abcnovels
Chapter 2437
Chapter 2437
Chapter 2437: Let's Kill the Goat To Get the Mood Up
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Horace wasn't able to get through to Fergus.
After staring at the bangle silently for a while, Horace got up to leave with a pale face.
Charlie and Bart quickly followed him. They evaded the staff members' weird gazes along the way and they asked in panic, "Big Brother, w-what shall we do now?"
"I'm already deserted by the Dixon Family. If you two don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison, go before the law enforcers come," Horace said and hastened his footsteps. He took out his flying car immediately when he was outdoors and left.
Charlie and Bart watched the flying car leave in a daze. After a moment of hesitation, they also left in their flying cars.
!!
"Did Director Horace, Charlie and Bart run away?"
Some staff members present took a video of the scene and put it online anonymously. It started another round of discussion.
***
Within Tucker City, the Dixon Manor.
On a sofa in the manor, Merlin said to Fergus calmly, "Seems like you didn't handle the morning's matter well."
"The matter was suppressed initially. I didn't expect the military to interfere." Fergus lowered his head nervously.
"I heard that the chap who sent the WeTwit, was almost assassinated in the Mocha Building this morning." Merlin looked at Fergus. "You did that, right?"
Fergus went white. After a moment of hesitation, he nodded. "I have been reckless."
"Getting rid of the people who caused the problems, is what we plutocrats are good at, and it seems to have been a common practice in the past tens of thousands of years." Merlin laughed, but his gaze became fierce. "The times have changed. We no longer call the shots in Underground City now. Other than leaving a trace behind, your small trick is just a joke in the eyes of those people."
Cold sweat dripped down Fergus' back. He didn't expect the assassin which he sent to deal with a chef with a 3rd-tier water magic caster power to fail.
Now that the military had made its stance clear, WeTwit had taken the military's side completely. Horace's dirt was everywhere on the internet. They had lost control completely.
"How do you intend to handle Horace?" Merlin looked at Fergus judgingly.
After pondering, Horace said, "A dead man is the best scapegoat. Spending the rest of his life in jail is what is waiting for him after all his dirt is dug up. Committing suicide to escape punishment seems like a reasonable behavior."
Merlin lifted his hands and said, "Go ahead. You have to clean up the mess you made. Don't leave any loose ends behind for the McCarthy Family."
"Yes." Fergus bowed before striding out of the villa.
"Interesting. I didn't expect him to interfere in such a matter too. Is he preparing to do something big again?" Merlin stood next to the window with a chilling smile.
***
On the top floor of the Twin Towers.
Akali's bangle was in the two screens mode. One was on the interface that was counting down to the start of the Top Chef Competition, while the other was on WeTwit.
"Horace, that old scumbag has done so many evil deeds. To think that I had dinner with him previously is so nauseating.
"But this old basta*d seems to be on good terms with Fergus. Ha! Birds of a feather flock together. They are both scumbags!
"Looking at it now, Brother Hades is indeed handsome and righteous! I have to give him money!"
Akali mumbled and clicked open the fan group that had over tens of thousands of people and started to send money.
***
"Miss Nancy, please look at WeTwit now."
Nancy, who was about to turn off the bangle, received a message from the director.
Nancy cast a glance at the director and Johnny looked anxious. Did something happen just before the streaming?
She clicked open the trending list and those topics stunned her.
Initially, news about Horace was suppressed from the trending list, but now six out of 10 topics on the trending list were related to Horace. The top three were all about him.
Nancy soon found the reason. This made her look even more surprised.
"The military got involved too?" Nancy bit her lips gently. This was beyond her expectation.
If this was the case, then the Dixon Family had obviously given up on Horace. They should be busy cutting ties with Horace right now.
Seeing the Dixon Family suffering a defeat and Horace the perpetrator falling from grace, Nancy should be feeling happy.
However, it happened just before the Top Chef Competition was telecast and it was just seven minutes away. The focus on the internet was completely on another matter, which wasn't a good thing for the show.
After thinking about it for a moment, her gaze fixed on the seventh spot on the trending list as she sent a message to Johnny: Get the publicity department to send the number seven on the trending list to the very top.
Johnny's eyes lit up when he received the message. He immediately got up to do it.
