Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks 

PR: MattForgenti

The day of the tournament. 

Giant King Wyverns flew up in the sky. Riding on top of the King Wyvern was the Taming Master, Jan. 

Jan would be the MC of the tournament this time. Jan has the job class Taming Master but was also a member of the popular girl idol group, Blue Velvet, in real life. 

“Hello to all of our ladies and gentlemen watching this tournament. I’m Jan and I will be the MC, nice to meet you.” 

“Waaaaaaaaaah!” 

“Waaaaaaaaaah!” 

The competition was located on a small island. The island was known as Cork Island. Tens of thousands of stands were set-up around this small island. All of the users sitting on these stands erupted into cheers. 

“The format of the competition this time is different from the previous 1:1 tournament format. This tournament will be about playing games around the island.” 

A huge map suddenly floated up. It was big enough for both the TV viewers and the live spectators to see. 

“All of the 200 users who qualified for the tournament will be forcing the others to log-out of the game. Of course, there will be no penalty for this. The tournament will only be held for 12 hours and the winner will only be determined after this time was up. “

Flutter! 

The giant King Wyvern folded its wings and descended rapidly towards a large building located on the center of Cork Island. 

“This convenience store will be a place for all of the participating users to eat and rest. It’s also a safe zone so no PK will be allowed inside it. However, if users continue to stay here then they will not be able to get enough score which will eventually lead to their elimination. Ah, I will start to tell you one by one the users that have logged in!”

The screen started to reflect the scene in the convenience store where users started to log in one by one. 

“Wow, did you see? It’s so quiet that I can’t even hear your breathing. Every one of them looks tense! Ah, Bennett  is now accessing the game. He’s a user with the hidden class Valkyrie. He’s also a popular BJ in Paprika TV!” 

“Kyaaaaaaaak!” 

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!” 

Shouts and cheers erupted from the stands.

Bennett was someone that was already popular and has a lot of female fans. One reason was because he was a dashing warrior user and the other was because he has a pretty good-looking face. 

It was quite a bit unexpected that he was still at a novice level. 

“I will now go back in the air and start broadcasting live.” 

***

VVIP seats. 

Countless rankers were sitting in this section. But among all of them, the most outstanding of them were these two people: Cain, the most outstanding user among the warrior class and Alicia, the most outstanding user among the mage class. 

Sitting behind them were countless guild masters. These people would win over the strong in advance and take them into their guilds. That was their goal in sitting here.

However, they knew that Alicia was someone that they could not take in. The reason was because her brother was the one leading one of the nation’s top 4 guilds.

“What do you think about this game?” 

Alicia chuckled at Cain’s question. 

“You’re asking about what you already know?” 

“Of course not?” 

Cain smiled bitterly. 

“You don’t trust your sister to win the finals?” 

“No, I’m glad… But…”

Cain knew that his sister, Lucia, joined this tournament because of him. But on the other hand, his heart hurt for her. He wanted her to live life like other girls too.

She wanted to reach the peak so she chased him. But all he wanted for her was to wear make-up and go to cafés with her friends and live a normal life. 

“It’s because she’s young. That’s why she wants to be recognized. Your father is such a great man so it’s all worth it for your sister.” 

“……Yeah.”

He had another secret.

Cain was the son of the chairman of a famous company. While Lucia’s mother was just an ordinary office worker. That was why she was under a lot of pressure. She wanted their father to recognize her. 

“Look at the faces of the participants. Ah, I’m out of breath.” 

“I agree.”

The video was showing the scene in the convenience store. Everyone who was on the lookout were holding their breaths. It was a place for meals but no one was eating. 

And right at that moment… 

They spotted a man rushing over to the convenience store counter. 

“Huh…?” 

Alicia tilted her head in thought. She felt that the back of the man was strangely familiar. However, the man was wearing a white mask.

[Is it true that everything in here is really free?] 

[Yes, all of the food provided by the tournament’s convenience store is free. You don’t need to pay for it. You can just take it.] 

