Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 46

There were many comments about Cheok-Liang on the GodTube videos.

-What's with the fennec? What's with the fennec? What's with the fennec? What's with the fennec? What's with the fennec? What's with the fennec?

-Is he a spirit? Or a summoning?

-That’s Cheok-Liang!

-Holy shit! I just wanna grab his cheeks and snuggle him to death!

-Mr. Um Ji-Cheok! Please show us videos of you feeding Cheok-Liang!

-Wow, why are his ears so big?

-I am going to squish his face so hard.

These were the comments that Ji-Cheok had read before talking to Cheok-Liang.

“Nope! Your cheeks are mine, Cheok-Liang! Only I can play with those cheeks. Isn’t that right, Cheok-Liang? Please let me smooch those cheeks, my little Cheok-Liang!” Ji-Cheok said.

Cheok-Liang screamed at Ji-Cheok’s intense affection.

?Meow! Meow!!?

Each of the skills of the [Mono Bike] was very overpowered, but there was one that was particularly overpowered.

[Mana Syncing: All of the user’s skills can be synced to the bike.]

If this skill did what Ji-Cheok thought it did… things were about to go wild.

“What do you think would happen if I used [Blaze Walk] while riding the [Mono Bike], Mr. Cheok-Liang?”

?Meow??

Cheok-Liang groaned and tilted his head. Soon, his eyes also widened.

?Master, if you do that, then—?

Squish~ Squish~ Squish~?

Ji-Cheok started to squish Cheok-Liang’s fluffy face.

“Hyung? What is all that noise?” Mu-Cheok said as he came downstairs to check on his brother.

As soon as Mu-Cheok saw what Ji-Cheok was doing, he simply sighed and went back upstairs. Of course, he didn’t forget to stare at his brother for three seconds as if Ji-Cheok was some kind of lunatic.

* * *

Cheok-Liang did not come near Ji-Cheok for about three hours after that. The spirit was clearly upset.

“Ch…Cheok-Liang…” Ji-Cheok said.

?How could you hug me so hard, Master?!?

“I’m really sorry.”

?It would not even be an issue if it were simply hugging! The problem is the strength of those hugs!?

“Aren’t you a spirit? That kind of strength doesn’t even hurt you.”

?Yes, but what about my feelings? And then you have the audacity to pinch my cheeks! What a mess! The master should always maintain basic manners in relation to his servants!?

Cheok-Liang flapped his tail.

It seemed like it was going to take a while for Ji-Cheok to make amends.

“I’m sorry. I was just too excited… What can I do that would make you happy?” Ji-Cheok asked.

?Sit with your legs crossed!?

“Oh, okay.”

Cheok-Liang sat on Ji-Cheok’s lap, with his back turned toward Ji-Cheok.

?Now, scratch my head.?

“Oh, okay.”

‘He isn’t even a cat…’

Ji-Cheok started to scratch Cheok-Liang’s little fennec head.

He couldn’t tell by looking at Cheok-Liang’s spirit form, but when the advisor was in his fennec form, he was warm like a hotteok. As Ji-Cheok gently scratched the top of Cheok-Liang's head with his fingers, Cheok-Liang wiggled his tail as if he was in a good mood.

Purr~

?Wow, that feels good. Your punishment is to scratch my head for the next ten minutes, Master.?

Ji-Cheok was having a hard time restraining himself from just full-on hugging Cheok-Liang as he had done before.

‘Will he be angry if I hug him again?’

Ji-Cheok ordered his instincts to calm down.

?Master, you are a pure basic attack dealer. Each of your basic attacks is like a special skill for other Hunters. On top of that, with the [Mono Bike], your mobility is also overwhelming.?

“Yeah, that’s true.”

?There shouldn’t be anybody as strong as you at your level.?

Cheok-Liang started to browse through skills in the Like Shop. His front paws moved quickly, opening and closing skill windows in rapid succession.

?Actually, it’s quite interesting. Master, you have gone far beyond what ordinary advisors would tell you to do.?

“Do advisors not recommend pure basic attack dealing?”

