Chapter 462
Chapter 462
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 462
Chapter Title: Results Announcement (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Race.
A word used to refer to all beings of the same type.
That fundamental definition of the word surfaced in Park Chan-woo's mind.
So, were the entities called Outer Gods truly living beings, or not?
Everyone referred to them as "cataclysms."
Incomprehensible chaos, foreign substances that defied the laws of nature.
They had always been seen as natural disasters—like typhoons or earthquakes—that one could only avoid or endure.
But Park Chan-woo saw beyond that superficial terror, piercing straight to their essence.
Outer Gods were beings that crossed over through "Great Rifts," which emerged as part of the Abyss's self-correction mechanism when the total "error volume" exceeded critical levels.
This meant they undeniably "existed" beyond the gateway of the Great Rift, in some unknown world outside the Abyss.
Though they called themselves "Outer Gods" in their own tongue and deified them in fear, their essence was no different.
It simply meant they were one category of lifeforms, rooted somewhere, living according to their own laws.
If they were truly divine existences—if they were the laws themselves—
"They wouldn't be purified before divinity."
Park Chan-woo recalled the moment Hope's Dragon Arcana obliterated the Archangel Outer God.
Before Arcana's pure divinity, the endlessly multiplying horde of chaos vanished into dust all too pathetically.
It was proof of a clear elemental superiority, like fire banishing darkness or water soaking parched earth.
This was irrefutable evidence that "divinity" acted as a fatal weakness for Outer Gods.
Thus, they should rightly be classified not as gods, but as a single "race" vulnerable to divinity.
"In short, they're cut from the same cloth as demons."
Demons, too, were weak to divinity.
They flaunted their power and ruled other races through terror, but at their core, they were merely one race bound by the Abyss's laws.
Couldn't the same hold true for Outer Gods?
Perhaps ultra-high-ranking beings—like Demon Kings, Demon Gods, or the Great Nine Lords—were the ones invading the Abyss through Great Rifts whenever they opened, for some ulterior motive.
Their goal might not be mere destruction and chaos, but something far more cunning and intelligent: "domination."
Park Chan-woo's insight didn't stop there.
"After the Great War, almost no gods remained in the Abyss."
The demons had systematically hunted and persecuted the gods to solidify their rule.
As a result, the beings possessing "divinity"—the Outer Gods' sole natural predators—had all but vanished from the Abyss.
"...Deliberately."
A chilling hypothesis flashed through his mind.
What if all the demons' actions had been intentional?
What if they had preemptively eliminated their natural enemies, the gods, to make Outer God invasions easier?
Demons and Outer Gods.
What if they weren't enemies, but secret allies?
If that hypothesis was true, the true purpose of the "Racial War" could be reinterpreted entirely.
The demons had used the Racial War to exhaust weaker races, absorbing the territories and resources of those that perished to bolster their own power.
At the same time, they had ruthlessly suppressed the birth of any new "gods" that might threaten them.
Could all this have been a massive groundwork for an eventual full-scale Outer God invasion?
Reaching that conclusion, every puzzle piece fell into place.
Sepiro.
He had absorbed an Ultra Outer God from a Great Rift.
He had become a being akin to an Outer God himself.
Thus, it was reasonable to view him as part of the "Outer God" race.
Park Chan-woo's declaration wasn't mere provocation or fabrication.
It was the most logical and rational classification, born from piercing the Abyss's hidden truths.
And the system had no choice but to acknowledge that logic.
Because the new "definition" he proposed was far closer to the truth than the outdated, false one before it.
This was a gambit to weaken all Outer Gods in the Abyss while delivering the sharpest strike against his arch-nemesis, Dragon God Sepiro.
The bastard could never have imagined Park Chan-woo would classify him as an Outer God and propel that name onto the rankings.
To Sepiro, the Racial War had always been a mere game involving pathetic ants beneath his feet.
The idea of himself becoming a participant in that game, subject to judgment, was beyond the reach of his arrogant mindset.
But Park Chan-woo had exploited that arrogance's blind spot.
He had forcibly slotted Sepiro into the framework of a new race called "Outer Gods" and branded the entire race as losers.
Now, every Outer God in the Abyss would suffer weakened power and shaken existences due to the Racial War penalties.
And there was an even more lethal effect.
The moment Sepiro was defined as an "Outer God," he could no longer be the "Dragon God."
The god and progenitor of the dragon race.