[Oh, oh my god…!] 

They saw him smiling broadly. 

Then, a guild leader from the back suddenly spoke… 

“That person, isn’t he Isbin Village’s Pro Mukbanger?” 

Alicia turned towards where the sound came from. 

“Pro Mukbanger?”

The man looked astonished when Alicia’s attention turned towards him. But he quickly coughed awkwardly then started to explain politely. 

“Yes, it wasn’t that long ago. He won an eating competition against Binz which caused an issue.” 

“Is that so?” 

A small smile formed around Alicia’s mouth while Cain grinned. 

“I can’t believe that he’s eating in that tense atmosphere.” 

Alicia’s shoulders shook in laughter. 

“Do you think he’ll back down because of that? The happiest thing on earth for that guy is eating.”

“You know that person?” 

Cain looked at her curiously. 

Alicia nodded her head. She then turned her attention towards the screen. 

“I know. He’s quite pure and he’s also a person who loves eating more than anybody else. He also refused me when I asked him to join our guild. I even have to beg him so I could add him as a friend.” 

“Pfft!” 

A man drinking coffee from the back suddenly spat out his drink. 

“Ah, sorry. Sorry.” 

The country’s number one beauty, Alicia, begged him to add him as a friend? 

Cain was quite surprised with this information. 

“And I take back what I said earlier.” 

“What did you say?” 

“The one where I said that you already know so why did you ask? There’s a huge variable. That person was strong enough to save me. And thanks to that User Minhyuk, I learned something and became stronger.” 

“Pfft!” 

This time, someone from the other side spewed their coffee out. Cain’s expression was unreadable as he stood watching that user with a fluttering expression looking at the microwave. 

***

Bennett smiled lightly as he watched all of the tensed contestants. 

‘I knew this would happen. Sigh, these bastards are all scared.’

Then, as he looked over at these nervous people surrounding him he thought… 

‘The fans will like it better if I try to ease their tension.’ 

Building an image was very important. 

To be quite honest, instead of being a player, he was more like a broadcaster. He was one in real life. He would broadcast his shows on Paprika. Besides, everyone took a liking to him since he had good manners and had a good face. His hidden class, Valkyrie, also helped him garner more fans. 

However, he was a much wicked man than anyone would have thought. He just could hide his inner thoughts very well. 

“Hello, hello.” 

He bowed at the people he encountered and greeted them politely. Even if the others only glanced at him, they would still give him a nod in return. 

“Aren’t you being too stiff? Others might think that there will be a war if you’re like that.” 

However, the expressions of those people were quite hard.

Some were even gathered at one side and were looking over at him coldly. 

‘It’s those bastards from Bacallo Guild.’ 

Bacallo. 

It was a guild that was made of incumbent special forces officers and non-commissioned officers [1]. Although the members of the Bacallo Guild were quite low, all of them, especially the top 30 in their guild were known to be elites. It was said that they have nurtured 5,000 men of high caliber. The only reason why all of them participated in this together was to raise the value of their names. 

‘Those bastards. If you look at their appearance, then you can say that they’re all ugly.’ 

“Hello.” 

But his smiling eyes met with the frigid and cold eyes of the Bacallo Guild. 

“Huh, what’s this? Wow, your item is so great. Nim!” 

“Ah, yes.” 

He tried to talk to the people around him but even Bennett who was a very famous person could not resolve the tension in the air. 

Then… 

Ding! 

The sound of the microwave was heard by everyone. 

***

Ding! 

“He…” 

Minhyuk excitedly opened the microwave. A variety of food came out including vegetables dumplings and a hot bar. 

“Fwoo, fwoo!” 

He quickly placed the food in front of him when he felt the heat on his fingers. 

On the table in front of him, there was already food that was placed earlier and was ready to be eaten. One could see a variety of cup noodles like chapagetti, kamjjampong, sikshin ramyeon, anjeongtanmen, shrimp tantanmen and pamuma. 

