The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2

[Translator - Asura]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 587

The discontinued content, 'Tower of Martial Gods'.

The method to revive it was simple.

Seong Jihan, who had become an official administrator, just needed to restore it using his administrator privileges.

[Reopening the discontinued content 'Tower of Martial Gods'.]

[From now on, players with the title 'Martial God' can open the Tower of Martial Gods.]

[10,000 administrator authority will be consumed.]

'It works right away.'

The administrator authority consumed to revive something that had been discontinued weren't that much.

Seong Jihan thought this was unusual as he,

['Martial God' titled player.]

[You can now open the Tower of Martial Gods.]

[Do you want to open the Tower of Martial Gods?]

Following the system message that appeared, he opened the Tower of Martial Gods.

[Tower of Martial Gods]

The Tower of Martial Gods has been reset.

Please specify the basic settings.

'Basic settings, huh.'

Perhaps because it had been discontinued and revived,

The Tower of Martial Gods needed its initial settings to be configured again.

Seong Jihan immediately opened the basic settings, but,

"What, why are there so many?"

He couldn't help but sigh at the long list of basic setting options.

From penalties for defeat, to combat adjustment methods. NPCs, tower expansion conditions, and so on.

Seong Jihan clicked on one of these items.

[Settings - Penalty for Defeat]

Death

Becoming a tower ghost

Level decrease

Stat decrease

No penalty

...

'There are a lot of options to choose from for each setting.'

The penalty for defeat must be what happened when you lost in the Tower of Martial Gods.

To think the Martial God could set anything from the participant dying to having no penalty at all.

This was quite serious.

'If challengers die, there won't be many opponents to challenge this tower.'

Anyway, the Tower of Martial Gods was a means to level up.

But if the penalty was death, Seong Jihan wouldn't have many challengers.

'Let's try to set it up to attract as many challengers as possible...'

Thinking this, Seong Jihan tried configuring the basic settings of the Tower of Martial Gods.

After setting it up to minimize penalties and maximize challengers,

[Significant costs will be incurred if you operate the tower with the current settings.]

[GP will be consumed first for operating costs, and if GP is insufficient, the player's stats or level will be randomly reduced.]

[Do you want to open the Tower of Martial Gods with the current settings?]

A system message appeared saying the costs would be enormous.

'I made the Tower of Martial Gods to level up and raise Blue. But it might actually reduce my abilities?'

Why would he even open it then?

As Seong Jihan frowned.

[Blue Administrator. There's no such thing as a free lunch. You set up the tower too generously.]

The Red Administrator, who had been quietly observing Seong Jihan, advised.

[To begin with, the death penalty is essentially 'profit' for the Tower of Martial Gods. If you give that up, operating costs are bound to skyrocket.]

'Hmm...'

[Moreover, 100% combat stat adjustment... Isn't that dangerous? It means your stats become equal to your opponent's, what if you lose?]

100% combat stat adjustment.

This was a method to equalize the abilities of the Martial God challenger and the Martial God.

Of course, while the level and stat values were adjusted, skills and items could still be used as before.

Anyway, from Seong Jihan's perspective, it was a very disadvantageous setting.

But he thought differently.

'Don't worry about that. As long as my skills remain, there's no way I'll lose. This is actually better for me too.'

[Better for you too?]

'Yes. This adjustment applies equally to all challengers. Even Urd's abilities will be restricted.'

While he didn't know how high Urd's stats were,

If they fought with equal abilities, it would be manageable.

Seong Jihan was confident about this.

[You seem to have quite a lot of pride in your own strength.]

'Of course. I inherited Dongbang Sak's martial arts.'

[I see... Well, if you're that confident, go ahead. With 100% adjustment, there will be many challengers.]

Then the Red Administrator,

[May I try adjusting the settings?]

'You?'

[Yes. The way you set it up is very inefficient. Aren't you making the Tower of Martial Gods to level up?]

'That's true.'

[I'll call out the settings, so follow my instructions.]

'Alright. Go ahead.'

Seong Jihan nodded readily at those words.

The Red Administrator.

He was good at everything except combat.

He'd probably be better than himself at adjusting these setting values too.

He entrusted the settings to the Red Administrator with a light heart, but,

[First, open the Tower of Martial Gods entry in administrator mode.]

'...In administrator mode?'

[Yes.]

He was even more serious than Seong Jihan.

[As expected, using administrator privileges allows access to detailed tower settings.]

