100 Floors All Master - Chapter 224

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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All Master of 100 Floors Episode 224
50th Floor. The Past of Failure (1)
[Title: Uuugh.]
[Uurgh. Uurgh. Uuuuurgh.]

* * *
“I’ll go with this.”
[…Really? How are you even going to use this?]
I already knew well enough that Kang Jun-hyeok was remarkable. His comprehension, his intuition, his ability to find answers, and something else hidden beneath it all. He existed in a realm even I couldn’t fully grasp.
But Pixie’s Magic Power Control alone wasn’t sufficient.
One had to be capable of handling a Transcendent’s senses, and only Transcendents could do that.
Kang Jun-hyeok spoke with absolute conviction.
“I’ll go with this.”
[If the Player desires it… the Shop Owner can’t stop you. This is getting interesting. I’ll look forward to the next memory.]
[Active Skill: You have acquired Pixie’s Magic Power Control.]
Pixie handed over the skill and departed.
Kang Jun-hyeok continued training until the moment he entered the next Tower. Manbyeonggi, observing him, asked with apparent puzzlement.
[You’re preparing yourself.]
“I don’t know what will appear on the next Floor.”
[That’s been true until now. But this time, you’re preparing with far greater seriousness. Your stance is different from usual.]
“It’s the 50th Floor, isn’t it? The exact midpoint of the Tower.”
It wasn’t difficult to sense that something more awaited. Manbyeonggi closed his mouth as if in agreement. Kang Jun-hyeok used his Internal Energy to loosen every muscle in his body.
Just as Manbyeonggi had said, he was preparing with far greater seriousness than usual.
He drew all his senses to their maximum, maintaining them sharp and keen.
What would appear on the next Floor, the 50th Floor, even I couldn’t know.
The 50th Floor.
That place was where I had to confront my failure and overcome it.

