Black Badger

Okazaki is a man who knows how to make money.

During the shutdown period, Hildebert’s public recognition skyrocketed. Before, a lot of people recognized his face because of the amusement park video but didn’t know his name. This incident changed that. His name itself spread everywhere.

The post Jack Black uploaded—a selfie with Hildebert—started burning up again.

Around the time the comments on Hildebert’s one and only SNS post, which had the same photo, crossed twenty thousand— 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

An ad dropped.

And the moment it did, Lexic Noodles reopened.

People gathered in circles around the reopened Lexic Noodles shop, waiting.

Then the reviews came flooding in like a tide.

The ad video was buried under an insane number of comments.

[Lexic Noodles Reopening! (00:23)]

-Hildebert!!!! Lexic noodles taste awful!!!!!!!!!!

-Anything except the basic flavor is edible

-Insanely handsome

-Honestly, I get why they shut down

-The basic flavor is amazing, you just don’t get it

└ Hildebert? Is it Hildebert?

-This is supposed to be an ad? There’s zero description of the taste?

-“Mm.”

-That satisfied smile looks real... there’s madness in it

-But seriously, is it actually good?

└ Honestly, anything except the basic flavor is pretty good. There’s a reason it got franchised.

└ Isn’t what Hilde eats the basic flavor?

└ Shut up

-Thank you for saving me last time! I’m going to go eat there with my mom this time!

-He busted his ass while the other Badgers were useless, so let’s at least help him sell some

-Ugh, these rotten bastards quietly sneaking ads in like this is disgusting

└ Cut them some slack, how bad did it have to be for him to film this ad?

└ It’s all just a concept

└ Making Lexic’s basic flavor a... concept?

└ If someone told you to make this your concept, could you do it?

Naturally, noodle reviews also flooded Hildebert’s SNS post.

The most-liked comment was the same on both the ad video and Hildebert’s SNS video.

-Hildebert!!!! Lexic noodles taste awful!!!!!!!!!!

Then, for the first time ever, Hildebert replied on his SNS post.

-Hildebert!!!! Lexic noodles taste awful!!!!!!!!!!

└ TT_TT They’re good...T_T

Replies poured in beneath it.

There were a few comments saying they liked the basic flavor too, but most people were delighted by Hildebert’s visibly deflated reaction and his unusual taste.

The number of ‘likes’ skyrocketed for all sorts of reasons.

Lexic Noodles hit it big.

However, Hildebert himself was not very happy.

***

“Mm!”

I seriously don’t understand it.

“Slurp, mm!”

Why did that short ad turn into such a sensation?

I sat on a chair with a sulky face, watching the people around me.

9:30 p.m.

A time when everyone really should have gone back to their hospital beds.

I was in the isolation ward, being enthusiastically teased by the seniors.

“Taleb!”

“Oh, Lexic!”

“Mm! Slurp, mm!”

Every time I walked by, the seniors lifted their cheeks and smiled at me.

For some reason, now they looked genuinely disappointed whenever I left their field of view.

Just a few weeks ago, weren’t they making a huge fuss about how they couldn’t work with a humanoid Creature and all that?

I’d honestly prefer it if they’d kept doing that.

But now, nobody did.

“Please stop teasing me....”

I grumbled, staring down at the floor.

Of course, none of them even pretended to listen.

“Hey, come on! You’re our lifesaver!”

“Yeah. We should give you whatever you want. Honestly, if it weren’t for you, there’d be nothing left here.”

“When you’re discharged, I’ll buy you Lexic noodles, so forgive us, Taleb!”

“Mm.”

“Stop picking on the junior.”

“Got it. Mm. Hospital food, mm.”

Ha....

I stared at the seniors laughing without wiping the grins off their faces.

The ad hadn’t even been out that long, but the seniors—stuck in the ward with absolutely nothing to do—had all watched the ad I filmed.

The ones who hadn’t been cleared for discharge yet.

