I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 251

Cha Jin-Hyeok’s ears just perked up. “Yeah, the one who distributes it is indeed worse than the one who uses it.”

He had already regained his lost rationality. At this moment, ensuring that such a thing could not happen again was more important for Jin-Hyeok than cracking open Emperor’s skull.

‘I need a contingency plan.’

To find a way to block this EMP attack, ultimately, he had to deal with the distributor.

“Swampland No.2. That’s the guy, right?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“Yes, did you already know about him?” Chills ran down Emperor’s spine. He did not know that Chul-Soo was aware of his collusion with Swampland No.2.

‘How much was this person willing to overlook? Surely, unconditional surrender is the only way to live,’ Emperor thought.

“Where is Swampland No.2 now?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“I do not know exactly. However, I was supposed to meet with Swampland No.2 in a place! I can tell you that!”

Swampland No.2 grew anxious. ‘I’m going crazy!’

Initially, he had been using a Skill called Five Eyes to thoroughly examine every corner of the map. This ability was known among Korean Players as map hacking. However, operating Five Eyes required a stable environment and a high level of concentration.

‘That damned Thief!’

Angel Girl Song Ha-Young was persistently chasing after him. At first, he managed to evade her easily, but as time passed, the situation turned increasingly unfavorable for him.

‘I’m running out of places to hide…’

Ha-Young was a master of tracking. Moreover, she had the help of numerous Players.

“Ah, here! There is a narrow passage under the pond, you see? If you go through this, it leads to a cave that will allow you to go to the top side of the map. This will be faster!” one of the Players said.

“Thank you!” Ha-Young replied.

“Wait! If you are going in there, you need to bite on this.” The Player handed her a leaf. This was something even Emperor, who had designed the map, and Swampland No.2 did not know about. In other words, the Korean Players had discovered and explored something even the developers did not know about. The unity and passion of Korean Players were beyond imagination.

“Please catch that map-hacking bastard!”

“Let’s give him a lesson he won’t forget!”

Ha-Young nodded, then plunged into the pond with a splash.

‘For justice! God, please grant me the strength to be a righteous Thief today.’

***

“Huff… Huff…’

At the very bottom of the map, in an underground Field that ordinary Players engaging in the All-Out War would never encounter, Swampland No.2 gasped for air. “You persistent bastards.”

He was surrounded by approximately half a dozen Players. Their leader was none other than Angel Girl, Song Ha-Young.

“I got you now.”

“...” Swampland No.2 glared at Ha-Young with a resentful expression and said, “...Is Kim Chul-Soo with you?”

“He will be here soon.”

Swampland No.2 smirked, seemingly resigned to his fate. “I guess this is the end.”

He pulled something out of his pocket. Ha-Young tensed for a moment, but it was just a cigarette. He put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it. “I’m sure you can spare me for one cigarette before I die, right?”

“...”

Swampland No.2 took out his phone and turned on Eltube. “So, Chul-Soo is really coming here.”

“Yeah, you map-hacking bastard.” Ha-Young grinned.

‘How dare you use a map hack and rig the map in front of a righteous Thief?!’

“You’ve crossed the line too far. We cannot forgive you,” Ha-Young said.

“I never did anything that warranted asking for forgiveness. If there is anything regrettable, it is that I couldn’t kill Chul-Soo with my hands.”

Shortly after, Chul-Soo arrived at the underground Field, accompanied by Mole Man.

“The Field is bigger than I thought,” Jin-Hyeok said. He turned on Broadcaster’s Light to brighten the entire area. “It feels like a giant underground cavern. Anyone would get lost here without a Navigator.”

Jin-Hyeok walked toward Swampland No.2, who appeared as a tiny dot in the distance.

“The map hack distributor is over there,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“KIM CHUL-SOO!!!!”

“He’s a despicable hacker, yet he has the audacity to call my name.” Jin-Hyeok grinned as he stood in front of Swampland No.2. “I cannot forgive a hacker.”

“I can’t forgive you either.” Swampland No.2 threw the cigarette onto the ground. It acted like a fuse. A huge summoning circle appeared beneath his feet, and a snake head gradually revealed itself from the circle. “You are going to die here!”