Soon, the seventh topic on the trending list: "The Top Chef Competition's contestant, Hades, is Brother Righteous!" began to climb up the list rapidly until it reached the top spot.
The second spot on the trending list was "Military Secretariat liked Hades' WeTwit".
The fuse of Horace's incident was the post that Hades reposted and commented on. It caused a series of repercussions.
The grievance of a maiden who commited suicide after she was humiliated, was finally redressed. Horace's heinous crimes were exposed because of Hades' brave and righteous shout out.
Therefore, people didn't hate this trending post. Instead, they added onto it and made it even more popular.
Right then, the programming division's Internet water army[1.Internet water army is a group of users who are paid to post online comments with vested interest on Chinese language websites. Internet water armies started in the early 2010s.] began to redirect traffic for the show crazily.
"Brother Righteous is taking part in the Top Chef Competition now. Let's go support him!"
"Justice won't be absent, so we won't be either! We're going to make Brother Righteous the top chef!"
"I want to see what this righteous brother looks like in real life!"
"Brother Hades' PK value is so low! I want to help him go up the charts!"
With the Internet water army's comments and the support of fans, people who were surfing the Internet, began to click on the live-stream interface and gave Hades some PK value as well.
The ratings of the Top Chef Competition's live-stream began to climb steadily. Just the viewers on WeTwit alone had exceeded 500,000,000, which had even exceeded the ratings of the previous season's final. It was also the highest ratings of this season.
"Let's prepare to record the show." Nancy sent a message to Johnny and turned off the bangle.
Her gaze couldn't help but land on Hades on the stage. He was found by the programming division last minute. She had seen his information. He was an intern under a small agency. Other than having good looks, he had great culinary skills too. This was what the other interns couldn't compare against him in, so the agency chose him eventually.
1
Looking at it now, this choice was very successful.
Not only did it minimize the negative influence of the Jasper incident, it even triggered the Horace's incident and made the Dixon Family suffered a setback, and brought a huge amount of traffic to the show. It had killed many birds with one stone.
"If his culinary skill is passable, it's a good choice to let him enter the semi final. He should be able to keep the popularity up for a while more." Nancy pondered. However, whether they decided to let him advance, it still depended on his actual culinary skill.
"Counting to the show's recording. 10, nine, eight…"
Johnny began the countdown and the judges and contestants straightened up as they got into filming mode.
Mag looked ahead with a natural expression. Xi had already given him training before he faced the camera. He knew how to express himself naturally in front of the camera while keeping a graceful and handsome posture.
After the countdown ended, the camera panned to the center of the stage and one male and one female emcee appeared. They declared the start of the Top Chef Competition's quarterfinal with a smile before introducing the top eight contestants and 10 professional judges.
They gave Mag more screen time and praises when they were introducing him.
Mag was satisfied with that. It meant that the programming division did try to be fair to him.
"Is he Brother Righteous? I love him, love him!"
"This chap has thick brows and big eyes. He's a handsome chap."
"Darn it. That smile. Mama, I'm in love…"
The comments were all over the screen. It was obvious how much the netizens cared about Mag.
After the introduction and two ads, the emcees declared the start of the quarterfinal.
"There is a huge change in the rules in this quarterfinal match. The programming division only provides the ingredients' pantry but will no longer dictate the dishes. All the contestants can choose any of the ingredients from the pantry and must finish cooking within two hours. Those who finish first, will be judged first.
"The professional judges will do a comprehensive judging according to the contestants' performance.
"In fairness, for this quarterfinal, we will set the proportion of the online score and the judges' score from 2:8 to 1:9." The emcee declared the new rule.
The contestants had been informed in advance, so they didn't have any objections to it.
Even after they changed the rules, Hades' PK value was still close to zero now, which meant he was competing with them with a 10 points handicap. The effect wasn't great.
However, the audience who had been following the show, were in an uproar.
"Why did they change the rules last minute? It's not fair to our Brothers!"
"Did they change the rules last minute because Brother Righteous joined the show? He's indeed the man that the secretariat clicked 'Like' for. His backer is so powerful!"
"It's still hellishly difficult for Brother Righteous to advance to the top four."
"If you and I don't vote for Brother Righteous, how is he going to advance to the top four? Let's vote for his PK value!"
