abcnovels
Chapter 593
Chapter 593
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 593
"It's been a while, Sophia."
Excluding their brief encounter during his Kim Jihun days, it had been 5 years since Seong Jihan had seen Sophia.
Despite reuniting with Seong Jihan, she had a somewhat gloomy expression.
She stared at Seong Jihan for a moment, then,
"I'm... really sorry."
She apologized, bowing her head deeply with a dispirited face.
‘Wait, why the sudden apology?’
"What are you sorry for?"
"I... I couldn't remember Jihan until the very end..."
Couldn't remember until the end?
Ah.
'She must be talking about the colonial period.'
Towards the end of the colonial era, when Yggdrasil was taking root,
Quite a few people had regained their memories of Seong Jihan.
Of course, since they couldn't openly reveal this, the exact number wasn't tallied, but,
Many people realized in the final moments that the World Tree symbol in the sky was a sign of oppression, not salvation.
But Sophia never regained her memories?
"That can happen. Why is that important?"
"Even the Guild Master remembered... My inability to remember, could it be because I lacked faith in Jihan?"
"I don't think so. It's probably unrelated. There are individual differences."
The mechanism of regaining memories from Yggdrasil's record erasure wasn't clearly understood anyway.
The idea that not remembering then meant a lack of faith didn't really hold up.
As Seong Jihan spoke as if it wasn't a big deal,
"...Really?"
Sophia slightly raised her lowered head.
Then,
"Then... is it okay if I continue to like Jihan?"
She looked at Seong Jihan with sparkling eyes.
She apologized as soon as she arrived, and now the conversation flowed in this direction?
"Would you stop if I told you not to like me?"
"No. It's not easy for a person's feelings to change like that."
Then why ask?
Seong Jihan chuckled.
"Well, I can't give you an answer until I deal with some urgent matters. If that's okay with you."
"That's fine~ I can wait as long as it takes."
"Right. They say we're in the era of 200-year lifespans now."
After evolving into a mid-high tier race, lifespans had increased.
So now it was the era of 200-year lifespans, not 100?
"Alright. Then I'll resolve the issues as quickly as possible and give you an answer."
Of course, those issues being dealing with Urd, the former White Administrator and current Green Administrator,
And safely extracting humanity from the Gold League, which wouldn't be easy.
But with her smiling and saying she'd wait, it was hard to discourage her further.
"Then, can I move back to the lower floor? Seah. That apartment I used before... Oh. Is that person still there?"
"That person?"
"That half-elf with high compatibility... I think his name was Kim Jihun."
The fact that Seong Jihan had disguised himself as Kim Jihun was known only to a few and not publicly revealed.
And Sophia was one of those who didn't know Seong Jihan was Kim Jihun.
'She did activate her divine eye on me when we met in my Kim Jihun state last time.'
She said that the photo of Seong Jihan looked quite similar to Kim Jihun's, but ultimately, she didn't get any further than that until the colonial situation ended.
As Seong Jihan was briefly recalling his previous encounter with Sophia,
"Oh. Kim Jihun? He was Uncle's disguise."
"Huh?"
"Oh. Is this a secret?"
"No. Everything's over, what secret?"
"Right? Uncle needed a place to stay in his disguise, so I gave him Sophia's old room. That room is empty now, but since Uncle used it... Yeah. I'll give you a different empty apartment instead."
Yoon Seah, showing off her authority as the owner of Sword Palace, said she could provide any number of empty rooms.
"No, no. I like that apartment."
But Sophia's eyes lit up as she insisted on moving into the original apartment.
"Really...? It might be dirty since a man lived there alone."
"Hey, what's dirty? I was barely there in the latter part of my Kim Jihun days since I was working as a Blue Sword."
"Still... Alright. I'll call a cleaning service to clean it up thoroughly."
"No, no. Leave it as is. I'll clean it myself. Jihan wouldn't have used the place roughly anyway, right?"
There was no reason to use it roughly.
Later on, elves were always around, so he just laid on the bed watching TV all day.
Still,
"If you're going to use that apartment, it's better to call a service to clean it. Seah, call a service as soon as it's morning."
"Okay. Got it."
"Aw... I wanted to see how Jihan lived. Can't be helped."
Sophia, disappointed about the apartment cleaning, then,
"Jihan. By the way, I have a personal question..."
"What is it?"
"Do you not sponsor as a constellation?"
She changed the topic to sponsoring constellations.
"Sponsoring constellation... I haven't really thought about it."
Before the colonial period, Seong Jihan was a sponsoring constellation for some players, but,
After Yggdrasil's record erasure, when she became the sponsoring constellation for all of humanity,
Seong Jihan as a sponsoring constellation had already disappeared.
Now that the Yggdrasil-related issues were resolved, he could sponsor if he wanted to, but,
'I haven't really felt the need until now.'
Rather than using the sponsoring constellation system to gain something from humanity,
The income from the Tower of Martial Gods was much greater.
Until now, he had focused on the tower and hadn't really thought about sponsoring.
"Is there a problem with doing it?"
"Not particularly."
"Then... would you become my constellation?"
"As a sponsoring constellation?"
"Yes. I want to put Jihan's name in my constellation slot!"
Sophia quickly added that she didn't need actual sponsorship from the constellation.
'Well, that much is fine.'
