Solo Leveling is seeing worldwide recognition after winning ‘Anime of the Year’ at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025. Now lined up to try for a Primetime Emmy, it seems that this hype train is just going to keep right on rolling until they eventually drop some concrete dates for the release of Solo Leveling Season 3.
With all the excitement, fans are speculating on just what the focus of Solo Leveling Season 3 will be. A lot of new characters were introduced throughout Season 2, including the intimidating and enigmatic Sung Il-Hwan who explodes onto our screens with a showcase of baffling magical power that got us all thinking about Sung Jinwoo and if the magic has always been in his veins despite his E Rank awakening at the start of the series.
The Eternal Sleep Disease in Solo Leveling
The story of Solo Leveling begins with Sung Jinwoo, E Rank hunter, taking on hunting jobs to pay for rent and bills for himself, his sister, and the magical machine powered by essence crystals that keeps his mother from succumbing to the Eternal Sleep Disease. Not much is known about the disease, except that it affects individuals who have a particular sensitivity to magic, the magical beasts that have manifested in the world, and who have been exposed to high-potency magic for an extended period.
For Sung Jinwoo’s mother, the high potency magic would have been emitted from her husband, Sung Il-Hwan, who awakens as an S Class hunter and then is trapped in a gate. This is how Sung Jinwoo finds himself in financial peril when Solo Leveling’s story begins. Although the disease is mysterious, surely it should have been noted that the reason Jinwoo’s mother is currently comatose is because of that exposure to high potency. With re-awakenings already being possible within Solo Leveling, it might have been prudent for Sung Il-Hwan’s children to be monitored, perhaps even retested later as they grew, pre-emptively. After all, there are sayings about late bloomers being the most captivating.
Could Sung Jinwoo’s Mother Relapse?
Jinwoo can bring his mother back from the brink of death by completing the recipe for the Elixir of Life and feeding it to her in an emotionally fuelled reunion scene that highlights Jinwoo’s humanity. The description in the System’s data banks does say that it cures any disease, but it doesn’t exactly say that it can cure someone’s sensitivity to magic.
Sung Jinwoo has proven, by the end of Season 2, that he can play on the same playground as the National Level hunters at the very least which means that he must be outputting an insane amount of magical energy so if his mother’s sensitivity does remain, it’s surely only a matter of time before she succumbs to it again. Even more worrying is the idea that this is a genetic sensitivity, and Jinwoo’s sister, Sung Jinha, could also contract the disease with prolonged exposure to Jinwoo.
What Would This Mean?
Seeing both his mother and his sister fall to the disease could do a lot for Jinwoo’s character within Solo Leveling. For the moment, the series does an incredible job of maintaining a balance of morality, where Jinwoo has been seen making downright villainous decisions with the encouragement of the System, but also fighting to save others just like his firefighting father. Part of Jinwoo’s intrigue is that we still don’t know what path he’ll go down as a hunter who can constantly improve, and though it was implied he was initially chosen to become a ‘player’ due to his altruism, the truth in Solo Leveling’s manhwa appears much darker.
With both Jinha and his mother out of commission, Jinwoo’s reason for fighting would be removed, and it would be compelling to see what this would do to his character. Would it push him over the edge and set him on an OP rampage? Would he become listless, directionless, with the lack of hope that his family will ever be free of the disease? Or perhaps he would carve a brand new path entirely and disappear in search of an eradication of the disease as a whole.
Why Does Sung Jinwoo Hide His Power?
The short answer is that he doesn’t want to change his life, or the lives of his family, with fame and glory. The longer answer is probably much deeper than this and probably stems a lot from those dismissive first months as an E Ranking Hunter. Though his teammates treated him well enough, there was an element of dismissiveness in the way some of the hunters treated him, including throw-away comments about how disposable he was. The philosophy built on the back of being labelled ‘disposable’ could have really contributed to the stoicness with which Jinwoo carries himself when he finally acquires power.
Of course, it could be more in line with the need to have the freedom to grow on his own terms, too. When approached by the Chairman of the Hunters, Gunhee, with an offer of becoming an official S Ranker for Korea, plus all the fringe benefits, Jinwoo replies with his burning desire to get stronger. At that time, his mother hadn’t yet been awakened from her Eternal Sleep, so his answer is a little ambiguous, but Gunhee’s recount of his burning passion suggests that Jinwoo wants to play this game his way.
