“Ha. As expected, the odds are absolute shit.”
[Evolution Chance: 0.01%]
[If evolution fails, the target skill will disappear.]
It was a probability that would yield one success in every ten thousand attempts.
One chance in ten thousand might not have sounded so terrible.
However, this was a Unique skill.
Throughout my countless regressions, I had never obtained a skill ranked higher than Legendary.
Moreover, it was a Fixed Skill.
What would happen if I failed and my Fixed Skill disappeared?
From the next regression onward, I would literally begin with nothing.
I would have to climb the tower without any Fixed Skill, relying solely on a handful of Active and Passive Skills.
Even with an absurdly powerful Fixed Skill, and even as an Irregular capable of infinite regression, I had needed countless aeons of effort to barely reach the final tower.
And now I was supposed to challenge it without a Fixed Skill?
I would rather starve to death for all eternity.
“Tsk. I got excited for nothing. Since it was Unique, I thought the probability would be higher.”
Perhaps the rate was already 0.01 percent because the Unique rank had granted it a significant probability bonus.
Even if the chance had been 90 percent, I would have struggled to make the decision.
But 0.01 percent?
It was practically worse than having no skill at all.
I was about to give up and wait until I obtained a Legendary skill before trying again when I remembered a mechanic I had forgotten.
“Wait. When using Evolution, there is usually Beginner’s Luck···!”
I hurriedly ran out of the room.
Various messages appeared before me, but I ignored them all and headed straight for the Shop.
A Break Room appeared every time a stage was cleared.
The Break Room contained food, sleeping quarters, and spaces where Players could rest.
However, its true value lay in its online access.
And what I needed most at that moment was the Online Shop.
-Hello, Player. I am···
“Open the Online Shop.”
I interrupted the talkative Guide standing in the center of the Break Room and immediately stated what I wanted.
-Connecting to the Online Shop. In this Shop, you may use Points to···
“Skip. Skip. Skip. Search items. Beginner’s Luck.”
DING.
A familiar shopping website interface rapidly moved through the air before locating the skill I wanted.
Passive Skill - Beginner’s Luck
Rank: Unranked
Luck smiles upon a beginner.
Price: 100 Points
“Damn, that is expensive. Purchase it.”
In truth, it was not particularly expensive.
It was merely a burdensome amount to spend immediately after clearing the first stage. Later on, 100 Points would be worth no more than a single meal.
-Beginner’s Luck has been purchased. Do you require anything···
I completely ignored the Guide and immediately moved into the corridor.
Without any remaining Points, there was nowhere I could enter—not the bedroom, the shower room, or any other facility.
All I could do was remain in the corridor for a while and inspect my skills.
“I do not know whether this will actually work, but···!”
With my heart trembling, I activated Evolution once again.
[Evolution]
Target Skill: Infinity(Unique)
Expected Skill: ???
[Evolution Chance: 0.01%]
[If evolution fails, the target skill will disappear.]
Up to that point, nothing was different from before.
But then···!
DING!
[Beginner’s Luck activates.]
[The probability has been changed to 100%.]
“It worked!! It actually worked!!!!”
It truly worked.
This was a hidden mechanic known only to the very few people who had used Beginner’s Luck.
The first probability-based action was guaranteed to have a 100 percent success rate.
It did not matter whether the action was an enhancement, the use of a skill, an attack, or an evasion.
For a Player who acquired Beginner’s Luck, their first probability-based action was always given a 100 percent chance of success.
A hit. An evasion. A critical hit. An enhancement.
Whatever it was, it was guaranteed to succeed.
“Phew. Phew-.”
I barely managed to calm myself as I stared fixedly at the 100 percent probability before me.
[Evolution Chance: 100%]
There was no reason to delay.
I squeezed my eyes shut and firmly pressed the Evolution button floating before me.
[Evolution has been activated. Attempting to evolve the Infinity skill.]
An image of intricate mechanical devices interlocking like something from a science-fiction film appeared, emitting a brilliant light.
HSSSS-.
The screen released a cloud of pure-white smoke, and an obscured result window slowly appeared.
[Evolution Successful]
[Infinity has evolved into the Limitless(Unranked) skill.]
“It suc! ceeded···?”
Something was strange.
The name certainly sounded extraordinary, but···
“Unranked? It is Unranked?”
