I Gave Up Being Stronger

It was gross, disgusting, and nauseating.

‘God damnit.’

The Steel Centipedes had not noticed Kaylin because they were making so much weird noises. She saw a faint light in the distance. It was small, like a tiny star in the night sky.

‘Is that the way out?’

Her chances of surviving a fight with this many monsters were close to zero. The elevator had stopped working. It was easy to get up here, but it was impossible to get back down. Caught in the middle of all these Steel Centipedes, she had to move as carefully as possible without being seen.

‘I can’t die here!’

She didn’t even have the time to think about why she didn’t see Cha Jin-Hyeok or any of his teammates, all of whom had gone before her.

For now, she decided to focus on staying alive.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

[You have reached the Underground Habitat.]

After a little time had passed—

“It seems like everyone is here.”

Not a single Steel Centipede emerged during the time it took for the party members to arrive one by one. Apparently, the bait on the 88th floor was doing her job. If even one Player entered the 88th floor, the difficulty of this Underground Habitat was greatly reduced. The number of Steel Centipedes to be dealt with was more than halved, and only the relatively weak ones were encountered.

Cha Jin-Sol asked her brother, “Oppa, why did we have to have that secret sign? You could have just told us to come down.”

“Ah, it’s because we were being followed.”

“Being followed?”

“Yes. I saw her coming in with me. It was the same one from before. I think she got a new stealth Skill, too."

Cha Jin-Hyeok did not look closely at her new stealth Skill. He figured it would be too conspicuous if he did.

‘If it’s a new Skill she learned at Level 40, it has to be something like Sneak.’

“But why didn’t you do something about it?” Jin-Sol asked another question.

“I wanted to send her up.”

“Why?”

“It is known that if a person goes up with the elevator, the difficulty down here goes down by a lot. I saw it in the Future Diary.”

“Then what happens to the Player that’s up there?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

That was none of Jin-Hyeok\'s business. It was an Assassin who had been following him around, trying to kill him. He could have her killed just based on the fact that she was following him.

‘If she is really good at hiding and has great survival instincts, she will live. If she is just an ordinary Assassin, she is going to die.’

No matter what happened, Jin-Hyeok did not care. But since Jin-Hyeok could figure out that she was following him, it meant that she was probably going to die.

Jin-Sol looked at her brother with wide eyes.

“Oppa, you know, sometimes you scare the shit out of me.’

“Why?”

“The fact that you don’t know scares me even more.”

“You sure are scared of everything.”

Jin-Sol had always found him a bit difficult since they were young.

Jin-Hyeok shrugged off her words and explained his own strategy. Since he wasn’t going to be livestreaming, he did not have to explain in great detail.

“Let’s start digging first”

He started to dig with the party. They needed a fairly large pit, but thanks to Mok Jae-Hyeon, they were able to dig one pretty easily.

“Jae-Hyeon. I need you to stay here and protect the other members.”

“What about you?”

“There is a monster over there. I am going to lure it out and trap it.”

He assumed the other members would be in much danger. He wasn’t sure how long Black Butterball upstairs would last, but if she did, it would be very easy, and if she didn’t, it would be a little hard.

‘I know that if there is a person upstairs, they only attack one by one.’

[LV37/Steel Centipede/Skills]

These monsters were considered dangerous because they usually attacked in groups. Taking them on one by one was not too difficult.

Jin-Hyeok picked up a rock and threw it at the Steel Centipede. The monster spotted him and started crawling toward him.

Squeak!

He could hear its legs moving.

‘Ugh, I hate that screeching sound.’

He had not heard it in a long time, and he still hated it. The monster was still disgusting to look at. Sometimes even the most skilled Players were unable to use their full power against arthropods like that, which was understandable, seeing how gruesome it looked.

‘It is faster than I thought.’

It closed it fast and spat poison at him.

‘Activate Broadcaster’s Barrier.’

Each of its attacks wasn’t very strong. He used the Broadcaster’s Barrier to block its poison attack. While he used the Skill, he jumped backward to have more distance between them.

‘Pretty easy.’

