Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 111

In the previous Hunter Exam, the swear words and all the bad deeds that Yum Ra-Du did were spread all over the world on GodTube. His parents, who were famous Hunters, tried to calm down the public, but other Hunters who took the Hunter Exam with him testified of Ra-Du’s actions. The problem was that their testimony was broadcast live on the evening news. His parents were well-established people in the industry and they quickly realized that the whole thing would only escalate if they kept covering for their son, so they told him to lay low for a while.

?Everything is clearly our son’s fault, and also our fault for raising the child wrong. All the scolding from the public will be taken into account for our son. My husband and I will also reflect and do our best to educate our son.?

Saying that, they threw large sums of money into various nurseries and welfare centers. They also volunteered. They went on tv programs about parents suffering with the education of their children. As they continued to show such self-reflection, public opinion changed—now, everyone was sympathetic. Indeed, raising children was not easy.

With that, they successfully erased the past. Their image was as clean as fresh white laundry.

They told their son not to show himself in the media. If he wanted to get involved, they told him to take a picture of himself doing community service and post it. The next three years of his life were like a portfolio that determined the next ten years of his life.

“Fuck…Fuck!!”

That was why Ra-Du couldn’t even curse at Ji-Cheok when they met at the Fortress of Hope. If he swore, he knew his parents would be furious!

‘If it’s my dad, I’ll just get beaten up and get it over with, but my mom always cries when she’s mad. Fuck!’

There was no way for Ra-Du to fix his personality.

“I mean, what’s so special about him? And why is I.L. here? Fucking hell…”

I.L. was what the overseas fandom called ‘That Hunter’. Ra-Du’s role model was ‘That Hunter,’ so it was obviously hard for him to bear the news that such a person shared emails with Ji-Cheok.

‘I feel something burning inside me!’

Crack!

Ra-Du couldn’t stand it and broke the table in front of him.

“What am I going to do with this bastard? Fuck! If it wasn’t for my mom, I would’ve smashed his face.”

He blew out steam through his nose, clenched his jaw, and walked around in front of the big screen for a long time. Eventually, he picked up his phone as if he made up his mind.

“Hey, It’s me. I have some work for you to do. Do you know Um Ji-Cheok? Yes. I need you to try and stop him from whatever he’s doing. After all, a lot of streamers are going to try and take a video of Ji-Cheok because of [A/B]’s donation. Give them money to do the job, or if you have a person in mind, hire him and do whatever it takes to beat him up. Money? Don’t worry about money. Just take care of Ji-Cheok, so that I don’t have to see him anymore!”

Ra-Du got a bit emotional and continued to speak.

“The unpopular GodTubers will do anything for money. [A/B] told them to take videos of Ji-Cheok until he got bored. He didn’t say anything about not hurting Ji-Cheok. What? What do you mean you might get caught? Then think of a way to not get caught! Are you stupid? You bastards have no money and no brain!”

Click.

Ra-Du hung up the phone angrily and stared at the video.

“I am going to kill you somehow, just wait and see.”

* * *

Back in the old days, Hunters had no idea about how to clear the [Fortress of Hope] efficiently. At that time, Hunters had just realized that medieval bastard swords and katanas were more effective than guns, and that the teeth of Stone Ants were a little stronger than all those weapons. Facing the monsters, the Hunters’ limbs were shaking as if they were newborn baby deer trying to stand up, but the world was already filled with Gates and monsters were pouring out regardless of what the Hunters felt.

[Fortress of Hope] is a dungeon that starts when 100 people are gathered.]

Because no one knew about that, Dungeon Breaks kept happening and ant monsters were attacking the surrounding area. It was chaos. The first time Hunters learned about the start condition for the dungeon was with fifty soldiers, twenty firefighters, and thirty Hunters that entered the dungeon. Of course, there was no way seventy ordinary people and thirty Hunters could clear it. Humanity lost countless friendly neighbors again, and learned that dungeons also had ‘start conditions’.

Some knowledge was gained with the sacrifice of people. There was no need to look at the Cthulhu myth or the Aztec history to find information about human sacrifices. It was enough to think about the discovery of fire—humans had to sacrifice themselves to find out how hot fire was.

The path to a new era thus opened. In these modern times, humans were using [Fortress of Hope] as their playground.

“Hello to all the viewers across the country~ Today I came to film the infamous Um Ji-Cheok. Me? I’m just gonna be a Kkakdugi of my team. You don’t know what Kkakdugi is? You can always look it up on Wonkype…”

“Well, this kind of special day only comes once in a blue moon! We are watching to see if Um Ji-Cheok will be able to defend the [Fortress of Hope] while also getting first place in all four teams. He has already announced that he’s planning to take first place times four! There are only ten minutes left for you to place a bet. Right now, people are betting more toward him failing…”

‘Wow, they started an illegal betting pool? Why isn’t GodTube blocking his account? Oh wait, is he using an overseas account where gambling is legal?’

“As an expert of Defense Dungeons, in my opinion, Mr. Um Ji-Cheok’s behavior can only be seen as arrogance itself…”

‘This is beyond funny.’

Apart from Ji-Cheok, the Hunters didn’t even take out their weapons, and just focused on their stream. They acted as if they had no intention of participating in the battle.

‘There are a hundred Hunters, and most of them are GodTubers who came to film me and don’t really care about clearing the dungeon. It looks like they’re going to get off their ass when the monster starts pouring out.’

