Leveling Up through Eating

Chapter 28: Food Fighter VS King of Mukbang

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

QC: MattForgenti

‘Do the others also feel what I’m feeling when they watch him?’

No, he was mistaken.

The others were already thinking about eating the snacks from the snackbar once Minhyuk left.

Most of the people who watched mukbang were people who were on a diet. But Minhyuk’s mukbang has the power to destroy a person’s diet!

“Chew, chew!”

I can’t lose!

Binz started to eat again. Whenever he looked at Minhyuk he could feel a strong surge of hunger.

Minhyuk suddenly shouted…

“Uncle! Another 10 servings of tteoktwisun!”

“H, here…! I want 10 servings too!”

The eating battle between the two people has started.

Binz ate to his heart’s content.

Crunch, crunch!

Fritters.

Sundae.

Tteokbokki…!

Before he could even finish all of it up…

“Uncle, please give me 10 more servings. Ah no add another 5 more over here~!”

“C, customer-nim… are you alright?”

“……I haven’t eaten half my fill yet? Uncle, your eomuk over here is already decreasing.”

“Ahhh…… Yes……”

The owner then added more food.

Binz has already eaten a lot. His stomach started to feel full until he felt that he could not eat anymore.

‘W, what the hell…’

Who the hell is this guy?

Binz looked at him suspiciously with an annoyed frown on his face.

In the end, he placed down his skewer and gave up on eating eomuk.

Clack!

“Hoo……”

He breathed a sigh as he patted his bloated stomach. Then he saw Minhyuk, who was still eating, right next to him.

‘…So curious.’

What is this man’s identity?

“Excuse me. Nim.”

Binz called out to him as he fixed a smile on his face. However, Minhyuk did not answer and only continued to eat.

“Nim!”

He called out a little louder, however Minhyuk was still eating non-stop without any indication of answering him.

‘H, his concentration is solely devoted to food…!’

Nothing could distract him from eating. Only food can distract him!

But he was so curious that he raised his hand and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Nim, can you tell me your nickname…”

Then…

Slap!

Minhyuk slapped his hands away from his shoulder. He then looked at him fiercely.

“Ah, Nim. Why did you touch me while I was eating? Do you want me to stab you with the skewer until you die?”

Binz trembled in fright.

‘Y, you won’t be able to live if you touch him w, while he’s eating…!’

For real.

There was a fierce aura surrounding Minhyuk. It was an aura that was screaming: Touch me and you die.

‘I’m still… A bit famous you know…’

But Minhyuk did not even give him 1% of attention. Ah, no. He did not even give him 0.00001% of attention.

Binz and his bloated stomach looked at Minhyuk who was still eating deliciously.

***

“M, my level has increased by 31 in total!”

‘This uncle. He’s been talking since earlier. It’s noisy.’

Minhyuk, who was still eating diligently, still did not have any shred of interest in what the owner was saying.

“Uncle. Please give me 10 more servings of this, 10 more!”

He said that whilst thinking of another set of servings of the street snacks, however a bolt out of the blue struck him down.

“C, customer-nim… I’m sorry but we are out of ingredients.”

“Eh?! What did you say?! I haven’t even had half of it yet!!!!”

Minhyuk looked very desperate.

The crispy fritters, the chewy sundae and the hot eomuk!!! I want to eat more!

“Customer-nim, you ate 70 servings of tteokboki, 250 pieces of eomuk, 70 servings of sundae, and 80 servings of fritters…”

“Ha……I could eat 100 more servings.”

“……”

Binz and the owner were both left speechless. Even the users standing behind them have shut their mouths for a moment.

“That’s too bad. How much do I have to pay?”

“Please wait a moment.”

The owner started to tap on his calculator.

“One serving of tteokboki is worth 2,500 gold, 70 servings is worth 175,000 gold. One serving of sundae is worth 3,000 gold, you ate 210,000 gold worth of servings. Fritters, 240,000 gold…… For a total of 750,000 gold.”

