Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 44

In the meantime, Ji-Han was having a hard time dealing with his siblings.

‘We just cleared the dungeon that was considered impossible to clear,’ Ji-Han thought.

A dungeon that no one in Korea in level 20 could break was cleared by the team he belonged to. This was a huge deal, especially since a Dungeon Expansion had occurred. It was definitely going to be on the news tomorrow. Ji-Han managed to silence his employees, but when the medical staff and the limousine were present, he knew that the rumors could not be stopped.

‘They are just anxious about who is Grandpa's favorite child, and who is going to take over Jungha Group.’

Ji-Han could manage phone calls from his other siblings. They were calling Ji-Han just to keep him in check regarding their family’s power dispute. The one phone call he could not deal with was from his sister, Jung Bi-Ga.

“Hey, this is your second Dungeon Expansion already? Wow, you are so lucky~” Bi-Ga said on the phone.

Trying to decipher her sarcastic tone was sometimes harder than clearing dungeons. She wasn’t interested in being an authority figure. The only thing she cared about was finding the truth about the dungeons and the worlds that could be found in other dimensions. Therefore, it was very difficult keeping secrets from her and getting secrets from her.

After finishing the call, Ji-Han buried himself deeply in the car seat and was lost in thought.

‘I guess he found out about my ability.’

Shortly after clearing the dungeon, Ji-Han had realized that Ji-Cheok kept checking his wristwatch and phone watch. Ji-Han knew exactly what that meant.

‘He noticed it sooner than I anticipated.’

Ji-Han had originally thought to start dropping hints about his ability to Ji-Cheok after clearing a few more dungeons. However, Ji-Han hadn’t expected the Dungeon Expansion to happen. Ji-Cheok would never have guessed what Ji-Han’s ability was unless he had to use it, which was exactly what had happened.

Ji-Han swept his chin and looked outside his car window. The limousine bus was completely dark. It seemed like everyone on the bus was sleeping. Ji-Han rubbed his eyes, as he was also tired. However, when he thought about what was going to happen in the future, he realized he didn’t have time to sleep. He pulled up his shirt sleeves and focused on his work again.

* * *

Three days had passed.

“Hyung! Wake up and eat your meal!” Mu-Cheok yelled.

“...Fine,” Ji-Cheok replied.

It was very hard for Ji-Cheok to open his eyes. When he came out of the bedroom, his brother had already set up a feast on the table. In the middle of the table, there were big braised short ribs, grilled fish, and perilla seed taro soup. Various kinds of seasoned dishes, meat and tofu patties, and egg-fried starch sausage were also on the table. On days when Mu-Cheok made a lot of side dishes, he always added those meat patties. All the other dishes were authentic Korean cuisine, except for the meat patties, which already had ketchup spread on them. Mu-Cheok loved his meat patties. It was the one thing he couldn’t forget from his childhood.

“You studied your skills until late at night, didn’t you?” Mu-Cheok asked as he sat in front of Ji-Cheok.

“Yeah… I might pass out,” Ji-Cheok replied.

“You can pass out after you eat. Here, have a sip of the soup. Apparently, perilla seeds are good for your health.”

As Ji-Cheok took a sip of the soup, he could feel the savor of the perilla seeds seeping into his bones.

“I saw that you only ate delivery food while I was away,” Mu-Cheok said.

“I mean I’m just by myself, and I’m too lazy to clean up after I cook. Also, I know I’m going to make a big mess, so why bother?” Ji-CHeok replied.

“I knew it. If this keeps on happening, you are going to have a hard time later in life. You have to take good care of yourself.”

Instead of replying to his brother’s comments, Ji-Cheok aggressively chomped on the braised short ribs. Mu-Cheok laughed quietly, perhaps satisfied with the outcome.

“Eat up, hyung.”

Ji-Cheok grabbed his chopsticks with one hand and turned the TV on with the other. There was a news piece regarding their Dungeon Expansion.

“Hey, that’s the clip we uploaded on GodTube,” Mu-Cheok said.

It was showing a video clip of the party members fighting the Shrooms, and at the end there was the part where they drove the truck into the Shrooms, resulting in a bloodbath. The anchor was holding back her laughter while explaining what happened in the video clip.

