Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 1067

The entire world was buzzing—the buzz was as huge as if each country had won the World Cup.

The average viewership rating of the broadcasting stations that broadcasted Helenia and Barbarian’s Hunt worldwide was 40%. The moment Minhyuk held Obren, who had turned into a sword, the ratings rose to 49%. When the two laid down on the ground after successfully killing Helenia, the ratings rose to 55%.

In just one day, countless articles poured in.

[Apel, the company that sponsored the Beyond the Heavens Empire with eight trillion won, is expected to obtain a record-breaking fifty trillion won in total revenue this year.]

[Almost half of their expected total revenue is thanks to the advertising effects brought by the Beyond the Heavens Empire.]

[APhone 23’s reservation has gone beyond unusual! It seems like it will break the highest sales record in history!]

[Apel is expected to sign an additional contract with the Beyond the Heavens Empire. Beyond the Heavens Empire’s Vassals Edition will soon be released!]

[We can expect to see the vassals’ cute characters in the Beyond the Heavens Empire’s Vassals Edition. Many people are waiting for Obren’s edition.]

[Many people express a strong desire to purchase Obren’s edition. A Chinese conglomerate is willing to spend a billion won just to buy it. ]

[The number of members of Obren’s fan club Tsun-Tsun has exceeded thirty million.]

[‘Dream of Becoming a Wild Stallion’ ranks 3rd on the real-time search terms. What is it?]

[Videos expressing their gratitude for Minhyuk are pouring non-stop on ZTube.]

[The ones who protected Athenae.]

[Minhyuk’s influence far surpasses the influence of any conglomerate or politician in the world.]

Good news continued to pour in. However, that did not mean that it was always good news.

[The level of 10,000 rankers has decreased by an average of 6% during the war.]

[When will the players who suffered from the level-down penalty be able to recover?]

[The damage that the Beyond the Heavens Empire’s rankers have received has completely knocked them down. This is especially the case for Black Mage Ali. He had lost his qualifications as the God of Magic. Fortunately, he received Helenia’s Mana Heart.]

[Experts expect Ali to take at least a few years before he could become an Eight Pillar Class player.]

They had gained a lot, but they had also lost a lot.

***

After Obren and Minhyuk APhone 23, the Beyond the Heavens Empire used Helenia’s Magic Parchment and chose to use Mass Teleport, teleporting everyone out of the battlefield simultaneously. Then, they detonated all of the bombs and potions that Helenia had gathered and killed the tens of millions of monsters all at once.

All the troops that the nations had dispatched, including the Beyond the Heavens Empire troops, returned home.

As for Minhyuk, he logged out of the game and slept for two straight days. This was so he could deal with the fatigue and exhaustion that he had accumulated. After all, he had jumped back into the game for this session right after waking up from fainting.

When Minhyuk woke from his two-day slumber, he spent thirty minutes dealing with his backlogs and listening to various reports.

Oh Changwook said, “Apel has sent someone from their headquarters. You will be meeting them in the afternoon in a suite in the South Korea Hotel.”

“I understand, hyung,” Minhyuk replied.

“Don’t overdo it next time,” Oh Changwook urged, his worry evident.

Minhyuk smiled as he nodded in agreement. Then, he rushed to his Athenae capsule.

“Y-you! I just told you not to overdo it!”

“No, hyung. I’m hungry.”

“Ah!”

Changwook realized that Minhyuk had not been able to eat anything delicious recently because he had been very busy. On top of that, he had slept for two straight days. His appetite would be through the roof right now.

Just like that, Minhyuk logged back inside Athenae.

***

‘On a day when I’ve taken a very long nap and cannot be bothered to do anything, there is delicious food that I can eat by just moving a few fingers—Chinese food.’

When Minhyuk logged back inside the game, he immediately took out the Chinese dishes he had made in advance to satisfy his hunger. The way he took out the dishes from his inventory made him resemble a delivery man taking out dishes from his metal delivery box.

He took out jjajangmyeon, jjampong, fried rice, and tangsuyuk, before the cherry on top.

‘C-cream shrimp, let’s go~’

Minhyuk let out a sigh of awe.

Wouldn’t it be better to eat such delicious food with some company?

Beanie, who had been playing somewhere, suddenly peeked through the door. It seemed like he had smelled the dishes from wherever he was.

“Oiiiiiink!”

From what Minhyuk had heard, Beanie had contributed a lot to the battlefield during the time that Minhyuk had been unconscious. Of course, Beanie’s contributions were less significant compared to those made by Brod and Ben. Nevertheless, he had indeed made contributions.

