CH 175

Soon, the divine statue had disappeared, and the World Tree, which had grown to the size of a normal garden tree, was the only thing standing in front of Ji-Cheok.

[Growing World Tree]

[Class:?

Type: Tree

This is a World Tree in the process of rapid growth. The World Tree has now passed its infancy and turned from a sapling into a tree. It purifies the surroundings and generates pure mana.

Function: It designates the land on a 1km radius around it as a ‘Sacred Site’.

Function: In the Sacred Site, the stamina recovery rate is increased by 200%.

Function: In the Sacred Site, the mana recovery rate is increased by 300%.

Function: In the Sacred Site, it cancels intermediate-level curses.

Function: In the Sacred Site, the appearance of dungeons is prohibited.

Function: In the Sacred Site, negative power is weakened.

Function: In the Sacred Site, the power of Spirits is significantly increased.

Function: A spirit appears inside the Sacred Site and protects the World Tree.

Function: In the Sacred Site, the gardeners are protected under the aegis of ‘Absolute Safety’]

Astonishing changes had taken place. The World Tree, which Ji-Cheok had grown by pouring all of his Likes into it, had drunk the holy blood of Reable and eaten the statue of the spider God. Its name had already lost the modifier ‘weak and young’. It felt like a month-old baby suddenly growing into an elementary school kid. Also, the abilities of the evolved World Tree were incredible. Ji-Cheok couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

At the same time, the surrounding space looked as if something was shredding it apart. It reminded Ji-Cheok of when his graphics card had broken mid-game. He had never seen anything like this.

And then, everything broke apart.

Crack!

The world disappeared. Fragments of the shattered dimension scattered like pieces of glass and disappeared into the air.

They were back in the messy hotel banquet hall.

‘What… the…’

[You have cleared the dungeon!]

[The rewards will be distributed according to the level of contribution.]

[1st place is Um Ji-Cheok with 491,234,521 points.]

[You have cleared the quest.]

[Your quest rewards are being distributed.]

[You have cleared the hidden quest.]

[Your hidden quest rewards are being distributed.]

[You have destroyed the dungeon.]

[Your dungeon destruction rewards are being distributed.]

Ji-Cheok saw something new in the message window. He had seen messages on clearing dungeons before, but the final message was a first for him.

‘I… destroyed a dungeon?’

When Ji-Cheok looked back, he saw the World Tree with its roots in the air. Excluding the roots, the World Tree was now about three meters tall. He wondered if he could still put it inside his [Shadow Pouch]. 

While Ji-Cheok was thinking about how the tree had destroyed the dungeon, Cheok-Liang approached him. He jumped into the shadow and came out with the Manpasikjeok, which he then activated. The ‘Full Recovery’ function was used on everyone, even Reable. It seemed like the item recognized him as an ally.

‘Hyung, put the World Tree into your pouch,’ Mu-Cheok said telepathically.

‘Oh right. I forgot. But… Will it fit?’

«Ah… It is close, but it’s not three meters yet, so I think it is possible, Master.»

‘If I can’t put it in, I’m fucked.’

He put the World Tree back in the [Shadow Pouch]. Thankfully, it barely fit, just like Cheok-Liang said. While everyone was busy getting themselves together, Cheok-Liang quietly threw the Manpasikjeok, the King’s Jade Belt, and the Heirloom Seal of the Realm back into the shadows.

He was indeed a fox. If it had been any other time, it would have been impossible. But right now…hehe. While no one was paying attention, Cheok-Liang had made it possible.

‘...These are mine until they tell me to return them.’

«We shall let Jung Ji-Han deal with the messy part, Master.»

‘...You sure are my advisor.’

«A thick face is the mark of a great man! You should…keep these safe for the rightful owners!»

Cheok-Liang waved his front paws as he spoke righteously. In the meantime, new messages continued to pop up.

[You have earned the title [Scourge of the Eight-Legged]!]

[You have earned the title [Destroyer of the Divine Statue]!]

