Chapter 7
My leave is already almost over.
Isn't 24 hours way too short?
“You're leaving already?”
“Yeah. I have things to get ready before I go back into the basement. I should get going.”
“Okay, be careful. Thanks, Cheonwoo!”
Hyeji will clear Floor 28 in no time once she starts climbing the Tower, right?
Then Korea will finally be able to stop being a Tower backwater.
But there's just one problem...
‘The Association is still full of trash.’
That's the biggest problem.
No matter how much Hunters grow, there's no hope if the organization supporting them is garbage.
In that sense, I'm really not happy with the Tower Management Bureau's executives.
They practically hand Hunters' personal information over to other countries.
They're the kind of people who turn a blind eye whenever something goes wrong.
They're tax thieves who don't even care about protecting the climbers under their jurisdiction, aren't they?
They need a proper lesson.
‘But how?’
I'm a basement person, so it's hard to get out unless I use leave.
It'd be great if there were some kind of basement spokesperson.
Hyeji just became a climber, so she's not ready yet.
It'd be great if there were people who could clean out all those Association bastards on my behalf.
I want to lie around doing nothing and reap all the benefits.
With those bad thoughts in mind, I was heading home when I bumped into someone.
“Eek!?”
“Oh my. Are you all right?”
A white dress and a wide-brimmed hat.
I think I bumped into this person around here last time, too.
Right! It's the person I bumped into back then!
A really tall person with a huge chest! A slit-eyed, busty big sis!
I bumped into her around here last time I came out on leave, too.
I guess she lives around here.
“I'm fine. Well, goodbye...”
“Wait, just a moment!”
“Eeh...? W-what are you doing?”
When I bowed and tried to leave, she suddenly grabbed my hand.
Could it be that this person is interested in little girls?
No. That's fucking dangerous.
“Um, could it be... Did you come from the basement?”
“Pardon...?”
No, what? How did she figure that out?
Could she have approached me because she was after me?
But there shouldn't be any information about me yet.
Not on the Gallery or in the news.
They haven't even figured out my gender properly.
So how did this person get it right at a glance?
Could she be a Hunter with the ability to identify someone's true nature?
If so, this is dangerous.
I can't let my identity get exposed this quickly...
“I knew it...”
“W-wait a second.”
“Don't worry. I'm not trying to hurt you. I just... want to talk for a bit. Is that okay?”
“Talk...?”
“Yeah. Let's go down that alley.”
“Eek...!”
I couldn't pull my hand away.
This woman was incredibly strong!
“Um. How did you realize I came out of the basement?”
“Hmm. You smelled like it.”
“Smelled like it?”
“Yes. That distinctive, slightly bitter scent of the basement...”
“How do you know what the basement smells like?”
I'm the only human who can enter the basement.
So how on earth does this person know about the basement?
“I came from there.”
“....Pardon?”
“I was fired from the basement. So now I'm like this...”
Wait a second. What does that mean?
[The antipsychotic filter has activated.]
What!? What is it? What just happened?!
She just smiled brightly, so why did this suddenly activate?
“Oh my, you're not surprised.”
“N-no, well... I just wanted to ask, in case. Are you an entity?”
“Yes. Correct. I'm an entity who was no longer useful to the basement.”
“......”
Wait, is it okay for basement entities to wander around the streets?
Aren't they supposed to be hunted down?
“What does an entity want with me...”
“I was wondering if I could get some almond water.”
“Pardon...?”
“You know, that ivory-colored liquid in a glass bottle...”
“I know what almond water is. But why...”
“Almond water is what entities eat.”
After getting fired and kicked out of the basement, she could no longer get almond water.
Without almond water, she would gradually grow weaker and eventually disappear.
And in order to survive, she had no choice but to eat people.
Wait a second.
Eat people!?
“If I see a bad person, I gulp them down.”
“That's insane... H-how many people have you eaten so far?”
“One attempted rapist. Two drunk drivers who fled the scene. And... three stalkers?”
“......”
They were all bad people!
But this entity was still a monster who'd eaten six people already!
“I only eat people who've done really bad things, as much as possible. Of course, there are others who aren't like me.”
“Others who aren't like you...?”
“Yes. There are friends who eat anyone when they're hungry. They're generally the ones who've been out of the Tower for a while. They can't drink almond water, so their intelligence declines. They change until they're no different from beasts. They just live however they want, waiting for the day they'll be hunted down.”
“.....”
Without almond water, apparently they had to eat one person a month.
One bottle of almond water could keep them going for a year.
In this day and age, if someone disappeared, people just assumed they'd been dragged into the Tower...
Don't tell me people had been getting eaten behind the scenes!?
“If you give me almond water, I'll swear loyalty to you.”
“So, one bottle of almond water lets me hire you for a year?”
“Yes. That's right. I can be your servant for a year. I'll do anything you tell me.”
“..Anything.. By the way, how strong are you?”
Is she worth hiring?
“Me? Uh. I think I could kill at least a boss monster on a floor in the 40s by myself.”
“That's insane.”
She's fucking strong!
She can solo a Floor 40 boss monster?
Isn't that on par with one of the world's top ten rankers?
Wait.
I'd been looking for a servant anyway.
If it's this big sis...
“I'll hire you.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You're hired, effective immediately!”
“Yay~”
I'd just been thinking that I needed a basement spokesperson.
If I could put one bottle of almond water to good use for a whole year, that was an incredible deal, wasn't it?
And she's strong, too? She's the best!
“Then could you press your thumbprint here?”
