***
***
“How many days has it been now? Has the Space League match started by any chance?”
“No, it’s in two days!”
“Fortunately, I made it in time.”
It wasn’t easy to grasp the flow of time inside the void training room.
‘I was worried I might have missed the match schedule, but it seems that’s not the case.’
Seong Jihan thought it was fortunate and asked the staff.
“What happened to the people trapped in the connectors?”
“Ah, about that…”
“They’re still trapped in the same state.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. And the situation is the same for the US national team. So…”
Coach Noh Youngjun glanced at Seong Jihan with a troubled look and brought up the topic.
“There’s a growing opinion that we should return the primordial treasure to the king.”
“Really? But I already absorbed it.”
“Y-You did?”
“Ah…”
People sighed at Seong Jihan’s words.
They thought they could somehow persuade him and wake up the players, but it all turned out to be in vain.
“However, thanks to absorbing it, I think I’ve found a way to deal with it.”
“Y-You have a way to deal with it?”
People were startled by Seong Jihan’s words and looked at him.
The King of Humans who had captivated the world’s top rankers in the game, Seong Jihan has a way to deal with him?
“Yes, it’s not certain yet, but it’s worth a try. Are the players’ connectors still in that room?”
“Y-Yes, they are.”
“Then let’s go.”
Seong Jihan took the lead with light steps.
Coach Noh Youngjun and the coaching staff looked at each other with unbelievable faces and followed him.
And then,
‘Now I understand. I can feel traces of life force.’
Seong Jihan felt the energy rising from the connectors and raised the corners of his mouth.
The trick of Gilgamesh, who had treated the players like his subjects, claiming it was the authority of the King of Humans.
Now that he had obtained the Eternity stat, he could vaguely see through it.
Swoosh!
Chains burst out from behind Seong Jihan.
Swish!
They all flew towards the BattleNet connectors.
“J-Jihan, if they break…”
Coach Noh Youngjun hurriedly shouted at the fiercely flying chains, but…
Clank! Clank!
The chains wrapped around the connectors just like that and extracted the life force within them.
Swoosh…!
The complex patterns drawn inside disappeared along with the life force.
Seong Jihan saw this and thought,
‘Gilgamesh, you haven’t been able to fully make everyone yours yet.’
They were top rankers of humanity.
Brainwashing them wasn’t an easy task, even for Gilgamesh.
Maybe in the game map ‘Tuseong’, But in the real world, turning someone who doesn’t receive constellation sponsorship completely to your side requires a complex process.
‘That’s why the players were still trapped in the connectors even after entering and exiting the training room.’
If he had made them loyal like he did in Tuseong, there would be no need for the players to be trapped in the connectors.
Rather, if they had come out and instigated Seong Jihan to hand over the primordial treasure, saying they wouldn’t participate in BattleNet otherwise, it might have had a bigger impact.
Seong Jihan dismantled Gilgamesh’s technique that had clumsily imitated the domination code inside the connectors.
Then,
Bzzt…!
Electric current rose from the BattleNet connectors.
Creak…
One by one, the doors began to open.
“Oh, oh…!”
“No way!?”
The staff, who had been worried when Seong Jihan took out the chains, looked there with surprised eyes.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
The players came out one by one from there.
Although they staggered as if dizzy, their bodies themselves didn’t seem to have any major issues.
“The players have come out!”
And then,
“Please check their condition!”
The medical team that had been on standby in advance was dispatched.
Seong Jihan continued to liberate the remaining connectors.
“Ugh… My head.”
“Uh, I remember becoming Gilgamesh’s chain… But what happened after that?”
“King? King… I forgot…”
Most of the players were liberated like that, and there were two connectors left.
“Who’s left?”
“Only players Yoon Sejin and Ha Yeonjoo are left!
“Among the trapped players, the two with the highest levels are taking longer… Could Ha Yeonjoo’s sponsoring constellation also be the King of Humans?”
“I heard that’s not the case…”
Although Korea had won the Champions League finals, Among the national team players, there were only a few who could be called world-class.
