Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 251

“Come to think of it, Mr. Umji has been doing pretty well lately, though he’s still a bit clumsy from time to time,” Reable said.

“Is that why you are working separately?”

“Of course! I am going to take care of the things Ji-Cheok doesn’t even know about because he and I have a contract, and the stronger he gets, the more restriction is lifted, hehe~”

“So do you mind telling me what the hell you’re doing?”

“Well, I’m preparing an army, so to say. I have gained quite a bit of power, but I don’t think this is enough! The Gods shine the brightest when they are alone, but they are nothing without those who worship and follow their light~”

“Just remember the conditions on your contract.”

“Huhuhuhu. Of course, I am well aware of it~ That’s why I’m here!”

“You’re here because of that?”

“Ah Yes.! That kind of thing is also my specialty. Even the others come to me for help with curses.”

The half-melted monstrosity was incredibly large. It was more than two hundred meters tall and several hundred meters across. The sight of what seemed to be a small mountain of flesh writhing and shifting was absolutely disgusting at best, but Reable smirked nonetheless.

“When the things that had the powers of the Gods died in one hit, the curses that inherently came with that power exploded, shuffled, and formed that shape. Pretty cute, huh?”

“...”

“And they are pretty powerful too. So when they are mixed together like that, you could say that they have the power of a lesser God. However, they can’t think rationally like humans, which is great for an expert like me.”

“An expert?”

“Yes, an expert! I will show you what I can do.”

With that, Reable jumped out of the helicopter. It was a very crazy behavior, but Ji-Han was not surprised. He merely shrugged and glared at Reable’s back.

“Reable… I still don’t know what’s going on inside your brain.”

? ? ?

?Reable has just captured the monstrous creature that appeared in the Manaforming Forest, and then he disappeared.?

“Where was he all this time and then suddenly disappears again?”

?I am not sure, Master. I intercepted his conversation with Ji-Han, and according to that, he is ‘preparing an army.’ I think we should be careful.?

“An army? Wait, what kind of army is he talking about?”

Woong. Click. Woong. Click.

Ji-Cheok took his hands away from the [Um Ji-Cheok’s Universal Production Machine MK4 +8] and turned his gaze to Cheok-Liang. Normally, the fox would have been wrapped around his neck, but right now, Ji-Cheok was doing his own thing, so Cheok-Liang had pulled up a chair next to him and was perched on it.

?It is probably an army of Undead, isn’t it? And he has already got several Undead at his disposal. Also, the stronger you get, the more the restrictions on his power loosen up, according to him. Indeed, the sight of him capturing that monstrosity that had appeared in the North is rather overwhelming.?

“Show me.”

?Yes, Master. This was taken by satellite.?

Cheok-Liang showed him the video. The shadow of the creature grew wider and wider, and countless hands shot out of the shadow. They looked like hands of Darkness Spirits, and the long, tentacle-like arms they were attached to wrapped around the creature. There had to be hundreds of thousands of those arms.

Slowly, bit by bit, the monster was pulled into the shadow. The shadow slowly swallowed it, like a quicksand pit devouring its victim.

It tried to fight back. Fire and lightning ravaged its surroundings, even causing space to split and shuffle, wreaking havoc. However, in the end, it was swallowed up by the shadow and disappeared. Then, the shadow itself disappeared.

“What the hell is that?”

?A Necromancer of the highest order has their own subdimension. It is called Another Plane or Negative Force Plane. It is a place filled with the power of death. I am guessing that it is a power Reable has always had, but… now, the restriction to use it has finally been lifted.?

“That’s crazy… So he just put that monstrosity in the subdimension?”

?Yes, it seems so.?

“Well, if he is that powerful, why does he need an army? He could just pull the monsters he already has out of the subdimension.”

?It is hard to figure out exactly how that works.?

“Well, even I don’t like to show all my hands. I understand.”

?But we should still keep an eye on him. You never know what he is planning with that army of his?

“Well, since he has a contract with me, I will have to find a way to take advantage of him. Anyway, back to business, is this the last one for this installment?”

?Yes, Master. That is it. From now on, you will be using the Philippines as a hub to sell dimensional barrier generators, potions, and other items to India, China, and the entire Southeast Asia.?

“And the items are all +3.”

?Already, the rest of the potion industry is dead or on the verge of dying. Your current daily net profit is over two trillion won.?

‘I can’t believe I am making this much money.’

?This is all after the initial bulk order, Master.?

“Two trillion won a day purely in net profit… Haha… That’s crazy.”

?For reference, the Jungha Group achieved 300 trillion won in sales last year and 160 billion won in daily operating profit, which is about twelve times less compared to you.?

‘Wow, I am already making more money than Korea’s number one chaebol. I do not even have the energy to be surprised anymore.’

?It is only going to increase.?

“You’re right. I’m going to make more money later.”

but Ji-Cheok was planning on selling a lot of things, not only the dimensional barrier generators. Even his production machine, which made items with +3 enhancement as a baseline, was a sellable commodity.

?In the future, you can merge all the corporations in the world to achieve hegemony!?

‘That’s what an evil corporation from a dystopian world would do! I don’t like that, so don’t even suggest that.’

As he mulled over, he beckoned to Cheok-Liang. The little fennec lunged at Ji-Cheok and wrapped around his neck again.

“It seems like we have more and more decisions to make.”

?You are right, Master.?

