I Gave Up Being Stronger

‘...Huh?’

It was a surprisingly sensible question.

‘If I were them, I would have been really pissed off.’

Cha Jin-Hyeok would\'ve been well and truly pissed off if another party suddenly interfered while he was in the middle of fighting a strong monster, especially when the other party then proceeded to snatch the last hit.

Jin-Hyeok hesitated for a moment, which gave Doo-Hyeon some confidence.

“I asked if you were here trying to steal my party\'s reward. Why aren’t you answering?” Doo-Hyeon asked again.

Doo-Hyeon was not in the wrong, but Jin-Hyeok did not care.

“Do you want to get beaten up to the point of wanting to die? Or do you want to get hit to the point of not wanting to live?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“...What did you just say? I can’t overlook such deceitful actions.”

“I mean… you can at least try to overlook it.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?”

“What do you mean? I’m speaking very politely.”

“Do you think saying that politely makes any difference?”

Jin-Hyeok did not understand why Doo-Hyeon did not believe him. If Jin-Hyeok really wanted to pick a fight, he would have swung his sword at him without hesitation.

‘Ah, maybe I should just kill him.’

While he was contemplating, Doo-Hyeon noticed Han Sae-Rin.

“Wait, I know you!”

Doo-Hyeon’s expression brightened as he recognized a familiar face.

[...#It’s that bitch from back then, right? #She is alive?]

“Do you remember when we saved you back then?” Doo-Hyeon shamelessly asked.

“Saved… me?”

“We did save you. Don’t you remember?”

“...”

“We wanted to have some fun with you but decided not to. I can’t believe you don’t remember us!”

Sae-Rin clenched her fist. If it were her old self from Jin-Hyeok\'s previous life, she would have kicked him between the legs right away. The Han Sae-Rin of this period was quite docile.

“Tell your boss here that this place belongs to us. Tell him that we won’t tolerate any stealing,” Doo-Hyeon said to Sae-Rin.

‘Wait, but I’m the boss. Who the hell is he talking about?’

Jin-Hyeok followed Doo-Hyeon’s gaze and realized he was looking at Kim Jeong-Hyeon.

‘Really? Do I look weaker than Jeong-Hyeon? I guess I have to kill Doo-Hyeon after all.’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

First, Jin-Hyeok turned off his livestream. It was well known that livestreams with content that was too gruesome were not well received by the viewers.

Jin-Hyeok pulled Sae-Rin back and said to Doo-Hyeon, “I think you guys need to die.”

“What?”

Doo-Hyeon chuckled as if he found it absurd. About ten Players led by him clenched their weapons. Seo Ji-Ah, who was always quiet but quick on her feet, swiftly moved and slit the throat of one of the ten Players.

“ARGH!!”

The Player died instantly. He was the other party\'s Streamer.

“Now there won’t be any evidence left,” Jin-Hyeok said while smiling.

He took out a longsword from his inventory.

“Hey, guys, you don’t need to help me. Just stay there and watch me.”

Cha Jin-Sol tried to say, “But, Oppa!” but could not continue her words. In that instant, her brother seemed different, like he was someone else. Even though he was her

older brother, Jin-Hyeok looked somewhat intimidating in Jin-Sol’s eyes.

Ironically, the biggest coward, Mok Jae-Hyeon, took a step forward.

“Hyung! I will fight with you!”

“Forget it. Stay out of it.”

Doo-Hyeon clenched his lips tightly.

“You cowardly bastards!” Doo-Hyeon shouted.

Jin-Hyeok did not respond. As a wise man once said, a fist was faster than words, and a sword was faster than a fist.

Jin-Hyeok swung his sword. His sword left an afterimage as it slashed something.

Shwack!

Blood sprayed out.

“One guy down.”

Thunk.

