I Gave Up Being Stronger-Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Jin-Hyeok didn't think he was strong.

If he had been a Swordsman at his current Level, he knew he could have easily killed a low-Level demon like that even without the Blessed Perfumed Oil.

That said, he at least understood logically why Mok Jae-Hyeon admired him so much.

'After all, a five-year-old kid would think his eight-year-old brother is strong.’

Considering that the current Players were very much like five-year-olds, it was not all that weird that Jin-Hyeok looked so strong to them, now that he thought about it.

"I’m actually quite weak,” Jin-Hyeok said truthfully.

"I’ve often heard that the people that are really strong are modest,” Mok Jae-Hyeon refuted.

Jin-Hyeok knew why the really strong Players were humble. That was because they were afraid they would be killed.

If one was truly strong, that meant they would attract Assassins and other hunters that pursued the Awakened that were equally as strong.

"No. I'm not that strong," Jin-Hyeok repeated.

And he had no intentions of becoming overly strong, either. Perhaps he had become a little too absorbed in his clash with the demon, but Jin-Hyeok re-steeled his heart.

‘That had been a real tempting one.’

Above all, Jin-Hyeok was relieved that he had chosen to become a Streamer—a Job that had a ceiling on how strong one could become.

A little while passed before Mok Jae-Hyeon decided to speak again.

"I… have made up my mind. I'll do it. I want to receive that Job.”

"Think about it carefully, please. It has as many drawbacks as it has benefits.”

"No—I think if I give up a chance like this, I'm not even man enough. Oh, and hyung—you don’t have to be so polite with me."[1]

Confirming Mok Jae-Hyeon’s strong resolve, Jin-Hyeok passed on the Great Hero Job change opportunity to him.

[You have yielded the chance to change to the hidden Job, 「Great Hero」, to someone else.]

Mok Jae-Hyeon suddenly looked incredibly occupied—it was clear he was receiving all sorts of notifications.

Eventually, Mok Jae-Hyeon’s face turned pale.

“Hyung. It says this Job has too little compatibility with me,” said Jae-Hyeon.

“What?”

It was indeed true that the higher the grade of a Job, the stricter and more nit-picky its requirements and conditions were.

For a Job of the sort of caliber that the Great Hero was, the Job began to completely screen people based on their compatibility.

“It says that the Job change to Great Hero has been denied.”

“…”

“I-I think it’s because I’m too cowardly.”

There was no way.

That is, there was no way that the Great Hero Job change opportunity went poof, just like that. It was true that this situation came about because Jin-Hyeok himself didn’t need the reward, but this was a waste and a half.

“It says the Great Hero Job change reward will be used as an ingredient and merged into my Wood Lord Job,” said Mok Jae-Hyeon.

From the sounds of it, it was similar to what Jin-Hyeok had gone through when he was granted his own Job. That was a relief, at least.

“I-I got a Job titled ‘Wood King.’”

People classified Wood Lord as a 7-Star Job, and Wood King as a 9-Star one.

Of course, a Wood King was much better than a Wood Lord.

Even if one were to use the same Skills they already knew, their power and other effects were greater, while the amount of Focus that was consumed was decreased. Not only that, but the Player had a deeper instinctive understanding of their Skills, with their growth ceiling being raised.

“You’re welcome,” said Jin-Hyeok.

“The W-Wood King Job is much better, right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“T-thank you.”

“If you really are thankful, guest star in my channel more often.”

Jin-Hyeok had earned himself quite the teammate.

The grading of this teammate’s Job was outstandingly high, but the person himself was likely going to be too frightened to use it to its full extent.

All in all, it would likely be in such a manner that being first place was going to be a tall order.

Mok Jae-Hyeon was the perfect teammate for Jin-Hyeok.

At least, that’s what Jin-Hyeok thought at the time.

***

As soon as Mok Jae-Hyeon completed his Awakening as a Wood King, Jin-Hyeok was hit with a series of notifications as if they had been waiting for him all along.

[You have unlocked the Major Achievement 「Completion of Tutorial」.]

When Jin-Hyeok selected the underlined part, the details of the conditions he fulfilled to unlock the Achievement were revealed—and those conditions were as disgustingly complicated as they came.

1. Acquire the Achievement 「Lord of the Tutorial」.

2. Acquire the Achievement 「Exorcism」.

3. Clear the Hidden Quest 「Survive the Subway Platform」.

4. Yield the 「Great Hero」 Job to someone else.

5. In triggering the 「Great Hero」 reward, have 0 dead Players.

‘Now that it’s done, I see that it was an extremely difficult set of conditions to satisfy.’

It was no wonder that Jin-Hyeok had not heard of any information regarding this Achievement prior to his regression—it may very well have been that not a single person was actually able to satisfy all these conditions in his previous lifetime.

