Chapter 342
'It's been a while, but why does this guy seem even uglier?'
The real Barren has been quite obedient lately.
Not feeling like responding, Seong Jihan grabbed Barren by the collar and, with a flick,
Threw him backwards.
"What, what are you doing...! You bastard!"
Here, being the world's number one rank, instead of meekly falling out, Barren used his force to remain suspended in the air.
Though he spit out his anger like fire towards Seong Jihan,
"You used force? Good for me."
Seong Jihan, instead, smiled and extended his hand towards the floating Barren.
Then, with his power of the Martial Soul now fully activated, he quickly dominated the space with his power.
"Ugh...!?"
Barren, with his mouth sealed shut, crashed straight to the ground.
Thud!
He was left rolling miserably on the ground.
"Ugh..."
"Don't even make a sound."
With his mouth completely sealed and only able to flail his body, Barren rolled his eyes in shock, subdued by a power similar to his own force.
-Why bother Seong Jihan ㅉㅉ
-That's nice keke. This is the kind of discipline he should have received from the silver and gold days.
-But is this scenario one where Barren does well in the future?
-Seems so. But those dual-status window is kind of cheating.
-Hah, no wonder humanity was doomed... How could humanity survive in a world where Barren is number one?
-Sigh... Just stay like a corpse...
While Barren, relieved at his own downed state, was chatting,
[It's the final demotion match and you're fighting among yourselves... How leisurely, humans!]
[Now's our chance! Charge at them!]
On humanity's opposing side, five Orcs were boosting their morale.
With two among them causing internal strife, a 5:5 match without even watching it was advantageous for the Orcs.
Thus,
"J-Jihan! Please release Barren. We should be fighting the Orcs right now!"
Sophia, who was summoned with Seong Jihan,
"Please consider coming to China instead of staying in America, Seong Jihan. I understand you have grievances against Barren, but right now, it's about working together for the remaining humanity."
Jin Yuhua, the second-ranked player from China with the late bloomer gift, also tried to halt the fighting between the two for the moment.
-A Chinese? That woman.
-Since she's summoned here, she must be a high ranker, but it's strange. I can't recognize her face.
-Right, we know Seong Jihan, Barren, Sophia even now...
-The other one must also be a newcomer.
-Ah, but she somehow looks familiar.....
The viewers showed interest in the newly appearing faces.
However, to Seong Jihan, Jin Yuhua wasn't a welcome sight since she had once arranged for Yoon Seah's assassination to steal her late bloomer gift.
'...I've already killed her, so there's no need to kill her again here.'
Briefly feeling murderous intent but quickly retracting it, Seong Jihan stated,
"I alone am enough for them."
Swoooosh...
He summoned the shadow sword Eclipse in his left hand.
Fundamental Divine Arts,
Triad of Martial Mastery:
Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep
With a horizontal slash of his sword,
Ssshhhhhh!!
The five Orcs were split in unison.
Originally rushing at the opportunity of humanity's internal strife, they couldn't resist even a single strike and were bifurcated.
[Monst... Monster...]
[What, what is this force...! Multiple times stronger!]
[No... We can't get relegated...!]
The Orcs, split between their upper and lower halves, tried to move to resist somehow, but,
Swoosh!
With another horizontal slash from Seong Jihan's sword, their heads uniformly flew off.
The overwhelming difference in power.
"Ah..."
"What, what happened... How did you become so strong with that sword technique?"
The basic move of Triad of Martial Mastery from the days when he was not yet formidable was still popular,
But the technique's power from then and now was incomparable.
"That's what happened."
"When did you achieve 1st place in the rankings? Without even the national bonus... You're amazing, Seong Jihan... Wouldn't it be better for you to come to China instead of being treated as an outsider in America?"
Seong Jihan, originally a Korean native, couldn't receive national bonuses and was ranked 7th.
However, the current Seong Jihan had transcended those restrictions with his own power, reclaiming the 1st place in the rankings.
Only the United States and China succeeded in defense games in relegation matches.
Now, with only these two countries remaining in the world,
Jin Yuhua, having seen Seong Jihan argue with Barren, was eager to bring him to China, but before she could speak further,
[You win the final demotion deciding match.]
