“…Your words are correct, Master.”
Pythia slowly nodded her head at Martial God’s conviction.
‘Although he doesn’t seem to view all of humanity as valuable beings right now…’
It’s not like Seong Jihan was a saint either.
If the situation changes, he may very well burn humanity with sacred flame.Moreover.
‘Since the Red Hand has been grafted onto him, the Administrator will keep persuading him to take on that role.’
Seong Jihan’s right arm added weight to Martial God’s conviction.
Although the hand didn’t seem to be eroding his mind right now, it would gradually influence him.
As Martial God said, it seemed right to expect and deal with Seong Jihan eventually becoming the Red Administrator.
“Then, what would be the best way to handle this?”
[We need to prevent humanity from advancing to the intermediate stage, and cremate them ourselves first.]Martial God answered Pythia’s question with his planned response.
“Cremate them first… you say?”
[Yes. That way, the fuel Seong Jihan can obtain through sacred flame will also decrease. However, the problem is that our room to maneuver has narrowed due to the failure of this incident.]
Thinking they just needed to capture Seong Jihan, they touched a candidate for the Sovereign constellation that shouldn’t have been meddled with originally.
With the Black and White Administrators investigating Tuseong, this could be a big problem.
Martial God was worried about what penalties might come down from BattleNet, but.
Ziiing…
As a message window appeared in the air, his red eyes flashed.
[The entire Tuseong group is only… suspended for 1 month?]
“1 month is regrettable, but the level of punishment seems milder than we feared.”
[That’s right. This is a much more lenient disposition than expected.]
“Could it be because I was pathetically pushed back by Seong Jihan earlier?”
For a Level 8 Sovereign Constellation.
She didn’t land a single proper hit on Seong Jihan.
Instead, she barely escaped Total Annihilation, and even the summoned arm of Martial God was cut off by the Taiji Sword.
She only showed herself being pushed back.
Considering how powerful of a candidate for the sovereign constellation he is to receive the system’s protection.
Perhaps this point was taken into account, resulting in a lighter penalty.
Pythia made that prediction, but.
[If the Black and White Administrators truly intended to punish us decisively, they wouldn’t have considered such circumstances. Since they found justification to issue a penalty, they would have fully exercised that authority.]
“Then why did they…”
[It seems the Black and White Administrators have another ulterior motive.]
Martial God’s eyes sank deeply.
* * *
The Red Laboratory.
As the Administrator’s Hand took over this place, it asked Seong Jihan.
[Main body. Do you also plan to sow seeds like Gilgamesh did?]
“…Why so suddenly?”
[By consuming a bit of stats, the facilities from back then can be restored.]
The facilities from back then likely referred to the human livestock factory.
Seong Jihan frowned and waved his hand.
“I don’t need anything like that. I wouldn’t accept it even if it was free, let alone spend stats to restore it.”
[Then should I just melt down and absorb the entire laboratory?]
“Let’s do that.”
Hwaruhruk…!
The laboratory instantly began burning from the outskirts.
The flames turned everything, including the red eyes, into ashes, before being absorbed back into the right hand.
Then, a message appeared before Seong Jihan.
[Your Red stats have increased by 50.]
Indicating a substantial boost in his abilities.
“50 is… not bad.”
[It’s a shame half of it was blown away by Total Annihilation.]
“It would’ve been 100 if not blown away.”
[And that tree swept up by Total Annihilation… was related to the World Tree.]
Seong Jihan recalled the red tree Pythia was tending to at those words.
During its prime, the tree exuded quite a powerful life force.
Although not at the level of a World Tree, it seemed to be a lower-grade version.
[If we restored that and performed sacred flame on the tree, we might’ve been able to burn the large southern island here.]
“The large southern island… you don’t mean the Australian continent, do you?”
[That’s right, that name. Wouldn’t that be a suitable first step for you to reclaim power from humanity?]
Seong Jihan was dumbfounded.
It was absurd enough that a lower-grade World Tree could burn away the vast land of Australia with sacred flame.
And this is the first step?
“I have no such intentions.”
[? You’re not going to reclaim this power? Ah… perhaps you plan to do it after humanity evolves? As expected of the main body. You think deeply.]
No, the one with many thoughts seems to be you.
[That’s right. Your goal is to become the Permanent Administrator. Even if you devour all of current humanity, it’s still uncertain if you can reach that point. To make it more certain, the correct order is to devour them after they evolve… As expected, you see through everything!]
Does this mean current humanity needs to develop further than now, so that burning them with sacred fire can make him the Permanent Administrator?
Seong Jihan listened to the Hand’s words that seemed to convince itself, and obtained information from them.
[I was worried you might not have ambitions for this.]
“And if I didn’t?”
[Then I’ll have to do the job in your stead.]
Here, ‘job’ likely meant burning humanity to ashes with sacred flame.
Then it would burn his sister and Seah and everyone to become the Red Administrator.
‘I went through all that hardship to save my family, I can’t burn them to become an Administrator.’
No matter how mighty the authority of an Administrator, Seong Jihan’s priority wasn’t power.
Without any hesitation, he discarded the thought of becoming the Red Administrator.
However.
‘Until I fully control this hand, I need to pretend I have ambitions.’
If the Administrator’s Hand found out his true mindset, there’s no telling what reckless actions it might take.
Seong Jihan spoke in a low tone.
“…Right. It’s not the right timing yet. As you said, for me to become the Permanent Administrator, humanity needs to evolve one step further.”
[That’s right. That way, there will be something to consume.]
“So don’t even think about sporadically burning sacred flame before then.”
[Understood.]
The Administrator’s Hand readily agreed, perhaps because Seong Jihan persuaded it according to the logic it stated itself.
This way, it likely won’t cause trouble for the time being.
Just as Seong Jihan felt relieved.
[Your Star Buff is upgrading.]
[As your channel’s viewer count has surpassed the threshold, the effect of New Star is activated.]
A message suddenly appeared, indicating his Star Buff had been upgraded.
* * *
‘Huh? The broadcast is definitely off right now.’
The buff effect remained the same during the intense battle earlier, so what’s with this late response?
While thinking that, Seong Jihan checked the efficiency of the upgraded Star Buff for now.
[The level of New Star is currently 1.]
[All stats are amplified by 120%.]
[You can further increase the amplification efficiency of one designated stat by 30%.]
The Star Buff that originally increased stats by 100% during broadcasts.
Perhaps because New Star was activated, it had been upgraded quite a bit.
‘120% is the base. And one stat becomes 150%.’
The effect is good.
Moreover, seeing that the New Star level is 1, there seemed to be more factors for the buff to grow.
‘But why did the buff effect increase after the broadcast ended?’
After finishing the ability check, Seong Jihan entered his channel once.
Then.
-Wow… is that really Total Annihilation? The one used by the Red Administrator.
-Just obtaining the hand allows you to use that? It’s an unbelievable treasure that fell into the hands of a lesser race.
-A candidate for a sovereign constellation swept away a Level 8 sovereign constellation in an instant… this is insane, right?
-
