The Bright Red Kimchi Pantry

It was quite a dizzying sight.

My first impression of the vast Pantry was... bright red?

In terms of color, it certainly was. The entire front wall, visible the moment I stepped in, was packed with various types of kimchi.

Wow, the Chairman really is curious about Korean Food. He didn't hold back on providing the ingredients.

That was the first thought that came to mind when I saw it.

I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a kimchi lover, but it goes without saying that you can't discuss Korean Food without kimchi.

We were a people who enjoyed eating rice mixed with kimchi and soup made with kimchi, and who even kept a refrigerator at home solely for storing kimchi.

Besides, I don't know what the history of this World was like, but in the World I lived in, they even put kimchi at the forefront of Promotion for the Globalization of Korean Food.

Naturally, from a foreigner's perspective, the first food-related keyword that comes to mind when thinking of Korea is bound to be kimchi.

Conversely, when cultural elements related to Korea are censored, kimchi would inevitably be the number one target.

Of course, because the government had poured so much money into spreading kimchi for the Globalization of Korean Food, and since kimchi was a somewhat Major food item even in Japan, a superpower in this World, it was impossible to eradicate it completely.

Anyway, in everyday life, it had become a hard-to-find food, save for a very small quantity of Seaweed Kimchi—which tasted like absolute SHIT—and it wasn't easy to come across real Napa Cabbage Kimchi like this.

Of course, based on their color and aroma, most of the red vegetables scattered around the Pantry seemed to be Japanese-style Kimuchi—much sourer, sweeter, and less fermented—rather than Korean-style Kimchi, but I'd take what I could get.

Just having that was a blessing. I felt like I could scoop it up and eat it by the boxful.

It is just a shame that I am in the Position of cooking right now, not tasting.

...First off, with kimchi piled up like a mountain, it seemed almost mandatory to include at least one kimchi-based dish or side dish.

Since I was out of time, I tore my eyes away from the kimchi and examined the other ingredients.

My impression after hobbling around the Pantry and craning my neck to look around was...

This was surprisingly doable.

The front of the Pantry was filled with ingredients that revealed a typical Stereotype of Korean Food.

Canned Pressed Ham (Spam) filling the walls, live octopuses clinging tightly to the walls of an Aquarium like you'd see in a Raw Fish Restaurant,

unseasoned Nori Seaweed, plus Canned Silkworm Pupae, Canned Whelk/Sea Snail, and even Slaughtered Dog Meat.

Since they knew nothing about Korean Food, it seemed they had just scoured the Net and cyberspace and scraped together every ingredient known to be associated with Korean cuisine.

No matter how great the Chairman was, it seemed he couldn't obtain any more detailed information than that about the food of New Mecha Korea, a place he had never been to.

Naturally, due to its image as The Public Enemy of the World ruled by Autonomous AI, the place was full of ingredients that were twisted in various ways.

In a way, it was an Awkward situation, but I actually felt relieved.

It would be one thing if there were only obscure ingredients, but because the Pantry was so vast, there were also plenty of normal ingredients in the back that had nothing to do with prejudice.

Various types of Chili Powder, gochujang, doenjang, and even soy sauce—most of the seasonings needed to create flavor were all stocked,

so if I could just combine them well, it seemed possible to somehow whip up dishes with a Korean feel.

There was a chance I could ruin it, and a high probability that the quality wouldn't match the Chairman's status or that it wouldn't suit his palate at all, but...

From my perspective, it was Fine.

Unlike what I had initially thought, the situation wasn't all that bad.

Judging by the state of the ingredients stocked on the first floor of the Pantry, the Chairman definitely knew absolutely nothing about Korean Food.

If you don't know much about it, it's hard to find faults.

It's only natural for exotic food to not suit one's taste. That would be even more true for the cuisine of New Mecha Korea, which he would never have had the chance to Encounter.

Since it was a meal the Chairman himself had sought out for a New Stimulus, there was a high chance he would generously Accept it even if there were some strange aspects.

Even if there really was a problem with the cooking, he would likely brush it off as a Cultural Difference or a difference in ingredients.

I was practically the only Korean Food Authority from Korea in this building, or perhaps in this entire city, so wouldn't it be funny for him to look at the food I made and say, “This isn't the Korean Food I know”?

Of course, that didn't mean I was actually going to ruin the food.

It was just a sense of relief that I had a Minimum Safety Mechanism in case I did mess up, or an acceptable excuse if the quality dropped a bit.

It just meant I was less worried about getting my head chopped off right then and there if the food came out wrong.

Even with a Safety Bar in place like this, if the Chairman didn't like it, a Salary Reduction would be the baseline.

And there was no telling what other penalties might be added on top of that.

And my paycheck had no room left to be cut. It was already at rock bottom.

I absolutely had to protect it.

With that Resolve, I quickly began picking out ingredients from the Pantry.

In my head, I fiercely debated recipes that would suit the Chairman's tastes as I knew them, while also being popular and likely to appeal to a foreigner's palate.

I seemed to have a decent assortment put together, but the problem was time.

More time had passed, leaving me with just over an hour until I had to bring the food to the Chairman.

I had to hurry if I wanted to make it in time.

To make all the food within this window, I had to rekindle the feeling of working busily in the kitchen.

After moving the various ingredients and seasonings to the kitchen, I focused all my Concentration on my fingertips.

...Phew, let's do this.

It was time to return to being Head Chef Aaron Nakamura.

* * *

「20 : 59」

The numbers coldly announced the time.

Every time it hit this hour, the Main Gate would open.

The office surrounded by Darklight would suddenly brighten, and the Chef or the bodyguard Warrior Sandayu would wheel in a side table.

