Leveling Up through Eating

Translators: ChubbyCheeks

[Oh! Kongie’s owner, Player Minhyuk is quite handsome!]

[My goodness. Was there really such a handsome man in our country? He looks better than most actors!]

[He’s tall enough to be called a model, and he even has good proportions. The games haven’t started yet but I don’t think that there’s any other player that can catch up to him with regards to visuals!]

[If there was a ‘Handsome and Cool Contest’ then the MVP will definitely be off the table already!]

[Yes. And there’s the baby piggy too.]

The buzz continued as the camera focused and shined brightly on Minhyuk and Kongie. Kongie was even proudly sticking his belly out as he stood up on Minhyuk’s shoulders.

[Kongie is feeling confident.]

“But will I even be able to participate?” 

It was quite a concern since all the 20 slots for players were full.

“We have registered you for now. And you can easily participate since User Minhyuk has been on the ‘Hall of Kings’ twice. However, it seems like you will have to participate alone. But if that happens……” 

Team Leader Park mumbled the rest of his words.

“They will realize that you’re the user who climbed the Hall of Kings.” 

The people would notice that he was the sole person who climbed the ‘Hall of Kings’ and it was something that Minhyuk did not want.

“……I want to eat something delicious but it doesn’t seem to go well. Market Food. Just imagining it is making my mouth water. I can’t wait.” 

Then, a voice suddenly spoke from the side.

“Market food? Such a crude market will definitely be stinky and disgusting, right? You’re telling me that there’s food in that place? Blegh! You’re even making it look like a X great thing! Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit!” 

“……?!” 

Minhyuk’s expression slowly turned grave. He was talking about the market that held a considerable amount of good memories for him. And it was even an obvious mockery. It was clear to him that he had made these remarks on purpose after he heard him talk. When he turned around he could see a man that was pretending to vomit loudly as if he wanted him to hear it.

Then, Team Leader Park said……

“He’s the strongest favorite and most likely champion in the Eat Quickly Contest. He’s also quite famous for his trashy personality.” 

Even though Minhyuk was unaware, it was clear that Vhad was mocking the ‘Nominated’ player.  However, Minhyuk asked him with a gentle smile.

“Have you tried shit?”

“Shit……” 

Vhad laughed as if he found it interesting. But Minhyuk’s eyes remained cold and frosty as he looked at him.

“I’ll feed you some big shit today.” 

“Look who’s talking.”

Then Vhad moved away with a sneer.

“Vhad is definitely trash but he’s still a solid player. But can I ask you a question? What’s the point in arguing like this……?” 

Team Leader Park tilted his head in confusion as he mumbled the rest of his words.

As soon as Vhad stepped away from them, Fabian stepped forward and asked beside him.

“Vhad-nim, what’s the point of provoking that player?” 

“……Just because?” 

Vhad might have said so but that truly wasn’t his reasoning.

‘That goddamn bastard. He’s trying to get all the attention in this Eat Quickly contest.’ 

Didn’t he first attract their attention with that Kongie pet of his? Then he attracted their attention with his face? 

It did not sit well with him especially because he thought that he was just a nominated player. After all, nominated players meant that their status of participation was still ambiguous.

They were also just production classes. And among these production classes, Vhad was the one called ‘Painting's Monarch’. He would deal with the monsters by painting them like the undead. He couldn’t even imagine that he would be eating some big shit today.

***

A huge balloon emerged from the coliseum. The balloon was none other than the figure of Kongie who became the Athenae Olympics’ mascot.

A huge Kongie balloon that was wearing sunglasses and was doing his horse dance moves!

And it wasn’t just that. The blacksmith guilds would begin to make dolls of the mascot Kongie and produce it at a rapid pace.

[Right now, there’s only five minutes left before the Eat Quickly Contest starts.]

[Please explain the rules of the Eat Quickly Contest.]

[There will be 250 candles in front of each participating national team. These candles are candles that have flames that will never go out with just normal wind. Once you blow out these candles then the monsters will appear. A group of Lv200 monsters will first appear. The more candles you put out the more monsters will appear. Stronger monsters will also appear.]

[Ah. So if they blow out a lot of candles and kill them all at once then your score will go up fast.]

[That’s right. But the more candles you put off, the stronger the monsters will get. How many can they even deal with in a short period of time. In addition, the amount of candles that you put out is also important and there’s a time limit of 2 hours and 30 minutes. And since this event is the Eat Quickly Contest every time they successfully hunt a  monster, a market food will drop as a ‘parchment’. The market food plays the role of the potion with a variety of hidden power ups so we hope that they can eat it while they hunt.]

[As of this moment, the players are now entering.]

[Each and every player looks a bit nervous.]

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

[Loud cheers erupted from the stands when the strongest favorite, Vhad, appeared!]

