Chapter 280

Seong Jihan tilted his head after listening to the words of the Constellation of the Dead Star .

"What's the problem with the Dragon Flame? Initially, you told me to receive sponsorship from the Dragon Lord, didn't you?"

[Of course I did. The Dragon Lord has a grand goal, so it sponsors its backers generously, but you're not a constellation it would target. It would help you without touching your abilities, that's what I meant. But I didn't say you should obtain the Dragon Flame too.]

"Is obtaining this such a problem?"

[Yes. The Dragon Flame is an innate stat of the dragon race. But for you to modify it to suit your race… Why is the purity of the flames so high?]

Karlein blinked his eyes, staring at Seong Jihan's Dragon Flame.

[What's the stat value?]

"150."

[150? And you're producing this much firepower with just that?!]

Whew! Whew!

Karlein spun his skeletal head around, making a fuss.

[As expected from our Leader! Worthy of becoming the Leader. Really…! Want to merge with me right now? Let's go to the Dead Star!]

"Enough. Instead, explain why the Abyss has expanded so much."

[Originally it was a secret, but… Why would I hide anything from our Leader?]

Zziiiing!

Laser beams shot from the skeleton's eyes, displaying the ranking table for the Bronze League that humanity belonged to.

[First, the race 'humanity' that was expected to go extinct is performing too well. Second, a constellation from the World Tree Elves was killed, so the Green Administrator requested debugging. A constellation can't be caught in the Bronze League, but they were.]

"Wasn't the Green Administrator itself full of bugs? The World Tree Elves were also forced into the league by them, and they're the ones raising issues?"

[Well, that's true. The Green Administrator is the highest authority in BattleNet. They cover up their own bugs internally. So The Void Faction wants to gather 'evidence' to sanction them, but the World Tree side is thorough.]

Evidence, huh.

Seong Jihan recalled when he previously turned in the modified seeds of life to BattleNet.

The Ancient Elf had threatened him not to hand it over, and eventually turned hostile when he did.

If such things accumulated as evidence, would the World Tree Elves face sanctions too?

[But those two reasons alone can't cause such an Abyss expansion. The biggest problem is your Dragon Flame.]

"The Dragon Flame?"

[Yes, the Dragon Flame. That's an ability the great constellation 'Dragon Lord' bestows upon its bloodline. Regular dragon races can't even possess that stat.]

"It's that big of a deal?"

[Yes. On top of that… there's a tale that the Dragon Flame was originally meant for the 'Red Administrator' to take before being given to the Dragon Lord. It's an exceptional ability.]

"The Red Administrator?"'

Seong Jihan's eyes widened.

The Red Administrator.

A new administrator name after the Green Administrator.

'The great constellation Dragon Lord was meant to take it… This is the scale of an administrator.'

Indeed, the administrators must be at the pinnacle of BattleNet.

[Yes. Once the most powerful administrator, but now disappeared, the Red Administrator… The great constellations like the Dragon Lord and the Sun King are vying hard to take that vacant position.]

[Note:- Solar King > Sun King]

"The Sun King? The one who branded you with a slave mark?"

[Yes, that bastard is quite capable too…]

Zzziiing…

A light flickered on the giant skeleton's forehead, revealing words.

[This is the Sun King's possession]

[Only he can own it]

[Those who covet it shall face the destruction of their three generations]

Despite being a constellation, Karlein had the Sun King's slave mark branded on him.

After revealing it himself and then making it disappear again,

He continued speaking to Seong Jihan.

[Anyway, anything related to the disappeared Red Administrator is being closely monitored by The Void Faction. But you've acquired the Dragon Flame, which is practically the Red Administrator's legacy… This is an issue The Void Faction needs to monitor closely.]

"But the Dragon Lord is involved with this Dragon Flame, isn't it?"

[It's different from what was given to the dragon race. It's rare for other races like humanity to wield such precise firepower with just a 150 stat. The Void Faction has dispatched me to find out if you have any connection to the 'Red Administrator'.]

"Me and the Red Administrator?"

It was an absurd notion.

Seong Jihan questioned with a perplexed expression, but Karlein continued seriously.

[So, can I perform a test?]

"A test?"

[There's a way to determine if you're the successor of the Red Administrator or not. If this test proves you're not the successor, I'll leave right away.]

