Chapter 350: The White End (1)

I did grandiosely say that it was time to climb to another heaven, but nothing was special about the seventy-third and seventy-fourth floors. The moment I stepped on them, I got my pass.

“Come on now. It hasn’t been long since I got crushed by you. What makes you think I’m qualified to judge if you pass or fail? Just hurry and go up.”

Rao Fan, the Viper of the OJP Sect, was the appointed examiner for the seventy-third floor. As soon as the Primordial Staff summoned him and explained his role, he frowned and waved his hand dismissively.

“Losers have duties of their own. We fought a life-or-death duel, but I still got to keep my head. It’s only right to praise the winner and make them happy. It is what it is. You don’t even need my pass.”

That was how I cleared the seventy-third floor, the Martial Heaven Realm, in about two seconds. While everything in the Golden Heaven worked on trade, people of this world solved everything through duels.

It was a Valhalla of some sort—a place for souls who wished to swing their swords even after death. Perhaps those who were martial artists to their bones, like the Sword Emperor, would come to this place after dying in the Tower.

[Your examiner has given you a pass.]

[You have earned your examiner’s recognition.]

I was very grateful for this speedrun.

“Do you not care that you’ll lose the memory of coming here?” I asked.

“

Huh?

People forget a ton of things as they live. It doesn’t matter. I don’t mind.”

The Viper left with no lingering feelings. His response was very different from the Countess, who had dawdled for as long as she could because she valued her memories a lot.

Anyhow, I felt like I could go back to the seventy-third floor later if I was eager to fight stronger opponents. I had fought enough duels so far, so I had nothing to miss about that floor in particular. For now, at least.

As for the seventy-fourth floor...

“

Ahaha!

Heaven? What an interesting idea!”

The remark alone made it obvious who my examiner was. It was Bambolina, the Inquisitor. After hearing the Primordial Staff’s explanation, he smiled from ear to ear.

“But whether or not you clear the floor rests on my pass. There’s no need to waste time. Go on to the next floor, Master!”

The Inquisitor had changed a lot after meeting me, but he still valued efficiency. The hidden secrets of the floors were of no interest to him. He was the type to smile widely and say “That sounds nice! What do we get from it?” The Inquisitor only cared about practicality.

His eyes sparkled like stars. “It hasn’t been that long since we last saw each other, but you’ve made even more Constellations obey you! Amazing! Perhaps we should change your title from Death King to Constellation-Hunting Master. Having the Goddess of Protection participate in the auction was also a great idea. What do you think of giving one of Hwia’s floors to Hamustra, Master? We’ll then be able to rely on Constellations such as the Goddess of Protection, the Labyrinth-Dwelling Eye, the Ruin-Harvesting Cow, the Immorality-Dreaming Muscle Pig, and the Indoor Librarian. They’ll be great allies!”

“

Uh...

No, that’ll be quite a problem,” I said, still of the opinion that Uburka’s Constellation title sounded horrible. “I want Hamustra to live a human life even if just for a few decades. If he returns as the Indoor Librarian, that would be a great help to us but detrimental to his growth. Unless Hamustra himself wants to return, I’d say it’s better for him to remain a barista.”

“

Ummmm...

Okay. If that is your wish, there is nothing that can be done.”

The Inquisitor simply smacked his lips, deciding not to insist anymore. He obeyed my will no matter what I told him. This was an extreme example, but if I asked him to become a Constellation, he would say, “Okay, Master! Please wait thirty years!”

The seventy-fourth floor, where the Inquisitor was told to be the examiner, was the Legal Heaven Realm. Unlike the Martial Heaven Realm, where everything was settled by duels, this world was complicated, according to the information that Hishimit Kritz exposed.

—Legal Heaven Realm

—Floor: 74

—Constellation: Unconstitutional Judge.

—Difficulty Level: C~A+

—Information (Lv. 1): In this world, everything works based on laws. Everyone can make laws that are as important as the laws of physics. However, they can only do so once in their life. If someone can make a law that prohibits fights between people for eternity, then fighting would really be banned! However, if another person says that they negate the law, then that law would cease to be valid at once.

—Once the law is invalid, there is no going back. Since you can only legislate once, you must think very carefully about the way you use your power. You can’t make any law you want. There are a few bans on the legislation. Here are three cases of impossible laws:

—(1) No tyrants! Rules that deny others’ legislative power are not allowed. E.g: “In this world, only I can make laws.”

—(2) Don’t try to be a smart Aladdin! Legislating a law that gives you the power to create an infinite number of laws is banned.

—(3) Don’t be greedy! While it is okay to void rules set by others, you cannot negate more than one rule at once. E.g: All rules set so far will be voided.

—Aside from these exceptions, you can wish for whatever you like. This applies only if others accept your rules. There will always be people who waste their life’s worth of power just because they don’t like you. Be careful and wait for your moment!

Just hearing about it made me think that this was a tricky heaven.

I have no idea what to do here to get a pass.

How many odd laws were waiting for me here? There had to be a rule banning the use of aura. There were more people who couldn’t use aura than the ones who could. If so, I would lose my best asset from the start. That wouldn’t be all. There was a high chance that a rule banning the use of Skills was set. This could go unnoticeable because of the many monstrously strong Hunters around me, but it often took a lifetime's worth of luck to have one Skill at least. Most people didn’t have any.

Would the residents here tolerate Skills? Impossible. Even if they did, there would likely be a rule like “You can’t use skills to harm others.”

It’s best not to stay in such a risky place for long!

A wise man was bound to stay away from risk. Given my name, I was supposed to be the wisest man in the world. Yes, that was exactly why I gladly accepted the Inquisitor’s pass.

[Your examiner has given you a pass.]

[You have earned your examiner’s recognition.]

