Chapter 424

"What, what's this? Why did it end so quickly?"

The Shadow Queen looked at the screen with a bewildered expression.

In this tournament where Level 8 constellations were fighting each other, the opponent Ashoka was facing was a huge rock.

In the shot capturing the two from afar, the size difference between them was so overwhelming that Ashoka's figure was barely noticeable.

Just judging by appearances, everyone would bet on the rock to win.

However, with a single flash of light, the rock disappeared.

"Cl, clearly the opponent was the half-spirit of fire. It was Magmadon...!"

The Shadow Queen lamented in disbelief as she rewound the match.

"What's with that dinosaur-like name?"

"Dinosaur? Don't underestimate it based on the name. He is a constellation who simultaneously possesses the powers of fire and earth attributes. He's a powerhouse ranked within the top 20 of the predicted winners of this tournament!"

"Why did such a guy disappear in one hit?"

"I want to know too! Ashoka shouldn't end the match that humanity would be most interested in like this..."

The Shadow Queen, who usually maintained the dignity of a queen, was showing a quite anxious appearance.

"You seem somewhat desperate."

"...I took all the money I had and bought the broadcasting rights for this tournament from the arena."

"Broadcasting rights?"

Seong Jihan looked at the Shadow Queen with dumbfounded eyes.

The arena sold things like that too?

"Yeah. To get ad revenue settlements from BattleTube, you need to have the broadcasting rights. I negotiated again and again with the arena and got it at the maximum discount... If the matches proceed like this, it's bankruptcy!"

"I don't remember buying anything like that while using BattleTube."

"You directly participated as a player. All participants have the rights."

"Aha, you don't have it because you only broadcast?"

"That's right... Ah, I'll go bankrupt like this. The viewers will all leave. What should I do? What do I... Huh?"

The Shadow Queen, who had fallen into despair due to Ashoka's flash victory, turned her gaze away from the main screen where the match was being broadcast and opened her eyes wide.

"Wha, what's this? When did the viewer count increase so much... It was clearly less than 300,000 just now..."

The concurrent viewer count, which was 300,000 when Ashoka appeared, had surpassed 5 million in the blink of an eye.

She quickly turned her gaze and looked at the chat window.

-Oh, Seong Jihan appeared here.

-I was digging through BattleTube after the Beginner's Arena ended, and I see this too, hehe.

-Seong Jihan is the commentator, lol. I have to watch this, lol.

-Wow, is it true that it went from 300,000 to 5 million in an instant just because Seong Jihan's face was shown??

-Will it end at just 5 million? The influx is going crazy right now.

Just because Seong Jihan appeared, the viewer influx exploded in an instant on the Queen's channel.

If this was a broadcast using Earth's communication network instead of BattleTube, the server would have crashed immediately.

The Shadow Queen realized Seong Jihan's destructive power and thought she brought him well, but.

-But the match to commentate on has already ended?

-So it ends like this?

-It's a bit disappointing if it ends with just showing his face...

-Please do a talk show since you brought Seong Jihan.

-For real, lol.

There was no content to do since the match that needed to be commentated on ended weakly.

"Hmm... How about it? Should we do a talk show?"

A talk show in this pitch-black shadow?

Seong Jihan shook his head and pointed at the main screen with his finger.

"There's no time to spare for a talk show. How about we rewind and review Ashoka's match? Instead of watching the next match, I mean."

-Yes, go go go.

-It's better to watch a human constellation than space monsters fighting, lol.

-Honestly, they're all spewing flames so I can't even tell what's what.

Since constellations aiming for the Red Hand participated in the tournament, most of the participants were related to the fire attribute.

So whenever their authorities manifested, the entire arena would just burn up.

From the viewers' perspective, it wasn't interesting at all.

"To disparage the confrontation between constellations like that... Your eyes are still far from seeing."

"Would it be fun if only flames were raging?"

"You would be able to see the constellations fiercely competing in strength within those huge flames."

"I can see it, but it's hard for ordinary people to understand. Why? Do you have ambitions to broadcast the remaining matches? Then I'll leave."

"Ah, ahem! Who said that? Let's watch together. Today is a special feature on Ashoka."

The Shadow Queen hurriedly grabbed Seong Jihan.

She had to at least recoup the broadcasting rights fee.

"Now, let's go back to the start of the match and pause."

Whirr.

The video on the main screen rewound.

The scene of Ashoka and Magmadon confronting each other appeared.

A man with a white face and long black hair hanging down.

There was no hint of nervousness in his expression as he raised his head to look at the burning rock.

-Wow... But Ashoka is so handsome.

-But why is this person's face so white? Isn't he Indian?

-There are many white people among Indians too.

-He doesn't lose to Eve in terms of appearance.

-Only Gilgamesh looks like a middle-aged man, lol.

Ashoka's appearance was so impressive that a review session went on for a while.

The confrontation video was slowly played back with a slow-motion camera.

As the two confronted each other and light was about to flash from Ashoka's body.

"Try slowing this down. As much as possible."

"Got it."

Following Seong Jihan's instructions, the Shadow Queen changed the video playback speed to the slowest.

Then.

Swish...

The Golden Wheel briefly revealed itself behind Ashoka's back.

-What's that skull wheel?

-We wouldn't have been able to see this if it wasn't played at the slowest speed.

-That doesn't match his face at all. He has a sacred appearance.

The viewers saw the brutally shaped golden skull wheel and commented that it didn't match his image, but.

Thud.

As it turned slightly, a brilliant light spread.

"Make it as dark as possible. So we can see how Magmadon died in the light."

"Got it."