“It’s less than what I thought.”

Minhyuk shook his head.

“H, he said it was less than what he thought?”

“I can’t even eat that much even when I’m attending our company dinner…”

When Minhyuk was about to give 750,000 gold…

“Customer-nim please just give me 650,000 gold.”

“650,000 gold?”

“Yes, I’m giving you a discount.”

“Oh! Uncle, you’re a really good man!”

The shopkeeper smiled slightly. He was also running a small snackbar in real life.

In addition, his job was the Chef of Happiness so he knew better than anyone what factors were needed for him to level up. And he has leveled up 31 times just because of him.

It was a massive boost to his levels.

Besides, whenever he looked at this customer who eats very deliciously he would always smile unknowingly.

Minhyuk sent him the 650,000 gold.

Since he continued to raid the Twilight Graveyard, he has accumulated a lot of miscellaneous items. After selling those miscellaneous items, he now has 3.2 million gold in his pockets.

At that moment…

[The True Worth of Food.]

[You have gained +2 STM.]

[Perfect Combination.]

[Life Combination.]

[Your score will be doubled.]

[You have gained +6 STR and +3 STM.]

“……Huh?”

Minhyuk was a bit surprised with the notifications.

Life Combination?

I know what the Perfect Combination means since I have already experienced it. Tteoktwisun, eomuk and soup. There’s no combo that’s better than this.

So what is Life Combination?

Furthermore, if both combinations meet they will reflect a double in my scores.

Usually, his stats would only go up by 3~4 with Perfect Combination but now, his stats have gone up by 9.

In other words, when my score doubles then the stat I gain will also increase.

Minhyuk pondered over this ability deeply.

‘Life Combination… Hmmm… It’s a combination that we usually think about in our daily lives…!’

I think Perfect Combination corresponds to the combination of flavors in a meal while Life Combination is the food that we want to eat the most at a specific moment in our daily lives.

During winter, where people would feel cold and hungry, the food that would come to mind the most was the snacks in a snackbar.

It was also the same case when someone felt hungry at 1 in the morning. They would definitely want to eat ramyeon or chicken by the Han River.

Life Combination definitely pertained to the combination of food and the atmosphere instead of the taste.

‘There’s a lot of interesting systems, huh?’

Minhyuk chuckled lightly. He only ate deliciously but his stats still continued to increase. He turned around after he settled his bill.

Then…

“Ni, nim. Can you please tell me the name of your broadcasting site?!”

“Nim, please tell me your nickname!”

Minhyuk was stunned with their reactions.

Several users were already broadcasting in Paprika as well as in Athenae.

Their comments were…

[gdgfl4: Real, is that really a person? He ate food that’s worth 750,000 gold alone. Hehehehe]

[BinzKissKiss: Omg…… Omg…… watching that person eat makes me feel so happy and excited, today’s a snackbar?!]

[TwistedGrill has gifted you 100 stars.]

And all of the broadcasting stations were exploding in excitement.

“Hello. I’m Han Inhwa, a reporter from TVM station! We want to cover your story!”

“Excuse me. I’m Lee Sungmin, KBC’s reporter. Please let us interview you!”

“Nim, please give me your nickname!”

Minhyuk has now proven that his decision to wear a mask before was his best idea ever.

At that moment…

[Binz-nim has gifted you 10 reputation points.]

“……?”

Minhyuk looked at BJ Binz. He saw him smiling at him.

Rankers who placed in the top 100 of the domestic rankings have special benefits compared to the ordinary users.

One of these benefits was gifting reputation points. The ranker could give reputation points to others if they have touched or knew the nickname of the other users. They were only allowed to give 10 reputation points in a year.

Binz has given Minhyuk all the reputation points he could give.

‘If I was allowed to, I would have given him 100 reputation points.’

He smiled bitterly. Today was the day when he realized that he was still lacking. There was still someone who could happily enjoy eating while not being dragged by his work.

Maybe this was the guy who should really be a mukbang BJ?

