Chapter 112
“Pant, pant… I can’t climb anymore…”
Looking back at my younger sibling who was already complaining, my father said a word.
“Lack of exercise, lack of exercise. You need to build up your stamina even at times like this.”
“Ah, I don’t know… Let’s just rest a bit…!”
“Even we’re climbing this well, and you’re in your prime.”
It had been a while since our family came hiking together.
With hiking clothes and walking sticks, my father and mother even had proper gear.
It was because the two of them often went exercising on weekends anyway. They were on the healthy side.
Only my younger sibling, the only one with terrible stamina, was busy whining.
“Come on, let’s push a little more. We’re almost at the top.”
“Mom, that’s already the umpteenth time you’ve said that…”
I also chimed in playfully.
“That’s because you just idle around all day every day.”
“Sheesh, you’re a climber… If I were a climber, I would’ve climbed right up, you know?”
“This also requires your base stats to back it up. If you were level 1, you’d barely be the general public average.”
Even while grumbling, the kid stubbornly kept climbing.
We arrived at the summit of Mount Gwanak.
We took in the breeze while looking down at the panoramic view of the city surrounded by mountains, captured in a single glance.
My father, who was catching his breath after drinking water, looked back at me and smiled.
“You don’t look tired at all. Is it because you’re a climber as expected?”
“Well, yeah. Haha.”
To me, it was just a stroll.
With my current level, I could climb all the way to the top in one minute without even messing up my breathing.
“Right. Since you’re a climber, you’re good at climbing mountains too. Hahaha.”
“Haha…”
My father, who laughed after making a dad joke, soon let out a sigh and looked up at the sky.
“Truly, the weather is really nice…”
He had a somewhat complex and subtle expression.
There was only one reason.
It was because the day of destiny was approaching once again.
“Seohyeon.”
“Yes?”
“I just suddenly had this thought: that it’s truly something to be thankful for that the world is still intact so far.”
My father said quietly.
I nodded and looked behind me.
mother and my younger sibling were taking pictures next to the summit stone.
“We also often get to spend time together as a family like this.”
I thought I knew what he wanted to say.
Certainly, after the Tower appeared, the times our family went on outings together became much more frequent than before.
Because it was a world where it wouldn’t be strange if it ended at any moment.
I am trying to spend each and every day fruitfully.
You could call it the Tower’s only positive function.
“I hope we can see the sunrise on New Year’s next year too, with the whole family together.”
It was a statement filled with the hope that we could safely pass this year as well.
“…Don’t worry, Father.”
I said with a smile.
“Person123 has always pulled it off. I’m sure he will this year too.”
There is no failure for Person123.
I would pull it off this time too.
Yes, I had to pull it off.
“Seohyeon! I’ll take a picture for you, so come here quickly. You too, honey.”
Mom called out. Father and I also took a picture.
After descending the mountain, we ate duck baeksuk and returned home.
It was a point where two months remained until the 8th Floor challenge.
* * *
Time flew by quickly.
There were big and small events in the world.
Among them, if one were to name the biggest change in the international political situation, it was undoubtedly North Korea.
- Sudden reform of North Korea’s leadership, easing of the reign of terror… would that be a fundamental structural improvement?
- North Korea’s Chairman Kang Tae-seong, a will for peace on the Korean Peninsula and cooperation with the international community… Introduction of large-scale food relief supplies…
- North Korea’s denuclearization: Is it really possible?
From the day the coup occurred, Kang Tae-seong began to overhaul North Korea just as he had said.
He strongly expressed his will to actively cooperate with the international community and grant freedom to the citizens going forward, and he even subtly brought up denuclearization.
The international community, of course, fiercely welcomed North Korea’s 180-degree change in attitude.
The United States gradually lifted economic sanctions against North Korea, and various nations began providing food and relief supplies.
Aside from what appeared on the news, various negotiations must have gone back and forth under the surface, but that was no longer something for me to care about…
Whether it was Billon or Kang Tae-seong, they kept sending me whispers, so I naturally ended up finding out.
[Kang Tae-seong: There is one thing I would like to carefully ask you.]
[Person123: Yes. What is it?]
[Kang Tae-seong: Do you perhaps want the unification of the North and the South?]
