Chapter 322
I Became the Successor of the Martial God
Chapter 322.
Yoo Baek-jun took out the invitation.
A worn-out piece of paper with familiar words written on it.
“To those who wish to train themselves to the limit, to those who have chosen to follow the path of the Martial God… come here.”
“If you knock on the door, the tower will open for you.”
Last time, when Yoo Baek-jun reached the top of the tower, the door did not open.
‘This time will be different.’
Yoo Baek-jun tore the invitation.
His vision swayed dizzyingly. When he closed and opened his eyes again, a now-familiar place came into view.
“…….”
A tower filled with multiple pillars supporting the structure and decorations that appeared to be from the Joseon era.
The Tower of the Martial God.
“…Something feels off.”
Yoo Baek-jun frowned.
Cracks had formed all over the tower, and the floor was collapsing.
The ceiling was no different. It had crumbled, revealing the sky above.
Krr… Kwoong!
Even now, pillars, walls, and ceilings were collapsing in real-time.
Yoo Baek-jun dodged the debris falling beside him and looked up.
‘Is it collapsing?’
He moved to a corner.
A place with only the pillars supporting the tower and no windows—the very edge.
He looked outside.
“This is……”
Originally, it should have been a pure white sky.
And beyond that, towering mountain peaks stretching endlessly—a beautiful landscape that would have welcomed him.
But this time, it wasn’t.
“Cracks…?”
The pitch-black sky was filled with countless fissures.
And beyond those cracks—
‘What is that?’
Scenes were visible.
Different landscapes, each distinct.
But upon closer inspection, many of them were familiar.
An inexplicably familiar snowy field, a city with people passing by, and the lives of those living there.
“…….”
They were scenes from this world.
Through the countless cracks, the appearance of this world and the lives of the people living in it were visible.
It was a mystical sight.
‘What does this mean?’
Frowning, Yoo Baek-jun stood before the monument on the first floor.
Words were inscribed on the monument.
“Test your limits.”
He placed his hand on the monument.
Normally, light would have flowed out, sending him to the floor he had previously reached, but this time, it remained silent.
Instead, the monument gradually faded.
—To the… qualified… one, welcome. You…….
A deep voice echoed.
—I will… be waiting.
The voice kept cutting off, as if the connection was unstable. As the words ended, the monument vanished completely.
And in its place, a staircase appeared.
“Do I have to climb from the first floor?”
Yoo Baek-jun clicked his tongue.
Surely, it couldn’t mean he had to start over from scratch. With a slight sense of unease, he climbed the stairs.
Second floor, third floor, fourth floor.
‘It’s getting more unstable.’
With each floor, the tower grew increasingly unstable. The cracks worsened, and the damage to the floor and ceiling intensified.
And outside—
“The scenery in the cracks……”
Was changing.
The once-peaceful scenes began to shift. Monsters appeared, and Hunters fighting them came into view.
Yoo Baek-jun moved forward.
Upward, to higher floors.
“…….”
Sixth floor, seventh floor, and then the tenth floor.
Among the countless scenes, one stood out vividly.
A crimson sky, and countless demonic beings tearing through it.
The sight of the Great Invasion that had occurred in Seoul—the one Yoo Baek-jun had stopped.
But there was a difference.
‘I’m not… there.’
In that scene, Yoo Baek-jun was absent.
There was no sign of preparations being made in advance for the Great Invasion.
With the sudden onslaught of the demonic beings, Seoul collapsed, and people were slaughtered indiscriminately.
Seoul was falling apart.
‘The outcome if I had failed…….’
It was the result of failing to clear the Great Invasion event.
Had Yoo Baek-jun not stopped it, the same thing would have happened.
‘I thought it was reflecting this world, but maybe not. Or…’
He considered one possibility but set it aside for now.
And he continued climbing the stairs.
Countless scenes unfolded before him.
Events Yoo Baek-jun had experienced, and events ‘I’ had experienced through other characters—even if not as Yoo Baek-jun.
The cracks revealed everything.
“They’re all failures.”
The one commonality was that all the outcomes were tragic.
They were the results of failing to clear the events.
After climbing for what felt like an eternity, Yoo Baek-jun reached the 20th floor.
“This time… the Magic Tower?”
The Magic Tower came into view.
At first, it seemed peaceful, but then Harun appeared, scheming.
His plot succeeded, and those who opposed his faction were executed.
And then—
“Jin Seo-yeon.”
Jin Seo-yeon, having lost everything, succumbed to madness and slaughtered Harun and his faction.
In the most brutal way possible, inflicting every conceivable pain a human could endure.
And she became another calamity, bringing ruin to the world.
‘If I had made even a single mistake, this world would have ended up like that.’
A future this world had almost reached.
Yoo Baek-jun climbed the tower, watching the negative scenes unfolding around him.
The people he knew were dying horribly.
“Right, this is……”
He reached the final floor.
The 30th floor of the Tower of the Martial God. A sky filled with pitch-black cracks greeted him.
The 30th floor had collapsed so thoroughly that there was barely any footing left.
—Come… here…….
A voice called from afar. Yoo Baek-jun gauged the direction and kicked off the ground.
Stepping on the remnants of the collapsed floor, he moved toward the source of the voice.
It grew closer.
—The door…….
