205. Dystopia (2)
Regressor’s worn-out wristwatch.
The rewards obtained by clearing the Lunatic Difficulty Giant Tree Labyrinth had power beyond imagination.
I was dumbfounded by that, so I smiled once and narrowed my eyes.
‘I didn’t expect it, but I thought that a reward related to a divine being would be given.’
A holy relic left by the god of time who doesn’t exist anymore.
It is a reward ten times more valuable than the reward you get from climbing the tower.
If I had climbed the tower without participating in this giant tree labyrinth event, I wouldn’t have gotten anything like this.
I smiled softly at him and put on the worn-out watch of a regressor.
click.
I quite liked the feeling of wrapping it around my wrist.
The fit itself is fine.
However, the true value of a regressor’s worn-out wristwatch was not in terms of comfort or stylish appearance.
‘The important thing is performance.’
Because the appearance or fit of an item doesn’t make me stronger.
I can’t confirm ‘return to death’, which is an exclusive effect with a cooldown of 30 days…
At least ‘attack nullification’ itself has a cooldown of 30 minutes, so I wanted to find out its effect here.
[The skill ‘Starlight Starlight’ is activated.]
After embodying the starlight imbued with divinity in my left hand…
I activated the exclusive effect inherent in the worn-out watch of the regressor.
「Returner’s Worn Watch (SSS+) exclusive effect ‘Attack Nullification’ is activated.」
「Skill ‘Starlight Starlight’ is returned to its ‘pre-attack state’ by ‘Attack Nullification’.」
「Returner’s Worn Out A 30-minute cooldown is created for the wristwatch (SSS+) exclusive effect ‘Attack Nullification’.”
The results were very surprising.
Hung.
“Oh…”
As soon as I designated the starlight that floated on the top of my palm as an invalid attack target, the starlight disappeared.
Even the divine power consumed by the holy light returned intact to the body.
As if the Holy Light had never been activated from the beginning.
‘that’s interesting.’
Seeing that all the costs involved in using the Holy Light came back to me… It’s not a selfish
power that doesn’t give back the power used by the enemy, although it doesn’t have the result itself like the last resistance skill.
But…
‘It’s useful enough.’
The advantage of invalidating an attack was that it could block a specific attack used by the opponent in advance.
It was even more so because the cooldown time was a short time of 30 minutes compared to the performance of the exclusive effect.
Depending on the situation, it can also be used in a fairly aggressive form.
Even the range of invalidating the attack was not narrow.
「The skill ‘Counterattack Shield’ returns to its ‘pre-attack state’ by ‘Attack Nullification’.
” ..」
「The special power ‘Yonginhwa’ is returned to the ‘pre-attack state’ by ‘attack invalidation’…” After
investing time and researching the attack invalidation, interesting results emerged.
‘Except for the passive ability that is always activated, is it going to return everything to its pre-activation state?’
All powers in the form of activation, whether it is a skill or authority, are returned to the ‘state before activation’ without any conditions.
Even the counterattack shield, which is a defensive skill, can be reversed…
In fact, it has a defense nullification function.
‘At this level, I think I’ve learned enough about invalidating attacks.’
I was satisfied with that, and after checking, I opened the inventory again.
Then, he took out all the items that had been sent to the inventory by the tower and wore them.
All the items acquired in the labyrinth were also in the inventory.
Of course, except for the Mask of Despair, these aren’t very useful items…
‘Still, the Mask of Despair is useful, so let’s wear it.’
The Mask of Despair, which increases shock absorption and power efficiency, was worth using.
Even killing creatures, the correction percentage of shock absorption and power efficiency also grew.
There was no reason not to write.
After wearing all the equipment like that, I heard Dam Chun-wu’s voice.
―Are you finally back at the top?
For some reason, I nodded my head instead of answering that timid voice.
At that, Dam Chun-wu was silent for a moment, then continued talking.
―…I’m glad you survived. I thought that both of them would die on the spot.
“Is that so.”
―I still get goosebumps thinking about that crazy ancient deity. You must have felt it then too. It was not a common deity.
“…”
―Out of heaven. sky outside the sky. He was a truly unapproachable transcendent. Perhaps he is the closest god to a tower-like transcendental being.
It made sense to say that.
‘Certainly, the myth of greed that was shown at the end was an unbelievable force.’
At that time, the god of despair, fall, and madness showed strength beyond the boundaries.
Using the myth of swallowing a world on the subject of using an incarnated body rather than the main body…
I would have died if I had been touched by the black wave of greed written by the god of despair, fall, and madness.
And that too in a very gruesome form.
I could be sure of that.
-Don’t relax. God of despair, fall and madness. The monster coveted your power.
“…yes. It was. It was a huge obsession.”