As the Shadow Queen faithfully followed Seong Jihan's words and set the screen to the darkest, the huge fire rock Magmadon's size shrank in an instant.

In the end, it split into a rock and fire and disappeared.

"Hmm... That seems to be the form before becoming a half-spirit."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. The race Magmadon originated from, before the half-spirit of fire is formed, it takes on that appearance. I saw it in a documentary I watched before when I couldn't sleep."

She gained some knowledge through BattleTube.

"Then can we consider that to be the form at birth?"

"Well, if that documentary is correct?"

With those words, Seong Jihan could guess what move Ashoka used.

'Did he turn back the time of the opponent's body with time reversal?'

If the Shadow Queen's words were correct, that form was equivalent to turning a human back into a newborn baby.

It seemed Ashoka used his power to manipulate time to turn the opponent back to the moment of birth.

'I can see why he wasn't very worried about the tournament.'

If the opponent was turned into their primordial state and disappeared like that just by him turning the wheel slightly, why would he be worried no matter who comes out?

"Turning the opponent back into a baby by turning the wheel a little. This is a complete balance breaker."

"Hearing about balance from you. I've lived long enough..."

Says the overwhelming top player who breaks the game balance.

The Shadow Queen looked at Seong Jihan as if it was absurd.

-For real, this tournament was originally for Level 8 constellations to gather and fight Seong Jihan, who isn't even a constellation, lol.

-Still, if Jihan says that much, I guess Ashoka is quite strong.

-Were there this many talented people in humanity? Hehe.

-But is Ashoka that great of a person...?

-He's a famous king in India, but he doesn't seem to be at that level.

Seong Jihan was lost in thought as he looked at the chat coming up about Ashoka.

Come to think of it, clearly.

[Ashoka? Is that my name?]

The Ashoka he met at the second seal of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Diagram asked back to Seong Jihan like that.

'It's clear that his real name isn't Ashoka.'

If not Ashoka, then what?

Anyhow, since it seems certain he will make it to the finals in this tournament, it would be good to get some information before meeting him.

'I don't know much about the Indian side, so I can't deduce it.'

As Seong Jihan was pondering about Ashoka's identity, the chat window caught his eye.

Ah, right.

If he couldn't figure it out alone.

"Everyone. Shall we try deducing with collective intelligence?"

He could borrow the minds of the viewers, who had already reached 10 million.

* * *

"First of all, I'm certain that Ashoka is not Ashoka."

Seong Jihan paused the screen at the scene where Ashoka summoned the Golden Wheel.

"What does that mean?"

"That's a superficial name, and his real identity is separate. Yeah. Like Pythia."

"Aha... But you want to deduce it together because you don't know who it is?"

"Yeah, I don't know much about the Indian side after all."

-Oh... He's extending the content this much with Ashoka's match that ended in 1 second, lol.

-For real, Seong Jihan alone is carrying the Queen's channel, lol.

-The identity of Ashoka... Are there any hints?

"If there's a hint... He seems to be from an era before King Ashoka. He does seem to be from India though."

At Seong Jihan's words, people began to seriously deduce.

-Who's an Indian before Ashoka?

-The constellations on par with Ashoka are Gilgamesh and Pythia... They were also compared to Adam and Eve.

-And in terms of force, he does seem much stronger than those two, lol.

-Then he wouldn't be comparable to any ordinary great figures... Maybe a Hindu god-level or mythical hero?

-Then Rama? Krishna?

Like that, names of gods from Hinduism popped up.

-Ah... Could it be Buddha?

-Hey, don't cross the line. Why would Buddha summon such an ominous golden skull?

-For real, as a Buddhist, I find it unpleasant.

-What's the big deal, Adam and Eve came out too, so we can deduce.

-Buddha is too much. Maybe a Wheel-Turning Sage King?

-Amitabha? Maitreya?

-Oh forget it, just bring out all the gods, lol.

Even the founder of Buddhism was coming out.

'Since Eve came out, it wouldn't be strange no matter who appears.'

For now, Seong Jihan saved all the names that were revealed.

"Collective intelligence is definitely good. The list of names to review has increased so much like this."

"Hmm... Isn't it too many? At this rate, all the names of Indian gods will come out."

"Well, that's true, but... Wouldn't at least one of them be a hit?"

"But will he really tell us even if we ask?"

Swish.

Saying that, the Shadow Queen pointed her finger at the main screen.

Perhaps because they spent some time on finding Ashoka's name, the round of 128 match was already starting.

And there too.

-Oh, it ended already.

-Seeing it in real-time, it's really 1 second, lol.

-It flashed! And then the game ended, what the heck.

-I can understand why Seong Jihan called it a balance breaker...

Ashoka flashed once and was turning the opponent's time back to the moment of birth.

"That guy, I don't think a single drop of blood will come out even if you stab him."

"Hmm..."

Indeed, it doesn't seem like he would answer even if they lay out the list of names and ask.

He needed to narrow down the candidates as much as possible and see if he showed any agitation when asked.

Seong Jihan looked over the names people deduced and thought.

'Come to think of it, Dongbang Sak made the vow to save the world. Ashoka made the vow of refraining from enlightenment...'

[Refraining from enlightenment. Does that mean he won't attain enlightenment.]

[I dragged you into this matter, so I can't leave alone, can I.]

Clearly, such a conversation took place between Dongbang Sak and Ashoka.

Here, enlightenment is a term closer to the Buddhist side, right?

'...Alright. Then let's go with that side.'

Among the many names obtained through collective intelligence, Seong Jihan finally decided on the ones to poke at.

And in the tournament that proceeded for several days like this.

[Player 'Ashoka' has won the tournament.]

The one who ultimately won was Ashoka.