The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 312

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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 312. Gluttony
A Berserk[?] fueled by a staggering 530,618 Sanity points.
Berserk[S+] requires 102,400 points.
Therefore, with 530,618, a tier beyond Berserk[S+] should have manifested.
If my calculations were correct, that is.
“Hah.”
I waited for Mungu with anxious anticipation.
How much time had passed?
Seconds stretched like minutes.
◆Error: Exceeds existing tier boundaries.
Mungu materialized before my eyes.
◆Berserk[?] ceiling reached.
◆Tier manifestation impossible.
◆Sanity consumed – 530,618
◆Excess 428,218 converted to pending status.
◆Berserk[?] tier applied as [S+].
“…What?”
My mind went blank for a moment.
I’d poured every last Sanity point into this, and all I got was S+.
In other words, Berserk[S+].
That was it.
“There’s nothing beyond this…?”
I reviewed the message that had just appeared.
Then I checked the skill mechanics of Berserk[?] once more.
◆Berserk[?]
: Upon activation, the player unleashes accumulated [Madness]. Through this, the player may select a [Normal Skill] to temporarily elevate its [tier], capable of enhancement beyond maximum tier limits.
The enhanced skill’s tier and abilities amplify according to the unleashed [Madness value], with additional effects granted matching respective characteristics.
…There was nothing else.
S+ was the end.
But one word captured my attention.
“Normal Skill.”
It referred to skills classified within tiers E through S.
Simply put, biological evolution abilities.
In other words, Normal Skills meant skills forged by nature itself.
Thus, Normal Skill tiers carried the following meanings.
[E] tier is the foundational level for survival.
[D] tier is the level of individual superiority.
[C] tier is the level of occupying the upper food chain.
[B] tier is the level where specialized, unparalleled abilities emerge.
[A] tier is the complete form of biological evolution.
And [S] rank represents the ultimate form of biological evolution.
In other words.
Within the natural hierarchy, [S+] is the final rank.
It differed from the [EX] rank.
[EX], true to its meaning of “outside specifications,” was a rank that only applied to skills operating under a completely different system.
Ian’s abilities were the prime example.
Beyond that, [EX] rank had never been assigned even once.
In other words, [EX] rank didn’t mean something beyond [S+] rank—it represented an entirely different concept outside the natural hierarchy’s framework.
And Berserk Rampage[?] was a “general skill” rank that temporarily transcended the natural hierarchy’s standards.
“So [S+] is the ceiling.”
Nature had failed to define anything beyond [S+].
Therefore it doesn’t exist.
So the reason Berserk Rampage[?] halted was simple.
“There’s no rank left to transcend.”
Because no standard to surpass had been defined in this world.
In other words.
“There isn’t nothing beyond [S+].”
There simply exists no language to describe what comes after [S+].
That’s why the excess Sanity values didn’t disappear—they converted to a suspended state.
So if I could define that myself?
“I could transcend it.”
I could advance beyond the [S+] rank.
But that was a “blank space” undefined even across billions of years of nature, a domain that couldn’t be interpreted by this world’s laws.
◆Covenant Skill, Rule Negation[M] is activated!
I deployed Rule Negation[M] against Berserk Rampage[?].
◆The structure, form, and principles of Berserk Rampage[?] are temporarily deactivated.
And at that moment.
◆All possibilities of Berserk Rampage[?] convert to an ergodic state.
Ergodic.
Traversing every possible evolution that could exist.
Passing through every conceivable coincidence that could occur.
A method of reaching one outcome that appears impossible yet isn’t, at the end of that journey.
In essence, a principle that accumulates infinite possibilities and transforms chance into inevitability.
◆A new rank is defined: [UL]
A rank no one had reached across billions of years.
A rank that remained undefined until now.
Ultimate Limit.
◆[UL] is added to the rank system.
◆Berserk Rampage[?]’s rank is applied as [UL].
◆The skill capable of being transcended is Predation[S+].
That was why Devouring [S+] was the only skill capable of transcendence.
All other skills fell short of the threshold.
Only S+ grade could ascend to UL grade.
