Hunger was something that one would feel, when they could not eat even if they wanted to. It was a truly terrible thing to experience. Every day would feel like hell. Minhyuk had once chosen to get locked up in a room to treat his eating addiction, but he could not overcome the hunger and ended up eating tissues to satisfy his stomach. Experiencing that hunger was really hell. However, he knew that his case was different from the other’s hunger. He was a person that had a lot, but still could not eat them because of his rare illness.

However, having experienced that hunger made him think of the people suffering from such a hell. Especially those little boys and girls! The children whose stomachs were empty because they had no money, no rice, nor hundreds of won for a bag of ramyeon. Were there people like that still in this day and age? Minhyuk thought hard and long about it and realized that there must be a lot of them. They must have just been out of sight and invisible to the public. That was why Minhyuk believed that they, as well as those people, should not experience such hell-like hunger. He knew the pain better than anyone else after all.

Then, the African boy in front of him suddenly asked him a question, “Can you please tell me who you are?” 

Minhyuk could not understand the intentions behind that question.

“...A person who likes to eat delicious things?” Minhyuk said, grinning as wide as he could.

Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps rang from a distance.

“Where is he?!”

“Frying Pan Killer?!”

“The goddamn bastard, where did he run off to?!”

“Huh?”

Minhyuk was taken aback when he heard the rough and crass voices of the people that were trying to find him. They even knew that he was the Frying Pan Killer.

‘Buckle and Javin...’

There was a high probability that it was their colleagues. However, the noise level of the voices were quite more than what he had thought. He estimated that there were at least 30 people in the area.

Kaistra looked around and said hurriedly, “Get up. We need to get out of here quickly.”

Minhyuk went silent for a moment.

‘Get out of here? I can be out of here as soon as I rip this off though?’

Then, Kaistra spoke again. He said, “You wish that there are no hungry people left in the world. I’m happy that you feel that way.”

Then he smiled. Kaistra knew hunger more than anyone else. He had seen people die because of hunger. Because of hunger, Kaistra was forced to eat the bark of a tree, even if he knew that his stomach would be upset. Nevertheless, he still ate the bark of the tree the next day.

Kaistra opened his mouth once again, “Can you please cook something delicious for my brother? Of course, I’ll give you a reasonable amount of compensation.”

Minhyuk nodded when he heard his words. His work was not free. He would move if there was reasonable compensation. In fact, it was fine for Minhyuk to not receive anything in return, but he had a reason to receive compensation. Kaistra had requested and begged for Minhyuk’s help. If Kaistra had requested and begged for his help, and he did not receive any compensation, then it would not be a fair trade for Minhyuk. Also, he had felt that Kaistra had a lot of strength and power.

Minhyuk climbed on top of Penrus and sat behind Kaistra. Then, he took off his helmet. The reason why he took off his helmet was because when he made some soy milk from the black beans with his millstone, some of the milk splashed on it.

At that moment, Kaistra spoke to Penrus, “Penrus, run at the speed of light.”

Flash!

A flash of light passed through the empty space.

“...Kaistra?” Lark asked aloud when he saw the flash of light disappear. It seemed like he had been looking for Kaistra too. Even the Bachran Guild members saw Penrus disappearing in a flash of light. However, no matter what they did, they could not find the Frying Pan Killer. It seemed like the light that emitted from Penrus was so bright that it hid the figure of the two men sitting on top of the wolf.

“Goddamnit! Where in the world did the Frying Pan Killer go?!”

***

Dash! Dash!

Minhyuk had no choice but to be surprised when he saw how fast Penrus was running. He could determine that Penrus' single step could traverse a kilometer. Then, at that moment...

[Beanie is requesting a summons.]

‘Huh?’

Minhyuk was taken aback by Beanie’s sudden summon request, but he still summoned Beanie out. Suddenly, a baby pig appeared out of thin air and landed directly on Minhyuk’s shoulders. Then, it squeezed Minhyuk’s shoulders tightly so that it would not fall off.

Kaistra turned his head and saw Beanie with a silver pot on its head.

“Is that your incarnation?”

“...Incarnation?” Minhyuk asked in confusion as he turned to look at Beanie. However, Beanie was just looking down on Penrus.

[Beanie is feeling curious.]

The pet and its owner could read each other’s thoughts and feelings to some extent. Currently, Beanie was extremely curious about the pet that they were riding on, Penrus.

