Gourmet Gaming

Cold sweat started to drip down Minhyuk’s forehead. It was a very shocking sight after all. The woman that was toiling on the field was a religion’s pope. If she was the only one, then Minhyuk would not be so shocked. It was because almost all of the people here were popes. On top of that, there were the soldiers that were patrolling the grounds.

‘The strongest paladins…?’

For each religion, only one person could be hailed as the strongest paladin. Yet, beings of such a level were all living here as if they were ordinary soldiers. The problem was that all of them were reacting to the evil energy that was flowing out of Minhyuk’s body.

‘There’s no way that I can defeat them…’

Minhyuk knew that there was no chance of winning against the huge number of strongest paladins and popes present in this place. There were even some people whose level had gone beyond Level 600. The bigger problem was the fact that he could not afford to clash against them. After all, he came here to find out more about Obren and how to awaken him.

“Hmm?”

Then, the man, who was the Favron Religion’s Strongest Paladin Kerr, stopped in front of Minhyuk with his old spear in hand. He said, “What a bizarre phenomenon. I can sense a strong holy power alongside the evil energy in his body.”

“I see, I see. His holy power is also very strong.”

The paladins and the popes stopped in front of Minhyuk, their expressions filled with curiosity and doubt. However, they did not show any signs of dropping their vigilance. With their spears and swords pointed at Minhyuk, one of them asked, “How did you get here? What are you? If you don’t tell us what you are, I will tear a being like you with strong holy power and evil energy apart.”

Minhyuk was unsure about what to say to them. He felt like he would be attacked at once if he said, ‘I came here to awaken the Evil God?’.

But then, a woman, Illua the saintess of the Cannath Religion, stepped forward and said, “I can sense that the evil energy is coming from something in your possession, can you show it to us?”

Minhyuk hesitated when he heard Illua’s question. However, he realized that this was bound to happen sooner or later.

‘Hiding this won’t make any difference,’ Minhyuk thought, finally making a decision as he took out the Puzzling Seasoning Jar from his inventory. The moment he pulled it out, the eyes of everyone around him grew wide.

“Obren…”

“It’s the container where Obren is sleeping.”

“How…”

All of them looked surprised. It seemed like they all knew about the seasoning jar where Obren was slumbering in.

‘It seems like I can really find an answer here,’ Minhyuk thought, fully convinced about the matter.

Meanwhile, everyone looked at him with their eyes asking him about his identity. So, Minhyuk slowly opened his mouth and began to speak, “I…”

Everyone focused on Minhyuk’s mouth.

“…am Obren’s friend.”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

They immediately turned to look at each other, shock evident in their gazes. At that moment, a man, who seemed to be the oldest among them, stepped forward. The man looked emaciated, his body all skin and bones.

‘Why do the popes, saints and strongest paladins of each religion look like this?’

It was quite a strange sight to see. Minhyuk realized most of them looked emaciated. Even their clothes were poor and shabby. He turned to look back at the old man.

[Pope Echeron. Level 623.]

“…”

Minhyuk was once again left speechless after seeing the old man’s level. Not only that, the old man was also the pope of a religion called Eres.

‘Eres…? Will I be able to use the Detailed Information function on it?’

The Detailed Information function was not something that would be activated and used just because someone was curious about an artifact or a quest. It could also be activated once one had questions about someone that they have met and only if they were facing each other.

[Eres Religion. A religion that served and worshiped Eres, the first Spear God. According to records, no other Spear God has surpassed Eres.]

“…”

Minhyuk was puzzled. A human could only live up to 70 to 100 years. But in this place, there were many bigshots here with the title of ‘first’ added to their names.

‘They are immortals.’

If that was not the case, then they were probably dead and this place was their grave.

Old Man Echeron asked, “Can you see that?”

Echeron was referring to the wide field in front of them. Of course, Minhyuk could see the state of the field. There were even some people that did not pay them any heed and continued to toil in it. However, he realized something.

‘Huh? There’s something strange here.’

That was right. There was something strange.

