Chapter 18
[So What Happens When a Gate Breaks?]
[Posted by: Fire Chicken]
I learned about Gates while Unni, the Bureau chief, was teaching me Awakened common sense.
Have they appeared in Korea, too?
-Clacker Maniac: Ah, Gates. That brings back memories. We were so busy climbing Towers to rack up stats back then.
└Turtle King: The days when unpaid time attacks were our daily routine lololol
-I Am Empire: This was around when the Dragon started clearing ten Tower floors in a row. The Dragon said that wasn't enough and flew off to clear a bunch of other low-floor Towers, too.
└Fashionista: If we didn't clear them fast, me (and all the ordinary people) would die lololol
-Deep Sea Diver: Tower collapses were a problem, but these fucking bastards wrecked the marine ecosystem, goddamn it
└Caw Caw: I'm not the wyvern cleanup crew...
-World Peace: So please, become a mod already!!!
└Fire Chicken: What's the pay?
└World Peace: Well, first we'd get one month of unpaid leave every... ah.
└Fire Chicken: Good luck
└World Peace: Aaaaaagh!!!!
└Environmental Protection: lololololol
"I don't know the details, but it sounds like things were bad enough that it wouldn't have been surprising if someone died at any moment."
You bastards. I missed out on all these amazing experiences?
If I'd known before I Awakened, I could've definitely died...
Ah. Come to think of it...
[Title: So, What's the Schedule for the North Korean Gate Raid?]
[Posted by: Fire Chicken]
You said you'd be going on an expedition with the Association and the guilds soon. Do you really have to go?
-Fashionista: If we clear the whole thing, reunification of North and South Korea is totally doable lololol
└Yeah: I didn't want reunification to happen like this...
-I Am Empire: They're probably hurrying because other countries are trying to grab land, too. China at least handed it over to Korea, but Russia's the problem...
└Deep Sea Diver: There's a dragon there, too. Its name's Zmyu, and I happened to see it once. It and our dragon are on fucking awful terms.
-Caw Caw: The Russian government seems to want to take Awakened people to war, but I don't know the details.
└Clacker Maniac: I have to go myself in about a week to recover the North Koreans' bodies. Most were eaten and digested by monsters, so we need to at least bring back their belongings, but these fucking guild assholes only care about collecting monster drops and discarded junk. They won't cooperate. Fucking hell.
'There's another dragon...?'
Come to think of it, Unni said there could be more than one person with the same special class.
Then could there be a phoenix in another country besides Russia?
Seems like there isn't just one vampire, either...
I don't know. Let's just climb.
"So, do you know any Towers that meet the requirements for the North Korean Gate expedition?"
-There are a few in Incheon and Busan, and each has a Tower with 50 floors.
-What? Are you planning to go, too?
"No. Unni, the Bureau chief, said she has to go on an expedition... After I take the equivalency exam... I'll be left all alone."
-She wants to die, but she doesn't like being lonely?
-Can't forget Dragon Noona's awesome breath pouch?
-Gasp
-Gaaaasp
-Hehehe
-WAKYAPYAHK JJUJUK BBANGBBANG lol
-Aaaaaagh!! Polar bear!!!
-Polar Bear: Fuck, here too?
-It's not too late! Hurry and move her to the zoo!!
-A phoenix dies of loneliness... wait, no. You've already died a few times, haven't you?
"What's with you guys?"
I was only asking, but they started making a fuss among themselves.
I ignored them and entered the Tower.
[Defeat the Death Sandworm]
[Forced ejection if you die even once]
"This one only has the no-dying condition?"
The ground kept shaking, and I sensed something moving underground. When I flew up, a huge, eyeless worm burst out of the ground, spinning.
Is that a sandworm? It has no eyes, and its long body is lined with a ring of sharp teeth around its mouth.
If dying weren't forbidden, I'd let it chew me up.
"Oh, right. I learned this while Unni was teaching me Awakened common sense."
-?
-What?
-Sandworms are still fucking huge.
The sandworm hid underground again and moved around, then burst out beneath me while I was hovering, trying to swallow me. I dodged slightly and kicked its body, sending it bursting out of the ground all the way to its tail.
"Inhale—"
Then I drew in a breath, gathering the mana boiling inside me as if pulling it up and out—
"Hoo."
'Fwoooooosh!!'
I breathed fire straight into the sandworm's mouth.
I remembered that when I first entered floor 1, I'd let out a casual sigh, and every monster in front of me had burned to death.
So I wondered if I could do it and borrowed the Management Bureau's training room. That's when I found out I could actually use a breath attack, too.
-Whoa, a breath attack
-Phoenixes can use breath attacks, too!?
-No, now that I think about it, she's used fire magic all this time, so I wondered if she could!!
Of course, that wasn't the end of it. The breath attack went in through the sandworm's mouth like a flamethrower, then spread over its exterior, too.
By then, the sandworm couldn't even think of burrowing underground. It was sprawled on the ground, writhing wildly and sweeping everything around it.
"Hmm."
'KRRRIP!!!'
As I watched the sandworm thrashing in flames, I pressed the backs of my clenched fists together, then pulled them apart to either side. A huge blade of fire formed inside the sandworm and burst out, slicing it in half.
"It's too big to eat."
-As if you could eat that
-Holy shit, did she control the fire inside its body? That's fucking amazing
-If she actually fought seriously, she could probably beat most Awakened people.
-Is this what a special class can do?
"Well... I'll go up to floor 30 for now. I'm curious what's there. The people who climbed it before didn't look too happy."
-Come to think of it, the streamers deleted their records of reaching floor 30 in Korea's 100-floor Tower.
-What? What happened?
-No clue. I heard an elf appeared on floor 30 of another Tower with fewer floors?
