Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 549: Minhyuk’s Revenge

The thirteen remaining elders were stunned and speechless after seeing Marquis Loumat, the most powerful out of all fourteen of them, die so easily at the hands of a player whose active skills had been sealed. The most important thing was that they needed a minimum of fourteen people plus Akhan to start the ritual that would summon Verus.

But now, one person had died among them, this meant that they would not be able to continue the ritual.

They had been putting pressure on Minhyuk while adjusting the output of their magical attacks and skills to avoid damaging the hexagonal magic circle. However they no longer needed to manage and save their skills anymore.

One of the elders, whose face was still hidden under the hood of his robes, pulled the strings of his bow with all his might. A loud thwack! and the arrow that he nocked on his bow was sent flying toward Minhyuk. But Minhyuk did not dodge; he chose to face it head-on.

.

‘That archer. He’s been bugging me since a while ago.’

The archer had been keeping Minhyuk in check by sending arrows toward his body non-stop.

Baaaaaaaaaang—

When the arrow struck Minhyuk’s chest, it did not sound like it got stuck on flesh. Instead, it sounded like it exploded as dust suddenly rose in the air and covered everyone’s view.

[Your HP has decreased by 25%.]

It was truly a shocking amount of damage dealt. Even before the archer could revel in this accomplishment, Minhyuk had already appeared in front of the archer, cutting him off all at once.

“Kghhk!” The archer groaned, his body staggering back. Minhyuk immediately caught up to him, his sword stabbing into the archer’s abdomen.

[Crazy’s six consecutive hits have been triggered!]

[An additional 3,000% attack has been added to your sword that attacked the enemy.]

Shwaaaaaaaa—

Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh—

A series of attacks from Crazy slammed into the archer’s body where Minhyuk’s sword was embedded, blood gurgling out of the archer’s mouth. Of course, Minhyuk did not let this opportunity go, his sword quickly slashing the man’s throat.

[You have gotten rid of Demon Worshiper Elder, Dark Elf Emille!]

[You have gained 100 platinum.]

[You have leveled up.]

[Dark Elf Emille was a warrior that led the elves during the day. But under the cover of the night, he lived as a demon worshiper and secretly used plenty of elves as his test subjects.]

[He has done countless evil and atrocious deeds in his life!]

[You have gained 544,311,110 EXP!]

[You have gained 241 platinum!]

With the death of two elders, the remaining elders woke up from their daze and finally attacked Minhyuk all at once. Then, the Black Sorcerer cast his magic.

Shwaaaaaa—

A gigantic Firewall made with black flames devoured Minhyuk. However, Minhyuk, who completely ignored the attack, just took a chocobar from his inventory and ate it.

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

The elders turned mute for a moment.

‘What? Why is he suddenly start eating in the middle of a fight? On top of that, he did it while being engulfed by flames?!’

While their faces were covered with unmistakable doubt, the wounds that littered Minhyuk’s body began to heal and recover at a rapid pace.

Sizzle—

[Absorption Conversion]

[You can recover 30~40% of your HP.]

The elders were once again given another dose of shock after witnessing how Minhyuk’s ridiculous skill allowed him to recover and heal his wounds just by eating. But it did not end there. The word Crazy engraved on the blade of Minhyuk’s sword slowly disappeared only to be replaced by the word Destruction, which was also engraved with the same golden light.

Before the reinforcement, Destruction had the effect: ‘In Destruction mode, you will have a 15% chance of triggering eight bloody lightning bolts with additional 800% damage for every enemy.’ It also had a 20% chance of forcing Minhyuk’s enemies into a two-second stunned state. Simply put, Destruction was the strongest mode of the Lightning passive right next to Crazy. It was also the best mode when it came to dealing with single enemies.

But, how much did Destruction change after getting reinforced?

Minhyuk smoothly avoided the swing of the ax of a gigantic elder, a man standing at 250 centimeters.

Baaaaaaaaaang—

A crater was created on the ground where the attack fell. It was as if a nuclear bomb fell and exploded, with how large the crater was. Just when Minhyuk was about to attack, a powerful explosion erupted from the elder’s body.

Baaaaaaaaaaang—

[Your HP has decreased by 35%.]

[You have received a huge amount of damage. You will experience dizziness for a moment.]

“Ugh…”

Despite the explosion blooming from the elder’s body, it was obvious that he did not receive any damage. It seemed like it was a skill that would only send damage to the elder’s opponent. Even so, Minhyuk ignored the damage, opting to swing his sword and finally reveal the power of Destruction.

Ping—

Unable to trigger the passive from one cut toward the elder in front of him, Minhyuk swung his sword again and aimed for another place. And then…

[Destruction.]

[You have triggered a downpour of bloody lightning bolts with 1,600% additional attack!]

Minhyuk began to silently count in his head.

