Ore Dake Level Up na Ken / Solo Leveling

[Buffalobiian]

actually, do we know what's the deal with the island anyway? how did all the super ants get there?

my guesses are either a dungeon break and the ants came through from an insect gate dungeon (in which case, the original gate should still be there, right?), or this was a research facility to study monsters and the ants escaped and now it's all classified data.

It's an S-Gate that wasn't conquered and monsters come out from it.

10 min delay

There's a 10min delay, but we didn't see Jinwoo watching TV and go "This is bad, I should help."

We see a cool pose on top of a building, then he stands up and thinks "It's time - Exchange."

Thus far we haven't been shown any indication that his soldiers communicate telepathically to him. Jinwoo had to guess at events when his soldiers were being killed off in the Castle level.

So, currently neither scenarios make complete sense from a continuity perspective.

[Kraco]

There's a 10min delay, but we didn't see Jinwoo watching TV and go "This is bad, I should help."

We see a cool pose on top of a building, then he stands up and thinks "It's time - Exchange."

Thus far we haven't been shown any indication that his soldiers communicate telepathically to him. Jinwoo had to guess at events when his soldiers were being killed off in the Castle level.

So, currently neither scenarios make complete sense from a continuity perspective.

His reason for not joining this raid was to stay home with his family, after the mom just got cured. I'd assume he was spending time with the sister and mother, in the apartment, possibly watching the TV broadcast with them. However, I very much doubt he would "exchange" right in front of them. He would thus first go away normally, to the rooftop or wherever, and then teleport to the island.

[MFauli]

My reaction when this episode ended: Fuck you, you overly cool edgelord! LOL

Jinwoo is like that chuunibyou kid, except he HAS actual powers.

The episode was fine, but the fighting really was disappointing. The way all these S-class hunters moved just didn't look impressive. The A-rank that Jinwoo absorbed during the winter-gate wasn't less impressive than these S-rankers. Also, the animation just sucked for these battles, but that comes with another issue: We NEVER get any actual battles. It's always "A is stronger than B, A defeated B". An exciting battle would be "A and B are close to each other in prowess, A narrowly manages to beat B". And this happens throughout the episode, all the way to the end where Goto appears, makes himself look more powerful than the other S-rankers, only to shit his pants when the king ant activates its full aura. And next week Jinwoo will join and probably destroy the king ant.

btw. here's something I don't understand: Regular hunters cannot get stronger, alright. Does this mean those special abilities are also fixed? Did the fire guy have the ability to shoot fire from the beginning of his awakening? Could beast-guy immediately transform into a beast? Or are thse abilities that are trained?

Btw beast-guy being afraid of being "ugly" while transformed is the dumbest bs ever. Like there's not a millions of chicks (and dudes, sigh) who are into buffy furry dads.

The tv reception thing didn't even register for me, because of how fucked up it is to air this battle anyway. It's like airing live-footage from Ukraine fighting Russia. Complete lack of morality.

[Death BOO Z]

you're forgetting the 're-awakenning' part.
most start between E-A level, S-ranks are those who got re-awakened and had mana increase. it's stupid.
so the tiger beast guy was probably hand-to-hand fighter, maybe a little but of transforming, but then got a power boost. same with the rest.
power (mana) and the abilities are set in stone, but you can still get better at fighting by trainning, being in better physical shape, putting yourself in the correct mindset, learning tactics, working together with others... the skills that are actually intresting to watch.

isn't jinwoo being an edgelord chuunibyou asshole that sucks kinda the entire point? the whole point of how he behaves is supposed to make the audience dislike him, isn't it?

[DarthEnderX]

Forgetting the whole communication contradiction, the TV broadcast was delayed by 10 minutes, which obviously would prevent Jinwoo from reacting in real time, if he was only relying on that.

Yeah, but doesn't he see through his Shadows in realtime?

[Kraco]

Yeah, but doesn't he see through his Shadows in realtime?

