Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 114

What was life?

The old poets said it was like a river, like farming, or a glass full of fate. For an ordinary modern person like Ji-Cheok, life was about going to work and going to work only. That was life. Students went to school, workers went to work, the unemployed stood in front of their computers or lay under their blankets, and Hunters entered dungeons. When they got to work, they would achieve something, whether it was their salary or the bitter taste of life.

Ji-Cheok was thus punching in at the [Fortress of Hope]. There were a couple of things he did as he entered the dungeon every day—he would repair broken walls or heal the wounded NPC soldiers.

-Look at this guy, trying to earn more Likes from healing the NPCs.

-He is so persistent. Hahahaha. Since there is no level limit, he is trying to squeeze even the last drop of titles from this dungeon.

-Thank you, Mr. Umji. My brother and I are also on the level to enter the [Fortress of Hope] soon. Thanks to your clear, we were able to plan out our dungeon strategy in advance. Our mother is also making us watch your videos like a textbook.

There were comments saying that Ji-Cheok was too persistent and too crazy. There were even comments saying that he was the role model for mid-level Hunters. He ignored all the comments and the Likes he was receiving, however, and just kept doing what he was doing.

‘#Let’sGo! Let’s see what comes out next!’

As a result…

[[Beginner Healer]: Increases healing by 5%.]

[[Keeper of Life → Beginner Keeper of Life]: Increases all ally NPC abilities by 10%.]

[[Guardian Warrior of Hope] → [Guardian Knight of Hope]: Gains strong resistance against negative mental influences.]

[[Keeper of the Walls]→ [Beginner Keeper of the Walls]: Increases the durability of buildings by 10% in defense battles.]

[[Volunteer]: Increases healing by 3%. Increases durability by 3%.]

[[Decapitator]: Increases cutting damage by 10%.]

[[Avatar of Doom]: Increases damage by 3%.]

[[Tinker]: Adds additional durability when repairing tools.]

[[Master of Defense Battles]: Increases all allies’ abilities by 5% during defense battles.]

This was the true art of grinding. This was the result of going to work every day. Ji-Cheok almost died a few times, but there was a big difference between having Indomitability and not having it. The fact that he had life insurance made him fight with abandon.

?Master, if you continue to do that, you can really die. You must take care of your body!?

‘Hm… Did it look that dangerous? There was no chance of me dying, in my opinion. And that’s not all. Some of the Upgradable skills have leveled up from F to E and the skills that were originally E-Rank have gone up to D. This is amazing~. My power has increased AND I use less mana. That’s what it means to increase your skill proficiency rank. But wait, there’s more! After getting a bunch of titles, I received another one!’

[Collector of Twenty Titles]

[Class: Unique

A title given to those who held 20 or more titles.

Adds 5% to all title effects.]

‘I can’t believe it. It doesn’t just increase one thing by five percent, but actually gives an extra five percent to ALL effects. The title [Beginner Healer] increases healing by five percent. Right? With this [Collector of Twenty Titles], it will increase by ten percent! Curses on those high-level Hunters. I can’t believe they were hiding this kind of information. Jung Ji-Han is the youngest of the Jungha Group, so he should have known about this. Why didn’t he tell me?’

?I am assuming he is waiting for the right time, Master.?

“Maybe. I mean, I’m mainly active in dungeons for Hunters in their level 50s. Who would believe that a Hunter can get more than twenty titles while they are in their 50s?”

‘Was he hiding it, because he was afraid that I would die like a sunfish from trying to get these titles?’

?That is also a possibility. Jung Ji-Han is strangely obsessed with Master’s life.?

‘Who the hell would die trying to get twenty titles? I’m not stupid! Even getting this title was the result of me taking advantage of the System’s flaw. If it wasn’t for the bizarre job that is GodTube Influencer, I wouldn’t have gathered twenty titles. Well, enough about that. Other than titles, I couldn’t get any new items or rewards. After clearing it a few times, I learned that you only get the special reward once.

