Chapter 126
- This is the astonishing news that the Nightmare Difficulty 9th Floor has been cleared. Just four days after the 8th Floor was cleared, Person123 once again challenged…
After the 9th Floor was cleared, people went completely crazy.
The ironclad rule Person123 had adhered to until now was challenging when the Nightmare Time Limit had about 20 days left.
Of course, given what happened during the 8th Floor clear, many speculated that there might be some change in his challenge cycle, but…
Still, this was too extreme.
[Desire: Is this real… Climbing two floors in a row?]
[Davidson: Wow lolllll It’s Hwak-in that we get to live another year!]
[Night Sky: I’m getting tired of being surprised now. Is he really human?]
[Musashi: You’re still saying that? He’s a god.]
[Lightstep: The One has now become a being that completely transcends humans. Believe in the Person123 Church.]
The 8th Floor was clear; the Quarantine Sector incident occurred; the 9th Floor was clear.
All of this had happened in just a few days.
“Just what in the world happened? Before Humanity could even fully enjoy the joy of the 8th Floor clear, the 9th Floor was cleared as well!”
“It seems certain that Person123 has had a change of heart. We can see his will to be clear while securing a stable time limit…”
News broadcasts played nothing but news related to him all day long.
Experts came out right away to analyze his intentions behind challenging the 9th Floor.
“Person123! Person123! Waaaaah…!”
People poured out into the streets again after just a few days and had to chant the name of their Savior.
The world was astonished yet overjoyed.
The Nightmare Time Limit, which had exceeded two years for the first time since the tower appeared, gave people unparalleled hope and a sense of stability.
“…Haa.”
Kim Seohyeon’s House.
Kim Seo-ah closed her laptop after looking through the news updates.
The Nightmare Time Limit had increased to two years, but she couldn’t be happy at all.
Person123's true identity was Kim Seohyeon.
It was only recently that the Family found out about that fact.
Honestly, it still didn’t feel real.
The Upper Floors Climber of Nightmare is the world’s best Climber.
The Savior of Humanity, who had saved the world time and time again, was.
That was her Oppa.
Even watching All Humanity praise him, Kim Seo-ah only felt a stifling tightness in her chest.
Until now, she had always respected the Hero known as Person123.
She had thought he was truly amazing for casually throwing his life on the line to save people despite all sorts of disadvantages.
Not anymore.
She realized she was only able to feel that way because he had been a stranger.
Even during the Quarantine Sector incident a few days ago, how scared and terrified she had been that Kim Seohyeon might unreasonably choose the penalties?
That is, even though he ended up choosing all nine and saving everyone.
Just today, her body trembled as she waited for him to come out after clearing the 9th Floor.
It was that terrifying of a thing, having to watch your Family risk their lives.
…After reading Kim Seohyeon’s will, the Family had already finished talking about what to do.
Kim Seohyeon risking his life to clear Nightmare was something the entire Family truly did not want.
She couldn’t even tell how much their parents had cried while he was clearing the 8th Floor.
But how could they stop him?
The lives of All Humanity were on the line, and the letter had detailed exactly what kind of mindset Kim Seohyeon had been challenging the tower with all this time…
Furthermore, like a bolt from the blue, he said he would die if he didn’t climb the tower at least once a week now.
The only thing the Family could do for Kim Seohyeon was just support him, without showing their sadness as much as possible.
Fortunately, the 9th Floor clear ended earlier than expected.
When he came out from the clear earlier, Kim Seohyeon smiled as if it was nothing. Did he say he fought monkey Monsters?
Opening her laptop again, Kim Seo-ah looked up and read the Nightmare Strategy guides.
The information posts Person123 uploaded to the communication window were also organized on the internet for everyone to see.
Of course, Kim Seo-ah has read them several times by now as well.
The battle with the Goblins on the 1st Floor, the Trap Platforms on the 2nd Floor, the Undead on the 3rd Floor…
After the discovery that Kim Seohyeon was Person123, the 4th Floor strategy post was especially hard to read.
Because it was about how he cleared it by burning his entire body and self-destructing along with the boss.
