Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 163

Chapter 163

“My name is Kim Sun-Il, the head of HR at SL Group. Nice to meet you.”

Ji-Cheok remembered that when he had first auctioned his Hunter contract, there had been a headhunter that came from the SL Group. He didn’t remember much outside of that, probably because their contract conditions had been inferior to those of other Groups.

Kim Sun-Il was a man in his forties wearing glasses. Ji-Cheok sat in the living room with him and had a little chat. Ji-Cheok offered him a cup of instant coffee, and Sun-Il took a sip of coffee and complimented its taste. Then, he moved on to business.

“Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me.”

“You’re welcome. It just so happens that I have some spare time. On what occasion are you visiting me?”

“Our group wants to scout you, Mr. Um Ji-Cheok. We will, of course, be responsible for the damages due for breach of the contract if you are willing to terminate your contract with Jungjin.”

‘Hm… They’re trying to scout me at this time…’

?It must be because of the potions Master is making.?

As soon as the headhunter came in, Cheok-Liang stopped studying, came straight to Ji-Cheok, and wrapped around his neck.

‘This fox scarf is very warm.’

“Can you please give us a few more details?” Mu-Cheok inquired, glaring at his interlocutor.

“Please look at this.”

Sun-Il handed over the three-page document.

This was the most important part of the document. It was really short.

‘You should’ve written “100,000 subscribers plus 10,000,000 Likes.” in the contract instead. I want that much more than money right now.’

“I will decline,” Ji-Cheok said.

Even at his quick decline, the expression of the SL Group HR head did not change. He just smiled softly.

“I would like to explain to you first how great this proposal is, is that okay?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Three percent equity stake means becoming one of the major shareholders. You can audit the company or hold a shareholders' meeting. It is by no means just a namesake share; you can also be called a Director and actively participate in the management of the company.”

‘Is this true?’

‘He’s not lying, hyung. Of course, even if you’re a major shareholder, you can’t become a Director if you have a bad relationship with the owner’s family. But this contract means that their company is willing to give you unprecedented treatment. This is a very good deal.’

Using his telepathy skills, Ji-Cheok spoke with his brother. Ji-Cheok also knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

?That is how highly they are valuing you, Master. They are very good at headhunting.?

‘But it’s also very likely that they’re the ones who sent the assassins, right? In such a situation, I can’t just look at the conditions and be tempted. Also, my answer is fixed anyway.’

?You are right, Master.?

“Give me a couple of days to think about it,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Then, I will be looking forward to your reply,” Sun-Il said.

He left the documents and left.

‘I’ll have to decline after some time.’

* * *

Kim Sun-Il, the head of the HR team, was also Awakened. However, unlike Ji-Cheok and his brother, his main ability was a support one. Namely, he had the ability to observe the emotions of others as auras of different wavelengths.

He knew that he was unsuitable for combat, so he had quit dungeon hunting and put his effort into the SL Group. And by using this ability, he had now risen to the position of the head of HR. His ability was limited to seeing people’s emotions as colors, and he was far from being able to read minds. However, precisely because of that, it was very difficult for detection skills to catch what he was doing.

Red for rejection. That was the color of the waves coming from Um Ji-Cheok.

Sun-Il left the Um residence and picked up his phone.

“Assistant Manager Jung, Um Ji-Cheok rejected the proposal. It looks like we cannot move forward with the appeasement plan, so report it to the top. Alright.”

Click.

He immediately made the report to the head office and moved on. Since he had been in the SL Group for a long time, he knew very well what was going to happen next.

“Whew….”

He sighed as he walked away. As a part of a larger world, he knew he was just doing his part, even if that part was evil.

“I have to get paid… And I have credit card debt to pay…”

Evil was surprisingly common.

* * *

“It looks like the SL Group is the one that sent the assassins. They first sent assassins and then made a recruitment offer, hehe… They sure are doing many great things in many ways~”

Ji-Cheok was in a training ground exclusively for Hunters. It was a space covered with various Arcane Engineering devices that made the walls impenetrable. Hunter’s abilities had the power of heavy weaponry, so this kind of setup was essential. Training Qi and controlling mana could be done at home, but sparring and other types of training that required actual use of skills were better done in a place like this, or an outdoor training ground with no people nearby.

Usually, training grounds were built in uninhabited areas, because the land there was comparatively cheap. The construction cost of these kinds of indoor Hunter training grounds was enormous.

As Ji-Cheok opened the door and went in, Reable brought up the assassin team they had encountered.

‘What good timing.’

“You should’ve said something earlier…”

“Well~ I just finished the interrogation~ Squeezing information out from a soul takes time too~” Reable said.

?It looks like he took the souls of the dead and interrogated them… I expected it, but if he becomes our enemy, he can be very dangerous, Master.?

‘I guess you’re right. It means that even if you die, you’re not really safe.’

?You seem rather calm, Master.?

‘Well, it might be because I died dozens of times to the tentacle monsters in the [Training Space of God of War], or it might be because a part of my brain is damaged after seeing [Despair]. I don’t know. What is certain is that I got used to this kind of fear after all that’s happened. I still don’t know the exact reason, but I don’t need to worry about that.”

“The soul I interrogated seems to be quite strong. I think this would be good enough to use,” Reable said.

