Shin Jonghak

Shin Jonghak is a Desolate Moon vice-leader, a spear specialist, and the grandson of the legendary Hero Shin Myungchul. He enters Cube as an arrogant prodigy who treats Kim Suho as his rival, expects to stand at the center of any group, and bases much of his identity on his lineage. His domineering spearmanship and black magic power make that confidence more than empty posturing, but his pride also conceals envy of people who surpass him and pressure to become worthy of the grandfather he regards as history's greatest Hero. (Chapters 2–106)

Years of combat turn Jonghak's black-flame spear into Magic Devourer, an evolved Gift that can scorch an opponent's magic power as well as the opponent. His later acquisition of Xiang Yu's Conqueror Spear magnifies that power without creating it. The decisive change in his life comes when he learns that Shin Myungchul's regression helped cause Baal's descent. Jonghak eventually accepts his grandfather's flaws, inherits a separate power that purifies demonic energy, and publicly exposes the truth at Shin Myungchul's own request. He remains proud and competitive, but no longer needs perfection—his own or his grandfather's—to justify becoming a Hero. (Chapters 262–366)

Biography

Cube prodigy and rivalry

Jonghak arrives at Cube already enlightened and surrounded by cadets who defer to his family, talent, and forceful personality. He expects first place and understands Kim Suho as the competitor who stands between him and that position. In combat, he makes no attempt to appear gentle: his spear's reach lets him cut, strike, and stab defensive opponents until a duel resembles a beating. His results justify his status among the highest-ranked cadets, but his clique and disdainful manner isolate him from people who do not accept his authority automatically. (Chapters 2–42)

His desire to command is repeatedly tested. During the Mock Artifact Scramble, Jonghak ambushes other cadets, takes leadership of the black team, and secures artifacts, yet Kim Suho's white team wins through stronger collective performance. He is also jealous of Kim Hajin because of Hajin's growing closeness to Chae Nayun, even when he cannot admit that jealousy directly. These pressures make his rivalry personal: every success by Suho or Hajin seems to threaten the rank, affection, or importance that Jonghak believes should belong to him. (Chapters 77–100)

The Recorded Past and Cube's collapse

The Recorded Past forces Jonghak to cooperate outside ordinary school competition. He fights beside Hajin, Suho, Nayun, and their companions through a historical crisis, using black magic power through his spear to break defenses and overwhelm enemies. He still rejects support reflexively and insists on handling strong opponents himself, but the group cannot survive on pride alone. His interest in the past sharpens whenever Shin Myungchul is discussed; hearing survivors praise his grandfather gives Jonghak obvious satisfaction and reinforces his belief that descent from that Hero is the foundation of his own worth. (Chapters 101–106)

During Cube's later disaster, Jonghak joins rescue and defense efforts rather than treating the crisis as another contest. He stands guard, fights Djinns, and attacks the overwhelmingly powerful Destruction beside Suho even after their first strike fails. Destruction breaks his spear and demonstrates how far Jonghak remains from the strongest beings in the world, but Jonghak does not retreat from the duty in front of him. After the wounded are recovered, he stays with the old cohort and helps Nayun return to training, carrying those relationships beyond the academy as Cube ceases to be their shared home. (Chapters 134–146)

Hero work and the Tower of Wish

Three years later, Jonghak has become a famous young Hero and a member of Desolate Moon. He reunites with former classmates as one of the celebrated prodigies of his generation, yet his old emotional habits remain intact. In the Tower of Wish, he advances with Aileen, Jin Seyeon, and Yi Yongha, fights at the rear of their standard formation, and accepts a designated leader in situations where his earlier self would have seized command. The change is incomplete but meaningful: experience has taught him that reliable service within a strong team can matter more than visibly holding its highest position. (Chapters 154–223)

The Tower also exposes the gentler attachments behind Jonghak's abrasive conduct. He enters a Player hospital despite being uninjured simply to remain near Nayun, practices his spear during pauses, and continues climbing when Tower attributes and equipment restrictions make progress difficult. He sometimes withdraws to prepare rather than pretending he can overcome a bad matchup through confidence alone. His affection for Nayun is never returned as a settled romance, and his jealousy of Hajin persists, but loyalty keeps him beside the same companions even when pride offers him reasons to distance himself. (Chapters 174–248)

