Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 379: Hunting Black Dragon

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The shouts of the raging troops from Cairon Continent died down, as silence enveloped the area. The same was true for the commentators and viewers watching from all over the world.

Every single TV program in the world had already introduced who Da Zhuang was. He was a ‘legend’ of the past. In fact, it was rare to see any ‘god’ or ‘legend’ of the past generation that was still active in the present. Most of the active ones were either their successors, or players that had inherited their powers.

Everyone was aware that the reason for the rare appearance of the characters hailed as gods and legends was balance control. The people all over the world saw the appearance of Da Zhuang as the Cairon Continent’s trump card in this Continental War.

Of course, Asgan Continent also had a trump card of their own, which might just be Black Dragon and his 4,000-strong army.

The people had estimated Da Zhuang to be at a level where the current players would be helpless against him. In fact, the Athenae design team had already prepared a storyline where he would end his career in the Continent Cloud and hide himself again.

But right now…

Puhaaaaaaaa!

“Keuaaaaaack!”

Da Zhuang’s body was spurting blood like a fountain, after being slashed sideways by a player. They had estimated his level to be at around Level 700. He was an extremely strong Named NPC! But, this strong NPC was now screaming in pain.

So, what did the world say earlier?

Things like ‘The Food God will not last an hour and will be forced to log out as soon as he arrives on the battlefield!’, or ‘The Food God is nothing more than a ‘small fry’ in front of the real strong players in the world!’ Some even went as far as to say, ‘A non-combat Food God? How dare he try to jump up and act in front of the Summit Five combat players, right?’

But right now, all of them were speechless. To be precise, most of them felt that there was a blazing flame burning in their chests. The appearance of a strong player in a country other than their own was a major threat. The rest were looking forward to what changes and development this new powerhouse would show in the near future.

Because of that, none of the commentators dared to say that there was no more ‘hope’ for the players of Asgan Continent. They just shifted their angle, and began to show their ‘enthusiasm’ for Minhyuk’s power.

[This is crazy!!! The Food God is insanely strong! I am confident that his power far surpasses the Summit Five that are widely acknowledged by the whole world!!!]

[Did you see that?! The sword that pierced through Da Zhuang’s armor, the horizontal sword strike, as well as the four lightning strikes that followed right after. Player Minhyuk’s skills and abilities are very surprising!!!]

[The scream that was ripped out of Da Zhuang’s mouth has opened our eyes to a new world!]

[Food God Minhyuk will be writing history once the world is united!!!]

[Korea’s Food God player is making waves in our world!!!]

[I’m sure the portal sites all over the world are being used to search for the name ‘Food God’!]

[I’m very proud! I’m very, very proud! That player, Food God Minhyuk, is one of our country’s citizens!!!]

Although Minhyuk was unaware of it, countless Korean viewers watching from all over the country were all cheering loudly.

***

At the same time.

The remaining troops from the Korean Defense Base that had retreated earlier divided themselves into five groups, and circled around to take advantage of their enemies, wanting to catch them unaware. Most of the survivors among their troops were those with a high level, while the bases that the Chinese had left behind only had the minimal troops for protection.

Lucia, the Assassin of the Moon, entered the base first, struck down the key figures and commanding officers inside the base, before opening the gates. Their troops flocked inside the base the moment the gates opened. Meanwhile, Lucia used her skills repeatedly.

[Shadow Teleport]

Shadow Teleport was a unique skill of Lucia’s class, Assassin of the Moon. It had a GPS-like tracking function, which allowed her to teleport and move to her opponent’s shadow. In fact, piercing through a base’s defense was quite a difficult task since they needed to break down their walls. However with Lucia breaking inside first, killing the enemy key figures and opening the gates, their enemies became helpless under their assault.

[You have successfully captured Ednik Defense Base.]

[You can now acquire the special potions and artifacts left behind in Ednik Defense Base.]

[You have successfully captured Caidron Attack Base.]

[You can now acquire the special potions and artifacts left behind in Caidron Attack Base.]

[…Eidren Defense Base.]

The five teams recaptured five bases in one go, while maintaining their momentum and recapturing the other bases with minimal troops within.

