Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 25: The Food God Knows How to Eat Grilled Pork Belly

‘Bwahahahaha! My goodness! A spear really has a point! Black Dragon!’

Then, everyone looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They told him,?'Wow. Black Dragon, we think this cool phrase will definitely suit you. You can use it whenever you’re angry.’

‘What phrase?’

‘The being in my right arm is going to go berserk…!’

‘Wow. So awesome…!’

‘So freaking cool…’

‘Oho, I see.’

Black Dragon naively fell into the hands of the united party members! After finishing the party hunt, he went to Isbin Village.

'Hmm. Where's Minhyuk?'

He learned his son’s rough location from General so he wanted to look for Minhyuk. But while he was looking for his son…

"Ah. That f*cker! You son of a b*tch! I'm going to kill you! Minhyuk!! You motherf*cker!!"

'Hmm?'

Black Dragon frowned. That was his son’s name,?right??His expression suddenly turned cold upon hearing someone cursing his son out. He might not know what was going on but he believed in his son. Whoever was speaking must have done something bad first which resulted in some friction between them. So, he decided to follow the unknown player to confirm his suspicions.

‘This punk is going out of the village.’

Black Dragon continued to follow the player quietly. After walking quite a distance away from the village entrance, the man spoke again.

“Wow. This is a complete black mark in my PK life. I have never seen a bastard like that ever in my life. Why did he keep on eating the poisonous apples? Argh!!! I’ll make sure to show that bastard what?infinite PK?is. B*stard.”

‘Just like I expected… he’s the one who did something first…’

Black Dragon was fully convinced that the unknown player was talking about his son, Minhyuk, when he heard him talk about apples. So, he stopped the man.

"What the hell? What's your problem?"

"...Black Dragon."

"Yes? What?! Your nickname is…?Pfft!?Your nickname is Black Dragon?!" Roy said, laughing without any restraint.

Roy wondered why a crazy player was blocking his path while calling himself?Black Dragon. However, Black Dragon nodded his head silently, confirming his words as he pulled his sword out of its sheath.

“The being in my right arm is going to go berserk.”

"...Pfffft!" Roy laughed. But before he could even laugh even more, the overgeared Black Dragon had already attacked and killed him in his chaotic state.

"I'll show you what an infinite PK is,” Black Dragon remarked coldly.

He wanted to show his beloved son’s enemies what he would do to them, so he made an example out of Roy. From that day forward, Black Dragon used all means necessary to chase Roy down. In the end, Roy was forced to delete his character and register a new ID.

***

Chop, chop, chop, chop!

The sound of the knife hitting the chopping board was a bit unsophisticated and muffled as it rang loudly inside the Twilight Graveyard’s boss room.

Minhyuk sat in this very room as he started cooking. The first dish that he made was soybean stew, which was usually served in barbeque restaurants. It was the perfect combination for the greasy, grilled pork belly. There were even some people who would go to these restaurants just so they could have a taste of this stew.

Minhyuk finished chopping the zucchini and the onions. Then, he looked over his pot to see if the water was boiling. It was the water that he washed his rice with earlier. Seeing that the water was now boiling, he took out the kelp for the broth, before adding some soybean paste and spicy dip paste, as well as a bit of chili powder into the broth.

He then mixed the broth thoroughly before letting it simmer on low heat. The seasonings used in restaurants were usually much stronger compared to the seasonings that were used at home. However, this difference was what gave this dish its natural charm.

Since Minhyuk had always wanted that mildly spicy flavor to the dish, he added some Cheongyang chili peppers.?Then, he skimmed the foam off the soup, before adding the square pieces of thinly sliced tofu inside. After that, he covered the lid of the earthen pot again to let it simmer further until it was fully cooked.

After finishing preparing the soybean stew, Minhyuk turned his attention to the pork belly. He added a few pieces on top of the well-heated grilling pan.

Sizzle!

"Kgghk! This is amazing, so wonderful!"

Right now, the spread in front of Minhyuk included bowls of hot rice, pickled garlic stems, scallions in sesame oil and chili powder, sliced garlic, spicy dipping sauce, lettuce, perilla leaves and cucumber chilies.

