Twenty-seven years at war with the Monarchs — that is where Sung Jinwoo stands. Not in the anime. Not in the webtoon. In a roguelite.
That is the actual news, and the turn is odder than it reads. Solo Leveling: Karma is a roguelite action-RPG in the works at Netmarble, headed for PC and mobile before the year is out, and the story it tells is one nobody has read.
A chapter the webtoon never wrote
The premise belongs to the game alone and unfolds inside the Dimensional Gap. Jinwoo’s war is already underway when you arrive, and there is no gentle on-ramp.
Netmarble’s own summary reads:
“Though he emerged victorious in the battle against the Monarchs who sought to conquer Earth, Sung Jinwoo lost many people he cared about. Using the Cup of Reincarnation, he turned back time to a point before the gates ever appeared. As Jinwoo continues his war against the Monarchs within the dimensional gap, the mysterious Messengers of the Itarim and their creator appear before him. To protect the dimensional gap, the Messengers of the Itarim form a pact with Sung Jinwoo and lend him their power. Armed with newfound powers, Jinwoo cuts through the endless Denizens of Chaos. But as he presses forward, he comes face to face with an unexpected enemy…”
Time travel, a pact with beings the source material never introduced, and an antagonist the copy declines to name. For a franchise whose whole engine was one man grinding his way up a stat sheet, that is a great deal of new furniture.
The roster is the recognisable half
Cha Hae-In makes the cut. So do Go Gunhee and Choi Jong-In, alongside Jinwoo and others.
Arrive through the anime and those names land. Arrive through the webtoon and they land harder.
Why the audience is already in place
More than 14.3 billion views sit behind the original Solo Leveling webtoon. That single figure explains everything else on this list.
The property began life as a South Korean fantasy web novel by Chugong, then went global when the anime series arrived in 2024. A Korean drama adaptation is currently in development.
Netmarble has also walked this road before. Solo Leveling: Arise, an RPG, launched in 2025 and holds a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam, which places it among the more successful anime-inspired RPGs around.
Put 17 September in the diary
An official release date has yet to appear. Karma, though, is expected to take centre stage at Tokyo Game Show on 17 September — the moment the trailer, the in-game look and the date itself should all surface.
The film queued up behind it
Next in line for the franchise is a theatrical release, Solo Leveling: Beyond the System. It was announced in July and is expected at some point next year, with Crunchyroll yet to name a date.
So the next year takes roughly this shape: a roguelite, a film, a drama still in development, and a webtoon whose view count keeps ticking upward in the billions. Jinwoo, for his part, is still cutting through the Denizens of Chaos, 27 years deep, closing on an enemy nobody will name yet.