Thumbs Up, Level Up

The Philippine army and navy surrounded the perilous dungeon [Forest of the Twisted God], so that nothing could come out of the dungeon. This was because the dungeon had swallowed up thousands of Hunters, and when a Dungeon Break occurred, the Hunters who died inside the dungeon turned into monsters and attacked the surrounding areas. If the current group entering the dungeon failed… a bigger disaster was sure to happen.

That was why several warships were closely watching the dungeon. And when they saw intense light coming from the dungeon, everyone instantly tensed up. The admiral of the fleet assigned to defend the area watched the dungeon with a stiff expression.

Then, they heard the notification.

[You have cleared the dungeon.]

[You have destroyed the dungeon.]

Outside, even the non-Awakened people could hear the voice of the System. It was a simple announcement about the dungeon being cleared. It was common knowledge in the modern world.

“The dungeon has been cleared!” “YEAAAAH!!”

“The Koreans have done it! Woooo!!”

The soldiers all cheered at the news of the dungeon being cleared. This alone bought them at least a year of time, since the horrible Dungeon Break usually happened once a year.

The admiral sighed in relief.

Suddenly, he realized he had just heard two announcements.

‘Wait… That voice told us… that the dungeon has been destroyed…’

As he thought that, the Portal slowly began to shrink. The entrance to the dungeon, which could not be closed by any human means, shrank to a point and disappeared into thin air.

“That… That’s….”

One of the soldiers next to the admiral stuttered and pointed at where the Portal used to be.

The dungeon was completely gone.

And in its place stood the team that had entered the dungeon.

“We have confirmed that there are seven Hunters that survived!”

“They are the same ones who went in!”

As the observers reported, the admiral used his skill to see into the distance. The seven Hunters were moving about, chatting noisily.

But what happened next was even more surprising.

Suddenly, a rift appeared in the sky. It was not like a Portal or something similar, but more like a crack or a crevice in the air. Out of it stepped a group of odd-looking beings.

“Monsters!”

“Wait, the dungeon’s not been fully cleared?” the admiral said in shock.

“Multiple monsters confirmed!”

“Prepare to fire!”

The command ship was in chaos. Naturally, they thought that a Dungeon Break had occurred.

A battle was imminent.

“Hold!” the admiral shouted.

He looked solemnly at the monsters, noticing that they all looked at least partially human. They were the Hunters that had suffered mutations in the dungeon. However, their behavior was strange.

They did not attack them at all; instead, they dropped their weapons on the ground. Then, suddenly, they swarmed toward one of the Hunters, grabbed him, and tossed him in the air.

They all began to shout in unison.

“Umji is the greatest!”

“Praise our savior!”

They kept shouting and throwing the Hunter up into the sky as if they were celebrating something. While he was airborne, the Hunter raised his thumbs.

“PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE~!”

He actually imbued his voice with mana!

“Admiral…uh…that is…”

Even with their poor translation skills, the listeners could tell that the shout referred to GodTube videos.

‘Wait, is that Hunter wearing a hamster suit?!’

“Everyone, cease fire!”

“Cease fire! Cease fire!”

The admiral had a hunch: the dungeon had really been destroyed, and those who belonged to the dungeon had now returned to their world.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

⌜Hunter Macaw, a well-respected member of the Philippine society, is a righteous man who, despite his age, has remained active and committed to the country. He is also running an orphanage and…⌟

⌜In the Philippines, members of the Alpha Team of Jungjin have succeeded in wiping out the Forest of the Twisted God, a dungeon that has been a scourge on the country for years. The Hunters are now…⌟

⌜Currently, the Philippine government has established diplomatic relations with Korea…⌟

⌜A tectonic shift in the makeup of the potion industry in the Philippine market is set to take place if Jungjin’s duty-free potions become a reality. The President of the Philippines is officially on board with…⌟

⌜The Alpha Team of Jungjin has succeeded in rescuing some of the Philippines’ top Hunters from the dungeon, and are now the most popular Hunters in the country…⌟

The Philippines was laced with drugs, guns, and drug cartels with guns, but it was still a very populous country. Even after all the dungeon breaks, the country still had a population of eighty million! The economy as a whole was rather weak, but the sheer number of people made it a pretty big market for foreign countries.

Becoming a hero in such a place was a huge matter, and special TV programs about it were broadcast all over Korea. It was not surprising—it had been a long time since they had such exciting TV content.

That was not all. On GodTube, all sorts of nationalistic videos popped up like mushrooms.

⌜The President of the United States was amazed and the Japanese Prime Minister lamented. “Why don’t we have Hunters like Alpha Team from Jungjin?” Who are these Hunters in the Jungjin Alpha Team?⌟

⌜Britain and France sent them requests for naturalization, the United States say they will give them citizenship right away! Let’s find out about the Alpha Team of Jungjin, who have become heroes in the Philippines!⌟

The titles of these programs were ridiculous! Of course, no matter how unconventional the titles were, they couldn’t beat the title of Ji-Cheok’s own video.

⌜A walkthrough for the Forest of the Twisted God⌟

This video was posted by Um Ji-Cheok himself! Of course, that was after being thoroughly checked and edited by Cheok-Liang, who was now Ji-Cheok’s general manager.

In less than a week, the video amassed two hundred million views, and at the same time, the number of Likes surpassed thirty million. The viewers especially loved the scene at the end where Ji-Cheok was being tossed in the air in a hamster suit.

