Thumbs Up, Level Up - Chapter 299

In the past, before any dungeons, there had been about two hundred countries. However, after the advent of dungeons, the number of nations had been drastically reduced, and the world had long since comprised around one hundred nations.

To be honest, Ji-Cheok did not know this. It was Cheok-Liang who told him.

Of course, there was a very good reason why the number of countries was cut in half.

When a dungeon appeared, whether the monsters could not be contained or the entire area was razed to the ground, the result was inevitable: the region around it would become Manaformed. Otherworldly plants and beasts would fill the area while increasing their numbers every day. As a result, that area would eventually become an otherworldly environment, completely uninhabitable for humans.

As region after region was Manaformed, humanity’s territory was bound to shrink, so it was no wonder that nations disappeared and the population was halved.

Even among the countries that survived, most only barely scraped by. It was pretty hard to defend a country against monsters from dungeons to begin with, and the monsters from Manaformed regions only complicated the situation.

The world tried to help those countries through the UN. Regardless of the scenario, weaker nations would have had to rely on the military and Hunters of other nations anyway.

One might think, ‘why not just merge with a stronger country in the first place?’ But the difference in culture, economy, and history was too great to ignore, and this was the only plausible way.

Now, the problem was that in this apocalyptic time, with monsters and Gates opening up everywhere in the world, the stronger countries did not have the resources and the manpower to help those weaker countries.

Thus, when those monsters showed up in the capitals of the neglected countries, they ended up causing a catastrophe.

Some countries issued evacuation orders and immediately evacuated their people, while others failed to issue proper evacuation orders, and hundreds of thousands were swept away by a boss monster’s destructive power.

Right now, Ji-Cheok was going around such countries, diligently trying to help those in need.

The monster in front of him was the last one.

“You are the last!”

He was standing in front of a monster with a giant fish head and a human body. With one slash, he split it in two halves that fell down left and right.

With this, he had finally defeated all the boss monsters of the final quest.

“Sigh…”

«Well done, Master. What a feat!»

Cheok-Liang congratulated him.

‘Yeah, you’re right. I think I cut down over one hundred boss monsters just by myself.’

The city was in a mess. He looked around and saw ruins and monster corpses, along with human corpses and abandoned military weapons, all mixed together. From a distance, it looked like a landfill. It lacked the foul stench of one, but that stench was replaced by the nauseating smell of blood.

The smell of gunpowder was strong, and there was smoke from burning buildings everywhere.

‘Wow… I guess this is what it looks like when they’re trying to end our world… Well, the future that I saw back then was more terrible than this one, so I guess you can say they were being generous.’

“Sigh…”

Right now Ji-Cheok was in a small country in Eastern Europe. Many people probably had heard of the name, but it was not a very powerful country. The heart of such a country being under direct attack resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties.

‘Even with all that preparation, it hurts to realize that I could not prevent all of it… My country was certainly protected, but… At least I can somewhat fix the damage.’

“Right to Death. Fully activated.”

‘Rise up. Rise again and live for your families.’

Rubble started to rumble everywhere. The Awakened and civilians returned from the dead one by one. Some could not be resurrected due to excessive damage, but nearly eighty percent of them actually woke up.

“What… What’s going on?”

“I… I died earlier… What the fu…”

“I’m alive! I am alive!”

“It’s a resurrection skill!! HELL YES!!”

The admiration, excitement, and gratitude of those who had been resurrected were converted into Likes.

‘I guess this is what they call a virtuous cycle. Still, too many people died. There were too many… that I could not save…’

«It is not your fault, Master. You should not be too hard on yourself.»

‘I know it’s not my fault, but I still feel a little guilty. I keep wondering if I could have done a better job and saved more people. I keep thinking I could have done better… Is this the hero’s dilemma? The one that every hero movie director talks about when they’re working on their movie…’

“Well, then.”

It was all over now, anyway.

‘This is it, right? System, please tell me it’s over. Ji-Han and Reable are not here with me, so I can’t be sure if this is over, but please just tell me it’s over.’

As he was praying, he could feel the dimensional barrier surrounding the planet reactivating once more.

“Huh? That means…”

‘Is this really over?’

The reactivation of the dimensional barrier meant that no Gates would open from now on. Unless it was a Regenerative Dungeon that already existed in the first place, no new dungeons would open up.

Ji-Cheok was even about to say the ultimate cliche for a death flag when a new System message stopped him.

[The final quest of the Tutorial has entered its final phase.]

[Survive.]

[Good luck.]

‘God damn it! It’s not over!’

The System message was sent to everyone in the world.

‘A final phase? I knew it. I prayed that it would be the end, but I guess my wish was too great to grant.’

As he stared at the message and pondered what was about to happen, his Divine Intuition started to beep.

