Gourmet Gaming

Minhyuk was completely taken aback. He had absolutely no idea why Empress Ellie was laughing like this. All he knew was the tantalizing smell that wafted in the air, the moment he came inside the imperial palace. Minhyuk’s sixth sense tingled as he thought, ‘T, this... This is spam!’

What was spam? It was a delicious ingredient whether one grilled it, roasted, or added it in army stew[1].

‘A slice of spam on top of piping hot rice.’

Minhyuk wholeheartedly agreed with a line of advertisement before, that said that spam was delicious even if it was just grilled on a pan. The thought of eating this delectable food made his body tremble. However, he was worried that Ellie would disagree if she felt it was a weird request from him.

‘Hundreds of billions of gold, a title of nobility, even a weapon from the palace’s treasury… How dare these things compare themselves with spam?!’

Minhyuk realized that Sword Emperor Ellie was amazing. He was sure that she definitely suggested those things earlier to keep him away from spam! However, Minhuyuk was a stubborn man, he would never give up! He told her politely and firmly, ‘I want to eat spam!’. 

Who knew Ellie had laughed at him like crazy when she heard his request. She was even grabbing her belly from her intense laughter. Ruth, the man standing next to Ellie, was covering his mouth and hiding his laugh. This made Minhyuk incredibly confused. Then, a series of notifications rang in Minhyuk’s head.

[You have received Ellie’s favor.]

[You have received Ellie’s favor.]

[You have gained +3 in all five of your basic stats.]

[You have gained 5 REP.]

‘...What’s this?’ Minhyuk thought in bewilderment. The only thing that increased was his favor with Ellie, so why did he receive three additional points in all five of his basic stats? He even gained five REP points. However, he did not have the mind to care about that, all he wanted right now was to eat spam. He really wanted to eat spam. 

For some reason, he believed that it tasted like soft and ripe persimmon[2] There was a saying about waiting for a hongsi to fall while laying down, which meant waiting for sweet rewards, since the hongsi is sweet and ripe. Perhaps it was alluding towards that! He did not know why but it somehow made sense to him! One thing was for sure though, he was extremely clueless about what was happening around him.

***

Player Minhyuk, the champion of the tournament, went missing! All of the Athenae employees were in a frenzy at the sudden state of emergency. They conducted several meetings to curb the rumors spreading wildly outside. During one of the meeting breaks, Team Leader Park went back to his own department to get a brief respite, only to be greeted by Lee Minhwa’s startled gasp.

“Gasp!”

“...What’s wrong?”

“I think it’s best that you see it yourself,” Lee Minhwa said, making space for Team Leader Park to look at the monitor. What he saw on the monitor was…

[Sword Emperor Ellie's favor towards Player Minhyuk has increased.]

[Sword Emperor Ellie's favor towards Player Minhyuk has increased.]

[Depending on the increase in favor, Player Minhyuk will receive +3 in all five of his basic stats and an additional 5 REP.]

“H, he has already gained Ellie's favor?”

“Yes, it’s exactly what you’re seeing...”

“How the hell did he do that?”

“There was a reward where he can ask Ellie for a small wish, right?”

Team leader Park nodded his head seriously and continued to listen.

“He told her that his wish was to eat spam. When Ellie heard his request, she burst out in laughter.”

“E, Ellie did…?” Team Leader Park asked.

To witness Ellie laugh was a very rare chance, a once in a blue moon incident. Ellie was a very special NPC that had gained a lot of attention from the public. Players could receive various quests and rewards through Ellie. One such quest was related to gaining her favor. However, because she was an empress, it was nigh impossible to acquire her favor. After all, gaining favor meant that the player had to capture Ellie’s heart and build a close relationship with her.

How could anyone easily win the heart of the Empress? Just meeting her alone required the player to meet several harsh conditions. Merchants needed to have the capability to increase the finances of Eivelis Empire by 20%, while warriors needed to be able to stand on ground and be on equal footing with Ellie using the sword. These were the conditions needed just for players to meet with Ellie, which further highlighted the difficulty of building a close relationship with her, not to mention gaining favor. Once they had accomplished that feat, the operators would be notified at once.

However, Minhyuk was able to gain Ellie's favor, just because of spam? Intimacy was not something that a player could easily increase just because they gained favor once before. They had to show their worth, and not make the NPC hate them.

“He used his small wish for spam…. He never fails to surprise us every day,” Team Leader Park sighed in amusement. He had always found the things that Player Minhyuk did to be fresh and surprising every time.

