Ascension Through Skills

They had won.

People rejoiced and cheered, hugging each other in celebration of their victory.

However, they couldn’t just revel in victory forever. Their victory was not perfect, and there were mountains of things that needed to be sorted out.

Kim Hwiyeon looked around with a stern face.

Dead bodies were scattered here and there, forming small hills.

“Let’s clean up.”

She said quietly. People also started to collect the bodies, putting the joy of victory behind them.

Taesan helped them as well.

Besides collecting the bodies, there was much to be done. The number of surviving players. It was necessary to ascertain how many players had survived from each mode.

“Um, hello.”

The Chinese players greeted them nervously.

Although they had faced each other countless times and even conquered the Wave together, this was the first time they had spoken.

Kim Hwiyeon greeted them with a smile.

“Yes, hello.”

The invisible walls between them began to disappear. Once the ice was broken, they eagerly exchanged stories.

And there was someone who was very displeased by this fact.

“How dare you!”

Zhenlong shouted angrily. The players who were quietly talking shuddered.

“I told you! Do not dare to speak with people from other countries! It will corrupt you!”

Zhenlong trembled with anger.

A surge of power enveloped Zhenlong.

“Are you saying you won’t listen to me!”

“But, but…”

“Zhenlong…”

“This time I will forgive you mercifully! But if you mingle your words even once more, I will kill all of you!”

However, people took an awkward stance at Zhenlong’s outburst, not bowing down to him. They just sent him looks of inconvenience.

Zhenlong’s face twisted endlessly.

“How dare!”

How dare they not listen to him, a great being, a ruler!

Zhenlong’s power began to boil. Despite the massive wave of power, people’s faces only paled, but they did not follow Zhenlong’s words.

They just glanced around.

“How dare you divert your gaze while I am speaking!”

Zhenlong also harshly turned his gaze away.

There, Taesan was quietly watching him.

Zhenlong, who was about to unleash his power for punishment, trembled.

Fear was apparent in his gaze toward Taesan.

“Get lost!”

Eventually, Zhenlong could not unleash his power and shouted roughly.

He collected his power and vacated his spot.

People’s gazes towards Taesan became even more intense.

Zhenlong, who had been the ruler of China, was no longer their leader.

Zhenlong had been worshiped and ruled over the people because of his power. Without power, he was a being of no worth.

But a being far stronger than him, Taesan, had appeared. People no longer worshiped Zhenlong.

Zhenlong felt this but could only remain silent, having already lost his influence.

And this was slowly twisting Zhenlong.

And regardless of him, time kept flowing.

Kim Hwiyeon, who was appointed as the temporary representative, and Geum Junggeun, organizing the number of survivors, frowned.

“Why isn’t the quest ending?”

“That’s what I wonder. The return window isn’t appearing.”

Geum Junggeun replied. The Wave had ended. The absence of any new quest indicated that this was the end.

But the window to return to the labyrinth was not appearing.

“Is this really the end?”

“We haven’t even cleared the labyrinth yet, so that can’t be it.”

“Then why isn’t anything appearing? It’s making people anxious.”

Kim Hwiyeon grumbled. Taesan stepped outside.

“Take a break.”

“Ah, yes.”

Stepping outside, Taesan soared to the skies. The Chinese players bowed down with exclamations, their worship deeper and more profound than that of Korean and Japanese players, perhaps because they had been originally dominated by the being called Zhenlong.

Taesan, having reached the clouds, opened his skill window.

[Divine Power]

[Proficiency: 72%]

[The power of the gods. Initially meaningless, it became divine through the accumulation of many people's faith. People's faith and beliefs have become divine, able to influence the world meaningfully.]

After clearing the quest, the proficiency of Divine Power had sharply increased.

He had felt that he might reach 100% proficiency during this return.

However, the rate of increase in Divine Power’s proficiency dramatically slowed down once it reached 70%. While it’s normal for the speed to decrease with higher proficiency, this was abnormally slow for Divine Power.

“Is mere faith not enough?”

[At 100%, you might achieve complete divinity, but mere millions of ordinary faith are not enough. One of the paths to transcend mortality?]

