I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Cha Jin-Hyeok checked his Achievements.

[All-Clear (Sareoga Mart Dungeon)]

An Achievement that is given to those that All-Clear Sareoga Mart Dungeon.

1) Mark of the All-Clearer (on activation, appears on: right wrist)

- The Achievement bearer will not be attacked by the monsters of Sareoga Mart Dungeon.

- The Achievement bearer receives a significant boost in all experience gained in Sareoga Mart Dungeon.

2) +1 to Defensive Attributes

- The Achievement bearer may boost the Attributes of one of their defensive abilities.

- The Attributes of the defensive ability that are boosted will differ depending on the ability.

The rewards for unlocking an All-Clear Achievement did not disappoint him.

The perk that the Player would no longer be attacked by monsters was actually quite alright—though of course, its usefulness depended on whether the Player intended to return to Sareoga Mart Dungeon to grind despite already clearing it.

Moreover, the fact that Jin-Hyeok would receive a significant boost to the experience he gained here meant he could train in this Dungeon and gain a few Levels in advance, being able to look ahead to see how he could shape himself as a Player.

‘If I train here, I can see what path lies waiting for me ahead of time.’

True—such a boon wasn’t as impactful as it could have been since Jin-Hyeok had already relegated himself to the role of a Streamer. However, the opportunity to familiarize himself further with the Skills of ‘Broadcaster’s Truesight’ and ‘Broadcaster’s Barrier’—all the while preemptively gaining experience, experimenting and brainstorming on how he could mold himself as a Streamer going forward—really wasn’t too bad of a consolation prize in itself.

Jin-Hyeok turned his stream on.

“As you can see, we’ve managed to slay Alexander. As I got an All-Clear, I got this mark here.”

He raised his right arm into his, and therefore the camera’s, view. A black-colored mark in the form of a band was now imprinted on his wrist.

“It looks like a tattoo, doesn’t it? I will now be changing its setting to be not visible.”

There was no need to let every person he passed by on the street know that he had an All-Clear Achievement under his belt. The moment Jin-Hyeok configured his mark to be invisible, the band on his wrist faded away.

“One interesting thing to note is that I also get to boost the Attributes of one of my defensive abilities. I’m not sure yet what exactly this is going to result in. I will try using it right now on Broadcaster’s Barrier, which is a defensive Skill.”

Jin-Hyeok used the attribute boost on Broadcaster’s Barrier.

[An attribute boost was applied to Broadcaster’s Barrier.]

A moment later, a new buff popped up on the description for the Skill.

Jin-Hyeok recited it to the stream as calmly as possible.

“It says, ‘The following attribute has been added: When Broadcaster’s Barrier is active, the Player is immune to all physical and other physical attacks received that are under Level 50’... that’s good.”

Jin-Hyeok maintained his composure when relaying the information to his viewers, but his heart was beating rather fast at the moment.

Which pre-Level 50 monsters had the strongest physical attacks again?

***

Having defeated the King Fist Monkey—and with the handsome bonus reward of the Mark of the All-Clearer to boot—Jin-Hyeok completed the Mission he accepted from Wind Wanderer and received his reward of a whooping one hundred million Dias.

At least, that’s what he thought would happen.

‘You have got to be kidding me!’

As Jin-Hyeok was now above the System’s designated ‘Tutorial’ period that was until Level 30, any beginner perks he had of discounts to commission rates were gone.

‘The platform’s commission rate is fifty percent?’

Fifty million of those Dias were gone, just like that. Vaporized.

Not only that, but the System made Jin-Hyeok pay mandatory appearance fees to the ‘guest’ Players that had assisted him on the completion of his Mission.

[Please set the payment rate for the appearance fee.]

[The minimum payment rate you may set is 10%.]

[ __% ]

To be fair, it was only fair that those who helped him received a cut of the payout. Jin-Hyeok himself had received a copious amount in appearance fees for his colleague, Kang Mi-Na.

Jin-Hyeok set the rate as the minimum of 10%.

[The payment rate has been set to 10%.]

[The item of the transaction is currently set as ?Monetary reward for Mission completion?. Would you like to include additional items of transaction?]

It seemed that one could transact non-monetary rewards to others—probably things such as Player items or experience points.

‘No.’

