XAUUSD was sitting pretty at 5058 on my Exness-MT5 terminal. EURUSD was hovering perfectly at 1.1833.
I grinned, greasing up my mouse with fingers completely coated in the cheap, questionable sauce of a dollar-menu double-beef burger. I was a simple man. I liked my fast food greasy, my body comfortably soft and heavily insulated, and my Forex charts volatile.
"Come to papa," I muttered, watching the candles. I slammed the 'sell' button.
Then, to celebrate my financial genius, I took a massive, jaw-unhinging bite of the burger.
That was the mistake.
The meat—if it was legally classified as meat—didn't go down. It lodged violently in my windpipe like a concrete block. I choked. I gasped, clawing desperately at my throat, knocking over my giant cup of soda. The red candlestick on my monitor plummeted, hitting my take-profit perfectly. I was practically rich.
And I was suffocating.
My vision went blurry, then completely black. My last conscious thought was anger that I wouldn't get to withdraw my profits to buy a better burger.
I woke up on cold, hard stone.
My first thought: Did my stop-loss trigger?
My second thought: Wait. Why don't I feel fat?
I sat up instantly, patting my stomach. Gone was the familiar, comforting keg of soft flesh that I had spent twenty-four years cultivating. In its place were hard, rigid bumps. Abs? I looked down at my hands. They were calloused, lean, and completely devoid of burger grease.
I scrambled over to a small, glowing moss patch near a puddle on the stone floor. I looked at my reflection.
Staring back at me was a guy who belonged on the cover of a magazine. Sharp jawline, piercing eyes, perfect hair that looked styled despite me just waking up on the floor.
"What the hell?" I said out loud. Even my voice was different. Deeper. Smoother.
Suddenly, a transparent blue screen materialized right in front of my face, accompanied by a sharp chime.
[Ding!]
[Host Soul Binding Complete. Welcome to the Maze, Kingsley.]
I blinked. "The Maze? You mean like a dungeon?"
[Negative. Dungeons go up or down. The Maze expands horizontally. You are on Floor 1. If you wish to find the stairs to Floor 2, you must walk east for approximately three hundred miles. Mind the monsters.]
"Great. Reincarnated. I read enough webnovels between trading sessions to know how this goes." I stood up, stretching my new, incredibly athletic limbs. "Alright, system. Give me the good stuff. Show me my OP stats. Show me my dragon-slaying sword. Status!"
Another blue screen popped up.
STATUS WINDOW
Name: Kingsley
Level: 1
Class: Gourmet Consumer
Title: Fast Food Casualty
[Base Stats]
HP: 50/50
MP: 10/10
Strength: 3 (Pathetic)
Agility: 4 (Slightly less pathetic)
Stamina: 2 (You get winded standing up)
Intelligence: 8 (Average)
Luck: 1 (You choked on a burger. Obviously.)
[Skills]
* Iron Stomach (Passive) - Lv. Max: You can digest anything. Literally anything. Rocks, poison, cheap fast food. Immunity to foodborne illnesses.
* Appraise (Active) - Lv. 1: Shows the culinary value of a target.
[Available Stat Points: 0 ]
I stared at the screen. I rubbed my eyes and stared again.
"Strength three? Stamina two? Look at this body!" I yelled, gesturing to my chiseled chest. "I'm built like a Greek god! How is my strength a three?!"
[Host's current physical vessel is merely cosmetic. Your soul's attributes have overridden the body's natural strength. In your past life, your primary physical activity was clicking a mouse and chewing.]
"Hey, analyzing Forex markets is stressful," I shot back. "And what is this class? Gourmet Consumer?"
[Ding!]
[The Gourmet Leveling System is now fully active. As a Gourmet Consumer, you bypass traditional leveling mechanics. You gain absolutely zero (0) EXP from combat, killing, or completing quests.]
I froze. "Zero EXP from killing monsters? Then how do I level up and not die horribly in this Maze?"
[You eat them.]
Silence stretched down the long, dimly lit stone corridor. I looked left. Endless stone hallway. I looked right. More endless stone hallway.
"You want me... to eat the monsters."
[Correct. The higher the toxicity, danger, and rarity of the creature consumed, the greater the EXP and stat boosts yielded. Bon appétit.]
Before I could properly argue with the blue text, a low growl echoed from the shadows to my right.
