[Did you see it, Dongbang Sak?]
“…I saw it.”
At the Martial God’s question, Dongbang Sak knelt down and answered.
Unlike his usual relaxed expression, he was stiff with a cold expression.
He seemed quite shocked at the changes to Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods.
[He did show potential. So, I do intend to let him grow further.]
“He could not awaken the third skill, yet you will take him in?”
At the Martial God’s words, Longinus next to Dongbang Sak asked in a sarcastic tone.
Recalling how the Martial God said he would personally take in Seong Jihan last time if he could awaken the third skill when first using Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods.
[Yes. What he just showed is more important than manifesting the third skill.]
But the Martial God casually overturned what he said before, as if it was obvious.
The modification to Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods was a much more important issue to him than Seong Jihan using the third Annihilation God’s Secret.
[Longinus, you said last time you wanted to educate him, right?]
“Ah, yes… educate… that’s right.”
Of course he meant he wanted to beat him up badly, not actually educate, but
Longinus nodded awkwardly and
[Then do it.]
“Is it really… okay?”
[He needs enemies to grow. You guys are quite suitable.]
Swish…!
Before the two kneeling disciples, the image of Earth appeared.
[Earth’s tutorial is nearing its end soon. You will be able to intervene freely soon.]
“Then…!”
[But intervention is limited to within the BattleNet.]
“Hmm, so we can’t beat… I mean educate him in reality?”
“Longinus. If we go that far, we may face the system’s regulations too.”
“That’s quite disappointing.”
Longinus sighed.
What meaning was there in beating him up only in-game?
We need to show him in reality.
Hearing that, the Martial God whispered one more thing.
[If one of you makes him submit, I will grant you a wish.]
“A… wish, you say?”
[Yes, Longinus. In your case, death.]
[For Dongbang Sak, I will pass on Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods to you.]
At the Martial God’s words, the two’s eyes completely changed.
At first, no matter how annoying Seong Jihan was, the thought was just to discipline the brat properly.
But now the situation has completely changed since the wishes they desired could be granted by the Martial God.
“Dongbang Sak, I’ll go first.”
“Hehe, where are you going? You have to be my disciple companion for life. It’s me who will learn some skills from this opportunity.”
“Life you say… how dreadful…”
The two disciples, who became sincere, fervently wished for the Earth’s tutorial to end soon.
Only then could they intervene.
* * *
[Seong Jihan has conquered the rehearsal alone!]
[Christmas Eve’s gift! What is the identity of the growth bonus given to the entire Humanity race?]
[The World BattleNet Association congratulates Seong Jihan for clearing the game, but internally they are simmering.]
[The People’s guild releases a furious statement demanding Seong Jihan’s disqualification! But gains no sympathy.]
Reactions were heated regarding the rehearsal game dramatically cleared on Christmas Eve after long conflicts.
Especially regarding the clearing method.
-Wow… Was it that easy to clear?
-He just locked up those ankle-biting guys and cleared it neatly, lol.
-People’s guild kept insisting they needed flight magic items, but he showed clearly they were unnecessary.
Seeing Seong Jihan using the Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods to confine players and cleanly clear the rehearsal, people couldn’t help but admire.
-But doesn’t Seong Jihan seem even stronger now? The other races were busy running away, lol.
-Seriously, he’s on a completely different level… Why is he so strong?
-He probably leveled up during this time. Didn’t he start at around level 100 right after promoting?
-There’s still more room for growth… Dang.
Although he overwhelmed national team players even during the Gold.
Now, Seong Jihan seemed like an unbeatable entity on Earth.
His status was elevated even further due to the game being clear, to the extent that it couldn’t be taken lightly even by the World BattleNet Association.
“Should we just leave player Seong Jihan be? He openly defied the association and cleared the game!”
“After ignoring the association’s mediation and clearing the game like this… Shouldn’t he be excluded from the list of representative players?”
After the game was cleared, in an emergency meeting held, members of the People’s guild and their affiliated association members argued that Seong Jihan’s player qualification should be revoked.