[10% of 100,000,000 Dias, the Monetary reward for Missioncompletion, will be distributed.]

10% of a hundred million—that came out to be ten million Dias to be transacted away.

[Total amount of transaction: 10,000,000 Dias]

[2,500,000 Dias were paid to Player ?Babyshark?.]

[2,500,000 Dias were paid to Player ?Loser?.]

[2,500,000 Dias were paid to Player ?Unnie Shadow?.]

[2,500,000 Dias were paid to Player ?Dongsaeng Shadow?.]

At the end of it all, Jin-Hyeok only had forty million Dias left in his possession. There was an additional commission fee of around 20% if he were to convert the Dias into Korean won, so he had approximately 30,000,000 KRW remaining in terms of real money.

‘Thirty million won is still a huge amount of money for a single payday.’

Of course, Jin-Hyeok knew that such fortunes were a rare occurrence. In fact, it was so uncommon that it was better to treat it as something that would not be happening again.

Seo Ji-Soo approached Jin-Hyeok with an uncharacteristically timid air about her.

“Hey… oppa…”

Jin-Hyeok was cautious. Why was she suddenly acting so… docile? It was suspicious.

“Would it be possible to work together again next time?” Ji-Soo asked.

“What’s with you all of a sudden? You’re scaring me,” Jin-Hyeok responded.

“I’ve just been thinking, you know… that it would be nice if I kept Playing with you, oppa.”

Seo Ji-Soo gave a cheerful smile. For some reason, she starkly reminded Jin-Hyeok of the master of capitalist smiles, Kang Mi-Na.

It would indeed have been nice if some competent damage dealers like the twins continued to work with him, but something about Ji-Soo was a little dodgy to Jin-Hyeok—though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“The reason being?”

“Because it was fun working with you, oppa.”

“How was it fun?”

“I guess it felt like we had a… mastermind? A captain to steer the boat? It kinda feels like you were something like that. It was such a nice and novel experience to coordinate as a team. Like a single unit.”

Did she really feel all that when he wasn’t even a Ruler Player? Just how low had her standards been?

Jin-Hyeok felt that Ji-Soo should really get a chance to meet a true ruler class Player to broaden her horizons. As far as he was concerned, if he was a run-of-the-mill latte from Starbucks, a true Ruler would be a coffee made from beans straight out of heaven.

“Also,” Ji-Soo added, “it was, like, amazing how you suddenly jumped into the fray without warning and showed us how skilled you were.”

“Hmm, something smells a little fishy…”

What was even stranger was that Cha Jin-Sol also had a shining smile on her face, the likes of which Jin-Hyeok had never seen before.

Those smiles.

He knew it! Yes, he’d seen those smiles many a time before.

It was the smile of capitalism.

“Hey, but is it really okay for you to give me this much money?” Cha Jin-Sol asked. There was something indescribable about the tone of her voice that unsettled Jin-Hyeok. “I didn’t think you’d give me five million Dias. At this rate, you’ll accidentally make me rich! Ha ha!”

Out of all the expressions that Jin-Hyeok had ever seen Cha Jin-Sol make in his life, it was the most radiant.

But that was strange—five million Dias? Jin-Hyeok recalled that he only given her 2.5 million.

‘Oh—I guess the System matches the Player’s contribution.’

Jin-Hyeok figured that since their commission rates on transfers and currency conversions were so punishing, this was likely their form of a money-back policy to be a bit more fair toward recipient Players.

Mok Jae-Hyeon tried to not to show it, but he looked considerably happy as well.

‘Hey, now that I think about it,’ Jin-Hyeok thought, ‘it seems like five million Dias is meant to be big money at this stage.’

Judging by their levels of skill, he knew that everyone on his team would eventually reach a point where five million Dias became a trivial sum.

‘They’re still so pure.’

They seemed to be at a stage where they still had some innocence left in them.

Now it was Seo Ji-Ah’s turn to approach Jin-Hyeok. Jin-Hyeok never quite knew what she was thinking because she normally barely said a word—but today, she bowed deeply to him.

“Thank you,” she said in a barely audible voice. At least, that was what Jin-Hyeok guessed she had said. “You did not need to give us this much.”

“...”

There was no way that Jin-Hyeok was going to tell her that that was the minimum rate he could pay her, when she was uttering those words with such a serious expression.

