Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 189

Shortly after Adam Bronze had come for a meeting and gone back after failing to recruit him, Ji-Cheok went back to his plan. He used Likes to purchase the necessary skills in order to craft items for his summoned beings. Then, he used his rapidly increasing wealth to buy ingredients. The effect of the specialized items for the summon beings was truly excellent. Thanks to that, his potion production per month approached four hundred thousand bottles.

The problem that he was now facing was that the ingredients for the potions were sold out in Korea. It even reached a point where Ji-Cheok had to import a large amount of potion ingredients from other countries. Nevertheless, his potion production did not stop, because as soon as they were produced, all of them, except for the domestic quota, were sold abroad.

Surprisingly, Japan and China were not actually the primary buyers of his potions. The countries that bought most of them were Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and Singapore, as well as countries down south—Australia and New Zealand. Retail companies from those countries directly sent representatives and bought the potions.

In the cases of Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Australia, the Jungha Group, which was the parent company of Jungjin, already did business in those countries, so Ji-Cheok was also able to conduct direct sales there.

The potions were selling really well, and the reason for that was very simple. It was the price of the potions! It was not just in Korea that potions were normally sold with a massive markup. Potions were expensive all over the world because the international potion industry was fixing prices everywhere!

‘Government control in Japan and China sure is strong,’?Cheok-Liang thought.

He was lying alone on the side of the training room with his eyes closed. Um Ji-Cheok, his Master, had entered the [Training Space of the God of War]. Although Cheok-Liang’s eyes were closed, he was connected to the Internet, which was filled with a sea of information. He couldn’t move his body because time had stopped, but it was possible for him to synchronize his mental clock with that of his Master.

The skill selection available to him was incredibly varied, and among them, there were some that allowed him to connect to the Internet with his mind. With the help of those skills, Cheok-Liang was researching various things.

‘Japanese and Chinese distribution and sales companies are not contacting us. In addition, the fact that we do not even have permission to export there yet means that someone with authority is controlling them.’

Cheok-Liang was lost in thought.

‘I am sure this is just to buy some time. Soon, they will have to buy our potions.’

In the modern era, buying things directly from overseas was very much a thing. Even if there was no official distribution channel, it was still possible to buy items from other countries, and since the potions were not technically drugs or poisons, they could be easily bought and sold. Cheok-Liang knew that a potion that had the same performance at a quarter of the price was a potion that everyone wanted.

Um Ji-Cheok’s channel was now a large channel with 1.5 million subscribers. In the case of his dungeon destruction videos, the number of views was overwhelmingly higher than that of other videos. Some had already exceeded one hundred million views! Since foreigners were also watching his content, it was only natural that his Likes Potions were well-known.

Consequently, quite a few people in Japan and China had already ordered potions from him. From Cheok-Liang’s data, more than fifty thousand bottles had already been sold there. Half of those buyers were individual buyers and the other half were resellers.

Since they could not do anything legal to permanently stop the distribution of his potions, which was backed by the Jungha Group, in the end, they would have to open their borders to Ji-Cheok’s business. Cheok-Liang was certain that both the Chinese and the Japanese governments knew this. In the case of China, since their government was a bigger version of Big Brother, they would be able to drag on for a little longer…but even that had limits.

The production of D-grade recovery potions, which were a quarter of the competitors’ price, was currently around four hundred thousand bottles per month. Cheok-Liang planned to expand this to two million bottles in the future.

‘According to data on the Internet, the monthly consumption of D-grade recovery potions worldwide is close to ten million bottles. If Master produces more than two million bottles per month, he will supply twenty percent of the global consumption. I think that should be enough.’

Taking over twenty percent of total worldwide consumption was Cheok-Liang’s plan. If that happened, Um Ji-Cheok would hold so much power and wealth that nobody would dare to touch him. Even as things were now, in Korean society, the status of Um Ji-Cheok was already rising tremendously.

Ji-Cheok’s sudden, explosive growth made it difficult for those with vested interests within the social system to hastily impose sanctions. In addition, Jungjin was a subsidiary of the Jungha Group and was producing potions in close cooperation with Jungbi Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. The social breakwater was so strong that it not only protected Ji-Cheok from other companies’ attacks, but it broke their bones whenever they tried to attack.

In fact, the SL Group, including SL Chemicals, was on a downhill path. If the plan went according to his plan, Ji-Cheok’s status in the international community would also rise rapidly. Just like businessman T, who had jumped into the aerospace and electric vehicle industries after he had become rich by founding one of the first internet-based payment systems.

This was what the rightful ruler of the world should be like!

‘Huhuhu. And the wealth of Master is still displaying a clear upward trend.’

Cheok-Liang focused his mind and summoned the stock account window in his mind. While Ji-Cheok was training here, it was impossible for Cheok-Liang to make transactions, because time in his world was stopped, but it was possible to just look at the stocks. This was all because Cheok-Liang had leveled up as a Divine Spirit.

In fact, Um Ji-Cheok’s stock-based wealth had grown terrifyingly. All of his stocks were in the red. He had gained over ten billion just from short-selling SL Chemicals stocks, and after liquidating it, Cheok-Liang had bought a lot of shares of Jungjin. This was the most realistic investment.

