Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 482: Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage Quest

[You have gained +30 on your Physical and Magical Defense.]

[All of your stats will permanently increase by 1.]

The Star’s Blessing that Minhyuk had received from the Star Painter Elise was amazing. There was a permanent increase in all of his stats! Even his DEX increased sharply!

“That’s why I’m telling you, I cackled at him!”

Elise looked noble and elegant, but the moment she opened her heart to someone, she turned into a huge chatterbox. Minhyuk just nodded along and listened to her, turning this story session into an information-digging session.

“Then, what did the Star Sculptor say? Isn’t he too much?”

“Yes! Truly unbelievable! What a perfectionist. Sigh~ The Star Sculptor is a very fussy person. But if you’re able to truly win his heart, then he will give you everything. That’s the kind of person he is.”

“The Star Tailor?”

“That person is even more fussy and strict. Not even a small misplaced thread is allowed to stick out in front of him.”

Just like that, Minhyuk was able to dig out information about the other stars and the rest of the villagers from Elise. Then, he suddenly thought, ‘It doesn’t matter if I listen to all of the information about them, it’s still too much.’

Minhyuk only had ten days, which was a very short period of time to win the hearts of not only the Five Stars, but all of the villagers.

‘Is there no way? Hmmm. A way…’

Minhyuk thought about a method to capture the hearts of the remaining Stars after hearing the information about them.

‘Ah, there’s that method, right?’

There was a very easy way for him to approach the villagers and make friends with them, all the while making sure he catered to the nature of the Stars.

***

Hamil, an architect working in Arsa Village, was one of the people that settled in the village after the death of Eto Kingdom’s previous king. Right now, this very same Hamil was facing the greatest worry of his life… lunch time.

‘What should I eat for lunch today?’

It was the same worry faced by those who worked during the day! All of them worried about what to eat for lunch.

‘Today’s work is especially hard. I want to eat something special.’

There would always be days when one wished to eat something special, something different from what they usually had. It was the same thought running through Hamil’s head as he walked around.

After walking for a while, Hamil suddenly stopped a distance away from a man, who seemed to be preparing to open a shop in front of a small trailer. He thought, ‘It’s my first time seeing that guy here.’

Hamil could tell that the man was a foreigner. And with the banner hanging in front of his shop saying, ‘Asgan’s Flavor’, it seemed like the man was not only a foreigner, but also someone from another continent.

But then, Hamil snickered not long after. He thought, ‘He dares to sell food here in our Arsa Village?’

Arsa Village was home to Star Chef Cord, a master chef that served as the role model for all of the chefs in the kingdom and the continent. His disciples even followed him and settled in this village. In other words, Arsa Village, which was teeming with chefs, was home to the best dishes. In fact, Hamil could confidently say this because their village was selected as the ‘village with the most delicious dishes’ in the entire continent.

But someone from Asgan Continent actually dared to sell strange food here? Hamil could only snort at the man. Nevertheless, he still continued to watch.

“Come, come! Buy some rice cakes, fritters and blood sausages! Chomp!”

The first thing that the man tried to sell was rice cakes, fritters, and blood sausages. But as he continued to watch the man, Hamil felt dumbfounded.

“Buy some rice cake, fritters and blood sausage sets! Chomp!”

It was because the man kept on eating what he made. Strangely enough…

‘Eh? I don’t like that rice cake, fritters and blood sausage from Asgan Continent… so, why do I want to try some?’

…this thought flashed in Hamil’s head.

“Haa. I’ll finish all of the rice cakes, fritters and blood sausages at this rate. Right, ramyeon! Let’s make some ramyeon!”

After eating three sets of rice cakes, fritters and blood sausages, the man, as if realizing that the method that he was doing was wrong, suddenly switched things up and started cooking ramyeon.

‘Oh? What’s that?’

The Athenae worldview’s theme might be following the medieval era, but their NPCs were still able to eat modern dishes and food unique to each server’s original country, thanks to the foreigners that created them inside the game. Of course, each of these countries had dishes that suited the tastes and preferences of their server in the Athenae world.

