Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 55

Just like this, some time passed.

-Umji’s stream is so fun.乃

-Umji is doing pretty well for himself these days.

- I didn’t know Umji would be this talented in mukbang, He might be able to reach 10 million subscribers.

-Umji’s mukbang is on fire!

‘...’

People began to see Ji-Cheok as a ‘mukbang Godtuber who knows how to fight’ rather than a ‘Hunter who does occasional mukbangs’. And every time Ji-Cheok ate on live stream, an anonymous God always came and donated 1,000 Likes.

[The Gods have shown interest in you.]

[You have received 1,000 Likes!]

[You have received 1,000 Likes!]

This time, it seemed like the anonymous God had brought a friend along.

* * *

After Ji-Cheok finished his stream with a cheerful attitude, he started swinging his sword and dodging the blazing metal balls off camera as well.

‘Ahhhhhh!’

Every time Ji-Cheok got stuck, lost his concentration, or forgot a part of the sutra, he wanted to give up.

Suddenly, Ji-Cheok felt something from his fingertips. It was a strange feeling, but he immediately realized what it was. He thought back on Cheok-Liang’s comments about how major enlightenment was a result of minor enlightenment. Ji-Cheok extended his arms. He didn't think about the sutra—he was just immersed in this feeling.

‘Ah…’

Ji-Cheok’s body was moving on its own. He was doing the footwork and swinging his sword, just like the way he practiced countless times. And then, suddenly…

?Master! The light at the tip of your sword!?

Sword Qi appeared on Ji-Cheok’s sword.

Clang!

The metal ball was cut off like soft tofu without any help from a skill. As Ji-Cheok’s consciousness reacted, the sword produced a pure white light.

Ding!

[Your understanding of [Heaven and Earth Divine Steps] has increased by 0.2%!]

[Your understanding of [Heaven and Earth Divine Steps] is now at 100%!]

[Your understanding of [Heaven and Earth Sword Arts] has increased by 0.2%!]

[Your understanding of [Heaven and Earth Sword Arts] is now at 100%!]

[Your understanding of [Heaven and Earth Iron Stance] has increased by 0.2%!]

[Your understanding of [Heaven and Earth Iron Stance] is now at 100%!]

The three skills were now perfectly embedded in Ji-Cheok’s head. Ji-Cheok had reached a level where he could activate them even with his eyes closed.

[Fulling the conditions, [Heaven and Earth Sword Qi] is now unlocked!]

“I did it!” Ji-Cheok shouted.

This drawn-out training of fundamentals had finally come to an end!

[Heaven and Earth Sword Qi]

[Class: Unique (Upgradable Rank F)

This skill is derived from the [Heaven and Earth Divine Arts] and is unlocked when the user’s understanding of [Heaven and Earth Divine Steps], [Heaven and Earth Sword Arts], and [Heaven and Earth Iron Stance] are at 100%. The Qi concentrated in the user’s abdomen is infused into the sword.

The power of the skill is proportional to the user’s proficiency and inner technique, and there is nothing that cannot be cut off when it reaches its highest level.]

At that moment, Ji-Cheok swung his wooden sword. Unlike before, he activated the Sword Qi intentionally. The Qi residing in Ji-Cheok’s abdomen flowed through his meridians and appeared around the wooden sword. Ji-Cheok swung it toward the blazing metal balls, and the expanded blade cut down all the balls in one stroke.

Bang!

The wooden sword exploded as if it had been hit by a bomb. It was because the sword could not handle the power of the skill.

?Congratulations, Master!?

Cheok-Liang wept and screamed with emotion.

Today was a victory for humankind.

* * *

“Life has gotten really tough.”