It was a snake-type monster with seven heads. A Hydra had appeared before them. Its Level was 302. It was the first Level 300 monster to appear on the Earth Server.

***

The online communities had divided opinions.

-I’m sure even Chul-Soo didn’t see this coming.

-Level 300? I don’t think anyone on the Earth Server is that powerful!

-Lol, a Level 300 in a new Server? This is insane!

This was an unprecedented event. It seemed like a boss monster had forcibly been inserted into this All-Out War.

-To insert a Level 300 monster with his ability… I’m sure the loss must have been tremendous for Swampland No.2.

It was an impossible feat with his ability alone. Such a thing would require a lot of prior preparation and investment of money.

-What are you talking about? Chul-Soo would have expected this much.

-Do you think our fervent and passionate Chul-Soo couldn’t have foreseen this?

-Our Chul-Soo knows everything!

Whether Chul-Soo had anticipated it or not became a matter of debate.

To put it simply, Jin-Hyeok had known about the trap, but he did not expect the monster to be Hydra.

-Eh? Chul-Soo is about to fight the Hydra!

-Even if he is strong, I don’t think he can go toe-to-toe with a Level 300 Hydra.

-It seems Chul-Soo didn’t expect it. He is fighting so suddenly without any proper preparations!

-Shouldn’t a GM step in and mediate this?

Indeed, Jin-Hyeok was slightly tense. ‘The air is crackling with blood lust.’

The Hydra had seven heads, and Jin-Hyeok could feel its fourteen eyes staring at him. He felt somewhat exhilarated. ‘The Hydra… wasn’t supposed to appear until much later.’

Level 300 was a Level that only the top rankers in the universe could reach. It was also Jin-Hyeok’s first real encounter with such a monster.

-Is he really going to fight it?

-Even for our IntenseMan, this seems too dangerous.

-He even disabled the resurrection setting!

-Even if he is crazy, fighting a Hydra is just too insane!

Having heard the viewers’ reactions from Wang Yu-Mi, Jin-Hyeok was somewhat bewildered. ‘Why does everyone think I am really going to fight it? I’m not that insane. How can I possibly fight a Level 300 monster by myself? Where in the world would you find such a madman?’

Such a madman could exist, but at least, Jin-Hyeok was not one. Even in his days as the mad Sword King, he never fought a boss-level monster when there was such a Level difference between them. The problem was that Ha-Young was also worried about him.

“Hey, Chul-Soo. Shouldn’t we… somehow run away from that thing?”

“Yeah, you should run.”

“What do you mean?! We should go together!”

Ha-Young was desperate, and Swampland No.2 finally cracked a smile.

‘I doubted you until the end, Chul-Soo,’ Swampland No.2 thought.

Chul-Soo was known to be powerful and inconsistent with his standards. So, Swampland No.2 had thought this could also be part of the act. That was why he had acted as if he had given up, watching them carefully. However, Ha-Young’s reaction convinced him this was no longer just an act.

‘My summoned Hydra lasts for only five minutes.’

Even then, it could not fight properly during the first and the last minute of its stay. No matter how much money was poured into it, the Hydra as an entity far exceeded Swampland No.2’s capabilities. Creating a perfect Hydra was impossible, and the Hydra he had managed to produce was essentially a monster that lasted only for three minutes.

‘But three minutes is more than enough to annihilate you all.’

“I will never! I won’t leave you behind and go alone! I won’t let you sacrifice yourself alone!” Ha-Young shouted. Her eyes were red.

Jin-Hyeok tilted his head. “I just want to test the limits of Absolute Barrier.”

It felt too ticklish when he was defending against the American Players.

***

Jin-Hyeok was already aware of the monster called Hydra.

‘Hydras spit venom.’

In essence, it was a monster adept at ranged attacks. Jin-Hyeok's heart raced. ‘It’s my first time facing an attack from a Level 300 monster!’

There was a stark difference between fighting and defending. If one focused solely on defense, they could withstand a significant Level disparity to some extent.

