Chapter 14
Before heading down to Floor -4, there’s something I need to do.
For starters, people keep bringing up my name in the gallery lately.
This is a little concerning.
I mean, I can’t exactly ignore it.
No, how did my information spread this quickly?
Who the hell is the culprit?
Could it be the Tower Management Bureau?
Or...
====
Title: I Found Out Who the Basement Administrator Is.
Posted by: Anenosake
According to a leak from the Ministry of Home Affairs,
the Basement Administrator is believed to be a Korean man named Ji Cheonwoo.
Apparently, that’s what the shrine maiden observed.
It’s probably true, right?
Or maybe not, haha.
[Comments]
└GoodChinesePerson: “Or maybe not, haha”? How irresponsible. That’s unconfirmed information.
└ShadowStalker: Since Ji Cheonwoo’s name is coming up from multiple sources, there’s probably some truth to it.
└IronLong: We’re still looking into the details, but the name Ji Cheonwoo seems certain.
└LatinViper: That bastard stole my grimoire? I’ll never forgive him.
└OrangeMan: From what I’ve heard, China’s already making a move.
└KhanWhoDoesntRideHorses: Them again? Those guys sure love kidnapping Koreans.
====
So the culprit was the shrine maiden?
What kind of ability does Japan’s shrine maiden have? Amazing!
How far can she observe?
I’m not being watched right now, am I?
‘Japan’s shrine maiden, huh? I heard the Saintess in Western Europe found out my name, too. Those classes really do have fast access to information. They receive oracles and revelations, after all.’
If that’s the case, then what I need to do now is protect the barn before the enemy arrives.
There’s nothing dumber than fixing the barn after the cow’s already escaped.
So, to protect the barn, I should first assess its condition...
“Good grief. How many foreign criminals are there these days?”
Lately, it seems like foreign crime has been on the rise.
I mean, is this country some kind of crime-experience theme park?
No matter how much of a Tower backwater South Korea is, there’s a limit.
There have to be lines you don’t cross.
“This is not okay..!!!”
Kidnappings in broad daylight.
Murder and corpse disposal.
Killing people and acting shameless about it.
W-what is this...
Is this really what’s happening in South Korea right now?
They’re even smuggling drugs?
And human trafficking, too?
This place is a total paradise for scumbags!
The criminals are all believed to be unregistered foreign Hunters residing illegally.
Hunters from other countries are causing trouble in Korea.
And the punishments are ridiculously lenient!
They just deport them to their home countries, and that’s it...
What about the victims?
Who’s going to comfort their families?
Looking into the current situation in Korea is making me angry.
“This is so unfair.”
I mean, anyone would turn vicious in a situation like this.
There’s no proper punishment.
Just because they’re Hunters from another country, they get to run wild above Korean law.
Even I’m surprised. Why should you be the only ones having fun?
I want to try playing above the law, too.
“Shall I play above the law for a bit?”
Before I started playing, I warned everyone on Babel Gallery.
If you’re going to run, get out of here quickly.
If you’re going to resist, then resist to the bitter end.
I definitely gave you a day’s warning, right?
Don’t come crying later, okay?
That’s what my warning meant.
====
Title: I’ll Give You Exactly 24 Hours
Posted by: BasementAdministrator1326
Ahh~ An announcement from the basement~
All unregistered Hunters currently in Korea,
including Hunters residing illegally who’ve committed crimes and gone into hiding.
Get out within 24 hours.
I’m giving you time to leave.
The clock starts now. You have 24 hours~~
This isn’t a suggestion. It’s an order.
====
But normally, you can’t just post something like this once.
It’ll get buried and disappear right away, so you have to spam it if you want every Hunter to see it.
Time to put my fingers to work for the first time in a while!
====
[I’ll Give You Exactly 24 Hours (6)]
[Here we go again (22)]
[I’ll Give You Exactly 24 Hours (1)]
[Basement troll alert! Call the mods!!!! (33)]
[I’ll Give You Exactly 24 Hours (7)]
[What? Get the hell out within 24 hours? (41)]
[I’ll Give You Exactly 24 Hours (5)]
[I’ll Give You Exactly 24 Hours (0)]
====
Good. That should do it, right?
I clearly warned them.
I even gave them a grace period of 24 whole hours.
If they still don’t leave after all that,
then they’re saying they want to be buried in this land.
Well, it can’t be helped.
I’ll bury them, then.
Let’s see how they react.
====
Title: What? Get the Hell Out Within 24 Hours?
