‘I’ve already leveled up.’
A spark of surprise flickered in Seong Jihan’s eyes.
It was now September, and his level was at 431.
Although the speed of leveling up had significantly increased due to the stat seal, reaching level 500 still seemed a distant goal.
At this rate, reaching level 450, which would qualify him for the Star League, seemed possible only by October.
‘Is the seal from the Heaven’s Chaotic Flow having a similar effect to the stat seal?’
While the stat seal was a restriction imposed by the system, the Heaven’s Chaotic Flow was an acupoint sealing technique created by Dongbang Sak.
Could these two be interacting in some way?
‘Maybe I was close to leveling up already; I should fight a bit more.’
With this thought, Seong Jihan scanned his surroundings on the survival map.
The survival map ‘Desert of Relics’.
This was a battle-ground where monsters guarding the relics and players seeking ancient artifacts clashed fiercely.
Typically, the intention was to use the hidden relics in the ruins to gain an advantage in battle or to strategically use neutral monsters.
‘But whenever I got matched here, I just overpowered everything with brute force.’
For Seong Jihan, who had vastly surpassed even the Grand Master level, neutral monsters and other players were no different – all could be swept away with a single strike.
This often led to criticism that his channel lacked diverse content.
However, the situation was now different.
‘I need to create one-on-one situations. If there are more than two enemies, I could actually die.’
Currently, he could only utilize about 20 percent of his Martial Soul’s power, largely due to the Star Buff being activated.
With this reduced power, he could manage one-on-one fights against Grand Master level players, but in multiple combat scenarios, survival was not guaranteed.
‘Luckily, it’s the ruins map this time.’
With treasures likely hidden, the map’s name, ‘Desert of Relics’, didn’t go unnoticed by him before.
After wiping out nearby enemies during a previous match, he kept one alive and used the Ice Sword Rain to search for artifacts.
Although the Ice Sword Rain did not react to the artifacts here as they were not compatible with its level.
‘Pouring continuous power into the Ice Sword Rain, one did faintly lead me toward the center of the ruins…’
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})The artifact he found back then was a buff item only effective within the game and was useless outside.
However, in his current sealed state, he desperately needed it.
‘I’ll need to move carefully until I get the artifact.’
Swooosh.
Enveloped by shadows, Seong Jihan disappeared, his presence vanishing.
He stealthily maneuvered around, ambushing lone monsters or players.
Areas with groups larger than two he avoided, pressing forward discreetly.
Even though he could only use about 20 percent of his Martial Soul,
Due to further development in utilizing his Martial Soul, he managed a top score in this map by sticking completely to stealth and ambush tactics.
‘I’m currently third-ranked… the gap to the first isn’t big.’
Maybe he doesn’t need to head to the central part?
Perhaps it would be better to just find a good spot in the path and ambush from there, which could even potentially take him to first place.
Just as Seong Jihan considered changing his usual approach of heading towards the center for a discrete ambush spot.
[Star Buff will be deactivated if the number of extraterrestrial viewers decreases by another 40 percent.]
A warning message from the system popped up.
* * *
‘Losing the Star Buff could make even 1:1 fights tough.’
The Star Buff, which boosted his abilities by 60 percent, was like a lifeline for Seong Jihan, whose powers were sealed by the Heaven’s Chaotic Flow.
If it vanished here, he’d struggle even in one-on-one combats.
Seong Jihan checked the atmosphere in the chat.
-Today he’s playing oddly?
-Not wiping them all out at once but playing by the book.
-Why not just sweep everything clean?
-He’s just dragging out time for no reason sigh
-Logged in to analyze this player’s strength — why is he holding back all of a sudden?
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Complaints from extraterrestrial viewers who wondered why he wasn’t displaying his usual one-shot-one-kill and appeared to be concealing his strength.
-These guys were grumbling about lack of content, now they complain it’s not ending quickly LOL
-Extraterrestrials are such a hard bunch to please, which beat should we dance to?
-For real, they complain no matter what. What are they even expecting?
-But why is he suddenly fighting like this?
-Aw, he must have his reasons, where do you all get off critiquing him!
Humans viewers, having received much from Seong Jihan, regardless of race or nationality, now sent overwhelming support for whatever he chose to do.
‘Would be nice if just the human viewers could sustain the Star Buff.’
Just turning on the broadcast brought in viewership numbers in the hundreds of millions from humanity.
If these numbers alone could maintain the Star Buff, he would comfortably stick to stealth and ambush.
‘Before everyone leaves, I better finish this quickly.’
Swooosh.
Seong Jihan stopped using stealth and moved towards the center of the ruins.
[Intruder!]
[Eliminating the intruder.]
As Seong Jihan boldly moved towards the center, the ruins’ monsters spotted and attacked him.
Made of giant statues, they emitted red rays from their eyes, pressing him hard.
Normally, he could finish these foes with a single move of Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep.
But with his current limited power, it wasn’t possible to annihilate them in one strike.
‘I need to conserve my strength.’
Zzzzt!
Dodging the laser rays shooting from their eyes, Seong Jihan progressed towards the center where the artifact was hidden.
“What’s that?”
“Is there something over there?”
“Just kill him!”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Players who felt there was something important in the central area saturated with statues attempted to block Seong Jihan, but,
‘My senses aren’t completely dead. I can dodge.’
Originally being a much stronger opponent, Seong Jihan fluidly evaded their attacks as he reached the ruins’ center.
The center was just more desert and statues, different only in name.
Remembering his previous experience, Seong Jihan closely inspected the ground.
‘It was around here… the place emanating a strange aura.‘
Swooosh.
He dug his hand into the sand, rummaging through.
Flash!
He grasped something in his hand.
-That is…
-He found the Golden Ox Figurine.
-Did it give a buff effect?
