I Gave Up Being Stronger

Cha Jin-Hyeok didn’t receive any notifications that indicated the First Floor Field of the Dungeon would change from now on, or that the reward would be upgraded automatically. It seemed they would still be able to claim the Enhanced Human and Enhanced Revival abilitiesas a reward, as originally expected. That was a relief.

What was different instead was that a hidden third floor had opened.

‘Wait, the Sareoga Mart Dungeon had a third floor?’

As far as Jin-Hyeok knew, no one knew about this. He figured that this was because the Third Floor Field of the Dungeon was configured to disappear once whoever fulfilled the set of special conditions to open it had visited it.

If a Dungeon floor was completely unknown to him, and thus to mostly anyone else, that meant one of two things: either the floor was so extremely difficult that there just hadn’t been any survivors so far… or whatever boon lay within was so rare and valuable, that its visitors had all kept their mouth shut about it.

‘I’ve come all this way already, so please be the first.'

Jin-Hyeok felt the sudden urge to butt his head against a wall as the intrusive thought flashed by his mind. His heart did an instinctual flutter at the prospect that such an unforgiving fight was near. He felt he really should be fixing these knee-jerk urges quickly, but this was a tough nut to crack. It was going to be hard to fix it any time soon, but this inclination of his was something he absolutely needed to discard. For sure.

‘Let’s just ignore the third floor.’

That’s what Jin-Hyeok thought to himself, at least, but it was at this moment that he received a new notification:

[Creator of the Surprise Mission: Wind Wanderer.]

Why did this guy keep proposing Surprise Missions to a newbie such as himself? Jin-Hyeok had no clue, but he knew one thing for sure: you had to pay tens of thousands of Dias to offer these missions even once. Whatever the Wind Wanderer’s reasons for giving him the missions may be, Jin-Hyeok couldn’t help but itch with curiosity. Just a bit.

[Mission Title: The king fist.]

The king fist.

The mission title and description couldn’t have been any shorter, or blunter for that matter.

‘Well, the second floor had a Big Fist Monkey, so I guess the third floor would have a King Fist Monkey.’

Fighting a King Fist Monkey should be fun, right?

But if Jin-Hyeok ended up getting himself into more than he bargained for, he could very well die.

‘Decline.’

The Level of King Fist Monkeys was usually in the upper thirties. There was no question what the result of a fight would be at Jin-Hyeok’s current strength. The Jin-Hyeok of the past would definitely have accepted the mission, but this was the new Jin-Hyeok, the one that had come to his senses, and that meant a no. It was a shame, but he had already made up his mind.

[Wind Wanderer proposes a monetary reward for completion of the Mission.]

[Monetary reward for Mission completion: 10,000,000 Dias.]

‘Decline.’

[Wind Wanderer proposes a monetary reward for completion of the Mission for the second time.]

[Monetary reward for Mission completion: 20,000,000 Dias.]

‘Decline!’

[Wind Wanderer proposes a monetary reward for completion of the Mission for the final time.]

[Monetary reward for Mission completion: 100,000,000 Dias.]

‘Accept.’

[You have accepted the Mission.]

Jin-Hyeok didn’t take the mission because it looked fun. No, of course not.

He absolutely did not want to fight the King Fist Monkey. No, sir.

“Wind Wanderer, I’ll do your mission in a few days.”

***

For now, Jin-Hyeok went back down to the first floor with Mok Jae-Hyeon and Cha Jin-Sol.

“N-next time, I’ll show you I can be better than this.” Mok Jae-Hyeon seemed apologetic for some odd reason, as per usual. Jin-Hyeok was starting to sense a trend here.

“You did good. You protected Jin-Sol well when we were on the first floor, right?”

“Uh… I don’t think… she even needed much protection at that point…”

Huh. Yeah, it did seem that way now that Jae-Hyeon mentioned it.

That was weird. Jin-Hyeok wasn’t even a tank class, but he was the only one to draw so much aggro[1] from the Dungeon mobs.

If Jin-Hyeok had to take a guess, it likely had something to do with his ‘Almighty Jack of All Trades’ Trait. It seemed that in these low-Level Fields, the tanking aspects of the trait were still able to have a pretty substantial effect.

Meanwhile, Cha Jin-Sol refused the “gift” that Jin-Hyeok offered her.

“You want me to put that on? Ain’t no way.”

