Chapter 2436: A Female Dominant CEO

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The Top Chef Competition was broadcast live. It was a big test on the contestants’ acting skills.

Of course, such a model brought along a great deal of possibility.

The audience could choose to watch the official cutaway shot, or the individual contestants’ shots.

Even though Mag had never taken part in TV shows’ recording in his previous life, he had watched the shows before. Thus, he wasn’t very nervous about being in a show.

Xi had given him a stable persona. He wasn’t outstanding, but he wasn’t too bad either. He only had to maintain his cooking standards.

At the same time, Mag’s bangle had received a contestant’s rulebook.

The contract was done by Xi. Mag wasn’t interested in that area. Since the staff members were checking the equipment, he took the opportunity to click on the contestant’s rulebook and scan it through.

There weren’t any weird rules. Other than the basic non-disclosure agreement, there were some restrictions on the contestants’ personal behavior in public. One of them should be newly added: “During the show’s recording, no forms of contact with fans is allowed.”

It seemed like the programming division was also spooked by Jasper’s incident. To prevent more trouble, they decided to set a rule that forbade the contestants from contacting their fans.

Xi had said that this show had a script, but Mag didn’t receive the script yet.

Obviously, as a last-minute contestant who was filling the gap, he was just a filler in the director’s eyes. He didn’t need lines at all.

“Your position is over here. You should know about the actual procedures now, right?” The staff member led Mag to a cooking bench and did a final confirmation with him.

“Yes.” Mag nodded smilingly.

Mag had already studied the competition’s procedures on his way over. Even though it was a variety show, the Top Chef Competition had done a good job on the professional part too.

The judging panel would make a final comprehensive score on the contestants based on their cutting skills, techniques, plating and taste, etc.

Even if the contestants had received a script, there would be judges who could make excuses for them and extend their life spans on this variety show.

Everyone knew that you had a script, but your effort could make people feel your sincerity.

The recording studio was very spacious. The Mocha Group placed a lot of importance on this show. It had specifically given the entire first floor to the programming division.

The top eight contestants began to take their place. Many of them had managers helping them to do the final adjustments and reminding them softly.

Mag took a quick look at the contestants. He had already memorized their info. His gaze landed on the beautiful lady sitting at the edge of the judges’ table.

Her black evening gown was sexual and not intellectual. Meanwhile, the aloof expression on that beautiful face made people keep their distance away from her.

Nancy McCarthy. This noble young mistress had just saved his life.

Of course, it seemed so.

As a direct descendent of the McCarthy Family, Nancy had a certain amount of power within the family. As the Mocha Group’s CEO, she was also the person-in-charge of the Top Chef Competition.

A female Dominant CEO. She indeed looked like it.

Perhaps she had sensed Mag’s gaze, Nancy suddenly looked up at Mag.

Their gaze met momentarily and Mag gave her an appreciative smile.

Nancy retracted her gaze coldly, as though she felt nothing about his warm smile.

Mag cocked his eyebrow. Of course, he wasn’t dejected.

A top rich, beautiful young lady like her couldn’t be wooed by just good looks. He still had that understanding.

Then, Mag sized up the judges at the table roughly. Most of them were elders in the culinary world and master chefs of certain top restaurants.

Given the generally long life spans of the Underground City’s residents, many of them had been in the industry for thousands of years.

An excellent chef needed to be groomed over time.

Real great cutting skills needed to be practiced over a span of eight to 10 years before they dared to show them off to people.

Thus, Mag had no doubts about these old chefs’ culinary skills.

Xi came to pass a glass of water to Mag. At the same time, she telepathically said, “The Top Chef Competition’s programming division has already turned on your voting channel on WeTwit and given you good support in traffic. Your PK value should exceed 10,000,000 when the show is over.”

Mag took a sip and telepathically said with a calm expression, “10,000,000 isn’t enough. We need to prepare for the upcoming competition. The director’s not going to change the rules for us for tomorrow’s semi final.”

