Gourmet Gaming

Zhu Bajie, who had been led inside the abandoned armory, listened to Minhyuk who closed the door and said, “No one will know if I beat you up in this place.”

“…”

At this point, Zhu Bajie already thought that there was something wrong. Even if Minhyuk said that he would beat him earlier, it should have been nothing but a bluff.

However, Minhyuk’s expression remained cold. “To be honest, I thought that you would apologize to me after I displayed my prowess.”

“…”

“You have treated me rudely at first. However, I let it go. It was only natural not to trust me since you haven’t personally seen what I am capable of. But I showed my capabilities.”

“…”

“Unfortunately, you threw your chance away. You should have apologized. But you did not admit your mistakes. You even held on to your useless pride and arrogance and kept on barking at me like a dog.”

“So, so what, huh…”

Zhu Bajie was not given the chance to finish his words.

Baaaaaaaang—

Minhyuk’s fist connected with Zhu Bajie’s face, shocking the king with how hard the hit was. The blow felt like a rock had smashed into him! Just like what was mentioned before, Zhu Bajie was also a key figure in Edea. He was a powerhouse of the continent. However, just when he was about to jump up and pounce on Minhyuk, Minhyuk kicked his neck.

Craaaaack—

“This is what I want. I want you to keep that mouth of yours shut. Don’t go and scream about how I beat you to a pulp.”

[You have lost the bet. You have to listen to your opponent’s demands.]

[If you break your promise, then you will receive punishment.]

After ensuring their privacy, true to his words, Minhyuk began to beat Zhu Bajie into a pulp.

Thump— Thud— thump, thump, thump— Baaang—

“Ack! Ugh! Urk! Hik! Uweeck! Keuaaaaaack!!!”

Zhu Bajie had never been treated like this in his life. Today was the day he realized what the words ‘beaten to a pulp’ truly meant.

Shwaaaaa—

“Urk, ugh… Th, that… it… exploded?”

Minhyuk, who was doing the beating, and Zhu Bajie, who was receiving the beating, both paused for two seconds.

“It did not explode.”

Then, Minhyuk continued to beat him up. He did not hold back his punches at all, because he truly did not like Zhu Bajie. Of course, Minhyuk thought that it was quite rude to treat an ally that would fight alongside him later like this. If the man in front of him was the enemy, he would not have hesitated to cut his head off. But since he could not kill him, he opted to beat him up.

Finally, big fat tears started to roll down Zhu Bajie’s right eye.

“S, stop…!”

Zhu Bajie actually knew that he deserved this beating. If it was his usual self, Zhu Bajie would be able to confidently say that he was not really small-minded and petty. He just felt so heartbroken when he saw his soldiers die helplessly one after the other.

He could not help the tears that welled up in his eyes as his people gave up their lives to fight such an uphill battle. Perhaps that was why he found Minhyuk, who gave these people hope after they had to sacrifice their lives, revolting.

However, there was no denying the fact that he had wronged Minhyuk. He did not even acknowledge the fact that he did it. That was why he truly deserved this beating.

“Hwiiiiiiiiik!”

The cries of a pig being ‘slaughtered’ rang loudly from within the abandoned armory.

***

Xuanzang had followed right behind Minhyuk and Zhu Bajie because he was extremely worried about the two. That was when he heard the cries from Zhu Bajie from inside the armory.

“Namo Amitabha Buddha…” Xuanzang recited as he turned the beads in his hands.

Not long after, Minhyuk, who was breathing roughly, came out of the armory. The man bowed politely when he made eye contact with Xuanzang.

‘He definitely has a firm character.’

Of course, if Minhyuk had stepped back in this situation, then even Xuanzang would not have understood this point. He also knew that Zhu Bajie had behaved rudely. However, a man’s mind was very complicated. Of course, they would feel uncomfortable if the person that they knew and cared about was beaten up by someone that they had only met. Even so, Xuanzang just silently turned the beads in his hands.

***

The allied forces were finally given a break after all of the troops of the Heavenly Army had been killed.

Minhyuk walked with Xuanzang and met with Sun Wukong.

“You have grown stronger than before.” Sun Wukong smiled lightly. Then, he looked around and said, “I just want to protect this land that my dear wife loved.”

Minhyuk nodded when he heard those words. He was already trying his hardest to prepare for the war. However, he had judged that the most important thing to do was to bridge the huge chasm between the allied forces and their enemies, the Heavenly Army and the Heavenly Commanders.

