The chewy and spicy noodles disappeared in Minhyuk’s mouth easily. He quickly stretched out his chopsticks to grab more noodles.

“Sluuuuuuuuurp!” 

Minhyuk’s chopsticks naturally headed towards the well-ripened kimchi that he had pulled out from his inventory earlier.

Crunch, crunch─

Since the kimchi had a bit of sourness in it, it added a flair to the spicy noodles. Then, Minhyuk placed some kimbap in his mouth. As soon as the kimbap landed in his mouth, he could taste the pickled radish, the eggs, the ham, the spinach, the cucumber and the burdock, all packed inside of the roll. Even the scent of the sesame oil that was brushed on top of the kimbap stimulated his appetite and put a smile on his face. When he felt that his throat was getting a bit dry, he quickly lifted the bowl of ramyeon and slurped the spicy soup loudly.

“Hoo! So good!” Minhyuk shouted in admiration as he picked up the well-cooked egg in his ramyeon. He let out another huge smile when he tasted the yolk of the egg that had absorbed the spicy and sweet soup of the ramyeon.

“It’s really delicious!” 

Kerry looked at Minhyuk in disbelief as he continued to hunt.

***

Kerry really could not understand the situation. He thought, ‘How can that player be so easy-going?’ 

This was the competition that his life was dependent on. In addition, his reason was to win the MVP title and dedicate it to his late father! Kerry might not know this, but if his goal and pursuit was to win this competition, then Minhyuk’s goal was to achieve happiness with the food this competition had to offer.

For Minhyuk, eating was more important since it could make him happy more than anything else in the world. He could even remember the scent of the market as he held his mother’s hands. He was happy that he could relive that memory once again.

[Painting's Monarch Vhad had summoned has exceeded thirty summons!]

Vhad’s and Fabian’s positions were simple. Fabian, as a Bomb Mage, could make bombs from anything. He could make bombs from the trees, soil, rocks or even monsters. In the beginning, he quickly made bombs from the trees, the soil and the rocks to hunt the monsters. Then, he made bombs from the remains of the monsters. Monsters had various attributes. Wind, fire, earth, lightning and many others. The power of his bombs was dependent on these attributes. Once Fabian had hunted the monsters, Vhad would draw the dead monsters and summon them back to life. Vhad’s skill ‘Painting Control’ could only be used and triggered if he drew dead monsters. However, there was definitely a limitation on the numbers of monsters he could draw and summon.

Therefore, he truly could not draw an unlimited number of monsters. Even so, with the increase in the number of extinguished candles, stronger monsters materialized and appeared in front of them. As they continued to kill stronger monsters, their hunting speed was bound to accelerate.

Before they knew it, Vhad was already extinguishing their 50th candle.

[Vhad already extinguished their 50th candle. He’s coming up to 2nd place at a really fast pace!]

[As expected of the strongest favorite to win this competition!]

[Even the summons that Vhad had summoned are great! They have at least 80% of their original power!]

[Until when will Player Minhyuk eat?]

Kerry turned to look back at Vhad. He was fast approaching their score. It was unfortunate, but there was a thin and transparent barrier that separated him from Vhad and his team right next to them.

Vhad turned to look at Kerry as he smiled darkly and mockingly at the latter. It was an obvious smile of mockery. But Kerry did not care at all.

‘Now... Slowly...’

Kerry was also among the select few that could be chosen as a representative player for the country. He had currently extinguished seven candles all by himself. He quietly approached another candle as he blew on it. Ten candles were extinguished in one go. Right now, monsters at Level 380~420 have appeared. Kerry quickly moved his fishing rod as soon as he saw the monsters appear.

[Casting Hook]

[Dozens of fishing hooks are cast as they snatch the targets.]

Dozens of thin fishing lines sprang up in the air…

“Keuheeeeeek!”

“Kiheeeeeeek!”

…as dozens of fishing hooks penetrated the bodies of the rushing monsters.

Tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak─

The hooked monsters all rose up in the air as if they were fish hooked with bait.

[Ah! Player Kerry! He used the skills that he has been hiding.]

[Don’t forget that Player Kerry is also one of the representative players of the production classes.]

[The monsters hooked with the fishing lines look like fish that were hooked with bait.]

