Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 96

When she was very young, she felt like she was the protagonist of the so-called Cinderella story. She grew up being abused by her father, her stepmother, and even her siblings. Cinderella lived happily ever after thanks to the fairy godmother’s magic, but in the real world, there was no fairy godmother. The only thing she had was her brilliant brain and her determination to get out of that god-forsaken house. At that time, Bi-Ga had a hamster, and Ji-Cheok slightly resembled him. Ji-Cheok’s energetic activity and the fact that he was moved by the little things both reminded her of her hamster.

“I think I can understand why Ju-Ran likes him so much.”

Even Ju-Ran didn’t know how this happened, but Bi-Ga was starting to know a little bit about how she felt. Of course, she didn’t want to ruin Ji-Cheok’s life by fooling around with him as she used to do back in the day. In the past, her life had been a mess, so the people around her, especially her lovers, were caught up in her self-destructive behavior.

‘It’s different from that.’

She believed that she had matured, but she knew that her friend, Ju-Ran, wouldn’t believe her.

Bi-Ga felt the urge to hand over a large sunflower seed to Ji-Cheok, take a picture, and post it on her social media. She wanted to set it as her phone wallpaper, and whenever she woke up in the morning, she wanted to see his smiling face on her phone and think ‘I bet he is working hard right now, I should get up and do the same.’

‘Well, it’s hard for me to classify what kind of emotion this is. But I'm guessing it means that I still have some benevolence in me.’

Bi-Ga was currently in her real?lab. This place was full of all kinds of bizarre and strange machinery. From artifacts that looked like something out of a steampunk movie, to things that looked like sci-fi props of the distant future, she had it all. All of these things, she had either discovered or created herself. She had to make a lot of sacrifices for them, but she didn’t mind. She felt annoyed just thinking about the past. She wanted to put all her efforts into her future.

Behind her, rare monster specimens screamed in silence, begging to be killed. She was planning on discarding them when she lost interest, but they were still worth researching so she let them live… Anyway, for now, all her attention was on Ji-Cheok.

“That’s a skill that only selected alchemists can use. Where the hell did he acquire that kind of alchemy skill? Is he a cultivator? …Hm… I don’t think so… That skill is too versatile, and he is reducing the ingredient consumption as much as he can.”

It was basically poor man’s alchemy, but on a whole different level. If the God of Thriftiness saw how many ingredients this guy was saving, he would probably start worshiping Ji-Cheok. There was no way he had acquired the alchemy of the Demiurges… if he had learned it from the Demiurges, he wouldn’t have used that ability to make such worthless potions. She also didn’t believe that he was able to create such an alchemy skill all by himself. No, it had to have been learned from a skill book. Ji-Cheok’s weird alchemy made Bi-Ga curious.

“Maybe if he practiced enough, he could even use Alkahestry that’s related to cultivation.”

Alkahestry was a type of alchemy with extremely high versatility. Just as Bi-Ga started to concentrate on the tips of Ji-Cheok’s fingers, a familiar sound distracted her.

[Me, me, me~ me too~]

The intercom rang with the soundtrack of a movie.

“What do you want?”

The voice on the other side was not the voice of a human, but an AI.

—Master, a guest has arrived. It is director Jung Ji-Han.

“Let him in.”

—Yes, Master.

She turned off the intercom and licked her lips while watching Ji-Cheok on the monitor screen.

“Our strange little cousin came to visit me… I wonder if it’s because of him.”

As she was muttering to herself, the door to the lab opened.

“Look who’s here! It’s our up-and-coming cousin. I didn’t know you had time to visit me. Do you need something to drink? How about a tall glass of mana apple juice? It’s organic. It’s made with monster blood that we extracted with our latest drones. The reviews are fantastic,” Bi-Ga said.

“I wish you could stop spying on my staff members,” Ji-Han said.

His face was brimming with coldness. Surely enough, Ji-Han only smiled in front of Ji-Cheok. He always had the same face for everyone else. Bi-Ga wondered if it would be easier to have a conversation with a volleyball.

‘I bet I can put a good handprint on that volleyball.’

“Spying? This is for security measures. I’m lending my stuff to him, I have the right to see how he handles my stuff. Also, considering the value of my lab, camera monitoring is not that big a deal, don’t you think?” Bi-Ga said.

Ji-Han frowned. Bi-Ga had no idea why her cousin treated Ji-Cheok like a baby chick that he picked up from under the overpass. It reminded her of a crying child who was feeding her pet chick antibiotics, knowing that the pet was going to die within three days.

‘Ah, I want to tease him so badly.’

She wanted to give sunflower seeds to Ji-Cheok and she wanted to bully her cousin. It was a rare occasion for her to have so many emotions at once. And these emotions were so tempting that she had a hard time deciding which one to feel first.

As she opened her hand, a drone randomly dropped a candy. It was a lemon and caramel candy, and it fit her mood just right.

‘Is God really on my side? If God looked at the research I’m doing, I don’t think they would ever be on my side.’

Crunch!

She peeled the candy wrapper with her teeth and put it in her mouth. It tasted sour at first, but after turning it once in her mouth, she could also taste the sweetness. She could never stop enjoying this weird combination of tastes.

