Chapter 549
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 549
"Compatibility 23 percent..."
"It's increased by 1 percent compared to the previous record!"
The elves re-measuring Kim Jihun's blue sword had their eyes sparkling as they saw the compatibility increase.
The compatibility growth due to Yoon Seah's Void infusion was showing considerable effect.
Of course,
"The 10 blue swords that the Arena owner tested earlier have all dropped in compatibility by about 2 to 3 percent."
"Two of them are completely losing their sword form..."
Numerically, the drop in compatibility of the 10 previous blue swords was much greater than Kim Jihun's 1 percent growth.
This could be seen as a massive loss overall for Yoon Seah's Void test, but
"It's fine. The lowest grade blue swords aren't important anyway."
They placed much more importance on Kim Jihun's growth.
Those low-grade swords were products that kept coming out with every compatibility test anyway.
Rather than those, it was more important to create one definite sword,
To complete an item that the Green Administrator, Yggdrasil, could use directly.
At that moment,
"Uh..."
"The, the swords are breaking!"
Whoosh...
The 10 blue swords whose compatibility had dropped to 2-3 percent,
One by one, they disappeared, unable to maintain their light.
"My... such useless defective products."
"Check Kim Jihun again in detail. We need to confirm there's definitely no problem before returning him."
While they were re-examining Kim Jihun in the inspection room after seeing the swords disappear,
"Success!"
Governor Mia, who received the results, said to Yoon Seah with a brightened face.
"The compatibility increased by as much as 1 percent."
"Is that considered a big increase?"
"Yes. May I ask for your help occasionally in the future as well?"
"I don't know. I'm not that free either."
Yoon Seah crossed her legs as she said this.
Now that the usefulness of Void had been proven, she immediately switched to a dominant attitude.
Despite this, the governor responded with a smiling face, showing no change in expression.
"Of course, I know the Arena owner is busy. Still, isn't the Red Administrator the enemy who subdued Seong Jihan? The alliance will provide all conveniences while you're here, so I hope you can help when you have time."
"Hmm... I don't really have any inconveniences right now."
"The Colonial Government has the authority to give orders to humanity. If you have anything you want people to do, please tell me anytime."
"I'm not really interested in humanity. They're the ones who chose to forget my uncle to save themselves."
"Ah. Then shall we start the project to restore memories of Seong Jihan earlier?"
"No. You're saying you'll restore the memories you erased?"
When Yoon Seah retorted with an incredulous face,
"Of course, it's not exactly the same as the original. There's been some modification."
Zing...
Governor Mia brought up a screen with a smiling face.
"This is..."
"This is a video we're already using to educate the blue swords."
Then, on the playing screen,
-Long ago, the World Tree had a gardener from humanity.
It showed Seong Jihan's life story, which was distorted as that of Yggdrasil's gardener.
-The gardener was to be Her mate. Soon to become one with Her, but...
Yoon Seah, who had been watching with an expressionless face,
Raised her voice when the talk of being a mate came up.
"You... are you crazy?!"
"...No, why do you say that?"
"Who's whose mate? What, gardener? Become one? You've really lost it."
"Please calm down for a moment. This is... an honor for the Blue Administrator, isn't it? Even if it's just in a video, he's been chosen as Yggdrasil's mate."
"What did you say?"
"Until now, not a single being has been acknowledged as Yggdrasil's mate. This should be seen as an honor for the family, no, for humanity as a species."
Being chosen as Yggdrasil's gardener should be considered an honor.
Governor Mia couldn't understand at all why she was upset.
'...Right. Elves were all fanatics originally.'
Yoon Seah realized this anew and told her firmly.
"That project... if you implement it, I'm out of this."
"What? But why..."
"Because I absolutely can't watch my uncle become the World Tree. So don't bring that up again."
"...I understand for now."
When Yoon Seah earnestly pleaded, Governor Mia nodded with effort.
"However, if the blue sword's compatibility stops growing and stagnates, this project could be activated at any time."
"No, how would something like that improve compatibility?"
"There's no direct correlation, but the higher-ups are saying it's worth trying."
"The higher-ups really have no sense."
Yoon Seah stood up with a hardened expression.
"Anyway, I've made myself clear."
Swish...
Then she turned into purple smoke and disappeared.
Governor Mia tilted her head, looking at where Yoon Seah had disappeared.
"...Why such a reaction? Actually, we should be the ones feeling offended."
The World Tree's gardener and mate.
From the foundation of the World Tree Alliance until now, not a single being had been able to stand by Her side.
So even if it was just in a video, if they made Seong Jihan such a being,
Shouldn't she be happy about it?
The governor couldn't understand Yoon Seah's reaction at all, but
'...For now, let's report this.'
Including Yoon Seah making the sword grow,
She decided to inform her superiors about all of this for now.
Meanwhile,
'She came back quickly.'
After the blue sword inspection was over, Seong Jihan returned to Kim Jihun's body.
Since it hadn't been long since he grew, they didn't make him absorb Blue into the World Tree's pattern.
'So the level didn't increase.'
Seong Jihan checked Kim Jihun's status window.
He had reached level 22 by now, with his level increasing by 1 or 2 each time he slept,
But today, his level remained stagnant, probably because he didn't do any work.
Instead,
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
'Void increased by 2.'
Due to Yoon Seah's Void injection, a new Void category had appeared in the stat window.
"Hmm... Void? What's this?"
As Kim Jihun muttered with a puzzled face seeing this,
"Is there a problem, sir?"
The elf escort approached in response.
She usually didn't take the initiative, but it seems she couldn't ignore the word 'Void'.
