Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 377: Turning the Tide of War

The entire world was in an uproar after the unexpected declaration of Korea’s number one official ranker, Carr. He expressed his firm will and determination to help forge a path for the Food God’s kingship.

[Ah. Carr has declared that he would make him Athenae’s ‘King’, an existence that has not appeared yet.]

[Unbelievable!!! This is very surprising. Korea’s number one ranker, Carr, has declared that he will go under someone else’s command!]

[Who in the world is Food God Minhyuk? How can he make a person like Carr, the number one ranker in their country, declare that he would become his subordinate!!!]

There were plenty of people from all over the world that did not hold any interest towards the Food God. No, it was more accurate to say that there were plenty of people from all over the world that did not even know of the Food God. That was only natural. After all, most people would not pay attention to others, unless they were people that came from their own country.

However, there were plenty of people that knew Carr, since he won the Olympics a few years ago. Hence, they were very shocked by his declaration.

Then, Carr dashed forward. These were the notifications that rang for him when the young boy, Conir, had possessed his body.

[You can use the complete power of Conir during the duration of the possession.]

[Conir, who had possessed your body, is currently at Level 751.]

[Your Skill Level has increased by +5.]

[Your Sword Mastery has gone beyond the limitations and has entered the Transcendental Realm.]

[You have recovered all of your HP and MP.]

[Your Physical and Magical Defenses have increased by 250%.]

[The more sword strikes you link successfully, the higher the damage.]

That was right. There was only one reason why Minhyuk chose Carr. This was because he was the perfect choice for the person that can use and control Conir’s powers. In particular, the more ‘Sword Link’?he used, the more damage he would deal, as long as he could land another attack within three seconds. There were only a few players that could use the Sword Link in quick succession.

Carr was a sword genius, and if such a sword genius temporarily absorbed Conir’s power, then he would become the best.

Stab—

[You have linked your sword strikes.]

[You will receive 2% additional attack power for three seconds.]

[Additional Attack Power: 2%]

[You have linked your sword strikes.]

[You will receive 1.5% additional attack power for three seconds.]

[Additional Attack Power: 3.5%]

[…linked your sword strikes.]

[…linked your sword strikes.]

[Ten consecutive links!]

[You will receive 5% additional attack power for three seconds. Your Skill Level will increase by +1.]

[Fifteen consecutive links!]

[You will receive 6% additional attack power for four seconds. Your Skill Cooldown has been reduced by 30%.]

[Current Additional Attack Power: 29%. Skill Level: +2. Skill Cooldown: 30% reduction.]

Minhyuk’s choice of Carr was the perfect candidate, especially after he achieved an incredible feat of 15 consecutive linked sword strikes. The enemies that appeared before him fell helplessly under his sword. Seeing this, the enemies panicked.

“N…no! We can’t attack!”

“What, what the hell?! He’s alone, so why can’t I successfully land an attack?!!!”

Ping—

“Keuaaaack! How can I only have 2% HP left when I only received a basic strike from him?!”

“How high is his damage?!!!”

The players from Cairon Continent failed to attack Carr, despite him standing in the middle of their ranks. There were tens of thousands of enemy troops, but thanks to his sword skills and Conir’s power and speed, he remained invincible. Just when Carr cut down one of the enemies…

“Frieeeeeeeend!!!”

“Frieeeeeeeeend!!!”

“Frieeeeeeend!!!”

…voices came from behind him. Carr turned his head for a moment to look. That was when he saw the members of the Let’s Eat Sect Guild. The members of the Let’s Eat Sect Guild were very surprised when they heard that Carr was willing to join their guild. Recruiting Carr into their ranks meant that they would gain a huge boost to their strength. They welcomed him together with a passionate call.

“Frieeeeeeend!!!” Carr, amidst their enemies, also raised his left hand and shouted back at them, his cheeks flushing pink.

‘To be honest, I really wanted to try this too!!!’

Carr had long wanted to try this, ever since he watched the video of them doing this before! And at some point, the surviving Korean players also shouted loudly among the roars of their enemies.

“Friend!!!”

“Frieeeeeeeend!!!”

“Let’s be friends!!!”

“Frieeeeeend!!!”

Their voices rose above the roars of their enemies and entered through Carr’s ears. He finally belonged to the Let’s Eat Sect Guild, and had also become their friend. Carr felt his thumping heart. There was a strange sense of elation and excitement thrumming through his veins. There was also faith and trust.

