Chapter 294

[To Space-3? Seong Jihan, The Master, ascends once again.]

[What is Seong Jihan's guild mission? Revealed to be swapping out guild members.]

[Despite no rewards being disclosed for the guild mission, all rankers are eagerly lining up.]

[Is a minimum of 200 million GP the criteria for joining the Daegi guild? The competition over guild rewards intensifies.]

Seong Jihan's guild mission.

Even though the exact rewards were not yet disclosed, public interest was ablaze.

Given that the guild mission was a path to Space-3 Area, everyone speculated that the rewards would undoubtedly be significant.

"We cut off at rank 500… but it seems like there was no need. The TOP 100 all applied."

In the Daegi guild's office,

Lee Hayeon listed the applicants with a face suggesting she had expected as much.

"But the lower-ranked individuals are offering two to three times more GP to get in… What should we do? One person even offered ten times more."

"Let's foster a little GP competition, then cut off based on ranking. Surely the TOP 100 can afford the amount, can't they?"

No matter how much the lower-ranked players offered, the rankers within the TOP 100 had the assets to pay such amounts.

"Yes. Then, the negotiation period will be…"

"Let's end it today. There's no need to drag out the price negotiations."

"Understood. I'll proceed with further negotiations until this evening."

Lee Hayeon, with a determination burning within her, led the negotiation team to conduct the affairs.

After all, in this player selection, the Daegi guild held the upper bargaining chip.

"But our guild staff has increased a lot."

"Yeah. There's so much work, isn't there? To avoid incidents like last time, we've only brought in people ensured by the National Intelligence Service. Our conditions are almost the highest among guilds, so whenever we post recruitment ads, people flock in."

"Is that so?"

"…Uncle, aren't you paying too little attention?"

"Lee Hayeon will handle it just fine."

The Daegi guild was initially created for growth bonuses.

The core of the Daegi guild was the growth gift possessed by Lee Hayeon.

Since Lee Hayeon also took care of guild operations, Seong Jihan had no intention of getting involved.

'It was a good decision to appoint Lee Hayeon as the guild master.'

Seeing the guild running well even without his involvement, Seong Jihan smiled contentedly and returned home.

And as soon as he returned, waiting for him was,

"You're here?"

"Sophia?"

Sophia was having coffee in the living room.

"Ah, Sophia's here? Did you use the training room again today?"

"Yes. Thank you, Seah."

Seong Jihan steps behind her, Yoon Seah was waving her hand, seemingly accustomed to Sophia's presence.

"Sophia has been using our home's training room just like Hayeon unnie."

"Is that so? We haven't run into each other, though."

"You were hardly home, Jihan."

Sophia pouted slightly before quickly changing her expression.

"Jihan~ But can I really go on the guild mission? I haven't entered the TOP 100 rankings yet."

"Of course."

"Hehe, to think an American First alumna like me could get permission… Does this mean I'm truly becoming a 'real' member of the Daegi guild?"

Initially on loan from American First, Sophia, who had come to Korea for the Constellation Quest, had been making various efforts to become a true member of the Daegi guild.

Lately, in place of the often-absent Seong Jihan.

Between Yoon Seah and Lee Hayeon, and the other Daegi guild members, Sophia had managed to make her mark.

But ultimately, the most critical factor was the willingness of the owner, Seong Jihan.

He looked at Sophia, who had sparkling eyes, and smiled wryly.

"Do you really want to join that badly?"

"Yes! I've told American First everything!"

"What did you tell them?"

"That I can leave anytime, so they shouldn't pay me a salary."

"Alright, then come on in."

"Oh, Uncle, really?"

"Why not? There's no need to refuse now."

At Seong Jihan's words, Sophia stood up excitedly.

"Really!?"

"Yes."

"Wow! Finally!"

After hopping around jubilantly for a while, Sophia,

"Are you that happy?"

"Of course~ Hehe."

sat back down with a smiling face and brought the coffee cup to her lips.

"I'm so happy! This morning, Pythia said that the transfer of the Holy Flame would be delayed, so I was disappointed. I didn't think I'd have such a happy event in the afternoon!"

"The transfer of the Holy Flame? Why is it being delayed?"

"Oh, Pythia said she'd be making a great prophecy for a while. And she added…"

She stopped speaking and glanced at Yoon Seah.

"Ah, Seah, Pythia said to tell Jihan alone…"

"Got it."

As Yoon Seah went to her room,

Sophia closed her eyes and spread open her palm.

Whoosh!

From there burst forth a white flame.

Pythia's Flame, now significantly more intense than before, gently rose and flew towards Seong Jihan.

"Pythia said the third technique will likely be closely related to this flame."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. she added that it might be related to the 'Manifestation of the End'…"

Manifestation of the End.

Until the summoning of the Sword Rain, Pythia had mistakenly believed this to be her power.

Now that it's determined not to be her power, she considers it the third power of fire?

'Hmm… Manifestation of the End is definitely not it.'

Seong Jihan frowned.

The third martial art technique of annihilation that had lost its name.

But Manifestation of the End sounded too grandiose for what he remembered.

Rather, it was more of a feeling like, how could something like this be a technique of annihilation?

'I clearly knew before… I should have written it down.'

Seong Jihan thought as he observed the flame in front of him.

It was the first time he was seeing Pythia's Flame after acquiring the stat 'Red'.

"Can I absorb this?"

"Of course~"

Seong Jihan reached out to the flame.

It swiftly dwindled and entered Seong Jihan's body.

Woosh!

Perhaps because of the stat bonus, Seong Jihan was able to understand the essence of the absorbed flame to some extent.

'The attributes of fire and water are mixed.'

