Chapter 404
Chapter 404
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 404
Chapter Title: Racial War (43)
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The Racial War was not an individual competition.
It was never a place where one person's excellence alone could secure victory.
To achieve top rankings, the strength of one's comrades was equally vital. Yet humanity, participating in the Racial War for the very first time, could hardly boast overwhelming power.
Especially since they lacked the innate martial prowess of the other twelve races.
'We have to win.'
He meant it.
Survival or scraping into the upper ranks would not suffice.
Park Chan-woo genuinely intended to seize victory.
It was the only way to elevate humanity from the bottom rung of the Abyss's food chain.
With the blessing of first-time participation sustaining this inaugural tournament, the chances of winning again would be slim to none.
The Abyss showed no mercy to the weak.
Once branded a loser, escaping that stigma was nearly impossible.
Fail to prove humanity's worth this time, and they would forever be reduced to slaves and resources for the other races.
Moreover, he had to demonstrate humanity's potential to all the races and demons alike—proving that humans could be their masters, not their slaves.
Not fear, but awe. Not pity, but respect.
That was what they needed.
It had to be done.
This was the sole conclusion Park Chan-woo had reached after countless failures and deaths.
For that one goal alone, he had forged this miracle.
'Lucid Dream.'
The crystallization of his self-sacrifice, encompassing everything.
Within the Great Rift, he had glimpsed the realm of nothingness.
The place where all vanished and all began.
There, he realized it.
His current self—this 'zero-point' state—was infinite potential and yet utterly nothing, a fleeting mirage.
This state was not eternal.
Once the Racial War ended, or the precarious balance he held shattered, he was destined to fade like dust.
Thus, staking his own annihilation, he created this one-time magic.
A magic of nothingness, unprecedented and never to be replicated.
A spell that fueled itself on his very existence, halting the laws of causality, blurring the boundary between reality and dream!
By paying the immense 'price' of his dissolution, it bore all the 'energy' and 'distortions of law' needed for his comrades' growth.
Zero's calculations were not wrong.
This magic had a 0% success rate—a mad endeavor.
But those calculations omitted the variable of 'the caster's own annihilation.'
Self-sacrifice, that is.
An illogical, inefficient choice absent from Zero's database.
Increasing others' potential by erasing one's own existence?
It was discarding 1 to become 0.
A perfect loss, an incomprehensible error.
A variable Zero—and Sepiro—could never grasp.
All things operated under the law of equivalent exchange.
Sacrificing the small for the great was possible, but forsaking everything for nothingness lay beyond rational thought.
Park Chan-woo was different.
Through countless deaths, he had learned.
How hollow and powerless it was to stand alone at the pinnacle.
How easily strength without anything to protect crumbled.
His comrades were not mere combat assets.
They were the 'hope' he had uniquely salvaged from innumerable failures, the reason he rose again.
For them, he could gladly cast aside his own existence.
That was Park Chan-woo's unique 'variable,' transcending Zero's calculations.
A choice inexplicable by reason, comprehensible only by the heart.
Besides, it was the divine power of a mirage doomed to vanish anyway.
And if destined to fade, he would burn that final spark most brilliantly.
He would wield this fragile godhood in the most worthwhile place!
'I will become a god. I will stand at the top.'
For a moment, Park Chan-woo resolved to become a true god.
The 'Lucid Dream' he unfolded was no mere dreamscape.
It was his divine world, born from pouring his all into creation.
A realm where Park Chan-woo was the law, time, and all possibilities.
His paradise.
In this paradise, his comrades would live briefly as his 'believers.'
Their faith would solidify his divinity, and his divine power would respond with miracles.
Within the dream, Lee Hyuk-soo would swing his sword tens of thousands of times, merging with magic; Han Shin would pierce the world's truths with thousands of eyes.
Adora would delve into death's origins, reborn as a true outer god.
All under the blessing of Park Chan-woo, the 'god.'
Nourished by a god's sacrifice, his comrades would glimpse divine realms.
This was the one miracle Park Chan-woo prepared for humanity.
A paradise crafted by a vanishing mirage, eternally remembered.
And furthermore.
'In the world of my dream, no external interference or surveillance can reach.'
This was one of the foremost reasons he created this magic.
His arch-nemesis, Sepiro.
Sepiro possessed eyes that pierced all of the Abyss.
Humanity's strengthening was impossible under his watch.
Any attempt would shatter against Sepiro's interference and schemes.
