Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 78

?As you may have guessed, being affiliated with Jungha Group comes with a lot of advantages, but there are also disadvantages, such as the situation at hand.?

Cheok-Liang was right. In all fairness, Ji-Cheok knew that other aspiring GodTubers didn’t have enough money to hire killers. He guessed that members of Ji-Han’s family wanted his boss to fail, which in turn put a target on Ji-Cheok’s back. Of course, he had joined Ji-Han with the understanding that things like this could and would happen, but he had thought that it would be after he leveled up a bit more. He had never expected that they would send killer Hunters so quickly.

‘Ji-Han just joined the race for succession, and I thought the others who were in the race were all above level 100. Why would they send hitmen to deal with a nobody like me?’

?Master, you have the tendency to underestimate yourself.?

‘You think so? I don't know… I just think with the amount of time and money Ji-Han spent on me, he could’ve used it on any Hunter and gotten the same result. Of course, it may not be possible to find and raise a low-level rookie, but if he just hired high-level Hunters from the start and used them as his guards…’

?If that happened, he would have to go to high-tier dungeons that were level-appropriate for his so-called guards, and he would be more exposed to danger.?

‘Hm…’

Indeed, just as Cheok-Liang said, level-limited dungeons created a lot of variables for Hunters. Besides, if Ji-Cheok’s prediction was correct, the person next in line for the throne of the Jungha Group was none other than Jung Ji-Han. There was nobody that could surpass his chrono-type skills.

“I’ll have to hide more of my power…”

?You know what they say, Master. Cunning rabbits dig at least three holes for themselves.?

‘Yeah, I guess I need to have more backup plans for now on.’

Ji-Cheok looked down at the two assailants while pondering the meaning of those words. They were both unconscious, but they were nevertheless Awakened. If they recovered, it might be bothersome for Ji-Cheok.

‘Then…’

“Likes Shop open! Show me sealing skills.”

Ding!

Dozens of skills appeared on the screen.

“Show me skills that can be bought with 10,000 Likes!”

[Touch of Time Separation: Makes use of fragments of Chronos, the God of Time, to shift the target to a separate space-time. Target is locked in the space-time fragment for ten minutes.]

[Mana Sealing Shackles: Creates a shackle that seals the target’s mana. The duration is one hour. The user’s mana must be ranked higher than the target’s.]

[Sleep Time: Makes the target fall into a deep sleep. The target will not wake up until someone wakes them up.]

[Thunder Strike of Chaos: Causes the brain to become discombobulated. The duration depends on the target’s stamina stat. Warning: it has no effect on opponents without a brain. Warning: if the target’s stamina is low, they can get permanent brain damage.]

[Sealing: Seals the target inside a sealing medium. The duration depends on how powerful the user is compared to the target.]

?All of these skills have a drawback, Master.?

“Yes, you’re right. But I think this one is the most useful.”

[Sleep Time—9,800 Likes]

[Class: Epic (Non-upgradable Rank A)

Makes the target fall into a deep sleep. The target will not wake up until someone wakes them up.]

Ji-Cheok spent 9,800 Likes on [Sleep Time], then immediately used the skill on the two villains.

Buzz~

His hand emitted a strange energy wave, and his two opponents fell asleep instantly.

‘Good, sleepy tight now, children!’

The problem was thus solved.

“Jesus… I just came to this place to check my new skills and abilities. What is this nonsense? Activate Silph’s Recovery.”

The lesser wind spirits spawned and flew around, scattering light dust. It seemed like the villains’ wounds were slowly healing. Since Ji-Cheok was not a professional healer, it was inevitable that their recovery was slow. He loaded the two villains onto Cheok-Liang’s back and sighed.

“Whew. Let’s quickly finish up and go get some rest.”

?Yes, Master.?

Since they had started the dungeon anyway, the pair went to kill the boss monster.

* * *

The items from [The Land of Walking Boulders] were nothing special. Even the rewards from killing the boss monster were not that impressive.

[Tachi of Heaviness]

[Class: C

Type: Weapon (Tachi)

A saber created by some bizarre coincidence when the core of a rock golem was destroyed. It looks bumpy and ugly, but it has the ability to repair itself, and its weight is tripled when hitting opponents, which increases its attack power.]

This weapon did not belong to anyone, nor did it increase Ji-Cheok abilities.

‘No wonder this dungeon is not popular.’

Ji-Cheok could not believe that a boss monster of a dungeon would only spit out a Class-C weapon—a tachi, to be precise. Sabers were a bit harder to handle than swords to begin with, and there were few humans who could wield this one in particular. It was terribly large, two meters or so in length.

“Who would buy this thing? I can’t even sell it for cheap because of my labor fee.”

Cheok-Liang was deep in thought.

?Master, if you give me Likes, I can give you a hint.?

‘A hint? What are you talking about?’

?I do not know either. I think you can get some kind of wisdom out of the System if you make a sacrifice to the System.?

‘I can make deals with the System? What’s the standard for it?’

?You do not have permission to view the information.?

‘Hm…I see how it is. Okay. How many Likes do you need?’

?It is 9,999 Likes.? Cheok-Liang said while his eyes turned blue.

‘Holy… That’s expensive. It’s almost as expensive as a skill!’?

However, Ji-Cheok knew that if he left the tachi as is, it wouldn’t sell and just be a nuisance to him. In the end, it was worth it to spend Likes on the hint and get rid of the tachi.

‘Alright, if it turns out to be a scam, I’ll just have to do a three-day mukbang marathon to cover the cost! #Letsgo!’

