The Martial God who Regressed Back to Level 2

Seong Jihan reflected on the evolution mission.

[Achieve a win rate of over 60% in the Bronze League’s evolution area for seven days against the lowest-tier species.]

From the Bronze to Diamond league, the condition was to achieve over 60% win rate for seven days.

Having already reached 70% by the sixth day, even a lower win rate on the last day should still overall exceed 60%.

‘Gilgamesh really helped a bit there.’

He managed a free ride without almost reducing his Constellation reach level.

Always driving the bus, it felt quite pleasant to finally ride it.

Still, he can’t let him drive until the end.

Who knows what he might do.

‘At the end, I’ll remove the Constellation’s Command and activate the Constellation traits.’

Seong Jihan thought this and asked Yoon Seah.

“There’s been no change to the Constellation’s Command yet, right?”

“Um, not yet…”

Swoosh.

Yoon Seah looked around briefly and then whispered to Seong Jihan.

“It’s weird, some people have started to like the king of humans.”

“Like the king?”

“Yeah… The ‘King of Humans’ is a Constellation that caused a penalty of -3 to all stats for the TOP 100. But strangely, there are more people speaking positively about him. On the first day, they were all cursing him.”

“Really?”

As expected, that guy wouldn’t just sit idly by.

Seong Jihan frowned.

Top rankers for whom every stat is crucial.

It was unimaginable that they would like Gilgamesh after receiving a crazy penalty of -3 to all stats.

Yet suddenly, on the sixth day, such public opinion was forming.

There must be some manipulation from Gilgamesh.

“Not everyone has arrived yet, right?”

Seong Jihan looked around and spoke to the BattleNet center staff.

“Yes, it’s still early morning so many players are still asleep.”

“Please let them know I am here, and gather everyone in the auditorium. It’s time to retract the Constellation’s command.”

“Ah, got it!”

The staff moved quickly upon Seong Jihan’s instructions.

“Hey, can you really remove the Constellation’s command?”

“Let’s try it.”

Seong Jihan reflected on the Eternity within him.

The Eternity, which jumped to 14 as the World Tree fragment was destroyed, was quietly confronting Void.

Though usually, these energies would clash fiercely and cause a massive explosion,

‘Is it because of the development over time, or because I handled the Taiji Swordsmanship… I can control the two energies better than I worried.’

Seong Jihan found himself better able to prevent their collision than when his Eternity was at 2.

‘At this rate, it’s okay for Eternity to grow a bit more.’

Thinking this, Seong Jihan headed to the auditorium first.

Soon after,

“Oh….”

“He really came!”

“I was nervous since it’s the last day…”

“It’s a relief.”

In the BattleNet center’s auditorium, 500 players began to gather hurriedly.

Thanks to the Constellation’s Command ‘Sacrifice the lesser for the greater’, they had successfully carried out the evolution mission.

Now, they were all worried about the impending ‘lesser’ sacrifice.

All stats -3.

Although seemingly a small penalty, it was a significant deduction for those competing at the top of each league.

But since Seong Jihan said he could solve it, it was natural there was a light in their faces.

“I apologize for being late in finding a way to retract the Constellation’s command.”

“Oh…!”

“Finally!”

“You’re going to… retract the Constellation’s command…”

While most people were delighted at Seong Jihan’s words, a few had an odd expression.

People appearing indifferent despite the removal of the all stats -3.

‘Are these the ones Seah mentioned with weird reactions?’

Seong Jihan remembered the faces of these individuals as he began to work.

“Let us express gratitude to Gilgamesh, who has relieved me so far.”

Chiiiik…!

Letters began to be etched in the air.

The domination code, which originally wasn’t fully written due to a lack of life energy.

Now, with the explosive growth of the Eternity stat, was smoothly being written to completion.

Then,

“Ah, no…! My king, only he!”

“We must remain loyal…”

Somehow brainwashed by the Constellation’s command.

The players who had shown odd reactions earlier began to convulse.

But resistance was brief.

“Uh…”

Their eyes lost focus.

Clack. Clack.

They knelt in unison towards Seong Jihan.

And this attitude wasn’t just confined to them.

Swoosh.

Those who hadn’t resisted not only knelt but also prostrated themselves to the ground.

As if reacting to the presence of an emperor or a deity.

As the domination code completed, these people became thoroughly subservient to Seong Jihan.

Including ordinary players and even the staff nearby in the auditorium.

[The domination code has been activated, removing the former Constellation’s command.]

[Would you like to dominate them in his stead?]

And soon, a message appeared before Seong Jihan.

An offer to become a ruler in place of Gilgamesh.

Seong Jihan saw Yoon Seah and others kneeling and prostrating themselves.

With just the completed domination code.

Could he become a deity-like entity among humanity?

‘Not really to my taste. Rather, it’s displeasing.’

He had no desire to become a ruler in the first place, much less to dominate in a way that seemed like brainwashing.

Swoosh.

Seong Jihan withdrew the domination code, saying,

“No, I will not dominate.”

As he refused,

“Uh…”

“What, what’s happening?”

People regained their senses and slowly began to stand up, looking at each other.

“It’s done. Please check.”

Following Seong Jihan’s words, players who checked their status screens exclaimed,

“Whoa. It’s really gone…!”

“So the all stats -3 isn’t a worry anymore?”

“We really just made great use of the King of Humans’ buff!”

They were jubilant as they saw the effect of the Constellation’s Command buff disappear.

This held true even for those who first showed strange reactions.

