Chapter 1181: Are they tears? No, they are sweat. (1)

Unlike what many Koreans tend to think, "spice pride" was not something unique to Koreans.

Just like Korea, Central and South America also had plenty of people who took pride in being able to handle spicy food.

And now, a challenge from Koreans had arrived for people like them.

The attention NewBlack had attracted was showing absolutely fantastic results.

[We have some breaking news.]

A South American news anchor wearing flashy clothes reported global news.

[The world-famous superstar group NewBlack is releasing a new song titled with a Latin pop concept! They have issued a very bold challenge toward the South American market.]

Soon afterward, NewBlack's harmless little provocation was being reported everywhere.

The spice-proud people of Central and South America trembled.

Those guys...

Hot reactions were coming in from all over.

A TV reporter who had heard the news went to find Argentine chef Carlos Gonzalez, who had previously collaborated with NewBlack on the Goblin Restaurant project.

[Ha! Of course I've heard about it.]

The short chef laughed, his mustache trembling.

[It seems those guys still haven't experienced the taste of Argentina. I'll prepare something truly fiery for them.]

It wasn't only chefs.

Even amateur cooking enthusiasts were giving interviews saying they were looking forward to NewBlack's visit.

[I will show them my jerk chicken made with a special sauce I learned from my Jamaican grandmother. They are going to regret this.]

[If they eat my cooking, they'll breathe fire from their behinds.]

[I will show them a flavor that will make their entire life flash before their eyes. Huhuhuhu.]

There was even a chef who ate his own demonstration dish and immediately went,

"Ueghhh!"

as he pretended to throw up.

It felt like the greatest cooking competition in the world had begun.

South American chefs were accepting NewBlack's invitation with expressions like, Oh? These guys?

Naturally, the interest from ordinary people was also extremely high.

Even now, comments left by South Americans were appearing in real time on NewBlack's comment section.

Of course, everyone knew NewBlack's challenge was a joke.

But the people responding to it were completely serious.

It was human nature, wasn't it?

Even if you knew a friend who was bad at games was joking when they won once and said, "You're terrible at games," it would still annoy you.

The video titled [A List of Foods NewBlack Needs to Try] had reached 49,000 recommendations.

An overwhelming level of attention beyond what NewBlack had expected.

"Interesting."

"Very interesting."

It was only natural that broadcasters and media outlets started showing interest.

Especially since January and February were the summer season in South America, meaning there were many festivals taking place during that period.

While people were thinking about how they could turn this into ratings and profit, someone suddenly spoke.

It was a very sweet proposal.

The explosive reaction online!

"Wow."

Our youngest member said with an impressed expression.

"I feel like I'm learning from you every day, hyung. So this is how you attract attention."

"Huhuhu. Did you see?"

"That's why I've been using your method for my university assignments lately."

"?"

"Look."

Jiho lightly tapped Ri Hyuk and casually said,

"Hyung. Hyung."

"?"

"I watched a documentary about Joseon white porcelain on MyTube recently."

"Yeah. Why?"

"I think white porcelain is kind of boring. Celadon is way prettier. Why did they move to boring white porcelain? I don't understand what's supposed to be beautiful about it."

It felt like I could see a crack appear on Ri Hyuk's forehead.

Ri Hyuk immediately became furious.

"That's because you don't understand. Joseon white porcelain has its own unique beauty. Do you know why Joseon started making white porcelain?"

A lecture on white porcelain began, starting from early Joseon buncheong ware.

Why white porcelain was created, what its aesthetic value was, what artifacts deserved attention, and so on.

Jiho turned on a recording app and added reactions.

"Huh? Really?"

Then he leaned toward me and whispered.

"Ta da. Homework success."

"......"

"If I just ask normally, Ri Hyuk hyung doesn't explain. But if I do this, it works perfectly."

"......"

Our youngest giggled.

...Maybe I was having a bad influence on this kid's future.

Either way, the sight of Ri Hyuk trembling in anger overlapped with the current reactions from South American netizens.

"......The effect is too strong."

Junghyun said.

"I think we attracted too much attention. At this rate, we're going to have to taste every chili pepper in South America before we leave."

"Th, that's true."

I was reminded once again just how enormous the population of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of South America was.

Over 400 million people.

On MyTube, South America was considered one of the cheat codes for views alongside India and Southeast Asia.

Because the population was so massive, it could produce overwhelming view counts.

There were Hindi songs with titles we didn't even recognize that had 1.2 billion views, and Latin pop songs or performances by Latin pop artists that easily reached tens of millions or even 100 million views.

That was why.

"But..."

Ri Hyuk asked me,

"You do know that South American food is no joke when it comes to spice, right? Especially Central American regions like Mexico."

