Chapter 716
Ding!
Text appeared alongside the Status Window.
[You have achieved a Hidden Copy Condition through the Resident ‘Hastings’.]
“…!?”
Jinhyuk’s pupils shook violently at the sudden message.
It couldn’t be helped.
This was the first time a copy condition had ever been fulfilled through someone else.
[Unique Holy Spear – ‘Time of the Regressor’ (Limited)]
Acquisition Difficulty: Immeasurable.
Description: You can now use the abilities of every profession you have used while climbing the Tower of Trials until now.
[However, you can only use this ability three times.]
[After three uses, the ability will completely disappear.]
[The copied abilities are stored in the ‘Memory of the World’.]
Back when he had climbed the Tower of Trials, he had gone through countless professions. Naturally, that also meant he had acquired innumerable Unique Abilities and Unique Holy Spears.
Hastings’s Unique Holy Spear was a cheat-like ability capable of reproducing all of them.
Even with the limit of three uses, it was no exaggeration to say that a trump card several tiers above even [Napoleon’s Crown] had just fallen into his hands.
…A complicated mix of emotions crossed his mind.
Only now did he finally understand what Hastings had been trying to do.
“Was this your plan from the start? To give me your ability?”
“Cough! Kuhk…”
Hastings coughed up bright red blood.
At a glance, it was clearly a fatal wound.
No matter how much of a Senior Administrator he was, he had been pierced through a vital point without using a single defensive skill.
No.
From the very beginning, Hastings had had no intention of blocking that final attack.
“Huhu. Cough! The conditions for passing this ability on are a real headache. Still, don’t thank me too much. I was convinced you’d break down halfway through.”
If someone repeated and remembered thousands of deaths, they were bound to break eventually.
Hastings had thought the chances of Jinhyuk passing this trial were less than one percent. No matter how strong someone’s endurance was, if the despair of repeating death and the frustration of never being able to escape overlapped…
…their mind would surely collapse.
But Jinhyuk had been completely different from what he expected.
Especially the look in his eyes at the very end.
It was not the gaze of someone trapped in an inescapable fate, frustrated and helpless.
It was the gaze of someone who still wanted to live, no matter how hopeless the situation became.
…It was different from himself.
Jinhyuk was trying to walk a different path from a life of compromise, resignation, and surrender.
That was why…
Hastings had decided to place his final bet.
Perhaps he had made that decision from the very moment he met Jinhyuk again.
“Are you really alright with this? If you’d stuck with the Ancient Beings the way you originally intended, there might have been a higher chance of protecting the Tower. More than anything… your own survival would’ve been guaranteed.”
He had once thought that as the cycle of regression repeated, one would gradually lose any sense of life’s weight and, worn down by the monotony, would eventually throw even one’s own life away without much thought.
But what if you told someone who had been granted immortal life that this was the last time?
Would they really seek rest, tired of it all and eager for the end?
No.
If the final moment truly arrived, they would cling to life more desperately than ever.
The greater the intelligence, and the longer the life one had lived, the deeper that instinct to survive became.
And yet…
Hastings had let all of it go.
There was no way he had no regrets.
“It would be a lie to say I have no lingering attachments. Still… I have no regrets.”
The light in Hastings’s eyes gradually faded.
He had lost too much blood.
Before his breathing stopped entirely, Hastings spoke one last time.
“In return, promise me just one thing.”
“I’m listening.”
“If you reach the Summit of the Tower… I hope you’ll make a choice for the Tower, not for yourself.”
A rumor known only among the highest existences.
They said that if someone reached the Summit of the Tower, the Tower would grant that climber one wish. Hastings, knowing that, made his final request to Jinhyuk.
But…
When Jinhyuk had played the game, even after reaching the Summit of the Tower, nothing had changed.
There had been no message about being granted a wish.
No god had suddenly appeared, either.
There had only been a breathtakingly beautiful view.
‘No need to tell him that.’
To this goblin, the Tower of Trials weighed more than his own life. It was the very thing he wanted to protect at all costs, even if he had to throw everything else away.
Jinhyuk didn’t want to reveal a truth that might endanger that, not at this moment.
“Even if I reach the Summit of the Tower, I won’t make a wish that endangers the Tower. I treasure this Tower just as much as you do.”
That was enough.
Those words alone were enough.
“Thank… you. It seems… I repeated all those cycles… to meet you.”
Hastings slowly closed his eyes.
Psssst…
His shattered body crumbled into dust and scattered away.
===
Outside the subspace, the battle was still raging in full force.
“Kang Jinhyuk… what did you do?”
“Where did you take Jinhyuk!?”
Chun Yoosung and Teresa shouted at the same time.
Only Jang Bo-kyung had returned from the subspace. Jinhyuk, who had disappeared along with her, was nowhere to be seen.
“That guy’s having a meeting in there right now. He’ll probably come back after getting that overblown nose of his smashed in, so there’s no need to go looking for him.”
“How absurd. To think there’s some fool trying to break that guy’s pride. I don’t know what happened in there, but if you don’t want to die, you’d better spit him back out right now.”
“Well. That’s for us to deal with. More importantly, shouldn’t you two be worrying about yourselves instead?”
Swoosh.
Thud.
The assassins tightened their encirclement.
The Inquisitors surrounded Teresa.
But—
Kwaaaang!
Swoosh!
A spray of blood burst from the middle of the assassins who had rushed in all at once.
As terrifying Sword Aura blossomed in every direction, a sword domain unfolded with Chun Yoosung at its center.
Overwhelming power.
Anyone who entered that area was cut down, no matter who they were.
Chun Yoosung’s momentum was on an entirely different level, to the point where numbers themselves became meaningless.
“Ugh…”
“Wh-what is this monster?”
“A being like this actually exists?”
