Chapter 62
Tower's Curse Immunity.
It said I wouldn't die from the Tower's Curse.
That meant even if the Tower's Deadline ran out, I would be exempt from death.
"They called it a Special Reward..."
Is this why it's special?
I definitely didn't expect something like this to pop out.
I checked the remaining options.
\[1. Tower's Curse Immunity\]
\[2. 90% Chance Skill Promotion Ticket\]
\[3. Scales of Life\]
90% Chance Skill Promotion Ticket...
And the Scales of Life? What was this?
I checked the description of the skill promotion ticket first.
\[Special Item: 90% Chance Skill Promotion Ticket\] Select one Skill to promote it to a Higher-tier Skill of the same lineage with a 90% chance. Upon failure, the Skill's grade will decrease by one. Disappears after one use.
The effect was exactly as the name implied.
It said I could promote a Skill by one grade with a 90 percent chance.
But if it failed, the grade would drop instead?
Hmm... This was a bit...
\[Special Item: Scales of Life\] Sacrifice the user's lifespan to obtain an equivalent reward. You can sacrifice a minimum of 1% to a maximum of 99% of your remaining lifespan. The scales will break after one use, and the user's remaining lifespan will be displayed.
The final option, number 3, the Scales of Life.
I read the description carefully.
So... if I sacrificed my lifespan, I could get a reward equivalent to what I offered?
Though I had no idea what exactly it would give me in return.
"Mmm..."
Having checked all the options, I crossed my arms and fell into thought.
What should I choose?
I first thought about which option to rule out...
It had to be number 1. The Tower's Curse Immunity.
What was the point of being immune to the curse?
Was I going to quit climbing Nightmare Difficulty? That was a ridiculous thought.
For me, who would die anyway if I failed a clear, it was a completely meaningless effect.
The only thing that caught my attention slightly was that it could be used on someone other than a Climber...
...If it had given me three immunities, I might have considered it.
Because even if I failed someday, at least my family wouldn't die.
But then again, that didn't seem right either.
A world where 99% of Humanity had died. Furthermore, all the dead would turn into Fallers.
In such an apocalypse, wouldn't it be more painful to stay alive, unable to die?
Number 1 was definitely out. Ruled out immediately.
Trying to buy half-baked insurance for failure would only leave me with nothing.
I had to think only about successfully clearing the tower, and to do that, I needed to choose a reward that would help with the clears.
"Skill promotion ticket..."
Next was this one.
It promoted a Skill to a Higher-tier Skill of the same lineage.
What if I used it on Line of Destruction?
Line of Destruction, which was already overpowered, would evolve into a Skill one grade higher. What was the grade after Epic+?
Since it specified a Higher-tier Skill, there wasn't much worry about some random, unrelated Skill popping out.
But!
"...Why is it playing useless probability games again?"
90 percent, of course, was a high probability.
But it was like that when I cleared the 4th Floor, too.
If I happened to fail with that 10% chance, my precious Line of Destruction would evaporate.
But using it on another Rare+ Grade Skill felt... unnecessary? Sure, Epic was high too, but still.
It was hard to say I had already paid my bad luck tax with the gacha on the 4th Floor.
Because right after that, during the Hidden Strategy, I had succeeded in pulling the 300% Scroll consecutively like I was possessed.
\[3. Scales of Life\]
Should I choose this one then?
This one was just as iffy.
First of all, it required sacrificing my lifespan, and above all, the effect was uncertain.
Ah... What should I pick?
Did I have to give up the chance to get a Skill graded higher than Epic+ just because I was scared of a mere 10%?
\[You have selected “Scales of Life” as your reward.\]
Yeah, I'll give it up.
With the PTSD from the 4th Floor deeply engraved in me, I chose the Scales of Life without much hesitation.
At least this one didn't have any probabilistic variables.
Still, since it required sacrificing my lifespan, it would probably give me something good.
Also, even though the promotion ticket said it would promote to a Higher-tier Skill, it wasn't completely impossible for a Skill with more ambiguous effects than the original to appear.
