With the notebook in hand, Se-Hoon immediately entered the workshop and began reading the notes Ludwig had left behind about his research for his pride: the Ascension Project.

Upon reaching the top of the Tower and realizing the Whitespace, I became capable of reaching any space that exists in this world.

With this transcendent ability—this so-called power—I successfully restored the collapsing fronts across various regions. Unfortunately, in the end, I still could not bring the war to a complete end.

The vitality of the Demon Force was tenacious, and its source, the Abyss of Demons, remained a threat even to me as I am now. Thus, to defeat them, I needed more of these powers—more Perfect Ones like myself.

But until then, how many people will die and how much talent will be lost? The method must be changed. I will use the Whitespace to create a gate to ascend to the pinnacle.

“A gate to ascend...”

The words, which seemed like a figure of speech, were proven to be anything but upon turning the page. In that entry, Se-Hoon found out that those words couldn’t be further from a mere metaphor—they were literally the core concept behind the Ascension Project.

He wanted to allow people to skip every trial and instantly become a Perfect One by taking a gate created with the power of Space straight to the top.... What a terrifying idea.

The Ludwig of the past clearly considered the very act of climbing the Towers of Heroes inefficient. And so, he sought to omit it entirely. However, even though he had achieved his wishes and created the Ascension Gate without issue... the results were far from the ideal he had envisioned.

The first experiment failed.

Of the hundred volunteers, ninety-five disappeared after passing through; the remaining five successfully arrived, although none in proper condition.

Only parts of subjects 13 and 29’s bodies were transmitted successfully, resulting in them dying upon arrival. Subjects 41 and 68 arrived fully intact, except they became imbeciles and were unable to proceed to the next stage.

The final subject, 98, reached the last stage only to lose most of their memories and fail in the end because they could not properly articulate their wish.

...

Looking into the cause of failure for each case, I found it to be the incompleteness of each individual’s synesthetic mindscape. The top of the Tower is governed by laws different from our world; unless one is a being with a completed synesthetic mindscape, they can not withstand such a burden.

The Ascension Project was doomed to fail from the beginning. I have realized that far too late.

The words were calm, yet heavy. He had invested countless hours into countless experiments, yet in the end, he had to give up and scrap the gate altogether because of the fundamental flaw in the project.

However, what had been created by repurposing that discarded Ascension Project was the present Babel—or more precisely, the first artificial island that had once stood at that very location.

So that’s why he changed the plan into drawing the Golden Ring’s power down to the surface.

Instead of sending people through the Ascension Gate, Ludwig pivoted to using it as a passage connecting the Ring and the Earth. If the Golden Ring’s power were to go through, the people below could be granted it.

Now with a full understanding of the background of Ludwig’s plan, Se-Hoon looked down at the Hero’s Ring on his finger.

Then the Hero’s Ring must have been actualized during the process of reorganizing the Ascension Project from its original form into the Babel Project.

That would explain why Ludwig had said there was only one of it and why it would be difficult to make another. Mulling over the new information, Se-Hoon shifted his eyes back to the journal.

Okay, I understand the structure of the Ascension Project now, but... what does this have to do with controlling the Ring?

According to the contents of the journal, even if the Ascension Project succeeded, the entirety of humanity would merely become Perfect Ones. Sure, it would be seen as a tremendous event in which the human species itself transcended. However, looking at it from a perspective that understood the essence of a “Perfect One,” that was no different from becoming slaves bound to the Golden Ring.

The clue should be in here though...

Se-Hoon reviewed what he had learned. He had to determine what had changed between the past, when Ludwig wrote the journal, and the present he was reading it in. There were advances in technology, six Perfect Ones, the extinction of the Demon Force, and...

“The Blessings!”

In the past, humans could only complete their synesthetic mindscape by climbing the Towers or falling into the Abyss.

The Blessings changed that.

The Blessing of the Eternal protected the soul, the Blessing of the Sacred Lantern safeguarded the synesthetic mindscape, the Blessing of Foresight showed the way forward, and the Law of Repentance aided the overcoming of trials.

In other words: present-day humanity was now strong enough to withstand the burden of ascension!

The possibility that the Tower would reject the Blessings is... none! If it intended to do that, the power of the Boundaries wouldn’t even have been reorganized into the Blessing of the Eternal.

