Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Surpassing the Limits of the Species
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Ever since the regression.
The God of Offerings had been asleep.
The system of offering tributes to gain abilities remained intact, but direct conversation or discussion with the God of Offerings himself had become impossible.
Honestly, there had been some anxiety about it.
This single, profoundly meaningful line that popped up every time he offered a tribute had gnawed at Park Chan-woo's heart.
Offer more tributes to revive him.
In other words, it meant the God of Offerings was dead.
After all, you couldn't revive someone who was still alive.
He had firmly believed it was just slumbering, but it might not be.
And if the God of Offerings was truly dead, there was only one possible cause.
Regression!
The aftershocks of turning back time had likely caused the God of Offerings to vanish.
'It's just taking a break. That guy's moods always boiled over like crazy anyway.'
But Park Chan-woo still denied the message with a straight face.
It had happened occasionally before.
For a few days, or up to nearly a month.
The God of Offerings would vanish without a word, not quite ghosting but close enough.
Yeah. It was just a whim.
Or maybe it was exhausted and resting.
Regression wasn't child's play, after all.
Going back to the past, reversing time—it was an impossibly difficult feat.
No, it went beyond difficult; it was the stuff of dreams.
Yet even after a full month passed, there was no response from the God of Offerings.
Park Chan-woo opened his mouth, his face tense with apprehension.
"Are you... awake?"
Awake?
Finally up?
The sudden bizarre phenomenon, the synchronization with Azos, the Guardian Warrior's fury, Lee Hyuk-soo's shock—none of it registered in Park Chan-woo's vision right now.
He was utterly fixated on the fact that the God of Offerings had taken a tribute on its own.
His mind was filled only with thoughts of the God of Offerings.
...Because.
To him, the God of Offerings was his oldest friend.
A comrade who shared his pain, the one who knew him best.
Moreover, to Park Chan-woo, the God of Offerings was a ray of light in utter despair.
It had let him dream.
It had shown him that hope existed.
It was the God of Offerings who had awakened his talent for magic and provided the key to regression.
And that was far from all.
The reason he had endured the hellish Abyss owed much to that entity.
'Without the God of Offerings, my mind would have shattered countless times.'
In the Abyss, riddled with devices designed to warp the psyche, no one could stay sane forever.
No matter how much he preferred acting alone, without the God of Offerings, he would have long since broken down and gone mad.
As the end times approached, madmen were everywhere.
Heroes who turned into demons.
Priests hailed as saints who abandoned their gods to become devil worshippers.
Cases of people devouring human flesh, desecrating corpses, carving strange symbols into their own bodies to join cults were commonplace.
Park Chan-woo understood them.
There was no hope.
No glimpse of the future.
Only soul-crushing despair remained.
The world of the apocalypse belonged to the depraved.
The Abyss demons treated Earth like a playground, as did the monsters of the Twelve Races.
And since humanity had never once escaped last place in the interspecies wars, Earth's people had to survive under endless penalties.
Without the God of Offerings, Park Chan-woo would have gone mad too.
To avoid madness, you needed someone—or something—to lean on.
For Park Chan-woo, that had been the God of Offerings.
So even after returning, he would occasionally try talking to it.
While drinking water, eating, or right before bed.
But no reply ever came.
He hoped the God of Offerings would snap out of its whims and respond, but reality was different.
Instead, messages like "To revive the God of Offerings, more tributes are required" flashed before his eyes endlessly, as if urging him to accept the truth.
"Finally awake?"
"...Are you the crazy one?"
The Guardian Warrior chimed in toward Park Chan-woo, who was muttering to himself.
But he was more tense than ever.
Even he, who had crossed countless battlefields, faced hordes of monsters, and slaughtered the Abyss's demons, was encountering this kind of power for the first time.
And it was an utterly ominous force.
Forcing Azos into a rampage and freely absorbing that power.
Yet Gatekeeper Azos was one of Valhalla's standout warriors.
Even after absorbing such a tough, powerful being, this human was unscathed.
In other words, this human was stronger than Azos.
"Wielder of ominous power. You shall never stand before the Great Khan."
The Guardian Warrior gripped his greatsword and unleashed his mana.
Whoosh!
A blue aura swiftly enveloped his greatsword and body.
He knew instinctively.
This challenger's danger.
This was the Khan's palace.
A place to revere the Great Khan and select the finest warriors.
