Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 61

As the two holy knights rushed to block Ji-Cheok, holy light flashed from their bodies. However, the undead holy power was broken apart by the Sword Qi overflowing in front of the bike. The light shattered and their thick armor cracked like seashells. Then, the massive momentum of the Mono Bike hit the enemies at full speed.

Bam!

The two holy knights were easily torn apart like puzzle pieces. Their limbs shattered like the screen of a phone dropped from a skyscraper. On the opposite side, even after hitting the two holy knights, Ji-Cheok’s bike had no scratches or dents.

With the two knights dead, Ji-Cheok attacked the temple soldiers.

Crack!

The skull of one of the temple soldiers was crushed. After killing the temple soldier, the Mono Bike stopped and fell to the ground.

‘Good job, Mono Bike!’

“Release!”

Ji-Cheok shifted his bike into the other dimension.

Shoong!

The Mono Bike became particles of light and was absorbed into Ji-Cheok’s body. The temple soldiers and the priest shone with a hideous light while looking at Ji-Cheok. Seeing this, the next thing Ji-Cheok did was very simple.

“Run!”

Bang!

Ji-Cheok started to run away from the crowd of the undead with the superhuman footwork that he had gained from training cultivation. The enemies were running toward Ji-Cheok, but the distance between them kept getting farther.

?Master, Mono Bike has been released, so it cannot be re-summoned for a while.?

“I know that. I can buy that much time—huh?’

Ji-Cheok felt a tremendous amount of power behind him. In an instant, Ji-Cheok\'s hair stood on end, and his muscles tensed up.

‘What is this?’

?Master, I can feel a large amount of divine power.?

“That means…”

Ji-Cheok stood for a moment and looked across the passage he had just escaped from.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

Not just one or two, but a group of hundreds of undead were marching in formation from a distance. Ji-Cheok got goosebumps at the sight. These undead enemies were smart, and they had no fear of death because they were already dead. All that remained in their hollow soul was their demented piety toward their God. They felt no pain either, and worst of all there was an army full of them. Just looking at them gave Ji-Cheok the chills. He had a hard time even putting this sensation into words. In the end, he managed to think of a phrase that could describe what he was feeling.

‘Insanely scary.’

?Master, this is definitely not an ordinary dungeon.?

“I definitely think so too.”

Ji-Cheok had to go back to his teammates and tell them about this situation.

* * *

“Huh? Where did they go?”

When Ji-Cheok came back, the others were nowhere to be found. Ji-Cheok was confused, since the passage was one-way and there was nowhere to hide. He just stood there, looking around like a cat chasing mice.

?Master, they are up there.?

“Up where?”

As soon as Ji-Cheok looked up, he heard a voice. It was Seong Kwang’s voice.

“We’re up here!”

The team’s starting point in the dungeon looked like a large hall, and there were no exits apart from the one Ji-Cheok had just used. It was just like old castles or old churches in Europe—a high ceiling and various statues of saints and angels on the walls. From behind one of those statues, Seong Kwang’s face was sticking out. He looked like a mouse from Ji-Cheok’s angle.

Suddenly, a rope came down from where Seong Kwang was. The team had brought rope as a supply, so there was nothing strange about it, but Ji-Cheok didn’t know it was going to be used like this.

As Ji-Cheok quickly climbed up the rope, he saw a small passageway behind the stone statue that could barely fit a single person. It appeared to be a secret passage.

It seemed like Ji-Han really had bought a lot of information from his God.

“Welcome back.”

“Hyung, did you get hurt?”

Ji-Han’s greeting and Mu-CHeok’s question were simultaneously thrown at Ji-Cheok.

“Do I look like I would get hurt? By the way, how did you find this passage?”

“The director knew about this place.”

‘Of course, your leader knew about it.’

Sure enough, Ji-Han knew about the passage.

“I see. Then, do you also know what I saw during my recon mission? Ji-Cheok asked.

”Is it really bad?” Ji-Byeok asked as they were going inside.

Mu-Cheok and Seong Kwang were also curious.

“Yes… Monsters with intelligence… I didn’t know it could be this terrible,” Ji-Han said.

“What is going on…”

“Hundreds are gathering and marching here like an army. I came as fast as I could to warn you and come up with a countermeasure before the enemy got to us. But it seems like…”

“Like we can hide in here, yes. It was almost impossible to find, but it exists.”

Ji-Han took over Ji-Cheok’s words.

“Ah, I think I get it. Dungeons are designed in a way that there is always a way out,” Mu-Cheok said after thinking deeply.

‘Mu-Cheok is always quick to understand.’

Ji-Cheok had heard about this story many times before. It even came up as a question in the written test for Awakened Registration. A dungeon had to have a way out. It was an absolute rule that seemed to be set by the Gods.

“The world is crumbling… And there are those who try to stop it. They called themselves Gods. It’s a famous story,” Ji-Han said.

Ji-Cheok felt a sense of sarcasm in Ji-Han’s voice.

‘Is it just me?’

Looking at the faces of other people, it seemed like they didn’t feel any sarcasm at all.

‘Maybe they are just pretending to not know…’

After all, there were surprisingly many atheists as well as fanatics in this crazy world. To be precise, it was not that there was no God, but that they were useless. Because Gods definitely did exist. In fact, there were even voices claiming that dungeons appearing in the first place and the world becoming this chaotic was all because of the Gods. Ultimately, however, nobody knew the truth. Hunters could trade information with the Gods, but for some reason, the Gods would never tell them why the world was like this.

