I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 225

Cha Jin-Hyeok came across a situation that had become somewhat unfamiliar to him.

‘I guess I have been used to my life being peaceful for too long.’

Of course, he had faced significant events and lived intensely in his own way, but it was true that his everyday life was too peaceful.

‘This is how it’s supposed to be.’

Seoul had excellent public safety, all thanks to the Golden Guardian Tree.

‘The Guardian Tree keeps smashing the heads of... no, protects the city from the monsters, and peace is somewhat maintained.’

Additionally, the government made efforts to maintain public safety through collaborations with powerful Players. They were also in close cooperation with the MK Foundation.

Despite the dawn of the SSP era, Seoul had almost regained its previous level of public safety. This had led to some criticisms such as ‘People from Seoul are living too comfortably’, ‘Too much comfort can result in less competitiveness in the distant future’, and ‘There is no future for those steeped in peace.’

Jin-Hyeok did not entirely agree with them.

‘Then what about Planet Arvis?’

Arvis, the strongest Server in the universe, was said to be unbeatable even if all Servers in the universe joined forces. Yet, in terms of peace and public safety, they were the best.

In other Servers, like Earth, it was not unusual for powerful Players to exert indiscriminate violence on weaker Players. Jin-Hyeok just had not encountered such a situation recently due to his stable environment.

“You bastard! Do you want to die?” said a huge man. He seemed to be over two meters tall, and his main weapon was a flail. Despite the train cabin being narrow, he swung the flail quite fiercely.

‘Hm...’

Another man lay on the ground.

The Player name of the man wielding the flail was Jang Do-Hwan. His Level was around 150. Other people around him were too terrified to move.

‘I guess being Level 150 is enough to scare people like that. But why was it different when I was the Sword King? I was much stronger than this Player is now, yet I was always the scapegoat.’

Jin-Hyeok watched the situation while drinking water. He did not know what was happening, but if a Player was weak, they could not help being treated like the man on the ground.

‘The world has become like this... Huh? He is not just taking the beating.’

The Level of the man being beaten was about 50. He was still a novice Player, but he seemed to be protecting something, lying face down.

“I am sorry! I am really sorry!”

“Sorry? You think that’s enough?” Do-Hwan kicked the man several times, still not appeased.

‘Hm...’

The attacks were strong enough to knock someone out, but the man lying down endured them. His mental strength was commendable.

‘But...’

Jin-Hyeok knew situations like this were all too common. They happened across the world. The peace of the past was gone, and this was the new norm.

‘But... why is it irritating me?’

At first, it did not bother him, but when he saw a young girl lying under the man, his heart felt uneasy. She was crying and screaming, “Don’t hit my dad!”

She was pale-faced but still yelled at Do-Hwan.

Jin-Hyeok was not sure if the yelling was helpful in this situation, but the girl still caught his eye.

‘Damn it!’

Getting involved in such trivial matters could distract him from more important things.

‘...Wait. Wouldn’t saving the girl be great content for my channel? I am not a government official anymore, but a Streamer.’

Educational content was always in demand.

‘Yes. This is going to be great content.’

He had to step in. It was definitely not because the young girl reminded him of Elines or Seo-Hyo. It was really because this was a great opportunity for his content.

‘Oh, but...’ Jin-Hyeok found himself smirking. ‘Wow, I didn’t see this coming!’

An unexpected person was hiding in the cabin.

***

With Munchkin in his Job, Jin-Hyeok had experienced many changes, such as Broadcaster’s Clairvoyance being upgraded to Broadcaster’s Insight.

He had also acquired some abilities, and one of them was called Rewind. This ability had the power to rewind events to see what had happened. Depending on his condition, the amount of time he could rewind varied, but usually, in everyday situations like this, he could rewind for almost an hour.

‘But I can rewind only 5 minutes in this situation?’

Therefore, this issue definitely involved high-Level Players.

‘High-Level Players... But I didn’t notice any.’

He surveyed the surroundings with Broadcaster’s Insight and examined the Player names.

‘Wait, Swampland No.3 is there?’

As soon as Jin-Hyeok recognized the name Swampland No.3, he understood what was going on.

‘Player Hunters are after me.’

Swampland No.3 was a well-known Player Hunter. More precisely, the Swampland Crew was a well-known Player Hunter Crew. People usually called them a crew because the number of members in the group and its sheer size were too small for the group to be called an alliance.

‘It’s been a while, you bastard.’

Swampland No.3 was a Player Hunter who had targeted Jin-Hyeok several times before Jin-Hyeok’s regression, and he seemed to be targeting Jin-Hyeok even after the regression.

‘I remember him being pretty witty.’

Jin-Hyeok realized what was going on. The beating was staged. They were creating various scenarios to understand Jin-Hyeok’s reactions and weaknesses.

‘They saw my sentimental vlog and want to see what my weaknesses are.’

In that video, Jin-Hyeok had a pleasant time with Elly. He had made a campfire so that Elly could sleep well. Many viewers who saw the video commented that they wanted to be Elly and that Kim Chul-Soo should adopt them. Some even called him a doting father.

So, Swampland No.3 was checking if Jin-Hyeok would react to a young girl in distress.

‘Good.’

It seemed like the Player Hunters were actively trying to get close to Jin-Hyeok.

‘If they were more active, it would be more fun... wait, no. It would be good for my channel.’

However, they seemed hesitant due to the Streamer Protection Treaty.

“I am going to start the educational content.” Jin-Hyeok stood up.

Miri trembled in his inventory.

