72. 12th Floor, The God of Choice. Maria (4) [Confusion Judgment in progress...]
[Madness Judgment in progress...]
[Fear Judgment in progress...]
[Instant Death Judgment in progress...]
[Wandering Soul Judgment in progress...]
[Fainting Judgment in progress...]
[All Judgments successful!]
[Confusion Judgment in progress...]
[Madness Judgment in progress...]
[Fear Judgment in progress...]
The Judgments succeeded, then were attempted again, and again. As soon as one Judgment succeeded, another would begin. The Judgments did not stop.
[Heok, heok.]
The Ghost was in a worse state than Taesan. Although it seemed to be holding on somehow, its white body flickered with static like a television, as if it would dissipate at any moment. Taesan looked up at the woman with a playful smile.
The woman's smile deepened.
Taesan scowled.
“Is this how you treat an invited guest?”
In that moment, the oppressive force lessened. The flurry of Judgments also disappeared.
[Heok.]
The Ghost barely managed to catch its breath. The woman giggled. The Ghost bowed its body.
[Th-thank you. Oh, god.]
[Do not thank me. It was his words that did it. It has been a long time.]
[It has been... a long time.]
The woman and the Ghost seemed to know each other. The woman chuckled.
[Yes. It is the first time since our unpleasant meeting.]
Though her words were playful, the Ghost could not bring itself to speak carelessly. After a moment of watching the Ghost, the woman turned her gaze to Taesan.
[Child. You must know who I am.]
“The God of Choice. Maria.”
It was impossible not to know. The Mental Judgments he had just faced were deeper and more endless than those of the Apostle, the worst being he had ever encountered.
[I am the Goddess of Choice. A god who reached this place by repeating vile choices, and who now forces choices upon mortals.]
The titles attached to a god revealed what they governed.
[Welcome to my Divine Temple. Precious child.]
The goddess looked down at Taesan with a smile. Faced with such overt goodwill, Taesan was both flustered and horrified.
‘This is…’
He had not thought deeply about the gods. He was certain they were powerful beings, but he had not imagined any single one would be so overwhelmingly strong. He had assumed they were at most two or three times stronger than an Apostle.
But the god he witnessed firsthand was on a different Dimension.
‘There are dozens, hundreds of beings like this?’
As Taesan let out a dry laugh inwardly, the Ghost spoke cautiously.
[Great one. Might I be so bold as to ask a question?]
[Go ahead. You, who are now a dead child.]
[Were we not uninvited to the Divine Temple of the gods? That we, as mortals, could not be accepted...]
[No, child. While it is true you cannot withstand our presence, that is a solvable problem. The issue lies elsewhere.]
Maria smiled.
[You were not called because you are not worthy of being called.]
The Ghost fell silent. This time, Taesan spoke.
“Are you saying I have worth?”
[Gasp.]
The Ghost gasped at the bold question. From its perspective, Taesan’s behavior was incredibly rude. But Taesan did not think so.
The goddess before him would not perceive such an act as rude. His prediction was correct; the goddess smiled.
[You do. You are quite an attractive child to us. I wanted to see you for myself.]
A god was showing direct interest. The Ghost was utterly shocked by this fact. In all its years in the Labyrinth, it had never heard of such a thing.
[That fellow Rakiratas was making such a racket, so I thought I’d be strict... but you were worth it.]
Maria.
Not many had accepted the Trial of she who forces choices. And among them, almost none had overcome it. Furthermore, not a single person had ever endured a Trial she had personally enhanced.
Taesan had passed the Trial. And he had even produced results that satisfied her. Maria looked down at Taesan with the eyes of one gazing at a precious treasure.
[I was a little disappointed you settled here, but I suppose it was a decent choice in its own right.]
“I would like to ask one thing. What would you have done if I had included a lie in my choice during the Trial?”
[If you had done that.]
The goddess spoke softly.
[I would not have been pleased.]
In that instant, an oppressive pressure enveloped them. The Ghost could not hold back and gasped for air.
[The one next to you did that in the past.]
[Ha, haha...]
The Ghost laughed sheepishly. Not including a lie had been the right answer. If he had, it was highly likely the goddess would not be showing him such favor.
The goddess brought up the main reason she had called Taesan.
[Child. Do you truly have no intention of becoming my Apostle?]
She liked Taesan. She was the Goddess of Choice. She did not like to compel.
Maria’s Trial gives those who take it the Freedom of Choice. But that was the problem. The Adventurers who took her Trial spoke lies.
That too was a choice, but she did not like it. She liked fair and honest choices, and the strength and wit to overcome them. It was a matter of taste.
Because of this, she had not created a single Apostle since the Labyrinth was designed. She had not been pleased with any of them. But Taesan was different.
He had made a choice without falsehood and had, in a near-impossible situation, squeezed out logic and wisdom to achieve a perfect victory. She liked Taesan very, very much.