It was one of the public officials from the Department of Multi-Dimensional Dungeon Management. However, no civilians called them by their official names. They had a more catchy name that got stuck in people’s heads: the “Department of Dungeons”. The nickname made sense. The Department of Muti-Dimensional Dungeon Management, which was currently the largest and most powerful department in the Korean government, seemed to only be in charge of managing dungeons, as far as its name suggested. However, the department actually intervened in all kinds of things: monster hunting, various artifacts, weapons excavated from dungeons, monster by-products, and so on. These things produced a lot of money, and money piqued people’s interest. Since everyone wanted to be a part of the department, naturally, the department was very powerful.

But none of these things were important. The significance of the Department of Multi-Dimensional Dungeon Management and its most important administrative function was, in fact, as its name implied—managing the dungeons.

If a dungeon was left on its own for a certain amount of time, it would explode, and the monsters in it would pour out into the human world, inevitably turning the world into a wasteland. To prevent that, the dungeons had to be cleared periodically. This was called Dungeon Clearing, and all related proceedings were handled by the Department of Multi-Dimensional Dungeon Management. They would calculate the time for the Dungeon Break when the dungeon exploded, manage a list of Hunters who had to enter the dungeon before the Dungeon Break happened, and manage the budget for recovering damage caused by monsters. They would also manage civilian training and contingency plans in case a Dungeon Break ever happened.

Essentially, the Department of Multi-Dimensional Dungeon Management was an organization in charge of the safety of the state and the people.

Since the advent of the dungeons, the department had been a fairly good and stable organization, but recently it had been going through a similar crisis as in the early days. The first issue was the massive damage caused by a dungeon suddenly appearing in the middle of the city and monsters pouring in, and the second was the Dungeon Expansion incident where the dungeon evolved on its own.

A dungeon’s growth would happen whether or not there were Hunters inside. The result was that “thing” wriggling ominously in front of a middle-aged man who sighed like a steam engine with a lot of earthworm-like wrinkles on his forehead.

[Level Limit: 40]

[Party Limit: 10]

Something black was swaying and shaking. It had an oval shape, and mysterious blue-green particles were scattered around its rim. It felt like one’s soul would be sucked into it just by looking at it. It was a dungeon portal.

The problem with it was the message floating on top.

“Manager Kim, how much time do we have left?” the bespectacled middle-aged man asked a chubby man sitting beside him.

The chubby man looked at his tablet PC and answered immediately.

“It’s 102 hours, sir. Four days and six hours left.”

“What's the plan?”

“I’m sorry to say… But all we have left is an emergency mobilization order.”

“Ha… Just kill me now. How many victims?”

“Four teams were wiped out.”

“Huh!? So a total of forty people went into the dungeon and never came back?!”

“Yes… And there is no updated information, since now nobody wants to go in.”

“I’m gonna go crazy… This is that dungeon, right? The one that finished the Dungeon Expansion.”

“Yes, it was originally a dungeon with a level 20 limit and no party limit, but…”

“The party limit is a recent change anyways. Which party went into this dungeon?”

A chubby man called manager Kim immediately replied to the middle-aged man.

“The parties were from four of the nation’s top ten companies.”

“Ha… Were there any Hunters worth paying attention to?”

“Unfortunately…”

“Tough day, I tell ya… Tough day…”

The dungeon portal was vibrating in front of them. There were concrete walls and modern weapons surrounding it, but even the middle-aged man knew very well that these weren’t going to help.

“I understand that we need to call for an emergency mobilization order, but who are we going to call? Even if it’s an emergency mobilization order, you can say no if you don’t want to go.”

An emergency mobilization order was an executive order to force Hunters to mobilize on the grounds of a national crisis. If any Hunter disobeyed this order, the Hunter had to move out of Korea. However, a dungeon this big was considered a suicide mission, and Hunters had a choice to reject these kinds of dungeons.

“I was thinking of Jungha Group, sir.”

“Ah, that guy?”

The middle-aged man had an expression that he knew something.

“Yes. He is the most anticipated rookie right now. He has a history of killing a level 80 boss by himself. Maybe he could do something about this dungeon.”

“Okay. That guy with a strange name… Um Ji-Cheok or something… I wonder if he’ll be able to do something about this.”

