Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Not a Jackpot! A Super Jackpot!
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The screen that Woojin and Sangjin were staring at showed a bell-shaped notification icon marked with the number '238'.
That meant there were 238 notifications.
Did that mean they had received this many orders?
Even the ever-calm Sangjin looked flustered, wondering what on earth was going on.
"Sh-should we check it?"
"Hurry!"
Sangjin moved the mouse over the bell icon, and an enormous list of notifications unfurled.
Confirming that most of them were purchase notifications, Woojin let out a joyful scream.
"P-Purchase notifications! How many is that!? Most of them are purchases!?"
"Wh-what's going on? We never got this many sales before!"
As Sangjin scrolled down the list, he spotted a notification that stood out from the purchases.
'A video purchase review?'
Checking the timestamp, it was from yesterday afternoon.
Sangjin had a gut feeling that this video review was the spark behind everything.
"Hyung, this is it. This video review is why all this is happening."
"Then what are you waiting for? Check it out now!"
At Woojin's urging, Sangjin navigated to the Woosang Shop page and pulled up the video review.
Sangjin hit play on the video right away.
The video opened with a toddler—maybe three or four years old—sitting in a high chair, eating from a baby plate set in front of her.
"Mommy, Jju Yeoni tummy hungwy. Wanna eat bubles lots and lots. Eating like this lots and lots makes tummy full."
"That's right~ Our little Jju Yeoni was so hungry, wasn't she? Mommy made lots of yummy food, so let's eat now, okay?"
The cute exchange between the little girl and her mom brought smiles to their faces. The toddler grabbed a spoon and started scooping rice into her mouth.
Being so young, her spoon skills were clumsy—rice stuck to her face in the most adorably babyish way.
Then the mom's voice chimed in.
"Today it's Jju Yeoni's favorite octopus sausages! Mommy made them super cute, so pick them up nicely and chew chew before you eat, okay?"
But something was off.
This was supposed to be a review of their product, yet the little girl called Jju Yeoni was holding kids' chopsticks with a rabbit design and a finger grip attachment.
She tried using those chopsticks to pick up the octopus-shaped sausage, but it wasn't working.
After several failed attempts, the toddler started to whimper.
"Octy... Jju Yeoni hic, octy... ran away fwom Jju Yeoni... sob sob, waaah..."
Just as she was about to burst into tears, the mom swiftly swapped out the chopsticks in her tiny hand.
"Did the octopus run away and make Jju Yeoni sad? Then how about we try these Goblin Chopsticks!? Remember how the goblins did it in K-Pop Demon Exorcist?"
"They cast magic spells!"
The mom clapped her hands with a clap! and continued.
"That's right! The goblins cast magical spells to help our Jju Yeoni eat her yummy food, remember?"
The rice-smeared toddler nodded vigorously at her mom.
"Okay~ Now the goblin went poof! and cast a spell right here! So Jju Yeoni can eat her octopus yummy! Let's try picking it up with these Goblin Chopsticks!"
Distracted from her tears by the mom's role-play, the toddler took the Goblin Chopsticks and glared at the octopus sausage.
Even to a stranger, the sight was unbearably cute.
"Octy! No wunning away now! Gobwin cast magic on you!"
To an outsider, this whole scene looked bizarre.
She couldn't even pick it up with baby chopsticks that had a finger holder—now they were giving her adult chopsticks?
Normally, parents would switch to a fork or feed the child themselves.
Yet here in the video, the toddler was holding adult chopsticks.
Even the Goblin Chopsticks' creators, the Woojin brothers, thought something felt off about the video—what would other people think?
After her adorable declaration of war on the octopus sausage, the toddler reached out with the Goblin Chopsticks.
If this failed, the story wouldn't progress.
"No way... really...?"
The brothers' expectations became reality.
The insanely powerful Goblin Chopsticks worked perfectly in the toddler's tiny hand, flawlessly picking up the octopus sausage.
Woojin, watching the video, let out an involuntary gasp.
"Sh-she got it!! The baby did it!! She conquered the octopus!"
Successfully bringing it all the way to her mouth, the toddler quickly popped the sausage in.
"Octy! Yummy! Now Jju Yeoni even more full."
Her cheeks stuffed with sausage as she mumbled—it was pure cuteness overload.
"Wow! Our Jju Yeoni succeeded in picking up food with the Goblin Chopsticks!? Now how about this one?"
The mom pointed to some kimchi, washed clean and cut into bite-sized pieces perfect for a baby.
The toddler, who seemed to know kimchi was fair game, reached for it without hesitation.
Sangjin muttered while eyeing the tiny-cut kimchi.
"Whoa, that's cut so small even an adult might struggle to pick it up..."
But with a single chopstick motion, the toddler nabbed a piece and popped it in her mouth.
Her face lit up with triumphant pride after back-to-back successes.
No wonder—she was proud of herself.
"Kuh! Nailed it on the first try! She's too cute... No, a baby fumbling with full-size chopsticks like that? This is no joke. Heh heh heh."
