Chapter 503
Inside the void training room.
[The stat 'Devil's Intrusion' is partially absorbed into 'Blue'.]
[The stat 'Blue' increases by 50.]
Seong Jihan slightly raised the corners of his mouth as he saw the system message appearing before his eyes.
'The unification of Blue and Martial Soul greatly benefits from Dongbang Sak from start to finish.'
Dongbang Sak kicked it off from the beginning,
And now he was learning the finishing touches through Heterogeneous Martial Resolve.
In fact, since the stat Blue was Seong Jihan's ability,
He wanted to unify it through his own training rather than borrowing Dongbang Sak's insights if he had the luxury, but.
'There's no time for that.'
The Red Administrator who revealed himself in Tuseong.
And now Yoon Seah's behavior had become concerning since she became a Void Apostle.
Even with the training room's 5x time multiplier,
There wasn't enough leisure to pursue his own insights here.
'Once I absorb all of the Devil's Intrusion stat, that's when it will be complete.'
Currently, the Devil's Intrusion value was 200.
The reversed Devil's Intrusion of Martial Soul had decreased by more than half compared to before,
But in exchange, the Blue stat had reached 700.
'Compared to when I fought Dongbang Sak, it seems I've recovered about 80 percent.'
Once he absorbed that remaining 300 into Blue, he might become even stronger than then.
Then he should be able to firmly grasp the Martial God.
Thinking this, Seong Jihan watched simulations related to Dongbang Sak.
Until just now, Dongbang Sak's martial arts had given him many insights through Heterogeneous Martial Resolve, but.
'Now progress has stalled.'
After Devil's Intrusion decreased to 200, Heterogeneous Martial Resolve no longer activated when watching Dongbang Sak's battle scenes.
Had he extracted as much as he could?
'Hmm... I really owe a lot to the old man.'
When he had Martial Soul, he gained many martial arts through it.
When combining with Blue, he took more with administrator authority.
Dongbang Sak's influence on Seong Jihan's ultra-rapid growth was very significant.
That's why he reached the administrator position in just a few years.
However,
No matter how much of a unparalleled genius Dongbang Sak was in martial arts, after taking so much from him,
Now no matter how much he watched his martial arts, Heterogeneous Martial Resolve wouldn't activate.
'That's too bad.'
It felt like unification would be complete if he could just reduce Devil's Intrusion by 200 more.
Now, did he have to go back to training without any guarantee?
Seong Jihan pondered deeply.
'My martial talent, objectively speaking, is good... but not to the extent of transcending the human category like Dongbang Sak.'
Even before regression, Seong Jihan was humanity's greatest warrior.
Although his overall ranking was 7th at that time, excluding national bonuses, he was evaluated to be stronger than America's core Barren.
Thinking back to then, Seong Jihan was certainly one of the most talented martial artists within the human category, but,
That talent was limited to within humanity, which was the lowest-grade species.
'With my current talent, it seems like it would take at least 5 years of diligent training to merge Blue and Martial Soul.'
Dongbang Sak talked as if it was almost done, but that was by his standards.
Seong Jihan thought it would take about 5 years with his talent.
He thought it could easily take even longer than that.
'This estimate came after absorbing the Devil's Intrusion ability... Before that, I didn't even know how long it would take.'
Until he absorbed abilities through Heterogeneous Martial Resolve, he didn't even know how long it would take.
He got a rough sense as his martial talent increased while absorbing the remnants of Martial Soul.
With diligent training, 5 years.
With the void training room, it would take 1 year of actual time, but...
'This is the old way.'
There was no need to take the long way when he could find a shortcut.
Thinking this, Seong Jihan ran various simulations to utilize Heterogeneous Martial Resolve.
However,
'There's nothing to learn from other human players.'
Perhaps because he had absorbed so much from Dongbang Sak,
Heterogeneous Martial Resolve showed no effect on other human martial artists.
Should he look for footage of completely new species in this case?