-Was she pretty?
-Why's that the first thing you ask;;
-Anyway, there were a ton of handsome men and beautiful women.
-She's my daughter.
-She's my wife.
-She's my grandchild.
-We already have people imagining grandchildren, damn...
Leaving the viewers to their strange fantasies, I moved on to the next floor, floor 27.
[Defeat the Giant Mantis.]
[Forced ejection if you are sliced to death.]
[Forced ejection if eaten.]
[Kiiiiiiiiik!]
"It's a mantis. It's huge."
-Whoa, I almost pissed myself
-Does Bug Island really exist!?
-Where the fuck is that now?
-I thought it was the Giant Bug Mountains.
-So what the hell are you talking about;;
-Is it just me, or is its body twitching?
'SHRAAAK!!
It spread its wings and flew at me, so I simply swung a sword of fire vertically and let it pass.
The mantis split in half as the blade of fire lengthened in an instant and cut through it.
[Bvrrrr!]
"Whoa, what was that?"
Something like a black, tentacle-shaped bug came out. I dodged and burned it, but...
"What is this one?"
-It's a horsehair worm, fuck
-Eugh, that's fucking disgusting
-It's a parasite. It lives inside carnivorous or omnivorous insects, and since the mantis was huge, the thing's huge too. Holy shit.
-Surprisingly, when dried, it makes a pretty useful rope...
-Aagh, don't say that!!
"Next. Floor 28."
[Defeat the 3 Mad Hornets.]
[Forced ejection if you use Flight.]
A giant buzzing insect appeared, smaller than the mantis but still monster-sized.
Hornet... that means wasp, right? Weren't normal wasps much smaller than that?
For its size, it moved quickly from side to side, sizing me up as it tried to pierce me to death with its stinger.
This time, there was no condition saying I'd be ejected if I died, but...
"Normally, I'd let myself get pierced and die once, but I'm busy right now."
I shaped the flames I'd made in midair like the Venus flytrap I'd seen in a dictionary, snapped them around the Mad Hornets, and burned them as if digesting them.
I burned them to ash without leaving so much as a corpse.
-Whoa, those things are crazy fast and annoying
-For real, no point when she can just attack right next to them
-Is there a beehive nearby? Larvae stir-fried in their oil are amazing
"...There isn't one."
I really looked all around, but there was nothing.
-Ah, too bad.
-What do you mean, too bad, you crazy bitch
-Wasp liquor... oh, right. There aren't any bodies left.
-Come to think of it, have you ever tried honey? The stuff from the ruins is insanely good and hasn't gone bad all this time.
"I haven't. Maybe I should buy some sometime?"
They say honeybees make it. I wonder when I'll get to try it.
I don't remember the name of the one on floor 29, but it was a huge rhinoceros beetle.
Its shell was tougher than I expected, so even fire didn't burn it well. So I just broke off its horn, and it thrashed around, spraying bodily fluids from the cross-section before dying.
"Hmm..."
-What?
-What's wrong?
"No, it's nothing. It's just... the insects that appeared from floor 26 onward. I got the feeling they were running away from something..."
-You think so?
-Hmm?
-Come to think of it, the rhinoceros beetles from the Gate were pretty docile, even as monsters...
-So what? They're still monsters, so we have to hunt them.
-No. There are even rich people who raise them themselves.
-Do they have nothing better to do?
I wasn't sure, but the sandworm, mantis, and hornets... They'd all seemed frightened, as if they'd seen something.
Even the hornets on floor 28 had been flying around in a confused panic, bumping into the walls...
Is there really something on floor 30 of the 100-floor Tower?
I was a little curious about what they'd seen.
I was going to climb there anyway.
"Next."
The place I arrived at was a quiet, densely wooded forest.
Huge trees grew thickly, and some had doors and windows, as if people lived inside them. There were even little houses built on their branches.
-Oh, look at this atmosphere.
-Is it an elf village?
-Then are there busty older sisters?
-You're still on about that??
-But the elf and dark elf sisters in Africa's savanna are busty.
-That's true.
"Busty... What does that mean, anyway? Beautiful women with big breasts and butts? What are you all talking about?"
Since they seemed likely to start saying more weird stuff, I decided to let it go for now.
The objective on this 30th floor was...
[Purify.]
"...? Purify?"
-?
-?
-Why purification?
-What? Do we need to bring a saintess?
-Or a holy swordsman?
There wasn't even anything about being ejected if I did something... Why all of a sudden? What did it mean to purify something? Was I supposed to use a light-element skill?
...No. "Purify" didn't necessarily mean I had to use something holy.
Oh. There was a pointy-eared person here. An elf.
Judging by the cleavage, was she a woman? Her clothes... showed a little skin, but she was definitely covered where it mattered. They weren't even combat clothes.
If she was hostile, I'd have to burn her immediately, but if she was friendly... I'd have to find out what "purify" meant.
"Excuse me. Are you alri—"
'Schlorp—'
"......"
I stopped talking after witnessing something red and tentacle-like emerge from the blonde elf woman's face, then slip back inside.
I reflexively grabbed the elf and turned her to face me. Then I understood.
There were no traces of eyes, nose, or mouth—only ears.
Instead, a hollow hole that looked like something might enter and exit through it sat in the center of where her face should have been.
"...Wow."
-Eugh, what the fuck is that
-Wasn't that an NPC!?
-Hey, guys, look at those! The other elves have holes in their faces, too, and they're coming this way!!
-Does "purify" mean we have to euthanize all of them?!!
-Shit, this isn't just fantasy, it's dark fantasy?!
-What the hell happened to this other world?
-Fuck, my wife!!!!!
It was exactly like the hole that had been left in the face of the male dark elf whose corpse had been controlled by a parasite earlier.