Gourmet Gaming

Tournament Day.

A gigantic Wyvern King flew up in the sky carrying the Taming Master, Jan. She was the emcee of this tournament, and was a member of the popular girl group, Blue Velvet in reality. Jan cheerfully greeted everyone saying, "Hello, our dearly beloved tournament viewers! I’m Jan and I will be your emcee for today. Nice to meet you!”

"Waaaaaaaaaah!" 

"Waaaaaaaaaah!" 

The tournament was being held on a small island named Cork. Tens of thousands of players and viewers cheered loudly in the stands.

“Unlike the previous 1:1 competition format before, the tournament this time would feature battles all over the island.” 

A huge map suddenly floated up. It was big enough for both the TV viewers and the live spectators to see. 

“Around 200 players that qualified for this tournament would battle and force the other participants to log out of the game. Of course, dying in this tournament will not result in any penalties for the players. The tournament duration is twelve hours. If there are more than one player remaining at the end of the 12 hours, the winner will then be determined by the scores that they had accumulated during the tournament.” 

Flutter! 

The gigantic Wyvern King folded its wings as it shot towards the large building located in the center of Cork Island.

“This convenience store located in the center of the island will be the designated rest area. All participating players can eat, or take a rest here. Since this is a rest area, it is set as a safe zone, so PK-ing is not allowed inside the building. One thing to note, even though this place is a safe area, players will not be able to score points if they continue to stay here. Not scoring enough points will also result in their elimination. Ah! Now, let me tell you about the players that have started to log in!” 

The image on the screen changed, showing the scene inside the convenience store. Players were starting to log in one after the other.

“Wow! Can you see that? It’s so quiet inside that you can definitely hear a pin drop. Everyone looks tense! Oh, Bennet has logged in! He’s a player with the hidden class Mad Warrior, and he’s a popular BJ on Paprika TV!” 

"Kyaaaaaaaa!" 

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" 

Shouts and cheers erupted from the stands. Bennett was a popular figure and had a lot of female fans. One of the reasons for his popularity was his cool, dashing playing style as a Warrior, and the other was his good-looking face. In fact, the people found it a bit surprising that he was still a novice.

"I will now go back up in the air to start broadcasting live." 

***

VVIP seats. 

Countless rankers were sitting in this section. Among all of them, the most outstanding of them were two people: Cain, the most outstanding player among the Warrior classes and Alicia, the most outstanding player among the Mage classes. Sitting behind them were countless guild masters. These people were here to win over the strong in advance and try to recruit them into their guilds. This was the reason for their attendance. However, they knew that Lucia was someone that they could not take in. The reason was because her brother was leading one of the nation's top four guilds.

"What do you think about this tournament?" 

Alicia chuckled at Cain's question and answered, "You're asking when you know how it’s going to end?" 

"Is that so?" Cain said, smiling bitterly. 

"Are you not happy that your younger sister will win the finals?" 

"No, I'm glad… But…" Cain said. Cain knew that his sister, Lucia, joined this tournament because of him. It was an encouragement to see her working so hard, to chase after him, but it also made his heart hurt for her. All he wanted was for her to live a life that was normal, like any other ordinary girl. However, Lucia wanted to reach the peak so she chased after him, not knowing that all Cain wanted for her was to wear make-up, go to cafés with her friends, and live a normal life. 

"It's because she's young. That's why she wants to be recognized. Your father is such a great man too, so it’s natural that your sister thinks that she will only deserve that place if she does this." 

"...Yeah."

Cain’s family had a secret. While Cain was the son of the chairman of a famous company, Lucia's mother, the person his father remarried, was just an ordinary office worker. That was why Lucia was under a lot of pressure. She wanted recognition from Cain and their father. 

"Look at the faces of the participants. Ah, they look like they aren’t breathing." 

"Yeah."

The video was showing the scene in the convenience store. All of the players inside were tense, holding their breaths, while checking each other out. Although it was a place reserved for resting and eating, none of them were eating. Just then, the video caught a man rushing over to the convenience store counter.

"Huh…?" Alicia said dumbly, tilting her head in thought. For some reason, she found the man’s back to be strangely familiar. However, she could not see who he was since he was wearing a white mask.

[Is it true that everything here is free?] 

[Yes, all of the food provided by the tournament's convenience store is free. You don't need to pay for it. You can just take it.] 

[Oh, oh my god…!] 

The man smiled broadly. Then, one of the guild leaders from behind them spoke, "That person, isn't he Isbin Village's pro mukbang BJ?" 

Alicia turned towards where the voice came from and asked, "Pro mukbang BJ?"

The man looked astonished when Alicia's attention was on him. However, he quickly coughed awkwardly then started to explain politely, "Yes, it wasn't that long ago. He won an eating competition against Binz and caused an uproar." 

"Is that so?" Alicia said, smiling lightly.

Cain grinned and said, "I can't believe that he's eating in that tense atmosphere." 

Alicia's shoulders shook in laughter. She said, "Do you think he'll be shy just because of the tense atmosphere? For that person, eating is his greatest happiness."

"You know that person?" Cain asked her curiously.

Alicia nodded her head and turned her attention back to the screen, "I know him. He’s a pure and kind man that loves eating more than anything else. He actually refused me when I asked him to join our guild. I had to beg him just so I could add him as a friend.” 

"Pfft!" A man drinking coffee from the back suddenly spat out his drink. He apologized quickly. "Ah, sorry. Sorry." 

‘The country's number one beauty, Alicia, had to beg an unknown player to add him as a friend?’

Cain was also quite surprised with this information. 

"Ah, I take back what I said earlier." 

"What do you mean?" 

"The one where I said that you already know how it’s going to end. A huge variable has suddenly appeared. That person is strong enough to save me. Thanks to that player named Minhyuk, I learned something and became stronger." 

