Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

PR: MattForgenti

24 Cha Chapagetti~

He was really a strange punk. It was normal for kids their age back then to buy branded padding or hang out with their friends if they had the extra money but he said that he used it to support starving and malnourished children.

It was absolutely ridiculous.

And since he thought that he couldn’t continuously lose money like that, he went ahead and told his father about it. His father was an owner of a well-selling business. That day, when his father talked to Minhyuk’s father on the phone, he contemplated before talking to him.

‘I’m not going to ask you guys about the money but please don’t do it in the future anymore. And please don’t make any trouble with him.’

Brony tilted his head in confusion back then.

His father was a prideful man and he was a man who hated to lose. His father turned pale when he spoke on the phone so Brony asked him.

‘He doesn’t want to tell you that. I’m asking you once again, please don’t get into trouble with him. I won’t be able to handle the repercussions if anything goes wrong.’

That was what his father told him. At that time, his father looked like he was under great tension and he even scolded him greatly.

Why did you even get in trouble with such a child?

Four months after that incident, he transferred schools and heard no news about him ever since then.

‘What the hell does that guy’s dad do? It’s been a long time so I should go and ask Dad.’

When Brony finished recalling his dark history, a whisper suddenly came to him.

[Card: This is Horden Guild’s Brony, right?]

Brony’s eyes narrowed to a slit.

It’s Brony-nim and just Brony?!

[Brony: yeye. That’s right. Who the X are you, you bastard?]

[Card: I’m Ares Guild’s Card.]

“……?”

Brony flinched when he read the whisper.

Ares Guild?

It was one of the top four guilds in the country. Furthermore, he believed that he had heard of the name Card before. He tried to go back on his memories and recall where he had heard of it.

“Card, who’s Card again?”

“Card? Are you talking about the Card that is 2nd in the Blacksmith’s ranking?

“……Heok?!”

The members of the Horden Guild were around Lv 100 and the guildmaster, Brony, was at Lv200. Of course, due to the nature of the production class, User Card would definitely be at a lower level. But he was also known with a different name…

Godly Hands.

I heard that he could make rare and unique items with the touch of his hands.

He was also the third user to produce an epic artifact in the country. And it happened not too long ago. However, he was also famous for not showing his face to the public.

The fact that he sent a whisper to him meant that he went through the trouble of finding out the code of the users with the same name as him. In other words, he wanted to request a commission.

[Brony: Ah, is that so. I’m sorry for my rudeness. Excuse me, but why is Card-nim looking for me……?]

[Card: I heard that you accept commissions and requests that’s a bit difficult for others to do.]

[Brony: Yes, that’s correct.]

Brony’s eyes narrowed into slits.

The 2nd in the Blacksmith’s Ranking and a man with a high position in one of the 4 top ranking guilds in the country sent a whisper to him.

Brony quickly sent him another whisper. 

[Brony: Is the commission strictly confidential?]

[Card: You’re quick on the uptake. I hope that no information about my guild will be released and that no one else will know that I requested this.]

A dirty job that he needed to hide even with his guild!

He had a hunch that it had something to do with killing users or NPCs.

[Brony: I see. How much will you pay me?]

[Card: 1 billion gold.]

“……!”

Brony’s eyes widened in shock.

This must be much more serious than what I thought.

Another whisper came from Card…

[Card: It’s in the Kingdom of Barras.]

***

Harmel was a woman working at the Points Exchange counter at the Chef’s Tower.

There’s a lot of users lined up today too.

And then……

“Ack?! That’s all I can get for 2,000 points?!” 

“Yes, we’re sorry dumb customer…… No! Dear customer-nim! We can’t do anything about it since it’s a set rule.” 

“Cheapskates, you guys are cheapskates!” 

They said that the customers were always right but what you could usually exchange with your points were usually only from a small selection. The administrators and operators have revealed before that the selection of choices for the point exchange would increase if the amount of points that a user would exchange was high.

