***
***
[How arrogant.]
Splaat!
From the severed end of the tentacle, a new one wriggled and quickly sprouted out. But that wasn’t all.
“Ugh, urgh…!”
“This thing’s moving!”
Even the tentacles that fell to the ground after being sliced by the sword squirmed on their own and pounced on the human players.
The giant octopus wasn’t going down easily.
However,
“If you don’t give it, I’ll take it from your corpse.”
Swish!
As Seong Jihan drew out the Phoenix Spear, the situation changed.
Crackle…!
As lightning gathered on the spear and extended out.
[This is… what…]
Swoosh!
The moment it touched the lead octopus’s body, it instantly burst into flames.
With a single blow, he finished off the enemy, then looked around the spot where the giant octopus had disappeared.
‘It’s not here.’
Could it be that the guild emblem also burned up just now?
But for that, it was just a light jab of lightning.
Seong Jihan slightly furrowed his brows and observed the other octopuses.
He thought this was the leader since it was the largest and had the most intense aura.
But could there be a separate true guild master?
[Strange.]
Then, one of the octopuses, which had all looked alike, suddenly swelled up significantly.
Growing as big as the king octopus that Seong Jihan had just annihilated.
Turning its gaze towards Seong Jihan.
[Indeed, the others are weak.]
Then,
Bam!
The giant tentacles of the octopus horde smashed down towards the humans.
An ominous black energy swirled around them.
“Absolute Shield!”
Ranker support players quickly cast protective spells.
But…
Riiip!
The barriers were torn through like paper.
“Aaargh…!”
No matter how strong Seong Jihan was, he couldn’t block every direction.
As the giant octopuses’ attacks began, several guild members were crushed in the blink of an eye.
=Ah, Player Seong Jihan is powerful, but…!
=Those tentacles are no joke either. The rankers are being knocked down!
Seong Jihan’s special mission, broadcast on the regular channel 0 with the participation of the TOP 100 rankers.
On screen, Seong Jihan was carrying out a massacre as always, but…
The rankers below him were struggling against the tentacles.
-Seong Jihan is still one-siding even after entering the Master League lol
-But what about the rankers…?
-The difference is too big, there’s nothing we can do. When will the gap narrow?
-Once it’s opened, it seems like it will never close
Seeing the starkly contrasting battle situations, viewers were accepting it as a given, when…
‘Guess I’ll have to wipe them all out.’
Seeing the guild members getting trampled in an instant, Seong Jihan decided to finish off the enemies at once.
“Here.”
Crackle…!
The lightning surged up massively.
However, unlike the previous crimson cannons, the power of Incarnation was rising more intensely.
That power, in which the force of flames took precedence over lightning due to the unranked stat.
Fundamental divine art, Fusion of Divine thunder and phoenix: Dragon Thunder cannon
Seong Jihan named it Dragon Thunder.
=P-Player Seong Jihan’s spear… has become an endlessly expanding spear of fire!
=Did he have some kind of enlightenment during the period he didn’t appear in the Space League? Even during the promotion match. He’s clearly mainly wielding the flames!
=How much stronger will Player Seong Jihan get?!
Swish!
Seong Jihan slowly moved the spear.
Then the Dragon Thunder that stretched from the sky to the earth slowly followed his movements and.
Burned all the giant octopuses at once.
[Isn’t this the power of the Dragon Clan?]
[No, it’s similar but different.]
[Unbelievable, but an even higher-dimensional power…]
[That guy. Is he really from that weak race?]
As if they felt no pain from their bodies being incinerated.
The giant octopuses rolled their eyes around and continued speaking.
Even as Seong Jihan’s Dragon Thunder made a full rotation and incinerated all the giant octopuses.
[A decent one has appeared. We must obtain information.]
[Suppress that guy’s kin. Don’t kill them now, absorb their data.]
They showed no fear of death and instead tried to suppress the human players.
And
“Aargh…!”
A giant octopus that hadn’t been touched by Seong Jihan’s Dragon Thunder yet.
