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Meanwhile,
=After entering the Great Golem’s portal, player Seong Jihan’s figure is still not visible.
=Only a pure white screen keeps appearing. Could it be that the Great Golem’s portal sent player Seong Jihan to a strange place?
=Well, this kind of thing often happens when broadcasting player Seong Jihan…
The commentators were having a conversation about the invisible game screen with a somewhat familiar voice.
In games focused on Seong Jihan, situations where the camera turned off occasionally occurred.
-What’s happening this time, haha.
-Is a secret event unfolding beyond the portal…?
-Could he have fallen into a trap?
-Seeing the Great Golems kneeling, it doesn’t seem like that.
Around the time when viewers were also chatting with a familiar attitude,
=Oh, the screen is changing…
=The pure white screen is quickly turning pitch black!
=Could something have happened to player Seong Jihan?
The commentators raised their voices upon seeing the suddenly changed screen.
The screen of BattleTube, which had only been showing white, a huge half-mask appeared there and,
it quickly cracked, and purple fog began to rise from inside.
-Isn’t that the mask the male elf was wearing?
-I think so? Why is it appearing here?
-No, the screen has changed to purple again.
Just when they thought they could watch again when the mask appeared, the screen turned purple again as it cracked.
Still, compared to before, something could be seen wriggling inside, but, anyway, it was the same in that they couldn’t see what was going on.
As people were giving up on being able to watch this match,
Swoosh…
=Ah…
=P-Player Seong Jihan is revealing himself!
=He’s holding something in his hand. Is it that half-mask?
=It’s absorbing the purple smoke!
As the fog slowly thinned, Seong Jihan appeared holding a mask in his hand.
‘This mask. It’s quite useful.’
The mask that gathered the void energy had a considerable absorption capacity despite its small size.
It could store a much larger amount than the void energy Seong Jihan could currently accommodate without issue.
‘Until the void’s capacity limit increases further, I can use this as a temporary storage.’
Currently, Seong Jihan’s maximum void capacity limit was 200. If he were to absorb the void energy floating in the atmosphere here, it seemed like it would quickly reach 200, but,
‘If I start directly absorbing the void into my body, it might become uncontrollable.’
Once the door was opened, he might not be able to handle the rushing power of the void, and the value could quickly exceed 200.
Then he would be subjected to the will of the void.
Instead, Seong Jihan decided to put the void energy in the mask and safely extract it.
‘That aside, I’m definitely not being targeted well.’
The reason Seong Jihan could smoothly endure in this world filled with void energy was greatly due to the effect of the half-mask given by the branch manager, but it was more because the energy didn’t target him as the top priority.
Even the walls that made up the underground space had completely melted away, and the floor that had become mushy like a swamp had already disappeared, but most of the void energy just brushed past Seong Jihan’s body.
Occasionally, there was void energy approaching him, but this could be absorbed at the mask level for now.
‘Still, there’s not much time.’
Anyway, the void energy kept flowing out, and there was a limit to the storage space the mask could absorb.
He couldn’t stay here forever.
Seong Jihan looked at the bound Shadow Queen.
She, who had been burning in purple flames, had a better situation than a moment ago now that the wall trapping the void had broken, and her body had regenerated to some extent.
However,
Wriggle! Wriggle!
As the chains binding her moved, the void flames attached to her again.
‘I need to release the restraints first.’
Seong Jihan raised the Phoenix Flag and shot Crimson Thunder at the chains binding her however,
Zzzt…
The chains only flickered with electricity for a moment and didn’t budge.
“They’re sturdy.”
Perhaps because it was an item supplying this enormous amount of void energy, the strength of the chains was beyond imagination.
To the point where it couldn’t be broken unless he wrote the Destruction code.
But the problem was that there were too many chains to write it on each one.
He lacked the power to write it on each and every one of them.
“This won’t be easy.”
[M-Master… Are you going to back out?]
“I’ll give you time to hear the queen’s last words. I have that much leeway. Until then, I’ll try to find a way.”
[…Understood.]
Ariel, who had been retrieved back into Seong Jihan’s arm when the void energy poured out, agreed in a gloomy voice at Seong Jihan’s cold judgment.
[Can I come out for a bit…]
“I’m controlling the void energy around me. Coming out should be possible.”
[Thank you.]
Swoosh!
As soon as Seong Jihan’s words ended, Ariel came out of his arm.
As she approached, a slight light returned to the Shadow Queen’s lifeless eyes.
“…Ariel?”
“Yes, Queen.”
“Strange. You came out… Why is the world still the same?”
The Shadow Queen glanced around with a lifeless face.
“This illusion is quite crude.”
“Illusion… This is not an illusion.”
“Guard! What are you doing? The drug is lacking. Inject more, more drugs!”
“Queen! This is reality.”
Ariel grabbed her body with both hands, but,
Swoosh…
The void energy instantly rippled from the queen’s body and pushed her away.
“Guards! What are you doing? This illusion is pathetic! Are you trying to make me forget my pain with this kind of pathetic illusion? I’m going to have trouble dealing with the void in this state! Hurry up and give me the medicine… medicine!”
The Shadow Queen shouted, looking around her.
She seemed determined to dismiss the current situation as an illusion.
No.
Or at least she seemed to want to think so.
“Queen…”
“Heh, hehe. There’s no way an outsider could penetrate this place. The waste disposal site is located in the depths of the World Tree Alliance. Are you telling me to believe such an illusion is reality? Ah, I see… You were also caught, Ariel? Then that makes sense.”
