Chapter 448
[Oh, Head. What's up with the sudden contact? Ah… But is it too much to call you my head now? Still, you're my head so I'll call you head.]
Seong Jihan, who sent a message to Karlein, the Dead Star Constellation, to ask about the Sun King,
'…Still chaotic as ever.'
Frowned after seeing the reply.
If it wasn't for the Sun King matter, he wouldn't have contacted him at all.
However, among Seong Jihan's acquaintances, there was no one else who knew about the Sun King.
"I wanted to ask a bit about the Sun King."
[The Sun King? Why him? Come to think of it, you received him as your sponsoring constellation, right? What did he say? Ah, is he trying to fight in this tournament? Hey, that's great. How about merging with me? The Sun King is still hard to deal with, you know.]
No, if he said one thing here, how many things is he saying over there?
Seong Jihan saw Karlein's messages popping up and wanted to close the message window.
'I should quickly ask what I need to and end the communication.'
With that thought, he asked straightforwardly.
"Forget about merging, that Sun King bastard… Why is he so obsessed with Martial God?"
[The Sun King is obsessed with Martial God?]
"Yeah. Ever since I said the Wandering Martial God's head is the same as the Dragon Lord's, he's been asking me to tell him the coordinates of where Martial God is. If he finds out where Martial God is, he seems like he won't even participate in the tournament."
[He won't participate in the tournament where the Red Hand is the prize… What are you talking about, Head? Does that make sense?]
"Should I show you the messages?"
[No no, I can't believe it at all.]
Seong Jihan showed the messages he received from the Sun King to Karlein, who couldn't easily believe his words.
[Wow, it's true… But what's this solar core?]
"It seems to be an item where if I take it out of the inventory and place it outside, the Sun King descends."
[What? Really? Give it to me!]
"No, I have to use this for something else."
[Gasp. Is that all our relationship amounts to?]
"Regardless of what you think, our relationship is less than that."
[Tsk… Fine. Even if I summon the Sun King now, I'll just become dust to him anyway. I'll specially hold back for the sake of my head.]
Karlein, who had been chasing the Sun King for a long time, saying he would kill him, seemed to have a hard time in a head-on match after all.
When Seong Jihan thought so while seeing Karlein give up the solar core more easily than expected,
[Martial God and the Sun King… After knowing the head is the same as the Dragon Lord's, he tried to find Martial God… Hmm. Wait a moment. I'll go access one locked memory and come back.]
"Locked?"
[Yeah. If I release all the memories, I'll end up submitting to the Sun King. Light will enter the slave's engraving.]
Karlein said so and didn't send a message for a while.
'Slave's engraving…'
Seong Jihan recalled the engraving Karlein had shown him before.
When he was in the form of a demigod, not his original skull head.
The letters written from under the eyes to the chin.
[This is the Sun King's property.]
[Only he can own it.]
[Those who covet it, will have their three generations annihilated.]
He thought the brand was just a trace.
If he accesses the memories, light enters there?
'If even Karlein, who became an 8th level constellation, is like that, the Sun King's power is stronger than I thought.'
The Dragon Lord, who is also a great constellation, was completely countered in stats, so it seemed he could handle it if he attacked with the great constellation's inherent power.
The Sun King was still ambiguous to evaluate since he had never properly faced him.
'I wonder if the disciple is stronger than the Administrator's pet.'
While Seong Jihan was comparing the two great constellations like that,
[Hey, jackpot. I saw it. That head!]
A message arrived from Karlein, who seemed to have read the memory.
* * *
"Where did you see it? The Head."
[Hoho, telling you with just words is too much, isn't it? 20% of the sealed brand is now sparkling because of finding this memory~]
"…What do you want?"
He probably won't just tell him.
Seong Jihan frowned at Karlein's message and asked back.
Was he going to tell him to be his head again?
However,
[Let me know too if you find out the location of Tuseong.]
"Tuseong?"
What he wanted wasn't a big deal from Seong Jihan's perspective.
[Yeah, if the Sun King invades there, I'm planning to aim for his back.]
"A lot of monsters live there."
[Hehe, are you worried about me, Head? It's okay. I'm undead, you know. Even if I die, I won't die.]
"Well, that's true. I'll let you know right away if I find out the location."
As Seong Jihan readily accepted the proposal,
Karlein began to speak in earnest.
[Alright. Then what did I see in my memory… You said Martial God had the Dragon Lord's snake head, right?]
"Yeah."
[I saw that. When I was the Sun King's slave, working as his assistant. I grew the Dragon Lord's body.]
"You grew the Dragon Lord's body?"
[Yeah. The Sun King got some of the Dragon Lord's body tissue from somewhere, and told me to create the Dragon Lord's body with it.]
"…Is that possible with just a part of the body?"
[It's normally impossible~ But who am I? After countless failures… I couldn't replicate the entire body, but I managed to replicate the core, the dragon's head.]
What kind of experiments were these guys doing?
Seong Jihan looked at Karlein's message with a dumbfounded expression, but
[And the Sun King took that created head and transplanted it onto his son's head.]
