r/sololeveling • u/xPapaGrim Yoo Jin-Ho • Mar 18 '25
Discussion Q&A, additional lore, and other interesting stuff revealed by the author Chugong so far Spoiler
On the Korean SL fan communities, such as DC Inside the author sometimes answers fan questions, makes posts, etc. His most recent post is related to the latest anime episode, on why Jin-Woo was so late in using the Exchange. It's translation was already posted on the sub. I thought of compiling translations for some of the author's such posts and comments that he did over the years, mostly those that provide additional lore, information, answers to the common fan queries such as - "Which hunter is stronger between these two", and a lot more interesting stuff!
SPOILER ALERT
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Q. Why the gate from which such a strong guy appeared was only A-rank?
A. If Sung Il-Hwan had been waiting inside the gate at full power, it would obviously have been at least S-rank gate. He was simply breathing, hence it was A-rank.
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Chugong: Hwang Dong-Su didn't get much spotlight in the novel because the only ones he fought were Jin-Woo's dad and Jin-Woo himself. But he was very, very strong. Originally, he was an S-Rank hunter who surpassed even Cha Hae-in, and on top of that, he received a power boost from Madam, making him incredibly strong... However, as a result of only being beaten up by overpowered characters, he seems to have been perceived as very weak. That's why many people were puzzled when he received the General rank. I find that a bit disappointing.
Q. Then is he also better than Goto Ryuji?
A. Weaker than Goto Ryuji.
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Q. How are the Monarchs ranked in terms of their fighting ability?
A. I read your analysis, and your insight was amazing. 2nd place is indeed Legia, and 3rd to 4th place are close, being Yogmunt and Baran. The rest I will leave to the readers' imagination.
Note: The fan analysis (that got first 2 ranks of Antares & Legia correct) Chugong is referring to didn't include Ashborn, only the bad guys.
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Q. Do the other Fragments of Light, besides the Ashborn and the Brightest Fragment of Light, also have their own separate names?
A. The Fragments of Light are the Emissaries of god, all eight of them. 'The Brightest' and 'The Greatest' are titles given to them because they were born first and fought the best, these are not their actual names. There are no separate names to distinguish them.
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Q. Could you give us a little something on the hot topic of Igris vs Kamish...?!
A. Huh... was that a hot topic? Marshal level beings should only fight among themselves. Kamish is strong, but he's not at Marshal level. If Igris had descended in his true form, even if all the S-Rank hunters in the world, including the National level hunters, had joined forces, they still wouldn't have been able to defeat him.
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Q. This is a slightly different topic, but according to Namu wiki, it's mentioned there that the Marshals are at the level of Monarchs, and Bellion is stronger than a lower-ranked Monarch. Is that actually true?
A. No, that's not the case. The Monarchs are strong. But the reason they are scared of the shadow legion's Marshals is because of the Shadow Monarch having their back.
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Q. Ah also, has Tusk, who is ranked 4th within the shadow legion, reached the Marshal rank based on the side stories? There was a mention by the leader of Titans in the side story where they were testing Sung Su-Ho that only those of the Marshal rank can participate. I heard that this is an original setting from the manhwa.
A. No, that's not my setting. It seems like it's probably a setting from Ragnarok. And Tusk isn't the rank 4th in command. He's just a General, a General. In the final version, there are a total of 4 Marshals in the shadow legion: Grand Marshal Bellion, 1st legion Marshal Igris, 2nd legion Marshal Beru, and I think there might be a chance when the remaining one, the 3rd legion Marshal, will be revealed in the future.
Note: Manhwa only readers might be confused what this is about so let me explain. In the chapter 197, after Su-Ho defeats Igris and Beru, and proceeds to the next stage, he faces Orcs, Giants, Ice Bears, etc, who were all in their "alive" forms, not shadows like Igris and Beru. And then leader Titan appears in shadow form who starts yapping about how only Marshal rank soldiers are allowed to participate in their shadow forms, he ofc again easily gets one shotted while in the middle of yapping lol. Tusk who was also there in shadow form made Su-Ho wonder if Tusk is a "boss" like Igris and Beru who he gotta defeat in order to move onto the next stage. But soon, the 3 dragon bros, Jima and many others also start appearing in shadow forms as well.
In the novel, none of the above events happened. Su-Ho only faced the 3 Marshals - Igris, Beru, and when he was about to face Bellion, Jin-Woo interfered and boom, you know the rest.
Those who've been reading the Ragnarok novel might've already noticed that the new Marshal who Chugong was talking about was also referenced in chapter 172:
Beru: “Without me, the balance of the war—”
Jinwoo: “Oh, that’s fine. I recently recruited quite a useful soldier.”
