I Gave Up Being Stronger

As many as three thousand viewers were tuning into Jin-Hyeok’s channel.

Altogether, there were around five hundred Initially Awakened Streamers on the Open Beta Earth Server—and of them, Jin-Hyeok’s channel was undoubtedly and overwhelmingly in first place.

‘I heard Egan Paul has about three thousand viewers as well.’

Egan Paul was one of the biggest Streamers on Earth. In Jin-Hyeok’s previous lifetime, he had been unbudgeable from his position as the first ranked Streamer, from the Open Beta right up until Jin-Hyeok regressed. Egan had been dominant even in the overall Player Level ranking among Streamers.

‘Why do I have the same number of viewers as Egan?’

Jin-Hyeok was baffled. Even he himself didn’t think he was as good of a broadcast personality as Egan Paul was.

‘How can that be possible?’

He couldn’t help but wonder if some famous influencer had given his channel a shoutout.

Although Jin-Hyeok didn’t know the reason behind his exploding viewer count, he certainly wasn’t complaining.

Having a similar viewer count to Egan Paul meant Jin-Hyeok was dominating in first place, just like him. He didn’t exactly dislike that fact.

That was when the realization hit him.

‘I’m still not strong enough mentally.’

Jin-Hyeok thought that by boxing himself into a non-fighter class Job, his thirst to be a winner would be reduced—but here he was, all happy that he was first place just as usual.

He was going to need to deny himself of his inner desires through sheer force of will.

‘I want to be third place. Really, I do.’

Firmly resolving to himself once more, Jin-Hyeok continued streaming as he roamed around Seoul.

At some point, Jin-Hyeok reached Level 15.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have become Level 15.]

This time, something changed.

[You are now entering the Room of Awakening.]

***

Most people were usually uninterested in the news of an Open Beta service, and the same was true on Earth.

But the people of ‘Orioles,’ a place that had an environment that was relatively similar to Earth, began to take interest in the Earth Server.

Although Earth was but a minor Server, there was one Player who was attracting quite a bit of attention.

- A crazy guy appeared on the Earth Server.

- He stabbed a Big Paw Rabbit through the head with a dagger. I saw it live.

- What’s so crazy about that?

- His Job is a Streamer.

The low-Level Player—whose Job was a non-fighter class on top of that—seemed far too skilled in combat, all things considered.

- It\'s possible because he’s a low Level. Don’t you know that there’s basically no distinction between Jobs at the lower Levels?

-True. Streamers who run around like that, pretending they’re fighters, are all gonna get weeded out before Level 100, definitely.

- LOL yeah I don\'t buy it. Not like we\'ve seen this kind of poser once or twice before.

However, Cha Jin-Hyeok was obviously not an ordinary Streamer.

- This crazy ass dude got right into the face of a monster to observe it from up close. He opened a Red Fox’s mouth to show how many teeth it has. He was Level 2 at the time, by the way.

- The Red Fox is Level 6, no?

- That’s why he’s crazy LOL. His fingers didn’t get chomped off thanks to Broadcaster’s Barrier.

Streamers in Servers that were still in their Open Beta service stages tended to behave in a rather similar manner, no matter which Server it was.

It was yet far beyond their capabilities to make good plays. At this stage, they still couldn’t flexibly utilize Broadcaster’s Barrier like Cha Jin-Hyeok could. That was why most Streamers almost never took the risk of drawing too close to the monsters—in some cases, even avoiding hunting them directly altogether.

The majority of Streamers still froze, speechless with fear, when they came face-to-face with monsters.

- He uses Broadcaster’s Barrier just like a veteran would. If it’s not that, then he’s a freakin’ genius.

- How is it possible that he’s a veteran when he\'s on an Open Beta?

- Maybe he’s a regressor?

- That’s nonsense LOL. If he was a regressor, the Administrators would have come and executed his ass already lmao.

Just like that, any rumors that Jin-Hyeok could be a regressor were quickly buried.

- But he genuinely does have an excellent eye for combat. I thought I was watching a pro commentator for a second.

- Well, one thing’s for sure. A Streamer that has the likes of what’s never been seen before has appeared.

Jin-Hyeok was the only Streamer that was performing this well in the Open Beta service—and only Jin-Hyeok himself was not aware of this.

To be fair, his ignorance of this fact could be blamed on his previous environment. In Jin-Hyeok’s previous lifetime, not only was he one of the top rankers, but he was completely surrounded by other top rank Players. As Jin-Hyeok had said before, everyone around him was a bunch of lunatics.

