Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 106: Hungry Monsters

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“…” 

The phoenix looked at Minhyuk blankly.
Meanwhile, Minhyuk despaired as he realized an unfortunate fact.
He thought, 'Why can't I see any black light?!' 

The phoenix did not shine with any color at all.
Minhyuk would not be able to eat it if it did not shine a black light.
 What was worse was that the phoenix's condition was almost as bad as the monsters lying around.
It was so thin that it looked like only its bones were left.
She looked like she was about to collapse any time soon. 

“Are you the descendant of Allen, the Food God?”

The name of the Food God that existed in the past! It seemed like he was named Allen.
Minhyuk nodded in answer. 

“I see,” the phoenix said as she stared at him quietly.
She saw the frying pan on Minhyuk’s back and the choco pie in his hand.
Even if he was in front of it, he was still nibbling on something. 

“I'm Chronicle, the Phoenix Lord, the protector of this Monster Paradise.” 

Monster Paradise… However, looking at the state it was in right now, it did not seem like it was a paradise at all.
Perhaps it was a paradise for the hungry. 

“By any chance, is Miss Chronicle the subordinate of the Food God?” 

Chronicle shook her head when she heard Minhyuk's question.
She said, “I am not worthy to be compared with him.
The Food God’s subordinate is my king.
Also, he has now entered his eternal rest.” 

“Eh?” Minhyuk asked dumbly.
He could not help but wonder what she meant by ‘eternal rest’.
He was quite sure that the presence standing above Chronicle would have known the whereabouts of God's Dishes.
 But now, Minhyuk had been told that he was dead. 

“However, there's still a way to awaken him.
My king is still waiting for the day that the descendant of his close friend, the Food God, would come.
My king left me with the power to wake him up,” Chronicle said, looking at Minhyuk’s eager eyes.

“This land was once a paradise for monsters.
Monsters originally could not socialize and live with the other races.
However, there's a law here that prevents us from eating and attacking each other.
In addition, we could get food from the seeds so we could easily get along with each other and even socialize with the weak outside this land.
The Food God and his apostle were the ones that managed this place.
The apostle planted the seeds and nurtured them to bear fruits.
Through the nutrients from the cliffs, they once again bore seeds.
The Food God would then cook us a dish.
The dish was named 'Wouldn't Get Hungry for 50 Years' and gave us the power to not get hungry for 50 years.
However, not long ago, that power had run out.
And just like that, four months have passed.
Somehow, just before we die of hunger, you’ve arrived.”

Minhyuk nodded. 

‘A dish that won't let you get hungry for 50 years! What a great dish.’

However, the Food God and his apostle had long left this world.
In his place, Minhyuk had now appeared as the new Food God.
A notification rang. 

[Class Quest: You have completed the quest: Go to Salov Land.] 

[You have gained 300,000 EXP.]

Ring! 

Along with the completion of the previous quest, his quest window refreshed and popped out once more.

[Class Quest: Feed the Hungry Field Monsters Until They Are Full.]

Rank: ? 

Requirements: Level 150

Rewards: Monster egg.
A meeting with the Food God's subordinate who knows the location of the God's dish. 

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Penalty for Failure: Unable to progress further for the Food God’s Legacy.

Description: The monsters are trapped in the field! They are left with nothing but bones from their terrible hunger.
Feed the monsters in the place of the previous Food God! 

Minhyuk was completely shocked when what he expected really came true.
There was only one reason for his shock…

“I'm already so busy eating to the point of death…” 

Right on cue, as if Chronicle expected this answer, she said, “The Food God said… 'I'm sure he'll tell you that he's so busy eating to the point of dying'.” 

“As expected, he's the only one who understands me,” Minhyuk said.
He was extremely excited to find that someone understood and sympathized with him. 

“However, the Food God not only loved to be full and satiated, but he also loved the feeling of cooking delicious food for others.
And now, you have the chance to feel that joy.
Right? If you feed us, you will also get something that will extremely satisfy you.”

“Satisfy me?” 

Chronicle only answered Minhyuk with silence.

At this time, Minhyuk noticed, 'It seems like there will be cooking ingredients!' 

Then, Chronicle spoke again.
She said, “My king told me that he had one big fight with the Food God in his lifetime.
Not long after that, he learned of the sad news about the Food God’s passing.
He was extremely sad and despondent.” 

“The two of them must have been extremely close, huh? So, why did the two of them fight?” 