“Yeah, I was out of my mind back then….” Ji-Cheok said.

“Yeah, your eyes really looked crazy. But… Come to think of it, that was the only way of clearing the dungeon,” Mu-Cheok replied.

The final scene was of the truck piercing through the boss monster like a bullet. Watching the video clip from a third-party point of view was as overwhelming as actually experiencing it. The voice of Ji-Byeok echoed from the TV.

“Ahhhhh! We can do iiiit!”

Ji-Byeok was also out of her mind at the time. Ji-Cheok thought that his crazy eyes had probably corrupted the other party members. He theorized that maybe the craziness was contagious.

「What are your opinions, Expert Lee Hae-Suk? 」The anchor asked the expert.

「I think it was a very meticulous strategy.」

「Meticulous, you say?」

「In that situation, the armored truck had the most physical damage. To use that truck to kill the boss monster is a very unconventional tactic. In addition, the team used their tank to reinforce the truck, used the healer to fortify and buff up the tank, and used their ranged damage dealer to kill any monster in their way. They did all that while driving the shortest distance to the boss monster.」

「And you are saying all of this is calculated. Am I correct?」

「Yes. We have to take into account the fact that the Hunter Assistants’ lives were also at risk. If they were left in the camp, nobody knew how long the protective barrier would have lasted. The safest place for the Hunter Assistants was actually right next to the Hunters,」 the expert said while he straightened his back.

Wow~

The admiring voices could be heard from the panelists. Lee Hae-Suk continued confidently.

「However, from my sources, I understand that only Hunters with rider attributes can learn driving skills, and even then, driving skills require a tremendous amount of points to buy. It is unclear when and where Hunter Um Ji-Cheok gathered those points. If he did gather those points, why didn’t Mr. Um reach level 20 even though he hunted monsters enough to collect those points?」

「Isn’t it possible that a Patron helped him out?」 The anchor asked.

「Hm. I’m also considering the probability that a science-related Patron helped him out. However, there are not many Patrons in the field of science, especially in the field of mechanical engineering, that could afford to give his Agents that many points. I just can’t see that happening.」

「So what you are saying is that there is no good explanation as to how he did it?」

「I’m afraid this is the only explanation I can give at the moment.」

The panelists looked at the expert with disappointed eyes.

「In either case, it’s true that this is the first time ever that any group of Hunters clears this dungeon, and after it underwent a Dungeon Expansion at that! Of course, other media outlets are paying more attention to their strategy.」

「As other experts have already mentioned, I think it was possible because it was a level 20 dungeon.」

「Are you saying there is no room for improvement?」

「There are next to no vehicles that have more power than that Hunter truck, which means that this kind of strategy won’t work in higher-level dungeons. If Hunter Um Ji-Cheok’s team were to clear a higher-level dungeon, I think they would struggle.」

“That so-called expert, he seemed to be praising you in the beginning, but he ended up talking shit about you,” Mu-Cheok said as he was watching TV.

“It's common media propaganda,” Ji-Cheok said.

“I bet you anything that another group of Hunters… No, someone else from Jungha Group had something to do with this.”

“Why? It could be from another company. Wanna bet?” Ji-Cheok said.

“There is no way. I am certain that it is from Jungha Group. Other big companies are not that desperate to meddle in some low-level dungeon clear. Here is an example. If an elementary school student wins a wrestling contest, he is still an elementary school student. The chance of him becoming a professional wrestler is still very low,” Mu-Cheok explained passionately.

Ji-Cheok knew his brother was right. Clearing the dungeon for the first time was considered a great feat, but it was still a level 20 dungeon. The potential to be great was still there, but it wasn’t enough for other companies to intervene. On the other hand, other successors of the Jungha Group might think of this team as an impediment on their way to succession. Especially considering the age of Chairman Jung Man-Deuk, it was natural for his scions to be impatient.

‘I know Mu-Cheok hasn’t been in the Hunter business for long, but he already figured it out.’

