Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 276: Good Guy, Bad Guy, Weird Guy

Minhyuk entered the first floor of the Demon World’s Tower with Roven, one of the creators of the tower. The notifications rang loudly as soon as he entered the place.

[You have entered the Demon World’s Tower’s 1st floor.]

[The Demon World’s Tower is divided into either ‘Trial’ or ‘Normal’ floors. Trial floors would be like its name, where there would be a trial. Meanwhile on normal floors, demon villages might appear with regular demon residents in a part of the tower.]

Just like what was said, the Demon World’s Tower was divided into two types. It could be a place where demons live, or perhaps it could be a place where trials appear.

Minhyuk could infer from the notifications, that the trial floors was where he needed to clear the area first, before he could head to the next floor. As for the normal floors, it was a place where one could take a ‘break’.

Although Calauhel was the new record holder of the Demon World’s Tower, there was still a way for Minhyuk to have his score listed as the new record: Exceed the range that the operators had set. That was the only way for his record to become a new record.

Right now, the designer, Roven, was quite proud. He said, “Now, I can break that arrogant nose of yours.”

Roven was very confident about the Demon World’s Tower. After all, this place was created after hundreds of knowledgeable demons had gathered their heads together. In Roven’s eyes, Minhyuk’s words about breaking the record in just a few minutes was just a crazy man's arrogance.

Then, Minhyuk looked at the words written at the entrance of the first floor’s trial.

[1st Floor, Best Record: 25,824 points.]

It was not only Minhyuk who saw this, Roven also saw the best record. When Roven saw the record, he could not help but be surprised.

‘H…how can this be… I did not expect someone to achieve 25,000 points on the first floor…!’?

It was something unbelievable. For a player to climb the Demon World’s Tower’s best record, they needed to exceed 10,000 points. However, this was 2.5x more than that.

‘That man back then.’?

Roven’s eyebrows crumpled. Not too long ago, a man came to the Demon World Shelter. He silently drank tea, and before he left for the Demon World’s Tower, he heard him speak to his colleagues. The man had said, ‘Take care of it.’?

The impact of his short words were quite great. His men, assuming that they were his men, camped in the Demon World Shelter and brutally murdered the powerful players who came in the shelter. At that time, Roven thought that this was something common.

Just as he thought that, Minhyuk and Aruvel began to move.

“Fufufufufu.?You bastard, you’re going to die on the first floor,” Roven cursed. Although he could not get inside the trial with Minhyuk, he could still meet up with them once it was over.

Not long after, Minhyuk and Aruvel went to challenge the first floor.

***

[The 1st Floor Trial will now begin.]

[Rewards will be given once the trial is cleared.]

[The EXP acquisition rate will be doubled as a special privilege upon achieving a new record.]

There was a small smile hanging around the corners of Minhyuk’s lips when he entered. Then, he also began to film.

[You have started filming a video.]

Minhyuk was filming a video to fulfill his end of the deal from the discussion that he had with the TTBC broadcasting station. He planned to continue filming each floor while he climbed up the tower.

Then, another set of notifications rang.

[The Demonic Ghost Unit will be summoned.]

[Demonic Ghost Unit.]

[A small unit that participated in the Great Heavenly Demon War. This troop is composed of outstanding demons that defeated one of the strongest of the Heavenly Race. These demons were born to slaughter and were considered to be the strongest fighters among the demons.]

Based on the personal explanation from the system notification, there were six of them in total. The contents of this trial was something that Minhyuk already knew from Aruvel.

“The first-floor trial is much more difficult than the other trials above.”

Aruvel kindly explained the information that he knew, in case Minhyuk had forgotten about what he had said.

“The first trial is this difficult because we are looking for people who are qualified to challenge the rest of the tower. You can say that this is a qualifying floor.”

