Thumbs Up, Level Up - Chapter 305

[You have escaped my doom by twisting the laws of causality, but… it is too late. The end is already before you.]

The Demon King grew even larger. One by one, the Hunters mobilized for this battle were swallowed by their doom. Flames burst forth from the Moon’s surface, consuming the undead and burning away Reable’s evil mana.

[Accept your fate, dead ones. You, twisted one, accept your fate as well.]

Its power grew more substantial. Even with Reable and I.L. here, it was hard to match its strength.

“Damn it! I can’t see a way to get to him! We’ve come this far!” I.L. screamed.

“That monster really is the embodiment of the apocalypse… It might be harder than we expected,” Reable said with a worrisome smile.

Ji-CHeok saw the Demon King standing in front of him.

‘Do you think I’m just going to give up? What is going to happen to me if I give up here? To Mu-Cheok? To Seong Kwang? What is going to happen to Ji-Byeok, Bi-Ga, Ha-Na, and all the others who put their trust in me? They are all going to die! I can’t let that happen.’

Then, he remembered something.

‘If the Hunters are facing Apocalypse…then, I have my Likes to retaliate! Maybe this is the answer… I hope it is… It has to work!’

“I am going to use my Likes to the Hunters! Let them overcome their doom!”

He drew his swords and ran toward the Demon King of the Apocalypse. He could feel every single one of the billions of Likes he had disappearing in an instant. As his Like tank ran dry, he heard the sound of their doom breaking apart.

The first thing he heard was the voice of his younger brother.

“Hyung!”

Cannons protruded from Mu-Cheok’s body, and he pointed the barrels at the Demon King.

“This is… I was surely dreaming… Brother Ji-Cheok, where are you?”

“Wait, that’s the Demon King! I swear I killed it before… What the hell? It was its mental attack?!”

“What the…”

Seong Kwang, Ha-Na, and Ji-Byeok woke up from their apocalyptic dreams.

Woong.

The Moon Blade started to move.

However, not all of the Hunters had awakened; just a few dozens were back.

‘I used all of my Likes, and this is it?! Well…it is what it is. There is still hope!’

“Everyone! That is the Demon King! It is the one that planted the apocalypse in people’s minds and makes them die in their happy dreams! It must be defeated, and it must be defeated NOW!”

At his shout, the consciousness of those who came to their senses was bound together. The Chain Link skill was activated, and Ji-Cheok imposed his will on them all.

[This is just foolish resistance! Nothing is going to change!]

A beam of light flashed from the Demon King’s four eyes.

Ji-Cheok dodged it!

Boom!

The ground he had been standing on melted and exploded. The Demon King was on its feet, charging at him.

Then, a horde of Undead engulfed in flames from the ground, clung to its feet, and at the same time, Reable and his hundreds of thousands of Specters rushed toward the giant Demon.

“Ghost Body Attack!”

‘Well ain’t that a cute skill name!’

The giant ghostly mass directly hit the Demon King. With a bang, the behemoth fell to the ground and rolled back.

“I see it now! That is your weakness!”

Just then, I.L.’s greatsword spat out a dimension-slicing blue light, and the Demon King’s body disappeared with a flash of light, teleporting somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the Moon Blade’s main artillery rained down on the monster.

Woong~

The power of a huge heat ray melted the ground!

[Kuuuaaah!]

The Demon King was in agony, its body contorting and melting here and there. Above him, Ha-Na and Mu-Cheok also started to attack. At the same time, the surrounding area was filled with divine power created by Seong Kwang.

‘We are winning! We can win this! We can do this!’

Ji-Cheok raised his swords. He summoned the Mind Sword infused with his will. He calmed down his breath and took a step forward.

Flash!

He crossed the space in an instant, and his blades imbued with the Mind Sword struck to behead!

Since it was the Mind Sword, the edge had already reached the monster’s throat before Ji-Cheok even thought of it.

Crack!

The sword plunged into its throat, but it did not cut through. Instead, it stopped midway.

‘You Demon bastard, you’re so damn tough!’

[You have done well to push me this far. However, no one can save you. You who have escaped the doomed world, it is time for you to meet your destiny. Give me your apocalypse!]

‘What is this Demon trying to do?’

«The monsters are disappearing!»

‘What? No way… That means…’

He glared at the Demon King. Its body was getting bigger and bigger, and its mana was becoming more and more terrifying.

[I fulfill the desires of the races of the doomed world. They wish for your world to end, and they wish for the flourishing of their race in this world. Life and death are, after all, the will and reason of this circulating universe. Now, humanity. Accept your end!]

Its body grew even more massive. The monsters accepted their doom and died, and their death became the Demon King’s power.

The Demon King was now kilometers tall and looked down on Ji-Cheok.

“That’s some overpowered bullshit…” I.L. said full of despair.

“That thing is becoming even stronger!”

“How can we… Brother Ji-Cheok… Ah, dear God…”

He could hear the despair in their voices. And he had just used up all his Likes.

‘Damn it! We came so far! We can’t just give up now…’

Dong.

Dong.

Dong.

“Bells?”

“Who’s ringing the bells?”

“Whaaaat~ Haha! You have arrived at a very good time. This is good timing! Perfect timing!” Reable said with a laugh

A figure loomed over the giant Demon King’s head. At some point, the man had appeared without a sound.

The usual illusory cogs were spinning behind his back, putting two clock hands in motion. Also as usual, he was dressed in an immaculate formal suit. In one hand, he held a desk clock made of perfectly transparent crystal.

‘Oh wow! What timing!’

“Director Ji-Han!”

Ji-Han had arrived.

