Chapter 490

A few days later.

[Huh, Blue… What kind of ability is it, to have taken such deep roots in Dongbang Sak?]

The Martial God sighed as he observed the rapid changes in Martial Soul.

The moment he swallowed Dongbang Sak to eliminate Blue, Dongbang Sak's Martial Soul decreased beyond what he could tolerate.

And in the process of restoring it, those blue light swords always appeared one by one.

'I thought it might be external interference, but there was no change when I just swallowed him…'

The changes in Dongbang Sak were so drastic that,

The Martial God had conducted various tests to see if there was any external influence.

But Dongbang Sak's power only decreased when he tried to remove Blue.

At this point, he had to acknowledge that Blue was closely connected to Martial Soul.

[…After doing this ten times, it's not working.]

"…I'm sorry, Martial God."

[Enough. Any more would be a waste of power.]

The Martial God looked up at the sky.

The darkness that had sealed Tuseong was now gradually fading.

[The time is almost here, so maintain your full power. Use that power to uproot the World Tree and return.]

"Understood."

The Martial God's red eyes glowed as he watched Dongbang Sak bow his head.

'Afterwards, I must kill him for certain.'

Dongbang Sak, who had become closely connected to Blue, was truly a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

He'll use him this one last time, then dispose of him.

The Martial God made this decision and waited for the seal to break.

Then,

"Martial God. If… Seong Jihan comes to stop us, how should we deal with that?"

[The Blue Administrator?]

"Yes."

[Why would he come to stop us? The red World Tree is mine. I'm just retrieving my property from Earth.]

The Martial God retorted as if he didn't understand.

"Regardless, Earth is his domain. I asked because he might respond if we invade."

[Hmm… That could be possible. Then politely ask for his understanding, saying we're just coming to retrieve one item.]

"Politely ask for understanding, you say?"

[Yes. There's no need to clash with him unnecessarily.]

He truly didn't want to engage in conflict with Seong Jihan.

The Martial God sincerely thought this.

'There are so many targets to conquer in the universe…'

From the perspective of the Martial God, who could now engage in external activities, appetizing planets were scattered everywhere.

Not only the dragon race that had lost the Dragon Lord,

But there were also many races struggling in the Silver and Gold leagues without proper leaders.

And the Martial God had the power to conquer them alone.

'There's no need to waste power fighting an Administrator.'

Beasts fighting each other would only result in mutual injury.

The wise decision was to ignore each other and focus on prey.

So the Martial God ordered that if Seong Jihan noticed, they should politely ask for his understanding.

"But… if he still blocks us, what should we do then?"

[Why would he block us? I really don't understand. We'll politely request to retrieve my property and withdraw quietly, so why?]

"…The Administrator's hometown is also near the World Tree. If we uproot it, won't his land be affected too?"

[Hometown… Would he still cling to such things after becoming an Administrator?]

"Just in case… I want to know how to act."

The Martial God's red eyes flashed as he looked down at Dongbang Sak.

Seeing him talk back like this, it seemed he was certain Seong Jihan would interfere.

It was a situation the Martial God couldn't comprehend at all.

[…If such a situation arises, I'll try to persuade him myself.]

"Understood."

The Martial God said this, but even then, he doubted Seong Jihan would actually act that way.

* * *

In the training room of the penthouse.

'It's disappointing that it ended like this.'

Seong Jihan couldn't hide his disappointment as he watched the Martial God stop controlling Dongbang Sak's power.

'I lowered Martial Soul by 10 ten times, so I used a total of 50,000 Administrator authority.'

Seong Jihan had used 25% of what he received from the Green Administrator for ability control.

But he didn't regret this at all.

That's because,

[Stat 'Blue' and Martial Soul now have a clear connection point.]

[Stat 'Blue' grade rises to S rank.]

The grade of stat Blue had risen from A to S.

'Originally it would have required 20 million authority… but I upgraded it with just 50,000.'

Proxy training through Dongbang Sak.

This effect was tremendous.

In the process of him recovering the reduced Martial Soul,

The connection point between stat Blue and Martial Soul always developed anew.

Of course, for Dongbang Sak, this ability's connection was reset each time as the distortion decreased.

But Seong Jihan, as the Blue Administrator, could retain and use this development fully.

'Now I can definitely fight properly.'

Zzzzing…

Seong Jihan replayed the video of Dongbang Sak fighting the Red Administrator.

Last time he watched it, he wondered how he could ever beat that old man.

But now he felt he could somewhat contend with him.

As the fusion of Blue and Martial Soul deepened, the two had become almost one.

His power was clearly much different compared to when he first watched the video.

'It's all thanks to Dongbang Sak.'

Expressing gratitude to Dongbang Sak who had trained Blue in his stead,

Seong Jihan was analyzing him in the video once again.

At that moment,

"Uncle~ You were here. Did I get MVP again today?"

Yoon Seah entered the training room with a bright expression.

"MVP?"

"Yeah, we had a Space League match today. Didn't you watch?"

"I haven't had time to pay attention to that lately. Isn't humanity doing well anyway?"

"Right. Because the world's #1 ranked Yoon Seah is here!"

Yoon Seah, who had risen to world rank 1 after Seong Jihan became an Administrator.

She couldn't completely fill the void left by Seong Jihan in humanity's representative team.

But she was leading the team to victory with her powerful strength.

"So, you know. I think my Late Bloomer might rank up again… Oh, but Uncle. Are you watching this video again? I thought this old man's fighting was on a different level, so it wasn't helpful as reference…"

"Ah, I might have to fight Dongbang Sak soon."

"What, really? Didn't the Martial God say he wouldn't invade?"

"Well, strictly speaking, he's not coming to invade."

Their goal was merely to take the World Tree.