“He is probably unaware though, right?” Lee Minhwa mumbled before speaking out loud again, “How good it is to gain favor with just some remarks.”

Hundreds of billions of gold? A weapon from the palace treasury? Or an amazing quest? No, Player Minhyuk had gained something that was more than all of those combined. He had won the heart of the Sword Emperor Ellie. It was a huge power to wield. Even they, as the operators, did not even know what kind of variable Ellie would become if she treated Minhyuk well.

“If Minhyuk continues to gain Ellie's favor, then he would receive rewards, right?”

Team Leader Park nodded and said, “That’s right. But since the NPCs have a high degree of freedom, our only uncertainty is what Ellie will be willing to do for Player Minhyuk.”

The thing that an empress could do for a player… even Team Leader Park did not know what that was.

***

“Do you really just want to eat this spam?”

“Yes!” Minhyuk exclaimed, nodding his head furiously like a starved chick pecking on grains.

Seeing him like that, Ellie beckoned with a smile as she said, “Come here.”

“But, Your...”

“Shut up.”

“Yes!” 

Knight Leader Cass tried to voice out his concerns, but Ellie quickly shut him down with a cold look. The empress dining and sharing a table with a foreigner?! This was a sight that could never be seen anywhere else. However, Minhyuk quickly sat down across from the empress. The moment he did, he looked at the table strangely. Seeing his expression, Ellie asked, “What’s the matter?”

“I’m extremely grateful to you, Your Majesty.” 

“You can speak comfortably. I know that foreigners aren’t used to this type of speech.” 

“Then, should I call you Ellie-noona instead, Your Majesty?”

“That sounds nice,” Ellie said. The expressions of the servants standing by the walls turned to one of disbelief.

‘Noo…Noona…?’

‘You’re going to call Her Majesty, the empress, Noona?’

As for Ellie, this was something akin to a breath of fresh air. So, she readily and graciously accepted. In fact, she even graciously let Minhyuk’s transgression pass before. After all, Ellie fully understood why Minhyuk disappeared to eat beef. While she was the empress who was famous for her aloofness, she was also a woman that could do things beyond her subjects and vassals’ expectations once in a while. Besides, Minhyuk had met a lot of big shots in reality. He was someone who called the former president and the members of the National Assembly ‘Big Dad’, ‘Uncle’ and even ‘Gramps’. This was possible because his father was Chairman Kang Minhoo. Therefore, something like this was only natural for him.

“Noona, why are you eating such a poor meal? This brother of yours, Minhyuk, feels heartbroken for you.”

“Is it not delicious?” Ellie asked, taken aback. He was still quite delighted a few moments ago, but now he was looking heartbroken already.

“There’re many different ways of eating spam.”

“Ooh? Is that so?” Ellie asked, interest slowly being piqued.

“Yes! Shall I make it for you?”

“Alright,” Ellie answered, readily nodding in consent. A more delicious way to eat this delicious food? For a foodie like her, finding more ways to eat the food deliciously was good news for her.

“I will need ingredients.”

“You can be at ease. Speak comfortably.”

“Can I really speak with ease?”

Ellie smiled gently. Her smile definitely looked like a mother’s smile!

“I need 100 cans of spam, 30 bowls of salted squid and shrimp, 200 bags of instant rice, 200 sheets of laver, and 100 servings of spicy dipping sauce.”

“...Don’t tell me that you’re going to eat them all?”

“Ellie-noona will eat too, right? I want our beautiful empress to eat to her heart's content,” Minhyuk said. However, his thoughts were completely different. He thought, ‘Hohohoho. I’m going to eat so much more spam compared to you.’

However, Ellie, being innocently unaware, happily nodded after hearing Minhyuk praise her beauty. She ordered, “Prepare it.”

“Yes!” The imperial palace chefs answered quickly and moved to prepare the ingredients. The ingredients appeared in front of him in no time at all. The first thing that Minhyuk did was to tug strongly at the pull tab on the can of spam. The lid came off easily, but the contents did not come off despite Minhyuk shaking it down the cutting board.

‘This is the problem with spam!’

It almost always did not come out well. According to general instructions, pressing down on the sides of the can would allow the spam to slide off easily, but it often did not work. If that happened, the most usual solution was to pull it out with a kitchen knife. However, before Minhyuk could even do that, Ellie whipped her fingers. Her mana stretched out gently and dragged the spam out of the can.

“Wow, so cool! Ellie-noona!”

“Hohoho!”

Minhyuk looked at her mana in awe, like a child who saw something exciting. With the spam out of the can, Minhyuk began to cut it into slices before placing them on top of the heated frying pan.