"I know."

I knew there were plenty of foods far spicier than Korean dishes.

Ri Hyuk continued.

"Well, you probably expected things could get this big, right? You thought about what would happen afterward too, didn't you?"

"......"

"What? Why aren't you answering?"

"Well..."

The gazes of my younger members turned toward me.

To avoid them, I slightly lowered my head.

For some reason, I felt a shadow fall over my face.

"I... didn't think that far ahead."

"!"

"I just thought, let's attract some attention first."

"!!"

"C, calm down, guys."

While Ri Hyuk charged at me shouting, "I can't eat spicy food!!" and Biju tried to stop him, I said,

"But there are good things too."

"What good things? At this rate we're going to need our stomachs pumped!!"

"The good thing is..."

I looked at Ri Hyuk, who was listening intently.

"We got attention, right?"

"...!! Biju hyung, let go."

The vocalist trapped in the main dancer's grip twisted around like a cat doing tap dancing.

"Honestly, I didn't make this decision after thinking deeply about it. I didn't expect this much attention either."

I had only thought it would be good promotion.

After all, the theme of the international album we would soon release, including Overcooked, was "cooking."

I thought combining spicy food with promoting a song called would fit perfectly.

Our TF team agreed that it was a fresh promotion idea too.

The only thing we failed to predict was that South America would react this passionately.

Even Seokhwan hyung, who returned after a meeting, told me,

"This... is getting much bigger than expected."

"How much bigger?"

"I think it's much bigger than we expected. Maybe around ten times the scale we predicted."

"......"

"When I looked into why..."

Seokhwan hyung smiled warmly.

"You guys are famous in South America."

"We are?"

"Of course. South America is right next to North America. They're extremely interested in Hollywood too. So they know what's happening there, and right now you guys are hot rising stars in America."

The explanation of how things had happened followed.

Because they were so close to Hollywood and interested in American entertainment, South Americans had naturally heard about us.

[NewBlack attending the Met Gala becomes a hot topic!]

[Junghyun and Wooju show incredible performances in dodgeball at Supernova Dodgeball.]

[At the site of the Alaska earthquake disaster, NewBlack...]

[The premiere event for the movie was held at New York Times Square. A staggering 17 million people watched the live broadcast, and NewBlack's leader Sun...]

As a result, our recognition had reached a level comparable to famous pop stars.

And in that situation, we were entering the South American market.

Not simply by going on tour.

We were bringing a song specifically based around Latin pop.

"It seems people liked the fact that you were targeting the Southern Hemisphere, where it's summer, in a global music market usually centered around the Northern Hemisphere. This season usually brings out pop songs with winter vibes."

"Oh."

"And your provocation played a role too. Actually, that was probably the biggest factor."

Simply put, it was like a famous foreign star saying before visiting Korea,

"Huhuhu! Korean food? It wasn't spicy at all."

A playful challenge.

Biju said,

"Ah, now that you put it that way, I understand immediately."

"Exactly. It would be like Hailey entering Korea and provoking everyone by saying Korean food isn't spicy."

Then I could imagine exactly what the reaction in Korea would have been.

Even on Korean variety shows, chefs would probably appear and serve deliciously spicy dishes, while countless memes would flood the internet.

After imagining the situation from Korea's perspective, I slowly began to understand what exactly we had done.

"But what we just imagined was on a country level."

"Right."

Ri Hyuk pointed at me.

"But you challenged an entire continent."

"I didn't think people would react this strongly..."

While we were having that conversation, new news came from South America, the market we were preparing to target.

Deputy Manager Hong Seoyoung said,

"We got a call from Brazil."

"What kind of call?"

"The most famous talk show in Brazil contacted us. They suggested filming a special episode and asked if we wanted to have a real showdown there."

"Oh."

Since we would be able to reveal our song while also holding an event where we tried different foods, we readily accepted.

"Sounds good."

From our perspective, the more attention we received, the better.

We could promote Korean food and reveal our new song on Brazil's most famous TV show.

The only concern was...

"Brazilian food should still be manageable, right? Mexican food is probably the spiciest, and we already handled spicy tacos well in America."

"...Probably?"

"Well. They won't bring out anything that spicy."

We laughed.

Brazil.

A country where half of South America's population of over 400 million people lived.

A country with 200 million residents.

The moment we arrived, we received a passionate welcome.

"Waaaaaaah!"

"Waaaaaah!"

The area was thrown into chaos because the airport was packed full of Souffle.

"...I don't think it was anywhere near this intense when we came last time."

"What on earth is happening?"

Fans everywhere were passionate, but South America's unique energy was enough to make me admire it.

The place we visited was Rio de Janeiro.

