Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 162

Chapter 162

“Ah~ It’s Mr. Jung Ji-Han~ It wasn’t that bad. I feel like he can do what I’m imagining.”

—That is good news. I didn’t know you could say that to a human.

“But I’m just curious. How come that such a good and strong human, and one connected to so many chains of causality at that, has never been contacted by other Gods?”

—You don’t need to know that.

Click.

The call was disconnected.

“Oh my gosh~ He’s so rude~”

When Reable called again, Ji-Han cut him off from the start.

—I’m going to hang up.

“Wait, wait, wait! I won’t ask about it anymore!”

—Okay.

“Anyway, I decided to teach Mr. Um Ji-Cheok.”

— ...I already know that. It’s rather surprising that a God would teach humans directly. I guess you’re really interested in them.

“What? You don’t sound like you’re lying. How did you know?

—Ji-Cheok sent me a message. He told me that if I can’t contact him all of a sudden, I should kill you first.”

Reable frowned a bit.

“What?? I might be the nicest God when it comes to dealing with humans~ How dare you talk bad about me behind my back. So rude~”

—I beg to differ.

.

Click.

The call was disconnected. Reable tried calling him again, but he didn’t answer. It seemed like Ji-Han had really blocked him this time.

Oddly enough, Reable wasn’t offended. He looked at the moon outside the window while humming a song.

“I guess this scenery will be gone soon too. The night sky is still black~ The world before destruction is so innocent,” Reable muttered softly.

It was the perspective of the Abyss, not that of a human being.

He brewed a cup of hot cocoa and drank it.

“If only I could put drops of blood into this, it would taste perfect.”

‘Would it be okay If I store some of the criminals’ blood and flesh in the refrigerator? Nah… if I do that, I think Mu-Cheok is going to put a hole in my belly instead of his older brother, right? Ha… Such a shame.’

* * *

Ji-Cheok had a rather steady daily routine that he respected as long as he wasn’t clearing a dungeon.

He woke up at 6 AM. As soon as he got out of bed, he went to the [Training Space of the God of War], where he devoted the full forty-eight hours to cultivation training. He also trained his Qi itself, but he prioritized training in the respective Forms of his cultivation skills.

Currently, he was practicing the [Heaven and Earth Sword Art], an auxiliary skill of the [Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art]. After receiving training from the God of War, he knew that just because he had learned it as a skill did not mean that he had fully mastered it. Indeed, as a confirmation, the more he practiced, the more proficient he became. It was a nice feeling, a feeling of realizing something new. And this was all thanks to [Heaven Martial Body]!

After that, he would summon the tentacle monster that he had never won against and die a few times.

“Wow, that monster is so strong!”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

This was the only place where he could experience his head exploding in one blow. Even though Ji-Cheok had become far stronger, he was still unable to beat the monster. What made him almost laugh at the absurdity of the world was that in the future he had seen, these tentacle monsters were everywhere.

‘There are so many of these noodle monsters in that future I saw, but I can’t even kill one.’

He was not entirely sure of what he was doing, and he wondered whether the answer would dawn upon him if he died another couple of times.

‘And I still have fear left in me… But what can I do?’

That despair had left traces. Thanks to that, he still couldn’t eat octopus. He had a physiological repulsion toward the very existence of tentacles.

‘Still, if I fight this guy long enough, I might find a way to overcome it someday. Hahahaha!’

He was sure that he was the only one doing this kind of crazy training.

Just like that, the forty-eight-hour time frame was over! However, even after training this hard, the time in the real world was the same, so this was when his day actually started.

?Good morning, Master.?

“Good morning to you too.”

Cheok-Liang and Ji-Cheok greeted each other. Cheok-Liang was studying a lot these days. In order to assist his master, he was studying business, real estate, and other miscellaneous knowledge. Ji-Cheok left him to his devices and went outside. He took a quick shower, got all dressed up, and went into the filming room in his house.

It was seven in the morning, and that was when the morning stream began.