“Ji-Soo. Thank him properly.”

“Alright, alright, I get it, sis.”

Even someone as unruly as Seo Ji-Soo caved and listened to her ‘big’ sister. Jin-Hyeok admitted it was a little cute to see someone like her bow to him so politely.

“Oppa, please give me your number.”

“...I’m sorry?”

“Wait, no, not in that way! I need a way to contact you if we want to work together in the future!”

A twinge of pink tinged Seo Ji-Soo’s ears.

“I’m not asking for your contact for any other reason, so don’t get the wrong idea.”

***

Joseph was thoroughly impressed after watching Jin-Hyeok’s stream.

‘I knew it. He’s not just some ordinary martial artist.’

Joseph had first thought Jin-Hyeok was a dual-class Player, but now he realized that evaluation was wrong.

Jin-Hyeok had to be a triple-class Player. He had to be a Ruler as well—there was no other way to explain the level of competence he’d displayed.

Joseph looked towards the future with his experience garnered as a scout class Player.

‘Rulers like him will become more and more important in the future.’

Currently, they were in an era where the need to make cooperative parties for raiding Dungeons was on the rise. Joseph believed these parties would inevitably become bigger in scale over time, and in later days it would become increasingly apparent that competent leaders would be needed to command the party, coordinating and uniting its members.

‘And there is absolutely no doubt that Jin-Hyeok is a… strategic ruler class, Martial Artist, Streamer!'

If Jin-Hyeok were to have heard this, he would have completely mocked and ridiculed Joseph.

After all, in Jin-Hyeok’s view, there was no such thing as an all-powerful being in this world who could do anything and everything. Throughout his previous life, he had seen no such individual that was able to transcend across human boundaries and become a master at everything.

‘He’s so good at everything,’ Joseph thought. ‘That’s why the stream’s so satisfying to watch. There isn’t a single point that’s annoying or dissatisfying.’

The video was such a breath of fresh air for Joseph.

Jin-Hyeok and his team had the monster completely figured out, and the blueprint to defeat it at the ready. They followed this plan to a tee, slowly cornering the monster and boxing it in over time.

It was the definition of a well-planned, well-executed Dungeon raid that was a thorough success—and through it, the enjoyment viewers could vicariously feel would be equally thorough.

The whole entertainment factor of this Streamer’s content was not to display dangerous and desperate fights against monsters lurking in the Dungeons, but an exhibit of how to perfectly, flawlessly hunt down Dungeon mobs. That was likely why Jin-Hyeok had cut out a whole chunk of the middle bit of the fight which he probably thought would be boring for viewers, heading straight to streaming the final result.

Joseph found the whole style of presentation to be peculiarly refreshing.

Furthermore, when the recorded version of the stream was published after the livestream was all over, Joseph discovered that all the truly exciting and important bits of the stream were edited out too, not making the final cut.

‘He never showed most of the actual process of fighting Alexander. I’m sure he used his excellent abilities as a Ruler to contribute to the battle after he turned his stream off.’

Joseph believed Jin-Hyeok should now be aware that people all over the world—and beyond—could watch him through SSP. That should explain why he had chopped out a lot of scenes that were important for the viewer’s entertainment—Jin-Hyeok didn’t want to leak his strengths and weaknesses to the public.

In Joseph's eyes, Jin-Hyeok could do with some polishing when it came to being a Streamer. His ability to see the big picture and discern the trends of their time, on the other hand, were outstanding.

‘I want him.’

Joseph’s eyes had a glint in them.

All things considered, it appeared that an even bigger monster than Egan Paul had entered the scene.

***

Today was yet another day that Jin-Hyeok’s sister was acting all pouty.

It hadn’t taken all that long for the kindness and hospitality of capitalism to run dry.

“I don’t really care whether you eat with me or not,” Jin-Sol said.

She didn’t seem to care in the least what time he was going to come home if he stayed out late, or indeed if he was coming home.

To think she was the one viewer of his stream—to think she was practically the only donor as well.

It was still unbelievable.

“Do you like me or hate me?”

“Neither. I just decided to eat with you because I was planning to eat anyway.”

That’s what she said on paper—yet she recited off a whole list of places when Jin-Hyeok asked her if she knew any food joints that were good. She described the menus for some of them.

