Chapter 61
\[Entered the 9th Floor.\]
As soon as I moved to the 9th Floor, I stopped time.
What I saw was... a stone.
An elongated cuboid stone, about the size of a person, was floating low, about a handspan above the ground.
Are they telling me to fight a stone now?
Since it was the 9th Floor, it was natural for things to be out of the ordinary.
Imagining that it might spin and fly at me like a drill if I resumed time...
I finished my Mental Concentration and fired a Flame Strike first.
BOOOOM!
The fireballs scored a direct hit on the stone.
When the flames subsided, the stone was gone.
Huh...? Did I get it?
No, I didn't.
Looking around, I found the stone floating near the ceiling above my head.
“...?”
I hadn't noticed it moving at all.
Did it use Teleportation or something?
I fired another Skill at it.
Mana Bullets flew toward the stone, drawing trails of light...
B-B-B-BANG!
They only struck the innocent ceiling.
This time, I saw it clearly.
Right before the attack landed, the stone suddenly disappeared.
The vanished stone appeared in mid-air to my left.
...It really uses Teleportation?
“Flee.”
I had Flee attack the stone.
Flee leaped up and swung his heavy front paw at the stone.
Sure enough, the stone disappeared.
It reappeared close to the ground on the right side.
As soon as I saw the teleported stone, I stopped time.
I finished my Mental Concentration and fired a Line of Destruction.
After the Beam faded and I confirmed the stone wasn't there, I looked around until...
“...”
I found the stone had appeared behind me.
It had flawlessly dodged with Teleportation again.
Flee ran around chasing the teleporting stone, and I fired magic at it a few more times.
Not a single attack managed to hit.
I paused for a moment and thought.
A teleporting stone.
It didn't attack or counterattack at all; it only dodged my attacks with Teleportation.
There seemed to be no cooldown, delay, or any other time limit on its teleportation.
That was why I couldn't land a hit.
The key to the 9th Floor seemed to be finding a way to somehow land an attack on this cute little stone.
Should I try using Stealth and attacking?
“Diul.”
I approached the stone while in Stealth using Diul's ability.
But as soon as I launched an attack, the stone teleported away again, as if mocking me. Failure.
\[Is there a pattern?\]
I thought of another method.
Could there be a pattern to the locations it teleported to?
I could predict its teleportation location in advance and simultaneously launch an attack there to hit it.
I started attacking the stone again.
The stone appeared on the left, then on the right, then in front, then behind.
It appeared high, then low, then at mid-height, then far away, then close, or even right in front of me...
After watching it teleport over a hundred times.
I couldn't find a pattern at all.
No matter how I looked at it, it was random.
I continued to try other methods.
I tried randomly spamming Skills in all directions. It was a failure.
I laid down a Scorching Zone in advance and kept attacking the stone, hoping it would teleport into the Scorching Zone. Failure.
Instead of attacking, I tried sneaking up just to touch it. Failure.
Failure, failure, failure...
I tried all sorts of methods, but they all ended in failure.
“This fucking...”
I was starting to get pissed off.
What am I supposed to do here?
I regained my composure and thought about it again. Anger wouldn't help at all.
\[How is it dodging the attacks?\]
I didn't mean dodging with Teleportation.
To dodge an attack, wouldn't it first have to 'perceive' the attack?
In what way was that stone perceiving and dodging my attacks?
It didn't have eyes to see and dodge. Diul's Stealth hadn't worked either.
As I continued to agonize with my arms crossed, an idea suddenly came to mind.
Whiiir—
I fired a Mana Bullet, which I had already fired dozens of times, at the stone once again.
But this time, I didn't intend to hit it; I intended to stop it right before impact.
The flying Mana Bullet stopped right in front of the stone. And...
“...!”
The stone didn't teleport.
As soon as I tried to move the Mana Bullet again, the stone instantly teleported away.
“Hah.”
...I think I finally get it.
This is how this pebble was dodging attacks.
My intentions were being completely read in advance.
In other words, it was reading my mind.
\[Then how am I supposed to hit it?\]
Attack without the intention to attack?
I tried firing a Mana Bullet again with the thought of not attacking the stone.
The stone dodged with Teleportation.
Hmm... Of course that wouldn't work, right?
Just because I decide not to have an intention doesn't mean I can actually not have it.
If the stone was completely reading my mind, deceiving it was impossible.
Unless I could completely deceive myself first, that is.
...Then, what if I could attack the stone with an attack I truly didn't intend in the slightest?
A plausible method came to mind.
The stone was currently floating close to the ground at a distance in front of me.
I closed my eyes.
I started spinning around in place.
I spun like crazy for a long time until I completely lost my sense of direction and had no idea which way the stone was.
...Alright, that's enough. Now I have absolutely no idea.
