Slash.

‘Hm… That’s a neat cut.’

When Ji-Cheok looked closely at the pieces of steel pipe, it looked like it had been cut by dozens of sharp edges. This meant that the pipe had been cut apart by the Sword Threads before the blade even touched it.

“Should I thank Ra-Du for this?”

«You almost experienced cultivation deviation, but in the end, it worked out well.»

The anger toward Ra-Du had pushed him to the next level.

‘Am I Goku from Dragon Ball Z or something? This is ridiculous.’

«I am sure you can do almost everything using Likes, so I am sure buying your way into a higher Realm is possible too. If you succeed…»

“So now I am in the Transcendental Realm at Rank B, and you’re saying I might be able to use Likes to reach the Enlightenment Realm?”

«Maybe, Master.»

“Wow, cultivation levels are so cheap. So I guess the Enlightenment Realm is A-Rank and the Profound Realm is S-Rank?”

‘I heard that even the highest-level cultivator in China is not in the Profound Realm. Is the Profound Realm really something achievable by a human?’

“Let’s check if I can upgrade the [Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art] using Likes.”

[Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art]

[Class: Legendary (Upgradable, Rank C) → Legendary (Upgradable, Rank B)

— 5,000,000 Likes.]

‘FIVE MILLION?! What the hell… Why is it so expensive? I can reach that cultivation level by just training hard. The Likes Shop is asking me for five million Likes. That’s half of my ten-million goal. There is no way I’m spending that much.’

«I have to disagree with you here, Master.»

“Okay, what do you think?”

«If the time required to upgrade your skill from Legendary C-rank to Legendary B-rank is about ten years, it means that you are buying that much time with your Likes.»

“Are you sure about that?”

«As I calculated the skill proficiency rate, that was the conclusion. This means that, in a sense, you can actually buy time with your Likes, which is a huge asset. In addition, cultivators would normally have to struggle to reach enlightenment in order to improve their skill, but you can also use Likes to skip that.»

‘That means I can buy enlightenment with Likes. That’s ridiculous. Where does the power of Likes stop?’

“Hm… Time… This means that all my actions are a resource of time after all… Collecting Likes is a race against time, and I don’t know how much time is left until the end of the world…”

It was meaningless to think about this now. Ji-Cheok couldn’t live without Likes anyway.

‘I only earned a quarter of the number of Likes required by getting myself literally roasted by Ra-Du, so how can I collect 5 million Likes?’

“...”

The way one spent the money was always more important than how they earned it. However, Ji-Cheok always had trouble when it came to spending Likes. He never had an easy time making that decision.

“Cheok-Liang.”

«Yes, Master.»

“When the tutorial is over and the world is about to end,”

«Yes, Master.»

“It’s going to be impossible for me to protect the world by myself.”

Ji-Cheok didn’t know how the world was going to end, but he knew that he couldn’t save everyone even if he became a superhuman. It reminded him of the first goblin dungeon he encountered. At that time, he had gone to the entrance of the dungeon and managed to stop the monsters in spite of having no idea what he was doing…but what if there had been multiple dungeon entrances? Even if he had blocked that one entrance, there would have been damage elsewhere.

Ji-Cheok knew that he, alone, could not save the world. It was pretty much Superman’s dilemma. Even if he was the strongest in the world, he could not save the world by himself. In order to save the world…

“...I need to start with the little things.”

«Could you tell me what you are thinking, Master?»

“I need to find something useful for mankind that can be mass-produced. It’s fine even if I don’t profit from it, as long as it doesn’t cause me a huge loss.”

«That is very specific, Master.»

“I learned it when I was done, this is the result of compulsory education.”

Ji-Cheok opened the Likes Shop.

“After the Agricultural Revolution, it was the Industrial Revolution and the innovation of hygiene that led mankind to rule the Earth. So let’s do that.”

The Mono Bike G was the result of his Arcane Engineering skills. Arcane Engineering was a combination of science & technology and magic. It was also something that could be realized through alchemy.

‘I think something good will happen if I use this. Do you think so, [Minor Intuition]?’

His heart started to beat faster.

“Okay.”

‘It’s telling me to do it right away.’

* * *

“Hello everyone! Umji, Gumji! This is Um Ji-Cheok! I am currently at the Ilsan-Paju[1] factory zone.”

He gestured toward the camera cheerfully.

‘It doesn’t feel right, since it’s not a live stream. Oh well.’

For this episode, Ji-Cheok had to go to the stores first to ask the owners if it was okay to shoot his videos there, since their faces could be recorded. He had no such problem with Hunters, since they were classified as public figures under civil law, so he could shoot his videos regardless of their consent. However, store owners could be civilians.

‘This is a bit annoying.’

«Master, I think you should buy that too.»

“Okay! Is someone here?? Hello~~”

‘I could buy these from the Likes Shop, but it’s better to buy with money whenever I can.’

Ji-Cheok had been on a shopping spree lately, but he had been buying skills that required relatively few Likes. As for real money, he had also not spent a lot. As he leveled up, however, the price for skills and items suitable for his level had reached well into the hundreds of thousands of Likes, so he had no choice but to use cash as much as possible.

Right now, he was visiting various companies in Ilsan and Paju, on the outskirts of Seoul. The neighborhood he was in used to be a publishing district, but with the advent of the digital age, it had now transformed into a district for Arcane Engineering companies. The government planned to redevelop the district to help the small businesses in the area, so they had placed a couple of Warding Stones in the district. Thanks to that, the district had become more prosperous, and part of it had become a flea market for Hunters.

The stores here dealt with herbs, gemstones, metals, and other basic parts. As a result, a variety of customers gathered, from alchemist Hunters who came to buy herbs in bulk to craftsman Hunters who came to buy metals and parts.

