Gourmet Gaming

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” Minhyuk and Rovan answered, both nodding in unison.

Meanwhile, Hilton thought, ‘...One billion cash is not much?!’

In fact, they were already aware that Rovan had gained huge amounts of cash while playing Versal. However, the chef standing right next to him was calmer and more casual than Rovan when he heard the amount of money that was offered.

‘Such enviable punks!’ Hilton thought as he shot a glance at his guild members. Seeing his signal, the members of Ares Guild quickly took one to two steps forward and narrowed the distance between them. Then, Rovan made eye contact with Minhyuk…

‘Now!’

Rovan immediately sent Minhyuk a signal of his own, and they rushed to the area where the ground had turned black.

“Those enviable bastards... No, no! Run after those shitty bastards!”

“...?!”

”Yes!” The Ares Guild members shouted loudly as they ran after them.

The curse was not immediately triggered despite Rovan and Minhyuk already stepping on the dark and ominous ground. They both went further inside and made sure that each and every member of Ares Guild had stepped on the black ground. Rovan thought, ‘There you go...!’

At that moment, a cold and dreary voice resounded all over the area. The voice seemed to have come from the black ground that they were stepping on.

[Subara basoora asdora.]

‘What the hell. This voice sounds like Voldemort!’

The Ares Guild members looked around restlessly, realizing that something was wrong. Then, a black fog suddenly seeped up from the ground.

Puhaaaaaaaa!

The black fog gathered and spun together, slowly forming the image of a skull.

“Graaaaaaa!” The black skull shrieked and passed through one of the players’ bodies. The player shuddered strongly like a leaf blown by a strong wind. The black skull moved so fast that they couldn’t even follow it with their eyes.

Puhaaaa!

Puhaaaaaaaa!

[You have stepped into the Great Mage Arfield’s domain.]

[You have triggered the Seven Deadly Sins.]

[All immunity against abnormal status has been ignored.]

[All magical defenses have been ignored.]

[Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony]

“Glut… tony?” Rovan said, reading the sin that he had triggered. He knew that the Seven Deadly Sins included pride, greed, lust, envy, wrath, sloth, and gluttony. He thought, ‘I heard that the most powerful sin is gluttony...’

Rovan was shocked when he saw that all of the immunity and magical defense would be ignored. This meant that every one of them would die here. So, he said, “Let’s all die together, you crazy punks!”

“Damn it!”

“It…it’s a trap!”

Then, at that moment…

Thud!

…Rovan slammed his head on a tree. He could hear someone continuously shouting in his head, saying, ‘Eat, eat, eat, eat, I want to eat everything!’

“Arghhh!” Rovan groaned as he took out all of the food he had in his inventory. Rovan devoured everything in sight, hands even shaking wildly. He even went so far as to eat raw meat. The same was true for the members of Ares Guild. However, even if Rovan was busy trying to gorge on the food in front of him, he could still see that the man standing beside him was completely fine. This man was none other than Minhyuk. Minhyuk looked at everyone in confusion. He watched them frantically devour the things that they had pulled out from their inventory. 

“The Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony? But, I still feel the same though?” Minhyuk said, scratching his head in confusion.

***

Team Leader Park watched as Ares Guild chased Rovan and Minhyuk on the monitor. His hands were sweating at the thrilling chase. Then, he said, “I don’t want to believe it… but maybe Player Minhyuk’s appetite is as great as the Sin of Gluttony?”

Team Leader Park’s eyes were firmly trained on the monitor, watching what he predicted became true. Minhyuk just stood there in confusion as he watched Rovan and the Ares Guild members frantically devour everything they could, even raw meat as well as unripe vegetables and fruits.

“What in the world… How strong is that player’s appetite...” Team Leader Park said before gasping and continuing to say, “Do you know what’s more surprising?”

“What is it?”

“Look at the rest of the players.”

Employee Lee Minhwa looked at the rest of the players. She could see them frantically trying to devour everything that they could get their hands on to satisfy their hunger. They were completely out of control. This meant that they had already lost their minds and were already completely obsessed with food.

Team Leader Park said, “Can you believe that a glutton like him can stand there carefree and not affected at all?”

“Wow...” Lee Minhwa gasped in awe. She understood what Team Leader Park was saying. She said, “Are you saying...”

