Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn't-Chapter 377: Eighty-Sixth Floor, Shrine of the Forgotten Gods (3)

Chapter 377: Eighty-Sixth Floor, Shrine of the Forgotten Gods (3)

During Ha Hee-Jeong’s current life, on the eighty-first floor.

Once I entered the waiting room, the Tower of Ordeal’s store had undergone a complete reconstruction, just like Ha Hee-Jeong had shared.

I eagerly opened the catalog and began flipping through its listings. At the very end, I spotted the most expensive item. It was valued at an overwhelming 1.5 million points.

[■■■]

Unlike every other item I had purchased so far, this one revealed nothing about itself. Even its name was masked by unfamiliar characters I couldn’t decipher.

Still, it wasn’t surprising that Ha Hee-Jeong had been aiming for this all along.

Although the tower liked to deceive a climber during a trial, when it came to the store or its rewards, it never lied. That alone was proof that the item was truly worth every one of those 1.5 million points.

She had told me that in her previous life, we had failed to buy it simply because we lacked the necessary points before our climb ended. Back then, we had been clueless, and the idea of spending such an amount on something completely unknown was out of the question.

Of course, the situation was different now.

Even if I bought a few other worthwhile items, I had points to spare. Spending that much wouldn’t strain my resources.

Without hesitation, I made the purchase, hoping that the item’s identity or effects would become clear afterward.

Moments later, a white bracelet adorned with a thin, trailing cloth appeared on the table in the waiting room.

Why?

Though I could now see what it looked like, even in person, the description was simply some incomprehensible letters.

No matter how terse, other items still came with some kind of explanation. Unfortunately, didn’t have either a description or a name.

Even when I slipped it on, nothing changed. My physical strength remained untouched, my mana undisturbed.

At first, I felt a pang of disappointment, but it didn’t last long.

1.5 million points.

There had to be a reason for that price. Perhaps it would become pivotal in an upcoming trial, most likely on the higher floors beyond the ninetieth.

With that thought, I let the matter rest. It wasn’t until I cleared the eighty-first floor that a different idea came to mind.

During a break, I suddenly recalled the lie detector I had stored away. Only a few of its charges remained.

If the item isn’t revealing itself properly, that could be considered a lie, too.

It was a simple line of thought, and I had nothing to lose by trying. If the obscured script didn’t qualify as deception, then the detector wouldn’t react in the first place.

With that in mind, I held the device up to the bracelet, and something strange occurred. I felt certain I could now infuse the lie detector with divine energy and activate it that way.

As soon as I channeled my divinity into the device, its surface turned gold. Before I could even check the notification window, the detector responded to the bracelet, then immediately shattered.

All that remained was the newly updated system message.

[Seorden’s Bracelet]

- Crafted by the First God for Seorden, the very first fairy.

- When the bearer is on the verge of death, it restores their body to its peak condition, but only once.

- Warning: since the primeval god no longer exists, the bracelet demands a massive offering of divine power one hour after activation. Failure to provide the offering will result in the wearer’s body returning to its condition at the time of death.

***

The instant I had read it, a chill swept through me. After sharing it with Ha Hee-Jeong, even she looked visibly shaken. Restoring someone on the brink of death defied causality itself.

Azure Dawn Breeze had claimed they could revive the dead. I didn’t know if it was true, but I could believe it. The tower still bound the souls of fallen climbers, after all.

That said, they could apparently only resurrect individuals originating from their own world. For an item to grant someone a second life within the Tower of Ordeal was unthinkable.

No.

Even outside of the tower, it would be extraordinary.

After that, I made a conscious effort to conserve the bracelet. Using something this precious inside the tower felt wasteful. An insurance policy like this held more value the longer it was preserved.

That was partly why I had trained so obsessively: to prepare for the future that The Meticulous Architect had shown me.

Even so, a sense of unease had lingered within me. Because no matter how perfectly it could restore me to my peak condition, if I hadn’t been able to defeat my opponent before dying, the outcome wouldn’t change.

Outside the tower, I could retreat. However, in a trial, I either won or died.

