The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2 Novel

Chapter 172

"Mom...."

Yoon Sae-ah's eyes widened in surprise.

"Mom... she's gone..."

Sung JiHan nodded beside her.

The death of her sister.

Hadn't the whole nation witnessed it live?

"Yes, while trying to stop the dungeon break in the north, she ended up using the self-sacrifice order..."

North Korea was the first country in the world to be destroyed by a dungeon.

They had restrained and controlled players who could potentially threaten the regime.

Already struggling in the tumultuous East Asian league, they ended up at the bottom with overwhelming scores.

Although there were some authoritarian regimes that also refrained from nurturing players like North Korea, those countries did not have as tight regional leagues, so they did not end up at the bottom in league points.

Thus, since 2011 when dungeons began to appear, North Korea, which was soon engulfed by dungeons.

"The Abyss appeared."

The upper dungeons that formed when dungeon portals merged.

The "Abyss" had engulfed North Korea.

Unlike dungeon portals, powerful monsters emerged from the crimson cracks that engulfed the land.

Especially the ghost-type monsters that emerged from the northern Abyss were impervious to modern firearms.

Even with the entire army mobilized, North Korea couldn't stop the enemy.

And so, five years passed since North Korea's destruction.

Near the 38th parallel, when the group of North Korean survivors, who were thought to have all died, began to move south, human rights organizations began to argue that they should rescue North Korean compatriots.

"Unlike the early days of BattleNet, players have also grown a lot, so the government showed a positive response to this..."

The result was a tragic failure.

The monsters summoned to North Korea continued to emerge from the dungeon portals no matter how many were killed.

Especially as they went further north, most of them were ghost monsters, so the military couldn't exert much force.

When the response to retreat began to emerge.

When a player accidentally stepped into the Abyss's territory, a new message appeared in the system.

"The owner of the Abyss, '??,' is enraged by the invasion of the territory."

"The dungeon break is activated. Monsters affiliated with the dungeon portal move out of the territory."

"Defend against the enemy invasion!"

Along with that message, a large number of monsters from North Korea began to move south.

Initially, it started with the intention of rescuing North Korean residents, but the outcome was a terrible disaster.

A large-scale invasion by the ghost legion.

Gold-ranked and higher players from South Korea were dispatched to block the 38th parallel.

The initial invasion was somewhat successfully repelled with minimal casualties.

But as the second and third invasions began, casualties started to occur.

And with the fourth invasion, when a massive darkness descended from the north.

Korean society fell into panic.

No matter how many players were gathered, the scale was too large to defend against.

When it seemed like the defense line would be breached.

-I... I will use my gift.

Sung Ji-ah used her gift, "Sacrifice," to the extreme.

Then her body lost its vitality and turned into a solid stone.

As the light burst out in all directions, the darkness that had been rushing like a tidal wave hesitated and stopped moving.

"A saint... suitable as a sacrifice."

With those words as the last, the darkness swallowed Sung Ji-ah and retreated.

The scene of Sung Ji-ah's sacrifice, witnessed by the entire nation through live broadcast.

People called her a true saint and said they would never forget her sacrifice.

For the remaining family members, this incident was like a thunderbolt out of the blue.

The King of Swords, who had been dispatched to prevent further incidents in other regions, began to seek solace in alcohol, saying that he should have been by Ji-ah's side that day.

Sung Ji-han became even more immersed in gambling, confined to her house.

Yoon Se-ah tried to act cheerful like before, considering the gloomy atmosphere in the house, but her forced smile was obvious.

Ji-ah's death was an event that completely turned the Yoon Se-jin family upside down.

But...

"How can you find my deceased sister with this ring?"

When Sung Ji-han asked, the King of Swords slowly opened his mouth.

"I remembered what she said before Shizuru modified the ring. She looked at the ring's options and said it had an owner."

"Isn't it because my sister was the owner of the ring?"

"No. It's an item that chooses a new owner when the current one dies. She found it fascinating. She asked if your wife was still alive. She even provoked me by saying that it would be okay for her to live with me."

"Oh..."

Sung Ji-han's eyes sparkled.

There was no reason for Shizuru, who had already captivated the King of Swords, to lie.