?…Who would recommend such a thing? The top priority of the advisor is the safety of the master. No matter how great the cause, Master’s life comes first.?

“Is… is that so…”

?And then, um… In principle, the duty of an advisor is to synthesize the knowledge given to them and give advice to their master. A pure basic attack dealer is one type of skill build that a normal advisor would never recommend.?

“I see.”

?You can’t just rely on luck to look for the right skill when building a foundation, so it must be your sixth sense. In our world, Masters like you are sometimes called ‘instinctual masters.’?

“Sixth sense?”

‘Cheok-Liang might be onto something here.’

Come to think of it, whenever Ji-Cheok chose a skill, he flipped through many skill windows and always picked the ones that fit him the most.

?The skills you chose always worked well as a foundation, and it fits your style. I would say that you know yourself very well.?

As Cheok-Liang finished talking, he showed Ji-Cheok the two skills that he found.

?Right, now you have 100,000 Likes, these are the skills that you want to have next, Master.?

* * *

After a while, a notification was posted on Um Ji-Cheok’s GodTube channel.

[Um Ji-Cheok live preview! Initial A, the essence of the off-road drive!]

The notification simply stated what time it would start without any more details. Soon, more people than expected had checked the notification.

-乃Let’s go, Umji’s Live乃Super Umji乃Absolutely precious乃Alway protect Umji乃Let’s go, Umji’s Live乃

-As expected, he decided to stick with the driving skill. I guess Ji-Cheok is lacking a lot of points.

-He is not doing a live dungeon walkthrough, but a live off-road drive? Is he going to hit monsters with a truck like last time?

-I mean, if you’re more than five levels above the monsters, you don’t get much experience anyways, right?

-I think he is trying to get as many Likes as he can on his videos before he inevitably becomes irrelevant.

Many comments were about Ji-Cheok becoming irrelevant. The viewers knew that driving skills had a limit on development.

-Are you an expert? You’re making a fuss about other people’s points. Just mind your own business.

?The experts did?say?that Um Ji-Cheok wouldn’t recover from this.

? If he doesn’t have an arcane golem skill like Henry Mercedes, he is going to have a bad time.

?Even if he had an arcane golem skill, his mana pool at his level can’t sustain the skill. Even Henry has a hard time controlling it.

?Where is he going to get the mana to control the golem? He just doesn’t have enough.

This was not some random person’s opinion but an expert’s. The words from an expert had more impact on the audience. However, the experts’ negative opinions seemed very strange to Ji-Cheok’s fandom.

There were not a lot of Hunters that would sacrifice their lives to save civilians. Nevertheless, experts in the media kept bashing Ji-Cheok, as if they were about to throw him a funeral. Additionally, new GodTube accounts were flooding Ji-Cheok’s comment section and posting malicious comments. Jungha Group said they would sue the people that wrote the malicious comments. However, since GodTube was a foreign company, it was going to take some time for the personal information of the malicious commenters to be delivered to Jungha Group. The internet trolls who had been banned for mean comments also became more meticulous; they refrained from using swear words on comments and switched to systematic online bullying.

Ji-Cheok’s fandom, who had no way to know the internal situation of the Jungha Group, started to become frustrated. They felt anxious that a Ji-Cheok might commit suicide because of the nasty comments. Finally, the fandom took the problems into their own hands.

-I don’t care about what the experts say. If you don’t have anything nice to say, just gtfo.乃

-Your life must be so sad writing mean comments to a person that just became a Hunter.^^乃

?You fangirls are literally making me into a hater LOL. Didn’t you hear? Your Hunter is gonna be irrelevant soon.

-Umji’s fandom seemed to have lost its logic. This guy is literally finished.

?Better than stanning a criminal^^ I’m gonna keep stanning our nice Umji.乃

-It must be so hard for Umji. The whole world is trying to bring him down when all he did was just try hard to save civilians…乃

-We must protect Umji! 乃

?Protect Umji at all cost2222乃

?Protect Umji at all cost!!3333乃

..…..

