Strange Restaurant
I opened my eyes inside a run-down restaurant.
‘Is this… Stage 3?’
The scene matched exactly what the community posts had described for Stage 3.
Filthy white tile floors.
Worn wooden chairs and tables.
A separate room that looked like a kitchen, with bizarre fish paintings haphazardly hung on the walls.
‘Slime pufferfish…?’
One phrase had appeared like a meme in every Stage 3 post.
‘Enter Stage 3 and you’ll meet the slime pufferfish.’
I hadn’t understood the strange saying until I saw the paintings on the wall.
‘It does look like a pufferfish with its face melted off…’
While I stared at the painting, a fishy stench drifted from somewhere.
I wrinkled my nose at the foul odor.
Urgh—
That was why the pufferfish was famous.
They said that just looking at the picture would make a nauseating smell waft in from nowhere.
‘I thought it was just a community joke.’
Of course, you could avoid it by not looking, but the moment you entered, it was right in front of you, so you had no choice.
It felt like the System was deliberately encouraging the prank.
Though it probably wasn’t the case, I’d just been thoroughly beaten by some weird guy, so my distrust of the System had grown even stronger.
These paintings were supposedly spread throughout all of Stage 3.
Sooner or later, everyone would fall for the joke.
For now, I’d move on since it supposedly had no effect on the body.
Besides the slime pufferfish painting, Stage 3 had one more famous phrase.
This one was actually useful advice.
‘The moment you enter Stage 3, check your rewards first.’
It sounded obvious, but there was a surprising reason the tip existed.
For one thing, there were far more idiots in the world than you’d think.
Plenty of people had accidentally obtained powerful summons and ridden the bus on autopilot.
Quite a lot of them, in fact.
‘I’m basically the one giving the rides…’
Because of that, some people had pushed through stages without even checking the “exclusive items” that appeared starting in Stage 3.
For those fools, a fixed tip had been created for Stage 3, where the difficulty genuinely increased.
Anyway, Stage 3’s exclusive item was as follows.
Random Tool
Opening it would grant one of the following: [Cauldron], [Butcher’s Knife], [Meat Mallet], [Slicer], or [Press].
As the names suggested, these were cooking tools.
In Stage 3, you could gather ingredients and cook various foods that granted buffs.
And that was also the biggest reason users were stuck in Stage 3, unable to advance to Stage 4.
The buffs applied to the dwarves as well.
Every enemy here had the job of chef.
‘Of course, not all the buffs are combat-related… heh heh.’
I opened my reward.
Additional merit has upgraded your Stage 2 reward.
‘Reward upgrade? Because I killed the giant?’
Cooking Tool Set
‘Oh…’
I’d obtained all five cooking tools instead of just one.
Good news.
I’d actually been aiming for the [Cauldron].
If it hadn’t dropped, I’d planned to search the Stage 3 map until I found one.
‘Saved a lot of time.’
There was a reason I wanted the [Cauldron].
The ever-so-glorious “Health Juice.”
Using the [Cauldron], I could churn out piping-hot health juice that aided in training.
‘Perfect.’
Ding—
While I was savoring the joy, an alarm rang from my phone.
I couldn’t help but be impressed.
‘Whoa… are you a god or something?’
Ever since I became a star through the Earth Return posts, all kinds of inquiries had flooded in.
The attention was enough to drive anyone insane.
That’s why I’d only enabled notifications for a tiny handful of people.
One of them was the “Stage 2 Expert” whose posts had helped me immensely.
And now my phone showed a new post from the expert: [Stage 3 Observation Log – Tools and Buffs].
His username had even changed to “Stage 3 Expert.”
When I tapped the post, hundreds of food recipes made with the five tools poured out.
Ingredient acquisition methods, cooking instructions, taste ratings, buffs.
A complete encyclopedia of Stage 3 was right here.
‘Haha… he must’ve been experimenting with every combination and delayed uploading until now.’
Without even reading the content, I immediately left a comment.
Filled with respect and admiration.
I wasn’t a man who struggled with expressing myself.
I believed it was only proper to show gratitude when someone helped you.
Besides, without this person, I might never have found a way to defeat the vampire giant.
Practically a lifesaver.
I felt no hesitation in conveying my love.
