Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks 

PR: MattForgenti

[Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuurp.] 

“Wow, he’s really eating so deliciously.” 

“I also want to eat some ramyeon…” 

“L, look at him eating that hot bar, Amazing…!” 

The audience’s eyes were trained at the man eating in the convenience store. 

Jan, the MC, was momentarily mesmerized by the video that she was seeing. 

[Jan-ssi, are you not going to do your ment[1]?]

“Slurp!” 

She hurriedly wiped off the drool on her chin. She was on a diet but she almost made a mistake while she was watching.

“Wow, everyone. Don’t you think that he eats it so deliciously? I also feel a bit hungry!” 

“Kiheeeek!” 

As if they were representing her, the wyverns also gave out a cry. 

We’re also hungry! 

[Jan-ssi. He’s a famous pro mukbanger from Isbin Village.] 

‘Ah, him?’ 

Jan could also remember watching that video a long time ago. 

“That user is a pro mukbanger who recently was involved in an issue!” 

“Wow…… Somehow, I feel like I already knew it.” 

“He’s really a pro mukbanger.” 

“No, what’s the name of that pro mukbanger’s broadcast?” 

“But he really eats deliciously. Is he going to eat all of the food in the convenience store today?” 

This time, the man placed some dumplings in the beef bone ramyeon then pulled out the hot noodles and dumplings and laughed with a hehe. 

[This is the convenience store’s dumpling soup!] 

When the audience saw the man smiling brightly, for some weird reason they felt warm. 

Then… 

The user named Bennett approached the man. The camera in the convenience store was installed behind Bennett so the audience could not see their expressions as of the moment. The spectators frowned at this moment, the same went for Jan. 

Then, Bennett sat in front of the man. 

[Nim, you’re really eating deliciously. Can I talk to you……] 

[No. I have to eat this!] 

[Aii, don’t say that, let’s talk for a bit. Just a word……] 

“Wooooooooo!” 

Whenever he got the chance, the man would blow on his cup with a ‘woo, woo‘. 

[Nim, he’s eating. Please don’t disturb him.] 

[Even a dog should not be provoked when it’s eating then what more of a human, why are you so focused on someone that you don’t even like? If you want some attention then go outside, take off your clothes and dance.] 

Everyone on the stands cheered loudly. The reason was because the people in the convenience store spoke to Bennett. Not long after, Bennett stepped back because of the people in the convenience store. 

Right at that moment, a bright light, signaling the entrance of another person, flashed. 

“Finally. Our strongest contender to be the champion in this competition, Miss Lucia, has arrived!” 

That cry drew everyone’s attention. 

Lucia entered the convenience store straight after she accessed the game. The moment she entered with a black mask on her face, the whole store became as quiet as a mouse. 

Suddenly, Lucia’s movements stopped as her gaze also stopped in one place. 

“Ah, Miss Lucia also can’t help but stop in front of a pro mukbanger. Maybe she can’t walk away!” 

“Wahahahaha!” 

“Hahahahahaha!” 

However, unlike what the others said, Lucia trudged forward and sat in an empty seat. 

“There are 30 minutes left before the start of the tournament!” 

***

Lucia was completely confused. 

‘Why did Minhyuk-nim……’ 

Wasn’t he participating in the production competition? So why is he here? Him being here meant that he had passed the preliminaries.

Lucia sat near him but did not talk to him. 

‘My enemies might go after Minhyuk-nim if I do that.’ 

If they found out that he was close to her, then her enemies in this room would definitely go after Minhyuk. That was why Lucia pretended to not know him. There were also a bunch of people watching both Minhyuk and Lucia including those people from Bacallo. 

“Is that true? Those two came to Emperor’s City together in a carriage?” 

Vlan, who was leading the Bacallo group, opened his eyes thinly and looked at Lucia and the masked man. 

“Yes. It’s true. I definitely saw the two of them arrive together via carriage. I even saw that man saying goodbye to Lucia.” 

“Hmm, I see.” 

Bacallo Guild joined the tournament with the thought of catching Lucia. 

Lucia was a rising power and rumor has it that she would gather all the brains and create a guild after she won the competition and learned Ellie’s Swordsmanship. That guild would be a very huge hit. 

However, what would happen if Bacallo killed Lucia? 

‘We can get that fame if we kill her.’ 

Of course, they would attack her in groups. However, Vlan also had a secret class. 

‘Should we catch a hostage? But this is a game, what hostage?’ 

