Thumbs Up, Level Up

“Alright, I signed it.”

Bi-Ga signed the contract while Ji-Cheok thought about things for a moment. This contract was also enforced by a skill. Once it was signed, it could never be broken. If, for some reason, the contract was broken, something terrible would happen to the soul of the offender.

“Okay, now that you have signed the confidentiality agreement, let’s talk.”

“Okay tell me,” Bi-Ga said.

“I am actually a God.”

Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. Bi-Ga’s expression froze so hard that Ji-Cheok could see the blue screen of death in her eyes.

She was silent for a moment, and she looked as if steam was about to shoot out of her ears.

«Rumor has it that Bi-Ga has replaced half of her body with machines, so maybe she put some sort of computing device in her brain.»

‘Well, I guess math is faster for electronics than humans.’

“Wait, wait…. What are you talking about? I thought you were human?”

“I was human. Not anymore, though.”

“Really? When? When did that happen?”

“Last time I was in the Philippines. I encountered the Twisted God there. I defeated it and became a God myself. Do you want me to say hello?”

[The [GodTube_superstar] waved at you.]

Bi-Ga got a new message.

“What is this?”

Ji-Cheok had never seen her so flustered. She was always laid back and had a smirk on her face.

“This… This is…”

“Yep. It’s possible.”

“So, is that why you could use so many different skills?”

“Actually, no. That’s an ability I had when I was a Hunter, not the ability I got when I became a God. Also, that’s not that point right now.”

Ji-Cheok took a deep breath.

“The Gods can bestow skills to their retainers, and with that, I will give you what you need. In exchange, you will be my retainer. How about that?”

Her confusion subsided, and she looked at him with serious eyes.

“Wow, this is ridiculous. I can’t believe you solved the problem I have spent my entire life thinking about.”

She had longed to reach the pinnacle of science, to reach for the sky. To her, Ji-Cheok was just a crazy GodTuber, someone she could enjoy watching while taking a break from work. She had never expected someone like him to reach where she wanted to get just by being a GodTuber.

“Wow… Hahaha… Damn it. I guess life is unfair.”

Ji-Cheok had never thought he would hear that from a second-generation chaebol, a genius scientist, and the owner of one of the world’s top three drone companies.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

⌜Are you ready?⌟

“I am!”

Jung Bi-Ga agreed to be under his power, and Ji-Cheok spent about 500 million Likes giving her skill after skill from among the ones that he had already mastered. She then even managed to upgrade those to a higher class.

[Arcane Engineer of the Abyss]. That was her original job. It was said that she peered into the uncertain informational world of the Abyss, where records and memories floated in space, and retrieved knowledge from there to use as a skill. The problem was that if a person kept looking into the Abyss, their mental state would get more and more polluted, and they would eventually become insane.

‘Maybe that’s why she is so cynical.’

That was why he gave her a lot of mental defense skills.

When he made her into his apostle, something amazing happened: she became able to obtain Likes. By making her an apostle, she gained some of his power.

However, while she collected Likes, she could not use the Likes Shop like he could. She had to give the Likes to him and he could buy skills for her. In other words, Ji-Cheok was sandwiched between her and the Likes System.

Anyway, after she became his apostle and got a bunch of skills from him, she upgraded them and gained a new skill of her own.

[Authority of the Creator]

[Class: Legendary

The creator exerts a powerful influence over their creations.]

With this skill, Bi-Ga was able to control everything she built. Apparently, she had originally planted a backdoor in the program that allowed her to take over control of her machines if anything happened, but this was something else entirely. With this skill, she directly controlled the vast majority of things on this construction site.

And with her support, right now, Ji-Cheok was under the deep sea.

«According to my calculation, 4 billion Likes will be enough, Master.»

‘Improving Bi-Ga’s skills was the right answer. I guess Divine Intuition is quite useful.’

«It is not as accurate as divination skills that can tell the future, but it is still a very powerful ability.»

Because of that skill, Ji-Cheok decided to make Bi-Ga his apostle and give her his skills. He had a feeling this would be the way to go. And it worked out great! He had spent 500 million Likes on her, and those 500 million had saved him about 10 billion! It was amazing!

And now, he was planning on joining forces with her to erect the dimensional barrier pillar.

The water pressure of the deep sea was powerful, but his shield was far superior. He was looking around from inside the spherical shield that he had created, just four meters in diameter.

The deep sea was supposed to be lightless, but there were thousands of pieces of heavy machinery around him that could withstand the pressure of the water that Bi-Ga had sent down. There were also mountains of parts and pieces of metal everywhere. The heavy machinery picked them up and placed them against the base of the dimensional barrier pillar.

The pieces of metal were then fused together according to the blueprint, using a skill that the machines were endowed with. From a distance, it looked like thousands of ant-like creatures were putting together a huge nest.

The lowest part, which was about a kilometer tall, was already complete. It was truly a massive-scale construction. Even at this stage, it was bigger than all of the pyramids together.

⌜System online. All green. Magic circle synaptic connections. All green. You may begin.⌟

Lines of magical power began to connect between thousands of heavy machines. The entire ocean floor was bathed in light.

Ji–Cheok landed at the base of the dimensional barrier pillar that was under construction. He dropped to one knee in the center of it, running his hand over the smooth metal.

