In a vast, icy, and mountainous terrain, a young man of small stature was lying on the sand under the shade of a tree. Beside him lay a small spring forming a pond.
The young man had black hair, a lean physique, a handsome face, and was dressed in all black—black pants, black boots, a black t-shirt, and a long, black, unbuttoned trench coat. If his eyes weren't closed, you would see his beautiful azure eyes, akin to the color of blue crystals—no pupils, only blue. Nothing more. His eyes weren't normal. He never opened them unless he needed to.
I was woken by the cold air hitting my face. I found myself facing upward, seeing branches and leaves as sunlight passed through their gaps. I slowly turned my head and saw a stunning view. I was at the very top of a snowy mountain. As far as I could see, there were only mountains—snowy white mountains.
"Where am I?" I couldn't help but say out loud.
I stood up and looked around, wondering where I was.
No matter where I looked, I only saw snow and mountains. The place was cold, but it didn't bother me. I was immune to any temperature.
I wondered how I ended up here. My memories were intact, yet the part about how I arrived was blank—or rather, sealed. If I wanted to unseal them, I needed to conquer a dungeon. That's what the seal said. I needed to conquer at least 20 to 50 dungeons, and one certain dungeon to completely unseal them all.
I also discovered who was behind this seal—it was me, after erasing everything about it. However, even then, I already understood why I did so.
"So I succeeded. That dream project of mine finally came true, huh? Chaos Projection, code name: Chaos Maker. There were many parts in that plan—around infinite, well, literally endless steps. Whatever. The first part and also the trigger of that plan was the Great Change."
The Great Change—a phenomenon that engulfed everything in brilliant light. When it subsided, the scale and power of all things had changed drastically, growing, expanding, and evolving endlessly—beyond comprehension or imagination.
A wide grin couldn't help but form on my face. In this era, beings who once could create and destroy all existence with ease couldn't even destroy a mountain now. They could only destroy a very, very small fraction of it.
After the Great Change—before the planets—everything that existed before was merely an atom. That's how small all existence was before compared to the evolved, unimaginably massive planets. It was like comparing one to countless infinities.
After the Great Change, everything became unfathomably massive.
I stretched my stiff muscles, relaxing.
After doing so, I stepped out from the shade and looked up at the sky.
There, I saw the clear blue sky and the sun. Beyond them loomed an unimaginably gigantic purple planet—massive chess-piece-like structures protruding through its atmosphere. According to my magic sense, that thing was enormous—surpassing all laws and concepts of measurement. It was on the "???" level.
There are five major measurement units of the Absolute level, but the last one can't even be categorized as a law or concept of measurement anymore.
The five major measurements are: Infinite, True Infinite, Beyond Infinite, Unknown, and the Uncharted—also known as "???".
To put it in perspective, a distance unit of Infinite/1 Infinite equals infinite light-years. Two Infinite means two literal infinities to reach the destination.
Infinite Infinite means an infinite number of literal infinite distances.
True Infinite is equivalent to Infinite raised to the Infinite power, multiplied by the same number endlessly—countless layers, each containing infinite space, each layer infinitely larger than the last.
Beyond Infinite follows the same logic: infinite layers, each containing a space the size of True Infinite, and each layer infinitely greater than the previous one.
Unknown exists on an eternal scale—each level boundlessly larger than the last. One level of Unknown contains endless numbers of Beyond Infinite, each greater than the last.
"???" is a measurement that only the instinct and senses of an Absolute Being can determine. Nothing can truly measure these things—they are beyond laws, beyond concepts. You think you've measured it completely, only to discover something greater still. To deal with this measurement, you must accept that there is always something larger—something beyond the beyond. Only Absolute Beings can comprehend "Unknown" and "???".
The purple planet had a diameter of "???". Observing it, I felt something was off—the atmosphere hid its true size. It was even infinitely larger than it appeared outside its atmosphere.
The world had become incomprehensible after the Great Change—even more so than the Land of Chaos.
The Land of Chaos existed beyond all existence—you could find countless other existences there.
"???"—the apex—had become so common that it turned into something ordinary across vast existence. Whoever caused the Great Change was a lunatic.
I continued gazing at the sky and noticed something strange. With a thought, I opened my unique eyes—possessors of endless power.
His closed eyes slowly opened, revealing completely azure eyes devoid of pupils.
The blue sky still looked normal. My eyes couldn't see through it, but I could still sense the barrier spread throughout the heavens. If you touched that barrier, you'd be teleported outside the planet's atmosphere. I didn't know how thick this planet's atmosphere was, thanks to that strange phenomenon, but I could still sense its diameter. The diameter of this planet was "???". In my senses, the purple planet looming in the sky was endlessly larger still.
Unable to see what lay hidden, I gave up. I closed my eyes—though shut, I could still see, as if they were open.
I was at the very top of the mountain. The peak was quite flat, around twenty meters wide.
I spread my magic sense once more and found a road—a highway made of crimson crystal.
A crystal of unmatched power. The force I detected from each tile surpassed me countless times. I could tell its grade was beyond "???"—entirely, endlessly so. A grade that wasn't supposed to exist, for nothing was greater than "???". It was always "Beyond ???". Yet now, that wasn't the case, for something beyond "???" truly existed.
I sat at the edge of the pond, submerging my feet in the hot, soothing water of the spring, thinking—planning my goals and what I wanted to do.
While deep in thought, I was interrupted by a beautiful and melodious voice.
'Crap, I didn't notice her arrival. This girl is formidable—way beyond me.' I kept that thought to myself, not daring to say it aloud.
I slowly turned toward the voice—and froze.
A stunning beauty stood there, staring at me with calm, crimson eyes.