But he would definitely do something along those lines. 

‘Should we break Lucia’s composure by killing that person, is he her lover? I think so.’ 

The man might be covering half of his face but he still looked quite handsome. He heard that Lucia kept looking back at where he disappeared when they parted ways. 

[The tournament will begin in 10 minutes. Participants will be randomly summoned to different parts of Cork Island within 10 minutes after the door to the convenience store has opened! You can also come back to the convenience store to rest.] 

The members of the Bacallo Guild started to prepare when they heard Jan’s ment. 

When there were only 3 minutes left, almost all of the users had already left the convenience store. Except for one. 

“Chomp!” 

That user looked quite indifferent to the tournament and was just eating the convenience store’s hoppang. 

[The tournament has begun!] 

[Waaaaaaaaaah!] 

***

Team Leader Park and Lee Minhwa were both in transparent mode in Cork Island. 

Once the competition began, the two of them entered the convenience store. Lee Minhwa still had no interest in the tournament and just watched Minhyuk eating noodles. 

“Sluuuuuuuuuuurp!” 

‘Wow…… Look at that proportion.’ 

In fact, Minhyuk’s proportions were really unrealistic. 

Administrators could all roam around Cork Island in this transparent mode. Once they marked a coordinate then they could immediately summon them here. 

“Looks like one of our important figures is still eating in the convenience store.” 

“Yeah. He really has no interest in the tournament.” 

“That’s right.” 

The two of them grinned at each other. 

“32-A. Mark the coordinates.” 

“Yes, marking it down.” 

Then, the two of them disappeared in a flash of light. 

Once the bright light disappeared, they saw Lucia. 

Flash! 

Thwack! 

[You have dealt a fatal blow.] 

Lucia quickly logged out some of the users. After she finished off those users, she quickly blended herself in the woods. They saw her enter the forest but they couldn’t see her anymore. 

The two people looked at each other in admiration. 

“As expected of Lucia.” 

“Well, it was within expectations. This time mark this as K-31.”

The two of them disappeared again in a flash. 

They now looked at a man who was covered in a black robe from head to toe. 

“Another key figure. Jackal.” 

“Yeah.” 

The two of them nodded. 

There were a lot of important figures in this competition. 

One of them was Jackal who was a holder of a legendary class. 

‘The Black Wizard’s Descendant.’ 

The Black Wizard’s Descendant has great magic attacks, however, the bigger problem was its spiritual magic. They did not know what would happen if he used that magic. 

“He’s not going to use that, is he?” 

“He’s probably not going to use it. His level will drop back to Lv1 if he uses it.” 

Will there be anyone who will do such a crazy thing? 

There was a flash of light and the two of them had once again disappeared. 

***

“Damn it.”

The members of the Bacallo guild moved towards the convenience store to organize an operational meeting. 

Lucia had already logged out 3 of their members. When they were moving to their promised gathering point they had been attacked. 

Right now, Lucia already had 6 kills. 

It was overwhelming. 

However, once the user was logged out then they would be useless. 

Vlan hesitated to enter the convenience store when he saw Lucia and the masked man inside. 

***

Lucia, who was on a rage, quickly overwhelmed the other users and overtook them as she headed towards the convenience store.

She knew that there would be plenty of people in the vicinity of the convenience store. There was only one reason, it was a safe zone. 

Usually, in fights like these, people would intentionally run away if there wasn’t enough blood. 

Lucia still saw Minhyuk once she entered the store. She looked around before approaching him. 

Grin. 

She smiled lightly when she saw what he was doing. 

“Is it delicious?” 

“Chew, chew!” 

As usual, Minhyuk couldn’t answer properly when he was eating something. 

“What are you doing here when you’re a cook? I was surprised when I saw you.” 

However, she kept on looking at the monitor as she talked to him.

Fortunately, the monitor does not show when we’re in the convenience store. 

“Did you do a good job during the preliminaries? How long did it take you to clear the gates?” 

“29 minutes and 57 seconds? Don’t talk to me!” 

“You barely managed to get in.” 

She took a can of soda and gulped it down to refresh herself. 

‘Those Bacallo bastards are much more malicious than I thought.’ 

Like those incumbent special forces, their tactical strategies were also unusual. It wouldn’t be easy for her once they narrowed the perimeter down. 

At that moment. 

Lucia felt the incoming presence of the others so she hurriedly distanced herself away from Minhyuk. 

Creeaaak—

The door opened and the members of the Bacallo Guild came inside. 