Only those who broke through every trial head-on earned the right to face the Great Khan.
But this human wasn't a warrior.
He lacked a warrior's heart.
He was a destroyer who scorned the Khan's trials and smashed his path through.
Boom!
The Guardian Warrior kicked off the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each step sent booming echoes through the temple.
The vibrations doubled with every footfall.
The blue mana aura spread twice as wide.
Fury Charge.
A technique that crushed anything blocking the Guardian Warrior's path.
An attack of pure destruction that amplified mana twofold per step.
Soon, as the Guardian Warrior closed in on Park Chan-woo.
Bang! Bang! KABOOM!
His footsteps shook heaven and earth, threatening to rupture eardrums.
Exactly eight steps.
256 times amplified mana converged at the tip of the greatsword's blade, at a single point.
In that instant, as his foot stopped, silence fell over the world.
The Guardian Warrior swung his greatsword down from above, channeling all that amplified mana.
'No one's ever survived taking this head-on!'
The Guardian Warrior was certain.
No matter the ominous power, they couldn't block this single point's explosion.
No one could dare receive his strike directly.
Not even the other Guardian Warriors.
There was only one way to counter Fury Charge.
Strike at the starting point, before the charge began.
Blocking it before the mana amplified was the sole solution.
But this challenger didn't know that.
He'd allowed eight full steps, and now it was time to pay for that arrogance.
Rumble!
KABOOM!
A single sword thrust unleashed a massive explosion.
Blue flames erupted everywhere like a volcano.
No living thing could survive such a blow.
It shouldn't have.
But.
"...You blocked it?"
The Guardian Warrior's face hardened like stone.
No impact feedback.
It felt like striking solid iron.
The explosion had surged only in his direction.
It meant something like a shield had blocked it.
The Guardian Warrior hurriedly stepped back one pace.
To see what had happened in that split second.
As the smoke cleared, he narrowed his eyes at whatever had blocked Fury Charge.
'What is that?'
Not a shield.
It resembled one, but no one would call that a shield.
The essence of the absorbed Azos had burned to dust-like particles that clung to Park Chan-woo's skin, forming a barrier against the Guardian Warrior's attack.
"...Looks like you're still not awake."
Whatever.
Park Chan-woo shook his head in disappointment.
The God of Offerings still didn't respond.
But there was hope.
Offering Azos as tribute.
The God of Offerings had clearly intervened.
No one else could have caused such a bizarre event.
However.
He had a vague idea why it was possible.
'Because Azos mentioned the Demon-Sealing God's name.'
Demon-Sealing God.
The true name of the being Park Chan-woo called the God of Offerings.
The moment Azos uttered it, he became a tribute.
'Did Azos glimpse the Demon-Sealing God beyond zero's domain? The God of Offerings?'
...Who knows.
Park Chan-woo had never seen the God of Offerings directly either.
Maybe it was a being whose name couldn't be spoken lightly.
Still, it couldn't be a coincidence.
The God of Offerings had acted.
It had directly claimed Azos as tribute.
And strengthened Park Chan-woo.
Why?
Because it wanted him to clear this trial himself?
No way.
He knew its personality.
It wouldn't cause such an anomaly just for one trial.
The God of Offerings always painted on a grand scale.
It wanted Park Chan-woo to move toward massive goals.
It always pushed him beyond limits, to look past walls.
So then.
'Did you want me to experience it? The world beyond level 99?'
Maybe its intent was to make him gaze beyond level 99.
Park Chan-woo didn't know.
About the world after level 99.
He had teamed up with others to defeat monsters beyond that, but never experienced it himself.
He had never crossed it.
The species limit for humans was 99.
Park Chan-woo was the same.
So even thirty minutes in the post-99 world meant nothing.
But.
......He, who started at -99, might be able to surpass it.
He might be able to peer beyond.
Surpass the species limit, shatter the wall, and achieve.
Wasn't that what the God of Offerings wanted to tell him?
That even the greatest despair of -99 could turn to hope.
Don't give up; keep pressing on.
Even without a reply, even without words.
'Fine. Let's give it a try.'
It was enough.
Communication was complete.
Park Chan-woo knew the God of Offerings well.
The God of Offerings knew him just as well.
Conversation didn't require words.
They understood each other without a sound.
A grin!
Park Chan-woo smiled.
And began wielding the rampaging power of Azos.
He set foot, for the first time, into the world beyond level 99.