Leveling Up Through Eating

Team Leader Park Minggyu groaned. “Player Minhyuk has received the quest to enter the ‘Supreme’...?”

Even Lee Minhwa, sitting next to him, was sporting a severe expression on her face.

“Originally, quests that enter the ‘Supreme’ will only be triggered once players reach Level 1,000, but…”

From the beginning, Joy Co. Ltd. had set it so that some players would only be able to achieve the Supreme once they reached Level 1,000. Based on the players’ current speed of growth, Level 1,000 would not appear until at least three years later.

Yet Minhyuk achieved that Supreme exactly twice in a row before he even reached Level 700. The first was achieved by making the Supreme Dish, while the second was achieved by killing the Supreme Monarch.

Nonetheless, there was something strange.

“In the first place, Rundalk should not have offered such a quest to someone below Level 1,000.”

“It’s probably because of variables. And there should be a lot involved in this.”

“I see.”

If it was someone else present at the banquet, Rundalk might have easily judged them to lack qualifications. Minhyuk was different. He had built a high favorability with both Beradon and Rocado. Because of that, both men willingly explained to Rundalk what kind of person he was. This resulted in Rundalk offering the Supreme-related quest even though it was just like a shot to the moon.

“The ingredient is already at the Fantastic grade.”

The Ingredient Brimming with Potential had just grown into a Fantastic-grade ingredient. Also, once King of Destruction Rundalk’s power had been applied to it, the Fantastic-grade ingredient would be unconditionally upgraded to the next grade.

“If Player Minhyuk accepts and goes with Rundalk, he will most likely obtain a Phenomenal-grade ingredient.”

If the Fantastic-grade ingredient was equivalent to a God-grade ingredient, then the Phenomenal-grade ingredient would be comparable to an Absolute God-grade ingredient.

“But there’s a bigger problem here, right?”

“Indeed. There are a lot of bizarre rewards inside the Supreme. Perhaps the ingredient in his hands will be upgraded another time there.”

The situation was highly unpredictable, to the point that they could not imagine the results. All of this was based on the assumption that he could complete the quest.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult this time,” Lee Minhwa said.

This was the same Lee Minhwa who used to raise objections whenever someone from Joy Co. Ltd. said it was impossible. Even she thought that Minhyuk couldn\'t complete this quest.

The real name of the Supreme was Pandemonium. The Land of Pandemonium. This was the perfect term to describe what that kind of place was.

‘The most difficult dimension to exist in the past, the present, and future.’

***

[You have completed the Quest: Prove the Qualifications of the Pillar of the Gourmands.]

[You can choose among one of the residents of the Land of Leaders and acquire one of their abilities.]

[You will receive the additional rewards offered by Rundalk.]

[You have acquired 10 million platinum.]

[The Delicious Ingredient that Suits Your Taste has grown one level higher from Fantastic-grade Ingredient.]

The condition for making the Ingredient Brimming with Potential grow was for Minhyuk to complete the quests given to him in the Land of Leaders. However, after using the Growth Cultivator, another condition was added. And that condition was the completion of three tasks.

After breezing through(?) the three tasks, Minhyuk heard what kind of person Rundalk was.

‘The Supreme?’

Rundalk was as old as Obren. However, unlike Obren, who had become famous, the world had forgotten him. Of course, Minhyuk had heard about Rundalk from Obren.

He jokingly asked the Guardian God, ‘Obren, how do you compare against the other members of the Eight Pillars in your prime?’

[Aside from Athenae, everyone was below me.]

Obren’s words were filled with nothing but bravado. Regardless, there was one thing that Minhyuk could glean from his words.

When he was trapped in the Puzzling Seasoning Jar, Obren was already severely weakened. After he became the Guardian God, he lost most of his power as the Evil God. Even so, Obren remained a powerhouse that neither Brod nor Ben could do anything about.

With all those in mind, Minhyuk thought Obren’s words were probably valid.

[But among those who failed to become Pillars, there are those we wonder about. We wonder what they would be like if they became a Pillar.]

[If that guy became a Pillar, he probably would have been on par with me.]

‘Why didn’t he become a Pillar?’

[Well, I don’t know about that. But he was called the Supreme.]

There was a fact that even Obren, who knew everything under the sky, did not know. And this fact flew out of Rundalk’s mouth.

