Leveling Up Through Eating

Chapter 616: Defensive War (1)

“I don’t have a clue on what kind of rewards we should give!”

“How many of the Luvien Imperial Army have survived?”

“90,000… no. 88,000. W, wait… 70,000… The numbers are hard to estimate. The trap’s aftermath is still devouring the surviving troops!”

“Team leader! What kind of rewards should we give?!”

Who was the War Management Team’s Leader? It was none other than Park Yi-Hyeon, the one that was in the Event Management Team just recently. And right now, Park Yi-Hyeon’s head had turned as blank as a white sheet of paper.

‘What kind of rewards should we give if he killed that many enemies?’

No, more than that…

‘Isn’t this considered to be a bug?!’

Even Park Yi-Hyeon, someone that had reached the position of a team leader in Joy Co. Ltd., could not understand this strange phenomenon. A trap suddenly exploded and devoured more than 600,000 troops? It was simply ridiculous.

Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring—

Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring—

A series of phone calls poured into the War Management Team.

From the Customer Center Team.

“Players are constantly complaining about bugs! Team Leader Park Yi-Hyeon, is it a bug?”

“Well, even we…”

From the Scenario Progression Team.

“What are we supposed to do with the scenario where Sword Emperor Ellie leaves to become the Continental Emperor after the fall of Eivelis Empire?! Isn’t this a scenario collapse?!”

Park Yi-Hyeon was literally going crazy, ‘Whenever this player appears…’ The Food God always gave Team Leader Park Yi-Hyeon anxiety and put him in a panic.

Then, President Kang Taehoon appeared in the War Management Team. They were in a situation where most of the troops of the Second Army, which was about to be deployed, had been wiped out.

“President, is this a bug?”

“It’s not a bug.”

“Yes?”

Park Yi-Hyeon could not believe that it was not a bug.

“This is all because Player Minhyuk fed a Legendary grade dish to the trap specialist named Bichor.”

“No, is that really even possible?”

No matter how strong a player was, could a single player truly do something like this? But Kang Taehoon nodded to answer his question. Common sense would dictate that it was not possible. That was why…

“Hahahahahahaha!”

All Kang Taehoon could do was laugh, right inside the chaotic office of the War Management Team. After all, this was the world that he wanted. A player that was not swayed by the scenario that Joy Co. Ltd. had created and set up. Once his laughter died down, Taehoon was able to regain his composure.

“Reward all of the participants of the war from Asgan Continent with one platinum. Prepare the deployment of the Third Army as soon as possible. Also, reward Player Minhyuk with 1,000 platinum since he killed almost 600,000 enemy troops.”

“I understand.”

“And make sure that the Customer Center Team knows that this is not a bug.”

After leaving those words behind, President Kang Taehoon promptly disappeared. The place where he was headed? It was none other than the place where supercomputer Athenae was.

“Athenae. You have seen the situation, right?”

[…]

Even Athenae, the God of Origin inside the game, was speechless. Though he did not see her expression, Kang Taehoon seemed to know what she was feeling. It was definitely no different from what he was feeling.

[I saw it.]

“What are the odds of Eivelis Empire winning this war now?”

[17%]

The chances were still extremely small. However, Kang Taehoon was looking forward to what would happen. Would everything work out within the framework that Joy Co. Ltd. had created, or would the players be able to overcome the situation and create a new scenario?

At the same time.

Team Leader Park Yi-Hyeon, who was organizing and following the instructions of President Kang Taehoon in the War Management Team, had left the TV on.

“Huuuh? Who’s that?”

“Wow. Look at how cool he is…”

The scene on the TV showed the area that had disappeared after the explosions. And in there was the mysterious bichon named Bichor.

On the screen, a man could be seen walking among the screaming troops of the Luvien Empire that had collapsed from the attack.The man was wearing the red cloak bearing the sword and the shield, Eivelis Empire’s symbol, with a horned helmet covering his face. The man’s sword shone beautifully under the glare of the sun as he walked alone toward the enemy camp.

Step, step, step—

All of the viewers that were watching the broadcast held their breaths. Unless they were a fool, there was no way that they would not know who this man was.

Team Leader Park Yi-Hyeon felt his lips twitch. The man’s appearance obviously brought chaos to Joy Co. Ltd., yet strangely enough his cool appearance made his heart pound. Then, the man went up to the Gods’ Sword Ruven. No one had officially killed any Sword of the Gods yet.