The voice faded.
Yoo Baek-jun stopped and looked around.
Nothing was visible. Only the pitch-black sky and the cracks beyond.
Oooong!
“What’s this now?”
Then, the White Sword vibrated.
Oooooong!
The White Sword at his waist trembled as if demanding his attention, as if it had something to say.
“Huh?”
He drew the White Sword.
A brilliant white sword energy flowed from the blade, revealing something that had been invisible until now.
‘A barrier…?’
A faint, barrier-like glow shimmered before him.
The White Sword was resonating.
“…….”
After a brief moment of hesitation, Yoo Baek-jun assumed a stance and swung the sword.
Swaak!
The white sword energy split the barrier, revealing a hidden door behind it.
“It’s a mess.”
The door was, quite literally, a wreck.
Shattered and corrupted, barely maintaining its form.
Yoo Baek-jun stood before it and pushed it open. The scenery shifted abruptly.
“This is… even worse?”
A sky filled with clouds.
An endless mountain range and a breathtaking field of flowers in full bloom.
If there was a paradise straight out of a fantasy, this would be it.
But there was one problem.
‘The cracks…….’
Strange fissures were slowly revealing themselves amidst the scenery.
And from them, pitch-black darkness seeped out, eroding the surroundings.
‘Are these cracks here too?’
The entire tower was riddled with them.
After surveying the area for a while, Yoo Baek-jun slowly moved forward.
—Oooong!
“Yeah, yeah, this way?”
The White Sword in his hand guided him. A short oong for the right path, a long oong for the wrong one.
Yoo Baek-jun sighed.
“If you’re going to do this, at least talk.”
The White Sword led him to the summit of the mountain range. A place where he could overlook the entire landscape.
There, a single staircase stood.
—Finally, we meet.
An old man stood there.
—I’ve been waiting for you, Successor.
The old man, who had been standing with his back turned, slowly turned around.
His face came into view.
—No… dimension traveler.
“You are……”
A familiar face, and a familiar voice.
Even though he had never seen this person before, he knew who it was.
Instinctively.
The blood flowing through his body told him who this was.
“The Martial God……”
It was the Martial God.
Half of his body was split apart, and even the remaining parts were torn to shreds.
Though his form was barely recognizable, there was no doubt—this was the Martial God.
—It’s not a name I gave myself, but it’s what I came to be called.
“…….”
Half of the Martial God’s face was gone. And what remained… resembled the old man.
The old man he had met and fought in the Dragon’s Land before coming here.
No—it was identical.
—You’ve seen my face before, haven’t you?
“Yes, I saw the same face outside. I fought him and came here.”
Yoo Baek-jun touched his wounds.
“Though ‘fought’ is an overstatement—it was more like getting beaten up.”
—You’re quite composed for someone who lost.
“I can’t just dig a hole and hide after losing. I lost, but I survived. Now, I just need to find a solution and try again.”
—…….
That was ‘my’ way of thinking.
In the process of clearing the game, I had failed countless times. But through those failures, I learned.
‘I’ used those lessons to turn failure into success.
They piled up, layer upon layer, until every route was cleared.
—Hmm……!
The Martial God, who had been staring expressionlessly at Yoo Baek-jun, smiled faintly.
A satisfied smile.
—Most of those who cleared that game had something special, but you stand out even among them. Is that how you cleared every route?
It was a strange thing to say.
Hearing words like ‘game’ and ‘route’ from the Martial God, an ancient being, felt deeply dissonant.
And it raised a question.
“Was it you, the Martial God, who brought me to this world… Who made me Yoo Baek-jun?”
It was a question he couldn’t help but ask.
“Was the person in that chatroom, the one called ‘Supreme Overlord,’ you?”
—No.
The Martial God shook his head.
—Overlord isn’t me. But as for the first question… yes. The game you played… was something I spearheaded the creation of.
“…….”
Yoo Baek-jun’s eyes twitched.
His mind was in turmoil. Countless thoughts and emotions surged, but—
Now wasn’t the time to dwell on them. Suppressing his emotions, he asked what he needed to know.
“What is that game… What is Heroes Road?”
—A simulator.
“A simulator?”
The Martial God smiled bitterly.
—It replicates how this already-ruined world met its end.
“That……”
For a moment, Yoo Baek-jun was speechless.
Because he understood what those words meant.
—Yes. This world perished long ago. And it has been repeating its destruction ever since. Over and over… all because of this foolish old man’s lingering regrets.
Yoo Baek-jun recalled the scenes he had seen through the cracks on his way up.
The cities that had fallen because events weren’t cleared, the Magic Tower.
“…Were those scenes in the cracks things that actually happened?”
That they weren’t just events in a game, but perhaps—
—Just as you think. They are events that truly occurred in the countless repetitions of this world’s cycle. I embedded them all into the simulator.
Yoo Baek-jun swallowed hard.
The old man continued with a bitter smile, slowly turning his back again.
—That is Heroes Road. The truth of the game you and the others enjoyed.
He gestured for Yoo Baek-jun to follow as he walked forward.
—And this time… is your last chance. There are no more after this.
Yoo Baek-jun watched the Martial God walking across the sky, moving beyond the clouds.
—You must be confused. You must have many questions. Come with me. I will tell you everything.