“It will depend on your performance today. If what you do is exciting enough, the Top Chef Competition’s promotion department is never stingy with traffic redirection. This is more practical than anything else.” Xi took the glass back.

“If that is the case, there will be no problem.” Mag revealed a confident smile.

Subversion. He was best at that.

The Norland Continents’ rough food lacked the delicate scrumptiousness.

As for the intricate Underground City’s gourmet, it lacked the sense of life.

Then, let him now add the sense of life.

“However, are you really not doing anything?” Mag asked Xi, who was about to leave.

“I have done whatever I should do,” Xi said before walking off the stage.

Mag retracted his gaze. His bangle was already shut off, otherwise he would really like to go to WeTwit to see what Xi had done.

The stage’s design was rather interesting. Eight individual work benches were placed on the semi-circular stage. All kinds of kitchenware were displayed on the silver metallic surface. They were all brought by the chefs themselves.

Mag’s work bench was very clean, yet a little special.

The others brought a set that had dozens of different kinds of knives, but he only had a thick and wide cleaver.

However, he had brought a stove. It was already very hard to find a stove with fire on the market now.

Mag had already learnt how to use Underground City’s kitchenware from Xi earlier.

Precision and automation were its greatest specialty. Even a noob could cook acceptable dishes as long as he followed the procedures set by the system.

But… it was just acceptable.

While setting a high base, such premise tools had also restricted the chefs with its many restrictions. It locked the upper limit too.

Hence, Mag chose to bring his own stove to show the Underground City’s people the real charm of stir-frying.

“This newbie doesn’t look like a chef?”

“I heard that the programming division found an intern from an agency after Jasper’s incident. I guess he’s here to show his face in preparation for his debut.”

“I heard he’s very good at cooking. He is a great homecook.”

“Jasper is out and there’s one slot in the final four left. I wonder who is going to take over it.”

Before the competition began, a few contestants who were friendly with each other, were chatting. Their attention was focused on Mag. Their tone was relaxed, so obviously they didn’t take Mag to be their opponent.

Mag pretended not to have heard anything. He would be the one to lose out if he took these petty comments to heart.

***

At the same time, hundreds of millions of Underground City’s residents were waiting for the Top Chef Competition to start online.

As a variety show that always ended with a high number of viewerships, the Top Chef Competition had accumulated many fans.

The cruel and efficient competition format, exciting culinary duels and all kinds of scandals beyond the show made the audience love this variety show.

Meanwhile, on WeTwit today, the Top Chef Competition kept appearing on the trending list, especially that newly-joined contestant, Hades Saipan. His accusation of Director Horace was a huge scandal to the netizens.

However, that news seemed to be locked down. Apart from Hades’ WeTwit, it was hard to find related discussion about it online, even those commercial accounts who loved scandals were quiet.

And because of that, many people followed Hades’ account for a follow-up.

10 minutes before the Top Chef Competition began, an account with a red “V” stamp¹ called “Underground City’s Military Secretariat” liked Hades’ shared post and commented: The people deserve to know the truth.

Very soon:

“Military Secretariat” liked Hades’ WeTwit!

The people deserve to know the truth.

They appeared on the trending list and began to climb up the list quickly.

After the incident happened for a few hours, this was the first official account that voiced out.

Moreover, this official account was very special. This was the only account that was verified by the military on WeTwit. It represented the military’s attitude.

The military’s attitude was always important in Underground City.

Ever since Marshal Ferdinand revolutionized the military and politics, the plutocrats began to retract their tentacles in the military. Their attitude towards the military became restrained and cautious too.

Amos ran to Lucien’s office and nervously asked, “Chief, the topic is climbing up the trending list very fast. Do we need to cool it down?”

He thought that he was going crazy. The topic’s popularity was just suppressed and they had already come up with a plan with the Top Chef Competition to use traffic redirection to suppress the incident. They didn’t expect the military to interfere.

