Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 243

‘I’m sure they are strong enough to take care of five Cyclops. No matter how strong he thinks he is, that warlord or whatever is not even a God, and he can’t defeat all of the Hunters attacking him. Even if he was a God, he’d only be an imperfect God like [Slow Forest Shade], so the Hunters might still have a chance of killing him, just like it happened in our case.’

Overall, the American Hunters were doing an outstanding job of pushing back against the five Cyclops. And once the first Cyclops went down, the others also followed one by one.

It seemed like Ji-Cheok did not need to help the Hunters, so he just stood by.

And eventually, when the last Cyclops went down, he pumped his fist in the air.

‘Good! We did it!’

?Congratulations, Master!?

‘Thanks, Cheok-Liang. You did a good job, too.’

?There is a request for a communication line from Ji-Han.?

‘Okay, connect me.’

—You did it, after all, Ji-Cheok.

“Thanks, it went better than I thought.”

He had spent two hundred million Likes, but that didn’t matter. Ji-Han had told Ji-Cheok that he had seen many futures and failed to stop those one-eyed giants in each one of them, but Ji-Cheok had done it.

—Well done. You have successfully postponed the end of the world.

“Haha! Praise from Ji-Han, that’s rare! But it still feels good.”

—It is more like admiration than praise. You deserve it. Take pride.

“I will save your admiration for later after we have built a proper dimensional barrier. Can we leave the negotiations for the loot and such to the Americans?”

—Of course.

“Okay, I’ll leave the rest to you then.”

—Okay.

The call was disconnected. In the meantime, people down below were dealing with the aftermath of Ji-Cheok’s attack.

‘So now… What do I need to do…’

?You should take a break, Master.?

‘Yeah, you’re right. Shall we head back? I think Mu-Cheok is waiting for us.’

Leaving America behind, they crossed through space.

? ? ?

[HAHA!]

If there was such a thing as a stereotypical Hollywood laugh, this was definitely it. It was a laugh that sounded as if it was written in the Comic Sans font.

The Titan, who had inherited the blood of the Titan Gods through his skills, laughed as he used his recently acquired skill, Primordial Regression. This skill basically allowed one to return to the form of the ancients—for a brief span of time, one could become a mythical being.

In other words, the Titan had truly become one of the actual Titans.

Thud!

Warlord Kikkul, who was tens of meters tall, raised his greatsword and struck the ground.

The earth cracked, as if there was an earthquake. The ground split apart, and stone spears, each as large as a building, rose from the ground. The massive might of this attack, only by itself, was capable of killing dozens and injuring hundreds.

However, the Titan facing him did not even flinch.

Boom!

He had used [Primordial Regression] to become as huge as Warlord Kikkul, and his body glowed in a titanium-like black color.

His entire body was metalized, and with his enormous size, he could temporarily borrow the immense strength, stamina, and mythical magic power of his ancestors.

The Titan charged, smashing through the stone spears. All of his attacks were bare-handed! His usual style of battle was taking down his opponents with overwhelming strength and toughness.

He then activated another skill, [Increasingly Faster Punch]. The name sounded downright childish, but simple though it was, the skill was incredible. The more he punched, the faster his punches got!

His superhuman physical abilities allowed him to punch at an incredible speed, and now he had reached the speed of a machine gun!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Bo-bo-bo-bo-boom!

Metal clashed against metal in a tremendous storm of fists! Every inch of Kikkul’s body exploded, his flesh popping and his blood splattering everywhere. As he was already exhausted from being pummeled by the attacks of over a thousand Hunters, even his immense endurance failed him.

Staggering backward, Kikkul crashed to the ground. The sheer force of the impact caused the buildings around him to collapse.

[Evil perishes, Justice prevails!]

This was the man who, not too long ago, was screaming at the top of his lungs that he did not want to die and that he wasn’t going to do anything about the Cyclops. The very same Titan was now pretending to be as cool as ever.

Adam Brown, one of the biggest names in the raid, could not help but laugh at the sight.

“That asshole has no shame. Don’t you think so, Alfred?”

“My name is Oswald, Young Master. And the Titan may be a little childish, but his skills are still incredibly strong.”

“That’s true, but he’s not stronger than Ji-Cheok. I didn’t know he was capable of such a thing… Now it’s even harder to recruit him.”

From the distance, hundreds of Hunters were supporting the Titan battling the Cyclops. Hundreds of curses and debuffs wrapped around Kikkul’s body as the Titan’s heavy punches continue to land.

Finally, the Titan grabbed Kikkul by the throat, twisted his neck, and ripped his head off. His savageness did not belie his ancient warrior heritage.

“That maniac.?Tsk, tsk. Oswald, make sure we get the loot.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“And I think I should take what Ji-Cheok said a little more seriously… A dimensional barrier…”

That day, when Ji-Cheok had come to visit him, they had not just talked about defeating the Cyclops.

Ji-Cheok had a vision—a vision to build a dimensional barrier to save the world. The Scale of Truth ensured that Ji-Cheok was not lying. However, whether it was true or not, and whether building the dimensional barrier was possible or not, were two very different problems.