"…What? Son?"
His eyes widened at the message that followed.
This was something he never even thought of.
"Martial God is the Sun King's son??"
[Well, even if he's called a son, to the Sun King, he's just a replaceable part.]
"Replaceable part…"
[The Sun King kept replacing his body with his sons' and grew stronger.]
Does the Sun King himself take over his son's body?
[In my memory, the transplant of the Dragon Lord's head failed. They did transplant the head, but the 17777th son died. So that kid was disposed of.]
"…What's with that number?"
[17777? I remember it vividly because the numbering had 7 four times.]
"No, in the first place, why does he have so many sons?"
[I told you the Sun King replaced his body with one of his sons, right? To replace with the best performing body, you have to have a lot of children, don't you? So he did all sorts of things to have children with various races.]
Anyway, there aren't many normal ones in the BattleNet world.
Around the time Seong Jihan was getting a bit sick of the Sun King's actions,
[Anyway, when the 17777th son died, the Sun King said several times, 'It's a shame to have to throw away such a powerful body'… But I guess that guy survived and became Martial God?]
"But is that guy really Martial God? He could have transplanted the Dragon Lord's head again later."
[I wonder? Even replicating the snake head that time was barely successful… And when my slave engraving weakened later, I broke the brainwashing and blew up the lab. The Dragon Lord's cell tissue probably disappeared with it then? Kekeke.]
He hit the back of the head hard at the end of his slave life.
Seong Jihan looked at the message of the delighted Karlein and asked back.
"Then is the reason the Sun King is looking for Martial God also to replace his body?"
[Uh… Probably, right?]
"But Martial God is also quite powerful, will the Sun King be able to do it?"
[Who knows? From the Sun King's perspective, he probably sees it as a possibility? He places a much stronger prohibition on his sons than my slave brand. It seems difficult to escape that prohibition unless you're an Administrator.]
"Hmm…"
Seong Jihan fell into deep thought.
Thanks to Karlein, he roughly understood why the Sun King was so desperate to find Martial God.
However, there was still a question that remained unresolved.
"Still, is replacing Martial God's body more important than the Red Administrator's hand? To the point of giving up the tournament. It's not easy to understand."
[Well… The Sun King did really regret it when the 17777th son died. But I don't know if there's something more important than the hand either.]
"I see…"
If he threw the solar core to Tuseong to keep Martial God in check,
Will a monster be born with the Sun King and Martial God combined as he intended?
'Martial God isn't a fool, so he must have prepared for it.'
That cautious guy wouldn't have let his guard down regarding the Sun King's risk.
Plus, Martial God has the Dongbang Sak as his sword, so he'll probably send Dongbang Sak to deal with the Sun King.
'Still, there are many variables, so I'll have to see the situation while dropping the solar core on Tuseong.'
While Seong Jihan was weighing the use of the solar core one by one,
Karlein sent a farewell message.
[Then I'll go seal the 20% of the brand again for now. Let me know later if you find out the location of Tuseong~]
"Ah, but do you know how to see the coordinates there?"
[Planet coordinates? You can probably find it using BPS?]
"What's BPS? Is it like GPS?"
[GPS? What's that? Ah, but you probably can't find Tuseong with a regular BPS. Martial God will try to conceal the location. Hmm… Alright. I'll try to prepare an item.]
"Okay."
With that, Seong Jihan ended his communication with Karlein.
'This communication… was a one-sided gain for me.'
Because he received information about the relationship between the Sun King and Martial God, and also agreed to receive an item to figure out the coordinates of Tuseong.
Of course, it wasn't certain yet whether Martial God was really the Sun King's 17777th son as Karlein said.
But he could understand why the Sun King was showing so much interest in Martial God and chasing after him.
'But how do I actually find out the location of Tuseong…?'
He did say he would let him know, but
In the end, Seong Jihan himself didn't know how to go there either.
Gilgamesh had already been caught over there, so there was no way he would tell him.
'If only I could contact Ashoka, I would ask him to let me know… But there's no communication channel with him.'
For now, I might have to see how things go until the ban is lifted over there.
Seong Jihan thought so and organized the information he had obtained so far.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Tuseong,
"My lord, the preparations are all done."
[I see.]
Preparations for summoning the Tower of Babel to Earth were being completed.
[Gilgamesh, contact Seong Jihan. Tell him the tower will be summoned soon.]
"…Understood."
Gilgamesh, who had already been found out, now openly took out his cell phone.
Watching him write the message, Martial God's eyes emitted a red light.
'I tried not to venture again…'
Ignoring the system's ban and summoning the Tower of Babel to Earth.
This was a great adventurous move for Martial God.
He had made up his mind never to take such a risky gamble again after entering infinite regression.
Things had come this far because of a lowly human he never thought would become a variable.
'…Nevertheless, I will succeed this time as well.'
Martial God's eyes turned upward.
Beyond the sky of Tuseong where the Constellations' relics were floating like stars.
Far away, the sun was shining brilliantly.
'Yes… Like when I escaped from there.'
As he gazed at the sun, he was now recalling a distant past.
When he was 'created'.