Minhyuk watched the meat carefully until it was half cooked, before skillfully turning it over.

Sizzle!

Minhyuk smiled brightly at the oil that trickled out of the grilling pork belly. Then, he placed some kimchi as well as some mushrooms on one side of the grilling pan. Once the meat was almost cooked, Minhyuk quickly cut it up into smaller pieces.

Then, he slowly removed the lid off the simmering soybean stew.

Shwaaa!

Steam slowly rose from the pot.

"Hehe…" Minhyuk chuckled in satisfaction.

‘What should I eat first? Hmm, let's get this guy first.’

Minhyuk stretched his chopsticks to clamp on a juicy-looking mushroom that was grilled perfectly.

‘This is the best to eat when you're trying to get your energy and stamina back!’

Then, Minhyuk gently lowered the mushroom into the stew. This was the main point of this dish. He then picked up his spoon, scooped up a mouthful of soup along with the mushroom. Without wasting a single drop, he slowly brought it to his mouth for a sip.

"Wow!" Minhyuk let out a gasp of satisfaction as the taste of the warm mushroom and the savory soup whetted his appetite even more.

He quickly gulped down the mushroom and the soup of the stew before clamping a piece of grilled pork belly with his chopsticks. Swiftly, he dipped it in his pre-mixed sauce made with sesame oil and salt before putting it in his mouth.

Chew, chew, chew.

"S…so happy…" Minhyuk said, his eyes glistening as he grinned.

The grilled pork belly was thoroughly cooked. The savory and salty taste of the sauce brought out the meaty flavor of the grilled pork belly as its juiciness spread out in his mouth. The meat was very tender since Minhyuk boiled it for a long time.

Next, Minhyuk prepared a wrap by placing a piece of the meat, some dipping sauce, garlic, scallions, and kimchi on top of?a lettuce?leaf. Then, he opened his mouth widely and quickly gobbled up his freshly made wrap.

"Hahaha!" He laughed out in delight as he gulped down the food.

Then, he quickly scooped up a mouthful of rice and delivered it straight to his mouth.

Chew, chew, chew—

Without stopping, Minhyuk immediately grabbed a spoonful of the stew.

"Hoo, hoo," He blew some air to let the spoonful of stew cool slightly before sipping it.

"Slurp!"

Minhyuk’s eyes widened in happiness at the mildly spicy flavor of the soybean stew that met with the plain rice. The taste was completely heavenly.

He then made another wrap. The combination of the savory, meaty juices of the grilled pork belly and the sour yet spicy flavor of the well-ripened kimchi was simply divine; the wrap immediately vanished. Very quickly, another wrap was prepared, but this time, it was filled with grilled pork belly topped with garlic stems and dipping sauce.

"Isn't this too delicious?! Hey, Porky! Isn't your taste too much for a human?!" Minhyuk asked, speaking into the empty air. However, his hands did not stop. He continued to eat wraps in one bite before making another one, eating as much as he wanted.

To be honest, the amount that Minhyuk’s earthen pot could hold was enough to feed fifty people. Even his grill was as big as four grills combined together. He had more than enough to fill his stomach. And just like that, Minhyuk continued to indulge in his delightful meal, courtesy of Porky.

***

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

There were more than five people staring at the monitor in awe inside the office of the Special Players Management Team. Whenever Minhyuk placed a piece of meat in his mouth, Lee Minhwa would unconsciously open her mouth too.

'Come on, give me a piece. Put it in my mouth!'

Lee Minhwa wanted to eat a piece of meat so bad. Unfortunately, no food came her way. She unknowingly chewed, as if there was a piece of meat in her mouth. But then, she suddenly woke up from her daydream and turned her head around.

"Gasp?!?What the hell?! Why is the Development Team here? Huh? Someone from the Customer Center came too?"

"Ah, we have some business to do here. But we ended up stopping here without realizing it… Shit, why can't I stop watching this? Wow, I've always been a big fan of BJ Binz's mukbang, but I think I have to switch lanes starting today."

The people from the Development Team cried out in surprise. Everyone else only came to their senses after hearing the commotion.

"Cough, cough! Who wants to eat grilled pork belly today?"