Seeing his master beckoning him over, Beanie hurriedly ran over to Minhyuk.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh–

‘Have you ever seen a baby piggy shake and mix a bowl of jjajangmyeon that’s still covered with cling wrap?’

“You… You’re a person, right?”

“Oink?”

It was truly quite a sight. Anyway, Minhyuk peeled off the cling wrap of his jjajangmyeon. Why did Minhyuk not do it like Beanie? Well, it was mainly because of the sound. He did not like it when the noodles were mixed like that.

Snap.

Minhyuk separated his chopsticks and began to mix his jjajangmyeon.

Everyone was used to it since they often heard it. But if one listened carefully, mixing jjajangmyeon sounded very appetizing.

Fwoosh, swoosh, swoosh–

After mixing the jjajangmyeon, Minhyuk picked up a huge bundle of noodles with his chopsticks.

“Sluuuuuuurp!!!”

He aggressively pushed everything into his mouth, and the rich and savory flavor of the jjajangmyeon instantly filled his mouth. Of course, he did not forget to eat a piece of pickled radish.

Crunch, crunch–

Then, he had another huge bite of noodles...

“Sluuuuuuuurp!!!”

…And another piece of pickled radish.

Crunch, crunch–

Minhyuk and Beanie enjoyed their meals just like that.

This time, Minhyuk turned his attention to the tangsuyuk. He poured half of the sauce into half of the tangsuyuk and left the rest as it was in consideration of Beanie, who loved to dip the tangsuyuk in sauce.

When Minhyuk looked at Beanie, he saw that the baby piggy had jjajang all over his mouth.

“Oiink! Oink! I know how to eat!”

After wiping the voracious foodie’s mouth, Minhyuk grabbed a piece of tangsuyuk and dipped it in the sweet and sour sauce.

‘Yeah, yeah. You know everything.’

Minhyuk’s tangsuyuk was very special. Its meat was thick, and its batter was as thin as possible. So, when a person bit into the crispy batter, they would immediately feel the texture of the thick and juicy meat. As for the sweet and sour sauce made from several fruits? It was so delightful that it could make a person smile.

“Whoa…” Minhyuk uttered with a small smile.

It was the sound that someone instinctively released whenever they ate something delicious.

After eating his jjajangmyeon, he stuffed his face with fried rice.

Of course, when eating fried rice that quickly, his throat would feel dry like he was choking. At times like this, only one thing was needed.

Minhyuk took a huge sip of the jjampong soup next to him.

“Kghhhk!”

The spicy soup washed away the greasiness of the fried rice. Minhyuk personally liked to eat jjampong and fried rice together.

“Sluuuuuuuurp!!!”

There was a smile on his face as he ate the spicy and chewy noodles with relish. Then, he grabbed some raw onions and dipped them in chunjang before eating them.

Munch–

The onions were not spicy; instead, they were pretty sweet and crunchy. Now, it was time for the highlight.

“Kghhk…”

Minhyuk grabbed a piece of the well-battered, beautiful cream shrimp. The shrimp was plump, and the white cream sauce looked delightfully sweet. He placed it in his mouth with gusto.

Crunch–

Minhyuk and Beanie filled their mouths with shrimp.

“Wow…”

“Oink…”

They made eye contact. There were ecstatic smiles on their faces as they shouted in awe. The sweet sauce was truly fantastic!

These two pigs could devour nineteen Chinese dishes together in just an instant. They even patted their full stomachs in satisfaction.

Minhyuk was about to meet with the Beyond the Heavens’ executives and checked the time. ‘The appointment with Apel is just around the corner.’

“We’re stuffed. Okay, you can go and play around, Beans.”

“Oiiiiiink!”

Beanie, whose stomach went from flat to bulging, happily ran to play while patting his bulging belly.

After sending him off, Minhyuk logged out.

***

Apel’s Johnson and Minhyuk met at the South Korea Hotel’s suite. The two had previously met when they signed the sponsorship contract.

“Based on our estimations, the value of the Beyond the Heavens’ promotional effect, together with the drops from the monsters, will give us around eighteen trillion won annual revenue.”

Their profits went above and beyond their initial investment.

“According to the clause where you will get 10% of the profits if the revenue exceeds ten trillion won, the Beyond the Heavens Empire will receive eight hundred billion won.”

Apel did not expect Athenae to create such a huge ripple effect.

“The promotion of the APhone 23 with Obren was truly impressive. Ah, there’s also the character draft.”