I immediately applied Berserk [UL] to Devouring [S+].
◆Skill Devouring [S+] has been upgraded to [UL] grade.
A brilliant flash of text materialized before my eyes.
Moments later, the information of the transcended new skill surfaced in my mind.
◆Ultimate Skill, Ravenous Consumption [UL] acquired!
◆Ravenous Consumption [UL]
: Absorbs all information comprising existence—from its form, nature, and concept to causality, possibility, and latent potential—and converts it into a skill.
In the process, it immediately manifests a new form of evolution that disregards the existing system.
…It was clearly an extraordinary skill.
The ultimate skill that had reached the literal ‘Ultimate Limit [UL]’.
“But I don’t really feel any change.”
No overwhelming surge of power coursing through my body.
No sensation of being able to consume anything.
No Dragon in my left hand thrashing about wildly.
“There don’t seem to be any outward changes.”
Yet something had definitely shifted.
I immediately drew out the Essence of Evolution.
“Should I just consume it whole like with Devouring?”
…Well, not quite.
The description of Ravenous Consumption [UL] lacked the act of ‘consuming’ that Devouring [S+] possessed.
In that instant.
A sound like something splitting echoed through my mind.
Soon after, everything around me seemed to pause.
Time itself froze solid.
It felt as though I had stepped into the domain of a single moment.
‘This is….’
It felt as though Ravenous Consumption [UL] had begun reading the Essence of Evolution.
A hairline fracture etched itself into being.
The fissure widened infinitesimally.
Through the widening gap, something indescribable began to flow.
Neither blood nor flesh.
Yet undeniably alive.
It was cruel.
An unconscious murderous impulse surged forth—the primal compulsion that survival demanded the death of another.
It was merciless.
Good and evil, right and wrong.
Stripped of any such standard, it pushed toward nothing but the singular outcome of survival.
It was grotesque.
To survive, I denied even myself, grinding away my very existence and transforming.
It was contemptible.
It was selfish.
It was also greedy, relentless, hideous, cunning, malevolent, wretched, distorted, dishonest, and merciless.
And yet.
It was alive.
I could perceive it.
That was Life itself.
Neither beautiful nor noble.
Neither righteous nor pure.
Life itself.
A ruthless force that trampled and tore apart other beings without hesitation, simply to survive, simply to exist.
Life had been consuming my consciousness.
It trampled and devoured everything I was.
It asked no questions.
It needed no justification.
Survival.
For that single value, it destroyed everything within me.
My sense of self began to warp.
Memories corroded.
Consciousness compressed, and my mind was driven to the brink of collapse.
“Ugh—!”
Before the immense power of life, I could not maintain my existence.
But in that moment.
Something within me opened its eyes.
An endless hunger.
A formless, hollow instinct.
It was Gluttony.
Gluttony seeped into my consciousness and flesh.
It seized my crumbling sense of self.
And facing Life, I opened my mouth as naturally as drawing breath.
Crunch!
Life shattered.
In that single bite.
All the information contained within Life was sucked into Gluttony.
Form, meaning, memory, nature.
Concept, causality, possibility and potential.
Gluttony savored the structure and essence of Life.
Peeling away layer upon layer of all the accumulation built over billions of years—.
The primordial life hidden beneath it all.
Burrowing down to the lowest and deepest stratum ever called life itself—
At last.
When I consumed the ‘source of life’ that remained at the core.
【
Within the evolution of life lay a possibility: that finite existence could advance toward infinity.
】
A strange vision crashed down before my eyes.
* * *
There exists a path of infinity.
A finite being walks that path.
Yet a finite being can never reach the end of an infinite path.
Not because they grow old and die.
Not because their strength runs out.
Not because their will falters.
A finite being cannot reach the ‘end’ of infinity, which does not exist in the first place.
No matter how far a finite distance is traveled.
No matter how much finite time passes.
A finite being can only traverse a finite distance within finite time.
Never.
Can the end of an infinite path be reached.
In other words, the finite can never become infinite.
But then.
…is that truly so?
Can the finite truly never touch infinity?
Here, there is sand.
