Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 160

Ji-Cheok cleared the shield made from shadows as he watched Mu-Cheok pick up his dropped pistols. Then, he noticed that the man holding a staff who was with the ranged dealers in the back was preparing to use a skill. It seemed like he was the only one who could defend himself from Reable’s mental attacks.

In the meantime, the two Giant Undead Warriors charged forth. Their target was Jack, the giant warrior standing in front of the group. In turn, Ji-Cheok also charged at the man with the staff.

“Spirit of Clarity!”

As he was running, the man used a skill that nullified Reable’s mental attack. Then, dozens of mana bullets fired by Mu-Cheok rained down on the opponent, who appeared to be some kind of support or a healer. However, the enemies weren’t that easy to deal with. A light barrier appeared around the man, blocking the mana bullets.

Tsssss. Cling!

Unfortunately, the enemy could not stop them all. His shield broke and the bullet was lodged in his body. The staff man collapsed, screaming. Next, the two Undead warriors ran past Jack, in an attempt to attack the enemies at the back.

“ARGHHH!! COME AT ME YO!!!”

‘Man, he must have bought a really cheap translation skill. He should’ve bought a good one. He sounds like he’s from a B-grade Hollywood movie.’

Jack’s roar taunted the Undead Warriors. Their gaze turned to Jack as their arms struck him with eight weapons at once.

Boom!

‘Wow! I can’t believe he blocked that!’

Jack seemed like a very strong tank; he was holding on without backing down even while being hit by the all-out attacks of these two Giant Undead Warriors.

‘I wonder what his level is.’

“Activate [Eye of Insight].”

As Ji-Cheok was running around with his dual swords, he took a look at Jack.

[Jacob Hallen]

[Age: 38

Gender: Male

Level: 87

Occupation: Champion of Draknak

He is one of the ten champions of Draknak, the God of Slaughter. He is at the bottom of the hierarchy, but his power is unquestionable.]

‘A champion? Hmm….Wait, I don’t have time to worry about that. My priority right now is to neutralize my target!’

Ji-Cheok walked past him and charged at the man named Tom, who held a staff.

“Space expansion!”

Tom’s skill was cast before Ji-Cheok got to him.

Just like what Tom said, the distance between him and Ji-Cheok spread about one hundred meters.

‘What? I’m so confused! I didn’t know there was a skill that could do this! But you can’t escape with just this!’

He collected his Qi into his feet and the ground below was blasted apart as his speed increased tremendously. He then used the [Heaven and Earth Warp Steps], an auxiliary skill of the [Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art], to shorten the distance between them.

Ji-Cheok could see that Tom was shocked, but he didn’t give his opponent time to do anything. In the next instant, one of his swords came down on Tom’s shoulder.

Clang!

An invisible and shapeless barrier stopped his sword. His Sword Qi was also blocked, and an explosion occurred as the Sword Qi and the invisible barrier collided.

Boom!

The explosion caused Ji-Cheok to fall back, and his opponent also fell to the ground.

‘Good. The barrier was destroyed by my attack. If I go again now, I can destroy him!’

Ji-Cheok stretched out his Sword Qi.

“Shit!” Tom said.

Tom knew that he couldn’t block the next attack, so he rolled over to avoid it. Ji-Cheok had figured out that his opponent would do that, so he used his next skill.

“Activate [Soul Telekinesis].”

Suddenly, Tom found himself unable to move. One instant later, his arm was sliced off.

“AAARHGGHH!!”

His blood was spewing everywhere and he was screaming in pain.

‘Good. Now that he is neutralized—”

Pew. Pew. Pew.

A bunch of mana bullets struck him. While he was fighting Tom, the enemies in the back had apparently come to their senses, as they were now shooting at Ji-Cheok. Due to the durability of his combat uniform, however, the bullets couldn’t penetrate Ji-Cheok. Instead, they merely left some scratches on his uniform. He felt a dull pain every time he was hit, but it was bearable.

‘Not that you know this, but I have the [Heaven Martial Body], and I even went through something close to a Metamorphosis! Plus I have the [Troll’s Body] and the effect of the [Heaven and Earth Iron Stance]! These mere bullets cannot kill me.”

Ji-Cheok saw the three men changing magazines. As he was about to jump on them, he could see a dark red, wriggling energy flying toward the three men and clinging to them.

“AHHH!!!”

They screamed as they dropped their guns and rolled on the floor. When Ji-Cheok turned around, he saw that Reable had come to his side. Three thick black and red energy tentacles were connected to his hand.

“This is called Life Drain. It sucks life directly out of your enemies. The pain that comes with it is just a bonus! I mean, of course, it’s gonna be painful! It literally feels like somebody's tearing off your flesh. Isn’t it cool?” Reable said.

Ji-Cheok was flabbergasted.

“Fuck! I can’t die like this!”

Jack, who was fighting the Undead warriors, used some kind of high-explosive grenade to try to escape. The explosion made the Undead warriors take a step back; taking advantage of that gap, Jack ran like a horse with its tail on fire.

‘You think you can run aw—”

Boom!

Loud gunfire resounded, and simultaneously, Ji-Cheok saw a flash of light pierce through Jack’s thigh.

“ARGH!!”

He lost balance and fell over. The merciless Giant Undead Warriors approached him and struck down with their maces.

Boom!

They hit him with one arm after another. They hit him with their maces, spears, and swords, until he no longer moved.

“Oh, oh…!! So many high-quality corpses! Today is my lucky day~ So it’s okay to kill guys like this, right? That’s what’s written in the contract,” Reable said.

“Uh… yeah… sure… that sounds about right.”

Reable stared at Ji-Cheok, and for some reason, he stroked Ji-Cheok’s hair.

“I can’t believe you managed to grow like this with that level of ability. You might have some talent.”