"Me! Me!"

"Me too!"

Everyone raised their hands as Team Leader Park wiped the drool off of his face.

"Player Minhyuk received the?Food God?class, after all. The Management Team will have a hard time in the future." Lee Seokhoon, the Development Team’s Team Leader, said.

Team Leader Park could only smile bitterly in agreement as he said, "We have no choice but to admit this. After all, I haven’t seen anyone who can eat as much as him.”

"Really?" Team Leader Lee Seokhoon asked in confusion.

Then, at that moment, an employee from the Customer Center?remarked, "Aren’t the skills for the god class, Food God, a bit too ordinary? Other than the one where he gets an increase in stats whenever he eats, everything else sounds ordinary."

Lee Seokhoon smiled and said, "Really?"

"I don't think it's ordinary."

"...Is there something else to it?"

"Do you know what the '???' in the ‘Food God’s True Worth’ skill, refers to? Well, Seonwook doesn't know since he's from the Customer Center."

Seonwook might not know but the employees of the Development Team and the Special Players Management Team knew.

"Those question marks are the real charm of Food God’s True Worth. Perhaps you'll find out about it soon?"

***

Thirty minutes later.

"You said that I will find out about it soon. But…he's still eating?"

The employees working under the Development Team had all gone back to their work, and the only one left was Seonwook from the Customer Center.

"Cough… No. You'll find out soon enough."

After two hours.

"...He's still eating?"

"Seonwook, are you not going to leave?"

"It's my day off today, I just came here to get something. Ah… I'm just hanging around because I'm very curious…"

"Hmm…"

After another two hours.

"Oh, he's done eating. I'll finally know… Wait! What?! Is he going to eat pork neck now?"

"...Shit, I'll definitely learn about it today!"

After another hour.

"H…he's really done eating, right?"

"I thought I was watching?Animal Kingdom's?'The Elephant's Way of Eating'?or something..."

"Well, now you'll see something interesting," said Team Leader Park, eyes shining brightly.

"However, it is just a small part of it."

***

"Burp!"

Minhyuk, who scared almost all of the monsters in the dungeon with his loud burp, patted his stomach in satisfaction.

"Well, I'm not even full, but I'm going to take a break for now," Minhyuk said, grinning widely after finishing his meal.

The meal was so delicious that he could barely contain his happiness. He drank his water as he thought with excitement about the other dishes that he could cook using pork. Just then…

[Food God’s True Worth has been triggered.]

[You have gained +1 STR and +1 STM.]

"Oh? My stats really did increase. Oh my god!" Minhyuk exclaimed in surprise.

‘So, it really was a special ability?’

The skill was really the perfect fit for someone like Minhyuk. However, the notifications were still ongoing.

[Perfect Combination]

[There is harmony between the soybean stew and the grilled pork belly.]

[You have been granted additional stat points.]

[You have gained an additional +2 STR.]

"...Huh?"

‘Perfect Combination? This is a little… unexpected.’

The notification was unexpected. However, as a foodie, Minhyuk knew that the combination of food was truly important.

Would anyone be able to imagine eating chicken and powerade together? Would something like that be delicious? How about ramen and chocolate? That combination was completely terrible too. That was why the combination of food was important.

Sweet chocolate cake with Americano. Hamburger, french fries, and iced cola. Minhyuk had also?heard General?singing about the ultimate experience in the army. It was none other than the combination of beef seaweed soup, vienna sausage and dried laver.

'The first notification rang after I finished eating…'

Minhyuk thought about it carefully. He thought about when he received the second notification…

'Hmm, this may be one of the question marks in Food God's True Worth. So one of the question marks shows the harmony when the elements and ingredients in the food are combined?'

Minhyuk realized that Food God's True Worth still had a lot of hidden secrets that were yet to be discovered. However, he believed that exploring the different combinations of food and flavor was something fun anyway.

Minhyuk also had another realization.

'Eating a lot doesn't mean that I will have a tremendous increase in my stats.'

If that was the case, then, Minhyuk would already have an increase of 100 in his stats in just a single day.

'Don't tell me that if the combination of the flavors and the taste falls then my stats will also fall?'

