Gourmet Gaming

Chapter 85: I’m Going to Tell My Noona About This

[Adds 22% additional damage to one strike.]

Fwooooooooom!

Baaaaaang!

Crack, crack, crack, crack━

The cracks littering the transparent barrier started to spread, turning bigger and longer from the attack. Then…

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang━

The transparent barrier crumbled into pieces and fell apart. Brony smirked proudly at the sight of the broken barrier. However, before he could make his way through and enter the depths of the mines, he suddenly received a whisper from one of his guild members.

[Odin: GM... Minhyuk... No, Mister Minhyuk’s noona is here...]

Brony smacked his lips and grinned darkly. It seemed like he could kill the?b*tch?that Minhyuk called his Noona together. At that moment, Brony tilted his head in confusion. He thought,?‘Mister Minhyuk?’

What was that? Why was his guild member suddenly acting like this? And why did he send Brony a whisper when he could just talk in the guild chat?

[Brony: You punk, why are you calling?him with a?mister when you should just call that bastard by his name?]

[Odin: Because we’re in big trouble. ??]

A tear emoticon? In trouble?

Then, another whisper came from Oden.

[Odin: Minhyuk’s noona is the Sword Emperor, Ellie.]

“Hmm?” Brony was caught off-guard, taken aback by the whisper. The name Sword Emperor Ellie sounded really familiar, right? So, Brony tried to think carefully.

Eivelis Empire was known as the greatest empire in the continent. And the empress leading this empire was known as a powerful and mighty warrior, a rich tycoon and the strongest empress in the whole continent. She was Sword Emperor Ellie!

“This crazy punk…” Brony snarled, his brows furrowing.

Sword Emperor Ellie was an empress. Although she was just an NPC, it was still a fact that she was a person of power. Yet right now, Brony’s guild members were telling him that Minhyuk called this person his noona? It was unheard of. No player had ever formed such a close bond with a powerful NPC like the Empress.

[Brony: Are you joking around right now?]

[Odin: I’m not joking...]

[Brony: If his noona is the Empress, my noona is the Dragon Lord, this damn bas…]

At that moment, the guild chat (GC) was suddenly flooded with cries of help before Brony could even finish his words.

[Guild Chat | Halem: GM, we’re f*cked. Sword Emperor Ellie is here.]

[Guild Chat | Forton: GM ?? I think you should come out...]

[Guild Chat | Karma: GM, we’re tied tightly with a rope, I can’t move at all.]

[Guild Chat | Odin: I was so nervous that I forgot about the guild chat and sent you a whisper... GM, I’m really not joking around...]

[Guild Chat | Craton: Save us...!]

“...”

It finally occurred to Brony that his guild members would not joke around with him for things like this. Then…

Swoosh!

“Ack!”

“Gasp?!”

One of the guild members standing beside Brony floated up and flew out of the mines. It looked like he was being pulled by some kind of force.

“Keuaaaaaack!”

That was not the end of it. The remaining guild members around him also flew out one after the other. In the end, even Brony was sent flying out of the mines.

“Argh!” Brony shouted, trying hard to struggle out of the force that pulled him out of the mines. However, the force was too strong. In the end, all he could do was be dragged out of the mines together with his guild members.

Thud, thud, thud━

Brony rolled on the ground a few times, only to see the acrid, dark and dusty air of the mines being replaced by the clear, bright air outside. Brony shook his head fiercely and thought,?‘What in the world...’

The first thing that Brony saw when he turned his head was Kald. Kald, the second on the blacksmith rankings, was tied up with a rope and shaking uncontrollably. His face was not even hidden. Next, Brony was met with the sharp, icy glare of Sword Emperor Ellie.

“...Gasp!” Brony gasped in fright. Those eyes were so piercing that he could not stop his voice from coming out. Then…

“Noonaaaaaaaa!” A cheerful shout came from the depths of the mines. The voice sounded like he just found out that his very close sister from next door came to visit him. Minhyuk ran out of the mines together with the miners and approached Ellie.

Ellie smiled at Minhyuk and asked, “Who bullied our Minhyuk?”

“This one, this one, this one too!”

“Is that so? How dare these bastards bully my brother...!”

The scene looked extremely like a pitiful child reporting to his mother that he was being bullied by bad guys.