“It seems like you’ve heard about it,” Rundalk said when he saw Minhyuk react to the word Supreme. “Then, it will be easier to explain.”

First, he explained the Supreme’s extraordinary power. Rundalk said he would get stronger every time he achieved a Supreme. It was quite a surprising power.

“I was too arrogant. I touched something that I should not have.”

“Something you should not have touched?”

“You probably know Chaos, right?”

Chaos hand-picked all of the Pillar Candidates.

“I killed all of the evaluators. That feat allowed me to achieve my ninth ‘Supreme.’”

“...!”

Minhyuk’s eyes grew wide. He had personally met the evaluators, who were all powerful individuals.

Although Minhyuk did not want to kill them, he did try to break their arms. Anything more than that, he no longer dared to do. First of all, Minhyuk was not confident that he could kill them. And second, even if he had the power to do so, he did not know what would happen if he killed them.

From what Rundalk had said, he achieved his ninth Supreme after killing them.

“I was thrilled. According to the myths, the person who achieved ten Supremes would become the true Supreme.” A bitter expression flashed on Rundalk’s face. “The Supreme that even the Eight Pillars cannot reach.”

Filled with immense greed, Rundalk did something he should not have done.

“I challenged the tenth Supreme. I thought I could achieve the tenth and final Supreme by killing Chaos.”

“...?”

The idea was so absurd that one would think, ‘Are you crazy?!’ when hearing about it. On the other hand, it showed how deep and unfathomable human greed was.

“The result was my crushing defeat. And I had to pay the price for killing the evaluators.”

“...”

“The price I had to pay was having my daughter enter Pandemonium. Pandemonium also goes by the name Supreme.”

“...How many years have you been challenging Pandemonium?”

“I think it’s been a few thousands of years? I don’t remember how long.”

“Then… If your daughter has been living there…”

Rundalk shook his head. “Time does not flow in Pandemonium. The only place where time flows in there is the ‘Pandemonium’s Black Hole.’ Chaos is clever, you know?”

“...”

“He put my daughter to sleep in that place. Then, he told me that once time has passed and I disappeared from the world, he will awaken her and release her to the world.”

The daughter would not suffer, whereas Rundalk would suffer and eventually blame himself for everything.

“He also told me, ‘Wouldn’t it be better for her to live in the world without a father like you?

” Rundalk grinned. “That’s certainly the truth. Chaos had shown me, the one who was obsessed with the Supreme and had left my child alone and unattended, how she had spent her time alone. She always came out and waited for me to come home. She would even burst into tears during meals and studies. Because she was alone.”

Minhyuk recalled someone. He was none other than Ben. Ben had also lost his precious son because he was drunk from his power.

“I don’t have much time left now.”

Rundalk was different from the others. The others could stay here for as long as they wanted, but Rundalk could only stay here for 5,000 years before disappearing. It was Chaos’ punishment.

“There is no way for me to achieve the Supreme anymore.”

Because of that, he needed someone who could achieve the Supreme and open the door for him. That person was Minhyuk.

Alas, there was something vital to consider.

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

“One pass is equivalent to one life. In other words, everyone who died in that place will be able to come back to life back here. Of course, there’s a limit to the number of people who can enter. But if you can summon someone from there, you can bypass the restriction on the number of people.”

“Then, that means that the pass will open the door. What will happen if you die once and choose to enter again and die again?”

“Complete extinction.”

Simply put, Minhyuk would be forced to log out, and they would experience a total and complete extinction.

‘I might suffer a heavy penalty from the forced log out.’

Nevertheless, Minhyuk was quite curious about the Land of Pandemonium, which also carried the name of the Supreme.

“What are the levels of the beings living in that place?”

“There are a lot of powerful beings there, beings that I have never seen before. The one who you should never confront is the Ruler of the Supreme.”

“What’s his level?”

“He can probably annihilate everyone here.”

It was enough to make someone lose their breath.

“We’ll get my daughter and get out of there as quickly as possible,” Rundalk said, looking at Minhyuk as if asking him for an answer.

‘There’s a lot of things at stake.’

For example, the Fantastic-grade ingredient being upgraded to the next level and obtaining one of Rundalk’s powers.

‘There’s also the fact that I will enter Pandemonium, a place no one has ever entered.’

The beings living in Pandemonium were powerful.

Even if the candidates here had lower levels, most were strong. Yet the members of the faction of the King of Destruction still could not do it. It was proof of how strong the beings were in that place.