Doing fieldwork inside the game Athenae was different from reality. One could not dig simply because they wanted to dig. They had to have enough DEX or farming skill to be able to dig properly and well. The higher their stat or skill was, the better they could dig. For people that did not have the skill or enough DEX, it would at least take them one to two hours of work to do a job that would otherwise only take five minutes. That was exactly what this scene looked like to Minhyuk.

‘Four Pope-ranked people can’t harvest a single green onion?’

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Indeed, there were four Pope-ranked people that were working together to pull a green onion out of the ground. Of course, just like what was mentioned, one would not be able to farm if they did not have DEX or farming skills. Perhaps, the green onion was something special?

‘No. A pope can’t even pull out a green onion…?’

Fortunately, an explanation immediately rang in his ears.

[The land that exists beyond the Papal Wall has been cursed by an Evil God!]

[Those that have received the Evil God’s Curse will have restrictions in their food, clothing and shelter!]

[No matter what they do, they will not be able to improve their DEX. They will also experience greater difficulty when solving their needs for food, shelter and clothing!]

[They are cursed by the Evil God to live the life of an immortal!]

‘…Evil God’s Curse?’

What truly happened between Obren and First Pope Kronad?

Then, a quest window popped up in front of Minhyuk.

[Hidden Quest: The Evil God’s Cursed Stone]

Rank: SSS

Requirements: The One that Entered the World Within the Papal Wall

Rewards: An increase in favor with the people living inside the Papal Wall. The Popes and Paladins’ blessings. Consultation with First Pope Kronad.

Penalty for Failure: Expulsion from the Papal Wall.

Description: The ones living inside the Papal Wall had committed a crime against the Evil God. Because of that, they have received a curse regarding their living necessities. They would have to work hard for hours on end just to harvest a single grain of rice. Even their DEX is not enough to make clothes for themselves. If they happen to create an article of clothing, it would disintegrate on its own within a week. Winter will always surround the houses that they live in and they have to endure the cold. Destroy two of the ‘Evil God’s Cursed Stone’ for them.

‘They have restrictions on their living necessities?’

There were three major things that a person needed to live and survive, which were food, clothing and shelter. Yet, the people here had received restrictions regarding this. Well, it was not really a complete restriction.

‘Were they really subjected to restrictions in their way of living?’

Then, the old man said, “We are all cursed. That’s why, every time we enter our house, we have to fight and endure the freezing cold. We can make fire but we can’t even burn our firewood. As for the food? It’s already a relief if we can eat a meal in a day. And even if we make clothes, our clothes will disintegrate on their own within a week.”

It was a truly terrible curse.

‘They have to experience it forever?’

Of course, people would want to sleep somewhere warm, feel full and wear good clothes. However, in this land, everything regarding those things was the ‘worst’ and they have to continue living like that for all eternity. For Minhyuk, someone who loved to eat, this was a terrible thing.

“However, there’s a way to release this curse. If you split a certain amount of firewood and harvest a certain amount of crops, you will be able to break the ‘Evil God’s Cursed Stone’.”

Minhyuk was quick to notice about what this was, ‘Is it a repetitive hard labor quest?’

Indeed, it was a quest regarding hard labor where one had to achieve 100% firewood collection rate or crop harvest rate to complete.

“If the Evil God’s Cursed Stone is broken, we will be able to be more comfortable when harvesting crops and spend our time in the cold warmly by burning firewood and creating fire.”

The old man looked sad. It would be a lie if they said that the punishment they were receiving for the crime that they have committed was not hard.

“But if you try and decide to do us this favor then the Evil God’s Curse will also fall upon you the moment you try to split the firewood and harvest the crops.”

Minhyuk was not given any other choice. He could only accept this quest.

Meanwhile, the Level 623 Pope Echeron said sadly, “Ah, it seems I have spoken too much. I’m feeling hungry.”

Then…

Ping—

“Huuuuh? Hanel has collapsed!”

“He must have collapsed because of hunger!”

Hanel, the man that was working on the field, collapsed. The strongest paladin of the Carn Religion, a man that has reached Level 570, had collapsed on the field because of hunger!

