The manhwa/webtoon, Solo Leveling, comes to a close after almost 6 years, with Chapter 179, which released on 30th December, 2021.
The chapter ends with a message from the illustrator of the webtoon, Jang Sung Rak, who thanks the fans, his colleagues, and the author, for the love and the amazing journey that has been the webtoon Solo Leveling.
We’ve seen our hero, Sung Jin Woo, journey from the “World’s Weakest” to an S-rank beast of a Hunter, to well, the OP King we all knew he’d one day become. While most fans are really happy with how the ending turned out, some of us are still wondering where the rest of the story is.
Is this the end of the Story? Is Chapter 179 the Final Chapter?
Chapter 179 is the final chapter of the manhwa Solo Leveling, but it is not the end of the story. The webtoon was adapted from the light novel, which includes the Epilogue with side stories.
The manhwa’s last chapter finishes at Chapter 243 of the light novel, touching on bits from the Epilogue.
Nobody really thought the story would wrap up so quickly. Even though the main saga is amazingly adapted, the ending seems a bit rushed. It’s common for Korean novels to have their main endings interspersed in side stories or bonus chapters.
The side stories of the Epilogue, which is the 21st arc – the final arc – of Solo Leveling, is where we get a truly satisfying close to this legendary series. The Epilogue comprises Chapters 244 to 270 and will not be adapted into the webtoon.
The end of Solo Leveling: Explained:
Chapter 177, released on December 15, is based on Chapter 242-243 of the light novel. It gave us a conclusion to the war between the Monarchs and the Rulers.
During the Final Battle Arc, Jin Woo absorbs all the powers of Ashborn, the King of the Dead, and becomes the new Shadow Monarch. In the battle with Antares, the strongest Monarch and the King of Dragons, Jin Woo defeats him in the end, but only with the help of the Rulers that impale Antares with their spears.
Antares is actually winning until the Rulers show up. Antates was the Monarch of Destruction and honestly, his abilities surpassed that of Jin Woo.
The thing that saves him is that he was able to open up the Gate by contacting the Rulers through Andres and Zhigang, the human vessels of the two Rulers.
In the following chapter, Jin Woo uses the Cup of Reincarnation to rewind time by 10 years. He then steps into the Dimensional Rift with his Shadows – including Igris, Beru, Bellion, and anyone that wasn’t human before Jin Woo traveled back in time – and slams all 7 monarchs with their respective minions.
Jin Woo amasses an army of more than 10 million to prepare to grab the title of Shadow Monarch the second time. But unfortunately, the main fight between Jin Woo and Antares is off-screened.
This is probably the worst thing about the manhwa ending, that we never get to see how Sung Jin Woo triumphs over the Antares, the “Shadow Monarch” – and whether he does so on his own or receives some kind of help again.
Jin Woo is inside the Rift for 27 years (which is also how many chapters we have left from the Epilogue!). This lengthy period amounts to just 2 years in the outside world. How Jin Woo enters and exists the Rift are also never revealed.
In the last chapter of the manhwa, we see Jin Woo return as a teenager. A messenger of the Rulers tells him that the Rulers want to shift him from Earth because he is too powerful for the planet.
He retains all his powers as the Shadow Monarch – he literally has thousands of Shadow-soldiers lurking inside his shadow. Jin Woo obviously doesn’t want to leave – especially since Earth is where home is, and home is where the people he loves are.
So, Sung Jin Woo stays back on Earth, and remains the most powerful man on the planet.
Will Solo Leveling get an Anime?
It’s possible that Solo Leveling will get adapted into an anime series. Fans have been petitioning for the anime since the beginning, and with the manhwa finishing with such an opening ending, it’s likely that the anime will include the Epilogue and all the side stories.
D&C Webtoon, the publisher of the Solo Leveling manhwa, has already put out a teaser saying that Solo Leveling will be getting an OST, where one of the tracks will be sung by the popular K-pop band, The Boyz.
The anime is looking pretty likely, folks! It would salvage the manhwa ending that a lot of readers found underwhelming and unsatisfying.
With the anime, we can actually see how Jin Woo, a now immortal, eternal being unaffected by age, copes with the new world, what happens to the False Rankers, Igris, Beru, and Cha Hae In, and whether anyone else remembers the past that never was.
About Solo Leveling
Solo Leveling is a Korean Webtoon written by Chu Gong and illustrated by Jang Sung Rak. It is adapted from the web novel; I Alone Level Up. Kakaopage publishes it in South Korea and Piccoma in Japan. The series ended in December 2021 and has been collected into 14 volumes.
Portals connecting the Earth to realms of monsters have opened up, and hunters defeat those monsters. Sung Jin Woo belongs to the lowest level of hunters, but after getting involved in a Dungeon quest, he alone can see quests like that of a game.
His journey to become the most powerful hunter and bring peace back to Earth begins.
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