This served to warp some of his standards to the point where they were completely out of touch with reality—becoming the type of standard where, for instance, ‘not facing a near-death experience at least seven or so times’ was considered a rather peaceful life.

***

Upon reaching Level 15, Jin-Hyeok entered the Room of Awakening.

As his surroundings suddenly became pitch-black, Jin-Hyeok realized he had been automatically transported to a dark space.

Standing before him was a beautiful angel.

Jin-Hyeok didn’t feel particularly impressed or inspired by the sight of an angel.

After all, that Angel was an AI.

“Please create your Player name, the name you shall be known by after your Awakening.”

Jin-Hyeok already had a name in mind—a name that reflected his wish to be in a modest third place.

“Kim Chul-Soo.”[1]

“Kim Chul-Soo—is that correct?”

“Yup.”

“Would you like your Player information to be public? If you choose to publicize it, your ranking will be recorded on the public ranking board.”

Jin-Hyeok shook his head.

There were no benefits at all to making his ranking public knowledge. In fact, all there would be instead were more responsibilities and more enemies. Sure, it could bring him more fame and glory too—but he didn’t need those now.

“Decline.”

After the standard procedures and formalities were said and done with, Jin-Hyeok returned to where he was whisked away from. People were startled when he suddenly appeared, but he didn\'t pay heed to them.

They were going to get used to these surprises.

‘Let’s give the ranking board a look.’

──────────

[Ranking Board (Korea Region)]

[Swordsman][Archer][Martial Artist]……[Healer]……[Other]

──────────

Jin-Hyeok could see the rankings filtered by Job. He checked the Swordsman ranking list.

──────────

[1st. Lee Hyeon-Seong (LV:15)]

──────────

It was a familiar name—a welcome sight.

He hadn’t been personally close with Lee Hyeon-Seong, but they had played together in a larger group on a few occasions.

‘The very top ranker is still Level 15?’

Lee Hyeon-Seong was at the same Level as Jin-Hyeok. Then again, Jin-Hyeok had also been around Level 15 at this point in time pre-regression.

‘My level-up speed really is super fast.’

Jin-Hyeok realized this was what was meant when it was said that Streamers were the best for leveling up. As a Streamer himself now, he could experience first-hand how much faster he leveled up depending on how many viewers he had.

‘I should slow down.’

Jin-Hyeok decided to pace himself, his willpower winning over his primal desires for now.

***

Three days passed by.

Jin-Hyeok tried to pace himself—by his standards, at least—but he was already Level 19.

‘I get that I’m a Streamer, but how is my level-up speed still this fast?’

──────────

[Swordsman]

[1st. Lee Hyeon-Seong (LV:21)]

[Martial Artist]

[1st. Kim Sang-Hee (LV:21)]

──────────

Most of the first rankers for their individual Jobs were Level 21. As expected of those at the top, their Levels were all very similar.

‘Seeing how there\'s only two Levels between me and them, I guess they\'re still getting the hang of things.’

Jin-Hyeok’s instinct was to say ‘what a relief’, but his rational side screamed at him to ‘go slower.’

His current number of viewers was 5,700. For every Level he gained, the maximum possible capacity of viewers for the stream expanded by 300.

Another day passed by.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have become Level 20.]

Jin-Hyeok had already reached Level 20.

[You are now able to communicate with your viewers.]

[Chat/Donations are now enabled.]

The moment the stream chat window appeared, Jin-Hyeok immediately selected the ‘Block Chat’ setting and closed off all methods of communication.

‘No thanks.’

The role model whom Jin-Hyeok was inspired to emulate was not Egan Paul, but ‘Mystery Box.’

Unlike Egan Paul, who was a massive celebrity, Mystery Box was a Streamer who was shrouded in mystery.

‘Yeah, Mystery Box streamed strictly from the first-person POV to hide as much about his identity as possible. He didn’t even communicate with viewers.’

Although some voices criticized Mystery Box as an iconic example of someone who had zero interaction with their viewers with a screw you all, do-it-my-way attitude, Mystery Box was nevertheless considerably successful.

Not long after he began his streaming career, Mystery Box received such a large amount of donations that he was able to buy a building located in Yeonhui-dong[2] outright.

