Chapter 554: Chapter 554
Thud.
After landing on the ground, Seong Jihan looked at the 100 High Elves.
They had faces identical to Yoon Seah's, and their hair colour had changed from the original blonde to black.
Their long ears and the green strands mixed in with their black hair were the only differences.
'They must have detected me controlling the shadows in the atmosphere and dispatched troops.'
The remote control by Kim Jihun on Earth was more difficult than expected, so the shadow control was delayed until Ariel appeared.
In terms of time, the whole process took less than an hour.
But that was enough time for the World Tree Alliance to dispatch troops.
'Yet for having so much time, there aren't many defensive forces.'
Even High Elves were quickly swept away by the Red Administrator.
Sending only 100 High Elves with blue swords meant sacrificing them.
Was it because there was a D-rank World Tree here?
Rather than putting all their effort into blocking,
'It feels more like they want to test me with the blue swords and Yoon Seah's face this time.'
The Red Administrator using Seong Jihan's body.
They seemed to want to see if he had suppressed entirely Seong Jihan, or if there was room to shake him.
Since this place had a D-rank World Tree, they probably didn't feel the need to defend it so desperately.
'Hmm, how should I respond...'
Swoosh.
Seong Jihan looked at the High Elves.
No matter how much they resembled Yoon Seah's face, in a situation where he was communicating well with her,
He had no hesitation about eliminating them.
However.
'It seems better to give them false hope that the Blue Administrator might awaken.'
Killing them here would only raise the D-rank World Tree by about 100 red stats.
Instead, 100 blue swords that should raise Blue instead of Seong Jihan would be destroyed.
And if Yoon Seah's form proved useless, her influence on the other side would surely fade.
'It's better to leave some room for interpretation here for later.'
Having decided on this, Seong Jihan reached out to them.
Crackle...!
Red lightning spread out all at once.
However, its intensity was clearly weaker than before.
"Shields up!"
"Use them through the swords!"
Zing...!
And in the protective barriers that rose to block this,
A hint of Blue's energy swirled.
Zzzzzz.....
The red current, unable to penetrate the shields used by the 100 High Elves, swirled on top of the barriers.
'Blue really is good against red.'
He had attacked weakly as a check but didn't expect it to be blocked so easily.
It seems he would have to control his power more than originally thought.
Seong Jihan added more force to the red lightning.
Then.
Crack. Crack...
Cracks slowly began to form on the shields defending against the red lightning.
"As expected..."
"With the lowest-tier blue swords, it's difficult."
Since they were dispatched for testing, this High Elf unit had low-performance swords.
Seeing their shields breaking, they widened their eyes, prepared for death.
And not long after.
Poof!
The red lightning pierced straight through one part of a shield and flew towards a High Elf.
The red current would turn anything it touched into black ash.
The High Elf in front closed her eyes unconsciously, resigning herself to death, but...
"Huh?"
The red lightning stopped right before her face, emitting a red light, then...
Pssssst.....
It disappeared, leaving only smoke behind.
"..."
And the Red Administrator who had extended the red lightning,
Silently looked at his hand, then,
Whoosh!
Vanished from sight.
"Where did he go..."
"Th-The World Tree!"
As one of the elves searching for him pointed behind them,
There, the Red Administrator, who had avoided a direct confrontation with the High Elves, was stabbing his sword into the World Tree.
Despite being able to instantly incinerate 100 High Elves if he used just a bit more power,
The Red Administrator deliberately didn't do so and went to absorb the World Tree instead.
Shuuuuu.....
And as the World Tree was sucked into his sword and disappeared,
"..."
He looked towards the High Elves once more, then,
Sssss.....
Soon, his figure completely vanished.
"He clearly could have killed us earlier."
"But he didn't."
Looking at the Red Administrator like this, the High Elves looked at each other with confused expressions.
The red lightning that had clearly disappeared just before touching the High Elf's face.
"Is it really because of this face..."
And.
The results of this day were soon reported directly to the Alliance headquarters.
* * *
World Tree Alliance Elder Council Headquarters.
Sitting in the chief seat, Yggdrasil watched the video with interested eyes.
"I didn't have high expectations... but the Red Administrator really is hesitating?"
"Yes."
"I guess Blue hasn't completely disappeared yet?"
Yggdrasil twirled her hair with her finger as she pondered.
She thought someone at the Red Administrator level would have completely dominated Blue by now.
It seemed strange that he was using Seong Jihan's body, but perhaps the fusion wasn't complete yet.
"But that behavior could also be the Red Administrator plotting something."
"Of course, we need to consider all possibilities. But one thing is certain."
Tap. Tap.
Yggdrasil pointed at the blue swords in the screen.
"Stat Blue is definitely useful. It blocked the Administrator's attack at least once."
"Yes. Blue is certainly an ability that counters red... Even though the barrier these High Elves deployed was crude, it produced such a result."
"And Yoon Seah's face did make the opponent hesitate, at least."
"Then should we change all High Elves' faces to look like hers?"
"No, overusing it will reduce its effectiveness. We should only use it when we're certain. Oh yes... By the way, didn't you say the Red Administrator left traces of searching the lab?"
"Yes. He invaded not only the lab, but also the junkyard and extracted the Shadow Queen."
"Hmm..."
On other planets, he only absorbed World Trees and disappeared.
However, in places with labs, the Red Administrator always made sure to visit them.
After thinking for a moment, Yggdrasil gave an order.
"Then, let's start by changing the researchers' faces first."
"Just the researchers...?"
"Yes. We need to see if he hesitates with the researchers too. That will reveal whether Red's actions are simply an act or not."
"I understand."
As Yggdrasil spread her fingers,
Zing.....
A large screen appeared in the air of the conference room.