'Oh... I see?'

[Transfer the detailed settings adjustment authority to the Martial God. If we're doing this, we should do it properly.]

'Okay.'

[10,000 administrator authority will be consumed.]

The detailed settings cost the same as reopening the content.

[Now let's take a look.]

Following the Red Administrator's words, he opened the detailed settings.

Compared to the basic settings earlier,

An endless list of setting options appeared.

'...Why are there so many?'

As Seong Jihan looked at this with a discouraged expression,

[What are you doing? Open them one by one.]

'You want me to open all of these?'

[Of course. Don't you need to level up?]

The Red Administrator seemed somewhat excited.

[Then, let's start the analysis in earnest.]

He began rapidly calling out setting value changes.

Seong Jihan's fingers started moving busily following the instructions.

* * *

1 day later.

[I see... After adjusting the settings, we can narrow it down to 5 plans, A through E.]

Seong Jihan, who had been adjusting the Tower of Martial Gods settings for 24 hours following the Red Administrator's instructions,

When he finally summarized 5 plans, immediately replied,

'A is the most efficient, right?'

[That's right, but.]

'Then let's go with A.'

Fighting a strong opponent would be better than this.

Spending a whole day just touching screens in midair to adjust tower settings was maddening.

Seong Jihan inwardly marveled as he adjusted the Tower of Martial Gods settings according to 'Plan A' proposed by the Red Administrator.

'The cost incurrence message disappeared.'

As the Red Administrator adjusted the detailed settings here and there,

Plan A for the Tower of Martial Gods generally produced results that Seong Jihan wanted.

'You... You're quite good at balancing these complex settings.'

[...? What's so complex about this? This is something an administrator should naturally be able to do.]

'...You're saying we have to do things like this?'

[This much is basic. BattleNet's work processing is even more complex.]

Administrator... Maybe he should just quit once he put out all the urgent fires.

As Seong Jihan was thinking this after hearing the Red Administrator's words,

[But the Tower of Martial Gods... I don't understand why it was discontinued. Depending on how it's modified, its development potential is limitless.]

'That's true.'

[Moreover, the reason for discontinuation is dubious. Discontinued because the Martial God changed 10 times a day... Isn't such chaos commonplace in BattleNet?]

He expressed such doubts.

After all, what was BattleNet?

Wasn't it a place where battles constantly occurred, and even encouraged them?

In such a neighborhood, to discontinue this content because the Martial God changed several times a day.

'Hmm... Is there some other reason? I should look out for any peculiarities while operating the Tower of Martial Gods.'

[Yes. For now, setting up the tower comes first.]

They could look into why the Tower of Martial Gods was discontinued later.

For now, opening this content was the priority, if only for the sake of leveling up.

When Seong Jihan finished setting up the Tower of Martial Gods according to Plan A,

[Do you want to open the Tower of Martial Gods with the current settings?]

A system message appeared.

"Yes."

[Opening the Tower of Martial Gods.]

[The tower master is Martial God 'Seong Jihan'.]

Ziiing...!

A bright light flashed from Seong Jihan's system window.

A new 'Tower of Martial Gods' slot appeared in the system window,

And a shape emerged from it.

'This is just a one-story building...'

Despite the grand name of Tower of Martial Gods,

What appeared in the system was a one-story building surrounded by blue walls.

[Translator - Asura]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Perhaps because it had been discontinued and newly opened,

The Tower of Martial Gods had been completely reset.

For this to actually become a tall 'tower', he would need to accept challengers and defeat them, but,

[Go the shortcut I mentioned earlier.]

'Right.'

Plan A devised by the Red Administrator already had a solution prepared.

"Inventory."

Seong Jihan opened his inventory and took out one of the people trapped inside.

Then,

Swoosh...!

A middle-aged white man emerged from it, slumped with his eyes closed.

'His body is healthy.'

A man who had been caught and trapped in the inventory while trying to flee without giving up his male half-elf body.

Perhaps he had ambitions of creating a pseudo-religion using Seong Jihan's appearance.

Considering those impure motives, he was barely worth keeping alive in the inventory, but,

Seong Jihan had told people it wasn't execution but life imprisonment, so he strictly kept his word.

'I even infused some life force so he could survive inside the inventory...'

He hadn't wasted life force to the point of consuming eternity, but he had still been somewhat considerate in imprisoning people in his inventory until now.