[Would you like to register your Major Achievement in the Hall of Fame?]

The Hall of Fame—now, that was a name he hadn’t heard in a while.

In his previous life, Jin-Hyeok had amassed a total of fourteen of these Major Achievements in the Hall. And that, too, was only if the ones he achieved all on his own were counted—the number was far greater if the Major Achievements he had earned playing with others were included.

‘No.’

Jin-Hyeok didn’t need fame and glory anymore.

There was no benefit to putting his name up on that register—it was literally just for so-called ‘fame,’ as the name suggested. No matter how seriously he considered it, this sort of fame was going to be as irrelevant as dust in the wind for him now.

Rather, registering his name in the Hall of Fame was just going to make things harder for him. It would mean he would become the target of hunters all around the world—perhaps even hunters from other dimensions, later down the line—and it would be much more probable that he would be unwillingly conscripted into participating in major events.

[Are you sure you want to forego registering this Major Achievement?]

‘Yes.’

Jin-Hyeok didn’t feel a shred of regret as he declined.

Following giving away the Great Hero Job transfer opportunity and declining to register the Major Achievement, yet another reward was offered to Jin-Hyeok.

‘Wow… as expected of the Tutorial to be so generous. Unlike every other time afterward.’

Jin-Hyeok was reminded that he was in a Tutorial Field, which was known to be kind to the Players.

[One of your Traits will be strengthened at random.]

[The Trait 「Broadcaster’s Truesight」 is strengthened.]

The name of the Skill didn’t change. In fact, it was hard for Jin-Hyeok to tell at first glance what exactly had changed about the Skill.

That was for him to find out later. For now, Jin-Hyeok just kept the fact that it had changed in mind and moved on.

***

Egan Paul was now certain that his decision had not been wrong.

It was a godsend that he had made the choice to abandon his Eltube channel with 20 million subscribers and start afresh in this new System.

‘A new era is coming.’

Egan Paul was one of those individuals that was adjusting to these changing times better than anyone else—and he was confident that he was.

Using his enormous fortune as a launchpad, he was currently gathering information about other Players that had Awakened as Streamers.

“Some viewers with registered accounts purchased a VIP package and requested a VIP-only chat with me,” Egan said to Joseph.

“Is that so?” Joseph answered.

Joseph, Egan Paul’s manager and friend, seemed indifferent to Egan’s comments. He still didn’t fully understand why Egan was focusing all his energy on such a strange platform.

“I’m not sure about the details, but it looks like whatever VIP package they bought required heaps of Dias. You know, I’m the first one who’s received this kinda request out of all the Streamers in the world,” Egan said.

“Wow, I guess that’s something.”

“Right?”

“So what’s the Mission about?”

Egan Paul had received a notification that there was a new Mission from a VIP.

“Joseph, have you been to South Korea?”

“South Korea? What about it?”

“I need to look for someone there.”

“Who?” Joseph asked, becoming a little anxious about this whole Mission thing.

“I don’t know any personal details,” answered Egan.

“...So you’re telling me that you need to find a Korean, who you have zero identifiable info on, in Korea?”

“Find that person for me,” Egan said straightforwardly, “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Friends, my ass. If you’re going to ask me to do nonsense like that, I’m gonna sue ya.”

“I’ll give you ten thousand dollars as compensation for your effort.”

“You can count on me, bro.”

Joseph thought Egan was a wonderful friend.

While that was fine and dandy, though, the fact of the matter was that he still needed a bare minimum of information in order to go about finding a specific Korean in Korea.

“Of course, I got a lead,” Egan assured, “The person you’re gonna be looking for is a Streamer who’s mainly sticking around an area called Seoul Station Field. I heard he only streams in first-person view. He should be playing with another Player with abilities that use wood.”

“Why are you looking for him?” asked Joseph.

“That’s precisely the Mission. There are 10 million Dias on the line here.”

“How much is that in dollars?”

“Ten thousand.”

Joseph’s jaw dropped.

He had always hung with Paul ever since they were young, and he was confident that he knew Paul better than anyone else.

That was how he knew at this present moment that Paul was thrilled with the Mission.

“You’re getting worked up over that? Wait, so let me get this straight: you would pay me ten thousand dollars to complete a Mission that’s worth ten thousand dollars? Where’s the profit?” Joseph ranted.

“Less than five people who watch my stream have purchased VIP packages. But apparently, there are more than ten people who’ve bought VIP packages for that broadcast,” Egan explained.

It was admittedly a bit of a blow to Egan’s pride. If this Streamer was able to grow so much in such a short amount of time, there was no doubt that it was someone with a lot of experience in this field.

“And yet, he rejected his VIP chat requests. Not only that, but he completely blocked the general chat on his stream as well. VIPs are dying to talk to him,” Egan added.

