Chapter 394
“Ahhh.”
Light enveloped her whole body. At the same time, a change occurred. The link began connecting to something, and her very energy began to transform.
“Ugh!”
She clutched her head in pain.
‘W-what is this?’
Her head throbbed as if it would split open. She had never experienced such a headache before.
She tried desperately to stay conscious and endure.
But it was impossible.
This was on a completely different level from a mere headache or mental pressure.
“Aaah.”
A voice escaped her lips. Amidst the pain, something flowed into her mind.
They were memories.
‘…Me?’
She forgot even the pain and opened her eyes wide.
It was definitely her.
A version of herself she had never known.
The memories began stacking up, building from the very beginning.
“Ah.”
Lee Taeyeon flinched.
The self in her memories was descending the labyrinth.
She received no help from Taesan, relied on no one. She simply pressed forward alone.
She broke down in tears from fear, suffered wanting to give up, but even so, she didn’t stop.
She watched herself in a trance.
It was beautiful.
Even though it was herself, she couldn’t help but be amazed.
The memories continued to pile up and settle in. As they did, the Lee Taeyeon from her memories and the current Lee Taeyeon grew ever closer.
And after the memories ended—
She became whole.
“Ah… ah.”
Her voice quieted.
Lee Taeyeon steadied her breathing. Taesan frowned.
“You.”
There was something different about Lee Taeyeon’s presence. She no longer felt like the Lee Taeyeon he’d known.
And Taesan remembered this aura from his previous life.
“…Hello, Taesan.”
Lee Taeyeon smiled. It was a faint, mask-like smile.
“It’s been a while.”
Seeing that smile, Taesan was certain.
“Are you… Lee Taeyeon?”
Lee Taeyeon was Lee Taeyeon. It was such an obvious question.
But Taesan’s question carried another meaning.
Lee Taeyeon slowly nodded.
“That’s right.”
Taesan frowned.
After Maria gave her gift to Lee Taeyeon, it suddenly seeped into her, and Lee Taeyeon regained her memories from her previous life.
He couldn’t understand how it happened. The answer was not easily found.
Just then, laughter rang out.
A quiet laugh—Maria. Lee Taeyeon bowed respectfully.
“It’s been a while…”
[Yes, child.]
Maria spoke, smiling as if she knew Lee Taeyeon well.
Taesan silently watched Lee Taeyeon. She pressed her forehead.
“I’m sure you’re curious… Sorry. My memories are all jumbled, and I can’t sort them out yet. Can you give me a little time?”
He couldn’t refuse, so Taesan nodded. Lee Taeyeon sat down for a moment, lost in thought.
Left alone, Taesan spoke up.
“Maria. Are you—”
[What do you think?]
Maria laughed, as if very pleased, as if she’d been waiting for this day.
[I think it’s best if you hear the answer from her directly.]
Taesan fell silent.
An hour later, Lee Taeyeon came to find him.
Her face was much calmer than before, as if her memories were now organized.
“You succeeded.”
Those were the first words she said to Taesan.
There was awe and admiration in her tone, and also a sense that it was only natural.
“You defeated the Apostle. In just your sixth return…”
“I got stronger.”
“Yes, you did. You really were the answer. My choice… wasn’t wrong.”
Lee Taeyeon murmured. Her face showed relief, as if a heavy burden had finally been lifted.
“You…”
Taesan frowned.
The Lee Taeyeon he’d met in the God of Despair’s trial had been very different from what he expected. He’d known she was always thinking about many things and planning something inside.
But to think she would recover memories from her past life…
As far as Taesan knew, only a handful of beings could step outside time.
“…A contract with a god?”
The link she possessed was a connection to a god.
A contract with a god, making her an apostle, allowed her to step slightly outside the flow of time.
That was the conclusion he reached. Lee Taeyeon nodded.
“That’s right. I made a contract with the God of Choice—Maria.”
“But you definitely died.”
He had seen her corpse with his own eyes. Lee Taeyeon gave a wry smile.
“Where do I even start?”
She began to explain slowly.
She knew from the beginning that victory was impossible.
She agonized endlessly over whether she should use the Stone of Ouroboros to turn back time.
But in the end, she never reached a conclusion.
