Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 148

‘If that’s here… This place would be like the?■■…’

[[Despair] looks down upon you.]

‘Ah, now I understand. This is the?■■. After the Tutorial, the world is going to change like this. But why can’t I think of that word?’

Ji-Cheok scratched his head. He couldn’t conjure that word in his mind.

‘If I hadn’t been mentally prepared, I would have gone crazy by now.’

[[Small Despairs] are watching you.]

Suddenly, the mushrooms that had taken control of the humans in front of him made the bodies move by trembling. They moved toward Ji-Cheok. No… rather than running toward him, it seemed like they were running away from something. The monsters flying in the sky also started running away in one direction. Before long, Ji-Cheok could see what they were running away from.

It was the darkness. The black horizon approached from far away. As if the sun was setting and the night was creeping in, it approached and devoured everything it touched. It was moving slowly but steadily. This alone made it difficult for Ji-Cheok to maintain his sanity, no matter how much protection he had against negative mental influences.

‘Could this be our fu-■?’

He remembered parts of the ‘word’. He got goosebumps and his hair stood on end. The feeling that something terrible would happen if he touched that darkness crept into his head.

‘What the hell is that? What is it?’

As if it was erasing everything… It was far away, but he could still see it. The monsters that touched the darkness screamed and shattered into pieces without a trace. Everything disappeared and soon, there was nothing left in its path.

He finally remembered the word ‘■■’.

‘So this is going to be our… No! I can’t say it out loud!’

He could hear his voice inside his head. At that moment, Ji-Cheok called out his shield.

‘Summon [Guardian of Hope]!”

[You have failed to summon your skill.]

‘Why?’?

He suddenly understood why.

[Function: It will not be destroyed unless your morale is broken.]

‘Is my morale broken? It’s broken just from seeing the Namsan Tower and the surroundings turn into hell…’

“Again, summon [Guardian of Hope]!”

[You have failed to summon your skill.]

Consciously, he wanted to deny it, but in his subconscious, he really seemed to have lost hope.

Some things became irreversible just by acknowledging them. The moment his [Minor Intuition] had told him that this wasn't just an illusion, Ji-Cheok had lost the ability to summon his shield.

‘Okay, it’s all because of the word ‘■■’ that I almost spat out. The moment I think of this word, it really seems to be our scheduled future.’

“Stop being delusional!” Ji-Cheok yelled at himself.

‘I’m sure of it. The world I’m seeing right now could never be the ■■ of our world. This is just an illusion!’

Ji-Cheok believed that this was just an illusion of the God called [Despair].

‘I know I’m right. This can never be our ■■. Because the ■■ cannot be decided. Whatever my gut tells me, this is just [Despair] tricking me.’

“Summon [Guardian of Hope]!”

A shield the size of a door was about to appear, but then disappeared again.

[You have failed to summon your skill.]

“Please… Please kill me…. Kill... Me…”

[[Small Despairs] are begging you.]

This was not their ■■. It couldn’t be their ■■. Nothing could determine the outcome of this world. Ji-Cheok bit on his tongue.

“Ha…Hahaha…”

He took out potions and poured it on people. He used his Blessing Potions and Buff Potions, but nothing seemed to have any effect on them.

“AHH!! It hurts! It hurts!!”

Rather, it only exacerbated the pain.

[[Small Despairs] are begging you to kill them.]

Ji-Cheok realized that he couldn't do anything on his own

[[Small Despairs] are begging you to kill them.]

“This is not the ■■?of humanity. It is definitely not my ■■.”

Ji-Cheok wondered if the best thing he could do for them was putting them out of misery by using his strongest attack skills. If he used Sword Qi and Sword Threads, he could erase their existence without them feeling pain. That would make them feel better.

That thought brought a lump in his throat. It was a mix of anger and pity.

‘Do I have to kill these people that are suffering from the monsters?’

If this was a test of [Despair], he knew what he had to do.

Tsssss.

He let his Sword Qi form blades, as long as he could manage. With the full weight of his emotions behind his sword, he slashed forward.

“Kieeeek!!”

The Sword Qi did not cut the [Small Despairs]. It passed by the [Small Despairs] and cut off the tentacles of that bizarre something. The bizarre something?screamed in pain. The monster's ominous-looking black-green blood poured out in all directions, letting out acrid smoke, and the people caught in its tentacles fell onto the ground. It was like a pandemonium. The people—no, the [Small Despairs] started crying.

[[Small Despairs] are disappointed in you.]

The System didn’t even recognize them as human. It labeled them as [Small Despairs]. They had already lost their human form, and Ji-Cheok wondered how they were still alive.

[[Small Despairs] are curious as to why you didn’t kill them.]

[[Small Despairs] are yearning for death.]

[[Small Despairs] want you to kill them.]

[[Small Despairs]......]

“Wait! I didn’t finish what I wanted to do!”

‘Okay, I know I haven’t done anything yet, but I still don’t know this world. Isn’t it funny to despair over how the Namsan Tower changed?’

“Kieeeeoo!!”

The bizarre something?whose tentacles were cut off by the Sword Qi screamed and wiggled.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The ground split open, and something?bigger with tentacles came out.

‘Holy shit! The real thing was on the ground!!’

“Damn it! Summon [Guardian of Hope]!!”