I captured every entry marked “Health Juice” under the [Cauldron] category.
‘Heh heh. There are five different kinds of health juice.’
I spent a minute in silent reverence, praising the “Stage 3 Expert.”
‘Something feels missing.’
I summoned Baengnae.
Ever since returning from Earth, I could summon my creatures at will.
Baengnae rose smoothly beside me.
“Here. Baengnae, repeat after me. The expert is amazing.”
“The expert is amazing.”
“That’s right, that’s right. And you’re the second most amazing person.”
“Um… Madda.”
Baengnae kept glancing around restlessly.
She could talk just fine, but she didn’t seem to feel the expert’s greatness yet.
Maybe the health juice I was about to make would enlighten her.
I handed Baengnae the [Poison Needle] that had come as a bonus from the Stage 2 extra reward.
The [Poison Needle] was a needle-shaped sword with a small needle on the hilt as well.
If you injected poison through the small needle, it could release it through the blade.
Baengnae swung the needle around excitedly.
“Whoa! Whoa!”
“Baengnae, you’re too loud.”
“Hi-hi… hi-hi…”
I read the final system message.
System error reward settlement in progress
For some reason, it felt like it would take quite a while.
I’d never seen anything with “in progress” in a game get resolved on time.
‘Maybe I should rest a bit…’
My wounds had healed, but my back still throbbed from the vampire giant’s beating.
Maybe it was phantom pain.
The giant’s experience had been that horrific.
I lay down on the bed inside the kitchen.
Just a little more rest.
Rushing these kinds of things only leads to falling over.
The top guild Climber was in an uproar.
The “Melancholy Madman,” who had been impossible to reach, had suddenly confessed to a Stage 3 user.
Han Yua, the guild leader of Climber, was thrown into confusion.
She couldn’t understand the situation at all.
‘W-were they… lovers back on Earth?’
She didn’t know.
But one thing was certain: through this expert user, she could establish a connection with the “Madman.”
She immediately contacted the guild’s executives.
The agenda was to recruit a single Stage 3 user into the guild.
Normally, recruitment offers were only extended to those at Stage 5 or higher, but this was an exception.
When she mentioned the connection to the “Madman,” approval came unanimously in under five minutes.
The guild’s personnel team moved swiftly.
But Climber wasn’t the only one moving fast.
That same day, the “Stage 3 Expert” received recruitment offers from every existing guild simultaneously.
And the expert rejected them all.
I woke up from a long, deep sleep, stretching as I rose from the unfamiliar bed.
The bizarre painting caught my eye.
I quickly turned my head away.
‘Right, this is Stage 3.’
I summoned the zombie dogs.
The five dogs that appeared before me looked around a few times before suddenly convulsing and collapsing.
They’d looked at the slime pufferfish painting.
“Ah, the fishy smell must be worse for you guys, huh?”
The dogs dry-heaved on the floor.
‘Oh dear…’
“You’d be fine if you didn’t look at the painting, but it’s better to get used to it. It’d be troublesome if you suddenly convulsed during a fight.”
The dogs whimpered, glancing at the pufferfish painting.
The slime pufferfish would be remembered as a terrifying existence by the zombie dogs.
“Get used to it. I’ll go gather ingredients for food.”
At the word “food,” Baengnae reacted.
The one playing outside came running over.
“F-food?”
“Curious? We’re going to gather ingredients to make Popori Juice from now on.”
Baengnae didn’t know what Popori Juice was, but she made a face of refusal.
“Popori, Baengnae no eat.”
“Hey! It’s delicious!”
Honestly, I didn’t know either.
According to the expert’s notes, the taste rating was only 2 out of 10.
Since there were things rated lower than Popori Juice, couldn’t I call it relatively tasty?
But regardless of taste, it was something I absolutely needed.
Popori Juice had the effect of heating the body and boosting metabolism.
In short, it was literally a “drinkable sauna.”
‘Nothing beats a light sauna after training.’
I grinned.
Stage 3’s foods didn’t provide nutrients, but they had many useful buffs.
I could easily get training assistance.
Above all, the ingredients for the foods I wanted were extremely easy to obtain.
The less combat-related an item was, the easier it was to acquire.
Wasn’t this paradise?
It was tempting enough to delay entering Stage 4.
