Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 173

Thud.

As Ji-Cheok kept thinking of ways to get out, the soft ground vibrated. Then, a huge pillar emitting purple light descended from the sky, and a similar pillar rose from the ground.

‘Wait, those aren’t pillars. They’re fangs!’

BOOM!

These fangs, which looked like they were at least several kilometers long, crashed into each other with a deafening boom. One Hunter was caught between them and instantly squashed into mush; everyone screamed as his blood and brain burst everywhere.

That Hunter was the one who had just shouted ‘Human sacrifice must never happen!’.

[You insignificant mortals! Your time is brief, so what are you waiting for? If you hesitate, all of you will become my feast. Offer the human sacrifices and the item to your God!]

These words were a downright threat. And killing that Hunter was a show of strength.

“We’re inside their mouth! This is the inside of the God’s mouth!”

“We… We just need to destroy that thing!”

The Hunters who had long-range attack skills activated them with all they had, drawing upon even the last shred of their power to cast a rain of destruction upon the crystal statue. The noise was deafening.

“Good! Use everything you got!”

After a while, someone spoke among the cloud of smoke left behind by the massively destructive skills.

“Ha. Did we destroy it?”

That moment… Several Hunters glared at the person who had just spoken the Words-one-must-never-say-after-a-fight.

The smoke dissipated, and to everybody’s shock but Ji-Cheok’s, the statue had taken exactly zero damage. It was understandable. How could a statue with the ‘Indestructible’ feature be damaged just like that?

“Everyone get out of my way! I’m just gonna smash that thing!”

A Hunter charged at the divine statue with a sword.

‘Huh? That crazy bastard!’

The statue had the ‘Crushing Power’ function, which meant that there could only be one outcome to this assault.

[*Crushing Power: When someone enters the active range of the skill, its power is activated and crushes the target.]

Ji-Cheok didn’t know exactly what the radius for that function was, but he reasonably assumed that getting within melee range was nothing more than committing suicide.

“CHARGE!!!”

“Activate [Soul Telekinesis]!”

The Hunter that was running toward the statue was so fast that Ji-Cheok almost couldn’t save him in time. Just before his hand was crushed, Ji-Cheok managed to grab him with the [Soul Telekinesis] and throw him back. His sword was instantly shattered into metallic dust.

?Now we know the radius of the Crushing Power, Master.?

‘Yeah, I’m guessing about 5 meters in radius?’

Everyone looked at Ji-Cheok strangely, wondering how he could be so calm. Then, they looked at each other and immediately called out to Ji-Cheok.

“Hunter Um Ji-Cheok! Please join us!”

“Mr. Um! Our group is stronger!”

“Do you want money?! Just call the price! I’ll give you anything!”

Only three or four Hunters could actually fight among each group. The rest had not fully recovered from their injuries.

‘Seeing as they are not offering the wounded as sacrifice yet, they might still have some good conscience left in them.’

“Giltheon, let’s make an alliance. That would be our best choice to save your people and my people.”

“Okay. Then shall we deal with Shin Ju-Ran first?”

In an instant, the four groups, except for Ju-Ran’s group, united as one. Ju Ran took off her helmet and gritted her teeth.

“Do you think I’m some kind of an idiot?

She swung her greatsword and put it on her shoulder.

“I don’t think the successor of the Shinsung Group should be this angry. You have more injured people than the rest, and I can finally pay off old debts I owe to your parents.”

“What debt?”

“Your Group killed my company! Shinsung Group… Ah, I guess they didn’t tell you.”

‘... This really is not the place to talk about old grudges. But it’s understandable, since we’re in such a dire situation.’

“Stop that now.”

Ji-Cheok went in between them. From the distance, he could feel Mu-Cheok aiming his weapon at them, and Reable standing behind him with a smile.

“We’re inside the God’s mouth. I don’t know what kind of space this is, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to escape other than offering the sacrifice. Get out of the way, Um Ji-Cheok. If you don’t want to get your hands dirty, you can just stand by.”

If Ji-Cheok became involved, then so would his brother and Reable. The three of them were the ones who had fought until the end, under everybody’s eyes. Nobody wanted them to be their enemy. Ji-Cheok was curious as to what would happen if he intervened.

‘Hahaha. I’m really curious about that.’

Then, all of a sudden, he realized,

‘Hold on… there aren’t only Hunters here. It’s also full of civilians.’

There were also ordinary people here, people who had come to assist the Hunters here or participated in the auction as agents instead of some other Hunters. In addition, there were also staff members who worked at the hotel. Most of them were injured, and even those who weren’t injured had to beg for protection from the Hunters in their groups.

‘It’s always the weak who get hurt in this kind of situation.’

This was why Sim Cheong threw herself into the Indang Sea. It was never those belonging to the higher strata of society that were forced into sacrificing themselves, but rather those on the lower rungs.

“I see. As expected, Um Ji-Cheok seems to have a connection with Shin Ju-Ran. Makes sense, they’re both Korean. Then, why don’t we first sacrifice the hotel staff, since they’re not doing anything productive?”

The hotel staff hurriedly gathered together and started screaming.

“Wait! We’re just workers who get paid by the hour!”

Just then…

Bam!

With a loud noise, a large sword fell next to a hotel staff member.

“Ack!”

The man crawled back while peeing his pants. Behind him, others were quietly sobbing.

“I am just a contract worker. There are other full-time employees…”

“Do I look like I care?”

“Heek!”

“Fucking tell me! Do I look like I care? I don’t want to do this either, so just blame it on your employer.”