“Now, I think I’ve gathered all the information there is to know. Let me tell you about our next plan,” Ji-Han said as the team gathered around.

* * *

“First of all, let me apologize for not telling you everything from the beginning.”

Ji-Han bowed politely. The other team members didn\'t seem to have any complaints, but of course, Mu-Cheok’s eyes were glaring. Ji-Cheok was also a bit angry at Ji-Han.

“I will tell you first that I did not keep this secret because I didn’t trust you.”

“Then why did you keep it a secret?” Ji-Cheok asked firmly.

“Because some Awakened are able to track the voices of others.”

“Tracking voices? I don’t really understand.”

“Simply put, you can use your skills to essentially wiretap people, somewhat ignoring the constraints of time and space.”

Ji-Cheok felt dizzy. Ji-Cheok couldn’t believe that someone out there could be wiretapping his every conversation.

“There are a lot of limitations to such skills, but nonetheless, it was not impossible. And while I may sound a bit arrogant when I say this, there are quite a few people who are directly monitoring me.”

‘Is this for real?’

Ji-Cheok was so surprised that he forgot how to speak.

“Ah, so that was why.”

“If you say so.”

Ha-Na and Seong Kwang both nodded in agreement. However, Ji-Byeok was not happy. She was also related by blood to the Jungha Group, so she seemed to have guessed what was going on with Ji-Han.

“Those fucking bastards…”

In fact, everyone could guess what was going on with Ji-Han. Perhaps it was a succession battle between blood relatives, but that was a common occurrence in chaebol families. A few years ago, in another chaebol family, there was even a murder case involving the Awakened for their rights of inheritance. There was a lot of talk about it on the news back then.

Ji-Cheok took a peek at his brother. Mu-Cheok had a dissatisfied expression on his face, but he didn’t say anything. Ji-Cheok also stayed silent.

“Another thing is that the way the Gods talk is very ambiguous, so it is difficult for me to say exactly what they mean until I have all the data. There were a lot of metaphors and symbols,” Ji-Han said.

“So, everything is finished now?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“Yes. As mentioned in the starting point, this is a dungeon occupied by undead with some measure of intelligence. It is a temple of [He_who_denies_death], and there are undead that use the divine power of their God. As I said before the monsters attacked, there are three types of enemies.”

This was the explanation Ji-Cheok had heard before the battle.

“However, starting from here, something didn’t add up with the information that God gave me. Namely, the battle we fought at the starting point. Originally, we shouldn’t have been attacked until we left the starting point.”

“Are you saying that the God lied to you?”

At Seong Kwang’s question, Ji-Han calmly shook his head.

“The information of the Gods is never wrong. However, things may change after the point in time when the Gods give out the information. In other words, the situation in this dungeon has changed.”

‘Things have changed.’

There had been some change, something not covered by the information offered by Ji-Han’s God. Of course, this was not good news for the team. Because of this change, an unknown danger could arise and result in the death of any one of them. Knowing this, everyone’s expressions turned slightly worse.

“The original theme for this dungeon was ‘infiltration,’” Ji-Han said.

“Infiltration?”

“Yes. Did you know that some of the special dungeons have specific themes? For example, the dungeon of the Scale Demon that Mr. Um Ji-Cheok experienced in the past was like that.”

Ji-Cheok remembered the [The Temple of the Scaled Demon God] quite well. He was told to make an offering in order to complete the dungeon. He believed that the dungeon’s theme was something like ‘deception’ because the demon was trying to deceive him in the end.

“Originally, we were supposed to use secret passages and hiding places throughout this dungeon to reach the boss room without being detected by the enemy, and only had to deal with the boss. But now, the problem is that the enemies have been waiting for us from the beginning,” Ji-Han said.

“Ahh…”

“That’s true.”

“Now, the enemies are going to actively search for us. Besides, the fact that a large army is approaching from a one-way passageway is beyond the scope of the information I have received. We are now in a crisis.”

Just then, Ji-Cheok heard a noise.

Ding!

[You have received a quest.]

[Temple of the Death Deniers]

[Difficulty: Two-star dungeon - Unparalleled

It is a temple of believers of [He_who_denies_death]!

Stop their plan and destroy the temple!

You will receive additional rewards if you receive 10,000 Likes during this quest.

Reward: Advanced Skill Exchange Coupon.

Bonus Rewards: ???]

Ji-Cheok couldn’t believe a quest would pop up at this moment.

‘And I thought the dungeon’s difficulty was intermediate, but it’s actually ‘unparalleled’?!’

The quest that should have appeared as soon as they entered the dungeon was now showing up. This just meant that the quest was only given to those who learned the basics about the dungeon. In any case, Ji-Cheok got a quest related to Likes, so he wondered about the others. It was a shame to Ji-Cheok that other people’s quest windows were not visible to him.

“Wow… So this dungeon is an unparalleled two-star dungeon.”

“And the reward is an Advanced Skill Exchange Coupon. That’s pretty good.”

“Wow, advanced skill? I only have one of those right now.”

“If you get advanced skills as an item, you could make billions…”

Seong Kwang, Ha-Na, Ji-Byeok, and Mu-Cheok respectively looked at their quest window and murmured to themselves. Ji-Cheok realized that everyone, including his brother, would receive the same reward.

‘Of course, the 10,000 bonus quest is just for me.’