Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 210

“You know how to save the people in the Tama Clan, right?”

Reable’s smile deepened at Ji-Cheok’s words.

‘Of course this asshole would know.’

“Of course I know. But… it is not as perfect as you think it is. There are different solutions to this problem, just like how you can make both curry and tonkatsu from the same piece of pork.”

‘Why is he comparing it to curry and pork cutlets?’

“But I can’t tell you for free~” Reable said.

“But you have a contract with me.”

“Oh, of course, I signed the contract, but our contract was about protecting people, right? To keep people alive, to keep them from dying—isn’t that what protection means? But look, the people here are already living well!” Reable said, stretching his arms in an exaggerated motion to amplify his words.

“Isn’t it awesome as heck? I love this kind of stuff. People asking to die as humans because they want to preserve their innocence… Wow! I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time. I am sure it wasn’t intentional, but the Twisted God is a pretty good Creator. Mmmm. It’s really great,” Reable said.

‘Is this how Gods think? Are these the Gods that are watching me and giving me Likes? Ha… I knew he wasn’t sane, but I had no idea he was this crazy…’

Reable smirked, as if he had read Ji-Cheok’s thoughts.

“It’s a matter of perspective, Mr. Umji. Even if they subsist in an environment you don’t like, they are still alive nevertheless. Don’t you think it is like a birth story? You know, where they say you don’t get to choose your parents.”

His perspective was horribly inhuman, and Ji-Cheok was at a loss for words.

“In any case, you must acknowledge that this is not on our contract, so it is not free,” Reable said.

“Sigh.?Fine, so what is the price?”

“Well… Before telling you what I want… Hm… Okay. If you answer my question, I will answer yours.”

‘I wonder what he is asking for… But, as long as it is not a burden on me, I’m okay with it.’

“What is your question?”

“Why do you even bother saving them? We’ve already taken care of the Cultists and the Cannibals. We just need to find the dungeon Core and destroy it. We would be done with everything, and isn’t that literally what they want? It’s a perfect death. So…why bother?”

“It doesn’t look good on my video. Don’t you know that people hate bad endings?”

“What.”

“It’s the same with sad endings. If it’s not a happy ending, people won’t like it. So I am going to save them, make a nice video of it, and gather a bunch of Likes.”

Having stared incredulously at Ji-Cheok as he was speaking, Reable now started to laugh hysterically.

“Hahahaha! That’s amazing! Your answer brings tears to my eyes! Hahahaha!”

‘You think it’s funny? I’m being serious.’

“Ha… I’m sure it would be very popular with the Gods if this kinda shit worked, because even in the world the Gods live in, things like this rarely end well. Anyway, a promise is a promise, so let me explain the methods I know. First, you can pull their souls out and put them in other bodies. We call this body-transfer. That by itself can fully break their ties to the dungeon.”

‘Body-transfer you say…’

“There are a bunch of ways to make new bodies, such as the Homunculus… Of course, you would have to be pretty good as an Alchemist to create a… human. But I’m sure you can do it on your first try, right?”

Reable gestured as if he remembered something.

“Oh yes! There are also a bunch of side effects. Their physical skills will be reset to zero, and they will still be able to level up, but their power will be weakened and they will lose their self-certainty!”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“They would have self-doubting contemplations like ‘Am I the real me?’, ‘Am I my real soul in a fake body?’, or ‘Am I a fake soul with a complete copy of my memories in my real body?’. It is one of the side effects of body-transfer magic. It is going to scar their soul, so they will certainly experience subtle discomfort.”

‘A scarred soul leads to lack of certainty… Is this what he is saying?’

“In any case, I heard there are no side effects if someone like a God uses a resurrection-type ability like this. However, as a mere mortal, you have to pay a considerable price, so this is not a good option for you. Even someone like you, Mr. Umji, cannot resurrect all of them like this.”

“I guess you are right.”

The number of people in the Tama Clan was quite large. He probably could save one or two people, but even with his current number of Likes, he could not say all of them.

“Now on to the second method! You can change their affiliation!”

“You mean Taming?”

“Bingo! Since you got the answer right, do you want me to stroke you like a pet?”

“Some pets do not like being petted. Anyway, since they are currently monsters as far as the System is concerned, are you saying that we should change their affiliation through Taming and take them out of the dungeon?”

“That’s right~ If that happens, even if the dungeon is destroyed, they don’t die with it. But this also has downsides. You know there is a limit to the number of Taming in the System, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

Summoned beings and tamed monsters were different. Summoned beings continuously consumed mana, but tamed monsters were more independent after having been tamed. They just needed to be properly fed.

This skill could be considered overpowered at a first glance, but it also had a glaring weakness—there was a hard cap on the number of monsters that a single person could tame. Ji-Cheok had seen Summoners who maintained dozens of summoned beings, but he had never even heard of a Tamer who tamed dozens of monsters. It was probably like a balance patch that was enforced by the System.

“Another way would be… to make them belong to another God. This is like a practical application of the second method of changing affiliation. However, those people have already rejected the God here, so I don’t know if this will be a good method. Besides, they have to find a separate God that would accept them. Technically, they could simply disconnect from this dungeon… But I don't know if that is possible in practice.”

