Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 26: Food Fighter VS King of Mukbang

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

QC: MattForgenti

11 Food Fighter VS King of Mukbang

"......"

Minhoo was left speechless. 2~4 pieces every day. It was only decreasing by that much, however, the point was it has not decreased at all before.

"This might be a small change we are not yet sure but it definitely shows that there will be room for bigger improvements in the near future. I'm quite confident that he will lose weight."

"Yes, you're right. As long as my son is happy eating and there are improvements in his treatment."

His eyes reddened as he wondered.

"But why didn't you tell Minhyukie this?"

"...I'm not sure why. Do you get what I'm saying?"

He smiled bitterly.

"If you look through SNS you will be able to see comments like this. Ah, I exercised hard to lose weight today so I'm going to order chicken because I'm very proud of myself."

"......Ah?"

"In fact, a lot of people on a diet can't stop themselves from ordering food after an extreme workout. Then what would he do if he knew that he was showing signs of improvement? A sense of relief can be quite poisonous."

Minhyuk looked so disappointed earlier that even Jinhwan had the urge to open his mouth.

"If the amount of food he eats continues to decrease then the scales would show it to him. Minhyuk will then know it even without us saying anything."

Jinhwan smiled lightly.

***

Minhyuk accessed Athenae early in the morning.

He would go to Twilight Graveyard everyday to raid it alone.

His only reason was to hunt pigs.

Of course, he kept the golden pig in his food storage inventory but he needed to secure a large amount of pigs to ensure that he could eat more pork later.

He could only enter Twilight Graveyard until he was Lv15.

However, the poisonous apple and the 3x experience to level-up penalty for the God Class proved to be helpful in Minhyuk's case. This was the reason why he did not gain much experience even if he cleared Twilight Graveyard by himself.

If it was the way it was then Minhyuk would have probably reached Lv15 already.

"La, la, la~"

Minhyuk was sitting in the boss room and in front of him was a well-greased frying pan. He excitedly grabbed an egg and cracked it over the pan.

Shwaaaa—

The egg was dancing in the oil.

Minhyuk sprinkled half a pinch of salt on top of it. After cooking the egg, he placed it on a plate and continued to pull out a pot out of his inventory. He then pulled out some sesame oil and poured some in the pot.

When the oil was slightly hot, he started to stir-fry the pork.

Sizzle, sizzle—

"As expected, kimchi stew and fried eggs are best eaten in the morning!"

Minhyuk remembered it, back when he still had no bulimia. Before he went to school, the housekeeper aunt would always prepare a fried egg and kimchi stew with pork for him.

The taste, the memory.

I can't forget it.

On those days, he would always eat a few more bowls of rice in the mornings before he went out.

When the pork was already half cooked, he poured water in the pot.

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Shwaaa—

He then added the chopped kimchi, a spoonful of gochujang and another spoonful of gochugaru. Cheongyang pepper was also necessary to achieve that spicy flavor. After boiling it for quite some time, he added some chopped scallions on top of it and pulled it out of the fire.

And as expected, a notification popped out.

[Please select the main ingredients for this meal.]

"Of course it's pork!"

[The pork's front leg meat was selected as the main ingredient.]

"Thank you for the food!"

Minhyuk placed the well-fried egg on top of his rice. The sides of the egg were fried well but once he poked the yolk it slowly flowed down the rice. He then mixed the egg and the rice thoroughly.

Chew, chew—

"Uhhhhhmmm, this is delicious."

He then stretched his spoon towards the boiling spicy kimchi stew.

"Hooo, it's nice that it's spicy!"

After blowing on it multiple times, he finally placed the spoon, which contained meat and soup, in his mouth.

Chew, chew—

The pig's front leg was low in fat so its texture was a bit dry, but it was chewy. In addition, the stew's spicy soup could make the meat feel more soft and tender.

When his mouth felt a bit hot from the spiciness, he would then munch on the fried egg. He could occasionally chew the crispy kimchi whenever he scooped up a spoonful of the spicy stew over his rice.

Minhyuk quickly finished eating his food.

And at that moment…

The usual notifications rang in his ears.

[The True Worth of Food.]

[You have acquired STR.]

Continuously…

[Perfect Combination.]

[There is harmony between the kimchi stew and the fried egg.]

[You have been granted additional stat points.]

[You have acquired +1 STR, +1 STM.]

"Oho!"

The flavor recognized by the Perfect Combination is quite good.

Minhyuk made it more delicious so he could eat well and satisfy his taste buds but it resulted in his stats increasing by itself.

Minhyuk could also see that each of the ingredients would have different light colors to represent themselves.

'Maybe this shows how much stats I could gain?'

Maybe, a red light indicates an increase in STR and STM.

When Minhyuk looked over at the vegetables he could see a faint blue glow. Furthermore, when Minhyuk ate vegetables he was able to increase his AGI.

So far, the only colors that I have seen are only red and blue.

It may also have something to do with the main ingredients.

Simply put, the notification to choose the main ingredient also has the function to allow him to choose which stats he wanted to increase based on the food he would be eating.

Besides, Minhyuk's STR and STM had significantly increased compared to his other stats.

'Porky is love~'

Minhyuk could not have any other vegetables as the main ingredient recently since he was busy eating the golden pig's meat.

And there was still another rule that exists.