Jin-Hyeok became exasperated at the fact that she refused to put the Champion Belt on just because it was a little funny to look at. She needed to strap it on if she was to be able to see the special Traits that were hidden inside the mart’s fruit stand.

“Why not? It looks cool,” Jin-Hyeok tried to reason with her.

“If it’s so cool, you put it on!”

“I heard if you put it on, you can find a hidden item on the first floor.”

“I guess I'm not gonna be needing that item then.”

“Nope, I reckon you do need it, actually,” Jin-Hyeok insisted.

“And why do I need it?” Jin-Sol asked.

“I just have a feeling it’ll be something really good.”

“Yeah, yeah… if it’s so good, feel free to go right ahead and look for it yourself, oppa.”

“I don’t need all that extra power because I’m a Streamer.”

“...”

Cha Jin-Sol glared at Jin-Hyeok, at a loss for words.

“You don’t need the power?” Jin-Sol asked.

“Yep. I just need to be good at broadcasting,” Jin-Hyeok explained.

“...you just need to be good at broadcasting?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“...Nothing.” Jin-Sol opened her mouth then clenched it shut with that one word. She certainly didn’t look like she had “nothing” to say.

“Anyway, I don’t want to put that on. You said you have a lot of viewers on your stream.”

“There’s not that many,” Jin-Hyeok answered.

His current viewer count was a little under ten thousand. Egan Paul’s public viewer count was already around a hundred thousand, so comparatively speaking, his viewer count wasn’t that much… right?

“Why are you trying to get me to put that thing on?”

“It’s not putting it on, it’s equipping it. Get it right.”

“Whatever you say, the point is I don’t want to!”

“You really hate the idea of it that much?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“A hundred and ten percent,” Jin-Sol insisted.

“I’ll give you a hundred thousand won,” Jin-Hyeok offered.

Cha Jin-Sol slowly took the belt from Jin-Hyeok’s hands.

“...I mean… looking at it properly, I guess it does look pretty trendy.”

***

With the Champion Belt firmly strapped on, Cha Jin-Sol browsed around the first floor of Sareoga Mart Dungeon while Jin-Hyeok continued his stream.

“It seems some other Players have entered the Sareoga Mart Dungeon.”

Glancing at them once using Broadcaster’s Truesight revealed this was far too dangerous a place for their strength. Jin-Hyeok approached them.

“Hi, I’d suggest you leave at your Level. It is possible that you could die.”

“...Th-thank you for the warning."

Some received in-Hyeok’s advice in stride and lived…

“Don’t give me that horseshit.”

And some ignored his advice, and perished. Of those that ignored him, a lucky few were able to flee with the help of Mok Jae-Hyeon.

Jin-Hyeok tilted his head to one side puzzledly.

“Viewers, why do you think they keep ignoring my warnings?”

It was a bit of a moot question, because Jin-Hyeok had long shut off his comms with his viewers and couldn’t hear their voices. Jae-Hyeon answered in their stead.

“Could it be because you look so peaceful when you say it, hyung?”

At that moment, there was a sharp spike in the number of likes on the stream. It seemed Jae-Hyeon had provided a voice for the viewers.

“You think so?”

“You just don’t seem like a dangerous dude at all. The way I see it, it’s pretty clear that if a non-combatant class Player tries to warn combatant class Players like that, their reaction’s gonna be… w-wait, my apologies if it sounds like I’m talking down at you…”

“No no, you got a point. Maybe I need to practice looking a little more desperate.”

Right then, a single Fist Monkey rushed at Jin-Hyeok. It seemed whatever goodwill the monsters had for him had dissipated. Jin-Hyeok enveloped his fist with Broadcaster’s Barrier and gave a lazy swing.

POW!

It was a rather absent-minded swing, but it was somehow a critical shot. Jin-Hyeok had struck lucky and somehow hit the monkey straight in the solar plexus.

[You have slain a Fist Monkey.]

‘Damn, my body keeps moving on its own.’

Feigning desperation was harder than he thought.

‘I mean, this kind of beatdown’s only possible in the lower Levels… maybe I should give up acting and enjoy this while I can.’

Wouldn’t it be considered deceiving the viewers if he was feigning weak when he wasn’t? Yes, this was a problem he needed to think through some more.