So, does that mean my sister is really alive?

Even though she turned into stone and was consumed by darkness...

"Do you have any ideas on how to find my sister?"

"I was planning to search the northern dungeon."

"...Is that it?"

"Well... I thought that if we traced Ji-ah's belongings and the ring, we might eventually find her."

I thought there would be some revolutionary method by asking for the ring.

This is too reckless, isn't it?

"Just blindly? What if we end up causing another dungeon break like last time when we stepped into the Abyss?"

"Well... we'll just have to find a way to avoid it somehow."

"...Seeing you like this, it's clear that you're really my father."

Yoon Se-ah looked at Yoon Se-jin, who was planning to leave for the north without any plan, and her expression showed that she was actually relieved.

While outside, he maintained a dignified appearance as a prominent warrior player.

But at home, he was scolded by his mother every day for not having any thoughts, just like before.

"Just wait a moment, Ariel."

But if I let it go like this, a big disaster could happen.

Sung Ji-han summoned Ariel from his arm.

"Why?"

"How do you deal with the Abyss in your world?"

"If it's the Abyss... are you talking about the situation where the dungeon portals are clustered?"

"Yes."

"Ah."

"I see you really don't know anything about your world. Well, you didn't even know how to get rid of the dungeon portals..."

Ariel spread a shadowy aura in the air and drew a circle.

There was a large circle in the center.

And around it, black dots were sparsely scattered.

Among them, Ariel pointed to a black dot.

"The Abyss absorbs the magic power of the surrounding dungeon portals and becomes stronger. To get rid of it, it's urgent to eliminate the nearby dungeon portals first."

"Hmm, the solution is simple."

"Yes. In the first place, the Abyss doesn't appear on other planets until the end of the world. So, we quickly erase the dungeon portals through exploration before that happens."

"So, the Abyss only appears in extreme situations where even the portals cannot be erased. It means that the planets where the Abyss is born will soon see the end, destruction."

That's why the darkness in the north was so powerful.

In other worlds, the Abyss appears when the game is about to end, but here it appeared during the tutorial.

Upon hearing the Abyss strategy from Ariel, Yoon Sejin opened his mouth with an intrigued voice.

"Oh, this existence... Your summon, huh? Then we just need to eliminate all the dungeons around North Korea and move forward."

"To remove the dungeon portals, we need a player with the scouting gift."

"Well, if you just give me enough GP, I can somehow get it, right? It's GP..."

The confident voice of the Sword King gradually faded.

"...Um, I gave everything to Shizuru..."

"Do you have nothing left?"

"I only received a modest maintenance fee for when I urgently needed money. I think I left only 1 million GP..."

Although 1 billion may seem like a huge amount to an ordinary person,

For the Sword King, who had assets worth more than a hundred million, it was a situation where he had lost everything he had.

"Brother-in-law, I feel embarrassed to ask after saving me... Can't you lend me some GP?"

To the sad reality of the world's top warrior, Sung JiHan sighed.

"I can lend you as much money as you need, but to remove the dungeon portal in the north, we need to prepare properly. We can't just go with only the scouting ability."

"Hmm..."

Investigating the dungeon portal in North Korea.

If Sung JiAh was really alive, it was something that had to be pursued.

However, leaving it all to the Sword King made Sung JiHan uneasy.

Sung JiHan thought that he should contact the Association and form an investigation team.

"Oh, right... I can use them."

As if he had a good idea, his eyes flashed.

---

The World BattleNet Federation located in New York.

There, discussions were underway regarding the Sword King's whereabouts.

"How should we handle the Sword King issue?"

"To inform us of his withdrawal from the Space League. It's really annoying... But what he needs in the Space League is true."

"That's right. If Sung JiHan doesn't come out, it will be a huge loss. And there is no replacement player for them."

While many representatives of countries agreed to condemn the Sword King's demands and somehow make him participate in the Space League,

"Hmm... But if the Association succumbs to the player's threats, it won't look good."

"That's right. Then who will listen to the Association's words? Instead of listening to their demands, how about not going at all?"

The representatives of the Northeast Asian League maintained a tough attitude.

"We can't get him permanently disqualified from the player qualification..."