At the end, she returned to the city to give the stone to Taesan and collapsed there.
“So that’s why you were in the city.”
Taesan had wondered about that. Why was Lee Taeyeon, who fought outside the city to minimize casualties, found dead in the city?
It was all to give Taesan the stone.
She died there.
And her soul, through the power of the item Maria had given her, was summoned to Maria’s domain.
There, she accepted Maria’s proposal.
“…So you gave me the flower ornament for this from the start?”
[Who knows? Perhaps.]
Maria replied in a cheerful tone. That alone was answer enough.
[I like fair choices. Advancing through crisis and hardship without falsehood, overcoming it all with strength and wisdom—that’s what I enjoy. But I don’t dislike choices full of uncertainty, either.]
Choices full of uncertainty.
That must refer to Lee Taeyeon.
[Tormenting oneself, self-doubt, fear, and self-denial… hiding all those feelings and still moving forward, standing tall for the sake of others. That, in itself, is a noble sacrifice. In this world, especially for someone like her, giving one’s life for others is not easy.]
“No.”
Lee Taeyeon denied Maria’s words.
“I just… I was afraid to descend the labyrinth again. It wasn’t such a noble choice.”
She spoke in a bitter tone. Maria only smiled faintly, saying nothing more.
[That’s how you feel. Either way, I liked you. That’s why I made you the offer.]
“I’m truly grateful for that. Thanks to you… I got to see you all again.”
Lee Taeyeon looked at Taesan.
There were many emotions in her gaze.
“What should I call you now?”
“Just Lee Taeyeon. Thanks to Maria, I’ve regained my memories from my previous life, but all my current memories are still intact. You could say they’ve merged.”
The Lee Taeyeon of her past life always wore a mask and acted out a persona, while in this life, though she had a timid personality, she didn’t back down and had her own confidence.
Now, she was somewhere between the two.
Lee Taeyeon lowered her head with a gloomy look.
“I’m sorry, Taesan. In the end, I just pushed the responsibility onto you.”
She was the only player who cleared Solo mode.
She was the one responsible for everyone.
But in the end, she had abandoned her responsibility, pushed it onto Taesan, and sought peace for herself.
“You can resent me if you want. Despise me, even. I probably deserve it.”
“I don’t intend to.”
Taesan replied calmly.
“I didn’t think I’d be saying this again.”
He had comforted Lee Taeyeon in the God of Despair’s trial.
But that was only a memory—a fake, for his own self-satisfaction.
Now, the real Lee Taeyeon stood before him.
There were words he needed to say to her.
“I’m sorry, but I already know everything about what you were thinking and what kind of mask you were wearing in your past life.”
“H-huh?”
“You did well. More than enough. Even under pressure, you didn’t break down and you held us up. The reason we survived that long was because of you.”
Lee Taeyeon’s eyes grew wide.
Taesan finished speaking.
“You went through a lot. Lee Taeyeon.”
“…Thank you.”
She lowered her head. Her voice trembled, tinged with tears.
—
Maybe because she’d heard Taesan’s words, Lee Taeyeon’s expression softened.
She talked a lot with Taesan. As if venting pent-up feelings, she truly spoke about many things, and Taesan quietly listened.
For Taesan, it was a joy to see Lee Taeyeon recover her memories from her previous life. It meant he wasn’t the only one who remembered those lost times.
Lee Taeyeon waved at the ghost.
“Hi?”
[Yeah. By the way, what kind of person was I when you met me?]
“I don’t know. I never met you. I was too scared and just passed by.”
[…Wow. You’re the first type of adventurer I’ve seen like that. I can’t say anything, though, since you reached a higher place than me.]
The ghost let out a dry laugh.
Taesan tried to ask her about the floors ahead, but she shook her head.
“Sorry, I can’t answer that. When I made the contract as an apostle, I was bound by a restriction not to affect the present with my knowledge.”
Maria wanted to see the adventurers challenging the labyrinth. There was no way she would let Lee Taeyeon cheat the system.
It was a pity, but Taesan had expected as much, so he accepted it without much disappointment.
“You said you made a contract as an apostle with Maria. Does that mean you’re n apostle now?”
[That’s not it.]
