Chapter 204
Kim Byung-han—the man who was both Park Chan-woo’s superior at work and a pawn contracted to the Creator, Invisible Hand—had been sniped by Demon God Gremory of Lamentation.
He had been out of sight for so long that Park Chan-woo had assumed he was dead, yet here he was, suddenly hiding in his house.
Park Chan-woo had to admit it—his survival instincts were incredible.
“Why are you in my house?”
“I-I know the address… Ghk!”
As the grip around his neck tightened, Kim Byung-han couldn’t finish his sentence and started choking.
“How dare an insect…”
Ataraxia unleashed his killing intent.
To him, Kim Byung-han was nothing more than an insect.
And an insect that had secretly snuck into the Great One’s house.
How dare an insect speak in the Great One’s presence.
He deserved to be burned to death a hundred, a thousand times.
“Let him go.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Thump!
Ataraxia released him without hesitation.
Kim Byung-han collapsed on the floor, trembling, his frightened eyes darting between Ataraxia and Park Chan-woo.
‘Who… who is that guy?’
He was easily over two meters tall.
And he possessed incredible strength.
He had even used some kind of telekinetic power to drag him here, and the moment he unleashed that killing intent, Kim Byung-han couldn’t breathe.
The difference in power was overwhelming.
It meant the gap was so vast he could kill him with a flick of a finger.
Tremble, tremble!
Kim Byung-han couldn’t even bring himself to meet their eyes.
It was like facing a grim reaper from hell.
Park Chan-woo alone was already too much, but now he was with a monster no one could approach.
“I’ll ask you one last time. Why are you here?”
Gulp!
“Th-that… I wanted to see if you were really Park Chan-woo from the Third Night…”
The man who had ranked first in every trial across every faction.
Park Chan-woo’s name was deeply etched into the minds of everyone who had participated in the Third Night.
But no one actually knew what he looked like.
Even the Korean government and the Abyss Safety Bureau had stayed silent.
That was when Kim Byung-han remembered Park Chan-woo, who had once been his subordinate.
‘He’s the only one who could do it!’
He had known Park Chan-woo was no ordinary man ever since the Abyss appeared and he started killing monsters on his own.
Even though he had deserted the Tower of Arrogance not long after entering it.
But his abilities were the real deal.
The real deal—enough that even Lim Chang-yeol, leader of the Seoul Alliance, had acknowledged him.
“So you snuck into my house just to confirm that?”
“I-I came to propose an alliance!”
“Me, with you?”
It was a joke that would make a dog laugh.
An alliance meant fighting together, yet Kim Byung-han was a human who offered little beyond stealing.
Kim Byung-han desperately shouted.
“Han Shin! Han Shin is alive!”
An unexpected name.
Han Shin.
Park Chan-woo had heard he’d gone missing.
Even if he was alive, Master of the Moon Ahetta was dead, so his Incarnation contract should have been terminated.
“So what if he is?”
“He’s become a monster!”
“A monster?”
“Y-yes. He ate a Doppelganger and went crazy. He’s not human, not an Incarnation, not even a monster from the Abyss—he’s something even stranger…!”
It was still hard to grasp.
Why had Han Shin eaten a Doppelganger, and how had that turned him into something that was neither one thing nor the other?
“Explain it in a way I can understand.”
“W-well…”
Kim Byung-han struggled as he told the whole story.
The Second Night.
He had met Han Shin there, dying, and tried to have the Doppelganger replicate him—but it failed.
And then Han Shin, after winning the battle, had suddenly started tearing the Doppelganger apart and eating it alive.
Park Chan-woo, who had been listening in silence, asked, “Then how are you still alive?”
There was no way Han Shin would have spared Kim Byung-han after being attacked.
If he had become a monster, he would have killed Kim Byung-han even more readily.
Yet Kim Byung-han was alive, right in front of him.
“H-he cursed me. That chilling gaze… His eyes follow me every night. It’s like he’s watching me wherever I am. Ugh!”
A curse, huh.
But there was no sign of one.
No… rather.
“Did you take something from Han Shin?”
At the same time, Kim Byung-han’s pupils dilated.
“Y-you’re right. The Creator, Invisible Hand ordered me to, before I even realized… Ah, I’m an Incarnation, but I don’t attack other people! I can only steal things… Wh-when I stole this, he froze for a moment. I barely managed to escape then…”
Kim Byung-han rambled as he confessed he was an Incarnation.
Before he knew it, a small glass bottle was in his palm.
A strange symbol was etched onto the glass.
“This is…”
Ataraxia reacted first.
“Do you recognize it?”
“It is the Crest of Demon God Belial.”
One of the 72 Demon Gods. It meant the glass bottle was marked with Belial’s Crest.
It was something the Creator, Invisible Hand coveted, and Han Shin had halted when it was stolen.
“H-Han Shin is chasing me to get this back.”
“Why don’t you just throw it away?”
“It can’t be thrown away. This is definitely a cursed glass bottle…!”
It certainly gave off a strange feeling.
The fact that the Creator, Invisible Hand hadn’t retrieved it meant it was imbued with a powerful curse.
