Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Prologue

"Tada! The potato stew is here!"

"Whoa, this looks amazing! It's gonna be delicious!"

I fixed a broad smile on my face and stared straight into the camera lens in front of me. But what I was really looking at wasn't the camera—it was the people beyond it.

Dozens of staff members held their breath around us. Expressions that said they'd die without regret if they could just eat right now. They were grimacing hard and holding back, but I knew. My eyes could see information other people couldn't.

[ Kwon Seyong: My stomach hurts from hunger. / Emotion: Angry / Satisfaction: - ]

[ Kim Jihyeon: The smell! I'm going crazy. / Emotion: Angry / Satisfaction: - ]

[ Lee Gyeongsu: Please, just one bite for me too. / Emotion: Angry / Satisfaction: - ]

That's right. I had the ability to simply see people's emotions. Mind reading? Psychometry? What should I even call this kind of superpower?

I organized it simply using a term I'd borrowed from a game I used to love. 'Status Window.'

I'm not even sure if calling it a status window is accurate. It only outputs messages at that level, after all.

[ Kim Arin: I want to eat already. I can't hold back! / Emotion: Anticipation / Satisfaction: - ]

And this ability wasn't omnipotent either. Emotion and satisfaction only showed up strongly in situations related to food.

If this ability had worked in other places too, I would've become a gambler or a scammer. But since it was mostly useless outside of food, I decided to just become a chef to make the most of this cheating ability.

Ah, the reason I came to call this ability a status window isn't only that. It's because when other people eat the dishes I make and feel satisfied—

"Th-then I'll just try one bite!"

Gulp.

The sound of her throat moving reached all the way here.

"Wooow! What is this flavor?! It's so good I could cry! It melts in my mouth!"

[ Kim Arin: I'm so ecstatic I could die! / Emotion: Happy / Satisfaction: ★★★★★ ]

【 Acquired 5 Cooking Points. 】

Like this, I received points from 1 to 5 according to their evaluations. It really is just like giving star ratings in a game. That's why I called it a status window.

What do I do with these points? Well, it would've been nice if I could buy abilities or items like a protagonist in a novel, but unfortunately I didn't have that kind of power.

[ Held Points: 73,012 ]

So they just kept accumulating like this. How nice it would be if I could exchange them for tangible wealth, like gold or diamonds or something expensive.

In the end, the only thing I could utilize from my ability was feeding my cooking to others and getting real-time feedback.

Of course, that alone was a sufficient cheat key to become a skilled chef who regularly appeared on various media. Try cooking while reading people's true feelings. Your skills improve whether you want them to or not.

I'm absolutely not saying I'm South Korea's best chef. There are just too many hidden masters in this field. Still, I somehow managed to build skill enough to move people.

In fact, that level was enough to become this famous. The rest was all marketing and image-making.

Make decent cooking that satisfies people, talk well so the camera likes you, and have a good image with the public as a chef.

Even with a superpower that reads emotions, it took over a dozen years to get this far. It wasn't easy.

"Filming's done! Good work, everyone!"

"Good work!"

Whew. I rolled my shoulders and loosened the stiffened muscles. My head was also throbbing a little. A cooking broadcast program that had already gone through dozens of episodes. No matter how shamelessly I'd lived my life, enduring dozens of gazes and staying composed was still not easy.

In the end, it's all because of money, right?

"E-excuse me..."

"Yes? Is something the matter?"

"If it's alright with you, could you invite me to the YouTube channel you're running?! The dish you made earlier was really incredibly good!"

The female celebrity who had just been delighted after eating my food. Of course, this was our first meeting in the studio, but I knew her face well. An actress whose popularity had exploded overnight after the movie she starred in recently surpassed ten million viewers.

Usually, their manager would contact our manager first, but it must have been quite delicious. Well, a five-star satisfaction rating isn't something that appears often. I thought I'd done it roughly because I was tired today, but it seems it went over unexpectedly well?

So I took a small business card out of my wallet and handed it over. Things like this happened so often that I tended to carry dozens of separate business cards.

"Why wouldn't it be fine. Just contact us this way and set up a schedule. Collaborations are always welcome."

"Thank you so, so much! Please make potato stew for me again next time!"

She took it, jumped with joy, and dashed off.

"So pure... Is there still a character like that in this world?"

I'm not a good person even by empty compliments. Someone who peeks at others' emotions like a voyeur for my own benefit. Besides, the reason I became a chef was ultimately just to make money by utilizing my ability to the fullest. If my ability had applied to a field other than cooking, I would have done that job.

