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South Korea is a developed yet not-so-powerful country in the world of Solo Leveling, and the Jeju Island raids stand as a strong reminders of the challenges even the elite S-rank South Korean hunters faced.
Despite the involvement of numerous S-Rank hunters, the early attempts to reclaim Jeju Island from the monstrous ant infestation failed. Several factors contributed to these unsuccessful missions. Let’s try to understand what went wrong.
Why Did Earlier Jeju Island Raids Fail In Solo Leveling?
Before Jinwoo’s second awakening, an S-rank gate opened on Jeju Island, the second most powerful ever opened on earth. The first is the gate from which Kamish the dragon emerged.
Coming back to Jeju gate, the gate master is the S-rank ant queen who spawned and controls an army of ants in which each ant is at least A rank and above.
This means that an entire colony of ants which comprises thousands of ants were equivalent to an army of A-rank+ hunters.
To put it in context, when Jinwoo was slightly A-rank+ he took on the Red Gate and emerged victorious only because he had Tank and other ice-bears’ shadows with him.
While it may seem like this level of difficulty shouldn’t be a problem for the S-rank hunters, let’s not forget that even Choi Jong-In the so-called strongest S-rank hunter said that he alone cannot take on hordes of A-rank monsters. This paints a better picture of how much stronger the ants were and how their immense numbers changed the entire battle.
On top of that, the constant competition between various guilds made it impossible for a coordinated attack, further decreasing their chances of winning. The hunters also thought that the ants were mindless beasts which was showcased in their earlier attack plans which eventually dwindled their chances of winning.
Why Didn’t Long-Range Hunters Use Aerial Vehicles To Fight Off The Ants?
Many fans argue about why the hunters didn’t use long-range magic attacks using aerial vehicles. This plan may seem plausible but there is a huge flaw in it.
Ants, unlike other beasts, live underground. Their entire colony was made underground. This made all long-range attacks futile even a nuke wouldn’t have dealt much damage to an underground colony that’s very deep.
This is the same reason why most leaders of our world have underground bunkers in case of nuclear fallout.
Aerial attacks would have just taken out a few ants who were there on the ground leaving thousands inside to breed more. Also, unless the queen is killed the colony could be revived easily with her help and she was in the deepest corner of the colony.
So basically, aerial attacks wouldn’t do any damage to the main threat which resided in the Jeju Island.
During the final raid of Jeju island when Jinwoo joined the battle, the Ant King who was extra smart and more powerful than any S-rank hunter alone destroyed several S-rank hunters – including the legendary Goto Ryuji of Japan.
The Ant King was equally as strong as the Ant Queen, however, unlike the former she wasn’t a fighter but was only a breeder. This made it easy for S-rank hunters from Korea to kill her. Further confirming the fact that higher numbers can take down even S-rank monsters.
TL;DR
Jeju island raids were complicated to win due to the sheer number of ants. The power difference between the ant soldiers and hunters. The lack of coordination and competitive nature further led to the decimation of South Korean hunters.