Despite both modes only being triggered based on luck and probabilities, Destruction was considered to be more of a cheat compared to Crazy, mainly because it would not create a random two, four, or eight consecutive strikes upon being triggered. Instead, it had a fixed number of lightning bolts that it could create. Originally, the numbers were fixed at eight but now…

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

‘Sixteen times…? Crazy…!’?Minhyuk, the one that actually used the skill, was also shocked as he watched sixteen bolts of lightning rain down on the gigantic elder, forcing a scream out of his mouth.

“Keuaaaaaack! Aaaaaaaaack!”

And when he swung his sword again…

[Destruction.]

[You have triggered a downpour of bloody lightning bolts with 1,600% additional attack!]

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

The gigantic elder collapsed in a heap.

“…”

“…”

This time, even Minhyuk was left speechless.

‘Even before the reinforcement, Destruction already had a high chance of being triggered at 15% probability.’?

Since the skill had been strengthened, the probability had definitely increased. Perhaps it was already at 30% probability? But that shock did not end there, there was also the bloody bead that floated out of the gigantic elder’s body that healed Minhyuk’s wounds.

[Slaughterer’s Absorption.]

[You have a 3% chance that you will be able to convert 50% of the damage that you have dealt to your opponents into HP.]

[You have recovered 7,734 HP.]

[You have triggered the 0.7% chance of recovering your mental power and stamina. Your mental power and stamina has been restored.]

Sizzle—

The damage and wounds that Minhyuk received from the gigantic elder were restored and healed all at once. The viewers were both very shocked and outraged at the scene.

[Is the Food God an immortal god, huh?! He can recover from attacks just by eating and that passive skill! I think he can cut down those people with just that passive skill alone?]

[What the hell are those elders? Why are they so weak? Why can’t they damage the Food God?]

[What bullshit are you saying? The one that died just now is someone that stood at the top of the ogre race, an ‘Ogre Knight’. Ogre Knights are existences that can split a ranker in two with just two hacks of their axes.]

[Then, does that mean that the Food God has a ridiculous defense?]

[The armor he’s wearing… I think that’s the same one that Asura wore before?]

[OMG…]

[I’m so f*cking jealous.]

[Food God, you bastard!!! Do you really have to have everything before you can be satisfied?!!!]

[Well, I’m sure that you’ve heard the notifications earlier but even though the Food God created an Absolute God’s Secret, that skill has been sealed by the Absolute Gods. Hahahaha. Let’s use the fact that he won’t be able to use that anymore after this one time as a comfort. Am I right?]

[Ah… that’s a bit pitiful. He worked so hard to create it but Athenae is just taking it away from him…]

That was right. The problem was that Minhyuk could only use this splendid power today and today alone. And everyone was aware of it since all of the viewers heard the notification about it being sealed.

However, that was not important at the moment. What was important was the ‘now’. Right now, Minhyuk was charging forward like an angry bull and…

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

…cutting down another elder.

“Keuaaaaaaaack!”

[You have gotten rid of Demon Worshiper Elder, Orc Kingdom’s Prince Oberron!]

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

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

Minhyuk made the other surviving elders feel frustrated as he punished these demon worshipers that hid under the covers of their high-ranks and titles, reigning supreme all over the continent. Since they stood at the top, they must have sacrificed the lives of a lot of people. If that was the case, then they deserved to receive judgment and become fodder for Minhyuk’s growth, turning them into a tremendous amount of EXP and helping Minhyuk unconditionally gain a level every time he killed one of them.

‘How can this be…’ Akhan was still in disbelief as he watched the Elder Demon Worshipers crumble and collapse under the hands of a single player. Furthermore, he could not deny the fact that this player that he regarded as someone insignificant had already stood above him by creating an ‘Absolute God’s Secret’.

After all, it was something that even Akhan could not do.

Finally…

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

…the last elder collapsed. All of the elders present in this cave died, triggering a set of notifications in Minhyuk’s ears for each of the elders that he killed. Of course, the notifications did not end there, Minhyuk also received the notifications for the additional rewards for killing all of the elders.

[You got rid of all of the Demon Worshiper Elders!]

[You will be awarded with a special reward for killing all of the Demon Worshiper Elders!]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[…leveled up.]

[Whether it be abilities, artifacts, artifact materials, cooking ingredients, hidden quests with outstanding rewards, secret quests etc., you will be able to find what you desire.]

“…”

Minhyuk was very surprised when he heard the rewards notification, ‘It’s telling me that I can find whatever it is that I want, right?’?Minhyuk looked up at the skies with a wide grin on his face the moment he understood what it meant, ‘F*cking bastards, you still can’t do anything even if you tried to control me, huh?’

Minhyuk would not choose his reward right now. However, one thing was for sure, the reward that he was aiming for was the power to release the ‘seal’ that the Absolute Gods placed on his skill. He could already picture himself shaking uncontrollably from laughter the moment those shitty gods realized what he obtained.