“The time has come, Demon King of the Apocalypse. However, it is not the time for the apocalypse that you speak of. No…that time will never come.”

[What are you talki—No!]

Ji-Han’s clock moved backward.

The Demon King’s body began to shrink, and the monsters that had disappeared earlier began to return.

‘What is going on? What is he doing?’

“Time, I command you to turn back. In exchange for erasing my memories, my soul, and my body. May the time of the Demon King of the Apocalypse turn back.”

Ji-Cheok could swear that he had just heard a cracking sound.

One of Ji-Han’s eyes turned to smoke and dispersed.

His hand that was not holding the clock turned to smoke and dispersed.

His very presence became unstable. However, as he slowly vanished, the clock turned back even faster.

The Demon King, who had been several kilometers tall, turned back to several hundreds of meters tall. Then, it stopped, its size only slightly larger than when it had first appeared.

“Mr. Ji-Cheok. Please take care of the rest.”

With that, Ji-Han plummeted to the ground.

‘God fucking damn it! Why the hell would he do that?!’

Just as Ji-Cheok was about to catch the falling Ji-Han, he disappeared in a flash of light.

‘I’ve managed to catch him with my Teleporter. He is now on the mothership, so don’t worry about him! Fight that monster!’

‘Adam! Good job!’

Ji-Cheok praised Adam and immediately ran forward.

Ever since the beginning, Ji-Cheok had thought he could defeat the Demon King. However, he kept feeling as if he was missing something. Even as he reached the Demon King and cut it with his swords, his Divine Intuition told him that it was not enough.

‘Just a little more… If I could take just one small step forward… What should I do?’

«Watch out, Master!»

The Demon King thrust his greatsword at him. Cheok-Liang grabbed Ji-Cheok with his Soul Telekinesis and lifted him upward, evading the greatsword. In the meantime, Ji-Cheok instinctively swung his swords imbued with the Mind Sword, further scarring the Demon King’s body.

At the same time, Mu-Cheok’s Mana Bullets, Ha-Na’s meteor arrows, Reable’s attack, I.L.’s greatsword, and other attacks from the Hunters who had woken up from their dreams reached the Demon King.

In the midst of it all, Ji-Cheok realized something.

“Start the livestream!”

«Master?»

“What? What are you doing?” I.L. shouted as he was dodging the attacks from the Demon King.

As I.L. slammed his greatsword at the monster, the Demon King held its own greatsword up with both hands to deflect his attack. It also raised its other arms and unleashed a barrage of spells to counter the attacks of Reable’s Undead and the other Hunters.

That was when Ji-Cheok began his livestream.

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

A Demonic Mana Bullet flew at him as he began to livestream! He parried it with his sword, looked up, and dodged another bullet.

“Everyone, right now, the battle for the end of the world is in full swing!”

As the livestream began, people poured in at a tremendous rate.

-What? What the fuck is going on?

-Demon… Demon King? Is he livestreaming while fighting THE Demon King? Is he serious?

-Dude! Focus on the fight! What the hell are you doing?!

-What the faaaaakkkkk ASDMAS@#(*@)##@!

-Good morning, and also you’re fucking crazy.

-I don’t think this is a wise decision.

There were tons of comments in the chat, but he tuned them out. He knew that he could not afford casually chatting with the viewers this time.

He crouched down and used all his Qi and mana to push forward.

Clang!

He swung his sword at the incoming Demonic Mana Bullets and deflected them back. The Demon King’s four eyes shot our beams of light.

At the same time, the space around him distorted, trying to suppress his movements.

‘You’re pretty good with magic, but I actually have a Wizard by my side!’

Woong.

Cheok-Liang neutralized the Demon King’s power by using spatial magic of equal magnitude. Ji-Cheok leaned forward and ran, dodging the beams of light and attacking with his Mind Sword.

Boom!

A long gash was left on the Demon’s body. On top of it, the attacks of his team members, other Hunters, and the Moon Blade rained down.

Still, the Demon King stood strong.

However, the important thing was that Ji-Cheok’s number of Likes was increasing exponentially. The Likes that had been used to wake some of the Hunters up from their doom were being quickly regained.

-That was close

-Umji! You got this!

-UMJI!!!!

People were cheering for him. He could feel their desperation, and that quite literally gave him strength.

This was the final battle, and he could not afford to lose! The wishes of all who watched his livestream had to be fulfilled!

[How dare you! You think you can escape the apocalypse with this?]

The Demon King shouted in anger, and blood spilled out from its mouth.

Now, Ji-Cheok was sure.

‘You bastard. It’s over!’

“Your apocalypse is now over!”

Ji-Cheok used all the Likes on himself.

Roar!

A huge surge in power made him want to scream out. The power of Likes was plain omnipotence, and using them to make himself stronger…made the [GodTube_superstar] transcendentally strong.

Every step he took, people’s emotions became Likes and settled within him.

Moments later, he had become as big as the Demon King, and he was holding out his dual swords that had also increased in size to fit his new towering height.

This was when he realized that the Mind Origin Sword Realm that the God of War spoke of was not something that he or anyone else could strive to attain. Instead, it was the realm that came to meet him…from within.

“This is your apocalypse.”

Ji-Cheok crossed his swords and slashed.

The Demon King’s body split open.

Light burst forth from within the Demon as countless types of powers leaked out

Then, it vanished without a trace.

[The final quest in the Tutorial has been cleared.]

[The Tutorial has ended.]

‘WE WON!!”

Everyone cheered, including Ji-Cheok.

‘We did it! Did you hear that, System? We fucking did it!’

The Hunters, trapped in their doom, began to wake up. Their cheers echoed everywhere.

Ji-Cheok stood tall and proud as he looked at Earth.