"And if I'm the successor?"

[Then about 200 Abysses will appear here.]

"What if I refuse the test?"

[Then 100 Abysses will appear since you're a suspect.]

One hundred Abysses.

'Even I would struggle to deal with that.'

Seong Jihan nodded his head.

"Go ahead. I'm confident I'm not the successor."

[Oh, good. I'm glad you're cooperative. Then…]

The skeleton opened its mouth wide.

[Kaaaaack! Weeck! Keck!]

It retched forcefully, spewing forth violet flames from within.

Before Seong Jihan's eyes, the violet flames formed into a sphere.

[Come on, touch this quickly.]

"…Did you have to make those noises? It makes me not want to touch it."

[Oh come on. It took immense effort for me to manifest this avatar head and unleash these flames. Normally I'd have to open up an Abyss to summon our undead army to the surface. I used up all that power to spit out these flames for our Leader!]

Pik! Pik!

As soon as he finished speaking, most of the undead army behind him collapsed, seemingly drained of power to create the violet fire sphere.

It seemed he had indeed exerted himself greatly for this violet fire orb.

"Got it."

Seong Jihan nodded and slowly reached out his hand.

Then,

Hwarararak!

The violet flames enveloped Seong Jihan's body once,

Srusuru!

Before returning to their original spherical form.

"Is it over?"

[Ah no, thankfully not! If it matched, the flames would have remained.]

"I see?"

Swick!

Karlein swallowed the violet fire orb back into his mouth and his eyes flashed.

[Ah yes, it's fortunate that our Leader has no relation to the Red Administrator. The Void Faction is highly agitated over the missing 'Red Administrator'.]

"Why are they so wary of it?"

[I don't know the details, but apparently there was a major clash in the past. Anyway, Leader.]

Tap! Tap!

The black skeleton grinned, clacking his teeth.

[Why don't you merge with me now? If you're with me, you can become a great constellation too.]

"Hey, enough. Just leave."

[Don't be like that. Merge with me, become a great constellation, and let's also challenge for the Red Administrator's position.]

"The Void Faction really hates that idea. Will they even allow it?"

[It's legal for a great constellation to challenge for the administrator position.]

Constellation – Great Constellation – Administrator.

Is that the progression?

Seong Jihan deduced this from Karlein's words and waved his hand dismissively.

"Enough, now go clear the Abyss and leave."

[Tch… Fine. Keep playing your human games for now. Eventually you'll come to me.]

Sssss….

With those words, Karlein started reabsorbing the deathly aura that had spread around.

At least he obediently withdrew after the test ended.

'So the Abyss issue is resolved for now?'

As Seong Jihan pondered this, he recalled the message he saw from the first Abyss.

"Hey wait. But what about the Gilgamesh issue? Don't you need to resolve that?"

[Gilgamesh? Who's that? I was dispatched because of your Dragon Flame. I'm already familiar with the Leader's world.]

"In the Abyss we just resolved, it said 'Class 1 Surveillance Target – Gilgamesh' is the reason for dispatching the Celestial Bull."

[Class 1 Surveillance Target? If they labelled it that, it must have caused quite an issue. This world has too many bug-level existences]

"Is a Class 1 label that big of an issue?"

[Yes, if you get labelled Class 1, you get put on the Void's surveillance network. If you had withstood those Void flames earlier, you would have automatically become a Class 1 Surveillance Target too.]

"I see."

[If Gilgamesh is the reason for the Abyss emerging, more could appear here anytime due to it. In any case, my Abyss wasn't related to that – it was a request regarding you.]

In the end, of the two newly emerged Abysses, one was because of Gilgamesh.

The other was related to Seong Jihan himself.

'I should have kept the Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit around, But if that thing appeared unnecessarily, it would have only brought disaster to Earth.'

Who knows where Gilgamesh is lurking.

There's no need to unnecessarily establish an Abyss and make only Earth's humanity suffer.

As Seong Jihan was recalling the previous events,

Karlein had finished preparing to leave.

[Alright, I'm off. See you later, Leader~]

"Yeah."

[Ah, and if you're going to become a constellation, hurry up and ascend. It'll be much easier for you to become a great constellation if we constellations merge.]

Even if Seong Jihan became a constellation, it seemed Karlein would keep suggesting they merge.