“I think our strategy of making the Ultra-Small and Small Dimensional Barrier Generators and selling them was a good one. We made money and increased our safe zones. I am not sure how much we blocked the mana concentration from increasing, though…”

?You mean you need data on when exactly the Tutorial ends, and how much was held back??

“Yes. I was thinking about that while I was installing that machine. I think I will be able to plan more reliably if I have that information. At this point, I am thinking I might as well build some mana-burning machines and install them around the world. Hm… I guess I’ll have to find a skill.”

‘Is there a skill that can calculate the end of a Tutorial?’

?I am searching the Likes Shop as we speak. Uh… There is one, Master.?

“There is?”

?Yes, Master. Here, take a look.?

[Earth 8921 — Tutorial Guide]

[A tutorial guide for the Survival System based on dimensional fusion that has started in the Earth 8921 dimension.

This guide is intended exclusively for the Gods.]

‘Wait, it doesn’t show how much it is… huh? Is this free?!’

?Apparently, they send these out by default to all of the Gods. Maybe they did not let you know about it because you became a God pretty recently.?

‘These assholes… I can’t believe they kept this from us.’

“Purchase.”

He swallowed down his anger and purchased the guide.

Most of the information in it was familiar to Ji-Cheok. As the dimensions grew, something called ‘dimensional fusion’ happened to Earth, and with dungeons popping up and turning half of humanity into mashed potatoes, the [Survival System] arrived on Earth. The guide talked about how the Survival System was empowering humanity and prompting the Gods to come visit.

And then, of course, there was this.

[Dimensional fusion completion and Tutorial end time: 12,090 hours.]

?The time has definitely increased. It has increased by about two thousand hours from the time Ji-Han mentioned earlier.?

‘Does that mean what I did wasn’t a waste of time? I’m glad that’s been confirmed.’

?Also, there is this from the guide.?

[Mana concentration value for dimensional fusion: 100,000,000,000.]

[Earth’s mana concentration value: 87,382,431,821.]

‘Wow… so we are basically eighty-seven percent of the way to dimensional fusion.’

?Yes, Master. Dungeons have been in the world for decades. That is why we are not far off.?

‘Maybe we should also think about installing those Mana Ignition Pillars…’

?That would be a wise choice.?

‘Then, I think it’s better for me to produce the Mana Ignition Pillars myself.’

?Where would you put them up??

‘I was thinking about Africa. Manaforming Forest has long since covered the territory, just like North Korea. Let’s go there.’

?Searching for an international convention or equivalent treaty… Nope, you are free to do whatever you want, Master.?

‘Good. Then we will produce the Mana Ignition Pillars using our production facility. And livestream it too.’

?Yes, Master.?

? ? ?

The world was changing at a fast pace.

Even Adam Bronze, who had been living like a king thus far, was running around so hard that he was almost foaming at the mouth. At his side, however, Oswald did not falter for even a fraction of a second. Adam sometimes thought his butler was some kind of monster; the man simply never showed the slightest sign of fatigue. It was almost as if he had been blessed by a God that granted strength to butlers.

Oswald came to Adam’s office and informed him of Ji-Cheok’s livestream.

“Young Master, Mr. Um has begun his livestream.”

.

“Again? Right after he blew up the Manaforming Forest in North Korea?”

Orbital bombardment was a tremendously effective attack against normal enemies, but without magical power, it could not do much damage to monsters beyond a certain point. Unfortunately, it also took a tremendous amount of effort to imbue mass-produced missiles with magical power, and the United States had paid a heavy price for its success.

However, Um Ji-Cheok created giant magical spears for this purpose, and he directly made them rain down from above to kill monsters.

His productivity was also superior. The production capacity of Ji-Cheok’s summoned entity, [Um Ji-Cheok’s Universal Production Machine MK4 +8] was enormous. Furthermore, the items produced by this bizarre machine even came with a +3 enhancement.

“Let’s take a look.”

Oswald turned on the livestream, and the familiar face of Ji-Cheok appeared. This time, he was in a jungle-like area filled with strange plants that did look like Earth.

‘Where the hell did he go?’

?Hello, everyone! Umji, Gumji! This is Um Ji-Cheok! I don’t know if you all enjoyed the video I posted earlier about the North Korean Manaforming Forest cleanup. I couldn’t get to communicate with the viewers on air because of some… government issues.?

“Well, that’s a load of bullshit.”

Adam swore at the livestream in fluent Korean. He was becoming more and more like the average American nerd kid who was gaming on Korean servers.

?So today, I have prepared another piece of content for you~ The monsters have become more vicious lately! There are too many dungeons! Cyclops are appearing on American soil! Many of you might have the same kind of concerns, right??

“It looks like he has gotten used to the internet shopping channel,” Oswald said.

?I made some deals with the Gods and found out something. And it really is?something. Apparently, as the mana concentration on our planet rises, dungeons will open up more often and more abundantly!?

“Wait, wait, what?! What the hell is that bastard trying to accomplish by saying that to the public?!”

Environmental groups had been around for many decades, even before the Gate Incident, and they had always predicted that humanity would destroy the climate. After mana had become the go-to source of energy, some of the same groups had naturally come up with the theory that the use of mana was destroying the planet.

Normal people laughed at this conspiracy theory, but the highest echelons knew very well how much of a ‘conspiracy theory’ it was.

1. The raws say “60 billion won in operating profit last year”, which would mean a 0.002% profit margin.