REAPER SCANS
The Martial God Who Regressed to Level 2
[Translator – SCM]
[Proofreader – ilafy]
Chapter 272
"How surprising. I never thought I could enter a game while already inside of one…" JiHan mumbled as he accepted Armtu’s request and entered the space the Thunder God had prepared, even though he was busy with Planet Pioneer.
- Please… if things continue like this, the smithy will be completely destroyed! There won't be any chance of recovery! The glory of the dwarves will vanish!
- That's very unfortunate.
- Y-yes. You were doing Planet Pioneer… Right? This time, I will provide you with a quick and new bio-robot.For free, of course! On top of that, I will give you three more smithy tickets!
- I'm not sure…
- Don't be like that. Help me, please!
Eventually, Sung JiHan ended up accepting.
[You're in a League game, 'Planet Pioneer', and participating as a 'Leader'. If you don't return within 2 hours, humanity will be disqualified.]
Players other than the leader could freely log out, but he had a two-hour restriction since the leader was considered an essential element in Planet Pioneer.
'I should just listen and then log out.' JiHan thought while looking around. He was in a place similar to where the Thunder Gods' Divine Throne used to be, but the throne itself was absent.
Then, red lightning flowed into the middle of the area, and a red lion appeared.
BZZT…!
“You've finally come…!” Although the lion’s body was massive, he was filled with holes.
JiHan looked at him for a moment and then started to speak. "Your body is a mess, Thunder God."
“I was chased by the servants of the Wandering Martial God. The Cosmic Heavenly Demon was surprisingly strong…”
"Why are they chasing you?"
“I think it's probably because of the red lightning… The Wandering Martial God already absorbed every other ability from the thunder gods.”
"He still didn't absorb the red lightning?" JiHan asked.
“I guess that's why they're chasing after me so much…”
JiHan tilted his head. Last time, he thought it was strange that the Wandering Martial God hadn't absorbed the red lightning, but it was even more confusing that the being hadn’t made the power his own after taking the Thunder God’s Divine Throne.
'Perhaps he also hasn't learned the Purple Cloud Divine Arts that Dongfang Shuo taught me.' If he couldn't take the Purple Cloud Divine Arts, then it was safe to guess that the Wandering Martial God couldn’t replicate any abilities related to JiHan.
"So what do you want?” JiHan asked. “I only have two hours, so make it quick."
“The red lightning you gave me… Take it back.”
"You're going to return it? You gave me an EX-rank skill in exchange for it, didn’t you?"
“Yes… I don't need it anymore,” the Thunder God leader said in a tired manner. “Survival is more important than the red lightning. Eventually, the Wandering Martial Gods's servants will find me. It'd be better for me not to have the red lightning when they reach me.”
"I don't care about taking it back,” JiHan said, “but won't that make you disappear?"
The Thunder God had accepted the red lightning and become an independent concept because he thought there was no chance of beating the Wandering Martial God. Wouldn’t all of his efforts be for nothing if he gave up on it?
The Thunder God shook his head. “I already escaped, didn't I? I somehow achieved the first goal. I wasn't tied to the Divine Throne of the Thunder Gods.”
"Then just give up on the red lightning,” JiHan said. “Why bother passing it to me?"
“I already became one with it, so I cannot do that. You, as the original, must take it back.”
"Hmm…" JiHan thought the proposal itself wasn't bad. Even though the Thunder God had been badly hurt, the red lightning coursing through him was still quite powerful. Naturally, JiHan’s lightning would grow much stronger if he absorbed it.
'He could have other ulterior motives, so I should be prepared.' He was reluctant to take the Thunder God’s words at face value. The being wouldn’t have threatened Artmu if it was that good of a proposal, after all.
Sure enough, Artmu said something. “Absorb the red lightning? It might sound good, but… Will the customer be able to handle it? After all, we're talking about the power of the Thunder God.”
“You're worrying for nothing,” The Thunder God argued. “Since he's the original owner, it can be done.”
“But—”
“Stay out of this.” The Thunder God released lightning toward Artmu, forcing him into silence. Then, he turned back to JiHan. “What will you do? Will you take it? If you do, I will repay you greatly once I become the combined Thunder God again.”
"The others already vanished,” JiHan said. “How could you regain your form?"
“Although the other thunder gods disappeared, they will reappear again in the future. The concept of revering the sky's lightning as something divine won't disappear. In the meantime, I will stay as a lightning spirit and wait for that moment. If I survive, the opportunity will eventually come…”
Although his Divine Throne had been taken over and the collective thunder gods had been annihilated, since the concept of ‘thunder god’ hadn't disappeared, could they resurrect again?
"When will that be?" JiHan asked.
“That's…”
"I want something I can receive right now."
“Aren't you getting the red lightning back?!”
"I'm also taking a risk by accepting this proposal. How could a mere human like me safely absorb the lightning of a thunder god? There should be a reward for taking such a risk."
“You bastard…! How come you keep requesting so many things?! Even after seeing my current state, you want to take more from me?”
"I'm not in a good state either." JiHan had to get stronger if he wanted to beat the Wandering Martial God. Even if the Thunder God was fleeing, he didn’t intend to show leniency.
“Ugh… I'll give you a trillion.”
"One trillion GP?"
“Yes…! Be satisfied with this. I can't give you more. I have to recover after I pass on the red lightning, after all!
"Hmm. Don't you have anything else besides GP? For example… skills or items?" JiHan asked.
“I don't!”