“Let’s enter today’s game. I’ll compensate for the loss of the buff effect by activating my Constellation powers.”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

Players, their morale significantly boosted, moved towards the BattleNet connector room.

Seong Jihan thus decided to finally activate Constellation mode on the last day.

* * *

On the last day of humanity’s evolution mission, Day 7 of the event.

=Ah…! What happened? Players aren’t showing the same regenerative powers as before!

=Just in, news has come in that the Constellation’s Command has been removed by Seong Jihan!

=Does this mean they no longer have to ‘sacrifice the lesser for the greater’? Ah. But this means the 70% win rate over the past six days will be broken!

=That’s a pity. So, the overall win rate still combines above 60%, right? Even if today they score 0%, it will probably still exceed 60%…

Channel 0 commentators noted the gameplay situation as they realized that the Constellation’s Command buff had disappeared.

-OMG, why did they cancel Lord Gilgamesh’s command? booooo. What if the win rate falls below 60% now.

-Can’t afford the stats –3 reduction either, lol.

-My stats aren’t the ones being reduced, what’s the big deal?? Humanity’s evolution is what’s more important!!

-Seriously thinking this… -3 on four stats means like losing 12 levels….

-Evolution will cover up whatever losses lolol.

-Anyway, calculations say it’s over 60% combined, right? Even 50% today would suffice.

As the Constellation’s Command disappeared, many viewers felt disappointed, worried they might not maintain the win rate.

[Constellation reach level drops to 765.]

As Seong Jihan decisively activated the Constellation traits, the battle became manageable.

-O, they are fighting better than expected?

-Seong Jihan substituted with a buff from his Constellation powers.

-But isn’t Seong Jihan still just a Constellation candidate? He really does it all;

-Yo, looks like it’s gonna exceed 60% today too?

-Lol, Yoon Seah has revived. Humanity’s victory in matches seems guaranteed now.

While they couldn’t maintain the regenerative powers like Gilgamesh’s Constellation’s Command, humanity players still looked set to keep their win rate above 60%.

“Bronze league player Carl, has won!”

“Silver league player Miyamoto, has won!”

“Diamond league player Yoon Seah, along with seven other human players, have won!”

Victorious news poured in from all around as the BattleNet center was bustling with real-time win rate tallies.

“The Constellation’s Command is gone, but it’s pretty manageable.”

“The elven-like regenerative powers are gone, but it’s not like there’s no regeneration.”

“It looks like evolution is certain!”

Staff was chatting enthusiastically.

As Seong Jihan watched the sponsoring players excel, he thought,

‘Is it because the Eternity stat has increased significantly? The 500 players also seem to have improved regenerative capabilities.’

Though not as potent as Gilgamesh’s buff, the players’ regeneration had noticeably improved, almost unbelievably for typical humans.

Whether it was due to the effects of Eternity or some other factor, Seong Jihan watched the players’ movements closely, harboring doubts.

“Oh… it’s done!”

“300th player, Abdul, has achieved victory!”

Once 300 out of 500 players secured victories ensuring a 60% win rate,

“It’s time to withdraw the buff.”

Seong Jihan immediately retracted the buff.

Though he initially planned to run the Constellation mode for just 10 minutes,

[Constellation reach level is now 762.]

He ended up using more time to secure a graceful finish.

Had this been for seven days straight, the losses wouldn’t have been small.

‘If it weren’t for Gilgamesh, my level would have plummeted.’

In times like this, he reluctantly had to admit Gilgamesh was somewhat helpful.

With a mindset more grateful to Gilgamesh than ever, Seong Jihan continued to monitor the rest of the gaming situation.

As the buff was cut, human players began to lose drastically.

-What the, why are they losing so badly lol

-The buff was cut lol

-At least they secured a 60% win rate with 300 victories.

-No way, everyone’s been losing after the 300th win lol

-For real, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack to win without the buff

-Yo, what would we have done without Gilgamesh? ????

-A king who gave generously and left… We will remember you…

With the cessation of both the Constellation’s Command and the Constellation buff, human players, like ghosts, began losing matches.

In the end, only 30 of the remaining 200 managed to claim victories.

Of course, powerful players had already secured their victories, hence why the win rate appeared even more dismal.

Without the buff, achieving a 60% win rate seemed utterly impossible.

=Ah… victors aren’t really making the headlines, are they!

=It would’ve been tough without the buffs.

=Humanity certainly benefitted from both Seong Jihan and the King of Humans, Gilgamesh!

=Today seems like a day to commemorate him!

=They say the land of Uruk, which he ruled, is present-day Iraq. Let’s toast to humanity’s evolution across to that land!

With evolution now confirmed, the commentators talked about toasting, casually praising Gilgamesh.

And as all 500 players concluded the game,

[The evolution mission has been fully cleared.]

[The target species, ‘humanity’, will now evolve.]

In front of everyone, including Seong Jihan, messages like this began to appear.

[To suit the BattleNet environment, the efficiency of all stats will generally increase.]

[Depending on individual conditions, physical evolution may occur.]

The stat efficiency boost applied to everyone.

Physical evolution varied individually.

Seong Jihan, observing these messages, examined his bodily condition.

‘Hmm… seems like I’ve gotten a bit stronger.’

The evolution wasn’t immediately noticeable since he was already very strong.

Thinking he needed to test this later, Seong Jihan continued to watch people exiting the connectors,

to see if anyone had undergone a physical transformation.

Just then,

“Unc, Uncle!”

Far off, Yoon Seah hurried toward him.

“Look at this!”

She pointed to a spot on her body.

“My ears…”

Her ears were slightly protruding.