Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 538: Continent Integration’s Trailer

Chapter 538: Continent Integration’s Trailer

In the establishment of a kingdom in Athenae, the migration and settlement of both NPCs and players were important. The kingdom needed funds to operate and it went without saying that the key to getting these funds were the players and the NPCs. The NPCs would make items and products that would be taxed by the kingdom, while the players would work and pay tax, or buy these taxed items. When this structure was maintained, the kingdom would run in an orderly manner. That was why the kingdom would always be at the risk of falling into ruin if the number of immigrants were low.

Just yesterday alone, the number of immigrants that flocked to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom reached 3,311. Considering that they had only recorded an average migration rate of around 200 daily, the number of immigrants that entered their kingdom yesterday had jumped to more than ten times that number. And the one that made the greatest contribution to this? It was, without a doubt, Minhyuk. Strangely enough, it was not just him, there was also Beanie.

Immediately after Minhyuk started his broadcast, ‘Lonely Meal’ topped all real-time search terms. What was funnier was that the second place was Beanie, while the third place was the Food God. Actually, there were quite a lot of people that were jealous and envious of Minhyuk and his achievements, thus, he had a lot of anti-fans too.

But Beanie? He was like a global top star ever since the end of the Athenae: World War and had gained plenty of fans all over the world. It was to the point that Athenae considered if they should make Beanie the World War Mascot after seeing his popularity as the Korean War Mascot. That was how great Beanie’s popularity was. That was also the reason why their mukbang was a hit. The scene where a handsome man and the global star Beanie ate eighteen kilograms of samgyeopsal happily attracted a lot of people.

In fact, shocking articles were even published after that.

[The sales of samgyeopsal restaurants increased by 400% on the day the Food God and Beanie’s Lonely Meal was broadcasted.]

[Plenty of office workers flocked to samgyeopsal restaurants last night.]

[Jam-packed samgyeopsal restaurants. Is this the effect of the Food God and Beanie?]

[It has several times more effect than when the famous idol group’s Hha-Sa[1] in <I Do Everything Alone> in the past.]

When people watched the edited clips of the video, they could not help but drool.

[Wow. Guys, have you seen the Food God’s mukbang with Beanie…? Ah, how can they eat samgyeopsal so happily like that?]

[I started to feel like I was smiling like a mother when I watched the broadcast. Just watching them eat is making me feel at ease. And that sizzleeee—, it’s an enchanting melody! Kghk!]

[Beanie is so cuuuuute. ?????]

[I’m going to ask my mom for samgyeopsal today.]

[They’re going to broadcast again today. I wonder what they’ll eat this time?]

On top of that, Minhyuk’s broadcast, which had been edited and uploaded to Ztube, had exceeded 500,000 views in just a short amount of time. In fact, even foreigners from abroad could not help but click on the video to watch Beanie and the Food God’s mukbang, which created a huge ripple effect. The most surprising fact was not the huge amount of views, nor the countless players tuning in to their broadcast.

It was something else.

Surprisingly enough, even those that did not play Athenae were very interested in the mukbang. That was right. Mukbangs had always been something that had been enjoyed by everyone, even those that did not play the game. It was a phenomenon that everyone enjoyed for a long time now. Because of this, more and more people were thinking of taking this opportunity to try Athenae.

Meanwhile, Minhyuk, who finally accessed the game again, heard the notifications in his ears.

[There are 3,311 players that applied to migrate to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.]

[Once you approve the migration of the 3,311 players, you will be able to collect kingdom taxes from them and strengthen the kingdom by suggesting jobs like soldiers, mages, and knights.]

“…???”

Minhyuk wondered if the effect would really increase this much after simply eating. Actually, he had heard from others before that they felt at ease and relaxed whenever they watched him eat. However, the ripples that they created with just that broadcast alone was tremendous.

And Minhyuk could see that the greatest contributor to this was Beanie.

“Fortunately things are going well,” Minhyuk said to Haze. Haze looked at him as if she truly did not know how to answer those words.

“As expected of the Food God. I can only use this expression.”

“Right. But it only went up this much since I only just started. Once the heat dies down, the number of immigrants will decrease again.”

That was a fact. The recruitment drive would definitely not perform like that continuously. It will increase to some extent, reach a plateau, before decreasing again. This was also why they needed to find a fixed method to recruit more players, and even recruit NPCs. The effect of the main advertisement would only be greater if they could maintain the high number of immigrants each day.

“That’s where the method that Your Majesty said will come into play, cooking buffed dishes for a thousand people.”

“That’s right.”