“Likes in. Build the dimensional barrier pillar.”

The Likes were the currency of reverence people paid him. Some people considered it a mere passing sentiment, but it gave Ji-Cheok strength as a God.

‘I can see why the Gods are so insistent on getting a lot of worshipers.’

The emotional energy of the worshipers became divine power. That divine power that normally nourished Ji-Cheok was now sucked into the base of the pillar, and the materials blanketing the surroundings flew up in a light of their own.

The place where he stood slowly rose up as piece after piece of metal fused into the pillar.

“Planting the seed is the hard part, the rest is easy.”

⌜An additional kilometer is built in just thirty minutes… Is this… the power of God?⌟

BI-Ga’s astonished voice echoed from behind him. In the meantime, Ji-Cheok’s Like counter dropped at a visible rate, while the pillar grew at the same pace.

They had the power, the equipment, and the materials, so everything was going smoothly.

For a few minutes.

«We are under attack, Master. They are coming from above.»

‘I expected this to happen.’

“Create Many-Faced Avatar.”

Flash!

Search "pawread dot com" for the original.

His clones were wiping out dungeons in the North. However, he had left a slot open for this very occasion.

“Stay here and continue to build the pillar.”

“Got it.”

Ji-Cheok left instructions to his clone and left.

He flew into the sky above the Arctic construction base with his Steps of Hermes, and what he saw was nothing short of a mythological battle between gods and titans.

“Kiiiieeek!”

In the distance, far away from the Arctic construction base, dungeons had sprung up. Some appeared high above, where no dimensional barrier generators could be installed, while some were on the ice shelf far away from the base.

Out of the dungeons higher up came monsters that looked like mutant bats, wyverns, and insects. From the dungeons on the ground, bipedal humanoid monsters made of boiling steam and shards of metal came out, together with toad-like creatures with multiple tentacles. Yet other dungeons let out who knew how many species of different monsters.

There were three in the sky and seven on the ground!

Ji-Cheok felt that whoever opened up the dungeons was up to some serious business.

Tu-tu-tu-tu!

Tsss!

The drones fired rounds after rounds of depleted uranium ammunition. These drones were skill-enhanced contraptions, and the ammunition was a marvelous innovation that Bi-Ga always bragged about—it maximized the power of depleted uranium and delivered both energy-type and physical damage. The projectiles tore the chimera bats to shreds, punctured the wyverns’ wings and sent them crashing to the ground, and shattered the insect monsters into small bits.

At the same time, there was another group of drones spraying lightning. The lightning cascaded upon the monsters in the air, roasting them in droves.

Their firepower was insane; the only problem was that there were just too many monsters.

‘How many of these crazy monsters are there? It looks like the drones are killing a lot, but the numbers keep growing! They’re literally covering the sky!

«It seems like the Gods are serious about hindering your plan, Master.»

“Which Gods are responsible? I’m going to find them and beat the shit out of them one by one.”

«I bet they are watching your livestream right now.»

‘These assholes… If I find out who they are, I’ll ban them from my channel.’

As he looked down at the ground, he realized that there was no shortage of pandemonium here either. There were tens of thousands of monsters clinging to the barrier protecting the site and pounding on it.

Fortunately, he could attack the outside from inside the shield. Thanks to this, the attack towers built by Bi-Ga were attacking with terrifying momentum, but the monsters were using their own defensive abilities to hold out. On top of that, the Hunters’ offensive skills rained down. Their flames, lightning, and explosions poured down on the attacking monsters.

Despite their efforts, more monsters survived than they expected. They seemed even tougher than the monsters in the air. And to make matters worse, the dungeons in the distance were still spewing monsters.

‘I thought there is a limit to the number of monsters that can come out of a dungeon during a Break… but this is an all-out war. I wish I could just nuke them, but no matter how much I have reinforced the glacier, nuking it would shatter the whole thing.’

If the Arctic ice sheet broke up and melted, the sea level would rise immediately, and so would the concentration of methane gas in the atmosphere, which would keep the temperature up. Coupled with the ever-increasing mana concentration in the mix, it would not be long before the Earth would become uninhabitable, like Mars.

Of course, the planet itself would be just fine eventually, but the humans and other creatures living on it were going to be fucked.

Of course, Ji-Cheok did not need to think that far. There were problems to come in the immediate future—namely, that his bombardment would destroy the Arctic construction site and the thousands of people gathered here.

‘You bastards. You want to do this? Then let’s do this! If you want to play the numbers game, I’ll play along. And I’ll be the God of defense!’

“Cheok-Liang! Buy all the skills related to formations. Summon Dr. Know-it-all’s All-Purpose Golem!”

Because Cheok-Liang was a special summoned beast, he could be linked to Ji-Cheok’s skills. Unfortunately, his other types of summoned being could not do that, but he could at least buff all of his summons however he wanted.

This Dr. Know-it-all’s All-Purpose Golem was a summoned being with excellent crafting skills. As the name suggested, this golem was not terribly proficient at fighting, but it had an incredible range of skills. And Ji-Cheok had a very specific job for them.

“Build towers!”

‘It’s time for some good old tower defense, you bastards!’