“How do you intend to suppress it? Delete the secretariat’s comment, or close the account?” Lucien asked him with a cold smile.

Amos went white. As the director of operations, he knew the Military Secretariat’s account’s permission level. It was on the same level with the president’s account.

The level was the symbol of identity and power.

Even Lucien didn’t have the power to close this account, let alone him.

“Then… what shall we do now?” Amos asked gingerly.

“We don’t know which big boss in the military ordered that, but since the comment came from the secretariat’s account, it represents the military’s attitude.” Lucien solemnly said, “According to WeTwit’s work rules, we have no rights to interfere with the military’s actions, including their speech. Open all the permissions of this topic and no longer restrict it.”

“But, what do we tell the Dixon Family in this case?” Amos was put in a tight spot.

Given this topic’s popularity, once the restrictions were removed, commenting and sharing were allowed, and all related words were allowed to be searched in the search engines, Horace, Bart and Charlie’s dirt would be all dug up instantly.

“What they should be concerned about now is how to draw a line between Horace and them.” Lucien flicked a glance at him calmly.

Amos was slightly taken aback before showing an enlightened expression. His gaze towards Lucien became even more respectful. “I’ll go to arrange the work at the Technical Department now.”

The office’s door closed gradually. Lucien looked at the scenery outside of the window with a hint of a smile.

He didn’t know which military’s big boss’ idea it was, but it had solved a difficult problem for him.

The position of WeTwit’s CEO wasn’t easy. It was impossible to satisfy everyone’s requirement in the entanglement of so many powers.

Hence, it wasn’t enough to have professional proficiency in this position. The technique of balancing was the number one factor that decided if you could stay in the position for long.

Lucien had always been fair. He always stood with the stronger parties.

He was having a headache when the Dixon Family pitted against the McCarthy Family because both families were strong and he couldn’t afford to offend either of them.

However, now that the military secretariat had intervened, the situation had changed immediately.

The Dixon Family and the McCarthy Family were not as powerful as the military and he had a lot of WeTwit’s work rules that he could base his decision on, so he took the military’s side without any hesitation.

Soon, the netizens realized Hades’ comment section was open and the sharing label that was gray, was lit up now.

“He’s indeed the man who is endorsed by the military!”

“So? What’s the truth?”

“Horace, this scumbag! I have a friend who fell into depression because of him!”

“I suddenly found a lot of women accusing Horace on WeTwit. Are they all real?!”

That particular Hades’ WeTwit’s comments began to increase quickly. The comment that was pinned at the top was the military secretariat’s. It was followed by the “Cute3yearsold”: “Brother Hades is so righteous! I support you!”

Then, more victims and people who knew the victims commented in the comment section and their comments were pinned and sent to the top.

At the same time, the netizens found many WeTwits that were unknown after searching for words like “Horace” and “Horace’s sexual assualt”.

Those WeTwits that were buried, finally saw the light again after the restrictions were opened.

The accusations filled with blood and tears were completely hidden on the internet. Countless ordinary folks could feel the victims’ desperation when their pleas were completely ignored.

“Horace is worse than an animal!”

“Bart and Charlie are rapists!”

***

All these articles were pinned to the top of the trending list. They swept through the Underground City’s internet world like a storm.

The commercial accounts who had kept quiet, seemed to sense the change and they began to join in on this traffic storm.

And Hades’ WeTwit that was in the center of this storm, was liked and shared over tens of millions of times.

***

“It’s over. It’s really all over now…”

In the film and video base, Horace looked at WeTwit with a pale face. Cold sweat was dripping off his forehead.

Bart and Charlie were even shaking with white faces.

The like and comment from the Military Secretariat had pierced into their hearts like a sword and declared their death sentences.

Looking at those comments and heated words of hatred, the famous director and stars, who were used to praises and flattery, still couldn’t wake up from their fall from grace.

“I-I want to communicate with Young Master Fergus.” Horace clicked on his bangle with shaking hands.