I Gave Up Being Stronger

Cha Jin-Hyeok’s surroundings had become a sea of fire, and the ground had melted into a bubbling cauldron, but he appeared unaffected.

“Are you alright?” Julius asked, after suddenly transforming from his enormous dragon form into that of a small child.

“I’m fine,” Jin-Hyeok replied.

Julius remained silent for a moment before apologizing, “I’m sorry.”

“If you’re talking about the Fire Breath, it’s fine. It seemed like an accident.”

“No, not about that. I underestimated you, Mr. Chul-Soo. I thought you were weak.”

“Now that’s something worth apologizing for. I’ll accept it.”

“Thank you.”

Jin-Hyeok was caught in a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. Lately, he had been wishing to become weaker, but when someone actually implied he could be weak, his pride took a hit. He was well aware of the contradiction, but he couldn’t change how he felt.

“That I’m a master of seduction?” Julius tilted his head.

Jin-Hyeok nodded solemnly, leaving Julius even more perplexed. The dragon wondered if he truly was a master of seduction. If the one saying this were anyone else, Julius would have spat his Fire Breath at such nonsense, but this was Kim Chul-Soo. If Chul-Soo said the Thunder Dragon was docile, Julius would have believed it.

“I understand my problem,” Julius said. However, there was no need to fix it. From now on, he would not have to use seduction techniques anyway. “To be honest, I was trying to provoke you into attacking me for real.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

Although Julius had underestimated Jin-Hyeok’s strength, his killing intent had been genuine. If it weren’t for Absolute Barrier, even Furface, with whom Jin-Hyeok had built quite a rapport on their journey, might have died.

“Since it has come to this, please kill me with all your might,” Julius pleaded.

“I told you. That’s not going to happen.” Jin-Hyeok could not even imagine killing a Chul-Soo Lander. “What kind of madman kills his fan?”

“Well, you are…” Julius trailed off, almost saying ‘crazy enough,’ but caught himself. He knew his idol often did not acknowledge his madness, and as a Chul-Soo Lander, Julius understood that sentiment well. “...not crazy.”

Still, Julius was upset. He briefly considered attacking Jin-Hyeok for real, hoping to force the latter’s hand but quickly dismissed the thought. As the official Chul-Soo Land No.1000, living with this pain was better than betraying Chul-Soo.

With a more sincere expression, Julius continued, “Even if I die, I will just respawn. The reason I want to die is—”

“I know. You want to go outside the Dungeon, don’t you?” Jin-Hyeok replied before the dragon could finish.

Julius fell silent, his eyes welling up with tears at being understood.

Jin-Hyeok let out a soft sigh. “You’re a Chul-Soo Lander. Why don’t you understand me better?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your settings. You just need to break them,” Jin-Hyeok explained, raising Miri. “Don’t you know she’s the Rule Breaker?”

***

Focusing his mind using Broadcaster’s Insight, Jin-Hyeok saw the rigid settings that bound Julius. Viscous spider webs tightly wrapped around Julius and his surroundings.

‘Hm…’ Jin-Hyeok could sense the settings becoming even more rigid in real time.

“It seems the GMs are interfering,” Jin-Hyeok said. The GMs apparently did not want the Fire Dragon to leave for the outside world. “Well, I suppose that’s understandable from their perspective.”

GMs had to prepare as many events and Scenarios as possible using the System. Julius’s exit to the outside world was likely meant to occur only when the Fire Dragon died and his settings collapsed. Subsequent events would have been planned around that event. This was not just months of planning, but possibly years or even decades of top-secret preparation.

If Jin-Hyeok suddenly broke the settings with the Rule Breaker and unleashed the Fire Dragon into the world without warning, the GMs involved would likely be working overtime, weeping tears of blood.

‘Kihael would love this,’ Jin-Hyeok thought. He did not particularly care about the GMs’ suffering. Just as it was natural for Players to die while Playing, GMs could expect to work overtime when things went wrong.

“Alright, let’s try to break it, Miri,” Jin-Hyeok commanded.

-I’ll do my best!

It proved more challenging than he had expected. The settings surrounding Julius were surprisingly tough.

“Wow, I can’t break the settings with just one hit.” Jin-Hyeok suddenly felt excited. While overwhelming power was his concept for the livestream, he always welcomed such unexpected variables. “Hmm, hitting it twice doesn’t work either.”

The settings were becoming more rigid, as fast as Jin-Hyeok could swing Miri. It seemed countless GMs were frantically reinforcing the settings.

After a few more attempts, Jin-Hyeok stroked his chin. “This isn’t as easy as I thought.”

He hadn’t anticipated such a trial. Julius’s expression dropped, and he looked dejected.

“Don’t worry. I won’t disappoint a Chul-Soo Lander,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“You don’t have to push yourself too hard. Just meeting you is already a gift to me,” Julius replied.

Hearing those words, Jin-Hyeok made a decision. He was going to train here for a while.

“I’ll need to cut off my external connections to the outside world to concentrate.”

***

Jin-Hyeok posted an urgent notice on his Eltube channel, announcing that he would be training in the Dragon’s Nest for a while.

-Chul-Soo’s training?

-Did something happen?

-Was he critically injured by the Fire Breath?

Many people worried about Jin-Hyeok. The last video they had seen was of him splitting the Fire Breath with one hand.

-Maybe he couldn’t dodge the Fire Breath. Maybe he’s injured.

-There is no way he’s unscathed after taking that Fire Breath.

Where there were fans, there were also haters. Some people spread rumors that Chul-Soo had died in the Dragon’s Nest.

-LOL! I think Chul-Soo’s dead. LOL

-Serves him right for showing off his Solo Play.

Opinions poured in about why Chul-Soo had suddenly gone silent.

