Jegal Myeong — The World After the Fall

Jegal Myeong is the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall, celebrated as 《Chaos》's greatest strategist. He enters Gorgon's tournament to extinguish Jaehwan's dangerous hope, but defeats in both combat and strategy free him to join the training and war he had believed impossible.

Biography

The tournament and acceptance of defeat

Jegal Myeong has spent four hundred years rising through the Tower, Great Lands, and 《Chaos》 with confidence that no one is more brilliant. That history also teaches him that revolutionaries die and leave their followers with worse despair. He enters Jaehwan's tournament to stop another such attempt, using 「Eye of the Son of Heaven」 and the Seven-Colored Golden Fan, only to find the System cannot read his opponent and suffer a one-sided physical defeat. Jegal refuses to accept the result and invokes a loophole in the challenge, replacing martial combat with Tactical Formation, the strategy contest in which he has never lost. (Chapters 50–51)

Jaehwan recognizes the game as one played tens of thousands of times in his former world and wins through an immediate worker rush and offensive structures that violate Jegal's conventions without breaking any rules. The loss forces the strategist to acknowledge that wisdom grounded in accepted foundations cannot measure someone willing to destroy those foundations. For the first time, Jegal says simply that he lost, and the admission lifts the burden of defending four centuries of certainty. (Chapters 51–52)

Training and the Regeneration War

After Jaehwan splits Gorgon's Forgotten One tide, Jegal joins the Hall Masters' training. He is initially assigned to Awakening but withdraws after confronting its mental danger, then becomes the Adaptation team's most diligent member. By learning Shin Mugeuk's Azure Sky Sword Form and exchanging other top-class Skills, Jegal strengthens more quickly than expected. His 「Hidden Form Eight Formations」 helps the Hall Masters combine attacks at Three Cities Converge, and Cayman's victory over a Chief Commander fills him with open joy because it proves 《Chaos》 can defeat an enemy its people once considered absolute. (Chapters 55–59 and 61–62)

Jegal is absent from the meeting after the Palace of Rebirth's assault because Sa Myeonggaram has shattered half his body. Chunghuh returns in time to save him, and Jaehwan later visits the recovering strategist. Jegal warns that the Saming Great Family may answer the death of one of its War Commanders, then accepts Jaehwan's calm promise to defeat any force that comes. That reassurance immediately reveals a new strategic weakness: 《Chaos》's peace depends too completely on one person who intends to leave. Jegal wants to stop him but cannot ask him to abandon the solitary path he has chosen. (Chapters 71 and 80)

Appearance and personality

The chapters do not give Jegal a detailed face or clothing description. He carries a seven-colored golden fan and later trains with a sword. After the Regeneration War, a cut runs from his left arm to left thigh, both shins are bruised, the right chest is ruptured, and part of the lower jaw is torn away; he remains pale and bedridden during recovery. (Chapters 51, 59, and 80)

Jegal is brilliant, arrogant, talkative, and deeply attached to rational foundations. He assumes established history and game etiquette reveal the possible future, then struggles when Jaehwan treats those limits as optional. Once he accepts defeat, the same intelligence becomes adaptive: he learns other Hall Masters' techniques, quickly understands time-density and soul-contamination risks, and recognizes the political danger after victory. Pride remains visible in hospital banter, but it no longer prevents trust or admission that someone else sees farther. (Chapters 51–52, 56, 58–59, and 80)

Powers and limitations

Eye of the Son of Heaven

「Eye of the Son of Heaven」 is a top-grade Skill intended to read all information about an enemy. It glows red when activated, but Jaehwan's separation from the System produces repeated errors instead of a profile. This makes the Skill powerful within System-defined combat while unreliable against Awakened or otherwise unregistered existences. (Chapter 51)

Formations and sword skills

Jegal is a seventh-stage Adapter and expert formation user. 「Hidden Form Eight Formations」 creates obscuring fog that lets allied Skills attack from concealed angles, while 「Eight Gates of Hell」 is also associated with his battlefield repertoire. He later learns the top-tier 「Azure Sky Sword Form」 from Shin Mugeuk, expanding beyond strategy through direct transmission. Jaehwan finds his martial ability only slightly above sixth-stage Hall Masters and criticizes his hesitation before acting; the Regeneration War later shows that even improved techniques cannot protect him from a War Commander alone. (Chapters 51, 56, 59, 61, and 80)

Strategy

Jegal's central strength is analysis, organization, and rapid comprehension. He understands unfamiliar training mechanics, identifies political consequences, and excels at Tactical Formation under conventional development. His defeat illustrates the limitation of that expertise: he builds strong foundations before attacking and mistakes customary restraint for a rule, leaving him vulnerable to strategies that reject the assumed order. (Chapters 51–52, 58, and 80)

Relationships

Jaehwan: Jegal initially sees Jaehwan as hope masking another disaster. Repeated defeat turns resistance into belief, though he later recognizes how dangerous it is for 《Chaos》 to rely on Jaehwan alone.
Shin Mugeuk: Mugeuk teaches Jegal Azure Sky Sword Form during the Hall Masters' exchange of protected top-class Skills.
Sa Myeonggaram: Sa Myeonggaram nearly kills Jegal during the Regeneration War, bringing the old rivalry between the Jegal and Saming strategist families into direct conflict.
Chunghuh: Chunghuh's timely medical intervention saves Jegal from otherwise fatal wounds.

Items

Seven-Colored Golden Fan: Jegal's unique weapon, opened when he first challenges Jaehwan. The chapters do not state a separate named effect beyond its use alongside his Skills.