The essence of the Blessings was the same as the powers in the end—something derived from the Golden Ring’s laws—so there was no chance that it would interfere with them now of all times.

Still... that alone won’t let us control the Ring.

Ascension was merely a means to pull humanity up to a position equal to the Golden Ring. If he wanted to control the Golden Ring, he needed a system of equal standing to it—a new law independent from the system of existing laws.

“I guess I just have to make myself the main body.”

Just as Lea had once indirectly activated the power of Regression through him during Puppeteer’s Finale, he would gather the power of the newly ascended humanity into himself. With that, he would not only be able to block the Golden Ring’s interference but also stop any calamity from happening by simply returning the world to a previous state.

Thud!

Closing Ludwig’s journal, Se-Hoon sprang to his feet and looked around his workshop. He then rolled up his sleeves and lit the furnace at the center.

“Se-Ha. Come help me with some work.”

“Yep!”

Despite not being around, Se-Ha appeared out of thin air and began helping Se-Hoon without questioning it. That was how halfway up the mountain, one could see a building glowing so brightly that it was almost as if the sun was out despite it being the dead of night.

And like moths to a flame, the companions Se-Hoon contacted began gathering in the brightly lit workshop one by one.

“What’s all this all of a sud—”

“Jake. Over here.”

“Huh?”

Jake, who had brought snacks with him, was dragged into a corner of the workshop and made to compress and process materials.

“I’m here.”

“Erika. Help with this.”

“Okay.”

Erika, who had shown up almost the instant he texted her, began tuning the prepared materials.

“I thought you might get hungry, so I brought some food.”

“Later... no, I’ll eat now.”

“That is the correct decision.”

Eun-Ha, who had brought an enormous lunchbox, had everyone there eat first before heading over to control the furnace.

“Why is Jake over there like that?”

“He said he wanted to rest, so I told him to go help Erika.”

“What kind of... fine. So what am I supposed to do?”

Letting out a sigh at the sight of Jake, blank-faced as he was manipulated by Erika’s threads, Aria took charge of trimming with a sword aura.

“Damn it. I told you this would happen.”

“You were the one who said we should go just in case.”

“It’s too late to run now, so let’s just get inside. Brother, what do you want us to do first?”

“Come here and help me test this.”

Grumbling as they entered, Luize, Sung-Ha, and Amir assisted Se-Hoon with operating the prototype at his side.

Like that, everyone spent a full week commuting in and out of the workshop, working through nights without complaint.

“What a mess.”

Meirin, who had only just received word, looked around the inside of the workshop with an eye raised. The place was such a mess that it looked as though a thief had ransacked it. Warmth also lingered everywhere, as though it had only recently been bustling with people, yet the only ones left were Se-Hoon and Se-Ha.

“Where are the others?”

“I told them to go rest since only the finishing work is left.”

“I see. You worked them like dogs for a whole week, so you should at least let them rest.”

Nodding, Meirin walked over to Se-Hoon’s side and looked at the object placed in the center of the workshop.

“This is the prototype you mentioned?”

“Yes. Want to see it?”

“Run it.”

Se-Hoon glanced at Se-Ha standing next to him. Promptly, the workshop’s entire system activated, and the prototype resting above the furnace began operation.

Woong!

Once the outer rim of the disc-shaped prototype split into four sections, each began drawing in a different power. Black, representing the Blessing of the Eternal; red, representing the Blessing of the Sacred Lantern; white, representing the Blessing of Foresight; and gold, representing the Law of Repentance.

Each section glowed with its respective color before they all merged into a pillar of light, raising the prototype’s grade and warping space little by little.

Woong-

The prototype repeatedly expanded and contracted in size, then gradually became hazy like a mirage. It hadn’t moved from its position in front of them, but it looked like it was slowly rising upward.

This is... what crossing dimensions looks like? Meirin narrowed her eyes.

Like a two-dimensional being leaping into the third dimension; an image within a picture vaulting into reality to become real.

Slowly but surely, the prototype was vanishing completely from their sight—

Crack!

It suddenly twisted violently. Raising its grade with the Blessings was possible; maintaining that state continuously, in contrast, wasn’t. Clearly, the prototype was on its last legs, devoid of the mysticism from before. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

And it was at that moment that Se-Hoon stretched out his hand.