-I cried at the reaction video…

This novel is available on "pawread dot com".

-The reaction vlogger in the Philippines with three million views said his video was actually about his parents and that’s why he filmed it! It was a video about his parents in the dungeon!

-Haters said that he was selling his parents to get more views.

-Yeah, and he even said that he was going to donate all of his profit from advertisements to the people he filmed.

That was not all. The number of subscribers was also rising steeply. Soon, it exceeded ten million. The number one GodTube channel had more than a hundred million subscribers, so Ji-Cheok was only at ten percent of that, but it was still a great feat since his GodTube channel had been around for much less time comparatively.

Furthermore, the number of comments that the video amassed showed how popular he had become.

-That’s cray cray.

↳What’s cray?

↳Crazy! You idiot!

-Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God? Um Ji-Cheok, is he a God?

-Um Ji-Cheok Punch! Um Ji-Cheok Punch! Um Ji-Cheok Punch! Um Ji-Cheok Punch!

↳Shouldn’t it be Um Ji-Cheok Slash?

↳You’re right. Um Ji-Cheok Slash! Um Ji-Cheok Slash! Um Ji-Cheok Slash! Um Ji-Cheok Slash!

-Umji!!!!! 乃乃乃乃乃 You’re the greatest!!!!

↳222222

↳ 3333333

-He cut a God in half… How is that possible?

-Reason #2347 why our Umji is the greatest: as soon as he got home after all that hard work, he posted a mukbang video of him eating spicy ramen.

↳Shouldn’t he stop doing that? He’s too famous to do these small videos.

↳ Stick to your roots, Umji!

-Reason why our Umji is a tough cookie: even after all that nonsense, he put on a hamster outfit and took a photo of himself being tossed into the sky just for the thumbnail.

↳I agree 100%.

-Mr. Um. He is a hero. He has a bright future.

-On a serious note, it seems certain that Um Ji-Cheok is strong. There is no one even in China who uses cultivation skills to that extent. But does that mean he is as strong as ‘That Hunter’ or the top-tier Hunters in the United States? I heard they are no joke.

↳But there are hardly any videos of them, right?

↳ There are a lot of videos of ‘That Hunter’ though.

↳But, if you look closely at ‘That Hunter’s’ videos, they don’t show the details of his skills and such.

↳Well, there is no disputing that ‘That Hunter’ is the strongest Hunter in existence but…

-Oh waiter~ Send me some of that national pride! No, give me all of it!

-Please stand for the national anthem for Umji!

-Umji for the Congress!

-Umji for President!

The comments were chaotic. It was as if they were having a festival in the comment section.

It was not just in Korea. Foreigners were also coming in and writing comments. The auto-translated posts were phrased very strangely, but Ji-Cheok had no trouble understanding them.

Of course, Ji-Cheok was not the only one who had become more popular.

Ji-Han, Ji-Byeok, Mu-Cheok, Seong Kwang, Ha-Na, and even Reable… They were all making waves. They were at the peak of their popularity.

Right now, the team was lounging in a luxurious hotel in the Philippines.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

«This coconut milk tastes really good.»

‘Good. It’s all yours, Cheok-Liang.’

«Thank you, Master!»

‘No worries. It feels good to be just mindlessly floating in the pool and looking up at the sky. I feel like a white cloud in the sky.’

Cheok-Liang was perched on his chest, sucking on the coconut milk bottle that was floating beside him. Ji-Cheok was scratching the soles of Cheok-Liang’s paws, soothing his mind and body.

‘Ah… Is this what it feels like to be in heaven? My body is melting and becoming one with Mother Nature…’

“Hyung, stop being so weird.”

Mu-Cheok was looking at his older brother with a disappointed expression. Surprisingly, he was standing on the surface of the water.

‘This guy. When did he learn to do this? I don’t remember teaching him that kind of cultivation skill.’

“Is that a cultivation skill?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“Nope, it’s magic.”

“Aquatic Steps?”

“No, Water Walking.”

“You can use magic spells?”

“I have some built-in spells. It’s one of the perks of having a modified body.”

“Ah, I see.”

“By the way, hyung. You need to get up. You look like an absolute loser.”

“I would love it if you could just call it a warrior’s rest. I’ve been working so hard. I’m so tired, wild bee ~♪”[1].

Mu-Cheok tugged his brother’s arm hard. With amazing nimbleness, Cheok-Liang climbed on Ji-Cheok’s neck and grabbed the coconut milk bottle with his front paws.

‘Awww. My fennec is so cute!’

Mu-Cheok swept him up with one hand. Ji-Cheok was now squirming in his grasp.

“I don’t know what to do with you!” Mu-Cheok said.

“Just let me recharge. And I’m not just lying around. I’m also working.”

“You mean, that?”

“Yes, that.”

Everyone in the dungeon knew that he had become a God. And since the people of the Tama Clan now belonged to him, he had to make sure this was kept secret from the media.

That was why they were speaking in code. Ji-Cheok was not lying to his brother—he looked like he was just watching paint dry, but he was really working hard.

He was working hard on adjusting to being a God!

1. This is a part of the lyrics of a famous Korean trot song called Wild Bee. Koreans hum this song when they’re trying to tell other people that they’re tired, as a joke. ☜