Except for the incomparable player Seong Jihan,
The currently trapped Yoon Sejin and Ha Yeonjoo, and the previously released Yoon Seah and Sophia.
The rest weren’t even at the level to be selected for the Space League national team.
‘Are they holding onto the powerful players longer?’
As Coach Noh Youngjun was thinking that.
Creak…!
Another connector opened, and Ha Yeonjoo came out with a tired face.
“King, king… It was really tiresome. What king in this day and age.”
“Player Ha Yeonjoo, are you alright?!”
“Yes, ah… It was Jihan who freed me right? Thanks to you, I survived.”
She glanced at Seong Jihan, who was focusing on Yoon Sejin’s connector with the remaining chains.
She bowed her head towards him and came out with the support of the medical team.
And so, there was only one player left.
As Seong Jihan’s Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit gathered entirely on Yoon Sejin’s connector.
Flash…!
A golden light flickered there.
* * *
“Ugh, ugh… G-Gold…”
“E-Everyone, don’t look!”
“Avert your gaze!”
The players who now had seizures just by seeing the golden light.
The coaching staff and medical team also sat down and averted their gaze upon seeing it.
And then,
Gilgamesh’s voice flowed out from there.
[You even wrote the destruction code, and my avatar… Did you defeat it too?]
“It was nothing.”
[You wasted one precious root.]
As the golden light shone more intensely,
[This person is one who receives sponsorship from me. Unlike the others, you won’t be able to easily remove his loyalty.]
Indeed, as Gilgamesh said, Unlike other players, extracting life force doesn’t solve the issue for Yoon Sejin.
‘Is it because my brother-in-law’s sponsoring constellation is Gilgamesh? It’s tricky.’
But there’s still a way.
Seong Jihan extended the Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit to the Eternity inside.
[The seal on the stat ‘Eternity’ has been temporarily released.]
The seal was released.
Based on the life force flooding in, Seong Jihan wrote the domination code on the connector.
When he used it on Gilgamesh’s avatar before, he lacked the power and couldn’t even complete the word ‘Domination’.
‘This time, I can at least write ‘Domi’.’
While he was at it, he tried to write the following letters as well, but…
From the letter corresponding to ‘na’, no matter how much life force he used, it was impossible to write.
Still, writing up to ‘Domi’ seemed to have a big effect.
The technique binding Yoon Sejin inside the connector began to disappear.
And then,
[No, you’re even using this code…!]
The intensely flickering golden light also began to be slowly sucked into this pattern.
[For now, I’ll have to retreat.]
Like his clone, Gilgamesh showed a weak side to the domination code.
The golden light was disappearing quickly as if running away.
And then,
Creak…!
Yoon Sejin’s connector opened at last.
From there, Yoon Sejin revealed himself, staggering with a haggard face.
“Dad, dad!”
Yoon Seah, who had urgently come to the Sword Palace after receiving the news that Seong Jihan had returned, saw that and quickly ran over.
However,
Before she could support Yoon Sejin.
“M-Master!”
He knelt down to Seong Jihan, staggering.
“…D-Dad?”
“From now on, I will be loyal to you, Master…!”
Seong Jihan frowned as he saw Yoon Sejin trying to even bow to him.
‘Is it because of the domination code?’
The domination code with only one letter written.
But its effect was remarkable.
“Why are you calling Uncle master?!”
Yoon Seah quickly rushed over and grabbed his body, but…
[The constellation ‘Witch of the Void’ says to just leave him in that state.]
[‘Witch of the Void’ rebukes that the guy keeps getting brainwashed everywhere he goes anyway, so it’s better for Seong Jihan to take charge of him.]
[‘Witch of the Void’ emphasizes two or three times to make sure to convey her words to Seong Jihan.]
The constellation messages of the Witch of the Void, who had lost her cool, popped up in front of her eyes.
Following Shizuru, he got brainwashed by even Gilgamesh too.
Not just once, but twice.
She must have been so frustrated that she said to just leave him in that state.
“Ah, but we still can’t do that! Uncle, can’t you undo this state for Dad? You can, right?”
“…Yeah, I should undo it.”
Seong Jihan, who had been silent for a moment, raised his finger again.
