Chapter 502

"U-Uncle, what are you doing!?"

As soon as Seong Jihan stabbed his face, Yoon Seah immediately appeared in the training room.

"Why are you hurting your face that just recovered...!"

She was about to absorb the void again, but,

Seong Jihan lightly waved her off.

"I need the void for training. Let's heal later."

"Oh, I see..."

"Yeah, I'll ask for your help when I'm done training."

At Seong Jihan's words, she looked at his face with anxious eyes.

"You understand, right?"

"...Yes."

She nodded with effort.

"So don't worry about me and focus on your own work. Why do you rush in as soon as I stab my face?"

"This is more important than anything else."

"I can control this much. Don't you have Space League games or national team matches to be busy with?"

The weight that the world's #1 ranked player had to bear wasn't so light.

She shouldn't have the leisure to watch Seong Jihan's every move like this.

To his question, Yoon Seah answered nonchalantly.

"Oh, there is a Space League match going on right now."

"Going on, you say?"

Seong Jihan looked at Yoon Seah with a surprised face.

Wait.

How could she come here during a Space League match?

"Yeah, but I just didn't go. The opponents are Orcs anyway."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, your void is more important than one of those matches, right?"

Yoon Seah said this while carefully observing Seong Jihan's broken face.

"What's wrong with humanity coming in second? You raised us to the top tier anyway. We're just finding our place. Isn't it a problem if we lose without me?"

"...Still, you could absorb the void after going to the match. You're not even participating?"

"What if the void suddenly overflows and your cracks widen? We can win the next match."

Seong Jihan looked at Yoon Seah with a puzzled expression.

His niece, who used to be a model student,

Was now neglecting her duties as the world's #1 ranked player to absorb the void from his face.

Why was she suddenly acting like this?

'Could it be because of the hat?'

Could the void side be influencing her somehow to make her the definite owner of the Arena?

Seong Jihan asked her with a serious expression.

"...Haven't you felt anything strange since becoming a Void Apostle?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You didn't used to be like this."

"What do you mean I wasn't like this? I've always worried about you a lot, haven't I?"

Yoon Seah tilted her head at Seong Jihan's words.

"But... you're right. Something has changed. Before, I could only worry about what to do, but now I can really help, right?"

"Yeah, helping is good, but do it in moderation. People need to do their own work too."

Not going to the representative team's match and watching in real-time for void leakage,

This was going too far.

As Seong Jihan smiled bitterly, Yoon Seah hung her head.

"...I thought you were invincible, Uncle. Until I saw you being buried in the void and disappearing."

"Well, I ended up coming back to life anyway."

"But when I saw you disappearing... It was shocking."

Her eyes trembled slightly.

"All this I'm enjoying... you made it all possible, right? I just received it. Mom went missing. Dad went to Japan... I thought I'd never see them both again. But you brought them all back."

"That was just what I had to do."

"This is what I have to do too. I need to repay the kindness I've received so far. Especially."

Yoon Seah's eyes turned to Seong Jihan's face again.

"I'll keep focusing on this until your face returns to normal."

"I need to stay in this state until I finish training anyway."

"Then I'll keep caring for you until then."

"...So you're going to keep monitoring in real-time?"

"Real-time monitoring! It's care. Care."

Seong Jihan thought as he listened to Yoon Seah.

'This, she's not going to change her mind easily.'

Was seeing him die at Dongbang Sak's hands that shocking?

Yoon Seah's attitude about dedicating herself to caring for Seong Jihan was more stubborn than he thought.

Even if he said she didn't need to care for him, she seemed determined to keep watching in real-time.

In this situation, simply saying no wouldn't work.

Seong Jihan tried to persuade her slowly.

"Alright, Seah. I appreciate your concern, but right now I need to train with the void, right? You should do your own work too."

"But it shouldn't overflow, right? Don't I need to keep watching?"

"I'll call you if I need you. I'll ask you to come and absorb the void through your battletube, so you can come then, right?"

"Oh, the battletube works here too..."

"If it doesn't, you can just go out and turn on your battletube."

"I'll call you through the battletube if it's urgent, so do your own work."

At Seong Jihan's words, Yoon Seah chewed her lips.

"...Okay. Then I'll come when you call me."

She nodded with effort and retreated.

After she left, Seong Jihan thought.

'Once I unite Blue and Martial Soul, I should smash that hat first.'

While he was genuinely grateful for Yoon Seah's concern,

It wasn't right for her to prioritize this over her own life.

At this rate, his niece would be severely criticized by the public.

He couldn't bear to see that.

'As for my shattered face, I can probably fix it somehow by squeezing Gilgamesh.'

Thinking this, Seong Jihan replayed the battle with Dongbang Sak.

His face was much more stern than before.