I had evolved a Unique skill, only for an Unranked skill to appear.
It was the same rank as Beginner’s Luck, which I had just used for its hidden mechanic.
Feeling utterly bewildered, I checked my Skill Window again.
[Skills]
Fixed Skill – Infinity(Unique)
Active Skill - None
Passive Skill – Evolution(Unique), Beginner’s Luck(Unranked), Limitless(Unranked)
“Ha.”
I was so dumbfounded that I could not speak.
I opened the detailed description of Limitless.
[Limitless]
Rank: Unranked
Everything gains unlimited potential.
“It is certainly Unranked, but···”
The description was peculiar.
Everything gained unlimited potential?
This damned tower forced people to discover everything through direct experience.
Therefore, the only way to determine precisely what the description meant was to test that potential.
The one thing I could infer was that it concerned growth.
After all, unlimited potential was essentially the same as limitless growth.
“If growth truly has no limit, could I even surpass the maximum level of 50…?”
That would be far beyond the value of an Unranked skill.
A skill that allowed someone to surpass the level limit was an outrageously powerful ability that I had never seen or heard of before.
Even the Unique rank would hardly have been enough for such a skill.
“Could it have been classified as Unranked because the System was unable to assign it a rank?”
Perhaps I had discovered yet another hidden mechanic within this damned tower.
“Ha. Hahaha.”
If that were true, then although I had lost the ability to possess an infinite number of skills, I had gained the potential for infinite growth.
Moreover, Players were not the only things that possessed levels.
Active Skills and certain Passive Skills also had their own levels, as did items and pets.
“If I can truly raise every level infinitely without any limit to their potential, I might be able to clear everything alone.”
There was a reason I had formed parties and established guilds in the middle and later stages despite constantly fearing betrayal.
There had been countless missions that were simply impossible to handle alone.
However, if my level could rise indefinitely, could I not complete everything by myself?
“Fuck, does this mean I do not have to force myself to drag that revolting bastard Choi Roun along anymore?”
I had sworn to take revenge on him, but I could not deny that he had been an extremely useful companion until we reached the Tower of Infinity.
I had planned to use him until that point and then strike first.
But with this skill, I could kill him the moment I saw him.
I would no longer have to tolerate the countless bastards I had forced myself to bring along despite knowing they were evil.
“Alone. I will reach the summit of the tower by myself.”
If I did that, no one would be able to betray me.
Even if someone somehow did betray me, I would have no reason to fear them.
The difference between Level 49 and Level 50 was like the difference between heaven and earth.
The levels beyond that would undoubtedly create equally tremendous differences.
“The maximum level. Let us reach the maximum level first.”
I needed to determine whether I would continue gaining experience after reaching Level 50.
“Heh heh. Good. This cycle is absurdly overpowered. I truly feel as though I might be able to clear the tower this time···!”
My fist clenched tightly.
It was a shame that the Fixed Skill that had allowed me to possess an infinite number of skills was gone··· or was it?
“Huh? Why is this still here?”
It had not disappeared.
[Skills]
Fixed Skill – Infinity(Unique)
It was still there.
The skill should have changed after evolving.
The same had been true when using the Rare-ranked version of Evolution. Regardless of whether the attempt succeeded or failed, the target skill always disappeared.
Failure meant annihilation, while success meant replacement.
That was only natural.
However, the Fixed Skill had neither vanished nor been replaced.
“Ah!!”
It was a Fixed Skill.
It was not a variable skill, but a fixed ability that had remained with me through thousands of regressions.
Of course it had not disappeared.
“Then??”
Had the Beginner’s Luck mechanic been unnecessary?
If Infinity would not disappear anyway, did it matter whether the probability was 0.01 percent or 0.000000001 percent?
GULP.
Was it because I had already tasted success once?
Courage I had never possessed before began welling up inside me.
“This is gambling. It is gambling, but··· why do I feel as though I am going to win?”
[Evolution]
Target Skill: Infinity(Unique)
Expected Skill: ???
[Evolution Chance: 0.01%]
This was not a gamble where the worst possible outcome was merely breaking even.
Nevertheless, my hand moved toward the Evolution button before I realized it.
[Evolution has been activated. Attempting to evolve the Infinity skill.]
“······.”
Strangely, I was calmer than before.