Jin-Hyeok succeeded in luring it to the pit. There was a pathway at the edge of the pit, barely big enough for a human to pass through, and he used that to get over the pit.

The Steel Centipede fell into the pit.

“Oppa, that thing is climbing up the pit!” Jin-Sol exclaimed.

“Of course it can.”

These monsters could climb up even the slippery glass surface. It was obvious for them to be able to climb up the pit.

Jin-Hyeok pulled a potion out from his sleeve.

[Lesser Corrosive Potion]

[A potion that reacts with anything of a certain composition to corrode it.]

This stuff was only fifty thousand Dias a bottle if he got it through Players. It was hard to get it like that, so he bought it from the Broadcaster’s Shop. It cost a whopping one million Dias per bottle from the Broadcaster\'s Shop. This was definitely profiteering, no matter how he looked at it.

Anyway, the Lesser Corrosive Potion was very effective against all steel-type monsters below Level 40.

‘It works best when poured directly on the head.’

This was a proven method that had been studied and tested by countless people.

Tssss.

Smoke rose from the Steel Centipede\'s head.

Jin-Sol was stunned.

“Oppa! It’s still climbing up!”

“Stop stating the obvious!”

Jin-Hyeok nonchalantly poured the rest of the potion. There was no way a monster that was close to Level 40 would be killed this easily. It was obvious that it would keep climbing up.

He had heard that some rich Players would buy tons of that corrosive potion and fill the entire pit to kill these monsters. To Jin-Hyeok, that was stupid and crazy. He would not want to do anything that inefficient.

Tssss.

As he poured out the entire potion, the Steel Centipede’s head touched his foot.

‘Activate Broadcaster’s Barrier.’

It bit his foot, but it didn’t do much damage. The potion had left its skin mushy. The head, which was already its weak point, had turned into an even weaker point. The corrosive potion also made it more aggressive and desperate. It clenched its jaws as if it would not let go of his foot.

‘This works out for me, actually.’

The tightness of its bite told him that its jaws were fully locked.

He raised the dagger and stabbed it down on its head.

Boom!

Green blood spurted out. This blood was also slightly toxic, which could cause injuries, but not enough to interfere with his plan. He just had to be careful not to get it in his eyes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The dagger felt pretty good in his hand.

[You have killed a Steel Centipede.]

“Hm… I guess using only one bottle is a bit risky.”

“Then we should use two bottles,” Jin-Sol said.

She had misunderstood his words.

“What are you talking about?” Jin-Hyeok said.

For Jin-Hyeok, expressing something as the ‘riskiest’ meant it was the most efficient. To give up on low cost and high efficiency and go for high cost and low efficiency was just crazy talk.

“There is another one spawning over there. I am going to kill it the same way. You guys just watch.”

Come to think of it, Black Butterball was still alive upstairs. If she was dead, there would have been two or three spawns, but there was only one.

The next one was one Level lower, so it was a little easier.

The next one was one Level higher than the first one, and he actually had an easier time killing it than the first one because he had gotten used to doing this.

He continued to kill these monsters.

‘I believe this was my twentieth kill.’

At first, it was fun and exciting to kill the monsters, but now it has become a bit boring. It was because the Steel Centipedes were so weak against the corrosive potion that Jin-Hyeok couldn’t feel any sense of crisis. If there was no sense of danger, it could not be fun.

Boom! Boom!

He plunged his dagger countless times into the head of the last Steel Centipede.

[You have killed a Steel Centipede.]

With that, no more Centipedes regenerated. He didn’t have to think much about it, since he knew the whole strategy anyway.

“Looks like the regen for the Steel Centipede is finished. Let’s move on.”

The team walked down the long corridor.

‘There should be a small glass box at the end of this path.’

Inside the glass box would be a scroll that glowed red. If he tore the scroll, he would obtain the Trait, Mental Barrier.

‘There it is.’

Before regression, Jin-Hyeok struggled hard to obtain this. The reason was that this Dungeon was a special Dungeon that increased in difficulty exponentially as more and more Players cleared it. Jin-Hyeok and his old teammates were around the eighth team to obtain the Mental Barrier Trait here, but it disappeared after them.