The very city where the Olympics had been held in 2016.

It was famous as the most visited tourist destination in South America and was known as one of the world's three most beautiful ports.

For people like me who didn't know much about it, it was the city famous for the view of the Christ statue overlooking everything from the mountain.

Whoosh—

Hot air flowed in through the slightly open car window.

"Whoa."

"Wow..."

Even for us, who had only recently been in relatively warm Los Angeles, the heat was difficult to adjust to.

The driver chewing gum snapped it loudly and spoke in English.

"Honestly, you came at the perfect time."

"Really?"

"Yes. This is the hottest it's been in several years."

"......"

Still, the people walking outside looked unfazed.

Tourists walked around showing off their sun-heated skin without even applying sunscreen.

The nearby beach was filled with people wearing swimsuits.

Junghyun said,

"I felt this in Australia too, but coming to the Southern Hemisphere is always fascinating. The seasons are completely opposite."

"Right. Half the Earth has completely different seasons from us."

While we were talking, we arrived at the headquarters of TV Brazil in the city.

The driver turned around and grinned.

"Today's the spicy cooking competition on TV, right?"

"Yes."

"It won't be easy. Even the salad made with Malagueta oil will bring tears to your eyes. Haha!"

"We'll see."

We exchanged jokes while smiling and got out of the car.

With the guidance of the very friendly staff, we headed toward the studio.

Just like the cooking competition programs we had filmed in Korea, a kitchen setup had been prepared inside.

"Let's show off our skills. Underlings."

"Yes!"

"Stand in front of Biju."

"Yes."

I also stood in front of Biju.

Biju rolled up his sleeves and said,

"Let's review the recipes we'll be cooking today one more time."

"Okay."

"First, the spicy New Bulgogi Baekban..."

While we were rehearsing the various K foods we would present, the studio door opened and several people wearing chef uniforms entered.

"Hello!"

When we greeted them with an "Olá," everyone covered their mouths in shock.

"Wow, it's really NewBlack...!"

"Oh my god. It's actually them! Can we take a picture?!"

After taking pictures and laughing with them as they acted like they were meeting famous stars, I smiled and said,

"I heard we're competing today."

"That's right."

Antonio, the youngest chef among them, smiled.

"Just so you know, we won't go easy on you because you're amateurs. We'll defeat you with a spicy and delicious dish. After today, people will say Brazilian food is the world's most delicious spicy cuisine."

"I agree."

We smiled playfully and moved to our respective kitchens.

Since everyone could clearly see what the others were doing, a strange kind of silent competition filled the atmosphere.

While we were chopping ingredients, including Cheongyang peppers brought from a Korean supermarket by the production staff, we saw them take out their ingredients.

"Uh..."

"Oh..."

Watching them from a distance, we swallowed.

Bright red peppers.

Brazilian chefs were cutting peppers that looked intimidating at first glance while laughing.

"Excuse me."

I stopped a passing staff member and asked,

"What ingredient are they taking out right now?"

"Ah. Those are Malagueta peppers."

"Ah."

So it was the pepper the driver had mentioned earlier.

Judging by the way they talked about it, it seemed like a very common ingredient in Brazil.

"Junghyun. Do you know what those are?"

"No. I'm not really familiar with foreign ingredients..."

Junghyun knew countless varieties of domestic agricultural products, but this particular type seemed unfamiliar to him.

Ri Hyuk searched on his phone and explained.

"It's a pepper used as seasoning in various regional cuisines of Brazil and Mozambique."

"Is it very spicy?"

"Let's see..."

Right then.

A chef began frying the peppers in oil heated in a wok, and the smell reached us.

"Huh...?"

"What is it?"

"My nose just cleared up."

Ri Hyuk, who had recently been complaining about a stuffy nose, blinked.

The same thing happened to us.

Even though we were quite far away, it felt like our noses had suddenly opened.

"......"

As an unknown sense of fear began creeping in, Ri Hyuk's voice reached us.

"Found it. Uh..."

"What?"

"Do you know what the Scoville scale is?"

"Of course. It's the indicator that measures how spicy something is."

"Cheongyang peppers are around 10,000 when they're considered spicy."

Ri Hyuk showed us the screen.

The number for the pepper we were looking at was written there.

[The Scoville rating of Malagueta peppers ranges from 50,000 to 100,000, which is 5 to 10 times hotter than Cheongyang peppers.]

"......"

"......"

The younger members suddenly turned their heads and stared at me as if identifying the source of the disaster.

I gave an awkward smile.

"Well..."

"......"

"...Everyone can handle spicy food, right?"

"!!"

To avoid the murderous looks from my underlings, I looked off toward a distant mountain.