Ji-Cheok was not thinking that just because Mu-Cheok was his brother—Mu-Cheok really seemed to have a good sense of Hunter politics besides his combat capabilities. Ji-Cheok also heard from Ji-Byeok that Mu-Cheok had already recruited quite a few Awakened from the training center. It was rumored that Mu-Cheok knew when to give people carrots and when to hit them with the stick, and he had already established a pretty scary presence among his classmates, but Ji-Cheok couldn’t quite believe it. To him, Mu-Cheok was still his little brother.

Speaking of the devil, Mu-Cheok was now on the screen, shooting monsters. His signature soft curly hair and drooping eyes were shown on TV. Thanks to Mu-Cheok’s height and his broad shoulders that belied his inoffensive face, the eyes of the panelists were glued to Mu-Cheok.

‘I think he is going to get a lot of fans after this show.’

After finishing the meal, Mu-Cheok immediately cleaned the table and washed the dishes.

“I can do the dishes,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Hyung, get some rest. You worked hard yesterday,” Mu-Cheok replied.

The two argued about who was going to do the dishes, and Ji-Cheok won in the end. As he was washing the dishes, Ji-Cheok checked his GodTube videos.

‘I can’t believe I got 100,000 Likes from GodTube, after spending so much during the raid.’

Even if the Likes were combined with Likes from previous videos, the amount was still enormous. Considering when he first started, only one out of his twenty viewers clicked Like, and now having one and a half to two million people newly joining the channel was something Ji-Cheok couldn’t imagine.

‘No freakin way. How is the channel growing so fast?’

The number of comments was also growing exponentially.

-乃2nd Dungeon Expansion cleared! 乃All hail God Ji-Cheok! 乃

?KingJi乃GodJi乃UmJi乃KingJi乃GodJi乃UmJi.

-Can’t believe he used a truck to clear the boss.

-Props to him for using science to school that monster!

?Mr. Newton sends his regards from his grave.

?Props to sacrificing your body to teach us the law of inertia.

-I knew he was talented, but his driving skill is out of this world!

-I thought he was playing a racing game.

-That finale of him crashing the truck is just the cherry on top!

The scene where the demon came out from the boss mushroom was cut out of the clip. This was because on the one hand, Ji-Han’s ability could not be exposed, and on the other hand, Ji-Han wanted Ji-Cheok and other teammates to get all the spotlight.

‘Well, things would get complicated if time control abilities were revealed.’

Of course, it would be difficult to catch that just from the video. When Ji-Cheok had gotten home, he had tried to watch the clip in slow motion, but he had discovered there were only two bits where Ji-Han did anything: the part where Ji-Han had approached the demon, and the part where the demon’s head was gone. The part where Ji-Han blasted its head off was not there.

‘Jung Man-Deuk sure named his grandchildren well.’?

Jung Bi-Ga was a mechanic, Jung Ji-Byeok was a tank, Jung Su-Gi was a water element user, and Jung Ji-Han now appeared to be able to stop time.[ref/]Just a reminder that in Jung Ji-Han’s name, ‘jungji’ can be translated as ‘stop’.[ref/] Ji-Cheok still didn’t know the extent of Ji-Han’s ability, but the fact that it was an overpowered ability that would shake up the system’s foundation remained unchanged.

‘If this ability is revealed, the whole line of succession for Jungha Group will be reshuffled.’

It would be every other successor versus Jung Ji-Han. However Ji-Han was still a noob who was under level 20, so if other successors wanted to get rid of him, now was the best time for them to take action. That was why Ji-Han didn’t want to stand out from the crowd. He wanted to blend in to reduce the chance of his abilities being revealed.

‘Besides, Jung Bi-Ga, who is first in the line of succession, seems to be neutral.’

Bi-Ga, who was considered the strongest of the grandchildren, had never shown any interest in the fight for succession. For her, money and power were just a means to find the truth.

‘We don’t call her the mechanic freak for nothing.’

Ji-Cheok wondered if the world she was looking at was a lot different from what an ordinary person like him saw.

After washing the dishes, Ji-Cheok sat on the sofa and read more comments. While he was browsing his GodTube channel, Mu-Cheok was reading a book.

Mu-Cheok took off the bandages wrapping his hand, revealing a pattern that looked like it was drawn with black ink.

‘I remember it was called [Script of Chaos], right?’

According to Bi-Ga, these symbols were actually considered living creatures.