Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 102

Sword Qi was generated in front of the Mono Bike G. Ji-Cheok was now one with the bike, and the two of them together were one single sharp blade. With Ji-Byeok in the back seat, Ji-Cheok drove down the fortress wall.

Vroom!

The Ants in their direction were all torn to shreds by Ha-Na’s traps, so they had some time before the next swarm of Ants reached their side of the fortress. However, wave after wave of Ants endlessly appeared from the horizon. It wasn’t long before the distance between them and the Hunters became no distance at all.

‘I’ll break through their formation and split them in half!!’

“Here we gooooo!”

As they charged into the army of Ants, Ji-Byeok activated her taunt skill. Her skill immediately caught the attention of the Ants; a huge wave of Ants charged over and attacked them.

Crack! Crunch!

Ji-Cheok drove the bike forward as the Ants were crushed under the wheels.

Vrooom!!

The motorcycle moved forward completely unimpeded; in the meantime, the Ants were shredded into tiny pieces, as if meeting the blades of a blender. The Double Strike buff was also applied, so the bike was slicing monsters left and right. Imbued with Ji-Cheok’s mana and Qi, and synchronized to his skills, it cut through the tsunami of Ants at an incredible speed.

Cheok-Liang and Ha-Na followed the path that Ji-Cheok had made. The arrows she shot came down on the Ants like meteors.

Boom! Boom!

The heads of the Ants exploded like popcorn, clearing the way ahead of Ji-Cheok. His bike ride of carnage came to an end as they arrived at the Portal where the Ants were crawling out.

“Let it soar!”

Ji-Byeok got out of the bike and slammed the ground in front of the Portal with her fist. A wall of solid rock rose from the ground and covered the Portal. It didn’t close it off completely—the Portal was circular, with a diameter of 5 meters, and Ji-Byeok’s rectangular wall only covered half of it. Even so, only several Ants could come out of the Portal at once.

Ji-Cheok stood in front of it. He was reminiscing about his first battle, the one against those goblins back in the day. The feelings of his first battle started to come back. Even though the goblins were only scouts, he was still terrified of them If he hadn’t used the Beginner’s Skills, he would’ve been lying in his own pool of blood.

Shing!

He took out the Monoblade and Sword Qi covered the black and white swords.

A moment later, the Ants attacked.

‘Alright… Show time!’

Two swords cut through the air like flowing water.

‘A sword is a sword, and an ant is an ant. Now people shall call me Cesco[ref]Cesco is the largest pest control company in Korea.[/ref] of the new era!’

As the nearest Ant was about to bite him with its wide-open maw, Ji-Cheok slashed out vertically. Behind his blade, another blade appeared from thin air, following the same trajectory.

Slice!

The sword slashed through the exoskeleton of the Ant, and its shadow chopped the Ant’s innards into shreds.

Slice! Slice!

Ding!

[Hunter Jung Ji-Byeok admires your Double Strike.]

[You have received 2 Likes.]

‘I thought you’d be used to it by now, but thanks for the Likes, anyway.’

As the first Ant was cut into pieces, more and more of its companions started to attack Ji-Cheok. Just as the sword in his right hand was cutting down one monster, the sword in his left hand was slashing diagonally at another.

[Hunter Jung Ji-Byeok and Byul Ha-Na are mesmerized by your flowing Sword Qi.]

[You have received 4 Likes.]

He cut, sliced, and slashed. The swords moved faster, faster, and then faster again, mowing through the Ants.

Boom!

The Sword Qi he created even destroyed the rock wall that Ji-Byeok summoned.

‘Oh wow. Is the Sword Qi getting longer? Fortunately, it’s not consuming my Qi that much. I can feel my mind getting clearer. Isn’t it strange? The Sword Path is starting to show clearly. I'm starting to see the direction in which my sword will go. Is this what it feels to be enlightened? I want to go further. I want to swing more. I think there is a better path for my swords. Good. Good. I can be better.’

His Sword Qi was now cutting down the Ants in swathes, dozens at a time.

Then, he stopped.

At some point, the space around him had become entirely devoid of life, and no more Ants were coming out of the Portal.

-...What.. the actual fuck did I just see?

-He’s not defending the fortress! He is just killing all the Ants that are being summoned from the Portal!

-Holy shit. He’s a legend.

-Umji!!! 乃乃乃乃乃

-Strongest Umji!!! 乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃乃

-I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy.

-[Ssun_Ju_Ran] has donated 10,000,000 won.

[Ssun_Ju_Ran]: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such an exciting battle scene.

‘I need to do a reaction to that ten million won donation. But I can’t even move my fingers right now. I feel like my head is about to explode just from trying to calm myself down from being enlightened.’

-[Ssun_Ju_Ran] has donated 100,000 won.

[Ssun_Ju_Ran]: You don’t need to think about the reaction. Take care of your stamina first. You have to stay vigilant.

‘Thank you.’

Usually, after the donation, viewers wanted a reaction right away. There were many cases where they threatened the GodTubers if they were even a little late for the reaction. Ji-Cheok wondered if [Ssun_Ju_Ran] was this considerate because she was also a Hunter.

Something was changing for Ji-Cheok. The way he viewed the world was changing. He didn’t know how to express it in words, but instinctively, his senses whispered that he was ‘one step' further.

‘Enlightenment.’

‘Did I see the end of cultivation?’

Crunch!

“Kieeek.”