Many people have testified that the Food God’s buffed dishes were out of this world. However, there were many cases where the public only thought of this as a set-up by kingdom. In fact, they had good reason to think so. After all, countless scenes where the Food God’s guild members suddenly gained overwhelming power after receiving his buffed dishes, were indeed very questionable.

After all, the detailed information of the dishes had never been revealed to the world. In other words, the viewers could not believe them since they did not see how powerful the dishes could make them, and if they were truly out of this world. The only thing they saw was the members of the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom suddenly becoming stronger and overcoming their crisis after eating those dishes.

“The one thousand lucky foreigners would take a screenshot of the dishes’ effects and post it on their SNS before eating it. If that happened, then they would create a huge ripple and would rake in plenty of people. After all, many more would be tempted to move to the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom after seeing something like that.”

It was just as Minhyuk said. It was just like when people flocked to a kingdom with good blacksmiths to get better artifacts. However, in the case of blacksmiths, they could only produce a few artifacts per day and would oftentimes need a few days to create good ones. This was the case where the demand was high but the supply was low.

But for Minhyuk? He could easily feed many people with his buffed dishes thanks to his trailer’s bulk cooking function. The people would try to do their best to move to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom once they saw the buffed dishes’ effects with their very own eyes and taste its excellent flavor with their mouths. Also…

“We’ll put monster subjugation quests and other quests like that, with the ‘Food God’s Dish’ as a reward.”

“That’s really… genius.”

Players were given the ability to create quests after they became a lord of their own territory or a king of their own kingdom. There were also quests that would naturally form on their own based on the NPCs’ will. The former was labeled as the ‘King’s Production Quest’ or the ‘Lord’s Production Quest’. In the future, they would not need to rely on their luck to get their hands on the Food God’s dishes. They could eat the Food God’s buffed dishes just by simply completing the quests posted in the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.

‘There will definitely be a lot of immigrants. In fact, I believe it will not be foreigners alone but even the guardians will flock to this place,’ Haze thought, admiring Minhyuk. At the same time…

‘How can I clean the pockets of these new foreign immigrants?’

Haze, someone that once dreamt of becoming a great merchant, was currently having bad thoughts.

***

Minhyuk continued to broadcast for an hour each day for an entire week, which resulted in the steady increase in Beyond the Heavens Kingdom’s number of immigrants. Soon, the numbers started to decline. In other words, the initial heat had dwindled and was already on the verge of slowly dying down.

Of course, during the first few broadcasts, the views of the Food God’s mukbang had reached an unprecedented level. Among the immigrants that came from the heat of that first broadcast, 1,000 were chosen to get the chance to taste the Food God’s dishes. One of them was a man named Alex.

Alex was a reporter, and in his line of work, he had published plenty of articles, ranging from celebrity scandals to rankers scandals, even information about various guilds and plenty of other topics. There was even a saying among the people that the moment Alex dug into that person, that person would eventually become ruined. He was very lucky to be a part of the 1,000 chosen people.

‘I wonder how many lies did the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom weave for the public?’

No one has ever written an article with depth and substance when it came to Beyond the Heavens. That was how top secret their information was, especially with the help of the Food God’s father, Ilhwa Group’s Chairman Kang Minhoo. He kept a tight leash on their information. Aside from that, Alex could not think of anything about them. Also…

‘Making a buffed dish that could satisfy these 1,000 people? Is he out of his mind?’

Actually, Alex had also written an article filled with speculation saying, ‘The Food God’s buffed dishes are just a marketing ploy, right?’ Strangely enough, what he wrote matched reality.

Why did the Food God not reveal the detailed information of his dishes?

Why does the Food God always appear late? Is it because he wants to create a dramatic scene like those in the movies to gain more popularity?

If the dishes of the Food God are truly great, why are they not selling it?

Today, Alex vowed to uncover the ugly truth about the Food God and Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.

‘I should hunt more… Why is my leveling up speed so slow?’ Alex rubbed his chin in thought. He was also a player of Athenae, it was a natural instinct to want to level up faster, especially since he was at the height of his hunts. After all, when he was in Athenae, he never thought like a reporter, but went around the game with enjoyment in mind.

‘No way. What if they give us exorbitant amounts of money so that we will exaggerate whatever will happen today. Is he really going to do that?’

This thought even swam in Alex’s head, many thoughts were swimming in his head. Then, the Food God finally made his appearance.

“Hello, everyone. I’m the Beyond the Heavens’ King, the Food God.”

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

Plenty of the people present were very happy. It was as if they had finally seen the object of their admiration. But that was not the case for Alex.

Then, the Food God said, “Shall I guess the buff that everyone here wants most?”

Everyone’s attention focused on his next words.

“It’s EXP buff, right?”

“That’s right.”