I was trembling, but I was not afraid.
[Evolution Failed]
[The Infinity(Unique) skill has disappeared.]
It failed.
I had lost the gamble.
Then why did I not feel devastated?
“Skill Window.”
I called up the Skill Window aloud.
[Skills]
Fixed Skill – Infinity(Unique)
Active Skill - None
Passive Skill – Evolution(Unique), Beginner’s Luck(Unranked), Limitless(Unranked)
“Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Nothing had changed.
I had won the gamble.
[Evolution Failed]
[Evolution Failed]
[Evolution Failed]
I repeated the process like a machine.
There was no time to grow bored.
I only had to press the button ten thousand times for it to succeed.
No, it might succeed even sooner.
[Beginner’s Luck]
Rank: Unranked
Proficiency Level: 48
Luck smiles upon a beginner.
Adjustment Bonus(+4.8 percent)
“How is this increasing so quickly?”
The proficiency of Beginner’s Luck was rising at an astonishing rate.
It seemed that repeatedly attempting to evolve a Unique skill granted an enormous amount of Proficiency EXP.
A successful use usually granted ten times as much experience as a failure.
If I happened to succeed again, it was obvious that the skill would rise even faster.
“This is so absurd that I almost feel as though it should not be allowed.”
There had never been a cheat code as powerful as this.
The more I thought about it, the more anxious I became.
And the more anxious I became, the faster I clicked the Evolution button.
HSSSS-.
The screen appeared once again, releasing the same pure-white smoke I had seen during my first success.
At the same time, the result window concealed behind the smoke slowly emerged.
“It—it worked!!!”
[Evolution Successful]
[Infinity has evolved into the Boundless(Unranked) skill.]
I quickly checked my Skill Window.
As expected, the Fixed Skill remained intact, while a new skill called Boundless had settled among my Passive Skills.
[Boundless]
Rank: Unranked
Anything can be synthesized to transcend its limits, no matter how useless it may be.
“Hm? Hmmmm?”
The newly created skill was yet another outrageously powerful ability disguised as an Unranked skill.
“It is somewhat similar to Integration, the Skill Synthesis ability.”
A Legendary skill called Integration already existed.
It was extremely difficult to obtain, but its performance was outstanding.
Players already suffering from a shortage of skill slots could combine two useful skills into one and create a powerful synergy between them.
That made it extraordinarily valuable.
“But it is not particularly useful to me.”
Synthesizing skills would merely create an empty skill slot.
For a Player like me, who was not restricted by skill slots, it was not especially beneficial.
The only positive aspect was that a synthesized skill usually received the benefit of being ranked higher than the original skills.
A higher rank also meant improved functions.
“What concerns me is the part saying that anything can be synthesized, no matter how useless it is. Does that include junk items? Would that make this an Item Synthesis skill? Hmmm. I will have to test it after entering the next stage.”
At the moment, I did not possess a single object, not even something useless.
If I wanted to synthesize anything, I would have to enter a stage and collect some junk items.
“Well, at least it was not a failure. I am already producing skills beyond the Unique rank one after another. Now, shall I continue? I wonder what kind of skill will appear next.”
I opened the Evolution window once again and clicked the button.
BEEEEEEEEEP-
[ERROR]
System anomaly detected. System anomaly detected. System anomaly detected.
“Huh? Wh-what is happening?”
This was the first time I had experienced anything like this throughout my countless regressions.
A red [ERROR] message appeared within the Evolution window, and the entire display began rotating.
[Emergency Measures]
System purification will now begin.
Reboot 3··· 2··· 1···
“A reboot? Do not tell me!”
Just when I thought I could finally climb the tower with an overwhelmingly powerful advantage, the System was going to force a shutdown?
My vision instantly went dark, and I felt as though my body were endlessly plummeting from a cliff.
.
.
.
“······I ended up back here after all.”
I opened my eyes in the pure-white room once again.
However, nothing significant had changed.
“Right. I knew everything was going far too smoothly. It was almost ominous. Still, I managed to keep something. Let us see who wins, you damned tower.”
[Skills]
Fixed Skill – Infinity(Unique)
Active Skill - None
Passive Skill – Boundless(Unranked), Limitless(Unranked)
Everything except Evolution and Beginner’s Luck had remained intact.