Meanwhile, Kaistra’s forehead frowned in confusion when he heard his question. He thought, ‘...What’s this?’

He could not understand the situation at all. From the looks of it, Minhyuk, as well as the mysterious baby pig, looked like they did not know about Penrus.

‘One of the five incarnations has been born...’

There were five incarnations that existed in the past. Before they died, the incarnations had laid a total of five eggs. What was more important was that there was a hierarchy among these five incarnations.

Kaistra had seen information about the incarnations from carvings on stone tablets. Four of the incarnations were written and depicted showing great courtesy and respect towards the middle, where the fifth reincarnation that was marked with a ‘???’ was drawn. The fifth incarnation looked like he was reigning supreme over the rest of the incarnations. He looked like he was their king. Also, Kaistra knew what the other incarnations looked like. However, Beanie, who was behind him, did not look like it was any one of the four incarnations that he was aware of.

‘Should we check it out?’

Kaistra had no malicious intentions. He also realized that Minhyuk did not know what kind of being he was with.

Kaistra was the Envoy of Incarnation. His main purpose was to collect the incarnations and it was for that reason that he was given a special ability, one that allowed him to check the abilities of another pet, even though it was not his own.

[The Envoy of Incarnation’s Scan.]

[Checking for Incarnations.]

[It is an existence that can not be approached.]

[The scan has failed.]

“...!”

At that moment, Kaistra finally realized that the being behind him was indeed the incarnation that stood at the pinnacle of all five incarnations.

“Oiink.”

“Beanie, are you hungry?”

The baby pig rubbed its belly pitifully as if it was saying ‘Please give me food, oink!’.

‘That baby pig... I didn’t expect him to be the king...’

However, why did it look like that? Was it originally supposed to look like that? No, it could not be. Kaistra believed that he should tell them about what he had seen from the scan. He had peeked on Beanie without permission after all, and if he kept this to himself, then he would just be like a small, petty thief.

“Your pet is not just some ordinary pet.”

“Of course. It’s a pig. And it eats too much...! Ah, wait. He’s also my emergency food!” Minhyuk mumbled softly, his body trembling.

“...”

Kaistra was left speechless.

‘H…he’s an incarnation... and furthermore, he’s also the king, but you’re saying that he is your emergency food ration...?’

Kaistra tried to keep his expression straight and calm, as he spoke once again, “Your baby pig. He’s one of the five incarnations.”

Then, Kaistra began to tell the story about the five incarnations. The five incarnations had the form of god-like monsters or animals, and they existed all over the world. Just as there were gods, there were also incarnations.

“Each incarnation has great power within them and the same is true for Penrus. Actually, I might only have come this far because of Penrus.”

Kaistra was a boy from Africa. Therefore, he was good at handling beasts. At first, he had taken the class of Monster Tamer and increased his intimacy and favorability with monsters to the extreme. As a result, he was able to transfer to the God Class ‘Envoy of Incarnations’.

“That’s all I can tell you.”

Kaistra turned his head to look at Minhyuk.

“If there are truly gods in this world, then there will always be a god who can rule among those gods. And that would be your incarnation.”

“...”

Minhyuk tilted his head as he looked at Beanie, which had just finished drinking the black bean soy milk. The bottle popped out of Beanie’s mouth as it looked at it in awe.

“Oink!” 

After it finished eating, it wanted to eat some more, so Beanie tapped happily on the glass bottle.

“Oiiiink!” 

‘I want to eat more, oink!’

“This guy...?” 

Kaistra nodded and said, “To put it simply, he is the king. However, it seems like this king still hides plenty of secrets.”

Kaistra let out a bitter smile. ‘The king’s secrets.’ Those were secrets that Minhyuk needed to uncover by himself. However, it was also possible for Kaistra to aid him a bit.

‘Penrus’ Breath.’ 

Penrus’ Breath had the power to evolve other pets and summoners’ strength. However, it was an extremely valuable ability and each time Penrus used it, he would not be able to exert most of his powers for several days. In addition, the owner would also have a penalty of a permanent decrease of 10 to his basic stats.

Kaistra thought, ‘Perhaps after I get to know more about this person...’ 

By that time, he would decide whether to use it for him or not.

***

Riche hurriedly accessed the game after receiving Kaistra’s call. They were currently in Hesdam, a very small village. This place was where Minhyuk and Riche met. 