Ji-Cheok said he needed about eight hundred billion dollars. That was not a lot, considering this would essentially save the world. The United States’ annual defense budget alone was close to that. This meant that, in theory, A/B’s country could build the dimensional barrier alone. In theory.

And now, Ji-Cheok was in the United States, doing things that not even the most powerful Americans could not dare to do.

“A magical attack from the Earth’s orbit! Who would have thought of that, huh? And it’s not just about killing those monsters, is it? I mean, the human race is not at a war with each other, but… it’s definitely possible now.”

When the Gate Incident happened, when the first dungeon portals appeared and the world was horrified at what came out of them, humanity lost billions of people to monsters. Not that bullets did not work on low-level monsters, but when the monsters simply outnumbered the bullets…it was a different story.

Thus, wars between humans had ceased by the end of the ordeal. They were busy defending their home against the monsters, after all. After countless sacrifices and countless tragedies, the world had finally stabilized.

“I understand where you are coming from, but I do not think there will be any wars between humans in the future,” Oswald said.

“You may be right, but the problem is the deterrent factor called Um Ji-Cheok. The question is whether a country would tolerate a guy like that with as much destructive power as a nuclear weapon. There are plenty of people out there who don’t want a powerful guy like that running around. Even if the end of the world is just around the corner.”

“You mean… an organization like the Golden Horizon might feel threatened by Ji-Cheok? If so, what would you do, Young Master?”

“Hm… To be honest, I was originally thinking of joining forces with Bi-Ga and becoming a Prepper… But now, I am thinking of switching to the world-saving plan.”

“I will call the Blind Prophetess, Young Master.”

“Thanks, Alfred.”

“My name is Oswald.”

Toward the end of their comedic skit, people were clinging to the carcasses of the one-eyed giants. It was like a swarm of ants dismantling a grasshopper after a successful hunt.

? ? ?

As Ji-Cheok was heading home, his other team members were struggling in a dungeon far away.

[I… cannot… believe there are… still humans… like you…!!]

Ji-Byeok, the iron shield of the team, was sweating and struggling to block the fierce and powerful attacks of their enemies.

A red-skinned giant, about five meters tall, was in front of her. It had two wings and four horns growing out of its head. It had the legs of a mountain goat, and it had four arms, each holding a different weapon. It was not just any monster, but a Demon, an evil race of intelligent beings that enjoyed torturing their enemies.

Its four arms moved its weapons around at breakneck speed, but it wasn’t attacking anyone. Instead, it was frantically moving its arms to block the arrows of light coming from behind Ji-Byeok.

Cling! Clang!

The arrows of light all dissipated. However, that was not the end of it.

Whoosh!

Boom!

[ARGH!!!]

The Demon’s chest was blasted apart by a massive explosion. Its ribcage collapsed and demonic blood dripped down.

“After I kill that bastard, I’m gonna go ahead and kill Ji-Han!

Mu-Cheok’s unique weapon, which had transformed into a large anti-materiel sniper rifle, fired a string of what could only be called ‘artillery shells’ rather than bullets.

Boom! Boom!

[I curse thee!!]

“Oh, apostle of the great cow!”

As the Demon unleashed a powerful curse, Seong Kwang drove it away with his divine light.

Ji-Byeok, Ha-Na, Mu-Cheok, and Seong Kwang had entered a secret dungeon still unknown to mankind. Of course, they had been ordered to come here by Ji-Han!

[How could this be?!]

The demonic weapons were destroyed all at once, and their pieces scattered in the wind.

“Die!” Mu-Cheok shouted.

A thunderbolt from his rifle pierced the Demon’s forehead.

[ARGH!!!]

The Demon screamed.

Meanwhile, the palm of nearby Ji-Byeok struck the Demon right in the gut. The Demon instantly bent down in pain, clutching his stomach and spitting out blood. It sounded like a water pouch spilling everywhere.

On cue, Ha-Na’s arrows flew in from above, exploding instantly as they reached the Demon. This time, the attacks were too powerful for the Demon to block—with this final strike, it collapsed into a puff of smoke and scattered.

The four of them had cleared the dungeon called the [Demon Palace]!

“Ugh… I’m about to die myself. Ji-Byeok, Ha-Na, let’s get some rest, please!” Mu-Cheok shouted as he collapsed on the ground.

Ji-Byeok smiled at his childish behavior, and Ha-Na just nodded as she sat down next to the sprawled-out Mu-Cheok. Ji-Byeok did the same.

Seong Kwang moved between them and began tending to their injuries. This just showed how much they had worked together.

Ha-Na turned on GodTube.

“It looks like Ji-Cheok had started his operation.”

“Wow… I can’t believe he’s doing that. When I heard his plan, I thought he was crazy,” Mu-Cheok said.

“Brother Ji-Cheok always does what he says.”

“That’s amazing. I can feel how much effort he had put into his operation.”

The video of the spiral spears plummeting through the atmosphere and devastating the Cyclops stronghold was playing on GodTube.