The isolation ward was still very much active. Antibiotics weren’t magic cures, after all. Several Badgers had asked things like, “If we get antibiotics, don’t we recover right away?” and got verbally beaten to a pulp by Samuel for it.

‘Is this the first time you idiots have ever taken antibiotics?’

He went on and on about clinical trials, viral mutations, rattling off complicated explanations. We have to see how effective it actually is by observing your bodies from now on, it’s not a cure-all, do you even know how antibiotics work... and so on.

Honestly, the only one who probably understood all of it was Yun, the same guy who’d admired Eve’s data.

Given the situation, anyone who was capable of activity again was sent out on missions.

But even after lifting the shutdown, there were still quite a few Badgers left in the isolation ward.

Yun, Ricardo, Jonathan, Jason Trevain, and Aide Gilbert still hadn’t been cleared for discharge.

Yehyeon, Leeho, Chen Koenig, Richard Green, and others returned to the field not long after receiving antibiotics.

Kairos and I were stuck in the ward.

Our bodies were perfectly fine.

‘If I were Kyle, I’d regroup properly and push back in.’

That was the decision from the top brass.

‘He knows rebuilding headquarters will take time, even more so. So wait until the isolation ward operation is suspended, then move. You really worked hard during the shutdown.’

And so, Kairos’s and my tent life in the isolation ward continued.

Only Yoow, Igor, and Deltei returned to the cabin.

They’d gotten busy too.

More precisely, Igor and Yoow had even more work piled onto them.

After issuing this and that order, I started feeling guilty, like I’d asked too much of them.

I was seriously considering whether I should call Lin.

It wasn’t that hopeless yet, so I hadn’t said the name out loud.

Anyway, I also sent Deltei back, even though she insisted on staying in the ward since she had nothing to do.

‘I don’t have anything to do even if I go back anyway!’

Deltei resisted like that.

‘If the Creatures come flooding in again, don’t you need me there?’

It wasn’t an argument without merit.

Still, what bothered me was how strangely close she’d gotten with Jason Trevain.

Deltei just smiled brightly at my gruff words, like I’d told her something amusing.

‘Ah, absolutely not!’

Yeah. Of course you wouldn’t think anything of it.

‘He’s probably just being nice to me! He treated me really well back then. Even after Meierbold disappeared, he kept looking out for me until the end. Even though he wasn’t feeling well himself....’

I immediately sent Deltei back to the cabin.

That left just the handler and me using the tent.

My tent roommate did nothing to help me while I was being teased.

Instead, he quietly watched my ad video and smiled, saying it looked well shot.

Even now, he wasn’t helping me at all.

“Blackjack! You should’ve stopped them. Of all things, you go and shoot some food ad nobody’s ever heard of.”

“It’s something he genuinely likes.”

As my identity was revealed, Kairos’s identity also became known among the Badgers.

But maybe because of his past as an F1 driver, he somehow still enjoyed overwhelming popularity with ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) the male seniors.

The former driver smiled gently.

“Advertising something you truly like is the best approach, isn’t it? It’s also an item unlikely to cause controversy.”

“How is it not controversial? The taste itself is controversial.”

“Haha. I think it’s fairly decent.”

“Really?”

“Really?”

A senior and I lifted our heads at the same time to look at Kairos.

Kairos narrowed his orange eyes as he looked down at me.

“It’s a flavor that comes to mind from time to time.”

Moved, I sprang to my feet.

I was about to offer a handshake when his next words drained all the energy out of me.

“But I wouldn’t want to eat it more than once a month.”

Why...?

Deflated, I sank back into my chair.

I was already wounded by the flood of criticism aimed at the basic flavor ever since the ad went up. I wanted everyone to like this food, but instead of liking it, people were enthusiastically explaining all the reasons the basic flavor tasted bad.

Honestly, it hurt.

