Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

QC: MattForgenti

[The search has failed.] 

[The search will continue for 3 days and will depend on the user’s movement and travel range.]

Lee Minhwa and Team Leader Park made eye contact after watching the monitor. 

“That’s a relief…” 

Lee Minhwa mumbled as Team Leader Park breathed a sigh of relief. 

“User Minhyuk is someone who would do anything if his food will become delicious.” 

Now here was their problem. 

Len’s artifact was an item that would give the user a tremendous power. In fact, the Twilight Chef would be able to develop one step further if he received that power. He could probably step further than a craftsman. 

“The Orc Village is 1km away from them…” 

Team Leader Park was very concerned about the Ingredient Tracking Skill. 

And the fact that Len mentioned the ‘taste’ story to Minhyuk means that his favorability has reached a crazy level. 

Len was originally an NPC that was set up to hate foreigners. 

“I expect that it should be taken by Twilight Chef Black.” 

Was what he thought. 

Lee Minhwa told him… 

“That’s not impossible, there wouldn’t be any other variables right?” 

“There’s none. Once they reached Bordy Plains, they would be more than 1km away from the Orc Village. It would be impossible, unless User Minhyuk decided to visit it on purpose.” 

“So that’s really the case.” 

A thought suddenly crossed Lee Minhwa’s mind… 

‘What if someone intentionally drags the Orcs to the camp?’ 

But then she realized that it was a very absurd thought. 

‘That’s too bad then.’ 

She liked seeing that user on a roll. It felt like wishing for her favorite baseball team to win the championship. 

‘Sigh……’ 

She let out a sigh of disappointment in her head. 

***

Minhyuk felt a bit disappointed when he heard the notification. 

“Ho…” 

Was it really impossible? Or was it related to the quest? 

If it was a reward from Len then he definitely felt that it would be something really delicious. Or maybe because he was specializing in dexterity then he would give him something related to the DEX stat. 

But this was something that he had expected. There was no such thing as saving your tasteless taste buds. 

‘There’s no helping it.’ 

He sighed in disappointment as he began to clean up the remaining dishes. 

***

Late at night.

Belo and the members of the Connection Guild were talking. 

“Belo, what’s happening? That chef is the number 1 in contributions. And his contributions were extremely high too!” 

If this went on, then the reward that they learned and the hidden dungeon would go to the hands of that user. 

That can’t happen. 

The amount of time they have spent on this process was not small. They didn’t even know what was inside the hidden dungeon. 

“How the hell did that little low-leveled user…… hoo…… There’s no answer to this question. I don’t get it. No matter how much we put our efforts in, it’s definitely impossible to get 40% of the contributions alone.” 

The rest were already helping Belo get contributions. As they headed towards Bordy Plains, they would battle and deliberately catch the goblins on their way. They would put them together and let Belo kill them. In this way, Belo’s contributions would definitely increase. 

“Sigh……. This is annoying. That guy’s a real pain in the ass. He must be a pig in real life.” 

Belo cursed loudly. 

Everyone suddenly went mute when they heard him talk. 

In fact, Belo’s parents were quite rich in real life. His guild members and friends helped him only because he was considered to be the ‘wallet’ in their friends circle. 

He was the son of a rich family. His parents have more than 3 billion won in properties. 

“However, there’s nothing we can do about this…… B, by any chance will we still get the money that you promised……” 

A guild member murmured. 

Belo promised to give them 400,000 won per person once they finished the job safely. 

Belo looked at him. 

“Why, is there no other way?” 

“Huh?” 

“That bastard is a chef, you know.” 

“Yeah, he’s a chef. What’s wrong with that?” 

“He’s a chef. And he’s a Lv15 low-leveled user at most.” 

What comes to mind when you think of a chef? 

They were ruined characters [1], sloppy and a weak class. 

“……Are you talking about PK?” 

Belo grinned at them. 

“Yeah and didn’t you notice?” 

“What?” 

“The leather armor and sword worn by that user. I think it’s either special or rare. If he drops just one of those then your account will get more than what I promised. However, if you fail even that then I won’t give you the 400 I promised.” 

The others thought when they heard his words… 

‘So what have we been doing for the past two days of our lives…’ 

‘Wow…… That’s too much……’ 

Their brows creased in annoyance. 

“I’ll give 1,000,000 more to the person who kills that guy, don’t be shy and get that smiling mug of his. He even shakes his tail as he sucks up to those NPCs.” 

“1,000,000?”

“OMG?!” 

His words brightened them up. 

“And if the item drops, the one who kills him will get it.” 

“Kyaa…” 

1,000,000 won was money that a normal person would receive after working for 10 days. No, in all honesty, not everyone could make that much money in that time. It was obviously hard to get.

“Who’s in?” 

“Me! Me! Me!” 

“Ah, me!” 

“Relax. He’s just a low-leveled user so he would die if I hit him once.” 

Belo giggled at the thought.

However, one person’s face was wrinkled in annoyance. 

“Shit…… XXXX……” 

“Why?” 

“My mom said that if I don’t disconnect right now then she will kick me out of the house.” 

There was a call button in the Athenae capsule. If the person outside pressed the call button then the user would be able to hear the voice of the one making the call. 

“Then you’re out.” 

“Shit, ah. For real. I wanted to join.” 

The user logged out after wording his frustrations. There were only four people left. 

“Hey. No.” 

Then, Belo grinned. 

“It’s just like a beating [2].”

Belo smiled thickly.

“But if we PK that person then we will be forced out of the subjugation force……”

“That’s right. The NPC might even kill us.” 

If they killed a user that has a high favorability with an NPC then that NPC would kill them. That was why they had to kill him without anyone knowing about it. 

Once they killed him silently then they could just spread rumors about him being dead or him logging out of the game. 