The middle-aged man stared at the dungeon portal.

“If this dungeon explodes… We are done, you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Out of all places, it pops up at Yeouido Station. Let’s hope to God that Jungha Group accepts our request.”

When the middle-aged man finished talking, manager Kim bowed and stepped back. Then, he picked up his phone and checked a message that he had received, behind the back of the middle-aged man.

[I need you to put Jung Ji-Han in that dungeon.]

Manager Kim looked at the message with a twisted smile.

* * *

The next day, Ji-Cheok got a phone call from Ji-Han. He wanted to meet Ji-Cheok in a place other than the training center.

‘I guess he wants to discuss the next dungeon.’

When the Sword Qi was finally manifested, the first training goal was over for Ji-Cheok. As soon as he reported that to Ji-Han, he got a phone call from him, so Ji-Cheok assumed it was about the dungeon.

Ji-Cheok put his brother on the back of the motorcycle and drove quickly down the road.

“This time, it’s the suburbs, I guess,” Mu-Cheok said.

“Yes. I looked at the navigation and the address was a ranch. It seemed pretty big,” Ji-Cheok answered.

The first thing that had taken a hit after the Monster Wave incident was the food supply. It was hard to farm or run a ranch like this with monsters destroying everything everywhere. Because of this, AI agriculture developed rapidly. Instead of humans, robots did farming and livestock. If a nearby gate exploded, they would report it and close the farm until the gate was destroyed. After the Hunters destroyed the gate, the farm maintenance team would come and fix the farm, and then the drones would start working again.

“I’m sure Bi-Ga had her hands in this industry as well. How much money is she making?” Mu-Cheok asked.

Ji-Cheok was thinking the same thing.

“Well, you can live without combat drones, but you can’t live without agricultural drones. So I’m guessing a lot,” Ji-Cheok answered.

Competitors were rolling out a number of products to catch up with her agricultural drones. However, her throne remained unchallenged. Her specialty, which was precise and flexible AI neural networks, was said to be difficult for other companies to copy. Ji-Cheok felt a vibration from his waist.

“I got a message from my phone.”

“Me too, I think it’s one of those emergency alert messages.”

Mu-Cheok opened his phone and clicked his tongue.

“There has been a dungeon break. They are recruiting related Hunters right now.”

After a dungeon was created, if the dungeon monsters were not killed within the time limit, a dungeon break would occur. It meant that the monsters would come out to the human world. The time limit is different for each dungeon. In some cases, monsters come out as soon as the dungeon was created, and in others, Hunters could enter about once a month and control the number of monsters periodically. Controlling the number of monsters was easier said than done. Hunters had to kill a significant amount of monsters to do that. If it was a dungeon that Hunters could leave in the middle of the battle, it’s okay, but there were dungeons where that was difficult to do. In that case, the government had to either give up the land or fight and kill all the monsters.

“Dungeon breaks are happening all over the world. I heard there were many victims.”

“It’s because of the Dungeon Expansion right?”

“Yes.”

Things like the mushroom dungeon Ji-Cheok had gone through were happening all over the world. Either the dungeon parties bit more than they could chew in the first place, or the dungeon evolved unexpectedly and turned a safe mission into an impossible one.

“Our country is also in danger, too,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Experts are saying that the world is approaching the limit of what each government can handle,” Mu-Cheok said.

It was a scary feeling. What was scarier was that no one knew why this was happening. Ji-Cheok stepped on the gas.

“Whoah, hyung. Isn’t this a little too fast?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“Hold on tight,” Ji-Cheok replied.

Mu-Cheok smiled and tightly held his brother’s arms.

“I don’t think the next dungeon will be easy,” Mu-Cheok said.

“Have I ever taken an easy path?” Ji-Cheok replied.

Ji-Cheok drove along the rough asphalt road, into the mountains.

1. Yeouido Station is a subway station located in Yeouido, which is a financial district in Seoul.