[You have earned the title [Dungeon Breaker]!]

[You have earned the title [One who is Watched Over by a Thousand Gods]!]

Ji-Cheok received four titles and all of them sounded badass. However, he didn’t have time to check them out properly because he saw people approaching him. Usually, after he checked the System messages, he would receive the rewards and do an unboxing video, but…a lot of people had died. He knew that this was not the right time or place to do it, so he just stood up.

‘I’ll clean things up later, but showtime isn’t over yet.’

* * *

⌜Hunter Um Ji-Cheok saved my life. Yes… If he hadn’t been there, I would have been offered as a sacrifice. Yes, yes. An unknown foreign Hunter tried to kill me.⌟

The student working part-time at the hotel was crying. He praised Um Ji-Cheok’s actions and cursed the foreign Hunter. The reason why he didn’t say the name of the foreign Hunter was that the reporter had requested him not to. Shin Ju-Ran also commented.

⌜Yes, the only reason I could fight them was that someone was by my side through all of it. If it wasn’t for Hunter Um Ji-Cheok, I wouldn’t have known what to do⌟

‘Honestly…I just wanted to survive.’ 

Ju-Ran sighed in relief. She wouldn’t admit to that during an interview, but in that desperate situation, she had been swayed too. She didn’t care about what would happen after, she just wanted to live. She was prepared to get her hands dirty if that meant she could survive.

‘No matter what people think… This is all thanks to you, Um Ji-Cheok.’

Thanks to Ji-Cheok, she was able to protect her humanity. This was her way of thanking him.

‘I need to tell the press how great Um Ji-Cheok is~’

This was not coming from her being his stan. This was just to thank him for protecting her from becoming a murderer.

At the same time, in a huge, empty, and closed warehouse, Jung Ji-Han was watching the interview on his satellite cell phone.

⌜Hunter Um Ji-Cheok! One more question! They say that you threw yourself at the divine statue, is that true?⌟

⌜Hunter Um Ji-Cheok! To save people…⌟

The reporters were swarming Ji-Cheok like bees.

Ji-Han turned off his phone and put it in his pocket.

“This lifetime is even more special… It’s the first time ‘that’ was stopped.”

In countless pasts, that hotel had always caused a Dungeon Break. The dungeon of the [Eight_legged_wanderer] opened in the sky, and countless spider monsters attacked the world. Those monsters were not average monsters, either; the dungeon was created by the apostle of the God by sacrificing himself, which made it possible for the God’s strongest underlings to easily descend into the world. All of the monsters were very intelligent. They quickly turned the hotel into their nest and their fortress with their unusual magic and skills.

When one of the largest hotels in the middle of Seoul became a monster’s lair, Korea quickly fell into chaos and the economy plunged into the abyss. With this massive blow following right after the Yeouido dungeon, the whole country was affected. The damage was indescribable, and it was one of the incidents that led to the overall weakening of Korea’s defense capability.

But now that incident had been solved before it had started. This would prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths at the very least.

“Hundreds of thousands…millions of deaths…”

Ji-Han looked around the empty warehouse. If he hadn’t stopped the ritual in the warehouse, a catastrophe would have struck, killing millions. The regressor was always forced to choose the lesser evil, but this time, Ji-Han had entrusted Ji-Cheok with one of those options, hoping that the lesser evil would also be stopped.

Of course, Ji-Han also didn’t want Ji-Cheok to die. That was why he had put Reable close to him. At least Reable had the ability to keep Ji-Cheok safe.

‘Hm… Even so, it’s unclear how much Reable helped. In the end, Ji-Cheok won against an extremely strong being. That’s amazing.’

Ji-Han thought that maybe in this lifetime, Ji-Cheok could indeed surpass the sky.

A moment later, he disappeared like smoke.

* * *

-The reason Umji is a true saint: He fought foreign mercenaries, he fought the spider boss, he saved lives, then he fell asleep after eating Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen.

↳Of course he has a sophisticated palate. He’s the salt of the earth.

