Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 111: The Birth of the Fast Eater Religion

The sinner, Minhyuk, took two steps back and bowed his head as if he was admitting his mistakes and waiting for his punishment, although he was trying to stuff the well-grilled hotbars in his mouth at the same time.

“You!”

Screech!

Minhyuk’s hands, which were bringing the skewer of hotbars in his mouth, stopped.

“I’m very grateful that you have worked hard day and night for these monsters.”

“...?”

Minhyuk looked?at Chronicle?in confusion. What did she mean for the monsters? Minhyuk could not keep up with her thoughts.

“But, I can’t believe that you’re wasting your time grilling food and eating it!”

“I... Um… I’m taking a break because I’m almost done filling the fullness bar...” Minhyuk said.

Chronicle felt that what he said was completely absurd. The time given for her request was only two weeks! Two weeks alone was not enough time for Minhyuk to do all the work needed to feed these monsters by himself. To think that the human in front of her was lying to avoid the situation?! She shouted, “What a disappointment! I thought you were much better than the previous Food God Allen! I can’t believe you’re lying to me just to avoid this situation!”

“But it’s the truth!”

Chronicle snorted. She said, “The truth?! If what you’re saying is the truth then I won’t be a Phoenix from now on! I will be a chicken! A chicken!”

“But it’s the truth...”

“You’re still not repenting even when we’ve talked up to this point. I will check the egg myself.”

The growth of the egg was solely dependent on how much Minhyuk had fed the monsters in the Monster’s Paradise. The Phoenix Lord, Chronicle, looked at it angrily. She would not let Minhyuk go if?the?fullness was less than 50%. She thought,?‘His lies have gone too far.’

She immediately checked the monster egg that was floating in the middle of the monster’s paradise.

(Monster Egg)

Rank: Legend

Race: Pet

Description: The fullness bar is almost full and the egg has evolved into a huge pet-bearing egg.

“...!”

Chronicle?was dumbfounded. She blinked blankly at the egg and Minhyuk.

“Cluck, cluck?” Minhyuk clucked. He timidly hinted about the‘I will be a chicken’?statement that Chronicle had told him earlier. Chronicle stubbornly double checked the information. She thought that she was just mistaken and needed to look at it again.

(Monster Egg)

Rank: Legend

Race: Pet

Description: The fullness bar is almost full and the egg has evolved into a huge pet-bearing egg.

Of course, the content of the information did not change.?Chronicle?turned silent for a moment. Then, she once again heard Minhyuk’s voice.

“Cluck, cluck, cluck...?”

Chronicle kept her mouth shut and silently looked at her surroundings. She finally realized the situation after looking around. The monsters had also gone strange. The Twin-Headed Ogre was leading the ogres and digging at the cliff.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

“Grrr. Just a bit more and we can eat delicious food!”

“Grrr, grrr!”

Even the orcs.

“Chwiiiiiik! Chwiiiiik!?Just a bit more and we can eat delicious raw meat!?Chwiiiik, chwiiiiik!”

All of the monsters in the Monster’s Paradise were working hard. They looked very tired but Minhyuk could whip them up in shape every time. Minhyuk always painted a story for them, ‘Sigh... At this rate, I won’t be able to fill the fullness by 100%, I’m really sorry... You’re all working hard but I still won’t have time to cook...’

The monsters worked hard day and night after hearing this. They even went as far as not sleeping. They were literally working to eat!

“...I don’t think I look like a chicken,” Chronicle said as she hummed at Minhyuk.

Minhyuk’s eyes sparkled brightly. He said, “Then, you should pretend that you didn’t know...”

He quickly hinted at the skewers in his hands. Chronicle understood what he was trying to say, she shook her head in defeat. Minhyuk peeked around quietly, before proceeding to grill another set of skewered hotbars using Chronicle’s body fire! She looked at the grilling hotbars and sighed unconsciously. After he finished grilling the hotbars, Minhyuk ate them deliciously.

“Chronicle’s fire-grilled hotbar tastes similar to charcoal-grilled hotbar!”

“Ho, hoho,” Chronicle just laughed at his words.

***

[Guild Master Genie: I’ll be right back~]

[Guild Chat | Khan: Take care. Don’t follow strangers even if they offer you candy.]