"How are the preparations for withdrawing from the frontier planets going?"
"We're starting with the places whose coordinates were revealed on the bulletin board. For now, we plan to withdraw up to C-rank World Trees, but..."
"I see... Then how much will this reduce our territory compared to before?"
"If we withdraw completely, our controlled planets will be reduced by about half."
"Half?"
Yggdrasil's eyebrows twitched.
To lose half of their conquered planets so suddenly because of a terrorist like the Red Administrator.
Of course, this was just a reduction in the number of planets, not halving the Alliance's power, but still.
The ever-expanding territory of the World Tree Alliance was about to take a serious hit because of one Red Administrator.
"It seems we'll need to focus more authority on Earth to complete the blue swords before the damage grows larger."
"By focusing on authority, you mean..."
"For now, we need to increase the number of blue swords among humans... by any means necessary."
As she said this, Yggdrasil fell into silent thought.
Seeing her silence, the elders looked at each other nervously before giving the next report.
"Great Cosmic Tree. The... videos of this operation have all been uploaded to the Informant W channel on BattleTube. After internal investigation, we found no signs of leaks from the High Elves, but..."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Just like with the previous video leak, all the videos that the High Elves recorded privately are flowing there. Don't we need to take special measures?"
"Hmm..."
Yggdrasil opened the Informant W channel and immediately frowned.
"Don't touch this one."
"...Pardon?"
"Cancel any complaints we've made, and just leave it be. It seems the owner of BattleTube is handling this."
"By the owner of BattleTube, do you mean..."
"Surely not the White Administrator..."
"That's right."
At Yggdrasil's confirmation, some of the elders spoke with uneasy faces.
"Wasn't the White Administrator in a cooperative relationship with the Red Administrator before?"
"If they join hands again, won't it become a big problem?"
"If that was going to happen, they would have done so already..."
She answered like that, but still.
"We can't give them time. We need to concentrate all our resources on Earth."
"By all resources, you mean..."
"It seems I'll have to go to Earth myself."
To prepare for any potential cooperation between Red and White,
She decided to hurry the completion of the blue swords.
* * *
Two days later.
-Congratulations on your clean victory!!
-Wow, Kim Jihun finally has the same number of wins and losses lol
-Honestly, weren't the first two losses unavoidable?
-The first game in the junkyard, a second game with the meteor ending... If I were Kim Jihun, I'd never play BattleNet again.
-For real lol
"This is indeed a normal game. I wonder why the previous two games were like that..."
Seong Jihan, who had played two regular BattleNet games with Kim Jihun's body,
He lightly replied to the messages popping up in the BattleTube chat window and then checked his level.
'27... I rose to Silver without a separate promotion match.'
Initially, at level 25, they would normally have to go through a promotion match to grow further.
But for male half-elves, it seemed there was no such thing, as his league affiliation changed to Silver and his level just kept rising as soon as he hit 25.
'Other male half-elves were leveling up in their sleep... I guess they just promote you when you meet the level requirement.'
Well.
The performance difference between this race and human players was too extreme to keep them in the same league.
This time the map was Defense, and just swinging the blue sword alone made zombie heads fall off left and right.
'In terms of performance, it seems I could go up to Gold or even Platinum.'
Thinking this, Seong Jihan exited the connector.
"Congratulations on your Silver promotion!"
Lee Hayeon greeted him with a smile.
Despite being the Guild Master, she came to greet Kim Jihun every time he finished a game.
"Guild Master. You must be busy with work, there's no need to come personally just for a regular matchmaking game..."
Seong Jihan said this through Kim Jihun's mouth, but.
"I can't do that! Besides, today I have some good news to share!"
"Good news?"
"Yes. Do you know Lee Myunghoon by any chance?"
"Ah. I do. He's the one who... returned to being human, right?"
"Yes, yes. He was originally a frontrunner among male half-elves and had considerable influence in the advertising market... but after becoming human this time, all his existing advertising contracts were nullified."
Listening to her words, Seong Jihan could somehow predict where this conversation was heading.
"So those nullified contracts, are you saying they've been offered to me?"
"Oh my, how did you know? That's right. They're all making us surprising offers."
The butterfly effect of creating the lowest-tier blue sword human was blowing in from here.
Seong Jihan inwardly sighed.
'What a bother, why advertise?'
Even in his Seong Jihan days, he only did it when he initially needed money.
Now Kim Jihun had absolutely no need to do advertisements.
Still.
'It would seem strange for a newbie male half-elf to refuse... I should do it but minimize it as much as possible.'
Thinking this, he first exited Kim Jihun's body.
Then, after a moment's hesitation, that body began moving its mouth smoothly again.
"... if I'm going to do it. I want to receive top-tier treatment."
"Ah, ah. Of course? You're currently a special management target certified by the colonial government, so of course we should do that!"
"Negotiation terms. Please raise them. More."
"Yes, I'll make sure to get you the absolute best treatment!"
'Now remote control is possible even for everyday conversation.'
Though the speech was slightly choppy, it was still a manageable remote control.
While Seong Jihan was deliberately controlling Kim Jihun from the outside like this,
[Blue Administrator. I have created a temporary BattleTube account.]
The Red Administrator spoke to him.
[You can now access the Informant W channel with this account. Will you log in with it?]
'I should.'
The Informant W channel strongly smelled of the White Administrator.
To enter there, a BattleTube account was needed.
And not just any regular account.
A high-grade account that only Constellation-level beings could possess.
The Blue Administrator Seong Jihan had his account revoked after being banned from the BattleNet system.
When the Red Administrator said an ID was needed, he quickly made one.
'He really does everything except actual combat.'
Thinking this, Seong Jihan logged into BattleTube with the account the Red had created.
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