Leveling Up through Eating

Translator: ChubbyCheeks 

The penalty was similar to death. 

You would not be allowed to enter the game for twelve hours and join the random item drop, your stats would also drop by 1~10 points randomly. 

This was set to prevent users from stopping in the middle of their attack. 

Minhyuk naturally drifted off to the rear of the group. 

They told me to, so why don’t I just eat my delicious castella cake?

Occasionally, he would pull out one of Allon’s chestnut yanggaeng and eat it all up. 

“Well, here we are.” 

Roy, the lancer, took the lead. 

Ver was right next to him while Minhyuk and Rakku stood behind him. They maintained this most basic position as they moved forward. 

A monster appeared in front of them.

“It’s a mini ant. Mini ants extend their tree-like arms to pull people in and use it to squeeze people in. Its squeezing is much stronger than what you think so be careful.” 

Mini ant. 

Standing at 1m 40cm, it was already at the size of a small tree. 

Minhyuk has briefly searched the information about Twilight Graveyard before. 

The first thing that would come out is a mini ant… 

‘Huhuhu, then another delicious thing will come out next.’ 

Allon said that the pig will come out once we reach the end of the dungeon. 

Minhyuk, who was wiping his drool, watched their battle. 

There was only one mini ant that came out. 

Creeaaaaaak

Like the branches of a tree, its arms grew longer. 

Roy quickly stepped forward.

Strike! 

His spear striked down the extending arms all at once. Roy’s item looked quite expensive when one looked at it closely. 

He striked through the monster as he narrowed the distance between them. 

Then… 

Thrust! 

“Kiirererere!” 

The spear stabbed at it to push it back. 

The mini ant was pushed back, Ver who was right behind him struck it down with his axe with all his strength. 

Slam! 

The mini ant has completely fallen. 104 gold and its branch-like arms have dropped in front of it. 

[Party: You have acquired 26 gold.] 

[Party: Roy-nim has acquired mini ant’s tree limbs(1).]

The money was distributed accurately and the miscellaneous item went to Roy. 

“It’s as easy as that. This would be my last Twilight trip so I won’t be able to take you in a bus another time. Minhyuk-nim. Next time you go hunting you can tell them that ‘I have seen a lot of attack patterns.’ and they will accept you.” 

Roy smiled nicely. 

“Great.”

Chew, chew. 

Minhyuk smiled at Roy.

“Wuu… You hunted it so fast that I wasn’t even able to use my magic.” 

“It’s best to use magic when we are driven in a corner since it uses a lot of MP.” 

Roy comforted her with his words. 

“I felt it earlier, Roy-nim. Your item looks very good.” 

“Ahaha. Well, this is rare for beginners. I paid a lot of money for it [1]. Minhyuk-nim’s items look good too?” 

“I don’t know…” 

Minhyuk spoke vaguely. 

Everyone thought that it was also just paid with money so they let it go. 

‘That spear…’ 

Minhyuk unceasingly felt weird ever since he joined the party. 

He looked at Roy’s spear. 

“Well then, shall we start hunting in earnest?” 

“Yes!” 

“Yeah!” 

“Chew, yep!” 

***

The hunt was smooth. 

Roy was stronger compared to others in his level and Ver fought quite well. Rakku had the perfect timing to use magic missile to disrupt and distract the enemies. 

After hunting two out of the three present mini ants, Roy talked as he watched the extended arm of the mini ant disappear. 

“Minhyuk-nim, why don’t you try and kill that one?” 

He looked like he was willing to let him experience it. 

It was clearly a good jjeol [2].

In fact, there were a lot of users who were so scared that they couldn’t hunt any monsters. 

Ver grinned. 

“What can a person who always eats do?” 

Stab—

“Keep that mouth shut.” 

Rakku jabbed him at his sides as she said those words. 

“No, did I say something wrong? He took a ride on our bus and all he ever did was eat. This friend…” 

Before he could even finish his words… 

Bang! 

Minhyuk kicked his feet off of the ground. 

‘He’s fast.’ 

Roy’s eyes narrowed. 