“Ah. Well. Thank you.”

Minhyuk expressed his gratitude as he looked at him curiously. But that was the end of it. He showed no ounce of interest towards Binz.

“Can I talk to you?”

Binz smile was rather sly, that was why Minhyuk was suspicious.

“It’s because we have to eat something secretly.”

“……!”

Minhyuk’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Let’s first get out of here. What if someone else took it.”

However, Minhyuk wasn’t a stupid boy who would straight up follow a stranger at the mere mention of food!

So he thought about things rationally.

Binz doesn’t look like a bad person and he doesn’t have any reason to hurt me. Besides he looks like he’s not lying.

Minhyuk nodded his head.

“That’s right. We should eat it before anyone else sees it…!”

Whisper, whisper.

Minhyuk talked to Binz in a small voice so no one would be able to listen to them.

Binz grinned at him.

Minhyuk looked as if he was a child who stole delicious food from his mom and ate it secretly with his friend.

“Grab my hand.”

Minhyuk and Binz grabbed each other’s hands.

“Huh…? Huuuuuuuh……!”

“I, Impossible!”

Then the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.

***

When Minhyuk opened his eyes, he was already inside a room in an inn.

The inn was usually used as a place where users log-out. If they designated their room in the inn as a return point they would be able to return to their rooms once they tear their return scrolls.

“……Your type.”

Minhyuk covered his body with his arms as he warily looked at Binz.

“Ah, no… I have this place designated as my return point so it will be easy for me to log-out!”

“Huhuhu, sure. If it’s just the two of us here then we will be able to eat in peace. Ah, I’m Minhyuk.”

“Yes, I’m Binz.”

Minhyuk laughed as he took off his mask. Then he looked at Binz in anticipation.

Grin.

Binz’s lips curled up in a smile.

‘This person… is really interesting.’

He then pulled something out of his chest pockets.

It was none other than…

Pizza Bread.

“I made it. Please have some, Nim.”

“A, are you an angel?!”

“Am I an angel?”

Minhyuk was so excited.

Pizza bread.

It was an imitation of pizza, however it was still quite different from it. There are times when people crave more after pizza bread instead of pizza.

When talking about pizza bread, everyone would remember their childhood days. Around the time when they were attending elementary to high school.

Parents usually gave away pizza bread because their son became the class president. They would prepare it whenever they went out for picnics.

Pizza bread was also the best when your hunger was at its peak. It was the go-to food after PE classes.

Minhyuk smiled happily at the pizza bread that he received.

However, he soon had a strange expression on his face.

“…Huh?”

He looked at the pizza bread closely.

There was only one reason why he looked at it strangely.

‘The color is different…?’

It was definitely different.

The color surrounding the pizza bread was white. Minhyuk scrutinized it deeply.

I can smell the scent of catsup, mayonnaise and bread. But, there’s something thick and soft in here.

“This…”

“Huhu, did you realize it?”

Binz was grinning.

“This bread is made out of the Sun’s Wheat. It’s a specialty here in Isbin Village.”

“The Sun’s Wheat?”

“Yes. Just like in reality, there are also specialties in every area. There is one specialty per area in Athenae. And this is Isbin Village’s specialty.”

“Ho.”

That is quite interesting information.

“Plus, bread made out of the Sun’s Wheat is much more delicious.”

Binz laughed mischievously. His last sentence was uttered in a whisper.

‘Much more delicious… I can’t wait…!’

The notifications rang as Minhyuk placed the pizza bread in his mouth.

[Please select the main ingredients for this meal.]

[Sun’s Wheat, ham, onion, parsley powder… redacted.]

‘Sun’s Wheat.’

Crunch—

***

TL’s Corner!!!

Amazingly enough, we don’t have anything to footnote in this chapter.

Lol. Just a background on the broadcast stations. TVM might be TVN and KBC might be KBS. Kek. ALSO, I do not have any idea what social media platform Paprika is imitating. kek.