I Gave Up Being Stronger

Chapter 215

The sky was dyed a violet hue, with lightning bolts cascading down in every direction, as if it was doomsday.

‘It’s always the Thunder Dragon with the most dramatic entrance.’

The Thunder Dragon could naturally present such a scene, without any deliberate staging. Envious of the spectacle, Cha Jin-Hyeok believed this had to be the dragon’s God-given talent.

‘Well, she is still just a one-trick pony with only the cool and dramatic entrance.’

Jin-Hyeok did not feel competitive.

Anyhow, the Thunder Dragon seemed quite displeased.

[“I shall never carry this fellow on my back again.”]

From the looks of it, Park Terse had nearly been turned into a barbecue.

[“I spared his life considering he is your friend.”]

“Blegh!” Terse wretched multiple times atop the Thunder Dragon’s back.

The dragon summoned a powerful lightning bolt to incinerate the vomit without a trace.

[“I need to dip into the lake and clean myself. I shall take my leave now.”]

Before Jin-Hyeok’s regression, Terse and the Thunder Dragon were on good terms, but now, the Thunder Dragon loathed Terse.

It was disappointing for Terse. He was disoriented for a while. When he asked Cha Jin-Sol if she could treat him, she said she couldn’t.

“Hey, how about you?” Terse asked Hwa Ta.

“I don’t know... how to cure motion sickness...”

Thwack!

Hwa Ta wore a slightly aggrieved expression.

Jin-Hyeok teased him a bit more, sensing Hwa Ta was on the verge of exploding. “Are you upset because I hit only you and not her?”

“No, no. It’s not that...”

Thwack!

The sensation of the Rule Breaker was truly exceptional. However, Jin-Hyeok had miscalculated his strength, and Hwa Ta fainted. He imparted wisdom to the unconscious Hwa Ta. “You are a Medical Mage and Jin-Sol is a Healing Mage. It’s understandable if she can’t cure motion sickness, but you have to be able to.”

‘I imparted such good teachings with just a couple of thwacks. He should be grateful to me. But now that I think of it... before my regression, Hwa Ta had gotten lazy once he earned a lot of money. He could not cure male pattern baldness before my regression, but if I push him hard enough in this life, maybe he can eventually cure it. After all, he is a 9-Star Doctor Player.

‘Hm... I need to think of a way to make him work harder. Maybe he will turn into a goose that lays golden eggs.’

Jin-Hyeok decided to ask Han-Sae Rin for advice regarding this.

Anyway, Terse finally calmed his stomach and, all of a sudden, tearfully confided in Jin-Hyeok. “Those bastards were really bad people. They tormented my Mr. Gobble, beat it, tied it up, experimented on it, tortured it, and fed it weird things!”

“Hey, you should calm down a bit.”

Terse struggled to calm down. Jin-Hyeok believed a few thwacks would help with that, so he thoughtfully lifted the Rule Breaker, but Terse regained his senses just then. Terse spoke clearly. “Mr. Gobble was originally a kind and innocent young fish living peacefully in a stream.”

“...”

“It liked eating plankton and small shrimps. It was a modest and happy gourmet.”

‘Wow, Terse is really crazy when it comes to empathizing with animals. It’s strange how crazy people always seem to flock around me.’

“The ones who shattered those warm and peaceful days of Mr. Gobble were the leaders of the Black Alliance, the Siamese Twins,” Terse continued.

“And then?”

“They injected a strange power in him.”

Terse said that the facility was not made for Makendra’s Paper Soldiers. It was made solely to create the Swallowing Croaker. Understanding the weakness of the Paper Soldiers was just a side experiment.

“And that power is the Authority of Swallowing.”

Now, it was clear to Jin-Hyeok. The Cult Leaders were Sephia and Grandel. If this went as Sae-Rin had predicted, Jin-Hyeok’s video was going to be another hit. Jin-Hyeok quickly contacted Wang Yu-Mi to ask her to privately upload Sae-Rin’s prediction video.

‘Will Grandel really betray Sephia? If that actually happens, my video will become the talk of the town.’

Jin-Hyeok had a feeling that it was going to be a hit.

***

Jin-Hyeok and Sae-Rin made another recap video, hoping it would get a lot of views.

“Alright, let’s summarize. Sephia and Grandel found a way to implant the Authority of Swallowing. That’s how they created the Swallowing Croaker.”

“...”

“However, I believe it would be difficult for them to randomly implant that power in other beings. The fact that they created only one Swallowing Croaker proves it. If they needed more, they could have just created them, but they didn’t.”

Jin-Hyeok silently listened to Sae-Rin. Her eyes were shining brightly, and watching her was a pleasure. She indeed shone the most when Playing as a Ruler.

‘But why is she avoiding eye contact?’

In the past, she was confident and proud, looking at Jin-Hyeok with an ‘I am the best’ attitude. Jin-Hyeok wondered why she was now subtly avoiding eye contact.

‘Could it be a lack of confidence in her opinion? I don’t think that’s it...’

As a comrade who had been working with Sae-Rin for a long time, Jin-Hyeok could feel it. She was speaking with conviction. Almost everything she had stated so confidently before had been correct.

“As I said earlier, Hwa Ta Awakened with a prominent Job, without any particularly outstanding qualities. This means that his Awakening is not a natural phenomenon,” Sae-Rin said. Hwa Ta twitched at her words but didn’t protest. She continued, “...Rather, it is much more plausible that the Cult Leaders implanted the power in him.”

Sae-Rin’s expression became serious. “But Grandel is an advisor. He might be targeting you, Jin-Hyeok. This might be a stretch, but I am also worried that maybe Grandel lured you here.”

