The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2

‘There’s no need to fight the Blue Administrator.’

The ceasefire proposal that the Martial God offered to Seong Jihan.

He was sincere about this.

‘Although I’m stronger than him now, he’s an Administrator… If I try to subdue him carelessly, I might face an unexpected counterattack.’

The Blue Administrator, Seong Jihan.

He endured endlessly even when summoned to Tuseong.

Of course, he would have died if Ashoka hadn’t intervened.

Anyway, despite being brought to Tuseong, he survived.

The Martial God didn’t want to take unnecessary risks.

‘Now that I’m free to act, there are many places to gain power… I don’t need to stay on the fringes, I can build my forces.’

Until now, despite having immense power, he couldn’t freely engage in external activities due to the Sun King’s brand.

But now the situation has changed.

He could expand his influence externally as much as he wanted, as there was no brand to control him anymore.

‘First… should I take over the dragon race now that the Dragon Lord is gone?’

After the Dragon Lord was killed by Seong Jihan,

The dragons were engaged in a civil war to claim the empty Lord position.

Since the Martial God himself was created through the Dragon Lord’s body,

He intended to participate in this dragon civil war.

‘Yes. It’s time to leave Tuseong.’

The desolate Tuseong he had always seen through infinite regressions.

Now it was time to leave this place and operate from the center of BattleNet.

But for that,

‘I should absorb all the power contained here in this star before I go…’

The power accumulated through infinite regressions.

Before leaving, he needed to store it all within his body without leaving any behind.

Currently, there was so much energy stored there that even if he absorbed it, permanent preservation wasn’t possible.

‘If I retrieve the sealed World Tree, I can store the power.’

The World Tree sealed under the Earth’s sea.

That World Tree, dyed red, showed a clear difference from other World Trees.

If he brought that to Tuseong,

‘I can store all the energy gathered through infinite regressions inside.’

Then, even if his power didn’t reach the level of a permanent Administrator,

He could at least catch up to the Green Administrator.

After finishing his thoughts,

Thud!

He spat out Dongbang Sak, whom he had swallowed.

[Dongbang Sak, have you forgotten everything?]

“Not yet…”

[Blue has taken quite deep roots.]

“I’m sorry.”

As Dongbang Sak bowed his head deeply, the Martial God’s eyes flashed.

[We must finish the job before Tuseong’s seal is broken.]

“Is that… to retrieve the World Tree from Earth?”

[Yes. We must break the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams seal and extract the red World Tree.]

“If we retrieve the World Tree, what will happen to the surface?”

[Why, are you worried?]

“…”

Though he didn’t answer, his reaction was as good as an affirmation.

The Martial God glared at Dongbang Sak as if displeased.

‘He’s definitely wavering.’

Perhaps because he briefly lifted the limits to stop the Sun King, and because of what the Red Administrator said,

Dongbang Sak wasn’t showing the same loyalty as before.

Originally, if given an order, he should have followed it without worrying about the surface situation.

‘…I won’t be able to use him for long either.’

After retrieving the red World Tree, he’ll have to think of a way to dispose of him properly.

The Martial God thought this, but for now, he answered him.

[If we retrieve the World Tree, the earth will shake greatly, and the Blood clan sealed with the World Tree will emerge.]

“…”

[The Blue Administrator is on Earth, so it should be fine. At most, about 20% of humanity might disappear.]

“20%… you say.”

[Yes. So don’t worry and retrieve it.]

For the Martial God, who had repeatedly witnessed the extinction of humanity countless times through infinite regressions,

20% was a figure he could view as “Is that all?”

“I suppose the damage will be concentrated near the sealing site?”

[Probably. But that’s not for you to worry about. The Administrator will handle it.]

“…I understand.”

Dongbang Sak nodded forcefully at the Martial God’s words, but

His complexion was not bright.

After all, the location of the sealing site was in the center of the West Sea,

So it was close to his homeland.

[You’ve developed many idle thoughts.]

“…”

The Martial God, noticing Dongbang Sak’s demeanor,

Drew up his energy again to swallow him once more.

Whoosh…!

Reconnecting with the Constellation relics, the Martial God emitted powerful energy.