Minhyuk had heard plenty of stories about Riche along the way. He learned that Riche was a 13-year-old boy. However, he was a bit short for his age. Minhyuk did not hesitate to use the ‘Create a Recipe’ skill on Riche.

(Chicken Porridge Recipe for Riche)

Required Ingredients: Moonlight Chicken, Borta’s Carrot, Cronie’s Onion... (omitted)

Expected Dish Grade: Unique ~ Legendary

Expected Effects:

•Brings out the taste from Riche’s memories.

•Vitality +15%

Athenae could gauge the person’s brain waves and their current mental state, it could read what one wanted to eat the most, as well as one’s needs. This was why the food that Riche wanted to eat the most, the chicken porridge, was presented to him in the recipe. What was most surprising was that there was an effect that would bring out the taste from one’s memories. The thought of ‘How can this be possible?’ flashed through Minhyuk’s mind briefly before replacing the materials with what he had on hand.

(Chicken Porridge Recipe for Riche)

Required Ingredients: Peston’s Chicken, Heto’s Carrot, Silver Onion... (omitted)

Expected Dish Grade: Rare ~ Epic

Expected Effects:

•Brings out the taste from Riche’s memories.

•Vitality +8%

‘What a relief. The part that says ‘Brings out the taste from Riche’s memories.’ did not change.’

Minhyuk began preparing the chicken porridge. First, he boiled the chicken. He also did not forget to take out the scum from the water when the chicken started boiling. Then, after he boiled the chicken, he took it out of the water and tore it to shreds. For the chicken broth, he boiled the well-soaked glutinous rice, minced onions, chopped carrots, and green onions.

Boil, boil━ 

Minhyuk stirred the porridge continuously while using a wooden spatula, to make sure that it did not stick to the bottom of the pot.

“Woooooow. It looks delicious!” Riche said, smiling widely and showing his little white teeth. 

Minhyuk rubbed Riche’s head gently as he smiled at him. Then, he continued cooking the chicken porridge with great care. He was able to finish it in no time at all. Unfortunately, it was only a rare dish. Minhyuk briefly placed the chicken porridge in his food storage inventory.

‘I want to make it better...’

Minhyuk did not know why. He did not know why he was feeling a bit greedy. The child had said that his life was in danger so he wanted to give this hungry child a good present. So he began to boil another chicken porridge, and if he was not satisfied with it, then he placed it in his food storage inventory.

It did not matter to him about the amount that he had made and wasted, since he would eat them all anyway after everything ended. So, Minhyuk continued to do his best in cooking. Anyone that saw him right now would think that this was not the usual Minhyuk. After all, the usual Minhyuk would eat whatever he thought was delicious. However, right now, he was different.

‘I want him to eat my food and feel happy,’ Minhyuk thought. In fact, he was already feeling this way recently. Compared to all the dishes that he cooked, he had never put forth his best effort, even when he cooked for God Juis. Unlike right now. Perhaps, it was because he felt like Riche was similar to him, or maybe it was because Minhyuk just wanted to see the child become happy.

He suddenly felt his tears welling up in his eyes.

‘I truly hope that there will be no more hungry people in this world.’

Unfortunately, it just was not how real life worked. Minhyuk hated the fact that all he could do right now was cook for the boy. Nevertheless, Minhyuk gave it his all. After he had finished cooking the porridge, he placed it carefully in a bowl. At that moment, the notifications rang out.

[You have completed a Chicken Porridge.]

[Riche’s dish is the only dish with the buff effect.]

[The Create a Recipe Skill Effect can only be tasted by the same person once per month.]

[Trance. It’s a dish that has your ‘desperation’, ‘sadness’, ‘efforts’ and ‘delight’ poured into it.]

[Due to the effects of Trance, the buff effect has become better.]

[Epic Grade.]

[You have gained 4 DEX.]

[You have gained 10 REP.]

[You have gained 1,000 AP.]

It was finally completed. There were even as many as four emotions in his trance. However, the notifications did not end there.

[You have completed the Secret Quest: ‘Your Enlightenment’.]

[As a reward, the satisfaction for your Class Quest: To Have a Feast with Other People’ has increased greatly.]

[The satisfaction level has reached 100%.]

[You have acquired the second God’s Dish, Restaurant Full Course.]