Does he? I don't remember a scene displaying such a skill, plus Bill also said he doesn't remember telepathic communication between Jinwoo and the shadows. He does know when one is destroyed, though. Perhaps a hiding shadow was accidentally destroyed by the humanoid ant, triggering Jinwoo's sense of crisis immediately. Other than that, can his shadow soldiers hide anymore in the shadow of a dead person?

[DarthEnderX]

Does he?

Well, there was the scene where he had his shadows patrolling the city at night, Batman style, and he could switch places with them. Which doesn't really work if he doesn't know what they see.

[David75]

fluffy s-ranker probably doesn't like the fact he turns into was looks like a monster... when he's fighting monster.

[Kraco]

Well, there was the scene where he had his shadows patrolling the city at night, Batman style, and he could switch places with them. Which doesn't really work if he doesn't know what they see.

They can look for anything strange and then either deal with it or come back to report to him. He can also switch places with them when convenient.

Back in the army, patrols were sent out, even though the commanding officer obviously couldn't see what the patrols could see. The patrolling soldiers were assumed to react appropriately when noticing anything strange or alarming.

[Buffalobiian]

btw. here's something I don't understand: Regular hunters cannot get stronger, alright. Does this mean those special abilities are also fixed? Did the fire guy have the ability to shoot fire from the beginning of his awakening? Could beast-guy immediately transform into a beast? Or are thse abilities that are trained?

Most hunters' abilities stay the same. Those who are S rank from the beginning stay that way. Some hunters reawaken and gain power, but that's uncommon. I'm not aware of any S rank who has explicitly said they gained this after reawakening.

is reason for not joining this raid was to stay home with his family, after the mom just got cured. I'd assume he was spending time with the sister and mother, in the apartment, possibly watching the TV broadcast with them. However, I very much doubt he would "exchange" right in front of them. He would thus first go away normally, to the rooftop or wherever, and then teleport to the island.

If Jinwoo's decision was made after seeing people get owned on TV, he should have gone to the roof, closed the door or whatever and teleported. Not go to the roof, sit on the edge and pose before standing up again to teleport.

Yeah, but doesn't he see through his Shadows in realtime?

Does he?

Well, there was the scene where he had his shadows patrolling the city at night, Batman style, and he could switch places with them. Which doesn't really work if he doesn't know what they see.

Jinwoo looks surprised after his first teleport, and looks around to survey the place before planning his trip home with his dragon. If he could see where the soldier was, he should not need to survey his surroundings in surprise after teleporting, and should not have to come up with his flying idea on the spot as if he only just learned of his location.

[Kraco]

If Jinwoo's decision was made after seeing people get owned on TV, he should have gone to the roof, closed the door or whatever and teleported. Not go to the roof, sit on the edge and pose before standing up again to teleport.

Even if you say should have, it's still his call. He didn't want to join the raid in the first place, so is it really surprising if he's taking a bit of time to teleport there? He just left the door open to join by installing the shadow soldiers in some of the hunters' shadows, but that still doesn't mean he was 100% planning to go. It was just an option. At the end of the day, even if everybody now knows he's an S rank hunter, going to the island basically means he's again going to fight in front of an audience. This time he would really show the important people that he's unlike anyone else.

[Buffalobiian]

Even if you say should have, it's still his call. He didn't want to join the raid in the first place, so is it really surprising if he's taking a bit of time to teleport there?

He made the decision to help once he found out other hunters were being slaughtered or at risk of death.

If he received this information whilst sitting on the ledge then his actions make sense, but how he received that information is still in question. He did not seem to be watching his phone, and we have yet to have evidence of Soldier communication.

If he received this information while watching TV in the living room, then the whole point of going to the roof was to teleport. Sitting made no sense and doesn't change his decision. I doubt "Do I let people die or do I display my power on national TV" was the great decision on his mind.

[David75]

Mana spike?
When his soldiers appear and start blocking ants, I'm pretty sure there's a surge in mana consumption. So at the very least Jinwoo feels that and understands the situation is getting dire when that surge happens.
Also, it is possible he leveled up his ability to communicate and get data from his long distance shadows between his first teleport and now.
But basically even without levelling up those parts, mana draw is a very basic yet easy to use method.