‘Plus, the attack is highly venomous.’

That was rather advantageous for Jin-Hyeok. He was immune to all poisons below the level of the Snake King, and the Hydra was a monster one tier below that.

‘I should be able to defend against its attack. If only the Thieves would quickly get out of the way.’

“Hey, I can’t protect all of you. Run away now,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“...”

The Thieves bit their lips.

‘Truly, he is IntenseMan…!’

‘He is willing to sacrifice himself to save us!’

They made up their minds. To ensure that Chul-Soo’s sacrifice would not be in vain, they had to survive.

“Angel Girl, let’s get out of here.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Angel Girl shouted.

“We can’t let IntenseMan’s sacrifice be in vain.”

“It’s the noble choice of a hero. We must follow.”

Jin-Hyeok deployed Absolute Barrier to block the venom spewed by the Hydra.

‘Wow…’

Absolute Barrier could not completely block the Hydra’s attack. The barrier melted away, and Jin-Hyeok sustained burns all over his body. Green, sticky liquid dripped down from his head.

‘I would have died if I weren’t for my poison resistance.’ It was a valuable experience. ‘So, this is the extent of a Level 300 boss monster’s attack.’

Ha-Young, even as she was half-forced away by the other Thieves, desperately called out to Jin-Hyeok. “Kim Chul-Soo!!!”

“I think I defended against a Level 300 attack pretty well,” Jin-Hyeok smirked.

‘Hm… so this is what it’s like.’

At that moment, Swampland No.2 sensed something odd.

“Thanks for the good experience,” Jin-Hyeok said.

[The All-Out War has ended.]

Swampland No.2’s face turned ashen. “W-Wait! Hold on!”

The victory of the All-Out War went to Korea, and simultaneously, the map disappeared.

***

“Why did everyone think I was actually going to fight the Hydra?” Jin-Hyeok genuinely wondered.

Thanks to Swampland No.2 thinking the same, things did get resolved more smoothly. However, he still found it puzzling.

‘Why did everyone believe that?’

“...Actually, I also thought you were going to fight it.”

“You too?”

“Yeah…”

Jin-Hyeok found it absurd that even his sister thought so. “But it was Level 300.”

“You seem like… you would excitedly fight even a Level 400 opponent.”

“Come on, I’m not that insane.”

“...” Cha Jin-Sol learned something new—one must look before they leap. Even though her brother seemed to fight like a madman, in reality, he engaged in battles he was sure to win, after objectively assessing the combat power of his opponent.

“So, I guess you are not actually a madman, although sometimes, you fight like one,” she said.

“You’re making a point out of something so obvious.” Jin-Hyeok shrugged. “Anyway, thanks to even Swampland No.2 being mistaken, things were much easier.”

“Right, it seems like he delayed the fight a bit on purpose.”

“Why on earth would he do that?” Jin-Hyeok wondered.

“Maybe out of a desire for revenge? He probably hoped you would suffer a bit more.”

The All-Out War did not need to be cleared. It ended once the opposing nation’s flag was destroyed. Jin-Hyeok had sent a message to Yu-Mi to destroy the American Flag before he entered the underground Field. When the Korean and the American Players worked together, they could easily destroy the flag.

“That Swampland No.2 is a really nasty Player,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“So? What now?” Jin-Sol asked.

“What do you mean, what now? I can’t let that hacker get away. Plus, the Hydra was practically a bug.”

“You’re right. He’s a lowly Player for planting that kind of bug in the All-Out War.”

At that moment, Kwak Do-Hyeong, the leader of the Black Thorn Alliance, contacted Jin-Hyeok.

—Hey, we found the guy! He overexerted himself or something because he is almost in a comatose state now. Well, thanks to that, it was easy to catch him, but what should we do? Should we kill him?

Swampland No.2 was hiding inside a Dungeon in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do.

“You found him quicker than I thought.”

—Ah well… We got a tip on where he was hiding.”

“A tip?”

Do-Hyeong asked Jin-Hyeok, scratching his head.

—Yes. Do you know Chul-Soo Land No.1?