Our Cafe Is Open for Normal Business
Our cafe was open for normal business. On the internet, various communities were on fire with discussions related to Han Gaeul.
The general consensus was that the cake tasting amazing wasn't a big deal, but the statue content was clearly manipulated. Most people were criticizing the manipulation, though a few were defending it.
Someone had posted about donating to another personal broadcaster to verify whether the statue was manipulated. Seeing that post, other people started sending videos and donations to their own favorite broadcasters, urging them to go check it out too. A gathering of famous personal broadcasters had begun at a tiny cafe.
I received an urgent text from Park Nayoung. Along with a plea for help, a message arrived telling me to come to the cafe immediately.
I left a note for the sleeping Han Gaeul apologizing and saying I'd be back soon, then sprinted to the cafe at full speed.
When I arrived, I scanned the cafe interior with a disbelieving expression. Customers in the cafe? If it had been just one or two people I could have understood, but more than ten were occupying the tables. The strange part was that every single one of them had filming equipment.
As I stepped inside, a man was drinking coffee while speaking to his camera.
He seemed to be a coffee specialist, savoring the drink with a satisfied expression and sharing his impressions. Similar scenes were playing out at the other tables. Everyone was tasting the coffee and chattering away at their cameras. Fortunately they were all full of praise.
Despite Park Nayoung's urgent text, the cafe didn't look like it was in any emergency. She spotted me from behind the counter and waved.
"What's going on?"
"...What?"
Contrary to her claim that it was urgent, Park Nayoung looked positively delighted that every cake had sold. She was beaming. My face, on the other hand, stiffened instantly.
Han Gaeul's live broadcast had happened yesterday, but I honestly hadn't expected much from it. Since most of the viewers were male, they didn't match the cafe's usual customer base. My original plan had been to slowly grow foot traffic based on the views from the edited video.
Instead, the manipulation controversy had exploded. Not only the people who had watched the live stream but even community users came out of curiosity. As a result, the cakes we had prepared in slightly larger quantities than usual sold out before noon.
We had plenty of coffee, but the main ingredients for the cakes had been made by me using Power Infusion. They couldn't be replicated with ordinary ingredients, which was why she had called me in.
"We still have the ingredients, right?"
"Yeah. I got them ready in the kitchen."
I headed into the kitchen and infused the cake ingredients with the Sex Power I had charged up the night before. Once I finished applying Power Infusion to every ingredient, Nayoung came in from the counter as if we were switching shifts. I took my place at the register and greeted the customers.
The YouTubers were raving about how delicious everything was, and we were still running the half-price event until today. Customers began pouring in. Some ordered coffee, but most seemed curious about the cake and ordered that instead.
Most people looked disappointed when they heard the cakes had sold out and they'd have to wait, then left. For those who chose to stay, I apologized for the delay and handed out glasses of iced Americano.
The customers who remained were mostly personal broadcasters. It looked like an offline meetup, with famous streamers sitting together in groups of three or five. If you added up all their subscribers and followers, it would easily surpass a million.
Who would've thought the manipulation controversy would actually help us?
From the conversations I overheard, their goal was clearly the Cerer Goddess Statue. It seemed they planned to confirm the cake's taste first, then verify whether the statue was manipulated.
Park Nayoung finished one cake, cut it into eight slices, and carried them to the tables. As soon as the long-awaited cake arrived, the personal broadcasters picked up their forks and started their broadcasts.
The personal broadcasters, who had half-dismissed the claim of "the world's most delicious strawberry cake" as hype, were now pouring out genuine exclamations of amazement. The suspicions of the countless viewers watching them began to fade.
If only one or two people had reacted this way, viewers would have suspected they were in on it. But when multiple people shouted the same thing in unison, even those watching through a screen had no choice but to believe.
In the end, the cake controversy quietly vanished without any real backlash.
But the cake had only been a secondary issue. Viewers flooded the chat demanding the broadcasters verify the statue manipulation controversy right away.
The personal broadcasters who had finished eating eyed one another, waiting to see who would step forward first. Then a woman wearing an adorable pressed hat stood up and walked toward me.
Someone shouted when they saw her.
Dark Magician Girl. Also known as DameGirl, she was a famous magician YouTuber. I recognized her too. I remembered watching her perform magic shows in a black bunny-girl outfit. She was apparently quite well-known, because people were murmuring all around us.
"Ah, yes. What can I do for you?"
Despite her large subscriber count, she asked in an extremely polite tone. She pointed at the statue Nayoung had moved inside the shop to avoid yesterday's controversy. I readily agreed and carried the Cerer Goddess Statue over to her table.
The fact that even I—not Han Gaeul or Park Nayoung—could lift it so easily drew suspicious glances from every direction.
"Feel free to touch and tap it as much as you like. I made it with extremely solid material."
It was a Cerer Goddess Statue carved with care from sacred stone—a top-grade material that was rare even in the other world—and thoroughly reinforced with high-level Sex Power. It hadn't suffered so much as a scratch from the demon race's powerful attacks, so there was no chance an ordinary person's touch would damage it.
Having seen me lift it effortlessly with one hand, she apparently suspected it was hollow and tapped it. If it were empty inside it should have made a light, hollow sound, but no matter how hard she knocked, only a heavy, solid thud came back.
Her reason for coming here was to confirm whether the claim that only good people could lift the statue was true. She made the light joke and gripped the statue with both hands.
But no matter how hard she strained, the statue didn't budge an inch.
She spoke in clear confusion. The viewers watching her broadcast were equally bewildered.
Deciding there must be some kind of magical trick involved, she began examining the statue carefully. She declared that she would uncover the trick no matter what it was.
But no matter how closely she looked, there was nothing for her to reveal.