Chapter 131

'Not having Takeda here is a bit uncomfortable,' Shizuru, who was in Akari's body, frowned as she unpacked her things.

Unfortunately, Takeda was under the South Korean government's custody and fighting a legal battle.

Click-

Her hands suddenly halted while she was organizing her luggage, and her frown deepened.

"This again…"

She never experienced issues when she turned normal people into alter egos. Maybe it was because she'd used a Diamond player as the base, but she was sometimes losing control over her body. The phenomenon worsened as she moved further away from Tokyo, where her main body was.

'Akari's ego is gone… But I should still be careful, just in case.'

Maybe she should have just sent the Sword King to secretly kidnap his daughter. She regretted not having done that for a moment but soon returned to her senses.

'No, it would have been very bad if the Enchantment wore off while he was here.'

The biggest headache when it came to Enchanting the Sword King was his paternal affection. He liked women way too much, so approaching him was the easy part.

'Half of the Enchantment wore off whenever he went back home and saw his daughter's face.'

Thanks to her persistent effort, she'd managed to properly Enchant him, and the issues that arose whenever he was around Sae-ah made her believe it was best to leave her in Korea. There was no telling what sort of trouble he would cause if the Enchantment broke in Japan, after all.

'I'll have to limit their contact if I bring her back to Japan.' It would probably work out if she had Sae-ah stay in a safe house far from Tokyo.

She set up her laptop and thought more about Sae-ah.

'She often goes to the underground supermarket to buy things.'

JiHan was a recluse in comparison to his niece, who usually went out between 10 and 11 in the morning to buy side dishes.

'That's when I'll have to be at the supermarket.'

The place wasn't small, so bumping into Sae-ah like she had with Baron would be a bit difficult. Unlike JiHan and Baron, though, just making eye contact with Sae-ah would probably be enough.

'As for how I'll get back to Japan…'

She had the plan roughly figured out and just needed to secure a route back to Japan. As she began to type on her laptop…

Click-

One of her fingers stopped moving, and she bit her lips.

"I'll have to return quickly…"

The alter ego wasn't responding well, so she probably couldn't use it so far away for much longer.

* * *

The day after the survival game ended…

'It's too bad the map didn't come back up right away.'

JiHan felt a bit disappointed as he cleared the next invade-type map. He wanted to obtain the World Tree's leaf from his body as quickly as possible, but since the four game modes were randomly assigned, it was pretty rare to get the same one consecutively.

'I'm level 77…'

At least he was still leveling up at a dazzling speed. In fact, it was going up once every day. He thought he might even be able to participate in that month's promotion match at that rate.

'The problem is Martial Soul.'

He'd obtained Martial Soul at level 72 and invested all of his stat points to get it to 104, but the issue was that it didn't increase to 105 after he leveled up and put another stat point into it.

'It's similar to when I tried to raise Martial Power in my previous life.'

Back then, he'd needed to train the stat properly to get it to increase. Since he was experiencing the same kind of thing with Martial Soul…

'I was expecting this…'

It had been several days since he obtained it, but he still wasn't able to use it to its full potential.

Martial Power and Force weren't easy to control, but Martial Soul was much more advanced. He'd naturally expected to hit a barrier of sorts.

'It happened much faster than I thought it would.'

Was training the only answer? He swallowed his disappointment and entered the training room.

"Ugh…" He also saw Sae-ah working out in the corner. Though she'd gotten Grit, she never stopped her training.

She put down her barbell when she saw him enter and said, "Haa… I'm dying… Uncle, have you finished preparing things for tomorrow's training camp?"

"It's near our house. What would I need to prepare?"

"You need to pack clothes at least. You're staying overnight, after all."

"It's fine. I just need to throw some clothes into a bag."

"Hmm… Should I help you pack?" she asked.

"Geez. Am I a child?"

The role of niece and uncle seemed to have been reversed.

Sae-ah cautiously brought up the main topic.

"Uncle… Can I invite the others over while you're absent?"

"The others? Who are you talking about?"

"HaYeon and GaYeong!"

"When did you get so close to them?"

"I got close to GaYeong through training because she's also an avid gymgoer. As for HaYeon, it's easy to talk with her…"

She thought it was easy to talk with HaYeon?

JiHan's expression stiffened. "Don't tell me you've been learning gambling from HaYeon."

"N-no! Uncle, aren't you thinking too negatively of her? She might be horrible at predicting Battle Net outcomes… but she's capable and smart!"

"Don't think of gambling. You've already won a lot, after all."

"Okay, I won't, I won't! I've been busy growing my own channel."

JiHan frowned at Sae-ah as she frantically waved her hands.

Something seemed fishy…

"Well… It's fine for them to come over. They're welcome."

"Really? Okay, hehe."

"Now that I think about it, though, you technically own the place. You don't need my permission."

"Ah, is that so? Still, I thought I needed to ask permission first."

'Ariel, listen for gambling conversations between Sae-ah and HaYeon while I'm away.'