“My EXP is not going up!!!”

“Dishes with EXP buffs are so damn expensive…!”

That was right. Just like what they said, buffed dishes with EXP buffs were four times more expensive than regular buffed dishes. And the effects? Very disappointing. Even if they bought an EXP buffed dish, the buff would only last for three days and would only allow them to have a 5%~7% increase in EXP during that time period.

“We will prepare buffed dishes for those of you who decided to move to the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. Rest assured, the quality of our ingredients are very good. After all, most of them had been grown here in our kingdom.”

The Beyond the Heavens Kingdom had an amazing piece of land called ‘Ingredient Heaven’. With the Food God as its owner, all of the ingredients grown in that land had become more excellent than before.

‘Make EXP buffed dishes for 1,000 people on the spot? What kind of bullshit are you spouting? I’m sure you’ve already prepared everything beforehand.’

It was something that was truly impossible in reality. No chef could make dozens of EXP buffed dishes at the same time. This was because they would always face the limits of their buff volume. However, what they did not know was the fact that Minhyuk’s buff volume was enormous. On top of that, his trailer had a bulk-dish cooking function.

Grrrrrrrr—

At the heart of Valencia, the capital of Beyond the Heavens Kingdom…

Piiiiiiiiiiiii—!

…A trailer began to work. The eternal flames burned strongly, as white smoke bloomed from the chimney.

“The dish that I will make this time is braised spicy chicken. Please wait for an hour, can you do that?”

Then, inside the trailer, Minhyuk began to stew huge amounts of chicken while chopping the vegetables and mixing them thoroughly with his ingredient mixing skill.

“Wow… what a crazy skill…”

“As soon as his hands touched them, the potatoes began to peel and cut themselves, did you see?”

The Food God’s skills were specialized for cooking. Alex had acknowledged this part, ‘His class is called Food God, it’s not surprising to see him cook a large amount of food.’

Then, Minhyuk grabbed a huge kitchen shovel as he stirred the braised spicy chicken in the huge cauldron.

‘Braised spicy chicken cooked in a cauldron… I can’t wait to taste it.’

Alex had been trying his hardest to find fault with Minhyuk but so far, he was not able to find anything at all. Rather than finding faults…

‘He’s a king but he’s actually covered in sweat while cooking.’

If one thought of Minhyuk as a king, then his figure right now was unbefitting. At the same time, the sweat that was flowing down his muscular forearms and body was giving off a very manly charm.

‘Damn.’

Alex felt a strange sense of inferiority after looking at Minhyuk’s figure. Because of that, he vowed to criticize and peel layers and layers out of the buffed dish that Minhyuk would present to them. Finally, the braised spicy chicken was finished. They began to distribute one to each of the players present here.

The one that received it first was Alex.

‘Let’s see? I wonder how much his buff volume can support.’

Alex made a guess on his own. Even if the buff effect was true and genuine, he believed that it was nigh impossible for Minhyuk to supply around 900 of the people here with buffed dishes. He thought that everything here was set-up by the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. Perhaps making a buffed dish for 100 people? That was Alex’s rough estimate of what was possible.

“Keheoooook?!”

But then, Alex let out a burst of exclamation after looking at the braised spicy chicken that he received.

“What’s the matter?!”

“What? What’s wrong?!”

“Hey, are you alright!?”

Everyone hurriedly looked at Alex, who could only stare at the braised spicy chicken in his hand and Minhyuk, who was a distance away from him.

‘This is crazy…!’

The people around Alex realized that he had already checked the effects of the braised spicy chicken in his hands. So, they focused their attention on him instead of checking their own dishes.

Seeing the look in their eyes, Alex said, “The, the EXP will… increase by 21%… for ten days…”

Alex immediately released a detailed article that very same day. The article was well thought-out and was filled with praises for Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.

[The detailed information about the dish that was made for the 1,000 lucky immigrants that moved to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom, the braised spicy chicken, has been a very hot topic. The braised spicy chicken that Food God Minhyuk made can increase around 22% of one’s EXP for ten days. On top of that, the flavor and taste of the dish was superb. For those that seek to level up faster and for those that are still looking for a kingdom or an empire that they will stay in for a very long time, you have to immediately rush to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.]

The very next day, the notifications rang for Minhyuk, who logged back inside the game.

[There are 8,464 players that applied to migrate to Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.]

[Once you approve the migration of the 8,464 players, you will be able to collect kingdom taxes from them and strengthen the kingdom by suggesting jobs like soldiers, mages and knights.]

The Beyond the Heavens Kingdom’s population was growing rapidly.

1. I believe this is in reference to Hwasa when she guested in I Live Alone? ?