The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 127

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 127. Instructions
Normally, the next instruction should have come.
Since it failed, either try a different approach, touch this angle, or suppress that one.
‘Do something! Anything!’
There was nothing.
For him, that was even more terrifying. The fact that his position was being preserved suggested things weren’t at their absolute worst, but the complete silence made it feel like he could lose his seat at any moment.
He couldn’t get a grip on the situation.
“Ugh….”
Oh Tae-sik looked out the office window.
The broadcast was already spilled milk.
The first episode had aired.
The original footage had been broadcast.
The viewers had seen it.
Comments poured in. Clips circulated.
PD Ga ultimately hadn’t cut the editing.
He said he’d handle it himself, but nothing got resolved.
Even though Jang On-gyu said he’d go to the broadcasting station personally and settle it.
‘That didn’t work either. Yet there’s no contact? What on earth is going on?’
Oh Tae-sik tapped his fingers on the desk.
‘So what is the Representative doing right now?’
The more he thought about it, the less sense it made.
‘Is staying still a strategy in this situation? Or has he really given up? I have no idea. But knowing that man’s personality… it doesn’t seem like he’d let go.’
If it were strategy, an instruction would come.
If he’d given up, then I’d have to figure things out myself. First, I’d need to find a lifeline and grab it.
The problem was, I had no idea what figuring it out myself meant.
‘Damn it…!’
Oh Tae-sik had grown so accustomed to receiving instructions and following them that he found it nearly impossible to act independently.
Even if it weren’t Jang On-gyu, if the Representative would just give some order, any order.
Or if any superior would just issue some directive.
But there was nothing.
‘This won’t do! I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place!’
Waiting any longer felt wrong.
He finally picked up his phone.
Brrr- brr-
The dial tone rang three times.
“Representative. It’s Oh Tae-sik.”
-Why are you calling?
“How should I proceed? It feels like I need to do something.”
-Stay put. I’m still working on it.
“Ah….”
The call dropped.
Oh Tae-sik stared down at his phone.
‘….’
What did he mean by “wait”?
And what was this about still being in the process of resolving things?
‘What am I supposed to do?’
Was he saying to wait for instructions to come?
Or was he telling me to do absolutely nothing?
Or was he telling me to use my judgment and act on my own?
‘…Damn it.’
My head was spinning.
All three interpretations were possible.
All three made me uneasy.
‘What do I do….’
Oh Tae-sik couldn’t bring himself to leave his seat that day either.
* * *
It was several days later.
That day too, Oh Tae-sik sat blankly in front of his monitor.
He opened the broadcast replay.
It was routine—hoping something might have changed.
“It’s the same.”
There was a rerun, though. Normally, reruns like this go up the same day they air.
It’s because of the OTT platform.
So nothing should be different. Nothing should be.
“Huh?”
The rerun that had been uploaded was different somehow.
‘What is this?’
I pulled the timeline forward.
I found the section where Kim Seon-woo was speaking.
The scene where Kim Seon-woo spoke directly to the camera in front of the factory.
I found that segment.
It was gone.
I rewound and fast-forwarded through the timeline three more times.
It was gone.
It cut directly from the scene before to the scene after.
The edit was seamless, flowing naturally, as if it had never existed in the first place. You could barely tell something had been cut if you weren’t paying attention.
Someone had definitely worked on this. A professional.
“Who?”
There’s no way PD Ga would do this. So someone else did it. Which means…
‘Did Jang On-gyu succeed!?’
Oh Tae-sik turned off the screen.
He exhaled once.
‘That’s done.’
But that thought didn’t last long.
The next thought followed immediately.
Come to think of it, the broadcast had already aired.
What difference would editing make at this point?
When the initial broadcast went out, hundreds of thousands must have watched it.
No, it would be millions.
I heard it was the highest viewership rating in pilot program history.
And that’s not even the main issue.
Clips circulated, comments poured in, and it was shared everywhere.
‘These days there are shorts and all sorts of things like that…’
Anyway, what difference would changing the edited version in the rerun make?
It wouldn’t change the memories of those who watched it.
No, actually it would change them.
A negative image that had already taken root would gradually intensify into an even worse one.
That’s just how human memory works.
‘So what’s the plan then? Changing this won’t make a difference anyway.’
Oh Tae-sik couldn’t figure it out.
If editing the rerun prevented something, what was it preventing?
Was it to create legal grounds?
Was it to claim that such a scene never existed from the beginning?
‘Surely not.’
