Thumbs Up, Level Up - Chapter 300

In three days, the Moon would fall to Earth. This was not something that could be compared with fighting monsters, so Ji-Cheok made it clear to his two friends that he would not take no for an answer.

⌜You want me to build a spaceship that can carry at least a million people in one day? Are you crazy?⌟

⌜Ji-Cheok might be crazy, but we have to do it. According to my calculations, the doom of the human race is certain in the next sixty-five hours.⌟

I know. I did my own calculations too. In sixty-five hours, we won’t be able to get the Moon back in its usual orbit.⌟

As everyone knew, there were seventy-two hours in three days. However, the problem was that the moment the Moon got below a certain point, there was no way to stop it because the gravitational attraction between the Moon and Earth was too strong.

In other words, in sixty-five hours, the doom of humanity would be sealed, and in seventy-two hours, Earth and the Moon would share a Moonlight kiss, and all but a very few humans would be dead.

Gods that oversee death would be thrilled about this. Like Hades. But doesn’t Hades live underground? Would he be okay if Earth was destroyed?’

Ji-Cheok put the stupid questions aside. He looked at the two screens floating in front of him.

One showed Bi-Ga, and the other showed Adam Bronze. Among everyone he knew, the two of them were the absolute best when it came to making things. He was sure there were other great Hunters in the crafting field, but his connections were limited.

«Those two are the best in crafting, Master, especially if you need to build a spaceship.»

‘Are you sure?’

«Yes, Master. It is a different classification when it comes to crafting weapons that contain powerful mana. These two are the best when it comes to Arcane Engineering.»

“Well, at least we have that going for us.”

⌜Umm…just letting you know, my Sky Warlord was originally intended to be an ark, but it can’t carry a million people.⌟

⌜And it is also impossible to build a spaceship from scratch that can carry a million people in one day!⌟

“No, it’s possible. Are you guys forgetting about the Kunlun Mountain that I recently acquired?”

They both looked enlightened at his words.

“Kunlun Mountain can carry about a million people, and if I activate its shield function, it can even float in space.”

⌜Why don’t we just use that then?⌟

Ji-Cheok shook his head at Bi-Ga.

“There are going to be a lot of casualties if we do that.”

There were thirty million Hunters in the world, give or take. He could technically take the strongest one million of them and put them on Kunlun Mountain to fight the Demon King of the Apocalypse on the Moon. After all, Kunlun Mountain was more than just a transport ship—it was a fortress and a weapon of mass destruction.

“In the worst case scenario, we might have to destroy the Moon, and that might be more necessary for humanity’s survival.”

⌜So are you thinking of blowing apart the Moon along with the Demon King of the Apocalypse?⌟

Adam Bronze looked intrigued.

‘That guy seems to be a fan of the space opera genre…’ Ji-Cheok thought to himself.

‘But that would cause worldwide earthquakes and massive tsunamis, with the added bonus of extreme weather,’ Bi-Ga said with a lollipop in her mouth.

“The alternative is the Earth splitting apart in one fell swoop and becoming a pile of space trash. I’ll take the earthquakes and the tsunami.”

The two of them were silent for a moment.

Ji-Cheok was right. His plan was better than Earth breaking apart like a biscuit and scattering to the far reaches of space.

“As you all know, less than a hundred humans will survive if we don’t defend our planet. Given the Sky Warlord’s capabilities as an ark, tens of thousands can survive, and if Kunlun Mountain is converted into an ark, we can save a million more. I am guessing Bi-Ga has something up her sleeve, too, and given the means of survival that each of us has hidden, we are looking at saving about two million people.”

⌜That’s the right answer, Alchemist! Kudos to you.⌟

Ji-Cheok wondered how an American knew so much about Korean memes.[1]

⌜So your plan is to destroy the Moon?⌟

“Only as a last resort. Besides, even if we destroy the Moon, if it falls on us like a meteorite, there’s gonna be a cataclysm anyway. I think our conversation came full circle, but it would still be better than Earth being smashed like a crisp cookie.”

⌜And you think the alternative plan is to build spaceships?⌟

“Uh, no… To be precise, I am talking about combining the Sky Warlord and Kunlun Mountain in one day, and turning it into a superweapon capable of destroying the Moon.”

⌜So, like the Killing Star.⌟

The name was a bit different, but the concept was similar to the one spaceship that was uniquely famous among space opera movies.

“So, are you guys going to do it?”

⌜Okay. Let’s do this.⌟

⌜I’m in!⌟

Two people agreed, and they got to work.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Kunlun Mountain was slow, so Ji-Cheok ordered the Sky Warlord to come to where the mountain was located. Using massive Time Acceleration skills, it reached Kunlun Mountain in just three hours.

The mountain had left China and was now in the sky of North Korea. The Sky Warlord’s teleportation capabilities were used to bring materials and resources up to the area around the two giant vehicles.

The Sky Warlord landed on Kunlun Mountain. They walked into a square structure floating in space above the mountain.

“So, you built this after all,” Ji-Cheok said.

‘After I built the dimensional barrier in Antarctica, I used what I learned from that to build this. I was building this while everyone else was fighting. I figured we would need it,” Bi-Ga said.

“Good job.”

“What do you think, Mr. American?” Bi-Ga said while smiling.

“It’s excellent work.”

“Do you know what this is?”

“Of course. I may not have the ability to analyze things, but my people do. Hey, Mark! Am I right?”

“Of course, Boss.”