First things first. Minhyuk slowly approached Akhan. From what it looked like, Akhan was already free from the effects of the Judge’s Dagger. However, was he really going to face Minhyuk, who got rid of the fourteen elders easily? Of course not. It did not matter how strong Akhan was right now, it would still be hard for him to deal with Minhyuk on his own.

[Wow… In the end, the Food God won?]

[The Food God is crazy…]

[He charged alone inside the madman’s lair. A madman who invaded and almost swept an entire continent alone… There’s nothing more appropriate to describe that as ‘crazy’.]

Akhan suddenly thumped his head on the ground as Minhyuk’s steps continued to approach him.

“…?”

Minhyuk frowned when he saw the tears flowing down Akhan’s cheeks while the man opened his mouth and said, “I did something wrong. I’m sorry.”

“This m**therf**ker…”

“I was one of the early developers of this game.”

“…?!”

Minhyuk looked surprised when he heard Akhan’s words.

‘He was one of the early developers?’

That was something that he did not know.

Akhan continued to cry, his head bowed down on the ground as he continued, “I resigned from my position as one of the early developers before Athenae launched. It was because of that day, that day where my little girl…”

Akhan’s voice sounded so broken and sad that even the viewers watching through their screens felt like they wanted to cry too. This was the villain’s backstory! Minhyuk looked down at Akhan.

“On that day… My daughter came to visit the lab to play but a fire broke out. Back then, it was only my daughter, who was left in the lab, so I tried to run back inside to save her but Kang Taehoon stopped me. On that day, my daughter was burned to death. No matter what they do, my anger will not be appeased! That’s why… that’s why I wanted to bring down Athenae…! If Kang Taehoon did not stop me that day then my daughter would have still been alive!!!”

Minhyuk just stood there in front of Akhan. Meanwhile, the viewers…

[Ah, f*ck! I’m crying… I didn’t know that Akhan had that kind of backstory.]

[Wow… Is he trying to destroy Athenae because Kang Taehoon let his daughter die just like that?]

[That’s sad. But from what it sounded like, President Kang Taehoon only made the inevitable decision back then… Well, that might not be what that person felt like.]

[But why did they leave Akhan alone? If that guy is an early developer, then leaving him alone would pose a great problem in Athenae, right?]

[I’m telling you, we’re just watching that bastard’s self-made play.]

The viewers’ opinions were divided.

[But won’t we have a problem here? Isn’t the Food God a kind person?]

[The reason he became that strong is thanks to his charms and his ability to embrace everyone.]

[Ha… will the Food God explode here and let out his frustrations or not?]

Everyone turned to look at Minhyuk, waiting for his decision.

***

Team Leader Park Minggyu looked at the monitor. He could see that the viewers’ current reaction was a bit unusual. Of course, the fact that Akhan revealed his status as one of Athenae’s early developers meant that they could expect a huge commotion.

Park Minggyu turned to look at President Kang Taehoon, “President, is what he said true?”

Kang Taehoon simply replied, “Akhan is a bachelor. He does not have a daughter.”

“…”

Minggyu’s face was colored with both shock and disbelief. On the other hand, he also wanted to applaud Akhan for his heartfelt performance.

Kang Taehoon continued, “The reason why that bastard is trying to bring down Athenae is all because of money. I kicked him out from Athenae because he wanted to release the game early on to make more money, despite the game’s unfinished production and its safety not yet confirmed.”

“…”

Team Leader Park Minggyu looked at the monitor blankly, “What kind of choice will the Food God make here?”

Kang Taehoon grinned, “You already know right? The Food God that we know of is not a fool.”

***

Akhan knew that he would receive a huge penalty if he died since he was under the effects of the Judge’s Dagger. If that happened, then he would fall behind and become a target of the people that became the subject of his wicked and atrocious deeds.

Besides, he needed to attract more people with his shocking clout. That was the only way for him to gain more money. So, he decided to act. With hot tears flowing down his cheeks, he decided to invoke the Food God’s sympathy. After all, the Food God was a f*cking emotional bastard.

‘In the end, bastards that are caught up in their emotions will mess things up.’

Then, Akhan screamed, “That’s why I did this!!! It’s because of my daughter!!! I can’t hold back my anger whenever I recall my daughter…!!!”

He raised his head, only to see…

“Yaaaaaaaawn!!!”

…Minhyuk wiping his tears after yawning loudly.

“Hey, bastard. You done with your act?”

“Wh, what…?”

Stab—

Minhyuk mercilessly stabbed Akhan in the chest. He was fully aware of the position that he had to take and the decisions that he had to make more than anybody else. Also, Akhan would receive bigger repercussions since he dared to lie in front of millions of people.

“Besides, I know that you don’t have any daughters. You know?”

“…”

[…!]

[…!]

[…!]

[That f*cking bastard?!!!]

The entire world turned furious. Minhyuk’s mouth twisted into a vicious grin as he leaned down and whispered mockingly in Akhan’s ears, “Hey, m*th*rf*ck*r. You’re f*cking done for.”