I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 194

The Seo sisters had anticipated this reaction from Cha Jin-Hyeok. Seo Ji-Ah and Seo Ji-Soo had learned a lot from him, the most impressive lesson of which was the attitude of being intensely dedicated to everything.

When interacting with Jin-Hyeok, they were equally intense and competitive. Knowing that he was somewhat crazy, they could predict his response.

‘He is so predictable,’ Ji-Soo giggled.

“Have we grown a lot?” she asked Jin-Hyeok.

“Yes.”

Ji-Soo glanced at Ji-Ah. Although she loved Ji-Ah, this was a fair competition.

‘I read the book SSS-Class, 101 Ways to Win a Person’s Heart!’

Ji-Soo always had admirers around her. She was born beautiful, and she never needed to try hard to gain affection. However, due to her affection for Jin-Hyeok, she had spent a whopping 150,000 won on a book called SSS-Class, 101 Ways to Win a Person’s Heart.

She had fallen for the marketing hype.

“Then pat my head, please,” she said, pushing her head forward.

Anyone else would have been flustered at this moment, but Jin-Hyeok was no ordinary man.

‘Is this a new assassination technique?’ he thought.

Remaining alert, he gently stroked her head. He was excited, half-expecting some bizarre assassination attempt from the Shadow Ruler.

‘No assassination attempt, though. Then this must be a setup.’

He became more excited, expecting a lethal move later. Ji-Ah also silently pushed her head forward, wanting the same attention.

“You want your head patted, too?”

Ji-Ah nodded.

‘Both of them are doing this... This has to be a joint attack, right?’

It did not seem like the attack was going to happen right now, but he was certain they would try to assassinate him eventually. Therefore, without letting his guard down, he stroked Ji-Ah’s head too.

‘They have grown so much. They are thoroughly setting up their strategies now.’

He felt pleased.

‘They must have been inspired by the setups I used against Makendra and Zoro.’

Watching their growth was always a joy for him.

“But that guy earlier, he seemed pretty cool,” Ji-Soo said.

“Cool?”

“Yeah. He said he wanted to fight you properly, so he offered to help you and even send you to another Server.”

“Do you really think that’s all there is to it?” Jin-Hyeok shrugged.

“Huh? Isn’t it?’

“You used Broadcaster’s Clairvoyance, right?” Ji-Ah said, confusedly tilting her head. She was questioning if he had read that man’s innermost thoughts.

“Real madness and fake madness are different,” Jin-Hyeok smirked.

If Zoro had been really insane, there would not have been ‘#?’ or something similar in his status. The question mark indicated that the madness was feigned.

“To be honest, I almost mistook it for real madness.” However, Jin-Hyeok knew. He knew what item the Swordsman Zoro from the Outul Server would eventually use.

‘The guy is indeed crazy, but not about me. He is crazy about the Rule Breaker I possess.’

Zoro seemed to be targeting the Rule Breaker.

‘He can’t take it from me now, which means that he perhaps needs my Level to rise significantly before he can.’

This meant that Zoro was somewhat telling the truth when he said he wanted to fight after Jin-Hyeok leveled up some more and there was less of a gap between their Levels.

“So, you knew and still accepted the fight? Why?” Ji-Soo said, jumping up from her seat.

Ji-Ah pressed down on her sister’s thigh, sat her down on the sofa, and whispered, “For Eltube content.”

“...Huh?”

“The gold button. We have to go for it.”

Ji-Ah’s eyes gleamed with real madness. Unlike the status of someone who wielded dual swords, Ji-Ah’s status showed only two words in Jin-Hyeok’s Broadcaster’s Clairvoyance.

[#Gold Button]

***

The universally well-known Black Alliance had suffered a major blow to their prestige.

“Makendra’s death is such a huge loss.”

The Black Alliance had two co-leaders: Sephia and Grandel, artificially created conjoined twins. They had two heads but shared one body. Sephia had the face and personality of a woman, while Grandel had those of a man.