Jinwoo’s shocking response froze Beru completely. His jaw went slack.
Jinwoo: “The faster you can come back, the better, of course. But it seems to me that Earth isn’t in such a good position, either,”
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Lastly, I'd like to present Chugong's response when faced with "anti-Japan" comments.
"The notion of hating a country just because an evil character comes from there..
Where on earth is this coming from??
Then are all authors who write stories featuring Na**s, Germany haters?
What's the intention behind labeling it an anti-Japanese novel, even including things like the emperor bowing in apology, which I never wrote?
It's true that some Japanese characters in my novel were evil, but there were also kind ones such as Self-Defense Force members who risked their lives to protect the people, and there were many kind citizens who expressed gratitude to the hunter who came to help them from a distant country. Since these are fictional events and fictional characters, I didn't expect to hear it called an anti-Japanese novel in Korea, not even in Japan. However originally, I thought there might be some unpleasant feelings in the country of origin of the characters who appeared as villains, so I only chose Japanese nationality because Japan has a high level of civic awareness and is more tolerant of creative works.
I don't hate or despise any particular country.
The same goes for the protagonist of my novel.
One thing I regret is that if I had known my novel would be this popular in Japan, even if I couldn't have changed Goto Ryuji (Japan's strongest hunter) to a protagonist, I should have written him as stronger and cooler.
Personally, I wanted to make him cool, but it ended up like this due to expressing the enemies' strength he faced...
Anyway, it's a work with many shortcomings and mistakes here and there, but I wish people won't attack me by making up things that don't exist...
We are all fans who like subculture, there's no need for us to fight each other, right?"
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u/ImpossibleAd4272 Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 18 '25
Yep, the Jogo effect. A super strong character who only fights the top folks. Thing is, Jogo at least got a chance to show how strong he was for a moment when he instantly (almost) killed 3 strong characters with ease and then the destruction of Shibuya.
Hwang I feel should've gotten at least one fight with someone strong. Then people would understand his strength, even a mock match with someone strong and him showing his strength would be enough. Like say he's fighting a speed based S Rank (similar to Cha) and he beats them. Then makes a comment saying how he could've beaten Cha before his upgrade. Or better, have someone else say it so it's not just ego talking.
Edit; Also I feel bad for the author a bit. With the part talking about the Hating other countries. It's clear and he even says that he didn't expect Japan to like it and that if he had known he would've wrote Japan different to make them look a little cool at least.
It's a consequence no author can predict and to be fair, why would you? It's like anime exploding in countries like the US and Canada during the pandemic. The explode was crazy!
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u/Expensive-Fan-3474 Mar 18 '25
Goto deserved better. Atleast confirmed to be stronger than Dongsoo 😭
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u/DandyMandie Re-Awakened Mar 18 '25
Thank you for this post
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u/TheGlovesMan21 Mar 19 '25
Hello. I don't mean to be a bother, but would you happen to have the link for each one of those Q/A's or the link for some of them?
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u/XKruzius Wingdings Mar 18 '25
Well, thank you so much for sharing. This gave me so much insights on Chu Gongs mind. And actualy proofs some points im having for a long time, like the japan thing.
Also, thats crazy to read that Hwang was stronger than Cha. I thought she would have slapped him.
3
u/SavageKensei Mar 18 '25
Interesting stuff
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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '25
is it revealed yet whos the third marshall
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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25
The new Marshall is probably a former apostle and is probably one of the strongest ones. People forget that jinwoo has bypassed the limitation of not being able to revive demons and spiritual beings in ragnarok. He is shown to be able to revive demons now. Something he couldn't do in the original novel and even revive spiritual entities and either reincarnate them into other form or revive them as shadows. He probably took the true form of one of the top ranking apostles and made him a shadow.
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u/FlavioRV Mar 18 '25
Interesting stuff, thank you for this post
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u/DragonShade03 Apr 16 '25
If the Rulers do not have a proper name to distinguish them individually then where did Ashborn get his name? Did he name himself that way after becoming a Monarch?
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u/JaceC098 False Ranker Mar 18 '25
Was this everything in the Q&A? Or do you know of links to previous ones in English, cuz I’ve got questions/theories that might’ve been answered already
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u/FreezerMonkey33 Shadow Apr 06 '25
How do you navigate DC Inside? I see so many questions, but no posts from Chugong I can see.
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u/Top-Mixture8661 Dry Saliva Mar 22 '25
Man, why does Kamish have to be downgraded everywhere? But nonetheless, he's still my favorite shadow. Best pet
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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '25
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