"So this is what caused the frenzy..."
The video ended there. The mom who filmed it simply stopped recording and uploaded it straight as the review.
Under five minutes long, but the impact was massive!
Could there be anything crazier than this situation? A toddler just learning to use chopsticks suddenly mastering adult ones?
Not even faked footage could pull this off.
Because it's a baby.
Woojin and Sangjin checked the regular comments under that video review.
After checking the purchase reviews, Sangjin pieced together the whole story.
Woojin asked Sangjin, looking bewildered.
"Dude, that video review is impressive and all, but could it really blow up this much in one day?"
Sangjin dropped a single word to his hyung, who still didn't quite get it.
"Like you said, it's only been a day, and it's already like this... which doesn't make sense."
"Then what the hell happened? How?"
"Mom cafes..."
At the short phrase "mom cafes," Woojin tilted his head.
"Mom cafes? Like those online communities for moms with babies?"
"Jackpot... Mom cafes... Why didn't I think of that? Hyung... I think we've hit the big time..."
It was something Sangjin, still young, had overlooked.
He never imagined babies would be using it.
And parents don't skimp on spending for their kids.
"They say sucking up booger money is the pinnacle of business!!"
Even K-Pop Demon Exorcist's global craze was powered by babies hooked on its infinite loop feature.
If babies are into it, adults follow.
And that turns into sales.
Woojin was stunned.
"Just one post on a mom cafe has this much reach?"
"Just a mom cafe!? Hyung, you have no idea!"
"I... don't?"
"Those moms will buy anything if it's good for their babies! And now there's proof in that video! Could you make a video of a baby handling adult chopsticks like that?"
"...No way in hell."
"Exactly! Exposing the baby's face like that means no reason to fake it—and the cafe users know it deep down. Zero reason to suspect it's staged!"
Mom cafes have their share of scandals, but at their core, they're communities of moms raising kids.
Woojin finally started grasping the situation, his face lighting up in realization.
"So someone saw the video, commented, and it spread from mom cafe to mom cafe? Like a virus? This is that 'viral' thing you talked about!?"
"Bingo! Smart as always, hyung! This is viral marketing! A massive one! We hit the jackpot proper!"
Even as the brothers figured it out, sales kept pouring in.
The video must have spread to other mom cafes—the notification count had jumped from 283 to over 300.
"Out of stock! We gotta mark it out of stock!"
"I-I don't know. What's that!?"
Sangjin hurriedly posted a stock depletion notice and paused sales.
The moment Sangjin posted it, the Q&A flooded with frantic inquiries.
It was just past noon, and Woojin, dumbfounded by the madness, started packing chopsticks like a maniac.
"Crazy? This ain't the time to slack!! We gotta ship 200 by tomorrow!?"
As Woojin snapped into action, Sangjin quickly sorted things out and jotted down notes.
"Count 'em up, addresses, shipping... Group by city, district, neighborhood first..."
Sangjin organized the tasks and yelled to Woojin.
"H-hyung! Check current stock first. Exact number!"
"156, like I said yesterday."
"Short 46! Can you make 'em today!?"
Luckily, the level-up boosted his mana, so he could produce over 50 chopsticks a day now.
Woojin thumped his chest confidently.
"Of course, you punk!! Even if I have to squeeze every last drop of mana outta my ass!!"
"I'll sort these in the meantime!"
Sangjin glanced over—the bulk of addresses were from a new Gyeonggi-do new town area.
The video had definitely spread from that area's mom cafe.
Fortunately, lots of duplicates made sorting easy.
But there was a big problem.
"Damn it!! Who knew not having a printer would bite us this hard! Shoulda bought one ages ago!"
With daily sales under five, they'd skipped the printer—big mistake.
If hyung enhanced a printer, addresses would've printed in seconds.
Just then, Woojin stepped up as if reading his mind.
"Yo, I'll run grab a printer."
"Y-you will?"
"Dude, we can't hand-write 200 addresses. There's an electronics mart right nearby. Be back quick. Gotta be me—I need to buy one with skills."
Even same-model products could have different skills or none at all.
"Roger. I'll handle shop Q&A and sorting!"
That's when it happened.
Ding-dong—
The doorbell at Woojin's place rang.
"Who's that? Anyone coming over?"
"Nope?"
"Probably a salesman."
The brothers ignored it to keep working, but the bell kept ringing.
Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong.
A young woman's voice called out.
"Anyone home!? Hello!?"
"What, your girlfriend?"
The only woman they knew was Jihyun Yoo.
Woojin yanked open the front door roughly.
"Argh! We're swamped here, what now—!?"
Standing there wasn't Jihyun.
Neat brown short hair, cute face.
A different charm from Jihyun.
"Who are you?"
The woman smiled brightly.
"Hello. Nice to meet you. Are you Kim Woojin?"
A short while later.
Woojin came panting back with the printer.
"Alright! Let's get to it, Sangjin!"
They faced a full day of grueling work, but their hearts were happier than ever.
That's when it happened.
—Ding-dong