I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 4

Cha Jin-Hyeok scanned the woman with Broadcaster’s Truesight.

[LV15(+2)/Crimson Killer Demon/Assassin/Skills/Nine Kills]

Swoosh!

The woman swung her blade.

‘Ooooh, an assassination!’

Jin-Hyeok’s body reacted to her all on its own.

Players under Level 60 were considered as low-Level Players, and there were almost no distinguishing boundaries between Jobs at such a low level.

Jin-Hyeok’s eyes could clearly take in the movements of the woman, as if she were in slow motion. Jin-Hyeok struck her right wrist with his left hand to make her drop the blade.

‘Oh wait, I have Broadcaster’s Barrier.’

Jin-Hyeok could have just blocked it using that ability, but he had reacted this way out of habit.

‘I should try blocking with Broadcaster’s Barrier next time.’

A smile of enjoyment crept onto Jin-Hyeoks lips. He pulled out a dagger from his Inventory.

Daggers had excellent versatility. Though their destructive power and durability was low, nearly all Jobs had access to them. This meant that daggers could be used by most Jobs even at the higher Levels, and turned out to be a rather good weapon for Streamers to use.

‘Where should I stab her?’

There were many openings—too many.

‘I think I should aim for the nape of her neck.’

Stab!

The woman fell to the floor with a sharp scream. Having never experienced the pain of being stabbed before, she rolled on the floor in pain before collapsing from shock. Half-unconscious, she convulsed with the dagger embedded in her neck.

Jin-Hyeok felt nostalgic—it had been a while since he last crossed swords with an Assassin.

‘Phew, I almost had too much fun.’

Jin-Hyeok calmly continued his stream.

“It looks like she was trying to get the Ten Kills Achievement. I saw that her original Level is 15, but her current actual Level is calculated as being 17—2 Levels being added on top of her original.”

This was related to her recently completed Achievement, ‘Nine Kills.’ The completed Achievement gave her the effect of +2 Levels.

“I believe she was waiting for the perfect moment to unlock the Ten Kills Achievement, because she thought the added effect of that would allow her to kill everyone here. It seems she targeted me first because I looked like the weakest one here.”

Jin-Hyeok glanced at the woman on the floor, still convulsing as if she was being electrified.

“I’m a little bit shocked that she gave herself a name like ‘Crimson Killer Demon.’ She seems pretty old, too. Anyway, I’ll now be retrieving my weapon.”

Jin-Hyeok nonchalantly withdrew his dagger from her neck.

Splash!

Blood sprayed out, soaking his entire body.

“I think I was able to deal with her without much difficulty because the Jobs are still pretty similar and have next to no distinguishing factors between them.”

The woman was dead.

It was an unspoken rule for Players to kill whoever ambushed them.

‘If I went by the actual rule, I should have dragged her off to a place where she can’t revive to kill her off completely.’

However, Jin-Hyeok knew he should not apply the standards of the future to the present. This was still the early days of beginners—so the only appropriate way of applying those standards was to lower them way down.

On the other hand, Jin-Hyeok was indifferent to the sticky blood that covered his entire body. After all, by his standards it was normal to be completely soaked in blood when one played—so this much was fine.

“You guys didn't get hurt, right?”

“No, no!”

“Nope!”

The boys answered Jin-Hyeok much faster than before while avoiding his gaze. They had fear in their eyes, but Jin-Hyeok didn't realize it.

‘These kids are way more well-behaved and polite than I thought they’d be.’

***

The kids that Jin-Hyeok met in the past were not like them.

As a Player for the National Intelligence Service, there hadn’t been many occasions of coming face-to-face with youngsters.

‘The sort of kids I had to deal with personally were serious villains.’

The ones Jin-Hyeok had encountered had all been truly horrible individuals, though he knew they were the exception and not the norm. The manners of these boys at present, and the way they answered him so respectfully, was a pleasant surprise.

A long while passed, and the boys’ Levels increased by one or two. Hunting Dwarves was beginning to become much easier, perhaps even effortless for them.

As midnight came, some kind of golden powder began to flow out from the dead bodies of the Players.

[You activate the Skill 「Broadcaster’s Truesight」.]

Once again, Jin-Hyeok felt the greatness of Broadcaster’s Truesight. Through this Skill, the System kindly revealed to him what exactly was going on in the scene unfolding before him.

The information was automatically inputted into his head.

“It looks like it’s regen[1] time. When the clock strikes 12 o’clock, the corpses are going to be revived. This seems like a good moment to interview them.”