That was exactly me, Kim Cheoljin, the self-made man from an orphanage.

* * *

"Let's see, the next schedule..."

I sat in the back seat of the van and checked the next destination on my tablet. My dedicated manager was currently out getting takeout coffee.

"Ah, it's my YouTube filming. Should I cut down a few channels? There are too many."

Lately I've been so busy that without a scheduler, it was hard to even remember what was happening right now. Four public broadcast programs alone that I appear on. Plus several personal YouTube channels, commercial filmings, magazine interviews—I was really feeling the exploding popularity.

At this point I'd like to take it easy, but seeing the amount of money going directly into my bank account made it hard to stop. My principle is to earn hard while I'm young and live leisurely as a building owner in old age.

I need to earn when I can. You never know when popularity will vanish like an illusion. Especially for a self-taught chef like me.

Ring ring. Ring ring.

Suddenly the phone rang. Since it was my personal phone, not the work phone, I immediately checked the caller.

[Mom]

Click.

"Yeah, Mom. What's up?"

- Cheoljin, are you busy right now? Can you talk?

"Yeah, I'm resting now. I can talk."

- Right, but why did you suddenly send such a large amount of money? You gave me ten million won last week too.

"Oh, what. I'm doing well these days. It's not like I have a family to take all that money into the grave with me, so buy the kids some clothes. When I saw Mina last time, there was a hole in her sock."

- Anyway, thank you. When are you coming down to the orphanage? The younger ones miss you a lot.

At those words, I flipped through the schedule for a while. The next few months were completely packed. This one, and this one—I'll have to tell the manager to cancel them.

"Hmm... Next Tuesday? No, Wednesday? Tell the kids to look forward to it a lot because I'll make them something delicious. No, keep it a secret because I'll surprise them."

- Will that be okay? I heard you've been really busy lately.

"One day is fine. I happen to want to rest a bit too. I'll come down next week!"

Click.

My head suddenly throbbed severely, so I hung up. Was it because I've been too busy and overworked lately? I must be lacking caffeine after staying up several nights.

Clack. The door beside me opened. It was my dedicated manager, Kang Seonhyeok.

"Hyung Cheoljin! Here's the coffee you ordered!"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Your expression looks a bit strange? Did something happen?"

"My expression is strange? Where?"

"The left side of your face... Hold on. Are you okay?"

The manager touched my face. Only then did I realize something was wrong. Even though he was clearly touching it, there was no sensation at all. I screamed.

"Shit... Seonhyeok. Cancel the entire schedule and get me to the hospital quickly!"

"Yes, understood!"

For celebrities, every minute and second is precious. I started as a chef, but after signing with an agency I continued activities in the entertainment industry. There were specialized hospitals that celebrities could visit without waiting in times like this.

One hour into the examination—

"It's a stroke. Fortunately, you discovered it quickly and passed the dangerous point, but if it had been even a little later it could have been serious."

A stroke. Have I been overworking too much lately? Or is it because I used the ability too recklessly?

"Anyway, we urgently administered a thrombolytic agent. There may be parts not detected on the CT, so it would be good to schedule another MRI. Don't worry too much. Medical technology has advanced a lot these days, so no matter how thick the blood clot is, it can be sufficiently removed with a procedure."

"Then am I fine?"

"According to the findings so far, yes. But stress is not good for the prognosis, so it's important to calm your mind for now."

I believed those words completely.

What else could I do if I didn't believe them? It's not like I have medical knowledge. I'm a chef, not a doctor.

My health condition soon spread to the media, and the advertisers and PDs understood that I needed to rest for a while. A tearful check-up call came from Mom too, and even cold-blooded me almost cried along with her.

Fortunately, thanks to the manager responding diligently, all schedules were safely postponed without penalties. This is all thanks to the good image I've diligently built up here and there. Many netizens also worried about my health and cheered me on in the YouTube channel comments.

"Ha... I almost got moved."

I read the comments and wiped the snot and tears that had slipped out.

"When I get discharged, what should I make for the younger ones? Should I make the most delicious suyuk in the world? They'll definitely like it, right?"

The suyuk recipe I recently completed in secret. If this spreads to the world, it will definitely become a global mega hit. I decided to unveil this special dish for the first time at the orphanage I love the most in the world.

And this one for whom, and that one for whom again...

Lying in the hospital bed thinking about this and that, sleep slowly washed over me. Is it the medicine? I took the medicine a while ago...

I closed my eyes and slowly exhaled a fading breath.

That was the end of the 1st cycle of my life that I remember. Damn it.