'There's no increase in stats if I ate the food more than three times each day. There's also no increase if I make a dish that I have already made.'

The same food.

There would be no stat increase if the food was something that he has already tried.

However, this was something that was already very fraudulent.

Meanwhile, his pure STR stat has reached 80 which was a stat that he could only achieve when he was at Lv16. In addition, his pure AGI stat has reached 45. When his items and title were added then it could go even higher.

This shows that Minhyuk was already different from the others.

And it was not simply because of his high stats.

In Athenae, whenever a user kills a monster that was below their level then the experience that they would receive would also lower. If a user hunts a monster that was within a 1~5 level gap from the user's level then they would receive the right amount of experience points and if the user hunts a monster that was way stronger than their level then there would be a significant increase in the experience points that they would get.

In other words, Minhyuk was a fraudulent character who was always ready to bomb his way through his levels.

This was solely because he continuously leveled up and received bonus points. In addition, he would always be stronger than other players who were in the same level. No, it was safe to say that as long as Minhyuk continued to eat then the gap between their levels would continuously widen.

After he finished eating his meal, Minhyuk finally stood up.

'Hoo, I'm afraid I have to leave Twilight Graveyard soon.'

No matter how much poisonous apple he ate, his experience points still continued to increase little by little.

He then went out to buy ingredients for the food that he would cook inside the dungeon.

***

Isbin Village.

A crowd has started to gather in the village.

"Hey, hey, hey, Binz-yah! Binz! Hey, you look so awesome in person!"

"Omg, omg. Binz smiled. So pretty, he's really amazing."

Binz. He was the number one mukbang BJ and he's also 19th in the online domestic ranking in Athenae.

He came to Isbin Village.

"Hello, hello."

Binz was well-built and very tall, he also has a warm personality and a very large fan-base. In addition, he was considered to be the crown prince of the mukbang world. His voice has a low baritone that could make the viewers feel comfortable which always left them watching in a daze.

On top of that, Binz, who stood at the 19th rank in the country's ranking, was also a ranker among rankers.

'There's a lot of people.'

Binz smiled as he looked over the gathered crowd.

Since it was early winter, white mist would come out of their mouths whenever they spoke.

Seasons in Athenae would rapidly change. Winter has quickly arrived even though it was only chilly a few days ago.

"I arrived here in Isbin Village today to eat the food that everyone thinks about most during winter."

Binz, who was in the center of the crowd, told them politely.

"Food that everyone thinks of during winter?"

"Is it bungeobbang [1]?"

"What is it? Are you going to eat tangerines while sitting on top of an electric mattress?"

"Hahahaha, ah, that's really a delicacy. Ha… I'm already drooling."

Binz laughed at what one of the users said.

"But if I really laid down an electric mattress and ate tangerines you will post it on the user homepage saying 'Beggar Binz, Eating Tangerine that he got from Begging.' or something like that."

"Hahahaha."

"Hohohoho."

Everyone laughed at his words.

"The food that I'll eat this time. It should be something that a user will personally make and sell. Do you have any idea what it is?"

"Ah, could it be…"

Binz saw a woman step out of the crowd.

"...Street snacks?"

"Correct!"

"Woooooow…!"

"During winter when we're on our way home from school or from work and we feel cold and hungry, this is something that will always whet our appetites. That's what I came here for."

Click, click, click, click!

Camera flashes started to go off.

Naturally, there were plenty of users who were working as reporters in real life. Due to the massive online popularity of Athenae, many reporters have flocked to access the game just so they could pick up articles.

"Let's go now."

The users all followed Binz as he started to make his way towards his destination.

Not long after, they saw a small cart coming out.

Most of the users who run these cart bars have long changed their job classes to Chef.

The cart owner bowed his head at them.

'I can't believe Binz came to our store…'

This user had a hidden class among all the other Chefs. The class that he received was named Chef of Happiness. For this class, if someone ate his food deliciously and happily then his experience would increase.

Binz has learned this information even before he came here.

"I will introduce you guys to him. He is a user with the hidden class Chef of Happiness. In his case, the system will calculate the level of happiness of the users who chose to eat his food, if they felt happy then he would gain experience points."

"That's right. But to be honest, my job class is a bit vague."

"Vague?"

Before eating, Binz would always start with an interview. It was a type of noise marketing [2]. Binz was actually someone who loved eating.

As if to clarify, the owner of the job class Chef of Happiness spoke.

"It doesn't matter if the users ate my food deliciously or ate until they were full, my experience still wouldn't go up."

"Aha, is that so? Are you saying that the user should really be happy with your food before your experience will increase?"

"That's right."

"Oho, that's quite a unique job. Haha."

Binz grinned at him.

He was someone who loved and cared about food. This was an opportunity to show the other users that he was sincere with what he was doing.

Some would say that Binz was eating for the money but it was him that turned this into his work because he really loved to eat.

Of course, he already changed a bit compared to before.

'It's because the company wants me to do this.'

It was, after all, inevitable. This was his work.

"Then, is there any user who wants to try it first?"

"Me!"

A man shouted as he raised his hand.

***

Footnotes

[1] 붕어빵 (bungeobbang) Fish shaped bread, you may know it as taiyaki.

[2] Noise marketing. When you say noise in marketing it means something that distracts the consumers from the main point of the marketing. A promotional clutter if you may.

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