Posted by: TravelingtheWorldAlone
Oh, got it. I’ll really leave.
Thanks for letting me know in advance.
(I really mean it. Packing my bags now.)
[Comments]
└Pajoligae: This guy sure listens well, lol.
└HungaryHungary: Then get the hell out. What if you actually die?
└NewYorkPeople: Very scary.
====
The Basement Administrator’s mass-provocation warning.
It was incredibly effective!
The moment I started spamming the post, people began fleeing in droves.
They’re trembling in terror, aren’t they?
Are you afraid of the Basement Administrator, who mercilessly slaughtered 15 top Hunters from the Tower’s most advanced countries?
Well, I’ll admit, even I find her a little scary...
====
Title: I Got a Visa. Should I Leave?
Posted by: MyHometownPakistan
I have to work in Korea.
I need to work hard to support my family.
Please help me.
[Comments]
└GarlicKing: You’re not included. She only said undocumented Hunters should leave.
└BossamStew: The Administrator’s post says Hunters residing illegally.
└MyHometownPakistan: That’s a relief. Thank you, Koreans.
====
Maybe I went a little too far trying to get a reaction?
Even people who came to Korea for work and foreign Hunters who came as tourists are leaving like crazy.
No, I clearly only warned Hunters residing illegally.
It looks like I issued a mass deportation order to all foreigners..!!
Is this a twenty-first-century isolationist policy or what?
Heungseon Daewongun must be applauding from the afterlife.
====
Title: I Hate the Basement Administrator
Posted by: NantesChef
I just arrived in Korea, and now I’m leaving because I’m scared.
Damn Basement Administrator.
My wife, my son, and I had been looking forward to this trip so much.
We’d planned to eat samgyeopsal and gukbap, see K-pop, and explore Korean culture.
I know it’s aimed at people residing illegally, but...
There’s no way we can travel in an atmosphere like this.
You ruined everything.
Our son is crying on the plane.
[Comments]
└BaguetteBro: I heard you’d been planning this trip for six months. Is that right?
└NantesChef: That’s right. My restaurant’s so busy that it took me forever to make time, and now the trip’s canceled.
└KingKingSnail: Oh, that’s too bad.
====
“Ah...”
No! That’s not what I meant!
I wasn’t talking about tourists!
The real bad guys aren’t reacting at all.
Why are these perfectly innocent tourists the ones suffering...?
I... with my own hands...
I ruined a family’s special trip to Korea...
“Hunters residing illegally... I’ll never forgive you..!”
This is all your fault.
Never. I’ll never forgive you.
It’s not right to give trash criminals a whole 24 hours to leave!!!
The victims probably got attacked without any warning, too!
You’ll get hit without warning, too!
Campaign to Eradicate Criminal Hunters Residing Illegally.
Starts now.
******
An area packed with abandoned buildings in Jemulpo-gu, Incheon.
Large-scale drug smuggling.
Organized stock manipulation.
Even laundering illegal slush funds.
A gathering of people who do everything except what they can’t.
Unregistered foreign Hunters had been trickling in one by one for a while, and more and more of them gathered in the area. Now it had become a lawless zone that even the police were reluctant to patrol.
The enormous criminal organization formed by bringing those people together was called the ‘Yuranghoe.’
A shadow cast over South Korea, a Tower backwater.
At its center, a bespectacled gangster with an intellectual air took a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth.
“Boss. Did you see the post on Babel Tower?”
“Ah, yes. I saw it. Good grief. It’s not even funny.”
They shared information in their halting Korean.
As expected, the topic was the Basement Administrator.
Her post from today was all the criminals could talk about.
“Telling everyone to get out within 24 hours. Who does she think she is, the president of this country? Right, Boss?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Just because she tells us to leave, doesn’t mean we have to. Besides, this country’s already rotten to the core. Don’t you think?”
“Exactly! There aren’t just one or two people like us. Even the government’s given up on this country. I wonder how she thinks she’s going to find us all and take us out.”
Unregistered Hunters residing illegally had already spread throughout South Korea.
With so few climbers in Korea, it was difficult to track down or deal with people who used supernatural abilities.
There was no capacity to capture people armed with physical abilities far beyond an ordinary person’s, all kinds of items, and various skills.
In the end, the criminal organizations were left alone.
They grew larger and larger, until they began to reach into civilian life, their presence just starting to peek above the surface.
“Then, Boss, I’ll continue with the project.”
“Yes. Keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
A Yuranghoe executive.