After closing the skill window, Taesan looked down from the heavens.

Numerous lives entered his senses.

Zhenlong, who possessed the power of immortality, was also there.

“What should I do with him?”

The slave of the immortal. Zhenlong, the ruler of China.

Since the start of the Wave, rules like combat restrictions had long disappeared. He could kill Zhenlong at any time.

However, he hadn’t done so. Zhenlong still had power, and although he was a coercive ruler, he remained China’s ruler. Killing him recklessly could lead to even greater chaos, so Taesan had left Zhenlong alone.

Of course, Zhenlong had lost the people’s trust and faith. Now, if Taesan killed him, no player would likely object.

But even so, Taesan couldn’t bring himself to kill Zhenlong.

“Would touching him cause his backer to try and kill me?”

[Probably.]

Zhenlong belonged to the immortals.

The immortals had made Zhenlong a slave because they desired something. If Taesan interfered with Zhenlong, it was likely that the immortals would become hostile towards him.

[The life-desiring beast is a unique immortal among immortals. It neither desires transcendence nor envies potential mortals. It merely wants to satiate its hunger.]

The ghost continued speaking.

[As much as that is the case, it might not be targeting you... but if anyone obstructs its desires, even a transcender might be torn apart.]

A ravenous beast that was only interested in satiating its hunger, nothing else.

For such an immortal, things like the conflict between high gods and gods were of no interest.

There was no need to turn the immortal into an enemy. Thus, Taesan had not killed Zhenlong.

And the quest had not yet ended.

The high gods surely had something in mind.

Now was the time to wait until the high gods made their move.

Everyone cried out Taesan’s name.

Zhenlong’s existence was completely forgotten by the people. Once worshiped by all Chinese, he was now utterly abandoned.

Zhenlong watched the people with a hardened face.

Despite being right beside them, they showed no interest in him.

‘How dare they.’

Who had protected them all this time, these ungrateful beings!

His emotions surged. The people around him flinched and distanced themselves, finally noticing Zhenlong’s presence and hesitantly backing away.

“Ah…”

There was no faith or belief on their faces, only the appearance of wanting to avoid him.

Fury surged within Zhenlong, and he tried to engulf them.

But Zhenlong had no choice but to leave silently.

He was scared. Taesan’s power made him seem like a child. It was clear what would happen if he carelessly provoked them.

Zhenlong himself was now experiencing the emotions others felt towards him.

Eventually, unable to do anything, Zhenlong trudged back to his dwelling in the heavens.

No one worshiped him anymore.

He wanted to kill them all, but Taesan’s presence prevented it.

Frustration made Zhenlong clench his fist tightly.

This shouldn’t be happening. This was wrong.

He needed to be worshiped by the people. They were supposed to follow him.

“This is wrong.”

A gloomy voice echoed.

Mixed powers began to erode his brain.

Skills contracted with the life-desiring beast. Life Predation. The effect of this skill came from killing lives to absorb their power.

Even if the power exceeded what the user could handle.

Zhenlong’s power was not that great. However, using Life Stealing, he had continued to absorb powers beyond what he could handle.

The unmerged and mixed powers had long been corrupting his mind.

Zhenlong had sustained himself with people’s worship until now.

But now, their worship has disappeared.

Zhenlong had gone completely mad.

He sneered.

“It’s not over yet.”

Zhenlong sprang up. Emerging roughly from the tent, he cried out to the sky.

“Great God! My master, the great beast that devours all things!”

He shouted with bloodshot eyes.

“Please grant me greater power! Allow me to be your servant!”

It was a call.

The only permission granted to a slave who had transcended mortality was to call out to his master.

Zhenlong spoke harshly.

“In return, I will offer all the players of China!”

They did not worship him.

They were no longer the ones he needed to protect.

If so, he could sacrifice them without any complaints. After all, they owed their lives to him. Who would dare to object if he used them for his own purposes?

With twisted thoughts, the heavens opened.

The great one began to assert its presence in response to the slave’s call. People below in the heavens felt a chilling sensation and turned their gaze.

“Ohhhhh!”

