Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 953

‘Maybe I’ll be able to reach Level 650 once Helenia’s Dungeons episode ends.’

Of course, the process would be challenging. Even though Helenia’s Fragments were considered boss mobs, many people would be shocked and say that Minhyuk’s pace was ridiculously crazy if they saw that he could increase his level by around 2~3 in a week.

But Minhyuk could make it possible. How? First and foremost, Minhyuk’s level was almost similar to Helenia’s Fragments. And second, he had a triple EXP acquisition buff applied to himself.

Minhyuk warped somewhere once again. This time, he was met with two dungeons inside a kingdom. One of the dungeons had only five minutes left on the timer, while the other had ten minutes left. This kingdom was none other than the Roths Kingdom.

After issuing an evacuation order, the Roths Kingdom’s king immediately rushed to where Minhyuk was.

“...?” Minhyuk looked at the man in confusion.

Although they weren’t allies, they maintained a smooth and amiable relationship. However, after all the civilians had been evacuated, their king, knights, and soldiers remained on site.

“Why didn’t you evacuate?”

“...Because we want to fight and protect our kingdom until the end. My people have already run to safety. However, I want to ensure they have a place to return to at any given time.”

The Roths Kingdom’s king had a good heart. And although he found it embarrassing, he still asked Minhyuk, “If, by any chance, we fail to stop the dungeons here. Then I hope that you can take in our people.”

During this period, when he ran to answer the request for support to hunt Helenia’s Fragments, Minhyuk met two kinds of rulers. One was a king who valued their life more than his people and his kingdom, while the other was a king who valued the life of his kingdom and his people more than their own life.

Minhyuk saw the various faces of a leader facing unexpected and life-threatening situations. Witnessing this situation would undoubtedly be of huge help to Minhyuk in the future.

“With the Beyond the Heavens’ Emperor by our side, we can stop and overcome this crisis today.”

The king, his knights, and his troops all looked very exhausted. From what Minhyuk had heard, they had been working tirelessly to stop as many mobs as possible. Seeing them like this, Minhyuk said, “Please go and get some rest. I will be done with this in a minute.”

“Yes?” King Rhodora, the king of Roths Kingdom, looked at Minhyuk confusedly.

Wasn’t this all about joining forces and working together to stop the dungeons whose timers were about to end? Their conversation had shaved off a huge chunk of time, reducing the initial five minutes to around three minutes.

King Rhodora hurriedly said, “What are you waiting for?”

“Please do not be too anxious and nervous; just wait here.”

Even though the color had drained from King Rhodora’s face as he hurriedly urged him to move, the Beyond the Heavens’ emperor remained still. He even took out some chocopie and began to nibble on it.

“Fuwaaa... I feel alive again,” Minhyuk muttered. He had been tired from running around like crazy and hunting Helenia’s Fragments.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Meanwhile, King Rhodora, his knights, and his troops stood anxiously. Ultimately, the king could only order his men to stand back.

‘What on earth is he thinking?’

As time continued to tick by, King Rhodora’s anxiety made him feel as if he was in a hurry. In the end, he could not stand still. He approached Minhyuk with only a minute left and said, “The monsters will come charging out soon.”

“I know that.”

“But... why didn’t you go inside?” King Rhodora asked, strange and weird thoughts flashing in his head.

Was the Beyond the Heavens’ emperor trying to lure out the monsters so that he could kill them? Was he going to try and take over their kingdom’s territory? Since King Rhodora did not understand the situation, his imagination ran wild. It was to the point that he could even write a novel with his thoughts alone.

At that moment, Minhyuk, looking at the thirty-second countdown on the timer, said, “It’s easier to kill them if they come out all at once.”

“Yes?”

This was Minhyuk’s first time trying this, too, but he was quite confident about it. Then, at that moment, a notification rang out.

[The dungeon’s timer has reached 0!]

[The monsters inside Helenia’s Dungeon will now begin to rush out!]

Rumble–!

King Rhodora and his men clenched their fists as they groaned from the deafening roars that shook the ground. Meanwhile, Minhyuk just stood in front of the dungeons in complete ease as he waited for the monsters to come out.