“I believe Player Minhyuk had been training his mental fortitude, otherwise his strong mental power would not make sense, right? We don’t know the reason why Player Minhyuk has such a huge appetite, but what we can be certain about, is the fact that he has been living under such a terrible curse for a very long time.” 

“...”

Lee Minhwa looked at Player Minhyuk on the monitor. She was once again in awe and admiration. However, she also felt sad for him. She thought, ‘He’s a man who has been living with such a huge burden of an appetite that’s scary enough to make someone go crazy.’

***

“Hmm...” Minhyuk hummed as he watched everyone frantically devour the items from their inventory the moment the notifications rang. To be honest, he was also afflicted with the same curse right now but he did not feel anything wrong.

For some reason, Minhyuk felt like they were somehow similar to when he first contracted his eating addiction back then as he watched them devour everything in sight. Back then, he also ate everything in the refrigerator. It did not even end there. He also ate tissues and things that he could munch on. His condition was just that serious. But thankfully, Minhyuk was able to gradually overcome and win against his disease. This was all thanks to his will to live and the strong determination to not eat everything that he laid his hands on. He even frantically exercised just so he could curb and suppress his appetite, surviving to live another day.

Perhaps it was because of that? Maybe that was the reason why Minhyuk was not in a precarious situation. Then, he heard Rovan cry out, “Chomp…how are you…chomp…okay in this situation…chomp…, Minhyuk?”

“Maybe because I have been living with this curse for quite a long time,” Minhyuk said. It was true. He had been living with the curse of gluttony for a long time now.

Rovan could not quite understand what Minhyuk meant, but he still hurriedly told him, “Minhyuk, tie me with a rope!”

“...Ah. Yes!” Minhyuk said, quickly pressing Rovan on a tree and tying him tightly with a rope. As for Hilton and the Ares Guild members, they had finished eating all of the things that they could eat from their inventory. They all moaned.

“I’m hungry!”

“I want to eat, I really want to eat. I’m so hungry that I could die!”

“I’m huuuuuuungry!”

A player who could not curb his hunger reached his hands towards the ground. Then, he dug some soil and placed it in his mouth. “Chew, chew, chew, chew! I’m hungry!”

The other Ares Guild members also began to dig through the ground and eat dirt.

Minhyuk was left speechless with their actions. He said, “I can’t believe that they are eating dirt! What strange people!”

“Chew, chew!”

“I don’t want to eat dirt either!” The player shouted back.

Then, Minhyuk gripped his frying pan and slowly walked forward. These people had tried to PK him and Rovan after all. However, Minhyuk still remembered that some of them had not yet become chaotic players. So, he only walked towards the players who became chaotic.

“Gulp, gulp, chomp, chew, chew!”

Minhyuk aimed his frying pan at the players that were scooping up and eating dirt.

Bang!

One of the players was forced to log out. He even dropped some artifacts and some gold. Minhyuk slowly began his journey of logging out the members of the Ares Guild, one by one.

***

Ares tilted his head in confusion when he saw their guild chat suddenly turn quiet.

[Guild Master Ares: What’s the situation right now?]

No one answered him even though he asked in the guild chat. About three minutes later…

[Guild Chat | Hilton: ##%[email protected]%$!3!]

[Guild Chat | Bless: %ㅅ@$!$ I’m hungry!]

[Guild Chat | Carlo: Huh%#% I want to eat! Damn it!]

[Guild Chat | Lux: What’s wrong with them?]

Ares knew that something unusual had happened. Obviously, Hilton had just messaged him a bit earlier that they had already caught up to Rovan and the chef, and had them surrounded. So, what did this mean? However, just as he was going to ask this…

[Guild Chat: Bless has been forced to log out.]

[Guild Chat: Carlo has been forced to log out.]

[Guild Chat: Haman has been forced to log out.]

“...!” Ares jumped in shock. Only 3~5 seconds have passed since their last message, but his guild members were already dying one after the other.

[Guild Chat: Hororong has been forced to log out.]

[Guild Chat: Giggle has been forced to log out.]

[Guild Chat: ....]

The notifications did not end. There were at least 10 people who had been forced to log out. Not long after, the guild members who had been forced to log out of the game sent messages in their guild chat through their mobile phones in real life.