Seong Jihan had learned through spying on Tuseong that the Martial God truly had no intention of fighting him.

'If uprooting the World Tree had no side effects, I would have just given it to them.'

But unfortunately, it was under the West Sea.

And he learned that uprooting it would cause an earthquake that would split Seoul, and The Great Golems would emerge from there.

He couldn't just let them uproot it.

"Ugh… The future Mom saw. That's it."

At Seong Jihan's explanation, Yoon Seah showed a worried expression, seeming to have heard something from Seong Jiah.

"Yeah, we have to stop it."

"Uncle, should I help too?"

"You? You'd be cut down in 1 second. Sorry, but you'd only be a hindrance."

"Ugh… Even as the world's #1 ranked, I'm completely useless?"

"Against Dongbang Sak, yes."

Seong Jihan said this while pointing at the video he was watching.

It showed Dongbang Sak piercing through the Red Administrator's barrier.

"…I see. Even an Administrator ended up like that. It would be tough even if my Late Bloomer rank went up from SSS."

"Your Late Bloomer rank can go up from there?"

Come to think of it, she did mention earlier that her rank might go up again.

Seong Jihan looked at Yoon Seah with renewed surprise.

'This Late Bloomer gift is completely broken.'

SSS rank was already considered a huge potential, but

It could grow even beyond that?

Did that mean it becomes an EX-rank gift?

"Well… Originally it was thought to be impossible because you needed to reach world rank 1 and get 5 MVPs in the Space League. Since you were growing at super-high speed, Uncle."

"But it became possible because I stepped away as an Administrator?"

"Yeah. I immediately inherited the world rank 1, and with today's MVP, I cleared the 5 MVP condition too. So I came to the training room to try ranking up."

"Try ranking it up. I'm curious to see how far it goes."

"Okay."

At Seong Jihan's words, Yoon Seah immediately raised her Late Bloomer rank.

Then,

Whoosh…!

Behind her, a strong void energy intensely flared up.

'At this level… it's more powerful than expected.'

Seong Jihan's eyes shone as he observed the power she was emitting.

Although Yoon Seah was humanity's rank 1, she was still just a player.

But the power she was emitting now was similar to what a lower-level Constellation might show.

Of course,

'Still, it doesn't change the fact that Dongbang Sak would cut her down in 1 second.'

No matter how much stronger she'd become, it wasn't enough to bring her to fight Dongbang Sak.

The opponent was a monster who could easily sweep away even high-level Constellations.

It was better for Yoon Seah to stay safely at home.

"Oh… It says I've become a 'Great Vessel of the Void'. My gift changed to 'Great Vessel of the Void' too. EX-rank!"

"So Late Bloomer has finally completed. But why the void… Why that direction?"

"Probably because I've been handling void energy, right?"

Yoon Seah answered while curiously tapping her system window here and there.

As she was examining the new abilities she had gained,

"Uncle, can I try absorbing some of the void from your face?"

"There's such a function?"

"Yeah, it's in the characteristics of the Great Vessel of the Void. I'm curious how it works."

She made a request to Seong Jihan.

"Sure, go ahead. But don't absorb too much."

The more void removed from his face the better, but right now he needed it for fighting Dongbang Sak.

Seong Jihan answered and pointed to his face with his finger.

"Okay. Is this how I do it…?"

Yoon Seah brought her hand closer with an uncertain expression.

A faint purple smoke seemed to rise from her hand.

Whoosh…!

The void began to be sucked from Seong Jihan's face.

"This seems to be absorbing more than I thought?"

"Oh. Wh-what, a lot is coming in. I'll stop!"

As Yoon Seah hastily pulled her hand away, a message appeared before Seong Jihan's eyes.

[Stat 'Void' decreases by 5.]

The void decreased by 5 just from her touching it.

'Great Vessel of the Void… Its absorption power is better than expected.'

Was this worthy of being called an EX-rank characteristic?

As Seong Jihan was thinking this,

"Oh, Uncle. Your face looks better? The cracks have filled in!"

Yoon Seah exclaimed in surprise, pointing at his face.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Look in the mirror!"

"Oh… It's true."

Seong Jihan looked at his face in the mirror in the training room.

"…Where?"

He tilted his head in confusion.

The face reflected in the mirror looked the same as usual.

However,

"No, look. Here, here. The cracks along your jawline have decreased, right?"

Yoon Seah seemed to see a difference.

She precisely pointed out Seong Jihan's jaw.

"Ah, you're right. It has decreased a little."

A change so subtle that even he had trouble noticing it.

But it was clear that the cracks on his face had improved.

'Even when I used the Taiji Sword and consumed void, these cracks didn't heal…'

The Great Vessel of the Void that Yoon Seah had just obtained.

This gift's performance was even better than expected.

'This… The Green Administrator would covet this if he knew.'

The Green Administrator, who had great interest in eliminating the void.

If she learned how effective the Great Vessel of the Void was, he might set his eyes on Earth.

This must be kept secret no matter what.

"Hey, you absolutely must not tell anyone about this."

"R-really? I was going to brag about it on BattleTube…"

"Even the permanent administrators are interested in eliminating the void. If this fact gets out, you might get kidnapped."

"Ah… I understand. I'll keep my mouth shut tight."

Yoon Seah nodded as Seong Jihan earnestly implored her.

"Good. And… congratulations on completing your vessel."

"Hehe, this is all thanks to you becoming an Administrator, Uncle. Thank you."

She smiled brightly, returning the congratulations.

At that moment,

Zzzzing…

Above Yoon Seah's head, a purple haze rose up.

It soon coalesced, forming a single shape.

'…That's.'

Something Seong Jihan had seen many times before.

'The hat the Arena Owner used to wear.'

A black fedora.