Minhyuk silently pulled out the frying pan hanging on his back as he watched the monsters, which were mammoths, running like crazy. They looked like a herd of wild buffalo jumping around and wreaking havoc everywhere.

“Frying Pan Gigantification.”

Minhyuk swung the frying pan, which grew as large as the entrance to the dungeon, in his hand and collided with the herd of crazy mammoths.

Baaaaaang–!

Minhyuk was forced to step back when the mammoths collided one after another with the frying pan in his hands. Although he was being pushed back, Minhyuk was entirely at ease. He nodded to himself after estimating the time. Two minutes had passed since he started blocking the mammoths.

‘Are we done for?’ King Rhodora almost groaned out from this strange and weird situation. Then, he saw Minhyuk take the frying pan away.

“What...!”

If he did that, then wouldn’t the monsters from behind grow crazier and charge forward more recklessly?

But this was the moment that Minhyuk had been waiting for. When he saw that most of the monsters had gathered together, he quickly used Like the Wind and jumped in the middle of the monsters’ ranks. Immediately after receiving damage from the monsters’ attacks, Minhyuk again used Like the Wind and went deeper into their ranks.

Not long after, Minhyuk triggered the Continent Destroyer Sword’s skill, Continent Destroyer.

Baaaaaaaaang–!

Crack, crack, crack, crack–!

The moment his sword slammed into the ground, the ground twisted and cracked, spitting out fountains of lava. In an instant, the massive herd of monsters either got burned to ashes or devoured by the splitting ground beneath them. The only one that survived the few minutes of the attack was Helenia’s Fragment, which had a relatively high HP compared to the other monsters.

The word Destruction appeared on the blade of Minhyuk’s sword, the mark that allowed him to trigger sixteen consecutive strikes. Minhyuk, who could swing his sword three times per second, took advantage of this and hit the fragment as if possessed.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom–!

A rain of bloody lightning bolts fell from the sky and slammed into Helenia’s Fragment, which was in the form of a huge elephant. After around five seconds, the fragment fell to its demise.

What was the time it took for Minhyuk to take down one dungeon? Around two minutes and thirty seconds.

‘Oh. That’s quite easy.’

So far, Minhyuk had only hunted Helenia’s Fragments by clearing the dungeon and dealing with the mobs inside. Although it was easy for him, it took longer and increased his physical fatigue to the extreme. But now that he realized that this method was more accessible and more comfortable to use, he would begin applying this method to all of the other dungeons he was hunting and going to hunt.

“...”

Meanwhile, King Rhodora was speechless when he saw Minhyuk charging and wiping out all of the enemies by himself after stopping them from recklessly charging forward.

“Hic– Hiccup!”

King Rhodora was so surprised that he ended up hiccuping.

Minhyuk, who had finished clearing all of the dungeons in Roths Kingdom, looked at the rewards he had received.

‘One gave 3,704 platinum while the other gave 5,438 platinum.’

Even his total EXP value had increased by around 17%. Minhyuk looked up at the remains of the dungeons that he hunted.

‘If I use this well, then...’

Minhyuk, recalling the method he just used, heard a notification in his ears.

Ring!

[The Class Inheritance Quest: Hunt Helenia’s Fragments is underway!]

[The Luvien Empire has hunted 268 Helenia’s Fragments!]

[The Beyond the Heavens Empire has hunted 58 Helenia’s Fragments!]

Minhyuk groaned. He, along with Brod, Elpis, Luo, and the teams created by the Beyond the Heavens Empire players, had been working tirelessly to hunt Helenia’s Fragments. However, the Luvien Empire could still easily hunt around five times more than them.

This was expected. After all, their military forces were quite different. Even the Swords of the Gods\' first and second knight orders displayed excellent performances.

Then, another notification rang.

[The creation of Helenia’s Dungeons has started to grow faster!]

The current speed of creation of the dungeons was already very overwhelming. To their horror, it became even faster. Minhyuk’s expression turned ugly.

‘We need to take other measures.’

Minhyuk hurriedly ordered the Beyond the Heavens executives to convene for an emergency meeting. Just when he was about to warp, he caught sight of the two dungeons that he just dealt with. Then, a trick suddenly flashed in his head.

