Chapter 99: The Voting Rank War (3)

Right before my eyes, the Harpy was reborn as something delicious. A golden batter had fried up into a dish that looked, honestly, a lot like fried chicken.

The finished Harpy dish drew a flood of reactions. The creature itself had been monstrously huge, but broken down and fried like this, it looked perfectly manageable for ordinary people to eat.

The reaction's good.

It was a dish made from the very Harpies that had been terrorizing them, and that alone seemed to be earning a warmer reception than I had expected.

And then came the tasting requests. I picked up a piece of Harpy Fried Chicken, held it close to the camera, and took a big bite.

Crrrack. Crunch.

The shatter of that crust carried straight through the speakers and into every viewer.

Their excitement only made me lean harder into the Harpy-chicken mukbang. Crunch. Crunch.

"Mmm~ so if I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had to describe this flavor!"

I said that much and went right back to eating, and the chat looked ready to crawl through the screen.

Watching them squirm, I started walking them through the taste the way it hit me.

"The second you take that first bite — boom — what you get is this insane fried crunch. And the instant your teeth sink into the meat underneath? Heavenly tenderness."

That single description set the chat on fire.

There was the camp that refused to believe a word I said. And then there was the other camp.

"You won't believe it if it's just me talking, right? White Dragon!"

"Huh?"

"Here. You eat this."

"For real?!"

White Dragon hauled that enormous body of his through the air and landed in front of me, then started vacuuming up the Harpy Fried Chicken I had stacked and waiting.

Crrrrrrrrack. Chomp. Chomp.

An absurd amount of fried Harpy vanished into his mouth, disappearing the way a vacuum cleaner swallows dust. It couldn't have taken a full minute. An entire Harpy's worth of fried pieces, piled high a moment ago, settled neatly into White Dragon's stomach.

White Dragon finished, thought about it for a second, and spat out a single word.

"Honey-delicious!"

One word from White Dragon. And it landed hotter than every flowery description I had piled on top of the dish.

Just about time to wrap this up.

The stream was about to end.

"Alright, everyone — that's it for today's broadcast. I'll list this Harpy Fried Chicken on the Auction House, so if you want to try it, go grab some yourselves. I'll have it up the second the Auction House opens today."

The promise of a listing only made the chat burn hotter. What would it actually taste like? Could they really eat the Harpies that had been hunting them? And what kind of effect would it even have?

A soft pop, and the stream cut out.

"Hah. This is no kind of work."

I had no idea how people who did this for a living managed it, but wrangling hundreds of thousands of viewers was anything but easy. Every time a nasty comment rolled in and I had to answer it, the mental grind piled up fast.

Still, it's a lot more bearable with White Dragon around.

If he hadn't been here, the thought of handling that crowd alone would have been ugly. Mi-sung and Kang-mi had offered to help, but there was no way I was dragging them into a place this dangerous.

"White Dragon. Thanks. Glad I've got you, at least."

"Huh?"

Chomp. Chomp.

"Hey! What are you eating?"

While I had been thinking, White ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dragon had started in on a dead Harpy's carcass.

"You little—! I haven't even eaten any yet!"

It came out a little strange, but I still hadn't predating a Harpy myself. The stats I would get from devouring one mattered, and so did adding another monster I could summon.

"Alright then. Let's eat."

Chomp. Chomp. Tear. Tear.

White Dragon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and I started ripping into the raw Harpy corpses together. I could have fried them or roasted them without using the cooking skill at all, but eating them raw had a flavor all its own. And honestly, I was a little too lazy to bother with anything else.

After predating dozens of Harpies, I headed back toward the factory I had first come to while hunting for Kim Ha-jin and swept the area once more.

Where the hell did Kim Ha-jin even go?

I turned the factory grounds inside out and found no trace of him. The Cult Leader's underlings had sworn they didn't know any other location, so I searched the surroundings anyway and came up with nothing.

