The Promotional Event
Karlstein combed through the community, hunting for candidates for his promotional event.
"Hmm. This one has way too little Karma."
"Huh? Oh, this guy hasn't even unlocked the Store yet."
"Hmm. This one's in a dimension too far away. I know we charge a surtax, but even for me that'd be a loss, so… no."
He had already installed a large relay in Kim Youngsik's dimension and a small one in Virdel's, but it was still far from enough. That was precisely why he had dubbed the current service an open beta rather than an official launch.
"Well, I can expand the relay network at my own pace."
There was no need to rush.
Research into dimensions was in full swing. Dimensional warping, for safety reasons, would be no simple feat, and there was no telling how long it might take—but the dimensional matter transfer system was advancing rapidly.
Volume limits and product range would be ironed out step by step as the service grew.
"Let's see, let's see."
Then a suitable candidate caught his eye.
He had accumulated points in the hundreds of millions and seemed to visit the community frequently. Curiously, however, his VIP rank was 0—he apparently had little interest in the Dimensional Store.
"Hmm."
He was a user who posted a daily cooking recipe without missing a single day.
If there was anything slightly peculiar about him, it was that he was a vegetarian—with an indescribably excruciating typing style—who occasionally left aggressive comments.
Reactions to him seemed split right down the middle.
He was a user who shared his daily life through modest cooking posts. The community had quite a few elves among its members, so he could fairly be called a named user who drew his share of attention.
But personality that strong (?) meant plenty of users couldn't stand him either.
Frankly, Karlstein couldn't care less whether someone was vegan or not. Personal freedom, as long as they didn't force it on others, no?
Looking over the history of this mysterious martial artist known as 'SongshanTigerFireBat,' he seemed to keep to a reasonable line rather than stir up pointless fights.
However, ever since the Dimensional Store had opened and posts about chicken had sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain, he appeared to be fuming—whether because his own cooking posts were getting buried, or because the board was flooded with nothing but praise for 'chicken'—and he occasionally brawled with other users in the comments.
Hmm….
Reviewing his history, he appeared to be an elder overseeing the warrior monks of the Luohan Hall at the Shaolin Temple.
What intrigued Karlstein more, though, was that 'SongshanTigerFireBat' was not a strict 'vegan' who excluded everything outside vegetables, fruit, and seaweed.
He was closer to a somewhat relaxed, ordinary 'vegetarian.'
Among the photos he had posted was one of him sharing the meat of a wild boar killed in a mountain fire with the young novice monks of Shaolin.
In other words, he merely avoided meat where he could; it wasn't that he couldn't eat it.
Hmm… so that's how it is.
Karlstein lightly sent a gift to his first promotional target.
The North Star of Mount Tai, the head of the Nine Great Sects.
These were words that, by rights and by reputation, referred to none other than the Shaolin Temple. Not a single martial artist in the world would dispute that it was a supreme great sect, the first among the orthodox orders that guarded the peace of the rivers and lakes.
Even within that Shaolin existed an elite order of warrior monks that none could approach—renowned for the Eighteen-Luohan Formation, they were called the Luohan.
And within the Luohan Hall, home to those monks, there also served a stern old master who had honed Shaolin's Seventy-Two Arts to their very limit in order to train the one hundred and eight Luohans.
Particularly renowned among the elders who taught the warrior monks for his severity, and possessing singular insight into the staff arts among the Seventy-Two, he was called a master of the staff—yet as an elder of Shaolin, he held both his martial arts and his spiritual practice in no light regard, and at this moment he sat in deep meditation within his training chamber.
"Originally there is not a single thing—owning nothing of this world, one must cast off all attachment and…."
As he murmured through the sutras, a message materialized before his eyes.
[A gift from the Administrator has arrived.]
Deep in the midst of his focus, he was thrown into confusion by a sudden, unaccountable aroma of food.
"What in the world…."
Before his eyes sat a square chicken box from who knew where.
His eyes went perfectly round.
"…Heh heh."
He had recently reduced his meals to deepen his practice, so the food scent that flooded the training chamber in an instant left him deeply flustered.