?Master, you are too greedy. You have already sucked everything out of the dungeon, and you want to suck more??

‘Hm... You think so?’

.

?If you keep collecting titles like this, it is only natural that you keep getting stronger! Even if there are no special rewards, you still got the common rewards!?

‘When you say common rewards, you mean…’

?Two Rare Skill Vouchers and the loot from the Stone Ants’ corpses. In addition, clearing [Fortress of Hope] many times in a row was enough to recover the 700,000 Likes that you used previously!?

‘I… I guess you’re right.?

Ji-Cheok was the first Hunter to clear [Fortress of Hope] by himself, and thanks to continuously clearing the dungeon, his current Likes had reached a whopping 1,160,000!

‘When I think about it, I do sound like?Mr. Krabs.’

?…?

‘Aren’t you supposed to say no, in this situation?’

?As your servant, I cannot tell such a lie to your face, Master.?

‘AHHH!! I’m still hungry! It’s so hard to gather 10 whole millions! I used 700,000 Likes and then collected 1,160,000 Likes, which means that I made a profit of 460,000 Likes. How am I supposed to earn 10,000,000 Likes like this?!

For a moment, Ji-Cheok pretended to rip his hair out like a worker that had to go to work the next day.

“Anyway, since I fully recovered my Qi, shall we enter [Fortress of Hope] again?”

Yesterday, after clearing [Fortress of Hope], Ji-Cheok had returned home, washed up, rested, and woke up. With that, all of his Qi was restored.

‘#GetBacktoWork Let’s go!’

Strangely enough, Cheok-Liang told him it was a bad idea.

?I think it is wise to enter another dungeon, Master.?

“Huh? Why?”

?This is because the number of views and the number of Likes have decreased considerably after the third video. It seems to have gone down because your method of clearing the dungeon is the same. You need to think of other content to get more Likes, Master.?

“Hm… I see…”

‘Hm… I was hoping to get more out of the dungeon, but I guess that’s not possible.’

?If you were an ordinary GodTuber, this would have been possible. Even though the trend is declining, the number of views and the number of Likes are still coming out well enough. However, you must not stop here. With the power and potential of Master, you must strive for a better ending.?

“So you’re saying I can’t reach ten million Likes with [Fortress of Hope] alone, right?”

?According to my calculations… It is impossible, Master.?

‘Yeah, I know.’

[Fortress of Hope] had made Ji-Cheok a parvenu of Likes, but he knew that he couldn’t take advantage of the dungeon forever. If a person could press Like while watching the same video over and over again, that person would be a master of buy and hold.

‘With that much patience, it’s better to put all your money into Jungbi and just pray for the company’s stocks to go up. Please help Bi-Ga invent a new drone and stop her from writing weird things on her Nstagram again. Please stop the tax investigation on her tax evasion and embezzlement. And dear American NASDAQ, please make the feud between Bi-Ga and Adam stop.’

This was the sincere prayer of all sinners who had their money in Jungbi Co., Ltd. The stock of this company always fluctuated depending on Bi-Ga’s actions, so even Ji-Cheok prayed before going to bed. For some reason, out of the blue, Bi-Ga gave some shares of her company to Ji-Cheok. When Ji-Byeok found out about it, she was not happy.

“Why the hell is that creepy bitch being nice to you?”

It felt weird for Ji-Cheok to hear the native pronunciation of ‘creepy bitch’. He felt like he was in an American TV show. It was understandable, because not only was Ji-Byeok’s grandmother from the United States, but her father was also a foreigner. She would have spent more time in the United States than in Korea.

“I can’t believe that crazy Bi-Ga is giving shares of her company to another person. I’m her cousin and I never got any.”

Even within the Jungha Group, the crazy personality of Bi-Ga seemed to be famous. Ji-Byeok told Ji-Cheok stories about how absolutely insane Bi-Ga was in the past. She used colorful words like demon, demon king, witch, villain, and cold-blooded. When it came to curse words in English, Ji-Byeok had a comprehensive vocabulary, but as she switched to Korean, her range of swear words became miserably limited.

