Chapter 2
A short distance from the police station, we reach our destination in no time.
She stops in front of a sleek, modern house about four stories tall.
“This is Do-hee's new home~ You'll be able to stay here completely free of charge for one year, and electricity and water are free, too. If you'd like to keep living here after that, you'll just need to sign a separate contract~”
Following her inside, I find a nice four-bedroom family home. It feels like the sort of house where moderately well-off people live.
It's far too nice for me to use by myself.
It doesn't seem to have been lived in before, yet it's fully furnished with everything necessary, including a modern computer, washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator.
When I ask how such a nice house can be rented out for free, the landlady tells me that she owns the building...
She says she works with the police as a sort of donor or sponsor. The entire building is occupied only by women, so she emphasizes several times that it's safe.
And the house isn't the only thing that surprises me.
The closet is packed with clothes and underwear, and strangely enough, everything fits me perfectly.
‘How did she even know my size?’
When I try them on, the underwear clings snugly to my body.
'Could it be...?'
When I look at the landlady, she is smiling with satisfaction at the sight of me wearing the clothes.
"Looks like the size is a perfect fit. I had bought some things that I hadn't worn yet. Is that all right?"
Ah...
This is... rather disappointing...
"Ah, yes, it's fine. In fact... No, never mind."
"Ho ho ho.... You don't have to feel burdened. You're like a daughter to me... I'm doing this because it puts my mind at ease."
'Ma'am......'
According to her, if her child had grown up, she'd have a daughter about my age, but honestly, I find that hard to believe.
“Oh, right, here's a phone! You know how to use it, don't you?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
The phone looks better than the one I used to have.
After receiving an explanation of the house, along with my ID, bankbook, card, and other essentials of modern life, everything is more or less settled.
“Oh, my, Do-hee... Whatever happens, staying alive is what's important. Call me anytime you're having a hard time! Don't be afraid. Call even if you're bored. I have plenty of time, so you can call whenever you want. Got it?”
“Yes!”
She seems to have misunderstood my statement and assumed that something bad happened to me. Of course, the owner of this body may really have gone through something like that.
To begin with, does it make any sense for a person to be wrapped in layers of plastic and dumped in a garbage lot?
-THUD...
After the landlady leaves, I tidy up the house and turn on the computer.
I want revenge as soon as possible.
But first, I need to investigate. In this body, I can't accomplish anything.
What happened to my corpse after I died?
What happened to my possessions?
Are the treasures I hid still safe?
Did they manage to clear the next floor without me?
And the moment I turn on the computer, I realize something shocking.
‘What? The date is strange.’
September 17, 2028.
And the year I died was 2023.
‘Five years have passed...?’
‘It took five years for me to come back to life?’
Yeah, that was possible.
I'd even possessed a woman's body; five years was nothing by comparison.
'How has Korea's Tower conquest been progressing all this time?'
There isn't just one or two things I'm curious about.
The last Tower I cleared was the 72nd floor.
And according to the Tower's rules, it collapses the moment you fail to clear at least one floor per year.
Of course, climbing more floors is fine, but clearing ten floors at once doesn't make the Tower safe for ten years. The timer starts running the moment a new floor is cleared.
And the moment the Tower collapses...
The entire surrounding area becomes a demon realm beyond the possibility of recovery.
That is why most other countries generally climbed only one or two additional floors per year after passing the 50th floor, clearing the Tower cautiously.
'Of course, I was different…’
Maybe this was why I was betrayed.
I single-handedly cleared the 70th floor, which everyone had told me was impossible, and kept climbing despite their warnings to proceed safely...
Although I was confident it was possible and had a plan, other countries—and even Korea—treated me like a madman.
‘Whew… Still, with what I accomplished, Korea should still be number one in the world, right?’
That was what I thought, but...
But what do I find?
[World Tower Rankings]
United States - 91st floor
China - 88th floor
Japan - 81st floor
Russia - 79th floor
Korea - 78th floor
Germany - 78th floor
...
..
.
‘What the hell...? Where did our great Korea go?’
That's right.
While I was gone, our country had barely managed to climb one floor per year. Everyone except me had climbed just enough to prevent the Tower from collapsing.
It was a glorious period when countless people around the world watched Korea, expecting it to become the greatest country in the world. Nationalistic news was everywhere, and many scholars predicted that Korean would become the world's standard language after English.
Except for the United States, which had been hot on our heels, China and Japan were constantly groveling to Korea's Awakeners and government for help.
‘Sigh… In the end, did those bastards choose to settle for what they had?’
Revenge may have become easier, but that didn't make me feel entirely at ease.
‘All right, let's see what those bastards have been doing all this time.’