[NO.4212 Humanity remains in the Bronze League.]
Before she could open her mouth further, the game-ender message popped up.
* * *
"Oh, it's a shame it ended so soon... But thanks to that, humanity is saved. I'll make you a good offer as soon as I get back!"
Having checked the system message, Jin Yuhua waved and disappeared.
Flash!
And the remaining four players were all returned to their original places by the re-summon.
"You, you dog... you dare take my 1st place...! The item from Behemoth, return it quickly. Uh uh!"
Once reversed, Barren flared up again, but,
Seong Jihan, just like before, silenced him and shoved him into a corner.
"Jihan...!"
"I believed in you!"
"To achieve 1st place in the rankings. Indeed, when it comes to skill, Jihan is the best!"
"We didn't get the demotion... We, we survived. Survived! Sob sob..."
And, completely ignoring their Guild Master dumped in one corner,
The guild members of American First crowded around Seong Jihan.
They were energized by the performance Seong Jihan showed in their demotion match.
Some cheered, and others cried, causing a stir among the elites of American First.
However, the viewers felt something was missing upon seeing this.
-Is this the end?
-Averting humanities' extinction... that was too easy, wasn't it?
-As long as Seong Jihan is here, everything is resolved lolol
-But listening to the people in this scenario, it seems like Seong Jihan was always around...
-Right. But not as strong as now, wasn't even 1st in the rankings.
Dubbed the highest difficulty, yet the time Seong Jihan actually played the game was less than 10 minutes.
The opponents were so lackluster they were swept away by Seong Jihan's basic martial arts, Triad of Martial Mastery.
It was even harder than a regular leveling match.
'It can't end like this.'
While Seong Jihan was pondering,
[24 hours remain until humanity's extinction.]
[Find and overcome the cause of the extinction.]
A system message suddenly appeared.
-As expected, it doesn't end like this lololol
-The highest difficulty would mean it can't be this simple.
-But we just stopped the relegation, what can cause humanity's extinction in 24 hours?
-Indeed...
Viewers who saw Seong Jihan's message shared their confusion at the limited timeframe.
Somehow humanity remained in the Bronze League.
Among the last 10 powerful nations, superpowers like America and China survived.
Identifying a scenario that leads to humanity's extinction in 24 hours wasn't easy.
However,
-Hmm... Even if we stayed in the Bronze League, if it's still extinction...
-Is it due to an overabundance of dungeon portals?
-Right. I've heard that could lead to extinction.
Compared to humanity, extraterrestrial viewers used their superior information to speculate upon seeing the 24-hour limit.
'Overabundance of dungeon portals causing extinction, is that it?'
In Seong Jihan's past life, humanity, unaware of the dungeon portal removal,
Could only watch helplessly as portals overflowed whenever rankings dropped.
Eventually, all countries except the last ten were engulfed by dungeon portals and perished.
The survivors were scattered to the countries that managed to keep their ranks among the last ten.
'But with eight countries failing the defense here, it might have crossed the critical point.'
With no clues in the current situation,
Seong Jihan decided to start removing any dungeon portals he could find.
However, there was one problem,
'To remove portals, we need someone with exploration abilities.'
That was unknown before, and thus humanity could not remove them.
Seong Jihan spoke to Sophia, who had been staring at him,
"Sophia."
"Yes, yes?"
"By any chance, where is your brother?"
"Christopher? He should be commentating..."
"At the NBC studio in New York?"
"Yes, yes."
"Let's go there together."
Saying that, Seong Jihan released Barren's restraint.
"Barren, can you warp us to the NBC studio?"
"What? No, are you daring to command your master, you mere hunting dog..."
"Yes."
"I'd be mad to...!"
Still sprawled, Barren was furiously indignant.
However,
Boom!
Right beside his head, Seong Jihan's foot stamped down.
There, the ground crumbled beneath.
"There won't be a second time. If you don't want to die, use warp right now."
"Yo, you're threatening my life? Me?"
Swoosh.
As Seong Jihan raised his foot again, Barren, clenching his teeth, tried to push it away with force.
But in terms of spatial control, being significantly inferior to Seong Jihan,
He couldn't push away the foot. Instead,
"Gah... Gack!"