Ruven, who survived the aftermath of the trap, slowly stood up while grinding his teeth in fury. Of course, he had to express his doubts.

[Beyond the Heavens. You’re the bastard that’s hiding behind that weird name, huh?]

The Luvien Empire was also aware that the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom would not show their true faces in this war. Even the world had expected this to happen. But why did he show up?

The man opened his mouth. The words that he uttered brought chills down the spines of all the viewers.

[That’s alright. Before the Third Army arrives…]

Minhyuk looked at Ruven and all of the Sun Knights.

[All of you will already be dead.]

“F*ck this… He’s so cool…”

Team Leader Park Yi-Hyeon and the entire world was very impressed.

***

In Area BK-75, the area where the remnants of the trap explosions remained, an undying flame devoured and killed the remaining troops of the Luvien Empire.

“Aaaaaaaargh…”

“Ri… Rishelle… I don’t think I can keep my promise. I won’t be able to go back.”

“My, my arm…! My aaaaaarm!!!”

A man wearing the armor of Eivelis Empire walked across the battlefield that was rife with the shrieks and screams of the enemy troops. Ruven already knew who the man was, watching him walk past all of the corpses and ignoring the wounded. In fact, Ruven was delighted when he heard the answer that the man gave to his question.

“Before the Third Army arrives, all of you will already be dead.”

The overwhelming momentum and pressure that the man was releasing was eating away at Ruven. Thankfully, Ruven was able to protect most of his body from the explosion. He only lost one arm at most and was able to preserve his hand that held his sword.

‘He’s the king of a nation?’

However, he was just a human king. The Gods’ Swords would be able to exert tremendous power when facing a king. After all, a king could never be legendary, and was not someone that inherited the power of a God. Although they were both humans, it was the Gods’ Sword that had a legendary body, and had inherited the power of a God, not a mere human king.

Ruven slowly lifted himself up. The aura from his sword spread out in a wave and cut short the lives of his allies that were screaming for help.

“Kghhhhk…”

“Ugh…”

Collapse—

Ruven looked coldly at their falling bodies as he stood straight, “All the troops of the Luvien Empire that can fight, stand up.”

The soldiers of the Luvien Empire that had strong mental powers stood up. The Sun Knights, people that had power similar to that of legends, also mustered the last of their strength and stood up.

Of course, each and every single one of them were in a terrible state when compared to Ruven. Some had lost their entire arm, some had lost a leg, there were even some that had completely lost the lower half of their bodies. The majority of those were unable to fight.

As for the surviving troops, only 30,000 of them had not died. Though, everyone that saw them could tell that they were all on the brink of death. However, no matter their condition, they were still the soldiers of the great Luvien Empire. Besides, Gods’ Sword Ruven was also given some of the Battle God’s parchments.

“Die a heroic death.”

The moment Ruven tore the parchment, a powerful force enveloped the bodies of the surviving troops.

[Battle God’s Final Blessings.]

[You will gain courage that will allow you to numb the pain and forget your nearing death.]

[All of your stats will temporarily increase by 11%!]

[You will not feel pain nor fear.]

The scariest enemies were those that had no fear. This was because they were the ones that could charge head on and would not mind whether they got cut down or not. As for Ruven, even though he had lost one arm, he never thought that he would lose to a mere human king. Immediately after, the 30,000 surviving troops charged forward as if they had gone crazy. The ones running in the lead were, of course, the Sun Knights.

Hundreds of transparent drones broadcasted this scene, where 30,000 troops charged at a single man, all over the world. And Minhyuk? He also ran toward them as if he had lost all sense of reason himself. Then…

[Sword of Tempest.]

[Hundreds of sword blades with 250% additional attack power will be created around your body that will indiscriminately slaughter your enemies within six seconds. During the duration of the skill, your movement speed will increase by 200%.]

…hundreds of blades began to dance around and dig through the gaps of the defenses of Minhyuk’s enemies. But even after Minhyuk had cut down 300 of his enemies in one go, the enemy troops still continued to charge forward like crazy.

Minhyuk immediately used his Absolute God’s Secret, the word ‘Gather’ appearing on the blade of his sword. It was a skill that would be activated with a 100% probability and would deal 4,000% damage to his enemies. It would even release bloody lightning bolts that could cover an entire thirty meter radius and hit all of the enemies unconditionally.

The worst part? The skill could even trigger 4~8 consecutive strikes of the bloody lightning bolts. True to its nature, Gather was an overpowered skill that worked best when it came to large-scale battles.

