Chapter 185
Chapter 185
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 185
Chapter Title: Transcender (7)
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The core of the research lab.
A number "001" was written above the door to the place where it all began.
The other places he'd passed so far had different numbers too, but this was the only one marked with 1.
Naturally, whatever was inside had to be something special.
...A quick glance inside revealed no traces of biological experiments.
On the contrary, it was spotlessly clean.
Empty to the point of feeling hollow.
'So this is what the Transcender's item amounted to.'
Right up until he'd arrived here, Park Chan-woo had imagined something else.
An item capable of deploying such powerful "mana interference" over this wide an area.
He'd naturally assumed it was some kind of special device that could defend a broad zone.
Or perhaps armor or a shield lying around.
But all that was inside was a single book.
Not just any ordinary book, though.
'The mana is surging wildly.'
Tzzzzzt-
Tzzzzzzzzzt!
It hovered in midair, radiating immense mana.
The mana concentration was so dense that he could visibly see it roiling.
Unstable mana tangled and sparked chaotically.
Even from outside the door, it stung his skin.
Rushing in recklessly would probably incinerate his entire body.
Park Chan-woo opened the door and cautiously extended just the tip of one finger inside.
The moment he did.
"Ngh...!"
As expected, the finger he'd inserted turned pitch black.
Thud!
It crumbled to ash and fell to the floor in an instant.
Fortunately, "Hyper Regeneration" kicked in and restored it.
'At this rate, I can't even step inside.'
He took a step back and stroked his chin thoughtfully.
How had Aheta managed to enter the research lab and inspect that book?
But it was strange.
Aheta, whom he'd faced in person, was undoubtedly powerful, but even he probably couldn't withstand the mana's output from that Transcender's book easily.
The book's mana was explosive.
The closer you got, the more it surged without limit.
Which meant.
'Aheta could last maybe a few seconds at best.'
Even at his limit, probably just a few seconds.
As the lord of the moon, Aheta could endure that much.
Forcing his way in to barely turn one page, glimpse the content on a single side, then retreat—he'd probably be half-dead after that.
Restoring a dying body to normal would take at least dozens to hundreds of days.
"...So that's why he abandoned the research lab."
A facility he'd poured effort into building.
Now he clearly understood why he'd given up on it and left it like this.
He simply couldn't conduct any research here.
At a glance, the book was thick.
Well over a thousand pages, it seemed.
In other words, even just checking one page at a time would require repeating the process over a thousand times.
That meant nearly dying over a thousand times.
It was insane just to imagine.
For Aheta, who cherished his own body so obsessively, it would have been even harder.
Consider that each attempt would leave him bedridden for at least several months.
Repeating a potentially fatal act over a thousand times.
Not even someone with indomitable will would dare.
One had to question if any being could even do it.
"...I see."
Park Chan-woo crouched down.
He'd spotted something unusual.
He closely examined the finger that had burned to ash and fallen off.
It wasn't just ordinary burning.
It should have shriveled from moisture loss, but instead, the finger was swollen.
And...
'It should have completely turned to ash and vanished.'
This was the Abyss.
When things died here, they turned to ash and disappeared.
His finger had fully regenerated, so the severed part should have vanished.
But it remained.
It retained its shape perfectly.
That wasn't all.
The odd feeling he'd sensed while breaking through the research lab.
A curiosity that had grown stronger the closer he got to the core.
'...The corpses are still there.'
Why were the corpses intact?
Why did they persist?
He'd suspected it was due to the Transcender's item, but he hadn't pinpointed the exact reason.
It was because of this special power of the Transcender's book.
The mana emanating from the book was holding the corpses' forms together.
Or perhaps interfering with the Abyss's rules.
Either way, it was a highly intriguing phenomenon.
If it was the former, "Mana Interference" was the cause.
'The book's mana is repelling the Abyss's rules...'
If that was the case.
If the powerful mana was repelling everything from the space itself.
'Not mana interference—mana repulsion.'
The swollen, burned finger.
The lingering corpses.
And.
'Blood.'
Drip, drip.
Blood belatedly oozed from the severed finger.
His blood alone hadn't burned and evaporated.
Wasn't that strange?
Even when repairing the golem, his blood hadn't been affected by the mana.
The mana infused in his blood functioned properly.
At first, he'd been certain it was a "mana interference" phenomenon.
That only the pure mana dwelling in his blood was immune.
However, "mana interference" disrupted mana—it didn't swell or burn the body.
His finger had ballooned momentarily because the mana repelled too fiercely.
The burning followed the same logic.
'Covering myself in blood could be one way in.'
Of course, it wouldn't be safe.
The slightest gap, and his whole body would burn up instantly, killing him.
Even executing it flawlessly wasn't recommended.
'Why is my blood alone immune to mana repulsion?'
There was another oddity.
Thus, Park Chan-woo pondered.
Aheta must have obsessed over the same question endlessly.
The traces of "biological experiments" behind him were likely for entering this room to examine the book.
Killing subjects, fusing bodies of other species into chimeras, dissecting brains—what had he been trying to do?
Why was his blood immune to mana repulsion?
The components making up the blood.
No, mana was pure.
Only the primal mana dwelling in the heart lingered in the bloodstream.
Park Chan-woo formed a hypothesis.
"Stronger mana repels more fiercely..."
That's what repulsion was.
The stronger the mana, the more intensely it reacted.
Conversely, the mana in his blood wasn't strong.
It couldn't be.
'Weakest. All base stats fixed at 1.'
His status ailment: Weakest.
The curse that fixed all base, pure stats at 1.
Naturally, the base mana in his blood was a mere 1.
More precisely.
'All impure mana in the blood evaporated. Only pure mana remains.'
Only the mana equivalent to a single point from pure stats persisted.
Too faint to trigger repulsion, perhaps.
Aheta had tried his own methods but failed every time.
He'd made undead, chimeras, even removed organs—but nothing worked as intended.
The existence of flesh meant the existence of mana.
He couldn't control the mana inherent in the body itself.
Even the frailest species' body couldn't be sustained with just 1 mana.
From the start, whether undead or chimera, the moment it was influenced by Aheta's mana, stronger repulsion was inevitable.
Failure was par for the course.
'If my hypothesis is right, this research lab is accessible only to me.'
Park Chan-woo slowly began turning his thoughts into action.
He forcibly unequipped all worn equipment and tools.
But it still wasn't enough.
Titles could be toggled on or off.
This function existed due to interactions between titles.
Sometimes conflicting titles arose.
And so.
'All stats at 1.'
...Park Chan-woo returned to his primal state.
Stagger!
Anemia hit him instantly, but he shook his head and endured.
All stats, including mana, dropped to 1.
'I've been scraping by on bonus stats all this time.'
His power came entirely from equipment and tools.
The stat options attached to them made him strong.
Put another way, without "gear power" or "tool power," he was the world's weakest "frail body."
Slowly, he extended his finger into the research lab.
And then.
"...No repulsion."
He smiled faintly.
Who'd have thought this primal state would prove useful one day.
It went as expected.
Mana at 1 triggered no repulsion.
Not just mana—all base stats at 1 eliminated any reaction from the book.
Right now, he was weaker than a critically ill patient on the brink of death.
Even a newborn baby wouldn't have all stats at 1.
This resolved every mystery.
Park Chan-woo leisurely stepped through the door.
The moment he stood right before the "book."
Ding!