He didn't have any particular use for GP. 'So money's going to keep stacking like this, huh?' JiHan clicked his tongue and nodded. "Okay. I'll accept the GP and retrieve the red lightning."
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator - SCM
Proofreader - ilafy
Join our discord for updates on releases!!
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* * *
“Hah. Thank you very much,” the Thunder God said.
"Then, I'll take it." Finished with extorting GP from him, JiHan absorbed the Thunder God’s red lightning. He was wondering if he’d have to leave and finish later due to the two-hour time limit, but the red lightning was completely absorbed in the blink of an eye.
BZZT—!
The red lion rapidly shrank.
[The Rare Stat 'Lightning Seal' has been replaced with the Unique Stat 'Red Lightning'.]
[Your Red Lightning stat has reached 200, your current limit.]
[The remaining red lightning will stay inside your body to be reabsorbed once your stat limit increases.]
'It became its own stat… and 200 is the limit?' Red lighting was originally bound within Martial Soul, but the Thunder God’s power upgraded the Lightning Seal on JiHan’s hand, replacing all of his lightning with the red lightning.
The red lion shrank even more until he was around JiHan’s size. “It's over… Then, I'll be going into hiding again.”
Flash—!
The red lion vanished. At the same time, a message appeared.
[This world will close in 1 minute. Prepare to log out.]
All of it finished in less than two hours, and JiHan had greatly benefitted with both the Red Lightning stat and a lot of GP.
“S-since you received a trillion GP… Could you invest in the smithy?” Artmu asked. “The Thunder God messed everything up…”
"Send me more new bio-robots. I'll pay you a reasonable price for them."
“Of course! I'll go package them right away!”
"Also, check the dragon heart for me for free later."
“Of course!”
He was even able to get more robots from Artmu. Before he was logged out, though, JiHan’s expression went stiff when he examined the red lightning flowing through his body.
'Hmm…' Though the unabsorbed lightning was under his control, there was something that bothered him a bit. 'There's something odd about how it’s moving.’
* * *
= It's already day 13 of Planet Pioneer!
= Ah, the end is approaching. It's truly regrettable! After all, we gained a lot over these past few days.
= That's right. When JiHan brought in more bio-robots, the whole world cheered!
Humanity was in a festive mood with the game nearing its end, and the bio-robots had an amazing effect on the benefits humanity received.
- It's already over? How disappointing…
- Seriously. I feel like I've benefited more in these few days than after having trained for many years.
- But Life Force didn't upgrade as much as before. Rather than that, most upgrades seemed to focus on player abilities.
- Yes. These past few days, the chance of Gifts appearing has increased significantly.
After a certain point, Life Force upgrades stopped appearing. Instead, resources that increased the chance of Gifts appearing, GP exchange rate improvement, and experience points showed up. They were mostly resources connected to Battle Net activities, so ordinary people were a bit disappointed.
- Humanity lacks too much compared to other species.
- Even if we can rely on JiHan, putting all our eggs in one basket isn't a good idea.
- In the end, won't more Gifts appearing increase the overall quality of players? This is something we should welcome.
People with some interest in Battle Net were still happy and said that the effects would ultimately strengthen the power of humanity.
Meanwhile, in humanity's base camp…
"Ah… I want to rest and take a bath." Sae-ah complained. She looked exhausted. It was day 13 of Planet Pioneer, and she’d only taken brief naps within the game without logging out. All of her focus had been on hunting.
"Your face looks clean," JiHan said.
"It's thanks to Sofia's cleaning magic… She just used some Divine Power, and my body was cleaned. I'm grateful, but I want to soak in a bathtub."
"Why don't you log out for a brief moment?"
"I can't do that. I must enter the top 50."
"Why?"
"The Battle Net Association, with the support of major guilds, promised to award a large sum of money to those who ranked among the top 50."
"Why's a big landlord so greedy about money?"
"It isn't just about the money; it’s about honor! On top of that, they promised some items as well!"
They needed to hunt if they wanted the bio-robots to work. That's why the leaders of Earth, to boost the motivation of human players participating in Planet Pioneer, had announced a large prize pool to motivate them—a large sum of money capable of surprising anyone and SS-rank items would be provided.
"What's your current rank?"
"Me? I'm 25. Fu… Fufu. I'm going to try harder and reach the top 10, Uncle. Are the matters with the elves okay? They haven't been seen since day 10."
"You're right. It's as if they disappeared."
"Looking at the points, it doesn't seem like they collapsed… Could they be in the sea, perhaps?"
Although that number was lacking compared to humans, who'd taken monopoly of the continent, the elves were earning a significant amount of points and couldn't be taken lightly.
"I've searched the nearby seas but couldn't find any hint of them," JiHan said.
"Where could they have gone? What if they cause an incident on the last day?"
"Hmm, I wonder…"
- Mr. S-Sung! It's the east coast side here… The situation isn't normal. The seawater shot into the sky all at once!
An urgent message arrived from one of the players who'd gone out to hunt native species.
"So they aren't going to cause trouble on the last day. Instead, they’re moving the day before it ends." JiHan got up. "I'll be going."
"Huh… Did something happen?" Sae-ah asked.
"It seems the elves have appeared."
BZZT—!
JiHan summoned his red lightning. Though he had control over both the lightning from the stat and the lightning surging through his body, there was a slight difference in the lightning not under the stat’s control. It’d been a few days, but he still couldn’t fully control it.
Seeing how it even resisted his control through Martial Soul, he was a bit concerned. 'I didn't expect the Thunder God to give me power just like that, but still… I have a good place to use it.'
He continued moving to the east while making a meaningful smile.
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