The absolute legitimacy he had guarded for eons was being uprooted by this single declaration.
The dragon race now faced a crossroads.
Would they accept their god as no longer a dragon, but an Outer God labeled a calamity of the Abyss? Or abandon him and seek a new god?
With one declaration, Park Chan-woo was stripping Sepiro of his two most vital possessions: power and honor.
This was the true power struggle of a grand archmage.
Dragon God Temple.
For the first time, an explosive crack echoed from the jade throne shrouded in eternal silence.
Krunch.
The armrest of the throne where Sepiro sat crumbled to dust, unable to withstand the grip of his hand.
But he didn't even register it.
All his consciousness was fixed on that single declaration resounding throughout the entire Abyss.
"Outer God."
That word was cracking his perfect world.
"Me... Dare to classify me, Dragon God Sepiro, as an Outer God?"
For the first time, a foreign emotion called "bewilderment" seeped into Sepiro's mind.
He had calculated countless variables and faced innumerable foes.
But this type of attack was something he had never encountered in his eons of existence.
He had imagined a confrontation with Park Chan-woo.
Of course he had.
It was obvious that the intriguing archmage would challenge him eventually.
Sepiro had envisioned that clash as a feast of magic.
A sublime, fierce battle pitting their magical knowledge, understanding, depth, and heights against one another.
Ultimate spells colliding, the laws of the world screaming—a grand, majestic scene.
But the move Park Chan-woo had played now was no spell.
This was a battle of "definitions."
A vicious, cunning power struggle using language, logic, and justification to dismantle the opponent's very foundation of existence.
"...Bizarre."
Sepiro let out an involuntary chuckle.
This strange power struggle was utterly novel and fascinating to him.
Like a child discovering a brand-new game, pure intellectual curiosity stirred within.
But the problem was that the stakes were far too high to simply enjoy it.
The system's penalty.
Even the mighty Sepiro couldn't predict what outcome it would produce.
The system was impartial and mechanical.
Once a verdict was handed down, no one could overturn it.
No matter how transcendent a dragon he was, he couldn't ignore the very laws forming the Abyss's foundation.
"......"
For this moment, even the lord of all dragons had no choice but to tense up.
It wasn't fear.
It was the instinctive wariness of a top predator facing an unknown variable beyond its control.
He realized it.
That he was now dancing on that bastard Park Chan-woo's board.
Forced to fight by the human's rules, not his own.
Not with power or mana, but with logic and justification—rules utterly foreign and uncomfortable to him.
And before the proper struggle even began, he was already cornered, as good as defeated.
Rage surged.
How dare he.
How dare a puny mortal worm dig such a cunning trap against this great Dragon God.
Yet deep within that rage, an unwanted flicker of admiration bloomed.
"Worthy of an archmage indeed."
A realm unreachable by brute force alone.
The wisdom to topple the strongest foe with the weakest card.
That was Park Chan-woo's true power.
Sepiro finally had no choice but to recognize Park Chan-woo as his sole "worthy rival."
And with that recognition, a new resolve ignited within him.
"Fine. I'll play this game gladly."
Whatever penalty the system imposes, he'll bear it.
But he won't back down like this.
He'll concede this once.
Never twice.
Dancing to your tune on your board—this is the only time.
With resolute eyes, Sepiro checked the "results."
With Park Chan-woo's final declaration concluded,
the entire outcome of the Racial War was set.
Every being left amid the battlefield's ruins held their breath, awaiting the system's impending execution.
All eyes turned to one place.
Toward the demons standing dazed amid the ashes.
Their fate would face judgment first.
The system's message listed their penalties coldly and mechanically, devoid of any emotion.
Growth halted.
A death sentence for the entire race.
While all other races advanced, the demons alone would stagnate in place, doomed to gradual obsolescence.
But the system's cruel verdict didn't end there.
The thrones of the Nine Lords quaked with shock.
10% of the race's population.
Simple math put their own odds of inclusion at 10%.
They couldn't afford complacent thoughts of safety amid 120 billion souls.
The system had explicitly stated no exceptions, even for lords.
The horrifying possibility that the Abyss's rulers might become slaves to races they viewed as insects.
But the second choice was an even deeper despair.
Risk the 10% chance of becoming a slave themselves, or bet everything on the ~22% chance (2/9) that other lords would be erased instead?
In the most demonic fashion, the system forced the demons to decide their own fates.
Caught between selfish survival instincts and the barest bonds of kinship.