‘Shall we try doing this?’

***

Joy Co. Ltd.’s Customer Center was being flooded by calls from the players who had been forced to log out from the insane number of Helenia’s Dungeons created inside Athenae. Even the community sites were in an uproar because of this.

[Guys, don’t you agree that this is more of a disaster than an event?]

[If the Luvien Empire were not here, many more people would have died.]

[Pay for the EXP and artifacts that I have lost.]

[This is crazy. After the world message about Helenia’s Dungeons being created faster, the number of dungeons that have appeared worldwide has already reached 1,500.]

[How can we live through the Third Era of Athenae after it has collapsed?]

The viewers were clamoring about how excessive Helenia’s Dungeons were. And President Kang Taehoon? He never expected that things would develop like this.

They were initially scheduled to release only 1,200 dungeons in total. However, with the rate things were going, they estimated that there would be around 4,000 dungeons that would be created in total. That would be more than three times the amount they planned to release. And there was also the number of Helenia’s Fragments. It was also much higher than the 1,500 that they initially expected. This was not what Joy Co. Ltd. intended at all.

President Kang Taehoon stood before Supercomputer Athenae and asked, “How did things reach this point?”

[Helenia felt threatened.]

“...?!”

Kang Taehoon was extremely shocked by what he heard.

Who was Helenia? She was an existence that was superior to the gods and was someone who threatened even the outstanding transcendentals. She even dismissed the Absolute Gods and treated them as laughable existences. But that very same Helenia was feeling threatened?

At that moment, a groan escaped Taehoon’s lips. He said, “Don’t tell me... is it because of Player Minhyuk...?”

When Helenia descended on Earth last time, Minhyuk was able to land an attack on her successfully. Taehoon had already judged that Minhyuk would affect Helenia’s descent. However, he never expected it would lead to such a huge problem.

“I see. So, the overwhelming amount of fragments would aid Helenia in her complete descent.”

Helenia’s Fragments were tasked to kill humanity and help Helenia awaken her full powers. If they could indeed do this, then...

“Helenia will descend with her full power.”

The problem was how they would go forward from this point.

“How much damage will Athenae suffer if Helenia descends with her full power?”

Athenae quickly answered the question.

[Based on our estimations, half of Athenae will disappear.]

[The damage would take down around 30% of the NPC population, 45% of the player population, and 30% of the god population.]

Kang Taehoon felt his vision turn dark. He tried to calm himself down and hurriedly convened a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

“We have to increase the rewards that the players would receive so that they would all focus on hunting Helenia’s Fragments.”

“That would be impossible. Even now, the low, middle, and advanced level players are clamoring and criticizing us, saying that this is a ‘feast for the masters.’ We’re already in a situation where more than 70% of the high-level players have joined the hunt for Helenia’s Dungeons.”

Then, another person stepped forward and offered his suggestion: “Then, why don’t we just delete the NPC named Helenia right here and now?”

“...Do you even think that your suggestion is possible?”

Kang Taehoon had firmly advocated that they should not be directly involved in altering the workings of the Athenae worldview. That was why they had to find a way to solve the problem while maintaining distance and not getting directly involved with the worldview. However, it was a challenging feat.

“If we delete Helenia’s character, the players would lose interest in Athenae. Who would even want a game where the operator could freely delete and create the NPCs as they pleased after advertising that it works just like the real world?”

The executives also nodded. However, no matter how often they set up a meeting to find a countermeasure, they were still waiting for an answer. At that moment, Department Head Kim Dae-Il proposed what they deemed as the best suggestion.

“Why don’t you give the quests to the NPCs, not the players? The one who will give the quest is the greatest god, Athenae. If it’s her, then Athenae’s strongest NPCs, the gods, would join the dungeon attack.”

This suggestion could also be impossible nonsense. However, it sounded the most realistic and achievable.

Even the players would not resist the NPC\'s sudden increase in activity. After all, there was also a setting in Athenae where the NPCs could receive revelations and oracles from God Athenae. That was not all; the operators would not directly intervene with the workings of Athenae’s worldview.