As Ji-Cheok agreed to sacrifice Likes, an altar popped up in front of Cheok-Liang. It was an altar made of only lines, looking like something straight out of a two-dimensional world. There was no contrast, no sense of weight—it was just a structure made of lines and colors, like an app icon on a smartphone. As Cheok-Liang sacrificed the Likes on the altar, the numbers went up.

[-_-)b +999]

[-_-)b +1,000]

[-_-)b +1,001]

‘The hell kinda altar uses emoji?’

The altar lacked even the smallest semblance of sacredness; in fact, all of this seemed like a complete joke.

‘What the hell am I sacrificing my Likes to?’

Ji-Cheok felt a weird sensation, something different from what he felt when buying things from the Likes Shop. Gradually, the Like count on the altar went up, and up, and up… and then, finally…

…Ding!

[^_^)b +9,999]

All 9,999 Likes filled the altar made of lines and dots, and beam of light descended from somewhere up high, illuminating Cheok-Liang like a pillar of Heaven.

?Destroy the weapon with one skill attack.?

‘Huh?’

?That is the hint.?

‘You’re telling me to destroy the reward from the boss monster?’

?Yes.?

‘The fruit of my labor? I mean, it’s an unpopular item… So… But… Uh, wow. I can’t believe you are telling me to destroy a perfectly good item.’

Ji-Cheok had to destroy it in one move. Even though this [Tachi of Heaviness] didn’t seem like a big deal, it was nevertheless something obtained from a boss golem, so the weapon was extremely hard, like diamond. They clearly hadn’t put ‘bumpy and ugly but has the ability to repair itself’ phrase in the description for nothing. The fact that the weapon could self-repair meant that Ji-Cheok had to destroy it before it had a chance to heal itself.

Sigh.

‘Well, since I used 9,999 Likes, I might as well just try and destroy that weapon. This is crazy…So crazy.’

While Ji-Cheok was complaining, he was coming up with ways to destroy that weapon in the back of his head.

‘Okay. I’ve decided. I gotta see what happens next. If I fail, I’ve wasted both my Likes and the [Tachi of Heaviness]. I can’t let that happen! Do you know what kind of skills I can buy with 9,999 Likes? Okay then.’

Ji-Cheok looked around and found a rock that looked thirty meters tall.

‘That’s it!’

* * *

“Hello GodTube viewers and Gumjis! This is Um Ji-Cheok. Today, I am streaming to show you a very new and fresh look of myself. Okay then! Right now, I am at an unpopular dungeon called [Land of Walking Boulders]. The video of me killing the boss is… not gonna be uploaded. There are just too many videos on clearing this dungeon, so I’m going to skip that.”

-What? Why are you streaming all of the sudden?

-When will you reveal the skill that Ssun_Ju_Ran requested last time?

“Hahaha. I will do that later.”

Now that the two villains were down, Ji-Cheok could access GodTube again.

Since Ji-Cheok had come this far, he turned on his stream to show the viewers the process of him working his magic on the weapon. It didn’t matter if he succeeded or failed in destroying the [Tachi of Heaviness]; either way, he would gather a lot of Likes. He even turned off the donation limit setting, because he assumed not many people would come to his unannounced stream.

-Looks like Umji got hurt, where are you?

-I know where this is. It’s the [Land of Walking Boulder] dungeon. I heard that place is dead.

-Yeah, the monsters there are really slow, and the rewards are not worth it. Why is he there?

-Why did you turn on your stream after you killed the boss monster?

Instead of answering, Ji-Cheok just smiled and pulled out the reward item, [Tachi of Heaviness].

“You guys know so much about this dungeon! Then, you must know about this weapon. A weapon that is useless unless you are a Hunter who uses a tachi as their main weapon. Even then, not many tachi users would have this weapon! It takes a long time to clear this dungeon, and the rewards are not worth it. That’s why even Hunter Assistants don’t like working in this place. Trust me, I used to be a Hunter Assistant.”

-Yupp. I heard the dungeon preparation cost is higher than the mining cost.

-Umji was a Hunter Assistant for a long time. He knows his stuff. Then, why are you there?

“You’re right. Usually, rock-type monsters drop a lot of gems and magic stones, but weirdly, these rock golems from the [Land of Walking Boulders] don’t drop gems that often. And look at this item from the boss monster! A tachi!”

Ji-Cheok swung the saber as if he was swinging his Monoblade. Since he was a cultivation user, it looked pretty cool. He then showed the description of the tachi to the viewers.

“As you can see, this weapon is not that great.”

-LOL. There is no way that’s a weapon.

-Seriously, who would buy that thing?

-There aren’t many Hunters who enter this dungeon in the first place… The Dungeon Break time of this place is very slow, so Hunters only go in here once in a blue moon to prevent the Dungeon. You can say that it’s a very stable dungeon.

-Other than the tachi, I heard that this place also drops a shield, which I heard was pretty solid. I don’t know if the shield gets dropped from the boss monster though…

-Poor Umji, you are so unlucky. You got the most useless weapon…

It sounded crazy, but Ji-Cheok had already asked his brother to buy more tachi from the weapon market. There weren’t that many for sale, but they were cheap, as expected. Even if he failed this time, he wanted to try more after the stream.

“...But! I have received information that if you destroy this item in one shot, it will give you a better item! Isn’t that crazy? I don’t know what the item is, but I think it’s worth trying. So… I am going to give it a try right now.”

Right after Ji-Cheok’s announcement, the chat began to explode in an instant.

-What? You are going to destroy that?

-How are you gonna break it in one blow?

-I think high-level wizards can do it.

-I think high-level warriors can do it too.

1. Pretty much a katana but worn edge-down instead of edge-up.

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