Chapter 5
Garlic Bread and Soup
'Alright…!'
Minhyuk did a great job.
Jinhwan played personally and knew that he could eat 100 ramyeon in the game. According to him, even if the player continued to eat after the fullness reached 100% the character would not be affected at all.
Minhyuk's bulimia is considered to be psychological. This meant that even if he's full and satiated, his brain would continue to tell him that he's hungry. However, it was still a bit different compared to his character in-game feeling full.
He ate all ten of his hard bread right in front of Valen. Then… He walked solemnly towards the training grounds.
He looked as if he was going to raid the final boss.
'I have to eat that… Flour… bread!'
Slash!
The scarecrow was struck.
This was already the fourth time, and he has finished 200 strikes.
He has also eaten thirty two loaves of bread earlier. There were two extra loaves of bread because Valen gave him the additional loaves of bread out of goodwill.
He has also heard a notification about this earlier.
[Valen's favorability [1] has increased.]
To be honest, he just swung his sword and ate and his favorability has increased.
It's such a curious thing. Plus, the bread still tastes delicious!
Just as he completed his fourth set of 50 strikes…
[Your STR has increased by +1]
'Huh?'
Minhyuk tilted his head in confusion while opening his stats window.
(Minhyuk)
Level: 1
Class: None
HP: 57 MP: 50
STR: 7 AGI: 5 STM: 5
WIS: 5 INT: 5
Fullness: 100%
Bonus Point: 0
His STR stat really increased.
Let's strike while the iron's still hot.
Minhyuk decided to ask Instructor Valen.
"Instructor."
"Oh, you finished another set of 50 strikes? You're really diligent!"
Valen liked Minhyuk very much.
"Well. Here you go, I'll give you three more pieces this time."
"Thank you very much!"
Minhyuk bowed at a straight 90 degree angle.
"Instructor, I have a question."
"Go on, you can ask me anything."
"Why did my STR stat go up by 1?"
"Oho."
Valen looked like he knew the reason why.
"You will get special rewards if you keep on hitting the scarecrow but it's not usually recommended."
"Eh? How come?"
"If you go out of Ardo and kill monsters you'll level up easily and get 5 bonus points per level. That's why no one would do that just for 1 bonus point."
"Aha, as expected of you instructor. You know as much as you are handsome [2]."
"This friend! You're such a smooth talker!"
"Hahaha!"
[Valen's favorability has increased.]
He heard another notification.
For Minhyuk, he was the one who gave him food. His life's savior. The person he's grateful for.
And I can even get more bread just for a bit of flattery!
Eating was his happiness and it's the reason why he played this game. He's playing this game for fun and strangely enough he was liked and given additional rewards.
Munch, munch, munch—
Minhyuk started and finished eating his loaves of bread quickly.
"Bread! Bread! Crayon bread!"
He sang a strange song while he walked towards the scarecrows.
Lee Minhwa was a new member of the Athenae's Special User's Management team.
She unknowingly expressed her admiration.
"How did he do that… Huh, how can he get so much of that hard thing? Oh, I can't believe he ate it in one go. You'll be in big trouble."
The way she reacts was almost as if she was watching baseball game videos.
Gulp.
Her throat bobbed and drooled, and at that moment…
"Lee Minhwa."
"Ah. Yes, Team Leader Park!"
Lee Minhwa stood up in a rush and quickly wiped her saliva.
"What the hell are you watching? You're making a weird noise."
"Hiih… T-that…"
Team Leader Park Minggyu followed Lee Minhwa's eyes and saw the monitor.
On the screen, he saw a male user tearing down the hard bread, one after the other.
Team Leader Park frowned.
"You know that this is the department where you watch special users, right? We are not the department that watches mukbang [3] users."
He was known to be strict and meticulous.
"H-he is a special user."
"What?"
"It's unusual for players to get the reward for hitting the scarecrow 200 times, right?"
"That's right."
"That unusual user has hit the scarecrow 200 times in a row."
"Is that so? Hmm… Did that user get something weird from Athenae's forums?"
This was something that's widely known among users. If you hit the scarecrow continuously, then you'll get an increase in your abilities. But you have to hit a lot. The more you hit the greater rewards you get. It's extremely inefficient.
"But this user is special."
"Special? Huh, there are many users like that."
"That's not it, I get the feeling that he was hitting the scarecrow so he could get something to eat."
"What are you saying… Who's crazy enough to hit that scarecrow just to get hard bread?"
"Th- this person right here."
Curious, Team Leader Park sat down on Lee Minhwa's seat and watched closely.
Then he really saw him. He was sweating hard but smiling happily as he ate his hard bread.
Guulp—
Team Leader Park and Minhwa drooled.
"Eh? Why can't I stop watching this?"
This is really strange.
It's like your spirit was sucked in and you'll continue watching with no other thoughts in mind.
"It seems like he's really hitting the scarecrows because he wants to eat. I've never seen a user like this one before."
"I know. Ah, won't you be able to get a special reward if you hit the scarecrow for 20 times in two consecutive days?"
"Yeah. A title. But will he really eat that bread for 20 times right? That's like at least a thousand sword strikes."
"I… Is that so?"
Team Leader Park loosened his tie, leaned back comfortably and said to Minhwa.
"Ms. Minhwa"
"Yes, Team Leader?"
"Shall we eat some bread?"
He was telling her that she should go and buy some.
Footnotes
[1] Favorability : Relates to the intimacy level or the relationship of the player with others; tbh it says intimacy level and idk it doesn't sound right. Lol.
[2] idk how to phrase it but it means that amount of knowledge he has = his handsomeness. So if he knows a lot then he's really handsome. He's complimenting him subtly. You go Hyukkie!!
[3] Mukbang : lit. Mukja + bangsong or eating + broadcast.