I Gave Up Being Stronger

“Since this is a collection of fragments of Artedal, I’m willing to give you one billion Dias for it.” Cha Jin-Hyeok made the first offer.

“That’s way too low. It doesn’t even cover the labor cost!” Song Ha-Young scoffed. For other people, one billion Dias could bring back the sparkles in their eyes, but it wasn’t so for Angel Girl. Ha-Young spread all ten fingers. “I need at least ten billion Dias to have something left over.”

“Hm…”

“Honestly, even that won’t leave much for me.”

Jin-Hyeok thought for a moment. Although ten billion Dias was a huge sum, he could earn that in just a couple of seconds.

“I just gave the students three hundred billion Dias, so I have no money right now. Cut me some slack,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“You probably earned three hundred billion Dias just while talking to me.”

Right now, all the Players from the Hell Server and Earth were steadily sending experience points and money to Jin-Hyeok. Moreover, billions of his fans were gathering their hearts and souls to send support to him.

Jin-Hyeok spread seven fingers. “Seven billion.”

A subtle tension flowed between the two.

“Then…” Jin-Hyeok pulled out his ultimate card. “I won’t buy it.”

“What?”

“I said I won’t buy it.”

“Why? You said you will!”

“I just don’t feel like buying it anymore.”

“Then should I sell this to the Swedeen Family?”

“Go ahead.”

“Hey! Are you going to be like this?” Ha-Young clenched her fist. “Unknown could wear such expensive items because of the Swedeen Family’s help!”

Although no physical evidence remained, many people had speculated that was what happened.

Ha-Young continued, “You want me to hand this over to those bastards? Absolutely not. If I only cared about money, I would’ve sold it to them, but my pride can’t tolerate this. I’m also a member of the K-Force!”

Ha-Young furtively gauged Jin-Hyeok’s reaction. She hoped he would raise the amount a bit after her great speech, but that was out of the question.

“Seven billion. If you want more than that, I won’t buy it,” Jin-Hyeok said.

“...”

Ha-Young, who was good at stealing things but not bargaining, eventually sold the collection of fragments for seven billion Dias.

“But why are you bargaining so much when you have money coming out of your ears?” she asked.

“Because it’s fun.”

“So, I lost three billion Dias for your fun?”

“No, you gained seven billion.”

“...”

“If you’re upset, try stealing my money.”

“Really?”

“If you have the confidence to deal with the aftermath.”

Jin-Hyeok, who knew Ha-Young’s skills had improved quite a bit, was slightly excited. It would be nice if she tried to steal the money with all her might, but she did not seem to have such intentions yet.

“No, not yet. I will train a bit more first.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise! I will try my best to steal your money.” She then said, “Honestly, seven billion is dirt cheap for that collection. If I had taken this to the Swedeen Family, they would’ve easily given me ten billion.”

“And then they would have backstabbed you.”

Since that wasn’t wrong either, she changed the topic. “But why are you buying this?”

“I thought you would be able to guess.”

“Me? Guess?” After pondering it for a bit, she opened her eyes wide. “Wait, don’t tell me?”

Jin-Hyeok nodded and immediately turned on the livestream. The topic of his next livestream was something the viewers were familiar with.

[Enhancement]

“I’m going to try enhancing Miri using the fragments of the Ink Sword Artedal,” Jin-Hyeok said.

-Wow! LOL, Chul-Soo is enhancing again.

-After the Pisat Family’s relics, it’s time for the fragments of the Ink Sword Artedal. LOL!

-The scale of the materials is insane!

-Is he actually going to do it?

-Last time, we thought he wouldn’t, but he did. He’s crazy!

Satisfied with the viewer influx rate, Jin-Hyeok grinned. “This time, these are more like raw materials than an actual item, so the success rate should be high.”

‘I should’ve tried breaking the relics last time too.’ He thought that this was how people learned.

Katrina, who saw Jin-Hyeok’s livestream, urgently contacted him through Wang Yu-Mi.

“Katrina says she’s coming to Earth. She says not to do anything crazy and wait a bit. What should we do? Should we wait or not?” Jin-Hyeok put up a vote for the viewers.

[1. Wait]

[2. Don’ Wait]

Option 2, ‘Don’t Wait’, received a whopping seventy-two percent of the votes.

“As expected, enhancement should be done right away for the best success rate.” Jin-Hyeok started the enhancement.

***

Recently, Miri had a bizarre experience. When it had destroyed Artedal while shouting, “I will eat this big, black, and hard thing!” it had felt intense pleasure and an elation it had never experienced before. Although Miri had not heard an announcement as Players did, it felt like it had received an Achievement. In Player terms, it was as if Miri had received the following notification:

[You have acquired the Achievement ⌜Treasure Destroyer⌟.]

‘Is this because I was too excited?’ Miri thought. No matter how strong its will had become, Miri didn’t know how a weapon could acquire an Achievement. That didn’t even make sense. However, she experienced the same feeling again soon.

“Sob… My sword!”

“The spear my father gave me!”

“This can’t be happening…”

After breaking the weapons of the students who rushed Jin-Hyeok like moths to a flame, Miri felt like it had heard another notification.