‘That’s right. I’m not alone anymore. I can also fight alongside everyone…!’?Carr thought as he turned around only to see the retreating backs of the players from Asgan Continent.

“…???”

“Hey, aren’t your friends retreating?”

“…???”

[…???]

Carr suddenly felt flustered when he saw them retreat.

‘What is this situation? Why did they suddenly retreat after shouting ‘friends’?!’

A curse unknowingly drifted past his mouth.

“Hey, you f*cking bastards!!! Come back here!!!”

Even the players from the Cairon Continent felt sorry for Carr.

“You’ve been abandoned? My god…”

“…Go to hell!”

“Waaah!”

Carr’s head went blank after he cut down the player that tried to sympathize with him, albeit mockingly. He also could not figure out why they suddenly retreated. Then, among the figures of the retreating players from Asgan Continent, appeared a man that went against the flow and dug through the enemy gaps.

[It’s, it’s the Food God!!!]

[Food God Minhyuk has unleashed a fierce offensive to get through where Player Carr is!!!]

[Hundreds of blades dancing around his body are ravaging and devouring the enemies. He’s swiftly breaking through tens of thousands of troops!!!]

[What a spectacular sight!!! A lone man silently pierces through and kills his ways against tens of thousands of troops!!!]

[He’s responding to Carr after hearing his request to join the Let’s Eat Sect Guild!!!]

[Just like what Carr said, he just might be the very first king in Athenae! He’s running towards Carr!!!]

[The Food God that both Korea and the rest of the world are waiting for has appeared!!!]

[According to the global rankers and Athenae experts, they expect the Food God to only last for less than half an hour!]

[Carr suddenly wakes up from his trance! Perhaps Carr will show us something more and move more actively!]

Then, Minhyuk reached Carr. The two men leaned on each other’s back and faced off against their enemies. Both of them started to cut down their enemies without any hesitation.

[What a splendid sight. Carr, the world-class Olympic gold medalist, and the player that defeated him! These two people are fighting together, back to back!!!]

[I think this video right here will become the best video of the year.]

[Can you see the movements of the swords of these two people? It looks like their swords are dancing.]

[Their swords are extremely sharp and infinitely delicate in their movements! There will be no other player in Athenae that can show such fantastic skills!!!]

[The people watching from all over the world are going crazy after witnessing these two people fighting together!]

[Their swords are fluttering around like a butterfly, but strike sharply like the sting of bees!!!]

The two shook off their enemies at almost the same time.

“Blooming Sword.”

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The tens of thousands of troops might hold a huge advantage in numbers, but they also had their own weakness. Since their numbers were huge, they were very concentrated in one area. This meant that it would be quite easy to deal with a huge number of people using AOE attack skills.

“The Emperor’s Blade.”

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping—

Sword blades appeared around Carr, before swiftly flying around and cutting down his enemies. Then, the two of them looked back at each other and smiled. The first one to reach his hand out was Minhyuk. Carr immediately grabbed his hand. The scene made the hearts of the viewers from all over the world grow warm.

[Aaaaaaaaaaah! Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend!!!]

[What a wonderful scene!!!]

[Passionate friendship! Burning skills! And these two people’s hot looks!!!]

[The scene in which two people with sculpturesque figure’s standing at 180 centimeters tall fighting together hand in hand! Surrounded by tens of thousands of troops! It’s like a scene straight out of a movie!!!]

[If Food God Minhyuk looks similar to our country’s actor, Kang Dongwonbin, then Player Carr looks like So Ganzi!]

[This is an amazing scene that you can’t help but go ‘Kyaa~!’!!!]

.

[It seems like the two of them are talking about something.]

[I can’t hear them well.]

Everyone focused and turned their attention to their conversation. Even the Cairon Continent troops stepped back and listened in on them. Just like that, they heard their voices.

“Just the two of us?”

Nod.

“We’re going to stop these 50,000 strong troops? Just the two of us?”

Nod, nod.

[…???!!!]

[…???!!!]

The people all over the world once again received shocking information. They felt flustered after listening in on their conversation.

[What, what did they say?]

[The, the two of them are going to stop the 50,000 enemy troops?]

[…]

[…]

Carr was the one to voice out what everyone was feeling. He said, “Have you gone crazy…?”

***

While the whole world was left reeling in shock, Carr had difficulty hiding his embarrassment. No, in fact, he could not hide his shock and outburst.

The reason for the sudden retreat of the players of Asgan Continent was finally revealed. It was because Minhyuk made them withdraw from the battlefield. He even said that the two of them would be the one to face the 50,000 strong enemy troops.