“Losing Makendra is such a waste,” Sephia remarked.

Grandel looked toward Sephia and said, “She was too obvious about her weakness. Anyone who should have known knew how to deal with her.”

The information brokers of the major Servers were already aware of the Black Alliance’s Facility and its purpose. They simply did not interfere out of lack of necessity.

Grandel continued, “Think of it as a blessing in disguise.”

“In what way?”

“It gave us the pretext to take over the Korean Region. We lost several third-ranked Rulers and significant projects under Jonprich and Humphrey Millen. Makendra’s death adds to that.”

The Black Alliance was a universal alliance, but not a major one; a major alliance would not covet a new Server like Earth. But they were not completely obscure, which made carrying out their operations not entirely easy. They had certain standards and pretenses to maintain as strong entities. That was why they had sent only a minimal force to the Earth Server.

Sephia grumbled and scowled at the view before her. “Now that I think about it, we were supposed to acquire Picasso’s Brush. We invested so much in that...”

“No need to discuss what we already know.”

They had bribed numerous GMs in Giethoorn.

“Are you angry with me?” Sephia asked.

“No, not at all. What I mean to say is that we have suffered enough losses already.”

“So?”

Sephia could not fully grasp Grandel’s words. Nor did she need to. Strategizing was Grandel’s responsibility. She had swallowed Grandel, not out of preference, but for his intelligence. Her ability was to swallow things. The Swallowing Croaker managed at their Facility had been partially implanted with Sephia’s ability.

“Of course, Earth is not a resourceful Server, nor is it overflowing with great artifacts. But it has Kim Chul-Soo,” Grandel said.

“Kim Chul-Soo?”

“I need you to swallow Kim Chul-Soo. Now that we have suffered enough, no one can complain about you taking direct action. Swallow him, take ownership of the Guardian Tree, and sell Seoul to people from the major Servers.”

“They want the land in Seoul?”

“It’s perfect for their vacation homes, especially for parents with young kids. They will be rushing to buy it. There is a big river for yachting. We can demolish the existing buildings, build vacation homes suited to these individuals’ tastes, and make a fortune selling them.”

“Wow!” Sephia giggled. “Are we going to be rich?”

“I will make us rich, Sephia.”

They faced each other. Grandel nervously gulped, then stretched his neck out to press his lips against Sephia’s. Sephia considered pushing him away but then let him be. The thought of becoming rich pleased her, and someone she had swallowed harboring affection for her seemed natural to her.

After a moment, Sephia stopped him. “I didn’t allow you to use your tongue.”

With a slightly flushed face, Grandel licked his lips. “When we sell our first vacation home, let me kiss you.”

***

[Fast Level-Up]

Just like the title of his livestream, Jin-Hyeok continued to swiftly level up. Zoro’s offer to help him was indeed genuine.

“This is definitely a Dungeon specialized for leveling up. And here I am, not even doing much as a Streamer.”

The setting allowed the party member, Zoro, to funnel his experience points to Jin-Hyeok.

“The buffaloes are respawning in herds again.

[LV182/Giant Horned Buffalo/Horn Charge]

Jin-Hyeok quietly observed Zoro from a corner, careful not to draw the monsters’ aggro. This Dungeon was a large space where hundreds of buffaloes spawned at once. When Zoro swung his sword to taunt the buffaloes, hundreds of them charged at him simultaneously.

“With the combination of high-Level and lifesteal items, Zoro is easily hunting Level 180 buffaloes. Plus, his dual swords mean his attacks are incredibly fast.”

For a Level 220 Player, hunting Level 180 buffaloes would not yield many experience points. However, all those experience points were being funneled to Jin-Hyeok. Jin-Hyeok had already reached Level 170. It was as fast as leveling up in the Tutorial Field.

‘This is such an easy way to level up. Why don’t other Streamers use it?’

This Dungeon’s name was the Buffalo Temple, a special temple created by those who worshiped buffaloes. Jin-Hyeok already knew about this place. He knew that it was a leveling-exclusive Dungeon best suited for Players from Levels 150 to 200.

