Thumbs Up, Level Up

Actually… Ji-Cheok hadn’t been trying to become a God at all. He had just thought that if he consumed all the dungeon Cores, the people of the Tama Clan would belong to him. That was what he had intended.

The gamble had paid off, but the problem was that it had paid off by him becoming a God. The reason why this was a problem was that being a God was… well, not the same as being human.

His senses were different. He could close his eyes and still ‘see’ everything centered around him.

Actually, it was more like ‘perceiving’ rather than ‘seeing’. Just as a person who had been blind since birth could not understand that he had two good eyes, a human being born with two eyes, one nose, two ears, and one mouth could not be the same as a divine being, who ‘perceived’ space itself.

But now here he was. A true-blue God.

So, Ji-Cheok was adjusting like crazy. It was not just about his senses, it was also about the new knowledge and feelings that he had obtained. For example, it seemed like he now perfectly understood how his skills worked. He hadn’t been able to fully comprehend them as a human, but now that he was a God, he understood everything.

“Ugh. So you’re just going to stay here?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“Of course. This is better than the bed.”

“Well... If that’s what you want, I can’t say no.”

Mu-Cheok put him back into the water.

“Are you going to eat anything?”

“Yes. Call me when it’s time to eat. Where’s Reable, by the way?”

“He’s gone.”

“What?”

“He said he was going sightseeing, I dunno. He’s not here.”

“Ji-Han said okay to that?”

“Yeah.”

‘Why would you leave that crazy God by himself?’

He tried to get up but just fell back into the water.

‘Eh, do whatever you want. He has a contract with me, so I guess he’ll figure it out.’

“Call me when it’s time to eat.”

“Okay, hyung.”

Mu-Cheok stepped out of the pool.

Ji-Cheok stared blankly at the sky again. To be precise, though his eyes were staring outward, his mind was looking inward, at his inner essence. He thought about the immense force that surrounded the world and the very thing that connected him to his world. The thing that gave people power and jobs, the thing that allowed Hunters to level up.

He thought about the System.

Now, he knew what the System was.

It was an entity created by the combined power of countless Gods. Basically, it was a God created by the Gods. The Gods were obviously great and powerful beings.

‘But what is it like to be a God created by the combined power of those Gods? Pretty freaking powerful, that’s what. It’s not something a rookie God like me can compare to.’

At this point, it was impossible for the Gods to destroy or kill the System with their power. Of course, it was not like the System was going around killing Gods either.

Those things really didn’t matter to Ji-Cheok. The problem was that he now knew the reason why the world would end after the Tutorial.

As he stared blankly into the void, he saw things that he couldn’t see before.

There were cracks, or at least things that looked like cracks to him, in the sky. Many thin black cracks marred the perfect blue.

These cracks that he could now see because he had become a God were dimension cracks.

What this meant was that the dimension where his world was located was falling apart. It was not that someone had attacked it, but rather that the world was always meant to be like this.

‘I can’t even go and tell this to people.’

The Earth was like a candle that was burning out. The dimension of their world had outlived its lifespan. That didn’t mean the world itself was going to disappear; it was just that some life forms, including humans, were screwed.

Later, other species would take over and thrive. Ji-Cheok was certain that cockroaches, at least, would survive. Humanity, however, would be left behind.

If someone asked him when did this all happen, he would tell them that it was already over when the first Dungeon Gate Incident happened. That was when the System put up a shield around the planet.

That was the start of the Tutorial.

When the concentration of mana in the entire world would increase to a certain level…the Tutorial would end. The shield would be lifted, and through the cracks in the shattered dimensional wall, monsters from other worlds would cross over, along with who-knew-how-many dungeons.

“Sigh… We have a long way to go…”

Now that he was a God, he realized how long this world had until the expiration date. It was just a bit less than a year.

In a year, the Tutorial shield would come off, and enemies from other dimensions would pour in like a waterfall. Those stupid Gods would grab the popcorn and enjoy the show, and if they saw a human they wanted, they would just take them.

The good news was that he knew what he needed to do to save the world. The bad news was that it seemed impossible. And he realized that Ji-Han knew this as well, with his divination skills. That was why his teammate was always running around with that serious face.

‘What do you think, Cheok-Liang?’

In response to his question, Cheok-Liang answered while sipping on his coconut milk.

«Ji-Han must know the future with certainty, but he sees it from a different point of view from yours.»

‘In his version of the future, would I have become a God?’

«Judging by the reactions of your team members, he has not foreseen this future either.»

‘So in other words, my current situation is an anomaly, right? Then we might have a chance. I have come up with two plans to save the world.’

«I am assuming you are referring to the burning of mana and the construction of a dimensional barrier, Master.»