“Have you gone crazy…?”

To be honest, it was not strange for Carr to blurt out these words. Minhyuk’s words were so preposterous that all he could do was choke on his spit from the shock.

That was when Minhyuk started sending him a whisper.

[Minhyuk: Our retreating troops will take a detour and catch the enemies off-guard. As long as we can successfully block this then the Asgan Continent will take the victory.]

[Carr: Let’s follow some common sense. Do you think something like that is even possible?]

Carr looked at Minhyuk with an absurd expression, but Minhyuk just nodded cheerfully at him and said, “Yeah!”

“…”

Carr suddenly felt like he wanted to cancel his membership request to the Let’s Eat Sect Guild. The bastard in front of him was unnecessarily optimistic. Then, Minhyuk suddenly looked at the encroaching enemies and sent him another whisper.

[Minhyuk: I’m going to try a skill so buy me a bit of time. Ah, we have a strategy. Our operation should be… murmur… murmur…]

[Carr:…I’m, I’m supposed to do something like that?]

This time too, Minhyuk…

“Yeah!”

…was extremely optimistic and bright.

‘Maybe I should just kill him…’?This thought flashed in Carr’s head for a moment. Then, Minhyuk started casting his skill.

“Stop him!!!”

“The Food God is casting something!!!”

“Attack!!!”

The players from Cairon Continent began to flock to where they were again. The skill that Minhyuk was casting was none other than ‘Sword of Absolute Death’. However, it was not just a simple Sword of Absolute Death. Minhyuk’s Sword of Absolute Death was now being activated with his ‘Will’ skill buff, his ox bone soup buff, and he would even add his Berserk skill on top of that. This would be the best version of his Sword of Absolute Death. It would take Minhyuk 40 seconds before he could use the skill. So, Carr began his attack.

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping—

Carr danced around splendidly with his sword to prevent the enemies from flocking towards Minhyuk. However, there were too many players from Cairon Continent. Some of their attacks reached the defenseless Minhyuk, whose body was now covered with a dark red current of energy. However…

Clang!!!

The enemy’s attacks would either barely cause damage on Minhyuk’s body or…

[Your attack has failed.]

…the attack would miss. The mages created a wall of flames between Minhyuk and Carr.

Swooooosh—

However, even after being subjected to that situation, Minhyuk’s skill casting remained unimpeded. Even the damage that he received was negligible.

Slash!

Carr finally felt that something was weird after he cut down another enemy.

‘This… this momentum and pressure…’

Carr felt like the entire area was engulfed in killing intent, which was so prominent that it could even choke the enemies rushing forward. When the skill casting time was finally over, Minhyuk murmured, “Berserk.”

[Berserk]

[All abilities will be increased by 16% and all stats would have a +2 increase.]

[Your HP will decrease by 3% per second. By the end of the skill, your HP will fall below 10% while your defense will fall below 20%.]

The figure of a gigantic demon rose above his head before getting sucked inside his body.

“Kiyeeeeeeee!”

Then, a black current appeared and merged with the red current that was flowing around Minhyuk’s body, until they merged into a single color. Minhyuk then triggered his skill and sent it to Carr’s other side.

“Sword of Absolute Death.”

[Sword of Absolute Death]

[The skill has been strengthened and enhanced after being subjected to various buffs.]

[The first sword strike will hit your enemy with a 100% chance and an additional 1600% damage as long as they are within eight meters of you. The opponent that received the first sword strike will receive 13 consecutive attacks with 800% additional damage and will fall into a stunned state for three seconds.]

[Hundreds of blades with 800% additional damage will shoot out and dance around to destroy and devour your enemies. A direct hit will cause a powerful explosion that will deal an additional 1000% damage.]

The first sword strike could literally kill any enemy that it landed on.

So, Minhyuk sent his attack towards the player that looked the most powerful among the enemies. His name is Oz, the sun in China’s tanker world, a well-known player that could handle dozens of rankers all by himself. But at that moment…

Stab—

[You have been forced to log out.]

“…?”

The crowd was plunged into a momentary silence, as hundreds of sword blades extended from Minhyuk’s sword. Minhyuk was currently in a state where his skills and abilities had risen dramatically, thanks to his Berserk skill, Will skill, and other buffs. The Cairon players died helplessly under the onslaught of his sword blades. Even the players that were only in the vicinity of the dancing sword blades died.