[If you accept, you will become my First Apostle. What you desire will be granted, and you will descend the Labyrinth as my Divine Representative. No one will dare speak to you carelessly, not even the Apostle of another god.]
Maria had that much power. And she was willing to grant it to Taesan.
[What say you?]
“I am sorry.”
Taesan calmly refused. Maria’s offer was certainly appealing. With such power, he could descend the Labyrinth much faster.
But it was not the path he desired. Maria stepped back readily with a laugh.
[That is not so bad either. I will respect your choice.]
Contrary to his expectation, she did not seem offended. If so, he might be able to ask.
“May I ask a question?”
[Go ahead, child.]
“How much do you know about me?”
At the question that pierced the heart of the matter, Maria smiled.
[We know as much as you think we do. That this is not your first time here. That you used what the serpent vomited.]
They knew.
That Taesan had turned back time.
[A pitiful child. A child who went to the wrong place because of a choice. A child caught up in their Divine Meddling.]
This was not particularly surprising. After all, the Ouroboros’s Stomach Stone that Lee Tae-yeon had obtained was from here, the Labyrinth. The gods would not have left an Item that even they could not control.
Moreover, since even Taesan could interfere with time to a small degree, it seemed unlikely that beings with such power would be bound by something as trivial as time. But something bothered him.
“...Caught up in Divine Meddling?”
[What else could it be but Divine Meddling? They gave you a flawed Choice Window. They prevented you from coming where you should have come. Did that not torment you?]
Taesan’s eyes narrowed. The Divine Meddling must refer to the Easy, Normal, and Hard modes. The goddess knew what choices they had been given.
“Do you know who it was?”
At the calm but emotional voice, the goddess smiled softly.
[That answer, I will give you if you accept my proposal.]
“So you cannot tell me.”
[It is a rather shameful story for us as well. I cannot tell you without a Tribute.]
Still, it was an answer of sorts. The goddess spoke with a smile.
[You are impressive as you are now, but you are still weak. Come down a little further. There is something you must receive.]
“This is too much attention for an ordinary person like me.”
[You can say that because you do not know this place. Because you have no idea what the ones you call Adventurers do here. We remain here to play house, but it is not a peaceful and sordid game of house. It is a game of house where lives are at stake.]
A hint of annoyance flickered in the goddess’s eyes. That alone made the air constrict tightly.
[If I had my way, I’d crush them all... but that would be no fun. I am not so young as to throw a child’s tantrum.]
The goddess smiled.
[You will find out before long. Yes. That would be amusing too. The fight between you and them, I mean.]
Just then, a sound echoed from outside the Divine Temple.
[Ah. This is it. Something troublesome has arrived.]
[Heok.]
The Ghost swallowed hard. A massive presence rushed in. It was not much inferior even when compared to Maria.
[Let us meet again later. Child.]
With the farewell, Taesan’s body began to leave the Divine Temple.
Crack.
A crack appeared on the wall of the Divine Temple. A giant eye was visible through the gap. The eye was filled to the brim with irritation.
[You.]
[Are you angry? You should have moved first. Now I want to be meddled with too, you know?]
With the sound of giggling as the last thing he heard, Taesan returned to the Labyrinth.
[Haa...]
The Ghost’s mouth hung open, still in great shock. Taesan was in a similar state of shock. But his shock was different from the Ghost’s. “This is no joke.”
Taesan had thought that as long as he gathered enough Stats, he would have no enemies. That was not arrogance or bravado. The fact that Lee Tae-yeon, who had cleared Alone Mode, was compared to him was proof.
He had lost to the Apostle, but that was due to a lack of Stats, not a lack of his own strength. Even against one who seeks God, Ainzhar, his past self could have won, albeit with difficulty, and he believed victory would be certain if he had even half of Lee Tae-yeon’s Stats.
Simply put, if his past self had the level of Stats he had now, humankind would have survived for another year. So, as he cleared the Labyrinth, he did not feel much fighting spirit or a sense of challenge.
There had been a few crises, but those were crises that arose because his current self was weaker than his past self, so they did not leave a deep impression. He only thought of gathering as many Stats as possible and returning to Earth. But the gods were limitlessly strong.
Not only Maria, but the god who appeared at the end was also on the same level of strength. His past self, even giving it his all, would have never been able to win. Even with Lee Tae-yeon’s level of Stats, it would not have been much different.
That was a shock to Taesan.
‘Then what about here?’
Taesan’s eyes flickered. They had called the other modes fakes. In those fakes, Taesan had possessed a strength greater than anyone else.
If he obtained everything in this place, which could be called the real thing, could he face the gods as well? Or would it still be impossible?
“I want to try.”
Taesan muttered.
A purely personal goal had formed. Leveling up with skills