CH 263

‘Those filthy bastards got here before us, huh.’

“It’s good that bestowing skills to my team went so smoothly… But what are we going to do about that?”

«We have confirmed that the orbital bombardment will not work. There is a very special spatial barrier at play.»

Antarctica was a big chunk of land and ice, big enough to be called a continent. There was plenty of room for construction work. The problem was that right now, the entire land mass was covered by a hemispherical dome. The dome, which was pitch-black and inscrutable, was also completely impervious to Ji-Cheok’s orbital bombardment. The clash between the spiral spears and the barrier did not even produce noise, let alone explosions, and it was clear that the barrier would not budge.

“These assholes… They are trying every trick in the book to keep me from building the Ultra-Large Dimensional Barrier Generator over there.”

«They are foolish, Master. It seems like even the Gods do not know what you are capable of.»

“I know. Then that makes my job a little bit easier. I don’t think they realize that the only reason I have to build the Ultra-Large Dimensional Barrier Generator in Antarctica is that it’s more uniform.”

Ji-Cheok could build it anywhere else in the world and it would still work. It would just be a little less effective.

‘Otherwise, how would I have come up with the idea of combining the power of Ultra-Small and Small Dimensional Barrier Generators to cover the entire planet?’

«Hephaestus may not have shared this information with the other Gods. Unless they are from a crafting clan or specialize in barriers, they are likely unaware of it. Or maybe they do know, in which case, what they are doing right now is deception.»

“Maybe. It doesn’t make sense that the Gods don’t know it. If they do know, there’s something else going on…”

«We just do not know what they are planning.»

“Right. So that means we just have to do what we were set out to do, right?”

«Yes, Master.»

“Can you tell me how much money I have right now?”

By becoming a God, Ji-Cheok could know his number of Likes in real time. Right now, he had about six hundred million. This was what he had left after strengthening his team members and using Likes to defend the Arctic construction site. Of course, he managed to gather six hundred million Likes because the number was increasing as he spoke.

However, Ji-Cheok had no idea how much money he had.

«Right now, you have about 302 trillion won.»

‘Wow. That’s a lot of money.’

«It turns out that the average household buys five Ultra-Small Dimensional Barrier Generators. For shared living quarters such as multi-unit villas, apartments, and office buildings, as few as three and as many as ten Ultra-Small Dimensional Barrier Generators are installed, depending on the size of the building.»

Cheok-Liang licked his front paws.

«Due to that, Seoul has already become a completely dungeon-free zone, and that is the same for the capitals of all the countries in the world.»

‘Really?’

«Washington in the United States, London in England, Paris in France, and so on are all fully defended, and most of the big cities are already fully covered as well. As a result, Warding Stones have no value except for experimental use, and their prices are plummeting.»

“Is that why I’m making so much money? Because the Warding Stones are now obsolete?”

«Yes, Master.»

“That’s crazy. I might just save the world by myself! Well, technically, the money of the world is going to save the world, but whatever.”

‘Maybe I should have a slogan like ‘The economy is saving the world!’ or something.’

«In fact, even if you do not set up the Ultra-Large Dimensional Barrier Generator in Antarctica, the dimensional barrier will be complete in eight months at this rate. That just shows how fast the Ultra-Small and Small Dimensional Barrier Generators are selling. Even though you are producing on a massive scale, the demand is greater still.»

“That’s even after I increased my production rate by ten times?”

«Yes, Master. It is still not enough. It is because part of the production capacity is used to make potions.»

“How much more do I need to increase my production rate to fix that problem?”

«You need five times the current production rate, Master.»

“So you are saying I need fifty times the production rate I started with? Wow.”

«It might be possible because you are a God.»

‘What does that have to do with anything?’

«It is helpful, Master. You may have noticed already, but the Likes are coming in fast from areas where dimensional barrier generators are installed.»

When people clicked the Like button on GodTube, it would convert to Like Points and become the source of his power. And since he had become a God, the accumulation rate had doubled. That was his power as a God.

However, even if they had nothing to do with GodTube, as long as someone had a purely admiring or surprised mindset toward him, those emotions would also accumulate as Likes.

What Cheok-Liang was saying was that the dimensional barrier generators had become a kind of receiver, automatically receiving Likes from anyone who thought of him in their vicinity.

Ji-Cheok already sensed that was happening. Otherwise, he would not be able to get Likes at such an insane rate.

“So your plan is to…”

«Yes, Master. You need to fill the world with your productions, so that the world may be yours.»

Ji-Cheok folded his arms at his words and organized his thoughts.

‘Filling the world with my productions, huh…’

He sold those products for money, of course, but he still had some measure of “ownership.” If he had been an ordinary mortal, that would have been considered fraud. However, since he was a God, anything made by his all-purpose production machine that was considered his summoned entity would naturally be imbued with his power. In other words, those products were Divine Relics of [GodTube_superstar].

‘Right… Relics.’