“This steakhouse does a really frickin’ good pudding. Like, you have to try it at least once, got it?”

Seeing her talk with her hands clasped like a businessman, Jin-Hyeok wasn’t sure whether she was more passionate about the steak or the pudding.

Jin-Hyeok increased the level of detail that his Broadcaster’s Truesight fed to him, and was met with an onslaught of hashtags describing her status.

[#Serious business #This noona is for real right now #Today we feast until we regret our life choices #Till our stomachs burst]

The constant assault of changing messages disoriented Jin-Hyeok.

‘I gotta turn this off.’

The two decided to go to a steakhouse in Cheongdam-dong.[1]

Jin-Hyeok was actually a bit of a foodie himself and liked to find good places to eat. He definitely missed this after eating Korean fast food for seven long years to financially survive.

“I would never have imagined I’d earn so much money while Playing with you, oppa,” Jin-Sol said. “Wait, then how much did you make?”

“Uh, I made an alright amount.”

“How much is ‘alright’?”

“About the same as you all.”

“Then next time, you don’t have to give us as much.”

She subtly started nagging Jin-Hyeok.

“Let’s be honest, we’re not all that close with the other members. I think you gave them too much.”

Wow. She could be stone-cold in the most unexpected of areas.

That said, though, Jin-Hyeok thought it was still a bit iffy to tell her that he set the distribution rate to the bare minimum anyway, so he just sat there listening and saying nothing.

However, he was a little curious about what was going on in her head.

He took another little peek with Broadcaster’s Truesight.

[#Mountain of worries #The bigger sibling at heart #I’ll be the one to protect my big bro’s money #Reloading another round of nagging]

A wave of tiredness suddenly washed over Jin-Hyeok like an ocean tide. She was chipping away at his psyche more intensely than any monster he had ever encountered.

“Hey, looks like the next course is the pudding,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Jin-Sol’s eyes sparkled. Jin-Hyeok wondered just how good the pudding was to be able to elicit such a reaction out of his sister.

Finally, the fabled pudding came out.

But it was at that moment that a massive ruckus began near the entrance of the restaurant.

“Everyone, get DOWN!”

Five robbers had entered the establishment.

‘Again?’

These days, there was a massive upsurge of robberies just like this one.

There was an outpouring of not only knife-related incidents in broad daylight, but magic-related ones too. There were hundreds of new cases of Player-related crimes occurring every day.

Not only that, but it was reported in the news that the number of crime-related deaths every day was over ten. This was a substantial number: about the same as the number of vehicle-related accidents that happened daily.

‘It’s not that surprising, though. Most of the Player-related crimes have been concentrated in areas that are densely populated by Players, like the capital area.’

There were also quite a few crazy individuals who acted as if the law no longer existed.

The government was doing what was within its means to establish countermeasures, but it was going to be a long time before things truly became safe and stable again. Meanwhile, ordinary non-Player people tried to maintain as normal a life as possible, hoping they wouldn’t be caught in such an incident in the same way one would hope they weren’t caught up in a car accident.

Jin-Hyeok calmly scooped some of the dessert pudding they had just received and tasted a spoonful.

Now he knew why Cha Jin-Sol had been dead serious about this pudding.

‘Wow. Okay, this is hella good.’

The junk food he’d eaten for seven years and this pudding couldn’t even be in the same conversation. There was no comparison.

Nom, nom…

Hang on.

One of the five robbers who had entered the restaurant seemed to ring a bell for Jin-Hyeok. Why was a robber ringing a bell?

‘Wait, what? Why on earth is he over there?’

Jin-Hyeok was staring at the nerve-racked guy at the very back of the 5-man robber group.

There was no way Jin-Hyeok, or anyone else for that matter, wouldn’t notice him, for he stood at least three heads taller than everyone else.

In truth, he was a very warm and lovable guy—a bit of a big friendly giant—but you couldn’t find a more rugged face anywhere.

It was one of Jin-Hyeok’s comrades from his past life.

Standing at the back was the Martial King, Kim Jeong-Hyeon.

‘What the heck have you got yourself into?’

1. A ward in Gangnam-gu, i.e. Gangnam District, in Seoul, South Korea. ?