“This is very hard.”

“Of course, it is hard! It’s a very difficult thing. Oh, oh, do you want me to make them into my Undead? I think I can make them into something like Death Knights or Liches. Ah! No, both of those are a bit of a problem sensory-wise, so how about Vampires? Vampires have the same senses as humans, plus they can withstand sunlight if they are trained, and they can control their vampiric urges!”

‘Dismissed.’

“That’s like taming or summoning them, except they also end up dead.”

Reable smirked at Ji-Cheok’s comment.

“Mr. Umji, you need to get one thing straight,” he said, with a rare look of seriousness on his face. “These people are already dead. They are well and truly dead, and they have been dead for a long time. Don’t mistake talking, laughing, getting angry, and having conversations for being alive. Haven’t you heard of the myth of Orpheus, who went to Hades to revive his already dead wife?”

When Orpheus’s beloved wife Eurydice died, he traveled to the realm of the dead, ruled by Hades, to bring her back to life. Those who heard his song shed tears and moved out of the way, and even Hades was persuaded by Orpheus’s song and agreed to release Eurydice. However, the condition was that he was to never look back until leaving the underworld. If he looked back, Eurydice couldn’t get out of the underworld forever.

And tragically, Orpheus was right at the door when his anxiety and curiosity got the better of him and he looked back. As a result, Eurydice fell back into the underworld, and the two were forever separated.

It was a tragic story, but it was also an anecdote about how hard it was to deal with the dead.

Reable was now smiling again as if nothing had ever happened, but…

‘They are already dead…’

His words lingered in Ji-Cheok’s mind.

* * *

Since Ji-Cheok had used a lot of mana, he returned to the base camp, the cave that they had dug at the foot of the rocky mountain. He checked the remaining mana potions and realized that he had used about half of what he had brought with him.

His Shadow Pouch had a massive capacity, but it was not infinite, so he decided to conserve his potions for the time being. He took out his World Tree and began to recover his Qi and mana naturally, by controlling his breath.

At the same time, he was thinking of a plan. Now that the two biggest threats in this dungeon had been taken care of, the dungeon had been cleared. Because of that, Ji-Cheok could now focus on thinking of a way to save the Tama people.

‘But I can’t think of any good ideas… I wish I had more time… Ah!’

“Training Space of the God of War.”

The surroundings changed and he realized he was in the [Training Space of the God of War].

‘I’ve never used this inside a dungeon, but I guess it works! Haha. This could be quite useful. I can just escape to this place when I’m in danger. I can even use potions and stuff inside here. I can only use this once a day, but if I ever have to get out of a crisis…hehe.’

In the middle of the Training Space of the God of War, Ji-Cheok sat cross-legged and looked around.

And then it hit him.

‘Uh, wait a second. God of War… Sword… Heart Sword… Hm… This is it. I think this should work.’

“Open Likes Shop.”

He opened the shop. He checked out the Grace Shop. He saw a list of Gods from whom he could buy Graces, and soon found the ones that he was looking for.

[God of War]

[God of Spirits]

Even their names were written differently from other Gods. They didn’t have any modifiers. They were nothing more than titles, but the way they were written meant that their owners were powerful beings.

Among the Graces of the [God of War], Ji-Cheok immediately found the one that he was looking for.

[Teaching of the God of War]

This was it! Something that could only be used with the Statue of the God of War: a one-time lesson from the God of War himself! He found this in the Grace Shop! It cost a ridiculous five million Likes, but he needed it right now. If he was right, this could be the answer to his current plight.

“Purchase the Teaching of the God of War!”

A light exploded in front of him and a man appeared from the light, sporting the exact same appearance as last time. He was still wearing the same three-stripe sweatpants and slippers, with a black short-sleeved shirt. In addition, this time he had tied his long hair into a ponytail that only served to highlight his handsome face and sturdy build.

The God of War raised his hand as soon as he appeared.

“Oi! Super Rookie GodTuber! I’m benefiting a little from your little performances.”

The God of War actually greeted Ji-Cheok. He had not been expecting such a warm welcome.

“It’s been a long time,” Ji-Cheok said.

“It hasn’t been that long for me. By the way, even with the System’s help, I didn’t really expect that you would become such a warrior in such a short period of time.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, I thought you would rely more on your cheap tricks. I didn’t expect you to have this much perseverance. Thanks to you, I’m making a name for myself these days.”

“Is it because of my GodTube channel dedicated to Gods?”

“That is correct.”

Ji-Cheok’s channel dedicated to Gods now had subscribers in the thousands. Thanks to that, he received a mind-numbing number of Likes all day.

And he was currently using cultivation as his main ability. He didn’t just use the System skills as they were, but he also practiced the techniques in-depth and had already defeated powerful enemies with them. He was one of the very few people in the world who could do that.

“But that doesn’t mean I am satisfied with your level.”

1. This is transliterated from English and, as those of you who have watched the anime will be able to tell, this part is a reference to Fullmetal Alchemist, in particular Brotherhood.