[Guild Master Genie: ? Huh? Did you finally lose your screws?]

Khan grinned at her message. Genie went alone to meet with Boroto, the former Chef Tower’s Tower Master, to take on the quest with the excellent buffed dish as a reward. Originally, the three of them would take it together, but Khan and Locke were in the midst of leveling up.

The gap between rankers was not as wide as what everyone believed. Just a day off of hunting would immediately change the ranker’s ranking in?Athenae.?They did not have the leeway to relax nor rest since they needed to maintain and improve their current rankings. In Genie’s case, the gap was too wide from the other rankers, so she could take the time to handle the quest alone.

“Shall we go hunting now?”

Khan and Locke stood together. They had decided to use the Tower of the Arrogant One as their hunting grounds. However, it would take a while for them to clear it. Once they entered the place, they would be devoid of any messaging tool including GC, party chat, and whisper. However, this place was the perfect hunting ground to silently increase their levels.

Khan chuckled heartily as they walked. He said, “But, what if… Really, just what if?”

“What is it?” Locke asked in confusion.

“What if… Genie and Minhyuk met, you know?”

Locke grinned at his words. He said, “No… I vote for?‘I don’t recognize you.’”

“That’s what you’d expect, right?” Khan said as he shook his head in laughter.

Genie had been 100 kilograms when she was younger, she would even proudly announce her weight every day. However, she was now less than 50 kilograms in weight. In fact, they were also surprised at one point. The ‘General Wild Boar’ that they used to call back in school was now a great beauty.

“I will add one vote to that too,” Khan said in agreement.

***

The fullness was at 95%! Minhyuk looked around and watched all the monsters eat. Right now, there was only one monster left! The only monster left was the king of this place, Chronicle.

Minhyuk had told her that he would cook for her once he finished eating his delicious hotbar. As for Chronicle, in her case, she maintained that she would eat only after all of the monsters had been fed. He felt that there was a system in this place and that she was like the boss mob. After all, one would usually have to first hunt all of the small mobs in the dungeon before hunting the boss mob! Finally, he handed the huge amount of dishes that he cooked over to Chronicle.

The first one was the delicious rump sashimi!

“It doesn’t suit my taste!”

Then, the perfectly grilled ribeye steak!

“I don’t want to eat that!”

Braised chicken!

“...Boy, how am I supposed to eat this poor child?”

“Even a water purifier isn’t this picky and tight...”

“What did you just say?”

“N…nothing...”

The boss mob, Chronicle, was an extremely picky eater! Even Chronicle herself said that she did not know what she wanted to eat right now. Minhyuk almost went crazy as he jumped up in frustration. He could meet the subordinate of the Food God once he fed and satisfied Chronicle, but she was being very fussy at the moment.

Minhyuk pondered deeply.?‘Looking at Chronicle...’

She was a bird. Even if she was a Phoenix Lord, she was still a bird! What he meant was simple.

‘Birds usually eat worms, caterpillars and larvae… right?’

They were creatures that definitely liked those wiggly creatures. Minhyuk rubbed his chin in thought. The monsters here could only eat food that has been harvested in the Salov Land. So, Minhyuk went to Athenae’s official website and searched for it.

[Salov Land. Caterpillars.]

To his surprise, a related article came up.

“Oh?”

[A picture of proof of a silkworm in a cave in Salov Land.

cadad414: Oh. That black haired ax thing, is that the silkworm? It looks disgusting!

DoctorInsect: It’s me you f*cker!

cadad414: OMG... I couldn’t tell which was which because you look like a bug... Sry, sry. But you really look like an insect... Yeah. It’s a compliment.

gfasfdd84: 2222

OnlyCarlo: 33333333

kvueu2h4: 44444444

Koongie’sDad: 55555555

MamaLucy: The resemblance is uncanny. Hehehehehehe]

Minhyuk smiled slightly at the unity of the commenters. The picture was showing the scene of silkworms making white cocoons for themselves. The silkworms were as big as an adult male’s head. The silkworm’s thread was not broken once it started to make its cocoon. It seemed like there were about 1,500 meters of silk thread that spouted out of the silkworm just to make such a seamless cocoon. The cocoon was made to act like an egg shell to protect the silkworm as it went through the process of growth to become a moth. The silkworm’s thread was the raw material needed to make silk clothes and…

“Silkworm ramen...”

