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“Wait a second.”

In front of the entrance to a certain basement, a blonde elf glared at the visitors and slowly opened her mouth.

“What’s your purpose?”

“For gourmet.”

“Elves are.”

“Pretty, cute, and skillful.”

After several procedural checks, the gatekeeper elf stepped aside and bowed her head.

Indeed, elves are pretty, cute, and skillful.

She was the leader of this secret gathering.

As I entered, under the bright lights of Elardrien, a dark and gloomy space appeared.

Only a rectangular dining table stood alone in the center.

“Is everyone gathered?”

As she entered, the elves who had already gathered perked up their ears and lifted their heads.

Roughly in number, there were dozens.

The reason they gathered here was simple.

Greed and forbidden food.

To secretly consume a dish meant to be enjoyed by the Head of the Gallery.

“Ah, Eliegui…”

“Then this time as well…”

The elves who had gathered carefully began to speak, and Eliegui waved her hand.

Immediately, elves inside started to emerge with dishes all at once.

“Ahhh!”

Food that elicited gasps just by looking at it.

This was a cube food made from the so-called “Gourmet Slime.”

It was literally just slime cut into cubes and placed on a plate.

The reason the elves hid and gathered for something as simple as slime cubes was.

“It’s grown with water syrup, minced garlic, ketchup, sugar, red pepper paste, and so on. Slime raised on these as food.”

“Ughhh…”

“In the end, of course, it’s aged in dew, so don’t worry about the cooking process.”

That was the recipe for the slime.

What was slime?

It was merely a trivial monster.

But the Gourmet Slime was different.

Gourmet Slime changed its taste and characteristics based on the food eaten in one week.

“Is the food all from the marketplace?”

“Of course.”

In other words, the more luxurious spices it was fed, the better its taste and texture became.

The elves not only raised the monsters for a week for gourmet purposes,

but also used marketplace food as feed for that week.

“Before the meal, as you all know, this must not be disclosed to anyone.”

There was a rule in the Gallery.

Do not recklessly throw away or leave behind marketplace food.

This meant that the Head of the Gallery’s noble intention of sharing marketplace food directly created for the Gallery was

outrageously invested in a single meal for the monsters.

“If this gets out…”

At that moment, one elf asked nervously.

“Permanent exile from the Gallery.”

“!!!”

“Huhhh.”

Permanent ban from the Gallery, more terrifying than death.

But the elves merely twitched their ears, not getting up from their seats.

This dish’s taste must have been that incredible.

“Then…”

One green-haired elf, trembling with greed and excitement, spoke up.

Eliegui nodded her head.

“Let’s eat.”

With that one phrase, everyone covered their heads with the white cloth they had wrapped around their bodies.

Hoping that the Head of the Gallery wouldn’t find out.

Or to alleviate the guilt of having fed monsters the food meant for the hungry Gallery.

Just as I was about to slowly cut a piece of slime to put in my mouth—

**Head of the Gallery*: Haha

**Head of the Gallery*: What are you all doing?

“Uh…?”

Suddenly, a strange phrase appeared before me.

“Absolutely continue dining while moving.”

In front of Eliegui, who was blankly blinking, a Pure Elf hiding in disguise was holding a sword pointed at her.

*

“So, this is the Gourmet Slime, huh?”

Successfully ambushing the elf secret meeting.

What I gained was the dish the elves had tried so hard to hide from my sight…

But after hearing the recipe, I was dumbfounded.

“So they just fed it some spices and called it a day?”

They had grown a deliciously plump slime by feeding it with marketplace food.

The elves draped white cloth over their heads while eating, so I thought it was something fancy like ortolan.

Oritolan was a dish made by forcibly fattening a small bird and drowning it in alcohol,

which was so cruel it had been legally banned, but compared to that, this was nothing wrong.

“If they saw modern livestock methods, they’d faint.”

From my perspective, there seemed to be no problem at all.

However, the Gallum’s thoughts were different.

