Chapter 17

Chapter 17

'A Constellation.'

They are the absolute beings representing each star, reigning as divine entities on the Battle Net.

'There was not much known about the Constellation's even in my past life.'

After the tutorial period of Battle Net ended, a Constellation section was added to the status window of all players. However, very few players actually received sponsorship from the Constellation.

Only those with exceptional abilities among the Diamond League and above players were chosen by the Constellation.

'The reason Earthlings didn't receive sponsorship was simple.'

After the BattleNet tutorial ended in 2020, the Space League began, where Earthlings performed poorly.

'They must have thought it was a star destined to be demoted and then doomed.'

And even if the Constellation did offer sponsorship, it wasn't of good quality.

The penalties were immense, matching the abilities they granted, causing many to suffer greatly from the Constellations' interference.

The sponsorship from the Constellation was truly a double-edged sword.

But Seong Jihan was prepared to handle such a sword. To him, the more sponsorship from the Constellation's, the better.

'I already have a plan for one seat in the Constellation, but... I'll definitely sell the option to expand the Constellation slot in the achievement store.'

Considering the items seen so far in the achievement store, the possibility was very high.

Then, the reward known as the 'Shadow Queen' of the Constellation, it was worth aiming for.

'However, the conditions are strict.'

The number of spectators in the Colosseum was the issue.

The Colosseum's size made it relatively easy to identify the scattered audience, but the number seemed to exceed a thousand at least.

Seong Jihan recalled the elves who had sat in the spectator seats.

'White elves were being held captive by the dark elves.'

Superficially, the power hierarchy was clear. However, the fact that the Constellation's name was 'Shadow Queen' bothered him. Contrary to appearances, there might be a queen among the dark elves.

'And to provoke the elves in the audience.'

There was a powerful barrier at the border of the arena, and breaking through it and provoking the elves in the audience was impossible with the strength of a Bronze.

This constraint applied even to Seong Jihan, who possessed Martial power.

"Hmm."

As Seong Jihan thought deeply while returning home after logging out.

"Uncle! Congratulations on setting a new record!"

Niece Yoon Seah came out of her room and congratulated Seong Jihan.

"New record?"

"10 kills in a survival match! It's really amazing!"

Yoon Seah was bouncing around as if it were her own achievement.

"Oh, that. You were watching?"

"Of course! There were a lot of people. I thought there wouldn't be anyone else, so I wanted to be first, but there were already about a thousand people."

"Really? That's more than I expected."

"Yeah. And later on, the number of viewers kept increasing, and it went over 3,000!"

3,000 viewers for a Bronze-level broadcast.

Considering the average viewership for a Gold-level broadcast was around 2,000, his achievement was impressive enough to boast about. However, Seong Jihan's reaction remained calm.

Compared to his records from his past life, this number was just the beginning.

"But people wanted to sponsor GP. They were disappointed that Uncle completely blocked sponsorships."

"Is that so?"

Perhaps it was because he had changed the broadcast settings out of habit, preventing sponsor messages.

In his previous life, he had plenty of GP, so he had turned off the annoying sponsor messages that kept popping up during battles.

"But things are different now."

Currently, GP was crucial, and even more so in the lower leagues, where a few messages wouldn't affect the fight much.

"I'll have to change the settings again."

"Yeah, but since it might interfere with Uncle's fights... Let's hide sponsor messages below 10,000 GP from the players' view! Oh, is 10,000 too cheap? If it were in Korean Won, wouldn't 10 million be considered cheap? Or not? Is it expensive?"

Yoon Seah repeated her thoughts while scratching her head, seemingly carefree due to her life as the daughter of the Sword King.

"10,000 GP... Right. Well, it's Bronze, so there's no choice."

Seong Jihan had a decent grasp of the value of money, but he held some unconventional beliefs.

"I'm glad that the messages won't flood the screen too much."

"True... How about 50,000?"

"No, since it's just the beginning. Let's be humble."

Seong Jihan and Yoon Seah were worrying unnecessarily.

While observing Seong Jihan changing the settings for his Battle Net channel, Yoon Seah suddenly realized something and asked with a surprised expression.

"But Uncle, what were you thinking about earlier? You had a troubled look on your face."

"Oh, that? There's a quest to find the Shadow Queen among the elves in the spectator seats."

"A quest? There's something like that on Battle Net?"

"Yeah, it appeared after achieving 10 kills."

Seong Jihan replied naturally to his niece's inquiry, who accepted it with understanding due to the many unrevealed aspects of Battle Net.

"Hmm, the Shadow Queen."

"There are about a thousand elves in the spectator seats, and I was thinking about how to find her."

"Quests like that exists, huh?"

"Considering that it's Bronze, it seems that way."

Nodding at his niece's musings, Seong Jihan continued to adjust his Battle Net channel settings.

"Uncle, do you want me to help? I don't really have anything else to do."

"What about school?"

"The homeroom teacher contacted me. Because of this situation, they said I can take a week off from school."

Perhaps due to the issue of Sword King Yoon Sejin becoming a Japanese citizen, the homeroom teacher seemed to be considerate.

"Sure. It would be nice if you helped, Seah."

It wouldn't be good to spend time at home without anything to do, so having something to focus on would be good.

Seong Jihan accepted his niece's offer without expecting too much.

"Alright, Uncle. I'll definitely find the Shadow Queen. Promise me one thing later."

"promise? What is it? Tell me now, and I'll do it right away."

"Nah, if you agree right away, there won't be a sense of accomplishment. Promise me once I find her!"

Seong Jihan was puzzled about what she was going to ask for, but he calmly nodded.