―It must be that you covet the potential you possess that can surpass everything. From now on, he will come looking for you.
“I know.”
―After reaching the upper level, it will definitely appear again. Until then, you must increase your strength. It will be a time for counseling.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s always been like this anyway. Not surprising.”
So far, I have met several enemies while climbing the tower.
Each of them had different reasons and hostile feelings, and drove me into a corner with an uncontrollable force.
In fact, there were times when I experienced a state close to death.
But the ending was always the same.
“I will never die.”
Against them, I won the victory in the end.
Nothing will change this time either.
“God of despair, fall and madness. If I can get over it, I will get over it.”
I calmly showed my confidence, and Dam Chun-wu said with a smile.
―Is that so?
And then he said that and closed his mouth.
As if there was nothing more to say.
After finishing the conversation, I touched my chin for a while and thought about it.
‘Should I find out about the god of despair, fall, and madness?’
There was a time when I used information access rights on the final level of the labyrinth to find out about him.
As the first candidate selected by the tower, the god of despair, fall, and madness was a challenger.
that bothered me
Like the god of despair, fall, and madness, I am a challenger and have been selected as a candidate by the tower.
Because of that commonality, the awkwardness did not go away.
And I already knew where to find out about it.
‘manager.’
Administrators who have been given a pseudo-divinity by the tower must know something about this as well.
I immediately opened my mouth and spoke as if muttering.
“I have a question. Either of you are welcome, so please invite me. please.”
But…
“….”
The system message didn’t appear in front of my eyes even after time passed.
‘I’m not observing.’
I couldn’t feel their gaze, so I wondered if the administrators weren’t looking at me… It
seemed like they really were.
Originally, in this case, the meeting with the manager had to be postponed until later.
But not anymore.
Among the exclusive rights of the tower obtained from the giant tree labyrinth, there was also the right to use in this situation.
Right away…
「Exclusive authority #B-714 [Region move] is activated.」
「Please specify the manager area to move.」
It was the area move permission.
‘With this, I can go in and out of the manager’s area as I please.’
Next, I chose Baekhakgeomseon as the administrator to use the area movement authority.
It was because I wanted to meet Baekhak Geomseon after a long time.
Still, formally, he’s Master, but I haven’t seen him for a long time….
It was my intention to meet him once.
「Designation completed.」
「Move to the area of administrator ‘Baekhakgeomseon(白鶴劍仙)’.」
Then, it was the moment when the area movement authority was activated and the space changed.
“Hyaaaaagh!?”
I immediately turned my head at the sharp scream like a cat’s cry.
And…
“Sungyun…?”
I could see Baekhakgeomseon staring at me in surprise with greasy lips.
…and even the snacks spilled on the bed from an overturned bowl.
“…”
I had an ominous feeling without knowing why.
***
Forebodings hit right away, as always.
“What are you going to do when you come to the manager’s area without warning!”
Baekhakgeomseon quickly arranged his seat and began to preach.
“No matter how the manager and the challenger are related, it is still between the teacher and the teacher…!”
“That…”
“It’s not polite to enter the place where the master stays without saying anything!”
“…sorry.”
Actually, I didn’t have a way to say anything,
so I just used the permission to move the area.
So when I said I was sorry, Baekhak Swordsman also calmed down, as if he didn’t want to get angry any more.
“Ugh… Anyway, it seems like you know the mistake, so that’s enough…”
With that, the sermon was over.
“…Congratulations on clearing the giant tree labyrinth. Sungyoon is a great contractor and a proud disciple.”
Baekhak Geomseon praised me like a carrot after a whip.
But it was clear that there was sincerity in his words.
To him I calmly expressed my gratitude.
“is that so. A proud disciple to Master. That’s good.”
When he speaks, he subtly emphasizes the word ‘teacher’.
‘Baekhakgeomseon liked the word ‘teacher’.
Perhaps this will ease her mood fairly quickly.
“If Master hadn’t been there, I would have been in great danger in the labyrinth.”
And that idea certainly worked.
Baekhakgeomseon trembled and continued talking with the corners of his mouth twitching as if he was barely holding back laughter.
“…Thanks to Master Su. Hehehe. that’s right It feels good that Sungyoon thinks so.”
Because I forced myself to laugh, a little bit of laughter came out while I was talking
.
I can’t believe you forgive me for doing something rude with a mouth that doesn’t even look like this.
To be honest, I thought it was a bit of a joke.
―Tsk tsk. Are you deceiving the innocent again? You guys are great too.
At that, Damcheonwu clicked his tongue and said something to me, but the words were heard in one ear and passed out in the other.
“Ah, anyway, I knew Seongyun’s heart well. Anyway, why did you come to the manager’s area?”