Minhyuk has already swallowed down the castella in his mouth. 

Slaash! 

Minhyuk hacked at the mini ant with his sword. The branch-like limb was slashed through and the cold dead body of the mini ant fell down with a thud. 

“Oh, that’s neat.” 

“So fast?” 

Clap, clap. 

“We have already whittled down its strength, that’s why he was able to one-shot it. Tsk.” 

He was fast but they only thought that he was only a bit faster compared to others on his level. 

Besides, Minhyuk did not really do his best yet. 

Did he have to? 

Anyway, it will still die even if I hit it once. 

He also wanted to check something. 

“Do you do kendo in real life?” 

“Yes, I’ve been doing it for quite some time.” 

“So that’s why your movements were so neat. That’s good.” 

And once again, they moved forward.

***

After logging out of Athenae, Changwook headed towards the room where Minhyuk’s capsule was located. 

The doctor-in-charge, Jinhwan, and several other people were gathered together and were having a blooming conversation. 

“It’s time for our shift, what are you guys talking about?” 

“Ah, General’s here?” 

“Teach, please.”

“Haha, sorry, sorry. We were just talking about Minhyukie.” 

“Minhyukie? Why?” 

Im Hyejin, who was in charge of Minhyuk’s diet, said… 

“It’s been 5 years since we first saw Minhyuk, and we haven’t seen him become angry yet. But we’re sure that Minhyuk definitely gets angry.” 

“Ah, no one here has seen him angry?” 

Everyone nodded at him. 

“Minhyukie smiles naturally everyday~” 

“When I’m with Minhyuk he’s always smiling.” 

Changwook grinned at their words. 

“I’ve seen it before.” 

“Huh? Really?” 

“For real? Minhyukie got angry?” 

“In the past, I made a blunder.” 

He sat down with an awkward expression on his face. 

“At first, I thought that Minhyuk does not get angry at all. He’s very funny and lively, but you know Minhyuk deserves every right to complain? I don’t know why he got this disease.” 

“Yeah. I think the manager was Park Tae-il before? Whenever his son sees Minhyuk he would always say ‘pig’ behind his back but Minhyuk always said ‘Oh, how did you know that I was a pig? You’re really a genius! Kuuwiiik!’ then he would laugh. I can’t tell you how angry I was back then.”

“You know what I thought when I saw that?” 

Everyone focused on what Changwook was saying. 

“Wow, this person is really living well.” 

“Huh?” 

“Look at Minhyuk. His father is a CEO, he has a good personality, he’s good at studying, and if you exclude his chubby body then he would be a great athlete. Whenever he does something you know that he will always become the best.” 

“That’s right. Minhyukie has always been exceptional.”

“He was someone who has everything. If the last place in the class said to the first place ‘Will you be happy in your life if you study like that? Why don’t you enjoy life~’ what would you feel?” 

“……I think I would be in a good mood? Because I would feel superior when people say that. Then I would feel pathetic again.”

“You’re right. He has everything so he doesn’t care if anyone gossips about him, he will just smile. He’s been through everything in this life. Besides he is a very gentle person and he is a gentleman through and through. Except when it’s about eating.” 

“Yeah, he’s gentle. Except when it’s about eating.” 

Everyone nodded in agreement. 

Then Im Hyejin said… 

“Ah, wait. This isn’t where we started. Changwook-ssi you said that you saw Minhyuk get angry. How did he get angry?” 

Changwook looked bitter when he recalled the memory of that time. 

“……It was very scary [3].”

Everyone’s eyes were wide open. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, I only saw his face when he was angry. At that time, I think Minhyuk was still allowed to eat crackers once every 2 weeks? That day he didn’t even listen to whatever I was saying and was only watching the crackers, and I quickly took it away. Then I saw Minhyuk’s face… “

“What did you see?” 

“He looks like a completely different person. When that happened Minhyuk apologized, and I knew that Minhyuk had that disease so I apologized too and then it was solved.” 

Everyone nodded as if it was a relief to hear those words. 