A man known as ‘Boss.’
The Hunter Jang Yeolji, an ethnic Korean from China.
His class was Foundryman.
And he made items by grinding people up.
Five years ago, he’d been caught doing the same illegal work in China and fled to Korea to go into hiding. That was how he’d ended up expanding his business here.
So he couldn’t just give up his position so easily.
He wasn’t soft enough to shut down his operation and leave in a single day.
Thinking, “Let them come if they want,” he continued his work.
The basement of an abandoned building where no one ever came.
A place known as the workshop.
Since anyone dragged down here never made it back out, the criminals of the Yuranghoe called it the Hell Workshop.
“Hic... P-please save me...”
“I’m sorry, but the moment you came in here, your life was over.”
“P-please...! We... we know each other!”
“Crying and begging over and over won’t do you any good. The order’s already come in, and I have to sell the castings. I can’t just let the materials go, can I?”
“M-my daughter... My daughter is waiting for me... Please...”
“What, should I send your daughter along with you?”
“Ah...”
Jang Yeolji exhaled a stream of cigarette smoke as he looked at the man bound in chains.
If he had a human heart, he couldn’t do something like this.
He’d thrown away his human heart long ago.
Money mattered more than life.
“Just think of it as bad luck. You should’ve gone home a little earlier. Why were you drinking and wandering the streets? Hm?”
The days when people could safely walk around even at dawn were long gone.
With criminal organizations on the rise, the nights in Korea were no longer safe.
“All right, then.”
The Yuranghoe’s Boss took out a butcher knife to begin the disassembly.
With emotionless eyes.
With mechanical movements.
He pointed the knife at his victim.
That was when it happened.
The air in the abandoned building suddenly grew heavy.
“...Hmm?”
Boss adjusted his glasses.
He looked deeply displeased at being interrupted before he could start working.
If some climber full of righteous indignation and a sense of justice had attacked this place,
he was already savoring the thought of capturing them and turning them into a top-grade casting.
He went upstairs, toward where he’d sensed someone’s presence.
As a Foundryman, he’d plastered his entire body with cast-metal gear.
He believed he could escape even if a climber from Floor 50 showed up.
In a word,
Jang Yeolji was arrogant.
Daring to face the master of the basement.
“...Crazy.”
When Jang Yeolji climbed the stairs with a weapon in his hand,
a huge ‘something’ stood on the first floor of the abandoned building.
There was nothing else around.
The floor was covered in nothing but bloodstains.
There should’ve been as many as twelve underlings guarding the first floor.
Where had they all disappeared to?
Jang Yeolji took a step back.
It had approached without a sound and destroyed everything.
Its head bent at an odd angle.
It looked around as if searching for something.
It made a strange sound.
‘Is that... a person?’
Jang Yeolji had never seen a woman that tall before.
He’d also never seen a woman like that silently kill twelve people and then stand there, staring blankly.
Even though all his underlings had disappeared, not a single one of the security castings had reacted.
It was a complete mystery.
Countless question marks appeared in his mind.
Those question marks hooked the Boss and held him fast.
As if a fishing float had snagged his ankle, his feet wouldn’t move.
He instinctively knew he couldn’t escape.
“Shit...”
Tension spread across the confident criminal’s face.
He’d acted like it didn’t matter who came looking for him, dismissing anyone who dared to challenge him.
Jang Yeolji, an executive of the worst criminal organization in South Korea, had trusted his own abilities far too much and grown arrogant. Now his hands were shaking.
‘What is that...’
He didn’t know.
He couldn’t understand.
His mind refused to make sense of it.
It definitely wasn’t human.
Then was it a monster?
Could monsters come out of the Tower?
There were cases like that.
But none of the monsters Jang Yeolji had ever seen acted or smiled like that.
-P-please save me!
At that moment, Mr. Park, one of the victims held captive in the workshop, shouted.
From his perspective, it must’ve been his last desperate struggle, his final cry.
And Mr. Park’s anguished shout reached the ears of the entity hunting for prey on the first floor of the abandoned building.
“....Ah.”
Jang Yeolji groaned.
In the moment he looked away,
the woman, more than two meters tall, had disappeared.
Where had she gone?
Could a woman that huge suddenly disappear inside this building?
“......”
Something dripped onto the crown of Jang Yeolji’s head.
He forced his trembling head up and looked at the ceiling.
“Popopopo.”
The Boss vanished on the spot.
By order of the Basement Administrator,
the cleanup proceeded diligently.