While filming the ad to improve my image—Yoow had explained, ‘Since your combat power is overwhelming, it’s important to show a small-citizen, slightly odd side’—I’d hoped more people would come to like the basic flavor.

Instead of people liking it more, the brand went viral in a “bizarrely terrible-tasting Lexic Noodles basic flavor challenge” sort of way.

Okazaki loved it. As long as sales went up, that was all that mattered.

Georges didn’t care.

[Georges: People’s tastes have always varied wildly from person to person.]

I know, but still....

[I tried the famous Lexic Noodles]

[Lexic Noodles basic flavor mukbang]

[Lexic Noodles taste explanation]

I diligently watched videos with titles like that, but not many people evaluated it positively.

Only about two influencers gave the basic flavor a good review.

Only two. I couldn’t believe it.

“You’re searching Lexic Noodles again, aren’t you?”

As I hung my head, fiddling with my phone, Kairos—who had just finished signing autographs and sending the seniors away—approached.

“I told you not to hurt yourself by looking up reviews.”

“I’m curious.”

“You never search your own name, but you search Lexic Noodles. You really are something.”

Kairos burst out laughing and snatched the phone from my hand.

I held out my palm, asking for it back, but the sharp-eyed man just smiled.

“I’ll give it back if you promise you won’t search anymore.”

“I won’t. Give it back.”

“Checking public opinion won’t change anything. At least stop searching for the rest of today.”

“Fine. Got it. Rose will probably contact me around today, and Heath will likely finish his work and come interrogate me soon, so give me the phone.”

Only then did the handler place the phone back into my hand.

I scrolled through the piled-up messages.

Staring blankly at messages from all sorts of people, I muttered—

「You let that handler live, didn’t you?」

Kairos, who had been placing Milk—who’d popped out of his front pocket—onto his palm, turned his head.

The orange gaze that lingered on me briefly soon returned to Milk.

「I cut one tendon each in his wrists and ankles. It’ll take some time before he can rehabilitate.」

「He’s young, but his handling ability is dangerous. Take responsibility for sending that sprout back alive.」

「That’s my intention. Sorry to disappoint you, Captain.」

I let out a small sigh.

I understood how he felt. I didn’t want to blame him. Still, if there were deaths later because of that kid, neither Kairos nor I would ever be free of responsibility.

All we could do was hope nothing like that would happen.

I sat for a bit, replying to various messages. Just as expected, Rose said she’d be returning to the isolation ward tomorrow. Igor replied that he’d started work.

Yoow sent a message asking if it wouldn’t be better to contact Lin.

I let out a second sigh.

[If that’s your judgment, then we should.]

After replying, I briefly replayed the conversation I’d had with the strategist, my thoughts heavy.

Why two Archmages had been able to recover almost miraculously.

Why Kyle had obsessively forced the flowers to bloom.

Why Shu—who’s heavily affected by portals—had been kidnapped and relocated, and then deliberately submerged in a flower.

We had come to the conclusion that all of this might be because of Cecil.

The thought that they’d been striving nonstop to reach the world—or space—where Cecil existed, and had finally encountered it.

That she, unmatched in healing magic, might have cured mana feedback.

It was a hypothesis I didn’t even want to imagine, but we couldn’t look away from reality.

We decided to move while assuming the worst-case scenario.

Especially since Meierbold had left words behind....

Ah.

I got a message from Sasu too.

Why did he bother sending a message?

If he had something to say, he could just come out of the tent and call me—we’re in the same space.

[Yun: (Screenshot of the ad, smiling satisfied after finishing the noodles)]

Damn it.

Angry, I sent back an emoji that looked like it was hopping up and down in a rage.

A reply came immediately.

[Yun: (Zoomed-in version of the smiling face from the screenshot)]

Ha.

For the first time ever, I didn’t reply to Sasu’s message.

Instead, I checked Shu’s message.

[Shu: Dad dreamed about that woman again]

I jumped to my feet—and nearly collided with Ricardo, who was approaching.