Seong Jihan immediately sent a constellation sponsorship offer to Sophia.
As soon as the offer came in, she accepted it immediately and,
"Am I the first one?"
"It seems so. Sophia is the first since my return."
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
"Hehe."
She smiled with satisfaction as Seong Jihan's name appeared in her status window's constellation slot.
Watching this from the side, Yoon Seah said,
"Oh, Uncle. Is it okay for an administrator to sponsor? I thought it wouldn't be allowed since direct interference in the league is prohibited..."
"It seems fine?"
"Then me too, me too! I want to be second!"
She stepped forward, asking to be sponsored too.
"Alright."
As Seong Jihan sent a constellation sponsorship offer to Yoon Seah as well,
Zing...
A message window with a black background appeared before Seong Jihan's eyes.
* * *
[The Black Administrator sends a warning.]
[They say if you increase sponsorship to human players any further, it will be considered direct interference in the Space League by an administrator.]
The message that appeared was telling him not to sponsor any more.
While indirect involvement might be tolerated, directly helping humanity like this as a sponsoring constellation wasn't allowed.
"Making a fuss over sponsoring just two people? Why don't you restrain Urd instead of wasting time on this?"
[The Black Administrator says the Green Administrator is currently in a quiet state.]
"Quiet?"
That woman?
Seong Jihan couldn't easily believe the Black Administrator's message, but,
[Urd has shown no movement since the incident at the Tower of Martial Gods.]
[They say there's currently no potential for problems with her, so you should also observe your duty as an administrator to not interfere in the league.]
The Black Administrator kept sending messages saying that since Urd was behaving, he should avoid causing problems too.
"What if I interfere more?"
[They say if that happens, they'll have no choice but to adjust humanity's evaluation upwards.]
Did this mean moving up to a higher league than Gold?
Seong Jihan furrowed his brow.
'We're barely hanging on in Gold, going higher would be hopeless.'
For now, he would have to comply.
As Seong Jihan was about to respond that he understood,
Yoon Seah cautiously asked him.
"Uncle... That black message window. Is it from the Black Administrator?"
"Yeah."
"What did they say?"
"The Black one says to stop sponsoring."
"Ah... So it's not allowed after all?"
"Right. They're letting it slide just up to you."
"Just up to me?"
Yoon Seah scratched her cheek at those words.
"Ugh... Then did I receive it for nothing? I'm banned anyway."
"Why? Is my sponsorship effective?"
"Of course. It's incredibly effective."
She opened her eyes wide as if to say 'what are you talking about?', then,
"Look at this!"
Swoosh...
Yoon Seah formed her favorite skill, Void Arrow.
Usually, as Yoon Seah got stronger, her Void Arrow was more like a pillar than an arrow in size.
But now it had shrunk to the size of a regular arrow.
"...Oho."
A faint blue energy could be felt within it.
"You... Don't tell me Blue appeared in your status window?"
"Yeah. I got 1 point. How about you, Sophia?"
"Me? Just a moment..."
Sophia, who had only been interested in seeing Seong Jihan's name in her constellation slot,
Looked at her status window at Yoon Seah's question and nodded.
"I got 1 point added too."
"This... But it feels different from the Blue we received before. Like my overall combat ability has improved?"
"Combat ability?"
"Yeah. I couldn't compress the void power in Void Arrow before, but now I can contain it like this."
"Really? Let's see..."
Sophia, who had been listening to Yoon Seah's analysis from the side,
Flash!
She tried out her skills in various ways and then smiled brightly.
"My combat skills are working better than usual too. How should I put it... Right. It feels like I 'understand' them."
"Ah. 'Understanding' is a good way to put it. I get a sense of how to use the skills."
Understanding combat skills?
Seong Jihan's eyes lit up at those words.
'Could it be... Even though only 1 stat point was added, is Dongbang Sak's Martial Arts being applied to some extent?'
It wasn't like this when he was a sponsoring constellation before.
Did this effect get added as Blue's performance rose to SSS-grade?
This would be incredibly efficient for the warrior class.
"Ah, it's such a shame I received this... Uncle. If only two people are allowed, can't you just cancel my sponsorship and sponsor Dad instead?"
"Sponsor Sejin?"
"Yeah. I think Dad could quickly recover his level if he got Uncle's sponsorship effect."
Certainly.
The ones who needed this effect right now weren't Yoon Seah or Sophia, but
The male rankers who had their levels reset and were trying to recover.
And then,
[The Black Administrator says it's within the allowed range as long as it's two people, so you can change players as much as you want.]
As if they had heard this conversation,
The Black Administrator sent a message saying it was fine as long as it was two people.
'They're not making an issue of this?'
Wouldn't it still be interference if he kept rotating between two people?
What exactly were their criteria?
Seong Jihan had such thoughts, but,
'Still, I should use what I can use for now.'
He decided to focus on resolving humanity's urgent situation first.
"Sophia. I'm sorry, but..."
As Seong Jihan started to speak,
"Ah... It's okay! I can give up the sponsoring constellation!"
Sophia, who had been listening to the whole conversation, spoke up first.
But,
"Just please sponsor me again when everything is over!"
At her request to sponsor her again once the situation was resolved,
Seong Jihan smiled.
"Of course. I'll make you number one."
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]