...I doubted it, but I still couldn't feel safe from the Tower's rigged rates.
Clack.
I grabbed the silver scales that appeared in mid-air. It was about the size of my face.
Naturally, I wasn't going to use it right away.
I would probably try using it when I was in a real crisis, grasping at straws.
I placed the scales into my Subspace.
\[You have acquired Ownership of the Fifth Branch Tower.\]
My overall review of the Fifth Branch Tower.
The final boss was quite creepy, but... overall, I'd give it about a 5.5 out of 10?
Of course, the criteria for scoring was how bullshit the difficulty was.
There were a lot of gimmicks, but the simple structure of clearing it by defeating the enemy remained unchanged.
Except for the 8th Floor, there was plenty of time to clear each floor.
It didn't feel like it had that sticky malice of Nightmare Difficulty, determined to absolutely fuck me over.
So, I'll give it a 5.5.
Well, jokes aside, this was the end of it anyway.
They said only five Branch Towers would appear, so there were no more left.
It was a huge relief that the world didn't turn into a chaotic mess like it did with the Fallers.
\[Would you like to exit the Tower?\]
"Exit."
The thought of having to charge the Warp Device again made me sick.
Oh right, before that, I had to do one more Repeat Clear.
I needed to check what abilities the monsters on the 3rd Floor and 4th Floor had, since I had killed them with Line of Destruction the moment I entered. I had to post a strategy guide, after all.
Thinking I should finish quickly and go rest, I entered the Tower again.
---
The Fifth Branch Tower that appeared in Tajikistan.
As soon as the Branch Tower appeared, Wang Kai and the Party moved immediately.
Tajikistan was a nation very closely tied to China geographically, politically, economically, and militarily; aside from their own country, it was practically the best possible location for it to appear.
This time, they planned to deploy fighter jets right away. It might not be possible with other nations, but with Tajikistan, it was. They just had to launch them first and get airspace clearance later.
"Takeoff preparations will be complete in 5 minutes."
The Military Base in Beijing.
Wang Kai waited for the fighter jet's maintenance in the hangar to finish.
Once maintenance was done, the fighter jet would immediately take him and transport him at maximum speed to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.
The Tower had even announced that a Special Reward would be given for the Fifth Branch Tower.
This time, they absolutely could not let Person123 beat them to the clear.
Even if Japan and Brazil were somehow coincidences, it was only natural that they should be faster to the Branch Tower in Tajikistan. Unless Person123 was actually using a Cloning Technique or Teleportation, that is.
"Preparations are comple—!"
\[The Fifth Branch Tower has been cleared up to the Last Floor.\]
Just as the mechanics inspecting the fighter jet were about to shout.
Wang Kai saw the message pop up before his eyes and completely lost his grip on reason.
"...Fuck! You son of a biiiitch!"
CRASH!
Following Japan and Brazil, this was the third time in a row, right up to the final Branch Tower.
When he stomped the bare ground, the surface cracked like a spiderweb. The soldiers standing nearby fell over, then scrambled to their feet and backed away.
The people around him stared, pale with fright, as he threw a fit, continuously stomping his feet.
---
The final Fifth Branch Tower, which was quite different from the other Branch Towers.
However, without fail, it was cleared less than an hour after it appeared.
\[Rapito: What, it's nothing special?\]
\[FantasyAnimal: Yeah, we got scared for nothing.\]
\[Soldier: Guess he didn't struggle much.\]
It took a little longer than Japan and Brazil, but there wasn't a huge difference.
People assumed it wasn't particularly harder than the other Branch Towers and waited for Person123's post to go up.
\[Person123: This is the strategy guide for the Fifth Branch Tower.\]
And then, the strategy guide for the Fifth Branch Tower was posted.
People were surprised to see contents that were quite different from what they had expected.
Starting with the Stealth Goblin on the 1st Floor, an Orc using Fear to paralyze the body, and going up to the higher floors with Attack Reflection, invincibility, Underwater Combat, a stone that reads thoughts while teleporting, and the final 10th Floor where one had to escape from a dream...