Maria suddenly interjected. She spoke to the surprised Lee Taeyeon.
[The flow of time isn’t that simple. When I offered her the apostle’s contract, it was in the future from this point. So now she has regained her memories, but her power hasn’t changed.]
“…So she can’t receive power until that time comes?”
[Something like that. Transcendents aren’t affected by the flow of time. But they can’t escape it either. In terms of time, the first time I offered the apostle’s contract was to you, Taesan.]
“Oh…”
Lee Taeyeon tilted her head in confusion. It was hard for a mortal to understand.
[It’s not a huge deal, but it’s better for you to know.]
With a quiet voice, Maria disappeared again.
“I don’t know the details either… but it’s as Maria said. My power hasn’t changed.”
“But you have your memories from your previous life.”
Even if she couldn’t tell anyone, the knowledge she possessed was a great strength in itself.
Taesan asked her,
“What are you going to do now?”
“Well…”
She looked blankly at her own hand.
“Taesan, the reason I gave you the stone wasn’t just to save the world… It was also because of my own issues.”
She confessed as if giving a confession.
“I was too afraid to descend the labyrinth again.”
To go through that hellish place again, risking her life and ready to die, all alone.
She simply couldn’t make that choice.
But now, she was different. Lee Taeyeon clenched her fist.
She wasn’t talking about physical strength. It was her spirit.
“Honestly, I’m surprised myself. I never thought I’d be able to go through the labyrinth like this.”
In her previous life, she had given up many things and resorted to tricks to clear the labyrinth.
But in this life, even if she received Taesan’s help, she had conquered the labyrinth head-on.
It was a potential she never realized in her past life.
“And now, I’m not alone.”
She looked at Taesan.
He was the only one who remembered the destroyed world. The comrade who had fought through countless years and against destruction together.
She no longer had to suffer alone or hide behind a mask.
She could move forward together with Taesan.
That alone was salvation for her.
“You’ve done enough. I need to do what I must. At the very least, I won’t descend in the same way as my previous life.”
There was a deep resolve in her quiet voice.
Having finished their conversation, Taesan and Lee Taeyeon came down from Cheonji. Kang Junhyuk, once again sparring with her, looked puzzled.
“Noona, you’ve really changed a lot, haven’t you? Did something happen?”
It wasn’t just her expression or tone that had changed. Her fighting style itself was different. Lee Taeyeon replied,
“Something did happen.”
Taesan observed her movements.
Her present movements were now mixed with those from her previous life.
It was still rough, but that strength was entirely her own.
Next time they met, much would have changed.
And then the time for return arrived. Everyone gathered together to wait for their return.
[The magician and administrator of the labyrinth will have quite a headache when you come back.]
As he waited for the return, Maria spoke to Taesan. Only he could hear her voice.
[You have ascended to the seat of an Immortal. That’s a kind of arrival point, you see. The labyrinth system never expected an adventurer to reach immortality on the 70th floor. Balbabamba is going to have a tough time.]
Maria chuckled.
[Child, doesn’t it seem strange to you?]
“What do you mean?”
[Only transcendents, those with a true domain of their own, are unaffected by the flow of time. Because their domain itself is outside of time, it’s possible. In other words, even an Immortal cannot resist the flow of time.]
As Maria said, only transcendents could resist the flow of time.
[But your power remains even when time is turned back.]
Soul Rank Ascension.
Even though time had rewound, that skill remained his.
[You haven’t reached transcendence yet. You don’t have a domain of your own. But your power is unaffected by the flow of time.]
It was a deeply contradictory phenomenon.
[And that power can even steal from Immortals and Old gods.]
He was not a transcendent.
But he was not affected by time.
He could even steal the power of Old gods, beings outside the laws of this world.
It was a power beyond Maria’s understanding.
[I wonder where the end of your path will be.]
With those words, Maria vanished.
One by one, people began to return to the labyrinth. Lee Taeyeon gave Taesan a small nod.
“See you next time.”
“Yeah.”
Taesan replied.
With those words, he returned to the labyrinth.
[Monster defeat bonus +1,443]
[Apostle defeat bonus +3,121]
[Victory bonus +775]
[Settlement complete]
[You are awarded 5,876p.]