Then, Kerry gestured as if he was reeling in the fishing line. Every time he closed in on the fishing line, the hooked monsters went higher and higher in the air.

[What a spectacular sight!]

[The flailing monsters are all 30 meters above the ground!]

Kerry then formed the image of a scissor with his index finger and middle finger before making a gesture as if he was cutting the fishing lines with his fingers. As soon as he made the gesture, the monsters began to crash towards the ground, one by one.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Falling from the sky, the monsters died instantly. They burst into pieces like tomatoes that fell from a high place.

[Wow! Player Kerry is doing a good job defending their rank.]

[This is such an unexpected outcome. Team 11 is already running towards their 100th candle.]

However, it did not end there.

‘The strength that I have concealed before...’ 

[Fisherman’s Lure.]

[You can control the monsters that you have hooked in the head.]

As if not intending to stop, Kerry extinguished five candles as he began his dance with his fishing rod. The long and thin fishing lines passed through and hooked the heads of the monsters. Then, they began to act like puppets.

[Wh…what an astounding sight!]

[This is the first time that Fisherman Kerry has revealed this ability!]

[An unexpected dark horse. The tension is high. The gap between Team 4 and Team 11 is not narrowing at all!]

Meanwhile, Vhad just looked at Kerry with interest. He thought, ‘That ability looks like it can’t control a lot of monsters.’ 

Vhad nodded, believing his thoughts to be correct. In order for someone to perform a summon, the player needed to have the ‘Command' stat. There were limits to the stat. Vhad thought that Kerry would definitely experience a huge setback once his Command stat reached its limit.

However, right now, Vhad had 50 monsters to play with. Fabian nodded his head when he received the signal. Fabian quickly extinguished 30 candles in one go. As soon as the candles went out, more powerful monsters appeared. 20 summoned monsters immediately jumped in the monsters’ midst. The monsters began to fight and tangle with each other as Vhad started painting.

The picture Vhad was painting was none other than the monsters fighting against each other. When he erased some of the images that he painted, the 20 summoned monsters immediately disappeared among the monsters. Then, he activated his skill.

[Erased Summoner’s Rampage.]

[The summoner’s summons will exert their final strength before they disappear.]

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The summons then appeared and surrounded the monsters. At that exact same moment, 30 points were added to Team 4's score.

“...!” 

Kerry looked at the scene in disbelief. In just an instant, the gap between them narrowed and they came in nipping closely at their heels. As soon as this happened, Kerry desperately thought that he needed Minhyuk’s help now. He turned around to look at Minhyuk.

“Please hurry up and stop eating now...!” 

However, when he turned around, the scene that he saw left him speechless. He asked, “Wh…what the hell is that thing on your shoulders?!” 

The commentators had a similar reaction.

[J…just now, what’s that thing that appeared on Player Minhyuk’s shoulders?]

[It seems like it has black skin and a sheep’s head. Its lower body looks like it’s from a horse too. But… it’s as small as Beanie.]

[Huh? I think I heard about that thing at least once before.]

One of the commentators suddenly blurted out.

[Doesn’t it look like the miniature version of Baphomet?!]

***

Team Leader Park Minggyu was sitting together with the officials. There were players who participated in other games sitting together and talking in front of them.

“Even if it’s called the Speed Eating Contest, no matter how you look at it, it’s just a monster hunt. Right?” 

“Yeah. Seems like Player Minhyuk is stupid enough to just eat.” 

“Tch. The competition is not a joking matter.” 

Listening quietly to their words, Team Leader Park smirked. He thought, ‘You’re the stupid ones!’ 

For the Speed Eating Contest, the operators have announced clearly that they would be able to recover their HP, MP and other stats if they ate the food. They would even be able to gain special powers from time to time. However, he knew that the other officials had a point. The gap they had made with the other players would narrow if Minhyuk kept on eating like that.

However, if that happened, then Joy Co. Ltd. thought that the essence of the Speed Eating Contest would lose its ‘significance’. Even the supercomputer Athenae thought that way. So Athenae hid a ‘special’ power that could only be revealed if they ate. That special power was truly a sight to behold. It was an amazing and extraordinary power. Besides, Team Leader Park was confident that Player Minhyuk could turn everything around even if the other players caught up with him.