Crack-

The power of Space wrapped around the prototype and protected it when he clenched his hand. Following that, an orange aurora spread out and began merging all the powers into one. Finally, a thin line split toward a distant point far above, creating a gap for the prototype to dig into.

“This is as far as it goes.”

Lowering his hand, Se-Hoon watched as everything returned to normal.

Swish-

The prototype returned to its inactive state, no longer looking as though it might smash through the workshop ceiling and soar sky-high. The powers and Blessings previously saturating the room also vanished without a trace.

“The power of Regression... is certainly useful for risky experiments like this. The materials are one thing, but more than that, remaking it would be annoying.”

“I put a lot of care into it. So, what did you think?”

Falling into thought, Meirin looked at the prototype before her: the miniature model of Babel.

“What do I think? Well, all I can say is, are you insane?”

Expand Babel, gather the Blessings, and ascend the entire planet to the top of the Tower. The project was so enormous that the Planetary Reinforcement Plan was practically modest in comparison.

Before continuing, Meirin pulled out a lollipop and popped it into her mouth.

“The bigger the scale gets, the more variables there’ll be. How are you planning to deal with that?”

“With the Blessing of Foresight, I should be able to observe the variables and respond immediately. Also, if it gets truly dangerous, I can just use regression like I did just now and make corrections.”

“And controlling the Blessings?”

“I’ll control them with the Akashic. I’ll leave the finer details to Se-Ha.”

“The fuel... no, since you’ll be using the Golden Ring as a power source, that won’t be a problem.”

Seeing that there was nothing major to criticize, Meirin took a moment to regather her thoughts.

“Then there are two concerns left.”

“Two?”

“The first is, what are you going to tell people?”

Looking at Se-Hoon, Meirin tapped the lollipop in her mouth.

“If it works the way this structure suggests, humanity will be linked with you at the center... and unless you properly unify what people are thinking, it’ll be hard to control. The chances of failure would get even higher.”

Considering that getting even a few dozen people to move with one heart and one mind was difficult, what would it be like with numbers in the hundreds of millions? No matter how much of a hero for defeating the Demon Force Se-Hoon was, there was simply no chance he could make everyone accept ascension.

“For now, I plan to announce it as a project to prevent disasters. After that... well, I’ll have to rely on my popularity.”

At first, he had considered carrying it out in secret or forcibly unifying everyone through the Akashic, but discarded both ideas in the end. The Blessing of Foresight and the Law of Repentance, by nature, only grew stronger when one clearly understood what situation they were in and what they desired. There was zero benefit in doing it secretly or by force.

It wouldn’t mean anything if I did it by force anyway.

If not unanimous, then at least a majority would need to agree with his intentions in order to build a system that could control the Golden Ring properly after ascension.

He too had a lot of concerns, which Meirin could tell through his answer.

“Let’s assume you can solve that problem. The second is whether you can replace the Emperor of Ascension.”

“Replace him...?”

“The Ascension Project is based on the assumption that the Emperor of Ascension could connect the top of the Tower of Heroes and the surface. In other words, if the power of Space is unstable, the whole thing doesn’t even hold together.”

Chewing the lollipop between her teeth, Meirin gestured toward the Babel model with her chin.

“You succeeded with the model. But once you scale up to the actual thing, that earlier problem aside, the variables will increase exponentially and the burden will get unimaginably heavier. You might even need power greater than that of the Emperor of Ascension.”

“...That’s definitely true.”

Thinking Meirin had a good point, Se-Hoon frowned.

No matter how skillfully he could handle the power of Space, compared to the creator, he would inevitably fall short.

I could narrow the gap with the Hero’s Ring... but that would strengthen my connection to the Ring. Who knows what kind of variable that would introduce?

If the Golden Ring interfered and cut off the power to the ring, the consequences would be catastrophic. So, if possible, he needed to use an indirect method.

“Hmm...”

Was there any way to keep the existing plan intact while strengthening the power of Space?

Se-Hoon was deep in thought—

“Ah!”

Hearing Se-Ha, both Merin and Se-Hoon turned to look at her.

“What, did you think of something?”

“Huh? Ah... well...”

Unable to speak right away, Se-Ha hesitated and glanced around nervously, making Se-Hoon and Meirin grow puzzled.

Eventually, she carefully opened her mouth. “Wouldn’t it... maybe work if we used a funeral?”