Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 347: Spectacular Recapture

Hu Yitian had arrogantly declared that it would take him only twenty seconds to finish off Food God Minhyuk. However, in that very same amount of time, Minhyuk, together with the mysterious woman, had finished off Hu Yitian and the four Beijing Ghosts.

The experts on the various sites and communities around the world, who claimed that Player Minhyuk would be logged out within twenty seconds, all became silent. Even the chat windows in the Chinese community and portal sites were all frozen.

‘What… what the hell…?’

Lin Tao could not believe what he saw, even after he rewatched the scene again. He wondered if it was really possible. And that mysterious woman? What was her identity? A hidden unofficial ranker?

Lin Tao, as well as the countless Chinese citizens, never imagined that Mei Wei, the official number one player in the Global Rankings and China’s pride, was actually working as Minhyuk’s bread shuttle.

Then, a message was posted on the frozen, silent Chinese community chat window.

[South~~~ Korea! Clap, clap! Clap, clap, clap!]

***

Minhyuk was fully aware that once the Korean players set Berdk’s food warehouse on fire, the Chinese would immediately set out to send food supplies and rations using the three supply routes. He also knew that others would find it difficult to take advantage of the situation.

However, Minhyuk racked his brains and predicted several situations that could spring from this course of action. For one, he was sure that Hu Yitian would appear during the supply transport. He was also sure that Hu Yitian would choose the fastest, which was the third supply route.

As for Hu Yitian, he had been confident that he would be able to finish Minhyuk within twenty seconds. However, he was unaware that the number one player in the official Global Rankings, Mei Wei, had become Minhyuk’s ally. After all, this was something that they had kept under wraps, and was only known to the members of the Let’s Eat Sect.

So, Minhyuk decided to block the route that Hu Yitian would take, together with Mei Wei. Minhyuk wanted to show them that in war, it was morale, not strong soldiers, nor amazing artifacts, that often played an important role. Minhyuk wanted to boost the morale on their side.

After all, he had Mei Wei, the strongest buff player. Back when they hunted the Grim Reaper, the targeted buff that she used was limited, after using plenty of buffs on the hundreds of soldiers from Atlas.

But now, her MP was full, so she had plenty of targeted buff skills available for use. Some of those included buffs that dramatically improved the skill, as well as buffs that could have a high probability of ignoring the opponent’s defenses, or dramatically increasing attack.

Thanks to Mei Wei’s buffs, Minhyuk was able to temporarily reach the Pinnacle state once again, even without using the Food God’s Recipe or the Berserk skill. With Mei Wei’s help, Minhyuk was able to kill Hu Yitian, as well as the four Beijing Ghosts.

The entire battlefield was plunged into silence the moment Hu Yitian and the four Beijing Ghosts died. After all, five of China’s strongest members had died at once.

“Ah… ah…”

The players and the NPCs under Hu Yitian’s command could not move forward. No, it even looked like they were slowly retreating. But before they could do so, hundreds of arrows rained down from above the canyon.

“Aaaaaaack!”

“Keuaaaaaack!”

“Save me!”

Minhyuk and Mei Wei both took advantage of the chaos, as they slaughtered the enemy troops that were on the third route.

***

[Breaking news! Most of the troops sent out to bring food supplies to Berdk have been wiped out!]

[South Korea, the country said to be the weakest in Athenae, has gained a landslide victory during their fight over the food supply routes.]

[Let’s Eat Sect Members, who are they? And just who is their Guild Master, Food God Minhyuk?]

Countless articles on the battle over the food supply routes towards Berdk had been released all over the world.

Meanwhile, the Korean rankers that gained victory in the first route scuffle remained stationed where they were. Seeing this, a lot of people voiced their disagreement.

[Why are the Koreans only guarding the food supply routes?]

[Perhaps they aren’t interested in recapturing the Berdk attack base in the first place?]

[Ah, then, does that mean that they only wanted to bait the Chinese players by blocking the supply routes?]