This was because the points would expire every six months. In other words, it was impossible for users to accumulate your points for 1 or 2 years before going to the exchange counter. Therefore, if the user exchanged a great amount of points it meant that they either gained special points or they were able to contribute great achievements. If they brought the citizens of the country more benefits it meant that they would also receive plenty of points.

One user after another exchanged their points in the exchange counter. Another user came in to exchange their points.

‘What’s with this person?’ 

Her eyebrows furrowed but she quickly straightened them out.

She saw him holding something in his hands.

It was half a watermelon.

When she looked closely, it was half a watermelon that was filled with hwachae [1]. It was filled with fruit cocktails together with some sparkling cider and white milk.

The man was tightly holding a fork as he munched on the sliced watermelons and fruits in his hwachae.

“Hello!” 

“Yes~ Please present your point coin.” 

“Point coin?”

“Yes. This must be your first time in the tower.”

It was usually first time users who weren’t aware of the point coins.

“Your point coin will appear if you reach your hand out and say ‘Point Coin’. We will be able to measure and count your points with that coin.”

“Aah. Yes. Point coin. Oooooh! It’s real!”

The man handed his coin over to Harmel after it appeared. Then, Harmel squeezed the point coin and tried to concentrate hard. She would be able check the amount of points the user had if she concentrated hard and injected her mana in the point coin.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch!”

However, the sound coming in front of Harmel made it hard for her to concentrate. Harmel opened her eyes to see that the man was happily munching on the red watermelon.

‘I, it looks delicious.’

It was difficult to find watermelon these days since it was already winter. 

Watermelon is a sweet fruit that has a lot of water content. As soon as he chewed on it, the crunchy texture and the sweet juices of the watermelon would pop out in his mouth. In addition, he would also eat other fruits in the fruit cocktail. After savoring the flavor of the fruits, the man would lift half the watermelon and drink the sweet mixture of the cider and milk.

“Gulp, gulp, gulp. Keuhaaa!”

“I, it looks delicious, dear customer-nim!”

“Yes. It’s really, really delicious!”

“Don’t you think that I look a bit tired? You see, I’m working hard on a golden Saturday. Don’t you think I deserve a bite of watermelon……”

“Yes? But if a beautiful woman like you eats watermelon then it will get stuck in your teeth, right? Then, are you going to eat it with just your tongue? But we want to only see the beauty and elegance of the woman named Harmel. Which includes your cute fleshy(?) tongue. Huhu……”

“Oh, oh my……”

She placed a strand of her hair behind her ears and laughed shyly with a ‘hoho’.

Then the man saw the candy placed on the desk and asked her…

“Ooooh. Can I eat some of this?”

“Yes. It’s a service so you can eat as much as you like.”

“……You’re not going to regret it, right? I can really eat as much as I like?”

How many could you eat, one or two?

She thought of this as she playfully answered him.

“Even if you eat enough to pull out a pillar out of the candy factory, the Chef’s Tower will not say anything~”

“Oooooh. Thanks.”

He opened a candy and placed one in his mouth as he started chewing on it.

“Crunch, crunch!”

Harmel, who was trying hard to concentrate again, talked to him.

“……That, I’m sorry. Can you please let me concentrate? It’s a bit difficult to measure the points.”

“Yes, I’ll be quiet.”

Then the man tried to remain silent but she could hear the man start peeling candies one after the other. She couldn’t concentrate at all so she opened her eyes to look at what he was doing.

Rumbleeee!

“Aaaaaaaaang!”

Almost 20 candies were poured in his mouth as he chewed on it.

“Do you think candies are like popcorn…… I’m going to check your points inside!”

Harmel thought that she wouldn’t be able to concentrate and measure his points if it continued like this so she quickly went inside to measure.

[The Point Coin is being measured.]

[100…… 235…… 385……]

The points were starting to get measured as Harmel thought of something.

‘You can’t get watermelon anywhere right now. Wow, hwachae really looks delicious. Why did he eat it so deliciously?’

[1,245…… 2,146……]

“Oh, he collected more than what I thought?”

It was quite a large amount of points collected for a first-timer in the tower. However, not long after, Harmel’s eyes started to grow wider and wider in shock.