Zhenlong trembled with eyes trembling. The great one has descended! The one who makes even Taesan look like a mere bug!

Suddenly, the space expanded, and its form became visible.

From beyond the fluctuating darkness, the cry of a revered being was heard.

“O God!”

Zhenlong knelt and cried out.

“Please give me the power to encompass the world and trample that vulgar one!”

Quietly, the beast beyond the darkness began to creep towards Zhenlong with its power.

“Oh, ohhh!”

Zhenlong shuddered with joy.

He was receiving power—the kind that made even Taesan seem insignificant!

As he reveled in his newfound strength, he sensed a presence behind him.

Zhenlong turned around with a smirk, finding Taesan staring intently at him.

“Hahaha! Look! Mere beings! I will reach a higher place!”

He boasted loudly, mocking Taesan.

However, Taesan did not even glance at him.

His gaze was solely on the beast beyond.

Crack.

The beast laughed.

The power reached Zhenlong, and he shuddered at its grandeur.

“Oh… I, I am…”

Becoming great.

At the moment Zhenlong was about to be intoxicated by the power.

The power that had reached him was slowly consuming him. The essence within the power was not what he had expected.

It was plunder.

Taesan watched indifferently.

“As expected.”

There were several constraints if a transcended being tried to interfere on earth. It’s difficult for the life-desiring beast to achieve its desired consumption.

Thus, they made mortals their slaves.

They made a contract with a slave to grant them the power to devour life. Whether the slave was consumed by the power was irrelevant. The slave’s only job was to devour many lives and satiate the beast’s hunger.

To the life-desiring beast, Zhenlong was neither more nor less.

“Wait, wait.”

Realizing this, Zhenlong frantically tried to retreat, but the beast’s power firmly held him.

Zhenlong cried out with a terrified face.

“Don’t do this!”

The beast quietly devoured Zhenlong.

The lives he had devoured. The power he had accumulated while descending into the labyrinth.

All of it was about to become food for the beast.

“Aaaaah!”

Zhenlong howled. This couldn’t be happening.

He, who had once been the master of all of China, was becoming nothing.

Despair and fear overwhelmed him.

His already distorted mind became even more shattered, no longer human.

It reached Zhenlong.

“Ah?”

Even as everything was being taken from him, Zhenlong trembled momentarily. Pure darkness began to erode inside him.

It asked if he wanted power.

Zhenlong couldn’t muster a response.

Even one placed in such a dire situation could not utter “yes” due to the pure fear that was consuming him.

At the moment of acceptance, it felt as if his very existence would disappear.

But he was already broken.

With no ego or reason left, Zhenlong unknowingly answered the question.

Kwoooong!

At that moment, a massive force struck the beast that was about to devour Zhenlong.

The repelled beast howled fiercely.

A roar that shook all things and crumbled the world itself covered the power.

Crack.

But it was crushed.

The immortal’s power distorted and vanished as if it had no value. With the cries of a beast robbed of its prey, the life-desiring beast was chased away.

Taesan stomped his foot.

[You have activated acceleration.]

[You have activated skill acceleration.]

Using all sorts of skills, Taesan attacked Zhenlong. At the moment Taesan’s sword aimed for Zhenlong’s neck.

Crack.

A massive curtain of darkness blocked Taesan’s sword. Taesan stepped back, clicking his tongue.

“Still not possible?”

“Uh, uh.”

Zhenlong’s body began to twist. Taesan drew his sword.

Zhenlong was a slave to the immortal. He was already a twisted and broken being.

Taesan thought if the high gods were targeting something, it would be Zhenlong, and indeed it was so.

Therefore, he had tried to kill Zhenlong while the immortal and the high gods were in conflict, but he hadn’t anticipated that the high gods would expel the immortal with such force in one go.

“Uh, uh.”

Zhenlong’s body continued to twist. No longer could a human shape be discerned, nor could Zhenlong’s ego be seen.

[Ooooooooo!]

A shout struck the world.

A system window appeared toward the collapsing body.

[Special Quest Start]

[Defeat the monster.]

[A distorted being that has ceased to be a life has appeared.]