‘High risk, high return.’

The higher the risk, the greater the reward. According to Rundalk’s explanation, he would still revive and not suffer from any penalties if he died in that place.

‘In other words, it’s like a bonus land?’

One would often enter bonus lands or events when playing a game. Entering places like that would give one tremendous amount of gold and treasures for the cost of nothing!

Although the difficulty was high, Minhyuk could still accept it because he would be able to come back to life upon his death. The fact that it was the place with the most significant difficulty in all of Athenae meant that there was a high chance that there were high-grade ingredients there.

“I see. Alright.”

Minhyuk gladly agreed to his request.

***

The group members that would go on the expedition to pick up Rundalk’s daughter were all from the faction of the King of Destruction.

“Why are you participating in this expedition?”

Their answer was simple.

“Because we’re scared…?”

“...”

Minhyuk immediately understood. They would live here for a very long time. If they did not follow the King of Destruction, then they would suffer and be bullied in this place. So, they chose to follow him and help him.

“As time went on, it also became our goal.”

“I don’t know what the King of Destruction was like in the past, but he’s definitely a good man now.”

Although they started out of fear, they were now moving solely to allow the King of Destruction Rundalk and his daughter to meet.

‘Now that I look at them…’

Minhyuk realized that perhaps this was why the members of the King of Destruction’s faction were mostly dominated by combat and offense-class people.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone who can give you buffs?”

“In the first place, the members of the faction of the King of Good and King of All Creators have nothing to do with us. I don’t have any intention of asking them to participate. And like I said, there’s a limit to the number of people who can enter that place.”

When he looked at the people walking with him, their number corresponded perfectly to the number of people that could enter the passage.

“And it’s better to have those who have worked with us for a very long time to go with us.”

Not long after, Minhyuk arrived in front of Pandemonium. Looking at the entrance, Minhyuk thought the word “pandemonium” was the perfect word to describe it. The entrance was like a vast black hole that was sucking everything and anything in its path.

“Please cook for us the moment we enter.”

They could not take any buffs in that place because Pandemonium’s difficulty was too high. They would often die shortly after entering the place. There was also the fact that they could not receive buffs from the outside. They could only use buffs applied from inside the place.

“Yes.”

Rundalk and the forty members of the expedition immediately entered Pandemonium.

***

The notifications rang in Minhyuk’s ears the moment he entered.

[You have entered Pandemonium.]

[Pandemonium has the highest level of difficulty in all of Athenae.]

[The Pandemonium that you entered is the Sky Pandemonium.]

Pandemonium was said to be divided into two: the Sky Pandemonium and the Earth Pandemonium. Of the two, the Sky Pandemonium was considered a hunting ground.

[You are the first player to enter this place.]

[Your EXP Acquisition Rate and Artifact Drop Rate will increase three times.]

Minhyuk looked around.

Universe. That was the most straightforward term to describe the place around him. It was a universe where oxygen and gravity existed.

Minhyuk quickly cooked and fed the expedition\'s members in this dark and universe-like Pandemonium. Everyone looked surprised as they ate the dish that Minhyuk prepared for them.

“This is crazy…”

“I also felt like I had to ignore him just because he’s the Pillar of the Gourmands, but…”

“We were too rash.”

Amidst their shock, they realized that Rundalk’s choice was not wrong. However, they wondered if they would be able to return successfully this time.

“You’re weak, so stay back.”

They had heard stories about how Minhyuk had hunted Helenia. According to that story, he was only able to do so because Obren sacrificed his life to help him. They judged that it was mostly thanks to Obren, who they believed was still incredibly strong.

Axeman Wels might be strong, but he could not get near them. So, even if Minhyuk was good at cooking, they believed that the actual level of his power was only on par or perhaps even lower than theirs.

‘Their average level is at Level 840.’

Seeing forty people with that level was astounding.

‘I think their level is higher than any other gods?’

Of course, just like the players, the gods were also growing. But the gods were still powerful, considering that a god\'s average level was around Level 800.

“Stay back!”

At that moment, the candidate standing right next to Minhyuk pushed him behind him. At the same time, Minhyuk saw a man wearing black armor walking through the beautiful universe and approaching them.

[Supreme Monarch. Level ???. HP and MP: infinite]

“...?”

Minhyuk was very shocked to see a very familiar face.

“Why are you coming out of there…?”