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[Space League 5th match begins.]
Flash!
In a space glowing with a faint green light, Seong Jihan was standing on a huge leaf floating in the air.
And in front of him, at a bit of a distance,
“Hoho, you’ve been summoned well.”
The High elf Priest, who was acting as the elf coach a moment ago, was standing on another leaf and smiling at Seong Jihan.
“Let’s begin the experiment.”
As she said that,
Zing…
The green light illuminating this space gathered above the leaves all at once.
The first to shine was the High elf Priest’s side.
[The Constellation Laboratory scans the summoned target.]
[The opponent belongs to the World Tree Alliance research team.]
[The player will be moved to a separate space.]
“Then good luck, test subject. I will experiment on you and execute you.”
The High elf Priest smiled as if she had expected the result and waved her hand at Seong Jihan before disappearing.
Meanwhile, since the system message could be seen by Seong Jihan as well as the viewers, people saw this and became furious.
-Wow, are you kidding with the map? ㅡㅡ
-Such an unfair map shouldn’t be uploaded to BattleNet in the first place, right?
-So they summoned the No. 1 rankers and one of them gets excluded as a researcher, haha, damn it.
-What should we do, Calling Seong Jihan a test subject…
And then the second scan began.
Flash!
Light flickered on Seong Jihan’s body.
[The Constellation Laboratory scans the summoned target.]
[The opponent belongs to the lowest-ranked race, ‘Humanity’.]
[The opponent is a ‘Constellation Candidate’, a focus management target of BattleNet. Experiments cannot be conducted with the authority of the Constellation Laboratory.]
[Transfer to the laboratory is put on hold…]
Seong Jihan, who was judged as a constellation candidate in the scan, did not undergo the experiment.
=Ah. No…
=Constellation candidate? Player Seong Jihan. When did he become a constellation candidate?
=Then does this mean he won’t be experimented on by the Constellation Laboratory?!
The commentators were excited to see this.
And then,
Flash!
A screen appeared in front of Seong Jihan’s eyes and the disappeared High elf Priest revealed her face with a surprised expression.
[What… You’re already a constellation candidate. Is that even possible?]
“There’s a way for everything.”
Seong Jihan replied nonchalantly and thought,
‘I didn’t know being a constellation candidate would be useful here.’
Constellation candidate.
This qualification obtained through the quest ‘Win the Champions League’ in the Celestial Cube had been useless after obtaining it until now.
The only noticeable change was being able to enter the ‘Official Member Board’ of the BattleNet community.
‘I was too busy to go there.’
Analyzing the modified root, liberating the Korean and American players brainwashed by Gilgamesh, and so on.
Seong Jihan had been busy non-stop even after coming out of the Tower of Babel.
So regarding being a constellation candidate, he only thought ‘Ah, I became one’ and couldn’t feel any special points, but who knew this qualification would be effective here?
“So, you can’t experiment on me?”
[Kuk… Experiments are impossible on focus management targets. How did I summon you here… You were lucky, Humanity’s ranker.]
The High elf Priest, who was smiling as if she had won just a moment ago, was now biting her lip.
Swoosh…
As the screen slowly disappeared, she said one last thing.
[This time, I have no choice but to just take the victory.]
If she can’t execute Seong Jihan, she’ll at least take the 5th match victory, is that it?
‘But what’s the map objective here?’
The ‘Constellation Laboratory’ map.
It only scanned Seong Jihan and the High elf Priest here, and there was no mission objective or anything.
If the High elf Priest just takes the victory like this, does it end?
At that moment,
[The game begins.]
[You are a test subject.]
[Escape from the Constellation Laboratory.]
A message appeared in front of his eyes.
[The opposing player belongs to the laboratory.]
[If the test subject is caught by the laboratory, the game ends with the opponent’s victory.]
Seong Jihan had to escape as a test subject.
The High elf Priest belonged to the research team, and if she caught Seong Jihan, the 5th match would end.
However, the game conditions were overwhelmingly unfavorable to Seong Jihan’s side.
-No, it’s good that he’s not being experimented on, but isn’t the rule too biased?
-If the High Priest doesn’t catch Seong Jihan and the laboratory catches him, will it end?
-Is this a confirmed loss?
-We should consider it fortunate that Seong Jihan won’t be executed…
And as the game started like this,
Swoosh…
The leaf supporting Seong Jihan in the air became mushy and his feet began to sink into it.
‘This must be judged as the laboratory’s property too.’
Seong Jihan tried to lightly pull out his feet, but,
Whoosh!
The leaf’s restraint was stronger than expected.
It was a situation where he had to use force to come out.
‘This seems to be of the World Tree line too… Should I try absorbing it?’
Fundamental Divine Arts, Annihilation God’s Secret – Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit
Swish!
Chains extended from Seong Jihan’s body.
They stabbed into the leaf and quickly absorbed the life force contained within it.
Then, the green leaf withered in an instant and soon turned to powder and disappeared.
‘The amount of life force is quite good.’
Seong Jihan connected the chains of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit to Eternity inside his body.
Then, the life force accumulated neatly inside it.
Although it wasn’t enough to raise the Eternity stat, the accumulated amount was quite considerable.
Seong Jihan tried to pull out the chains at this point, but,
Clank! Clank!
The chains of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit were not satisfied with just devouring the leaf. They began to extend in all directions of this space. The chains went out of control and rampaged.
The chains extended up and down, but many of them moved intensively downward.
‘Is there something down there?’
Seong Jihan followed the chains downward.
The lower he went, the fainter the green light became, and the life force in the atmosphere was hardly felt.
Originally, the chains of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit that absorb life wouldn’t even extend this way.
And the group of chains going towards the ground like that,
Thud. Thud!
