I Gave Up Being Stronger

“H-how can I become like you, hyung?”

“Become like me? Everyone can do this much.”

“…”

“You just need a bit of training.”

That, of course, was going by Jin-Hyeok’s standards.

He thought that even Merchant class Players, who were evaluated to be the weakest of them all, could do this much in the beginner period.

The fact was, however, that even those Merchants that Jin-Hyeok had encountered in the past were among the highest rankers. In truth, Jin-Hyeok’s standards were nowhere near the norm.

To Nam-Il, it just sounded like Jin-Hyeok didn\'t want to reveal who he was.

After some time, the boss monster Field was unceremoniously lifted. Enveloped by the light of the magic circle, Jin-Hyeok and the boys found themselves returned to the original Field of Seoul Station.

“Are you, like… part of some national special forces that prepared just for this day, or something?”

“Well, I guess something like that,” Jin-Hyeok responded.

“I-I knew it.”

Jin-Hyeok decided that was the story he would go with, since he really had been a Player for the NIS before his regression.

“H-h-hyung, where are you going?”

“Don’t follow me. I’m going to go down to the subway platform. It’ll be even more dangerous downstairs.”

“I-I’ll go with you.”

“Don’t follow me. We can no longer cooperate from the point that you rejected my requests.”

“I’m s-sorry. I won’t disturb you, I’ll just follow you from behind and learn from what you do.”

Jin-Hyeok scratched his head.

“Okay, first of all, I’m a Streamer, so there’s not much you can learn from me.”

“…”

“And second, I don\'t work twice with someone who’s broken my trust. If we were under a contractual relationship or were actual teammates, I would probably have killed you.”

Nam-Il was startled.

Jin-Hyeok’s words were so violent, yet his tone was the same as someone talking about what they had for breakfast. Nam-Il felt the true width of the gulf between his life and Jin-Hyeok’s.

“So, let’s just go our separate ways.”

Nam-Il had Awakened as the Nine-Man Monarch, and a special characteristic of any Ruler Job was that one became highly receptive to the emotions of others. He was able to instinctively discern the feelings and emotional state of others.

‘He genuinely doesn’t seem to be housing any enmity at all…’

Nam-Il found Jin-Hyeok to be awfully strange. It was almost like parts of his brain weren’t functioning the way they were meant to.

Jin-Hyeok began to move further and further away from him. The whole sequence that Nam-Il had experienced today felt like a dream.

“It’s not a dream, though, is it?”

The group of nine had been reduced down to three.

All Nam-Il could do was stare off into the distance in the direction that Cha Jin-Hyeok had gone, dumbfounded.

That was when he heard one of his friends constantly mutter something under his breath.

“If he was that strong, he could have just saved us in the first place.”

“…Huh?”

Nam-Il quickly turned to face his friend.

His friend was shaking all over.

“Hey, you… what’s up with you?”

“He could have just saved us, that fucker.”

“….”

“Six of us died because of that prick. That fucker killed them.”

Nam-Il felt something was off. Before him was certainly the friend that he knew, but at the same time he seemed like someone different. His friend’s head was lowered.

Drip. Drip.

Red ink-like teardrops began to fall from his eyes.

With a pang of ominous feelings, Nam-Il gave his friend’s shoulder a strong shake.

“Hey! Park Sang-Hyeon! What’s wrong?”

Park Sang-Hyeon raised his head.

His eyes had turned blood red.

“You… you…” Nam-Il trailed off.

Park Sang-Hyeon grinned.

“Hehehe.”

Park Sang-Hyeon reached out and grabbed Kang Nam-Il’s neck, enclosing his grip.

Snap.

Kang Nam-Il’s neck broke in an instant.

Just like that, the Nine-Man Monarch died and collapsed to the floor like a doll.

“Y-you crazy bastard! Gak!” Another friend screamed.

Park Sang-Hyeon grabbed his friend’s neck.

In the meantime, two black horns emerged from Park Sang-Hyeon’s head.

He looked like a devil straight out of mythology.

Park Sang-Hyeon put in more strength in his arms, making the thick veins on his arm and the back of his hand pop up horrifyingly.

“Heeheehee…”

“S-spare me… arghhh!”

He snapped his friend’s neck.

Thud—

The now lifeless body fell to the ground.

Except for the now-bizarre Park Sang-Hyeon, there were no other survivors of the Nine-Man Monarch’s party.

***

A notification popped up for Jin-Hyeok.

[Do you want to take the escalator?]

This escalator was set to go to B1F, the subway platform.

[You have boarded the escalator.]

[You have entered the 「Subway Platform」.]