As Seong Jihan was contemplating how to use this ability,
[The characteristic of Heterogeneous Martial Resolve is activating.]
Among the multiple simulations he had running, Heterogeneous Martial Resolve activated in one.
Was there a talent among humans, besides Dongbang Sak, who could activate this?
He thought this as he watched the simulation and,
"Ah, right. There was him."
He was able to find the person stimulating his Heterogeneous Martial Resolve.
It was Ashoka.
The one who laid the foundation for the Blue stat and passed down the Golden Wheel,
He should have plenty for Heterogeneous Martial Resolve to learn from.
'I'll gain as much as possible from these two who far transcended human limits.'
Thinking this, Seong Jihan now played simulations featuring Ashoka.
Heterogeneous Martial Resolve activated every time he drew out the Golden Wheel.
His power to turn back time was enough stimulation even for the current Seong Jihan.
And after watching this several times,
'...I think I'm starting to understand something.'
Seong Jihan suddenly had such a thought.
Although he couldn't conceptualize it into a single term yet,
He was getting an unconscious sense about Ashoka's power.
And after running hundreds and thousands of simulations like this,
[The function of the stat 'Blue' is expanded.]
A new system message related to Blue appeared.
And then,
Swish...
At the boundary of Blue that was blocking the overflowing void from his face,
The shattered cracks began to repair themselves, if only a little.
'This is...'
The restoration function of Blue that he had been trying to figure out but couldn't until now.
He found a clue related to this while observing Ashoka.
'It's recovering.'
He wanted to return the broken parts of his face to their original state.
Just by thinking this, Blue moved and regenerated the damaged outer areas.
To be precise, it wasn't regeneration.
It was returning to the past, to the time before it was broken.
'But it's still only at the beginning stage.'
Blue's restoration ability was still poor,
Not enough to restore his face to its original state from the void's overflow.
It only slowed down the rate of deterioration.
Right now, it was much more efficient for Yoon Seah to absorb the void or to regenerate with the power obtained from the red World Tree.
But for now, he had only grasped the clue to the restoration ability.
If he developed this further, he might be able to return these cracks to their original state someday.
As Seong Jihan was smiling while observing Blue's progress,
Zing...!
A purple portal opened above the training room.
"Uncle!"
Yoon Seah and the Messenger entered simultaneously.
* * *
"Uncle... Shouldn't we absorb the void once? It looks like it's about to collapse soon."
As soon as Yoon Seah entered the training room, she focused on the void around Seong Jihan.
Seong Jihan, who had let the void overflow while learning from Dongbang Sak and then Ashoka,
Was now in danger of being consumed by the void at any moment.
Although he had awakened Blue's restoration ability and was using it to hold back the void,
'This ability is still in its early stages, so I'll have to rely on Seah a bit.'
Seong Jihan quickly assessed that his ability alone wouldn't be enough and asked Yoon Seah for help.
"Yeah. Please take care of it once."
"Okay!"
Yoon Seah approached Seong Jihan with a happy smile at his words.
Whoosh...
As she began to absorb the void, the damaged parts of his face slowly started to recover.
'Can I use Blue's restoration along with this?'
Currently, it was the power of Eternity that was regenerating his broken face.
Seong Jihan decided to try using Blue's restoration alongside it.
Then,
Swish...
The regeneration speed became twice as fast compared to using Eternity alone.
"Oh, Uncle... the recovery is much faster than before?"
"That's the result of my training."
"Wow, I thought you were just watching simulations... but you were actually training all along?"
"Were you watching that again? You're just like your mom, you know?"
"Mom?"
"Your mom used to always monitor whether I was studying or not in the old days."
"Uncle, you really didn't study much back then..."
"You remember seeing me as a baby. You should forget about that kind of stuff."
As Seong Jihan shook his head at Yoon Seah, who remembered him up to his high school days,
[Blue Administrator.]
The Messenger addressed him with his business.
[The Black Administrator has answered regarding the previous inquiry.]
