Chapter 395
Chapter 395
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 395
>Chapter Title: The 31st Horse Overturns the Game Board
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[Achieved the inaugural feat: 'Supreme'.]
[Obtained the first title: 'Giant of the Era'.]
[Achieved the inaugural feat: 'Legend'.]
[Obtained the first title: 'The Darkest Light'.]
...
Countless messages flooded in.
Right on cue, as the warped gateway of dreams lowered its curtain, the onslaught of viewer sponsorships began.
They hadn't been able to see Yurin at all for a full year, staring only at a pitch-black screen instead. Many viewers had left, but the moment Snowman's view returned, they flocked back like migratory birds, as if they'd never been gone.
'WhatDoIDoInThisSituation' sponsored 3,000 Madness!
[Pissed my pants.]
- No way, you don't show us anything for a year, but then you air the crossover event scene? LMAO
- So absurdly considerate in the most absurd places, and so unexpectedly savage too lololol
'TheAudienceHasTurned' sponsored 2,000 Madness!
[The audience has already turned! Too little, too late!]
- Turned a full 360 degrees...
- Just spinning in circles right now...
- Already hooked too deep to turn back...
'JamadRealOrFake' sponsored 3,000 Madness!
[How's a knockoff got such top-tier quality?! Why's it so cool?! Revive him!]
- If the ingredients are premium, even instant ramen tastes gourmet.
- Suddenly it all makes sense. You a sage or something?
- Eating ramen right now.
The Pointy Rock Mountain, drenched in bloodstains, had vanished.
The shouts and mutual scoldings that had echoed here lingered only as faint echoes in the ears, replaced now by silence.
In the dead center stood the chair where the labyrinth's master had once sat when Snowman first arrived.
A chair with half its backrest sliced off at an angle.
Once magnificent, now nothing but a shattered symbol.
Step...
Step...
Snowman approached the chair, his body caked in blood.
Blood covered him from head to toe—his enemies' and his own, all mixed together.
The blood he wore proved just how reckless and brutal the path he'd carved had been.
Swoosh...
Snowman sat in the chair as if it were the most natural thing.
"Haa... haa..."
Exhaustion hit him.
Shin Yu trembled faintly, and Snowman shook all over.
A bone-deep fatigue, worse than any thrill, washed over him first.
His eyes caught a group in his view.
Lucia and the Bell sisters, staring back and forth between him and the fallen labyrinth master in disbelief.
No one could find words to break the silence.
Who would dare shatter it?
It had been a fight so desperate, so far beyond their comprehension.
The realm of transcendent beings.
For a fleeting moment, they had witnessed that world with their own eyes.
Rustle...
The Yaksha mask slowly crumbled away like dust.
It had expended all its power.
Recovery would take time—he probably couldn't become the Yaksha again anytime soon.
"Hoo..."
Even dying right there in the chair didn't seem like a bad ending.
Whoooosh...
Light streamed in from beyond the open door. Snowman knew exactly what these tiny lights were.
The lights of the Shin brothers.
As he'd suspected, they had met complete death.
Snowman raised his hand to accept their legacies.
[The succession of 'Shin Rip' begins.]
[The succession of 'Shin Hyun' begins.]
...
A process of legacy succession that showed their moment of death—or perhaps regret.
What Snowman saw was them clinging to the final gateway until they exploded.
Only now did he learn of the story behind Shin Yu waiting beyond the door.
And their sacrifice.
Not a shred of regret emanated from them. They were men who had already embraced death, capping their lives with the finest choice in their final moments.
Yet strangely, the succession depicting their deaths didn't end with the loss of their bodies, but the loss of their souls.
As if declaring that the death of the soul was true death. Was that the moment they truly died?
Unknowable, but with this, they had found peace.
'Peace... huh.'
[You have inherited the legacy of 'Shin Rip'.]
[Inheriting the deceased's abilities.]
[You inherit sturdy muscles.]
[You gain sturdy muscles.]
[You have inherited the legacy of 'Shin Hyun'.]
[Inheriting the deceased's abilities.]
[You inherit deep breathing.]
[You gain deep breathing.]
...
Innate strengths that had propelled them head and shoulders above other swordsmen.
Snowman inherited it all.
But before he could even examine them, another change was already underway.
[Reward determination complete.]
[All gateways of the Pitch-Black Labyrinth have been destroyed.]
[The Pitch-Black Labyrinth is in an unsustainable state.]
[Closure of the Pitch-Black Labyrinth decided.]
[As reward, you receive all the darkness held by the Pitch-Black Labyrinth.]
'...What?'
Sudden as could be, the change arrived.
Whoooosh...
The massive darkness blanketing the entire Pitch-Black surged toward Snowman.
"Grk..."
The problem: no single human could withstand it.
His body already felt like it might burst from the pressure.
"Ugh..."
[Body can no longer accommodate the darkness.]
[The darkness seeps into your shadow space.]
'What's this now...'
Whoooosh...
He'd barely survived, only for the darkness to pour into his shadow space next.
The pain in his body eased somewhat, but the shadow space clearly housed living legacies.
'Jamad and Tancred's legacies...'
No—Jamad could have returned to nothingness on his own.