He heard the sound of a Stone Ant being smashed. The one that was responsible for the sound was behind Ji-Cheok.

“Ji-Cheok, are you sure that you’re a newbie Hunter? You are amazing!” Ji-Byeok said.

“It’s all because you got my back.”

‘I can’t believe I’m able to make a witty remark when I’m on the verge of dying. I guess it’s kind of an occupational hazard.’

When Ji-Cheok looked around, there were many Stone Spears that rose from the ground like a bamboo forest. Numerous Stone Ants were pierced through the Stone Spears. He had never seen anything like this before.

“You have leveled up. Did you get a new skill?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“Yup. Now, the rock walls I summon can now evolve into Stone Spears. You’re not the only one who got stronger. Ahem!” Ji-Byeok answered.

“Wow, everyone got so much stronger. I should catch up to you guys!” Ha-Na said.

Ha-Na and Cheok-Liang were on top of a tall stone pillar.

“You also gave us good cover with your arrows,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Hehehe. Yeah, I think I shot pretty well.”

Ha-Na couldn’t help but smile at Ji-Cheok’s compliment.

“Thanks to you two, I received pretty good stuff,” Ji-Byeok said.

She showed her message window to Ji-Cheok.

[Guardian of the Iron Wall] [The Master of Slaughter] [Head Opener] [The Intimidation of Slaughter] [Ant Annihilator]

‘Five titles? When did we get so many titles? I’ll have to check the titles’ abilities later. The dungeon should be cleared soon…’

Just as he thought, the Portal next to them slowly began to shrink. A message stating that the dungeon was cleared appeared in front of them.

[You and your team have defended the Fortress of Hope.]

[You have cleared the dungeon!]

[The rewards will be distributed according to the level of contribution.]

[Team A Ranking: 1st Jung Ji-Han, 2nd Um Mu-Cheok, 3rd Seong Kwang]

[Team B Ranking: 1st Um Ji-Cheok, 2nd Jung Ji-Byeok, 3rd Byul Ha-Na]

[Team C Ranking: 1st Yum Ra-Du, 2nd Yum Jin-Seong, 3rd Yum Gi-Yeon, Yum Jin-Chul]

[Team D…..]

[Your quest rewards are being distributed.]

‘Huh? I didn’t know Yum Ra-Du was here. I thought he stopped being a Hunter, but I guess not. There’s no way that he wouldn’t know I’m streaming. He must be trying his best to not be noticed by me. By the way, Ji-Han got first place? Wow… He never cared about ranking, but I guess this time is different. He also said that he was going to be the tank of the team. How did he do? I’m curious.’

Flash.

While thinking about Ji-Han, a box appeared in front of every team member and opened by itself. There was something inside.

[Guardian’s Hope]

[Class: B+

Type: Shield (Artifact)

A shield crafted from a fortress that has been built with hope from another world.

Wherever you are, there is always hope.

Function: It will not be destroyed unless your morale is broken.

Function: It moves around the user and automatically defends against attacks.]

The shield was big enough to completely cover Ji-Cheok’s head, and he could feel a strangely holy aura from it. In addition to that, it radiated light as it floated. It reminded Ji-Cheok of Bi-Ga’s drones—basically, it was a guardian drone with divine attributes.

?This is great, Master. Also, the condition of not being destroyed is quite unique. Although the shield is not that big, considering that it can maneuver autonomously, I think it is a good item!?

‘I think so too. There really is something unique about the ‘unless your morale is broken’ part of the condition. I guess it is tied to how long I can maintain my mental strength.’

?Yes, I think this shield is going to save your life at least once.?

[You are in the top 3 rankings for the Fortress of Hope.]

[You have earned the title [Guardian of Hope]!]

[Guardian of Hope]

[Class: Epic

A title given to those who excelled in defending the Fortress of Hope.

You have gained strong resistance to negative mental influences.]

‘An Epic Title?’

He was surprised and looked at the title for a while.

?This is the best title you can get from a dungeon at this stage, Master!?

‘This is overpowered!’

Mental defense titles were very precious to Hunters—even more so since mental defense was something quite rare and hard to acquire by any means really. It was something that would have been good in the Magical Girl genre. There was always a boy who appeared with a rose in his mouth and helped the main character when she was in trouble. That boy was somehow kidnapped and brainwashed, became the enemy’s puppet boy♂, and attacked the main character.

‘And the boy always dated the pink main character. Maybe it’s different now. These days, the genre always starts with the boy saying ‘Do you want to make a contract with me and become a Magical Girl? OwO’.’

Anyway, when Ji-Cheok was a Hunter Assistant, he would occasionally see Hunters who died while stabbing each other. Certainly, some of them had been fighting over loot, but most of them were actually fighting because of brainwashing magic.

The fact that a Hunter Assistant was sent into the dungeon meant that the dungeon was cleared, whether fully or just partially. Arriving at the scene after a Hunter had demolished their own team while in a state of altered consciousness was not a pretty sight. Especially if said Hunter’s brothers or their parents entered the dungeon, Ji-Cheok couldn’t even express his condolences to the family. He would just quietly collect the corpse, hand it over to the bereaved family, and not say a word. He would just start collecting the loot. Uploading it on GodTube was also frowned upon. No matter how much freedom people had regarding GodTube videos, in Korea’s culture, it was more than a little disrespectful to upload the face of the Hunter under mind control as their last image. Hunters knew how shitty that was. That was why they were obsessed with metal defense skills.

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