-Why is Umji’s telekinetic power so strong?

↳His telekinesis really is high-level, huh.

-AH!! Why did you fight that alone?! Giltheon, you bastard!!

↳I hope Giltheon dies in a hole somewhere.

↳ 22222

↳333333

-How is he carrying the World Tree? And what’s so great about it?

↳The leaves of the World Tree are said to cure every illness. I don’t know. I just read about it somewhere.

↳And Umji carries that kind of thing around in his pocket?

-Isn’t it the first time in the world that someone destroyed a dungeon without clearing it? Am I right?

↳I know Single-shot Dungeons are supposed to be destroyed… But that’s not the case for Regenerative Dungeons.

-Wait, he didn’t even clear the dungeon. How did he destroy it? Is that possible?

When they got home, the brothers fell asleep. They were so tired that they couldn’t do anything else. The only thing Ji-Cheok did before he went to bed was turn on the potion machine. If he didn’t, there would be no potions to sell for the next day.

When he woke up, the video that Cheok-Liang had edited and uploaded was trending online. The number of views exceeded fifty million in one night. There were already more than four million Likes for just one video.

‘Wow… How is this even possible?’

«Master! How was your sleep? The viewer reaction is incredible!»

‘Yeah… I just saw that. Has this video just become the video with the highest number of Likes?

«Yes, Master. You should check how many Likes you have.»

‘My Likes?’

Ji-Cheok opened up his Stats window and checked his Likes.

“WHAT?!”

The cumulative number of Likes had reached a whopping 8.21 million.

‘What… I used all of my Likes yesterday. This is how much I got in just one day? But…how?’

«The Likes you got from the Gods alone are close to three million.»

‘Oh right, I got a new title too. What was it? The [One Who is Watched Over by a Thousand Gods]?’

«And it seems that your final comment asking for Likes at the end was a real hit.»

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

‘Hm… I should do that more.’

The number of Likes Gods gave him was almost equal to the number of Likes that he had gotten from tens of thousands of people. It was understandable, because Gods needed faith, and for that faith to gather, tens of thousands of people were needed. That was why even pseudo-religions had more than a million followers these days. Because of that, the Likes given by the Gods were far more valuable than the Likes from people.

‘Anyway. It’s good that I got a lot of Likes, but I need to check the rewards too.’

He checked the System messages that he had ignored the day before.

[You have earned the title [Scourge of the Eight-Legged]!]

[You have earned the title [Destroyer of the Divine Statue]!]

[You have earned the title [Dungeon Breaker]!]

[You have earned the title [One Who is Watched Over by a Thousand Gods]!]

[Your quest rewards are being distributed.]

[Your hidden quest rewards are being distributed.]

[Your dungeon destruction rewards are being distributed.]

Messages popped up one after the other. He decided to organize the titles first.

[Scourge of the Eight-Legged]: Attract maximum hostility from spider-type monsters.]

[[Destroyer of the Divine Statue]: The user can destroy divine objects.]

[[Dungeon Breaker]: A small probability to obtain World Essence by destroying a dungeon.]

[[One who is Watched Over by a Thousand Gods]: Increases the Likes obtained by 20%.]

Ji-Cheok didn’t know what to say. These titles were all great.

‘The first one is an automatic taunt for spider-type monsters. If you think about it, I can be an awesome Tank, since those monsters will only try to kill me. Now, I won’t have any problem provoking them.’

«Wow… I did not expect you to be so positive about this, Master.»

‘Thanks for the compliment, Cheok-Liang. And that [Destroyer of the Divine Statue] is pretty awesome too.’

Divine objects were items bestowed directly by a God, and they contained divine power, so they were usually indestructible. This title allowed him to destroy them!

In addition, [Dungeon Breaker] allowed him to periodically obtain the World Essence that he had obtained earlier. It was crazy! These titles were so incredible that [One Who is Watched Over by Thousand Gods] felt insignificant.

Of course, getting an additional twenty percent Likes was amazing~