Akatrina and the birth of Magic Devourer

During the campaign around Orden, Jonghak is caught in Akatrina's materialized past and becomes separated from the other displaced Heroes by three years. Alone in an unfamiliar forest, he first secures food, then shelters starving hunter-gatherers and kills the knights attempting to take their supplies. Their dependence appeals to his pride, but leadership quickly becomes real responsibility. He establishes farms, forms a Vigilante, teaches spear techniques, raids hostile territory for food, and protects a settlement that grows to hundreds of people. Constant danger replaces ceremonial status with lives that actually depend on his judgment. (Chapters 257–262)

Three years of fighting monsters and knights transform both Jonghak and his Gift. His black-flame spear learns to scorch enemy magic power, and he names the evolution Magic Devourer. When he finally reunites with Hajin and Jin Sahyuk, he is furious at being abandoned and initially overwhelms Sahyuk because his flames burn the magic power required for her emitted weapons. A prolonged battle would still favor her broader Reality Manipulation, establishing that the new Gift is a powerful matchup advantage rather than absolute negation. Jonghak nevertheless returns from Akatrina as a leader and combatant who has crossed a boundary his younger self had only claimed to approach. (Chapters 262–267)

Orden and the truth about Shin Myungchul

Back on Earth, Jonghak joins the special task force against Orden and purchases Xiang Yu's Conqueror Spear for two hundred billion won. He openly boasts about the legendary artifact, but its battlefield value is genuine: its power combines with his black flames to create a destructive spear tornado against Orden's forces. He fights alongside old rivals instead of needing to defeat them first, and the Orden campaign confirms his place among the generation's leading Heroes. Even here, much of his confidence remains anchored to Shin Myungchul's reputation and to the belief that his family represents heroic legitimacy. (Chapters 269–301)

That foundation breaks during the crisis surrounding Baal. Bell reveals that Shin Myungchul used regression to recover his lost family despite knowing that the act would enable Baal's descent, then died stopping Baal's earlier rampage. Jonghak initially threatens Bell and later collapses when the perfect legend guiding his life becomes a flawed man whose choice endangered the world. Jin Sahyuk challenges his despair: she argues that taking responsibility through sacrifice was itself heroic and provokes him into standing. Jonghak finally admits that envy and jealousy—including jealousy of Hajin—have driven him, and that acknowledging them lets him abandon part of his high-and-mighty façade. (Chapters 324–338)

Inheritance, Baal, and the corrected legacy

Sahyuk later reconstructs Jonghak's inner world and leads him to the fragment of Shin Myungchul's soul sealed within him. Jonghak meets the grandfather he worshipped, hears him confess his guilt, and admits that he is not happy with the person he has made himself. Shin Myungchul asks Jonghak to tell the world the truth after the battle rather than preserve an unearned legend. Accepting that request is painful because it requires Jonghak to stain the very name on which he built his pride, but he chooses his grandfather's final wish over the comfort of public reverence. (Chapters 351–355)

Shin Myungchul leaves Jonghak a black light that burns and purifies demonic energy. Jonghak carries it through the Conqueror Spear, restrains Morax, helps Sahyuk fight the Devil, and then challenges Baal alongside Suho and the assembled Heroes. The inherited power gives him a natural advantage against demons but is explicitly imperfect and does not let him win alone. After Baal's defeat, Jonghak stands publicly as both Shin Myungchul's grandson and a Hero in his own right, disclosing the regression and its consequences. Hajin's later erasure leaves Jonghak unable to recover his memories of him, but Jonghak remains alive and active as a Hero. (Chapters 355–377)

Appearance and personality

Jonghak is consistently described as exceptionally handsome, with a cold gaze that can make his appearance intimidating rather than welcoming. By his later career, public descriptions place his looks above famous celebrities, alongside his reputation as the youngest high-rank Hero, Desolate Moon's vice-leader, and the heir of Jinsung Corp. His polished image changes sharply during his three isolated years in Akatrina: his hair grows to his shoulders, he cultivates a goatee, and he returns with a thick beard, swollen eyes, and a shabby cloak that make him look several years older. (Chapters 99, 154, 261–262, 352)

He is proud, imperious, competitive, and frequently rude. Jonghak enjoys admiration, expects leadership, boasts about his victories and equipment, and tends to answer embarrassment with hostility. His arrogance is partly defensive. He measures himself against Kim Suho, resents Hajin's importance to Nayun, and derives permission to value himself from being Shin Myungchul's grandson. His eventual admission that envy and jealousy drove his effort does not remove his competitiveness; it makes that motivation honest enough that he no longer has to disguise insecurity as effortless superiority. (Chapters 19–100, 295, 338)