‘What if he finds something special while he’s eating? If that happens, it would be an extraordinary surprise to everyone.’

At that time, Player Minhyuk picked up another food parchment. The words written on the parchment were ‘Market Pork Trotters’.

‘That parchment...’

The food would give the player the power to use a summoning stone, if they had one. Sometimes the boss monsters in Athenae would drop summoning stones. However, summoning stones were really, really rare.

However, Player Minhyuk had received a summoning stone as a reward for being the ‘First Person to Hunt a Demonic Monster’. As mentioned earlier, the summoning stone was an extremely rare drop. In fact, the ‘Weaker Baphomet Summoning Stone’ in Minhyuk’s hands could already summon one of the strongest existences. 

In fact, everyone from the company believed that the players would not gain much power from eating the food related to summoning. After all, it was rare for a player to get summoning stones for monsters above Level 300. However, despite the summoning stone in Minhyuk’s hand being a ‘weaker’ summoning stone, the being it could summon was well over Level 400.

‘Unexpectedly, a great summoner has appeared,’ Team Leader Park thought as a miniature Baphomet appeared.

He could hear the commentators speaking in a fluster as he watched Minhyuk on the screen mumble something while eating. Then, with an expression of ‘Ah~ Let’s finish this and eat!’ Minhyuk stood up and blew out 30 candles. At that moment, hundreds of monsters appeared in front of him again. Before he could move, dozens of magic attacks materialized around the miniature Baphomet. Then, those magic attacks flew and devoured the incoming monsters.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The huge amount of strong magical attacks quickly devoured and killed the monsters in an instant!  The area was surrounded by dust. But when the aftermath of the magic attacks subsided, Team Leader Park saw Vhad’s expression. The look on Vhad's face was so distorted and ugly. He looked like he had eaten some big shit.

***

[You have acquired the Market Pork Trotters.]

[You have acquired the ‘Single-use Summoning Stone Power’ hidden in one of the food parchments in the Speed Eating Contest.]

Minhyuk heard these notifications while ripping the parchment for the Market Pork Trotters. In this competition, the use of ordinary potions or consumable artifacts were prohibited. However, he had heard his HP and MP recovering while eating earlier.

‘If we’re talking about summoning stones...’

Minhyuk only thought of one thing. However, he still had not turned the Weaker Baphomet into his subordinate with the use of the ‘Allurer’s Cooking’ skill. He thought that if he finished the competition now, he would be able to taste the power of the ‘Infinitely Refilling Lamb Meat’.

Minhyuk knew that Baphomet’s summoning stone’s effects only lasted for three hours. Right now, there was only half an hour left before the competition ended. Minhyuk quickly decided to summon Baphomet. Although its capabilities and skills would be much lower than before, it was still strong.

Then, the space beside him was torn apart as soon as he summoned Baphomet.

[Baphomet appears in a pet-form.]

[You can summon it in the original Baphomet’s form if you want.]

[There is no difference between the pet-form Baphomet and the original Baphomet.]

What appeared was a Baphomet that was as big as Beanie. Previously, it looked extremely scary, but this time, due to its size, it looked unbearably cute. Its hands and feet were as small as Beanie’s, and it even had a tiny staff on its hands.

“Meeeeeeeeee─” Baphomet cried loudly as it crawled up and lay flat on Minhyuk’s shoulders.

‘...A cat-dog?’

Cats that were as energetic and troublesome as puppies were called cat-dogs. This just showed how friendly it was to the other person. However, the miniature Baphomet was now acting like a cat-dog to Minhyuk.

‘Uhm... Well, I’ll work hard to raise you for my infinitely refilling lamb meat!’ Minhyuk thought as he gently petted Baphomet’s belly.

“Meeeeeeeeee~”

‘This punk is smiling like he’s in a good mood. Shouldn’t there be something that you should do first?’ Vhad stared at Minyuk with an ugly expression.

Minhyuk suddenly glanced at Vhad. When Vhad saw Minhyuk looking at himself, he suddenly felt vigilant. Then, Minhyuk grinned wickedly and said, “What did I tell you earlier?”

“...”

“I’ll feed you some big shit today.”