[I’ll make you think only of the mission.]

The snake form appeared again and swallowed Dongbang Sak once more.

Whoosh…!

Dark red energy spread from the snake’s head,

And Dongbang Sak’s ‘purification’ process began again.

And after devouring him, the Martial God thought,

‘I suppose I’ll have to use him this one last time and then make him end himself…’

He decided how to finish off Dongbang Sak, who was becoming increasingly uncontrollable.

* * *

In the training room of the penthouse.

[This is how I use it… it’s not working?]

“Yeah, it’s not activating at all.”

[That’s strange. Why isn’t it working?]

Seong Jihan, receiving education about the divine eye from Seong Jiah, frowned as it showed no sign of activating.

‘It showed me my neck being cut off, but nothing since then.’

Seong Jihan recalled the message he received when he got the divine eye.

[You have been implanted with the special authority, Divine Eye.]

[You received the Divine Eye from a player of lower rank than you. The effect of the Divine Eye is greatly reduced.]

‘It said the effect would be greatly reduced… but I didn’t expect it wouldn’t activate at all.’

Even though an Administrator’s rank is vastly superior to Pythia, who was a Constellation level 8,

It’s still a problem if it doesn’t work at all.

[If you focus on the third eye, you should at least get a hint…]

“I’m not getting anything.”

[Really? Can’t you feel the flow of power gathering in your forehead?]

“There’s nothing like that.”

[That’s strange… That’s how I use it. Look.]

Seong Jiah said frustratedly while activating her divine eye.

[I can create it this easily, see?]

“That ‘easily’ isn’t happening for me.”

[Haa. How can I teach this any further…]

Flash!

[If you activate it while focusing like this, you should see…]

As Seong Jiah was demonstrating how to activate the divine eye,

[…Huh?]

Suddenly, her face became serious.

[Wh-what’s this?]

“What’s wrong?”

[…The house suddenly disappeared.]

“What?”

[Um… wait a moment.]

Zzzzing…

The eye of light moved back and forth.

[Did an earthquake happen? But even for an earthquake, this is too severe…]

She muttered in disbelief as she observed the future situation.

[Oh, and there… even a red giant is coming.]

“Red giant?”

[Yes, with eyeballs all over its body… its form is semi-transparent.]

Seong Jihan recalled a certain being as he heard this.

‘Isn’t that a Great Golem?’

The blood clan that continued to exist as spirit bodies even after death.

It was Dongbang Sak’s karma for becoming immortal, as he had sealed these ghosts into the World Tree while wandering the world.

To think that the Great Golems, which could only be seen inside the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams before, would appear in the real world.

‘…If it appears in the future, does that mean something happened to the World Tree?’

Just when he thought peace might finally arrive, it seemed trouble was brewing again.

Seong Jihan asked Seong Jiah a question.

“How far in the future is this?”

[Hmm… I’m not sure exactly. But it’s not too distant. Roughly 2-3 months from now?]

“That soon?”

Seoul collapsing from an earthquake and Great Golems invading, this future was coming that quickly?

Seong Jihan responded with bewilderment, then his thoughts turned to another matter.

‘In 2-3 months… Tuseong’s seal would be released.’

Was it just a coincidence that these events overlap?

Or did Tuseong do something to the World Tree?

‘…It’s better to prepare assuming the latter.’

Come to think of it, although they agreed not to fight each other,

That’s a separate issue from them interfering with the World Tree.

What the Martial God proposed was merely avoiding conflict with Seong Jihan, the Blue Administrator.

The World Tree wasn’t included in the peace agreement.

‘If it was just an earthquake, that would be one thing. But considering the Great Golems emerging… this incident is definitely related to the World Tree.’

As Seong Jihan was deducing the cause of the situation through Seong Jiah’s future vision,

[Martial Soul’s distortion decreases by 3.]

[The connection point between Blue and Martial Soul almost disappears.]

Martial Soul’s distortion decreased again, and now the connection point with Blue was about to be severed.

‘The Martial God is trying to quickly erase the traces of Blue from Dongbang Sak.’

Was he concerned about the Red Administrator’s attempt to shake Dongbang Sak?

