Leveling Up Through Eating

QC: MattForgenti

14 A Billion? How much was it?

And it did not end there. Mabal, the leader of the subjugation force, let out a startled voice after trying out the food fried by the new recruit.

"O, oh my goodness!"

Even the soldiers started to speak one after another.

"Huh, what\'s this!"

"It\'s absolutely delicious!"

"I\'ve never had a tonkatsu this delicious in my life!! And that\'s not all. M, my ability even increased!"

Soldiers have a higher concept of the increase in abilities and levelings compared to users.

\'This……\'

There are roughly more than thirty people who had the same reaction as her.

\'Was he really just a beginner chef?\'

She couldn\'t even conceal her shock. As she looked at the responses right now, she was wondering if what she heard from her friend about the chef\'s job class was correct.

\'Priests can\'t even cast this many buffs…….\'

She thought it was because she was unaware or clueless of the situation so that was why she couldn\'t understand what was happening.

\'Ah, that\'s right. Our guild\'s Ravel-nim is one of the few advanced level chefs in the country, right?\'

There were only about 100 advanced level chefs in the country.

Runie had heard that the dishes cooked by the chef Ravel were the best. And his buff ability was also considered to be pretty good. Of course it still couldn\'t be compared to the priests.

[Guild Chatting Runie: Ravel-nim~ Are you there~?]

[Guild Chatting Ravel: Oh, Runie-nim. Hi [1].]

[Guild Chatting Runie: Ah, Hi. Can I ask you about something?]

[Guild Chatting Ravel: Yes, ask away.]

[Guild Chatting Runie: I\'m here at the goblin subjugation force and I\'m eating a tonkatsu right now that is made by a User Cher and it has the buff ability.]

[Guild Chatting Ravel:......? Are you not mistaken? If it\'s a user in the goblin subjugation force, then they shouldn\'t have the buff ability yet.]

​ [Guild Chatting Runie: But it\'s real……]

[Guild Chatting Ravel: You can only have the cooking buff once you reach the intermediate level. And the average level of an intermediate level chef is at Lv 80~100.]

[Guild Chatting Runie: But my abilities have really increased because of the buff.]

[Guild Chatting Ravel: Could you maybe send me a screenshot of your buff window?]

[Guild Chatting Runie: Yes, please wait a moment.]

Once a user received buffs, the user would be able to view the buffs they received on the upper right hand corner of their stats window.

There was now a translucent window on her upper right hand corner with an image of a fork and knife crossed together.

\'That person did not believe me.\'

She wondered if it was really that unbelievable? Was it that chef or was it her who did not know anything?

She clicked on her stats window. She made sure that the + on the side was visible. After making sure that all was set, she took a screenshot and sent it to the guild chat.

[Guild Chatting Runie: (photo)]

[Guild Chatting Ravel: This, is this not edited?]

[Guild Chatting Runie: It\'s not!]

Runie was very frustrated.

\'He said that he liked the person but he\'s very suspicious!\'

However, not long after, the guild chat was flooded with messages from the other guild members.

[Guild Master Allen: Runie-yah, what\'s this! Is this really the cooking of a novice chef? Take a picture of the dish and send us a screenshot so we can be sure!]

Runie was a part of the Varest Guild. It was a mid-range guild with an average user level of 150~200.

She was able to enter as a beginner in the guild because she was friends in real life with the Guild Master Allen.

[Iamthebesthand: Omg, that\'s impossible! A beginner chef can have such a good buff ability?!]

[BeansieyahKissKiss: It\'s crazy right now…… Is it not edited? Wow, even our Beans is surprised.]

Runie checked the messy guild chat as she took the screenshot of her food. It was a very normal looking tonkatsu.

At that moment…

[Guild Chatting Ravel: Which village is the subjugation force from?]

Ravel suddenly asked her.

***

Ravel.

His name was Lee Hyunie, he was someone who was working in the kitchen of Shinra Hotel in reality.

He was resting in the chef\'s break room. His hands suddenly trembled which in turn made him drop his phone.

His conversation in the guild window in Athenae was open and could be seen on the screen of his fallen phone.

"......My hands are shaking? Why are they trembling like this?"

"Hey, hey. Look at this."

"?"

"It\'s a dish that came out of Athenae\'s goblin subjugation force. There were at least 30 people who received buffs."

"What kind of nonsense is that? A buff from a dish and there were 30 people who received it? The users there are only at Lv 15~20."

The people who were chefs in Athenae crowded together.

And then…

"Ack?!"