In a blink of an eye, the players that rushed in front of him were swept cleanly away. And it did not stop there.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Huge explosions bloomed all over the place. In just an instant, literally an instant, more than 1,800 players collapsed on the ground.

“…Hiiiik!”

“Cr… crazy shit…!”

“That’s something beyond a human’s capability!!!”

The players from Cairon Continent shouted in fright. Carr also looked back at Minhyuk in shock.

‘Crazy…!’

He had never seen such a ridiculously frightening skill in his life. No, just half of that skill’s power was enough to frighten most people.

[…]

[…]

The commentators and experts from all over the world had declared earlier that Minhyuk would not even last an hour, when they compared him to the Summit Five. But now, they were rendered speechless by the current situation. All they could do was keep their mouths shut, not knowing what to say. Then, at that moment…

Collapse—

Minhyuk fell down. The faces of the embarrassed and flustered commentators finally jumped back to life. They felt that this was their opportunity. Many quickly gave their interpretations and assumptions.

[Aaaaaaaah! What, what an amazing skill.]

[Perhaps this skill far surpasses the skills of all the other users from all over the world!]

[However, it seems like there’s a penalty. It seems like there’s a penalty where the skill user’s HP will get exhausted after using the skill! It wouldn’t make sense if a skill like that did not have any penalties.]

[Just like what we expected. He did not last an hour. Right? What do you think? Our guesses were right, am I right?]

The commentators tried very hard to tie it back to their one hour guess.

Then, at that moment, Carr finally carried out the operation that Minhyuk had told him about earlier. He quickly dashed to where Minhyuk was, hugged him, and began to show his bad acting skills.

“No, my dear friend! Why did you use that skill? Didn’t you tell me that your HP will go down to one, and your defenses will be zero if you use that skill? If someone hit you once right now, then you’ll die, right? Don’t. Die. My. Dear. Friend!”

This was Carr’s great acting ability, which sounded like he was reading from a Korean textbook!

‘Carr’s not good at acting…’ Minhyuk thought.

However, Carr was brimming with confidence. He thought, ‘This year’s Best Actor award is mine!!!’

He even did some ad-lib…

“Sob. Sob. Sob. Sob. Sob.?Quickly get up, let’s fight together my dear friend! Let’s show them what a bloody battle truly is! Come on! Get up! My friend!!!”

Thankfully, no one noticed his bad acting skills in the chaos of the battle. That was when Minhyuk heard some of the voices around him.

“He only has one HP left? Even his defense is zero?!”

“Isn’t, isn’t this our chance to kill the Food God?”

“Oh, ooooooooooh!!!”

Then, the enemies started to flock once again. Carr immediately stood up and blocked them from getting to Minhyuk.

“My friend, Minhyuk. I will protect you. Take this! My sword of justice!!!”

“What’s that bastard saying over there?!”

“I don’t know! Let’s get to the Food God first!!!”

Carr moved as if he was trying to block them with all his might. The enemy players kept on pushing forward until they were concentrated around them. The moment they crowded around to kill them, Carr had already fallen into a trance, absorbed in his own performance.

“Don’t touch my friend!!! Die!!!”

[In the end, Player Minhyuk has given us one surprise and one disappointment. This is the end.]

[Didn’t they say that they will stop their enemies with just the two of them?]

[Just like we thought, it was just their ridiculous bluffs.]

[I feel a bit sorry for Player Carr.]

The commentators' words were harsh and scathing.

That was when the collapsed Minhyuk that they had cursed hard at, and criticized severely, suddenly stood up. And…

“Sword of Absolute Death.”

Stab!

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping—

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

…Minhyuk triggered the skill that he had stored using his ‘Save’ skill. And with that, more than 3,000 of the players that gathered around them died in an instant. In other words, they had completely fallen for the trap that the two of them had set up.

‘Kyaa…! Isn’t my acting crazy good? Haha! What will I do if people from the movie industry start to contact me?’

Carr firmly believed that this result was thanks to his wonderful acting skills! The two of them had killed 5,000 enemy troops in an instant. The players of Cairon Continent looked at the two of them and screamed…

“You… you baited us!!!”

“You lied?!!”

“I didn’t notice!!! That man over there is so good at acting!!!”

Minhyuk looked at Carr. The two of them nodded fiercely as they brightly and innocently said…

“Yep!!!”

“Yeah!!!”

“…”

The Cairon Continent players’ hands itched, wanting to beat the two of them up, after seeing their annoying reactions.

1. So Ji-sub’s nickname. ???