The dead bodies on the floor began to regain the vitality of life on their faces. The Players sat back up with a shaken, slightly puzzled expression, touching their bodies all over.

“I-I’m alive?”

“R-really? I really come back to life?”

The two men who had been cold, hard bodies on the ground just a moment ago were bewildered. The boys looked at the things happening around them with equally shaken expressions.

Jin-Hyeok thought these raw, unfiltered reactions were great—definitely broadcast worthy.

“So, let’s get to the interview. Hi, how did it feel to di-”

But this interview was not going to go that easily.

The chuunibyou—no, Crimson Killer Demon—that had tried to backstab Jin-Hyeok previously grabbed a dagger from the floor to attempt stabbing him once more.

“Die!!!” the woman screamed.

This woman really didn’t know when to give up.

Jin-Hyeok continued his stream regardless.

Frankly speaking, Jin-Hyeok had been a little excited when she attacked him the first time—but not anymore. His rational side won over what little primal instinct he may have felt. He just continued his commentary coolly and confidently, just like a true Streamer would.

“Ah, yes, I need to mention—-I’m a Streamer that has Broadcaster’s Barrier to defend myself.”

This was the time to finally use the Skill properly.

‘Broadcaster’s Barrier.’

The woman’s dagger was unable to penetrate the barrier. Her Player name was so grandiose, yet her dagger was so pitiful.

“Argh!”

Crimson Killer Demon dropped her dagger with an abrupt cry. It appeared that she had strained her wrist from the recoil on contact with the barrier.

“I will now attempt to stab the same spot I had before,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Just as he said he would, he drew his own dagger and stabbed her in the same spot as before. This deliberate repeated blow brought forth the trauma of the first blow that was likely still fresh in her mind, making it much easier for Jin-Hyeok to subdue her.

Crimson Killer Demon fell to the ground while bleeding.

“Aiming for the heart would be a surefire way to wrap this up.”

Stab!

Jin-Hyeok finished her by stabbing her heart.

Ambushing people when they weren’t looking was only something that villains who wished harm on others did. Even the lunatics who picked fights with Jin Hyeok in the past didn’t conduct sneak attacks on him.

“So easy. This is the end of the livestream for today. Thank you for watching.”

Only one person had died.

It had been a very peaceful and easygoing stream.

***

Egan Paul.

Egan Paul was one of the United States of America’s most famous streamers, and a ranker in the globally popular game ‘Ordin.’

He was one of the people who adjusted to the phenomena happening across the world extraordinarily fast.

‘A new era has come.’

It was a new world that couldn’t be explained with mere science.

After undergoing an Awakening and becoming an Initially Awakened Streamer, Egan moved fast. Putting the experience he had accumulated to good use, he started playing as a Streamer and rapidly reached Level 15.

When he was transported to the Room of Awakening, he simply chose ‘Egan Paul’ as his Awakened name, and put his name on the Ranking Board straight away.

──────────

[Streamer (U.S. Region)]

[1. Egan Paul (LV: 15)]

──────────

Egan was currently having a conversation with Joseph, who was his manager—as well as his best friend.

“You’re back on that weird ass stream again?”

“Yeah, I am. Come on, give it a chance.”

“How many viewers is it pulling?”

“1500.”

“What the fuck? Is that all? You have over twenty million subscribers on Eltube, and you’re quitting that to do this? Have you lost your mind?”

Egan Paul shrugged. “I have to prepare for the coming future. I’m just going to become irrelevant if I keep doing things the way I have.”

“Uh-huh, okay. Whatever you say.”

Joseph decided not to waste his worry on his pal, since he was already swimming in more than enough money to burn through.

“But why do you only have 1500 viewers?”

“The max capacity is limited to fifteen hundred right now. I did a bit of research, and turns out that’s actually quite a lot. And the better you are at streaming, the greater the maximum number of viewers you get per Level you have.”

“So right now, you’re getting a hundred viewers toward your max capacity per Level?”

“That’s right.” Egan Paul smiled contentedly. “I’m on a hundred maximum viewers per Level. But for most Streamers, the max viewer capacity only increases by thirty for every Level.”

“I saw on the internet that there’s some dude who has around 3000 viewers.”

Egan Paul grinned. “That someone is me.”

“Wait, what?”

Egan and Joseph had been the closest of friends since forever, and at this point there was no secret that Egan kept from Joseph.

Egan Paul revealed that not only did he have the ‘Broadcaster’s Barrier’ Trait, but he also had another one called ‘Stardom.’