Jonghak is also more loyal and responsible than his manner initially suggests. He takes lethal risks during Cube's disaster, visits Nayun when he has no medical reason to be in the hospital, protects hundreds of displaced people in Akatrina, and helps Sahyuk against Morax without being asked. His three-year leadership of the Vigilante is the clearest correction to his early desire for status: although he enjoys being treated like a ruler, he farms, trains defenders, raids for supplies, and remains responsible when survival becomes difficult. Pride begins as a demand for recognition and develops into a refusal to abandon people who rely on him. (Chapters 139–145, 207, 262, 359–362)

The revelation about Shin Myungchul exposes Jonghak's emotional vulnerability. He becomes nearly inert when his idealized grandfather's history collapses, cries openly during their reunion, and struggles to accept the request that he reveal the truth. Yet he follows through. His development is not a transformation into modesty: he still challenges Suho over who will defeat Baal first and announces himself dramatically on the battlefield. Instead, he learns that a Hero can be jealous, mistaken, frightened, or guilty and still choose responsibility. That understanding lets him honor Shin Myungchul without preserving a false version of him. (Chapters 335–366)

Gifts and abilities

Spearmanship

Jonghak is enlightened by age seventeen and specializes in an aggressive form of spearmanship. He uses the weapon's reach for thrusts, cuts, sweeps, and direct blows, punishing opponents who remain defensive rather than waiting for a single opening. Techniques such as Crescent Moon Slash send his black magic power outward in destructive arcs. His style is forceful but not merely reckless: three years of constant survival combat in Akatrina develop his timing, awareness, and ability to lead other spear users until he is described as having reached the realm of a Spear God. (Chapters 5, 41, 103–104, 262)

His weapon remains an important practical dependency. Destruction can break his spear and stop his advance through overwhelming power, while the Tower's attribute restrictions force him to seek suitable equipment instead of relying on technique alone. A superior artifact therefore increases his ceiling substantially, but the skill and magic power remain Jonghak's. The Conqueror Spear does not create Magic Devourer: he evolves that Gift before purchasing the artifact, then channels his existing flames and later inherited black light through the legendary weapon. (Chapters 140, 234, 262, 295–300)

Black flames and Magic Devourer

Jonghak's original combat power manifests as black magic power or black flames around his spear. The flames greatly increase the destructive reach of his attacks, allowing a basic spear swing to cut through a bus and a watchtower. His long Akatrina ordeal evolves this power into Magic Devourer, which burns the magic power in an enemy's attack or body as well as inflicting ordinary damage. Against Sahyuk, it consumes the power supporting Magic Weapon Emission and gives Jonghak an initial advantage against an otherwise stronger and more versatile opponent. (Chapters 104, 262)

Magic Devourer is not unlimited anti-magic. Its demonstrated effect occurs through Jonghak's black-flame spear and must make effective contact or pressure the target; it does not passively erase every supernatural ability around him. Sahyuk can still win a prolonged confrontation through Reality Manipulation, and overwhelming opponents can break through his offense. The Gift's greatest later displays combine his own evolved flames with Xiang Yu's weapon, producing a black spear tornado and consuming large structures, but the artifact synergy should not be mistaken for an inherent ability to nullify all magic. (Chapters 262, 300, 314)

Shin Myungchul's black light

The black light inherited from Shin Myungchul is separate from Jonghak's evolved black-flame Gift. It enters him when the soul fragment in his consciousness disappears and can be carried through his spear. The light burns, binds, and purifies demonic energy, making Jonghak a natural enemy of demons; against Morax, it travels through the Devil's fist, restrains his body, and attacks the demonic power sustaining him. Its origin is Shin Myungchul's atonement rather than Jonghak's Akatrina training. (Chapters 355–362)

The inherited power is explicitly imperfect and specialized. It gives Jonghak an undeniable advantage against demonic energy, not universal superiority over human Heroes, physical force, or every kind of magic. He still needs Sahyuk and the wider coalition against Morax and Baal, and the power does not independently end either battle. Its narrative significance is as important as its combat function: Jonghak uses the legacy to help correct the disaster his grandfather caused, turning inheritance from a claim of status into a responsibility he must actively fulfill. (Chapters 362–364)