I spun around. Stepping into the faint light of the glowing wall-moss was a creature straight out of a nightmare. It looked like a chicken, but it was the size of a large dog. It had no feathers, just thick, scaly red skin covered in sharp, dripping spikes. Its beak was lined with jagged teeth, and green saliva sizzled as it hit the stone floor.
[Target Identified: Rabid Spiky Chicken]
[Level: 2]
[Threat Level: High for your pathetic stats]
[Culinary Note: Meat is incredibly tough. Venom glands located in the spikes. Best served deep-fried.]
"Deep-fried? I don't even have a frying pan!" I backed up, my heart hammering against my new, well-defined ribs.
The chicken screeched—a sound like metal scraping against glass—and charged.
I panicked. I threw a punch. My fist connected squarely with the side of the chicken's head.
Crack.
"Aaaargh!" I screamed, pulling my hand back. Two of my knuckles were definitely broken. The chicken didn't even flinch. It snapped its jaws, entirely missing my leg but tearing a chunk out of my leather pants.
"Okay, physical combat is definitely a no-go," I muttered, scrambling backward.
The chicken lunged again. I dove to the side, my Agility of 4 barely saving my life. I rolled, grabbing a loose, jagged rock from the floor. As the monstrous poultry turned to snap at me again, I shoved the rock directly into its open mouth.
The chicken choked, thrashing wildly as the stone lodged in its throat.
Wait. Choking. The irony.
I didn't waste the opportunity. I jumped on its back, avoiding the venomous spikes, and wrapped my arms around its neck, pulling back with all my meager Strength of 3.
We struggled. It scratched the floor, it thrashed, it hissed. Finally, after two exhausting minutes that completely drained my Stamina, the chicken went limp.
I collapsed next to it, panting heavily.
[Rabid Spiky Chicken Defeated.]
[EXP Gained: 0]
"You really weren't kidding about the zero EXP," I wheezed, staring at the system message.
My stomach gave a loud, thunderous rumble. I hadn't eaten since that fateful burger. And according to the system, there was only one way out of this Level 1 misery.
I looked at the dead, scaly, spiky, venom-dripping chicken.
"I have to eat that."
It was raw. It was hideous. It probably tasted like battery acid and despair. But I was a trader. I understood risk and reward. The risk was throwing up my own internal organs. The reward was leveling up.
I pulled out my pocket knife—the only item I spawned with besides my clothes—and cautiously sliced a chunk of meat from the chicken's thigh, making sure to avoid the glowing green venom sacs near the skin.
The meat was tough, stringy, and purple.
I closed my eyes, pinched my nose, and shoved the raw monster meat into my mouth. I chewed quickly and swallowed it whole.
I waited for the intense stomach pain. I waited to die a second time.
Instead, a burst of heat exploded in my stomach. The taste finally hit my tongue. It wasn't battery acid. It tasted exactly like spicy, perfectly seasoned buffalo wings with a hint of blue cheese.
My eyes snapped open. "Whoa. That's... actually amazing."
[Ding!]
[Consumed: Rabid Spiky Chicken Meat (Raw)]
[Evaluation: A bold choice to eat it raw. The venom traces add a nice spicy kick.]
[EXP Gained: 50]
[Condition Met. Level Up!]
A golden light washed over my body. The pain in my broken knuckles vanished instantly. The exhaustion evaporated.
STATUS UPDATE
Level: 2
Available Stat Points: 5
New Skill Acquired: [Minor Toxin Resistance Lv. 1]
I stared at the remaining carcass of the giant chicken. Then I looked at my status screen.
"Fifty EXP for one bite?" I muttered.
I cut another, larger piece. Down the hatch. It tasted even better the second time.
[EXP Gained: 40]
I didn't stop. I sat right there on the cold floor of the Maze and ate the entire leg raw. The system kept pinging. By the time I was full, I had leveled up again.
[Level: 3]
[Available Stat Points: 10]
I allocated five points to Strength and five to Agility. Immediately, I felt my muscles tighten, growing denser, faster. The power coursed through my veins.
I stood up, wiping purple monster blood from my mouth. I looked down the endless horizontal corridor of Floor 1. I wasn't scared anymore. I was looking at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and I was starving.
"Alright, Maze," I grinned, cracking my perfectly healed knuckles. "Serve up the next course."