Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 1135

Chapter 1135

Chen Shihao’s expression grew ugly.

The infectious disease Team Leader Park was talking about caused an epidemic that forced everyone all over the world to wear masks. This epidemic started somewhere in China and spread around the world. However, they completely denied any allegations that it was related to their country.

Chen Shihao snorted. “Look here, Player Minhyuk has not yet cleared the conditions. Also, what nonsense are you going on about? The level of difficulty that we have set is low?”

No matter how Chen Shihao looked at it, the difficulty level was still far too high.

Team Leader Park waved his hand at him in annoyance.

“You’ll find out once you see it. Ah, also…” Team Leader Park, who was about to turn around, looked at Chen Shihao again. “It seems like the audit team has not yet realized they have missed something huge this time. Right, Employee Lee Minhwa?”

If looks could kill, Lee Minhwa’s gaze toward Chen Shihao would kill him. She growled in answer. “That’s right. I just heard about it, but it seems like the audit team got involved and intervened with the quest and the rewards without properly checking everything related to the matter.”

The two people could only raise their hands and feet at Chen Shihao’s stupidity. This would have been more like bungee jumping from a helicopter than parachuting if he had been this stupid.

“Why did you think that the system chose the Briah’s River as one of the conditions for the Ingredient Creation?”

“Because it’s a river with high value? And isn’t it because it has been judged that it will be challenging for players to get it because it belonged to the Luvien Empire?”

“That’s only half correct.” Lee Minhwa took over and asked, “Then, why do you think our headquarters called the dishes sacrifices and asked the player to bow in front of Briah’s River?”

“That… That’s a bit difficu… No! Not that. Why? Tell me why?”

‘Wow, this bastard is really…’

Lee Minhwa and Team Leader Park looked at Chen Shihao in contempt. They left Chen Shihao to ponder “sacrifice” and “bow.”

His eyes grew wide as he said, “I-impossible…!”

“That’s right. It’s exactly that ‘impossible’ thing. But since you guys decided to lower the difficulty level, it seems like something bigger will happen.”

Only then did Chen Shihao realize what Team Leader Park meant earlier.

“Are the sacrifices and bows going to be offered to that something related to the Briah’s River’s creation aspect?”

“That’s right. But there’s one more problem here.” Team Leader Park continued, “Since you have lowered the difficulty level, you have made it so that being will require less of those offerings. And Player Minhyuk? He would offer more sacrifices and bows. In other words, these extra actions will be considered as a form of courtesy and respect. Now, that being can give Player Minhyuk better and greater rewards.”

“...”

“Do you want me to put it in simpler terms?”

“...”

“If Player Minhyuk successfully clears the conditions with the difficulty level increased to however much he wanted, then…” Team Leader Park raised his hand to his neck and moved to gesture as if he was slicing it. “You’ll be fired.”

***

[You have increased the level of difficulty.]

[If you successfully clear this difficulty level, the ingredients you create will be 11% better than other ingredients of the same grade.]

[You have increased the level of difficulty.]

[If you successfully clear this difficulty level, the ingredients you create will be 14% better than other ingredients of the same grade.]

[You have increased the level of difficulty.]

[If you successfully clear this difficulty level, the ingredients you create will be 17% better than other ingredients of the same grade.]

[You…level of difficulty.]

[If you successfully clear this difficulty level, the ingredients you create will be 20% better than other ingredients of the same grade.]

Minhyuk would rather take a risk than use the Ingredient Creation for the first time in an unsure and vague manner. And because he decided to take a risk, the difficulty level significantly increased.

[You have to offer 500 normal-grade, 200 epic-grade, 40 legendary-grade, and 4 God-grade dishes as sacrifices in 10 days.]

[You must bow 20,000 times to the Briah’s River in 10 days.]

[If you fail to complete the conditions, your Ingredient Creation skill will be sealed and unable to be used for 6 months.]

Although he did a great job during the advanced polls, Minhyuk felt he was in greater danger now more than ever. The results of the advanced polls had made people look at him with high expectations. He would be left behind if he failed to meet those expectations. On top of that, he did not possess anything better than the other candidates.

‘If I can create ingredients that are superior to other ingredients of the same grade, then it will catapult me to a higher level.’

Made to cook around 700 dishes in ten days, Minhyuk moved with determination.

“This is how vicious and diabolical Athenae is.”

Minhyuk felt like this fact had hit home. Although the level of difficulty presented to him was different than usual, the fact that it still could suffocate Minhyuk remained the same.

‘Those dishes do not appear every time.’

But the one that struck him deeply was the bows.

‘Of course, my body is different from ordinary bodies.’

The characters in Athenae could be said to possess bodies that were dozens of times more powerful than the bodies of ordinary people in the game. Nevertheless, bowing 20,000 times was a challenging task. Of course, there were several questions that he wanted answers to. And one of them was…

‘Why are they asking me to bow to the river?’

