Thumbs Up, Level Up - Chapter 293

It was total chaos. Everywhere you looked, there was someone bleeding or someone else dying.

“Ah… It hurts… It hurts…”

“Cough, cough. Please… Someone help us!”

“Argh! It hurts!”

The sound of gunshots, people crying for help as they lay on the ground bleeding out, and all sorts of screams and groans of pain echoed throughout the area. Yet, despite the screams, people did not flee. Guns were drawn here and there, and those without guns were scrambling to grab whatever they could use as a weapon.

When people finally made it out to the parking lot, they loaded their luggage in the trunk of their car and, ignoring the occasional gunshot, stepped on the gas and drove off.

Boom!

There was a sound of a car crashing into a tree behind them, but they did not look back for one second even as they heard people dying.

Whole cities descended into chaos, like uncontrollable madhouses.

This was what was happening in most countries that did not have much security. When people realized that the end of the world was just around the corner, they started to take extreme action.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“My lord… The people are rioting. It is not just the normal citizens, but even the Hunters…”

“Even the Hunters?”

“Yes. This is where it is happening.”

She pointed to the largest screen in the control room. It showed Hunters using their skills against each other. Dozens of icy arrows were flying around, and one Hunter created a cloud of green mist around another Hunter, which caused the latter to melt into a puddle. All the while, a third Hunter was piling supplies into his car.

Cars were burning and exploding in front of what appeared to be a large shopping center, and people were lying on the ground, some clearly already dead.

‘This is getting out of hand.’

“Get it up and running.”

“Huh?”

“Activate the Great General of Protection!”

There were already a few Great Generals of Protection set up in the vicinity of the shopping center.

“Invoke martial law, and focus on securing the area. I will help.”

With that, Ji-Cheok telepathically called out to Cheok-Liang.

«Yes, Master. There are no riots in Korea.»

‘I already checked that. I need your help over here in the Philippines. And then we are going to the United States. That place is total chaos, even the Hunters are rioting.’

«Okay, Master. I will stop working in Korea and focus my efforts there.»

“My summoned beast is going to come here, and I want you all to work with him.”

Flash!

With a flash of light, Cheok-Liang appeared, not in his usual fennec form, but in his fresh human form. He was a handsome man in a black suit and glasses.

Cheok-Liang approached Bernade.

“Hey, Cheok-Liang, I need you to take care of the situation here. I need to go somewhere. Bernarde, you can act on your own.”

With those words, he crossed the space with the Steps of Hermes.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

As soon as he arrived across space, a spear made of dark energy came at him from the left.

From his right, a hammer made of flame came flying toward his shoulder.

Ji-Cheok was caught in the middle of a fight between two Hunters.

He reached out with his left and right hands and gently grabbed at their attacks. Grasping intangible energy sounded strange on a conceptual level, but it was really not that hard. Ji-Cheok just had to use his own energy.

He redirected the two attacks toward the sky and snapped his fingers at the two Hunters.

Bang!

His Qi gathered into pellets the size of a pea at his fingertips, shooting out at the Hunters. It was both faster and significantly more powerful than a bullet.

“Argh!”

“Keuk!”

The two Hunters were hit by the Qi pellets and fell to the ground. He looked around and saw that the whole place was a mess.

There was a Hunter flying through the air, spraying lightning all over. Another was summoning weird tentacles out of the ground. There was even an asshole who used necromancy skills to resurrect the corpses and use them as their underlings.

There were not just Filipinos, but foreigners as well. From Westerners to East Asians, everyone was participating wholeheartedly in the looting. He even saw one guy dragging a sack full of what looked like summoned beasts.

‘These crazy bastards…’

“EVERYONE STOP!”

Ji-Cheok imbued his voice with Qi and used the Lion’s Roar, which he hadn’t used in a while, to attract everyone’s attention. His shout indeed made everyone look at him, and there were some people who recognized him.

“Is that Um Ji-Cheok?”

‘Oh, he speaks Korean.’

“It’s not like the world is going to end right now, so stop acting like we’re already overrun by zombies!”