So only Tancred's legacy would remain alone in the shadow space.
'Danger...'
Yet that lone legacy devoured far too much.
The shadow space absorbed fully half the labyrinth's darkness before finishing its meal.
The shadow space gulping half that darkness was trouble enough, but the remaining half heading who-knows-where was a bigger issue.
If it poured back into his body, exploding wouldn't be an overestimation.
'At this rate...'
The darkness found a path.
Another way for its host to avoid a pathetic death.
[The darkness seeps into your independent space.]
'Independent space?'
Snowman wondered briefly if he even had one, then his eyes widened.
'Nothingness!'
[The darkness seeps into your Void.]
Whoooosh...
Snowman cheered inwardly.
The Void—yes, that place could swallow all this darkness.
In an instant, the darkness was sucked in with tremendous force.
Rustle...
The surroundings brightened immediately.
As if it had never been dark.
- Snowman's got a huge family...
- Kids... Daddy's just gonna eat this... Watching you eat fills me up...
- So full fr.
Snowman sensed something had changed once the darkness fully vanished.
Swoosh...
He looked down at the chair he sat in. Moments ago, a shabby thing with half its backrest hacked off—now, a massive throne adorned in gold.
[The Void possesses sufficient energy.]
[Construction of the Void is now possible.]
[The Void's entity can be summoned.]
[This place is the Void.]
[The Void is Snowman's independent space.]
'...What?'
It seemed he could now manifest the mental space of the Void into the material world.
What advantages that held remained unknown for now.
'Wait... this place being the Void means...'
The landscape shifted.
Whoooosh...
The barren ruins transformed into an ancient palace.
Opulent wallpaper in white and gold, accented by red drapes.
And the biggest change...
Swoosh...
Someone emerged behind the chair, placing a hand on his shoulder.
The hand was smaller than Snowman's own. Yet the power dwelling in it was overwhelmingly intense.
"...It's been a while."
Red hair.
Karen, her aura greatly changed since they'd parted.
Swoosh...
Beside her, an armored knight stepped forward.
"You've returned, Master. We've been waiting."
Karuna, bearing an aura rivaling Karen's own immense presence.
Nothing had been idle.
"Kukukuku... Seeing you this close up is certainly a rare treat."
A spirit approaching, adjusting his glasses.
Ur, the first mage.
And...
Thud...
Thud...
"Such a dramatic entrance..."
The one Karen playfully snapped at.
Overwhelming size and massive fangs.
"You muscle-headed fool..."
The real Jamad.
Had his anger still not subsided?
"...Took you long enough."
They greeted him with smirking laughs.
"You know that guy? He was seriously sulking. Sometimes he's all muscle, no delicacy at—"
"Enough! I don't enjoy ruining a fairy's face."
"Pfft... You have no idea how much he grumbled in the Void. 'If I'd been there, I'd have crushed that fake in—'"
KABOOM-!
Crackcraaaack...
Jamad slammed the floor, fissures spiderwebbing outward.
"Quiet."
No one flinched at Jamad's attitude. Ur, especially, was a sight to behold.
"You bastard! What'd you do in the Void?!"
Thwack thwack!
Ur's cute little fists pelted Jamad's shoulder.
"All you know how to do is destroy! Never think of the creator! Reflect on it!"
Swoosh...
Karuna approached, clasping Snowman's right arm.
It was Shin Yu.
"So this arm belongs to that fine swordsman."
Shin Yu shyly retracted a bit.
"Pleased to meet you."
Karuna offered a handshake.
Shin Yu hesitated, then gripped it.
Karen grinned, baring her teeth.
"Anyway... welcome to the Void."
Ur, mid-lecture to Jamad on conscience, sidled right up to Snowman.
"How is it?"
"...What?"
Asking about the Void?
If so...
"The chair."
"...The chair?"
"This chair was specially crafted with great care, anticipating a day like this. The backrest ornament signifies my homeland... no, that garbage war state of Kagon..."
Karen rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Here we go again! That narcissism. Explodes over the weirdest stuff sometimes."
A trait that had surfaced once before, during the Azran encounter.
Ur hid nothing when it came to what he loved, laying it all bare.
Magic had once held that spot. After reaching its pinnacle, he'd eyed other pursuits.
"Ahem... So, what do you think? Impressions?"
"Ur, if it's that precious, why not sit in it yourself?"
Ur straightened at Snowman's reply.
"What's the point when I'm not the Void's master? I'm just your advisor."
Their first meeting had been prickly, but compared to his days trapped in Alkatron, his personality had mellowed considerably.
Still, no telling when his old side might flare up.
"...More importantly, the research?"
Since acquiring the Void, Ur had holed up there, tinkering away.
Snowman had handed over many rare, valuable items for it.
"Foo... fuhuhu..."
Ur laughed like a villain.
"My research, you mean? Expect great things. It's in the final stages. Once stability's secured, I can unveil it to the world anytime. And when that day comes..."
He grinned wickedly.
"The world will flip amid cheers..."
Right in the midst of their lively chat.
[Another reward is granted.]
[Suitable place, suitable person, and suitable event have converged.]
[A new force stirs to life.]