“Targeting me? Lured me here?” Jin-Hyeok could not help but smile.

“Why do you seem excited?”

‘Oops. I’m falling back into my old habits again.’

“Because this is great content for my Eltube channel,” Jin-Hyeok answered.

“...I see.”

‘I’m excited only because this is great content for my channel. Really. I’m different from that emotionally insane guy who keeps muttering, “My Mr. Gobble is so kind and caring.” It’s definitely not because I enjoy the thrill of being attacked. Really. But... I can’t help but wonder when they will attack me.’

His heart raced with anticipation.

***

Grandel yawned, his neck stretched out.

Sephia frowned in displeasure. “What are you doing? Pull yourself together.”

“My neck hurts, I probably slept wrong. I need to do some stretching.” Grandel yawned wide, his mouth stretching big. It opened just like the Swallowing Croaker had.

Chomp!

Then he engulfed Sephia’s head and crunched on it. “Tastes terrible.”

It took him about three minutes to devour Sephia. He then pulled out several napkins to wipe off the blood.

“Hehehe.” Grandel was the advisor. He had gained Sephia’s trust over a long time and plotted his moves carefully.

“It was still a good meal.” Grandel belched loudly.

This was something that had not happened before Jin-Hyeok’s regression. Grandel was the cautious type, having concealed his dark intentions for a long time. Before Jin-Hyeok’s regression, he kept pleasing Sephia, waiting for the right moment. But in this life, things had changed. A significant variable, Kim Chul-Soo, had appeared.

‘I must swallow Chul-Soo.’

To Grandel, Chul-Soo was a person of the highest talent. Chul-Soo possessed outstanding abilities in all aspects, and crucially, he also had a radiant appearance. Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m n0v3lb(i)n.c(o)/m

‘His face will be mine.’

Grandel knew that this was his chance; if he missed it, he might never have another. “The speed of Chul-Soo’s growth is beyond imagination.”

Chul-Soo’s fame was exploding. Left unattended, he would become a powerhouse beyond reach. That was why the greedy Grandel could not help himself and, even at the risk of overreaching, decided to swallow Sephia.

A few minutes later, Grandel vomited something out. It was a pulsating heart.

“I don’t need Hwa Ta,” he said.

Hwa Ta was just a smokescreen to deceive Sephia. With Sephia’s heart, Grandel could complete the army of Mountain Madmen. He could summon a perfect form of the Mountain Madman, free from any chronic heart disease!

“Chul-Soo... I will swallow you no matter what...!”

***

Kang Eun-Woo was ecstatic.

“This photo is great, and this one too...” Happily reviewing the photos he had taken, Eun-Woo marveled at one in particular. It was almost like art. “This one is spectacular.”

He had taken this photo when the conversation between Sae-Rin and Jin-Hyeok was reaching an end.

“...but I am also worried that maybe Grandel lured you here”

When Chul-Soo had heard that, his expression had been like the morning sun. It chased away the darkness of dawn and brightened the entire land with warm sunlight.

Eun-Woo had not missed the moment when Jin-Hyeok’s smile faded.

‘That expression is truly beautiful.’

The atmosphere, the gaze, the sharp line from Jin-Hyeok’s nose to his jaw—everything was perfect in this spectacular photo. Eun-Woo then read the warmth in Jin-Hyeok’s eyes. Precisely, Jin-Hyeok’s gaze exuded his pride over witnessing Sae-Rin’s growth, but regardless, it was an affectionate gaze toward Sae-Rin.

‘Let’s exclude Sae-Rin from the cut,’ Eun-Woo thought.

The entire universe of Chul-Soo Land could revolt if they saw Chul-Soo looking at Sae-Rin like that.

‘I will edit his gaze so that it’s directed at Jin-Sol.’

After the photo was released to the public, Eun-Woo’s Level rapidly increased.

-In my next life, I will be born as Jin-Sol... T_T

└Me too. So jealous of her!

└Chul-Soo seems like a completely different species from my mother’s son.

└Jin-Sol looks like she doesn’t care about his gaze though.

└I think Chul-Soo is usually very affectionate to his sister. She sees it every day. Personally, if Chul-Soo looked at me that way, I might melt.

└Is it too late to be born as Chul-Soo’s sister?

For a while, keywords such as ‘How to become Kim Chul-Soo’s sibling’ dominated the top spot on various online communities. Grandel also saw the photo on Chul-Soo’s Enstagram account.

‘He is annoyingly handsome,’ Grandel thought.

Grandel had an Enstagram account before Sephia had swallowed him. He had only a few dozen followers, and the number of likes or comments on his posts was virtually zero. However, Chul-Soo’s account had followers in the hundreds of millions even though the account was not managed by Chul-Soo himself, and the number of likes and comments was increasing exponentially.

Grandel laughed, imagining what it would be like to live as Chul-Soo.

‘I will definitely devour him!’

Combining clues from the photo, Grandel could pinpoint Chul-Soo’s location. It was better to swallow Chul-Soo in Gangwon-do rather than in Seoul. Grandel laughed to himself again.

‘I bet you didn’t know I lured you out of Seoul!’

The Black Alliance was still a step ahead of the Black Rose Alliance. Knowing that Ha-Young was trailing him, Grandel had intentionally leaked some information to ensure Chul-Soo would catch the scent and come to Gangwon-do. It was much more convenient to swallow Chul-Soo in Gangwon-do, away from the Golden Guardian Tree of Seoul.

Losing Hwa Ta in the process was unexpected, but ultimately, everything had gone according to Grandel’s plan.

‘It’s time to start the grand scheme.’