Sizzle━

The spam slowly began grilling in the frying pan. Spam was extremely delicious when cut thickly and grilled to a golden brown. After he grilled it properly, he placed the slices on top of the plate and added a spoonful of spicy dipping sauce on one side and a dollop of ketchup on the other side. Then he took out the instant rice that the imperial palace chefs had graciously placed in the microwave for him and opened the lid.

Shwaaaa━

Steam came out of the bowl. Minhyuk quickly placed it on the table to maintain the heat. Just like that, the piping hot spam meal was done!

“Spam goes better with rice than carbonara or spaghetti,” Minhyuk said, smiling lightly as he scooped a spoonful of rice. Ellie, despite being a bit clumsy, watched him closely and followed his movements. Then, Minhyuk placed a piece of spam on top of the rice and said…

“Noona, you should follow me.”

“I’m following what you’re doing.”

“...?”

“???”

Ellie looked at him strangely. Then, Minhyuk said, “Steaming rice~ and a piece of spam.”

“Steaming rice~ and a piece of spam,” Ellie said, following what he had just said. Then, Minhyuk took the plump slice of spam, with rice on his spoon, and placed them in his mouth in one bite, which Ellie followed too. The grains of rice and the golden spam met in their mouths.

Spam was salty. It was definitely categorized as a salty food. However, it also had the rich flavor of ham. The salty, savory flavor of the spam spread in his mouth with every bite. The rice easily caught the saltiness and greasiness of the spam creating a pleasing harmony of flavors inside the mouth.

Minhyuk scooped another spoonful of rice and delivered it to his mouth. Spam was called a rice thief because it could make anyone eat more rice with how salty and savory it was! Ellie also scooped more rice as she ate the spam. She then closed her eyes and savored the taste and said, “...Oh my god…” Ellie shook her head slowly, feeling the heavenly taste of this delicacy.

“I have been naive and ignorant,” Ellie said. Her expression was so solemn and profound, as if she had found out a secret of the world. Then, she continued to say, “How did I not know of this delicious delicacy? And I only ate this with spaghetti all this time? How lamentable! This is truly deplorable!” 

Minhyuk watched her as she ate and thought, ‘This noona... She’s strange…’. Of course, his spoon never stopped moving.

“Then, Noona, this time, you should try it with salted shrimp and squid!”

Minhyuk picked up some salted squid and shrimp with his chopsticks. The red sauce surrounding the salted squid and shrimp was glistening as he placed it on top of his rice before eating it. The taste of the salted squid and shrimp with rice was enough for Minhyuk to eat at least three bowls of rice! If one had completely lost their appetite, just mix it with rice, and their appetite would definitely come back. Then, Minhyuk wrapped the spam in a piece of seaweed and dipped it in some spicy dipping sauce.

Whatever Minhyuk did, Ellie followed. Just like that, the two of them ate happily. Ellie finished her meal in satisfaction as she looked at Minhyuk gently.

Chew, chew! Minhyuk was chewing quickly and inhaling the food in front of him.

“It wasn’t an expensive meal, but I did not expect it to satisfy me this much. It’s even better than what the imperial palace chefs always prepare for me,” Ellie declared.

Empress Ellie’s words were enough to shock everyone present. After all, the imperial palace chefs were considered to be the best of the best in the empire! A canned spam turned out to be much more delicious for their empress than what they did. Of course, it might be because they never understood what Ellie wanted from the start. However, there was someone here who finally understood her. And that was none other than Minhyuk.

Minhyuk stopped eating for a bit and looked at her seriously to say, “It’s not those expensive meals, or those meals that cost hundreds of thousands of won that could satisfy a person.”

Minhyuk was someone who had everything. He could get everything he wanted except for losing his weight. Even in reality, whenever he thought about the food that he craved, none of the expensive high-quality food like foie gras, shark fin, or caviar came to mind.

“Good food is something that can make everyone happy, even if it’s not expensive, right?” Minhyuk asked, to which Ellie nodded in agreement and understanding.

That was right. These words touched her heart deeply. Good food was truly something that could make people happy even if it was not expensive. She smiled bitterly and thought, ‘He’s right.’. Ellie had wondered how this foreigner could move the hearts of both her and the man that she once loved, and now she knew.

Then, notifications rang for Minhyuk again.

[You have received Ellie’s favor.]

[You have gained 1 Skill Point (SP).]

1. Korean fusion stew made by combining American ingredients like spams, sausages, hams etc. ☜

2. 홍시(Hongsi) a red and soft persimmon. ☜