Chapter 484
Chapter 484
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 484
Chapter Title: 100th Floor
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God's Tower Summit.
A silence unlike any that had ever fallen over the five masters who ruled it throughout eons descended upon them.
Their consciousnesses were fixed on the bizarre spectacle that had just unfolded on the 99th floor—one that shattered all their common sense and laws.
The Lord of Strength muttered in disbelief.
His massive form trembled faintly without him even realizing it.
Balmunk of the 99th floor.
The unavoidable declaration of "despair" imposed on every being who climbed the tower.
A place designed so that no one could win.
The mirror of one's opponent, the future of certain failure.
A floor where causality itself was inverted, knowing everything.
Winning there was, in truth, impossible.
Yet Park Chan-woo had solved that impossible conundrum.
The Lord of Agility's will wavered like the wind.
Their eyes had vividly recorded every moment of Park Chan-woo's battle with Balmunk.
At first, he was pushed back. Naturally so.
But at some point, he cast aside everything and became a state of nothingness.
Up to that point, they could understand.
An act akin to awakening, a way to surpass one's limits in an extreme situation.
But what came next was the problem.
He didn't create new power from that nothingness.
Not even transcending boundaries.
Instead, he embraced all his past memories and emotions once more.
And using them as materials, he forged a bizarre "light" that had never existed before.
The Lord of Stamina spoke with a deep sigh that rumbled like the earth itself.
The inheritance of overwhelming might.
Or the creation of new magic—they could at least understand that, accept it.
But Park Chan-woo had merely made his opponent rest.
Granting respite to the enemy in the midst of battle.
That was the key to victory?
The Lord of Strength simply couldn't accept it.
Strength was honed, shattered barriers, and conquered in the process of struggle.
Rest was merely minimal recuperation for the next fight— it couldn't be strength itself.
The Lord of Intelligence felt the same.
Starlight flickered chaotically in his eyes.
His logic was flawless.
By the laws of causality, the past could never defeat the future.
Yet Park Chan-woo had overturned that absolute law all too simply.
They began to realize there was something fundamental they had overlooked.
Everything they had defined as "strength."
Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Magic Power.
All the values they each governed and had turned into the tower's trials—perhaps they weren't everything, an uncomfortable truth.
The Lord of Magic Power murmured softly after a very long silence.
They had seen it.
Park Chan-woo's "rest" magic hadn't stolen Balmunk's power or dominated his mind.
It had simply infused a long-forgotten "warmth" into his frozen soul over eons.
And that single spark of warmth had melted Balmunk's steel-like despair as effortlessly as spring snow.
He had saved a being impossible to defeat with strength—using the heart.
For the first time, the five lords were engulfed in profound doubt about the very purpose of this tower they had guarded for eons.
Had they truly understood what true "strength" was?
A quiet, profound resonance.
For the first time, the Lord of Stamina questioned their own ways.
The Lord of Magic Power and the Lord of Intelligence agreed with silence.
Before the new possibilities Park Chan-woo had shown, their outdated beliefs were shaking.
But some lords rejected that frail sentiment.
The first to vehemently object was the Lord of Strength.
His massive form blazed like molten lava with rage.
The Lord of Agility chimed in with his roar.
Their backlash was natural.
The five wills were the incarnations of the most fundamental stats in the status window.
Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Magic Power.
Beings at the pinnacle of all those powers.
There was no way they could accept the negation of the "logic of strength," which was the reason for their existence.
If Park Chan-woo's way was right, they would be nothing but obsolete relics of the past.
Two opinions clashed evenly at the tower's summit.
Those willing to accept change, and those clinging to the old order.
At the end of that long debate, the Lord of Strength finally made the ultimate decision.
His gaze turned to Park Chan-woo standing before the door to the 100th floor.
All the other lords fell silent.
That meant the final trial would be...
They would step forward themselves.
Only one who surpassed all five lords could earn their recognition and become the tower's new master.
No.
More precisely...
......Only then could they "transcend" the five stats.
Park Chan-woo opened the door to the 100th floor without hesitation.
Beyond it was not the splendid summit vista he had expected.
An endless crimson land.
Sky, earth, the entire world pulsed with red light, as if inside a colossal heart.
And in the center of that land sat a being coiled like a mountain range.
Immovable and serene, like an ancient tree billions of years old.
Yet its mere presence exerted an overwhelming weight that crushed the entire space.
One of the five wills of God's Tower.
The Lord of Stamina.
The Lord of Stamina's will reverberated directly into Park Chan-woo's soul as a deep vibration like shifting tectonic plates.
His voice held no overt contempt like the Lord of Strength's.
Only a profound contemplation that seemed to pierce everything.
"A frail idea."
Park Chan-woo echoed his words.
"That frailty surpassed all your calculations, turning the impossible into possible."
The Lord of Stamina declared firmly.
His will expanded, encompassing the entire crimson land.
Park Chan-woo felt as if everything about him was laid utterly bare.
The 100th floor.
A sanctuary where the five lords' authority manifested most perfectly.
Anyone who reached here could hide no secrets or deceptions from their eyes.
For the first time, genuine wonder colored the Lord of Stamina's will.
His gaze pierced to Park Chan-woo's deepest core, the foundation of his being.
He realized it.
Park Chan-woo's strength stemmed from his "weakness."
Because everything was at 1, he was unbound by any constraints, forging his own path.
An error.
Especially with that bottomless abyss within.
Park Chan-woo's strength was patchwork at best.
Not true "personal power."
Therefore.
Rumble rumble rumble!
As the Lord of Stamina finished speaking, the crimson land split open, and a massive structure began to rise.
It was "stairs."
Each step as wide as a house, stretching endlessly upward.
Its peak vanished beyond the clouds in the red sky, invisible.
The Lord of Stamina's will commanded Park Chan-woo.
It seemed like the simplest, most primal trial imaginable.
But Park Chan-woo instantly discerned the law embedded in those stairs.
"The Infinite Stairs."
This was the Lord of Stamina's domain.
With each step, his body would age, his strength wane.
He didn't hesitate.
Park Chan-woo immediately stepped onto the stairs.
And thus began his challenge against the endless trial of the Infinite Stairs.