Mag's PK value increased from 1,000,000 plus to over 5,000,000 quickly with the help of his fans, and it climbed towards 10,000,000 steadily.
Mag knew nothing about it. There was only one thought in his mind now. He had to gain 10 points on the contestant in the fourth place in order to advance to the top four.
The pantry was open and hundreds of ingredients, ranging from seafood to animal products from the mountain, appeared on the giant screen. They had everything.
"I want a yellow dragon fish."
"I want a black jade turtle, one…"
The contestants began to choose the ingredients that they needed.
This pantry had all the ingredients for all the dishes that the contestants knew how to cook. It was to prevent the awkwardness whereby the contestants had no dishes to cook.
Mag was placed at the eighth position. He listened to the contestants choose the extremely precious ingredients calmly.
"Now, can Contestant Hades choose the ingredients you need please?" the emcee said to Mag.
"I need a Haley Goat, three lemons…" Mag said a list of ingredients.
On the judges' table, an old chef with white hair called Hunter said with surprise, "A Haley Goat? Is he going to make a mutton dish on the Top Chef Competition?"
"It's indeed rather weird. All the other contestants are using the best ingredients and he simply chose a normal Haley Goat." The judges around him agreed too.
"Perhaps, he can make mutton into a delicacy?" Nancy said with a smile.
"That makes me look forward to it." Old Hunter agreed with her.
Mag's choice in ingredients had caused a discussion among the netizens as well.
The yellow dragon fish was an 8th-tier magic beast that only appeared in the extremely cold waters of the northwestern territory. It was rare and powerful and was an extremely precious being that most people had never seen before, let alone tasted.
The black jade turtle was even more precious. Apparently, its shell was a natural gemstone. Any shell with a diameter bigger than 10 cm would be auction worthy. It was obvious how precious this black jade turtle was.
The ingredients chosen by the other contestants were equally precious.
Why was the Top Chef Competition so popular?
Other than the fact that the market didn't have other gourmet shows that were equally professional and entertaining, the wealth of the programming division was also a big selling point.
You could see many precious ingredients that had never been seen before being turned into gourmet dishes right here, and there was also a big group of masters tasting and introducing them right on the spot.
An extremely precious ingredient had already appeared in the quarterfinal. This show was so ridiculously rich, alright?!
1
And because of that, in the situation where there were still many other precious ingredients, it was shocking that Mag actually chose a Haley Goat as his main ingredient.
"Perhaps, this hill-billy doesn't know about high-end ingredients at all?"
The other contestants couldn't help looking at Mag as the same thought arose in their minds.
The best ingredients only needed to be simply cooked and that way they could present the best taste. Their culinary skills could even be amplified with the ingredients, and they would be able to receive a good score from the judges.
This was common knowledge on the Top Chef Competition and everyone followed it.
"I want to see if you have given up, or if you are absolutely confident." Nancy looked at Mag with great interest and there was an increased anticipation in her eyes.
1
The contestants' ingredients were all delivered and every high-end ingredient received a close-up shot and the emcee's simple introduction to satisfy the audience's curiosity.
When that Haley Goat was delivered, the audience's enthusiasm had greatly decreased.
The Haley Goat was a specialty from the Haley Grassland. Although it cost three times the price of a normal sheep, it was still a commonly-seen ingredient in wet markets everywhere.
Mag reached out to pat the head of that black goat and nodded with satisfaction. This goat was just the right size. It was muscular and matched his requirements.
He knew what the others were thinking, but it didn't affect his mood at all.
No matter how good an ingredient was, without cooking techniques that could match it, it would only be wasted.
Yellow dragon fish, black jade turtle… Mag had never seen these precious ingredients before. It would be impossible for him to make a scrumptious dish out of any of them.
However, a goat was different. He was familiar with it and he knew how to cook it.
"The two hours' countdown starts now. Contestants, please start cooking!" The emcee's voice rang out.
A two hour countdown clock appeared on the top right hand corner of the contestants' workbench.
The contestants began to process the ingredients in preparation for the cooking.
Meanwhile, Mag took his cleaver from the knife rack and led the goat to the slaughter area.
The others' first step was to kill the fish and the turtle, his first step was to kill the goat.