[That sounds most likely. They won’t get anything by guarding the supply routes, but they don’t seem to have any intention of attacking Berdk.]

The Chinese players all came down to one conclusion.

‘The Koreans were not interested in Berdk in the first place.’

They just went there as a pretext to bait them. Because of this, the Chinese players started to move with more caution. After all, they might be able to regain control of the food supply routes, as long as they were able to deal with the Koreans successfully. However, they also expected that the resulting damage that they would receive would also be great.

So, the Chinese players just kept an eye on the Korean rankers that guarded the supply routes. It became a war of nerves. However, there was one person that aimed for the exact result, and that person was none other than Minhyuk.

***

‘It’s the third day today.’

The Chinese and Korean players had not moved an inch for three days, as they continued to monitor each other. So, what would happen now? The forces stationed in Berdk would definitely be complaining of hunger by now.

Then, Minhyuk sent a whisper to Kaistra, who was stationed at Atlas Territory.

[Minhyuk: Kaistra. Let’s start the operation.]

Kaistra, together with the soldiers left in Atlas territory, began to move quickly. They were currently packing the dishes that Minhyuk had made a few days prior, into stainless steel lunch boxes while making sure to seal the boxes properly, to stop the contents from spilling.

“No matter what I think, it’s really amazing,” Haze said in admiration.

Haze was a girl that was adept at strategies and tactics, but she was still in awe of Minhyuk’s strategy. She recalled the words that Minhyuk told her.

‘What do you think will happen if we block the supply routes? China will believe that we did not have any intention of attacking Berdk at all, and they will monitor the situation until we are at a standstill. If that happens, the soldiers stationed in Berdk will definitely suffer from hunger.’

That was right. If the soldiers could not eat anything for two to three days, then they would start to complain about their hunger.

‘In fact, the Kharamis soldiers are not like your regular NPCs. They are not the subordinates of the players of Cairon Continent, and are only on the Chinese’s side, because they captured Berdk first.’

Haze smiled and thought, ‘Their allegiance to their commander is superficial at most.’

As for the lunch boxes that they were making right now…

Locke, who was also packing the lunch boxes, said, “Don’t you think that it’s completely like that?”

“That?”

Locke kindly explained to the confused Haze. He said, “In the foreigners’ world, Korea is divided into North Korea and South Korea. However, the people of our country dislike the leaders of North Korea, and not their citizens. So, we try to help them in our own ways.”

Haze listened attentively to Locke’s words.

“So, volunteer organizations would often put rice in water bottles and stuff some USB sticks in them, before letting them flow down the river for those that are suffering from food shortage over on that side. Then, they would take those plastic bottles filled with rice and eat it. This is our people’s way of telling them that ‘We don’t hate you.’. It also shows them that there’s a different world that they could experience together with us, through the dramas, music, and movies on the USB.”

“I see.”

Haze smiled. The strategy that they were using was truly similar to that. They were announcing that there was a new world out here. Meanwhile, Great Sage Aruvel also began to write snippets of ‘Why Did the Prince Go Out Tonight?’ on the back of the lunch boxes.

“What are you doing?”

“Promoting my work,” Aruvel said, grinning.

Locke rubbed his chin and thought, ‘Hooo? Isn’t that genius?’

Just like that, hundreds of lunch boxes were packed.

***

At Berdk Attack Base.

Complaints began to ring out from one place to another.

“H…hungry…!”

“I’m so hungry, I feel so weak.”

During exhausting training or war, the only thing that the soldiers looked forward to was meal time. These soldiers also consume a lot of food, usually around twice or thrice that of a normal person. Unfortunately, they had run out of food and were in a terrible state of hunger.

“If…if only I can just take a sip of some warm soup… I won’t wish for anything more… ”

“Me… me too…!”

“Kgghk~ I also want to eat some well-baked garlic bread with that!!!”

Because of that, notifications rang for Berdk’s commander, Arohan.

[The soldiers are suffering from hunger.]

[All of the soldiers’ stats will be reduced by 10%.]

[The soldiers’ morale has decreased.]