Jin-Hyeok was met with the sight of wolves with gray fur slinking around.

The name of this monster was simply ‘Gray Wolf,’ and they were Level 17 or 18.

‘They’re pretty weak.’

It would have been nice if there were slightly stronger creatures down here, but Jin-Hyeok had already known that would be too much to ask.

One thing he had to give them credit for, though, was that they grouped together and attacked as a pack.

Yelp!

One of the gray wolves that had tried to chomp on Jin-Hyeok’s neck let out a cry.

“It appears it broke some of its teeth.” Jin-Hyeok was commentating for his stream as always.

It was quickly turning out that the combination of the ‘Broadcaster’s Barrier’ ability and the ‘Lord of the Tutorial’ Achievement effect was almost too good. Thanks to the barrier’s constant state of activation, Jin-Hyeok didn’t need to pay heed to defending at all.

This made it very comfortable for Jin-Hyeok to just focus on his livestream.

“They’re surrounding me now.”

Jin-Hyeok was carefree. Perhaps it could have been a little precarious if he had tried to fight them in this situation without Broadcaster\'s Barrier, but that too was merely just a matter of Jin-Hyeok’s relative lack of experience with this particular fight.

‘Wait, but should I be pretending that I’m at least a little scared?’

Even if he had the Broadcaster’s Barrier ability, could it possibly look unnatural if a Tutorial-grade Streamer was completely fearless in the face of this many monsters surrounding him?

The thought entered Jin-Hyeok’s mind, but he soon shook his head.

Nevermind the fact that feigning fear with his acting skills would look unnatural anyway—there was no way he could act like he was frightened at all here.

‘I can’t help the fact that I’m just not scared.’

Growling, several of the wolves rushed at Jin-Hyeok.

Yelp!

They didn’t seem like very good learners. The wolves only stopped running at Jin-Hyeok after five or six of them broke their teeth on his barrier.

Unable to feel the usual thrill and joy of conquering a Dungeon, Jin-Hyeok quickly got tired of the whole affair.

“I’ve come down to this new Field, but it seems there’s not much here.”

Jin-Hyeok pretended to have a look around.

“Oh, what’s that? I see something out of the ordinary.”

Jin-Hyeok had already come down to this place with a goal in mind—and that goal was related to the convenience store he saw off in the distance, the one he had been looking for.

That store was completely covered by vines.

“How intriguing. I’ll go have a closer look.”

***

These vines had not grown naturally.

“This looks to be the work of a Skill.”

As always, Broadcaster’s Truesight allowed Jin-Hyeok to detect many things. Beyond these vines, Jin-Hyeok could sense the presence of a Player.

More precisely, he could see the Player’s information.

[LV21(+2)/Loser/Wood Lord/Skills/Survive for Six Days]

‘Loser?’

It was a strange choice for an Awakened name, given that people chose their own names.

That said, Jin-Hyeok recognised who this was.

But the Mok Jae-Hyeon[1] he had known in his previous lifetime simply went by his real name for his Player name. Jin-Hyeok guessed that maybe that had been changed from this later down that timeline.

‘His Job is colored in yellow. A 7-Star, just like I remember.’

For Jin-Hyeok Players with 7-Star rated Jobs were perfect to play together with.

In truth, 7 Stars was a brilliant rating—it fell within the top 10% of Jobs in terms of grading. But if someone were to have asked him if that meant 7-Star Jobs were top-tier, he would have to say no.

‘And that is why they’re perfect for someone who wants to be third place.’

In fact, Streamer Mystery Box’s main content of choice featured the playing of 7-Starrers.

Jin-Hyeok knocked on the mass of vines.

“Excuse me, could you open the door for me? I’m a human.”

“…”

Jin-Hyeok couldn’t hear any response. Maybe he was up to something on the inside, but there was no clue of what it could be.

“I’m a good person, you can trust me. Please open the door for me.”

Once again, there was no response. As expected, to be honest.

A Gray Wolf came to try and chomp Jin-Hyeok in the rear, only to ruin its teeth.

“If you won’t open the door, I’ll just open it myself.”

“…”

“I’m really not a dodgy person, I swear. I just want to interview you—I’m a Streamer. I also got some questions I want to ask.”

Jin-Hyeok took a look around and up close at the vines.

‘I should be able to get through the entrance after like three hours.’

The name of the Skill that had created these vines was ‘Wood Fortress.’ It was known to be a very efficient and effective defensive ability.

The +2 Levels that the Player inside was receiving right now was also due to being inside the fortress he had created.

But while it truly was an outstanding skill, that didn’t mean it was infallible. At the end of the day, this one had been created by a Tutorial-grade Player that was still in their low 20’s in terms of Level.