“It’s definitely a different atmosphere from a department store.”

«Yes. Unlike department stores, where only carefully selected products are offered at high prices, each person here is both the owner and the employee. You need to keep your eyes open if you do not want to be scammed.»

“Hey, isn’t that Hunter Um Ji-Cheok?”

A bulky shop owner greeted Ji-Cheok loudly.

‘Oh wow. Someone recognized me. Have I become a bit famous?’

“Are ye here to buy ‘erbs? I can give ye stuff for cheap.”

The owner spoke with a bit of a dialectal flavor. As the owner was talking loudly, everyone around him turned around to look at him and Ji-Cheok.

“No, I just came to buy some parts,” Ji-Cheok said.

“I see. Then, can I get yer signature?”

“Hahahahaha.”

The store owners burst into laughter. Ji-Cheok was puzzled when the store owner also asked him to write something on his store signboard.

“Is that okay?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“Of course! My daughter don’t even eat ’er lunch if she don’t watch yer mukbang videos. If ye give me an autograph on the signboard, I’m sure she’ll visit ‘er dad’s store with ‘er friends,” the store owner said.

“Hahahaha!”

Ji-Cheok could hear laughter from everywhere. He climbed the ladder and signed the board with a large pen, and the owner doused the board with some kind of chemical using a watering can.

“With this coating, yer autograph will be safe even if it rains!”

“You seem to be on good terms with your daughter,” Ji-Cheok said.

“Don’ even talk about it! In the past, I was everythin’ to ‘er. Then she got older and she only looked out for ‘er boyfriend. And now that she broke up with ‘er boyfriend, she only cares about ye, Mr. Um Ji-Cheok.”

«It seems that the pain of breaking up was healed by becoming a stan. That is a good thing.»

Ji-Cheok laughed as Cheok-Liang expressed his opinion in a serious tone.

“Come to think of it, will my face show up in yer video?” the store owner asked.

“Yes, but I can blur it out if you want.”

“No no. I want my face to be as clear as yours in your video. Hello everyone!! This is the Youngin Store. We sell herbs for alchemy and precious culinary herbs. With Smart Farm Technology, all herbs are grown indoors without any pesticides~ They are delicious~”

The store owner jokingly waved his hands.

«This is going to look good on your video, Master.»

‘Yes. There are people in the world who are hardly celebrities but have celebrity-level talent.’

«And as he said, he and his daughter seem to get along rather well. There are not many parents who would watch GodTube videos with their children.»

Ji-Cheok thought so too. They exchanged business cards in a friendly atmosphere.

‘If I need to buy herbs, I’m going to call him.’

After that, Ji-Cheok went to another store to find some parts he wanted. The store owners scrambled to talk to Ji-Cheok and appear in his video after they saw how the herb shop owner had advertised his store.

‘I guess I’m a little famous.’

«There are owners who are looking you up as quickly as they can right now because they have no idea who you are.»

‘This is good. I buy things and say hello to the owners. It’s good for my stream.’

«Now, if you show your viewers how to use these ingredients, the fraud controversy started by Ra-Du will completely disappear.»

‘I think so too. Right now the fans of Ra-Du seem to have united around the idea that ‘sure, Ji-Cheok won, but that doesn’t mean he made that bike all by himself.’’

«It’s funny how it was Ra-Du who proposed to fight one-on-one.»

‘I agree, but when something you love collapses, you need something to blame. There may be people who stop being a fan of a Hunter when they see their Hunter fall down, but there are people who would hold on to anything to keep their faith in their Hunter.’

Such people would need something to cheer them up. This was how Hunters with bullying records could survive. There were all sorts of excuses, from ‘My kid is not a bully, this was just a friendly fight’, all the way to ‘My son was abusive because his mind is unstable due to the influence of the skill’.

‘Yum Ra-Du is exactly the same.’

«So you are trying to scatter the remaining fans of Ra-Du. You are evil, Master.»

‘I don’t think I can get rid of all of them. The hardcore fans will still remain loyal to him. It can’t be helped, they are probably the kids who would still be fans of Ra-Du even if he stabbed a random civilian in plain sight on the street. At least it’s now clear that Ra-Du lied, and there will be fans who are going to leave him once they run out of excuses. Surprisingly, the public eye is quite strict. I’m sure there won’t be any new fans of Ra-Du. There are rumors that people think Ra-Du is done in the GodTube industry. It’s his fault. He is the one who embarrassed his fans.

«Is that the only thing, Master?»

‘Hahahahaha. I don’t have many pet peeves, but I can’t stand someone badmouthing my little brother!’

Hunter’s power was the pride of the fandom and it was what united the fans. Since Ra-Du volunteered to be in this situation, it was clear how gloomy his fans were. Sometimes they purify themselves, but sometimes they go into a darker path.

—There is a report on an account that made memes with your brother’s face on a corpse. You are going to sue?

As soon as he had gotten the call from his lawyer, he had decided to sue them all. Whether the bastard could be identified or not was an issue, but Ji-Cheok had decided to let Ji-Han and his fifty lawyers handle that. For the time being, Ji-Cheok’s goal was to erase all the excuses that Ra-Du’s fans had.

«People are so hateful, Master.»

‘I agree, Cheok-Liang. I couldn’t even imagine that they would put my brother’s face on a corpse. Really. When my lawyer asked if I was going to sue them for making gifs of my face on a corpse, I didn’t really care. I didn’t even need the settlement money, so I told the lawyers to keep the money if they ended up going to trial.’

1. Ilsan and Paju are both cities north of Seoul. These cities are fairly new and have districts where there are a lot of factories. ☜