He would ask such things out of the blue.
Perhaps Kang Tae-seong thought I had helped him for the sake of Korea’s national interest…
[Person123: Please do not mind me, and just do your best according to your own convictions.]
Helping Kang Tae-seong was strictly a matter of conscience, and things just happened to escalate by chance.
I didn’t have any particular thoughts on the issue between the North and the South.
Unification? Well, it would be nice if it went well, of course.
But it wasn’t an issue that would just flow smoothly like water just because I wished for it, was it?
They said North Korea was changing, but it was only just the beginning, and even with a little thought, it was an issue that would obviously be followed by immense chaos.
In a world where the clock hand of destruction was ticking every single day because of the Tower.
If possible, I hoped for the maximum maintenance of the status quo.
Someday the Korean Peninsula might truly be unified, but that would just flow however it was meant to flow on its own.
I just needed to focus on the things I had to do.
[Sector 5 (79.1%)]
Sector 5 Hunt.
I was working hard at it, but as expected, it seemed I wouldn’t be able to fill the Sector 5 boss gauge before challenging the 8th Floor.
Due to the field characteristics, the hunting speed was just too slow.
CRACK!
A stick insect pierced by an icicle spilled its bodily fluids and died.
I spoke to Ma-wang, who was occupying my body.
'Time’s up now.'
“Aren’t you just going to keep hunting anyway? Just let me use it a bit more.”
'Then I’ll give you 30 more minutes.'
Ma-wang was also helping out well with the hunt whenever he took over my body these days.
It seemed he had built the Ice Castle in Zone 4 and then had abandoned it, as if he had no interest in it anymore.
Other climbers hunting in Zone 4 eventually discovered it, and there was a time when the communication window was in an uproar for a while.
Both the Public Order Squad and the Black Star Society reportedly explored it, but of course, there was no way there would be any hidden treasures.
I didn’t bother revealing the fact that it was a building I had built.
Like that, the Ice Castle remained a mystery of Zone 4 to the climbers.
I also now know why Ma-wang had been sitting on the throne there spacing out…
He had been trying to recover his memories.
Ma-wang had said he had no memories of the period around the time his world perished.
Anyway.
I was now maintaining a stable cooperative relationship with Ma-wang as well.
Compared to the time when he was anxious because he couldn’t steal my body, it was a massive improvement.
I had vaguely felt it starting from the 7th Floor.
Ma-wang seemed to be placing some slight expectations on me.
“Don’t be ridiculous. What expectations would I have for a guy like you…”
Ma-wang snorted.
Even though he said that, our souls were intertwined, so I couldn’t help but know when he was lying.
In preparation for clearing the future floors, I also figured out Ma-wang’s abilities in the meantime.
True to the name Demon King of Extreme Cold, the magic Ma-wang could use was entirely ice-attribute magic.
At best, is flight magic a movement skill?
It would have been nice if he could have used a wider variety of magic.
Though that part was a bit of a shame, conversely, it meant his ice-attribute magic was absolutely flawless.
Thanks to Ma-wang’s existence, I was also a bit more confident about the 8th Floor clear than about the clear of the previous floors.
And… the Sage.
I still hadn’t figured out what exactly the Sage had given me.
Would I find out while clearing if a crisis situation struck?
Whatever it was, I wished it would show some kind of usefulness…
Otherwise, I felt like I would heavily regret not choosing the Book of Omniscience.
[Nightmare]
Participants: 476,813
Time Limit: 23 days 1 hour 35 minutes 41 seconds
Reached floor: 8th Floor
Time continued to flow.
The Nightmare Time Limit of 20 days was right around the corner now.
I slowly prepared my mind.
[Skill: Frost Mist (Rare+)]
Spreads a Frost Mist in a 10-meter radius around you. Opponents entering the range are continuously affected by freezing. Requires 50 seconds of Mental Concentration to cast.
Category: Magic willpower cost: 35 per second
Cooldown: 1 minute
I obtained one Rare+ grade magic skill, one Rare+ grade skill stone, and various miscellaneous Normal Grade skills and skill stones from Billon.
The unfortunate thing was that it just had to be ice-attribute magic.
Still, I enhanced Sixth Sense with a skill stone, so it was now at +4.
