I Gave Up Being Stronger

Cha Jin-Hyeok arrived at the entrance of a low mountain beyond the vast plains. Behind this mountain lay a small warp portal. While it did not lead directly to Earth, the portal provided a route to get there. He made it look like he was trying to escape to Earth.

‘This mountain has plenty of cover,’ Jin-Hyeok thought. He intended to provoke Emperor Marco to attack him and was confident that it would work.

Fortunately for him, he was right. ‘I can feel the bloodlust!’

Having faced Marco once before, Jin-Hyeok could sense his presence better now.

‘Marco is indeed pretty impressive.’

Though this was a trap, Jin-Hyeok had used all his power to run away and even ridden the Thunder Dragon.

‘Marco has already caught up and identified the optimal spot for an ambush. He probably predicted my escape route precisely.’

Marco was indeed a universe-level ranker.

“Alright, let’s have a proper fight,” Jin-Hyeok muttered with a grin. “You have two hours. If you can’t kill me within two hours, your face will be broadcast to the entire world, Marco.”

Suddenly, Jin-Hyeok quickly dodged something aimed at his head.

Whoosh!

An object brushed past him.

‘Right, that’s his specialty.’

Jin-Hyeok had so much experience with combat that he could sense Marco’s attack patterns.

‘He shoots highly condensed, small poisonous orbs.’

In essence, they were like minute poisonous beads.

‘He can fire them one by one or disperse them like a mist. It’s quite troublesome.’

The orbs had tremendous penetrating power, and the poison inside them was deadly too.

‘If it weren’t for abilities like Spilling Wind, Absolute Barrier, and my resistance to poison, I would have lost to Marco.’

However, Jin-Hyeok did not care.

‘With these three abilities, I can at least put up a good fight.’

Marco’s attacks began to pour down. Outwardly, they did not look very dangerous, more like a thick mist.

‘I guess he’s switching to mist-type attacks.’

Marco had given up penetrative power for a tremendous toxic mist. Everything around the forest shriveled, and the soil turned pitch black.

‘I need to get out of the attack’s range.’

The mist seemed heavier than air. Jin-Hyeok leaped onto a tree and ran along the branches.

‘This must be his setup.’

Jin-Hyeok knew Marco would not just use his mist-type attack.

‘He’ll aim for the moment I jump from branch to branch to shoot penetrating poison orbs.’

Although Absolute Barrier could defend against them, Jin-Hyeok had to consider the sheer force of Marco’s attack.

‘He’ll attack from the opposite direction of my movement to maximize penetration.’

Jin-Hyeok decided to break through head-on.

‘I need to jump with much more force to counteract it.’

Jin-Hyeok deflected Marco’s attack head-on and used Spilling Wind to dodge. Amidst this, he took several hits, and his left arm turned pitch black.

“That hurt a bit.”

It had been a while since he had felt such tremendous pain.

Marco was getting impatient. ‘It should hurt more than just a bit.’

Normally, such severe poisoning would cause loss of consciousness due to the pain alone or slowed movements at least. The poison was so potent that it should have paralyzed his tongue. Yet, Jin-Hyeok was strangely articulate.

‘Either his senses are destroyed or his brain is.’

However, Jin-Hyeok’s precise movements suggested that his senses were intact. He was finding the optimal route to effectively increase the distance between them, displaying calmness and even anticipating Marco’s attacks. Marco felt that he could lose to Jin-Hyeok if he was not careful.

‘But even he won’t last much longer!’

Even if Chul-Soo’s brain ignored the pain, his body was breaking down.

‘I need to kill him now.’

Marco feared Jin-Hyeok’s potential in a few years or even a few months. This was the only opportunity for him to kill Jin-Hyeok.

‘He’s slowing down.’

About two hours later, Jin-Hyeok appeared to be tired.

‘Why is he not slowing?

The situation was frustratingly the same as before. Jin-Hyeok appeared to be getting tired, yet he narrowly dodged all of Marco’s attacks, keeping up his escape. It was a continuous series of close calls, driving Marco to the brink of madness.

‘Damn it!’

Marco’s eyes flared red. Jin-Hyeok was all he could see. That was when strange things began to happen.

***

Jin-Hyeok, who had been fervently fleeing, suddenly stopped and approached Marco. “Marco, was it your genuine will to attack me?”

Marco found the situation hard to grasp. It was one thing to be obsessed with livestreaming but another to put his life on the line so recklessly. He could spot at least a dozen vulnerabilities in Chul-Soo’s defense at that moment.

‘Checkmate,’ Marco thought. He had calculated every possible escape route. This was the moment to triumph in the hunt for Kim Chul-Soo.

“No, it was not my will,” Marco said as he flinched. This response surprised even him.

‘I should be attacking him now.’

However, Marco could not move properly. He felt as if he had lost control over his body.

“Then why did you attack me?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“I received an offer from the head of the Goldium family.”

Words kept slipping out before the Player Hunter could stop them.

‘What is this? Why is this happening?’

Jin-Hyeok pulled a small twig out of his pocket and said, “Come up here. Let’s have a conversation.”

Even though Marco wondered who would respond to such a command, his body moved on its own again.

‘Damn it! Am I under a curse or something?’

Jin-Hyeok turned on the livestream.