“So, I know that you didn’t come here to catch up with your cousin. What’s going on?” Bi-Ga said.

“Take this first.”

Ji-Han rubbed the back of his hand and a strange jewel popped out.

Even though she was witnessing a jewel popping out of the back of someone’s hand, like an inventory space in an RPG game, Bi-Ga was not very impressed. Instead, her interest was in that bizarre jewel floating in the air. It was the [Shining Trapezohedron].

“Where did you get this? And how?” Bi-Ga said.

“I have my ways.”

“Look at my amazing cousin~ From the looks of it, it seems that the jewel didn’t make you insane. I’m guessing you were not affected by the ‘enlightenment’. I’m wondering why you’re not keeping it, since you’re not even afraid of the jewel. Why are you giving it to me for free?”

“...If you’re not going to take it, then I’ll just hold on to it.”

“No no no no. That’s not what I meant. If you’re giving it to me for free, there’s no reason for me to say no. I was never that?interested, but now I’m starting to be more curious about why my little cousin has changed all of the sudden.”

Tick.

The whole room began to move when she snapped her fingers with Mana Stone on her nails. The room pulsated like the heart of a giant. This was not a good sign. It meant that thousands of her sophisticated pieces of equipment were turned on at the same time, which in turn meant that she could ‘study’ Ji-Han if she wanted to.

“I know you are curious about me, but there is no need for that because you will not find anything,” Ji-Han said.

“Huh.”

Her eyes gleamed coldly.

“I’m sure I’ll find something after disassembling you. Don’t worry, cousin. I’ll just take you apart for a short moment and put you back together as if nothing happened. You won’t even know that I disassembled you. It won’t be in your memory.” Bi-Ga said.

Ji-Han knew that ‘enlightenment’ would never work on Bi-Ga. He knew she would never be captivated by the [Shining Trapezohedron], nor would she be swept away by the emptiness of her nostalgic memories. She was like a machine disguised as a human since she would do anything to reach the Library of Origins.

“Hey, Ji-Han, I’ve been thinking up a couple of hypotheses about you. Care to listen? First of all, you might not be the same cousin that I used to know.”

“I don’t think I’ve agreed to listen.”

Suddenly the ceiling opened and dozens of mechanical arms came down. Each arm was holding something, from unknown magical devices to syringes containing unidentified drugs. With the arms at the ready, she continued to talk.

“It’s rare, but not impossible. A divine being or a higher consciousness took over my cousin’s body. If that’s the case, it all makes sense. The fact that my cousin, who used to be an alcoholic and a drug addict, suddenly changed his ways and his abilities became stronger… It all makes sense now.”

She still didn’t know why he was so obsessed with Ji-Cheok, though.

One of the mechanical arms grabbed the [Shining Trapezohedron] and brought it to her. Other mechanical arms took hold of Ji-Han one by one. What was surprising was that Ji-Han did not use his skills to defend himself. There was no sign of panic, so Bi-Ga looked at him curiously.

“What’s your second hypothesis?” Ji-Han asked while he was held by the mechanical arms.

“A divine being has bestowed upon you great wisdom. Of course, this is not something like the enlightenment of whatever distant God. It has to be like a revelation from a God who helped build human civilization. We’ve seen this happen around the world. You might have changed because of that. And there’s the final hypothesis. Do you want me to tell you?”

Wiiiing~

A creepy drill that had to be a few times bigger than a dental drill was approaching Ji-Han’s forehead.

“Tell me.”

“Fusion. Becoming one with something else. That would explain the personality change and how your abilities got stronger. So, which one is it? Oh, and by the way, I am not the only one who thinks this way. It’s only natural for the higher-ups to also investigate you after investigating your little friend, Ji-Cheok.”

After the Gates had been created, humankind had become able to interact with other races. There were races that people already knew existed, like the Elves and the Dwarves, but there were also some beings that could not be understood by human intelligence. Of course, fusions with such beings were kept secret and very few people knew about them, because the exchanges between humans and said beings were conducted very carefully. In a way, fusing with such a being could be considered fusing with a kind of spiritual dimension.

“They’re all wrong, but they are not completely wrong.”

With these words, Ji-Han took a deep breath. Suddenly, an unknown power spread around his body. Then, with the sound of gear wheels spinning together, everything around him returned to its original place, as if he was rewinding a video. Finally, the open ceiling rewound into a smooth surface.

“Let’s just say that it’s a mix between the second hypothesis and the third. I can only tell you this much,” Ji-Han said.

“The more I see my cousin, the more interesting he gets. I can’t believe you kept that secret all this time.”

“So, I guess you’ve figured it out, huh.”

Ji-Han gulped as Bi-Ga was staring at him. Bi-Ga always asked him why he treated Ji-Cheok so well, but he knew that Bi-Ga also gave Ji-Cheok special treatment. He could tell because Bi-Ga had never tried to disassemble Ji-Cheok. While she wanted to rip out the brain of her cousin, she treated Ji-Cheok like her pet hamster, as if she was about to buy him a treadmill and give him sunflower seeds. Although Ji-Han felt strangely discriminated against, there was nothing he could do.

“Anyway, the item I gave you is worth much more than opening up my brain. With this, I’m sure you can make a new deal with that God of Machinery you’re connected to.”

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