[You have failed to summon your skill.]

The shield still didn’t appear. He knew the answer as to why it didn’t appear.

The ground cracked, and soon the giant monster surfaced completely. It was the size of an apartment block.

‘Ha…. Hahaha. You’re one big bastard, aren’t ya?’

One of the tentacles wriggled and slashed at him at a terrifying speed. Even that one tentacle was as thick as a house. While the [Small Despairs] near him were scrambling to avoid the tentacles, he thought, ‘Wow… even I can’t block that.’

[[Small Despairs] pray for death.]

[[Small Despairs] are hoping you would kill them.]

Peaceful death was the only thing they wanted.

Ji-Cheok activated Monoblade and put all his Qi into them. Following his instinct, he leaped and sliced open the tentacle with his dual swords. His Sword Qi extended the blades to more than five meters.

Time seemed to pass slowly. In the meantime, the Sword Qi dissipated and burned like a sparkling firefly.

Countless remnants of the swords cut the tentacles and dismantled them. As he came to, he managed to protect the [Small Despairs] from the monster.

‘Ha… See? Even in extreme circumstances somehow—’

BOOOOM!!

Ji-Cheok saw a tentacle flying toward them from the side.

‘Was the one from above a feint? Am I going to die like this? I can’t believe it…’

In the midst of this, he called out one last time.

.

“COME OUT [Guardian of Hope]! FOR FUCK’S SAKE, JUST COME OUT!”

His face turned red with anger, but just like the times before, the shield didn’t come out.

Boom!

The huge tentacle hit him, but he didn’t budge. He felt like his whole body was being crushed, but he still stood nailed to the spot and protected the [Small Despairs].

[You have activated Indomitability.]

“Ha… Hahaha….!’

It wasn’t the [Guardian of Hope]. The effect of Indomitability had saved him. He grinned dryly as he watched the tentacle pull back.

‘Ha… Do you think I’m gonna die like this? Eat my Sword Qi!’

Swing! Slice! Slash!

Ji-Cheok cut off the tentacle that was pulling back, then quickly took out a potion from the [Shadow Pouch] and forcibly swallowed it. It felt as if he were being actively shredded into pieces, but he gritted his teeth and endured it.

[[Small Despairs] are wondering why you are not killing them.]

[[Small Despairs] are wondering why you are fighting a fight that you cannot win.]

[[Small Despairs] believe that you cannot win. They recommend that you kill them and kill yourself quickly.]

‘You want me to kill you? And then kill myself?’

Despair came from a cold-blooded perception of reality. The more people acknowledged reality and realized that there was no happy ending, the deeper they sank into despair.

‘Wow… What can I do…’

Tears welled up in his eyes. The fire in his stomach rose up to his throat. Overcoming despair was not a graceful feeling like self-love or liberation. On the contrary, it was deep anger and resentment.

In that sense, Ji-Cheok felt that he was not a good person. He smiled gracefully in front of the camera, but he was just another dog that barked when things didn’t go his way. He let out his anger at the [Small Despairs].

“Don’t be ridiculous! Why should I be the one to kill you guys?”

He screamed loudly at the [Small Despairs].

“If you think this is unfair, you guys should fight with me! You fucking bastards!!!”

[Small Despairs] think…]

“I don’t give a fuck what you bastards think! I’m going to use all my mana to kill that big-ass tentacle blob. So you guys do whatever the fuck you want!”

After letting out his anger, he was now able to say the full word without despairing.

‘■■’

“Don’t fucking call this my future. That’s never gonna be my future.”

The word was crumbling.

The world was crumbling, but Ji-Cheok rejected it, and he rejected that future.?He had a bellyful of anger to let out, and he let it all out on the tentacle monster. His middle finger stood proudly, immediately followed by a number of Qi blades that shredded the tentacles to pieces.

Unfortunately, there were no longer just one or two tentacles. There were dozens, all of them building-sized, all of them moving to crush him.

‘Now I see. Humans are too ignorant to deal with the world after the Tutorial and the monsters that appeared after. And this doesn’t mean death…it means a hell of eternal torment.’

Boom!

While he was thinking, the tentacles smashed the ground in front of him. They moved as if they were performing acrobatic stunts in a circus.

Ji-Cheok ran around like a small bug trying to escape a man’s hand. The tentacles grasped at him, but he kept running and dodging, not forgetting to also cut off a tentacle here and there.

“Kiieeeeaak!”

He kept running, while the monster screamed like the vocalist from a death metal band. The more he ran, the better he became at dodging the tentacles.

‘That’s right! I have the [Heaven Martial Body], you fuckers! I will keep getting stronger each minute!’

“If I’m gonna die like this, I’ll cut off at least one more tentacle of this bastard!”

‘Wait… This is it!’

Hope was never something white and beautiful. When Pandora opened the box, the Hope inside didn’t whisper things like ‘Pandora, don’t be sad. I am Hope. I will help you get through this pain.’ It screamed and shouted things like ‘Do you think I’m going to just let myself die like this in this fucking world?’.

Every time a tentacle hit him, something in his body was broken. Even resisting the wind behind the tentacles swinging at him drained all his stamina. However, Ji-Cheok got up and fought.

And then, he fell down again. And again.

Crack.

“ARGHH! FUCK! FUCKING HELL!”