An idea passed through Minhyuk’s head. He thought that if he was tasked to feed them at least once then he should feed them the most delicious food that he could feed them. Since he had found a hint, he quickly moved to find the silkworm cocoons in Salov Land.

***

Chronicle had not yet filled her stomach, however, she took the chance to look around. The previously thin and bony monsters were now plump and chubby, and they were even overflowing with strength and vigor!

Thud!

“Grrrr. This guy fainted!”

“It’s because he’s been digging in the cliffs day and night without a rest...?gulp...”

They were clearly overflowing with strength that they ended up overworking themselves.

‘If I eat too...’

It was something that was virtually impossible.

Chronicle looked at the egg and felt the powerful force emitting from it. The power was already comparable to her own power! However, she knew that the egg would become even more powerful once Minhyuk fed her. He would even acquire the armor that the Food God had worn before! Of course, it was a very difficult task. Chronicle was an extremely picky eater. Even Allen, the previous Food God, had a hard time trying to satisfy her tastes!

In comparison, the current Food God was still unskilled and immature. Right? Just when she was thinking of him, Minhyuk finally came back. He was holding a mysterious round, white and dry thing that looked like it was wrapped with thread. It was as big as his fist. And once she looked at it closely, she could see that it was a pupa.

“Ho?” Chronicle said. She looked a bit intrigued. It was because they looked like they were caterpillars. Then, she saw Minhyuk pull out the frying pan from his back and drop all of the caterpillar-like things on it. After placing all of it, he proceeded to boil them down.

Blub, blub, blub!

Then, he added some kelp, garlic, onions and leeks before letting it continue to boil. He seasoned it with salt and waited for the water that he was boiling to go down. Once he finished cooking, Minhyuk took his portion out of the huge frying pan, smiled and handed the rest over to Chronicle. The pupae were black and steaming. And Minhyuk...

“Beondegi, beondegi, beonbeon, degidegi. One beondegi, two beondegi, three beondegi!”

…Muttered something completely incomprehensible.

***

Minhyuk smiled contentedly at Chronicle after he had made the savory and flavorful pupae. He looked at Chronicle and wondered if she would say that it was not delicious after tasting it. Those were literally pupae.

In the past, back when Minhyuk was in elementary or middle school, whenever he joined a sports competition, he would see the uncles outside with their trucks and selling their wares. On some of these trucks, it would say,?‘Beondegi, 1,000 won!’

Then, Minhyuk and his friends would go in front of the truck and would smile at the old man and say?‘Uncle, please give me 1,000 won worth of beondegi!’?after looking at the steaming, hot paper cup filled with pupae. The uncle would give them a paper cup filled with beondegi together with a toothpick. However, they would not use any toothpick and would just pour them into their mouths little by little. This was beondegi! Minhyuk was able to make a memorable meal by accident! The ingredient that he used to make this beondegi was the silkworm’s pupa!

Chronicle hesitantly tapped her beak on the frying pan filled with beondegi.

“Uhmm...” She hummed as she opened her beak and bit on one.

One bite immediately brought the savory flavor of the dish to her mouth. The more she chewed, the deeper and more savory the flavor became. Chronicle’s breath hitched as she looked at Minhyuk in surprise. She said, “De…delicious.”

“Hohohohoho...!” Minhyuk laughed as he took a piece of beondegi and ate the one that was almost as big as his head.

It’s the taste in my memories!

Chronicle quickly finished all of the beondegi in the frying pan. Then, a series of notifications rang loudly…

[You have fed the Phoenix Lord.]

[The Phoenix Lord is really satisfied with the meal. You will receive better rewards.]

1. ???-KR street food that’s made with the pupa of a silkworm. It is usually boiled or steamed and served with toothpicks. It’s said that it has a bit of a fishy and nutty flavor and is usually soft and juicy on the inside and crunchy on the outside. It became prominent during the Korean War since the pupa has an excellent nutritional value and was extremely helpful in giving the people a stable supply of protein.