* * *
[50th Floor Quest.]
[Return to the past and overcome your failure.]
[Hmm.]
[Huh.]
Kang Jun-hyeok entered the 50th Floor, and the Quest conditions materialized. Manbyeonggi and Eldyria made intrigued sounds.
A similar Quest had existed before.
[25th Floor Quest.]
[Face and overcome your failure, despair, and fear.]
On that Floor, they hadn’t witnessed directly what Kang Jun-hyeok experienced. It had been his personal trial.
But they could sense it.
His emotions.
That failure and despair.
It was a despair far greater than what they felt after their defeat in the Great War.
He had endured a catastrophic event that transcended the Great War itself.
But could such a thing truly exist?
Though such doubts arose, they couldn’t dwell on them deeply. It was as if something had imposed a restriction upon their minds.
Yet their curiosity about that past itself overflowed abundantly. The two, waiting for the world’s transition with anticipation, suddenly realized something strange.
[Where is this place?]
Kang Jun-hyeok now stood in a Black Void Space.
A void of nothingness, an empty expanse. No power, no aura could be sensed. It was a bizarre space that couldn’t even be called a Universe.
[Were you in such a place during your past?]
Eldyria, thinking the Quest had begun, asked. Kang Jun-hyeok shook his head.
“No.”
[Then what exactly is this place?]
“It seems they intend to verify something before the Quest begins.”
[Verify? What do you mean….]
Eldyria’s words trailed off. She fell silent.
Something.
Something was looking down upon Kang Jun-hyeok.
[Mm.]
[Ugh, ah.]
Manbyeonggi and Eldyria held their breath. Even for Transcendents, the immensity required them to fortify their minds to endure it. This was no mere Victor.
[That is….]
Manbyeonggi had participated in the final battle.
Having directly confronted the Master of the Universe, he could recognize it.
That colossal existence was none other than the Master of the Universe.
[Why?]
Manbyeonggi was utterly bewildered. Why was the Master of the Universe here?
Eldyria felt the same. She reflexively attempted to intervene across dimensions to protect Kang Jun-hyeok. But she was immediately repelled as if struck by an impenetrable wall.
In that moment, Eldria understood.
The reason she couldn’t see anything around her was because she couldn’t withstand the Master of the Universe.
The concepts of objects and principles couldn’t exist within that presence. Neither things of the Universe nor things beyond it could exist. That’s why this space was nothing but black emptiness.
Only those whom the Master of the Universe permitted could exist.
[What!]
The two Transcendents were utterly bewildered.
Only Kang Jun-hyeok gazed calmly at the Master of the Universe.
It wasn’t something he hadn’t anticipated.
The Gods of the Universe, the Victors, the Core Tower Administrators—none of them had detected his return.
It meant this was the work of something far greater than them.
And there was only one such being.
The Master of the Universe looked at Kang Jun-hyeok. Within that gaze lay emotions beyond description. At least, Kang Jun-hyeok couldn’t comprehend them.
And shortly after.
The Master of the Universe withdrew. It was as though granting permission.
Simultaneously, the world began to transform. The presence of the Master of the Universe vanished, and they returned to the Universe. Eldria released the breath she’d been holding.
[What is that! Why, why does that exist!]
Facing the Master of the Universe, Eldria felt her skin crawl.
She hadn’t participated in the final battle.
So seeing the Master of the Universe was her first time.
What in the world was that?
Eldria, who had fought against countless Victors, could tell. That was an existence of an entirely different concept from them.
Why couldn’t anything else exist in that space besides Kang Jun-hyeok and the Master of the Universe?
Because it simply couldn’t exist.
Unless the Master of the Universe permitted it, nothing could remain in his presence. Whether it was a concept of the Universe or not.
A true master of the Maze, different from ordinary Victors.
Meeting Kang Jun-hyeok brought back the despair she’d forgotten, rising within her once more.
[Does the Master of the Universe appear on the 5th or 50th Floor?]
[No. That’s not it.]
Manbyeonggi denied it. Since he belonged to the Tower, he knew roughly how things progressed.
[The Master of the Universe doesn’t intervene in the Tower. In the first place, the minds of Players who face that couldn’t possibly remain intact.]
[…Then, you’re saying it appeared only to Kang Jun-hyeok?]
Those watching from Kang Jun-hyeok’s side could tell he was special.
But they didn’t think his specialness was enough for the Master of the Universe to appear directly.
[Kang Jun-hyeok, you are, what exactly are you….]
“I think this place might provide some answers.”
[This place?]
Only then could the two turn their gaze to the world that had appeared.
Everything was destroyed and desolate. Not a trace of civilization’s remnants could be seen anywhere—it was a world of death where endless conflict left no room for a single life to survive.
[Wait.]
Manbyeonggi, observing the world, came to a realization.
[Isn’t this your world?]
“It is.”
This place was Earth itself.
Yet it bore little resemblance to the Earth that Manbyeonggi knew. While the Tower’s emergence had transformed life on Earth considerably, its civilization continued to function without fundamental collapse.
The Victors could not directly interfere with the Universe due to the Master of the Universe’s restrictions.
But the Earth visible here now was a world where everything lay shattered and ruined.
And in this landscape of destruction, I could sense the presence of Victors.
‘This is it.’
Kang Jun-hyeok offered a bitter smile.
The 50th Floor Quest was to confront past failures.
I had experienced countless failures.
Among them, the Master of the Universe had apparently chosen this place.
“Oh? Kang Jun-hyeok.”
A voice reached my ears. When I turned, a beautiful woman with blonde hair gazed at me. I opened my mouth.
“Olivia Turner.”
A warm and merciful woman who considered others’ feelings.
But she was different from the Olivia Turner I knew. Now her face held only exhaustion, melancholy, and the weight of defeat.
“You didn’t go back?”
“I was observing this place for a moment.”
“…It’s tragic—a failure. I’m sorry, Kang Jun-hyeok. While later arrivals like you have been ascending, we pioneers have accomplished nothing.”
[What is she talking about?]
Eldyria expressed her confusion.
Being at Kang Jun-hyeok’s side, she too knew this woman called Olivia Turner.
A woman of modest talent but fragile spirit.
That was her assessment of Olivia Turner.
Though she had reached higher floors than Kang Jun-hyeok, the gap was closing rapidly. There was no reason for the terms “pioneer” or “later arrival” to even apply.
‘…Her demeanor is different.’
In the way Olivia Turner now regarded Kang Jun-hyeok, I sensed no admiration or the gaze one casts upon the strong. Rather, it felt like the sentiment of a senior looking upon a junior.
That question was soon answered.
“The 74th Floor Quest is a failure. We could not save Earth.”
[!]
[Ugh!]
Both of us exhaled sharply. Kang Jun-hyeok stared intently at the desolate world.
The Tower undergoes a fundamental shift beginning from the 70th Floor.
Countless Players combine their strength to clear each floor.
And the 74th Floor Quest is to protect their home planet.
Every Player on Earth united their power to clear the 74th Floor.
But in the end, they failed.
Earth was seized and plundered.
They became wanderers who had lost their homeland.
That was one of his failures from his previous life.
The failure of the 74th Floor Quest.
Overcoming him.
That was precisely the Quest of the 50th Floor.

* * *
[Wait a moment.]
[This is, this is.]
Manbyeonggi and Eldria were not foolish. Rather, they belonged among the considerably intelligent cosmic beings in the Universe. Even in a situation they could not comprehend, they found the answer.
[…The future?]
[A tale from a time period that hasn’t occurred? Or rather, it’s closer to a time period that did occur. They’re layered.]
The meaning was singular.
A return to the past.
That itself was not an impossibility. The great and mighty Gods could interfere with time.
In fact, during the final stages of the Great War, the Gods of the Universe, sensing defeat, had attempted multiple times to rewind time to gain another opportunity.
But all of those attempts had failed.
It was not due to insufficient power on their part.
It was because the Master of the Universe, possessing immense strength, had blocked them entirely.
No matter how secretive the means employed, no matter how dangerous the secret techniques utilized, it proved impossible. The Master of the Universe simply blocked them with minimal intervention, as if to say it was not permitted.
After hundreds of attempts were all thwarted, they eventually abandoned their attempts at regression.
[It’s impossible. As long as the Master of the Universe exists, no reversal of time can ever be achieved….]
Having spoken thus far, Manbyeonggi suddenly grasped a single answer.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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