Because of that, Minhyuk had swept clean almost all of the ingredients in the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. He would use these ingredients to make Sun Wukong and the others grow stronger. However, that did not mean that he would use all of the ingredients in his hands just for their sake.

“Edea has a lot of special and excellent ingredients, no?”

“There are a lot. In fact, Zhu Bajie’s Runt Kingdom has quite a lot of such materials.”

“Runt Kingdom?”

“Bajie likes to eat and is always seeking ways to eat more delicious dishes. Because of that, the crops and livestock of the Runt Kingdom are much better than the rest of the kingdoms in Edea.”

“Hmm…” Minhyuk hummed.

Of course, it was only natural that Zhu Bajie’s kingdom was filled with ingredients. However, Minhyuk did not have any regrets with regards to beating the man up.

“How good is the quality?”

“Hmm. I don’t really know too well. From what I heard from the chefs, nothing can compare to Bajie’s ingredients when it comes to ingredients for buffed dishes.” Sun Wukong rubbed his furry and fuzzy chin. “Compared to the ingredients that one can generally get from our kingdoms, the ingredients from the Runt Kingdom can help increase the probability of producing higher grade dishes.”

“Is it possible for me to see some ingredients?”

Sun Wukong nodded. Not long after, a soldier brought some of the ingredients from the Runt Kingdom. Ingredients were very important during war, especially for long, large-scale battles.

(Runt Kingdom’s Bean Sprouts)

Ingredient Grade: D

Special Abilities:

•Increase in Vitality (VIT).

•Increase in STR and STM.

•Increases the chance of getting a higher grade of dish by four times.

Description: These are bean sprouts harvested from the Runt Kingdom. Having been grown in a good environment, the taste and flavor of these bean sprouts cannot be matched by any kingdom.

Minhyuk could only gasp. Most of the special abilities listed under the ingredient were normal. However, the last one truly showed how special the ingredients of the Runt Kingdom were.

‘This is crazy. They can quadruple the rate of getting higher grade dishes?’

The most interesting part was the fact that all of the ingredients from the Runt Kingdom had this ability. High grade dishes were very important. If Minhyuk could serve high grade dishes, then they would be able to obtain better buff effects. But that was not all. It was even mentioned in the description that these bean sprouts tasted very good because of the environment they were grown in.

“Bajie loves his people and his soldiers dearly. He might love to eat on his own, but he also loved to eat together with his people. He often works through the night in hopes of producing better crops and livestock for them to consume. After decades of hard work, they are finally able to produce their desired results,” Xuanzang said as he turned the beads in his hands. “He’s not a bad guy per se. He’s just bad at expressing his own feelings. There’s no need to get angry with each other. You can just ask him to supply the ingredients that you need. There’s no need to make things troublesome.”

Minhyuk nodded. The Buddhist Monk Xuanzang truly had a point.

‘There will obviously be legendary, perhaps even god-grade, ingredients among these excellent ingredients.’

He would also be able to increase his probability of producing high-grade dishes by x4 if he had those ingredients in his hands.

“I understand.”

Minhyuk nodded and headed toward the armory that he came out from just a few moments earlier. He was going to talk with Zhu Bajie and let bygones be bygones.

***

Zhu Bajie was crying inside the armory. It was partially because of the pain of being hit, but mostly he was lamenting about how his twisted personality caused discord among his allies.

Then, the door opened and a man entered the abandoned armory once again.

“Ahem, ahem.”

Seeing Minhyuk clear his throat and enter once again, Zhu Bajie said, “I’m sorry. I have only considered my pride and have disregarded our people, especially with the situation that we are in. It was very rude, even for me.”

Minhyuk just listened to Bajie’s words.

“I was just very anxious. I thought that this was a fight that we couldn’t win. I know that this is a pathetic excuse but I just wanted to protect my people. I was just very heartbroken to see the soldiers that once laughed and cried with me die one after another. For a moment, I entertained the thought that if you had not come to Edea, then my people would not die like this. It’s just… I’m sorry.”

This was very unexpected. When Minhyuk first saw Zhu Bajie, he thought that the king was a cowardly and narrow-minded being. However, after listening to his words, he finally understood why the man acted like that.

Minhyuk was someone that knew how to win a person’s heart the best.

‘When someone that cannot stand you suddenly treats you kindly.’