"Hey, fu… what the hell is that!"

"Hey, the ingredients are E-rank! It\'s ingredients are E-rank! It\'s E-rank and there\'s a buff! That means that the buff was reduced!"

They couldn\'t help but be surprised. They were people who were once chefs in Athenae but ended up deleting their characters and started all over again.

The part that they were most surprised about was the part where the ingredients for the dish were E-ranked.

Even an intermediate chef would find it hard to make a dish that was magic rank by using E-ranked ingredients. It was considered to be a rare case for them too.

Ingredients were also a very important factor in the dish. Rare or unique rank dishes usually required B~A rank ingredients.

To make a good steak, they usually needed to get meat from a free cow who grazed good grass in the grasslands. And the garlic and onions should be harvested from the land of the Lunes, however it wasn\'t easy since it was quite expensive.

But right now, there\'s a dish with a buff that\'s comparable to a magic dish. And to top it all of it was made from E-ranked ingredients.

"If the buff is increased then it will be a total fraud!"

This is impossible.

Then, at that moment…

"Why is there such an uproar?"

They could hear a harsh voice as a man slowly entered the break room.

The man was tall, with a well-sculpted face and a charismatic appearance. His charisma was showing quite well, especially when he took off his apron.

This man was Alex\'s only disciple Kim Seokhyun, he was considered to be the best chef in the world.

He won 1st place for 3 consecutive years in the World Cooking Grand Prix. He was also one of the top 10 chefs in the world and was well known as the genius chef with his absolute palate.

The reason he was staying in Shinra Hotel as a chef was because he wanted to be the best Korean chef in the country.

"H, head chef. Are you also playing Athenae?"

"Athenae? Are you talking about the game, it seems like you\'re spending your time with nogari [2]?"

His eyes suddenly turned gloomy.

There was only one person who climbed up and became the sole master chef. And that person was Kim Seokhyun. In the game, he was known as Twilight Chef Black.

"What in the world are you talking about that you\'re making such a fuss……"

He saw Lee Hyunie looking at a picture in his phone so he brought the phone towards him to look at it.

"W, what the hell?! Is this from a master chef?!"

The dish was tonkatsu and the ingredients were E-ranked. Plus it was normal.

Lee Hyunie spoke…

"I\'m not sure if he\'s a master chef but we assumed that his level is between 15~20. And we also know that this buff was distributed to thirty people."

"What?"

He looked at him incredulously.

It was a really crazy story but reality was right in front of him.

When Kim Seokhyun was just starting in Athenae, he chose the chef job class and went and defeated countless NPC chefs.

He surprised many people with his cooking and because of that he was able to build his name continuously. It was also because of this that he was able to make a special dish.

However, when he became a master chef at Lv70 he found out that the best buff would only come out with a better ingredient compared to stacking buffs with lower-ranked ingredients.

And now, there was a dish that gave a ridiculous amount of buff with a low percentage but it was made out of E-ranked ingredients.

Furthermore, it was surprising that it was an increase in % instead of having just + in stats. If it was an increase in % then it meant that if the person who ate the dish had a higher level then the effect would definitely be much higher.

\'Don\'t tell me he\'s the disciple of that canteen\'s captain.\'

There was another master chef that existed in the country aside from Kim Seokhyun.

I don\'t know if he\'s playing Athenae but it\'s probably him.

"Where is this?"

"It\'s in Isbin Village."

"......!"

Kim Seokhyun\'s uneasiness suddenly shot up when he heard his words.

He was Twilight Chef Black. Right now, he was working on a linked quest which had a rewards inventory listed.

\'They will give an epic artifact.\'

That was the reward.

There weren\'t much of the epic artifacts that have been released yet. At the most, there were 20 epic artifacts in the country.

And Kim Seokhyun was hoping that he would climb to the ranks of a craftsman once he received that artifact.

"Where in Isbin Village is he located?"

"In the Goblin Subjugation Forces."

A sense of foreboding crept behind him and slowly reached his neck. Suddenly, he had another thought…

\'I could probably contact this person……\'

No matter how good he was, he was still at novice level. He could determine it when he looked at the storage and preservation times.

\'Users who hunt alone will purchase large quantities of food before going to the hunting grounds.\'

What if the ingredients used by that user were all A-ranked?

\'He might get a ridiculously high buff effect. And most importantly, it\'s very easy to target low-leveled users. If they have a lot of gold then they will definitely buy the dish with the longest storage period even if it\'s at a high price.\'

Even if they would just get a bit stronger, the low-leveled users would still be able to challenge their limits that they have a hard time breaking. That was why it always sold for a high price. In this way, Athenae has secured a great position.