[Player Hunter Marco]

“You guys might not see him well, but this is Marco. They call him The Ant because he’s as small as one. I will zoom in on his face for you,” Jin-Hyeok said to his viewers.

With the appearance of Marco, the viewer count surged.

‘Wow, it’s already surpassed five hundred million!’ Jin-Hyeok thought.

The weight of the name Emperor Marco certainly seemed significant. Reaching five hundred million viewers as soon as the livestream started made Jin-Hyeok feel good; moreover, the viewer count could even surpass a billion again.

-So, that’s what Marco looks like.

-Cute size, not so cute face, LOL!

-He looks like a bandit.

Ordinary viewers enjoyed Chul-Soo’s livestream with light-hearted laughter. However, it wasn’t the same for some viewers.

-Marco’s face has been revealed.

-There are hardly any Player Hunters stronger than Marco.

Marco was universally recognized as one of the top Player Hunters in the universe.

-Usually, you would be shot before you even see his face.

-I can’t even think of having a conversation with Marco like that.

Many high-ranking Players joined the livestream, focusing on this shocking content while hiding their identities.

-How did this happen?

-None of those targeted by Emperor Marco have survived.

The universe-level rankers found the situation difficult to understand.

Jin-Hyeok addressed their curiosity. “Marco, you were desperate to hunt me down, weren’t you?”

“I tried fiercely.”

“Yes, you did,” Jin-Hyeok smirked. He had psychologically driven Marco to the brink, preventing the Player Hunter from seeing anything else. By narrowing Marco’s focus, Jin-Hyeok had employed a different tactic. “I have recently realized something. I have many excellent comrades.”

A man emerged from the bushes. It was none other than Park Terse, who was chuckling.

“As many of you know, this is one of my capable comrades,” Jin-Hyeok said.

***

This event was trending not only on Jin-Hyeok’s livestream but also across all the online communities.

-Did they just tame Marco?

-People can be tamed too; it’s just ethically avoided.

-Since Marco classifies as an insect-type Beastkin, it’s theoretically possible.

Before Jin-Hyeok’s regression, Terse had detested and avoided taming humans. But it wasn’t the case in this life. Now, Terse was pleased to have successfully tamed a universe-level ranker.

-I didn’t know Terse was that strong.

-Isn’t he around Level 250? How did he tame Marco?

Users were sharply divided over whether this incident was staged or not.

-Did Chul-Soo use money with Marco, just like he did with Cier?

-Yeah, I think that’s it. He paid him off!

-Terse taming Marco? Do you guys think that makes sense? LOL

However, there were significant opposing views.

-You guys are just too dumb to understand what happened. You don’t know how intensely Chul-Soo set up the traps to allow Terse to tame Marco.

-Idiots! You only see the results, not the process!

-When you see the replay video, you’ll kick yourselves.

Despite the controversy over the livestream’s authenticity, Jin-Hyeok had indeed succeeded in taming Marco through Terse.

Slightly embarrassed, Terse said, “With my current skills, he’s too strong for me to perfectly tame him.”

Terse was still in awe of Jin-Hyeok. Jin-Hyeok had kept Marco’s attention solely on himself, which laid the groundwork for a successful taming.

“The taming will wear off soon. I’m sorry, but this is all I can do,” Terse said.

“How long will it last?”

“At most three minutes. If you have enough strength left to summon the Thunder Dragon, you better summon it now and escape.”

Terse was quite frustrated. He was disappointed that he had not been able to achieve perfect taming despite Jin-Hyeok having set up such an ideal environment for taming. He resolved, ‘Next time, I will achieve a perfect taming.’

It seemed Terse would have to wait for another opportunity. Just then, he saw Jin-Hyeok smirking.

“Chul-Soo? Are you okay?” Terse asked.

Instead of summoning the Thunder Dragon, Jin-Hyeok drew Miri.

“What are you doing?” Terse asked.

“Part of the reason you were able to tame him at all was my setup.”

Three minutes was more than enough time to teach someone the greatness of violence.

“You can do it, Terse. I believe in you,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“...”

“After about two minutes, Marco won’t have any willpower left to resist. It will create an even more perfect environment for taming.”

Jin-Hyeok began swinging Miri without considering his stamina. He intensely swung as if he was pouring everything into those three minutes.

Bang! Bang! Thwack!

Terse blankly watched Jin-Hyeok. ‘Taming by weakening the spirit of the opponent with beatings until near death…’

It was a very efficient method, though one Terse greatly disliked. However, he was not against it today.

‘Can I tame Marco this way?’ His heart raced. ‘Is this okay?’

Although it wasn’t perfect, Marco was still currently bound by Terse’s taming. As someone who profoundly loved the creatures he tamed, Terse would have felt severe heartache in such circumstances.

‘Buy why am I not sad?’

Certainly, he felt some sadness. However, his joy overwhelmed his sorrow, and the anticipation of possibly taming such a powerful Player like Marco filled up his heart.

Terse bowed his head as if he were offering prayer, desperately trying to hide his smile.

‘Heh, hehehehe.’

Terse clenched his fist to prevent himself from laughing. He continuously told the tamed Marco telepathically, ‘Do not move Marco. This is an order from your master. Expose your vital points to make it easier for Chul-Soo to strike.’

Before two minutes had passed, he found the perfect timing for perfect taming.

[The taming has been successful.]

This perfect taming marked the true beginning for Terse, the Taming Master among the universe rankers.