Around that moment, Cha Jin-Sol seemed to have noticed something peculiar close to the mart’s fruit stand. With the Champion Belt on, she had been able to freely roam around the mart without being attacked by Fist Monkeys. Jin-Hyeok came to a realization as he watched Jin-Sol scrummaging around.

“Ah, I think I’ve got it, fellow viewers. It wasn’t me that was causing people to have a false sense of security. Without a doubt, people are being lulled into thinking this is a safe place because of her. Who would think this place is dangerous, seeing her walk around like that?”

The likes, which had been steadily pouring in throughout the stream, suddenly halted. Mok Jae-Hyeon again spoke for the people.

“...no, hyung… between you and her, it will always be your faul-”

“Oppa!I see something green and shiny among the fruit!” Cha Jin-Sol suddenly shouted out. She fished out two pieces of paper.

[Enhanced Human]

[Enhanced Revival]

It was two Traits in the form of Scrolls.

“That looks like what we’re looking for,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“It says to rip it.”

“Yeah, do it.”

“Wait—huh? This Scroll’s being absorbed into me! This feels weird!” Cha Jin-Sol exclaimed.

Jin-Hyeok chuckled while no one was looking.

With that, Cha Jin-Sol learned the ‘Enhanced Human’ and ‘Enhanced Revival’ abilities. These two components were the start of any good Blood Priest.

***

Jin-Hyeok already welcomed a useful tank into his party, and it was none other than a Player with the Wood King Job. In fact, a Wood King was already way too much for what Jin-Hyeok was aiming for, but thankfully(?) the Player’s personality wasn’t exactly built to be a top-tier ranker. He would make for a brilliant tank until Jin-Hyeok fulfilled his dreams of becoming a real estate investor in Yeonhui-dong.

‘And I got a healer now, too.’

If he wanted to fight the King Fist Monkey, he was going to need at least two more damage dealers to join him.

Jin-Hyeok, Jin-Sol, and Jae-Hyeon left the Sareoga Mart Dungeon and sat down at one of the cafes in the area. Jin-Hyeok turned off his stream, figuring that such a mundane, everyday activity wouldn’t be the most riveting watch for the viewers.

“Not one, but two dealers?”[2] Jae-Hyeon asked.

“We need at least two,” Jin-Hyeok answered.

For starters, they needed to be trustworthy and there needed to be some sort of guarantee about their skills.

“Hyung, can’t you be one of those damage dealers?” Jae-Hyeon asked.

“I’m a Streamer, though.”

“...”

“We can’t have a Streamer fighting on the frontlines, can we now?”

Yeah, he could say that again! Jin-Hyeok was a Streamer now, not the Sword King.

Jae-Hyeon stayed silent for a bit before speaking up.

“Is that really what you think?”

“Of course it’s what I think.”

“I’ve never seen a stronger dealer than you up ‘till now.”

“That’s because we’re still in the newbie Fields.”

Just as he thought before, Jin-Hyeok still believed that no such thing as an ‘Almighty Jack of All Trades’ existed in this world. That was an oxymoron.

It was because he had stood on the pinnacle—at least on the dimension of Earth—of the singular art known as swordsmanship that he could say this with such assertion. As with him, all his companions reached the very peaks of their respective fields, but were in turn just an absolute embarrassment in some other fields.

“Does being good at soccer make you good at basketball?” Jin-Hyeok said. He believed he wouldn’t be able to produce this level of damage for too long. At best, this sort of output could be sustained up to Level 100 at the most, if even that.

Jin-Hyeok had become sure about this from his experiences up until now. No matter what, Streamers that tried playing the part of a combatant class all died in action around Level 100. Without fail.

“...We have to get a dealer.”

“I saw that there were things like notice boards and whatnot popping up,” Jae-Hyeon suggested.

Indeed, there was an increasing trend of Players coming to agreements with others looking for comrades via a bunch of online communities. Egan Paul’s Avengers Armywas one such example.

“Right… we can start having a look at them.” Jin-Hyeok entertained the idea.

It was then that someone approached their table: a seriously rotund Westerner.

To Jin-Hyeok, it was a familiar face.

‘Joseph?’

At this moment in time, he was starting off as Egan Paul’s manager, but he would eventually be called a “Star Maker” in later days.

In time, so-called Star Players would emerge in possession of both wealth and prestige, and would come to enjoy a level of fame that surpassed typical celebrities. Of course, their average lifespan was short, but the point was that Joseph would be the mastermind behind a countless number of Star Players in the future. That same Joseph stood before him now, accompanied by an interpreter.