Did he think that was possible? Changing the rerun now?
Oh Tae-sik picked up his phone.
He wanted to ask. What are you trying to do?
Then he put it back down.
‘…He’d just tell me to drop it.’
He was afraid to ask.
If Jang On-gyu didn’t know about something, it would become a problem.
If the representative ordered something, he should already know everything—so why ask?
Either way, there was nothing good in it for him.
‘…The comments… Right. Let me check what the comments are saying.’
With trembling hands, he searched for and examined the comments section.
* * *
The first one posted was from a single account.
-Wait? I rewatched the rerun because I remembered it, but something’s different?
It might have gotten no response at all.
But those who knew, knew.
-What’s different?
-No… it feels like an entire scene just disappeared?
-Huh?
-The factory interview! That’s not there, right?
-Oh, I remember that too. It was definitely there?
-Aren’t you just misremembering?
-How do you misremember something like that? lol
-I saw it too, it was there. What’s going on?
Comments began to pile up.
-If they cut it in the rerun, there must be a reason?
-What controversy?
-Controversy? No, why would there be something like that?
-There isn’t?
-But the broadcasting station has no real reason to cut just that scene in the rerun
-Right, that’s what’s weird. If they didn’t edit it, it would’ve just aired normally, so why touch it?
-The fact that they touched it makes it look even more suspicious.
-??????
Then someone posted something.
-Does anyone have a screenshot from the original broadcast? Let’s compare them side by side
-It’s on the shorts.
-Upload it
-I’m tired. Find it yourself.
-Oh, I found it!
Screenshots were uploaded.
But it didn’t end with just screenshots.
Someone even lined them up side by side in the meantime.
The original broadcast scene and the rerun scene. They posted the same timeline from both.
-What is this?
-Is there something here?
Upvotes began to accumulate.
The post rose to the top.
-So when the cost breakdown scene aired in the original broadcast, there were tons of comments, right? That seems to be the problem?
-After those comments started spreading, they edited it? The timing is
-Spot on lol
-Where can we report this?
-There’s a media tip section, you know
-lol reporting to media outlets, will the broadcasting station accept it?
-Ah…
-Or just spreading this is the fastest way
At first it was suspicion. As upvotes climbed, it was converging into a single word.
I was certain. I knew something was there.
I just hadn’t grasped exactly what it was yet.
-There’s definitely something.
-What could it be?
-Just try to catch it for now.
The fruit was slowly ripening.
A harvest worth gathering whenever it came.
* * *
The dinner rush had just ended.
‘Will Han Jae-won come by today too? Hmm….’
Jin-woo was wiping down the hall tables.
This was the second one.
I surveyed the remaining work in the kitchen while glancing outside again.
‘He didn’t come yesterday, did he? He used to show up almost every day, so it feels strange that he didn’t.’
Because of that, I couldn’t concentrate at all.
My hands were moving, but my mind was elsewhere.
‘The next product.’
Han Jae-won’s words still lingered in my ears.
The combination I’d created at the Convenience Store was also on my mind.
‘It feels like something might connect….’
The factory production Han Jae-won was suggesting.
I was reluctant to accept it right away.
It wasn’t a matter of sentiment—it was more of an instinct.
It wasn’t a complete rejection.
‘It’s just not calling to me right now.’
I’d accept it eventually, but it didn’t feel like the right time.
Yet I didn’t want to dismiss that direction entirely either.
It kept nagging at me.
I still couldn’t see clearly where the path was meant to lead.
‘Hmm… what could it be?’
While I was thinking that, the door opened.
‘Where have I seen that face?’
An unfamiliar face entered. Yet it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar either. So I must have seen them before.
I searched my memory.
‘I’m certain I’ve seen them.’
They were quite tall, with thick hands.
There was a posture unique to those who wear aprons.
Their waist was bent slightly forward.
It was a stance ingrained in their body.
And there, even the burn scars known as a chef’s tattoo!
He was definitely someone from this industry.
‘Ah! The festival.’
The memory came to me belatedly.
The day when the fence around Jang On-gyu’s place was put up. The Night Market.
‘It’s that person!’
That person entered cautiously and swept his gaze across the store.
He looked at the counter and walked toward me.
“Um… do you perhaps remember me?”
A Chef from the Apocalypse Enters the Food Service Industry
Author |
Heung-haeng
Publisher |
Samyang C&C – Dream Books
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C – Dream Books
Address |
Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil 28, Gwangseong Building 7F
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260206001
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter(X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
No part of this book may be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C – Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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