Episode 396

Balbabamba sighed deeply.

“Are you feeling troubled?”

He groaned.

“I don’t plan to stop here.”

There was still much to gain. Becoming an Immortal didn’t mean he intended to stop moving forward.

Balbabamba trailed off. Taesan began heading toward the 79th floor.

But Balbabamba blocked the passage, refusing to step aside.

Taesan gazed at him silently.

“What’s the problem?”

The ghost was astonished. A manager interfering with an adventurer’s progress—it was unheard of. Balbabamba replied in a disgruntled tone.

Balbabamba’s gaze lingered on Taesan, filled with complex emotions.

The labyrinth existed because the gods desired to witness mortals risking their lives in struggles.

Immortals descending the labyrinth wasn’t part of the design.

It was only natural. Among those who tested adventurers, some were Immortals. An Immortal challenging another Immortal would be absurd.

“Ainzhar seemed pretty determined to descend the labyrinth.”

Balbabamba was a manager tasked with resolving and repairing the labyrinth’s anomalies.

Taesan himself was an anomaly.

But this left Balbabamba pondering.

The issue lay in how Taesan had reached this state.

All others who surpassed mortality while navigating the labyrinth did so through divine contracts.

Their souls were claimed by the gods, so they were no longer adventurers. Naturally, they were excluded from the labyrinth.

But Taesan achieved immortality on his own while navigating the labyrinth.

How should one treat a mortal who surpassed mortality through their own efforts during a labyrinth run?

This had never happened before. There were those who achieved immortality, but only after clearing the labyrinth.

After much deliberation, Balbabamba came to a conclusion.

Balbabamba stepped aside. Taesan descended the stairs and spoke.

“Why would you block me just because I became an Immortal? I’ve already cleared the floors easily before this.”

Ordinary floors couldn’t stop Taesan.

Unless it was an unusual floor like one of the gods’ trials, he had cleared everything without much difficulty. Becoming an Immortal wouldn’t change that.

With that, Balbabamba disappeared.

As Taesan descended the stairs, he found the shopkeeper waiting.

“This time, you took your sweet time. Anything you want to buy…?”

As he puffed on his pipe, the shopkeeper spotted Taesan and immediately fell silent.

With a faint thud, the pipe fell from his lips.

“……You.”

“Good day.”

Taesan greeted him calmly. The shopkeeper stared at him blankly.

“……You’ve made it.”

“It seems so.”

“Ha, hahaha! Hahahahaha!”

The shopkeeper erupted in laughter. It was a wild laugh, tinged with genuine joy. His wide eyes gleamed as he bared his teeth.

“Yes! You’ve made it! And now! I! I!”

His voice trembled with excitement.

A flushed face.

Overflowing emotions.

The fallen king shouted with all his might.

“I can achieve my wish!”

His voice filled the small room.

After his outburst, the shopkeeper regained his composure and bit his pipe once again.

“So, anything you want to buy?”

“Not yet. I haven’t gathered enough gold.”

“Then come back later.”

He spoke with a smile.

Taesan passed by the shopkeeper.

“Do you not know what it is either?”

Though the ghost was strong, he remained a mortal at heart. He chuckled bitterly.

“We’ll see.”

Taesan figured he’d find out as he proceeded. For now, it seemed he hadn’t reached the floor the shopkeeper cared about.

Taesan opened the door at the end of the passage.

The space was vast.

It wasn’t a labyrinth—it was closer to an open plain. Countless living beings moved within.

‘This is the 79th floor.’

The World of Struggle.

Here, there was only one goal: to prove one’s strength.

This was one of the floors Lee Taeyeon had spent a long time clearing.

The floor was filled with numerous beasts. They killed each other, absorbing their strength to grow stronger. Among them, the strongest creature ruled the 79th floor.

To clear this floor, one had to defeat a certain number of beasts or fight the ruler to prove their strength.

Despite Balbabamba’s advice, Taesan intended to clear them all.

Gripping his sword, Taesan stomped forward. In an instant, his body vanished.

Thud.

He stood before two beasts locked in a life-or-death struggle.

One was a three-headed black dog. Flames spewed from its mouths, melting everything in its vicinity.