They were intensively tapping on a single point.
And then,
Zing…
[What are you doing?!]
A screen popped up in front of Seong Jihan’s eyes, and the High elf Priest appeared with an urgent expression.
“What do you mean what am I doing? The mission.”
[That’s not the escape route!]
“Ah, is that so?”
-Look at him dragging out the end of his words.
-That’s 100 percent the escape route, haha.
-Yeah, when the High elf Priest is making such a fuss, of course he has to go in.
-No, but did she really think he wouldn’t go in if she said that? Doesn’t it make him want to go in more?
-For real, it looks like a treasure vault, haha.
The viewers guessed from Seong Jihan’s tone that he would definitely enter, and their prediction was immediately proven right.
Crack!
As the chains extending from Seong Jihan’s body tore off a point on the floor, a huge wooden door was revealed.
“Oh, a door appeared. When the enemy tells me not to go in, it makes me want to go in more, you know?”
[…Don’t act recklessly! No matter how much of a focus management target you are, if you cross the line too much, we will also have a justification to intervene with you!]
“Ah, is that so?”
Poof!
The chains pierced right through the wooden door.
“Why do you guys have life force even in doors?”
Swoosh…
And the power of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit completely absorbed the force the wooden door possessed and opened it.
Creak…
Then, a huge portal came out from inside the door.
The dark green portal was rippling with an ominous light.
[I warn you. If you enter the underground area, you are clearly crossing the line.]
“Yeah?”
[If you promise not to enter there, I will tell you the way to the escape route. I’ll even concede the 5th match victory. So absolutely… don’t act recklessly.]
=She’s opening the way?
=The High elf Priest, who was going to take the victory, has her attitude turned 180 degrees!
=What on earth is inside there that she’s acting like this?
=The safe choice here would be to accept that proposal, but…
=The player Seong Jihan I know doesn’t seem like he would do that!
As the commentators said,
“Why did you put the entrance to such an important area here?”
[You…]
“When you act like that, it makes me want to go in.”
Whoosh!
Seong Jihan ignored the High Priest’s warning and went inside.
[No!!]
The High elf Priest’s scream echoed through the screen, but,
his figure had already disappeared beyond the portal.
* * *
The world beyond the portal.
Contrary to the name ‘underground area’,
it was an incomparably vast space with a blue sky spread above.
-This is the underground space?
-The sun is up?
-Did he accidentally enter the portal and escape to the outside?
-Then is it a confirmed victory… The 3rd, 4th, and 5th matches all ended in an instant, haha.
People saw this scene and commented that he might have escaped, but,
Zing…!
As Seong Jihan crossed the portal, light gathered in the air and a huge light golem appeared.
It was a being Seong Jihan had seen a few times.
‘Is it a Great Golem?’
The Great Golem that the elves summoned by blowing up their hearts.
Inside that brilliant light, the corpse pieces of elves were hidden.
=Great Golem… It’s the being the elves summoned during the Diamond Promotion Match and the League Competition Match.
=It’s strong, but player Seong Jihan, who participated in the previous Diamond Promotion Match, has also subdued it. For player Seong Jihan, who has grown much more than then, subduing that being should be easy.
Even after seeing the huge light golem, the commentators spoke calmly.
Since Seong Jihan, who had already subdued the golem in the Diamond Promotion Match, wouldn’t struggle against it now that he had reached the Master League.
They could comfortably look at the light golem.
However,
Flash! Flash!
As light flickered from all directions and light golems continued to appear,
=But the number is quite large…
=When will they stop coming out…
Tension began to build in the commentators’ words as well.
The number of Great Golems summoned, even roughly counted, had already reached 100.
The world of the underground area was already filled with light.
And then,
Zing…!
[Great Golems! Restrain him!]
A screen popped up largely in the air, and the High elf Priest, whose face was all distorted, ordered the Great Golems.
Then,
Swoosh!
The Great Golems all turned their heads towards Seong Jihan at once.
With over a hundred golems doing so, the sky was now obscured by light,
‘If I absorb all of that, will Eternity rise by 1?’
Seong Jihan was thinking about raising his stats even after seeing the Great Golems.
Since he had caught them in Platinum anyway, they couldn’t be a threat to him now, whether their number was a hundred or a thousand.
‘Let’s try absorbing first.’
Slither…
The chains of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit slowly revealed themselves from his body.
Inside Seong Jihan, the chains wrapped around his Eternity again.
As Seong Jihan was preparing to raise Eternity to 3 in earnest like that,
[The force of the World Tree…]
[You have come, Head Manager.]
Swoosh.
The golems knelt down one by one in front of him.
They, who were trying to be hostile to Seong Jihan before binding Eternity, had their attitude changed 180 degrees as soon as the chains wrapped around.
‘The power of Eternity… Does the Head Manager also possess it?’
[Head Manager! What are you talking about! Great Golems! That person is an enemy! Kill him right… No, restrain him!]
The High elf Priest was going berserk at the change in the Great golem’s attitude.
“Turn that off.”
[Understood.]
But when the Great Golem moved its hand at Seong Jihan’s command, the screen that had popped up in the air turned off with a click.
The light golem seemed to clearly recognize Seong Jihan as a superior.
Seong Jihan looked at that and asked nonchalantly,
“What’s in this underground area now?”
[A constellation that was recently transferred is imprisoned here.]
“Constellation? Who?”
[The Shadow Queen.]
“…The Shadow Queen? When was she caught?”
Seong Jihan was surprised and widened his eyes at the Great Golem’s answer, but,
[What!? No, the Queen? No way. I’m sure I… received a message from the Queen…]
The one who was even more surprised was Ariel, who was bound to his arm.
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