Chapter 0: Prologue

It goes without saying that a cooking skill should be overpowered.

Cooking is responsible for one of humanity’s three fundamental desires, so a skill that governs it not being overpowered simply makes no sense.

Therefore, in any game, a cooking skill ought to have an OP-level performance befitting its importance.

——And this game took that very belief of mine as a personal challenge.

A run-of-the-mill JRPG-style roguelike game called ‘Dungeon Princess.’

It wasn’t a game that enjoyed suspicious levels of worldwide popularity, nor was it one filled with unnecessarily elaborate lore.

It was a game with a clichéd story about a hero’s party setting out on an adventure to defeat the Demon King.

But I enjoyed playing it.

The reactions of the party members whenever they ate my cooking were pretty entertaining.

…I thought it was a fairly decent game until I checked the tooltip after being unable to defeat the final boss no matter what I did.

“The cooking skill has a skill value of zero…?”
“No additional effects?”

—Grind.

‘So that’s why I kept losing even after putting together the perfect party with a dedicated chef…?’

The game was so obscure that there weren’t even any guides or information posts about it, so I only discovered the cruel truth after the absurd difficulty finally made me suspicious enough to dig into the game’s files myself.

In this game, the cooking skill was nothing more than a dummy.

It was a skill that existed purely for show.

No wonder.

Whenever I chose a strategy centered around the chef, I couldn’t even beat the mid-boss before losing.

Out of sheer frustration, I began muttering to myself.

‘I kept retrying over and over, thinking it was my fault and that I just wasn’t good enough…!!’

“That developer’s a rice-cake-looking bastard.”
“I bet he looks exactly like a failed savory pancake someone flipped over and ruined.”
“Yeah, definitely.”
“Even if it’s a free game, this is still ridiculous.”
“How can you deceive your players like this?”
“With a cooking skill, no less?”

—Mutter, mutter.

But no matter how much I cursed the developer by myself, I couldn’t calm down.

If it had been a paid game, I would’ve sent a lengthy complaint email, but this was a free indie game that didn’t even have a developer contact address, so all I could do was curse at the screen.

How was that supposed to make me feel better?

‘…It can’t be helped.’
‘I normally wouldn’t do something like this, but… if I want to save this glutinous-rice-cake of a game.’

—Click.

In the end, I chose my secret weapon.

And that was……

Turning on a game client modification program with an extremely distinctive cheese icon.

It was a single-player game anyway, so I decided to tear apart and rebuild the cooking skill however I pleased.

‘I’ll make it genuinely overpowered, clear the game just once, and then delete it.’
‘Good grief.’

—Ding!

[Unauthorized modifications may cause serious problems for the user.]
[Would you like to continue?]

‘…Did this message always pop up?’
‘I barely ever use this program, so I don’t remember.’

—Click.

Ignoring the warning message, I quickly pressed the OK button.

Perhaps because the game was loaded with a ridiculous number of assets, the program took a while to start after lagging quite a bit.

[Checking… Causality confirmed.]
[Access granted.]

‘Causality?’
‘Is it talking about administrator privileges?’
‘Well, that’s not important.’

Unlike this crappy game that had made the cooking skill into a dummy skill, the game’s code itself was surprisingly well organized.

Thanks to the detailed comments throughout the code, I had little trouble finding the sections related to skills.

…Compared to the detailed code for the other skills, the cooking skill’s code was practically empty, which actually made it easier to find.

‘Anyway.’
‘Let’s see… Rather than coding everything myself, it would probably be better to copy some code from the other skills, right?’

—Scroll, scroll.

And so, I began turning the cooking skill into an overpowered skill.

“Heh-heh~.”

‘A top-tier buff skill?’
‘Obviously, getting stronger after eating food is just common sense.’
‘Of course.’

—Click.

[The administrator is verifying your authorization… Confirmed.]
[Processing complete.]

‘A Mythic-tier healing skill?’
‘Taking proper care of your body with nourishing food when you’re not feeling well is incredibly important.’
‘Let’s add this, too.’

—Click.

[The sub-administrator is verifying your authorization… Confirmed.]
[Processing complete.]

I began copying and pasting various sections of code responsible for skill effects.

Messages flashed in the debugger window, but I didn’t pay them much attention.

I had no intention of putting serious effort into coding for a crappy game like this in the first place.

I’d launch it, see if it worked, play one round, and delete it.

If it didn’t work, I’d just delete it anyway.

‘As for combat skills…’
‘Hmm, this might be crossing the line a little.’
‘Still, should I add one?’

—Click.

[Access denied.]

‘Can’t copy and paste this one?’
‘An error…?’
‘Ugh, that’s annoying.’
‘I’ll just skip this one.’

After that, I started shoving skills into the cooking skill one after another, like I was picking vegetables at a local market.

As a result, the code became more and more extravagant, as if reflecting my romantic ideal of cooking.

I gave the code a quick scan, smiled with satisfaction, and saved the file.

And thus, an absurdly overpowered cooking skill was born, with absolutely no consideration given to balance.

‘Let’s see if it worked.’

—Click.

[…Creating incarnation.]
[Please wait a moment.]

“Ugh, lag.”

Afterward, I calmly launched the game again.

The game where I had modified the code so that the cooking skill finally possessed the overpowered nature it deserved.

———And then,

[Creation complete.]
[May fortune be with you.]

—Fwoooosh!!!

“……!!!!?”
“W-What is this…?”

After an indeterminate amount of time that may or may not have been caused by lag, light suddenly burst from the screen, and I lost consciousness.

…The last thing I saw before losing consciousness was,

[Unauthorized modifications may cause serious problems for the user.]

The warning message I had casually ignored earlier.

———And, a short while later.

—Murmur, murmur.

“…Mmm.”

I slowly opened my eyes, groaning at the strange sensation that my body had far less strength than usual.

Then, when I saw the scene before me, my mouth fell open in stunned disbelief.

—I wondered what kind of being would descend when the Supreme God Himself said He would personally send down an apostle, but this is incredible…

—My Lady, this is an auspicious sign!
“This time, surely we can defeat the Demon King…”

“Isn’t she noble-looking just from her appearance?”
“The Supreme God must have bestowed some tremendous power upon her…”

“………?”

‘Where am I…?’
‘No, wait.’
‘What the hell are these women wearing?’

Inside a building that looked like something straight out of a romance-fantasy webtoon, beautiful women dressed in astonishingly revealing outfits were surrounding me and looking down at me.

It didn’t take long for me, Lee Si-hyeon, twenty-four years old, to realize that I had transmigrated into the world of the game.