However, Minhyuk’s ‘ramyeon’, which looked similar to the ‘ramen’ that Hamil knew, had a different packaging. It was only natural. After all, the ramyeon in Minhyuk’s hands was none other than ‘Jjin Ramyeon’. Being in different servers meant that the food that they knew were completely different from each other, so it was only right that Hamil found the ramyeon different.

Unaware of Hamil’s doubts, Minhyuk quickly cooked the ramyeon, cracked an egg in it, whisked everything together, boiled it some more, then added some green onion garnish once everything was done.

‘Is he really going to sell food? Why is he making one when no one’s placing an order?’

Then, the man said, “Ah, wait~ Why did I make one when there’s no order? Oops. What should I do with this~?” before picking up his own chopsticks!

‘It’s on purpose! He definitely made it on purpose! He made it so he can eat it!’

The man blew on the mouthful of noodles that he clamped with his chopsticks before putting everything in his mouth.

“Sluuuuuuuuuuurp!”

Then, a shocking sound rang in Hamil’s ears. He continued to watch as the man lifted his entire bowl, blew on it, and gulped down a mouthful of soup.

“Woah! That’s spicy!”

“…!”

Hamil felt drool start to flow down his mouth as he watched the man suddenly whip out a serving of Korean Kimchi with his remaining ramyeon.

Crunch, crunch, crunch—

Hamil’s adam’s apple bobbed as the divine sound of the man’s eating rang in his ears. He did not know what the food tasted like but strangely enough, his mouth was already watering. This was all because the man was eating ramyeon with relish, as if the dish in his hands was the most delicious dish in the world. His face was even filled with happiness!

Hamil completely forgot the fact that he was snorting and mocking the man earlier as he called out, “Ex, excuse me! Please give me a bowl of Asgan ramyeon too!”

“Irasshaimase!” Minhyuk, the man who was eating the ramyeon, shouted enthusiastically. He knew how effective his powers were more than anybody else. After all, there were quite a number of people on the internet complaining about how they gained more than 20 kilograms just by watching him eat.

This was the method that Minhyuk used. Besides, there was something that made this one ramyeon bowl that Minhyuk made different…

[You have completed a ‘perfect’ ramyeon.]

[The ramyeon noodles will become more chewy while the soup’s flavor becomes richer and deeper.]

…it was none other than the prestige of his DEX! Minhyuk did not stop there. He even placed a drop of mysterious liquid in the ramyeon bowl.

“What’s that?”

“Ah, it’s the special sauce that I made, dear customer. Fufu,”?Minhyuk chuckled as a crowd started to flock around them.

“Isn’t that Hamil?”

“Hey, he’s the pickiest eater in our village, right? How come he’s eating something that’s sold on the street?”

“Isn’t he the guy that only ever eats Mister Cord’s meals?”

Hamil was very famous in Arsa Village as a tried and tested gourmand. That was why everyone was very shocked to see Hamil slurp away at a bowl of ramyeon sold on the streets.

“Sluuuuuuuuuuuurp!”

Hamil was eating his ramyeon so fast it looked like he was inhaling it. He did not let a drop go and even went so far as lifting the entire bowl to slurp everything. When he finished, sweat had already gathered in his nose.

“Fwaa,” Hamil spat out a satisfied sigh.

“Hey, hey look at Hamil… What in the world does that dish taste like?!”

“Huh? Hey, Hamil! Say something!!!”

“It, it tastes better than Mister Cord’s ramen…! It’s the tastiest ramen that I have ever tasted!”

“…?!”

“…?!”

“…?!”

“…?!”

His words brought a huge shock to everyone. In the blink of an eye, Minhyuk’s shop was filled with customers. In fact, he sold around 500 bowls of ramyeon in just a single day. The customers ordered one bowl at first, but would always order seconds. His shop’s ramyeon was a complete blockbuster!

The very same night…

“I, I want to eat some ramyeon…!”

“I want to eat ramyeon!”

The villagers felt an unknown, yet intense craving for ramyeon, which made them lose a lot of sleep. The next day, these people crowded over Minhyuk’s shop. In fact, the number of people that gathered far exceeded the number yesterday and it was all thanks to word of mouth.

Furthermore…

“What?! A chef from Asgan Continent dares to sell instant ramen, rice cakes, fritters, and blood sausages in Arsa Village without my permission?!”