He’s not sure how he’s lowering Martial Soul’s distortion, but the Martial God was consistently attempting this.

‘Since Blue is an Administrator’s jurisdiction ability, that effect doesn’t apply to me, which is good…’

The connection point between Blue and Martial Soul that Dongbang Sak had raised was now left intact only for Seong Jihan.

While the result itself was a one-sided benefit for him,

After hearing Seong Jiah’s future prediction, that message felt somewhat unsettling.

‘Hmm… I’d like to see the situation in Tuseong like last time.’

Last time, he was able to spy on Tuseong to identify the cause of the problem when Martial Soul’s distortion abnormally increased.

This time, perhaps because the distortion was decreasing, that function didn’t appear.

“Martial Soul’s distortion is decreasing, can’t we see the situation?”

Seong Jihan asked the system just in case.

[The decrease in distortion is a normal situation.]

[As it’s not a problematic situation, it cannot be observed.]

The answer came that it was impossible for this case.

“Hmm… Then how about spying on Tuseong? Using my authority.”

[‘Tuseong’ is a place sealed by a permanent Administrator.]

[Temporary Administrators do not have the authority to observe it.]

Furthermore, the system said it couldn’t be observed because it was sealed.

‘Being new sure is tough.’

Seong Jihan realized the limitations of being a temporary Administrator and frowned.

This Administrator thing, sometimes it allows unexpected things,

But at times like this, there were quite a lot of restrictions.

‘No matter how I think about it, the future my sister saw seems related to that place…’

Was there no way to see it?

Seong Jihan pondered for a while, then suddenly recalled something from before.

‘Lowering Martial Soul’s distortion… it definitely consumed 500 authority per point.’

When Martial Soul’s distortion abnormally increased, the system asked if he wanted to correct it.

At that time, the required authority was definitely 500 per point of distortion.

‘I currently have about 3000 authority…’

Could he lower the distortion now too?

Seong Jihan asked the system.

“How much can I lower Martial Soul’s distortion with 3000?”

[The recent abnormally increased distortion value is 15. With your current points, you can lower it by 6.]

“…Did he raise the distortion to 15 by himself? In that short time of training?”

[That’s correct.]

Seong Jihan recalled the swords of light that had protected Tuseong.

Seeing that there were 55 in total, excluding the distortion raised by Blue,

The value reached through pure self-training alone was 55.

And before preparing for the Sun King, the original distortion was 40.

‘No matter how I think about it, his talent is really beyond comprehension.’

Seong Jihan realized anew that Dongbang Sak was a monster for greatly increasing his distortion as soon as training was allowed, and thought about this matter.

‘Martial Soul’s distortion… should I try lowering it too?’

Previously, he didn’t lower it thinking Dongbang Sak would quickly recover it through training.

But now the situation had changed.

The Martial God, who previously allowed him to train, was now keeping him in check.

If he also contributed here to weaken Martial Soul,

Dongbang Sak’s monstrous power might be somewhat controlled.

‘Of course, there’s the downside of Martial Soul becoming weaker… but it’s worth trying.’

No matter if they’re given the same Martial Soul,

Dongbang Sak would handle it much better than himself.

So weakening Martial Soul would impact Seong Jihan now, but

It would be an even bigger blow to Dongbang Sak.

‘Besides, I couldn’t do it before because authority was precious, but now I’m getting 100 a day.’

Previously, 100 or 200 authority was desperately needed,

But now Seong Jihan had used over 10 million to upgrade the Blue stat.

3000 or so was worth trying to keep Dongbang Sak in check.

“Lower Martial Soul’s distortion.”

[Lowering the abnormally increased Martial Soul distortion…]

[Martial Soul’s distortion has decreased by 6.]

At Seong Jihan’s words, the system immediately began to lower the distortion.

‘I’ll keep lowering it as authority accumulates.’

He began to join forces with the Martial God in reducing Dongbang Sak’s power.

And, ten days later.

[Oh my.]

The Martial God, who had been erasing the traces of Blue from Dongbang Sak,

Seeing that his power had noticeably weakened, hesitated for a moment while summoning the snake.

[…His power has weakened significantly.]