Like his sister Seong Jiah, he also had similar thoughts for a moment, but…
‘Still, I can’t treat my brother-in-law like a servant.’
Seong Jihan had no desire to play king like Gilgamesh.
As he released the domination code,
Yoon Sejin, who had been trying to bow somehow, abruptly stopped.
Thud!
He sat down on the spot and let out a deep sigh.
“Ugh… I have no shame, Brother-in-law, I keep being indebted to you.”
“How are you? How’s your condition right now?”
“My body is fine… and Gilgamesh has left my sponsoring constellation… He ran away. That code you used seems to be his weakness.”
“He canceled the sponsorship?”
“Yeah… This won’t happen again.”
To the point of abandoning as the sponsoring constellation and leaving, Gilgamesh must really be weak to the domination code.
Seong Jihan nodded and looked towards Coach Noh Youngjun.
“Coach. Please contact the US. We need to liberate their players too.”
“Ah, got it!”
With the match against the World Tree Alliance in 2 days, Humanity desperately needed the power of the US national team players.
And then,
“They say they already have a plane on standby at the US military base.”
“Is that so? They’re well-prepared.”
The US, upon hearing the news that Seong Jihan had liberated the national team players, was already ready to depart.
“They say to come as soon as possible since only the bodies need to come… The US limousine is already here too.”
“Won’t it be late if we take the limousine? Let’s just run.”
“Run…”
“Yes.”
The coach, who asked back with a blank face at Seong Jihan’s words, but…
‘Ah, last time when catching Shizuru, he ran around Japan too…’
Seong Jihan had become much stronger than then.
It seemed like using light movement would be much faster than actually taking a car.
“Then. If we go to the US military base in Pyeongtaek…”
[Note: Pyeongtaek is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.]
“Got it. I’ll go ahead.”
Whoosh!
Seong Jihan disappeared as soon as he said that.
Everyone present looked at the spot where he disappeared with dumbfounded expressions.
* * *
Two days later, at the BattleNet Center in New York.
“E-Everyone has been liberated…!”
“Thank goodness. Thank goodness! We can participate in the Space League now !”
As Seong Jihan liberated the US players from the BattleNet connectors, the US staff cheered.
“My master!”
Meanwhile,
Seong Jihan frowned as he saw Barren kneeling before him after coming out of the connector.
How many times have I heard the word ‘master’ now?
Unlike the Korean national team, the US had many players with the King of Humans as their sponsoring constellation.
As such, he had to write more domination codes to release them.
‘This guy Gilgamesh… He definitely put a lot of effort into the US national team.’
Compared to the Korean national team, the US national team had superior average skills.
Perhaps because there were more talented individuals on this side, Gilgamesh’s clutches were also more widespread here.
Seong Jihan wrote and erased the domination code for each of them one by one.
“Ugh, ugh. Thank you… Seong Jihan, forget what I said earlier.”
“Thanks to you, I was saved from being dominated.”
Seong Jihan also released the loyalty he received from the US players.
“N-Now there are only 3 hours left until the Space League match!”
“After the medical team checks their condition, we’ll have to enter the match right away…”
“Will it be possible?”
Having to enter again right after escaping from the connector.
Some of the US national team players seemed to have trauma from being in there, so they were reluctant, but.
“We’ll go.”
“This is what we have to do. Of course.”
Most of them readily said they would enter the connector again.
The US coaching staff began preparations by moving busily.
And there, the coach of the Earth representative team, Davis, approached Seong Jihan.
“Player Seong Jihan. It seems too late for you to return to Korea… Would it be possible to participate from here?”
“At the US center?”
“Yes, we will provide you with the best convenience on our side.”
“Got it. Since there’s no time, let’s do that.”
The match against the World Tree Elves is in just 3 hours.
It was impossible to go back to Korea and play the game.
Seong Jihan decided to play the game at the New York BattleNet Center, where he had stayed for a long time in his previous life.
And so, in the Space League match that Seong Jihan participated in from the US.
“People of humanity, our goal is only one.”
The representative of the World Tree Elves declared with a stiff face.
“We will definitely execute your Number 1 today.”
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