Chapter 2435: The Rules That Were Altered

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Johnny was obviously relieved that Mag wasn’t injured.

The incident that happened in the morning was annoying enough. Jasper was sent to the hospital due to the fan f*cking incident and Hades, who was invited to save the show at the last minute, was almost assassinated in the Mocha Building.

If Miss Nancy hadn’t arrived in time, they could forget about recording today’s show.

“Director, we might need an explanation from you about this incident. We were almost killed today,” Xi said with a solemn expression.

As the manager, this was one of her duties.

Johnny smiled awkwardly. As the Top Chef Competition’s director, he was usually being bootlicked by those managers. He had never been interrogated like this before.

However, today’s situation was different. The incident happened on their territory. The staff member that was impersonated, had been found in the storeroom. No matter what, the responsibility was on them for this incident.

Miss Nancy had already lectured him and wanted him to calm Hades down and ensure that he could continue to take part in the competition. At the same time, he would keep this matter a secret.

“Yes. We are at fault for this. To express our sincerity, we will increase Mr. Hades’ fees to 1,000,000.” Johnny said sincerely, “I apologize to you on behalf of the programming division. At the same time, I hope you guys can keep this matter a secret. It’s to prevent it from affecting the show even more negatively.”

Hades’ WeTwit in the morning was still brewing a storm right now. If he was to make another WeTwit: ‘Encountered an assassination in the Mocha Building. I’m terrified’, the trending list would most probably explode again.

Mag clicked open WeTwit in front of Johnny. He cast a glance at his number of fans, which had increased to over 5,000,000, and clicked on the Top Chef Competition’s PK link under Johnny’s stare.

Looking at the PK value that was creeping towards 2,000,000, he sighed and said, “It’s indeed very difficult to catch up with them from zero.”

It was only an hour away from the show’s live telecast, and Mag’s PK value wasn’t even 1% of the contestant with the lowest value. His online score would be zero straight away.

Four contestants would advance from the quarterfinal to the semifinal. The top four contestants’ PK values were all more than 100,000,000.

This wasn’t a fair competition at all.

Mag left the PK page and returned to his own WeTwit main page. He clicked on his publish page silently.

A drop of cold sweat fell down along Johnny’s cheek. After the Top Chef Competition got popular, this was the first time he was threatened by a newcomer.

“Actually, I also feel that the competition’s rules are unfair to you, who has had to join the competition so suddenly. Hence, I have discussed with the programming division. For this quarterfinal match, we will reduce the proportion of the online PK value from 20% to 10% and increase the judges’ score to 90%,” Johnny said.

Actually, he had decided upon this at the last minute. The top four’s name list was already out and Hades was only invited to fill the gap. He would be eliminated today.

Mag turned off WeTwit and said to the director with admiration, “That’s great, Director. You are really a fair person.”

“…” Johnny.

“Do your make-up. I will get the staff members to get the clothes for you.” Johnny nodded and left the make-up room.

The rules had changed, but Hades would still be eliminated today.

He was very sure of this because he had written the script.

Mag and Xi looked at each other and smiled together.

Mag had studied the live scoring criterion for the past four seasons of Top Chef. After getting into the top 16, the on-site judges’ scores would be very close. The difference between the highest score and the lowest score was rarely more than 10 points, and the difference was even closer between the first to the fourth.

Hence, under such a situation, the online popularity became a very important piece of reference data.

Obviously, this was a treacherous game that was planned by the capitalists and the programming division. In order to help their brothers to advance and debut, the fans would pour in their support, bringing tons of traffic to the show. At the same time, it would also bring a great deal of economic benefits.

Based on past experiences, it was impossible for Mag to get into the top four and complete his mission by gaining a 20 points difference with the judges’ score.

Now, Johnny had made a promise to lower the online PK value. It was equivalent to giving Mag a leg up and some benefits.

Of course, in such a competition, the difference of 10 points had basically struck him out of the top four’s name list.

However, it gave Mag a huge confidence boost.

Even though the Top Chef Competition was a variety show whose entertainment value was higher than its professional value, the ten-member judging panel was extremely professional from the round of 16 onwards. They had invited all the big shots from the industry like top chefs and epicureans.

Therefore, even though there was influence from the programming division, the professional judging panel rarely gave 95 points and above. Any score above 90 was considered high.

This was Mag’s chance to overtake in the score.

Mag’s makeup artist was a petite maiden. Perhaps she was mesmerized by his good looks, but she did Mag’s makeup with a blush the whole time.

After doing the makeup, the maiden finally gathered her courage to talk to him. “Mr. Hades, can I please take a picture with you?”

“Of course, your makeup technique is really memorable.” Mag nodded with a smile and got Xi to take a picture for them.

“You’re so nice. I hope you do well in the competition.” The maiden accepted the photograph happily and gave him her blessing.

“Thank you.” Mag got up and left the dressing room. He followed the staff member to the changing room.

He knew that this maiden would share their photo on WeTwit very soon. She would flatter him and help him gain more fans.

Xi followed after Mag and telepathically said with a weird expression, “You seem to enjoy being a star very much?”

Initially, she was worried that Mag couldn’t get used to the life in Underground City and all the things that were different from the Norland Continent.

But looking at it now, Mag had more than gotten used to it. He was having the time of his life. He even knew how to create a persona for himself and attract fans.

“This is called loving what I do for a living,” Mag said seriously, “I’m also a professional in being an idol.”

“What’s an idol?”

“Erm… It’s a term from my hometown, which means celebrity.”

The programming division had prepared a set of uniforms for all the contestants. Mag had just joined at the last minute, so the programming division altered a chef’s suit for him, which just fitted him.

The black-and-white color scheme was simple and bright.

Mag came out after changing into the chef’s suit. He immediately felt the staff members’ gazes on him.

Being handsome had this problem.

“It’s 15 minutes away from the start of the show. Can all the contestants please head to the recording studio now? All staff members, please check if the equipment on set is working properly. Please make sure the contestants’ audio equipment’s output is normal…” Johnny’s voice sounded over the broadcast and everyone started to get busy.