"Pfft!" 

This time, someone from the other side spewed their coffee out. Cain's expression was unreadable as he sat up straight, watching that player who was wearing an excited expression while looking at the microwave. 

***

Bennett smiled lightly as he scanned all of the contestants. He thought, 'I knew this would happen. Sigh, these bastards are all scared.'

Then, as he continued to look at the players surrounding him, he thought, 'The fans will like it better if I try to ease their tension.' 

Building an image was very important. To be honest, he was more of a broadcaster than a player. As someone that worked as a BJ on Paprika in reality, he had to maintain his image and watch his words, manners, and face. Even his hidden class Mad Warrior helped him gain more fans. However, the truth was, he was a wicked man. He was just someone who could hide his inner thoughts well.

"Hello, hello," Bennet said. He started to greet the other players, bowing politely. Even if the others only glanced at him, he would still bow. 

"Aren't you being too stiff? Others might think that we’re in the middle of a war if you're like that." 

However, the expressions of the people inside the room remained tense. Some were even gathered at one side and were looking over at him coldly. 

'It's those bastards from Bacallo Guild.' 

Bacallo was a guild that was composed of incumbent Special Forces officers and non-commissioned officers. Even though the members of Bacallo Guild were of quite low levels, every single one of them could be considered as elites, especially the top thirty within the guild. It was estimated that they would reach the top 5,000 once they progressed further inside the game. In fact, the reason why they joined this tournament was so they could raise their reputation even further.

'Those bastards. Look at their faces, they’re terribly ugly.' 

"Hello," Bennet greeted. His smiling eyes met with the frigid and cold eyes of the members of Bacallo Guild. All they did was ignore him.

"Huh, what's this? Wow, your item is so great!" 

"Ah, yes." 

Bennet tried to talk to the other participants in the room, but even if he was famous, he still failed to resolve the thick tension hanging in the air. Then… 

Ding! 

The sound of the microwave was heard by everyone. 

***

Ding! 

"Hehe…" Minhyuk chuckled as he excitedly opened the microwave. A variety of food came out, including vegetables dumplings and hot bars. 

"Fwoo, fwoo!" Minhyuk quickly put down the food in front of him. On the table, there was already food that was placed earlier, ready to be eaten. One could see a variety of cup noodles, like chapagetti, dried spicy seafood noodles, Food God ramyeon, anjeong tanmen, shrimp tantanmen and mupama. [1]

Rip! 

Minhyuk tore off the lid of the shrimp tantanmen and stirred the contents with his chopsticks. He always ate the yellow shrimp tantanmen with a bunch of eggs as garnish. 

‘Wasn't this something that can stir your appetite?’

After munching on the garnish, Minhyuk picked up some noodles from the shrimp tantanmen cup and slurped on it. 

"Kgghk!" 

Then, Minhyuk picked up some stir-fried kimchi and placed it in his mouth. Stir-fried kimchi might not be crunchy like regular kimchi, but it had a deeper, sweeter taste. Minhyuk also peeled off the wrapping paper on the Jeonju Bibim Triangular Kimbap, considered as one of the big shots in the triangular kimbap’s world. Then, Minhyuk bit off almost half of the kimbap in a single mouth.

Chomp—

Minhyuk personally believed that the best way to eat a triangular kimbap was to chomp down on it. It was the only way that he could maintain the crispiness of the seaweed, and let him taste the cold rice, as well as the slightly spicy flavor. 

"Keok." 

Minhyuk immediately gulped down some spicy soup to ease the triangular kimbap that threatened to block his throat. Then, he picked up the steaming hot bar [2] and took a bite. The hot bar sold in convenience stores had a chewy texture and a rich, meaty flavor. The more he chewed, the more juicy it was. 

‘So appetizing!’ 

Then, he turned his attention towards the vegetable dumplings. He picked just one piece of it to try. The dumpling was chewy. He could also taste the meat, glass noodles, and vegetables like scallions and carrots that filled the dumpling wrapper. All of those ingredients blended together and created a pleasant taste. Minhyuk looked at the dumplings with a smile as he chewed on one. 

"You're really..." Minhyuk cried and continued to say, "...really delicious! Chomp!" 

Minhyuk put another piece of dumpling in his cup noodles before placing another piece in his mouth. 

Chew, chew.

"Wow… It really looks delicious…" 

"L… look at him eat that hot bar, amazing." 

Everyone’s attention had been captured by the loud ding of the microwave. People even started exclaiming when they watch Minhyuk eat like that. Then, a woman suddenly stood up and walked to where Minhyuk was. She placed a grape-flavored Welch's drink in front of him. 

"You'll choke like that. Please drink some." 

"Wow. Thank you! I'll drink it well!" Minhyuk answered. He bowed politely.

The woman smiled gently and said, "Thanks to you, I feel a bit relieved. I felt like I was going to die from my legs trembling non-stop a while ago, so thanks." 

Chew?—

Minhyuk looked at her in confusion. Of course, still with a hot bar in his mouth. Even though he listened to her words, Minhyuk was still eating his food. The others also looked gratefully towards Minhyuk.

'Ah, I feel a bit relaxed.' 

'He's really enjoying it deliciously.' 

Some players even covered their mouths with the back of their hand as they gazed at Minhyuk with a gentle smile on their faces.

"This won't do. Now, I also have to eat at least one hot bar." 

"Me too. We have to eat well if we want to last longer in this tournament." 

The players started to stand up one after the other.

"Thanks." 

"I feel relaxed. Thanks." 

Minhyuk did not understand why they suddenly started to thank him. However, he still continued to eat. Just then, Bennett approached Minhyuk. 

1. Common instant noodle brands, or parody of instant noodle brands. ☜

2. Hot fishcake bar ☜