Unlike someone who was extremely stupid, Minhyuk noticed something the moment he heard the notifications. There was something in the river.

But before he started cooking in earnest, there was something that he needed to check. He hurriedly took out a packet of ramyeon and cooked it. Then, he left the bowl of ramyeon in front of Briah’s River.

[Epic Grade.]

[You can choose to set this as Normal Grade.]

The first question he wanted an answer to was this: Even if Minhyuk cooked ramyeon, it would always come out epic. So, he had to check if he could use this dish to complete the lower-grade dish requirements. Fortunately, the question was easily answered and resolved.

And the second one was this. Minhyuk brought back the ramyeon that he had offered as a sacrifice.

[Total Number of Sacrifices Offered]

[Normal: 1]

Then, he quickly ate the ramyeon. After eating the ramyeon, Minhyuk began to pray earnestly. He closed his eyes tightly and waited five seconds before checking it again. What he saw left him delighted.

“Yes!”

[Normal: 1]

The number of sacrifices he made did not disappear even though he ate the ramyeon. In other words, the effort and ingredients that Minhyuk would use for the sacrifices would not be in vain. It could easily be recovered through his stomach.

Simply put, the sacrifice was more like an ancestral rite. And when it came to ancestral rites, who would be the ones to eat the food offered during the ritual after the rite had finished? Of course, it was those who did the ritual.

Answering this question made Minhyuk’s motivation boil over.

‘These past few days, I did not have much time to cook.’

One’s attitude toward what they were doing would change depending on their mindset. Minhyuk decided to think of the condition of making the dishes to be sacrificed as making dishes for himself to eat. All the dishes he would make in these ten days would be stored in his inventory for him to eat later.

The delighted Minhyuk began to cook. Unfortunately, he could not cook multiple dishes at once; he could only cook one dish at a time.

‘I have to think about the time.’

Minhyuk could easily make epic-grade dishes. The problem was the legendary-grade and God-grade dishes and the 20,000 bows. The success rate of the legendary-grade and God-grade dishes was very low, so he had to make sure that he would be able to make them in one try.

“I never imagined that I would have a day when I will cook ramyeon in a row in my life~”

Minhyuk could not help but be in awe as he started to cook different types of ramyeon–from Sshin Ramyeon, Jjin Ramyeon, Chapagetti, Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken Noodles, Jjahwang, Neokguri, Jinseongtangmyeon and many more–one after another.

He worked quickly, cooking ramyeon, offering it as a sacrifice, and recovering it swiftly. Of course, he wasn’t just making ramyeon. Minhyuk also made soy sauce egg rice, egg fried rice, kimchi fried rice and other simple dishes.

‘Actually, if I do it like this, I can only make seven or eight dishes in an hour.’

Thankfully, Minhyuk had The Famished One’s Cooking, which allowed him to cut his cooking time tenfold. Inside its cooking space, the dishes that should have been finished in ten minutes could easily be completed in one minute.

This skill, originally intended to be applied when cooking a single dish, could also be applied to plenty of other dishes as long as ten-minute skill duration was not yet done. And it only had a cooldown time of one hour. With the use of this skill, Minhyuk was able to cook more than fifteen dishes in one hour.

From time to time, Minhyuk would eat a bowl of ramyeon and a plate of fried rice that he had already offered as a sacrifice.

“This is very healing…”

Minhyuk, eating ramyeon while looking at the river, looked like he was not challenging an ordeal. He looked more like he was enjoying it. Ten hours passed by just like that.

Then, twenty hours… Another fifteen hours passed by. Before anyone knew it, three days had already gone by. And Minhyuk? He continued his relaxing(?) time by getting the least sleep.

At the same time.

Chen Shihao, watching Minhyuk through the monitor, was left in awe. After Team Leader Park threatened him with firing, he just snorted and thought, ‘How can a person forgo sleeping to cook dishes?’ Regardless, he was made witness to a very absurd yet true reality.

“How can a person continue to cook and eat repeatedly for three days without much sleep…?”

In Chen Shihao’s eyes, this was ridiculous. Anyone would have already collapsed from exhaustion.

After three days of repetitive cooking and eating, Minhyuk could fill in the required 500 normal-grade dishes and had already started filling in the number of epic-grade dishes. He continued the same process and finished cooking the epic-grade dishes on the fifth day since he started. Minhyuk had only taken a few hours of rest during the process.

In the meantime, the dozens of members of the Special Audit Team began to flock to the Special Players Management Team.

“The rumors were true…?”

“How can a person be like that?”

“That’s very admirable.”

“So, Player Minhyuk is truly a man who rose to the position of Supreme because of his hard work and effort?”

