The Chef From the Apocalypse Enters the Food Industry - Chapter 61

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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 61. A Twist Within a Twist
Across from the restaurant, a heavily tinted van’s engine roared to life with a rough growl.
He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. Even the pain shooting through his hand couldn’t contain his fury.
His rage was burning that intensely.
“Tch. Useless Public Officials.”
Not a speck of dust to show for their efforts.
Though I’d watched the entire situation unfold from the outside, it was immediately clear there were no results whatsoever.
‘Tax-funded deadweight, the lot of them. What a mess… Sigh.’
No results.
But it didn’t matter.
He drove roughly toward his Officetel.
The field operation was over, but the real work was just beginning.
“Phew. If those Public Officials had done their job properly, this would’ve been easy. Now I’m going to be exhausted.”
The moment he arrived home, he sat in front of his computer without even removing his coat.
Three monitors flickered to life.
With practiced movements, he inserted a memory card and launched the editing software.
‘The result doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that an inspection happened at all.’
Tap tap tap! Tack tack!
His fingers flew across the keyboard so fast they were barely visible.
He quickly cut out only the scene of Public Officials bursting into the restaurant.
‘Cut here. Enlarge this part. Yes, shrink this one.’
The part showing the inspection results?
Deleted without mercy.
He hadn’t even filmed the customers cheering after the hygiene inspection ended.
“Now, for this to look serious, color won’t do.”
He converted the screen to black and white and layered an eerie background track designed to create unease.
Bold red serif text appeared prominently across the screen.
[SHOCKING EXCLUSIVE!]
[THE BETRAYAL OF A POPULAR RESTAURANT?]
[EMERGENCY HYGIENE INSPECTION CAUGHT ON CAMERA!]
Thick bold effects that would punch viewers right in the eyes!
“This’ll do. Hehehehe.”
People loved suspicion far more than truth.
The old saying “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” was the ultimate weapon for Ruffians like me.
An inspection happened?
That alone was enough to drag the image through the mud.
Clarification could come later.
Suspicion turned into money right now.
‘Even if they do clarify, most people won’t watch it to the end anyway.’
From editing to thumbnail creation, it took barely an hour.
‘Wow. Isn’t this an editing record?’
He lifted the corners of his mouth in a bitter smile and finished preparing to upload.
The mouse cursor moved over the post button.
“Let’s see how far down this goes. First, just taint the image, then the rest is easy.”
The moment he was about to click post.
Zzzing! Zzzing!
His smartphone, left on the desk, rang loudly.
Caller ID restricted.
The moment he answered, he could tell who it was from the voice alone.
-Hello?
It was Jang On-gyu’s PR Manager from the client side.
‘Restricting caller ID? Everything gets recorded these days anyway.’
Though he thought the man was rather foolish, he spoke confidently.
“Hello. Sorry for the wait. I’m working on it now. The video will be up soon….”
-What are you doing right now?
“Huh?”
-Stop working immediately. Open Outstar and check the trending posts right now.
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
-Hurry! Hurry!
At the PR Manager’s urgent tone, the employee furrowed his brow and opened the SNS app.
Finding the factory canteen was easy.
Before he even clicked ‘#factory canteen’.
It was already showing up in recommendations.
‘Damn algorithm. Why won’t you promote my stuff like that!’
He clicked on the recommended post with dissatisfaction.
“…Huh?”
His pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
The smartphone in his hand dropped with a thud to the floor.
“What, what is this…?”
* * *
His fingertips trembled as he stared at the video.
“Mm….”
An Outstar Reels video was auto-playing on the smartphone screen.
There was no dust—the very thing he had searched so desperately for.
Instead, what filled the screen was nothing short of overwhelming brilliance.
‘Is this really amateur work?’
The cleanly edited video began with a close-up of hygiene and the employee’s hands.
As if secretly filmed, with the sides darkened.
Fingers in white cotton gloves swept roughly inside the canteen hood.
The kind of place where a normal meat restaurant should have black grease buildup.
But in the video, only a chilling sound broke through the silence.
—Screeeeech!!!
A sharp, dry scraping sound erupted, like fingernails dragging across a chalkboard.
Not a trace of grease, not a hint of moisture—the perfect state of desiccation transmitted through the screen.
‘Was it really that bad?’
The camera panned across a pair of cotton gloves. They were white.
Not a speck of dirt—they gleamed as if freshly unwrapped from their packaging.
[Real talk? Cleaner than my dining table at home;;;;;]
A caption tinged with shock from the videographer appeared, and the screen cut quickly to the next scene.
This time, it was the refrigerator.