On the Continent Cloud Map, the bases occupied by Asgan Continent were marked with red dots, while the bases occupied by Cairon Continent were marked with blue dots. Initially, 70% of the bases had been marked with blue dots and turned into Cairon Continent’s bases.

When they took advantage of the Chinese’s absence and began their counter, the red dots gradually covered the Continent Cloud map. They were only able to do this because Minhyuk and Carr were doing a good job in blocking the 50,000 enemy troops.

After Lucia and Alicia had taken over another base, the two made eye contact.

“We have to go back.”

“Yes.”

Minhyuk and Carr were both fighting by themselves, so they had to hurry back and help them. Besides, they only needed to leave a minimal number of troops behind for protection, since they had already completely captured the attack and defense bases.

“Rankers, rush back to the Korean Defense Base!!!”

“Yes!!!”

Meanwhile, Alicia and Lucia’s hearts were both burning for one person, and one person alone.

‘Wait for us, Minhyuk.’

‘We’re coming.

At the same time.

“Ha… ha… ha… ha…”

“Ughhhh.”

Tens of thousands of enemies laid down on the ground, while the man in black armor stood in line with the countless Dragon Race warriors that he led. Genie and the other key members of Let’s Eat Sect Guild had also survived. The fierce battle in Berdk Attack Base had taken a different turn. Black Dragon’s arrival gave them the chance and made it possible for them to turn the tides.

However, there was still something that they needed to do.

“My son, Minhyuk, is fighting against tens of thousands of troops by himself?!”

“Yes, father…”

“Ho…”

A dark shadow briefly flickered in Black Dragon’s eyes. However, he soon felt pride swelling up deep in his bones after hearing what his son was doing.

“Rascal.”

Black Dragon had also learned that his son had ordered all of the remaining troops to ‘rob the empty houses’. Minhyuk might have a hard time holding out against the tens of thousands of troops, and might possibly suffer from defeat, but there was one thing that they were sure of. He had already paved their path to ‘victory’. He knew how to sacrifice himself.

There was always a saying: There would always be a ruler sitting in the position of power, but it might not always be a good ruler.

Black Dragon knew this well, and ran his empire in as much a different manner as he could, and could be considered a ‘good ruler’. It seemed like Minhyuk was also someone worthy of those words.

‘As expected of my son.’

Black Dragon decided to stop wasting time, and said, “Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

The 1,200 remaining warriors from the Dragon Race, along with the surviving troops from Berdk Attack Base, set off towards the Korean Defense Base.

***

Atlas, the City in the Skies!

Atlas was also currently heading to the Korean Defense Base.

“Our Love, Happiness and Hope, did you get injured? Oh my, my~ Did it hurt?” Locke said as he borrowed some medicine from Kaistra to treat Cerberus’ injuries.

Meanwhile, Ali had his hands folded as he looked down at the ground below them. Then…

Ring!

[Sudden Quest: King of Snakes]

Rank: SSS

Requirements: Great Mage Moldoron’s Descendant

Rewards: Final Fragment of the Golden Crown

Penalty for Failure: Failure to get the Fragment of the Golden Crown. You will not be able to become the King of Snakes.

Description: As one of the owners of the divine beasts, you need to take the test and determine if you are fit to become the King of Snakes. Go to the ‘World of Snakes’ with the help of the Predatory Snake and be recognized as their king.

“…?!”

Ali was very shocked. There was no doubt that this was a very huge, and important, quest. In the rewards, the ‘final Fragment of the Golden Crown’?was written.

‘This Fragment of the Golden Crown…’

Ali had heard from Minhyuk in passing before that these fragments had the ability to awaken Beanie. However, that was not the problem right now.

‘Why did this suddenly appear?’

Sudden quests would appear depending on what was currently happening, or what would happen in the near future. Ali was still unaware of what would happen, but he was certain that he needed to get his hands on this power, in preparation for what would happen in the future.

Ali hurriedly talked about his situation with the remaining people in Atlas, before opening up a space through the Predatory Snake and entering the World of Snakes. Ali stepped foot in the space and promptly disappeared from everyone’s sight.

***

Joy Co. Ltd.

This was the company that produced the extraordinary game, Athenae! The company had started becoming busy again. There were quite a lot of people rushing around the corridors and the elevators.

