Gourmet Gaming

The ones that had connections with Minhyuk, even the ones that had only seen his face once, received the same notifications. For the players, these were the notifications that rang in their ears.

[God is calling upon you.]

[If you respond to God’s call, your One Shot Kill Skill will be activated.]

[Even if you are forced to log out, the skill will still be controlled under the AI’s control.]

[You will be forced to log out once you answer God’s call!]

[Those that choose to answer God’s call will only receive the penalty of not being able to access and connect to the game for forced log out!]

For the NPCs, instead of the notifications, it came to them in the form of God’s holy and sacred voice.

[The lowest God is asking for your help.]

[If you respond to this request, 50% of your power will disappear for a day.]

Fortunately, they would not incur any huge penalties. Because of that, many of the NPCs that cherished and loved the lowest God answered his call.

The dark sky was painted with the picturesque scene of tens of thousands of lethal skills. Seeing the world’s best and strongest gathered around like that brought forth a renewed hope to the people from all over the world. Finally, Gaerna’s body was torn to pieces.

These notifications rang loudly across the world.

[The Allied Army has succeeded in killing Gaerna.]

[Rewards will be given to the members of the Allied Army based on their contributions.]

[You joined the Allied Army. Your EXP Acquisition Rate and Item Drop Rate will triple for two weeks.]

[You have gained 1 platinum.]

[You have acquired the Allied Army’s Brilliant Sword.]

[You will receive rewards for your contributions.]

[You have gained 50,000,000 EXP.]

[You have gained 1 platinum.]

[You have acquired 20 Mandala Recovery Potions.]

[You have acquired 20 Mandala Mana Potions.]

[You have acquired 3 Aesthnon Ores.]

These were the rewards for those that had made low or vague contributions. These rewards were fixed. As for the people that have made higher contributions, it was natural that they would receive better rewards and compensation.

[You will receive rewards for your contributions.]

[You have gained 6,000,000,000,000 EXP.]

[You have gained 634 platinum.]

[…acquired 100 Mandala’s Excellent Recovery Potions.]

These were the notifications received by the players that survived the battle. Of course, these were also the same notifications received by the players that had been forced to log out too.

The commentators quickly caught wind of the contents of the rewards.

[The distributed rewards are amazing.]

[Among all of the episode quests’ rewards, this has got to be the most generous one.]

[Their EXP Acquisition and Item Drop rates will triple. That means that they can gain a huge increase in their level and plenty of special items during the two week duration.]

[Most of the players that participated in the war and joined the Allied Army came from the Qingdao Kingdom and Rothschilde Kingdom. However, there are still plenty of other players that joined as mercenaries. To be honest, they had been ridiculed by the others, no?]

[That’s right. There were plenty of mocking comments in the community sites with some of them saying, ‘You’ll definitely receive penalties for your death.’]

[Those naysayers must be turning green from envy right now.]

[As much as we care about the generous rewards of this episode quest, plenty of people are also paying attention to Food God Minhyuk.]

[The entire world is wondering what kind of rewards he has received.]

That was right. The chosen Alliance’s King would receive 1.5x more rewards if they successfully killed Gaerna. On top of that, the Alliance’s King would have the highest contributions. In fact, watching the hunt for Gaerna, everyone was sure that Brod, Minhyuk and those that had been called using God’s Summons were the ones with the greatest contributions. That was why many were paying attention to the rewards that Minhyuk had received.

Minhyuk stood there shining a brilliant red, just like the sun among the stars in the dark sky. When he looked around, he saw many people standing beside him in the sky looking at him. Many of them were the players that had been forced to logout and were being controlled by AI.

But among them, there was one person that he sorely missed. The person that stood at the forefront and the representative of all of these people, Sword God Valen. Valen had a soft and gentle smile on his face as he looked at Minhyuk. Of course, Minhyuk was looking at him with a smile of his own.

“Thank you,” Valen said after looking at the boy for a very long time. In the end, Valen slowly disappeared with the wind.

Minhyuk knew what Valen meant by those words. The man was thanking him for becoming a great person and for still being healthy and lively. He was also thanking him for allowing them to meet once again. Those two words held plenty of meaning for the two of them.

“I’m the one that should thank you, Instructor.”

Minhyuk smiled softly, before bowing his head in gratitude to the ones that answered his call. Sword Emperor Ellie and Mercenary King Venteio were smiling softly at him, pleased looks on their faces. Even Overlord Raldo approached him and knocked his shoulders before they disappeared into thin air. Minhyuk slowly landed on the ground not long after, his red hair turning back to its usual black color. He had also heard the notifications for the rewards.

Meanwhile, the entire world was left in a frenzy.

[Did anyone check the rankings?]

[Why? What’s the matter?]

[OMG…!]

Exclamations rang out everywhere. Minhyuk had recently attracted the attention of many people from all over the world because of his abrupt and shocking burst of increase in level. Back then, his rapid growth had placed him around the late 200s in rankings. But now, there was another change in the ranking.

[The 8th place…?]

[The Food God is ranked 8th…]

[He was at rank 276 up until yesterday though?]

[No. How much did his level increase in one go?]

[He’s at Level 596 now.]

[Only a few left before Level 600…]

A commotion broke out.

‘How amazing would the other rewards be if his EXP increased by this much?’

However, Minhyuk’s expression was dark, as he landed on the ground. From what he knew, more than three million troops deployed in this war, this number included the troops sent by different empires and kingdoms, as well as the members of the Allied Army. However, only 600 of these people survived. Fortunately, none of Minhyuk’s men died or got seriously injured.