If I enhanced it just one more time, I could obtain an epic grade skill in the upper tier of Sixth Sense.
And I also enhanced Hellfire Eruption with the epic grade skill stone I had obtained as a reward and saved previously.
[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[Floor: 8th Floor]
[Level: 95]
[Willpower: 5,000/5,000]
[Skill: Line of Destruction (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Hellfire Eruption (Epic) (+1), Sixth Sense (Rare+) (+4), Teleportation (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)…]
“Hmm…”
While sitting in front of my desk writing down my will, I stopped my pen.
It was something I wrote every year, but I would get stuck like this every time I wrote it.
Even if it was similar content every time, I ended up having a lot of thoughts and writing more of this and that anyway.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
If someday, perhaps even this very year, my family were to see this will.
What would mother and father think?
Well, they wouldn’t feel good…
Still, I hoped they wouldn’t be too sad.
Even though the start was semi-forced, I had also come this far with my own sense of duty.
There were many times when I thought, “Why does it have to be me?”
Now I sincerely think it was a relief that at least I was able to pull it off.
Of course, I would have to do my best so that my family would never have to read this, or the 8th Floor, forever.
At the point where 22 days remained until the nightmare deadline.
I packed my bags.
During the 6th and 7th Floors, I stayed home because I was mindful of my family, but this time I planned to go on a trip again, to Jeju Island.
For some reason, I just wanted to do that.
“Seohyeon, did you perhaps get a girlfriend?”
“…Huh? No, nothing like that.”
“If not, then never mind. Just in case.”
My father suddenly had strange suspicions out of nowhere, but, well, anyway.
When the day came, I left the house early at dawn.
“Have a safe trip. Always be careful. Got it?”
father and mother saw me off at the front door.
As always, their eyes were filled with worry.
Because wandering around claiming to go on a trip around this time wasn’t exactly great timing.
“Yes, I’ll be careful. Don’t worry too much.”
I said my goodbyes with a smile.
“I’ll be going then.”
* * *
For a day, I ate delicious food and wandered around having fun.
Returning to the hotel in the evening, I rested while drinking Maekju.
I also turned on the celestial music box, which put my mind at ease when I listened to it.
[Patrasche: 5 minutes left until the 21st day!]
[Pine Tree: I believe, I believe… I believe in the savior of humanity, Person123…]
[Karo: Haa, I’m slowly getting f*cking nervous.]
[Kkotgejjim: Tsk tsk. That friend still lacks faith.]
[Gwangran: I’m telling you, we just need to believe and wait lol]
As I looked at the communication window, it was a somewhat positive atmosphere.
There were people talking as if the 8th Floor had already been cleared, though.
Well, it was better than being anxious.
I turned off the communication window again.
[Nightmare]
Participants: 476,805
Time Limit: 21 days 59 seconds
Reached floor: the 8th Floor
It was soon the 21st day.
The time when the Tower always used to make a proposal.
However, during the 7th Floor, the Tower hadn’t made a proposal.
How would it be this time?
As I waited silently while watching the decreasing Time Limit…
[The Tower proposes to 'Person123'.]
…A message popped up.
I calmly read the contents.
[If 'Person123' accepts the following penalty, a special reward will be acquired in exchange.]
[Penalty: While 'Person123' attempts the First Clear of the 8th Floor, one of the possessed items will be randomly made usage prohibited.]
[Reward: 'Person123' acquires “Skill: Ark (?)”.]
[Skill: Ark (?)]
Sets a 10-kilometer radius as the Ark’s Domain. The Ark completely blocks external threats, including the Fallen, and humans existing within the Ark’s Domain become immune to the Tower’s Curse. Only humans permitted by the skill caster can enter the Ark’s Domain. The skill can be used in activation and deactivation forms, and an activated Ark lasts forever.
Category: Special willpower cost: None cooldown: None
[If you enter the 8th Floor before accepting the proposal, the proposal will be invalidated.]
[If 'Person123' wishes to accept the proposal, please express your acceptance.]
“…”
After checking both the penalty and the reward.
I furrowed my brow.
The reward was the Ark, exactly the same as it was on the 6th Floor.
The radius had even grown much larger, to 10km.
But… the penalty.
…What kind of bullshit trick is this?