‘N…no. You’re the empress, you know!’

They could not believe that a player could build a sibling-like relationship with such a powerful person.

“This one bullied me the most!”

“Ho.”

Shiver!

Brony trembled when he saw Ellie’s brows furrow. The air suddenly turned cold and frightening from Ellie’s frigid gaze. Brony immediately understood the stance that he had to take. He had no choice but to bend down and flatter them. He quickly stammered, “He, hehe... Th…that’s not true. It was because I was so excited to see Minhyuk after a long time...”

However, before he could even lie through his teeth and try to weasel his way out of the situation…

[Puhahahahahahaha! Noona? You’re gonna tell your noona?]

[Kahahahahaa. Are you going to tell your noona because you're scared?]

[Keuhahaha, is your sister the number one in the rankings?]

[She’s an NPC though? Are you disregarding my noona?]

[Keuhahaha. Wow, I’m so scared that I will pee myself just by seeing your noona!]

[...You’ll regret it.]

[Wow. We have been very rude to your extremely scary noona. Sorry. Isn’t it obvious? Your noona must have been a f*cker like you who’s hiding behind his mask and pretending to be nice. So when is your noona coming? Huh? That f*cking noona of yours!]

…Minhyuk played what he recorded earlier.

“...”

Brony was left speechless. He saw Minhyuk peeking out from behind Ellie and smiling smugly at him. He realized that Minhyuk never mentioned the name of his noona. It also seemed like Minhyuk had expected their reaction once he told them about her. In other words, all of this was part of Minhyuk’s elaborate plan, or rather, trap. Otherwise, how would they dare to harshly curse and spit at his ‘noona’ with great confidence earlier?

“Ha!” Ellie scoffed at Brony. After all, he was the one who called Her Highness Ellie a ‘f*cker’. On top of that, Brony and his guild members were caught red-handed with the corpses of the soldiers of Barras Kingdom while trying to kill the miners. There was enough justification to punish them.

‘Kang Minhyuuuuuuuuuuuuk!’?Brony roared in his head when he saw the wide smile on Minhyuk’s face. He wanted to rush forward and tear Minhyuk to death. However, when he saw the furious Ellie, he quickly reigned his anger in and hurried over to their GC.

[Guild Master Brony: Everyone, log out now. Quickly!]

[Guild Chat | Bordney: Ab, about that...]

[Guild Chat | Carran: Even if we log out... Nothing will change. GM...]

Brony frowned. However, notifications rang in his ears when he tried to log out.

[You will receive the penalty for a forced log out if you log out right now.]

[Your character will still remain even if you force yourself to log out.]

Whenever a player try to force a log out during a dungeon raid, they would receive a death penalty. In a way, their situation was a bit similar to that. However, the problem was that their character would still be left behind. In other words, they did not have any way of escaping.

“Capture these bastards, don’t kill them. I’ll let these guys rot in prison until they die. This will be their punishment.”

“Yes!” The knights of the Phoenix Knight Order answered loudly and bowed their heads.

Brony’s eyes darkened when he heard Ellie’s words. All of the members of the Horden Guild were currently present here. All 86 of them. And with that sentence, each and every single one of them would be locked up in prison.

The Phoenix Knight Order moved quickly as they took out the ropes hanging on their waists. The rope magically extended and snatched a member of Brony’s guild with every throw. In addition, the imperial mages also used their Electric Magic to attack those who tried to escape. The people who got hit by the Electric Magic were knocked out cold with their bodies still trembling from the shock.

Brony glared at Minhyuk. However, what he saw was Minhyuk pulling out two fishing chairs from his inventory. Minhyuk sat down on one of the chairs while Ellie sat down on the other. Then, Minhyuk pulled something out of his inventory and started munching on it. It was none other than popcorn.

“Caramel popcorn is really the best when you’re watching something! Hiyaaa, this is really fun!”

At this moment, Brony thought that he was detestable! Annoyingly hateful! How could a person like that be so hateful! After all, Minhyuk looked like he was sitting in the cinema and watching an action movie. Someone that would grab a handful of popcorn, throw it in their mouth and say, ‘The popcorn is delicious!’. He even pulled out some cola out of his inventory, plugged in a straw and sipped the cola loudly.

“Kyahaa!”