One grain.
This can be called a ‘grain of sand’.
There are many such grains.
Let us count them.
One, two, three, four, five….
Ten thousand in total.
These ten thousand grains of sand together can be called a ‘heap of sand’.
Remove one grain from the heap.
Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine grains remain.
This too is surely a ‘heap of sand’.
Now remove two grains.
It would still be a heap of sand.
Remove more.
Again, and again, and again….
When does a pile of sand cease to be a pile of sand?
At what point, when only a certain number of grains remain, can it no longer be called a “pile of sand”?
Ten grains?
Then what about eleven?
Twelve? Thirteen?
And as the number increases, when does it become a “pile of sand” again?
Let me expand this thought.
Now, imagine an infinite number of grains of sand.
Remove one grain.
Even after subtracting one from infinity, the grains remain infinite.
Remove another.
Still infinite.
No matter how many grains I remove, infinity remains unmarred.
So let me increase the frequency of removal.
I remove a grain.
Then another.
And again.
Once, twice, thrice… infinitely many times.
Eventually, the grains begin to diminish until they reach zero and vanish entirely.
So then.
When do the grains become zero?
When does it enter the realm of the finite?
Not after one removal.
Not even after a hundred million removals.
Not even after removing them yang, yang, gu, gan, jeong, jae, and geuk times.
But after infinite removals?
The grains vanish to zero.
In other words, there exists a definite point where infinite grains became finite.
I don’t know where it is.
But that place is precisely.
The boundary where infinity transforms into finitude.
Simultaneously.
It mirrors the moment when finitude expands into infinity.
Only the direction differs.
The essence remains identical.
If I could discover that boundary, could not finite existence itself touch infinity?
I began my research.
And remarkably.
There existed something that had recognized that boundary before me.
Nature.
The evolution of life, forged by that pristine history.
Life evolves through genetic mutation.
Humans and rats.
Entirely different species.
Yet their genetic structure is 99% identical.
Long ago.
They shared a common ancestor.
This is why experiments are conducted on rats.
Humans and rats had the same parent.
But that parent?
It was neither human nor rat.
Its offspring too were neither human nor rat.
And its offspring’s offspring were neither human nor rat.
Yet after hundreds of thousands of generations, humans and rats emerged.
So when exactly.
Did one become human?
Did one become rat?
…At what moment did such distinctions arise?
Evolution is continuous, yet the classification of species is discontinuous.
A single organism, at some precise instant.
Becomes classified as an entirely different species.
…Does it not resemble something?
No—is it not identical?
That moment when the finite expands into the infinite.
That moment when life’s evolution diverges and branches.
The boundary where continuous flow breaks into change—that very threshold was woven into evolution itself!
Then did nature know?
That boundary where the infinite converges into the finite and expands again?
Perhaps.
Nature already knew infinity all along.
It simply never spoke of it.
Yet through life and evolution, it was displaying the knowledge of infinity to us.
In other words.
…The answer lies here.
In the evolution of life.
Within it breathes that boundary where the infinite converges into the finite and expands once more.
I do not know where that place is.
But if I could only discern it, I could advance toward the infinite.
And thus reach the end of that endless infinity, its contradiction, its terminus.
The truth of all things.
At last, I would be able to reach it.
* * *
◆You have acquired the Concept Skill, Paradox[M]!
◆Paradox[M]
: An argument that does not substantively create contradiction, yet produces logical contradiction in specific cases. The player may attempt to integrate this Concept Skill with certain concepts based on understanding of Paradox.
A translucent message flashed before my eyes.
At the same moment, the illusion that had consumed my vision vanished.
Paradox[M].
A Concept Skill capable of creating fusion skills.
Yet I could not use Paradox[M].
Thump!!
My heart convulsed violently.
Within it, something heavy and colossal writhed.
What surged from my heart flowed through blood and cells, spreading across my entire body—
◆Evolution Quest, [All Paths to Supremacy Lead Through the Dragon] has been cleared!
◆Primordial Ultimate Evolution begins.
A force of unknowable origin suddenly enveloped my entire body.

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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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