Among these busy people was none other than Team Leader Park Minggyu. He was also bustling, despite just coming back from Washington early this morning. Team Leader Park saw Team Leader Lee Seokhoon appear and run beside him as they both rushed to the same place.

Clack—

When they opened the door to the conference room, they were met with the sight of the other executives breathing heavily, while President Kang Taehoon sat in front of the monitor, sporting a very heavy and solemn look on his face.

The executives had just been enthusiastically jumping around and cheering after watching Minhyuk cut down Da Zhuang. All of a sudden, an emergency fell upon them.

Team Leader Park Minggyu asked, “Is it true? Black Dragon Vormon is heading straight towards and breaking into the Continent Cloud right now?!”

President Kang Taehoon nodded slowly at Team Leader Park’s hurried question. He said, “That seems to be the case, yes.”

“…!”

Black Dragon Vormon was originally just an existence that would serve to open the passage called Continent Cloud and ignite the spark of war between the two continents. He was not supposed to directly intrude inside the Continent Cloud.

This meant that someone took personal liberty in dabbling with Black Dragon Vormon’s affairs.

“Who, who in the world…?!”

“Crazy Tyrant Akhan.”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

Everyone present in the conference room were all in horror.

He was the person that the player management team shunned the most. In fact, he was someone that everyone shunned. Besides, he was a player that originally did not come from Asgan Continent.

“Akhan deliberately acquired the right to go to another continent and made Vormon go into a frenzy. They’re now flying towards the Korean Defense Base.”

Team Leader Park slumped down in his chair after hearing those words. Vormon’s level was at a level that no player could fight against at this juncture of the game.

Vormon was supposed to be an existence that would only be used in another episode, in the next few years. Only then would they be able to hunt him. However, his existence had now been revealed.

The worst part was that he was going to appear in the middle of the Continent Cloud. There were tens of thousands of players concentrated in that area. Black Dragon Vormon would not care about who was who, he would just slaughter the players from both Cairon and Asgan Continents.

In other words, the Continent Cloud episode was likely to be completely destroyed.

And that was not the end of their problems. Whether it was the Asgan Continent or the Cairon Continent, Vormon remained an existence that they could not currently kill. They would just be helpless in front of him.

Once this untouchable existence broke into the Continent Cloud and killed everyone, the players would definitely blame the company. Since they had set Athenae as a game with a high degree of freedom for both NPCs and players, the Athenae executives would have nothing to say to defend themselves, even if they grew ten mouths on their bodies. Their biggest problem was the amount of criticism and rebuke that they would receive after that. It would definitely surpass any other criticisms that they had received before. After all, the entire world was currently tuned in to what was happening right now in the Continent Cloud.

Then, as if he recalled something, Team Leader Park jumped up and said, “What would happen… if someone kills Vormon…?”

“It will be a blessing in disguise.”

Simply put, they would turn their misfortune into their own fortune. Instead of turning on them and criticizing them, the entire world would turn their attention to the man that killed the disaster and shower him with ‘praises’. This would automatically remove the dark cloud hanging over all the heads of Athenae’s executives. The problem was…

“Who the hell would be able to do that? Tell me who. Huh?” President Kang Taehoon mocked, as Team Leader Park Minggyu closed his eyes after a deep and heavy sigh.

***

At the same time.

Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp—

A woman was moving her spoon hurriedly as she ate. She was in such a hurry that she ended up lifting the entire bowl and gulping down its contents. The moment the woman finished drinking the contents of the bowl, the darkness that bloomed on her face and skin slowly receded, until it returned to its original color. Even her dry, rough, and tangled silver hair returned to its original smoothness, beauty, and luster.

This woman was none other than Sword Emperor Ellie.

“Puhaaa!” Ellie exhaled in contentment after eating the sumptuous meal. Then, she slowly stood up and reached for the sword that was hanging at one side. The sword immediately flew to her hands.

“Aide Ruth.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!!!”

“Let’s give our thanks to Minhyuk,” Ellie said, grinning widely.

Ellie, the Continental Emperor, the Absolute Supreme NPC, was on her way to the Korean Defense Base!

1. Basically taking advantage of the fact that the Chinese weren’t there so they could easily take over and rob the bases from them