In Egan’s perspective, these were frankly the actions of a complete madman.

Who in their right mind would completely shut off communication with their viewers? The move just did not, could not make any sense.

“Even with that, he seems to have more viewers than me. I need to find out who he is.”

“How many do you have again?” Joseph asked.

“Bout to reach 2600 in a bit.”

“And what’s the fake public number?”

“I’ve still got the x3 multiplier applied.”

“So it’s displaying as 7,800?”

“Yup.”

Joseph stroked his chin.

“If he’s the sort of Player that VIPs are wanting to come in contact with—giving you a Mission and all that—wouldn’t he be the type of person to be ranked first place, or somewhere around that mark, in Korea? He might be easier to find than we think.”

“He’s not a ranker.” Egan shut down that line of thought. “There’s no doubt that he’s got some sort of tremendous secret or some sort of charismatic sauce to be so popular. Please find him for me,” Egan earnestly requested Joseph in an honest manner.

Joseph ended up boarding a plane that was headed to South Korea.

***

Upon testing the upgraded Broadcaster’s Truesight by looking at Mok Jae-Hyeon, Jin-Hyeok immediately realized he could glean much more information with it than he could before.

‘Wow, I really can see all sorts of things.’

[#vague adoration #taken a liking, plain as day #met my hero]

Jin-Hyeok was taken aback by the high-sounding nature of the emotions that Mok Jae-Hyeon was feeling toward him. Truly, all Jin-Hyeok had done was try to have some fun while playing.

“Can I also be strong like you, hyung?” asked Jae-Hyeon.

“Yes. You’ll become stronger than me, for sure.”

[#greatly assured #yearning for strength]

Many thoughts and emotions were interpreted and relayed in real-time to Jin-Hyeok—perhaps a little too much, including things he really didn’t need to know.

Jin-Hyeok was also starting to become a little tired—the upgraded Trait was consuming more of his Focus.

‘Ah, I can control the sensitivity of this.’

Jin-Hyeok opened the settings window, and lowered the sensitivity of what Broadcaster’s Truesight picked up to the level it was originally.

Now, that was better—it wasn’t nearly as suffocating.

“Thank you,” said Mok Jae-Hyeon. Then, after a pause, he followed up with, “Really?”

“Of course,” Jin-Hyeok replied.

Why would Jin-Hyeok have a reason to say any differently? He was not a fighter class Job, and Mok Jae-Hyeon was.

But the more Jin-Hyeok interacted with Jae-Hyeon, the more it seemed like he was a much more sensitive guy than Jin-Hyeok. Just those few words, without any other form of extra input from Jin-Hyeok, were enough to move the teenager and he was choking back tears.

“No one ever said the sort of things to me that you do, hyung.”

When they came back to the first floor, they noticed that more people had entered the Tutorial Field than before.

As time passed, the number of people who had undergone Awakening was increasing ever so constantly, and knowledge of the Tutorial Fields’ existence was likewise spreading.

“Hey, those kids are wearing the same school uniform as you,” Jin-Hyeok piped up.

“…”

Mok Jae-Hyeon began to tremble ever so slightly.

With just that, it was not difficult for Jin-Hyeok to guess who they were. They were likely the guys who scared Mok Jae-Hyeon into coming to this place with them.

There were three of them.

Jin-Hyeok kindly introduced them to his viewers.

“I don’t know their names, so I will just be calling them the Three Little Piggies.”

One of them, a guy with a shaved head and a fairly big frame, spotted Mok Jae-Hyeon.

“Hey, for fuck’s sake, I told you to contact me right away, didn’t I? Was what I said a fucking joke to you?”

“Mok Jae[2], you son of a bitch, d’you come back here without even telling us? Looks like this fucker’s stopped being scared of us.”

“You shit-for-brains, did you want your ass beat up some more that badly? What, you wanna start fighting back now, is that it?”

They continued to cackle together, somehow enjoying themselves in a way that Jin-Hyeok could not understand, their language interspersed with considerable vulgarity.𝒻𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓌𝑒𝒷𝘯ℴ𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Jin-Hyeok simply stuck to his task, continuing his commentary.

“The students don’t seem to consider the possibility that Mok Jae-Hyeon could have survived valiantly and returned,” explained Jin-Hyeok.

From the looks of it, they thought that Mok Jae-Hyeon had been killed as well, escaped once he regenerated, and came back into the Field.

The Bald Piggy approached Mok Jae-Hyeon, and poked his forehead with a finger.

“Where have you been hiding instead of going back home?”

“…Y-you went to my place?”

“You motherfucker. You didn’t answer my call, so this is on you. You’re meant to be the fucking tank of the group. What are we meant to do if you run away like a pussy?”

“I already asked you not to go to my place,” Mok Jae-Hyeon said.