Shiiiiiiiiik! 

He tore off the lid of the shrimp tantanmen and stirred the contents with his chopsticks. 

The yellow shrimp tantanmen. 

Minhyuk always ate this with a bunch of egg garnish on top. 

Wasn’t this something that can stir your appetite? 

After munching on the garnish, he picked up some noodles from the shrimp tantanmen cup and slurped on it. 

“Keughh!” 

Then he picked up some stir-fried kimchi and placed it in his mouth. Stir-fried kimchi might not be crunchy like a regular kimchi but it had a deeper and sweeter taste. 

Minhyuk also peeled the wrapping paper from jeonju bibim which was considered to be one of the mountains in the triangular gimbap mountain ranges. He bit off almost half of the gimbap in one go. 

Chomp—

Minhyuk personally believed that the way to eating a triangular gimbap was to not eat it slowly and in turn, this was the only way that he could maintain the crispiness of the seaweed. 

He could taste the cold rice and a bit of some spicy flavor in his mouth. 

“I might choke.” 

When he felt like the triangular gimbap was clogging his throat, he gulped down some spicy soup to ease it down. 

Then he picked up the steaming hot bar and took a bite. 

The hot bar sold in convenience stores had a chewy texture and a rich and meaty flavor. The more he chewed, the more juicy it was. He felt that it was really appetizing to eat such a food. 

Then, he turned his attention towards the vegetable dumplings. 

He picked just one piece of it to try. The dumpling was chewy. He could also taste the meat, glass noodles and vegetables like scallions and carrots that filled the dumpling wrapper. All of those ingredients blended together and created a pleasant taste. 

Minhyuk looked at the dumplings with a smile as he chewed on one. 

“You’re really……” 

He gave a little cry. 

“Really delicious! Chomp!” 

He put a piece of dumpling in the cup noodles then placed another in his mouth. 

“Chew, chew.” 

“Wow… It really tastes delicious…” 

“L, look at that hot bar, amazing.” 

The attention of all of the people in the store were captured by the ding of the microwave. 

Exclamations were suddenly heard all around. 

A woman suddenly stood up and walked to where Minhyuk was. 

She placed a grape-flavored Elch’s drink in front of him. 

“You’ll choke. Please drink some.” 

“Wow. Thank you! I’ll drink it well!”

Minhyuk bowed his head politely as the woman looked at him with a smile. 

“I feel like some of the tension left me because of you. I almost died with my shaking legs a while ago so thanks.” 

“Chew?!” 

Minhyuk tilted his head at her in confusion with a hot bar in his mouth. However he still continued to eat after a short pause. 

Others were already looking at Minhyuk. 

‘Ah, I feel a bit relaxed.’ 

‘He’s really enjoying it deliciously.’ 

Some users even covered their mouths with the back of their hand. They gazed at him with a fatherly(?) smile. 

“This won’t work. I also have to eat one hot bar.” 

“Huhu, me too. We have to eat well if we want to stay long in the tournament.” 

The others started to move around. 

“Nim, thanks.” 

“Because of Nim, I feel a bit relieved.” 

Minhyuk did not understand what he was hearing, people strangely suddenly started to thank him. 

Then, Bennett approached Minhyuk. 

***

Footnotes 

[1] Non-commissioned officers: Officers that gained their position through promotion through enlisted ranks. Meaning their grade/rank is lower than that of a commissioned officer. Is what I have read… 

TL’s corner!!! 

Ahhh! I’m sorry for just romanizing the food. Apparently all of them were brands of instant cup noodles (which I haven’t tried at all) however Elch was a parody of Welch. That much I’m sure of. Kek. 

EXTRA, EXTRA CHAPTER for the week! (Wait, does this mean that our week starts on Wednesday? LOL)

As of 10/28: I have rechecked the raws and Jan was a Taming Master indeed. Thank you to Xplodbr for pointing it out.

PR’s corner!

Man, I wish convenience stores around me had this good of food in them.