“What are you talking about? Didn’t we always settle with an agreement without proper punishment for the People’s guild?”
“Punishment you say? It was done properly! Didn’t the People’s guild players who suicided get sent to the reserves?!”
“You call getting sent to the reserves punishment…?”
“The Space League opening match is right before us, yet you want to disqualify Seong Jihan? Are you serious?”
“Especially since your guild’s biased operation was the problem. The association should congratulate the game clear and not make an issue out of it again.”
“Oh goodness… the Space League is important now…”
“That’s why. If only they hadn’t caused issues, it would’ve ended well. Tsk tsk.”
“Even though they offered a Stat +7, he declined.”
“Seong Jihan had the rehearsal game hosting rights from the start anyway. What’s the issue with him clearing it himself?”
Association members of guilds Seong Jihan cared for on Christmas Eve actively protected him.
‘There might be more bonuses we can only gain thanks to Seong Jihan like this rehearsal…’
‘We shouldn’t needlessly clash with Seong Jihan. We need to get closer.’
And so the Association’s punishment was rendered useless by the opposing members.
At this time.
‘This is…’
Seong Jihan was checking his rehearsal MVP reward.
* * *
[MVP Reward – ‘Space League Premium Membership’ is granted.]
[Space League Premium Membership]
Rank: SSS
– 6 month Space League premium membership.
– XP and GP gain increases 100% during the membership period.
– For 6 months, you may choose between ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Hideout’.
– If you possess the membership, there is a 30% chance of exclusion from the opposing team’s ban list.
[Spotlight]
– Advertises the player’s outstanding membership throughout the BattleNet. Can attract more attention from the Constellation’s and receive sponsorship globally.
[Hideout]
– As a distinguished member, hides one’s information. Does not attract attention from Constellation’s, and it becomes difficult for the opposing team to obtain information about the member. It takes a long time to build a reputation on BattleNet.
The Space League premium membership.
Despite having no direct stat boosts or only a 6 month duration,
The effects were considerable.
Especially, what caught Seong Jihan’s attention was not functions like Spotlight or Hideout but the last line about being excluded from the ban list.
‘Not getting banned with a 30% chance. That’s an incredible effect.’
In Space League, a ban was one of the options that emerged when the official opening took place. This feature allowed you to block specific opponents or maps, but there were various restrictions on using the ban card.
In a 5-on-3 victory game, it had its limits, even for specific targets, about two times. However, for a player as unique as Seong Jihan, it was unknown.
They could focus ban cards on him even taking huge penalties.
‘Being able to avoid that with 30% probability is a tremendous effect.’
Even in his Martial God days, he occasionally got banned.
Now, much stronger than before, it was obvious that ban cards would be concentrated on him.
Being able to avoid that made this an item with at least SSS-rank value.
The 6 month duration was probably why it got rated exactly SSS.
‘Between Spotlight and Hideout, I should choose the latter.’ The interest of Constellation’s and global sponsorship didn’t have much value in the current situation.
Rather, at this moment, he needed to hide as much as possible from the races affiliated with the same Space League.
[Would you like to activate the Hideout function?]
[Once activated, it cannot be undone.]
“Activate it.”
[The Hideout function is applied.]
[The user’s information will not be revealed to external planets, and they will be excluded from the Constellation’s support list.]
He immediately activated the Hideout function and stored the membership in the inventory.
Knock! knock!
“Uncle~! Dad’s here! He’s on the 1st floor now.”
“Oh, he came quickly.”
Sword King Yoon Sejin, working with the World BattleNet Association organizing dungeon raids.
He and his team took vacation until the year end with Christmas arriving.
“Yeah, dad has to participate in the Space League opening match too.”
The opening match will be held a week later. There was no information released about it, so the World BattleNet Association couldn’t gather players for practice. Instead, they only asked promising players likely to participate in the opening match to standby a week before.
“Did you reserve the 7th floor?”
“Yeah, I told Hayeon Unnie to come along. So, I thought about reserving the entire restaurant, but I only reserved one room.”