But 'Lucid Dream' was different.
It unfolded in his innermost soul, the deepest sanctum.
An absolute sanctuary even Sepiro dared not pry into.
There, humanity would grow quietly, explosively, beyond Sepiro's gaze.
Around Park Chan-woo, 'Wishes' began floating like a Milky Way galaxy.
Desperate longings from others embroidered the air beautifully.
"Awaken."
As Park Chan-woo whispered softly, every Wish ignited, forming a colossal magic circle.
The entire cabin seemed severed from reality's spacetime, plunging into an endless abyss.
Into the consciousness of those seated with eyes closed.
Park Chan-woo's voice echoed directly.
-From now on, you exist in my dream. Here, you will die countless times and be reborn. Test your limits, shatter them, surpass them. I will be your new law, your guiding star.
The most crucial element was 'faith.'
Believing in him wholly and following.
Yet faith could not be forced.
Even he could not predict the outcome.
Watching this unfold with eyes wide open, Zero's gaze filled with shock.
Analyzing the phenomenon with every sense and computation.
Mana flows, causality distortions, spacetime warps.
All far beyond his comprehension.
'This is not magic.'
Zero concluded.
This was the realm of gods—creating a world.
Internal and external perfectly isolated.
No information, no mana waves leaked out; nothing from outside could enter.
Within the Eternal Train, another Eternal Train had been nested.
He belatedly realized he was already within this magic's domain.
The moment Park Chan-woo cast it, the cabin itself became part of his dream world.
Zero stared at Park Chan-woo, who commanded it all with composure, utterly dumbfounded.
"You're... truly insane."
And in that instant, Zero realized something else, amplifying his disbelief.
His own existence—this body embodying Sepiro's reason—was also affected by 'Lucid Dream.'
Park Chan-woo's divine power flowed into him, clarifying and fortifying his being.
All phenomena pointed to one truth.
Through this magic, even Zero himself could grow stronger.
"Why include me?"
Zero asked.
Perplexity colored his voice for the first time.
Park Chan-woo chuckled.
"You're the ultimate analyst, the perfect benchmark. Strengthening them without you is impossible."
"That's not it."
Zero cut him off.
"This magic consumes your existence. Strengthening me too? It only hastens your end. And... if I grow stronger here, you might truly vanish. I could devour your existence."
This was no jest.
Sepiro's essence was predation and domination.
If Park Chan-woo weakened while he strengthened, their fragile coexistence would collapse inevitably.
Yet Park Chan-woo ignored the warning, smiling with satisfaction.
"I hope you do."
"...What?"
"Grow strong enough to devour me, Zero. Absorb everything I have. Surpass me."
Words like a final testament.
A last plea accounting even for his post-dissolution fate.
Zero was speechless.
An incomprehensible being.
One he had no desire to comprehend.
It had always been thus.
Not once did he act as expected.
Park Chan-woo.
Always mocking Zero's perfect calculations with choices beyond common sense.
Ignoring efficiency, rejecting logic, treading paths reason could not explain.
And now, wielding even his own existence as a tool to challenge the impossible.
Zero closed his eyes briefly.
Billions of data points collided and reconfigured in his mind.
Park Chan-woo's magic, his intent, his own existence.
He recalculated every variable.
When he opened his eyes.
Cold fighting spirit blazed in them, not bewilderment.
"Fine."
An unexpected response from Zero.
"Then good. I'll surpass this magic completely."
Zero began feeling intense intrigue toward this unknown world Park Chan-woo had created: 'Lucid Dream.'
A clash of reason and emotion, calculation and variable, reality and dream—a new dimension of confrontation.
"Let's see if your irrational sacrifice can best my perfect calculations."
A faint smile graced Zero's lips for the first time.
Not Sepiro's arrogant smirk, but one born of pure intellectual curiosity and rivalry.
'You're entertaining as ever, Park Chan-woo.'
Zero turned to the humans with closed eyes.
Analyzing their soul data, designing optimal growth paths.
Park Chan-woo smiled back.
The Wish galaxy orbiting him shone more brilliantly, fully drawing the cabin into the dream's abyss.
The true Lucid Dream began.
A 'collaboration' with Sepiro he had never experienced in any regression.
Though renamed Zero.
He had regressed through spacetime alongside Park Chan-woo, endured the Great Rift's chaos, shared all experiences and knowledge.
Perhaps a monster evolved beyond its original body, leaping to new heights.
Thus began this bizarre alliance with such a beast.