***
***
Inside the Void Training Room,
‘Time’s almost up already.’
Seong Jihan was cognizant of the passing time and, with a hint of regret, set down his sword.
‘In such a short span, I’ve gained much.’
Facing Dongbang Sak in two matches during the Taiwan series, Seong Jihan acquired an immeasurable wealth of experience.
Dongbang Sak had dominated Seong Jihan with certainty.
The martial arts displayed by him had provided a foundation for Seong Jihan’s growth.
‘I may not yet grasp the Taiji Sword technique used by Dongbang Sak…’
The white sword, the Taiji Sword, summoned by Dongbang Sak—Seong Jihan had yet to understand the principle from which its overwhelming darkness emerged, martial soul notwithstanding.
Even without comprehending this, experiencing Dongbang Sak’s martial arts had led to significant advancements for Seong Jihan.
His proficiency in martial arts increased dramatically through the martial soul, partly incorporating elements of the Heavenly Demon’s martial arts into his own repertoire.
‘The martial soul’s stat itself has increased too.’
After reaching 200, the martial soul had been creeping up bit by bit.
Even when Seong Jihan managed to acquire the Fourth annihilating technique, the Ice Heaven Sword Rain, martial soul lingered in the 230s.
But since the matches against Dongbang Sak, his martial soul has touched 250.
Moreover, as he reiterated that battle in the training hall, his martial soul rose incrementally, now reaching 255.
‘Not to mention, I’ve started to unravel the Fifth Annihilation Technique, Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit.’
The wood-affiliated martial arts of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit, deduced to be related to the elves’ regenerative abilities. For Seong Jihan, the fight with Dongbang Sak wasn’t just about level gains—it came with considerable wisdom.
Only a minor regret persisted.
‘I didn’t get to fully witness Nine Halls Eight Trigrams.’
The formation Nine Halls Eight Trigrams, which Dongbang Sak followed after the second annihilating technique, Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods, was cut short.
Just as Nine Halls and Eight Trigrams transcended towards Seong Jihan, the Wandering Martial God hastily intervened and whisked him away.
What effect would have manifested had the Seal Code come into full effect?
‘It’s suspicious that the Martial God would intervene right when Dongbang Sak’s formation was about to manifest.’
Did the Martial God not want those special characters to appear again?
During the incident with Longinus’s Spear of Judgment, some Destruction Code showed up but the Martial God never intervened.
Seong Jihan pondered in the Void Training Room, analyzing the Nine Halls Eight Trigrams Formation, but with too little information at hand.
The abrupt end before Dongbang Sak could properly demonstrate it offered no further clues.
He decided to put aside his concerns about the Nine Halls Eight Trigrams Formation for now, shifting focus to other annihilating techniques.
‘I’m still unsure of the third’s operating principle… Could the fourth be some sort of detection code?’
Detection, sealing, destruction.
Seong Jihan sorted through keywords he could speculate so far, furrowing his brows.
Annihilating Techniques.
They were peculiar if referred to as martial arts.
Seong Jihan recalled Dongbang Sak’s words.
-In an era where humans and demons coexisted, a man was granted the mission to seal demons and gods, ushering in the age of man…
Dongbang Sak’s duty was to seal demons and gods.
The Annihilating Techniques seemed less like a unified body of martial arts and more a compilation of these duties and abilities.
-For Longinus, it was the killer of gods. For Pythia, it was a searcher of immortals…
Based on the three revealed, the pattern looked clear.
Finding ‘immortals’ that would register as bugs in the BattleNet, to seal and destroy them.
Were Annihilating Techniques inherent powers to locate and eliminate immortality, as their name implied?
Yet,
‘The last Annihilating Technique. Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit deviates from this pattern. Infinite regenerative ability exhibited by this power could be a potential target of the Annihilating Techniques themselves….’
Instinctively, Seong Jihan felt it.
Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit,
This ability wasn’t just about regenerative power akin to that of elves.