Stopping my rotation, I started randomly firing Skills in all 360 degrees.
BOOOOM!
Since I didn't know which direction the stone was in, it was natural not to know which attack would hit.
And if I didn't know, the stone wouldn't know either.
As I was spamming Skills in a state of Thoughtlessness, a message soon popped up.
\[The 9th Floor was successfully cleared.\]
I opened my eyes.
Looking behind me, I saw the stone shattered on the floor after being hit by a Flame Strike.
Hah... Success!
It went perfectly according to plan.
Now, only the 10th Floor remained.
“It's quite difficult, isn't it?”
That was my impression after clearing up to the 9th Floor.
With various gimmicks mixed in, it definitely had some difficulty.
Still, it wasn't quite comparable to Nightmare difficulty.
\[Would you like to move to the 10th Floor?\]
I wonder what will appear as the Final Boss.
Once I clear up to the 10th Floor, I can get the Special Reward the Tower mentioned.
After taking enough rest and fully replenishing my Willpower, I entered the 10th Floor.
---
Life Easy Mode.
If I had to describe my life, that was it.
I had a superpower.
It's not a metaphor, but a real superpower.
I didn't know when I was young, but as I grew older, I realized I was different from others.
The Time Stop Ability.
But then again, it wasn't that amazing, because I couldn't move in Stopped Time either.
Of course, that alone was enough to live life easily.
I could use other people's minutes and seconds as fruitfully as an hour, and that was an overpowered ability when it came to studying.
Even when taking exams, I was the only one without a Time Limit. As a result, my grades have always been at the very top of the school since elementary school.
Besides that, the minor uses of the ability were endless in daily life.
I thought I might be able to use the ability in sports like soccer or baseball effectively, but I had no interest in using my body, so I didn't consider that path.
I just grew up as an ordinary model student, and today was CSAT Day.
As always, I took the exam with a light heart and returned home.
“I'm home.”
After eating dinner, I downloaded the answer sheet and graded my exam.
The results came out as expected. It was a perfect score.
Of course, I also worked hard.
Even without time pressure, a perfect score is only possible if you have the ability to solve all the problems.
I hummed a tune and stretched.
“SNU College of Medicine, you're a piece of cake.”
Ah, so easy, so easy.
Doesn't my conscience prick me for using a cheat alone when everyone else must have worked hard?
Well, what can you do.
Life is inherently unfair.
But there's no reason not to utilize such a good ability when I was born with it.
Anyway, now I just have to play to my heart's content and prepare for the medical school interview, and that's it.
My life has been smooth sailing so far, and it will continue to be so in the future.
I was about to open my room door and immediately go out to share the good news with my family.
“...?”
Feeling a subtle sense of déjà vu, I paused while holding the doorknob.
What is this?
I feel like this happened once before.
Next, an earthquake happens... and game-like messages appear before my eyes...
“Tower?”
I muttered the word that suddenly came to mind and tilted my head.
Tower? Why would a tower suddenly appear?
And why would an earthquake suddenly happen in Korea? What nonsense.
“...Did I have a dream yesterday or something?”
Ignoring the sense of incongruity that soon vanished, I went out to the living room.
I proudly announced the news of my perfect CSAT score to my family.
“I graded it, and it looks like a perfect score for now.”
“...Oh my! Really?!”
“Hahaha! Good job! Our son!”
“Haha, I still have the interview left. I need to prepare well.”
. . .
Like that, I got accepted into medical school and continued a joyful college life with my friends.
I served in the military as an active-duty soldier while enrolled in school. I thought this was better because the service period was much shorter than that of a military doctor after graduation.
After graduating from college, I worked as an internal medicine resident at a university hospital.
I became a doctor smoothly, and my life was smooth sailing as always.
A good job, a good salary, a good work-life balance.
I took my father and mother to nice places here and there, teased my younger sibling who was still immature despite getting older while giving them an allowance, and ended up dating a junior I had known since my resident days...
It was a daily life filled with a series of such small happinesses. Wasn't it a truly wonderful life!
“...Oppa? What are you thinking about?”
I spaced out for a moment while taking a walk in Han River Park with my girlfriend.
“Yeah, it's nothing.”
I looked at the green grass.
Sometimes, I felt a strange sensation.
It felt like my life wasn't a calm green like the grass over there, but a spectacular mix of all sorts of colors...
But there's no way my life, which has always been smooth sailing, could be like that, right?
I was satisfied with my current life, but for some reason, there were times when my heart felt empty. It was a very strange thing.
After a few years of dating my girlfriend, we got married.
We went to Italy for our honeymoon.
We were busy admiring the Leaning Tower of Pisa as we looked around.
“Wow\~ How is that standing without collapsing? Right, Oppa?”
“I know. It's really fascinating.”
My girlfriend, no, my wife, held my hand tightly.
