Surprising Misfortune
My Nascent Soul concentrated its power above my head, cradling a tower that looked like little more than a stick, while I sat cross-legged on the Ascension Platform with my eyes closed and entered my Mental World.
The core idea was to pull my Mental World out into reality and wrap the entire base in it, so that the Mental World would take the Interface Pressure of ascending to the Upper Realm in my place — reducing the burden the Ascension Platform itself had to bear.
It was a workaround made possible by the fact that the Sea of Slaughter in my Mental World had once been able to withstand even Elder Togo's Nascent Soul at the peak of Deity Transformation, and that the base — being a True Immortal's hand — could endure the Sea of Slaughter as well.
The only real downside was that I'd be shouldering every last bit of the risk myself. If the Mental World failed to hold and collapsed, the one taking the heaviest hit would be none other than me.
So the normal thing to do would have been to wait for the right timing, pick a nice day when the ascension success rate was high, and attempt a regular ascent. But rather than waste my time grinding away at the base with no end in sight, I'd just force my way up with a cheap exploit!
I'd recalled every decoration into the base's decoration warehouse, and the friendly NPCs had barricaded themselves in a single building under Elder Togo's protection, just in case.
The base was my space. Thanks to Base Management Mode, it was essentially a little map that belonged only to me, the player — my titles and the map description proved as much. Which meant overlaying the laws of this little world was ridiculously easy and convenient.
"All desires of body and mind ultimately arise from life, and before death they become nothing more than emptiness — infinitely worthless."
Crimson slaughter energy became a seal, gathering the laws of the little world through the medium of language.
"That empty form of emptiness is itself a world, and the workings of the mind — emotion, thought, desire, consciousness — are no different."
The Erosion skill screamed as it manifested with such intensity it was practically vomiting up its limits, and the halo of endlessly spinning wheels above my head and assisting Chopsticks at my back poured out crimson light.
"The suffering and calamity born of the cycle of life and death are also emptiness — and all of creation!"
Erosion Skill — Overload
My Nascent Soul raised the stick-like tower in its hands and manifested the law.
I spun the wheel and manifested a law at the same time. Dual law manifestation — a technique only possible because I'd ascended to Nascent Soul through the Dual Law Body and possessed two laws to begin with.
As the Law of Measure blanketed the Mental World and the Law of Return blanketed the base simultaneously—
The Sea of Slaughter engulfed the base. Base Management Mode — or rather, its official name, Base Fortress Management Mode — screamed under the Sea of Slaughter, but it was holding up better than I'd expected.
Was it because the base, corpse though it was, was still a True Immortal's hand? Strictly speaking, it was probably sturdier than my Status Window, so maybe that was only natural.
Use the Ascension Platform?
Once used, the platform cannot be reused for 100 years!
Current ascension success rate: 41.9%
Using the Ascension Platform will automatically update your save point.
"Use it."
Spiritual energy erupted from the Ascension Platform, gathered toward me, then shot straight into the sky — revealing the wall that divided the Upper and Lower Realms and punching a hole through it.
The base rose. More precisely, the base was being dragged along with the Mental World that had unfolded during the Ascension Platform's ascent process — but to Yu Hee, that was how it felt.
The moment we passed through the Lower Realm's sky, I unleashed the full power of my suppressed Transcendent species nature and activated my Transformation skill. At the same time, the waiting Humanity Clones stacked every consumable that Yorisa and Yeondansa had grinded out and equipped in Quick Slot Mode — exploiting bugs to stack them on top of each other.
Along with the power of consumables for defense boosts, one-time shields, extra armor plating, stagger resistance, and more, a pair of blue horns appeared above my head and shimmered, flaunting their effects.
And then, as if it had been waiting for exactly this moment, the pressure flowing from the wall between Upper and Lower Realms — what people commonly called Interface Pressure — came crashing down.
The fourfold Sea of Slaughter shuddered as a whole, taking the first hit of the Interface Pressure. If it had blocked everything completely, the recoil would have been even worse given that it was covering the entire base — but even using it as a kind of filter to reduce the Interface Pressure, the burden on Yu Hee was beyond imagination.