“The more famous I become, the more benefits that gives me. It’s currently letting me manipulate my viewer count. ”

“So you’re saying that you’re bluffing?”

“Yep. As of right now, I can make my number appear twice as large with my ability.”

Egan was doubling his actual viewer count by using the ‘Viewer Count x 2’ perk that came with the Stardom Trait, using it to balloon the count to 3000.

Three days later, Egan reached Level 20.

──────────

[Streamer]

[1. Egan Paul (LV: 20)]

──────────

Egan’s real viewer count exponentially increased to 2000 viewers. Now he was able to use a ‘Viewers x 3’ perk, and further inflate the viewer count to display 6000.

Through some information-gathering efforts, he was able to get an idea of just how wide the gulf between himself and other Streamers was.

‘I'm overwhelmingly in the first place.’

Egan Paul was yet to know about the existence of Kim Chul-Soo across the ocean.

At that time, Kim Chul-Soo had reached Level 20 with a non-inflated, real viewer count of 6000.

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

[Chat/Donations are now enabled.]

Egan began to communicate with his viewers in earnest and accrue his fame.

He also used his outstanding wealth and buying power to recruit rankers from each and every Job. This was not difficult at all—after all, he was already brimming to the top with money.

“Instead, you will sometimes be required to cooperate in our productions by following along with the script written by our in-house scriptwriter.”

From time to time, the rankers would be needed to act out moments of bubbly comradery, feign reactions to unexpected developments, and fake conflicts between teammates.

The production team had seven professional scriptwriters ready to go.

“Sure.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

“As long as I get paid.”

These Players were named the Avengers Army, and they began to go through the Tutorial Fields, learning about them one by one.

***

“I’m not exactly an expert on spears.”

Of course, this was by Jin-Hyeok’s standards. His definition of an expert was someone who was a Master Lancer at the least. As always, that was just how warped his personal standards were.

“I don’t know too well about it, but I’ll try to explain as much as I can.”

“Got it!”

“The middle guard is the most fundamental and important stance in the art of the two-handed spear. Since you guys are using a defensive nine-man formation and mainly try to fight enemies that come at you by impaling them, learning the middle guard would be most beneficial for you.”

“Yep, got it!”

“Understood.”

Jin-Hyeok decided to collectively refer to these boys as ‘the highschoolers.’ He and they slowly built an amicable partnership—Jin-Hyeok found the kids to be incredibly cooperative and good-natured.

‘On that note, I got way too many viewers right now.’

Egan Paul had a large viewer count of 6000 at Level 20.

Yet Jin-Hyeok also hit the same number of 6000 viewers when he reached Level 20.

He was aiming to be Mystery Box, not Egan Paul.

‘If I keep streaming the same content over and over, the viewers should get bored of me.’

With that in mind, Jin-Hyeok stayed and continued playing in the same Field. In the span of a few days, he already hunted down around three hundred Dwarves.

‘Hmm, I’m still getting a pretty big amount of donations, though.’

Jin-Hyeok received donations of around 50,000 Dias per day.

One Dia was worth approximately one Korean won. Considering that, earning 50,000 won per day for relatively light work was quite good.

Meanwhile, Egan Paul publicly announced his streaming income via the internet.

‘Egan Paul said his donations total around 500,000 Dias per day, didn’t he?’

The numbers had been inflated, of course, but Jin-Hyeok wasn’t aware of that fact. In reality, Egan Paul was also currently receiving around 50,000 Dias per day in donations.

‘I’m getting like one-tenth of the donations he does, so I’m at just the right level I want to be at.’

That was when Jin-Hyeok heard a notification come in.

[You have completed the hidden task 「Hunt 300 Dwarves」.]

‘Huh?’

Jin-Hyeok didn’t know much about the hidden aspects of such low-Level Dungeons. He had a few memorized, but only the ones that were immensely rewarding or granted Traits that were absolutely essential.

‘Was there always a hidden task like this?’

That was not all, however.

[You have completed the Streamer-exclusive hidden task「Have 6,000 viewers while in this Field」.]

[A hidden secret is being activated.]

Jin-Hyeok knitted his brows.

‘Why do I feel like things are just getting bigger and bigger?’

[「Gargar, King of Dwarves」 will begin.]

‘Wait… don’t tell me this is the same Gargar that I know of.’

This name was not supposed to appear in a Tutorial Field.

Jin-Hyeok’s heart started pounding.

1. Stands for regeneration (revival). ☜