Chapter 490
Chapter 490
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 490
Chapter Title: The Strongest Thing
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......What is intelligence.
When the Abyss first opened and humanity accepted the concept of the 'Status Window'.
Intelligence was the most overlooked stat.
Strength directly showed the weight of the sword you could lift, Stamina the time you could endure, Agility the speed at which you could dodge.
But intelligence? No matter how much you raised it, its effects were hard to feel.
In the early days when the Mage class was rare, intelligence was treated as a half-useless stat that only slightly increased your total mana pool.
And so, for a time, intelligence was completely abandoned among the Awakened.
No one dared challenge its uncertain potential.
But as time passed and humanity faced deeper, more dangerous Abysses, that perception flipped 180 degrees.
'The closer we get to the apocalypse, the more intelligence's importance comes to light.'
Rumors began to spread that intelligence might be the most crucial stat for survival.
Intelligence wasn't just a stat tied to mental power.
It was a complex measure that determined a being's very 'realm'.
Mastery of magic, fine control of mana.
Even the same spell, when cast by a mage with high intelligence, had power and efficiency on another level entirely.
Because they understood the essence of magic more deeply and could shape the flow of mana to their will.
But intelligence's true value shone not in battle, but in unseen realms.
The stronger the Abyss, the more its masters tested Awakened not just with physical threats, but with cunning temptations and mental shocks.
They showed horrors that shook the foundation of one's existence or used the sweetest desires as bait to corrupt the soul.
Awakened with low intelligence crumbled all too easily before such insidious mental assaults.
Tragedies abounded: becoming vegetables overnight or betraying comrades to serve as the devil's minions.
Intelligence was the armor of the soul, the shield of the mind.
Like this, intelligence held absolute importance across every facet, unbound by a single function.
Yet it had a fatal flaw.
It was incredibly hard to raise, and there was a clear limit to how much pure stats alone could achieve it.
Thus, it became common sense for most Awakened to supplement intelligence with gear, special tools, or elixirs.
But Park Chan-woo knew.
The true importance of intelligence.
How absolute the power was of pure intellect bubbling up from the deepest core of one's being, not borrowed wisdom from equipment.
In his previous life, he had witnessed countless of the Abyss's strongest mages.
They shook the world with overwhelming mana while overcoming every crisis with steel-like mental fortitude unshaken by any chaos.
He was an Archmage.
He had craved the intelligence stat more than anyone.
But as the price of regression, all his pure stats were cursed to '1'.
To him, this trial was instead a long-awaited chance to quench a thirst he'd harbored for ages.
'If I can just maximize my pure intelligence.'
Everything would change.
There was a reason Park Chan-woo had relied almost entirely on 'Heaven's Punishment' for attack magic.
Low intelligence made controlling complex, intricate spells difficult.
No matter how skilled Park Chan-woo was, high-grade magic requiring dozens or hundreds of mana threads woven simultaneously—or supreme powers akin to authorities—demanded high intelligence for precise adjustment.
It was like trying to sew fine silk with thick, crude thread.
His understanding of magic had already reached the pinnacle, but he lacked the 'dexterity'—intelligence—to shape that power delicately.
So he chose the next best path.
Rather than clumsily mimicking complex spells, he poured everything into the simplest, most powerful basic magic 'Heaven's Punishment' to transcend its limits.
That was the best fighting style his cursed body allowed.
But now, a chance to break the chains had come.
Gaining pure intelligence didn't just mean more spells at his disposal.
It meant elevating all his possibilities to another realm entirely.
Above all.
'They say once pure intelligence surpasses a certain threshold, you see another world.'
There was a legend that when intelligence crossed that line, the world began to look different.
It wasn't a metaphor.
Literally, you could see another 'layer' of the world previously imperceptible.
A realm endless regressions had never reached.
Could he touch it this time?
And what trial would come?
In fog where he couldn't grasp a thing.
No problem?
Meaning no trial at all?
It seemed to think that giving a trial was itself the problem.
That no matter what problem it posed like the previous masters, he'd solve it in some outlandish way.
Proof it was wary of Park Chan-woo.
The Master of Intelligence's eyes pierced through Park Chan-woo.
He reached out toward Park Chan-woo.
Countless strands of light flowed from his fingertips, heading for Park Chan-woo's forehead.
"......!"
Connect our minds?
Synchronize our souls?