A round object rolled on the ground. It was the head of Doo-Hyeon, who was standing closest to Jin-Hyeok. The Qi Manipulator, who was at Level 50, could not even put up a decent fight against Jin-Hyeok and died instantly. Even Jin-Hyeok himself was caught by surprise at how easy it was to kill Doo-Hyeon—it was just too easy.

“I kindly warned you that I was going to kill you, so why didn’t you run away?”

Jin-Hyeok could not understand.

“You fucking bastard!”

A martial artist class Player rushed toward Jin-Hyeok. Just like in bullfighting, Jin-Hyeok skillfully evaded his attack. At the same time, another Player swung his sword at Jin-Hyeok.

[You have activated the skill 「Time-Lapse Recording」.]

0.8x speed.

The Players’ bodies momentarily slowed down.

“Wh-What’s going on?!”

Jin-Hyeok passed by the slowed-down Players and stood in front of another man.

[LV44/Yes Man/Noble Cleric/Skills/-]

‘This guy… is one of the guys who asked if he could have some fun with Sae-Rin.’

Suddenly, Jin-Hyeok was annoyed again.

“Do you think you can hide the fact that you are a Healer just by wielding a weapon?”

Yes Man wielded a dagger as soon as the battle started. It was in an attempt to conceal his Job as a Healer, but it did not work on Jin-Hyeok.

[You have used the Skill 「Sharper Spirit」.]

With a single sword strike, Yes Man’s head rolled on the ground. At the same time, someone shot an arrow toward Jin-Hyeok. The arrow, filled with crimson mana, was aimed at his back.

‘Activate Broadcaster’s Barrier.’

By using Broadcaster’s Barrier, he deflected the arrow. Then Jin-Hyeok thrust his sword into the back of the martial artist class Player who first attacked him.

Stab!

Jin-Hyeok’s sword pierced through his body. Although the martial artist class Player had a sturdy defense, it was not enough to block Jin-Hyeok\'s sword.

“Keuk!”

The martial artist class Player fell to one knee.

Cough!

Blood spewed from his mouth. Suddenly, Jin-Hyeok was holding a dagger in his hand.

Stab!

He plunged the dagger into the martial artist class Player’s neck. The martial artist class Player fell to the ground, convulsed, and then died.

“Who’s next? Does anyone want to die? Show of hands?”

At this point, the surviving Players retreated, taking steps back. They completely lost their morale.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

One of the Players screamed and ran away, shouting in fear. Jin-Hyeok did not bother to chase after him. This place was a Labyrinth-type Dungeon, and without a Navigator, a combatant class Player could not survive alone.

‘That guy was an accomplice.’

Those ten Players were all guilty.

“Should I kill the others too?” Jin-Hyeok asked Sae-Rin.

“...”

“If there is anyone who needs to be spared, let me know.”

“I have never seen that man before,” Sae-Rin said, pointing at a certain man.

“Hm… I see.”

Jin-Hyeok thought he could kill them all since there were exactly ten. But it seemed one of them was innocent. This one seemed to be a freelance Navigator who was hired for this Dungeon.

[...#What the hell is going on? #Why is this happening? #Fuck, am I going to die?]

‘Yeah, that’s the normal reaction.’

Most of the other Players had status messages saying things like “I’m innocent” or “This is so unfair." If they were truly innocent, they would be confused and angry.

“I almost killed him by mistake.”

‘Well, since I didn’t, it’s fine.’

The Navigator’s face turned pale. Meanwhile, the others scattered and fled toward the maze without any plan.

“They entered the maze without any precautions. They won’t last long before they die.”

Jin-Hyeok turned around and his party members were all staring at him, standing there frozen.

“What’s wrong with you all?”

Jin-Sol approached him, shaking her head. She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped Jin-Hyeok’s face.

“Let’s clean up the blood and talk, okay?” Jin-Sol said.

“Of course, I’ve got blood on me. I just killed three people!”

Without responding to his words, Jin-Sol wiped his arms with the handkerchief.

“Oppa, why did you kill those people?” Jin-Sol asked.

“Because they were ugly.”