But now, that consideration would end.

'Right. I should give them a chance to repent.'

Grin.

Seong Jihan smiled and extended his finger towards him.

Then,

Bzzt...

A faint electric current flowed through the man's entire body.

"Hee... Heeek...!"

The man snapped awake with a start.

As soon as he saw Seong Jihan in front of him:

"Mr-Mr. Seong Jihan! Pl-please spare me...!"

He prostrated himself on the ground and pleaded in fluent Korean.

"Foreigners these days are really good at Korean. Ah, is it because you were trying to scam people using my face?"

"That's..."

The man rolled his eyes for a moment at those words, then,

Bang! Bang!

"I'm sorry! I'll never do it again! Please! Just don't put me back in the inventory...!"

He kept banging his head on the ground, begging to be spared just once.

Compared to Gilgamesh who had been fully conscious, he should have been able to endure better since he had lost consciousness partway through.

Still, it seemed that place was quite torturous.

Looking at his opponent, Seong Jihan got to the main point.

"You don't want to go back in? Well, there is one way..."

"Th-there's a way...?"

"Yes. You, work in my tower for a bit."

"Tower... you say?"

"Yes. I just made something called the Tower of Martial Gods. Work there for a bit. When the tower serves its purpose and closes, I'll free you."

At those words, the white man's face brightened.

He blinked for a moment, then asked,

"Um... May I ask how long you plan to keep the tower open?"

"Well... I'll close it when I'm done leveling up, I guess?"

The Tower of Martial Gods was just a means for leveling up.

Once the goal was achieved, he must consider discarding it again.

"I'm really sorry, but... how long exactly will that take..."

"If you're sorry, don't ask questions. Do you want to go back in?"

Swoosh.

As Seong Jihan opened his inventory.

"Hee... Heek. No...! I-I'll do it. I'll work like a dog in the Tower of Martial Gods!"

Like a dog, huh.

'Isn't he too good at Korean?'

Seong Jihan looked down at the man incredulously, then,

Ziiing...

He brought up the Tower of Martial Gods in front of the man's eyes.

"Then, let's start working right away."

"That one-story building is..."

"This is the Tower of Martial Gods."

A one-story building was a tower?

As doubt flickered in the man's eyes:

"Touch that and challenge me."

Seong Jihan instructed him.

"Ch-challenge you...?"

"Yes. Ah, there's stat adjustment in combat, so if you somehow manage to beat me, I'll release you right away."

No, even with adjustment, how could he possibly beat Seong Jihan?

The man looked at him as if he was being ridiculous, but,

"You won't do it? Then I'll bring out the next person."

Swoosh.

As Seong Jihan opened his inventory again.

The man squeezed his eyes shut.

"I-I'll do it...!"

Right.

If he were going to execute them, he would have killed them on the spot.

Why would he go through all this trouble?

'How much could an administrator level up anyway... It'll be over quicker than being in the inventory!'

Thinking this, the man,

Tap.

Pressed the one-story building that appeared before his eyes.

Then,

Whoosh...!

The world changed in an instant.

Inside a stone building faintly glowing with blue light,

Seong Jihan and the man were standing about ten meters apart, facing each other.

[Player 'Sanchez' challenges Martial God 'Seong Jihan'.]

[The player's abilities are significantly weaker than the Martial God...]

[Both players' abilities will be adjusted 100% based on the weaker one.]

'Oh...?'

100% adjustment?

Did this mean he actually had a chance to fight...?

The man had a moment of hope, but,

"We don't have time, so let's end this quickly."

Whoosh!

Seong Jihan closed the distance in an instant and threw a punch.

Bang!

His head exploded with a single hit.

[Player 'Sanchez' has died.]

[The battle is over.]

Sss...

As the battle ended, the man's exploded head regenerated.

He touched his head and couldn't help but shout.

"Wh-what kind of adjustment is this...!"

"Ah. The skills remain the same."

The abilities were adjusted, but the skills remained the same.

'This... This is completely unfair!'

As Sanchez, who had tried to scam people using Seong Jihan's face, was thinking this,

Rumble...!

Suddenly the entire building shook, then,

[You have met the conditions for expanding the Tower of Martial Gods.]

[The Tower of Martial Gods will be expanded.]

An expansion message for the Tower of Martial Gods appeared before Seong Jihan and Sanchez's eyes.

[Translator - Asura]

[Proofreader - Gun]