Chapter 142

JiHan frowned when he saw the message. 'Can Battle Net only detect abnormalities through active streams?'

It was hard to believe that the seemingly all-powerful Battle Net would have such a glaring flaw.

Swoosh-

Meanwhile, the elf quickly regenerated her arm and gave him an astonished look. "H-how did you…?"

"It's my secret," he said.

Paf-!

He summoned Eclipse and slashed the elf's body. Soon after, her innards became visible as her beautiful visage fell to the floor in pieces.

- Wow, he's also merciless against elves.

- For real. Is he an eunuch? How could he not hesitate for even a second?

- Why would he have to be an eunuch? Shouldn't you mercilessly defeat your enemies?

- The opponent's too much of a goddess for that ㅜㅜㅜㅜ

The elf's beauty was comparable to Shizuru's, so they wondered how he could be so brutal.

Wriggle… Wriggle—

The viewers were even more shocked when segments of the elf's cut-apart body squirmed and began to regenerate.

- ??? She's regenerating from that?

- Can I just turn off the screen? This is disgusting.

- Ah, I was eating ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

- Why doesn't Battle Net have a gore filter effect?

[What a disgusting cockroach… Should we continue to stomp it out of existence?] Ariel asked.

'No, wait… I think the viewers should see this.'

He thought it would be a great opportunity to show everyone an elf's true nature.

"You…" The elf said with a neutral expression on her face after she regenerated enough to speak. "You are more than a superior species."

Wriggle… Wriggle—

The scattered droplets of her blood and innards flew toward him.

[Be careful! An elf's flesh is a weapon in itself!]

'I know.'

He was more aware than anyone just how deadly elves were, and he swung his sword.

Nameless Divine Arts Three Talents Technique: Mount Tai Crush.

Swoosh—!

The flying fragments of the elf's body split apart and atomized into dust without a trace. His cut continued downward into the parts on the floor and vaporized them as well, leaving only her long ears behind.

Wriggle… Wriggle—

She quickly regenerated from those small pieces of flesh, and her face became visible again in less than 10 seconds.

"How are you only in Gold?" the elf calmly asked.

- What the fuck? Hahaha.

- Is this real?

- An elf can regenerate from only a fragment of their body??

- Even a cockroach would cry if it saw this.

- I immediately took down my elf poster; I'm scared she might appear in my dreams.

- Where did you buy the poster?

- I made it myself…

Maybe it was due to the grotesqueness of the regenerative process, but even the men who'd been charmed by her beauty started to see her as a monster.

"Are you Earth's constellation candidate?" she asked in a blunt tone. "What's your name?" Her voice was much colder and more mechanical than before.

"There's no way I'd tell you," he said.

The elf looked at the wind spirit and said, "The '5th' commands you to scan him."

A light shone from the spirit's lenses.

- Scanning ID…

- Scan—

Paf!

The lenses burst, and the spirit vanished into thin air.

Paf! Paf!

Explosions rocked the area from every direction as the entire space faced deletion.

"So Battle Net detected our interference…" The elf said before glancing at the giant test tubes nearby. "The '5th' commands you to self-destruct."

Paf!

Following her orders, the tubes exploded, and amalgamations emerged from them one by one that seemed to have been formed from a mish-mash of creatures. Each looked more horrific than the flesh golems the viewers were already familiar with.

- Ah, I was eating ㅠㅠ Please, stop ㅠㅠ

- How many eyes does it have? 17? Eww…

- I already threw up once, lol. This is too much.

- Fuck. Our elf goddess does things like this?

- You still call her a goddess? Go ahead and rewatch her regeneration process and call her that again.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the horrific spectacle.

Paf—!

Following her self-destruct command, the creatures swelled and exploded in a chain reaction, sending gore flying in all directions. The sight was too gruesome to properly describe, and an eyeball even rolled over toward JiHan's foot.

Thump—!

JiHan repelled the gore before any of it could touch him. "I see the elves were trying to combine all sorts of creatures."

[Huh… Master, you seem calmer than I thought.]

"Why would I be surprised?" he asked.

He'd already seen humanity go extinct once, so a few mashed-together creatures weren't enough to surprise him, especially since he already knew the true nature of the elves. To him, it was just another thing the crazy bastards had cooked up.

Paf! Paf—!

Before the area completely collapsed…

[Stopping Battle Tube broadcast.]

[The game has been paused.]

[Collecting evidence…]

Swoosh—

The pure-white lab with the test tubes was instantly disassembled, and the exploding life forms were also sucked away. All JiHan saw in the aftermath was…

'Space…?'

He floated alone in a dark space with the stars visible in the far distance.

[The World Tree Alliance's Research Ship has been detected and will be disassembled.]

[Collecting evidence…]

A research ship? Did that mean he'd been on board an elf spaceship? Gravity hadn't felt any different.

He silently waited to see what would happen next.

[Filed a complaint against the 'Green Administrator'…]

[The 'Green Administrator' has partially acknowledged their illegal act.]

[A penalty has been imposed on the 'World Tree Alliance'…]

'Green Administrator? Are they somehow related to the World Tree Alliance?'