Hah. Should I just head down to Busan?

I had been lingering in Seoul to find Kim Ha-jin, but after days of coming up empty I was starting to want the road south. If I couldn't find him, clearing the current scenario quest was all but impossible — which meant I was better off doing something else for now.

First things first. Get this listed on the Auction House.

I registered the Harpy Fried Chicken the moment the Auction House opened, then headed back to where Kang-mi and Mi-sung were waiting. The second I walked in, Mi-sung came running.

"Oppa! Is that Harpy Fried Chicken actually good?"

"Hahaha. Curious?"

"Of course I am. White Dragon was eating it like it was the best thing he'd ever had."

"Was he?"

She must have been watching my stream closely, because Mi-sung looked ready to die of curiosity.

"Here. Take it."

I handed her a piece of Harpy Fried Chicken. Kang-mi, drawn in by the smell, immediately glued herself to Mi-sung's side.

"Whoa! These effects are no joke."

"Right?"

"What's the special ability?"

"You'll find out when you eat it."

Mi-sung bit into the Harpy Fried Chicken on the spot — and the second the crust cracked between her teeth, the exclamations started pouring out of her.

"Whoa! This is actually—! Whoa! This is insane!"

She was so overwhelmed she couldn't even form a real sentence, just a string of stunned noises. Kang-mi, now equally curious, grabbed a piece of her own and took a bite.

"Oppa! This is an actual revolution! They need to release this as a new product — Harpy Crunch!"

Kang-mi had fallen under the fried Harpy's spell too. The two of them started eating without so much as a pause for breath. It really must have been that good.

"Alright. Once you're done, try flying."

"Does this actually work?"

"Of course it does."

The special ability attached to the Harpy Fried Chicken had come from my Monster Cooking skill evolving after the class change.

That was how the new frying method had unlocked in the first place — and how Harpy Fried Chicken had become possible at all.

"Whoa! I'm actually flying!"

"This is incredible! I can't believe I'm in the air!"

Kang-mi and Mi-sung, full of Harpy Fried Chicken, drifted around the room in light, looping arcs, testing the feel of it. I had deliberately left the flight effect out of the stream. If I dumped the dish ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on the Auction House instead, the fame would spread on its own — and louder.

It played out exactly the way I had predicted. The System Bulletin Board erupted with praise for Harpy Fried Chicken.

Posts about how they had never tasted fried food this good. Posts about how the stat bonuses were insane. Posts about how it let you fly. The board was so thoroughly wallpapered with talk about me that almost nothing else could get a word in.

I read through it all and waited, slowly, for voting time.

I should climb a fair bit this round, right?

A little hope. I had been sixth last time. Fourth, maybe even third, didn't feel impossible.

Then the vote opened. A little later, I looked at the results — and I could not believe them.

Seventh?

Not even holding sixth. Seventh. After everything I had done to stay in the conversation, I had dropped — and the reason was sitting right under my chin.

Baek Joongwon, breathing down my neck. Unlike most of the other floors, the Floor of Cooking had two people who actually fit it — him and me — and the votes were splitting right down the middle.

If this keeps up, I lose.

Baek Joongwon. A man with cooking skill so overwhelming they called him a master of the craft. Mi-sung had caught one of his streams in passing and said that just watching him cook was enough to put people in a trance.

A few more days slipped by.

I kept streaming Monster Cooking, kept making my case to the public, but the gap with Baek Joongwon refused to widen. If anything, he was about to swallow my lead whole.

I have to settle this with something special.

Tomorrow was the last broadcast day. After six days, the final vote count between Baek Joongwon and me was far too close.

Is that really the only card I have left?

The one punch in my head strong enough to flip this. The monster I had run into while hunting for Kim Ha-jin.

"KWAAAAAAAH!"

The instant it spotted me, Baeksan threw its head back and roared, the sound slamming through the entire underground. I looked at the thing glaring at me like it wanted me dead, and I gave it a single line.