[You have acquired the Achievement ⌜Shattered Hope⌟.]

Or,

[You have acquired the Achievement ⌜Granter of Despair⌟.]

It was difficult to put those feelings in human language, but Miri definitely felt that way. Moreover, it could tell that new special powers were now dwelling inside it as if they were the effects of those Achievements.

When Jin-Hyeok attempted enhancement without waiting for Katrina, Miri again sensed something.

‘Huh?’ Miri felt the black fragments of Artedal sticking to it and making it ticklish.

“I’m going to proceed with the enhancement,” Jin-Hyeok said.

In the end, the enhancement failed. At that moment, Miri felt an immense shock. Miri felt like it would shatter, but an unknown power protected it.

‘The Achievement effects are being applied to me too!’

Although Miri did not have access to the same interface as Players did, the effects seemed familiar.

-I should have been shattered!

A special power had protected it.

-I was so excited, no, so agonized that I thought I would shatter!

Miri laughed. The weapon felt good that it had grown slightly more intense.

‘Master is also really happy!’

Miri was feeling Jin-Hyeok’s emotions too. Jin-Hyeok was ecstatic right now, so Miri felt a tickling sensation all over it.

Jin-Hyeok opened his eyes wide. “How can this be?”

He was surprised too. “The enhancement failed, but the material item remains intact. How did this happen?”

***

At first, the viewers did not believe what was going on.

-I bet the livestream is staged.

-Yeah, he probably used some tricks.

-Chul-Soo is so washed up, fabricating enhancement content and all! LOL!

However, after Katrina’s appearance, public opinion changed instantly.

-Yeah, you guys are wrong. You see as much as you know.

-You idiots judge Chul-Soo based on your limited understanding, lol.

-How can they understand the godly intentions of IntenseMan?

Katrina said that a special power had been imbued in Miri. “In Player terms, it’s like the weapon is under an Achievement effect. We will have to study it over time to know for sure, but it’s likely that destroying a legendary weapon like Artedal and breaking the weapons of rookies like those students created some kind of synergy inside Miri.”

Katrina discerned that these two events could be correlated.

MK Foundation’s Yolin, who was now the person in charge of the Historian Nurturing Project, submitted some documents. Her eyes sparkled. “Boss, I’m not a salary thief, right?”

Yolin held out a piece of parchment. It was an ancient parchment that looked like it would crumble if mishandled. The document had some content written about ancient weapons that had gained special powers.

“Ahem! Only people who have diligently studied ancient languages can barely read this writing. What it says here is that things that are…, um, so….,” Yolin said.

“Things that are positioned at extremes have a principle that connects them.”

Jin-Hyeok was once again satisfied with the performance of Broadcaster’s Insight.

“You can read ancient languages?” Yolin asked.

“When I carefully examine it, I can see what it says.”

“Is that possible?”

“I guess it is.”

“B-Boss, you’re amazing! The way you mercilessly trample the dreams and hopes of countless historians and interpreters is so cool!”

After interpreting the entire content of the parchment with Broadcaster’s Insight, Jin-Hyeok nodded.

“Yes, Miri indeed gained a special power when it broke the weapons of the students right after destroying the legendary treasure; it’s because Miri experienced two extremes simultaneously. On one side, Miri had to fight under a threat, and on the other side, Miri dealt with the students with ease. Such an experience is not easy to come by,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Because of these events, Miri received a power that let it remain unbroken even after the enhancement failed.

Katrina returned to Earth with Shelby and Kim Ysael. “Chul-Soo Oppa, I brought these two with me.”

Jin-Hyeok looked at Shelby and Ysael. He could understand why Shelby was here, but he was quite concerned about Ysael, the 777th Member of Chul-Soo Land.

“Hey, Ysael. You should focus on your main Job. Why do you keep following me?” Jin-Hyeok asked.

“I-I am sorry.” Although Ysael was an extremely strong Swordswoman, she was just a fangirl in front of Jin-Hyeok. Scolded by him, she felt dejected. “But I really wanted to give you this.”

“What is it?”

Ysael held out the handles of the dual swords she had used during the Sword Emperor Tournament. “The swords disappeared, but the handles remained.”

Shelby also held out a sword handle. “Mine too.”

Jin-Hyeok received the sword handles. He could not take his eyes off them for a long time.

‘Only their traces are left now,’ Jin-Hyeok thought. He could sense that the swords these handles belonged to were extraordinary. The handles felt like the remnants of weapons one level higher than the Ink Sword Artedal.

Katrina crossed her arms. “Do you feel it too, Chul-Soo?’

“Yeah, I was in a hurry when fighting Unknown, so I didn’t realize it back then, but these were tremendous weapons.”

“As expected of you. I knew you would feel it.”

Jin-Hyeok felt an immense presence from these sword handles.

‘Strangely, the energy feels somewhat familiar.’

Katrina continued, “The special power Miri just gained, the fragments of the Ink Sword Artedal, the handles of these great swords… I think we can do something with them”

“...”

“That’s why I told you to wait a bit.” Katrina rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward. “Let’s try the enhancement again.”