Solo Leveling: Here’s What Happened on Jeju Island!

Solo Leveling is a South Korean novel series that has recently seen an anime adaptation. Arguably the most popular manhwa in the world, Solo Leveling is sure to attract a lot of attention, especially in light of the fact that the anime adaptation is truly great. While we’re enjoying the episodes, we have decided to cover some events from the series. This article will take us back to the first episode of the anime, to the Jeju Island Raid which ended in a failure. Jeju Island is a pivotal location in the series and in this article, we are going to tell you what happened there and why Jeju Island is actually so important.

Jeju Island controversy explained

If you remember the first episode of the Solo Leveling anime, a bunch of giant ants killed many people on Jeju Island. This was shown much later in the webtoon, but the producers of the anime presented us with a great tease of the importance of Jeju Island for the plot of Solo Leveling. And this is why we are going to talk about it in this article.

Jeju Island is a small island off the coast of Korea. It was inhabited until one day, an S-Rank Gate appeared there; this happened four years before the present timeline. The government sent its strongest S-Rank Hunters, but they were all wiped out, as they were too weak for the giant ants who came out of the Gate. Soon, a Dungeon Break happened and the monstrous insects killed thousands of civilians. The government reacted by evacuating the island and sealing it off, while the Gate remained open.

For a while, the ants were restrained on the island as they could not swim or fly, so the danger was pushed aside. The government later sent two additional search-and-rescue parties which were also failures. And while Jeju Island remained a controversial, but sealed-off location, it seemed that it did not pose an immediate danger until the ants on the island evolved and gained the ability to fly. This meant that the mainland was also in danger, so the Japanese and Korean governments organized a joint raid on the Island.

The plan was initially successful, but with the arrival of the Ant King, the situation changed and had it not been for Jinwoo’s timely arrival, the fourth mission would have also been a failure. Now that we have explained this, let us answer some additional questions about Jeju Island.

How many Hunters died on Jeju Island?

The exact number of Hunters who died on Jeju Island is unknown. Over the four years, we know that the ants of Jeju Island killed thousands of civilians and that despite all of their power, the four search-and-destroy parties that were sent to the island also had a lot of casualties. We know that eight of Japan’s sixteen top S-Ranks perished there, as did many Korean Hunters, including Min and Eunseok, so the total number of dead Hunters probably has three numerals, with the number increasing to several thousand if the dead civilians are also taken into consideration. The Jeju Island Dungeon Break was one of the deadliest in the history of the series.

Why was Jeju Island sealed off?

Having said what we said above, it is more than clear thy the Korean government decided to seal off Jeju Island and evacuate everyone living on the island. When the Gate first appeared, Korea’s S-Rank Hunters were too weak to defeat the Ants, and since the Ants were very bloodthirsty and aggressive, the government had to evacuate the island. Many civilians were initially killed, as well as a large number of Hunters, so there was a very solid and rational reason to evacuate the island.

Due to the fact that the Dungeon was not cleared and that a Dungeon Break happened on the island after the evacuation was complete, the government decided to completely seal off the island for all outside visitors without a permit, as it was simply too dangerous to allow people to actually go to the island. Had they been allowed to, they would have died for sure.

Why did Sung Jinwoo go to Jeju Island?

The fourth and final raid on Jeju Island happened not long ago after Jinwoo managed to heal his mother with the Elixir of Life. At that point, he had already become Korea’s most powerful Hunter, but that fact was not public knowledge. Although he did have a reputation, he wasn’t everyone’s first option. When the Japanese and Korean governments launched the Raid, Jinwoo decided to opt out for two reasons:

1. He wanted to spend as much time as he could with his newly healed mother and did not want to risk going into the Hell of Jeju Island immediately;
2. The governments organized a pretty powerful team and Jinwoo had complete faith in them and their abilities.

But, as we all know, it all went south when the Ant King arrived and since Jinwoo knew what would happen, he decided to go there to save his fellow Hunters. Although there were casualties, Jinwoo’s arrival and his epic clash against the Ant King actually saved many lives, as Jinwoo was able to defeat the Boss and clear the Jeju Island Dungeon, thus bringing an end to the government’s four-year endeavor. Jinwoo’s intervention proved to be pivotal in this case.

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