[5,211…… 6,145…… 8,131……]

“Eok?!”

She had no choice but to exclaim in astonishment.

Then, the figures came out completely.

[There are 15,200 points.]

“Impossible!”

She was shocked. 

It was quite an unprecedented event for a user to exchange 15,200 points on their first time in the tower.

When she came out after measuring his points, she saw him holding another bag of candy which he asked to get refilled from another employee as he said…

“This candy is so delicious!”

‘This person…… is strange……’

***

Team Leader Park and Lee Minhwa were looking at the monitors with a rather solemn expression on their faces.

“15,000 points……”

“Incidentally, the points are somewhat similar.”

The monitor that the two of them were looking at was showing User Minhyuk.

“The points match the price for the hidden piece, right?”

“It’s not that easy. In fact, it’s a bit hard to get that thing since it’s quite an impossible task for a user with 15,000 points to come to the Chef’s Tower.”

In fact, it’s also rare for a user to accumulate 15,000 points even in the Combat Tower.

“No, but we still don’t know how it will turn out yet.”

Lee Minhwa knew the reason why Team Leader Park denied it just now.

‘It’s really a loss for someone to achieve a hidden piece like that.’

The Chef’s Tower was hiding a hidden piece. It could only be achieved if someone uses 15,000 points to buy insignificant things in the tower’s point exchange. In fact, there weren’t a lot of people who would gamble with just the explanation written in the items. After all 15,000 points was a huge amount of wealth.

However, Lee Minhwa was thinking differently.

‘That user likes to eat delicious food the most……’

She looked at him as he poured a bag’s worth of candies in his mouth.

***

Gordon, the deputy master of the Chef’s Tower, was moving quickly somewhere.

According to the 1st floor’s Harmel, a user who has 15,000 points has appeared. The person with the highest points exchanged in the tower was Twilight Chef Black. The points that he has accumulated were 20,000 points. However it was literally accumulated. The highest point that he had traded was at 6,000 points.

But this is almost thrice the amount of the highest traded points?

‘Who in the world is it?’

Gordon kept on walking as he thought of that. He has instructed Harmel to bring the customer to the VIP room. Not long after, he met Harmel who was coming out of the bathroom.

“That person?”

“He’s inside. H, he’s a candy monster. He has already eaten 10kg of it.”

“What are you saying? Harmel-ssi, are you kidding me right now?”

“T, that’s not……”

“What person would eat 10kg of candy? Is it the time to play jokes like that?!”

Gordon looked like he was really angry but before he could get really angry he tried to calm himself and asked her about the important matters.

“I was too excited. Did he tell you what he’s going to exchange his points for?”

“We haven’t talked about that part yet.”

“Not yet? So what were you doing while he stayed in the VIP room? What the hell.”

Harmel felt small and intimidated when he saw the sharp look in Gordon’s eyes.

“I, I was getting a refill for the candies.”

“That story about the candy again. Harmel-ssi, I didn’t see you as someone like this…… Hoo…… Let’s talk about that later.”

Before he could open the door, he heard Harmel say cautiously.

“But what I told you about the candy is real.”

Grin━

Gordon laughed dumbly.

Who would eat 10kg of candies? Is this woman messing with me?

“He ate 10kg of candies? A person can really do that? What is he, an elephant? No, not even elephants can do that. Is he that herbivorous dinosaur? A triceratops? If what you said is true then I’ll appoint you as the deputy tower master right now.”

Creaaaaaak━

He opened the door after mouthing off at Harmel. After he opened the door, Gordon stared blankly and gently closed it again. Then he went towards Harmel and whispered to her whilst pointing at the closed door.

“There’s a triceratop inside……!”

***

Footnotes

[1] Hwachae : Fruit punch made with honeyed water or in modern times, carbonated drinks.

TL’s corner!!!

Well… we’ve gone beyond the usually existing animals and have gone back in time. He is now being compared to a triceratops… I’m… just speechless.

PR’s corner!

It’s only a matter of time before he’s compared with mythical creatures like a dragon…