Ji-Cheok just sat there quietly and listened. He was afraid to come off as an asshole if he joined in and gossiped about Bi-Ga. After some time, Ji-Byeok seemed to have gotten her fill of gossiping about her cousin, enough that she stopped and headed to the gym again. Ji-Cheok realized that the cousins shared a love-hate relationship.

In any case, he didn’t expect that he would get this lucky out of the blue, and before he knew it, he was also reciting the prayers of Jungbi Company’s shareholders. He wanted to sell at the peak, but he just didn’t know when that was going to be. The dividends alone were big enough, so he thought about just keeping the shares.

“Anyway, I think I’ve gathered all the titles from the dungeon… When was the raid scheduled by Jungjin?”

?There is a meeting about it in three days, and the raid is scheduled on the day after.?

‘It’s so comfortable being affiliated with a large company. If I had to schedule it alone, I would have to spend so much time going around the government offices and calling other companies to schedule. It’s so convenient that I don’t have to do all that. I guess that’s why choosing an agent is important for celebrities.’

“He said we were clearing a dungeon once a week, but it’s not fixed on the calendar. Other teammates would have to recover their mana and prepare other stuff… I guess it’s another fork in the road then.”

?Yes, Master. There is no correct way, starting from here. You must select your own path.?

‘I know. There is no one that can match my pace in Korea, anyway.’

“Can you give me some information about dungeons?”

?Gladly, Master.?

Fling~

Virtual screens with something that resembled Internet windows appeared in front of Ji-Cheok, and all information on dungeons was displayed on the screens. It was like an algorithm of information about various dungeons. Ji-Cheok was thinking of which dungeons were realistic for him to enter.

“Then, let’s try that.”

?What are you talking about, Master??

“Let’s try to find any information on the [Heart of the Lowest-level Demon] and the [Tears of Fairy]. Even if they don’t sell them at the Likes shop, there has to be some information on where I can obtain these two. We found information about dungeon annihilation like that, didn’t we?”

‘Since we have time, let’s try and finish this damn [Let’s grow the World Tree!] quest. I need those two things, but I have no idea where or how to get them. I couldn’t even find them in auctions. So since we have enough Likes, let’s try to find information on where to get them.’

?That is a good idea, Master. I will do that. Searching… I found it, Master!?

“Really? Come on, show me.”

[How_to_get_the_Heart_of_a_Demon.hwp — 100,000 Likes.]

[How_to_get_the_Tears_of_a_Fairy.hwp — 100,000 Likes.]

‘Why are they all in?.hwp? Are they government documents? But before that…’

“...100,000 Likes? Why are they so expensive?”

‘Anything costs more than 100,000 Likes these days. They should be ashamed of themselves for selling them this expensive.’

?The Likes Shop is just doing good business, Master. They know their supply and demand.?

‘These damn bastards. I knew this was going to happen.’

“Well… What can I do? Let’s just purchase them.”

Ji-Cheok used his Likes to purchase the information files and opened them.

[How_to_get_the_Heart_of_a_Demon.hwp]

[The Heart of a Demon can be obtained by killing a demon and making a trade. ?(*ˊ?ˋ*)? The reason you need to make a deal after killing a demon is that if you try to trade before that, the Demon is going to think you are a pushover! It is recommended to trade after having a fight with the Demon for a cheaper price. The most effective way is to threaten it with a permanent seal skill! You have to be careful, because you cannot get it just by killing the Demon. However, in order to obtain the Heart of the Demon, you have to encounter it. And that method is described in [How_to_Encounter_a_Demon.hwp]~ (*?????)?*.?

Shortcut → Click!]

“I’m gonna freaking kill you!!!”

1. The raws mention Nolbu, a greedy character in a Korean folktale. Mr. Krabs is the greediest character we could think of.

2. .hwp is the Hangul Word Processor file extension. It is exclusively used in Korea, but Korean companies that do business with foreign countries tend to use Microsoft/Apple products.