[Guild Chat | Hororong: GM. All of the members who came to the Shrieking Hills fell under the curse of Gluttony, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.]

“Seven Deadly Sins?” Ares asked. This was something that he was aware of. There were trials that were hidden all over the continent in Athenae and when a player got past these trials, they would be able to reap great rewards. 

‘They were facing the Seven Deadly Sins? So does that mean that all of the guild members died without overcoming the sin?’

[Guild Master Ares: Then, did you die because of extreme hunger?]

[Guild Chat | Hororong: No. The Frying Pan Man player killed us with his frying pan.]

[Guild Master Ares: That player, wasn’t he under the curse?]

[Guild Chat | Hororong: He was also clearly in the area within the scope of the curse. But we’re not sure why he can move rationally...]

Ares’ expression turned solemn. His guild members were dying one by one under the hands of an unknown player. Why on earth was that player not affected by the curse? Don’t tell me…?

[Guild Master Ares: He definitely has the Curse’s Torch!]

[Guild Chat | Hororong: Ah...! The torch that can protect you from any and all curses?!]

The Curse’s Torch was an artifact that Ares had once read about from the Athenae’s official website. It only said that someone had that artifact in their hands but they did not reveal who that person was or how much the artifact was worth. However, it was traded at 40 billion gold. And that player was right in front of them! Meanwhile, the notifications about his members being forced to log out had suddenly become less frequent.

***

Minhyuk had already killed all of the chaotic players. The artifacts and gold that they had dropped were truly too much to count. He quickly tried to think of a way to get rid of the players who had yet to become chaotic. That was when he pulled out a steamed bun from his inventory. The moment he took out the steamed bun…

Turn!

Turn!

Turn!

Turn!

…All of the players turned to Minhyuk, their expressions like zombies discovering a fresh source of food. They even drooled at the same time.

“Waaaaaaa!”

“Give it to meeeee!”

“Aaaaaaah, I want to eat!”

The people that had lost all reason were easy to deal with. All of them flocked to where Minhyuk was. He zig-zagged among them with the steamed bun in his hands. Then, one of the players suddenly tapped Minhyuk.

[Player Ken has committed an act of poor etiquette.] 

[Player Ken is in a temporary chaotic state.] 

[If the receiving party initiates an attack, they will not receive any penalty.]  

Bang!

Minhyuk smashed the face of the player who tried to grab the steamed bun in his hands. Just like that, whenever the players came to him and made contact, Minhyuk would go ahead and deal with them. After all of the members of the Ares Guild came under the temporary chaotic state, albeit involuntarily, Minhyuk climbed up a tree to avoid them.  Then, he tore the steamed bun in half. He was eating the ‘Vegetable Steamed Bun’. This was considered to be the crown prince of all of the steamed buns.

“Pl, please... Please give me just a piece of that little green onion in there. Just a bit...”

“Please give me a piece of meat over here. I will give you all of my gold and artifacts.”

“I’ll give you my One Piece Nami toy figure! Please just give me one bite!”

All of the players present offered everything that they could offer just so they could get one bite. Instead, Minhyuk immediately finished off half of the steamed bun.

“Aaaack!”

“Huhuhuhu... It looks delicious...”

“A…are you crying?” Minhyuk asked, clearing feeling awkward from their expressions. This was quite a sight for sore eyes. Over ten people were crying over a piece of steamed bun. Then, a small piece of meat, about half a fingernail in size, fell off the steamed bun in Minhyuk’s hands.

“Aaaaaaack! That’s mine!”

“Hey!!! I’m your boss! Are you saying that one piece of meat is much more important than your boss?!”

“Isn’t that obvious?!”

The players fought amongst themselves for that one piece of meat that fell off of Minhyuk’s steamed bun. Then, one of the players successfully placed the piece of meat in his mouth. But then…

Stab!

Another player hacked him to death with his ax.

“...Wow. I can’t believe you killed your teammate just because he ate that small piece of meat,” Minhyuk said, shaking his head in disappointment. He wondered if he would turn like that too.

“I won’t become like that,” Minhyuk said, quickly shaking his head. Once the players went back to digging and eating dirt, Minhyuk stepped down and dealt with the chaotic players again.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Huge amount of gold and artifacts came pouring out.