“…”
“It can’t be helped. We can’t beat the World Tree. Can we? We’re just toilets for processing the World Tree’s waste, the Void. Ha, haha. That’s the true purpose of the Shadow Elves.”
Toilet.
Treating herself as such, the Shadow Queen distorted her face slightly and looked around.
“This… this illusion isn’t… fun. I can’t process the Void like this and I’m going to be eaten. What are you going to do? Guards? Hurry up, give me some medicine. Give me an injection. Or I won’t be able to hold on…!”
The Shadow Queen screamed, her body glowing.
Ariel looked at the Queen’s eyes, filled with madness, and knelt before her with a stern expression.
“Queen… Will you switch souls with me?”
“You’re telling me… to switch bodies…”
An exchange of souls with the main body is possible, isn’t it? Wasn’t I a spare for that purpose?”
Ariel showed no hesitation, even though switching souls would mean that she would be trapped in that chain.
“No.”
The Shadow Queen immediately rejected the idea.
“Rather than that. If you’re still going to claim this is reality, then just kill me. I’m going to go see a new illusion. It’s not fun here.”
“…”
“Ah, could it be… you guys. Is this it? Telling me to switch bodies with Ariel and raise those Shadow Elves to constellation-level as well? One body is enough for a toilet, I don’t want to make another one. Stop telling me to switch bodies and change the medicine instead!”
“Is that so?”
At the queen’s refusal, Ariel bit her lip and said to Seong Jihan,
“Master. Can you give the Queen some peace of mind?”
“You want me to kill her?”
“…”
“Yes! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me and…!”
At the word death, the Queen rather welcomed it and screamed loudly.
“She’s lost it.”
“It seems the World Tree Elf side used a strong hallucinogen on the queen for void disposal… The queen wasn’t like this…”
“Hmm. I was going to try finding a way to release the chains. I guess it’s useless to release her in that state.”
“…There’s a way to release them?”
Ariel’s eyes widened.
Honestly, when he said he would try to find a way earlier, she had given up.
In that short time, he found a way to break the chains?
“It’s not certain. It’s just something worth trying.”
“…Still. Is it even possible to try?”
“It might be a bit much for you.”
“Me? I’m fine with anything.”
“Then, transform into a sword.”
Swoosh…
As soon as Seong Jihan’s words ended, Ariel transformed into the dark sword Eclipse in his left hand.
“Ariel disappeared. Is this illusion finally changing?”
In front of the queen who smiled at the corners of her mouth as Ariel disappeared,
“Don’t worry, your illusion will definitely end. If you don’t get released here, I’ll kill you right away.”
Seong Jihan picked up the mask he was holding in his right hand and put it on his face.
* * *
‘As expected, the void energy inside the mask… is an enormous amount.’
Whoosh!
As soon as he put on the half-mask, the tremendous amount of void energy contained within was felt.
It was just trapped inside the mask and couldn’t come over to Seong Jihan’s body.
If it were to break, it would be enough to quickly fill the void capacity limit of 200.
And,
Wriggle! Wriggle!
As soon as he put on the mask, the void energy entered through his face.
[The stat ‘Void’ rises by 1.]
The system message window showed that the void stat rose just by wearing the mask.
If he kept wearing it like this, he would quickly exceed the capacity limit.
‘I need to do it quickly.’
Swoosh…!
The color of the sword Eclipse quickly turned purple.
The power of the sword, which was amplified in an instant by combining the void energy Seong Jihan originally possessed in his body with the power of the mask.
That power swelled up as if it would burst at any moment, but,
‘I can hold it for a moment with the Crimson Divinity Technique.’
The Crimson Divinity Technique created by Dong Bang Sak. It was not lacking in being called a divine technique when it came to handling the void.
The enormous amount of void energy came in through the mask, to the point where it could control it, even if only for a moment.
And then,
Swoosh…
As the void energy spread in the atmosphere finally gathered in Eclipse as well,
Seong Jihan exploded the Crimson Divinity Technique.
Fundamental Divine Arts, Dark Shadow Technique – Shadow Divine Blade
Whoosh!
The huge sword energy instantly soared from Eclipse.
It was made of Crimson Divinity Energy, which embodied the power of the void.
“Uh…”
When the void energy exploding from Eclipse momentarily brought focus back to the queen’s hazy eyes,
Zzzt…!
The Crimson Divinity Energy cut the chains binding her at once.
The chains, which seemed to resist the sword energy for a moment at first, soon swelled up greatly and,
Boom!
They broke one by one while spewing out a massive amount of void energy.
Thud! Thud!
As the chains broke like that, the Shadow Queen’s body quickly recovered.
Seong Jihan saw the system message floating above her figure.
[The stat ‘Void’ rises by 3.]
‘I can’t use this much.’
When he used the void energy while wearing the mask, the usable power was tremendously amplified,
but the stat rose very quickly as well.
It was something to welcome as much as possible if the stat rose for free, but it was different if it was the void.
Because he still shouldn’t exceed the limit of 200.
As soon as the queen’s restraints were broken, Seong Jihan immediately took off the mask and threw it away.
“Uh…”
To the queen who was looking at her condition with a blank expression, he asked,
“So, do you want to die as a toilet? Or do you want to leave?”
“That sword…”
“What?”
“How… did you do it?”
The Dark Shadow Technique – Shadow Divine Blade, originally belonged to the Shadow Queen.
Seong Jihan recalled this and chuckled.
“If you want to know, either live or die.”
“…I want to live.”
“Let’s go then.”
Swish!
Seong Jihan held the Shadow Queen’s waist under his armpit and,
“Wait… I can go by myself…!”
“There’s no time.”
Whoosh!
He escaped the underground space just like that.
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