Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 87

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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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Chapter 87. Realm of Zero
1.
The lowest Level any creature of the Abyss can possibly possess.
There can be no Level below that.
Whether living or otherwise, it is impossible for anything to fall below Level 1.
And yet.
Should something, against all odds, slip beneath that threshold—
What phenomenon would unfold?
―The Realm of Zero.
Countless alchemists and mages who pursued Truth had wondered about it.
Whether a world below Level 0 truly existed.
After extensive research, they named that place the Realm of Zero and believed it to be an unreachable underworld; eventually, they abandoned further inquiry.
―It lies beyond Truth itself. It is a Taboo that must never be touched.
This was why those who pursued Truth had given up their research.
The ‘Truth’ they believed in and followed meant all phenomena through which the universe and all things circulate.
Dark Magic runs counter to Truth, and certain other impure disciplines distort phenomena by exploiting Truth—
but this was an entirely different matter.
The Realm of Zero existed wholly outside of Truth.
Divorced from Truth, or Truth completely negated.
A world truly Incomprehensible.
―Those who come to belong to the Realm of Zero can no longer Exist as an Existence.
To Exist means to have substance.
It meant to be in the present and, as the saying goes, to live one’s life.
Death, too, counted as existing through life, and thus also fell within Truth.
But the Realm of Zero was, by its nature, Void.
Neither death nor life—a realm of nothingness.
Of course, this was merely hypothesis.
No one had ever actually confirmed that place.
They could only presume that such a realm might exist.
And yet now.
The Gatekeeper was setting foot there for the first time.
This should have been impossible.
But it became possible because of Park Chan-woo—an existence that should never have been.
One who had returned from the future to the past.
A being that was Mystery itself, transformed from Level 99 to Negative Level 99.
One who bore all Incomprehensibility, cast beyond Truth yet paradoxically bound to it—such was this man.
“Who am I?”
Within the Realm of Zero, the Gatekeeper spoke for the first time.
He knew who he was.
He knew he was the Gatekeeper of Khan’s Palace, and even the very Name that Khan had bestowed upon him.
And yet he did not know.
What his true self was.
Would he know if he went deeper still?
The Gatekeeper pierced through Zero’s barrier and descended further.
Negative Level 1.
The Negative World.
Bitter cold rushed forth.
Darkness enveloped all, yet as he looked around, he felt something watching him.
‘Eyes?’
They were countless eyes.
Innumerable eyes were fixed upon the Gatekeeper.
At once, he recognized what they were.
The Forgotten—that is what they were.
“Who are you…?”
No answer came.
Of course there wouldn’t be.
For they, too, had forgotten.
Yet one thing was certain.
They too had crossed beyond the Realm of Zero.
Primordial creatures, perhaps existing since long before the Abyss itself was born.
It was the fate of those who broke taboo seeking to escape truth.
Shudder-shudder-shudder-shudder!
The Gatekeeper’s body trembled.
This place was not where he belonged.
He had never laid hands on taboo to begin with.
His situation was nothing like theirs.
Yet… he continued to fall.
The Gatekeeper was sinking endlessly.
He had no idea how far he would plummet.
He wanted to escape.
He wanted to flee.
He could not bear another second in this place.
If only something would grant him passage from this realm.
Anything. Anyone.
‘I would surrender my very soul—please!’
Valhalla’s warrior.
The sole guardian standing at the threshold of Khan’s Palace.
For the first time, he acknowledged his own utter defeat.
* * *
As his level plummeted without end, the Gatekeeper collapsed.
Consciousness fled, and his body continued to fall.
But the Covenant Reaper’s execution did not cease.
“…….”
Yi Hyuk-su watched the Gatekeeper in silence.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
This was the second time.
The second occasion he had summoned the Covenant Reaper to topple a formidable foe.
Game Master Andariel and the Gatekeeper had made a sincere Covenant with the Seer, and both were meeting terrible consequences.
Why was that?
Both had proceeded with confidence in their victory, yet why did it always culminate in the Seer’s triumph?
‘One who forges his own path, rather than following a predetermined one.’
Yi Hyuk-su pondered it again.
If the Seer was a path-maker, then those who merely walked established roads could never stand against him.
But… something nagged at him.
It felt like there was more to it.
Andariel and the Gatekeeper.
What did the two have in common?
‘…Level.’
Yes. Level.
Both had encountered problems related to level.
Andariel’s trial was to achieve victory against an opponent whose level increased by one with each confrontation.
Others had fallen to defeat without managing even a few victories against gradually strengthening foes, but Yi Hyuk-su, alongside the Seer, had fought over a hundred battles.
Throughout it all, the enemies that appeared did not grow stronger.
For reasons he could not fathom, only after roughly a hundred battles had they begun to strengthen incrementally.
This time was no different.
Yi Hyuk-su recalled the Gatekeeper’s words.
―I swear by the Abyss upon my heart: in our combat alone, I shall meet you at a level ten ranks below your average. Furthermore, should I fall, I shall serve you within these palace walls.
The Gatekeeper had been explicit.
He would fight at a level ten ranks below their average.