He was confident.
No being that entered his mental world had ever walked out intact.
A faint expression rose on the Master of Intelligence's lips.
It was like the cruel smile of a curious child.
The summit of the Tower of Gods.
The remaining four masters watched their comrade's trial in bated breath.
An unusual tension rippled through their consciousnesses.
The will of the Master of Strength spoke.
His usual boisterousness was gone, replaced by a heavy echo.
He was right.
The previous three masters had created objective stages called 'trials' with their authorities and observed if the challenger passed, as spectators.
But the Master of Intelligence was different.
He himself became the stage, the trial.
He had drawn Park Chan-woo into his mental world.
The Master of Agility whispered like the wind.
With a trace of pity mixed in.
The Master of Stamina nodded silently in agreement.
The Master of Strength said to the last remaining Master of Mana.
No one could survive the Master of Intelligence's trial.
The Master of Mana remained silent.
And as the trial finally began.
The moment Park Chan-woo's mind was sucked into the Master of Intelligence's consciousness.
[......!!!]
[Is that... possible?]
[The Master of Intelligence is being pushed back?]
The three masters excluding the Master of Mana could only be stunned.
The situation unfolding was utterly unlike their expectations.
The Master of Intelligence was confident of victory.
Stamina, Agility, Strength?
Those three were ultimately confined to the vessel of the body.
Of course, he acknowledged Park Chan-woo's mental world was more robust than ordinary mortals'.
Forged through countless trials.
But that was all.
Fundamentally, Park Chan-woo was a 'deficient' being.
No, a being overflowing with deficiencies.
Hadn't he proven it in the trial of Strength?
Unlike himself, who knew no lack with everything in possession, Park Chan-woo cherished the warmth of ordinary daily life more heavily than anything—a incarnation of profound deficiency.
And those strong in deficiency could never defeat him.
Because he was 'complete'.
The Master of Intelligence had no deficiencies.
He possessed all knowledge and information of the Abyss.
He wasn't swayed by unnecessary errors called emotions or bound by fleeting illusions called desires.
His mind was like a perfectly filled sphere, without empty spaces.
Unshakable, flawless, impeccable.
For such a being as him, this deficient mortal dared to stand against him?
It was folly, like trying to bail the ocean with a ladle.
His deficient mind would lose its identity in an instant before his perfect sea of knowledge and melt away.
But.
......It wasn't.
The very instant Park Chan-woo's mind connected to his.
The Master of Intelligence realized.
How colossal his delusion had been.
'What... is this ego?'
Park Chan-woo's ego wasn't fixed in a single form.
It had countless faces and voices.
All the contradictory experiences and emotions from countless repeated lives, unmerged or erased, retained their unique colors, forming his mental world like a vast galaxy.
Chaos and perfect order at once.
Like different stars orbiting without collision to form a grand universe.
His ego embraced all those contradictions in paradoxical balance.
The Master of Intelligence realized.
'A wrong choice!'
For the first time, the Master of Intelligence felt bewilderment.
How could a being with such sublime mind harbor such deep 'deficiency'?
A mind near perfection, and deficiency craving all.
How could those two coexist in one being?
As he struggled to comprehend the contradiction, something more horrific happened.
'Synchronization... happening?'
His own mind began to be dyed by Park Chan-woo's mental world in reverse.
Countless emotions that had existed only as objective 'information' before.
Soon became vivid 'experiences' overwhelming his consciousness.
The despair of billions perishing on the day humanity fell.
The rage of betrayal by comrades.
The sorrow of failing to protect loved ones.
All of it scarred his once-impeccable mind indelibly, as if he had lived it himself.
For the first time, the androgynous consciousness of the Master of Intelligence was etched with the emotion of 'pain'.
He frantically tried to sever the connection.
But it was too late.
Park Chan-woo had anchored deep in his mind and was burrowing even deeper.
It was corrosion.
In reverse, the Master of Intelligence was being devoured by Park Chan-woo's mind.
His completeness was crumbling before Park Chan-woo's incompleteness.
The Master of Intelligence realized.
That Park Chan-woo's deficiency wasn't a weakness.
Rather, it was an infinite space of possibility—empty, thus able to hold anything.
He's dissolving.
For the first time, a crack formed in his perfect mind.
Park Chan-woo didn't miss it.
And.
Park Chan-woo devoured the 'Master of Intelligence'.