Johnson’s visit to Korea was because of a new contract. Like they had discussed in the news, they would create products with the Beyond the Heavens’ vassals.

Minhyuk looked at the character draft. The characters looked cute with their big heads, just like the characters in Naple Story, a game about fallen leaves. Ben, with a big head and a spear, looked very cute. Even Brod, with his scary and serious face, still looked very cute. The one who looked most impressive was Obren, pretending to be aloof with his arms folded together.

“We planned to produce 10,000 units of the limited edition Obren’s APhone 23. But we’re already receiving a flood of inquiries.”

Minhyuk nodded. This was good for the Beyond the Heavens Empire. After all, not only would they promote their empire through the help of the global corporation Apel, but they would also gain another source of income. Besides, the terms and conditions of the contract were excellent.

“I think you will be able to earn at least 200 billion won from this contract.”

Minhyuk smiled. “That’s amazing. The one trillion won that we will get from these contracts will go directly to the development funds of the Beyond the Heavens Empire.”

Johnson looked like he was pondering about something as he took a sip of his tea. The middle-aged gentleman carefully said, “There’s something that I’m curious about. Is it alright to ask you about it?”

This question was Johnson’s personal question. Minhyuk readily agreed because Johnson asked him nicely and politely.

“Are… all of your profits going to be used for the Beyond the Heavens Empire?”

Minhyuk answered, “Ah. Around 95% of the profits will be spent on the Beyond the Heavens Empire. The rest is divided among the executives and some other people.”

“The players’ share is much smaller than I expected.”

It was indeed very small. Johnson knew that 50% of profits would go to the players of each kingdom and empire. Of course, that was what they usually did.

‘This is the kind of empire that he has created.’

Nevertheless, even from that small percentage, Minhyuk's wealth would definitely be astronomical. Minhyuk had accumulated around 700 billion won in his installment savings(?) account in the bank. This was Minhyuk’s personal money.

“I know that it might sound rude; nonetheless, do you mind if I give you some advice?” Johnson asked cautiously.

Minhyuk, who looked puzzled, nodded.

“Sometimes, using as much as you have is good,” Johnson advised.

He knew he was meddling, and he was certainly crossing the line.

“I am aware of your good deeds, Mr. Minhyuk. You donate tens of billions of won to welfare centers yearly, right?” Johnson looked at Minhyuk. “I was shocked when I saw you come out of a taxi.”

Johnson thought Minhyuk might take his words badly. After all, the young man could be considered an icon of frugality.

Nevetheless, Johnson continued, “I am a greedy businessman. Money can sometimes bring joy to the people around me. And, of course, it can also bring me joy.”

Hearing those words, Minhyuk looked back on his past. All he had done was do good deeds, donate, and save. His spending habits were nothing like an ordinary chaebol’s. However, it was no exaggeration to say that those actions had made Minhyuk who he was now. Even though he had hundreds of billions of won in his bank account, the clothes that he was wearing were worth less than 100,000 won.

“Sometimes, money can make someone maintain their dignity and give the people around them happiness. Even if it’s just a little bit, I hope you can spend the money on yourself and the people around you. This is my advice to you,” Johnson said.

He looked apologetic. He knew that his words were nothing but an excuse for what he intended to do.

Of course, Minhyuk didn’t feel that great after hearing Johnson’s advice. After all, no one should recklessly involve themselves in someone else’s spending habits. Still, Johnson’s intention came from a good place in his heart.

Johnson held out a black card to Minhyuk. “This is a black card from Apel. There are only ten of this kind of card in the world. We pay those we consider very important to our company.”

“???”

Minhyuk looked at the middle-aged man in confusion. What was the purpose of this card?

“This is a gift from Apel. We want you to spend thirty billion won in three days.”

Minhyuk’s eyes grew wide. “...!”

Johnson chuckled. The value that the Beyond the Heavens Empire had brought to Apel might only be over fifteen trillion won this year, but it would exceed forty trillion won in five years or more.

Because of that, Apel wanted to give them a gift as a show of gratitude. The executives and representatives of Apel, along with Johnson, had set a three-day time limit for the card because they wanted Minhyuk, the icon of frugality, to spend a lot of money without any burden.

Minhyuk, who was left feeling bad, finally understood the meaning behind what Johnson had said earlier. He had given that advice so that Minhyuk would not feel pressured to receive this gift.

Johnson smiled. “Isn’t there a word that kids these days say?”

Minhyuk did not refuse further. He accepted the black card and said, “Flex.”

Yes. He could do a thirty-billion-won flex, too.