I stared blankly at the towering tower for a long time before speaking.
“You know, this might sound a bit strange, but do you want to hear it?”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Sometimes I have this imagination. Suddenly, a tower appears in the world...”
“A tower? What kind of tower? Like that one?”
“Yeah. Anyway, a giant tower appears, and people climb that tower. Because if they don't climb it, the world will be ruined. They enter the tower, fight Monsters, avoid traps...”
My wife giggled and laughed.
“What's that? Are you playing a game like that these days, Oppa?”
“What's even funnier is that I'm the only one climbing the most difficult tower that no one else can climb, risking my life.”
“You? The Oppa who takes several supplement pills a day to take care of his health?”
“I'm telling you. Anyway...”
As I was about to say more, my wife suddenly put on a serious face.
“Ah, enough. You keep saying weird things while we're on a trip. Learn to distinguish between reality and games.”
“...”
What is this?
Suddenly, the world felt strange.
I looked at the tower again and asked.
“You know, what was our age difference again?”
“What? We're three years apart. Have you forgotten even that now?”
That's very strange...
I had a firm preference for older women, so I only ever dated seniors in high school and college...
How did I meet and marry this woman again?
Huh? Wait a minute, who is this person?
I looked at the unidentified woman whose name I was starting to forget, and let out a weak laugh.
“Hahaha...”
This fucking...
I remembered everything.
“...Oppa? Why are you suddenly laughing?”
What exactly happened? How do I get out of here?
This was a dream.
And the simplest way to wake up from a dream is...
“U-Where are you going? Oppa!”
I ran toward the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Guards blocked my way. I narrowly avoided getting caught and shook them off.
I went inside the tower and climbed the stairs.
But are there stairs originally inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa? I didn't know. I just ran.
“Huff... Huff...”
I reached the top.
I caught my breath and stood on the railing of the leaning tower.
People below were looking up at me and murmuring, and the guards who followed me urgently tried to stop me.
“Please calm down and come down! It's dangerous!”
Right before I jumped off, my feet hesitated.
Maybe I'm the one who's crazy?
Which side is reality? That strange world where a tower rose in the Pacific Ocean, or here?
Common sense dictated it was here.
Look, the sensations are as vivid as reality.
Just as confusion resurfaced about whether I had truly gone crazy, a faint echo rang in my head.
...Stop joking around and come out quickly! You stupid Master!
That sensation of having my soul connected to something was a familiar sense of connection, somehow.
“Ah...”
Having regained my conviction because of that, I let out a laugh of relief.
Right, reality was over there.
And I was in the middle of clearing the 10th Floor of the Fifth Branch Tower.
“What kind of trick did this son of a bitch pull?”
First, let's wake up from this dream.
I spread my arms wide.
And then I leaned my body forward, straight down.
With a dizzying sensation of falling, my body drew closer to the ground. And...
CRACK—!
---
I opened my eyes.
I saw a pitch-black ceiling.
As I sat up, I felt a foreign sensation on my head.
I used my hand to rip off whatever was attached to my head.
“...What the.”
A Grotesque Creature that looked like a Luminous Jellyfish was disgustingly wriggling its tentacles.
So this guy was the one who did it.
Did I get hit as soon as I entered the 10th Floor? I had no memory of how it happened.
“I slept well, you bastard.”
I slammed the jellyfish straight into the floor and burst it.
Splat!
\[Successfully Cleared the 10th Floor.\]
A message popped up.
I looked at Diul, who was floating in mid-air next to me.
“Thank you, Diul. You kept talking to me.”
I finally remembered that he had kept talking to me, telling me to wake up from the dream.
It was a relief that I noticed it, even at the end. I really might have never woken up.
Diul circled around my head as if grumbling, then returned to the bracelet.
I let out a sigh.
A boss that traps you in a dream...
What a creepy bastard.
The time in the dream felt like a fleeting moment, as if my life had flashed before my eyes.
It was a life I really would have lived if the tower hadn't appeared.
\[The Fifth Branch Tower has been cleared up to the Last Floor.\]
Anyway, this was the end.
I had safely succeeded in clearing the Fifth Branch Tower as well.
I stood up and looked at the messages popping up one after another in front of me.
\[A Special Reward is given.\]
\[Please select one of the following as a reward.\]
The messages continued to appear.
Right, the reward.
Since I suffered, I should get my reward now.
I wonder what the Special Reward actually is?
“Drumroll...”
I looked at the options while making sound effects with my mouth for no reason, and then
“...Huh?”
I couldn't help but be startled when I saw one of the options.
\[1. Tower's Curse Immunity\]
\[Special Item: Tower's Curse Immunity\]
Gain the effect of not dying from the Tower's Curse permanently. Can also be used on others who are not Climbers. Disappears after one use.