With a sly grin, he disappeared into the darkness.

"Hmm…"

Watching Karlein disappear,

Seong Jihan shifted his gaze to the system window that had remained since earlier.

It displayed:

[Absorb the Void Flame?]

Ever since the void's flame sphere had enveloped him earlier, this message asking if he wanted to absorb it had lingered.

'…If I was related to the Red Administrator, the flames would have remained, he said.'

So this message asking if he wanted to absorb it into his body, what did it mean?

Seong Jihan pondered his connection to the Red Administrator, but no matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't find any relevant memories.

'Let me just absorb it for now.'

After wavering between yes and no, Seong Jihan selected yes.

[Void Flame has been absorbed.]

[Dragon Flame increases by 10.]

His Dragon Flame, which hadn't increased past 150 from absorbing items, had now risen by 10.

'That's quite a jump.'

The gap with the mighty Crimson Thunder's 200 stat had narrowed to only 40 now.

He could probably match it by investing his remaining stat points.

'For now, rather than Void, I should focus on fusing the Dragon Flame.'

The Dragon Flame ability that drew the Void's attention, It would be better to fuse it quickly.

Thinking he should handle it as soon as he got home,

Slick!

Seong Jihan leapt upwards.

* * *

[Seong Jihan resolves two Abysses in a single day!]

[Through this incident, Seong Jihan's presence is revealed once more.]

[The stock market, which had risen sharply when Seong Jihan appeared, soars collectively as the Abyss is resolved.]

The two Abysses that emerged simultaneously had posed a major threat to humanity's safety.

Yet one of them vanished as soon as Seong Jihan entered it, in an almost disappointingly simple manner.

-Seong Jihan really cleans up everything;

-The world, BattleNet Association, and governments were all busy coming up with countermeasures when the Abyss appeared… As expected, just calling Seong Jihan was the solution.

-It would be nice if he could enter the other one too, but they're still saying entry is not possible.

-If entry is possible, Seong Jihan will probably sweep that one clean too.

-Ah, I should have held onto my stocks a bit longer… Deeply regretting it now.

-Should have trusted Seong Jihan.

Whenever he appeared, Seong Jihan played the role of humanity's problem-solver splendidly.

His presence only grew more prominent as the main BattleNet game progressed.

And to that extent,

-But what are the other players even doing?

-Seriously, even if you gathered ranks 2-100, they'd probably be useless compared to just Seong Jihan alone.

-They couldn't even enter the Abyss and just trembled outside going 'how terrifying'.

-At this rate, if Seong Jihan goes into long-term training, what will we do… The other human players need to step up too.

-Exactly. When will they stop just wanting a free ride?

There was also criticism of the other players essentially doing nothing.

No matter how much Seong Jihan carried them,

It wasn't a good situation for the entire world to just wait around expecting one player to handle every crisis.

"Hmm… They have a point."

"Ah dad. There was nothing we could do! You tried to enter too but couldn't, right?"

"True, but the whole world is relying too much on Jihan. As a top player, this situation… makes me reflect."

Arriving home, Yoon Sejin sighed softly as he saw the internet reactions.

He had known for a long time that his Seong Jihan would surpass him.

But he didn't expect that not just himself, but all of humanity would become a burden on Seong Jihan.

'We can't keep overly relying on just one player like this.'

Having experienced the excessive expectations and dependence of the entire nation when once called the hope of South Korea,

Yoon Sejin was wary of Seong Jihan's current situation, no matter how capable he was.

Somehow, even if he couldn't surpass Seong Jihan, he needed to at least become a supporting force.

But the way things were going recently, even the Sword King seemed like just another burden carried on Seong Jihan's back.

"If I don't want to be a burden, I need to improve more. But Jihan's growth rate is just too fast."

"That's why. He doesn't give us any chance to catch up."

"Still, we can't stop growing either."

"That's true. Uncle will keep advancing. We'll just have to work hard to follow behind him."

After that conversation with his family, Yoon Sejin entered his room to rest.

[The Constellation 'Primordial King' wishes to sponsor player Yoon Sejin.]

[As a condition for sponsorship, the 'Primordial King' requests a conversation with player Seong Jihan.]

[Do you accept?]

Seeing the sudden message, he opened his eyes wide.

'The Primordial… King?'