Woong! Woong!

He heard a resonating sound.

-Let me smash their heads. Haah...!

It sounded like Miri was excitedly breathing. Being mentally connected to the Rule Breaker, Jin-Hyeok pictured its state in his mind. He saw a woman with a dreamy expression. Her face was bloody red, and she was exhilarated.

She muttered like a mad person.

-I want to smash...heads...! Let’s see... whose head should I smash?

Jin-Hyeok did not know why Seo-Hyo and Miri acted crazy when their master was very ordinary.

“I promised something to KingGodGeneral Yumi.” Jin-Hyeok did not mention the girl. He did not show any false chivalry. He just wanted to start the educational content. “I promised Yu-Mi that the new content at the Haeundae Dungeon is going to be very straightforward. So, this is going to be like a rehearsal.”

Jin-Hyeok rushed at Do-Hwan and swung Miri.

Thwack!

-Ah... such a beautiful melody...!

Blood splattered from the back of Do-Hwan’s head, and the Player fainted after taking one hit. Jin-Hyeok assumed it was because Do-Hwan’s Level was low.

The man lying down got up with a grateful face. He thanked Jin-Hyeok.

“Very straightforward.”

Thwack!

Jin-Hyeok struck the back of this man’s head too. He did not kill him, as this man did not seem to have committed a bad enough crime.

-Ha... I’m so happy. More...! Treat me rougher...!

“Weakness is a sin.”

Using low-Level Players to attack another Player was a typical strategy of Swampland No.3. Before his regression, Jin-Hyeok had been a civil servant, so he could not mistreat low-Level Players. Even if they were suspicious, he had no choice but to let them go.

‘Next is her.’

“This is for waking me up.”

Jin-Hyeok fiercely swung Miri toward the girl who was crying in terror.

***

Even Yu-Mi was slightly flustered.

‘Um... Chul-Soo...?’

It was fine when Chul-Soo had knocked out Do-Hwan. The viewers’ reactions were quite favorable. But then, he suddenly hit the head of the father who was protecting his daughter, knocking him out too.

-WHAT?

-Why is he suddenly beating up the victim?

-IntenseMan: Weakness is also a crime, LOL!

-Isn’t this too much?

However, right after that, Chul-Soo knocked out the young girl by hitting the back of her head. It was not a good look on the screen.

-Hahaha! What the hell is he doing? Is he a psycho?

-This is definitely crossing the line.

-What did the kid do to deserve this?

Yu-Mi took a deep breath to calm herself.

‘Chul-Soo can differentiate very well which content is good or bad for his channel. There is no way he can make this kind of mistake.’

The chat was ablaze, but Yu-Mi did not comment on it. She decided to trust Jin-Hyeok and wait. Then a slight change began to occur.

-Huh? The girl’s body is getting bigger!

-What?

-That looks disgusting!

The Player, who was thought to be the young girl, grew and turned into a robust man.

-So, he transformed into a girl beforehand?

-Lol, this is my first time seeing a Shapeshifter. That’s disgusting.

-What is happening here?

Chul-Soo in the video scratched his head and said, “I didn’t expect this to happen...”

-Haha! No way he didn’t know!

-LOL, is this also one of his concepts?

-Chul-Soo: I just swung around and this happened!

“It seems like he was some sort of Actor-class Player. I’m surprised too,” Jin-Hyeok continued.

-Wait, did he really swing without knowing?

-Look at his calm face lol. How can anyone say that he looks surprised?

-He’s lucky that it was a Shapeshifter. What if it really was just a kid?

-This is not something to laugh off.

-Honesty, saying that weakness is a sin is crossing the line.

Many viewers criticized Chul-Soo’s actions and what he said.

-You idiots. Please just watch the livestream. It’s obviously a concept.

-People cannot differentiate between a show and real life. This is why people call y’all stupid.

-Remember, this is all part of the Chul-Soo Verse.

Many people defended Chul-Soo’s concept.

-IntenseMan always Plays intensely. And that’s what he did today.

-Our IntenseMan always has a plan!

-He seems crazy on the outside but is intensely rational on the inside.

Jin-Hyeok let Miri control a part of his mind for more dramatic effect and the weapon spoke through him. “Hehe! I want to be handled more roughly!”

The third member of the Swampland Crew, Swampland No.3 frowned. ‘He is crazier than I thought.’

Swampland No.3 was monitoring the situation through KimKnowItAllTV live. The viewers understood Chul-Soo’s actions as part of his concept, but Swampland No.3, who observed the scene directly, thought differently. ‘He is actually crazy.’

Just as he had said, Chul-Soo had definitely swung his weapon without knowing the truth. The passionate breathing, the flustered face, the lingering thrill of swinging the hammer, and that insane look could not be just an act.

Swampland No.3 had to revise the information he had about Chul-Soo.

‘He doesn’t have a soft heart for young girls. That information was wrong.’

This could no longer be used as a weakness. More research on Chul-Soo was necessary.

‘Huh?’

It seemed like their eyes met for a moment. Swampland No.3 acted naturally without showing any panic.

‘I’m sure it was just a coincidence. He knows nothing about me.’

Just in case, he completely concealed his Player Name. He had locked his Player Name so well that Chul-Soo’s abilities could not detect it.

‘He knows nothing about me.’

Swampland No.3 stood up and approached Jin-Hyeok, acting naturally. “I can’t believe it...! You’re Mr. Chul-Soo, right? I was watching KimKnowItAllTV, and I realized you were livestreaming right here! I am a fan!”

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