Even the assassins, who had hunted countless Rankers, felt fear.
At this point, continuing to fight him was meaningless.
“As expected, this won’t do. Then I suppose I’ll add a little seasoning.”
Jang Bo-kyung flicked her finger.
[The ‘Seed that Devours Entrails’ is activated!]
The anomaly occurred the moment that text appeared.
“Kyaaaak!”
“Aaaak!”
Horrible screams erupted from the assassins attacking Chun Yoosung.
It felt as though something alien inside their bodies was writhing through their organs whole, as if their brains were about to burn out from within.
It lasted only a moment.
Soon, the assassins’ appearances began to change completely.
[The ‘Combatant of Shibekkul’ is manifesting!]
An ability that transformed the body into nourishment and birthed an Ancient Warrior.
This was the preparation Jang Bo-kyung had been relying on so confidently.
Gurgle…
The completely transformed combatants charged at Chun Yoosung again.
Though they were merely imitations created through the seed, each one possessed enough power to turn an ordinary Ranker into prey.
‘Capture Chun Yoosung and Teresa alive. Then demand the Necronomicon from Kang Jinhyuk in exchange.’
If he got trapped in that hellish Regression Space, he would come back with his mind in tatters.
No matter how extraordinary Kang Jinhyuk was, Hastings’s Divine Authority was not something a living being could endure.
If anything, what irritated Jang Bo-kyung most was the fact that she had needed to prepare this much just for one man.
‘What the hell is that guy, anyway, for everyone to make such a big fuss over him?’
She knew Jinhyuk wasn’t an ordinary Player.
If high-ranking existences were interested in him, there was no way he could be ordinary.
But he wasn’t one of the Upper Echelon Powers.
Could he really be stronger than Jang Bo-kyung herself, who had become an Apostle of an Ancient Existence—the literal final boss of this world?
Ridiculous.
‘If anything, this one here looks way stronger…’
Jang Bo-kyung ran her tongue across her lips.
Less than ten minutes had passed, yet Chun Yoosung had already cut down dozens of Shibekkul’s combatants.
Shiver! Shiver!
A pleasant chill ran across her skin.
Crunch! Swoosh!
Twisting necks and cutting bodies down without the slightest hesitation, Chun Yoosung looked like a demon incarnate.
Could it really be… that even those implanted with the seed couldn’t buy enough time?
This guy was far more of a monster than she had expected.
“Now you’re the only one left.”
Step by step, Chun Yoosung closed the distance between them.
“Seems that way.”
Jang Bo-kyung drew a spear from subspace.
The moment they entered each other’s range—
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Spear and sword collided at a terrifying speed.
Front, back, left, right.
Killing blows and feints beyond the limits of perception traced thousands of trajectories through the air.
“Whew!”
Jang Bo-kyung let out a whistle.
She couldn’t help but marvel at Chun Yoosung’s swordsmanship.
“Seriously amazing. If it weren’t for this spear, I’d have died at least ten times already.”
Jang Bo-kyung toyed with the pure white spear in her hands, from shaft to tip.
An ego item forged from a special metal of the Outer Cosmos and infused with the soul of a Great Old One.
It was [Yaxedal’s Spear].
A Sacred Relic from the 50th floor, said to be so powerful that even a child could defeat a master with it.
And yet, even while wielding a cheat-like weapon bestowed by Shibekkul, she still couldn’t gain the upper hand.
It was hard to believe, even seeing it with his own eyes.
“That’s what I should be saying. To withstand my sword with such crude spearsmanship… it’s a weapon far too generous for someone like you.”
“Oh my. Thanks for the compliment. I just got it recently.”
Jang Bo-kyung grinned.
“That smirk reminds me of someone irritating. Don’t expect a clean death.”
Whoooosh…!
Chun Yoosung’s sword carved a sinister trajectory.
Up until now, his sword had only been domineering. It had never carried such thick demonic energy clinging to the blade.
Sword Demon First Form.
He had inherited the Sword of the Sword Demon through Chuhon Sayoung.
Trajectory layered over trajectory, leaving black afterimages in the air.
This was—
‘Black Lotus.’
Its first Initial Technique.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
“…!?”
The smile vanished entirely from Jang Bo-kyung’s face.
===
At the same time.
Teresa, facing off against the Inquisitors, was also fighting for every second.
“Kgh!”
Dominic’s face twisted viciously.
The Inquisitors were the Vatican’s elite.
They were the finest of the finest, men who had reached this position through brutal training and bone-deep effort.
And yet—
To think they still couldn’t capture a single Corrupted Saintess, even after bringing this many men.
His pride had been wounded beyond measure.
Especially—
“I don’t want to hurt you. So please step back now.”
Teresa’s disgusting, hypocritical remark stabbed even deeper into his pride.
[Blessing of the Stars – Radiance of the Archangel is activated!]
Whoosh.
A golden wave rose behind Teresa like an aurora.
The surging light strengthened her vitality while crushing her enemies’ fighting spirit.
“You fools! What are you all doing!?”
Dominic stepped forward.
At this point, there was no time left to hold back or stay cautious.
An ornately decorated item appeared from subspace.
[Special Sacred Relic ‘Sacred Painting of Raphael’ is activated!]
A Sacred Relic that was virtually poison to a holy knight.
The more Divinity one possessed, the more violently it shattered the mind.
Against Teresa, it was the worst possible matchup.
“Aaaak!”
Teresa let out a scream filled with agony.
An excruciating pain that seemed capable of blowing away her reason in an instant dyed her mind white.
Thud.
She dropped her weapon and fell to her knees.
“What a troublesome wench.”
Dominic clicked his tongue.
It had been difficult, but he had still achieved his goal.
At least, that was what he thought.
Until he saw what happened next.
[Personality is changing.]
Teresa’s Mana had changed completely.