It was worth noting that Yeonhui-dong would become a premium land worth its weight in gold in the future, becoming the area with the most expensive real estate in all of Seoul. This was because a Guardian Tree ended up growing there, which created a ‘safe zone.’

‘Anyway, the important thing is that Mystery Box managed to acquire several buildings in an area like that...’

Mystery Box would retire young, flaunting his wealth as he lived the rich life full of luxuries.

In Jin-Hyeok’s eyes, Mystery Box was probably closest to what a Streamer who was third or fourth place in the streaming world was like—and Mystery Box had never been attacked by hunters that were after his Awakened abilities.

‘No matter how I think about it, he did things the best way.’

Whether it was the past or present, the one thing that always stood above the creator of the universe was property owners.

“As a sort of celebration for reaching Level 20, I am about to enter this Tutorial Field and see what’s going on.”

The sort of memory Jin-Hyeok had of this place was that of trying to tackle the Tutorial Field immediately after Awakening, and dying several times before coming to grips with the fact that Level 1 might be too low to try the dungeon. He returned to challenge it once more after reaching Level 5.

***

The ‘Tutorial Field’ that had spawned was shaped in such a manner that it traced along the subway stations. Jin-Hyeok was headed toward Seoul Station.

On the first step that he took into the entrance of Seoul Station, Jin-Hyeok heard a notification.

[You can enter the Tutorial Field: 「Seoul Station」.]

[Do you want to enter Seoul Station?]

Although the entrance was the same, Players were able to enter a place that was not Seoul Station, but ‘Seoul Station Field.’

‘I’ll show some of the Tutorial Field, and try to get my hands on an Extra Life when the time is right.’

Extra Life was an exceedingly rare Trait that could only be obtained in the few Tutorial Fields that existed—and nowhere else.

An Extra Life nullified any lethal attack—the one which could cause death—just once for the Player that possessed it.

‘If I had one of those in the good old days when I was the Sword King, I could have been a lot bolder in battle.’

Before Jin-Hyeok entered the Tutorial Field, he reforged his resolve.

‘I’m not doing this because I want to become stronger.’

That’s right—this was for his safety.

Jin-Hyeok stepped forward into the entrance.

‘Hmm?’

Unlike his previous experience, something unimaginable was happening before his eyes.

Scanning around the area with Broadcaster’s Truesight, Jin-Hyeok found that the Players in here were all around Level 15.

Yet contrary to their high Level, there were not one, not two, but three bodies on the bloodstained ground.

‘Well, two bodies, to be exact.’

There were two males who were clearly dead. However, the third Player on the floor, a woman, was alive and breathing fine. Jin-Hyeok figured she was Player with an assassin class Job.

‘There’s always someone pretending to be dead.’

Jin-Hyeok decided not to pay her any heed as she didn’t seem all that dangerous to him.

‘Wow… to think that Level 15 Players would be killed by Dwarves…’

The creatures that appeared at the Seoul Station entrance were ‘Dwarf monsters.’ They were blind and weak, which made them rather easy to deal with.

‘To be honest, they should be no sweat even for a Level 10.’

Before his regression, Jin-Hyeok fought the Dwarves at Level 5. At present, all sorts of Players ranging from the Levels of 10 to 15 were fighting the battle of their lives against those same Dwarves.

‘The Players of this day and age are a more sorry state than I remember.’

It was so long ago that Jin-Hyeok couldn’t quite remember clearly, but they were definitely weaker than what he recalled about this period.

‘Ah, I wish I could fight...’

Alas, this was a frame of mind that just had to be fixed outright. He was a Streamer now, and he was going to act like one—not just being one in name.

Jin-Hyeok turned his attention to one corner of the area.

‘I should get these guys as the stars of today’s stream.’

He came across a group of nine boys, who looked to be a bunch of friends in their late teens. They stood in a circle with one of them at the center.

Jin-Hyeok felt himself itching to join the battle, so he hurriedly resumed his commentating.

“Alright, we will now be starting our stream.”

***

The nine boys had some hurrah to them, but Jin-Hyeok felt it was wasted on something like this.

“HAH!”

They shouted loudly as they thrust their spears.

That said, though they were young, the way they adjusted fast to the transforming world around them was quite admirable. Jin-Hyeok took an initial liking to them.

Jin-Hyeok made his way toward them, taking care in the route he took so the Dwarves didn’t come running at him. He began to give some light pieces of advice to these sprightly seedlings.

“Try fighting them without making sounds. It seems these Dwarves have pretty sensitive hearing.”

