Chapter 166
Meanwhile...
Bong Taesu and Lee Yumi were still fighting Lee Seha, who had transformed into Indura.
[Contamination is approaching 80%.]
[405,830,059 existences have been deleted due to contamination.]
[The floor is beginning to collapse.]
"Cough, cough! Huff... huff...."
Bong Taesu breathed heavily.
The clothes he'd been wearing had long since been torn to pieces.
The skin beneath was covered in blood from Indura's tentacles.
"Huff... huff.... Mister, are you okay?"
"Haa... I can still hold out."
Taesu glanced at her.
"But what about you, Miss Yumi?"
"You've been pushing yourself this whole time...."
Her eyes were bloodshot.
Blood had smeared around her eyes and beneath her nose.
Dark-red blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
"I'm fine... cough."
"I'm okay."
"I can still handle this much, so...."
That was what she said.
But her arms and legs were trembling.
The moment she tried to use Mana again...
Blood trickled from her ears.
Her body was already completely wrecked.
The reason was simple.
She had pushed her Mana far beyond its limits while fighting Indura.
Mana had an absolute limit.
No matter who you were...
Once you crossed that limit, your body gradually began breaking down.
"Haa... huff...."
Lee Yumi had crossed that line a long time ago.
Her Mana reserves had already been completely drained.
To force herself to replenish even a little more...
She had deliberately accelerated the Mana circuits leading to her heart.
She'd repeated the process several times.
And this was the result.
RUMMMMMBLE!
Indura, on the other hand...
Was releasing an even more disturbing aura than before.
Rip. Tear.
Its severed tentacles regenerated instantly like a lizard's tail.
But the real problem was what happened every time they regenerated.
The tentacles came back stronger.
No.
Indura itself adapted to the two of them.
And evolved into something even more dangerous.
"Mister!!"
Lee Yumi gathered Mana once again and clenched her fist.
A massive force of telekinesis slammed Indura into the ground.
CRRRRRUNCH!
At the same moment...
Bong Taesu kicked off the ground and leapt.
He gritted his teeth.
Then clenched his fist just like her.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
The ground split apart beneath Bong Taesu's strike as though an earthquake had hit.
A violent blast of wind swept through the surroundings.
"Cough! Cough...!"
"Blegh... keugh...!"
Lee Yumi collapsed.
Blackened blood spilled from her mouth.
Taesu hurried toward her.
But...
"Skriiiieeee...."
Indura's body had been crushed beyond recognition.
And yet...
It was regenerating again.
This time...
Its skin grew even harder.
Its tentacles became thicker.
Bong Taesu moved in front of Lee Yumi and assumed a stance to protect her.
He had already reached his limit too.
Even so...
He kept smiling.
"Just hold on a little longer, Miss Yumi."
"Even if I have to stake my life on it..."
"I'll protect you."
Then...
BOOOOOOOOOOM──!!!!!
At that same moment...
In a space filled entirely with black...
Only one existence possessed color.
System.
It sat on the ground, watching Suhyeok's battle against the Dragon of the End through a screen as though watching a movie.
"Wow."
"That's impressive."
"I didn't think he'd be able to fight the Dragon of the End that evenly."
"Right?"
A tiny tentacle growing from the ground tilted its head.
System simply grinned at it.
Step. Step.
Then...
In a space that should've contained only System...
Footsteps echoed.
"Oh!"
"Over here!"
"You got here earlier than I expected."
"I thought you'd be a little later."
The man walked over without replying.
Then stopped directly behind System.
Ruzian.
"My apologies."
"I ended up being slightly late."
"I received quite a few complaints from various places."
"You could say that delayed me."
He casually created a chair and sat down.
System leaned its head backward and smiled up at him.
"Haha."
"Is that so?"
"By the way..."
"You surprised me earlier."
"I'd never seen you act like that before."
"Schunau looked pretty shocked too."
"Everyone has at least one hidden side to their personality."
Ruzian smiled calmly.
"I am, technically, a living being with emotions."
"I lost my temper a little earlier."
"More importantly..."
"I didn't realize you were watching even that."
"There's almost nothing in this Tower I can't see anymore."
System's smile widened.
"I've had that level of authority for quite a while now."
The two exchanged casual words.
Then Ruzian asked,
"Is your objective still the same as before?"
"To recreate everything the way it once was──"
"No."
"I gave up on that."
Ruzian's eyes shifted slightly.
"Think about it."
System's tone remained light.
"A world where everyone is happy?"
"There's no way something like that can exist."
"I realized that after I was expelled from the Tower."
"So this time..."
"I'm going to do things a little differently."
"...Differently?"
Ruzian studied it.
"Curious."
"You used to love this Tower more than anyone."
"You wanted to possess it whole and intact."
Silence followed.
System straightened its head again.
Then stared at the screen.
BOOOOM!
Two tremendous powers collided.
Suhyeok and Arthur exchanged blows so quickly that even the eye could barely follow them.
The shockwave came first.
The sound followed three seconds later.
"Hup!"
Suhyeok drove a fist packed with Rank forward at full power.
Arthur was blasted all the way toward the dome-shaped barrier.
BOOOOOOM!!
But Arthur returned almost immediately.
Completely unfazed.
And continued attacking.
Some time passed.
Then...
The golden energy flowing around Suhyeok began fading.
"Kuhahahahaha!"
"More!"
"Struggle more!"
Suhyeok slowly began getting pushed back.
Fatigue was obvious now.
Small and large injuries continued accumulating all over his body.
Arthur, in comparison...
Looked unnaturally fine.
Attacks that should've inflicted fatal wounds healed almost instantly.
At first...
Suhyeok had held a slight advantage thanks to spending sixty million Coins.
But only for a short while.
Arthur's power remained constant.
Suhyeok's strength, however...
Was falling step by step.
"Hmm."
System watched for a moment.
Then slowly stood.
It turned and looked down at Ruzian.
"When I take Lee Suhyeok's body..."
"I'm going to destroy this entire world."
"Delete everyone."
"Erase every trace of what existed before."
"I'm going to break the Tower."
Then...
It continued without expression.
"And I'll build a new Tower."
Ruzian glanced behind System.
A gigantic tentacle was visible through the darkness.