“And after that, did you know that Minhyuk got angry at Secretary Park Munsoo? I asked him about it once. So I could be careful next time.” 

“So?” 

“That was when he told me things. Minhyuk has a moral bottom line that you cannot cross. Plus he is really scary when he gets angry. He will only spit out facts out of his mouth. It’s savage. I never wanted to cross that line again. In reality a physical attack is completely impossible, but he will attack you with his logic. But what if it’s inside the game?”

Everyone gulped in fright. 

“You’ll definitely see a Minhyuk that’s really angry. And there’s something called PK in there.” 

***

Roy and Ver were killing six mini ants in front.

As the numbers grew, they started to feel overwhelmed. 

“T, the aggro got deflected!” 

Rakku, who was launching a magic missile, shouted in embarrassment. 

The mini ant that was about to die quickly approached her. 

At that moment… 

Minhyuk quickly blocked the front. 

Slaaaaash! 

He slashed through the mini ant in one fell swoop in front of her. 

“Are you alright?” 

“Ah, yes…!” 

Soon after, more aggro got deflected. 

This one seemed to have even more STM compared to the one before. 

“Shit, why is the aggro deflecting!” 

Ver’s temper flared as he hurriedly chased the monster that got its aggro deflected. This was because if Rakku gets attacked then his score(?) would get deductions. 

However a mini ant stretched its hand towards Ver’s back and tried to grab him. 

At that moment… 

Minhyuk stepped up. 

[Dauntless Strike] 

[Your strike will have an additional 20% attack power.]

Slaash! 

Minhyuk took out another deflected aggro. He saw a tree branch reaching out behind Ver. 

He quickly narrowed the distance and kicked it off with all his might. 

Slam! 

“Nice!” 

Roy stabbed strongly at the back of the mini ant as if he was waiting for it. 

Staab! 

‘This shit!’ 

Ver’s expression distorted when Minhyuk happened to lend him his aid. 

Minhyuk quickly returned to his position and continued to watch them carefully. 

“I’m hungry.” 

He opened up a yanggaeng, put it in his mouth and laughed. 

After they finished the hunt, Roy spoke up. 

“Ver-nim, aren’t you too distracted? At that time, it would definitely be a big disaster if you let it pass through our rear.” 

“Shit, that first-timer keeps on getting on my nerves.” 

“Minhyuk-nim has been doing a very good job. This is already a great compliment for someone who’s doing his first party quest.” 

“Ah, no he’s not? That guy just stepped out in front of me and deflected more aggro.” 

Roy swept his hair with an awkward expression on his face. 

Ver bit his lips. 

‘FXcker, I got embarrassed in front of Rakku-nim.’ 

He still strongly believes that he has a possibility with Rakku. 

He quickly approached Minhyuk with a stomp of his feet. 

“Aaaaaaaaang.” 

Minhyuk was just about to put a castella in his mouth because he got hungry after the battle finished. 

“Ah, you’re continuously pigging out. Nim, I have to say something to you. The aggro got deflected because of Nim.” 

As he said that, Ver took the bread away from Minhyuk’s hands. 

***

Footnotes 

[1] 현질 is what it says in the raws. It was the real money converted into game or virtual money. I think it’s when you buy diamonds/rubies in games then use it for trade. 

[2] 쩔 (jjeol) A kind of power leveling where a high-level character helps out a low-level character. Like taking you in a bus, or carrying. Idk if there is an english word for this tho. 

[3] it was very scary that it gave him the chills. 

TL’s corner!!! 

AHHHHHH PREPARE FOR MINHYUK’S WRATH. Boy it was totally because you did not hold the aggro well that’s why it got deflected, why u go and blame my boy Minhyuk???? Want a slap? Hmph. Then you go and take his bread? Hehehe prepare for his wrath.

P.S. I just realized that I have been translating the ‘kill’ when hunting to ‘catch’ lol. I am terribly sorry. 

P.P.S. Thank you very much to Cuties, Sasha and everyone on woopgen that helped shed light on the aggro thing. Lmao. My brain is fried and all of you are lifesavers.