[The soldiers have started to complain.]

Even the reports of the centurions and the knights kept on coming!

“If you don’t feed them quickly, our troops will starve to death!”

“Wait. Just wait a bit more, the food will come.”

However, even if Arohan said that, the other rankers seemed to have given up on transporting food.

[Hai Lou: The supply routes are blocked so there’s no way for us to go there as of the moment. I think it’s better to give out the food that the players currently have. Endure a bit more.]

[Keidi: I think you guys can last a few more days, right? Anyone can survive for a week with just water alone.]

From the tone of their voice, it sounded like they were not worried at all. But a few more days? That was not the problem. The Kharamis soldiers were starting to become more violent as their hunger intensified.

Also, the food that the players had was already used up. After all, which player would carry dozens of kilograms of food like Minhyuk? Regular players would only carry food that would last them two or three days. Some would even just bring rations and easy to eat food when hunting.

However, Arohan still hoped. He thought, ‘The food that I asked for is coming.’

He had asked for the assassin rankers to stock up on food and bring it to Berdk. They were on their way, so it would definitely be a good solution to their problems! However, the whisper that he received gave him a shocking blow.

[Arin: Lucia, the Assassin of the Moon, was hiding around Berdk Castle. It seems like there were players lurking around the castle. All of the assassins have been wiped out.]

[Carran: They have no intention of attacking Berdk, but they blocked the transport of food to the castle, they even hid themselves in ambush. There’s nothing we can do about it.]

The South Korean assassins did not allow the Chinese players to enter the vicinity. Everything was in a total mess.

***

Eisden, one of the soldiers in Berdk, had a huge appetite. He usually ate a lot more than the others. As part of the Kharamis soldiers, their workload was intense. He would get dizzy if he missed even a single meal.

With his hungry and complaining stomach, Eisden wandered around the city walls in the middle of the night to distract himself.

‘I’m starving.’

Just as the thought flashed in his head…

Plop—

…something fell down from nearby.

“Wh… who’s that?!” Eisden shouted, turning his head quickly to look at his surroundings. However, all he saw was something glittering under the glare of the light.

Eisden cautiously approached the glittering object. A delicious aroma wafted to his nose as he lifted the object. It was none other than a lunch box. When he opened the lid, there was fried shrimp, fried rice, fried kimchi and karaage inside. Overcome with hunger, Eisden hurriedly ate up the food in the lunch box. He did not even bother to check where it came from.

‘My… my goodness! I have never tasted a more delicious lunch box than this…!’

It was a lunch box that fell from the sky when he was famished! And it was delicious! Smacking his mouth, Eisden finally found a note that was attached to the lunch box. He failed to notice it earlier because of his hunger.

[Did you enjoy the lunch box? This lunch box is specially prepared for you, who’s very hungry. We would like to give you this lunch box every day. Please make sure to share this with your comrades. We will make sure to send enough to you every day. But, there are conditions. Please don’t let the foreigners know about it.]

“…!”

Eisden pondered for a moment. Their commander, Arohan, was a foreigner. He wondered if he should report this or not? Just when Eisden fell into a dilemma, the pads of his fingers felt the texture of paper attached to the back of the lunch box. He quickly flipped the lunch box and read the paper.

[Why Did the Prince Go Out Tonight (Snippet)

Tonight was a sleepless night for the Prince. He had been thinking about her desperately and had no choice, but to sneak out of the castle in the middle of the night again to go to her house.

She did not sleep. It was as if she knew that he was coming, that was why she waited for him. The two of them shared a fierce and passionate kiss as they headed towards the bed. The bed creaked, her moans ringing loudly in the darkness of the night as sweat dripped down her body…]

“Gulp—“

Eisden gulped unconsciously as he read through the note, concentrating deeply on the words! But, why did the text end there?!

“…?!”

‘No! How could you stop there?! What did they do for the bed to creak violently? I’m hungry! And curious!’

He was very curious about the things that made the bed creak loudly. Eisden had completely fallen for the food and the story!