Leadership and combat experience

Jonghak's most important non-Gift ability is the practical leadership learned in Akatrina. He organizes food production, selects and teaches recruits, forms the Vigilante, conducts raids, constructs a defended settlement, and protects hundreds of residents for three subjective years. These achievements require logistical judgment and sustained vigilance rather than the short, visible victories he prefers at Cube. They also change his combat presence: continuous life-or-death fighting develops him far beyond normal training and teaches his disciples enough spearmanship to function as knights. (Chapter 262)

Power progression

Relationships

Kim Suho is Jonghak's oldest and most persistent rival. At Cube, Suho's talent, leadership, and victories threaten Jonghak's expectation of first place, and their clashes become a measure of the generation's strength. Their rivalry gradually becomes dependable comradeship. They fight together during Cube's collapse, Orden, and the war against Baal, and can still make a competitive wager over who will kill Baal first while sincerely telling one another to survive. Jonghak does not stop wanting to surpass Suho; he learns to trust him without requiring that victory first. (Chapters 2–90, 139–141, 295–300, 356–364)

Chae Nayun is Jonghak's childhood friend and unreturned romantic interest. He watches her relationships closely, becomes jealous of Hajin, visits her in the Tower's hospital despite not being ill, and keeps fighting beside her through later crises. Nayun values him as a familiar companion but does not reciprocate his feelings as a settled romance. A statue of her appears among the objects defining Jonghak's ego, and he hurriedly covers it when Sahyuk sees it, revealing that even after years of growth he remains embarrassed by an attachment others have long recognized. (Chapters 29, 99, 145, 174–207, 352)

Yoo Yeonha grows up around Jonghak and understands both his lineage and difficult personality. She supports him socially, smiles through his bluntness, and works beside him during the Cube disaster and later Hero operations. Yeonha once likes him romantically but eventually gives up after recognizing that he will not return those feelings. Their relationship nevertheless survives as friendship and professional familiarity, grounded in the shared world of elite Hero families and in years of crises where Jonghak's direct force complements Yeonha's planning and information work. (Chapters 4–15, 99–145, 282, 377)

Jin Sahyuk begins as an enemy whose emitted weapons are vulnerable to Magic Devourer and becomes Jonghak's abrasive but crucial ally. They repeatedly fight, insult, and provoke one another, yet Sahyuk is the person who reframes Shin Myungchul's sacrifice, forces Jonghak out of despair, and opens the path to his grandfather's sealed soul. Jonghak later helps her fight Morax without being asked, partly repaying that intervention. Their cooperation never becomes gentle, but it is built on a recognition that each has seen the other's pride, grief, and capacity to keep fighting. (Chapters 262–267, 327–362)

Shin Myungchul is Jonghak's grandfather, model, and greatest source of pressure. Jonghak builds his self-worth around descent from the celebrated savior, then nearly loses his purpose when he learns that Myungchul's regression enabled Baal's descent. Their reunion replaces worship with a more difficult love. Myungchul admits his guilt, asks Jonghak to expose it publicly, and entrusts him with a power suited to correcting the resulting disaster. Jonghak fulfills the request, honoring his grandfather as a flawed person who accepted responsibility rather than preserving him as a perfect legend. (Chapters 99–106, 335–366)

Kim Hajin is initially a low-ranked cadet Jonghak dismisses and later a focus of jealousy because Nayun cares about him. Circumstances repeatedly make them cooperate, from the Recorded Past to later wars, even though Jonghak resists admitting Hajin's value. Hajin's supplies help him survive Akatrina, and seeing Hajin break into Baal's barrier finally makes Jonghak acknowledge his own envy. After Hajin chooses erasure, Jonghak lacks the personal link needed to recover his memories of him. The rivalry's final cost is therefore asymmetrical: Hajin remembers Jonghak, while Jonghak retains only an incomplete absence. (Chapters 4, 99–104, 258–262, 338, 375–377)

Items

• Xiang Yu's Conqueror Spear — Jonghak purchases Xiang Yu's legendary weapon for two hundred billion won. Ranked second only to Longinus among spears, it strongly amplifies his existing black-flame attacks and later carries Shin Myungchul's inherited black light; it is not the source of either power. Jonghak retains it through the battle against Baal. (Chapters 295–364)