In this crazy situation, Cheok-Liang started to rake the money in. From the moment Ji-Cheok had started making potions, the stocks of Jungjin had skyrocketed. Ji-Cheok’s profit from stocks had already reached well into the tens of billions of won! If he was to add profits from selling potions and other revenues, his wealth was at a terrifying level.

‘But we are just getting started. Although I am just a spirit, my original self was also a master of internal affairs… I will accomplish my task to make Master the greatest ruler of the world. And the first major step in his path will be trampling upon SL Chemicals.’

Zhuge Liang was known as the best political and military advisor in the world, but only those who were familiar with the Romance of Three Kingdoms knew that Zhuge Liang was also well-versed in internal affairs. In addition to being a workaholic, he was also a perfectionist. In fact, there were rumors that Zhuge Liang’s early death was due to overwork. However, Cheok-Liang was a Divine Spirit, so he could never get tired.

“Whew! I did it!”

Cheok-Liang heard his Master’s voice while he was handling various tasks. It appeared that Ji-Cheok had come out from the [Training Space of the God of War], and he had finally defeated the servant of Despair—the giant tentacle monster the size of an apartment building!

?Master, congratulations on your great feat!.?

Um Ji-Cheok was reexamining the new items and skills that he had acquired. It was nice that he had become stronger in a short amount of time, but what was the use if he couldn’t handle that power properly? He needed to fully comprehend it and make it his own. For that, he needed to train hard.

“It was nothing. I just figured out the power I have. It was really difficult to control the A-rank power of [Heaven and Earth Chaotic Divine Art]. It might be because I upgraded it by using the System rather than cultivating myself,” Ji-Cheok said.

?Still, it is all because of your training that you could build up enough strength in a short period of time to defeat the servant of Despair. You can say that is a great accomplishment.?

“Then I’m glad. So, how much time do I have before that thing?”

?You have two hours left until the meeting, Master.?

“Good, I have time to wash up.”

It had been several days since Adam Bronze, also known as [A/B], had visited him. The issue of the Paju incident and the dungeons that Ji-Cheok destroyed continued to be trending. The public kept saying things like ‘What? You can destroy a dungeon?’ or ‘Look at my house price going up!’.

As a result, not only politicians, but also business figures were putting pressure on Ji-Cheok. However, he left such pressure to Jungjin to deal with, and the company let him know which dungeons were to be destroyed first.

Ji-Cheok gained a lot from it. Apart from stocks, his other assets were also in the realm of tens of billions of won. In addition, he had been able to get a few more A-class Items. However, it was impossible to continue working alone. So today, a meeting was scheduled. It was a pre-hunting meeting with the team members chosen by Jung Ji-Han.

* * *

“Everyone, thank you all for your hard work.”

Jung Ji-Han was sitting at the head of the meeting room and talking to the team members. It was the first time in a long time that everyone was in the same room—they had many things going on, so they didn’t have a chance to get together often.

The only one that Ji-Cheok kept seeing on a regular basis was Seok-Kwang. They met regularly because Ji-Cheok had to teach him cultivation, but also because of the construction projects near the World Tree. The place where the World tree was planted was right next to Seong Kwang’s ranch, so Ji-Cheok naturally saw him often.

Ji-Cheok didn’t tell the world exactly what kind of abilities the World Tree had. Although some abilities were exposed because of GodTube, the world still didn’t know the full extent of them. Thanks to that, it was not that difficult for Ji-Cheok to buy more land in the area around the World Tree. Of course, having a basically endless amount of money helped too.

‘And in the meantime, Ji-Han solved the agency problems by cracking down on infighting.’

It had probably been some kind of sabotage among fellow employees, or maybe just them being immature, but in any case, Ji-Han had taken care of everything. He had searched thoroughly for rotten employees and fired them. Then, he had written a polite apology letter as the CEO of Jungjin, and he had also organized a number of fan-oriented events. He had even uploaded unedited videos that were not released on GodTube in a comedic style. That had been particularly well received by the public. Even Ji-Cheok thought that they were funny.

As soon as public opinion had turned positive, Ji-Cheok had also started to upload content again. With that, Ji-Cheok was able to raise the reputation of his agency even further. Of course, there were still negative memes saying things like ‘Don’t be fooled again, you Huntaku!’ on the Internet—the word “Huntaku,” a portmanteau of “Hunter” and “otaku,” was now even in the official Korean dictionary.

‘It’s… It’s gonna be fine.’

Still, Ji-Cheok knew those memes had a grain of truth, so he couldn’t help but curse internally.

In the meantime, Ji-Han continued to talk.

“For about six months, we kind of forgot about our actual job… Now is the time to get back to focusing on our real job. Currently, our team’s strength has reached a level where we think it is okay to enter level 80 dungeons.”

“Director, are you level 80 already? I’m still level 68!” Byul Ha-Na said.

Ji-Cheok had heard that she had also gone to clear dungeons after helping him during the Paju incident. Ji-Cheok wondered if that was why her level was much higher than the last time they had met. The last time they had entered a dungeon together, her level had been somewhere between 40 and 50.

“Yes, because your hidden class is special even among hidden classes. As for the others, they have also increased their level enough, so there is no problem.”

“So, which dungeon are we going to next?”

1. In Korea, the color red indicates the stock is trading higher than the previous day, and blue indicates the opposite.