“On your forehead?”
“Yes. Then the contract will be complete.”
“Um, do I need to prick my finger or something?”
“No, no! The employer doesn't have to do that.”
She grew her fingernails long and lightly cut her own forehead.
What the hell! Blood! Why is there blood? It smells like blood!
“Here. Please press it here.”
“This isn't going to cause problems later, is it?”
“Not at all! We'll just become employer and employee. You'll give me almond water, and I'll faithfully carry out your orders. I may not look it, but I'm good at infiltration and assassination, too.”
I didn't really understand what she meant.
But I'd already encountered plenty of situations in the basement that nearly drove me insane!
I knew very well that not all entities were scary.
And she was a good(?) entity who only ate bad people.
“All right.”
“Ooh...”
I pressed my thumbprint firmly onto the forehead of the tall, busty entity.
As soon as I left my thumbprint, the wound on her forehead vanished completely.
As expected of an entity. Amazing!
“But I don't have any almond water on me right now. I'll have to bring it out.”
“Mm-hmm. That's okay, miss. You don't have to give it to me right away.”
“Miss...?”
“You're my employer now, after all.”
“Oh...”
“By the way, miss. How many bottles of almond water do you have?”
The very first bottle I'd gotten was already gone; I'd drunk it.
But after that, I'd put all the almond water I'd received in the break room fridge.
It seemed like I got one bottle every time I completed a quest, so I'd probably collect more.
“I have about four bottles. I can probably get more, too.”
“Four bottles! That's great. Then, miss, is there anything you want me to do right now?”
“Uh, well...”
“Just tell me. I'll do anything.”
“Uh, I don't really have anything for you to do.”
“Is that so? Then I'll protect you of my own accord.”
My safety, huh.
Come to think of it, the Babel Tower Gallery and the news had been going crazy trying to find me, right?
I didn't really know how she planned to protect me.
Well, she would probably handle it.
“I'll definitely show you results, miss. Then, when you come out of the basement, please call for me.”
“Uh, yes..! Oh! Wait a second! What should I call you from now on?”
“Palcheok... Popo! Please call me Popo.”
Entity Popo bowed her head, smacked her lips, and disappeared into the darkness.
So she really was an entity.
My heart was pounding.
‘No, entities aren't supposed to wander around the streets at night...’
This is so scary.
I need to get home fast.
******
Headquarters of the South Korean Tower Management Bureau.
The conference room on the top floor.
Bureau Chief Choi Taesu nervously tapped the desk with his finger and spoke.
“We have to find them by any means necessary. We absolutely must identify the Basement Opener.”
His goal was singular.
To hand the Basement Opener over to China.
South Korea was currently facing condemnation from the international community.
And all kinds of problems were arising because of it.
To sort this out, they had to reveal who the Basement Opener was.
Choi Taesu hoped the Basement Opener would sacrifice themself ‘for the country.’
Of course, his real goal was to indulge his own greed and hold on to his position.
Thanks to China's influence, Choi Taesu held the post of Bureau Chief despite not being a climber. He was a replaceable cog who could be swapped out at any time if he didn't appease the Communist Party.
The same was true of most of South Korea's political establishment, a Tower backwater.
China, already a Tower powerhouse, had practically swallowed South Korea whole long ago.
It was all because of Bureau Chief Choi Taesu that Korea's promising young Hunters had been handed over to China several times before they could properly develop.
He was the kind of man who'd sell out his own country to get promoted and protect himself.
No, that was wrong. He'd already sold it out. By leaking so many of Korea's promising young talents overseas, he'd traded away the country's future for his own safety.
“Of the fifty people who entered the Tower on the day the basement opened, only four still haven't come out.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And of those four, there's only one person who hasn't been spotted inside the Tower.”
Ji Cheonwoo.
That name was about to be officially mentioned in the conference room.
At that moment...
Crackle!
“W-what is it?”
The lights in the conference room went out.
More precisely, every light went out only in the conference room where the Tower Management Bureau's senior officials had gathered.
“Why... are the lights out only in here...”
“T-the conference room door won't open...!”
“What!?”
All the lights in the conference room had gone out.
The darkness settled in deep.
Even if they tried to get out, the door wouldn't open.
There was no escape.
Swoosh.
“Uh...?”
[Shh.]
The Bureau Chief sucked in a breath when he saw the tall woman who had somehow come up behind him.
How had an outsider breached all the Bureau's security and gotten in here?
No, was she even human?
She had the appearance of a human.
But she didn't look human at all.
The space around her was twisted in a bizarre way.
Her swirling eyes belonged to a predator.
[One step. That's the chance you have left.]
A warning that if they dug any further, they would all die.
Don't dig any further.
Don't stir things up.
Close your eyes and pretend you don't know, even if you do.
Don't even try to reach the truth.
The Basement Administrator doesn't want to reveal their identity.
So this is as far as it goes.
If you try to learn more, I can't guarantee your lives.
“W-wait! We have our reasons, too! We have to find the Basement Opener, or else... U-uh, uh... Gaaah!!!!”
Palcheok's mouth opened wide enough to swallow a person's head.
One step.
Tower Management Bureau Chief Choi Taesu took that one step.
Gulp.
And so, Choi Taesu, Bureau Chief of the corrupt and scandal-ridden South Korean Tower Management Bureau, disappeared from the conference room.
And most of the Bureau's senior officials who had been in the conference room that day showed signs of mental illness and seizures.
This led to a sweeping cleanup of the upper ranks of the Tower Management Bureau.