‘Hey, you f*cking bastard!’?Brony thought. He looked like he was about to cry. He finally realized that nothing had changed. Even if it was him from the past or him right now, he still was not able to defeat Kang Minhyuk. Brony gritted his teeth in frustration and just forced himself to log out of the game.

Lee Sangmin came out of his capsule trembling in fury. He tried so hard to calm himself down and looked at?Athenae’s official website as he thought,?‘How the hell did he become so close with Ellie?’

Lee Sangmin wanted to type the word ‘Ellie’ in the search bar but he did not need to do so. The name ‘Ellie’ was already sitting firmly on the real-time search term’s number one spot with ‘Horden Guild’ running at second. Lee Sangmin quickly clicked on the real-time search keyword and was met with several articles and videos. The publishing time was even just a few seconds ago.

Sangmin’s eyes widened in shock as he saw the video. He thought,?‘...Hey, isn’t this me?!’

The video looked like it was taken from a distance. It showed a man walking along as he gave his guild members orders after killing off the NPCs. He even kicked the body of the dead soldier of the kingdom that was blocking his way. Then, Sangmin heard his voice and the voice of his guild member.

[GM. The NPCs are really just like humans, so I’m still a bit uncomfortable about this.]

[So what if you’re uncomfortable. These bastards are artificial intelligence anyway. We can kick them once or twice, you know? What’s wrong with you?]

Kick, kick!

Just like what Sangmin had said, he kicked the body of the dead soldier twice. Then, there was another video. It was the video where Ellie appeared. The main topic of the article was this…

[The Horden Guild is notorious for its deeds. It seems like Ellie appeared to teach them a lesson.]

Below the topic was an overwhelming number of comments…

[SweetHoney: Wow, I’m a player who’s been beaten down by the Horden Guild. Those bastards, they really have no sense of shame. I feel refreshed.

fkjbk313: Look at what this guy is saying... Even if they’re NPCs and just artificial intelligence, it still feels like they’re real human beings when you’re inside the game. Let’s just say that it’s okay that you killed them, but not everyone thinks like that. What was the point of kicking that dead body? Are you still a person?

Ellie’sCool: Kyaa, Ellie looks like she’s a solid and strict teacher! I’m so excited. From now on I’m an Ellie fan!

BronyIsLeeSangmin: That guy who kicked the dead body. He’s my classmate from middle school. Even back then, he would bully other kids and beat them to get their money. He’s so arrogant just because he has his dad as his backer. This is his personal information. His phone number is 010 1234 XXXX. His name is Lee Sangmin. He’s 20 years old. And he lives in 123-45 Bongcheon-dong.]

There were a lot of comments under the post where his personal information was leaked. Then…

Ring, ring, ring, ring!

Lee Sangmin’s phone suddenly rang loudly. He flinched in surprise. What was more surprising was the fact that the number that called him was not registered. When he answered the call...

[Don’t live like a lawless bastard, you university student.]

Beep!

Lee Sangmin’s heart beat wildly in shock. He could not calm down at all. However, as soon as the caller hung up, another call came in from a different number.

[Do you know who I am? I’m Jiang Chen...]

Beep!

“...”

Lee Sangmin burst in tears as another call came in.

[I came to pay respects. Please let me get amazing SAT results. Also, please let my parents live long and healthy.]

“Hey, you asshole...”

Beep!

This time, the other person was the first one to hang up the call. Then, another call came through.

[I’m your ear candy.]

Beep!

Lee Sangming hurriedly pulled the battery out of his phone. Then, he thought,?‘Who the hell took that video of me killing those players and soldiers?’

Lee Sangmin kept on watching that video clip until his brows furrowed deeply. The video started with Ellie breaking down Kald’s mask and the Phoenix Knight Order and imperial mages moving quickly to subdue and capture the guild members of the?Horden?Guild. Then, he heard a voice questioning the person who took the video.

[Who are you, are you one of them?!]

The video showed one of the imperial mages as he interrogated the person taking the video. Then, the person who was taking the video spoke…

[If I continue to stay here, I will be caught in a sticky situation. This is unfortunate, but I don’t think I will be able to show you the end of their punishment. This is Go Eun-Ah, reporting for TTBC.]

1. It’s a line from the movie,?Criminal City or The Outlaws