[Title: Creepy Dish the Elves Were Secretly Eating.jpg]

(Image of farming Gourmet Slime)

(Image of feeding it with marketplace spices and food)

(Image of them covering their faces with white cloth while eating)

…

(Image of surprised Frog Con)

(Image of Frog Con charging with a sword in rage)

Why are the elf brats so quiet? What are they doing with the Head of the Gallery’s food?????

[Upvote: 6942] [Downvote: 102]

– Whoa, this is genuinely disgusting haha

– Whoa…

– I was bummed when I waited for pepper to get sold out, but what slime?

Not that it matters; I just burst out laughing when I saw it.

The hungry medieval folks didn’t care about the cruelty of the cooking methods.

Just a few months ago, they were desperate for even a piece of rotten bread.

They were outraged at the fact that they had stockpiled and monopolized marketplace food to feed the slime.

– Come on, there’s a limit to the jokes haha

– Going crazy over marketplace food

– Greed knows no bounds. I truly acknowledge that.

“Is it really that much?”

Rather, I was the one taken aback.

If this goes on, it really feels like interspecies division could happen, so I posted a notice.

[Notice: Alright, calm down everyone]

Author: Head of the Gallery*

(Image of a cat staring straight ahead)

Didn’t I just want to feed the slime to eat deliciously?

Why are you all so mad? (I genuinely don’t know)

[Upvote: 9999+] [Downvote: 201]

– Haha

– Seems like you’re calming down; wanna get calmed down?

– I actually came here to curse, but of all things, the author is the Head of the Gallery haha

Ah, I should hold back haha

– Head of the Gallery,ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

– Ah,ㅠㅠㅠ I’m really sorryㅠㅠ

– Thank you so much,reallyㅠㅠ

– Ah, those elf girls make me mad just by seeing their letters.

I tried to post a notice as modern and intelligent as possible, but it had no effect.

More shocking than anything was that even the elves themselves didn’t think this was wrong.

“An elf… apologizing?”

An elf with a high nose was apologizing.

The meaning of the marketplace food held by the Gallums seemed to be more than just a meal.

– But seriously, why isn’t the Head of the Gallery bothered?

– Rn, I’m so mad just seeing it.

– Head of the Gallery, please don’t hold back; this is something even an adult could slap for.

[Title: The Reason the Head of the Gallery Wasn’t Bothered…jpg]

(Elf adult content1 posted at dawn)

(Elf adult content2 with a comment directly from the Head of the Gallery)

(Selfie of an elf in high-defense armor)

Must be because of the elf adult content, yeah.

[Upvote: 12] [Downvote: 102]

– Does that even make sense?

– Rn, I’m so angry just thinking about what they did.

– What could an adorable Great Magician like the Head of the Gallery possibly lack to look at elf adult content?

– But I’m getting turned on?

No idea why they thought I was holding back my anger while I started making all sorts of excuses.

In short, I forgave it, but the Gallums did not forgive.

– Haha, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.

– I can’t sleep at night thinking the elves are the reason I can’t have pepper.

– Give me back my cola, damn it.

The flames didn’t extinguish but instead began to grow larger.

Turning away from the gallery, I looked at the Gourmet Slime cubes the Pure Elf had sent me.

[Gourmet Slime Cube]

Gourmet slime grown with 4 tablespoons of water syrup, 2 tablespoons of ketchup, 1 tablespoon of red pepper paste, 2 tablespoons of sugar… and so on.

This was a cube dish deep-fried in oil after being soaked in crisping liquor.

It tasted like well-cooked fried chicken.

“Is this really that delicious?”

Food that even elves would hide to eat.

– *Crisp!*

I poked a piece with my fork and took a bite, curious if it was as delicious as they said.

“…?”

I couldn’t tell what flavor it had.

So I took another bite.

But still, it didn’t give me a taste saying, “Whoa, I can’t hold back; it’s so delicious!”

“It’s just okay?”

It was simply an average flavor.

It was tasty, but it wasn’t worth going through all that hassle for.

Besides, it was a taste I had eaten somewhere before.

I slowly read through the system explanation again and realized.