The viewers were looking at Minhyuk in confusion. Minhyuk should have been happy since Gaerna’s hunt was over, but his expression told a different story. It was to be expected, after all, he believed the NPCs were also people too, the people that lived in this world.

Minhyuk slowly approached the bodies that had not yet disappeared, touching the wrists of one of the soldiers that held a young girl’s hair tie. Then, the notifications rang in his ears.

[You have gained Roald’s favor.]

[You have gained Brechtri’s favor.]

[You have gained Raecor’s favor.]

[…Cracker’s favor.]

Notifications constantly rang in Minhyuk’s ears. There were still a considerable number of NPCs standing together with the players among the surviving supremes. They would probably receive the support of the Rothschilde Kingdom and the Qingdao Kingdom. However, Minhyuk was able to gain their favor just by showing sympathy to the dead soldiers of another kingdom.

‘Instead of enjoying victory first, the king of a nation is honoring the dead instead.’

‘He truly is a very considerate and understanding king.’

‘If he is my king, then I will most definitely rest assured, even if I died.’

Others would think that this was just a show that Minhyuk was doing. However, he was not doing this for show. He actually felt sad and sorry for the lives that were lost here.

Meanwhile, there was a person that was watching what he was doing in reality.

***

Calauhel felt a whirlwind of emotion engulf his entire being as he watched Minhyuk stroke the tanned wrist of a dead soldier on TV. He had also realized some things about the bond that he had with the NPCs of the game through this incident.

‘Is it because of that? Is that the reason why a lot of people follow you?’

Calauhel was the head of Blackstone. There were also a lot of people that followed him. However, if one went into the specifics, they only followed him because they believed and trusted his money.

Minhyuk might be the successor of Ilhwa Group, but he was not as rich as Calauhel. However, the people that followed him were all loyal to him. Calauhel now realized why.

He turned to look at the butler behind him. He looked at him for a moment before saying, “Deposit three hundred billion into that account.”

“Three hundred billion?!”

The butler almost choked on his own saliva when he heard the amount. However, Calauhel remained nonchalant. Of course, three hundred billion was still a huge amount, even for someone like him.

However, he had also made huge contributions during Gaerna’s hunt and had received huge rewards. In fact, the Rothschilde Kingdom was the one that took the lead in hunting Gaerna so the benefits that they would receive would definitely be huge. On top of that, Calauhel would be very happy if he could buy a relationship with Minhyuk with just this much money.

Well, Minhyuk had originally asked him for 200 billion. However, he had told him that he would need to add another 50 billion if he went to find him again. As for the remaining 50 billion? It was just a small consideration from Calauhel in support of Minhyuk.

Then, on the monitor, Minhyuk began to speak.

Support us at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

[We gained victory.]

They have protected Athenae from one of the Six Monster Gods.

[However, many of us have died. Some of us probably lost their fathers, their sons, their daughters, or even their wives.]

On the path of her destruction, Gaerna had also attacked several ordinary and mediocre territories.

The survivors remained silent at his words. The same was true for all of the viewers that watched them from all over the world. The viewers were empathizing. They were wondering what they would feel if they were there.

Someone thought, ‘More than the gains and profits, you give precedence to the heart and the minds of your people. Is that the kind of person you are?’

Even Calauhel had thought that way. All he could do was look at Minhyuk while chuckling bitterly to himself.

[Let us mourn for their deaths.]

The survivors all prayed silently together with Minhyuk. Calauhel also remained silent as if he was there too.

[For those that died today, I will give…]

‘Fifty billion. It’s not such a bad loss to give to someone like that, no?’

[Five…]

Minhyuk hesitated in his words.

Then, the butler said, “Young Master, I have deposited the money.”

“Wait. Five…?” Calauhel said, his eyes focused on Minhyuk’s lips. Then, Minhyuk quickly changed his words.

[One hundred billion.]

“…?”

[The Beyond the Heavens Kingdom’s finances are currently unstable. This is because the number of our population keeps on increasing which means that we have to undergo a never-ending process of expanding our territories.]

“…?”

[However, I have gained a lot during Gaerna’s hunt and will dispose of some of them to raise 100 billion to soothe the hearts of those that had been affected by this battle.]

“…But that’s my money?”

[We will make it so we can help you recover from the damages of this war.]

“No. Wait…”

Calauhel pondered deeply. Minhyuk had originally asked for 200 billion. But then, he charged him 250 billion because he said that it would be an additional 50 billion, and was the cost of Minhyuk’s ‘disappointment’. Calauhel also gave him an additional 50 billion to support him. In other words, the 100 billion that Minhyuk offered for the dead was the money that he gained from Calauhel.

[I will never forget those that sacrificed their lives and died today. I hope that this money will help soothe the wounds and the pain that you will feel even for a brief moment.]

[Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!]

[Long live Beyond the Heaveeeeeeens!!!]

[Long live Food God Minhyuuuuuuuuuuuuk!!!]

Calauhel was the one that foot the bill, but Minhyuk was the one that gained popularity and fame. When he thought back on it, he realized that Minhyuk had started his sentence earlier with ‘five…’. That meant that he only planned to give fifty billion initially.

“Hey, you $%#^@$!#$!@#!!!”

The portal sites all over the world were plastered with ‘Minhyuk’s 100 billion donation’, coupled with articles praising Minhyuk’s generosity. There was even someone that praised Minhyuk for raising 100 billion by disposing of most of the artifacts that he had gained during Gaerna’s hunt. Basically, all of them praised Minhyuk.

“This damn bastard! @#!@#!@#%$$!#!”

Calauhel, who spent another 50 billion because of his consideration and warm feelings for the man, screamed loudly.