“Stop joking around.”

Jin-Hyeok did not feel the need to explain the reasons. To do that, he would have to bring up Sae-Rin’s past. However, Sae-Rin spoke up, “...I think it’s because of me.”

“Hey, we don’t have to talk about it.”

Sae-Rin was already a famous Navigator, and how pathetic would it be for her to be betrayed by those scumbags? She was enduring such humiliation by just talking about it.

She was so different from the Han Sae-Rin of his previous life, who would never have spoken up.

“...So, to sum up, this is probably why all this happened. But I am also curious why you went to such lengths for my sake. I never asked you to kill them.”

She seemed somewhat conflicted. She seemed to derive some pleasure from their deaths but also felt disgusted by herself for feeling that way. And she seemed to be curious as to why Jin-Hyeok had gone this far.

Jin-Hyeok presented his reasoning, “Players like those scumbags should be controlled by society. Otherwise, law and order will be shaken from the core. I did not kill them for you specifically, but to uphold a healthy order, wielding the sword of justice.”

Jin-Sol laughed exaggeratedly at his statement.

“Hahaha! You did great, Oppa! I always believed that you had your reasons.”

Jin-Hyeok knew she was lying. Jin-Hyeok saw that she was looking at him with those scared eyes earlier. Only Ji-Ah understood his intentions and moved quickly. Come to think of it, he was grateful to Ji-Ah.

“I thought the same, Oppa. Good Job!” Ji-Soo chimed in.

[...#He’s so sexy! #A heroin chic!][1]

Jin-Hyeok decided to stop looking at it and turned his livestream back on.

“There was a conflict between our party and the party that was here before us. There was a battle, and our party emerged victorious. We fought hard together and achieved victory. Three enemies were killed, one was captured, and the rest escaped. You can say that we were lucky.”

Right now, he was not Kim Pyeong-Beom but Kim Chul-Soo. He lied and said that the party fought together. The other members seemed a bit bewildered, but their expressions were not captured on screen.

“Simply breaking that Crystal won’t make it easy to locate Arachne’s whereabouts.”

Jin-Hyeok focused the camera on Han Sae-RIn.

“What do you think we should do to find the mobile boss monster Arachne that is hiding somewhere here?”

“Well…” Sae-Rin cautiously spoke up. Jin-Hyeok thought it would take some time, but it seemed like she already found out. “It seems like there are clues right here.”

Sae-Rin pointed at the Clear Crystal, which had turned red.

“Huh? The color of the Clear Crystal had changed!”

Sae-Rin continued to talk, “There are several conditions that require the death of people to activate, but that has been resolved, so we do not need to know the details anymore…”

Sae-Rin touched the Clear Crystal with her hand.

While mumbling something that sounded like the name of a Skill, she touched the Clear Crystal here and there. Jin-Hyeok deliberately did not use the Broadcaster’s Clairvoyance because the answer would appear too clear and specific.

Suddenly, there was a vibration.

Thud.

Chains sprouted from the empty space around the Clear Crystal and tightly bound it. In the center, a giant lock made of steel appeared.

“If we unlock this, the hidden stage will open,” Sae-Rin said in a confident manner.

She seemed very confident as if she had already forgotten about earlier events and fully regained her self-assurance. She was quite a crazy person, after all.

“But I think we need to think for a while about how to unlock this. Hey, what’s with that face? It was all because of me that we were able to discover the secret and activate the conditions so quickly!” Sae-Rin said.

“How long do you think it will take to unlock it?”

“Well, that’s something we will only know once we try. But it’s securely bound. The conditions are too complex, so it won’t be quick.”

‘...Hm… I feel like I could solve it pretty quickly,’ Jin-Hyeok thought.

1. The second hashtag inthe raws is 퇴폐미, referring to the aesthetic that celebrates the beauty in “bad” things. But it also refers to the special place the idea holds in contemporary Korean aesthetics especially in Korean photography and Instagram. ☜