Behind Adam Bronze, there were dozens of people who looked like scientists. They were all inside the square structure. The interior was like a stacked game of Tetris, with countless circuits on the walls. In the center, there was just one big circle.

“Here we go, let’s get started.”

Adam Bronze stepped into the circle, followed by Ji-Cheok and then everybody else.

“Massive wide-area crafting machine activated. User skill integration initiated!”

The circle glowed at Bi-Ga’s command. Then, she looked at Adam. Something above his head started to glow, and that glow stretched out from him, connecting with his workers.

When they finally used their skills, Ji-Cheok could feel it.

A very dramatic change had just occurred outside this structure.

This thing they came into looked like a square box with forty-meter sides. A moment later, with a flash of light, a very long, slender, metallic robot arm protruded from it. It was less than ten centimeters thick, but it kept growing longer and longer until it was hundreds of meters long.

The next moment, another identical limb appeared, and then another. Within a minute, there were hundreds of them, reaching all the way to Kunlun Mountain and the Sky Warlord.

Then, the soil of Kunlun Mountain and the metal armor plates of Sky Warlord began to deform and change. The soil gradually melted and turned to metal, clinging to the Sky Warlord. The entire mountain was melting and sticking to the spaceship above!

‘Good. Now it is my turn.’

“Use Likes.”

Ji-Cheok invested his Likes in whatever his team was doing. Likes were omnipotent and all-powerful.

Their skill effects increased exponentially, and in an instant, the entire Sky Warlord and Kunlun Mountain began a very rapid transformation.

In fact, although Kunlun Mountain was an actual giant mountain, its essence was the Treasure item in the center. That was what kept the mountain flying.

That Treasure item had now moved into the core of the Sky Warlord, and he could feel it becoming one with the power source of the battleship.

He could actually feel those two ‘clicking’ together!

He could also feel the power of Arcane Engineering arise within it.

At the same time, the change was now more dramatic.

The Sky Warlord was huge enough to be called a mothership even by itself. Now, they were using it as a base and fusing it with Kunlun Mountain. Slowly, it was transforming into a terrifyingly huge spaceship, over ten kilometers long.

Eventually, everything merged into one and the end product looked like a giant sword in a sheath.

‘I assumed it would take a while, but we finished it in three hours…’

«It is all thanks to the power of Likes, Master»

‘Yeah, that’s probably it. To think I used 3.2 billion Likes for this….’

He had used a lot of Likes that could buy many abilities of the Gods. If it hadn’t been for his Likes, they would have had to spend at least a year on it.

‘So… Now what do we do for the rest of the time?’

«We need to get the Hunters to join…whether by hook or by crook.»

‘Yeah, this is going to be a life-and-death battle. There will be many Hunters who don’t want to go, but we have to force them all to fight. I wish I had a week to prepare…’

«It cannot be helped, Master.»

‘You’re right. It can’t be helped. Let’s start with my livestream. This could actually be my last one.’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Hello, everyone! Umji, Gumji! This is Um Ji-Cheok!”

He started his livestream. This time, he was dressed like a very colorful video game character. He had a glowing circlet on his head and a crop top that revealed everything from his chest to his waist, but his arms were wrapped in some kind of fabric. Not many people would wear this for their livestream. On his back, there were wings of light, and in one hand he held what at first glance could be called a Hero’s Sword or a Holy Sword.

On the lower half of his body, he wore armor that looked like it was carved out of gemstones. Basically, he looked like some kind of holy angel character from a game.

‘Hm… After wearing this Bunny Princess[2] costume, strangely, everything in the world seems ephemeral…’

There he was, in real life, wearing the same costume as the guy who played twenty hours a day and complained about the lack of content. Even though the world was about to end, Ji-Cheok could never forget about how he had started the livestream.

As expected, Ji-Cheok was getting comments like ‘wow, he has done it’ or ‘I can’t believe that crazy bastard is wearing that costume’ from the viewers.

-So that is the infamous Bunny Princess look, huh?

-Umji is the embodiment of Bunny Princess. He is willing to cover up his privates and go save the world…

“I look fabulous today, right? There is a reason for this.”

Even though the chat was chaotic, he could see viewers coming in at an incredible rate. He realized that his livestream was not only being streamed on GodTube. Thanks to Cheok-Liang’s hacking skills, other channels were also broadcasting his livestream instead of their usual shows. They were taking such extreme measures because the world was about to end!

“I am sure that none of you knew about this, but we are only two days away from the literal end of the world.”

He knew he looked like he was losing his mind when he was dressed like that and announcing the fate of this planet, but at this point, he hardly gave a damn.

“Look at the Moon!”

He pointed at the Moon, and the screen also showed it.

“That thing is going to crash to Earth in two days, and if you want to stop it, you are going to have to go to the Moon yourself! Of course, the preparations are already finished. We have created an ultimate weapon, thanks to the collaboration between my dear Mr. Adam Bronze, CEO of ABM, and Jung Bi-Ga, CEO of Korea’s largest heavy industry company, Jungbi!”

-Umji is wearing an angel costume!

-No, we call that a Bunny Princess costume.

-Is it okay to save the planet dressed like that? Isn’t that a bit weird?

The screen flashed to the image of a newly built space mothership. Everyone unanimously decided on a name.

“Here! This is called the Moon Blade!”

The name certainly fit an item that was due to blow the Moon to smithereens.

1. This is a meme based on the ending of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but it’s not really common on the English Internet. ☜

2. This is derived from a meme in Korea, where a gamer with the username Bunny Princess would often complain that the game is trash while playing around 20 hours per day on it. ☜