The enlightenment gained through being cleaved by Dongbang Sak was just a fraction of Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit’s power.
Its true nature remained cloaked in mystery.
‘If only I knew what Gilgamesh’s power was…’
Gilgamesh, suspected by Pythia of being the wandering Martial God.
There was not even a small hint regarding his power.
‘…Dwelling on this unsolvable issue serves no purpose now. Let’s depart.’
Seong Jihan concluded his thoughts and stepped out of the Void Training Room.
Ahead lay a two-week series of matches, notoriously dubbed by the Korean team as a ‘race through hell.’
The next day was slated for the second match, against China.
* * *
The match between Korea and Taiwan.
A game predicted to end one-sidedly, still created ripples among global BattleNet fans.
Especially,
The overwhelming martial prowess shown by Hu Wootaek had the blood of the Chinese boiling.
-Did everyone see that? This is the dignity of the people of the Central Plains.
-The Heavenly Demon himself descended upon Hu Wootaek… and summarily subdued the arrogant Seong Jihan.
-Combining the Taiji and Heavenly Demon’s martial arts. The constellation that descended upon Hu Wootaek is the true God of War.
With the People’s Association extending cooperative gestures towards Seong Jihan’s guild, Daegi Guild, recently,
The Chinese fans’ national pride was bruised.
And now, with the ominous surge of the Korean National Team threatening China’s regional league standings since 2021,
Watching Seong Jihan, the protagonist behind the scenes, getting blatantly overpowered by Dongbang Sak in the second and third games brought them catharsis.
And the constellation who had pressed Dongbang Sak employed the Taiji and Heavenly Demon’s martial arts.
For the Chinese, venerating that constellation as a God of war seemed anything but excessive.
-Why are they boasting about the constellation being powerful? LOL
-Seriously, it’s not their descendant, so why are they creating such a big deal?
-Ah… But it’s not going to be another constellation’s descent like the last time, right?
-You see the pattern? When Seong Jihan isn’t banned, you have to start wondering, ‘Oh, is another constellation descending today or what?’ ??
While Korean fans joked about the fuss when the descended constellation was on the Taiwan side, they were also worried.
What if a constellation descended again during the match with China?
Following bouts with Russia, Japan, and now Taiwan,
It’s been strange; in games where Seong Jihan wasn’t banned, irregular players seemed to shine.
-But we’ve won most of the matches, haven’t we?
-Yes, and that’s why we’re joint first place.
-But China is strong, so…
-If they add a constellation to their roster, it could be tough…
Due to recent matches, Seong Jihan’s ban status became a litmus test for whether a constellar irregular would join the match with China.
And then,
=Ah… the Chinese coach bans Seong Jihan!
=There’s no constellation on their side this time!
=It’s peculiar. You’d think losing Seong Jihan to a ban would be disappointing, but strangely, I feel relieved.
=No doubt about it. The last match with Taiwan was quite shocking!
Upon revealing Seong Jihan’s name alone on the ban, the commentators sighed in relief.
“Jihan, it seems there won’t be a constellation on the other side this time.”
“Seems so. That’s unlucky.”
As Yoon Sejin casually remarked, patting him on the shoulder,
Seong Jihan sighed earnestly as if truly disappointed.
Witnessing this, Yoon Seah was incredulous.
“Wait, you went through all that hardship last time and now you’re disappointed? I counted, you know? Your body vanished like well over a hundred times.”
“I did learn a lot from the constellation, though.”
After the Martial God’s intervention in the match,
There had been no more communication from Pythia.
Was this the end of the special tutoring from the Martial God’s disciples?
“Uncle, I’ll be going to the first match~”
“Rest up, Jihan.”
“Yes. Have a good game.”
The banned Seong Jihan waved to the father-daughter duo and then watched the first match from the player’s lounge.
=The Chinese team doesn’t use the select card.
=Are they hoarding all three for the guaranteed Golem Duel map in the fourth game?