‘All I need to do is remove the vines step by step.’

If Han Sae-Rin, the resident navigator of Jin-Hyeok’s team in his previous life, had been here with them, a fortress of this caliber would have taken less than a second for her to remove.

Jin-Hyeok drew his dagger and began to carve out a path by hacking at the vines.

His mind began to wander due to the simple nature of the task. Beginning with Han Sae-Rin, the faces of his other teammates passed by his mind’s eye one by one.

‘I wonder if they’re all faring well.’

Truth be told, Jin-Hyeok didn’t bother to look for them after his regression.

He was planning on leading a very different life, and there wouldn’t be any occasions for his and their paths to cross. He intended to cheer on their accomplishments from a distance.

That didn’t mean he didn’t miss those days a little. Those days of playing together with his team truly had been a thrill, and filled with joy.

‘Oh? Looks like I’m done.’

Not after long, Jin-Hyeok found that he had made an opening big enough for him to squeeze through.

‘That was way faster than I thought.’

Jin-Hyeok had been expecting it to take at least three hours, but it took only one.

It wasn’t because Jin-Hyeok was surprisingly talented at Skill removal—it was more likely because Wood Lords at this point in their playing were much weaker than Jin-Hyeok had anticipated.

“Hup.”

Jin-Hyeok squeezed himself into the hole.

“Hello, I came here to interview-”

“AHHHHH!!! Ughhh! D-don’t come any closer!!!”

Mok Jae-Hyeon stepped backward, trembling as if he was looking at a ghost.

Mok Jae-Hyeon was wearing a school uniform and had a rather small physique. From what Jin-Hyeok could recall, the older version of Mok Jae-Hyeon that Jin-Hyeok had come to known in his previous lifetime had practically been a giant. He figured that Mok Jae-Hyeon was probably going to have a growth spurt all at once later down the track.

“H-H-HELP, someone HELP ME!!!”

“….”

Jin-Hyeok noticed his reflection in the mirror hanging from the corner of the convenience store.

‘Oh.’

To be fair, Jin-Hyeok looked completely horrid. He was still caked in Gargar’s blood, giving him an ominous air that exuded terror. Jin-Hyeok had been so used to seeing himself like this, that he hadn’t paid it as much heed as he should have.

“I’m not a bad person,” he said.

“G-g–go away!”

Mok Jae-Hyeon squeezed his eyes shut and flailed his dagger about. Even a child wouldn’t have been hit by it.

Jin-Hyeok stood completely still, the dagger failing to reach him.

“Loser-nim,[2] please, let’s just talk for a bit. I’m a Streamer Player.”

Something about the word ‘Loser’ made Mok Jae-Hyeon twitch.

“I just want to have a conversation with you and get some video content while we’re at it.”

Jin-Hyeok intended to ask what Quest Mok Jae-Hyeon was doing and how he got it.

Mok Jae-Hyeon didn’t tell him exactly what the Quest was, but vaguely answered that the reward was very good considering they were still in the Tutorial stage of playing.

Of course, Jin-Hyeok knew that it needed to be considered that it was something good from the viewpoint of someone with a 7-Star Job.

This was an opportunity for Jin-Hyeok to get his hands on such a reward and possibly play with Mok Jae-Hyeon. It was perfect for someone gunning for third place.

However, Mok Jae-Hyeon was currently so seized by terror that it seemed like he would faint at this rate.

“Mmm… you didn’t actually want ‘Loser’ as your Awakened name, did you?”

Observing Mok Jae-Hyeon’s face closely, Jin-Hyeok noticed it was dotted with faint bruises.

“Seems like someone beat you up badly, too.”

These weren’t wounds inflicted by monsters—a monster would have just killed him.

“And judging by your personality, you wouldn’t have come here all by yourself.”

Jin-Hyeok could conjecture that someone had forced Mok Jae-Hyeon to name himself ‘Loser,’ and that same someone then brought him here against his will.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“…”

It was only then that Mok Jae-Hyeon finally opened his eyes and looked at Jin-Hyeok.

He still seemed to be afraid, but now it seemed like he had decided to talk at least.

That was when Jin-Hyeok heard a notification.

[The VIP chat request window has been activated.]

[Do you want to accept the VIP chat request?]

Jin-Hyeok wondered what this was.

1. This character’s name is meant to be a little comedic and ironic, because ‘Mok’ is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character for ‘wood.’ It is a real surname, though the actual surname has different semantics. ☜

2. An honorific used in formal settings, particularly when talking to strangers—e.g. between a customer service staff member and a client. ☜