* * *

[Humanity suffers shocking 3:0 defeat against Orcs]

[Humanity unable to overcome the strengthened 'Ancestor's Blessing'. What went wrong?]

[Humanity drops to 2nd place in league rankings. GP exchange rate fluctuates greatly]

[Yoon Seah excluded from humanity's representative team roster. Reason for absence: 'Personal matters']

[Coach Davis comments, "We lacked firepower. Yoon Seah's absence was regrettable."]

The match between humanity and Orcs.

This game, which most of humanity expected to be an easy win, produced a completely unexpected result.

-How can they not even win one game? lol

-Seong Jihan easily crushed the Ancestor's Blessing... why is this happening?

-Sigh... I bet all my assets thinking we'd definitely win this time

-I miss when Seong Jihan was around... back then you could just bet on victory and print money

-But why didn't Yoon Seah show up? What personal matter could it be?

-I don't know What could be more important than the Space League...

A complete defeat in the Space League match without winning a single set.

Perhaps because everyone thought it would be an easy win,

The aftermath of the defeat was severe.

"Wow, how badly did they play to not even win one game?"

[You're one to talk, when you didn't even go to the match?]

"No, they should have at least beaten Orcs! Wow, I'm getting a lot of hate~"

Yoon Seah was looking at the comments under the news articles.

Especially on the article where the coach directly said "Yoon Seah's absence was regrettable," most were cursing at her.

As she looked at this, instead of frowning, she was smiling slightly.

"Seah!"

The master of the Daegi Guild, Lee Hayeon, rushed into the living room with a surprised face.

"Oh, unnie. You're here?"

"Uh... you're fine?"

"Ah, yes. My condition is okay."

While saying this, she was looking at hate comments on her tablet PC.

And on the screen next to it, she was watching Seong Jihan.

Sitting on the sofa as if looking at dual monitors, Lee Hayeon approached to see what she was watching and was surprised.

"Oh, it's the Boss? That's strange. He doesn't use battletube..."

"Ah, this is a screen only I can see. Uncle is in my training room."

"Oh... is that so?"

Lee Hayeon looked curiously at Seong Jihan training and then said to Yoon Seah.

"You... don't tell me you missed today's match because of the Boss's training room?"

"Yeah... something like that. I need to support Uncle."

"I see. I thought it was strange that you'd miss a match."

Lee Hayeon nodded and then frowned as she looked at the tablet PC Yoon Seah was holding.

"If you had told us in advance, you wouldn't be getting all these hate comments. What a shame."

"If I had told you in advance?"

"Yes. If you had said you couldn't play because you had to support the Boss, most people would have understood."

Although Space League matches were important for humanity,

It still couldn't compare to humanity's first Administrator.

If they had said she was absent to support him,

Most people would have thought it was regrettable but unavoidable.

"We should explain even now. If we say you couldn't play because you were doing something related to the Boss, everyone will understand."

"Hmm... but then Uncle will get blamed unnecessarily."

"What... who would blame the Boss?"

"People are already cursing at him."

Thump. Thump.

Yoon Seah tapped her face while saying this.

"Calling him a monster."

"...Seah. There are attention seekers everywhere. They enjoy it when people get upset at them cursing the Boss. Those kinds of hate comments probably don't even make up 1% of the total."

"Even 1% is unacceptable to me."

Yoon Seah, who had been smirking at her own hate comments,

Froze her face coldly when the 1% was mentioned.

'After the Boss's face became like that, there were some "monster" comments... that must have bothered Seah.'

Lee Hayeon sighed deeply after seeing Yoon Seah's state.

For humanity, Seong Jihan currently held a status no different from a god.

Extending lifespans, restoring health, eliminating dungeons.

Religions believing in him were springing up like mushrooms, and humanity had received countless benefits from him, but

There were still some who wanted to criticize him blindly.

Seah must have seen the ruckus caused by that tiny minority of people.

"...Seah. At that level, you can just consider it nonexistent. There's no need to count the reactions of crazy people."

"Is that so..."

"Yes. So I'll explain well about the reason for your absence."

"Ah, it's okay. Let's leave it as is, since Uncle might get blamed unnecessarily."

"Who would blame the Boss? It'll be fine. If you don't explain quickly, the hate comments will keep coming."

"I don't really feel anything looking at them? Rather... it's kind of fun?"

She was grinning while looking at her own hate comments.

She really didn't seem affected at all by comments about herself.

"...Are you a masochist?"

"Maybe?"

"Haa. Don't be like that and listen to me."

As Lee Hayeon tried to persuade Yoon Seah again,

Swish...

The Messenger appeared next to Yoon Seah.

"Oh... you're here?"

Yoon Seah waved at the starfish-like being.

[The Black Administrator has responded to the previous inquiry. Where is the Blue Administrator?]

He wriggled his body, looking for Seong Jihan.