He couldn't quite understand what was going on, but he knew he had to memorize anything he could that was related to the World Tree Alliance.

[The World Tree Alliance has lost '1' right to participate in the Space League.]

'Oh.'

He thought of his previous life and of how the World Tree Alliance had ranked 1st-5th in the Space League. That being the case, losing one of their places was a big deal.

Still, he couldn't help but feel disappointed. "Losing a participation right?" he asked. "Isn't that too light of a punishment?"

[The crime is too minor to deprive additional rights.]

Fortunately, Battle Net imposed an additional penalty.

[The 'survival' map 'Experimental Zone' has been permanently removed.]

['Green Administrator' will lose their right to create game maps for the next 100 years.]

The 'Administrator' had the right to create maps? JiHan frowned. It was good that more penalties were being imposed on the 'Green Administrator', but that raised another concern.

'It seems like the World Tree Alliance has a powerful backer…'

The World Tree Alliance was like an impassable wall in his previous life, and it seemed like they had a connection to something with high-level system access.

'I have to get stronger.'

He'd already proven his strength on Earth, but he was still quite weak compared to many other beings in the universe. Not only was he unable to beat the Wandering Martial God; he couldn't even beat his servant, Dongfang Shuo.

Sure, he'd managed to get one of the World Tree Alliance's planets removed from the Space League, but there were still four left.

'I need Martial Soul to get even more powerful.'

[The Green Administrator has sent an apology in the form of compensation. Would you like to accept it?]

[* Warning: Be cautious. The compensation might be a trap.]

Despite the warning, he accepted the compensation so he could better assess the situation.

[Seed of Life]

Rank: SSS

- A seed imbued with the energy of life.

- Consuming it will increase your stat points by 10.

- Using this item might incur a side effect.

'What an insane effect.'

Something that could raise his stat point by 10? No wonder it was SSS-rank.

'Even if it has side effects, I can't give up a +10 increase.'

He took the Seed of Life from his inventory. It was shaped somewhat like an apple and gave off a brilliant light.

'Having Yuri analyze it before I consume it would be safer, but the side effects could affect the entire area, so it's better for me to eat it while I'm here in the middle of space.'

Crunch-

The instant he took a bite, the entire thing vanished as if he'd fully consumed it.

[You've absorbed the Seed of Life.]

[Your stats have been increased by 10.]

At first, it seemed like there'd be no side effects, but then he felt a foreign energy within his body. It was similar to the World Tree's leaf in nature and swiftly moved toward his head and heart.

'This would've been difficult to detect without Martial Soul.'

It was moving so discreetly that he would've had trouble sensing it before, but now he was able to control the energy completely.

He thought about eliminating the foreign energy before changing his mind.

'I should study it.'

Still, if it was just for research purposes, he didn't need to keep all of it; in the end, he dispelled more than 90% of the foreign energy.

Swoosh-!

Green energy rose from his chest, and a small seed flew away from him, dense with life force. If he weren't in space, it might've escaped and sprouted somewhere.

'Good thing I used it here. I shouldn't dispel any of this energy on Earth.'

Next, he looked at his information windows. 'Did I clear the quest?'

[You've cleared the epic quest with an above-standard rating and understood the essence of the map.]

"I definitely didn't understand the essence of the map…"

All he'd done was turn his stream on after the elf kidnapped him. With that, the situation had ended. Really, all he'd done was show his viewers the true nature of elves, and Battle Net had taken care of the rest.

[The creator of the World Tree Alliance, the 'Green Administrator', has been collecting data on each species with this map. During the data collection process, they abducted outstanding members of each species who'd exceeded their limits and imprisoned them in the Alliance's laboratory.]

Ziing-

A picture of a giant creature created through the combination of various races popped up in the system message.

'I would have ended up like that if I'd been caught.'

"Then, shouldn't the punishment be bigger?" he asked.

[Not necessarily. The 'Green Administrator' wishes to 'research life'. Collecting data through a game map isn't against the rules, but violating the safety of the Tutorial Season was a clear violation, which is why they were given a punishment.]

"Are you saying that, if this weren't the Tutorial Season, the Green Administrator wouldn't have been punished for kidnapping players?"

[Yes. That isn't the subject of punishment.]

JiHan found the answer ridiculous. 'Players went missing for all sorts of reasons after the Tutorial Season ended.'

He calmed down as he thought of his past life. The Battle Net he remembered after the Tutorial Season was like hell. If you died without enough GP, you would perish forever, and some even went mysteriously missing.

He couldn't let the devilish game continue. He had to somehow survive the Space League and escape Battle Net.

[You've cleared the quest and understood the essence of the map. More achievement points and rewards will be given.]

[Your level has increased by 5.]

[You've earned 300,000 achievement points.]

[You've obtained a leaf from the World Tree.]

'Another leaf?' JiHan looked at his inventory. Sure enough, he had an additional leaf next to the one he'd stolen earlier.

[Survival game 'Experimental Zone' is ending.]

[Survival games will be unavailable in the worldwide Gold League for the next 5 days while the map is being replaced.]

He decided to use one of the leaves immediately after returning.