick freak show had begun.
Woojin couldn't look away, turning to Sangjin.
"W-What am I watching right now? Product review? Or Life Master?"
Sangjin was equally floored, mouth agape, staring silently.
After successfully shredding kimchi with foot chopsticks, Jaya beamed at the camera.
Jaya then demoed left-hand and left-foot chopsticks too, and after all his feats, close-upped his face to wrap up.
Just when it seemed over, Jaya added a final bit.
The video ended abruptly.
"......"
"......"
Woojin and Sangjin were speechless. Breaking the silence, Woojin gave a standing ovation.
Clap clap clap—
Sangjin stared at him, baffled.
"...What're you doing?"
Woojin kept clapping.
"Come on... Review or not, don't we owe applause for a video like this? You ever seen anyone like that?"
Sangjin pondered, then conceded.
"Nope... World really has all kinds..."
Immersed in the video's afterglow, Woojin realized it was their product that made it possible.
"Insane... From a hand-eating country, doing chopsticks with all four limbs? Even if faked with effort, deserves claps. But! Only possible with our chopsticks!!"
Especially the left-foot green bean grab had Woojin sweating bullets.
Was it for tension? Jaya trembled on screen.
His '[Ah! Careful! Success! Careful success just now did!]' line even got a chuckle.
Sangjin seemed deep in thought post-video.
"Hey, what're you mulling?"
"No need to take it down."
"What?"
Sangjin had been ready to request deletion if the review said anything weird.
Great ads could flop from one bad review on online malls.
That was his lens viewing Jaya's video.
But even by his standards, it was gold.
"Could demand takedown if the foreigner said something off about our product—truthful defamation or whatever. But it's all praise... And fun. Just chopsticks, but Sri Lankan origin's a killer hook, plus the worker's speech, plain food, insane skills... Synergy..."
Woojin cut off Sangjin's rambling analysis.
"Acting all know-it-all again. Fun just analyzing? Feel it with your heart, man—heart! Obviously fun, right?"
Sangjin sighed in agreement.
"Haa... Fair. First review's this wild—total variety show."
Woojin grinned at the validation.
"Hahaha. Anyone hitting our shop sees this, right? Bit long, but just when boring, customer drops a mind-blower—flew by. Guy's got YouTuber potential?"
Sangjin smirked.
"Maybe."
Later on,
this purchase review video marked the legendary birth of 'Jaya's Korean Product Reviews from Sri Lanka', the million-sub reviewer.
A week passed.
Goblin Chopsticks sold 3-5 units daily. Woojin was thrilled.
After platform fees and such, they netted a bit over 40,000 won—but with taxes, conservatively 40,000 won pure profit per day.
That's 120-200k daily, averaging over 4 million monthly.
Unlike SG Group's reward or Jihyun Yoo's enhancement fee.
This was purely their own labor's fruit.
Woojin hummed as usual, packaging chopsticks.
"Hum hum hum~♪ What matches what? Chop-chop pair match perfect."
Jaya's "chop-chop" for chopsticks had stuck; he was saying it instead.
Felt like a curse but not—kinda fun.
One regret: Jaya's fun review had pitiful views. 1,000 in a week?
Few visited Woosang Shop, and Jaya's under 500 subs meant no exposure.
Still, Sangjin called 1,000 views from 2-sub foreigner a miracle.
Views aside, steady sales kept Woojin grateful and upbeat.
At this rate, 10? 100 daily? Hopeful dreams.
After today's work, Woojin logged into YouTube to boost Jaya's views.
But,
"Huh? What's this."
Life's ups and downs, like heartbeats.
Too rosy thoughts? Malicious comments started piling on Jaya's video.