Feeling like tears were going to come out again for no reason, Kim Seo-ah closed what she was watching.
Just then, the sound of the refrigerator door opening came from the kitchen.
Kim Seo-ah quietly opened her room door and peeked out.
Kim Seohyeon, who was taking out water to drink, looked back at her.
“What is it? Why?”
A calmness that made it hard to believe he had just come out from clearing another floor of Nightmare.
But Kim Seo-ah knew.
Having lived under the same roof for years, there was no way she wouldn’t know. Kim Seohyeon was feigning that calmness for the sake of the Family.
How did he not show a single sign of having a hard time during all that long time?
How painful must it have been to shoulder everything all by himself.
Kim Seohyeon rummaged through the fridge and took out the ice cream Kim Seo-ah had bought.
“I’m going to eat some of this, okay?”
“Yeah, eat it…”
Kim Seohyeon is returning to his room.
Kim Seo-ah also closed her door and sat on the edge of her bed.
“…”
Now there were many people who revered Kim Seohyeon as if he had truly become a god.
Kim Seohyeon was by no means anything like a god.
He was just a person who struggled and suffered just the same.
Kim Seo-ah prayed.
If there really is a god, please protect her Oppa, her family.
If the only way for this nightmare to end was to climb the tower to the very end…
Please let Kim Seohyeon accomplish it.
* * *
After coming out after clearing the 9th Floor.
I took a short break and started on the things I needed to do again.
[You have entered the Nightmare Difficulty 9th Floor.]
First, organize the strategy post right away.
I re-entered the 9th Floor and pushed the rock up to the summit.
Flash!
The rock shattered, and I acquired the Gingoa.
I had tried stepping far back before the rock shattered to avoid having the Gingoa placed on me.
As if it were obvious, such a cheap trick didn’t work.
Once I wore the Gingoa, monkeys swarmed up from the bottom of the mountain.
I didn’t fight and Hada through the Void, searching for the Golden Monkey. There it is.
Kkigik-!
Discovering me rushing at it, the Golden Monkey fled at a rapid pace without fail.
Catching up to it without difficulty, I subdued the Golden Monkey by breaking all of its limbs.
It would be simple to subdue it by freezing it, but the reason I went out of my way to do it like this was purely for the purpose of writing the strategy post.
I was trying it in a way that would be doable from the perspective of other Nightmare Climbers.
Dragging the struggling Golden Monkey, I advanced toward the Rock Mountain.
The Rock Mountain course had flat areas in between, so if they planned their route well, it wouldn’t be impossible to deal with the landslides.
I told Hwak-in that it didn’t matter if the rock broke a little when pushing it to the top, so Hwak-in could just break the bottom part to balance its center of gravity or something.
Capturing the Golden Monkey seemed like it would be quite a significant hurdle for the other Challengers.
Catching this guy, dragging it to the magic circle, and on top of that, having to deal with the other monkeys attacking while moving are the tasks at hand.
Of course, the United States and China still hadn’t even cleared the 7th or 8th floors yet, but…
Breaking through the monkeys' interference, I dragged the Golden Monkey to the magic circle in the Cave.
The gourd absorbed the Golden Monkey’s energy. It was a golden light.
Looking into the gourd, I saw it contained a golden liquid just as expected.
This was the Essence of Gold.
I immediately gulped it down.
Then, I felt the Gingoa tightening around my head loosen.
Taking off the Gingoa, I looked at the monkeys outside the magic circle.
The monkeys, which had been fierce as if they would pounce at any moment just a second ago, suddenly became docile in their demeanor.
[If you receive the acknowledgment of the Gingoa, the Stone Monkeys will revere you as their king.]
Even when I stepped outside the magic circle, the monkeys didn’t rush at me.
Did it go exactly as written on the scroll?
That aside, what happens to the boss?
Gugu…
The moment I had that thought, a tremor rang out.
I quickly slipped out of the Cave. The monkeys followed behind me as well.
Soon, the Rock Mountain split in half, and that boss monkey sprang out.
Guooooo-!
As expected, I still have to face the boss.