‘Huh?’

However, it was a little different this time.

[?]

It was supposed to be displayed as a Mental Barrier, but for some reason, it only showed a question mark.

In such cases, he would only know for sure what the Trait was when he got his hands on it.

‘It’s probably the Mental Barrier Trait, I’m sure of it.’

Jin-Hyeok assumed the name of the Trait would be revealed after the first person acquired it. Unsuspecting, he reached for the scroll and ripped it apart.

A notification popped up.

[You have acquired the Trait 「Imperial Resilience」.]

‘Excuse me?’

He was momentarily at a loss for words. He had no idea why the Imperial Resilience Trait was even in this Dungeon.

‘This is so much better than I thought. I was only planning on finishing third place. If you think I would be happy to obtain such a powerful Trait unexpectedly… Then, you are right. Thank you!’

Once he got the Imperial Resilience Trait, the elevator spawned again in front of him. If he pressed the ‘▲‘ button, he would be taken back up to where he came from, and the Dungeon would be cleared.

“There you have it, a super easy Dungeon.”

“...”

For some reason, the party members did not say anything.

‘I guess they’re surprised at how easy the Dungeon is.’

“Let’s repeat this so that each of you will get the Trait.”

“...”

“Jeong-Hyeon. You are up next.”

Jin-Hyeok assumed that he acquired the Imperial Resilience Trait because he was the first to clear it.

‘I don’t know if the kids will get the same Trait or not. I guess I’ll have to see for myself.’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Black Butterball seemed to be surviving longer than expected. The difficulty was very low.

“Let’s make this quick, guys.”

With the bait on the 88th floor, it would be best to move as quickly as possible. This was actually a good opportunity for the party.

“I… just got something called… Imperial Resilience…”

‘No way!’

Kim Jeong-Hyeon got the same Trait as Jin-Hyeok. Apparently, a small number of people in the early stages were given the Imperial Resilience Trait, and the rest were given the Mental Barrier Trait.

“Next up is Jae-Hyeon.”

‘Is he going to get the same one?’

“I… I got the same one!”

The Seo sisters were up next.

“Imperial Resilience! Obtained!”

“I got the same thing as her.”

Jin-Hyeok was skeptical, but it seemed like everyone obtained the Imperial Resilience Trait. It took about ten hours and he was completely covered in monster blood, looking like a green monster himself. His whole body was wet and sticky. It also smelled very bad, and at this point, he felt a little gross and wanted to wash it off.

“Oppa, are you sure I can’t have that Trait?” Jin-Sol asked.

“It’s not compatible with you.”

The Enhanced Human and Enhanced Survival Traits conflicted with other Traits. If she added some random Traits, it would not benefit her at all.

“...But.”

“You’re better off without it. Trust me.”

He was glad he didn’t turn on his livestream. If he had turned it on, he would have had to ramble on and on about why it was bad for Jin-Sol.

“...Okay.”

She seemed a little hard to convince, but in the end, she listened to her brother.

‘You’ll thank me in time.’

[You have partially cleared the Petronas Twin Towers Dungeon.]

To fully clear it, they needed to clear the upper floors too. But the reward for that was so minuscule compared to the effort that Jin-Hyeok didn’t bother.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have reached Level 40.]

‘Oh?’

He had not paid much attention to his Level because it was so low. But now that he had reached Level 40, it felt different.’

‘That means I’m going to unlock another Job-related Skill.’

He had a Job that was not known to the world called the Almighty Streamer. At Level 40, a typical Initially Awakened Streamer would gain a Skill called ‘High-Speed Recording.’ As the name suggested, it was a Skill that allowed Streamers to shoot a scene at lightning speed, and it was a must-have for any Streamer.

[You are about to receive your Job Skill.]

‘I bet it’s something similar to High-Speed Recording’

He was not expecting much, but he was a little excited because it felt like he was playing with a Gacha machine[1], just like when he was a child.

[You have unlocked a Job Skill.]

‘What the hell is this?’

It was indeed something similar, but it was not something he expected.

1. Gacha machines are those toy-vending machines that are popular in Asia. ☜