The moment the door opened, organized ingredient containers were barely visible through the rush of cold air.
Some portions were obscured, as if filmed from a distance.
But that only amplified the sense of authenticity.
Meat stacked in perfect alignment.
Vegetable containers with transparent sides revealing their contents.
Sauce bottles arranged in rows, columns and rows perfectly matched.
It was like a military barracks locker—or a compulsive collector’s display.
-Wow… you see that labeling? Today’s date and time written on it.
-That’s not hygiene, that’s art.
The expressions of the public officials on screen were priceless.
Those who had come ready to shake out dust were instead wearing dumbfounded expressions.
The Team Leader’s face flushed with bewilderment.
Behind him, Kim Seon-woo stood with arms crossed, laughing with ease.
The contrast was starkly vivid.
“How is that even possible? An operating kitchen looks like that? How?”
A groan escaped his lips.
His career as a ruffian was approaching a decade.
He’d shaken down countless restaurants.
Even the cleanest establishments crumbled under surprise inspections during business hours.
A single piece of scallion on the floor, a single stain on a dishcloth—something always surfaced.
But the kitchen in the video was surreal.
‘What is this….’
He stopped watching and scrolled down.
The comment section was already exploding.
The numbers were rising in real time before his eyes.
[1,392 Comments]
-Insane lol where is this place?
-That’s not a restaurant, that’s an operating room?
-I have OCD and don’t eat out much, but I’d pick food off the floor there.
-Look at the public official’s face lol
He came to stir up trouble but got his mental state shattered instead.
-Check out the Owner’s presence.
┖Confidence is oozing out.
-That’s our neighborhood. That’s our neighborhood. That’s our neighborhood. That’s our neighborhood. That’s our neighborhood. That’s our neighborhood.
┖Spam
┖Why isn’t there a place like that near us?
Praise. Astonishment. And acknowledgment.
There wasn’t a single malicious comment to be found.
Rather, suspicions that something so clean couldn’t taste good.
Those were buried and disappeared under replies saying the taste was insane.
People aren’t fools.
You can feel it without words.
The light in Kim Seon-woo’s eyes captured in the video.
It wasn’t a performance or artifice.
It was pride in his space, in his cooking.
Something only the genuine can possess pierces through the screen.
“Damn it.”
He gripped the steering wheel as if he would tear it apart.
What would happen if he uploaded the video he’d prepared here?
‘I’d be buried.’
Not Kim Seon-woo, but himself.
Definitely buried.
The ruffian killer would come and tear him to shreds!
‘The image advantage is already taken.’
He couldn’t throw a manipulated video against that.
The backlash would burn his channel to ashes.
He tried to sweep away dust but ended up polishing it instead.
‘No, it’s not even polish. It’s reinforcement. Reinforcement.’
He’d essentially given free advertising—a state-certified hygiene certification advertisement that money couldn’t buy.
“Damn it…!”
He closed the laptop.
The job was finished before it even started.
‘What about my wages? The commission fee? Ugh… damn…!’
Thud!
A dull sound echoed in the room. The sound of something being thrown.
He stared into empty space. Blankly.
‘I lost completely. Ugh….’
He had no choice but to accept defeat.
A technician who fabricates non-existent crimes?
There had to be an opening to work with.
‘Is there even a technique that would work?’
No. Even if there were, I couldn’t attempt it now.
“I need to avoid this. Damn it.”
With trembling hands, he added Jang On-gyu’s PR Manager’s number to his block list.
There was nothing to report. Or rather, if I reported this, I felt like I wouldn’t even leave bones behind.
* * *
Several days had passed since the sanitation inspection incident.
That day’s commotion brought shockwaves far beyond my expectations.
[5 Million Views Surpassed! A Fastidious Delicious Restaurant That Even Shocked a Public Official?]
[A Kitchen Without a Single Speck of Dust—Is This Real?]
The video posted on social media spread like wildfire.
‘The internet really is quite terrifying.’
Repost after repost. Reposts of reposts being reposted again.
In other words, the same video was being reprocessed and spread in all sorts of ways with different narrations.
‘YouTube and OutStar have their own distinct feels.’
Thanks to that, I gained quite a bit.
It even earned nicknames like “the holy ground of hygiene” and “nationally certified clean zone.”
The factory canteen, already quite popular, saw even more customers flooding in.
For several days, it was nothing short of warfare.
Jin-woo and Haran ran their feet off, and I couldn’t leave my spot in front of the stove either.
At that moment, a System Message cheerfully appeared before my eyes as I quietly turned the wok, pretending to know nothing.
‘This tastes good, doesn’t it?’

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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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