Suddenly, Chronicle's face was filled with undisputed anger.
Her body which was too weak to move was suddenly covered with blazing flames! 

Crackle, crackle, crackle! 

“The Food God stole my eggs.”

Minhyuk tilted his head at her.

‘Huh?’

“And when my king asked him in a fit of rage he said… 'Oh, I made it into soy-braised phoenix eggs and ate it.
It was delicious!'.
If I ever meet the Food God in hell, I will not let him go!”

Minhyuk felt cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
He coughed awkwardly, “Ha, ha, haha.
H…how can he do that? How can he make your eggs into soy-braised phoenix eggs…
Th…that…
Bad person!” 

“Boy, I'm glad that you understand us too.
Oh my god.
Boy, you look much better than that crazy bastard who took my eggs and made them into soy-braised phoenix eggs.”

“He…hehe,” Minhyuk laughed awkwardly.
He had no choice but to laugh at her words.
The moment he said something wrong, he would be forced to log out by Chronicle! After all, Phoenix Lord Chronicle was a monster estimated to be at Level 450.
 That was not even the main point.
The Phoenix Lord was a legendary monster.
It was a monster that had never been discovered by any other player in the country. 

“As you can see, there are a lot of monsters that are starving to death.
I can only give you two weeks.
Keep in mind that if you're not able to fill their fullness stat to 50%, you will fail this quest.
You can only obtain the food supplies and the seeds to feed the monsters from Salov Land that is connected to this place,” Chronicle said as Minhyuk nodded in understanding.
Then, she continued to say, “You should tell your apostle where we are and save the monsters from this hunger.” 

“I don't have an apostle,” Minhyuk said.
He shook his head as he told her the same thing he told Boroto. 

Chronicle looked shocked and in disbelief from his words.
She said, “Y…you don't have an apostle? What are you saying…” 

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Chronicle was completely shocked.
In the past, the Food God and his apostle were always together when they came to this paradise.
The apostle would gather the ingredients while the Food God would cook for them.
There was not enough time even if the two of them moved together. 

To think the person in front of her was saying that he had no apostle? The apostle was a man of great abilities and could easily obtain the ingredients, right? Did it mean that the Food God would collect the necessary materials and ingredients by himself? Even if the apostle was with Minhyuk right now, it would already be a hard feat to feed all of these monsters.
In fact, Chronicle would already be grateful if he was able to fill 50% of their fullness stat.
It seemed like the apostle and the Food God were not mature enough.
Especially the apostle.

Just then, Minhyuk said, “I have the abilities and power of the apostle, so you don't have to worry.” 

“Th…the apostle's power? How did you…?” 

The apostle was clearly a brilliant and talented man.
Yet, the current Food God was saying that he has the power of the apostle? Chronicle said, “Boy, don't tell me…?” 

“That's right.
I can do it all…” 

“Did you eat your apostle?” 

“I won't eat a person!” Minhyuk shouted at her in a fit of rage, but Chronicle still looked at him with disbelief. 

“You'll be doing the work that's supposed to be done by two people…
No matter how capable you are, this is still…” 

Chronicle thought that they would starve to death.
She soon curled up her huge body to preserve her powers.
She said, “I'm hungry.
Please don't talk to me at the moment.” 

“Yes.
I understand,” Minhyuk said with a nod as he turned around to move.

Chronicle watched Minhyuk’s back, stomach growling from hunger.

Grooooowl! 

Legendary monsters were also weak in front of their boundless hunger.
Chronicle soon fell asleep.
This was also a way to forget her hunger. 

***

Jihye, Seoktae and Jisoo were sitting together in a cafe.

Seoktae sighed and said, “We can’t find him like this.
Almost every single person in Athenae is wearing a horned helmet and a frying pan on their backs.”

Jihye and Jisoo both nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, Jihye was quite excited since Yoon Chan said that he would arrive here soon.
She thought, ‘Rovan was the only person who had been in contact with Minhyuk until recently…’

Perhaps they would be able to know why Minhyuk disappeared and did not contact them for so long through Rovan? Just as they were thinking of these things, the door to the cafe opened.

Clack━

Yoon Chan entered the cafe and greeted them, “Hello.”

“Welcome.
Rovan.”

The three of them warmly welcomed Yoon Chan.
They had often seen each other in real life and were quite familiar with each other.
Yoon Chan ordered a drink before sitting down with them.
Jisoo picked his mobile phone up, as if he was not interested in whatever conversation that they were going to have.
Seoktae looked at him fiercely but soon sighed in defeat.
It was not worth it.
If it were not for Jihye’s sake, he also would have cut off anything related to Minhyuk after what he had done to them.