Accumulating three cards can guarantee map selection in game four, a functionality made known through the elves during the Space League; in fact, no one had used it since.
Each match in a series is too valuable to hold the cards for the fourth game; it was considered inefficient.
However, the Chinese coaching staff appeared keen on employing this long-dormant option.
“This is the strategy we simulated before.”
“That’s right. By continuously banning Seong Jihan, they plan to secure victory in the fourth game with the Golem Duel.”
“Even if continuously banning Seong Jihan reduces the ban probability starting from game three…”
“One way or another, the bans were certain in games one and two. They’re aiming for victories there and plan to take the final win in the Golem Duel in game four.”
Seong Jihan as the outlier.
Up to now, bans had been lifted oddly a few times only because of constellations appearing.
For any country contending with Korea, banning him was the obvious strategy.
‘It’s a strategy tough to utilize unless you’re a super-team like China or the U.S.’
Korea’s team strength, even without Seong Jihan, had ascended to the ranks of the powerful, reinforced by father-daughter duo Yoon Sejin and Yoon Seah.
The strategy to secure a definite victory in the fourth game with Golem Duel banked on ensuring two victories in the first three matches.
But for teams like Russia or Japan that had faced Korea before,
Even without Seong Jihan, the likelihood of defeating a Korean team featuring Yoon Sejin and Yoon Seah was slim.
So, Japan had resorted to a strategy of relying on luck each game, picking the Golem Duel map as a possible equalizer.
‘But China must be confident they can win without me.’
Unlike Russia or Japan, China, boasting several SSS-tier players, felt confident they could defeat Korea even with the presence of Yoon Sejin and Yoon Seah, providing Seong Jihan was absent.
“How are we planning to handle this situation?”
When Seong Jihan asked the coaching staff, they confidently replied,
“If the opposing team isn’t using select cards, the likelihood of our chosen map coming up is higher…”
“The coach decided to focus on picking a warrior-centric map with the select cards.”
“That’s a good approach.”
Without Seong Jihan, the national team still housed the world’s second-ranked warrior—in their arsenal.
While China was hoarding select cards, Korea aimed to snatch victories by focusing on warrior maps.
=The Korean national team bans Je Galheon, choosing the Valhalla map.
=Je Galheon and Joo Ryung-Ryung—key players for China! Director Noh Youngjun seems to judge magicians as more threatening than supporters.
=Recently, Wang Lin has also been called up to the Chinese national team and has been performing well. Shouldn’t they have banned him on the Valhalla map?
=We selected the map ourselves, but there’s a 70% chance. We banned Je Galheon, the most threatening opponent, in preparation for other random maps!
=So, which map is up for the first game?
=Oh! It’s Valhalla!
Swoooosh!
The Valhalla map was selected, and the BattleNet connectors housing the team’s players, except for the warriors, opened.
“Ah, it’s Valhalla. That’s disappointing.”
Emerging from the connector, Yoon Seah returned to Seong Jihan’s side, watching the game screen.
“But since it’s Valhalla, we’ll win, won’t we?”
“We should. Brother-in-law is participating, after all.”
With both China and Korea throwing their cards to secure a confirmed victory in the fourth game and choosing the Valhalla map to thwart the opponent’s intentions, it seemed that Coach Noh Youngjun’s intentions were realized when they saw the map selected for the first game.
Even with Wang Lin’s SSS-tier gift, the Heavenly Demon Body, he was still underdeveloped compared to the Sword King.
‘The first game’s a win.’
It was only natural for Seong Jihan to think so.
But then,
=Both countries’ warriors are entering the field.
=With Yoon Sejin on the South Korean national team, we feel more secure!
=Uh, but the Chinese national team…
=There’s something strange about the players’ appearance.
=T-Their hairs, their hairs are missing! No. Until yesterday, they definitely had hair…!
=Could it be that those were wigs…?
The Chinese national team had also prepared for such a situation.
***
***
Follow current novℯls on f(r)eewebnov𝒆l