However, he had never entered this dungeon before his regression, believing that Level and experience should go hand in hand. He believed that low Levels had their own unique experiences and high Levels theirs, and leveling up too fast meant not going far as a Player.

‘But that’s for combatant-class Players. Streamers should be using this place, right?’

Regardless of Jin-Hyeok’s beliefs, many Players used the Buffalo Temple. Plenty of them were desperate for fast leveling.

‘But strangely, Streamers don’t seem to use this place.’

Jin-Hyeok slightly twisted his body and deflected an attack from a buffalo charging at him. He avoided strong attacks to prevent drawing the monsters’ aggro, using minimal movements.

“With so many monsters, some of the aggro seems to be getting diverted from Zoro.”

Since the hunting was becoming a bit boring due to its repetitive nature, Jin-Hyeok was glad to maintain a certain level of tension. It seemed the number of live viewers was not dropping much either.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have reached Level 180.]

The users of the Korean Region Minor Gallery, well aware of this Buffalo Temple, clicked their tongues in disbelief.

[That place is generally used by combatant-class Tanks, especially those specialized in defense, who want to level up fast.]

┗Explain, please.

┗Please make it easy for newbies to understand.

[That Dungeon is optimized for high-Level, damage-dealing Players to massacre buffaloes. Buffaloes are aggressive and have strong attacking power, but their defense is rubbish. Simply put, they are damage-focused monsters. They don’t have any resistance to life steal, so a high-Level damage dealer with life steal items can easily massacre them in large numbers.]

[The key factor is that those monsters are damage-focused. A high-Level Player can take a few hits even without any life steal items, but it’s a whole different story for the low-Level Players that are there to level up.]

Ultimately, some buffaloes would attack the low-Level Players. Reacting too strongly could lead to a swarm of buffalo attacks and eventually death.

[In the end, to survive inside this Dungeon, you need to be able to easily deflect the buffaloes’ attacks with minimal movements. And not many low-Level Players can do that, physically and mentally.]

From Jin-Hyeok’s perspective, anyone could use this Dungeon to level up, but his memory was slightly distorted. Not everyone could level up in the Dungeon; only those with enough defensive stats to withstand the buffaloes’ attacks and the mental composure to handle them calmly did. In Jin-Hyeok’s view, it was just a place for everyone.

[It looks easy, though. If I go there, I can level up quickly too!]

┗Watching someone do it is always easier than actually doing it, you idiot.

┗Yeah, I can play soccer better than Son Heung-Min[1] if I’m just sitting in a chair watching the game.

Many users shared links to videos of incidents in the Buffalo Temple on the Korean Region Minor Gallery. Contrary to Jin-Hyeok’s distorted memory, the Buffalo Temple was quite challenging. The entry was limited to five Players, typically consisting of four high-Level Players and one low-Level player. Only wealthy players from affluent families could afford to hire four high-Level Players.

[Both Zoro, who is dealing all that damage alone, and Chul-Soo, who seems unfazed at Level 170, are crazy.]

┗Did you not watch the livestream? He is Level 180 now.

┗Eh? In just two days?

┗You didn’t watch the livestream for two whole days?

┗You’re not intense enough. Tsk, tsk.

┗I repent. I was not intense enough. Please forgive me, Mr. IntenseMan.

[Holy shit, Chul-Soo just reached Level 200. How is that even possible?]

┗Isn’t that the fastest level-up up to date?

┗Wow, Chul-Soo is no longer a mid-Level Player.

┗Technically, with the Mythic-Grade Card, he’s essentially Level 220!

Jin-Hyeok had indeed reached Level 200 at an incredible speed, faster than even he had anticipated.

‘This actually... works?’ he thought.

Right after he reached Level 200, a notification sounded for him.

1. Son Heung-Min is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the South Korea national team. Often regarded as the greatest Asian footballer of all time, he is known for his speed, finishing, two-footedness and ability to link play. ☜