And there is also the warning.

If I failed to pay the massive divine cost, I would return to being on the verge of death. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t gauge how vast that offering would be.

In the end, it meant I had no choice but to push forward and charge Endless Furnace head-on. I would likely need to kill them and absorb their divinity to settle the debt.

That was why I had hidden my strength, because defeating them through normal means was nearly impossible.

Well.

It wasn’t as if I had never imagined what it would feel like to die. Whatever I had pictured, though, it hadn’t been this.

The blade pierced my heart and surged upward in a single, clean stroke. The burning pain that split through my torso dragged me down into a bottomless abyss.

There was a reason people talk about their life flashing before their eyes.

Within that blazing heat, memories surfaced one after another, vivid and relentless. Scenes from the past flickered to life. The moment I received a toy I had wanted as a child, the time I went to an internet cafe with friends, and the day I first met Ha Hee-Jeong.

The images followed a clear sequence, unraveling linearly through the flow of time.

Eventually, they led to the tower. The moment I first gripped a sword, the first time I killed a monster, the night I gazed at the sky beside Ha Hee-Jeong in the rest area, and when I picked up an axe flashed through my mind.

I had lived through countless events in the tower. Ironically, the memories that consumed my final moments almost entirely revolved around Ha Hee-Jeong.

A strange sense of dissonance stirred, and for a fleeting instant, I felt the urge to laugh.

Just like that, the illusion shattered and reality returned. The heat had reached my chest.

I let go of the axe in my right hand and positioned it atop Mung-chi. It was a motion I had practiced many times before. I hadn’t expected to use it in this situation, but here I was.

The burning crept past my throat. Beyond that, all sensation faded. My thoughts ground to a halt, and at that moment, the bracelet flashed.

A message appeared before my eyes.

[Seorden’s Bracelet has activated.]

Time stopped. Everything except me froze in place. Only the bracelet’s white glow continued moving, and it flowed toward me alone.

It was a sensation unlike anything I had felt before. It didn’t feel like divinity, but a memory came to mind.

I had sensed this same force on the second floor when I had pushed a boulder with Paraktus. It had appeared again on the thirty-fourth floor, in the scientist’s lab, when I saw something sealed in a glass vial.

Back then, I didn’t understand what it was. Now, I knew. It was the power of the primordial god, the one the scientist had referred to as ■■■.

That force enveloped me. The heat faded, and the pain vanished. Clarity returned to my thoughts.

At some point, the bracelet on my left wrist had disappeared. Strength surged through my body.

I hadn’t just returned to my normal strength, though.

Athletes sometimes talked about a perfect day. The day when they felt their absolute best, when even a baseball moving at top speeds looked like a watermelon casually rolling through the air.

That was the state I had reached.

Time was about to resume, and I could tell because Mung-chi was already spitting out the horn.

I visualized the next sequence of actions in my mind.

Even though Endless Furnace was a god, they wouldn’t anticipate someone who had just perished to return in perfect condition so abruptly. This wasn’t Endless Furnace’s domain, and I was a climber ascending the Tower of Ordeal.

In a fleeting instant, time resumed its normal flow.

The horn of the slain god was in my grasp. I ignited its divinity by force, and a hot sting flared across my palm.

Endless Furnace stood directly before me, their blade still slicing upward through me, while my axe remained embedded in their shoulder.

Their chest lay wide open, and this was the ideal moment.

Aiming for their torso would be quickest. I plunged the horn toward the Furnace’s chest with all the strength I could muster.

Crunch!

Something shattered, sounding completely different from the impact of my axe on their shoulder.

A half-beat later, Endless Furnace’s eyes widened, practically reaching the size of lanterns.

I met their gaze and curled my lips into a grin. “Well? Hurts, doesn’t it?”

The divine backlash wasn’t confined to my hand. Endless Furnace’s chest, pierced by the horn, began to churn and boil.

Unlike mine, they were experiencing a far more explosive backlash.

I twisted my wrist—and the horn with it—and its divinity erupted.

Thud!

A powerful shockwave surged outward, enclosing me in its fury. I braced for the impact, but it became clear I couldn’t withstand it.