“Who the hell do you thi—ARGH!”

Boom!

Ji-Cheok slammed the Hunter that was walking toward him into the ground with his telekinetic power. He could see the man convulsing on the ground.

“If you try to attack me, it’s not going to be pretty.”

He let out his bloodlust, and everyone stopped dead in their tracks. The flying Hunter descended, and they all stood there, not knowing what to do.

«We are activating our Great Generals of Protection and controlling the security cameras and computer networks to quell the disturbances. We should have the situation under control in a few hours.»

‘What about the other countries?’

«The other countries are also surprised by the suddenness of the events and are mobilizing their armies to try to calm them down, but with the Hunters among the rioters, it is likely to take longer.»

‘I’m sure they will figure something out.’

“Everyone, come here. If you run away from me, something really bad is going to happen to you. Let’s all go to the police station like civil people.”

The Hunters nodded obediently. Meanwhile, Ji-Cheok used his Qi Sense to find out how many people had died. It seemed like dozens of people had died in this place.

“Hey, you! Deactivate your Necromancy skill!”

He glared at the man who was raising the dead as his underlings. Under Ji-Cheok’s stern gaze, the man hastily deactivated his skill.

Ji-Cheok gathered the corpses in front of him with Soul Telekinesis.

That was when the citizens caught up in the riot started to come out from their hiding places.

The families of the dead rushed over, tears streaming down their faces.

‘This is not why I gathered the corpses together…’

Ji-Cheok raised his hand. He had a lot of work to do, so he needed to get this over with and move on to his next task.

“Activate Right to Death.”

[Right to Death]

[Class: Eternity

The user may resurrect the dead without restriction and the target’s body will be restored to its former state. However, the soul of the dead must be intact. The user cannot resurrect someone with more than 51% damage to their soul.]

This was the skill purchased from the [Wealthy_lord_of_death]. It had the incredible power to raise the dead and restore their bodies. A power that mortals had always dreamed of was now within his grasp.

He felt the Likes tank depleting. The cost of bringing a single corpse back to life was a staggering 100,000 Likes.

‘100,000 Likes for a person’s life… I don’t know if that is cheap or expensive…’

Still, he was able to revive dozens of people without much trouble.

“It… it is a miracle!”

“Oh…. dear God…”

The dead started to open their eyes and their wounds started to heal. The Hunters, who had been rampaging earlier, turned to look at what was going on.

“I want you all to stay here and go to the police station. Do you understand?”

Ji-Cheok made sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do, then headed to the next location with his Steps of Hermes.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Sigh…’

After running around all day, Ji-Cheok had managed to get everything back under control in the Philippines. Even though he was a God, he felt exhausted, and he knew that, without some rest, he would burn out soon.

When he got home, he saw Cheok-Liang preparing a meal for him.

“It’s really helpful that you are here, Cheok-Liang.”

“That is because it is my job to assist you, Master. I used some of your Likes to buy a cooking skill, and this is what I made. I think you will like this.”

It was miso soup with tofu, a bowl of rice, kimchi, surimi sausages, beans in soy sauce, and seasoned seaweed.

It was basically a normal meal, the kind that you could get in any Korean household. However, they were dishes that Ji-Cheok did not get to eat very often.

“Wow! That’s impressive, Cheok-Liang. That’s what I call real home cooking.”

“I just made some things I thought you would like, Master. Next time, I will prepare something more scrumptious.”

“Nah~ I don’t need sumptuous dishes~”

Ji-Cheok picked up his spoon and was about to take a bite when he sensed Mu-Cheok was about to enter the house. He put his spoon back down and waited for a moment.

Just then, Mu-Cheok arrived home.

“Huh? Hyung! You’re here!”

“I’m back from work. Did you go to a dungeon? Have you eaten?”

“I did not go to a dungeon… I was teaching people. You know that we have a bunch of teams under us, right? I fed them some of your elixirs, but I haven’t eaten anything yet. What are we having?”

“Cheok-Liang.”

“Yes, Master. I will prepare the cutlery.”