The potions he made were Relics, and the dimensional barrier generators he made were also Relics. Everything he made was a Relic. Humans did not know this because Ji-Cheok had not imbued them with any special powers, but if he wanted to, he could always manipulate the items at will.

In a way, Cheok-Liang was right. Ji-Cheok had already become a dark force that controlled the entire planet.

Ji-Cheok realized that he should not be surprised at having a few hundred trillion won in his bank account. Even having thousands of trillions would not be that big of a deal.

The earth was already under his control.

‘Then…’

“I should move more aggressively.”

«Aggressively, Master?»

“Yeah. Put me through to Bi-Ga.”

«Yes, Master.»

The virtual phone rang and Bi-Ga’s image appeared in front of him.

—What has our lovely God called me back about?

“Save that stuff for when you are alone. This is business.”

—Urgent business?

“Yes, it’s urgent.”

—Okay. What is it?

“Well, I’m not much of a programmer, but I am thinking of making Golems, so I need help building the A.I. for them.”

—Are you trying to make combat Golems or something? Golems are strong, but they would not be as good as Hunters…

She pulled a lollipop out, popped it in her mouth, and twirled it around with her finger.

“They are for collecting resources.”

—Resources?

“Yes. Resources.”

‘Buying resources is one way to do it, but wouldn’t it be free if I could just dig them up by myself?’

It would take time for anyone else, but Ji-Cheok had a way to drastically reduce that time.

—I already have an A.I. for general resource harvesting, and I have a hardware framework too, but what do you want to build?”

“Do you have blueprints for both?”

—Yes, I have them. I will email them to you. If you build something with them, you need to show me the results.

“Deal.”

She winked and ended the call.

«The file you have requested is here, Master.»

“Thank you. Then…”

He looked down at Antarctica.

The black dome stood there, immovable and impenetrable.

The whole thing was big enough to fit the United States and still have room to spare. The fact that it was covered by the massive black dome was definitely not a good sign. Ji-Cheok had to smash that dome first.

‘To do that, I first need to…’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Jungjin’s Team Alpha was planning on running yet another five-star dungeon, but they did not feel like they had enough people. This was despite becoming apostles of Um Ji-Cheok, gaining several incredible skills, and becoming a great deal more powerful.

Even among the five-star dungeons, the difficulty discrepancies were huge!

They had been using Ji-Han’s mysterious information to get to dungeons that could be cleared with a party of four, but the difficulty had started to skyrocket. Thus, they decided to recruit new members, and they found just the right people.

The Tama Clan.

They were from the Philippines, and they were also retainers of Ji-Cheok! They were stronger because Ji-Cheok had bestowed his skills upon them, and they were also under his power.

Right now, Macaw of the White Charcoal remained in the Philippines, but two others had joined Team Alpha.

“They… look no different from humans, don’t you think?”

They were inside the training room at Jungjin. It was called a “training room,” but it was actually the size of a large sports stadium. The inside was built using various skills, magic spells, and special materials that made it impossible to observe from the outside. Of course, it was also extremely durable, so it could not be damaged by ordinary attacks from Hunters.

It was meant to be used as a shelter in case of emergency, but the actual reason for this obsession with durability was to allow Hunters to fully utilize their abilities without worrying about damaging the place.

There, the four members of Team Alpha were greeted by two newcomers from the Philippines.

One of them was Bernade Itum. As a Druid Warrior and a Twisted and Mutated Entity, when Ji-Cheok’s team had met her, she had looked like anything else but a human. Now, it was a different story. She looked like a mixture of Filipino and Italian blood, and as she stood there in a black formal suit and a pair of sleek sunglasses, she looked quite stunning.

Standing next to her was a muscular man who introduced himself as Daniel Enzo. Enzo was also dressed in a black business suit and black sunglasses. It looked like they had matched outfits on purpose.

“By the grace of our Lord, I succeeded in changing my race, though Macaw insisted on remaining the same,” Bernade replied.

“We have met before, so I know who you are, but who is this?” Ji-Byeok pointed at the man.

“As I introduced myself a moment ago, my name is Daniel Enzo. I am a Paladin in the service of my Lord,” the muscular man replied in an incredibly soft voice.

Everyone was stunned by his job. He was a Paladin!

“Which God were you originally a Paladin for?” Ji-Byeok asked.

The reason for asking about the Paladin’s past was simple. Since he was now under the power of Ji-Cheok, it was important to know which God he had been affiliated with before Ji-Cheok. They were worried that if the Paladin’s former God was evil, retribution could follow. And even if the God was not evil, retribution could still come at any time, since apostasy usually brought about divine punishment as a consequence.

“I am continuing to serve [Bird_that_tricked_the_sky_and_the_sea]. It is all thanks to the generosity of [GodTube_superstar].”

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

“Oh?!”

“You see… I was given permission by my God to serve [GodTube_superstar]. So I am feeling the grace of both of them. I am grateful.”

It was fortunate that [Bird_that_tricked_the_sky_and_the_sea] was a generous God. They had a big heart.