Chapter 53
Chapter 53
Chapter 53 Han Yeong-min's Spirit
Teaching Eve and reviewing the martial arts I had learned(?), as well as making enjoyable attempts to combine the Sichuan Tang Family's martial arts with black magic, time passed by quickly.
[Time remaining until next floor opens: 0 hours 10 minutes]
Perhaps having grown accustomed to it, she now brought up the topic first without me having to say anything.
"Is it about time to go in? I think you can take your time coming this time! I want to try using this properly!"
The child who had always asked me to come quickly was now telling me I could take my time since she needed time to learn martial arts.
'She's all grown up now...'
It meant that her interest in martial arts had grown greater than her anxiety about separation.
My retainer wasn't just growing in martial prowess—her mind was maturing as well.
She was so endearing that I thought I should make something even more delicious for her the next time we met.
"Alright. I'll be back."
[Time remaining until next floor opens: 0 hours 0 minutes]
After sending Eve to subspace, I had a light snack and drank some water in case the trial would be as unfair as the 4th floor, then threw myself into the red portal that had opened in front of me.
The new trial location I encountered felt completely different from everything up to now.
"What is this place?"
An endless expanse of white space that stretched so far I couldn't gauge where it ended. I was placed alone in that space.
[Testing Floor Hell Difficulty 6th Floor Trial.]
[Defeat the players who previously reached this difficulty's 6th floor trial.]
[During the Testing Floor progression, the use of Limit-Breaking stats, divine authority, and manifestation is restricted.]
[Trial rewards are further enhanced due to penalties.]
It was a trial where I had to face copies of senior players who had passed through here before.
'But... is there really anyone else who received Hell difficulty besides me?'
Someone with three or more S-rank traits and an Ex-rank trait, who had reached the realm of Harmony, possessed the qualification for Transcendence, divine authority, Legendary-grade artifacts, and received attention from transcendents.
Would there really be someone else who achieved similar conditions, if not exactly the same as mine?
[Will generate from the weakest player in order.]
[Generating first opponent.]
[Error. Error.]
[No one has previously reached this difficulty's 6th floor trial.]
As expected, there was no one.
Hadn't they said from floor 0 that they were recreating trials specifically for me?
I was the first to set foot in Hell difficulty.
So would the trial end like this and I'd get an easy win?
[Presenting a choice to the player.]
[Do you agree to the generation of a special entity?]
[Yes / No.]
[If you select No, the trial will be cleared immediately.]
'This is the first time they've given me this kind of choice instead of rewards...'
Honestly, the transcendents watching me would all know what choice I'd make.
Choosing the latter option here and enjoying an easy, carefree victory would be fun too.
But if I defeated the special entity, I'd gain 12 to all stats, which was equivalent—giving this up would go against the 'Han Yeong-min Spirit.'
A dog quitting poop would be more convincing.
My finger naturally pressed Yes.
[All of the Pantheon and Pandemonium nod their heads.]
The transcendents responded immediately as if they had expected this.
It seemed they all understood the Han Yeong-min Spirit now.
[A special entity appears.]
Black masses appeared before my eyes, clustering into a form close to human, and some of my mana flowed out and began mixing with the mass in front of me.
What was created was a copy that looked exactly like me.
'Ah. So that's why it was my copy?'
Until now, I had wondered why the one who had been generating special entities suddenly asked for permission, but this was the answer.
Permission was needed because the main body of the special entity being generated was me. It had to receive my mana.
Thanks to this, a copy identical to me was born, wrapped in dominating mana throughout its body.
And without giving me time to think, it immediately drew up the energy of Infinite Heavenly Light Divine Art and attempted a surprise attack with Transcendence Limitless Path.
When I unfolded the same movement in reverse to counter the surprise attack, it used black magic to cast curses and debuffs, used blood magic and bone magic to bind my ankles, threw hidden weapons with its hands while simultaneously shooting breath from its mouth.
As if it were a killing machine designed to kill opponents, it was doing its absolute best to kill me every moment.
'But its specs seem a bit lacking?'
I ignored the curses and debuffs, broke through the blood magic and bone magic, deflected the hidden weapons, and blocked the breath with Protective Reinforcement Energy.
These were things that normally wouldn't be so easily blocked, but overall their power was weaker than what I use.
I wondered what the difference was, but when I analyzed the opponent closely, I could clearly see what was missing from what I possessed.
'It doesn't have Primordial Blood?'
For that reason, Primordial Unity energy didn't exist in its body, so its stat efficiency wasn't increased by 50%.
I thought this would make it too easy, but instead, the creature could use things I couldn't.
Zeus's lightning flew toward my head, and Indra's lightning flew toward my face.
PAZIJIJJIK!
I dodged Indra's lightning by turning my body, but Zeus's lightning grazed my shoulder, electrocuting the wound area.
My mind snapped to attention.
[All gods of the Pantheon are shocked.]
"You have no restrictions, do you?"
The restriction of not being able to use divine authority and manifestation was only applied to me, and the copy had no such limitations.
It was even manifesting the simultaneous use of two divine authorities that I couldn't use.
'This is interesting.'
I immediately drew up the energy of Infinite Heavenly Light Divine Art and charged at it. I was curious to see what it would show me this time.
It used Vasago's divine authority, Transcendent Analysis, to predict my movements and used Yahweh's divine authority to enhance its body.
Thanks to this, despite being inferior in pure specs, it could follow my movements and create an even match.
It could adequately respond to my strikes even with a counter-attack. However, as expected of a copy, it couldn't fully follow my understanding of martial arts.