"Got it. Once you find the Shadow Queen, I'll agree to anything."

"Great. I need to find her right away!"

With that, Yoon Seah went back into her room.

"She's so energetic."

Seeing her like that, Seong Jihan chuckled and entered his own room.

He decided to temporarily put aside the epic quest that wouldn't be easily solved. There was something else he needed to do before that.

"As for the Unique Stat."

Barren's Unique Stat, who had been ranked 1st in the world.

He needed to obtain the "Force."

The Next Day...

[You have absorbed divine power from an otherworldly relic.]

[Your Divine Power has reached 10.]

[From now on, you can only absorb divine power from relics of C-grade or higher.]

Seong Jihan rose from the pile of relics.

Although the message stated that he could only absorb divine power from C-grade or higher relics, it didn't matter.

He had finally achieved true Divine Power 10, excluding the title effect.

He headed to the training room located on the outskirts of the penthouse.

Perhaps because Sword King Yoon Sejin used this place for experimenting with his sword techniques, the training room was constructed entirely from a special metal that absorbed shock.

"Fire."

Jihan had never used the basic magic 'Fire' after picking the Mage class, but he used it in real life first instead of in the game.

It was a precarious fire that seemed like it'd flicker out at any moment.

'As expected, I'm not suited to be a Mage.'

His Magic Power was five, and you could only use half of your abilities in real life, so the output of the basic magic was less than that of a lighter.

"Let's add Divine Power to this."

Seong Jihan recalled Barren's words.

- A thought suddenly crossed my mind while I was in Bronze killing zombies: what would happen if I mixed Divine Power with Magic Power?

- That was only possible because it was you.

You could obtain Divine Power by picking the Support class, but Magic Power was something you could use if you were a Mage.

The idea of infusing Divine Power into magic was something anyone could have thought of, but only Barren, who had the 'Two Status Windows' gift, could bring it into reality.

"Yeah. My great gift, Two Status Windows, immediately made this idea a reality. I dominated the defense map every time. And I distributed my stats evenly between Divine Power and Magic Power, one point each..."

Barren's bleary eyes, due to his drunken state, were as bright as ever at that moment.

"And the moment Divine Power reached 10! Oh my God! A Unique Stat came to me! Yes... Barren's trademark, 'Force'!"

Force.

A new Unique Stat that emerged as Magic Power and Divine Power merged.

It was an absolute power that ruled over "Space."

Barren's Force, even as Seong Jihan thought about it now, was an immense power.

"If only Barren had better control, he would have shown a truly top-ranked performance."

However, he was terrible at that. In emergency situations, he easily panicked and often failed to control his power, causing harm to his allies.

"Force... I'll obtain it and show you, Barren."

Force held numerous possibilities.

Seong Jihan planned to use it as a double-edged sword alongside his strength.

"...It won't be easy."

However, "Force" didn't come easily to Seong Jihan.

Following Barren's advice, he had increased Divine Power to 10 and incorporated it into magic, but it didn't blend well.

"It's not mixing well for now."

While he was good at using Divine Power, his magic skills were lacking. When he tried to incorporate Divine Power, Fire disappeared in a reflex action. Even if he managed to succeed somehow, his magic couldn't maintain its form for long and the flame extinguished.

"Hmm, maybe I need to raise my Magic Power."

His Magic Power was five, and it seemed like it wasn't properly manifesting since it was the lowest value possible.

He could increase it since his level had increased by two thanks to the game the day before.

"Let's focus on what I can achieve first."

Directly allocating points to "Force," his future Unique Stat, was uncertain, but spending the remaining points on Magic Power felt wasteful.

"I'll take a break from the game today."

Seong Jihan resolved himself and began practicing again.

* * *

"Sigh..."

From morning until night.

Seong Jihan continued attempting the fusion of Divine Power and magic, but there were no distinct results.

"Still, there were unexpected outcomes."

His Magic Power stat was so low that his heart's mana quickly depleted, making practice impossible.

"Should I use Qi?"

Waiting for his Magic Power to recover, Seong Jihan thought about drawing qi from the Lower Dantian, the source of Inner Energy.

Although it wasn't a method suitable for Bronze level, thanks to his experience, Seong Jihan attempted to manipulate qi from the Lower Dantian and convert it into mana within his heart.

"Despite the loss of qi..."

In the end, using magic was what mattered now.

Replenishing his mana with qi, Seong Jihan mechanically used magic again.

"Fire."

Then, he needed to mix in Divine Power without dispersing it.

As Divine Power merged in, the flame flickered once again, possibly due to insufficient mana.

"Let's infuse Qi as a last resort."

His Qi was almost depleted by now.

If he failed this time, Seong Jihan decided to explore other methods and drew the qi of the Lower Dantian.

Thus, the qi from the Lower Dantian, mana from the heart, and Divine Power from the head converged perfectly within the Fire.

At that moment,

[You've been successful in the temporary integration of the Three Dantians' qi.]

"Divine Power dwelling in the Upper Dantian, Magic Power in the Middle Dantian, and Inner Energy in the Lower Dantian have different natures of energy. However, they hold the potential to be united as one."

A system message appeared unexpectedly, different from the originally sought-after "Force."

[Do you wish to attempt integration of the Three Dantians?]

[Warning: Attempting this integration with your current level poses a significant danger. It could harm your life.]

During the tutorial period in Battle Net, there had never been a warning message about life-threatening risks.

Seong Jihan saw the message and smiled.

If it was dangerous enough for a warning message to appear...

'The reward is going to be huge.'

He spoke with a voice full of confidence.

"I will attempt the Three Dantian integration."