“Do you happen to be that famous streamer I’ve heard so much about?”

Famous? Jin-Hyeok contemplated himself.

“Nope.”

“Lies. I’ve seen these two faces, clear as day.” Joseph glanced at Mok Jae-Hyeon and Cha Jin-Sol in turn.

“You’ve seen them? Where?”

“On Eltube. It seems that SSP is integrated with it.”

Jin-Hyeok admitted that it caught him by surprise. He hadn’t fathomed that SSP videos could be viewed on Earth at this time, this early on since the Cataclysm.

Due to the nature of his Job, Jin-Hyeok could never completely hide his identity anyway. It had been the same deal with Mystery Box, who had tried to shroud himself in darkness. If people really resolved to find out the face behind the screen of any Streamer, they could.

‘I didn’t expect someone to find me this easily in this day and age, though…’

Joseph showed Jin-Hyeok his phone. As he’d said, SSP was already fully integrated into Eltube.

[LVL25/Love, Memories, Longing★/Scout/Skills/Racing Toward a New World]

Jin-Hyeok realized Joseph was likely here for this quest called ‘Race to Find a New Name of Fame.’ But on another note, he could not bear to read that Awakened name any longer. Of course, the original name that Joseph chose for himself after Awakening was likely not in Korean, but in English.[3]

Of course, one can never fully translate the nuances and feelings expressed in one language translated to another. But… the system tried its best to translate Awakened names in real time. This meant that the system determined this was the closest equivalent to the original meaning. Yes, this monstrosity of a name that surely stuffed as many words as possible in the word limit, complete with the finishing touch of a star (★).

It didn’t end there though. He didn’t seem to be all there mentally.

[#glimpsing the makings of a star #this boy’s potential touches the sky★ #oh my gosh]

Jin-Hyeok felt he needed to keep some distance from him.

“I’ll get straight to the point. Work with me. I will make you a star.”

“...”

“A diamond in the rough such as yourself, shines their brightest when they meet an agent that’s thoughtful and sensitive to emotion, such as myself.”

Jin-Hyeok couldn’t believe he had just called himself thoughtful and sensitive to emotion. This was Mr. Love, Memories, Longing plus-a-star speaking.

That was enough of associating with this man.

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

Jin-Hyeok rose from his seat. Joseph hastily cried wait, wait in English, but Jin-Hyeok had zero interest in being entangled in Joseph's business. As he had repeated to himself over and over, Jin-Hyeok now wanted to become third place and not first.

Even if his heart continuously cried out to him in all its yearning to reach the top, Jin-Hyeok believed he possessed the objectivity to sufficiently repress those desires. Naturally, he didn’t have a single inkling of desire to become a star.

Having already been a star the first lifetime around, he knew what a restrictive way to live it was. There was no such thing as a personal life, and you had to live with the feeling you were being watched every single day.

‘In fact, I remember two of the Star Players he does branding for ended up committing double suicide in the previous timeline.’

It was a fairly famous incident domestically within Korea, as the Star Players in question were Koreans, and had the memorable fact of being a pair of twin sisters. From what Jin-Hyeok could recall, the Star Players were both assassin class damage dealers, with the 8-Star Job Shadow Executioner, or something like that.

‘Hm?’

While his Broadcaster’s Truesight was activated, Jin-Hyeok was taking a quick scan of his surroundings when he noticed two ladies outside through the cafe window.

[LV24/Unnie Shadow/Shadow Executioner (Right)/Skills/Remove the 7th Mark][4]

[LV24/Dongsaeng Shadow/Shadow Executioner (Left)/Skills/Remove the 7th Mark][5]

‘Speak of the devil…’

1. Aggro is a video game term that refers to when an enemy becomes aggressive towards a player. ☜

2. Dealers is a Korean abbreviation of damage dealers, and is a term for classes in games that are focused on dealing damage to enemies, i.e. DPSers. ☜

3. Reminder that the novel is in Korean, and the MC is Korean too. ☜

4. Unnie is the Korean term for a slightly older female that is used by females only. It can be used for both filial and non-filial relationships and friendships. ☜

5. Dongsaeng is the Korean term for someone who is younger, either male or female, and can be used by both genders. It can be used for both filial and non-filial relationships and friendships. ☜