When I poured out Transcendence Limitless Path with the countless profound principles I had gained on the 5th floor, its guard was gradually being broken through.
The moment I made a large movement to deliver a strong attack that would completely break its guard, it quickly retreated and used Agares' divine authority and Odin's divine authority to block my approach.
Odin's various forms and attributes of magic harassed me, and Agares' Spatial Domination blocked frontal approaches.
Since the front was blocked, I naturally had to go to the side, and at that moment it canceled Spatial Domination and again used Zeus and Indra's divine authorities to strike lightning at my position.
Knowing that close combat wouldn't work, it seemed to plan to block my approach this way.
'But this... is actually pretty good?'
Zeus and Indra's lightning had a satisfying impact when hit.
It gave a much more thrilling shock than the traps on the 1st floor, and thanks to this, my electric resistance was increasing.
Since the divine authority I used couldn't harm myself, it was impossible to build resistance with it, but the copy's divine authority created by the Testing Floor could harm me.
A special event had occurred where I could build resistance with lightning created by Zeus and Indra's divine authorities.
Naturally, its performance was much lower than the original, but this was actually better for building resistance.
'The original ones would kill me if they hit.'
I even thought this method was best for defeating the copy.
If I raised my electric resistance to the maximum so that even lightning made of divine authority couldn't slow my movements, approaching it would become much easier.
Rather than feeling strange about me suddenly not moving, the copy did its absolute best to kill me.
From a killing machine's perspective, there was no easier situation than when the opponent was taking all attacks.
[Supreme Comprehensive Resistance level increases.]
Despite tremendous pain and my entire body's skin burning away, with bones visible between the gaps, leaving my body in a complete mess, I was actually smiling.
Pain accompanied by growth cannot torment me.
The anguish from not being able to grow is greater than the suffering from receiving pain.
[All of the Pantheon and Pandemonium express admiration.]
Now the transcendents were sending admiration instead of shock.
They seemed to have adapted to my resistance training.
'I guess they finally realized what kind of being a Korean is.'
Welcome to Korea. I believe other Koreans besides me are giving similar impressions to the gods.
As I continued taking the lightning, it occasionally tested me and tried other attacks that would be more fatal, but I didn't obediently take those.
There was no need to take other attacks that wouldn't raise my resistance. I'm not someone who enjoys getting hit.
'I'm taking hits because it's necessary.'
I was definitely not some weird pervert.
[Supreme Comprehensive Resistance level increases.]
After raising Comprehensive Resistance by about two levels, it seemed electric resistance wouldn't increase anymore, and the lightning could no longer slow my movements.
Now it was time to end it, and I quickly approached it.
It seemed not to have expected that I, who had been electrocuted by the gods' lightning, would move at such fast speed, but even in such a situation, it continued making the best judgments.
It again tried to respond to my close combat as much as possible with Vasago's divine authority and Yahweh's divine authority.
But I had already discovered the method to counter that combo from earlier.
'I just need to attack so quickly with more varied fighting styles that prediction becomes impossible to respond to.'
Vasago's divine authority is certainly overpowered.
It just analyzes everything visible and puts it all in the realm of prediction.
But it consumes mana each time it analyzes, and even if the divine authority handles the analysis, it's the user's responsibility to hold those predictions in their head and respond.
If there's too much to analyze, if there are too many predictions to respond to, both mana and mental power will inevitably be overloaded.
My Transcendence Limitless Path also incorporated Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique, so it wasn't impossible to make faster, more irregular, and more dazzling attacks.
It eventually gave up Vasago's divine authority and used Shakyamuni's divine authority.
It protected its body with Shakyamuni's divine authority and wrapped itself in a barrier with Yahweh's divine authority.
Since prediction wouldn't work, it had adopted at least a defensive strategy.
Since I wasn't even giving it proper time to use Immortality, it planned to endure like this until its body recovered.
A choice to at least not lose since it couldn't win.
It was truly dirty and despicable play.
'I guess this copied appearance and abilities but got its personality from somewhere else.'
A good person like me wouldn't do such things.
For now, it was certain that time would drag on as it intended.
With dominating mana making its defense already high, plus Shakyamuni and Yahweh's divine authorities added, it would really take quite a while to break through.
Even its resistance was properly implemented, so debuffs, curses, and poison didn't even work.
'In that case, hyung has methods too, you bastard.'
I used the forbidden method I had only imagined in the waiting room to draw it out.
Mana flowing from me seeped into it. All of its abilities increased by a much larger margin than before.
I had cast all sorts of strengthening black magic buffs on it.
Perhaps because my mana suddenly decreased while its own abilities greatly increased, it stopped just defending.
Rather, it used Odin's divine authority and Yahweh's divine authority for enhancement, inflating its stats even more.
It seemed to think this was its last chance.
KWAJIK!
With all abilities increased ridiculously, it now held the advantage over me and attacked like crazy.
Since the mana used to strengthen it wouldn't return until the enhancement ended, even deflecting attacks wasn't easy.
Using the profound principle of Using Soft to Overcome Hard was impossible.
One of its attacks broke my arm and shattered my ribs.
But it wasn't an attack that would kill me.
However, since I had concentrated all abilities solely on defense and regeneration, I wouldn't die in one hit, and bones would reattach themselves before the next punch landed.
If I endured getting hit for 10 minutes, then it would be my turn.
It would be my victory as soon as I waited until the buff ended.
Someone might ask if this wasn't even dirtier and more despicable play than before.
But that was absolutely not the case.
'When I do it, it's not dirty play.'
When I do it, it's fair play. That's the Han Yeong-min Spirit.