Before disappearing, the Inquisitor shouted, “Good luck!

Hahaha!

” His laugh lingered in the air where his body had been, echoing around me for a while.

Yet another speedrun was completed. By now, my plan on how to clear these floors was set. When I was intrigued by the realm, I stayed longer than necessary. If not, I gladly skipped to the next floor. Unless the seventy-fifth floor was very unique and rare, I planned to skip that too.

By now, I believe everyone guessed that something unique and rare had happened on the floor.

“W-where am I? Why was I summoned here all of a sudden? Yiiiiikes. W-who are you? Even if you kidnap me, I no longer run the Alchemist Office! I’m only in charge of drug development, not sales or shipping. I’m happy just running my shop on the twentieth floor! Why aren’t others considerate of even my small wish?”

The Hunter summoned to be the seventy-fifth floor’s examiner covered her head as if she had been through this kind of experience many times before. Some would call this an overreaction, but it was perfectly understandable.

The Countess and I, as well as many guild leaders, knew how talented this Hunter was. Though she didn’t hold a sword or fought in the front lines, she had contributed as much as anyone to clearing the Tower’s floors. In fact, she was still working hard. Most of all, she had made a huge contribution to clearing the

Heavenly Demon Chronicle.

The Chemist spotted me a moment later and stared at me. “

Uh?

M-Mr. Gong-Ja? Where am I?”

I gave her a big smile. “Welcome. This is the gate to the afterlife.”

The Chemist’s face paled. Why? I wasn’t exactly lying.

***

My joke caused an immense backlash. The Chemist had never seemed to think that I would lie, so she almost fainted when she heard that she was at the gate to the afterlife. Once she realized what was going on, I felt the wrath of an icy ocean wash over me. Why did I compare her anger to an icy ocean instead of fire? Well, that was how the Chemist’s anger had always been like.

“From now on, I’m going to stop distributing you special medicine,” she said coldly.

“I’m sorry!”

Through her glasses, the Chemist coldly looked down at me. “I’m going to remove the strawberry flavor from all the medicine I give you. How about mugwort flavor? Do you want that? Or frog’s eye flavor? Mosquito wing flavor? What do you say about the flavor of snot on the fourth day of the flu?”

“C-can you make a flavor that tastes like the chocolate from the most famous fantasy book in the outside world?!”

“

Phew...

”

The Chemist shook her head. I felt like she was treating me like a mischievous kid from next door. Still, I did want to try out the snot-flavored potion, so she wasn’t exactly wrong. Everything was an experience. Ex-pe-ri-ence. It sounded like a magic spell!

“Anyhow, I understand what I have to do. It’s amazing that there are many heavens in the Tower... but I guess the Tower always has been amazing,” the Chemist said in a low voice. “Mr. Gong-Ja, will we be sent here when we die? Without the memories of our old lives? Will we be sent to one of the Nine Heavens depending on our wishes?”

None of the examiners had asked this before, but probably all of them had thought about it. For a moment, I didn’t know how to answer. The Chemist’s voice held bitterness deeper than fear of death, one that originated from the possibility of saying goodbye to everyone in this world and forgetting everything. After all, that was exactly what death was.

The Chemist thought for a bit, then shook her head. “

Ugh.

There’s no need to think of such things right now. Okay, I understand what I have to do. Mr. Gong-Ja, relax and start the stage. If things get dangerous, I’ll give you a pass right away so you can come back.”

“

Hmm.

Okay, I’ll get going.”

“I won’t tell you to be careful. As long as you’re breathing, I can treat you, so just make sure to keep your head intact.”

A small smile spread on my lips. She knew me very well. After all, the Chemist and I had known each other for a long time. The first person I had tried to befriend after I regressed was the Chemist. Without me, she would have struggled for a long time before succeeding. If it hadn’t been for her sensory boost potion, I wouldn’t have been able to learn how to use my aura. We were friends who’d had major roles in each other’s success.

“Alright. I’ll do my best.”

I waved to the Chemist and went to the next stage. The floor under me turned squishy and swallowed me.

[You have entered the seventy-fifth floor.]

[You aren’t allowed here.]

I opened my eyes. As soon as I did, I saw something odd. It was impossible not to notice it.

“

Huh?

”

The whole world was black and white. There were no other colors before me. That wasn’t all. I had seen a lot of weird things in my life, but this one...

The main problem was that the world was flat.

“

Huh?

What?”

It was

too

flat. I blinked. For some reason, I couldn’t see things in a three-dimensional way. As I kept blinking, my mind adjusted to the new space, and the world came into view like a side-scroll RPG screen. My view was narrow and stayed in a third-person view.

“W-what is this?” I asked as I instinctively moved my feet.

Something squirmed in the center of the screen. As it moved, the screen moved with it. My sight was cut to a flat, wide frame. However, as the thing moved, so did my view, showing me new sights. Nonetheless, everything still looked like something a child had drawn on a sheet of paper.

Mountains were shown as △△△, and the clouds were ○○○. The creature in the middle of the screen was,

uuuuh,

I had no idea what it was. Its head looked like (‘-‘). Below that was ㅡ, a horizontal line. Tridents were drawn at each end of the line, looking somewhat like this: ∋ㅡ∈. The creature was standing on a horizontal line that spread both ways, resembling a person standing firmly on an horizontal scroll world.

To my surprise, when I walked, the legs of the creature moved. The tridents also moved when I swung my arms. Impossible. Could it be...?

I opened my mouth in shock.

(‘д’)

The creature’s face immediately changed. In life, we sometimes ran into surprises. The truth I faced now was awful, but there was no other conclusion I could draw.

“I-Is this me?”

The stick figure on the flat screen tried its hardest to be expressive.

Σ(⁰▿⁰)!?

Why did it look needlessly cute?