Then Kim Byung-han knelt.
“Please, save me. If Han Shin—that monster—is left alone, he’ll eventually become a menace to humanity. We have to kill him as soon as possible…!”
To him, Park Chan-woo was the only hope.
If he really was the Park Chan-woo of the Third Night, then he was the only one who could face Han Shin.
But Park Chan-woo had no intention of joining forces with Kim Byung-han.
“I’ll take that glass bottle.”
Instead, he held out his hand.
Kim Byung-han stared at him and spoke with uncertainty.
“Th-this? If that’s possible, I couldn’t ask for anything more, but…”
Objects stolen with the Creator’s Authority could be transferred, but this glass bottle was an exception.
It always returned to Kim Byung-han’s arms like a magnet.
No matter how great Park Chan-woo was, how could he do anything about an object marked with a Demon God’s Crest?
‘It’s worth a shot.’
He was already out of options.
Kim Byung-han bit his lip and carefully handed over the glass bottle.
Zzzt!
A tingling sensation ran through his hand the instant it touched the glass, like an electric current.
It was an object infused with a powerful curse.
And not an ordinary one.
‘It absorbs Innate Mana.’
A curse that devoured the very source of life was embedded in the glass bottle.
It meant Han Shin had been carrying an object that would kill its owner simply by being possessed.
Park Chan-woo didn’t know the relationship between Demon God Belial and Han Shin.
‘Elysion.’
If it was a curse, it wouldn’t work on him.
A star of light formed above his hand.
The Star of Elysion absorbed the curse contained in the glass bottle and transferred it to the Shadow Spirit Chronos.
Ting!
[The curse has been dispelled with the Divine Spirit Magic ‘Elysion.’]
[The power of the curse is converted into Mana through ‘Chronos.’]
[Pure Mana increased by 2.]
…It worked.
The curse’s power had been converted into pure Mana.
One of the abilities of the Divine Spirit Magic Elysion.
With the curse fully dispelled, the glass bottle’s identity was revealed.
[Name: Belial’s Shame]
[Description: A glass bottle that contained Demon God Belial’s Shame. It is currently empty and is cursed to kill anyone who possesses it, but the curse has been dispelled by ‘Elysion.’]
[Unique Options:]
[(1) ‘Demon God Belial’s Shame’ can be sealed.]
[(2) Automatically reacts when ‘Belial’s Shame’ is nearby.]
[(3) If you seal ‘Belial’s Shame’ and hand it over to Demon God Belial, you can gain his favor.]
…A glass bottle meant to seal Belial’s Shame.
In other words, it had held ‘something embarrassing you want to hide from others.’
Han Shin had been carrying it.
‘Did Han Shin take what was inside?’
That seemed highly likely.
He still didn’t know how Han Shin had obtained it, but now that Park Chan-woo had this bottle, he would naturally know when Han Shin was nearby.
And if Han Shin climbed the Tower of God, finding him would be even easier.
“Hey… it transferred…!”
Kim Byung-han burst into tears of joy.
He looked genuinely overjoyed to have handed the cursed bottle over to Park Chan-woo.
To Park Chan-woo, though, it was practically a gift.
He watched Kim Byung-han celebrating and thought, ‘I need to increase the house’s security level.’
—
Naturally, Park Chan-woo had no intention of climbing the Tower of God with Kim Byung-han.
“I will install an 8th-level barrier.”
After driving Kim Byung-han out, Ataraxia began setting up a barrier around the entire house.
It was a powerful security barrier that would burn anyone who tried to break in.
Humanity had not yet reached a level where it could create such a barrier, so something like this wouldn’t happen again.
‘He’s more useful than I expected.’
Ataraxia was more versatile than Park Chan-woo had assumed.
Barriers were far more complex than ordinary magic.
And most dragons tended to neglect barrier magic.
They were the strongest race—barriers weren’t something they needed.
But Ataraxia had learned barrier magic separately.
It meant his understanding of magic was exceptional.
Considering even the Black Witch—the antithesis of dragons—had employed him, it made sense.
With the house secured, Park Chan-woo headed straight for the Tower of God.
‘…It’s endless.’
A tower that pierced the sky.
On the first floor, countless doors waited to be entered.
“Looking for warrior party members, level 20 or higher!”
“Any clerics or priests?”
“Let’s climb the tower together!”
A massive crowd already bustled there.
Some were forming parties to challenge the tower, others were trying to make money off them, and countless alliances watched one another, jockeying for position.
Park Chan-woo quietly blended into the crowd.
Then he stood before a door.
Ting!
[Entering the ‘Tower of God.’]
[Floor 1 – A group of ‘Ancient Black Priests’ appears.]
[You can move to the next floor if you find the ‘Ancient Traces.’]
[Challenge the highest floor! The higher you climb, the stronger the enemies will be, and the higher the grade of treasures you can acquire.]
[It is said that something very special will happen if you collect traces, complete an ‘Epic,’ and acquire a ‘Stigmata.’]
[There are currently challengers attempting the 12th floor.]