Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 107

“Wait! Wait a minute!”

This crazy bastard had just donated a total of three million won. Either they were an imposter that spent millions just to get some attention, or they were actually ‘That Hunter’ and actually spent one million won each time because they wanted to talk to Ji-Cheok. Either way, this bastard was out of their mind. However, one thing was certain for Ji-Cheok.

‘I have to get that email address!’

They were not just crazy, they were borderline insane. However, there was a distinct possibility that they were actually the biggest GodTuber in the world, with the largest number of subscribers. That was why it was important for Ji-Cheok to get their attention and get their email address.

‘... let’s try to smile. I am the sunshine, the epitome of refreshing, the sun, and some crazy eye candy.’

“Oh my god~ How did you know? It’s a little creepy~ How did you know that I was hiding something up my sleeve?”

-[illlllilililllllll] has donated 1,000,000 won.

[illlllilililllllll]: Show it to me if you’re not bluffing.

They just spent another one million won just to throw in those eight words. Ji-Cheok wondered if the number of characters was different in English. Either way, they spent that much money to write a single sentence. Whoever they were, they were definitely crazy.

‘Anyway, I’m getting a really bad feeling that this person might be the real deal. The pressure is on.’

?Master, the number of viewers is increasing rapidly!?

‘Okay. Even though the pressure is ramping up, the number of viewers is growing like a snowball going down a hill. There’s a person here who might be ‘That Hunter’, who just used one million won to say eight words, versus me, who has to do anything to get his email address. What is more exciting than that? But it’s me who has to deal with the pressure. If it was someone else, I would be watching it in my bed without any worries, but it’s my little self.’

-What more does Umji need to show here? He had just shown everything he’s got!

-Hey, Umji. I know you want to be famous, but you gotta stop the bluffing.

-Wow look at how greedy he is~ He’s already in first place anyway!

-Is [illlllilililllllll] really ‘That Hunter’? Maybe they are putting on a show.

? If that guy is spending millions of wons just to impersonate, that’s also a talent.

? I checked. The usernames are the same. That’s really Nerd Chum-Ji.

?If that’s Nerd Chum-Ji, why aren’t they swearing? Why are they acting like a normal person?

?How the hell should I know? Maybe you need to spend one million won and ask him.

-Umji, just show Cheok-Liang’s paws and give up.

‘Yes. This kind of reaction is what I expected. Who in the world would try and do something else, when they already got first place? But that’s not me. I want to do it. No, I HAVE to do it. There is no way for me to save the world with the number of Likes I have right now.’

“I have been curious about this for a long time. When the defense starts, why can’t we see other groups? There must be a reason for dividing the team into four in the first place. The Fortress of Hope is shaped like a square. It is also not possible to enter from the corners of the fortress.”

-Isn’t that because the System doesn’t want the four teams to get mixed up?

-Teams A, B, C, and D were made to compete and defend separately.

“Yes, I know that. However…”

Vroom!

Ji-Cheok grabbed the handle of the Mono Bike and stepped on the gas.

“...The fortress is square-shaped, but the map is cross-shaped.”

The way people saw it with the naked eye, the dungeon looked like a big cube sitting on an empty, open field. However, an invisible wall was blocking every diagonal, so it was only possible to walk in front of each of the four walls, never from one wall to another. This was true not only for the Hunters, but also for the monsters.

Ji-Cheok thought that maybe it was, in fact, possible to cross to another section.

“As you know, there is a watchtower at every corner of this square fortress. I’m thinking, if I can use my bike to speed up and climb it using my [Wall Drive], maybe it’s possible to get to the other side~”

-That’s so high. How is that possible?

-His mana is going to be empty before going all the way up there.

-Who the hell thinks of climbing the walls while killing the monsters?

‘Normally, that would be the case. But it’s me you’re talking about.’

Ji-Cheok accelerated up to maximum speed.

“I think this should be enough.”

Thud!

Using the ant corpses as a springboard, he jumped up, and the bike instantly adhered to the watchtower. Ji-Cheok ran up the wall, then drove up the super-giant watchtower located at the corner at maximum speed!

“What? You crazy bastard!”

“What… What is he doing?”

“That attention whore is doing weird things again! Isn’t it enough that you got first place?”

Ignoring the shouts of other Hunters, he climbed, climbed, and then climbed some more. The output of the bike was proportional to his remaining mana. He didn’t know if his mana was going to win or the gravity, but he drove up the wall nonetheless.

Screech!

‘Please God, let me reach the top!’

?Fifty percent mana left, Master.?

‘Half left? Even after the fire show, I still have half left. That’s amazing.’

?You have twenty-five percent of your mana left.?

‘Hm, I still have a quarter left. I went up this high, and still have a quarter of my mana. That’s amazing.’

?You have ten percent of your mana left.?

‘I’m getting a bit dizzy now. Still, if it’s ten percent, it’s not all gone yet. I can go further. This is nothing.’

Ji-Cheok took a deep breath. At that moment, he coughed up blood.

?Your mana is at five, four, three…!?

Cheok-Liang was telling Ji-Cheok to prepare for a fall skill, but he had no intention of stopping.

?One… Master, it’s too danger—?

“Activate Shadow!”

The shadows from his body extended like tentacles and threw him and the bike up.

‘If this doesn’t work, does that mean I’m going to die? Hahaha, after all the hard work, my cause of death is from falling.’