The Demon World’s Tower was the demons’ sacred place. Basically, this was the place where the power of the Demon King and the Four Heavenly Kings resided. That was the reason why they could not just let anyone step in. Only when they were able to clear the first floor would they be able to climb the rest of the tower.

Then, the notifications rang again.

[From this point on, the Demon Ghost Unit will hunt the demonic monsters. Hunting demonic monsters will give you hunting points.]

[You will be able to clear this floor if you acquire at least 20% of the hunting points acquired by the Demon Ghost Unit.]

[The higher the points you get, the higher your record will be.]

Minhyuk would be able to win if he was able to at least hunt 20% of what the demons hunted. Of course, the Demon World’s Tower was open to a lot of people, but because of that, the difficulty was also set to be higher than normal.

“There’s no way a human can keep up with us.”

“Challenging the tower, idiot.”

The Demon Ghost Unit cackled, looking down on Minhyuk completely. The Ghost Unit actively participated in the Great Heavenly Demon War in the past, so the squad leader was confident in their skills.

At that moment, the space in front of them was torn apart. Then, hundreds of demonic beasts swarmed.

“Kihyaaaaaaack!”

“Graaaaaaaack!”

“Grooooooowl!”

“Human. Go back. You should see the difference between us.”

Rockon, one of the demons, confidently pulled out his sword as he stepped forward. Then…

Stab―

…a bone-chilling sound suddenly rang loudly in the area. When Rockon lowered his head, he could see a spear sticking out of his abdomen.

“Ugh!”

.

Red blood flowed out of his mouth.

“Th…this…!”

Then, Aruvel said, “The tower is incomplete and there are loopholes.”

There was a simple method of clearing this floor. They only needed to get 20% of their points. If they broke that record, then they would achieve a new record. However, if instead of that…

‘If we kill them all…’

It would be a very simple solution to their problem. Although Aruvel got drunk and gave Minhyuk his pocket money’s worth of information, he was still the Sage Aruvel. Aruvel was also someone that the Demon Ghost Unit could not easily deal with.

“D…Die!!!”

“Th…this…!”

The demons rushed towards Aruvel. That was when Minhyuk moved.

“Rain of Kitchen Knives.”

Minhyuk had already prepared the Rain of Kitchen Knives. Once he unleashed his skills, a black kitchen knife fell down on a demonic beast’s body from above.

Spurt―

Then, the rain of kitchen knives began to fall.

Shwaaaaaaaaaaa―

Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab―

The sound of the demonic beasts being devoured and the Demon Ghost Unit being hunted by Aruvel rang loudly in the first floor.

“Keuaaaaack!”

“Keoheok!”

In less than 40 seconds, all the demons on the first floor had collapsed. This feat was only possible since Minhyuk had a very powerful helper in the form of Aruvel.

Then, the notifications rang.

[Calculating your score.]

[The score calculation attempt has failed.]

“Huh…?”

Minhyuk could not help but tilt his head in confusion.

‘You failed to calculate the score?’

A moment of silence passed before the notifications rang again.

[Attempting to calculate the scores again.]

[Score calculation has succeeded.]

[You have achieved an impossible score that went beyond what the operators had measured.]

[1st floor cleared. 100,000 points.]

[You have achieved a new record.]

[1st floor cleared. Additional rewards will be added to the new record rewards after achieving 100,000 points.]

[You have acquired 2,500,000 EXP.]

[You have acquired an additional 2,500,000 EXP in compliance with the new record rewards.]

[You have acquired an additional 2,500,000 EXP for achieving an impossible score.]

[You have acquired 10 platinum.]

[You have acquired Italy’s Pizza and Carbonara.]

[You have acquired an additional Grill Platter for achieving an impossible score.]

“Oh…!”

Minhyuk was surprised. The Italian pizza and carbonara, together with the additional grill platter was served before him.

“…This is definitely a grill platter!”