The boys seemed to take Jin-Hyeok’s advice on board as they shut their mouths at once.

With this newfound advice, they managed to fell the Dwarves one after another in an orderly fashion, upon which they were finally able to take a breather.

“Thank you.”

The boys were rather grateful to Jin-Hyeok.

“So what do you do, hyung?”

“I’m a Streamer.”

“Huh? Does a Job called ‘Streamer’ exist?”

“Is it really that weird that Streamers exist when Lancers are a thing?”

“T-that’s true.”

“How did you know that the Dwarves were sensitive to sounds?” one of the boys asked.

“You can catch these sort of things if you’re a bystander not involved in the fight. The Dwarves reacted whenever you and your friends shouted.”

Jin-Hyeok observed the boys using Broadcaster’s Truesight.

[LV15/Master No. 1/1st Class Lancer/Skills/No Achievements Unlocked]

[LV14/Master No. 2/2nd Class Lancer/Skills/No Achievements Unlocked]

Jin-Hyeok could not only see their Jobs, but also their Skills. His Broadcaster’s Truesight was certainly much more exceptional than that of the typical Streamer.

The boys weren’t all that different from each other, but one seemed a little peculiar.

[LV17/Boss of Masters/Nine-Man Monarch/Skill/No Achievements Unlocked]

His Job name was in green.

In later days, people would begin grading each Job, and those that were colored green would come to be graded as being 5-Star Jobs.

Jin-Hyeok looked at the boy\'s Skills and saw that he had a Skill called \'Nine-Man Bulwark.\' Jin-Hyeok guessed that this Skill would give some sort of considerable buff to the Player and his party, if the party had nine people.

‘Hmm, he’s still a dreamer.’

Jin-Hyeok felt there was something sweet and endearing about this Player aspiring to play together with his friends. To be honest, he thought a Job that required all nine of them to be together to create synergy was absolute trash—but at the end of the day, that was just Jin-Hyeok’s opinion, and it wasn’t his place to lecture the boy on what he thought was good or bad.

Jin-Hyeok continued to do his thing.

“Viewers, it seems there’s some kind of synergistic effect when the nine of them stick together. I think that’s their safest plan for facing these Dwarves.”

Jin-Hyeok continued his commentary for the stream, giving advice where he felt like—though to be honest, he felt like it was the sort of advice that literally anyone could give. He gave advice such as…

“Hey, you—yeah, you, the one standing at the far end. Try making some noise to attract the monsters’ aggro,[3] since they’re sensitive to sound.”

And…

“Hey, the one standing in the middle—try taking a step forward when you’re facing them. You’re maintaining too much distance.”

…And so on.

The boys followed his advice quite well and managed to successfully hunt quite a few Dwarves.

After some time, the boys managed to finish off all the Dwarves in their vicinity. They stored the items that the Dwarves had dropped in their Inventories and came toward Jin-Hyeok.

The boy who seemed to be their leader, the Nine-Man Monarch, was the one to speak.

“Hyung, you really are a Streamer, right?”

“That’s right. I’m streaming right now, in fact.”

“I think you’re amazing.”

“…Am I?”

“Yes. You were like a private tutor or something, picking out all the places we were doing it wrong. Thank you so much.”

“…Was I?”

“Thank you for letting me know what a Ruler should do.”

Jin-Hyeok was almost embarrassed by how thankful the boys were toward him; he didn’t feel like he had been all that helpful.

“Thank you!”

“We appreciate it a lot!”

At that very moment, Jin-Hyeok sensed a strange energy behind him.

‘Hmm?’

Jin-Hyeok figured it was a murderous energy, but the aura that was being exuded was so crude and poor that Jin-Hyeok was hard-pressed to say it felt murderous at all.

Jin-Hyeok glanced behind him nonchalantly.

One woman—the one who had been lying on the floor, pretending to be dead—was rushing toward him with a long blade.

Jin-Hyeok knew something like this was coming.

TL: Fun fact: the female equivalent is Kim Yeong-Hui (김영희), which is ironic in its own right because it isn’t that common of a name.

1. Kim Chul-Soo is the Korean equivalent of saying ‘John Smith’ in English—it is used as a very generic placeholder name for a male. ☜

2. A neighborhood located near Yonsei University, in Seoul. ‘-dong’ actually means neighborhood in Korean. ☜

3. Gaming term that is short for aggression, or an enemy’s attention. ☜