?High-level Hunters are also here with no intention of receiving the rewards, so there is no need to worry about clearing the dungeon. They are just waiting to see the execution of Master.?

‘I guess they are here to see if I die while defending the fortress, or if I surrender out of fear, and my GodTube channel gets executed. A physical execution or a social execution. This is going to be fun.’

?If Master gives up here, the number of subscribers who are going to leave your channel is estimated to be about 100,000 to 150,000. Of course, the calculation is based on the manipulation of public opinion on various anonymous sites and social media platforms.?

‘I know. Of course, people are gonna leave me if I give up here. There are already so many people who want me to fail.’

Ninety-nine Hunters had now gathered to execute one Hunter in the [Fortress of Hope], where one hundred friendly neighbors had sacrificed themselves to reveal the start condition.

?Master, it looks like some of them blatantly want to see you fail. Even if [A/B] asked them to film you, this is too much. Perhaps there is another party that is influencing the Hunters.?

‘You think it’s from the Jungha Group?’

?That is a possibility, but it could be from somewhere completely different.?

‘Who the hell is it? I’m too embarrassed to say it myself, but not a lot of people hold grudges against me. How pathetic do you have to be to do something like this?’

?At least they’re not outright attacking you.?

‘Well, I’m also streaming right now, so if they attacked me, that’s like digging their own grave. Although national law has lost its authority because of the International Hunter Law, public opinions cannot be ignored. So they’re just sitting quietly and waiting for an opportunity. However, if I try to clear it on my own and fail, they would say things like ‘We were just here to watch Ji-Cheok clear the dungeon, he’s just creating problems for all of us.’ and pretend to fix the problem. After that, they would start framing me for being a troublemaker and make the public turn their backs on me.’

?Yes, Master. If they are successful, not 150,000 but up to 200,000 to 300,000 subscribers will leave your channel.?

‘There are many channels in the world of GodTube. Even if it’s not me, there are Hunters who can entertain the viewers. That’s the life of a GodTuber. That’s why everyone is so smart. This is not their first rodeo. Even the Hunters who aren’t streamers are just sitting in the corner. If I’m unlucky, all of the ninety-nine Hunters might have planned this together before entering the dungeon.’

?I think they are letting Hunters, who are not GodTubers, not fight so that it would be easier for the Ants to destroy the walls. ?

‘Well, that works for me.’

Ji-Cheok went to a Hunter who looked the poorest out of all the Hunters. How did Ji-Cheok know? This Hunter was not using a broadcasting skill, but one of Bi-Ga’s drones to shoot his video. This meant that he didn’t have any Points to buy skills and he had to buy the drone by using most of his money, so he was desperate to get something out of the dungeon.

“Hello,” Ji-Cheok said.

“He..he... Hello…” the Hunter replied awkwardly.

‘Figures. He knows what he’s doing is pathetic. But still, he has to do it to make money.’

“I need to borrow your drone,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Excuse me?”

Without even saying his name, Ji-Cheok took the drone and turned on the screen.

“Hello~ This is Um Ji-Cheok. This is a broadcasting drone, so it’s a bit difficult to find the right angle. I hope my face doesn’t look too big.”

?Master, this is called the portrait angle. It is used a lot in PikPok.?

‘That’s fine. Let’s just go with it.’

?Oh, you want to know why I appeared on someone else’s stream? It’s because of this guy! I was saying hi to him.?

Ji-Cheok wrapped his arms around the unknown Hunter’s shoulder and pretended to be friendly. The hunter’s face turned red.

“He..Hello! I’m Hunter Choco!”

‘... You should really consider changing your username.’

?It’s an emergency, Master! No one is going to remember that username!?

On top of that, nothing of Choco resembled chocolate. Not his hair color, skin color, weapons, or even clothing. His name was just Choco.

“Why is your username Choco? Mr. Choco?”

“My… my poodle’s name is Choco, so I’m Choco too!”

?… When I searched his channel, there was a video of a dog, but it was all blurry. I am assuming he was shaking because he was nervous. I am worried about his channel’s future, Master. How would he survive in this rough GodTube world? These days, even a fennec has to do tricks to get a few subscribers.?

‘I’m sorry, Cheok-Liang. It looks like I used you too much just because you’re my summoned beast.’

“I see, Hunter Choco~ Nice to meet you. Well now that we’ve established that we’re friends, is it okay if I used your drone, Mr. Choco?”

At that moment, all the Hunters turned around.

‘I guess they also think it’s weird pretending to be friendly to a random GodTuber.’

“Yes, yes you can!” Choco said.

‘This guy must feel like he won the lottery, so it’s definitely weird for him~’

“Okay! This drone has limited A.I., so I’ll mostly show my face. I will also turn on my stream.”

[Hunter Kim Choco admires your character.]

[You have received 2 Likes.]

‘What? His real name is Kim Choco? Then he should’ve started with that! Why did he talk about his dog? It was a rare chance to be funny. Even when the opportunity knocked on his door, he couldn’t grab it.’

?It is rare for someone to grab an opportunity as soon as it comes, like Master. Usually, they get nervous and just blurt out anything that comes to mind.?

‘You think so? Well, either way is fine. Let’s show everyone who the real deal is. I am the sunshine, the epitome of refreshing, and the Candy of Madness. I will protect this [Fortress of Hope] all by myself.’

1. Kkakdugi is a type of Kimchi, but in this context, it means a third wheel or a spare tire.