“Hello everyone! Umji, Gumji~ This is Um Ji-Cheok! It’s raining a lot today~ The weather forecast says that it will rain all day and the temperature will also drop, so make sure to wear appropriate clothes for the weather. Your health should be your top priority!”

It was one of those meaningless and short streams, but he still made a good amount of Likes from them.

“Then, I’ll start with the morning stretching today. Today’s posture was recommended by a viewer with the username Um_Tori_Eat_Your_Seed. This posture is to train the erector spinae muscles. One~ and two~ Take a deep breath…. Two and a half, two and three-quarters… You want me to say it? I’m gonna say it soon… Three! “

Like this, Ji-Cheok streamed his morning stretches that were helpful in daily life and uploaded them every morning. He didn’t do a new posture every time. He just got recommendations from the viewers every day and performed those postures.

“I can see that some of you are not following me and just watching me do the workout~ You guys should do it too! It’s really great for your body. Let’s do it together! This way, even when you’re old, you can be healthy!”

He finished his morning streaming while smiling at the camera and uploaded the recording.

After finishing the stream, he went to the kitchen and saw Mu-Cheok cooking. At the table, Reable was sitting with a fork in one hand and chopsticks in the other like a cartoon character.

This was something new to him. Ever since he could remember, when Ji-Cheok came back from work and he didn’t have the energy to do anything, Mu-Cheok would always make food for the two of them. Back then, every day was like fighting a war. He didn’t know whether he would eat the food or the food would eat him.

Somehow, Reable had managed to insert himself into that routine.

“Hyung, did you finish your morning routine well?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“Oh, it was good. What are you doing, Reable? You look like you’re about to go on a food frenzy.”

“Ahem. As a teacher who teaches valuable knowledge, it is right to ask my pupils to provide for me~”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

‘What kind of master would beg his pupils to support him?’

“Hmmm? Even in Roman times, it was quite common for apprentices to support their masters!”

“That was so long ago!”

‘This Demon is bringing up stories from times before Christ!’

While fighting like that, Reable suddenly picked up his phone.

“I just sent it to your account!”

“What? How do you know my account number?” Ji-Cheok said.

Reable laughed.

“Well, your phone’s password is…”

Reable glanced around and whispered to Ji-Cheok.

“...10…20…30…”

“You can’t do that with only—hey… you need facial recognition to do internet banking!”

“I can say that your sleeping face is quite handsome,” Reable said.

‘...This bastard is stealing identities now?’

Click.

At that moment, Mu-Cheok couldn’t stand it anymore and threw the plate of fried eggs with spam on the table. In the next second, the muzzle of his gun went into Reable’s mouth.

“Hyung, I knew this guy would be like this. Do you have any objection to killing him now?”

“Ahhh!!! Don’t kill him! Don’t!!”

“Why?”

“He just put one billion won in my bank account! That crazy bastard! He even wrote ‘food expenses’ in the comments!”

“What kind of Demon has so much money?!”

Ji-Cheok had just received one billion won for ‘food expenses.’

Mu-Cheok eventually put the gun down and put the rice bowl in front of Reable.

“Eat it. You scum.”

“Why do you hate me so much? I am your master!” Reable said.

Ji-Cheok didn’t know either. Mu-Cheok was usually polite to the people around him. Ji-Cheok had never seen him this angry at someone.

?Hm… I think it might be because of the memory sharing.?

‘Ah… He might have gone crazy from that incident, but it might also be because Reable is an unidentified evil God and he’s just being careful of what Reable might do.’

?Whatever the reason may be, he crossed the line by stealing your phone and hacking your internet banking while living under your roof, Master. How could he hack your password… Well, it is?highly likely that he guessed it, but even then, hacking is crossing the line.?

‘...It might be my fault for putting my password as 102030. Maybe I should have used a more complicated password. Still, we’re not remotely close enough for him to steal my phone and open my internet banking account.’

Reable definitely shouldn’t have done that, and that was why Ji-Cheok had allowed his brother to do what he had done.

“Wait, there’s something wrong with my bank account. I saw my banking history and 110,000 won were withdrawn from it. Ten times!”

“Well, that’s the price of rolling thirty times,” Reable said.