That user with his incredible cooking skills would definitely give him enough power which in turn would help him build a huge brand image for himself.

"How did you know this?"

"A female user from my guild sent it to me."

"Is that so? Then can you do me a favor."

"Yes?"

"Ask her to pass on what I will say to that chef."

***

Runie could see that her guild chatting window was a mess.

\'Is, is this really that great?\'

As she thought of that, a whisper from Ravel came in.

[Ravel: Runie-nim.]

[Runie: Yes?]

[Ravel: Could you please help me relay a message to that user?]

[Runie: Huh…… Please wait.]

Runie turned to look at him. She saw that he was finished with the meal distribution and he was already gobbling up his own tonkatsu.

[Runie: What do you want to say to him?]

[Ravel: You know about Chef Kim Seokhyun, right? Can you tell him that he wants to sign a contract with him with 1 billion won as payment.]

"......Eh?"

Runie tilted her head in confusion.

\'What nonsense is he talking about?\'

1 billion won? Just because of one buff? In addition, Kim Seokhyun is a world renowned chef…

[Runie: Ravel-nim actually knows Kim Seokhyun?]

[Ravel: (photo)]

Ravel sent him a picture of him in real life. His name tag has the words \'Shinra Hotel\' on it. There was also another person standing next to him in the picture. That person was really Kim Seokhyun.

\'Huh?!\'

She finally realized it.

He wasn\'t lying.

And it was really Kim Seokhyun who made that proposal.

She heard that Ravel was working at a famous hotel but she did not know the exact name of the hotel.

\'I, it\'s real?\'

[Runie: It\'s really 1 billion won worth of compensation?]

[Ravel: Yes. If he agrees to join Kim Seokhyun-ssi\'s guild Louvert [3] then he would give him 1 billion won. And if he could prove that the buff capacity that he has shown this time was true then there will be more revisions to the contract.]

[Runie: I understand!]

Runie\'s body trembled.

1 billion.

It was a very large sum of money. No one would be able to save that much money in a short amount of time or even for the rest of their lives.

And the man who was making the offer was Kim Seokhyun.

To think that it was offered to a current low-leveled user!

She couldn\'t understand what they were thinking. But she was definitely sure, that man was worth more than what they thought.

\'Maybe…… This is an opportunity?\' was what she thought.

She hurriedly approached him.

"Nim, nim!"

"Chew?"

Minhyuk looked at her strangely. He was eating the leftover tonkatsu when he heard her urgent tone.

"Do you know chef Kim Seokhyun?"

He stealthily looked at her then he continued to focus on his tonkatsu.

Runie talked excitedly in front of him.

"He wants to offer you 1 billion won if you join his Louvert guild. Do you know Louvert? It\'s a world renowned brand but it\'s also a famous guild in Athenae!"

Chew, chew, chew—

But the man was not interested in her words.

Runie thought…

\'Ah…… Was it too unrealistic?\'

Then she thought of using whisper.

If she knew the name of the person then she could send a whisper without using the code as long as they joined and were still in the subjugation force.

She pulled up her whisper with Ravel that showed his picture with Kim Seokhyun. She captured the screen and sent the whisper over.

"You can check it from my whisper!"

"Oh, it\'s really delicious!"

"W, will you check it?"

"Kyaa, it\'s real tonkatsu. You\'re too much, why did no one tell me that it was this delicious?! Huh?! I\'ll definitely scold hyung! I\'ll keep on scolding him!"

The man kept on scolding someone while stabbing the tonkatsu with his fork. He did not even pay any attention to her or her explosive words.

***

Footnotes

[1] The original uses ㅎㅇ요 which is 하이요 or a polite hi. Lol. It\'s just a Hi, but they removed the vowels to abbreviate it.

[2] 노가리 (nogari) : it\'s pollack, but it\'s a slang/joke about talking with your friends about anything happening around you.

[3] 루베르트 this was the name of the guild. If you have better ideas aside from Louvert, please feel free to contact me. Kek.

TL\'s corner!!!

LOL. 1 billion? His father is a CEO, if he notice her… He definitely will disagree. Besides they\'re not familiar with each other so he will definitely say no. Kek.

I\'m not sure if it was a typo since the Guild Master\'s name is Allen or it was someone else from the guild. But the raw said 알텐 so I guess we could say that it was a typo and it\'s Allen. We will see if they\'ll have more appearances later but for now we will say she\'s a friend of Allen.

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