President Kang Taehoon, who had always been unyielding and adamant with his beliefs, started to feel his resolve shake when he heard those words.

“President, you have to make a decision now.”

“If the president agrees, we will immediately create a team and implement the countermeasures tomorrow at the latest.”

Kang Taehoon closed his eyes for a moment to ponder. In the end, he could only sigh. The fate of the entire Athenae was at stake. The full-powered Helenia’s descent was that dangerous. The land of Athenae would turn desolate to the point that one had to wonder if they could survive the Third Era of Athenae, just like one of the players said before.

“I’ll give you an answer by the end of today.”

Even President Kang Taehoon could not say, “It’s absolutely impossible.” to disregard the suggestion. The meeting ended shortly after that. Everyone exited the conference room to go back to their stations.

President Kang Taehoon walked out with Team Leader Park Minggyu. He turned to the team leader and asked, “How about you? What do you think?”

“Using Athenae and the NPCs, including the gods, to stop Helenia’s Dungeons? I don’t think it\'s bad. But, President, are the gods of Athenae existences that we, operators, could control as we please? And personally, I think there’s a high chance that Athenae will not approve of this.”

“...”

Taehoon liked Minggyu because he was far more steadfast and unyielding than him. He held onto his beliefs more firmly than him and could bring him back to the right path when he was shaken to the core.

Kang Taehoon nodded. However, even though he understood what Minggyu said, he still could not tell Kim Dae-Il that they could not set up an emergency team for his suggestion. The only thing he could do was see if the other teams could offer any other suggestions to deal with this matter.

The two entered the Special Players Management Team and saw Lee Minhwa monitoring Minhyuk on her screen. On the monitor, they saw Minhyuk during an emergency meeting with his guild members. However, they did not have the leisure to care about what Minhyuk was doing.

“Rather than focusing on the Third Era of Athenae, how about we take over the system from now on so that we can lead the future of Athenae and bring it to a more advantageous situation by the time the destroyed Athenae that the players were talking about came to be?”

“That might probably be better than Athenae intervening. If that does not work, then how about doing this...”

“No can do. That’s too dangerous. Then, how about this...?”

Team Leader Park and President Kang Taehoon threw out and discarded suggestions as they continued their conversation. After a long and fruitless conversation, Taehoon raised his hand. “Wait.”

Minggyu stopped talking, his face confused. Then, he saw Taehoon looking at Lee Minhwa and saying, “Can you turn up the volume?”

“Yes, sir,” Lee Minhwa agreed as she hurriedly increased the volume of her computer.

At the same time, the meeting being held by the Beyond the Heavens Empire rang in the Special Players Management Team’s office. They heard Genie ask Minhyuk.

[Minhyuk, what you’re saying is that the fragments would gather in one place to give the power they have accumulated to Helenia? Is that right?]

[Correct. The power that the fragments have accumulated will not disappear into nothingness. They would gather in one place to give Helenia that power.]

“...Hmm.”

This was a fact. Helenia’s Fragments had to give Helenia the power they had accumulated in the jewels in their bodies.

It should be around five days at the least. In five days, the fragments would gather where Helenia’s sculpture is and give her the power they have accumulated.]

Kang Taehoon, who was lost in his thoughts, nodded along.

[What I want us to do is to attack the gathering fragments. We will go to where ‘Helenia’ is and get rid of the fragments that come to that place.]

“...!”

President Kang Taehoon was very shocked when he heard Minhyuk’s plan. Even Team Leader Park Minggyu was looking at the monitor in shock. Then, the two looked at each other.

Taehoon felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He thought, ‘It’s possible.’

If they prepared for the attack in advance, they could deal with the fragments that would gather all at once.

‘We, the operators and developers, could not even think of any solution, but a player was able to come up with a solution to prevent Helenia’s descent.’

Taehoon was genuinely impressed. He quickly pulled out his phone and made a call.

“It’s me. About making an emergency team, hold that thought for a moment.”

Then, Kang Taehoon looked at Minhyuk through the monitor with a faint smile.

‘Perhaps this is the only way for the Beyond the Heavens Empire to surpass the Luvien Empire.’