The reason they appeared at 59 minutes past the hour was that the room was so large and expansive that it took a solid minute just to wheel the food up to the dais/Platform and Finish the Table Setting.

They had to come in early to have Dinner ready exactly at 9 o'clock sharp.

The Chairman, Isiho, liked this time of day the most.

His was a Position where he had to look at everything in numbers.

Everything had to be explained by logic and formulas, and in reality, it was.

How boring such a World was.

A World where everything went his way, where he could interpret how everything in the World rolled along using only his own head... yes.

This World where everything was Predictable, like a cheap electronic drugs VR game.

The day of a human holding a fragment of omniscience and Omnipotence was truly tedious.

When running a Megacorp, a giant dinosaur corporation trying to devour all the capital in the World, one sometimes needed a different kind of stimulus.

A daily source of vitality that made the day more fulfilling and awakened the brain.

That didn't mean he had any intention of wasting time on filthy lust or sadistic desires like some reckless ruffian/scoundrel.

A hobby that clouded one's reason and gnawed at the body was no longer a hobby. It was a disease.

In that regard, Isiho's Chairman possessed a very Healthy Hobby.

Gastronomy.

Eating was a Primitive Happiness that had been passed down since prehistoric times, enjoyed not only by humans but by all animals.

Of course, cooking itself was not all that grand.

The entire Process it took to create food was nothing more than a trivial Mechanical Procedure that could be explained by Cold numbers and science.

There were those who said cooking was art.

Likewise, there were those who said music, painting, poetry, and novels were art.

It was a theory that began to waver as Artificial Intelligence and Data Technology started to develop.

There could be various dissenting opinions, but the results spoke for themselves.

Currently, in the 22nd century Dusk City, the arts of painting, poetry, and novels have collapsed.

Whether it is because such culture is no longer Recognized as having the same value as in the past, or because the texts and paintings churned out through Factory-style Production by a Program have surpassed the quality of those made by humans.

Music at least had DJing and Idol Culture left to somehow keep its lineage alive, but even those were entirely based on codes designed and constructed by an AI Program.

Even if a human sang, the Cold formulas of machines lay at its foundation.

Just as the people of this city, who thought they moved based on their own autonomous Judgment, were actually just living lives swept along by the current, moving exactly as the Megacorp had guided and predicted...

In that respect, food was in a relatively better situation.

People could live without looking at paintings or reading texts, but they could not live without eating.

And the wealthy wanted to eat only the best produce.

Even though they knew that with modern Technology, taking control through a Program could yield far more outstanding and advanced results than a Chef's direction, they attached a Premium to the Fluctuating Value of Food that changed every time depending on the Chef's direction—and the touch of the cooks under that direction.

It was partly because that subtle difference brought about Uniqueness, and partly because leaving cooking too much in the hands of a Program or Artificial Intelligence posed a great risk in the event of a FAIV Virus Infection.

If a Painter AI were Infected, the worst it would do is paint hideous pictures on building walls, but if a Chef AI were Infected, it would be possible to wipe out Dusk's Upper Class/High-ranking Officials through poisoning all at once.

Because of this, Dusk City's Chef AI Regulations were incredibly strict.

Only Ravers, who had limits to their Calculation Capacity like humans, could become chefs.

A General Program and an Artificial Intelligence without limits and personalities could not cook.

Ah, the Factory was an Exception.

The food products made in the Factory weren't even considered 'cooking,' and those who ate the food produced there did not hold equal value to the Upper Class/High-ranking Officials.

There were many long, stray thoughts, but the Isiho Chairman's conclusion was simple.

As expected, cooking and food were not art.

In an era where cooking had become synonymous with High Art, the Chairman could assert as much.

The reason cooking became art was not because it was beautiful and creative, but because the advancement of Artificial Intelligence was restricted only to cooking.

It was because we had created a sort of Protected Area/Sanctuary solely for cooking.

Like protecting an Indian from the Outside World, like protecting a flower in a Greenhouse.

It was because I wanted to make cooking into art, because it made money, and because it was sound Business Logic.

The external factors for why cooking was called art could all be explained by political and Capitalistic Logic like this.

And the internal factors were the same.

The reason meat changes color and becomes delicious when heated is that, above a certain temperature, the protein's Surface Moisture evaporates, and Taste and Aroma are generated through a Chemical Reaction.

A person eats it and feels it is delicious, because it is a result scientifically designed to be felt as delicious.

Chefs often sprinkle garnishes and decorations on top of food. Sometimes that makes a decisive difference in taste, but most of the time, it doesn't.

It is purely for Visual Satisfaction.

Because humans feel satisfaction when seeing a variety of colors spread out rather than a single continuous color, and because the specific colors and degree of volume in food that trigger human appetite are already Predetermined.

Everything is not created on its own, but is merely based on an already Determined Formula.

The reason the Chairman enjoyed gastronomy, even while knowing and firmly believing that, was simple.

It was just because it was delicious.

He didn't even need a grandiose reason.

It was just that eating delicious food was more stimulating and excited his brain more than looking at a beautiful painting or listening to upbeat music.

It was just that the Chairman was a Designed Human, a Designed Human made to be sensitive to taste in that way.

He knew that the Taste and Aroma that were felt when eating delicious food, and all those mechanisms of happiness were nothing more than the Movement of nerves and hormones, but it didn't matter.

Whether it was art or science, it only needed to be delicious. As long as it could bring ecstasy to the senses, that was enough.

Like all tools and techniques in this World, as long as they were effective, that was all that mattered.

As long as the well-designed and manufactured product called food could infuse the body with the desired level of Healthy Vitality, that was enough.

His own body also moved exactly as he predicted and intended.

The fuel called food was fully doing its job.

Ah, of course, there was a problem too.