Two opposing elements that restrict each other and shouldn't be able to mix originally.

However, Pythia's Flame was uniquely hiding water attributes within.

Even for Seong Jihan, who possessed the power of red, how to manifest this phenomenon was incomprehensible.

Hiss…

Just as Seong Jihan set about to observe the flame more closely, it extinguished.

"Could you do it one more time?"

"The flame? Of course!"

He asked Sophia to raise the flame again.

After absorbing and analyzing it multiple times,

'I still don't understand.'

Seong Jihan ultimately couldn't grasp how Pythia's Flame produced such power.

While he pondered deeply about this,

"O-Once more… okay!"

Sophia, now significantly paler and sweating profusely compared to before, struggled to raise the flame again.

This is going to kill someone at this rate.

"No, let's do it next time. I can't fully grasp it at my current level."

"Wh-Whew… yes."

Relieved at Seong Jihan's words, Sophia slumped into her chair, catching her breath. Suddenly remembering something, she spoke to Seong Jihan.

"Ah, right. Pythia said she might be unable to send messages due to interference, so she'll communicate through me for a while."

"Someone is interfering with Pythia?"

"She didn't specify who it was to me either… But she mentioned to always check the surroundings before conveying her message."

"That's why you asked Seah to leave."

"Yes, especially to be careful around players with Constellations…"

Players with Constellations.

'Is Gilgamesh interfering?'

Seong Jihan thought of Gilgamesh, who recently became the sponsoring constellation of numerous players.

'But whether it's Gilgamesh or Pythia, they are of the same kind. How could one interfere with the other?'

Even if Gilgamesh holds a special position among his kind, is such a thing even possible?

He considered the intervention of another entity besides Gilgamesh, but there was too little information to speculate anything.

'I'll have to ask directly later.'

Until he could communicate directly with Pythia again, Seong Jihan decided to go through Sophia as an intermediary.

"Then Jihan. Should I just naturalize this opportunity?!"

"Let's think about that a bit more."

He stalled her, who had recovered her spirits and was pushing for naturalization.

* * *

[The Daegi guild is assigned to the special defense map, 'Northern Wall'.]

[Behind the giant walls, halt the invasion of unknown beings.]

[Receive racial bonuses for 10 rounds.]

Flash!

As the game began, players from the Daegi guild were summoned onto the map.

Being mostly world rank TOP 100 players, they were the elite of the elite from Earth.

However, initially tensed about Seong Jihan's guild mission, they felt,

"This is… the Northern Wall?"

"For something called a giant wall, it's rather underwhelming."

"It seems just like the walls in the Southgate map. If that's the size, then…"

disbelief upon seeing the actual scale of the summoned Northern Wall.

Looking north, they saw extensive white fortifications stretching.

To the south of the wall was a sunlit area, while the north was shrouded in darkness.

A clear contrast between light and shadow.

Then,

"Hey, there… something's moving!"

From within the dark land, something writhed.

Emerging one by one were massive worms gleaming with a blue light.

"Ugh, worms right from the start…"

"They're fast. They're already at the wall's base."

"They don't seem that strong though?"

"Seong Jihan, what should we do?"

Seong Jihan, upon the rankers' inquiry, drew out his shadow sword Eclipse.

Fundamental Divine Art, Triad of Martial Mastery – Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep

Swoosh!

One sword strike split the worm horde gathering at the wall's base.

'They're weak.'

The lack of resistance on the sword indicated they were an easy adversary.

"They don't seem very strong. Would you like to try handling them? I'll back you up."

"Understood!"

Encouraged by Seong Jihan offering backup, the rankers actively engaged the intruders.

The battle commenced, resulting in,

"What?"

"Why are they so weak?"

"It's unexpectedly bland…"

An easy victory for the Daegi guild.

[You have cleared round 1.]

This one-sided battle scenario continued not only in the first round but until, the racial bonus round 10 was completed.

[You have cleared round 10.]

[You have cleared the bonus rounds.]

[The guild leader is awarded the 'Guild Symbol'.]

Flash!

A silver shining cube appeared in Seong Jihan's palm.

Which soon,

[You've cleared the bonus rounds without any guild member demise.]

['Guild Symbol' upgrades to 'Guild Symbol+2'.]

with an additional message, grew and changed in color to gold.

[The Guild Symbol enables more efficient defense of the Northern Wall.]

[Absorbing symbols from other guilds will enhance the Guild Symbol's effect.]

'Other guilds?'

Other guilds, which had not shown even a hint of their presence up to the bonus rounds.

Would different races start appearing from the 11th round?

Then,

Rumble…

"What, what's that?"

"The wall, why is it…"

The Northern Wall that humanity stood upon began expanding suddenly.

Inside the game map, where the sunlit and shadowed sides seemed to stretch indefinitely, now both soared endlessly high, soon forming a massive wall.

And then,

[New guilds have arrived.]

Atop the entirely transformed scale of the Northern Wall were,

[These guys… They look weak.]

[Kill them.]

Gigantic octopuses, with their tentacles writhing, tightly surrounded the human players.

[Hand over the symbol.]

[Do so, and you might just escape disqualification.]

Ssshlurp!

A tentacle stretched towards Seong Jihan's hand before the voice even finished speaking.

Greeting the newly arrived guild in such a hostile manner, these were unmistakably BattleNet players.

Seong Jihan chuckled upon seeing the massive tentacle.

'Well, isn't it nice of them to come at me like this. It's like they're giving it to me.'

Eclipse, the shadow sword, shimmered.

Shhhing!

Tentacles fell all around.

Not stopping there, Seong Jihan, flying towards the lead octopus, extending his hand in a breezy voice said,

"Hey, give it here."