“It’s quite shocking to me.
Minhyuk is friends with our guild’s executives…”

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These people were Versal’s legends! They were gathered here right now and he still did not know what kind of legend they would be making in Athenae.

“What about Minhyuk? Is he doing well?”

Yoon Chan folded his arms.
Jisoo silently placed his phone down and looked at Yoon Chan too, despite pretending to be uninterested.

“I don’t want to say this but…”

The three people stared at him seriously.

“I don’t think he’s like a human at all…”

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

“Yes?”

The three of them were taken aback by his words.

“You see, we were hunting together in a party.
Suddenly, he said that he was thirsty so he quickly pulled out four Gatorades.
Then he bottomed up the drinks and said ‘Ah, my throat is finally moistened.’.”

“Four cans?”

“No.
It’s the 1.5 liters bottles.”

“…?”

When they finally registered what he said, they all stared blankly at Yoon Chan.

“No, isn’t that something impossible?” Seoktae asked as Yoon Chan nodded.

“He even said that he wanted to go to Shrieking Hills because he wanted to eat ducks…”

“…?”

“You know the Magic Duck right? We killed 40 of those ducks and he cooked them into spicy stir-fried duck bulgogi and even made fried rice.
Then, just when I wanted to get another spoonful, he said ‘You’re supposed to let go of your spoon once you’re full.
It’s not good to overeat.’.”

“Urk…?”

The three of them were shocked and in disbelief.
Minhyuk had been quite gluttonous even when they were young, but it was not to such a degree.

‘What happened to him?’

Jihye wanted to know the answer to this question.

“Minhyuk is very polite and has a good personality.
So I wanted to invite him to our guild but…”

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His words made Jihye’s heart thump faster.
However, Yoon Chan shook his head in disappointment.
He said, “He said that it was good for him to be alone right now since there’s still a lot of food in the world that he wanted to eat.”

“His whisper is still off?”

“Yes.”

Yoon Chan nodded as the three of them sighed together in unison.
Jisoo looked like he was interested now.
Even though he pretended that he did not care, he still wanted to see him again.

“What in the world happened to that punk…” Seoktae mumbled to himself as the four of them fell into silence.
Then…

“Huh? Jihye, look at the guild chat.”

“The guild chat? Why?” Jihye asked, quickly opening her phone and checking their guild chat at Jisoo’s prompt.

[Guild Chat | Abel: GM, I found a way to successfully break the dungeon that you’ve been attempting recently ^_^ Is there no one else here?]

|“Huh?”

Everyone suddenly became interested.
Legend Guild wanted to send their first signal to the world by successfully clearing and breaking that dungeon and uploading their videos on Ztube.
Right now, Abel, their guild member with the legendary class ‘Informant’, told them that he found a way for them to clear the dungeon.

[Guild Master Genie: Is that true?]

[Guild Chat | Abel: Yep.
Please pat me on the back~]

[Guild Master Genie: (Patting on the back) How do we do it?]

[Guild Chat | Abel: You need an excellent buffed dish right? And only three people are allowed to go inside?]

The reason why they needed to have an excellent buffed dish was that the dungeon only allowed a three-people-party to go in at a time.
If anyone from the three-people-party were to fall because they did not have enough buffed dishes, then the dungeon would be extremely hard to attack.

[Guild Master Genie: Of course.
We have to upload a video of the three of us clearing it so that the people that watch it can cheer in awe even more.]

The lesser people that would clear the dungeon, the more amazed the viewers would be.
Doing it this way meant that they would not be able to push ahead and clear it with numbers.

[Guild Chat | Abel: Do you know about Raven Village?]

[Guild Master Genie: Isn’t it called Chef's town?]

[Guild Chat | Abel: That’s right.
There’s a hidden quest there.
The reward for clearing that hidden quest is a cooking buff that will last for quite a long time.
They also said that the buff effect reward is much better than the dish made by the Twilight Chef with A-ranked ingredients.]

Much better than the buffed dish made by the Twilight Chef with A-ranked ingredients? Of course this might be just a reward from a hidden quest, but it was something that was perfect for them.

[Guild Master Genie: Who is giving the quest?]

Jihye looked at the guild chat in anticipation.

[Guild Chat | Abel: Boroto, the former tower master of the Chef Tower.]