“That’s what I came to see Master’s face…”
“That can’t be the case. If you did, you would have come to see me long ago.”
“…”
I couldn’t deny it.
Actually, I don’t look for a manager unless I have a business.
Unexpectedly, this puny Master was sharp in this respect.
I was worried that perhaps my subtle mouthing that I had been doing a while ago might have been caught, but…
“Still, thank you for thinking that way. But that would be a secondary reason.”
Maybe that’s not the case, Baekhak Geomseon couldn’t stand it and smiled and said that.
I immediately nodded and replied.
“That’s right.”
“So, why did you come to see me in such a hurry because you were so curious about it?”
“I came because I wanted to know about the first candidate chosen by the tower.”
“…the first candidate?”
At those words, the white crane’s face became serious.
“Seongyun. Do you know who it refers to? The first candidate selected by the tower is…”
“God of despair, fall, and madness.”
“…Where did you get that information from? It must have been difficult information to find out?”
“I met the incarnation on the final level of the giant tree labyrinth.”
“…”
She closed her eyes for a moment with her mouth shut, then opened them and gave a soft gaze.
“…You have met the incarnation of that fanaticism. And I survived against it. That’s why you know about that fanaticism.”
What was in those eyes was an emotion close to sympathy.
“I never thought I would run into something like that… Sungyoon. It was really hard. I’m glad you survived.”
“…”
“I couldn’t tell you about that fanaticism originally, but now that it’s like this, the restrictions on information must have been lifted to some extent.”
“Does that mean that you can tell us about the gods of despair, fall, and madness?”
“that’s right.”
Baekhakgeomseon changed his eyes to a serious look and continued.
“Despair, fall, and the god of madness are concepts like a failure of the Tower.”
“clinker…?”
“Seeing that information restrictions have been lifted, Sungyoon must also know about the purpose of the tower.”
“That’s right.”
“As you know, the Tower is trying to raise true transcendentalists in order to obliterate divine beings. That fanaticism is a remnant of the Tower’s first attempt to raise a transcendent.”
I focused on him and said.
“Please tell me more.”
“In a word, it is not an ordinary deity, but it is an insufficient vessel to become a true transcendent.”
“…”
“It is definitely unusual to have three names. God’s name means divinity. The combination of three gods means that they are that strong.”
“But I don’t think there will be so many gods just because there are a lot of divinities.”
“…that’s correct. God’s name is a nickname that expresses God’s identity to the outside world. Originally, there cannot be three names. That’s normal.”
But the god of despair, fall and madness was not like that.
“In order for a deity to be formed, you must have unrivaled belief in that divinity.”
“A belief is an opinion about how to think of divinity.”
“It’s similar. But the other thing is that you deeply believe in it. It is also very fanatical.”
“…”
“Even with one Godhead, your mental strength reaches its limit, and some Godheads start to break down.”
“ah.”
understood.
Like the gods of battle, as she said, they were owners of broken minds.
Should I say that it is not like a godlike and immature?
‘If that’s all because the mind has been damaged to some extent by the Divine, it makes sense.’
I nodded my head and listened to Baekhak Geomseon’s words.
“But having only one of these Shinmyeong can cause mental problems, so what if you have two of them?”
“It’s going to cause a major mental breakdown.”
“that’s right. As the number of gods increases, beliefs about various divinities arise. I can’t handle it and my mind is breaking down.”
“…”
“Of course, there are not that many cases where a deity with multiple deities is born.”
Nevertheless, a god of despair, fall, and madness was born.
There was a high probability that the Tower was deeply involved in the birth of that monstrous deity.
“But the god of despair, fall, and madness multiplied the number of gods with the power of the tower.”
“It’s as Sungyoon guessed. But the results weren’t very good. I couldn’t increase my Shinmyeong to more than three, and I couldn’t gain power so transcendent compared to the cost.”
“Is that why you were abandoned by the top?”
“…if you look at it, it will be like that. And after that, the fanaticism ran rampant in the tower and eventually became the tower’s enemy.”
“Is that so.”
I kept my mouth shut for a while, wondering what question to ask…
“…Sung-yoon. I don’t think I can give you more information now. A warning came from the tower.”
That worry became useless as the White Crane Swordsman was warned by the Tower.
“Then I can’t help it. I knew most of the things I was curious about anyway.”
To be honest, I still have some questions left.
Why does the tower wish to annihilate the divine being, and does it really exist a way to transcend me?
Several questions were running through my head.
However, those questions will become apparent as soon as you climb the tower.
As long as I don’t stop paying attention.
So…
“Thank you for answering the question. Master. Then let’s go.”
Now it was time to climb the tower for real.
“You have entered the waiting room on the 18th floor.”