“Oh, so you’re here. Lucia.” 

“……” 

Lucia did not answer them and just continued to finish her drink. 

Then, Vlan approached Minhyuk. He checked the monitor and quickly inspected the pile of cup ramyeon on his table.

Slaaap—

The cups of ramyeon fell down on the ground. 

Splash—

Ramyeon soup splashed on the floor of the convenience store. 

“……” 

For the first time, Minhyuk’s head moved. 

“Oops, my mistake. But you know, you should be ashamed. Is it fun to eat and get the attention of the others?” 

Vlan was trying to provoke Lucia. However, when he looked over he saw that she did not even give them an ounce of attention. 

No, she’s just pretending that she did not care. 

‘If she stopped me from this provocation then it means that they know each other…’ 

Minhyuk continued to drink the ramyeon soup from his cup. 

Vlan kicked the cup ramyeon that had fallen on the ground. 

Splash! 

“Kukuku!” 

“Hahahahaha!” 

Vlan and the rest of the crowd laughed. 

“Let’s go out and have some chat.” 

As soon as they were about to walk out. 

“Oi, war freaks.” 

They heard a cold voice talking to them. 

Vlan turned his head and saw Minhyuk. 

“Clean this up before you go.” 

“……You clean it up, you fXcker.” 

As he said that, Vlan and his group went outside. 

Lucia looked at Minhyuk with surprise. 

‘T, the light in his eyes…’

Minhyuk stood up with a hot bar in his mouth. 

Crack. 

Crack. 

He loosened up his stiff muscles. 

“W, where are you going?” 

“The tournament. I finished eating so it’s now time to start.” 

Even though that was what he said, he still took an armful of chocolate bars from the convenience store. 

“I thought you weren’t interested?” 

“I didn’t care much before, but now I am. Lucia-nim, do you know what’s the worst thing in the world?” 

“……?” 

“Bastards who mess around with food.” 

The moment he finished speaking… 

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap! 

Minhyuk ran out. 

“Why don’t you come with me……!” 

But before she could even come out, Minhyuk had already disappeared. The first time that they went out of the store, they would disappear and be summoned randomly on the island. Lucia had no choice but to worry. 

’29 minutes and 57 seconds… He just barely got in…’

It was already very surprising for a chef to pass the preliminaries. However, a chef would still be far below in level to the others in this tournament. 

Her eyes suddenly gleamed coldly. 

“Those damn bastards.” 

***

Vlan exchanged a cold look with the members of the Bacallo guild. 

“She’s alone. Once she is in a certain range within the tactical field, then we should spread out and lock her in!”

“Yes!”

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap! 

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap! 

They found Lucia running around in the forest. When she noticed them, she quickly started to attack them. 

The moment she entered their encircling net, Vlan signaled to his tactical team. 

Vlan had the secret class ‘Iron Blooded Commander’ and his class could command and create a tactical field with others with the class ‘Brave Warrior’. 

Once the tactical field was deployed, all of the empty spaces in it would be controlled. In addition, the Brave Warrior along with himself would have a 20% increase in their abilities once the tactical field was deployed. 

Shwaaaa—

“Aaaaargh!” 

“Catch her! Now’s the best time!” 

Another member of the Bacallo guild was forced to log-out. 

The tactical field was slowly starting to form as the members of the Bacallo guild made their way to their respective places. 

‘Good, now this…’ 

Pooof! 

Lucia disappeared in a white smoke. 

“This damn…!” 

Vlan’s face crumpled in anger. 

‘No, she won’t be able to use that very often.’ 

She disappeared from their tactical field. 

The tactical field covered an area of 500m and teleportation to the extent of avoiding that distance would definitely be limited for Lucia’s level. 

And right at that moment… 

Step, step, step, step—

A man walked right inside their tactical field. 

“……You little bastard.” 

Vlan smiled sinisterly. 

He thought that they met at quite the right time. 

He was already brimming with anger when Lucia disappeared. He had a hunch that Lucia just didn’t respond to his provocation but they knew each other. 

And the man in front of him was none other than… 

Minhyuk. 

***

Footnotes 

[1] 멘트 (Ment) a section in an event where you introduce yourself and interact with your fans. 

TL’s corner!!! 

Let’s go! There’s going to be a trashing coming soon! 

EXTRA, EXTRA, Extra chapter of the week! Hehehe

PR’s corner!

The monster’s been awakened. Time to waste the food wasters.