“Don’t worry about that.” 

Belo’s grin widened. 

“That bastard will be going somewhere dark on his own.” 

“Huh? On his own?” 

Belo nodded his head. 

***

“Heave-ho!” 

Minhyuk threw the food waste in the garbage can. He always made a point to move around whenever he had spare time. 

He thought that he would just move the waste before logging out. He started to drag the container to move it in a more secluded area. 

Len always spent his spare time away from the camp. There were two reasons. One was that the smell was really horrendous the second was because wild animals were always gathering around to eat the food waste. 

If the food waste was left in the kitchen carriage without throwing it away, then it would start to smell bad. 

He thought that it would be good for the sisters and the brothers if he threw it away in the nearby forest. 

That was why Minhyuk always dragged the container to the entrance of the forest whenever he had spare time.

Anyway, the monsters that appear in the vicinity are just goblins. 

Therefore, the smell would not bother them too much. A ridiculous idea even churned in his head that the smell of the food waste could possibly be used as bait(?) for these monsters. 

Suddenly, there were four people who stood in front of him. 

‘These people…’ 

Minhyuk’s eyes narrowed dangerously. 

It was Belo and his pack. 

Minhyuk never thought well of them. It was quite evident with the way they carried themselves. They often talked down to the other users as if they were beneath themselves. They even told them this… 

‘Wow, look at those beginners always getting carried away.’ 

He didn’t know why they talked like that when they were beginners themselves but it was also rare for a group of people to join the subjugation force. 

That was also one of the reasons why the other users just ignored them or avoided them so they would not get bullied or hurt. 

They always mock the NPCs too. 

‘Wow, our soldiers are doing well too, amazing~’ 

‘Won’t they die once Athenae gets shut down?’ 

‘They’re just artificial intelligence anyway.’ 

Minhyuk thought that the world of Athenae in the game might be a tool to sort people out.

There were plenty of people who wore masks in reality. Smiling deliberately and acting a certain way intentionally towards others but would stab and curse at you once your back was turned. 

However, once they were in Athenae? 

‘Their true nature will come out.’ 

The people who behaved like this in Athenae would definitely not act like this in reality. 

However, Minhyuk was quite puzzled. They haven’t gone and bullied him before so why did they find him now? 

“What’s wrong?” 

At the same time, his hands went towards the sword on his waist. 

Len always said this to him… 

‘We are military chefs, and the most important thing for us is to prepare the best meals. However, there are cases that we are also needed to fight. That’s why it’s important to always have your weapons with you.’ 

In fact, military chefs in active duty would always carry a gun while they were cooking. This was also the same during training. 

This information was similar to that. 

“We just wanted to ask you something.” 

The user Belo, who was standing in front, told him. 

“What is it?” 

“Ah. It’s just that you’re very close to the NPCs so I was wondering if you have any secrets on how to get close to them.” 

As he said those words, Belo and his party started to prepare themselves. They have already stood in their positions. 

First, the mage Bron activated a silence spell.

The silence spell would restrict the opponent’s speech. The silence spell was usually used to stop the spells of an enemy mage.

Bron, who was originally Lv40, has already mastered the 2nd class spells. Of course, his stats had gone down to Lv20 which in turn has decreased the restriction in his silence spell. This was because 2nd class spells could only be mastered at Lv40 and since his stats had gone down to Lv20 then his spells would also go down. But there were no worries. 

‘There’s no way that a chef would increase his WIS or INT. And in order to invalidate the silence spell, the user needs to have a high enough reputation. But that’s impossible.’ 

Reputation carried a lot of power. One of them was that it increases the magical defense. And even though it was insignificant it would still increase it.

However, the reputation points needed to be at least 20. Minhyuk, who was a beginner, would definitely not have that high of a reputation point. 

That’s why he thought his silence was already enough. 

They have to shut his mouth first so Minhyuk would not be able to scream for the NPC’s help. 

“The method. Do you really need it? You just have to be polite. If you give them that much then they would return it to you.” 

“Wow… But why did I hear that it was ‘You have to be rude.’ or something?” 

Belo sarcastically answered him while Bron who was preparing his magic shouted the spell. 

“Silence!” 

[Your Silence has failed.] 

[You have committed an act of poor etiquette.] 

[User Bron is in a temporary chaotic state.] 

[If the other party initiates an attack, the other party will not receive any penalty.] 

“……Huh?” 

Bron was flustered. 

How come it’s not working? 

Bron threw another spell. 

“Silence!” 

[Your Silence has failed.] 

“W, what the hell?!” 

“Shit, what is it.” 

“H, he can’t get silenced?” 

Minhyuk took a step back as he calmly rolled his neck to warm up. 

‘So they want to PK…’ 

So that’s what these guys wanted to do. But, right now only one of them was under the half-chaotic state. 

‘I don’t have to be chaotic just because of these bastards.’ 

I have to make them chaotic first.

Now, how should I go about doing this? Right now, they only think of me as a weak chef. Well, even the soldiers of the subjugation force thought so too. 

“N, no way. Are you going to PK me?! Huaaack, p, please don’t do that to me!” 

He started acting.

***

Footnotes 

[1] 망캐 abbr for 망친 캐릭터 which literally means botched/ruined character. It means that the character’s development was slower or their combat abilities are lower than that of characters nurtured in a regular manner. 

[2] 다구리 several people beating a single man. 

TL’s corner!!! 

Pffft. Ahhh, our Minhyukie is so smart. “I can’t be chaotic so you have to be chaotic first!” ㅋㅋㅋㅋ so funny. It seems that there will be face slapping in the next chapter. ㅋㅋ

QC’s corner!

And the Athenae Academy Awards go to…Minhyuk! It’s always amazing to see his awful acting.

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