Ji-Cheok had no idea what he was talking about.

‘I thought my abilities were overpowered…’

?I did not even get the chance to help you, Master. You did really well.?

‘Thanks… I think I just started a formidable party.’

All three of them were mainly damage dealers, but they all had abilities of tanks and healers as their secondary skills. Just as he was thinking about how powerful they were…

“Sa… Save me…. Ah!!”

Suddenly, a corpse rose from the dead and tore off the throat of the teammates next to him. It all happened incredibly fast. Within mere moments, the only survivor was the man named Tom, who was left alone at a distance, shivering, with his arm severed.

“That… That’s impossible! What kind of skill is that…?”

Ji-Cheok looked at him with the [Eye of Insight] and found out that this man was also quite strong.

[Tommy Jefferson]

[Age: 40

Gender: Male

Level: 84

Occupation: Eye of Zenachi

A Hunter selected as the Eye of Zenachi, the God of Change. The God of Change gave him strength to observe the world in more detail, and chose him to make a contract with.]

An assassin that was over level 80. And he had Hunters with mana guns to support him. Come to think of it, there had been people like this before. However, these guys were much stronger than the Hunters who had tried to assassinate Ji-Cheok before.

‘Are they hired by pharmaceutical companies whose stock price is plummeting thanks to the potions I am selling at half of their price? Or are they mercenaries hired by whatever conglomerates attacked me in the past?’

“What a harvest~ They’re going to be a great addition to my corpse collection~”

“Wait,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Huh? Why?”

Reable looked at him with his black eyes. It was as if he was saying ‘Are you hesitant about killing people? After all that?’

“I want to find out who the hell is trying to kill me,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Oh, please leave that to me. I have just the ability for that.”

Ji-Cheok thought about it for a while.

“Okay, please find out for me.”

“Your wish is my command.”

Reable bowed like a skilled butler and the corpses approached Tom. The corpses were the bodies of Ji-Cheok’s wannabe assassins.

“Go… Go away!!”

He used his mana to resist, but he wasn’t casting any proper skill and mana alone was certainly not enough to make the Undead retreat. Before long, he was bitten to death by his own Undead teammates.

“...”

“I thought he’d be scared, but seeing that he didn’t look away even as he was getting eaten by his teammates, he’s got some balls,” Reable said.

“Hyung, are you okay?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“...I’m okay, how about you?”

“I’m fine…”

Where in the world would anyone enjoy watching people get eaten by the Undead?

“I made up my mind. I am not going to sympathize with those who try to kill me. That’s it,” Ji-Cheok said calmly.

‘I’m not that big of a person to treat everyone in the world with kindness, equality, and fraternity. I expected that the pharmaceutical companies would not leave me alone as I produced high-quality, low-price potions. They would be able to continue with their monopoly if I was out of the equation. But if they want me out…they also must be prepared to die. It’s a very simple rule.’

“I’ve seen things like this many times when I was a Hunter Assistant. Forget about me, why are you?ok?” Ji-Cheok said.

“Well, it doesn’t really shock me. I can’t say I sympathize with them that much, either. Am I weird?” Mu-Cheok said.

‘He seems to take this surprisingly well. Is that a good thing? Let’s just say it’s a good thing. The world is already tough enough, and it’s going to get even tougher in the future.’

They dealt with the assassins and headed to the depths of the dungeon. It was time to deal with the boss monster.

* * *

They killed the boss monster and came out to their world with the rewards. The corpses were disposed of by Reable, leaving no traces. There was no special reward for clearing the dungeon, nor any message about Gods watching. Mu-Cheok’s level had gone up by 9, and Reable also said that he had regained a little bit of his strength.

The reason why Mu-Cheok’s level had risen so much was simple: they had just killed a number of high-level Hunters. In fact, there were criminals who killed Hunters solely for this reason. There were times when killing a higher-level Hunter was easier than dealing with monsters. Human necks were much thinner and easier to cut.

They finished everything and left the dungeon. When they came out, Ji-Cheok wanted to look for the government official that had been bribed, but it seemed like he had told the Hunter Assistant team to take care of the cleanup and went back to wherever he came from.

‘I guess that’s for the best.’

They had already dealt with the corpses, so there was no need to go through troublesome things like protocols and interrogations. Now, only the employer of the assassins would have to ponder whether these bastards had died during the assassination attempt or had run away with the money.

“I guess this really isn’t the first time seeing this kind of thing for you, hyung,” Mu-Cheok said.

“Yeah, I saw things like this when I was working as a Hunter Assistant.”

The Hunter Assistants had to wait until the Hunters cleared the dungeon in order to enter and collect the loot. Because of this, no matter the circumstances, Hunter Assistants had to wait for the Hunters to come out. The government officials would thus leave the behind-the-scenes dirty work to the Hunter Assistants, while they would go back to their offices.

This was possible because the only practical reason for the government officials to be on the scene was to control who went into the dungeon. Of course, technically, they were not supposed to leave things unsupervised, but….

“Even though the world is about to end soon, everyone is living so carefreely~” Reable said as he climbed into the van provided by the assistant team.

“They’re not carefree. There are many people who work hard,” Ji-Cheok said.

He sent a message to Ji-Han about what happened today.

“I don’t know~ Looking at each individual, that might be true. But if you look at the big frame of the human species, I can say that they’re living carefreely~ It won’t be long before the end of the Tutorial. If they continue like this, the destruction of the world is imminent, but they aren’t doing anything to stop that from happening,” Reable said as he shrugged.

‘Tutorial… Well, he said it first. Since Ji-Han can’t tell me anything, I’m going to take some time to ask him about it.’

Ji-Cheok sat in his seat and looked at Reable. It was easy to do that, as the back seats of the van were designed to face each other.

“Can you tell me about the Tutorial?”