Star Chef Cord was enraged. He dragged his disciples along with him, firmly believing that he would be able to kick Minhyuk out of this village.

‘Maybe I should try it? Just to see what kind of trashy dishes that fraud is selling.’

But after eating just one bowl…

“One more order of ramyeon please! No, make that two!!!”

“Arigato?gozaimasu!”

Cord and his disciples fell in love with the taste of Minhyuk’s ramyeon and fritters!

Once Minhyuk captured the hearts of the villagers to some extent, Minhyuk decided to enact the last of his plans.

“I’m sorry but I don’t think I will be able to sell ramyeon anymore.”

“Wh, what?! Why?!”

“Tell us why?!”

“I… I ran out of ramyeon… I’m truly sorry,” Minhyuk said, looking extremely sorry and bitter. Meanwhile, the villagers that were already addicted to his ramyeon were left stunned.

Unbeknownst to them, Minhyuk was lying through the skin of his teeth. After all, he was someone that had 50,000 pieces of instant ramyeon stocked up in his inventory! Besides, he was someone that had spent most of his money on food, when most of the people spent them on potions.

“How, how can this be…”

“Is there no other way?!”

“There is. I have to go back to Asgan Continent and bring some back. But the road back is too… difficult… Hoo…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Everyone was left speechless. They all knew how difficult it was to cross through different continents. The villagers all started to talk. At that moment, Minhyuk, with a grim look on his face as if he had finally decided on something, said, “…Alright. I’ll give it my all! It pains me to see everyone so sad.”

Then, he bowed politely, before turning around with a somber look on his face.

***

Hamil and the rest of the villagers wondered about how the foreigner that was selling ramyeon before was doing. After all, he has been gone for two days now.

‘I want to eat ramyeon! Where the hell is he?!’

‘Didn’t you say that you’d give your all?! Huh?! Then come back quickly and feed us those delicious Korean dishes!’

At the time when the villagers were running around like headless flies and waiting for Minhyuk…

“He’s back!!!”

“He came back!!!”

Cord, who heard the excited shouts of the villagers, immediately rushed out. But what greeted them was very shocking. The villagers that gathered together opened a path for someone.

That someone was none other than Minhyuk. However, he was walking with the support of crutches, his entire body covered with blood, and he was even vomiting blood. In the end, he collapsed in front of Cord.

“Haa… Haa…”

“What, what in the world happened to you?! Why are you injured?! What happened, huh?!”

“…I, I was able to go back to Asgan Continent for everyone. But the Red Goblin caught me and… urk!”

Blood, or tomato juice to be exact, dripped down from Minhyuk’s mouth. Truth was, Minhyuk did not go to Asgan Continent during his two days of absence. Simply put, he was just lying. But seeing him vomit blood made everyone from Arsa Village feel gratefulness and admiration for him.

“Why, why did you do something so foolish… just for some stupid ramyeon?!”

“You, you got hurt so much just for our sake?!”

“Aaaaaaah! What a good person!!!”

“As a chef, there’s nothing that brings me more joy than seeing you guys enjoy my dishes…”

Cord’s heart trembled when he heard Minhyuk’s words. Without realizing it, he had already knelt down to give Minhyuk a big hug.

“You…!”

Minhyuk returned Cord’s hug, his eyes shining sadly and his body shaking. He was definitely in full performance mode!

‘Aaaaah! This is a true and genuine chef. Although he only cooks instant food, his mindset is that of a master craftsman!’

Cord stood up and looked around and said, “He’s a great man. Someone worthy of our respect. Even though his body is covered with blood after going to a faraway place, he’s still smiling for our sake. This man is a precious noble of our Arsa Village!”

“Agreed!”

“That’s right!”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The villagers shouted loudly.

[Your favor with Cord has reached the highest level.]

[Your favor with Hamil has reached the highest level.]

[Your favor with Alesia has reached the highest…]

[…the highest level…]

The notifications kept on ringing in Minhyuk’s ears. Then, he licked the tomato juice off of his mouth.

‘Tomato juice is really delicious!’

“Long live Minhyuk!!!”

“Long live!!!”

“Long live Minhyuk Religion!!!”

In the end, the villagers cheered loudly for Minhyuk. This was the secret behind the birth of ‘Minhyuk Religion’ in the Japanese Server.