«The enemy is above!»

The final enemies were…on the Moon.

“Wow, talk about cosmic horror.”

‘I’m not even surprised anymore.’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The dimensions of the universe were so vast and so many that they could just as well be considered infinite. The abyssal depths of these worlds were called the Infinite Three Thousand Great Celestial Worlds among the Gods.

Even the beings called Great Gods, whose every whim had an impact on countless dimensions, could not fully comprehend the vastness of the universe.

In time, Gods would disappear, and new ones would appear. As one dimension fell, another rose. That was the will of the Great Dimension.

And now, the beings of one dimension were rebelling against the will of the Great Dimension. The human race was supposed to go extinct, and other beings from other dimensions were supposed to move in to take over. However, humans had managed to complete the dimensional barrier and preserve their lives. As masters of their world, they had succeeded in surviving.

However, humans were not the only ones trying to survive. There were survivors from dimensions that had already been destroyed and scattered, as well as beings who sought to invade other dimensions as their own had reached saturation. There were also races that had been banished from their dimension due to who-knew-what sins, and races that had lost an interdimensional war and were now wandering across the universe.

All of these beings had come to claim this planet.

That was the quest at the end of the Tutorial. And the moment the dimensional barrier was successfully reactivated, those beings began to flock to the place that was closest to Earth while still being outside the dimensional barrier.

The Moon.

There, countless Gates opened on its surface, underground, and in the space above it. Most of the creatures that emerged from those Gates were unable to survive on the Moon. For creatures that needed to breathe, the airless lunar environment was simply a place to die, even if they possessed great mana.

However, this was when the Gods intervened. Some races had been created by the Gods themselves, while others had entrusted their futures to their Gods.

Thus, the Moon was transformed. In an instant, there was air and water. It was no longer a barren, uninhabitable world. Although its gravitational pull was still too low compared to Earth’s, an atmosphere had nevertheless developed, and water began to flow.

In this mythical spectacle, different races began to move in unison under one command. The myriad of Gods joined forces and gave birth to a single being—one that would lead the invaders to slaughter Earth’s humanity.

A being that could be called the Demon King.

Its name was the Demon King of the Apocalypse.

Its name defined how powerful it was.

The newly-created God named the Demon King of the Apocalypse was about to face its archenemy on Earth.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Ji-Cheok suddenly felt chills down his spine. He felt from his Divine Intuition that his enemy was watching him. He used the Clairvoyance skill to observe the changes occurring on the Moon. The dungeon Gates had already disappeared, but there were so many monsters filling the Moon’s surface that its color changed.

Right now, they were using their magic and skills to create altars all over the Moon. There was water and air, but that was about it. There were no plants or animals. It was clear that they had only been allowed to survive there temporarily.

‘And the reason they are building those altars is…’

«An attempt to cross over to Earth.»

‘Of course.’

Ji-Cheok stood among the ruins of the capital of some Eastern European country, glaring at the Moon.

‘How long do you think they will take to get here?’

«We have too little information on them, so we better get to our main camp first.»

‘You mean the World Tree?’

«Yes, Master.»

At Cheok-Liang’s words, he turned his gaze away from the Moon and looked at the ruins around him. People were coming back to life, clearing away the rubble, and removing the corpses of monsters. He also saw them gathering the bodies of those he had been unable to save.

Some of the survivors were looking directly at him. He looked away and used the Steps of Hermes.

He landed on the roof of his apartment.

Roar!

Upon arrival, he sensed four beings with tremendous power. They were the Spirit Kings!

There were also countless Spirits running in all directions. The Spirit forces were still encamped near the World Tree. Thanks to the World Tree and the army of Spirits, there had been no casualties in Paju!

Ji-Cheok had not planted the World Tree for this reason, but he was still glad it was here to defend his country.

Just then, his Divine Intuition sensed something ominous.

The Moon was falling.

He felt it before he looked at the sky.

The Moon was getting closer to Earth. It was inching ever-so-slightly closer.

‘Jesus… What the hell is going on? They’re actually thinking of dropping the Moon on us? I guess that’s more effective than sending monsters here. If they drop the Moon, the whole planet will fall apart in seconds. There will be earthquakes, tsunamis, and poisonous gas filling the air. I don’t even want to think about how many people would die from that. I’m sure all the monsters on the Moon will also die, but I’m guessing that the asshole who is in charge on the Moon doesn’t give a rat’s ass about that.’

«By my calculations, we have three days until the Moon falls on us, Master.»

‘Okay. Thanks, I guess.’

Three days until the end of the world!

‘So I guess we are supposed to go to the Moon and kill them before that happens, huh?’

“I need Bi-Ga right now. And get me Adam Bronze on the line.”

This was it.

This was the final battle.