[Master, don't you trust Sae-ah?]

'She's explaining too much, so it's fishy.'

[Understood.]

The entire conversation was internal, so Sae-ah didn't hear.

"Okay, I'll go and do some shopping now that I have your permission," she said.

"Okay."

"I'll also buy some alcohol…"

"You're already an adult, so go ahead."

"Right? Hehe."

Sae-ah left the training room with a beaming smile on her face. JiHan chuckled in disbelief. Was it really that exciting?

'Well, she used to invite a lot of friends over, but she hasn't had the chance lately.'

All of her friends had vanished after the Sword King massacred the Korean team on August 15th.

Then, as JiHan's popularity rose, those so-called 'friends' tried to contact her again, but she decisively turned them away.

'It's better to have no friends than to keep people like that around.'

The two people she'd recently gotten close to in the guild were also good people, so JiHan hoped they'd form a good relationship.

But…

'Ariel. You MUST watch for gambling.'

[I get it!]

'HaYeon's the problem. Keep an eye on her.'

[Aren't you being too wary of her? Why give her such a heavy responsibility as guild master?]

'Gambling is her only problem. She's very capable besides that.'

[Should I start watching her now?]

'Now?'

[Something could come up while they're shopping.]

'Isn't that going too far? I think it might be too much of an invasion of privacy.'

[You never know. If it isn't about gambling, I just don't have to report it.]

'Well… Then I guess it's okay.' JiHan nodded after pondering it for a moment.

If his niece became a gambling addict due to her friendships, then he wouldn't be able to face his sister in the afterlife.

'I have to put the brakes on it now.'

He sent Ariel to follow Sae-ah in secret.

* * *

= Player JiHan's going to enter the Battle Net Center tomorrow. The national team's coach, Mr. No YeongJun, said that JiHan was amazing and that he'd find a suitable role for him during the camp.

Slurp-!

Shizuru watched the news while eating instant noodles. All of the Korean networks were covering JiHan's entry into the Battle Net Center.

'I think his popularity should be comparable to the Sword King's now.'

The mainstream media making a fuss over one player entering the Battle Net Center was too much, even considering the popularity of Battle Net. She felt that JiHan's status in South Korea had risen since she'd last been there.

"What if I take him in this situation…?"

She grinned. In reality, she didn't have any particular feelings toward South Korea as a country. She'd even been a fan of Korean idols at one point and become proficient in Korean, but…

"I don't know why everyone I want comes from here."

Outstanding players kept emerging from Korea, so what could she do?

Japan's Warriors were deemed the country's weakness, but the Sword King and JiHan could fix that. If they worked together on the Japanese team, then they might even be able to steamroll the World Champions League.

'Sae-ah also seems to be worthy of raising.' She imagined the sight of Japanese being spoken on the Battle Net's channel 0. When that day arrived, all of her hardships would be worth the sacrifice.

'Leaving that aside… JiHan will be gone starting from tomorrow?'

She threw the empty noodle container into the sink and began to think. There was no way he'd take the grown-up Sae-ah to the training camp, right?

'If Sae-ah's left alone… The training camp should be the perfect opportunity.'

She decided not to miss her chance and reviewed the underground supermarket's layout again. After that, she went down to the place itself.

'Huh?'

She almost instantly encountered Sae-ah there.

"Unni~ Which drink should I buy? Eh, that much?" Sae-ah said into her phone as she pushed around a cart filled with food and many varieties of alcohol she'd tossed in.

"Ah… Is alcohol essential for the analysis lecture? Can you even do that after drinking?"

She seemed to be in a good mood, and Shizuru smiled when she saw her.

'My daughter~ From now on, I'll make you feel even better.'

In her head, the girl was pretty much her daughter already. Shizuru pushed her cart over to the girl. Despite thinking that she'd only need to make eye contact earlier, it was more a figure of speech. She had to touch the target for 'Edit' to take effect.

"The beer is…"

Shizuru pretended to be trying to pick up the beer behind Sae-ah and…

"Ah."

She purposefully stumbled and gently brushed against Sae-ah's arm. If anyone was watching, it'd look like a simple bout of clumsiness.

'Too easy.'

She was able to activate her Gift, and Sae-ah's status window appeared.

She quickly added Enchantment and Obedience.

'Now then… Should I try giving her an order?' She thought.

BZZT…!

Lightning surged from the crown-shaped symbol on Sae-ah's hand.

[The Lightning Seal resists mental contamination.]

[Enchantment has failed.]

[Obedience has failed.]

'Huh? What?' Shizuru frowned. 'What's 'Lightning Seal' and why is it allowing her to resist?'

"Huh…? You… " Sae-ah flinched and looked at her.

'This won't do.' Shizuru tried to touch her arm again. If Enchantment and Obedience failed, she just had to keep trying until they worked.

Swoosh-

Her attempt was stopped by a black hand rising from the ground.

[You… What do you want?]

Ariel sprang up from the floor.