As I was looking at the boss for a moment…
Suddenly, the surrounding monkeys charged at the boss all at once.
“Oh.”
So it was like this?
I understood roughly.
I had thought it was strange that I would have to face a boss even more massive than the antlion on the 8th Floor alone without any gimmicks.
It turned out you were supposed to team up with the monkeys and fight after taking off the Gingoa.
The monkeys popping out from the shattering rocks continued to rush at the boss.
Not all 1 million monkeys popped out, but nearly thousands of monkeys continued to spring forth.
Of course, the monkeys alone were not enough to face the boss.
Whenever the boss swung its fist or tail, dozens of them died off.
It seemed my role was to deal a Hit to the boss while the monkeys drew its attention.
I used Sky-Treading Steps to run through the sky and looked down at the boss.
This guy was also so massive that him felt like it would take an eternity to kill it, but…
'Huh.'
Something caught my eye.
On the boss’s head, I saw a single white hair sticking out among its black fur.
I got the feeling that it might be a weakness, like a dragon’s reverse scale.
Kwaaaaa-!
The dark red beam fired by the boss swept away the monkeys on the surface.
I used Time Stop.
After finishing my Mental Concentration, I aimed at the boss’s white hair and fired a fully charged Line of Destruction.
Then.
Kkiaaaaaa…!
Unlike its heavy Roar from earlier, the boss let out an incredible high-frequency Roar.
Kuuuuung!
And then it soon collapsed.
It seemed it really was a weakness.
[You have successfully cleared the Nightmare Difficulty 9th Floor.]
The Strategy Message.
I started writing the strategy post while going in and out of the 9th Floor a few more times.
[Person123: This is the Nightmare 9th Floor Strategy Guide.]
I organized everything and uploaded it within a day.
[Person123: From now on, I plan to climb the Nightmare Difficulty quickly without exceeding the 20-day time limit.]
I also put up a notice in addition to that.
[Marlin: The 9th Floor strategy post is up!]
[Nebula: A strategy post on the very day he cleared it, wow]
[Blade: Huh? An official notice popped up too]
[Galapagos: As expected, he plans to climb quickly from now on]
[Leviathan: Does this mean he’s going to challenge the next floor in cycles of a few days…? Why does it feel like Person123 is rushing so much?]
[Muffin: Don’t argue with Sir Person123's judgment. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.]
After uploading the strategy post, I entered the 5th Floor and started the Sector 5 Hunt.
[Sector 5 (83.9%)]
The Sector 5 Boss Gauge had also surpassed 80 percent.
Of course, I was confident I could catch it easily.
My level is over 100 now, so it should be a breeze even without Ma-wang’s power.
The problem was that I didn’t have time anymore.
Even assuming I climbed the tower one floor a week, at my current speed, wouldn’t the object be fully charged by the time I reached around the 30th floor?
Crunch!
I paused after taking down a Bone Dinosaur.
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Should I try using Radiant Incarnation…?”
There were two reasons why filling Sector 5's gauge had been slow so far, aside from the fact that other Climbers rarely hunted here.
One was that Sector 5 was too vast.
And because it was so vast, the Monsters were spread far apart.
And the other was because of the fog.
Since a wide field of vision couldn’t be secured, searching for Monsters was naturally hopelessly slow.
But what if I used Radiant Incarnation?
No matter how vast Sector 5 was, at the speed of light, running ten laps would happen in the blink of an eye.
What if I gradually circled from the inside of Sector 5 to the outside, sweeping away all the Monsters in my path?
I figured 10 minutes would be more than enough to annihilate all the Monsters spawned in Sector 5.
Then the gauge would fill up a whole lot, right?
I didn’t know if it would be enough to fill the remaining 16 percent all at once… but it would be substantial anyway.
Originally, I had planned to challenge the 10th Floor right away once Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown finished.
“I should change my plans.”
Let’s try sweeping Sector 5 clean first.
It wasn’t like I had a lot of time to spare, but.
If the gauge filled up a lot, it would be worth challenging the 10th Floor after obtaining the Sector 5 Boss Reward.