“If it’s like this, then is there even a need for auditing and inspection? This alone proves that everything he has obtained is all because of his efforts.”

“Amazing. That’s amazing. From now on, I will become Player Minhyuk’s fa…” One of the audit team members trailed off when he caught sight of Chen Shihao’s gaze.

Chen Shihao slammed his fist on the table.

Thud–

“He has not done the legendary-grade and God-grade dishes yet. And he hasn’t even started doing the bows yet.”

They were the most important ones. After all, the two dish grades took a lot of work to make.

In the end, the audit team members were left tired. They had been sleeping alternately to watch Minhyuk, who was going through the trial, as if he was not exhausted. Team Leader Park clicked his tongue at the sleeping members of the audit team.

Although Team Leader Chen Shihao said that Minhyuk had yet to start making the legendary-grade and God-grade dishes, Minhyuk could finish offering the required dishes swiftly. He was beginning to bow already.

As if grasping the last straw, Chen Shihao said, “There’s no way that a person can bow 20,000 times!”

In other words, he was hoping that Minhyuk would fail. On the 9th day, the bowing Minhyuk looked utterly exhausted. He was already reaching his limits. Nevertheless, Team Leader Park looked at the audit team members, who had fallen asleep while monitoring Minhyuk, as if they were pathetic.

And at that moment, something very unexpected happened.

***

It was said that a sacred being lived in Briah’s River, giving the river's waters the ability to heal injuries and help create better living things. However, this was dismissed as only something from the legends.

If one had checked the information about the Briah’s River, the description would have only said that it was just an ordinary river. The truth was the sacred being in the legends still lived within the Briah’s River. The being had just hidden himself from the humans, who tried to take the river water and take advantage of him.

The sacred being had watched as a man approached the river a few days ago. The man had offered him something strange as a sacrifice. Thankfully, he had the ability to take the offering without the humans seeing him. Because of that, he could relish and enjoy the food the man offered him. He sat in front of the man eating the same dish and followed what he was doing.

“Keuhahaha! As expected! Ramyeon should be eaten outside!”

He ate ramyeon, just like the man ate it, and fell into a trance.

Just like that, the man offered him a variety of dishes. Yet, when the sacred being finished eating the legendary-grade dishes, he could not help but feel sullen.

Why? The man had to meet a specific condition to eat the next dish. And that condition was to bow a certain number of times to him. It was probably because of a restriction that the Origin Mother had placed upon him.

The sacred being truly wanted to try and eat the man’s delicious-looking God-grade dish.

At this moment, the sacred being thought, ‘He’s a nice person.’

The man laughed and talked while eating as if sitting with someone by the river. Even the way he bowed felt extremely sincere, and this sincerity unknowingly attracted the attention and care of the sacred being.

On the ninth day, the man seemed to have expended much energy on his bows. The sacred being felt like it was only natural. For a human with a weak body, no one could bow non-stop until they reached the ninth day to the point that they even forget sleeping.

So, for the sake of eating something delicious, the sacred being decided to help the kind and lovely man.

***

Minhyuk was already feeling exhausted. Bowing was completely different from swinging a sword or a pickaxe. This was because it used almost his entire body. Now, every time he knelt, the muscles in his thighs would expand, and it felt like they would explode. His lower back also started hurting while his upper body shook and trembled.

‘This is why it’s 108 times harder…’

Minhyuk gritted his teeth. He had only finished 5,000 bows. The problem was he only had around 30 hours left.

Although the Divine Will was constantly being triggered, compared to when he was performing actions related to DEX, the help he received was much lower. Divine Will was a skill that could help increase vitality and refresh the body while elevating his stats and increasing everything related to DEX. However, the act of bowing was unrelated to DEX, and the increase in stats was not very helpful.

It was literally a very arduous task, one that made sweat drip down his entire body. Although the Divine Will could help refresh him and leave his spirit clear, the continuous repetition of standing, sitting, and bowing was enough to leave Minhyuk breathless. And to make matters worse…

‘I must continue at this rate and keep bowing without stopping. Otherwise, I will not be able to meet the conditions in time.’

The thought of failing to meet the conditions alone was enough to make him feel as if he was going to die. At this moment, Minhyuk’s consciousness began to drift and wander. Just then, a notification rang in his ears.

[The Briah’s River’s Sacred Being is looking at you.]

[The being recognizes you as his friend.]

Ring!

[The Sudden Quest: The Sacred Being’s Wish.]

“...?”

The confused Minhyuk clicked on the quest. After checking the contents of the quest, he could not help but look at the Briah’s River in shock. This was because of the rewards written in the description.

“Isn’t this crazy…?!”

The rewards written were as follows:

[Upon triggering the Ingredient Creator Skill, all ingredients will become 5% better than those of the same grade.]