What Seong Jihan held was a small golden ox figurine, a seemingly trivial item guarded by powerful monsters of the ruins due to its diminutive size.
‘Despite its looks, the buff wasn’t bad.’
Boom!
Seong Jihan directly shattered the golden ox with his hand.
[You have destroyed an Exiled God’s Relic.]
[All abilities increase by 150% for 10 minutes.]
[The guardians of the exiled god express intense hostility toward you for destroying God’s Relic.]
[The guardians will move from their posts in an attempt to subjugate you.]
A simple buff that raised all attributes by 150% for 10 minutes.
However, the buff also had a serious disadvantage – it turned all the ruin’s monsters against him.
But,
‘This is actually better.’
If the enemies came to him, he wouldn’t have to go looking for them.
Seong Jihan drew his sword and spear.
Fundamental Divine Art,
Triad of Martial Mastery:
Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep
Whoosh!
As the sword sliced horizontally, the enemies simultaneously split in half.
-Finally!
-It’s such a simple motion, but where does its world-splitting power come from?
-Should have ended it like this from the start.
-It’s still less powerful than usual. Some of the guys survived.
Extraterrestrial viewers watched Seong Jihan’s Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep and started figuring it out in their way.
‘Now that I see it, ordinary game viewers seem to gather here to analyze my power.’
Outside of major incidents, like when the World Tree Yggdrasil appeared in chat, there wasn’t much reason for extraterrestrials to watch Seong Jihan’s ordinary games.
Just by turning on the broadcast, all they see is him swinging his sword and sweeping everything away.
They aren’t from his race, so why would they continuously watch someone else’s show of power?
The viewers that gathered to provide enough activity for the Star Buff were here to analyze his power.
‘Hmm…’
Watching the chat in one eye,
Seong Jihan observed the remaining enemies.
Monsters that weren’t swept away in one hit because his power was still under constraint.
Zzzzt…!
Seong Jihan threw the Phoenix Flag above his head.
Fundamental Divine Arts,
Divine Thunder Decree:
Celestial Judgment
Above the ruins, a massive crack appeared in the sky.
A giant spear charged with white lightning, rather than his normal dark thunder due to sealed stats, fell to the ground.
Kaboom!
It completely decimated the area where the statues congregated.
Using Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep followed Celestial Judgment by cleared the map of ruins.
[Your level has increased by 1.]
‘Oh, it actually went up.’
Seong Jihan’s eyes lit up as he saw the level-up message.
Normally, no matter how many times he wiped them out, his level wouldn’t increase.
But sealed by Heaven’s Chaotic Flow, leveling up seemed surprisingly easy.
‘At this rate, I might need to continue gaming under the influence of Heaven’s Chaotic Flow…’
Under usual circumstances, it seemed unlikely he would reach level 450 by next month.
However, leveling up so swiftly under the effects of Heaven’s Chaotic Flow seemed to make a promotion match feasible by the end of September.
Just then,
-Wait, I’ve seen this in the data from Thunder God’s battle. Wasn’t this used by the Martial God?
-Martial God? Are you talking about the monster that hunted thrones?
-Yeah. Thunder God was also taken down recently, and I managed to get a hold of some footage, which was spectacular.
-Hundreds of spears like this fell on the stronghold of Thunder God.
– Hundreds… With such power from one, indeed, it must be the Martial God.
Given that these analysts had gathered, it wasn’t surprising they quickly noticed the similarity between Seong Jihan’s Celestial Judgment and what was used by the Martial God.
‘Looks like BattleNet is already circulating data about Thunder God’s throne being bombed. These guys… did they not previously recognize my abilities because I used it only in special missions?’
Usually, in normal games, Seong Jihan would end them solely with Triad of Martial Mastery.
Having used purely Divine Thunder Decree without void now allowed the analysts to realize he wielded power similar to the Martial God.
And they went further.
-Isn’t his sword-swinging also similar to the Martial God’s?
-It’s not on the level to be compared with the Martial God. After all, everyone performs cutting, vertical and stabbing with a sword, right?
-It’s not just anything. Can a casual swing of a sword split the world?
-Right. How casually he swings his sword and yet splits everything is very similar to the Martial God’s.
-That’s ridiculous. You haven’t faced the Martial God, hence all this talk… Have your worlds been destroyed by the Martial God? How can you compare?
-Oh yeah, boasting about your world being destroyed LOL
Despite actually viewing Triad of Martial Mastery, the viewers still bickered among themselves.
Substantial interest in the Martial God among the analysts.
This could be used.
“The Martial God, huh… seems he’s famous indeed. You all mention him just by seeing this.”
With a mysterious smile curling at the edge of his lips,
Swoosh!
Seong Jihan swung his sword a few more times.
“Let’s see. This sword… wonder if it’s similar to the Martial God’s.”
Continuously displaying the three sword techniques of Triad of Martial Mastery.
With Mount Tai Suppression and Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep, right up to Way of Immortals being executed.
The sands of the desert ruins split along with the swing of the sword.
-Wow, that’s it! That’s the Martial God’s sword!
-What are you talking about? It’s not at all. Did the world split in half? Did the sky split? It’s just some cracks around.
-Oh, that’s probably because he’s lacking power. If only the power was similar, just watch.
-Isn’t that the most important part?
And still, the viewers argued even after witnessing Triad of Martial Mastery.
Seong Jihan replied upon seeing such chats.
“It seems we won’t conclude today. Keep watching the next game. Indeed, see if there’s any connection between my martial arts and the Martial God’s.”
Having thrown the bait about the Martial God to the analysts, he added,
[The game will now end.]
[Your level has increased by 1.]
‘To gain 3 levels from a normal game… quite good.’
With a satisfied smile, Seong Jihan logged out.