"We have to give him some kind of punishment. Otherwise, Korea will definitely be the first."

While representatives of other countries didn't have to face Korea except during the Champions League,

For countries in the same regional league, they had to play against Korea on a fictitious day.

The psychological pressure on the Sung JiHan-Sword King duo was very strong.

"To just go like that. Is the Space League a joke?"

"What if more dungeons appear? We don't know what kind of penalty there might be!"

As the debate about the Sword King intensified,

"The Sword King has proposed a new solution."

The Korean representative brought the Sword King's proposal.

"Although he didn't kill Ito Shizuru, it was inappropriate to broadcast the murder through BattleTube... As a punishment for that, he said he will support dungeon exploration for 6 months."

"What, dungeon exploration..."

"The Sword King will do it?"

Dungeon portal exploration.

After it was revealed that the scouting gift could remove dungeon portals thanks to Sung JiHan,

The World BattleNet Federation created a dungeon exploration team to test it.

And in reality, it was proven that by bringing a player with scouting ability, the dungeon could be completely removed.

However, serious problems arose during the demolition process.

"When we were trying to remove the dungeon core, there was a problem where the boss monster would randomly appear, right?"

"Yes, that's right. So many members of the Somalia Dungeon Portal Investigation Team died because of that. After that, there was a sharp increase in the level requirement for player applicants."

It was extremely difficult for the association to find players who met the criteria set by the investigation team due to the boss monsters that appeared when the dungeon core was removed.

From the player's perspective, reaching that level was like reaching heaven.

There was no need to risk their lives and join the investigation team.

"Hmm... That's a good suggestion..."

"If the Sword King participates in the investigation team, there won't be any concerns in terms of powerlessness."

"No matter what boss monster appears, accidents like last time won't happen."

As the atmosphere in the room became more positive, the representative of Korea spoke up.

"Instead, they said they will only explore the dungeons in North Korea."

"North Korea... Isn't that where the dungeon break first occurred?"

"They have Abyss, so won't it be dangerous?"

"They said they will start by removing the dungeons in the outermost regions and assess the situation."

"If Korea agrees, we're fine with it. It's easier for the investigation team to go there than to other countries."

Dungeons that only appear in the bottom 10% of countries.

These countries already had poor public safety, and the appearance of dungeons accelerated social collapse, making the situation very unfavorable.

Instead of setting up the investigation team's base camp in such a place, it was much better for the alliance to investigate North Korea, a stable country like Korea.

"Only six months... It seems too short!"

"Haha, please refrain from making any more unreasonable demands from the Japanese side."

"That's right. Isn't dungeon portal investigation the most important thing for humanity?"

"Yes. And, is it true that Shizuru really died? The evidence presented by the Japanese side is weak."

"Hmm..."

As the representatives of Northeast Asia looked at each other, they thought, 'We can't push any further.'

'We might face a backlash from public opinion.'

It was difficult to punish someone who was at the level of the Sword King for joining the investigation team, as they had declared that they would fight to the death.

"Alright, understood."

With that, even the Japanese representative accepted the Sword King's proposal.

The World Battle Net Alliance swiftly handled the matter.

The dungeon portal investigation team affiliated with the alliance set off for Korea.

They also deployed several artificial satellites to determine the boundaries of the Abyss, which was dyed purple.

When the alliance mobilized its full power to support them, Yoon Se-jin clicked his tongue.

"Brother-in-law, you're amazing... I didn't know you could make use of the alliance like this!"

"Well, it's a simple matter. They also needed the dungeon portal investigation."

Sung JiHan easily replied and advised Yoon Se-jin.

"If you happen to find any traces of my sister, please contact me immediately. I will join right away."

"Sure, I will definitely find her."

"Dad, don't push yourself too hard. Come home often when you have time. It's quick if you come by riding your sword, right?"

"...Yes, Se-ah. Thank you and I'm sorry."

After hugging Yoon Se-ah, the Sword King joined the investigation team.

Sung JiHan looked at the calendar.

It had already been 20 days since Shizuru's incident and the whole process was over.

With this amount of time passed, there was no need to postpone leveling up anymore.

"I can start playing the game again."

With that thought, Sung JiHan made up his mind to turn on Battle Net after a long time.