Leveling Up through Eating

Chapter 1094

Joy Co. Ltd.’s President Kang Taehoon closed the report about the Eight Pillars.

With Helenia, Kronad, Obren, Rocado, etc.’s disqualification, the Eight Pillars witnessed far too many vacancies. However, with the appearance of the Pillar Evaluators, nearly ten candidates were approved to become Pillar Candidates.

“I never expected that they would approve of Ellie.”

Surprisingly enough, Continental Emperor Ellie was one of them.

A vast and unprecedented event was about to happen soon. Just like what was written in the report, a war, The Pillars’ War, would unfold. How would it proceed?

“It’s exciting.” Department Head Kim Dae-Il smiled in delight. “The Pillar Candidates will team up and fight a war against Athenae’s top 10%.”

The Athenae’s top 10% mentioned included NPCs and players alike. And among the Pillar Candidates, the two most outstanding ones would become the new Pillars. This was going to generate a huge fuss!

Minhyuk had personally met Eight Pillars’ Jack-of-all-Trades Rocado and Pillar Candidate The Teacher Beradon. He had also won only once in cooking after losing tens of thousands of times against Jack-of-all-Trades Rocado.

“The path to becoming a Pillar will be very difficult to tread, especially if one is a player,” President Kang Taehoon said.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Pillars exerted far more power and influence than one might think.

“The reason why the evaluators acknowledged Ellie… is a bit lacking. Don’t you think so?” Kim Dae-Il voiced out.

Kang Taehoon nodded. “Because she’s the most beloved NPC in the continent… Hmm…”

Brod, Ben, Obren, and the others were the best and strongest NPCs as selected by players. On the other hand, Ellie was deeply loved by the guardians of the Asgan Continent. The number of NPCs who supported Ellie was sky-high. This was regardless of the nation to which they belonged.

“Ellie, who chose to abandon the position of the Sword God to protect her people, is the idol and role model of all of her people and troops.”

Ellie's power was no more than a god but legendary nonetheless. As for the Pillars, they were beings who far surpassed the gods. Pillar Candidates often possessed powers that could rival or even exceed the gods. That was why Ellie could be considered lacking.

“Ellie will not become a Pillar even if it’s through a competition.”

This was what Joy Co. Ltd. believed. It did not matter if the evaluators acknowledged her and nominated her to become a candidate. She would lose the competition in the end. Joy Co. Ltd. did not even see a 0.1% possibility that she would become a Pillar.

“What do you think about Player Minhyuk?”

“It will be challenging for Player Minhyuk, too. He is excellent as a chef and as a swordsman, but Pillar Candidates should be beyond outstanding in their field.”

The most significant proof was that Minhyuk had lost tens of thousands of times against Rocado. And Minhyuk had to be superior in just one field instead of outstanding in both fields. Because of that, Joy Co. Ltd. believed that it was impossible for Minhyuk to become a Pillar through this event. They thought he only had a 0.1% chance of becoming one.

Then, at that moment, Team Leader Park knocked hastily on the door and rushed inside. He had been swamped watching Chaos and the Pillar Evaluators these days. He said, “There’s a huge problem. Chaos is preparing something very unexpected.”

“What?” The puzzled President Kang Taehoon hurriedly switched the scene on the screen.

They could see the evaluators bowing their heads deeply in front of the red ladybird beetle.

Evaluator Ruba spoke.

[The opinions of the foreigners are important too… You are absolutely right, my lord!]

Team Leader Park hurriedly explained as he looked at Ruba, who was speaking with a trembling voice. “He’s talking about an advance poll. Chaos wants to hold an advance polling for the Pillar Candidates.”

“...!”

An advance poll? Of course, this advance poll was only a voting process for who they wanted to become pillars. It did not mean that the one who placed first in the polls would become a pillar.

[We will reward the person ranked first in the advance polls to give them an edge in the Pillars’ Battle.]

Even if they could not win first place, they could still take full advantage of this advanced poll. After thinking about it deeply, Kang Taehoon believed that the balance could not be maintained with this.

“What is he thinking? If he does that, the players will vote for Minhyuk.”

Not long after, Chaos said.

[We will also give reasonable rewards to the players who picked the first ranked in the advance polls.]

Chaos twisted the situation perfectly. Because of this reward, the players would definitely not vote for Minhyuk just because he was the Supreme. Then, what would happen?

“Perhaps, Player Minhyuk will come last in the advance polls.”

Among the Pillar Candidates, Minhyuk might have the lowest influence. With the advance polls, the Pillar Candidates would definitely show their power to the people. There was a high chance that the voting turnout would be concentrated on the ones who displayed the most outstanding performance.

They did not have much of a problem as of now.

“The only problem that we can think of so far is the rewards that Chaos will give. Still, this should be far more interesting than we thought of before.”

Many would be pleased that the ones that they voted for would become a Pillar. The only thing that they found to be unfortunate was the fact that Minhyuk was getting further and further away from the position of the Pillar.