[Vhad is the Painting's Monarch, a production class under the ‘Necromancer’ line. He can summon the monsters that he hunted just by painting them.]

[Yes. That’s right. In his case, his summoning will definitely be slow at the beginning since he has to draw the monsters that he hunted and died a few moments prior but in the long run we can expect that he will show us a tremendous performance.]

[Huh? Wait a minute. The number of teams and team members looks strange. It’s not ten, it’s eleven!]

[Oh. It seems like it has been confirmed. User Minhyuk has been approved to participate in the competition and he will be participating as early as possible. He applied for ‘information protection’ but it is said that the reason for the information protection in and of itself was a ‘secret’. But since the organizing committee approved his participation, this meant that there is a good reason why his information is hidden in private.]

[Ah. Then Legendary Fisherman Kerry, who was originally listed as a nominated player, will go up and join the competition accordingly. Right?]

[It seems like some of the contents of the competition have changed. Joy Co. Ltd. had decided to not have any nominated candidates so it’s only natural that the two of them will participate.]

“Nominated? If you’re a nominated player then it means that you’re the weakest player? Then, aren’t you a user that’s just waiting because you’re not qualified as a player?”

“According to the pro-gamers terms, aren’t they the second string players behind the first string players?” 

The users began to create a buzz.

[The Athenae: Korean War is a competition held to select the members of the national team. For that reason, Joy Co. Ltd. said that it will be better if there were more qualified users that can exert their power and show their strengths. In addition, the organizing committee has given a go signal so there will be no problems.]

[But with the sudden addition of teams by Joy Co. Ltd. doesn’t it mean that they will lack preparation for the Athenae Korean War?]

[That’s what I think too. Huh? Please wait a moment. I just checked User Minhyuk’s level……]

The commentator was in confusion. Since this was the country’s greatest competition, all of the production classes that participated were at a high level. Most of them were over Lv400 too.

[He, he’s Lv355……]

[Ah. For real… and that’s the only explanation. ‘I’m worried’. I’m literally worried. A nominated player that’s at Lv355 and a nominated player who wasn’t sure that they’ll even play today had met and teamed up!]

The audience laughed when they heard the commentator’s antics.

“Hahahaha. This is definitely dumb and dumber, right?”

“What is this, isn’t this just like a march of fools?”

“The faulty and defective people are teaming up and doing a competition together? There’s nothing to see there at all.”

“What’s wrong with Joy Co. Ltd.? Why did they put these two people together? I can’t understand them.”

“Well, shouldn’t one team be in charge of the ‘humor’ in this competition?”

***

Fifteen minutes before the games started, Kang Taehoon finally came out with the permission letter that was stamped by the organizing committee.

The organizing committee was composed of the guild leaders of the best guilds in Athenae or the heads of the overseas branches. The heads of the overseas branches also took part in the organizing committee since they held an interest in Athenae: Korean War.

But even these people had to wonder about a player’s sudden registration. The player even requested that they allow him to set his information in private. But according to their personal investigations and interviews, they had said that his permission should be stamped with a seal of approval since there were sufficient reasons to approve his request. Just like that.

The organizers eventually stamped the seal of approval even though they were puzzled. It was because Kang Taehoon, the president of Joy Co. Ltd., showed enough courtesy to a ‘nominated player’ in Athenae, a game that they led and created. President Kang Taehoon even said that having an additional new team would be better for the competition.

“I can understand President Kang Taehoon’s position. It’s true that we need to check the power and strength of more users and select the best of the best for our national team so we can exert great power once we go to Athenae: World War.”

“That’s right. Isn’t that why we agreed on having this ‘11 team’ idea? Hahaha!”

“Yeah! Kghk!”

“Keuhuhuhu!”

They laughed happily. Cain and Alicia were both upset at their attitudes. They were also a part of the team that approved the creation of the new team. The reason that they were laughing happily was not because they were going to find new talents for Joy Co. Ltd. but because they knew that it was something ridiculous that they could laugh at.

“You think it’s funny?”

Alicia looked at them with a cold smile.

“Nope. I’m just imagining how interesting the performance of the users who were labeled as nominated players were going to be.”

Alicia grinned at them menacingly.

“I can imagine.”

The image of Minhyuk’s smile flashed in her head out of the blue. She was expecting great things from him, after all he always showed strength that exceeded Alicia’s expectations time and again.

***

Footnotes

[빅엿] (bigyeot) – shit, fucking shit. A slang used to express an annoying and angry feeling. Big damage or big trouble. 

[퍽이나] – An expression that shows great sarcasm. I can’t really explain it well but you add it to your sentence when you want to show sarcasm.

TL’s corner!

I would like to see the expressions of these punks who underestimated Minhyuk. See how dumbfounded they will be by that time. he.