“Will you tell me the story first?” Ji-Cheok said.

“That was it~ They were a special operation unit trained by the SL Group, and came to eliminate you after receiving an order. Other than that, they don’t know anything~ Are you curious about their personal history?”

Reable moved his fingers as he continued to talk.

“The thing we need to know is that SL Group is now our obvious enemy. Please keep that in mind.”

‘In other words, we have to fight the SL Group…’

“Oh yeah, I would like to give you the message from Mr. Jung Ji-Han~”

Reable’s jet-black hair swayed. He wasn’t using his abilities, so his eyes were as black as his hair. He was wearing black punk-style jeans and a shirt from a Swedish satanist rock band. Ji-Cheok now knew why he had named himself ‘Real Black’.

“Tonight, there is going to be a special auction. Mr. Jung Ji-Han told me that we should participate in the auction to buy the things we need.”

‘Special auction?’

“It must be the kind of auction where only a few top Hunters can participate. They open once every three months. But I don’t think we’re at the level required…” Mu-Cheok said.

Ji-Cheok knew that Ji-Han was not a prophet, but at the same time, he was certain that Ji-Han knew the future. He had some reasonable speculations, but after seeing Ji-Han’s fingers explode just from having a casual conversation, he was rather careful when talking about those speculations.

‘Since Ji-Han said we should buy ‘the things we need’, he’s probably got some solid information.’

“I’m sure Mr. Jung Ji-Han took care of that. Of course, if you don’t want to go, we don’t have to go. So what do you wanna do?” Reable asked.

“Do you really have to ask? We have to go.”

Reable nodded.

“Good. I knew you would go, since you told me you want to become stronger by any means.”

“And I have enough money to spend.”

Likes were Ji-Cheok’s fundamental resource. Since he had to collect ten million Likes, items that could be bought with money were better bought with money.

“Okay, then. Let’s train first and participate in the auction in the evening~”

“Got it!”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They all agreed, and that concluded the schedule planning for the day.

Reable took out his Undead. They weren’t the Giant Undead Warriors he had created the other day, but some fresh ones made from the assassins who had attacked them at the time. However, there were only two of them, and armor made of bones completely concealed their appearance. Ji-Cheok couldn’t see anything through the armor.

‘Did he only make two Undead out of all those high-level Hunters?’

“Hmm~ It’s fine to burn the bodies and make them into skeletons, but if the corpses are this good, it’s better to use them with their flesh still attached. So, I put bone armor on them, and voilà! What do you think?”

The second batch of Undead soldiers started doing the trending Cocaine Dance.

‘Watching them moving their hips like that with the bone skirts makes me feel strange… Wait no! Don’t make them do that! You evil Demon!!’

“I told you not to do that!” Ji-Cheok said.

“Oh. It’s so sad that you can’t understand the art behind this.”

Reable pretended to cry. Then, the two Undead soldiers pretended to cry as well.

‘I think I’m going to vomit.’

“Stop joking around. So what are you going to teach us?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“Mana basics! We will start from there. In my view, you are surviving with only your talent and no help from any relevant knowledge,” Reable replied as he crossed his arms and clicked his tongue.

“First of all, what is mana? That’s the first question. But let’s sit down~ The explanation isn’t going to be that long, but you don’t have to stand and listen, right?”

Suddenly, chairs made of bones appeared from the ground.

‘When did he collect these corpses?’

.

The bone chairs were like a grotesque work of art. They were pure white, so in some ways, they even looked very clean. The brothers didn’t sit down.

“Oh no~ Well, then, just stand up and listen. You sure are stubborn~”

Reable made a flatbed out of bones and lay himself down.

As Ji-Cheok stared at him, Reable continued, “If you have the chance to sit, you should sit down, and if you can lie down, lying down is the best! That’s life. Please cherish your belly fat~”

‘Okay, let’s leave it at that.’

Mu-Cheok seemed to be getting bored, so he pulled out a pistol and made a show out of reloading it.

“Ahh!! Stop! Okay! Okay! I will go straight to the point.”

“Now we’re talking,” Mu-Cheok said.

It seemed that Mu-Cheok had learned how to deal with Reable.

“First of all, what is mana? It is the power source of the world. It can turn into anything, and it can create anything,” Reable said.

‘Was mana really that great?’

“Mana can be manipulated and converted into something like the Spectral Mana that I use, or a type of energy that can power special abilities like the [Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art] that Mr. Um Ji-Cheok uses. Mana can be anything, but the thing to note here is that it takes time,” Reable said.

“It’s obvious that it takes time…” Mu-Cheok muttered.

“Mana doesn’t change to Spectral Mana in an instant. Let’s look at an example. It takes at least ten minutes for 10 Mana units to change to 10 Spectral Mana units. That is why your Qi doesn’t increase that fast—it takes time for Mana to transform into Qi”

“But I also use magic skills with my Qi directly,” Ji-Cheok said.

“That’s because the System does the work for you. The System was created thanks to the work and cooperation of many Gods. In fact, the System is no different from a substitute for the highest-level God. It’s not difficult for it to convert energy right away, with no delay.”

‘I see. But as a human being, I can’t do that.’

1. NSFW, google at own risk: haru s2 kokain