Cheok-Liang was right. The reason why the Tutorial was ending was the increased amount of mana in the world. When the amount of mana in a world increased sufficiently, the System considered that the world no longer needed to be protected. That was why the shield disappeared and the Tutorial ended.

‘So what if we just burned all our mana away? And if we did that and reduced the amount of mana in the world, the Tutorial would continue for a while longer, and our world would be safer. Maybe we should talk to Reable about this.’

The second plan was the construction of a dimensional barrier. This meant fixing the goddamn cracked sky. Finding a way to do that was a tall order, but fixing the barrier was also much more of a world-saver than prolonging the Tutorial.

«But it is going to be difficult either way, Master. You do not know if those Gods will even leave you alone, do you?»

‘That’s true. Now that I’m a God, I know how they think. They are watching us because they want to find humans they can use and take them as their underlings. That was why [He_who_denies_death] came to me and asked me to be his apostle.’

«It looks like you have got a long way to go, Master…»

‘Still, I think I can do it somehow. Don’t you think? You’ve grown too, Cheok-Liang.’

«Yes, Master. Since you have become a God, I, your Divine Spirit, have been upgraded as well. I can now gather more information.»

‘I see. Please continue to serve me well, Cheok-Liang.’

«I will do my best to fulfill your cause, Master!»

Ji-Cheok just stayed there floating for a while, then crawled out of the water when he heard the voice of Mu-Cheok telling him that food was ready.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“So you can become a God like that?”

“Of course~ You can become a God at any time. It’s surprisingly easy to become a God~”

Ji-Han and Reable, two equally yet differently handsome men, were walking down a road in the Philippines. Behind them, on a road that was not paved with asphalt and had no streetlights, lay several dead bodies.

While the urban parts of the Philippines were as well developed as any other country in the world, the areas outside the urban areas were far less developed. Security was not good, to say the least. In this particular spot, a couple of muggers had just been gunned down earlier in the day.

The two walked on, chatting as if none of that mattered.

“But it must be difficult for you. How many times is this now, Mr. Ji-Han?”

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“You noticed?”

“Hahaha! How could I not when I’m observing you so closely? How could I not recognize that you are a regressor? Don’t worry, no one is listening to our conversation, and those watching from afar are unaware of you. It’s so interesting, isn’t it?”

Ji-Han’s cold eyes bored into Reable.

“I’ve thought about joining hands with you a few times, though I never did.”

“Hmph~ That could be because I am not an easy man to get along with.”

“I still can’t believe you’re so compliant.”

“Well, Mr. Umji is a lot of fun~! Besides, the contract I made with Mr. Umji is very powerful, so it’s a little hard to mess with him. So, what do you really want to know?”

“What are these beings called Gods?”

“Aha!” Reable smirked. “Is that what you were wondering? Hm…. I guess you would be curious about that, yeah.”

He continued, still smiling in an unpleasant way.

“A God is a being that has reached a certain realm. If someone touches the concept of death and claims the realm as their own, then they become the God of Death! Simple as that. Oh, and here’s the kicker.”

“What is it?”

“There must be no others. There cannot be ten Gods of Time, can there?”

“But I thought there were many Gods of Death?”

“That's because they see death from different perspectives, so they can exist at the same time, but they see each other as prey. They hope that one day they will eat each other and only one true God of Death will remain!”

Stumped by Reable’s cheerful tone, Ji-Han thought for a moment.

“So you are saying that if you touch a realm from a different perspective, you can become a new God, and if you touch a realm from the same perspective, you must defeat or destroy the original God, correct?” Ji-Han asked.

“Or you can eat them.”

Reable put his hand at his mouth and mimicked munching on something.

As Ji-Han watched, he thought about the Forest of the Twisted God. He thought about how that place had become a dungeon when the two Fragments of the Gods had been thrown there together as they were trying to eat each other.

“I guess it is something to think about.”

“But, Mr. Ji-Han, you do know that a God or two is not enough to return this planet to its former glory, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“This world was already doomed a long time ago, and the System just postponed the inevitable apocalypse~”

What he said gave Ji-Han the chills.

“Well, well. I guess that’s it for our little chit-chat. It looks like they are here to greet us.”

Reable pointed ahead. A fireball, obviously created by a Hunter’s skill, wavered in the darkness. Beneath it stood the leader of the Tama Clan. He was the being that looked less like a human with plant features and more like a tree that had somehow grown in the shape of a man: Macaw of the White Charcoal. He had been waiting for them.

“Thank you for coming. I also thank the embodiment of the God for traveling this far.”

“Macaw, did you gather everyone?”

“Of course, they are all waiting to cleanse this country.”

“Very well, let’s go in.”

A secret meeting that Ji-Cheok had no idea about, was about to begin.