Minhyuk could tell that this was definitely the steak plate that achieved the highest sales record in Seoga and Coke. The grill platter in front of him had about four slices of pork neck with plenty of vegetables. There was also a long slice of cheese, pineapple, and a half-cooked fried egg on top. This grill platter tasted extremely delicious, especially with the vegetables that came with it.

Then, Minhyuk changed the filming mode.

[The filming mode has been changed.]

[You have changed to drone mode. The filming will now resume.]

The drone mode was an expensive add-on that players usually purchased. Once he chose the drone mode, several drones popped out of nowhere as they began to circle around Minhyuk to film him.

“Is this how they do it?”

Minhyuk just tilted his head. Among the several drones that were filming, one of them started filming the food.

“Hehe!?Thanks for the food!”

The first thing that Minhyuk picked was the pizza turner. He placed the pizza turner below the pizza before lifting a slice up. The cheese stretched long as Minhyuk pulled the steaming pizza up. He could not help but gulp his saliva, as he placed the pizza down on the plate.

Then, he put some ice in a glass as he poured some soda inside. A smile appeared on his face. This kind of food was best paired with soda.

Just like that, he pulled out the parmesan powder that he always had with him. Then, he sprinkled it all over the pizza slice.

The smell of the rich and creamy cheese wafted through Minhyuk’s nose as he lifted the pizza close to his mouth. The cheese stretched down when he took a big bite while pulling the pizza down. The cheese was only cut off when he chewed the pizza with his teeth. In his second bite, he could finally bite the potato and the bacon that were sprinkled on top of the pizza.

The plain and salty taste of the potato, the crispy bacon, the rich and creamy cheese, together with the soft bread combined together and created a harmonious flavor in his mouth. Then, Minhyuk took some pickles from his small jar before placing them in his mouth.

Crunch, crunch, crunch―

Minhyuk sucked his fingers as he savored the lovely taste of the pizza and the pickles. After he ate a few slices of pizza, he gulped down the refreshing cola to cleanse his mouth of the greasy flavor.

“Kggghk!”

Minhyuk could not help but exclaim from the stinging sensation that he felt in his throat. This time, he stretched his hands towards the carbonara. His left hand was holding a spoon, while his right hand was holding a fork. Once the noodles were scooped up with his fork, he brought the fork gently towards the spoon before turning it around. As the spaghetti noodles were turned perfectly, he used his spoon to support the twirled spaghetti and placed it in his mouth.

The rich and savory flavor of the carbonara spread in his mouth. Every bite of the noodles made his smile go wider. Then, Minhyuk used his spoon to scoop out the white sauce, making sure that he scooped up the bacon, mushroom and other toppings, before putting it in his mouth.

‘Abundant and rich.’

Those were the words that fit the carbonara in front of him perfectly. Finally, he turned towards the grill platter. He quickly cut the pork neck meat. Then, he used his fork to pick the vegetables that were plated beautifully around the meat. When Minhyuk saw that the fork was filled with vegetables, he went ahead and picked a pork slice making sure that it was covered with the sweet sauce underneath it. Then, he placed it in his mouth.

The sweet, juicy flavor of the meat and sauce spread in Minhyuk’s mouth. However, it did not end there, as the soft and pleasant texture of the meat together with the crunchy and fresh vegetables created a mind-blowing harmony in his mouth.

This time, instead of the vegetables, he picked a piece of the pineapple with a slice of meat and dipped it in the sauce. The combination of the sweet, sour, fresh pineapple and juicy meat tasted exquisite. Minhyuk continued to eat deliciously like that.

“Wow. So delicious.”

A soft smile spread out on Minhyuk’s mouth as he patted his plump and bulging stomach. Then, he realized that he was filming.

“This is how you do it, right? Should I send it like this?”

He decided to send this as an experiment. He believed that it was better to make sure of things like this. Hence, Minhyuk sent the video right away.

[Sending the video file named ‘Demon World’s Tower’s First Floor Attack’ to Player TTBC.]

1. A parody of Seoga and Cook