For a man who had believed simple fare and vegetables were quite enough to fill his belly, this was, shall we say, a rather baffling gift?
[(VIP5) Golden Ratio Fried Chicken has been delivered.]
The aroma was so overwhelming that his mouth watered of its own accord.
In truth, the Buddha's doctrine forbade the taking of life; it did not forbid the eating of meat. So long as one did not kill deliberately for the sake of eating it, a certain amount was permitted.
All the more so for a sect whose disciples had to train in the martial arts.
Yet the old monk shook his head.
He was currently engaged in a practice of attaining enlightenment through restraint of the Five Desires: the desire for food, for lust, for wealth, for fame, and for sleep.
Besides, this thing called 'chicken' somehow rubbed him the wrong way.
Tsk, tsk. Just what was it about a single dish that had the whole community in such a frenzy?
Hardly anyone even glanced at the posts he so painstakingly wrote.
"Ahem!"
My,,you've sent,,the wrong,,gift^^ I've no,,need of it,,so take it,,on back~~
(roughly: an image of VIP5 Golden Ratio Fried Chicken.jpg)
But the man called the Administrator, whom he had been waiting on, gave no reply at all—only a cascade of pointless comments trickled in beneath his post.
Blinking at the reactions, so far unlike anything he was used to, the old monk was at a loss.
"What in the…."
The very users who had never so much as reacted to his comments before were now showering him in boundless attention and questions.
Even within Shaolin, his famously prickly temperament meant few dared approach him. With age, that tendency had only deepened, until even his fellow elders of the same generation kept their distance.
One could hardly blame him if the small solace he took in sharing his daily life on the community stemmed from a loneliness born of all that.
And so this attention pleased him immensely, in spite of himself….
"…"
Still, the gift had come out of nowhere. Naturally, he knew nothing about it. But if there was one question among that flood he could actually answer….
"Hmm. What does it taste like, you ask?"
He hesitated, looking down at the food radiating an indescribable fragrance, then picked up a single piece.
"Ahem. Ahem. Can't very well throw it away…."
In truth, with the community in such an uproar, he had once bought and tried this 'chicken' himself. It had been an excellent flavor, hard to forget—but he favored simple fare, and being no longer young, he'd found the 'ordinary K-Chicken' a touch greasy and heavy. It had sat uneasily in his stomach afterward, too.
So if he ate it once in a great while, perhaps—but it wasn't something he particularly craved.
To his mind, his own cooking, with its subtle, delicate flavors, was far superior.
Yes—since it had come to this, he would taste it and give them a definitive answer. That at least for an old man like him, his own dishes made from herbs lovingly grown in the mountains far surpassed such greasy fare.
Whatever was left over, he could share with the novice monks.
He bit clean into a drumstick.
"…!"
The universe unfolded within his mind.
And behind him, mouth agape in rapture, yet another something was crossing over from another dimension.
[(VIP5) '1+++ Aged Hanwoo Assorted Roast Course' has been delivered.]
It melts,,gently,, right in yer mouth^^,,gettable,,at Beef Tier 3,,a value,,GOAT^^,,today I present,,beef short ribs~~
Like so~ great fer,,replenishing the body,,ogolgye chicken~~!,,a spring chicken said to be better than even,,wild ginseng,,simmered,,soft,,clean to the bone and made into,,Beef Tier 4^^ whole-boiled chicken soup,,care to try some,,?
A new mukbanger had appeared in the community—a high-tier VIP who wielded a somewhat peculiar turn of phrase.
People had no choice but to seek out and read his reviews, satisfying their curiosity despite his godawful typing.
Just what on earth do the higher tiers sell?
Whether it was thanks to his promotional posts—he having now returned fully and completely to the ways of meat—or to the newly expanded product lineup, Karlstein's Karma began piling up faster than even he had anticipated. And since the release of cola, the Juddak's standing within the community had become something utterly beyond approach.
And there was one woman who despised this community atmosphere more than anyone.
"Hmph. How pathetic—a whole board of people losing their minds over mere food."
The black-haired woman peering into the community with a face twisted in a deep scowl was the foremost authority on magical engineering across the continent: Keisha Winsler.