For now, Minhyuk decided to accept the quest. Then, the notifications rang in his ears again.

[You have accepted the Hidden Quest: The Evil God’s Cursed Stone]

[The Evil God’s Curse will fall upon you the moment you start splitting firewood and harvesting crops!]

“You have to go to that field over there, not in this field,” Echeron said, pointing to a distant place.

Minhyuk bowed politely and headed there himself. That was when he saw a wide field that looked to be around three hectares or more.

‘…?’

Anyone could tell that this field was huge. Then, another notification rang in his ears.

[You have one week to achieve a 100% crop harvest yield!]

The field was far too big for Minhyuk to accomplish something like that by himself. On top of that, he would even be subjected to the Evil God’s Curse.

Meanwhile, the popes and paladins began to crowd around Pope Echeron. He was a symbolic figure to these people. To put it simply, he was like the head of the village or an elder that led them.

“Pope Echeron! Why did you tell that man about that impossible ordeal!”

All of them looked at the pope in doubt. Break the Evil God’s Cursed Stone? So far, none of them had been able to complete a 100% collection rate. That was the case even if everyone stuck together and helped each other out. The worst part was that their collection rate would return to 0% if they failed to complete the task within a week.

At their words, Echeron said, “That man must not have an audience with Pope Kronad.”

“Ah…”

Indeed. The man was the friend of Evil God Obren. They were all aware of how heartbroken Kronad would be if the man appeared in front of him. That was why Echeron said that.

Echeron turned to look at the direction where the man went, a bitter look on his face as he thought, ‘…Forgive me.’

After dealing with that, Echeron made his way to the prayer room to pray. Who was he praying to? It was none other than ‘Evil God Obren’. Those that did not know him would even think that he was a follower and believer of the Evil God. However, he was doing this because he wanted to apologize for the mistakes that he had made a long time ago.

Echeron stayed in the prayer room connected to his house for three entire days.

“Aaaaaah…”

Ping—

Even in the midst of his prayers, someone would faint and collapse on the ground. They were so hungry to the point that their body could no longer hold on.

Shiver, shiver, shiver—

When they went to sleep at night, all they could do was curl in on themselves as their body shivered in the cold. All of the houses in this land would reach a temperature below zero once night fell. They could not even burn firewood to combat the cold. No, to be exact, they did not have any firewood to burn. This was all because of the Evil God’s Curse.

As they let out a shaky breath that had turned white from the cold and wrapped a blanket tightly around their shaking bodies. They mumbled, ‘I’m sorry, Obren.’

But even after hundreds, no, thousands of years, none of them blamed Obren. They only blamed themselves.

As for Echeron? He finally finished his three-day prayer and went out to the field.

“Did he give up and leave?”

It was already late, the sun was already setting beautifully on the horizon. Eceheron believed that there was no man that was capable of toiling on the field or splitting firewood under the Evil God’s Curse.

However, he still recalled the man’s words, ‘I am Obren’s friend.’

Friend. It was a very nice word. However, Echeron knew that he, together with Pope Kronad and the rest of the people here, had betrayed the beautiful meaning of that word. What did the word ‘friend’ entail? Perhaps it was doing anything and everything for the other? Or perhaps that was also a lie.

As he continued to walk forward, he saw hundreds of popes, paladins and saints huddled together.

“…?”

Echeron quickly approached them. There, he saw the man shining brightly under the beautiful light of the setting sun. The man was swinging his pickaxe as hard as he could despite his exhaustion and pale complexion.

Then, someone suddenly said, “He’s been at it for days. He did not even sleep.”

“Why is he doing that?”

At that moment, Bellman Religion’s Pope Airen said, “I asked him before why he was doing this, even though it was so hard.”

Everyone, including Echeron, turned to look at her. Airen looked at the man working hard on the field and continued, “However, he just answered me with, I’m Obren’s…”

Echeron focused on Airen’s words as she said, “…friend.”

“…!”

At this moment, the word ‘friend’ was engraved once again in Echeron’s heart.