‘So those Hunters think that their own lives are the top priority. For them, the pecking order starts from them, then there’s the members of their group, others who are strong, and others who are weak, respectively. Saying that it’s the hotel staff’s fault because it happened inside the hotel is just their way of finding someone to blame. They’re doing this because they’re stronger than the staff. If all the hotel staff were Hunters and had weapons in their hands, could these assholes say the same thing?’

?Those Hunters are very hypocritical, Master.?

Suddenly, someone grabbed the staff member’s hair and pulled him up.

“ARGH!! Please! Help me! Please help me!!!”

Ignoring the staff’s plea, the Hunter continued to talk.

“Even Hunter Um Ji-Cheok would know. If sacrifice is unavoidable in a dungeon, the weak must be the first to go in order for the group to stay strong. That’s the rule of breaking through a dungeon. Or do you want us to die together?”

“You’re such a hypocrite. Didn’t you say that since it happened in the hotel, the staff should take responsibility?” Ji-Cheok said.

The Hunter smiled coldly.

“Ah, I did. But it didn’t seem to persuade you. Aren’t you the type to never be influenced by what others say?”

‘You know me too well.’

“What’s your name?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“It’s Giltheon. I’m sure you know that there’s no other way out of this situation, right? If you’re a Hunter streamer who has been through hell, you should know.”

“Am I that famous?”

“You’re famous in the industry. You can enter dungeons regardless of level restrictions, and some of the dungeons you enter are supposedly so difficult that people think you’re committing suicide. It’s really not common for a Hunter to put on a comedy show and beg for subscriptions and Likes in those crazy dungeons.”

“I see.”

“You are a target for a lot of Hunters. And it didn’t help when you entered the pharmaceutical industry. You have a lot of enemies.”

‘I see. I guess my name has started to be known not only in Korea, but also among the overseas Hunters. So that’s how my Likes have been increasing so fast.’

“I know your brand image is important to you, but shouldn’t you worry about that after you survive this dungeon? Besides, with that much fame, you can spend a million dollars on donations and people will forget what happened,” Giltheon said.

“Donations to the poor people?”

“No, to the press. You can give like ten thousand to the poor, and the rest to the press~”

Ji-Cheok laughed out loud for a long time.

“So, what’s it going to be? I’m sure you know what’s the right thing to do here, right?” Giltheon said.

“ARGH!!!”

Giltheon once more grabbed the staff member’s hair and lifted him up.

“Shin Ju-Ran, you agree too, right? There is no other answer.”

“...”

Ju-Ran did not answer. She just calmly looked at her surroundings. She couldn’t just choose a side. On top of that, they were dealing with an evil God, while they were just insignificant mortals. Everyone knew that there was no way to fight and win against an actual God under any circumstances, let alone when that very God was the one who had created the dungeon they were in.

“What’s your answer?” Giltheon asked.

“I dunno, I’m thinking,” Ju-Ran said.

Crunch.

Only the sound of someone chewing something echoed in the quiet dungeon.

“Oh, never mind me. I always eat my food like this.”

Reable was sitting down and looking at the situation, eating some popcorn that he had gotten from who knew where.

‘Did you see a lot of things like this when you were a God?’?Ji-Cheok asked telepathically.

‘Of course. It’s always fun to watch the struggle for survival among intelligent beings. Except for integrative organisms.’?Reable replied.

‘When you say integrative organisms, do you mean species that move in perfect order, like ants and bees?’

‘Yup, those things have no individual psyche. On the other hand, races like the Dark Elves are quite fun to watch if you push them to the limit like this. It’s a hobby for evil Gods, but sometimes good Gods do it too.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s to put the creatures to the test to see their faith.’

‘......’

‘What? Does that make you angry?’

‘No. I just think that there are too many Gods in this world, both good and evil.’

Reable started to laugh like a lunatic. People looked at him weird, since they could only see him laughing but were unable to hear the telepathic conversation. Of course, Reable couldn’t care less what others thought of him.

Sure enough, Giltheon and the others also pointed at Reable and twirled their fingers next to their temples in an internationally-recognized sign. They thought that he had gone mad from fear, so they stopped giving him any attention.

‘So, what are you going to do, Mr. Um? Are you going to take care of that evil man named Giltheon? It might be a good idea to sacrifice him and his group.’

‘If that happens, we might die too.’

Reable was indeed a Demon. If Ji-Cheok listened to him, everybody could very well end up killing each other.

Reable nodded.

‘Well, I guess I can’t catch my temporary friend off guard. What about you, Mr. Um Mu-Cheok?’?Reable asked.

However, Mu-Cheok didn’t answer. He was just thinking.

Rumble.

The tongue of the God suddenly moved, and more fangs came from the ceiling and the floor. Everyone started running around, dodging the fangs. The ground they were standing on began to shrink. The ceiling—or rather, the roof of the spider’s mouth, gradually narrowed down on them.

Someone brushed against a tooth and was severely injured. He screamed in pain and fear, but no one looked back, because people were too busy finding their own footing. Ji-Cheok wondered what would happen if the mouth closed on them.

Well, it was pretty obvious. They were all going to die. That was the rule of this dungeon.

Just then, it seemed like someone had made a decision.

“ARGH!!”

When Ji-Cheok turned to check the source of the scream, he saw that Giltheon had stabbed someone right through the heart.

“You bastard!”

A Hunter ran toward Giltheon to stop him, but that Hunter was also instantly killed by Giltheon.

“AHHH!!”

“There is no time! We don’t have time to be hypocrites! We’re all going to die at this rate! I’m telling you that I’ll do your dirty work! Why are you trying to stop me?” Giltheon said.

In an instant, two people had died.

1. Sim Cheong is the main character of the Korean classical novel called ‘The Story of Sim Cheong,’ which is quoted as an example of filial piety. She throws herself into the Indang Sea as a sacrifice so that her blind father can regain his eyesight.