From what Mok Jae-Hyeon told Jin-Hyeok, he was raised by his grandmother. It was most likely that only his frail, old grandma was at home.

“This shit’s decided he wants to start talking back now, huh?”

“Man, he’s really lost it now, hasn’t he?”

“Little bitch is forgetting his place.”

The Bald Piggy didn’t stop poking Mok Jae-Hyeon’s forehead.

“Oh right, you didn’t even contact your old hag, did you? Looks like you were scared shitless after all, ha. Fucking pussy.”

Jin-Hyeok continued to commentate.

“Hmm, there’s a high probability that these students barged into the grandma’s place and acted quite rudely.”

The Bald Piggy frowned and turned toward Jin-Hyeok, staring at him.

“‘Scuse me, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Ah, don’t mind me. I’m just a passing-by Streamer,” Jin-Hyeok answered.

“A streamer? Am I live?”

When Jin-Hyeok nodded, Bald Piggy grinned. He threw up a peace sign, presuming he was being filmed.

“Where’s the camera?” he asked

“I don’t have one. I’m not an ordinary streamer, I’m a Player whose Job is being a Streamer.”

Out of the Three Little Piggies, the one that was thin like a girl chimed in.

“Doesn’t he look like a fucking hako chump?”[3]

“What’s a ‘fucking hako’?”

“Wait, a Streamer doesn’t know what a fucking hako is?”

It seemed the three of them were wholly unnecessarily trying to start something with him, so Jin-Hyeok took a couple steps back.

“You guys just go on with whatever you were doing. There’s really no need to pick a bone with me too.”

In all honesty, these fellows really were very cute little piggies compared to the truly villainous kids Jin-Hyeok had to confront in his previous life. Jin-Hyeok found their attempts at provoking him to be rather absurd, even laughable.

Jin-Hyeok had one question to ask them, though.

“That said, do you plan to continue teasing our friend, Mok Jae-Hyeon?”

“Why? Are you gonna help him, mister?”

“You can just stay put, mister. There’s nothing for you to gain by being nosy other than getting the living daylights beaten the fuck out of you. There are no cops around here.”

“Right, there’s no cops,” Jin-Hyeok echoed.

Yes, there were no police—so they could be the ones in a fair bit of danger.

But Jin-Hyeok didn’t tell them that.

In his eyes, Mok Jae-Hyeon was no longer in a state where he was all that frightened. If Mok Jae-Hyeon stayed calm and made the right moves, Jin-Hyeok knew that the Three Little Piggies might very well have a world of misery awaiting them.

Bald Piggy was obviously the boss of the Three Little Piggies, and he kicked Mok Jae-Hyeo.

“For fuck’s sake, why didn’t your old hag even have any money in her wallet? You little shit.”

All Jin-Hyeok did was resume his stream ever so calmly.

He had his own things to say about this—but he decided to tone it down a little bit, because he remembered hearing somewhere that using language that was too colorful could stir controversy and make his stream polarizing for viewers.

“Looks like we’ve found ourselves a serious brat.”

Jin-Hyeok also changed the title of this stream.

He wasn’t sure what would be a good title to attract clicks, so he decided to just go with something concise that captured the gist of the content.

[People Get Schooled.]

Before Jin-Hyeok even noticed it, his viewer count rocketed past 8,000.

Jin-Hyeok offered a word of advice to Mok Jae-Hyeon, in a way that was also geared to his viewers like the ever-diligent and respectful Streamer that he was.

“Jae-Hyeon, it’s true that if someone dies in this space, they’ll be revived,” Jin-Hyeok delivered the information calmly.

“But the pain is still real. It’s terribly painful when you get your stomach pierced and intestines ripped out. For the record, though, the most painful thing is definitely when the ribcage is broken in such a way that the liver gets crushed.”

Jin-Hyeok pointed out where the liver was.

“It’s located right here. If you use your offensive Wood Spears Skill, it should be pretty easy to penetrate.”

1. Up until now, Jin-Hyeok had been using the polite form of speech in the Korean language, as opposed to the casual form that would be used amongst good friends, siblings, or in certain contexts where someone is in a “superior” position (for e.g. parents to children, drill sergeants to new trainees in the army, bosses to employees, etc., though the latter is much common nowadays). ☜

2. His name is Mok Jae-Hyeon, but the bullies refer to him as Mok Jae. Mok Jae is also a Korean word for lumber/wood. ☜

3. A ‘hako broadcast’ (하꼬방(송)) is a slightly derogatory slang term for small-time streamers or other content creators that receive little to no viewership. It originates from the Japanese word for a small box, ‘hako’ (箱), and stems all the way from the term used to refer to the tiny box-shaped homes that were built by homeless asylum seekers coming south to Busan after the Korean War. ☜