Soon captured one of the 100 rankers with its tentacles.
Squirm! Squirm!
The ranker’s entire body was sucked into the tentacle.
At the same time, Seong Jihan’s Dragon Thunder pounced on the octopus, but…
[Done.]
It let out a satisfied voice even as it instantly burned up and vanished.
And as the octopus horde burned to ashes like that.
Flash!
From the ground, a large golden cube floated up.
‘Is this their guild emblem? The color is different from mine.’
Unlike humanity’s, it was a guild emblem that shone gold and was much larger in size.
Seong Jihan brought his guild emblem to it.
Then,
Shwooo…!
The huge golden cube crumbled and was absorbed into Seong Jihan’s.
***
[‘Guild emblem+2’ upgrades to ‘Guild emblem+5’.]
The guild emblem that upgraded 3 times in an instant.
Its color also shone gold like the octopus’s earlier.
[As the guild emblem has been enhanced to 5 or higher, you can select an additional option for the guild emblem.]
Options popped up one after another before Seong Jihan’s eyes.
There were a whopping 99 selectable items.
‘Why are there so many?’
Rather than choosing the best option here, it would be better to just beat down the enemies.
As Seong Jihan paused for a moment, looking at the 99 options.
[‘Lue Investment CEO Octane’ sends a message along with a 1,000,000 GP sponsorship.]
[It’s an extraterrestrial being. Will you accept the sponsorship?]
A message window with a space background, completely different from before, popped up on Seong Jihan’s BattleTube chat.
‘Extraterrestrial being?’ It wasn’t a constellation sponsorship, but Extraterrestrial being? Was there something like this?
When Seong Jihan pressed Yes for now.
[Your name isn’t revealed… A premium membership, huh. Alright, I’ll invest in you, Blue Chip.”
The extraterrestrial being seemed pleased that Seong Jihan’s name wasn’t revealed and referred to him as a ‘blue chip’.
-What’s this? An extraterrestrial being?
-Lue Investment CEO? Seems like a scammer lol
-A sponsorship like this right after the octopuses died… Could it be one of those octopuses earlier?
-But what’s a blue chip?
-Isn’t it a term for holding large-cap stocks?
As viewers were surprised by the sudden sponsorship from an alien and speculated about its identity and message.
“You. Were you one of the octopuses earlier?”
Seong Jihan spoke with a nonchalant face.
[That’s right, Blue chip. Despite being from the lowest race, you have an unbalanced power. Beings like you always bring great profits… Lue Investment will invest in you.]
“Invest in me, you say?”
[Yes. If you give me a small share of your soul, I will provide you with unlimited GP.]
A share of the soul, he says.
Seong Jihan furrowed his brow.
“I don’t need that.”
[I knew you’d answer like that. In that case, just stay as you are. I will provide you with information to navigate this world…]
“Stay as I am?”
[Yes. Continue hiding yourself through the premium membership. So that only I can bet on you…]
The soul share thing was just a casual remark, and this was the real intention.
Seeing that message, Seong Jihan smirked.
“I’ll be hidden through a premium membership? Yet you’re here sponsoring on my channel.”
[No, with a premium membership, over 90% can be filtered out… There’s a big difference between having ten mouths and one.]
“Alright, let’s hear the information first and then decide.”
Each time the message popped up, 1,000,000 GP came as sponsorship from the extraterrestrial being.
It was worth hearing his story.
As Seong Jihan brought it up.
[The emblem option. Share your abilities, Blue Chip.]
A brief message arrived.
“Share abilities?”
[Indeed. Your race is too weak. To get high scores in guild missions, you also need to manage the scores of your guild members. Like their kills, deaths, and such. If your guild members are at such a trash level, no matter how many enemies you defeat, you won’t escape the mid-tier.]
“If sharing is possible, the situation would be a bit different.”
[Ability sharing… It’s an option that divides the excess of the top player’s abilities in the guild by a certain percentage to amplify the abilities of all guild members. If there isn’t much of a gap between the top player and the guild’s average, it’s the worst additional option… but in your case, it’s different. It’ll be more effective than any other buff.]