People were quite funny. If someone, who was usually nice to others, did something bad once then people would begin scolding him saying, ‘Hey, he wasn’t as good as I thought he was~’ The funny thing was, if a mean and cold person suddenly acted nice to others then they would say, ‘Hey, isn’t he quite true and kind?’

This was the so-called Give Disease then Give Medicine[1] strategy.

“I understand.”

Besides, based on what he learnt, Zhu Bajie was also someone that loved food.

“I have also acted rashly.”

Then, Minhyuk took something out of his inventory. It was none other than a gas stove and five bags of ramyeon.

“Let’s have a meal. This dish is called ramyeon. It’s a precious dish. In fact, I only have five of them left.”

The truth was, Minhyuk had around 30,000 packs of ramyeon in his inventory.

“I want to have a meal with you.”

“…Ramyeon?” Zhu Bajie’s interest was piqued. There was a shine in his eyes that made even Minhyuk feel burdened.

Zhu Bajie was literally a pig. There was no better method to win his heart than to offer him food. Besides, Minhyuk was also quite famished especially since he had just finished a high-intensity battle earlier.

Minhyuk turned the gas stove’s heat on, placed a pot and began to boil water. Once the water had started boiling, Minhyuk began to pour the packets of ramyeon seasoning.

“It’s, it’s turning red!” Zhu Bajie shouted, his eyes growing wide from shock.

After adding the flakes, Minhyuk proceeded to add the noodles.

‘When it comes to spicy ramyeon, Jjin Ramyeon is always the key.’

Minhyuk smiled faintly as he continued to prepare the ramyeon, doing his best to make it very delicious.

‘Should I leave it as it is and not add anything else?’

Every once in a while, he would feel like ramyeon taste better without the addition of eggs, green onions, cheese or rice cakes. Just like that, the ramyeon that was devoid of any other additional ingredients was completed.

Minhyuk mustered the sweetest smile that he could show as he placed a bowl in front of Zhu Bajie, as well as a side of kimchi. “Here, have a taste.”

After doing so, Minhyuk began to scoop out noodles and soup into a bowl of his own. He grabbed the bowl filled with steaming ramyeon, clamped a mouthful of noodles before slurping everything up.

“Ho—“

He could not help but breathe out to cool down the hot noodles that entered his mouth. After eating several mouthfuls of noodles, he added a few crunchy kimchi in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch, crunch—

“Kghhk…”

Ramyeon truly tasted good. Then, Minhyuk poured soup in his bowl once again.

“Fwaaa!”

The spicy flavor of the soup could easily invoke a breath of admiration to anyone who tasted it.

“Sluuuuuurrrrrp!”

“Sluuuuuuuuuuuuurrrp!”

The sound of someone slurping noodles rang loudly inside the empty armory.

Of course, if one ate something spicy, it was only natural that their noses would become runny.

“Snort.”

Zhu Bajie looked at Minhyuk, who blew his nose after eating ramyeon, in shock.

‘How can such a simple dish taste so good?’

Zhu Bajie was someone that loved new, novel and delicious dishes. He felt thrilled. How could a dish that was completed in a mere ten minutes taste so good? But that was not all. Bajie was also very grateful.

‘This is very precious. He only had five bags left…’

For a dish like this, it would definitely be worth as much as it tasted, although Minhyuk had around 30,000 bags in his inventory. However, Zhu Bajie did not know that.

Strangely enough, Zhu Bajie felt good sitting down like this, cooking ramyeon on a gas stove and eating on the floor.

“You’re a good person,” Zhu Bajie said, his snout twitching. “I can’t believe that you’re willing to share something so precious and valuable with me.”

Zhu Bajie viewed food as something important to him. Because of that, this act touched him even more deeply.

Seeing him like this, Minhyuk felt quite relieved. ‘If I can forge a friendly relationship with Zhu Bajie and maintain it, then I might be able to obtain a steady supply of ingredients that could quadruple my rate of producing higher grade dishes.’

Just when he was thinking, ‘Well then, shall we start to persuade him?’…

[‘God and Knight’ has been randomly triggered!]

[‘God and Knight’ is applying its power on Minhyuk and Zhu Bajie!]

“…?!”

Minhyuk’s eyes grew wide.

‘Huh? Why did this get triggered?’

It seemed like he would be able to obtain a crazy profit, after all.

1. a proverb that means making trouble or creating trouble then giving help. ☜