Because of the Evil Karma Yu Hee had accumulated. The spiritual roots, souls, and golden cores of the cultivators she'd killed and devoured had piled up like sediment as Evil Karma, and that came back as a proportional increase in Interface Pressure. To the point that the base made from a True Immortal's hand and the cultivators residing in it were reducing Yu Hee's burden rather than increasing it.
But even after all that, Yu Hee's left arm was the first to crack under the pressure, then shatter and fall away. The Chopsticks spinning madly behind her back to ease the burden suddenly locked up under the excessive pressure, as if snagged on something — and the wheel they'd been assisting slowed further, the pressure mounting steadily.
⊳ Uh-oh, is this gonna fail?
⊳ Don't jinx it — just switch out already!
⊳ AAAAAH! We're dying! Dying!
The Humanity Clones were losing their minds. Unlike Yu Hee herself, who couldn't even open her mouth under the Interface Pressure, the Humanity Clones were still stacking consumables and swapping out her equipment, doing everything they could to help — perhaps because the Humanity Clones were also part of Yu Hee, fragments of her soul sharing her past-life memories. They were taking a share of the pressure as well.
Of course, it was only a faint enough pressure that mere Mortal-level Humanity Clones could still thrash around under it — but Yu I-seong was different.
A Mortal who had achieved Transcendence. As the one bearing one side of the Mental World's sky, Yu I-seong had been giving everything she had from the moment the Mental World manifested. From the start of the ascension until now, she had been performing spear dances without rest, golden spear in hand.
The majestic aurora that had overlaid the golden sky, reducing the Interface Pressure and protecting the Mental World, was gradually fading. Had her strength run out?
No. That wasn't it. The aurora had only been a side effect. Everything Yu I-seong had been doing with her spear dance until now was simply gathering power.
Even as cracks spiderwebbed across her skin, regenerating muscle ground and shattered with wet sounds, and bones crunched and crumbled, Yu Hee forced her right hand onto her own heart.
A golden short spear drawn from the heart.
A golden short spear pulled from her heart bloomed with golden polar light that flashed into a brilliant aurora and slammed into the wall dividing Upper and Lower Realms. In a single strike, it cleaved clean through the Interface Pressure that had been crushing the entire Mental World, and the aftershock alone shoved every last bit of pressure away for a single instant.
Creating that brief opening was the end of Yu I-seong's role.
The Nascent Soul positioned before her forehead spun the wheel.
I drew out the tower with my remaining right arm.
The vast fourfold Sea of Slaughter began to flow and circulate as the two laws crossed. The Mental World became a single world and began fully receiving the Interface Pressure, and Yu Hee's shattered left arm regenerated through the cycle — restored by the slaughter energy being produced.
The Cycle of Slaughter had begun.
As the wheel turned and slaughter energy completed each revolution, the fourfold Sea of Slaughter circulating fiercely through the Mental World produced more and more slaughter energy, swelling in bulk and volume. The slaughter energy frothed and multiplied, but the newly generated energy was immediately offset by the Interface Pressure bearing down again — and the pressure tried to crash into Yu Hee once more.
But the horns that had appeared above Yu Hee's head flashed with blue light, activating their effects and blocking the now infinitely weakened Interface Pressure. By stacking consumables to jack up defense and swapping mythic gear with ancient- and epic-grade armor multiple times, they'd finally managed to scrape together enough defense to block the actual DoT damage.
Of course, the biggest success factor was the exploit that had reduced the DoT in the first place — but still.
"Did we make it?"
⊳ Stop counting your chickens, Main Body!
⊳ Oh no! It's not quite "is it dead yet" level, but that's a textbook death flag!
⊳ No, the success rate is 41.9%, so the fail rate is only 58.1%! We'll be fine!
⊳ You're the worst one here!?
I was about to ignore the Humanity Clones' deafening fuss when every hair on Yu Hee's head stood on end.
No. You've got to be kidding me. Why now of all times? Seriously? Just a little more and the channel transfer would be done?!
As if completely ignoring Yu Hee's wishes, the instinctive warning of standing hair was followed by the all-too-predictable—
Ascension time has been drastically delayed!
"This game is such complete fucking garbage."
It was an Eok-kka event.