‘It’s still too early.’ Kang Taehoon judged this to be the case.

The conclusion that he had made after rationally and objectively looking at the situation was that Minhyuk was truly a candidate worthy enough to become a Pillar. However, that was only something that would happen in the next three years or so.

***

Verak and Minhyuk ran at their fastest speed and went back to Hell.

The 72 Devils were now tagged as the enemies of both Heaven and Hell. If they tried to step foot in Hell, then the beings from Hell would immediately come out to arrest them. When they followed Minhyuk and Verak, they also stepped foot in Hell. In the end the devils, who were devoured by the blazing flames of the Supreme Overlord Technique, gave up on chasing them and fled back to the Boundary Between Good and Evil after being chased away by the beings from Hell.

Minhyuk, who watched them flee, used the Ego Chain Sickle and Viel’s Puppet Doll to tie up the legs of the devil who was running at the end. They ended up killing the devil who was supposedly ranked 67th among the 72 Devils.

“It’s not easy to kill a Devil, huh?” Verak said, his breathing ragged. “Your Majesty Minhyuk, are you trying to kill them one by one?”

It was quite a clever method. Since they would not be able to go deep into Hell, they would just launch a surprise attack on them and kill them one by one. And once they were discovered, they could just jump back deeper into Hell to fill their HP and wait for their skill’s cooldown time.

After thinking about it, Verak realized that this method would take more than a day. He could not help but tilt his head in confusion.

“What are you going on about? How long do you think it will take for us to kill them if we do it like that?”

“Yes?”

“If we take into consideration the skill cooldown time and the HP recovery then it will probably take us a week, give or take?”

Verak had witnessed it first hand. Although Minhyuk had displayed a shocking feat of killing Great Demon Verus, it still took him quite a while to deal with the devil that had fallen into their hands. It was only possible for him to kill Great Demon Verus in such a short period of time because he had used everything that he had and even had the effects of Transcendence.

“If we deal with them all at once, then we will be in danger…”

“We’re not going to deal with them?”

Verak, who could not understand what Minhyuk meant, was left in confusion. He clearly remembered Minhyuk saying that it would only take him a day to kill them all. Was he going to take back those words? Or was he thinking of using another method?

Minhyuk looked at Verak, who was wondering about this matter, and said, “Verak, sometimes you don’t need to fight to win a battle.”

Verak had heard similar words before. The question was… How?

“You can use Hell’s Stealth Technique, right?”

“That’s right.”

Hell’s Stealth Technique was one of the special powers of Hell’s Emissary. Nevertheless, the activation of this skill did not mean that the beings from Hell and the beings who possessed demonic energy could not attack him. It was just a skill that would allow Verak’s existence to be hidden and undetectable for one hour as long as he did not try to attack others or he did not get attacked.

“Use it. As for me…” Minhyuk looked down at the now dead devil in front of him.

‘The 67th ranked demon. Baramacht.’

Coincidentally, Baramacht was called the Demon of Alienation.

“...I will become Baramacht.”

Minhyuk wore Verus’ Mask. Then, his appearance changed to that of Baramacht’s own. After that, he moved to the Boundary Between Good and Evil with Verak, who activated Hell’s Stealth Technique, following behind him.

***

Great Demon Verus had died. This came as a huge shock to the demons especially the ones who were waiting for their reincarnation in hell and chose to break the rules of the world when Great Demon Verus asked them to crush Minhyuk.

Now, if they died here, then they would be taken to the God of Death and face the extinguishing of their souls. Because of that, they were now left in chaos.

“What should we do now?”

“We can live forever in the Boundary Between Good and Evil. I think it’s better to stop acting recklessly just to kill that human named Minhyuk.”

“I agree.”

“Then, should we go and pick a new person to lead us?”

The devils were the ones who led each of their own realms in the Demon World. Each and every single one of them was a monarch in their own right. The only reason why Great Demon Verus could rule over them was because he was far superior to them and could easily control them.

Just as they were about to discuss the matter about their new leader, someone rushed inside their meeting place.

“Baramacht, where have you been?”

“I did not go anywhere. I just arrived.”

Not a single one of them found his actions to be strange. After all, Baramacht was one of the weakest among the devils.

The devils continued their discussion.

“What about our ranking?”

“How will we maintain our ranking?”

“Wasn’t it the Great Demon Verus who determined our current rankings?”

While the others were talking, Baramacht turned to the devil sitting beside him and said, “To be honest, I don’t get it.”

“Why are you suddenly speaking?”

“...”

“???”

“...I just don’t understand it, Baalial. If we’re talking about abilities, then you’re better than the 64th ranked devil. So, why are you ranked 66th?”

“So, you think so too, Baramacht?”

Baramacht nodded. “I think your special abilities and attributes are much better than the 65th ranked devil.”

The devil agreed with his words. He also thought that Baramacht was right. He was confident that he could at least become the 64th ranked devil.