"Um, a stat I've never seen before, Void, has appeared in my status window..."
As Kim Jihun showed her the stats,
"Please wait a moment. I'll report this."
The elf escort left briefly to report to her superiors, then quickly returned.
"That Void is a special benefit given to you, Mr. Kim Jihun, and it has increased your compatibility by 1 percent."
"Oh... My compatibility increased again?"
"Yes. So they say not to worry about it as it's different from other half-elves' cases."
"Other half-elves..."
"I haven't been told the details about this either."
The elf escort closed her mouth after saying this.
'If it's other half-elves with added Void, does that mean those with low compatibility?'
The 10 blue swords Yoon Seah first tested.
They were already at 5% compatibility, and it dropped even further from there.
Did side effects appear?
'But if they're telling me not to worry to this extent, have some rumor spread?'
Thinking this, Seong Jihan opened his smartphone.
Then,
[Breaking News - Male Half-Elf Lee Myunghoon Returns to Human]
[Cases of Reversal Revealed in Foreign Countries as Well]
[Male Half-Elves in Panic. Their Common Point is 'Void']
-?? What's going on
-Void... Why is that coming up here? And why does it turn them human?
-Lee Myunghoon is ruined, Does this mean all his ads are cancelled?
-He quickly became a male half-elf early on and monopolized all the ads... What's he going to do now?-Hey, who's worrying about whom lolol, Lee Myunghoon has already earned enough money for three generations.
News came that 10 blue swords had reverted from male half-elves to humans.
'Earlier, when the swords couldn't maintain their light and disappeared... Was that the signal for humanization?'
So this is how they found out how the loss of a blue sword affects the original body.
This meant if he destroyed all the blue swords as the Red Administrator, it would just end with them becoming human.
'Still, it's a shame to destroy those who collect Stat Blue for me.'
5% compatibility, the World Tree Alliance seems to treat them as disposable for testing purposes.
But for Seong Jihan, even these were valuable workers.
Unless absolutely unavoidable, there's no need to destroy the blue swords.
As he was thinking this,
Swish...
He felt a strong swirl of Void from the upper floor.
'Seah is calling.'
A strong flow of Void.
This was the signal they had agreed on for when Yoon Seah wanted to call Seong Jihan.
He looked at the elf escort.
Unlike the governor, she didn't keep talking, but she would cast sleep magic abruptly when ordered.
He needed a sure way to control this elf.
'Sacred Flame.'
[Sacred Flame distorts the target's senses.]
The Sacred Flame he hadn't used when the governor was monitoring, wary of why a high elf was there.
But this elf escort was a mass-produced monitor, so it was worth applying Sacred Flame.
[50 Stat Red is consumed.]
'It's using quite a bit.'
Still, it was only about half of a D-rank World Tree.
As Seong Jihan used Sacred Flame,
"......"
The elf escort's eyes immediately became hazy.
'This should prevent any sudden moves.'
Seong Jihan left the escort like that, slipped out of Kim Jihun's body, and went upstairs.
Then,
"Haa. Really... Oh, uncle, you're here?"
Yoon Seah, who was sitting on the floor with a stiff face, greeted Seong Jihan.
"Why did you call? What did the governor say?"
"No. I think they've gone crazy."
As soon as the governor was mentioned, Yoon Seah frowned and
Told Seong Jihan about the conversation she had just had.
"...Gardener Seong Jihan? They're going to newly imprint that in all of humanity's memories?"
"Yeah. I clearly told them I'd quit if they do that, but they've even named it a project?"
When he first entered as the blue sword Kim Jihun, he wondered why they were making such a video.
'Was it one of the plans to grow humanity's compatibility?'
No.
But before, they talked about summoning more dungeons or drawing out blue swords by slaughtering humanity.
This project was completely different in direction, wasn't it?
"The World Tree Alliance... Their original plan should have been to change from peaceful governance to oppression. The direction has changed."
"Really? They said they'd oppress?"
"Yeah. They would summon more dungeons to create a threatening atmosphere for humanity."
"Then the direction is completely opposite? Ah. That... Could it be because uncle might be inside the Red Administrator?"
Seong Jihan is controlled by the Red Administrator.
It seemed they thought Yoon Seah and humanity's roles were necessary to some extent to pull him out of there.
"Anyway, uncle. I need to become a more important role in the World Tree Alliance. They treat me well now, but what if they imprint Gardener Seong Jihan to raise compatibility?"
"An important role? Hey, you can't go into battle."
"Ah... Why not? You just have to not attack me, right?"
"If the battle gets intense, you might get caught up in it unnecessarily. Just listen to the Gardener Seong Jihan talk, you absolutely can't participate in combat."
"But still. I'm not that weak..."
Seong Jihan drew a firm line at those words.
"No matter how strong you become, you won't survive a clash between Administrators. Combat participation is absolutely not allowed."
"...Ugh, alright. Then, is it okay if I think of other methods?"
"Well, thinking is fine. But get my permission before implementing anything."
"Of course!"
As Yoon Seah nodded to this, Seong Jihan changed the subject.
"Then let's leave this issue for now... I'm going to go raid the Alliance."
"Again?"
"I need to raid as much as possible before the blue knights with your face are ready."
"Ah. Right. There's that too..."
"This time I'm thinking of rescuing the Shadow Queen."
"The Queen..."
At Seong Jihan's words, Yoon Seah's expression became strange.
She lowered her voice by a tone.
"Uncle, there's something I want to ask..."
"What?"
"Um... Were you secretly dating the Queen?"
"...What are you talking about?"
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]