Ascension Through Skills
chapter-4

Taesan did his best against the Apostle.

He used his slightly recovered mana to cast skills and used all his items to buy time. He worked hard for even a slim chance of survival.

But he lost.

“Damn.”

Taesan uttered this with a twisted face.

“So, this is it.”

His condition was horrible. Half of his lower body had melted away, and he couldn’t feel anything inside, probably because his internal organs had oxidized.

He would be screaming in agony if he hadn’t possessed a pain-blocking skill.

“I lost.”

The opponent was not something guaranteed to be defeated, even in the best circumstances. There was no way he could win in his nearly dead-state.

[Your Health has reached 0. Unyielding Will is activated. You will forcibly survive for 1 minute.]

The system window obscured his view. Taesan swiped it away with an annoyed look.

“Let’s go in peace, you guys.”

Unyielding Will was only a stay of execution, not recovery. Without any means of healing, he’ll die on his own in a minute.

The Apostle, too, seemed to know this as it calmly watched him from beside Lee Taeyeon’s corpse.

Taesan looked up at the sky. Monsters were still emerging endlessly from the giant rift.

“Useless bastards.”

Taesan scowled.

What’s the point of being the one and only player who cleared the hardest Solo difficulty?

They were all weaker than Taesan of the Easy difficulty. Bluntly put, if there were two of Taesan, then humanity could have lasted longer.

“They were too busy rushing to clear that they weren’t able to build real strength.”

However, Taesan also had a clear limit. There was a definite limit to how strong you could get based on the difficulty level, and he was a player of Easy difficulty. He became stronger up to the given limit but ultimately could not overcome the limit of his stats.

“This sucks. Really.”

Taesan gritted his teeth.

He felt wronged.

If only he hadn’t chosen the Easy Mode back then.

Even if he had chosen the Normal Mode.

He wouldn’t be dying like this.

He could have won against the Apostle.

Everything was messed up only due to a single choice. Although he didn’t vomit it out, his insides were twisted with boundless fury.

Why did you choose the Normal or Hard Mode yet still remain so weak?

Why did you move through the labyrinth so clumsily and only gain such feeble power?

Humanity could have won if they had followed even half of what Taesan did.

“Did it… end?”

Taesan smiled bitterly.

After all, it was something that had already happened, something that he had chosen. It was of no use blaming others. He restrained his emotions.

This was the end for humanity.

There would probably continue to be players appearing afterward. Still, they wouldn’t be able to do anything without the support of even a city. It was no exaggeration to say that humanity was practically extinct.

As he was calmly accepting his death, something caught his eye.

“What’s that?”

Lee Taeyeon’s right hand was holding something. Her tightly clenched fist signaled that it wasn’t something ordinary.

And the Apostle was next to Lee Taeyeon’s body.

As if it were protecting something.

“Ugh.”

Taesan moved by crawling with his arm. The Apostle tried to kill Taesan as he approached.

“Stay still.”

[You have triggered your last chance. You can use a skill without any conditions. This skill cannot be triggered for a year.] [You have triggered Temporary Time Stop. Time within 100 meters of you has stopped for 2 minutes.]

Taesan reached Lee Taeyeon’s body by crawling on the ground. When he opened her right hand, a bulky stone was revealed.

“Check.”

[The Seat of Power Regurgitated by Ouroboros] [The Seat of God that governs the cycle of all things.] [Only once. It can rewind the time of one person.] [Status is Unused.]

“What?”

Rewind time. Those words stopped Taesan in his tracks.

“Could it be…

Rewind time? He was puzzled as to why Lee Taeyeon possessed this, but that quickly disappeared.

Taesan stared blankly at the Seat of Power.

[Roar!]

The sky split, and a monster emerged.

The power felt from the monster, which enveloped the sky itself, was beyond that of the Apostle.

Even if Taesan were at full strength, winning would be hard.

Smirk.

Taesan laughed and clenched his fist.

“See you next time, punk.”

[Item used.] [Time Interference.]

The world turned upside down.

The world on the verge of destruction disappeared.

In its place was a worn-out one-room apartment.

Taesan’s pupils dilated.

“Where is this?”

An old computer. A dusty blanket. Mosquito blood stains on the wall.

He remembered this place.

It was before everything fell apart when the world was still as humans knew it. When the status window was a joke.

It was the one-room apartment where he lived.

“Status window.”

He uttered the words he always said, but nothing appeared.

He looked at his body. His physique was emaciated, but it was full of muscles. He had no choice but to train to survive in that terrible labyrinth.

But now, his body was weak and fragile, the body of an ordinary man.

“Huh.”

Taesan chuckled dryly.

It was certain now.

He had returned to the world of the past.

“Delivery!”

The delivery man shouted loudly in front of the one-room apartment. A man appeared as the door opened a moment later.

“Thank you.”

“Ah, yeah… okay……”

The delivery man flinched for a moment.

The man’s eyes were incredibly calm.

He was like a monk who had practiced for a long time.

The man calmly asked the delivery man, who was blankly staring at him.

“Hasn’t the payment already been made?”

“Ah, yes. You’re correct. Please enjoy your meal.”

The delivery man came to his senses and scurried away. The man came in carrying a pizza box.

A smile tugged at the man’s lips as he opened the box.

“How long has it been since I had pizza?”