I tightened my grip on the horn with my right hand and, before I was flung away, reached for the axe with my other.

Even though I had shielded myself with divine energy, the force of the blast was overwhelming. I was thrown backward without resistance.

Thunk—

Someone caught me from behind.

Another figure stepped in front of me. It was Ha Hee-Jeong and Gehenna.

Amid the swirling storm of flame and dust, Ha Hee-Jeong stood, supporting my back, and finally opened her mouth. “You’re alright, right?”

“I’m fine.” I steadied myself and offered a crooked smile in response, though her eyes were visibly trembling.

We had known each other a long time, but I had never seen her this shaken.

It was understandable. She had just watched me get run through by a sword.

Doing my best to reassure her, I gave her hand a firm squeeze, then turned my gaze toward the battlefield. Gehenna stood in front of us, her back straight, eyes fixed on what lay ahead.

All of us knew that it wasn’t over yet.

Persistent asshole. Probably because he is a god.

Even through the dissipating flames and dust, Endless Furnace still stood tall.

Despite that, they were far from unscathed. The horn had pierced their chest, and now, a hole exactly the size of the horn gaped there. In the end, even if it came from a corpse, it had come from a god.

Despite being a living god, Endless Furnace didn’t appear capable of immediately recovering from the divine backlash. The shoulder I had cleaved with my axe was also still bleeding.

Of course, I hadn’t come out of it unscathed either. In the moment of impact, Endless Furnace’s divinity had surged into the horn and transferred into me. My palm ached with dull heat, even through my gauntlet.

My hand trembled uncontrollably.

Endless Furnace stared at me. “You’ve got quite the trick up your sleeve.”

Their demeanor had changed. Where once they looked upon me as if punishing an insect, their eyes now burned with genuine fury.

I let out a faint, deliberate scoff. “Funny. You don’t look like you’re enjoying yourself all that much.”

Although I had tried to make it sound effortless, in truth, I wasn’t feeling nearly as composed. Time was of the essence now.

One hour from this moment, if I failed to kill them and offer up an immense quantity of divine energy, I would die.

If I could defeat them, I would absorb their divinity. The amount would likely be staggering. To survive, I needed to end this within the hour.

Sure, their chest had been blown open by the horn, but that didn’t mean the battle would be easy. All it did was tilt the odds slightly in my favor.

Then, an overwhelming surge of divine energy began pouring into me without warning.

***

The Community on Earth, during the events of the eighty-sixth floor.

[??????]

[WTF???]

[Why the fuck is he still alive???]

[He’s seriously a god.]

[Wait, I didn’t see that wrong, right?]

[Yeah, he got slashed by the sword.]

[No freaking way, how is this even possible?]

[He’s just built different. God Su-Hyeok.]

[Kwon Su-Hyeok! He is a god! Kwon Su-Hyeok! He is a god! Kwon Su-Hyeok! He is a god! Kwon Su-Hyeok! He is a god!]

[Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok!]

[Bro, wtf, why are people screaming outside at 2 AM?]

[Why 2 AM though?]

[Because it’s the middle of the night in the U.S.]

[This is absolutely insane, for real.]

***

The Community of the Dead, at the same time.

[???????????????]

[Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok!]

[?????????????]

[HOW is this man alive rn??]

[Everyone who doubted, get out. Log off. Now.]

[lol fr why even ask, like that’s not obvious?]

[Because he’s literally GOD, duh.]

[BROOO Su-Hyeok just blew a hole in that god’s chest like it was paper]

[Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok!]

[wait, wait, but doesn’t that mean that other dude could come back, too? He’s a god, right??]

[? You got a death wish?]

[Nah Su-Hyeok had that bracelet-glow-thingy before the fight. That guy didn’t. He’s done.]

[How tf did you even catch that??] 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

[I was ranked 382 in the tower, bro.]

[Then why tf are you here lmao.]

[Idk man leave me alone lol.]

[Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok! Light-Su-Hyeok!]

[OKAY, CHILL WITH THE SPAM.]