Average level meant the sum of his level and the Seer’s level, divided by two.
‘My level is twenty-one, so even if the Seer’s level were one, the average would have to be at least eleven.’
Even subtracting ten from that left one level.
A level of one was still a measurable number—a level that could exist.
Yet the Gatekeeper’s condition was far too irregular.
The Covenant Reaper continued, without pause, to transfer the Gatekeeper’s power onto the scale.
He might have lost consciousness from an abrupt level drop… but the Covenant Reaper’s persistence suggested something more than that.
Combined with what had happened to Andariel, a far more intense suspicion took hold.
Suspicion gradually hardened into certainty.
The Seer.
The truth regarding his level was coming into focus.
Perhaps……
‘……Is the Seer’s Level so extraordinarily high that it’s causing this problem?’
Could the Level truly be that immense?
High enough to disregard all established frameworks and standards—so high that no one could possibly comprehend the Seer!
After all, a Negative Level shouldn’t exist in the first place.
It was a clear misunderstanding, but Yi Hyuk-su pondered it nonetheless.
‘Now I understand. The Seer’s Level far exceeds 100. Of course all these phenomena must be glitches or bugs that no one can perceive.’
An existence that no one dared oppose.
That was his certainty about the Seer.
Because the Level was so incomprehensibly high, everything around it simply broke down.
Of course, it was strange that such an overwhelming being would summon the Covenant Reaper to face him at all—but conversely, perhaps such an overwhelming existence simply refrained from using power.
Yi Hyuk-su regarded Park Chan-woo carefully.
Park Chan-woo was stroking his chin, his gaze fixed on the Gatekeeper.
‘……Has he fallen to a Negative Level?’
He was uncertain.
Even though his own current Level was –89, he had never witnessed another being reach a Negative Level before.
He was genuinely curious what would happen when another existence reached a state of Negative Level.
‘Beyond the Realm of Zero. A world of Void that should never exist.’
Park Chan-woo knew of that hypothesis as well.
Tales from ancient civilizations that once existed—from Mages and Alchemists of other races.
Countless stories spun by those practitioners.
Stories about what might lie beyond the Realm of Zero.
Some said it was the primordial world; others said nothing existed there.
Some claimed it was a region of frozen time before the Abyss was born; still others spoke of some point within present, past, or future.
Since it couldn’t be verified, he thought they were merely spouting nonsense.
‘But I’m experiencing it directly now, so I can’t simply dismiss it as meaningless drivel…… yet even I cannot understand why this phenomenon is occurring.’
Park Chan-woo himself still wasn’t certain what a Negative Level truly meant.
Whether it was the aftereffect of returning to the past, whether he truly sold his future, or whether some other force was at work.
Park Chan-woo didn’t know.
What was certain was that something had caused this.
Thus he was keenly curious about what would happen when another being reached a Negative Level.
Sssssshhh.
And then it happened.
The Covenant Reaper suddenly stopped moving.
It no longer absorbed Level from the Gatekeeper.
《You have reached the average Level.》
The message announcing he’d finally reached the average Level.
The Gatekeeper’s condition was utterly wretched.
His breathing had ceased, his heart barely beating.
With an ashen complexion, he was dying by degrees.
Then.
《’Warrior of Valhalla’ has been defeated.》
《’Challenger’ has achieved victory.》
The moment the defeat message appeared.
As all the Level collected on the Reaper’s scale was reclaimed.
“Aaaaaaaaargh!”
The Gatekeeper lurched upright, screaming with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
He scanned the surroundings rapidly, and upon realizing he was within the palace, released a deep sigh.
But that relief didn’t last long.
The Gatekeeper’s gaze snapped toward Park Chan-woo.
Quiver-quiver-quiver!
His entire body trembled like an aspen leaf.
His eyes were wide with terror.
The confidence he’d carried before was nowhere to be found.
“A…… uh……!”
The Gatekeeper barely managed to open his mouth, but no words came out properly.
The things he had seen beyond the Realm of Zero were too grotesque, too alien.
Now that he understood the cause of all these horrors was this very human—this Challenger, Park Chan-woo.
Collapsed on the ground, the Gatekeeper scrabbled backward with both hands, desperately putting distance between them.
Like a fragile creature who has glimpsed its natural predator.
“What did you see?”
Park Chan-woo asked.
He approached slowly, moving closer to the Gatekeeper.
Standing before him where he crouched, Park Chan-woo met his gaze directly and spoke.
The Gatekeeper clamped both hands over his mouth.
“You won’t speak?”
Shake, shake!
The Gatekeeper shook his head.
…Unless it wasn’t refusal to speak.
“You can’t speak?”
At Park Chan-woo’s question, the Gatekeeper nodded.
He could not speak.
What he had witnessed.
Everything he had encountered as he descended endlessly deeper.
The Gatekeeper had plummeted to Negative Level 44.
Beyond that lay far vaster, more terrible things, yet even from what he had experienced thus far, he could understand enough.
Past the Realm of Zero, into the Negative World.
What dwelt in that place.
‘Gods…!’
…Beings whose Names could not be spoken.
Godlike.
Or perhaps Existence itself in divine form.

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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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