The other creature had the lower body of a snake, the upper body of a human, and snake-like hair resembling a Medusa.

They were locked in a deadly fight, covered in wounds from head to toe.

At the sudden appearance of Taesan, they abruptly stopped fighting.

“Come at me.”

Taesan waited silently for their attack, intending to observe their abilities.

However, no matter how long he waited, they didn’t attack him.

They remained frozen like statues.

Taesan frowned. At that moment, the dog lowered its posture.

“Grr, grrr.”

The dog lay flat on the ground, exposing its belly.

It was a posture of absolute submission. The Medusa-like creature wasn’t any different. Its body trembled violently as it slowly approached, desperately bowing its head.

“What’s this?”

Taesan muttered in disbelief.

The 79th floor was the World of Struggle.

The beings here did not fear death. They sought fights to the death, rejoiced in battles against strong opponents, and charged in without hesitation.

Dozens of monsters challenged the king ruling this floor daily, losing their lives in the process. It was literally a world of beasts living solely to fight.

That was how Lee Taeyeon had described it.

“Grr……”

But the monsters in front of him now showed no such will to fight.

Like mice before a cat, they desperately begged for their lives.

Their eyes were filled only with fear.

The ghost muttered in bewilderment. The 79th floor had existed even during the ghost’s time in the labyrinth, so the ghost couldn’t hide his confusion.

To confirm, Taesan stomped his foot. The two monsters, which had been pressing themselves against him desperately, flinched and fled in panic.

Taesan moved to a larger gathering of beasts.

There, dozens of beasts were showing off their strength in fierce combat.

They were not weak. An ordinary adventurer on the 79th floor would have to exert their full strength to fight even one.

Thud.

Taesan landed before them.

The battling beasts froze simultaneously.

“……Grrrahh!”

Cries erupted from all around. Some monsters bolted away in fear, while others gave up running and approached Taesan, rubbing their bodies against him.

At this point, it became clear.

Taesan had reached Immortality.

An Immortal existed on a plane far beyond mortality. Even if he tried to conceal his presence, all who observed him instinctively realized he was of a different caliber.

Thus, even the beasts living for struggle on the 79th floor couldn’t challenge Taesan.

“So this is what Balbabamba meant.”

It was only natural. Struggles were always between beings of the same kind. However, if the act of fighting itself held no meaning—if the opponent was on an entirely different level—then the struggle was pointless.

Driven by instinct, the beasts couldn’t even consider fighting him.

Witnessing this, Taesan understood why Balbabamba had hesitated. The labyrinth’s fundamental purpose of struggle was no longer viable. It was undoubtedly a dilemma for the manager.

“This is troublesome.”

Taesan stroked an eagle perched on his arm, brushing its feathers. The moment his hand touched it, its wings trembled.

These creatures had abandoned the struggle and were begging for their lives. Dealing with them felt awkward.

“……Balbabamba did say I’d get the rewards even if I only did the bare minimum.”

He must have known that the monsters on the 79th floor would forgo fighting, suggesting that Taesan should just leave them alone.

With that understanding, Taesan saw no need to take action.

He wandered through the 79th floor. Wherever he went, the monsters either fled or approached to rub against him. There was no in-between.

With no battles to fight, there wasn’t much to do.

Taesan decided to locate the secret room. Though the 79th floor was vast, it posed no challenge to him.

Upon reaching Immortality, his perspective of the world had changed. He could instinctively identify the location of the secret room without needing to use any skills.

As a result, he found the secret room remarkably quickly.

Although its stats and defense were slightly lower than the shoes he currently wore, the attack boost made it a worthwhile piece of equipment.

After discovering the secret room, there was little else to do.

Ultimately, Taesan approached the king of the 79th floor.

The king was a massive black bear. Its body was covered in scars, but the tightly packed muscles beneath its fur were clearly visible.

“You’re strong.”

It possessed power comparable to the leaders of the Guides of Sin.

The bear, quietly observing Taesan, slowly lowered its posture.

It knelt, pressing its head to the ground in a gesture of absolute submission to Taesan.

Taesan stroked the bear’s head.