He couldn’t remember. He carefully cut a piece and placed it in his mouth, letting the flavor of cheese and toppings flood his mouth.

The taste of civilization. It was exhilarating. There was no time to make something like pizza in a world heading toward destruction. Given that what he had eaten was only the carcasses of monsters and potatoes, this moment was incredibly precious.

The man, Taesan, savored each bite. After eating about four pieces, he began to feel full.

“Hoo.”

His stomach was full. While waiting for the pizza, he had finished assessing the situation.

‘So there was an item that could turn back time.’

The labyrinth had all kinds of things, but this was beyond expectation.

Seeing as he, who had grasped everything at the Easy difficulty, did not know about it, it must have been an item exclusive to the higher difficulties. Considering the equipment that Lee Taeyeon had used, it was not impossible.

Taesan had a puzzled look on his face.

“Why didn’t she use it until the end?”

She must have said something to him at the end because she had the means.

But he didn’t understand why she didn’t use it, instead saving it until she died at the hands of the Apostle. She would have run away long ago if she were the woman he thought he knew.

“But thanks to that, I was able to acquire it.”

Consumable items were unbound at the moment of death. Thanks to this, Taesan was able to obtain the item from her after she died.

“I don’t understand.”

But now it was his.

Taesan quietly looked at the clock.

‘January 1, 2020.’

At the exact moment of the New Year.

The sky had split open and revealed a monster.

It was now December 31, 2019, 11:30 PM.

In 30 minutes, the world will be turned upside down.

Suddenly, Taesan recalled his memory of that time.

The system window appeared with the monsters and stated.

The world would come to an end.

Monsters would appear.

But it would give us a chance.

To gather strength in the labyrinth and save our own world.

In the middle of all the chaos and fear, options of Easy, Normal, Hard, and Solo difficulty levels appeared as options.

Everyone made their choice while in a daze. The only way to escape from the world on the brink of destruction was to make that single choice.

It was extremely rare for someone to choose a difficult option on a sudden prompt. Taesan had chosen the Easy difficulty level.

That was a testament to his weakness.

‘You are a good-for-nothing.’

It was something he had heard from his parents since he was a child.

Typically, parents believe in and nurture their children, but Taesan was different. To Taesan’s parents, he was nothing more than a tool for stress relief.

He had been a victim of violence from a young age. It was common for him to eat only one meal a day, and verbal abuse was a daily routine. He surely would have died if it weren’t for shopkeepers who pitied and helped him.

‘Why were you born?’ they would say, ‘You are completely useless.’ He heard these words almost every day.

Inside such an environment, Taesan had been diminished. He began to believe that he was as worthless and valueless as they said.

‘I didn’t know my own talent.’

In that life-threatening maze, Taesan discovered his talent.

He was stronger than anyone.

He was an existence akin to a miracle, making a mockery of even the Hard difficulty players despite being in the Easy Mode. It was Taesan who broke the basic concept that the skill limit was clearly defined according to the difficulty level.

Taesan checked the clock.

58 minutes past eleven.

Just 2 minutes to go.

He went outside. The night sky, where nothing but the moon hung proudly, was beautiful. He had lost even the memory of seeing such a sky.

1 minute.

Right now, everyone in the world would be counting down the time. They were hoping that the New Year would resolve everything well.

30 seconds.

Regrettably, the world will collapse at the same time as the New Year.

15 seconds.

The precursor was already visible.

Cracks appeared in the gloomy sky. Tiny fractures that only a keen-eyed person would notice.

5 seconds.

Zeo-eung!

A massive sound reverberated through the world. The cracks expanded to a size noticeable to everyone.

Whispers came from all directions.

“Didn’t you hear that noise?”

“Is someone selling popcorn?”

1 second left.

The world collapsed.

In the collapsing world, Taesan looked up at the sky alone.

Kwa-deu-deuk.

The cracks widened. Now, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t realize the anomaly. Everyone screamed and looked up at the sky.

“Aaaaah!”

Kkuk-kuk-kuk…

Beyond the cracks, the monster revealed itself.

The black monster placed its reptilian hand on the crack and looked down at the ground.

He was merely taken aback then, but he knew now. It was only a B-grade monster. A weak monster that a Normal player could easily handle.

Those who didn’t know this started to panic and flee. However, there was no safe place on the ground. And the places ahead of it weren’t safe either.

‘It’s about time.’

Taesan’s prediction was right on the mark as the system window obscured his vision.

[Hello.]

“Uh, what?”

“What’s this?”

Those who were fleeing also momentarily halted at the sudden appearance of this window. The system window kept appearing as if their confusion didn’t matter.

[Your world is being destroyed by invaders. The weapons you've diligently created are of no use to them.]

Neither guns nor nuclear bombs had any effect on the monsters. They were creatures from a different dimension. To fight back, we also needed to acquire power from a different dimension.

[But, do not worry.] [A merciful being who pities you is willing to give you a chance.]

Taesan snorted.

‘Merciful, my foot.’

He still didn’t fully understand its nature but roughly understood its habits.

That thing wasn’t a merciful being. It was merely a being obsessed with entertainment.

[I will give you a choice. Choose the place you desire! Enter the labyrinth. Clear it to gain power.] [And come back, save your world.]

Choices appeared before Taesan.