Barren found himself struggling to breathe, unable to inhale properly.
As Barren's face turned crimson, Sophia beside him hurriedly stopped him.
"Ji, Jihan! He'll suffocate at this rate!"
Swoosh.
Then, Seong Jihan flicked his fingers.
With that, Barren's restraints were released again.
"This is unbelievable..."
He looked at Seong Jihan in a daze, unable to believe he was outmatched in spatial control.
Not long ago, he was the world's top-ranked, and he didn't want to accept this reality.
And then,
"Use warp. Now."
Swoooooosh.
As Seong Jihan approached again with his foot towards his face,
Barren hurriedly responded,
"...Alright, alright! Just Sophia, and to NBC, right?!"
"Yes."
"Warp Gate!"
Right there, Barren used the warp gate magic.
Indeed, being one of the world's finest magicians, he executed the spell without difficulty, grinding his teeth with a flushed face,
"I will never forget this incident."
"As you wish."
Swoosh.
Smirking slightly, Seong Jihan stepped into the warp gate.
"Let's go, Sophia."
"Yes, yes!"
He, along with Sophia, moved to the NBC studio.
* * *
"...My gift 'Exploration' can eliminate dungeon portals?"
"Yes."
"How did you know I had that ability?"
"Sophia told me."
"Sophia!"
"Ji, Jihan! When did I say that?"
"When you were drunk."
Seong Jihan roughly explained the situation and, in essence, kidnapped Christopher, who was commentating at the network, under semi-duress.
The remaining time was 23 hours.
It took longer than expected to find, persuade the explorer, and reach the dungeons.
Meanwhile,
-Wow. Player Seong seeking me out at the moment of extinction. Truly touching!
-Chris is commenting??
-LOL why is the commentator watching the promotion match now of all times lolol
-Ah, really... I'm still commentating diligently! My broadcast is ongoing!
-I think channel 0 will hit a record low viewership this time lool
-But why does New York look so devastated?;
-The homeless situation is no joke...
In the chat, viewers were absorbing the world at the brink of extinction, Christopher - even a commentator supposed to be covering the promotion match was absorbed in it.
The current state of New York, drastically different from its lively past, presented a lifeless cityscape.
As Seong Jihan brought Christopher and Sophia towards the outskirts and closer to the portals, this desolate reality unfolded even more blatantly.
-They don't even clean up the corpses...
-Is America in this state?
-It really looks like the end of the world; like this;
-Is this what happens when you hit rock bottom in BattleNet...
While the viewers were shocked by this world on the edge of extinction,
Seong Jihan, accustomed to such sights, entered the dungeon portal.
Screeeeeeech!
Monsters greeted Seong Jihan as soon as he entered.
However,
Swoosh!
With a single sword strike, the portal's monsters were all sliced apart.
"Try using exploration now."
"Yes, yes...!"
Christopher, whose spirit was taken away by Seong Jihan's sword, hastily activated his exploration and,
"Here, here it is!"
The dungeon core was quickly detected.
Destroying it, the dungeon portal disappeared.
"No... it really vanishes..."
"I can't believe dungeon portals could disappear so easily..."
While the siblings were astounded by this phenomenon,
"Let's move to the next one."
Seong Jihan, with them in tow, continued his dungeon portal campaign.
After a day of eliminating as many portals as possible,
[1 minute remains until humanity's extinction.]
Extinction refused to be delayed.
'So, removing dungeon portals wasn't the answer...'
This mission seemed doomed.
As Seong Jihan was moving with that thought,
Swoooooosh...
Suddenly, a powerful force surged from the skies.
And the moment 1 minute turned to 0,
[Humanity faces extinction.]
Alongside that message, the entire world began to warp.
"What, what's this..."
"Uh..."
As Seong Jihan and the two who had been with him for the 24-hour marathon began to distort and then vanished,
Seong Jihan's own body also started to crack.
He managed to last a bit longer in this twisted world, but,
'Is this it...?'
Soon his vision darkened.
And in the pitch-black darkness, a message suddenly appeared.
[Humanity has faced extinction.]
[The mission has failed.]
[Would you like to retry?]
[You have 2 attempts remaining.]