Person123 warned at the end of the strategy guide, highly recommending against challenging the Fifth Branch Tower. Though there probably wouldn't be anyone going out of their way to challenge it when there were no rewards to gain anyway.
\[Marlin: He cleared all of that in one go...? In less than an hour?\]
\[ShortStoryView: Seriously, how did he do it lol\]
\[Shusan: You wouldn't even be able to clear it if you lacked intelligence.\]
\[Phoenix: What's everyone so surprised about? It's Person123.\]
\[Pipe: Haha, makes sense.\]
\[WoodyB: It's not like Nightmare where you can just brute force it with good specs. Guess it was only clearable because it's Person123?\]
\[Ragurangbate: It just feels like he cleared an extra floor on Nightmare Difficulty.\]
\[SwordSaint: If Wang Kai had challenged that, he would've died 100%.\]
\[Ragurangbate: So what's the secret to his Rapid Clears in the end? Is he really using Intercontinental Teleportation or something?\]
\[DeathRoll: Actually, Person1, Person2, and Person3 are all separate people, hence Person123.\]
\[Buttercake: That makes sense.\]
People marveled as always, wondering just how on earth Person123 was traveling Worldwide to clear the Branch Towers.
Since Person123 wouldn't tell them, all sorts of speculations continued to fly around, but it was a truth they would never know.
\[Pruha: But if this is the case, Person123 ended up with the ownership of all the mana veins except for China's.\]
\[BearTrap: Isn't that a relief? Imagine if China had swept them all up.\]
\[OceanSunfish: Wow, that's a dizzying thought;\]
\[SolarEclipse: Person123 doesn't even plan to do anything with the mana veins anyway. He just threatened to turn them off if people fought over them.\]
\[Plus: Seriously, if Person123 hadn't stepped up this time too, the world economy would've gone to shit.\]
There was no public concern over Person123 gaining ownership of four Branch Towers. His actions up to this point had earned that trust.
The Branch Tower Incident, which had been in an uproar for over a month, gradually calmed down with the final Branch Tower being cleared.
---
After all five Branch Towers were safely cleared.
I went back to focusing on the things I was doing before the Branch Towers appeared.
I helped with other countries' Nightmare Difficulty clears, especially by going in and out of the 4th Floor to assist the United States and China with their 4th Floor clear preparations. So far, only those two countries had cleared up to the 3rd Floor on Nightmare.
- Japan has announced that it is actively pursuing negotiations with Korea, as well as Magic Stone Treaty Nations such as Thailand and Vietnam...
Looking at the news coming out lately, I figured it might be okay to turn the Sendai Branch Tower's mana vein back on soon.
Once the negotiations were completely finished, the news would announce it, and I could just activate it then.
Additionally, Japan's Prime Minister Sato resigned, and a new Prime Minister was quickly elected. He must not have been able to withstand the public opinion.
"The world changes every year without a moment's rest. Now it's mana veins or whatever... Phew."
My father sighed while watching TV.
As he said, the world was in a constant state of upheaval.
Since my father also ran a company, he must have had a lot of worries. He couldn't afford to fall behind and fail to keep up with the trends.
"Seoa, are you studying hard these days?"
"Yeah."
"I heard from your mom that you even got an F in one of your classes."
"..."
My Younger Sibling suddenly exercised her right to remain silent and just picked at her food.
My father sighed again.
I had no idea how one could even manage to get an F grade.
Shouldn't you at least get a B even if you play around and just do the bare minimum?
No, well... Yeah, she should play hard.
In a world that could end at any moment, what did college or studying matter\~.
Honestly, I wanted my family to do whatever they wanted to their hearts' content. I wished my parents would enjoy various leisure activities more, too.
After finishing lunch and returning to my room, I turned on the Communication Window.
I watched people chatting for a bit before quickly turning it off.
"Shall I head in now?"
The requests for strategy consultations had become less frequent now, so I had some free time.
The 5th Floor Common Area.
It was about time I tried entering it.