[Kraco]

He made the decision to help once he found out other hunters were being slaughtered or at risk of death.

If he received this information whilst sitting on the ledge then his actions make sense, but how he received that information is still in question. He did not seem to be watching his phone, and we have yet to have evidence of Soldier communication.

If he received this information while watching TV in the living room, then the whole point of going to the roof was to teleport. Sitting made no sense and doesn't change his decision. I doubt "Do I let people die or do I display my power on national TV" was the great decision on his mind.

With the 10 minutes delay, he actually wouldn't have yet wasted any time, based only on the information from the TV broadcast. So, it could be that when he was thinking things might start to go wrong on the island, he excused himself from the company of his family and climbed to the roof, to be prepared to teleport to the island. If he really had no other two-directional communication but what David mentioned, then he simply might have decided now is the correct time.

Hunters die all the time, that's unfortunately a part of their profession. Jinwoo himself died once, after all. He has since witnessed plenty of them to die, and it wasn't always thanks to the monsters. He deemed all of those Korean+Japanese S-rankers should be able to handle the island. Maybe someone would die, but that's just how it is. Now he could have started to think maybe they can't even clear the mission fully and too many would die, so it was finally the time for him to act.

He's not a god who could keep every single hunter in Korea (or the whole world) from dying, anyway.

[Buffalobiian]

Mana consumption can work. To date I've only heard of his soldiers using mana when they respawn or when they use artillery. That said, this barrier they're employing is also a first appearance.

I'm under no impression that Jinwoo has to save everyone or whatever. My main point was to make sense of the depicted animation and sequence. If he receives no information from his soldiers then sitting serves no purpose. If he does receive information then this is a first, unless the current barrier counts as a spell - then mana consumption makes sense.

But if there's no communication aside from mana, then the soldiers were given prior orders to intervene when the S-classes would be in danger. That's funny since the biggest danger would have been from the King Ant and they should have acted then.

[Kraco]

Mana consumption can work. To date I've only heard of his soldiers using mana when they respawn or when they use artillery. That said, this barrier they're employing is also a first appearance.

I'm under no impression that Jinwoo has to save everyone or whatever. My main point was to make sense of the depicted animation and sequence. If he receives no information from his soldiers then sitting serves no purpose. If he does receive information then this is a first, unless the current barrier counts as a spell - then mana consumption makes sense.

But if there's no communication aside from mana, then the soldiers were given prior orders to intervene when the S-classes would be in danger. That's funny since the biggest danger would have been from the King Ant and they should have acted then.

Maybe Jinwoo didn't anticipate the existence of the S++ level King Ant. He might have given the shadows an order to defend the hunters if they are going to be overrun by a horde of ants. So, the shadow soldiers wouldn't do anything when a single super ant was whacking the hunters, but now when the hunters are in too bad shape to protect themselves from the horde, the shadows followed the order.

[MFauli]

Kraco, get on the Gotwoot-discord! You're 1 of 2 regulars still missing!

[Buffalobiian]

E24

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I wasn't expecting a fistfight at the beginning.

What's funny is that even if the cameras are running, if Tiger couldn't catch Jinwoo's movements in previous cases, then that camera is just going to capture residual destruction.

I'm also a little surprised at how we learned of Goto's fight. That guy? Yeah, he's dead too.

[Death BOO Z]

very pretty fight, a little bit of OPM inspiration.

if the daggers use the same stat as his fists, aren't they a strict upgrade over punching?

I can't believe that even if the guild master was watching the public feed. shouldn't he have been in a command room somewhere? maybe even in one the surronding ships?
---
I wonder if this will end up being a character moment or an asspull.

[David75]

very pretty fight, a little bit of OPM inspiration.

Thought the same while watching, with a bit of space dogfight from a macross show with these movement traces

Will Jinwoo use that ant king's regeneration powers to save Cha?
I'm wondering if that create some issues and backstory later. Like the antking using that as a comeback later in the future.
Or maybe just Cha feeling she's an hybrid and some drama about that.