It seemed like the fandom had found something to fight for. It was not like Ji-Cheok was involved in drugs, adultery, or drunk driving scandals; on the contrary, these horrible comments were aimed at him while he was trying to protect civilians. In any case, Ji-Cheok’s fandom did not have professional degrees, and they were not in the Hunter industry at all, much less being professional Hunters. Since they were just ordinary people with ordinary jobs, they didn’t have much power to protect Ji-Cheok. Fighting the internet trolls was the best they could do.

As such, despite the scandal, not many fans left the Ji-Cheok fandom. One of the reasons was that it was rare to find a Hunter this handsome in Korea, and Ji-Cheok was good at taking care of himself. The training photos that were regularly posted on Ji-Cheok’s social media also helped a lot. Additionally, Ji-Cheok never showed himself to be distressed. Rather, he was always smiling, which made the fandom feel sorry for him. Most importantly, the fans believed that Ji-Cheok did the right thing. That fact made the fans stay strong. The fandom was already growing steadier, but this incident had made them unite to fight for Ji-Cheok. There was another type of comment left on Ji-Cheok’s GodTube channel.

-I think it’s a good strategy. In this situation, he needs to collect as many skill points as he can. And it will be hard for him to go to another dungeon.

-Do you think it’s another group raid?

-If he wants to live, he has to do a group raid. Who would be stupid enough to go to a dungeon alone at such a low level?

-I think his party from the last raid was pretty solid.

-I second that. They all had unique jobs and their coordination with each other was pretty outstanding.

These comments were written by people who were neither fans nor haters and therefore watched this situation objectively. It was common for rookie Hunters to fall; what these people were rather interested in was how?they did it. Namely, when the rookies tripped, some of them fell square on their face, while some landed gracefully.

It was the day after the controversial notification…

-Oh, Um Ji-Cheok is live!

Negative publicity was still publicity, after all. If anything, the controversy attracted more attention. More people than expected were watching Ji-Cheok’s live channel.

-What? A mountain? He is on top of a mountain in Gangwon Province?

-Holy shit. And he is alone?!

-Nobody is living in that area, and the military base was wiped out by monsters. Now that place is just filled with monsters!

-Is he trying to kill himself?

-No, there is no way. I’m pretty sure other party members are gonna show up any time soon.

-Umji!!!!!!

-Umjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!! T.T T.T T.T

In the midst of astonishment, confusion, and chaos, Ji-Cheok started the live broadcast.

“Ah, am I on live yet? It’s my first time so I’m very nervous,” Ji-Cheok said as he laughed awkwardly.

* * *

‘Is the broadcasting going well?’

With that in mind, Ji-Cheok turned on the [All-around Video Shooting skills]. It was one of the essential skills when connecting to GodTube and sending out a broadcast.

[You have been connected to the live channel.]

The live chat was already chaotic.

-How is he going to drive a truck down that mountain?

-I think that road gets cut off there.

-Forget about the road being cut off, how the hell is he gonna drive the truck there?

-Why did you go there, Umji? T.T T.T No~ UmJi.T.T T.T

-LOL it’s been a while since I saw a Hunter’s dead body being cleared away.

-[Safety_1st_Umji乃] has donated 1,000 won.

[Safety_1st_Umji乃]: Umji, it’s not too late to go back. Let’s just go back! T.T T.T

-[U_play_like_sh1t] has donated 10,000 won.

[U_play_like_sh1t]: I’m gonna give you 10 million won if you try to go down the mountain, and if you make it to the bottom, an extra 10 million won.

The chat turned chaotic from that moment on.

-You are literally just telling him to kill himself LOLOLOL

-No, more like don't run away lololol

-A Hunter’s life that is worth 20 million won LMFAO

-It’s 20 million won. Wow, the average annual salary just to go down the mountain once.

-Are you gonna take it like a man? Umji?^^

1. The original says “I just want to put him in my mouth and suck him.” We have taken some creative liberties and replaced it due to… uh… connotations.

2. Hotteok is a type of Korean sweet pancake filled with honey and cinnamon.

3. This is probably a reference to Initial D, a street racing manga series. Not sure where the A comes from.

4. Gangwon is an Eastern Korean province with plenty of mountains.