That grim possibility suddenly occurred to him, but after a ten-minute break, the thought flew out of his mind.

"Well, shall we eat grilled pork belly again?"

It seemed like Minhyuk was not ready to quit his eating spree yet.

***

Minhyuk was smiling brightly when he came out of the capsule after disconnecting from the game.

"Everyone, I ate grilled pork belly today!"

"Wooooooo!"

"Congrats~!"

"Congratulations, Minhyuk."

Everyone surrounding Minhyuk was congratulating him. Even his father, who was standing by the doorway, clapped happily with them.

"Dad! Huh? Why do you look so tired?"

"Ah, no. It's because I had a bit of work to do."

"Please, take it easy. It pains my heart to see you so exhausted like this."

"Okay," Minhoo answered with a smile.

He was exhausted because he kept on hunting Roy. However, even if he wanted to continue doing that, he had to log out of the game with Minhyuk and Changwook. That was because today was an important day.

Everyone present gathered in front of the weighing scale. Today was the day that they had decided to check the results of the treatment. In other words, Minhyuk had to measure his weight. It was a very important day. In a sense, today was the day that they would have to make a big decision regarding his health and treatment plans, moving forward.

Minhyuk stood in front of the huge scale with nothing but his boxers on. He exhaled nervously, as he closed his eyes and stepped on the weighing scale.

Thud—

Minhyuk was so heavy that the weighing scale groaned when he stepped on it. Then, the numbers on the scales quickly increased. Lee Jinhwan and Minhoo looked at the numbers on the weighing scales with trepidation. Then…

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Yeah."

"Yes you can, Minhyuk."

Minhyuk slowly opened his eyes. He looked at the numbers flashing on the weighing scale.

173.2kg.

"...It didn't decrease,” Minhyuk said sadly. His whole figure slumped dispiritedly.

"Minhyuk, don't be too disappointed," Jinhwan said while patting his shoulders gently.

"If your weight did not change at all, then, that means that you are not experiencing any yoyo effect."

"Ah…"

"Aren't you eating as much delicious food as you want right now? If we continue, I believe we will get good results."

"Really?"

"Yes, Minhyuk is a very healthy piggy."

"Ah. Doc, you're too much!"

Both of them laughed happily. Minhyuk then turned around and walked away with Changwook to exercise and complain. Jinhwan and Minhoo looked at each other.

"Is it real? He's showing signs of improvement?"

"Yes, you're right," Jinhwan answered as he solemnly nodded.

Both of them walked away to discuss Minhyuk's condition further. The moment they arrived in Lee Jinhwan's private clinic, Minhoo was shown a diagram, which showed how much Minhyuk had eaten inside the game.

"Our medical team monitors Minhyuk 24/7. We monitor the amount of food and the calories Minhyuk consumed. We are very thorough."

"I see."

"Please look at this diagram. If you look at it, you can see that he has eaten 5,122 cherry tomatoes, vitamins, and nutritional supplements."

Jinhwan pulled out another diagram and showed it to him, before continuing, "This is the diagram before we started the Athenae therapy."

Jinhwan placed the two diagrams side by side. Kang Minhoo's eyes widened when he compared the contents of the diagrams.

"...It, it's decreasing?!"

"Yes. As you can see, it's decreasing."

Jinhwan smiled lightly as he said, "Before we started the treatment, Minhyuk's intake of cherry tomatoes was increasing by 10~30 pieces every day. For someone who eats 5,000 pieces a day, that's not much of an increase, but if it continued on until the 10th, or even the 100th day, then it would be too much to handle."

"Yeah."

"In fact, no treatment has ever stopped the increase in the amount of food intake. Now let's look at the diagram after the start of the Athenae therapy," Jinhwan said, eyes shining brightly.

"We're decreasing the amount by 2~4 pieces each day."

"I..is that so?! Then, it's definitely decreasing!"

"It's decreasing little by little. In any case, Chairman Kang…"

Lee Jinhwan patted Kang Minhoo's hands. He was only able to do this because the both of them were friends and colleagues for a very long time.

"...This is the first time that he's showing signs of improvement ever since he started having the eating addiction. Chairman, Minhyuk has given me hope once more."