It was Yoon Sejin’s regular restaurant, and the whole family used to visit there like an annual event during Christmas. And to avoid disturbance, they used to reserve the entire restaurant, but…
“Why didn’t you book it all?”
“We need to take pictures, you know. Hehe, there have been a lot of talks lately about whether Uncle and Hayeon Unnie are really dating.”
“Well, it’s just talk from people around.”
“Her guild keeps nagging her to return, saying it’s annoying. She even sighed about it last time.”
Seong Jihan chuckled.
Did her old guild, Divergent, still have lingering feelings for Lee Hayeon?
“Then we’ll click the picture today and contact Divergent guild directly.”
“Right. Gotta protect Hayeon Unnie . The growth buff is crazy for real.”
“What level are you now?”
“177. Think I’ll reach Diamond next month!”
“You really are leveling up fast.”
Seong Jihan was astonished at Yoon Seah’s explosive growth.
He just reached 190 today after clearing the Chaos Battlefield smashing alien races.
‘Anyway, playing two games a day really is a cheat code.’
Feeling she might truly surpass his level at this rate,
Seong Jihan prepared to head to the restaurant.
* * *
The restaurant ‘Pierre’ on the 7th floor of Sword Palace.
On Christmas Eve, it was always fully booked because the Sword King would rent the whole place, but this year, reservations were available.
“As expected, it seems like the Sword King won’t be coming this year.”
“No, my cousin is the manager here, and he hooked me up! They made a reservation!”
“Ah, if the Sword King made a reservation, he would’ve rented the whole place, right? Just one room?”
Near the restroom of the restaurant, a group of middle-aged women loitered, looking towards the counter and chatting with each other. Even when the Sword King faced nationwide criticism, they remained core fans.
When they got information that the Sword King had reserved Pierre, they tried everything to reserve a seat and witness the Sword King in person.
“Um… guests, you need to go inside now.”
“Just wait a moment!”
Since all the rooms were reserved, the group of Sword King fans waited anxiously near the restroom, hoping for the Sword King to show up any moment.
“It’s…it’s Seong Jihan!”
“Guild master Lee Hayeon is there too…!”
“Oh… and behind them is the Sword… Sword King!”
As Seong Jihan and his party entered, they were greeted by enthusiastic fans.
“Sword King!!”
“Seong Jihan! I’m a fan! Can I get an autograph?!”
The Sword King fans approached Seong Jihan as well with very friendly faces, requesting autographs.
Although they treated him hostilely like enemies until recently,
After he knocked sense into the Sword King, Seong Jihan became almost like a second favorite to the Sword King fans.
‘Didn’t expect the Sword King fans to like me this much.’
Seeing the enthusiastic milfs*, Seong Jihan smiled wryly.
[PR/N: It was ‘middle-aged women’ instead of ‘milfs’?]
It was a group that made him shudder recalling their actions in his past life, but
The situation completely changed now, so his response had to change as well.
“Here you go.”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
“Thank you, Sword King!”
“Seong Jihan, you’re the best!”
But he still had no intentions of treating them too nicely,
So he just carelessly gave autographs and hurried into the prepared room with his group.
“I’m sorry. Because of me.”
“No, brother-in-law. Since we didn’t rent the entire restaurant, we have to endure it.”
“Yeah… you’re right. Did you get the picture you wanted?”
“Yeah dad. The employees took it too. Hayeon Unnie was stucking right next to me.”
“Good.”
In the elevator, the Sword King sat down with a nod, feeling the warm atmosphere from the fans.
“Did everything go well?”
“Are you talking about dungeon exploration? There were many events while clearing four dungeons, However…”
Before the appetizer was served, the Sword King took a sip of water and took out a ring from his pocket.
“Nothing surprised me as much as the ring’s reaction.”
“The ring… reacted?”
Seong Jihan and his party were surprised. If the ring reacted, does it mean…
“Yes… it’s really possible Jiah is somewhere in North Korea.”
*****
*****