“Rolling what thirty times?”

“Mobile gambling. They were having a flash sale, so I thought I would use your mo—ARGHH!!”

“You spent 1.1 MILLION WON FROM MY ACCOUNT?!” Ji-Cheok yelled.

“I had to! That was the minimum price!!!”

“You have so much money, you bastard! Why would you spend MY money?!”

‘What kind of gambling game would make their customer spend 1.1 million won in one sitting?!’

“Listen to me! I don’t have a NIN yet. In this country, if you don’t have the identification number, I can’t spend money online!” Reable said.

“Then, how the hell did you transfer me one billion won? Is it even from your own bank account??”

‘No wonder it felt strange. There is no way a Demon would hack someone else’s phone and return it quietly.’

Ji-Cheok and Reable fought for a while. He then applied for a refund on Boogle Play. In the meantime, Mu-Cheok tried to put a bullet in Reable again, saying that a person who used someone else’s money once was bound to use it again. Ji-Cheok made Reable promise to never gamble with other people’s phones and money.

The menu for breakfast was seaweed soup. Mu-Cheok always made it with two cans of tuna. It was delicious, as always. After eating breakfast, Ji-Cheok was ready to go out to use the Hunter-only training ground owned by Jungjin. He was going to have a little taste of what he had learned from Reable. Unfortunately, just as he was getting ready to leave, the doorbell rang.

“Hm? Who is it?”

It was an uninvited guest.

* * *

Park Il-Sung, the eldest son of Chairman Park Mak-Gi, had long since established himself as the successor to the throne. He was the prince of an empire named SL Group, a leading pharmaceutical company in Korea.

This man, who had the media and politicians in the palm of his hand, was now frowning at something.

“Failed… Didn’t I tell you to get the expensive ones?”

Park Il-Sung naturally tried to eliminate his opponents. As the president of SL Chemical, which had the largest stage in the potion industry, he would do anything to protect his empire. If he hadn’t been this cold-blooded, his father, who was the Chairman, would not have chosen him as the successor among all his children. For Park Il-Sung, this was the obvious choice.

Unfortunately, Park Seong-Chan, aide to Park Il-Sung and head of the Strategic Planning Office, had just brought bad news.

“They were assassins worth ten billion won, but… they failed. Both were level 80 or higher. They have never failed at anything like this.”

“I heard that the Hunters we trained separately also went with them. And they still failed?”

“Yes, sir. Their bodies were not even found. There is a possibility that they ran away with the advanced payment, but I highly doubt that.”

“This is interesting.”

The fact that the bodies weren’t found implied several things—the opponent had the ability to cover up the bodies or make them disappear one way or another, and… the opponent was just as cold-blooded as him.

“I heard that Um Ji-Cheok is just an ordinary Hunter. If that’s the case, we must assume that there is someone else pulling the strings, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hm… What does the Strategic Planning Office think of this?”

“They’re enacting our reconciliation proposal right now, sir.”

“Did they start?”

“I believe they’re in a meeting about it right now, sir.”

“Good. If that’s successful, report back to me. What if we fail to appease him?”

“We will proceed with our sabotage plan, sir.”

Sabotage—in other words, terrorism—basically implied destroying the factory of this Um Ji-Cheok guy.

“Good. If he manages to endure that…then I’ll have to resort to more drastic measures. Make a contingency plan for that scenario.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now go away.”

The head of the Strategic Planning Office bowed and left. It was a neat way of doing things, without any emotional distress or anger. That was Park Il-Sung’s strength.

“Um Ji-Cheok… I thought you were just a GodTube streamer who seeks attention, but it looks like you have some tricks up your sleeves.”

He wasn’t even a TV broadcaster, just a mere streamer. Park Il-Sung felt disgusted to be swung around by a random nobody. As he looked down at the documents, he muttered, “I want you to know that saying yes to our generous proposal?is the only way for you to live.”

He then picked up the documents and threw them in the trash.

1. A National Identification Number, similar to a Social Security Number. It’s necessary in order to do anything online in Korea, such as making an account for a mobile game.