The ingredients for Popori Juice could be found right next door to the restaurant where I’d woken up.
Stage 3 was shaped like a city overall, so shops were lined up like this.
“Let’s see… two medium-sized centipedes, one-eyed octopus eyeballs, and the innards of a white sea cucumber. If I boil them thoroughly in the cauldron…”
I poured the piping-hot juice I’d just taken out of the [Cauldron] into a small cup and handed it to Baengnae.
She gave me a suspicious look at first, but after watching me down it in one go, she gulped it down herself.
Then she collapsed straight to the floor.
“Guh… guh-eh… Baengnae dying…”
I clicked my tongue at Baengnae.
“Tsk… I went to the trouble of making it and you’re spitting it all out. Hurry up and drink the rest, won’t you? Gulp it down, gulp it down.”
“Baengnae… no want drink anymore…”
“Sigh…”
Even when I did something nice, she wouldn’t eat it.
I was deeply worried about what would become of a child like this in the future.
Regardless of Baengnae’s reaction, the performance test of Popori Juice was a success.
A warm energy slowly rose from deep below my dantian, calming my body.
And sweat began to pour like rain.
‘Whoa, this feels great.’
Looking at my body, my muscles were appropriately tense—perfect for intense training.
‘I was supposed to be testing, but I did sauna before training.’
After a moment of thought, I reached a conclusion.
Today was the day for sauna first, then training.
I poured the zombie enhancement potion that had come as a reward over Baengnae’s head.
“Geh…”
“Get up. Let’s go hunt some dwarves you like.”
Soon Baengnae recovered and stood on two feet again.
I pressed [Combat Start].
Rumble—
Across the main road, in what had been an empty lot, noise echoed repeatedly as a two-story building rose up.
Blue walls were erected, and a wave-patterned roof was placed on top.
The signboard suggested it was a sashimi restaurant.
And from the completed building emerged ten Japanese chef dwarves, each holding a sashimi knife.
‘Looking at them like this, they feel like rival businesses.’
When they reached a suitable distance, the sashimi knife of the lead dwarf turned red.
It was an enhancement-type buff.
Getting stabbed or cut would hurt a little more.
‘Low-grade.’
The remaining nine dwarves’ knives also turned red.
The same store provided the same buff.
“Nothing special. Attack!”
Woof woof woof!
The calf-sized dogs charged forward.
The size difference was enormous.
The dwarves desperately stabbed at the dogs with their knives, but the dogs were zombies at their core, giving them an advantage against bladed weapons.
‘If the rest are this easy, that’d be great.’
Baengnae swung her needle-sword like a conductor’s baton beside me and shouted.
“Hot, hot.”
I shot her a glare.
“Hey, you go too.”
Baengnae looked up at me.
She grinned.
“Baengnae tired.”
‘Tired? This brat’s head got too big for no reason!’
I immediately gave Baengnae a knuckle to the head.
“Get out there already?!”
“Uwaaang.”
Baengnae grabbed her needle and ran out.
Of course, by the time she arrived, the dogs had already nearly finished off the dwarves.
‘When did she become such a slacker?’
Thinking about it, she’d been a slacker from the very beginning.
Now she was just a talking slacker.
‘Still, when it’s time to work, she does work…’
Naturally, I added one full set to Baengnae’s next training curriculum.
Let’s follow the ancient sages’ saying that slackers should be dealt with through training.
I had the zombies distribute the corpses appropriately.
Meanwhile, Baengnae used her senior status to monopolize all ten dwarf brains.
Her logic was that the dogs hadn’t drunk enough health juice yet.
A classic case of seniority bullying.
‘No, you drank one cup. And you even spat half of it out.’
I decided to let it go.
The dogs had eaten the giant, so it wouldn’t hurt to give Baengnae priority for a while.
Above all, after bullying them with health juice like that, they wouldn’t be able to avoid it anymore.
Actually, there was something more important than distributing the corpses.
I’d thought it was just my imagination, but strange sounds had been coming from somewhere for a while now.
And now messages were even starting to appear.
Tasty! Tasty! Lick.
‘Ah, no way…’
I’d had a similar experience once before.
So this time, I asked as politely as possible.
“Um… who are you?”
That was my first meeting with the cat.