His body was in the air. The other Hunters looked like a dot from where he was. The ground was far away, the ant monsters were far away. Ji-Cheok took a glimpse at the chat. It was chaotic. The viewers were talking about how this video was going to be his posthumous video. A video about a madman doing this just to get the email address of a top-tier Hunter. Many words flashed before his eyes. Some words were like a razor, tearing through his heart, and the fans’ hearts too.

‘And I guess those people who used those words will call themselves ‘ordinary people’. That’s life. If you like someone, that feeling alone can make you weak. But life is too short to live with that kind of cynicism. What’s the point?’

Ji-Cheok’s hand grabbed something.

Pant, pant.

It was the upper edge of the watchtower. His bike was below, hanging from the shadow tentacles. If this bike were to be unsummoned here, it would be trouble. The dungeon would be over by the time he could summon it again.

Sweat poured down like rain and his muscles were screaming in pain.

‘I’m glad I didn’t neglect my regular training, Cheok-Liang. Don’t you think?’

?Master, just be careful going up.?

Cheok-Liang’s voice was trembling.

‘He must have thought I was going to leave a posthumous video behind. Well, then… Let’s smile.’

“Wow, I almost died!”

-UM JI-CHEOK, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!!!!!!!!

-Omg… I almost died watching this stream…

-That performance just took ten years off my life.

He grabbed the railing and got up, then pulled the bike up beside him.

Thud.

‘Ah, my bike is all scratched up. I’ll have to fix that again later.’

“What? Did you guys think I was going to die?”

-I guess Umji has nine lives.

-There’s only one life, Umji. You die, it’s over.

“Well, you know what they say, you only live once~”

‘Let’s just be as calm as possible. I need to make it look like I don't care about living or dying. Because that’s what the viewers want. They want a madman who does anything for fun. A madman who runs out with a smile even if there is a fire in front of him. A madman who wishes to commit suicide. Or a hero who will make his fans happy until the day he dies.’

“Alright, shall we see what’s going on down there? Wow!”

He pointed exaggeratedly below his feet. There were other groups fighting the Ants.

-That’s Team B. They’re still getting rid of the Ant monsters.

-Isn’t that team made up of two groups that were fighting each other earlier?

-Yeah, that’s why the number of viewers for the streamer in that team is also high.

‘Oh? It looks like it became competitive content. That’s fun too. I don’t know if the System put them on the same team, or they just pressed the button without knowing, but humans by nature are beings that turn everything into competition anyway. The problem is that, even if this dungeon is fairly safe, with a lot of walkthroughs online, if the Hunters are fighting each other, it becomes harder and harder to kill the monsters. That’s why sometimes Hunters cannot clear this dungeon.’

He took out a mana potion and drank it. His mana started to recover.

-Isn’t that mana potion worth like five million won?

? Judging by the absence of a label, it may have been made by Umji.

? Wow, Umji with homemade stuff.

-But still, isn’t the cost of the ingredients pretty high?

-He did a video on his alchemy skills, and it looked like he was pretty good at making stuff on his own.

The viewers who were saying things like ‘I knew this was going to happen.’, and ‘Is he trying to make his last video about driving up a fortress wall?’, were now discussing the price of the mana potion as if nothing had happened.

‘That’s a good thing, isn't it? I’m glad the chat is now cleaner.’

“Okay, my mana is almost full. This is going to be fun. So #Letsgo!”

Ji-Cheok got on the half-destroyed bike. It looked terribly beat up, but it was still working, just like his life. He always got up, even if he got hurt like this.

Driving downward was like having wings. Driving up the watchtower had been really hard, yet going down only took him a moment. From the top of the watchtower, everything looked like a dot. Ji-Cheok came down like a meteor, accelerating with the help of gravity. He gathered his Qi and created a huge Sword Qi blade, becoming one with the bike once more. Then, he generated another Sword Qi blade with the help of Double Strike.

“Let’s slice everything!!!”

[Mono Bike skill, [Acceleration] is activated.]

[The higher the speed, the greater the damage! (up to 300%)]

The moment the bike reached its top speed…

Crunch! Crack!

…the Ants on the wall were cut in half. The bike smoothly converted the falling momentum into acceleration and drove forward. Ji-Cheok showed the true value of [Wall Drive] by turning the bike on the wall and proceeding to kill all the Ants that were on the wall.

Vroom!!!

Mono Bike G ran at top speed. With a three hundred percent increase in damage and a one hundred percent chance of Double Strike, the viewers couldn’t help but cheer for Ji-Cheok.

“Hahaha. I guess it’s time for you to give me your email address, ‘That Hunter’,” Ji-Cheok said, while his stream was trending on GodTube.

-[illlllilililllllll] has donated 1,000,000 won.

[illlllilililllllll]: If I don’t give it to you here, I’ll look like an asshole. Wait a sec, I’ll send it to your GodTube personal email.

?Master! An email has arrived from the official channel of ‘That Hunter’!?

‘Wow. So it wasn’t an imposter? They were real? They were the real ‘That Hunter’?’

* * *

“Wow… This is so crazy.”

He looked like he was in his late twenties—a tall, handsome man looking at the screen with an absurd expression. He was sitting on an antique sofa made by European craftsmen, watching GodTube on the big screen of the theater.

‘That Hunter’ was not the only one watching Ji-Cheok’s stream. [A/B] was there too. He was watching Ji-Cheok’s stream with his second account. Of course, when he had first started to watch the stream, it hadn’t been just Ji-Cheok’s stream on the big screen in front of him. It was his specialty to watch over one hundred GodTube streams at the same time. However, at some point, the streams were turned off one by one, and the only one left on the huge screen was Ji-Cheok.