“In the first place, our rankings were decided by Great Demon Verus. Now that he’s gone, shouldn’t we decide on a new ranking?” Baalial raised his hand and spoke these words coldly.

Of course, these words were frowned upon by those who wanted to protect and maintain the existing rankings.

“What bullshit are you talking about?”

“Our ranking, which Great Demon Verus has determined, was based on our characteristics, special attributes, strength, and demonic energy.”

“That was the case before. I don’t think that should be the case now. Right now, another devil thinks that our rankings are not right either…” The devil said as he turned to look at Baramacht. However, Baramacht had disappeared. Nevertheless, he still continued speaking, “There are devils who think the same way as me.”

“Are you coveting my position?!”

Baramacht, in other words Minhyuk, crept somewhere else.

“Lord Baal.”

“What’s the matter, Baramacht?”

“There’s something that I wanted to tell you for a very long time. The 3rd in the rankings has been eyeing your position, Lord Baal. Please be careful.”

“What?! How dare Aamon covet my position?!”

This time, Minhyuk went to where Aamon was and said, “In the past, I heard Lord Baal said that Lord Aamon’s mouth stinks like feces. He clicked his tongue and asked if the only thing that you eat in a day are eggs.”

“Lord Baal said that about me?!”

The effects of his words soon came to life.

“Aamon. It seems like you have been coveting my position.”

“What nonsense! Lord Baal, you’re the one who has been talking bad about me! You said that my mouth smelled like feces!”

“What?! Now that I think about it, that’s true. You filthy bastard.”

Minhyuk did not stop with just the two of them.

“No. I’m not too sure about that. The 49th ranked Lord Bahrain said…”

“Carmondi, the 47th ranked devil…”

The commotion among the devils grew louder and louder.

“No. Why do you drag me into this when you’re the ones fighting?!”

“Do you want to try me, huh?!”

“Then, let’s arrange our rankings properly?!”

“You f*cking bastard?! Who spread the rumors about me getting dumped by Aermin?!”

The other devils stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the devil that just spoke.

“F*ck you! Every demon knew that you were dumped by Aermin!”

“Are you saying that you’re the only one who did not know?”

“He has been making such a huge fuss and being salty about it, there’s no way that he did not know about it.”

“A-aaaaaaaah! I’ll kill you all!”

The devils were about to collide. However, there were still a few rational devils who tried to control them.

“Wait. Nothing good will come out if we fight against each other.”

“Everyone, stop. There’s someone trying to sow discord among us…”

When someone tried to calm them down, Minhyuk, the instigator in the form of Baramacht, raised his sword and shouted, “Baal, you f*cking bastard! Arrange the rankings properly!”

Bang–!

Then, he threw a huge stone that hit Baal straight in the face. Baal’s spear immediately rose into the sky.

“Come. I dare you to take my position from me.”

Bang–!

The crazy fighting among the demons erupted the moment the gigantic spear pierced through the ground. Their various special attributes and characteristics appeared and gnawed at each other while their attacks landed non-stop. The problem was that strong beings like Baal were hard to kill. This was the case even for Minhyuk.

At that moment, Minhyuk shouted, “Baal, you’re the greatest motherf*cking bastard! I heard that you have been aiming for the Great Demon’s position and wanted to rearrange the rankings once you become one!”

“Baal! How dare you covet Lord Verus’ position!”

“Baal, you bastard!!!”

“What bullshit… Keuaaaack!”

Even if Baal was ranked first among the devils, it would still be hard for him to deal with all of their attacks. Just like that, the devils considered to be the most dangerous and hard to deal with were dragged until they were incapacitated one by one. The battlefield grew larger and larger as their fighting escalated.

For players, killing beings whose HP had been greatly reduced by someone else would only yield a portion of EXP. But what if it was caused by infighting? The player would definitely gain 100% of the EXP if they dealt the last blow.

Their bloody battle was finally nearing its end. They had refrained from killing each other and had mostly left their opponent incapacitated. This showed that they still had a bit of reason left.

“Keuheuk. You f*cking bastards.”

Surprisingly, it was Baal who remained standing tall among the fallen devils. He was able to maintain his position as the number one after overcoming all of their attacks.

At that moment, Minhyuk took off his mask. The sight made Baal’s expression grow ugly.

“Blowing one’s nose without using one’s own hands.”

“...?”

“A piece of cake.

“Eating ramyeon cooked by others!”

Minhyuk mocked the demons until the very end. Only then did Baal realize that they had fallen for Minhyuk’s petty tricks. Baal was left agitated when he saw Minhyuk tease them like that.

‘Did he receive the blessings of the God of Obnoxiousness? Why is he being so annoying?!’

Furious, Baal tried to throw his spear at Minhyuk. Alas, Minhyuk was faster.

“Calamity.”

Shwaaaaaaa–!

A pair of black wings spread and engulfed the fallen devils and the ones who managed to endure until the very end that were gathered in one place.

BOOM-!!!

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