-Chul-Soo is obsessed with being shown as the strongest Player in the universe.

-He’s probably trying to hide that he is critically injured.

-But it’s so obvious that he’s hurt. He must be too injured to even livestream.

Meanwhile, Furface gritted his teeth.

“Kim Chul-Soo…!” To Furface, Chul-Soo was his lifesaver—a light that had appeared after ten arduous years. “I must confirm his life or death with my own eyes.”

That was his duty as an orangutan Beastkin. However, he was also afraid. He had never overcome the Sphinx’s illusion before on his own. Without Chul-Soo, he didn’t have the confidence to overcome the illusion. If he went into the Dungeon now, he could get trapped in the first checkpoint indefinitely again.

“But I have to go.”

It was his duty to help Chul-Soo as he had received such kindness from him.

Jasmine, the Flutist Healer, also decided to join. “I’ll join you.”

“Jasmine, this will be your fourth attempt. You could die this time,” Furface said.

“It’s precisely why I must go. I’m the most experienced one among the survivors. My flute could help Chul-Soo.”

Nick, the Tamer, also decided to join. “Damn it! I swear I would never go back…”

Nick knew better than anyone that Chul-Soo could have easily escaped from the Dragon’s Nest. The reason he hadn’t escaped was that he had cast his Absolute Barrier on the other Players. That had to have divided Chul-Soo’s attention, making it difficult to use his full abilities. However, Nick had to go in. Chul-Soo had shown him a new frontier in taming and opened his closed perspective. Chul-Soo had personally demonstrated taming a near-inanimate bamboo, expanding the realm of taming even further.

Just then, they heard a new voice.

“Come here! Stop overthinking and join our party instead.”

It was the Marshmallow Corps, led by the universe ranker Marshmallow.

***

The K-Force, which had been scattered across the universe and operating independently, began to gather in one spot. From the Saint of Freedom Cha Jin-Sol, Wood King Mok Jae-Hyeon, Martial King Kim Jeong-Hyeon, and the twin Assassins Seo Ji-Soo and Sae-Ji-Ah to notable Players active worldwide, they all assembled. It was a group that included all the rising rookie Players and those with the title of prodigy.

-Wow, is the K-Force this powerful?

-Seeing them all together. They’re unstoppable!

-But this is just the advance party, right?

-You’re kidding me, right? This is just the advance party? LOL

In other words, the K-Force was just the advance party. Most of them belonged to the Earth Server and were growing at an incredible rate, but many were still not quite at the level to be called universe rankers. The main force was separate.

-Lessefim also joined them.

-Lessefim? The fifth-ranked Arvis Navigator?

-She’s been ranked one for a while now. Why are you still saying fifth-ranked?

Lessefim, the tracking expert, had risen to become the universe’s top Navigator.

-The Swedeen Emperor Kyle is leading the Sword Emperor Unit to the Dragon’s Nest.

-Wait, the entire Sword Emperor Unit is going to the Dragon’s Nest?

Sweden, one of the three great empires of Arvis, had organized a main force on an imperial scale.

-I heard the Seven Great Families have also sent their elite members to join the main force.

Rumors even had it that the head of the veiled Kyen Family would personally participate.

-What? The head of the Kyen Family is coming?

-Wow, that’s unbelievable.

In addition, official Chul-Soo Land members began to gather, centered around Muenne, who had recently risen as a political heavyweight.

That wasn’t the end of it.

-I heard the GMs are dying these days.

-Servers are crashing and Dungeons are exploding… It’s chaos everywhere.

-I heard it’s all DDoS attacks.

The sea suddenly turned into mountains. Mountains suddenly became lakes. Demons appeared where Goblins should have been. The Demon Realm merged with a newborn Server. What would normally be individual major incidents suddenly erupted on a universal scale. As a result, the dark circles under the GMs’ eyes reached their chins.

Kihael, who had escaped this hell early, was overjoyed.

‘That’s what happens when you mess with Kim Min-Ji, you fools! This is what you get for messing with Chul-Soo. But did they really mess with Chul-Soo specifically?’ Kihael wondered. “Who cares about who messed with whom? As long as they’re suffering, that’s all that matters. Hahahaha!”

***

The leaders of the K-Force and the high-ranking officials of the main rescue force gathered in one place. The meeting was conducted in utmost secrecy and officially presented as a strategy meeting to find ways to rescue Chul-Soo, hosted by the universe ranker Marshmallow.

“Now, everyone knows what we need to do, right?” Marshmallow looked around the room with confident eyes before settling his gaze on one particular spot. It was where Furface, Jasmine, and Nick sat, invited due to their special qualifications. “Furface, why have we gathered here?”

“We, we are…” Furface stammered. Although he was a ranker in his own right, he wasn’t quite at the level to be in this gathering. Every single person here was a heavyweight capable of moving worlds. He felt nervous. In place of the nervous Furface, Jasmine raised her hand.

“To rescue Chul-Soo, right?” she said.

Furface and Nick nodded. She had stated something so obvious, yet somehow the atmosphere felt strange.

‘Did I say something wrong?’

‘Why isn’t anyone talking?’

‘This is odd.’

Marshmallow let out a small sigh and smacked Encyclopedia on the head. “Hey, didn’t you explain it to them?”

“Explain what? If they have functioning brains on their shoulders, they should understand it all!”

Marshmallow sighed. It was his mistake to trust his friend. “Alright, let me ask just in case. Is there anyone here who thinks we’re going in there to rescue Chul-Soo?”

Surprisingly, no one raised their hand.

Furface, Nick, and Jasmine were baffled.

‘Then why are we gathered here?’

Encyclopedia flipped through his pages with a rustle and chided them. “Hey, you lot! You’re not thinking the ridiculous thought that Chul-Soo is in real danger, are you?”

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