“This is basically the recipe for seasoned chicken sauce.”

With its oddly reddish color and crispy texture.

It was just a lower-tier version of modern seasoned chicken.

“All this fuss over such a simple dish?”

This made it even harder for me to understand.

If it was chicken, it had already been distributed.

Of course, I had also distributed seasoned chicken before.

“Ah.”

Yet while pondering, I realized.

“Everything related to cooking was prepped kits?”

The chicken I had sprinkled several times, pizza, and all other food were also meal kits.

Meal kits that could be found at military PXs.

Of course, the taste is there.

I’ve eaten that food countless times myself.

“But it can’t compare to the freshly made chicken from a chicken shop.”

This 2% lacking vague-flavored slime cube was food created by elves who had wandered with flavors learned from chicken meal kits.

But since they had never tasted real seasoned chicken, they were satisfied with this.

“Hmm…”

An ideal food for gallery-related activities.

So-called gaming food, I was shocked how they simply preferred meal kits for snacking during gallery activities.

“I wish I could try feeding it once.”

Moreover, since meal kits could create varied flavors depending on the cook,

I truly wanted to show them the taste of warm seasoned chicken just out of a well-performing chicken shop.

But how?

There had never been such items sold at the shop before.

[Level Up! 10 → 11]

[From level 10 onwards, you can choose your level-up rewards!]

[Choose a reward.]

1. Shop Item Upgrade

2. Unlocked PvP place at the Gallery

“Oh.”

I had continually consumed mana pills as they stacked up.

Coincidentally, a new system appeared with the level-up, so there was a way after all.

*

– If there’s a Gallum who wants the elf to drop dead, hit the downvote haha

– These guys have no sense of boundaries

– If I were the Head of the Gallery, I would have permanently banned them all

“Urgh…”

The green-haired Eliegui.

She looked all droopy, with her ears drooping down to the floor.

However, it wasn’t simply because everyone in the gallery was cursing and pointing fingers at her.

“…I want to eat slime cubes.”

Her life food, once sprinkled at the marketplace, the seasoned chicken meal kit.

This she could no longer consume, having created a slime cube as closely resembling it as possible.

“Should I make it secretly?”

She thought that multiple times, but it was impossible.

As the elves of Elard began to watch over her closely.

Worried they might earn the Head of the Gallery’s disdain, the elves took self-regulatory measures.

“Huhhh.”

Ultimately, she collapsed on the floor due to cravings for seasoned chicken.

Like a fish out of water, she floundered on the bed for a long while.

[Marketplace Detailed System Opened!]

[Please show much interest in the ‘Marketplace/People of the Marketplace’.]

“People of the Marketplace…?”

Eliegui lifted her head at the new notification.

It seemed a new detailed system had appeared within the marketplace, like a gacha.

Not sure what it was, but as if enchanted, she immediately entered the People of the Marketplace.

[Welcome to the ‘People of the Marketplace’!]

[Here, you can request a menu by paying and asking the Head of the Gallery!]

[If the Head of the Gallery accepts, the respective menu will be delivered to your home!]

“Huh?”

So, you have to request it from the Head and he has to approve for it to come?

“What’s on the menu… Oh my gosh.”

As she tilted her head and entered the menu.

1. Seasoned Chicken

“Whoa, whoa, seasoned chicken!!!!!”

There it was, the dish of the soul, seasoned chicken.

That food, which had rarely been sold at the marketplace.

“Order it right now!!!”

She recalled the taste of the cold seasoned chicken she had eaten as a meal kit and made her request immediately.

[The Head of the Gallery has accepted the request!]

[Delivery complete!]

And mere seconds later, the square box dropped from the air along with the acceptance.

“Woohoo!”

A small box just big enough to handle with both hands.

“This isn’t a meal kit, is it?”

However, inside the box puffing with steam was already fully cooked chicken.

While puzzled by the unexpected appearance compared to the meal kit, the moment she bit into a chicken leg, captivated by its form and color.

“…!!!!!”

Eliegui’s ears perked skyward.

 

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