"I see. What did he say?"
[The investigation of Tuseong was handled by the White one... but they say they couldn't find any trace of Red.]
"They couldn't find him?"
Seong Jihan frowned.
The Black and White Administrators.
They acted like gods of the BattleNet, but they didn't seem to be capable of much.
'Or maybe they deliberately didn't find him.'
The 'Great Sponsor' mentioned by the Red Administrator.
The only beings capable of sponsoring him to that extent would be the Black and White Administrators.
Considering this, it was like asking an accomplice to help find the culprit.
Then,
[However... the Black Administrator is questioning this investigation result and looking into it separately.]
"Oh? So Black isn't the Great Sponsor?"
[Absolutely not. The Hell that the Red Administrator is trying to create greatly infringes on the realm of 'Void'. The Black Administrator is trying to deal with this issue as the top priority.]
Squeeze.
The starfish-like being turned towards Yoon Seah.
[So, the Black Administrator says to leave the symbol of the 'Arena Owner' above Yoon Seah's head until this issue is resolved.]
"What does that have to do with this?"
[He said that if the White Administrator is supporting the Red Administrator, we'll need a direct aid route here too.]
Seong Jihan's eyes darkened.
If they wanted to help, they should just help.
Why did they need to put a hat on Yoon Seah?
This was just an excuse.
"So basically, you're saying we can't cancel the Void Apostle status, right?"
[...That's correct.]
"I understand Black's intentions."
If that's how they were going to be, he wouldl have no choice but to destroy that hat himself.
Thinking this, Seong Jihan looked at Yoon Seah.
"Tell them that once I eliminate the Martial God and the Red Administrator, I'll remove that thing myself. They said until the problem is resolved, so they should agree, right?"
[...I will convey that message.]
"Alright. You can go now."
[Yes, I'll see you next time.]
Swish swish.
The Messenger retreated at Seong Jihan's gesture.
In the end, all the news he brought was negative.
Red wasn't found in Tuseong, and Yoon Seah's hat still couldn't be removed.
Of course, there were various additional explanations regarding White, but.
'In the current situation, I can't trust either Black or White.'
In the end, he would have to overcome this with his own strength.
Seong Jihan made this resolution and said to Yoon Seah.
"I'm sorry, but please wait a little longer. Once I finish my training, I'll definitely destroy that hat."
"Ah... the hat I can't see?"
"Yeah. I'm not strong enough yet, so I need to use the training room for now."
"...You don't really have to destroy it."
"What?"
When Seong Jihan heard Yoon Seah's words and questioned her with a serious voice,
"Ah, it's nothing. Hehe. I got it! Hurry up and finish your training and come out! I'll be outside!"
Yoon Seah quickly waved her hand and went outside.
'...I really need to finish this quickly and get out to destroy that thing.'
Ever since that hat appeared, the kid has been acting strange.
The tremendous power gained after becoming an Void Apostle.
He needed to resolve this quickly before his niece became more captivated by it.
As Seong Jihan steeled his resolve and was about to start the simulations again,
Zing...
In front of his eyes,
A message window with a different background color from before appeared.
"...White."
[The White Administrator advises you to be careful of the void.]
They used to always stick together, Black and White this, Black and White that.
These days, the two of them were causing quite a commotion as a pair.
"How am I supposed to know what to be careful of unless you tell me specifically?"
Seong Jihan retorted while looking at White's message.
[The White Administrator says it's not appropriate to tell you now, as you're buried in void.]
[Instead, he says he will upgrade your 'Star Buff'.]
'What, he's suddenly offering to upgrade it here?'
He gave advice without explaining why,
And when he asked what the problem was, he offered to upgrade a buff instead?
'This is suspicious, way too suspicious.'
Seong Jihan was about to flatly refuse White's offer, but.
"...Hmm."
He closed his mouth after seeing the subsequent message.
'...Why is he giving away so much?'
The upgrade White proposed.
It was too attractive to reject outright.