The moment Minhyuk’s sword struck one of the Sun Knights…

Boooooooooooom—

A large explosion erupted, which was immediately followed by hundreds of bloody lightning bolts.

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

“…!”

Ruven was shocked. A single swing of Minhyuk’s sword was able to kill 200 of their troops. Ruven firmly believed that Minhyuk was a mere human king. But the intensity of the power that Minhyuk wielded was…

‘An Absolute God’s Secret?’

At that moment, Ruven realized that the man in front of him was not just some mere human.

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

Minhyuk began his horrifying dance on the battlefield. He swept away his enemies with every swing of his sword. The duration of the skill was four minutes. Minhyuk was able to kill at least 3,000 in a single minute. However, no matter how many he cut down, there were still too many enemies in front of him.

Seeing the gruesome scene unfold in front of him, Ruven immediately charged forward and joined the battle. Ruven was a Gods’ Sword that could use various forms of aura.

“Aura Mace.”

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaam—

Ruven’s aura changed into the shape of a mace and slammed down on Minhyuk, who was running around like some kind of wildhorse. At that moment, Minhyuk received a tremendous shock from the powerful blow.

“Kghhhhk!”

[Your HP has gone below 84%!]

The attack was horrendous. Just one hit and Minhyuk’s max HP had gone down by 16%. But it did not end there.

“Aura Dagger.”

Ruven manipulated his aura and created hundreds of daggers in the skies.

Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh—

Indeed, Ruven was the kind of person that no other player dared to touch. He was able to find out the biggest drawback of the lightning strikes that Minhyuk had released. It was the fact that the attack had to be successful before it could be triggered. All he had to do was stop the attack from being successful if he wanted to stop Minhyuk.

In just an instant, Minhyuk’s HP dropped below 50%. In that short moment, he was overwhelmed by Ruven and the surviving 30,000 troops’ momentum.

‘If the attack is not successful, Slaughterer Armor’s absorption will not work.’

In other words, he would not be able to recover.

Ruven smirked and said, “Are you struggling against me? Someone with just one arm?”

However, Minhyuk did not answer. Ruven clicked his tongue and continued, “Only a human bastard would be proud after gaining a bit of the Gods’ power. However, today, the entire world will witness the beheading of the Beyond the Heavens’ King.”

He was sure of his victory. The Luvien Empire continued to put pressure on Minhyuk.

At the same time, the commentators said…

[I don’t know where Food God Minhyuk’s momentum went. He looked infinitely weaker against the Gods’ Sword.]

[It’s only natural for the Food God to be helpless in front of Luvien Empire’s 30,000 troops and a Sword of the Gods.]

[Still, I believe he already did well. After all, he already blew up almost the entire Second Army.]

That was right. The Food God fully deserved a round of applause. He had wiped away almost the entire Second Army.

As for Ruven? He had made a quick decision, ‘It won’t take too long.’

He decided to quickly finish off the Beyond the Heavens King, join with the Third Army, and charge toward Eivelis Empire.

‘You’ll kill everyone before the Third Army arrives? What bullshit.’

Then, Ruven triggered his special skill.

“Aura Festival.”

Rumbleeeeeee—

Hundreds of weapons created from Aura appeared in the skies and aimed to strike Minhyuk all at once. With this, and the tens of thousands of their troops surrounding the Beyond the Heavens King, Ruven was sure of the man’s death. But then, at that moment…

“…?”

Ruven saw a huge shadow cast over him. He could not understand why such a shadow appeared.

‘This is…?’

It was definitely a cow.

‘Why is a giant cow on this battlefield?’

Then, Minhyuk said, “Hanwoo, charge.”

“Mooooooooooo!!!”

At that moment, the Aura Festival was finally released. However, all of it struck the gigantic cow’s body and disappeared without a trace. It did not even give a huge blow to the target. And then…

Thuuuuuump—

“…?”

Ruven was not given time to get his senses together. All he knew was that his body was kicked by the giant cow. Then, the cow began to sweep away the 30,000 surviving troops.

Baaaaaaaaaaam—

Thuuuuuuuud—

The twenty-meter-tall Hanwoo began to brutally crush the enemies. In just a few minutes, most of the surviving troops of the Luvien Empire died. As for Gods’ Sword Ruven? His body was twisted in some strange manner, rendering him completely unfit for combat.

“Ughhhhh…”

The strange groan that came out of Ruven’s mouth brought shock to the entire world.