If what Octane said was true.
‘Ability Sharing’ was indeed the best option for the current situation of the Daegi Guild.
Of course, for Seong Jihan individually, there was no directly felt enhancement effect.
For someone already overwhelmingly powerful, he didn’t need any more buffs.
‘Of course, if the guild options are enhanced, I could gain more experience…’
Still, it would be better to get high scores in guild missions than to level up a few more times.
After looking through the 99 options once again, Seong Jihan chose ability sharing.
Then,
[Ability Sharing has been selected.]
[Measuring the gap between the top player and the guild’s average abilities…]
[1% of Player ‘Seong Jihan’s’ abilities is applied as a buff effect to all guild members.]
Flash!
As a brilliant light burst from the guild emblem.
The Ability Sharing buff was applied to all Daegi Guild members.
“Huh… Receiving 1% of the guild #1’s power?”
“W-What? Suddenly, my mana…!”
“Is this 1%? What about the 100% power of Seong Jihan…”
Upon sharing Seong Jihan’s ability, the guild members were encouraged by the rapidly rising power.
Warriors lightly jumped and soared up to the sky.
Supports who could only cast a single layer of Absolute Barrier could now create at least 3 layers of absolute protection.
Players whose physical abilities and mana had been greatly amplified.
[1%… An absurdly small distribution. With this much difference, it’s like the gap between a Grandmaster and a Bronze…]
But Octane was dumbfounded by the distribution ratio upon hearing 1%.
-If it’s the guild member’s average… Isn’t it based on the average of the top 100?
-Saying the difference between humanity’s best and a Grandmaster is like bronze… That’s too much, octopus.
-No, comparing with bronze is generous. It didn’t even compare us with level 1s like us lol
-With this much of a gap, the rank 1 position will probably be maintained forever.
-Then how strong is Seong Jihan’s power?
What was once thought to be a significant difference between Jihan and other rankers, now presented itself as numerical evidence, making a significant impact.
As people were once again amazed by Seong Jihan’s power…
Octane advised Seong Jihan.
[The defense of the Northern Wall comes later. It’s better to seize the guild emblems first. You need to raise it to at least 3%.]
“Fight defenders first?”
[Northern Wall is originally such a map. Have you seen any cooperation on BattleNet? Before dying to the boss of the Northern Wall, upgrading the guild emblem as much as possible will improve your score. So just stay here.]
“Like what you guys did?”
[Yes. This is a good respawn location where rookie race guilds appear.]
Octane told him to take a position in advance, like the giant octopuses did.
But Seong Jihan smirked and refused.
“Why bother? We can just hunt the guys already here.”
[Those who have settled here have strong defensive positions, so it’s inefficient to attack them now. It’s better to ambush while holding this position.]
“That might be true for you guys.”
After leisurely looking around, Jihan spotted a race guild settled in one place and immediately dashed over there.
And not long after, flames soared up from the south.
“When did he get there…”
“Just 1% of his power feels this much. Using 100%, that kind of speed would be possible…”
“Oh… W-Wait. The power is getting… stronger!”
The rankers sitting in place experienced the buff effect being enhanced while staying still.
Seong Jihan, who suppressed the enemies in an instant and further enhanced the guild emblem.
“Hmm, they’re over there. I’ll go and come back again.”
After repeating this process several times with flames bursting out everywhere.
[‘Guild emblem+9’ upgrades to ‘Guild emblem+10’.]
[The Guild emblem changes to ‘Celestial Cube’.]
The guild emblem that reached 10 enhancements changed to a new item.
And at the same time.
[‘Lue Investment CEO Octane’ sends a message along with a 100,000,000,000 GP sponsorship.]
[Celestial Cube… To think it could be obtained like this. The information is mine… Here’s the information fee.]
Seeing this, Octane couldn’t hide his surprise and sponsored a huge sum of GP to Seong Jihan.
***
***