Of course, most of the information was classified, but posts floating around on places like online communities were easy to find.
[Tower-Climbing Support Gallery]
---
[Title] : The reason our country's Awakeners became cowards
[Content] : I respect the raiders who risk their lives to climb the Tower.
Still, I have to say what needs to be said.
After the heavy casualties on the 72nd floor, they all became cowards.
Now, rather than Tower raiders, they're just the entrenched elite.
They grind down the lives of young newcomers who join hoping to turn their lives around, while safely clearing the Tower from behind. It's also not uncommon to see them picking fights with hostile guilds or bullying neutral Awakeners.
On top of that, all six guild masters have entered politics and business, carving out positions for themselves lol.
They're no longer Tower raiders. They're just the Tower's entrenched elite.
---
Comments :
- What do you want me to do? If you're pissed, climb it yourself.
- But Korea can't clear the Tower anymore unless you're one of the six major guilds. All we can do is beg those bastards to handle it.
- Those big-guild bastards control information among themselves, along with the recipes for skills and elixirs. They won't even form parties with neutral users, and since they climb only among themselves, it's structurally damn hard for a new guild to emerge, for real.
- Korea can just go to hell.
- Fact)Being fifth is still pretty good.
└ Technically, we're sixth lol
└Expert opinion) Korea will be pushed out of the top ten in five years.
- Looking at this, he's from that bastard's guild.
└Seriously, the only guild ever expelled from the seven major guilds lol
└ Those guys really are pitiful.
└ That blind Sword Saint? lol
---
'Are they effectively only clearing the Tower out of a sense of duty...?'
But that was the general public's opinion. When I looked into other sources, I found that they had reasons of their own.
The official reason for the delay in clearing the Tower was that too many members of the main forces had died on the 72nd floor. So they were training newcomers and climbing slowly together, and there was naturally no way that approach could be fast.
'Did I kill that many?'
I fought almost in a trance at the end, so I don't remember much. And if it wasn't that, my death itself may have caused problems.
Even loot distribution based on contribution seemed to have become an issue, and the guilds weren't exactly on good terms with one another.
'The public thinks the big guilds have become an entrenched elite and are only pursuing safety, but reality is a little different....'
Rather, they were struggling just to maintain that privileged position, barely managing to climb one floor at a time. Entering politics and business also cost a great deal, especially with the expense of training newcomers, so this may have been an unavoidable choice.
They may not have expected it, but from my perspective, this was the inevitable result.
'That's right, it happened because I... wasn't there.'
Without me—the commander who had directed all seven guilds and possessed the strongest combat power—the casualties were bound to mount, and the guilds were bound to splinter.
'Stupid bastards....'
Perhaps they were already beginning to pay the price for their betrayal.
***
This is the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Yongsan District.
“Constable Kim, are the investigation results out?”
Based on Lee Do-hee's statement, they began investigating how she had ended up in the garbage at a scrap yard.
“Yes, Lieutenant Park. The Violent Crimes Team gave us their findings, but... how do we handle this?”
“What is it? Let me see.”
They traced who had discarded the plastic that Lee Do-hee had emerged from, and the result was shocking.
“Lee Seong-yong's residence—the current leading heir to the Oseong Group....? Wait, this...”
Oseong Group.
The name speaks for itself.
It was Korea's overwhelmingly dominant No. 1 global conglomerate, and Oseong Guild was Korea's No. 1 guild.
This was a huge—an absolutely huge—case.
Nothing had been confirmed yet, but if the investigation continued, the Oseong Group owner's family would naturally come under suspicion.
“Uh... what happens then?”
“Sigh...."
Lieutenant Park sighs deeply as he considers the matter. He is the sparse-bearded man who initially shouted at Do-hee before later treating her kindly.
"Cover it up. The Violent Crimes Team isn't going to investigate any further, are they?"
"What? Of course that's true, but isn't this still going too far? Even if they're a chaebol family, if the news breaks...."
Kim is still new to the job, at an age when his sense of justice is overflowing.
"Don't be rash. Of course, if that woman had been found dead, I might have done the same. But think about it. Those people probably think she's dead. If an investigation begins in earnest, who do you think would be in the most danger?"
Someone had wrapped a person in garbage plastic and dumped her in a garbage lot.
Anyone could see that the intention was to dispose of a corpse. They weren't idiots; they wouldn't have dumped her while knowing she was alive. Besides, the fact that they hadn't even tried to look for her made it seem like they believed they had disposed of everything perfectly.
"Th... that...."
"Cover it up. Make sure the people who handle Oseong Group's cleanup don't find out, and bury it as though nothing happened. I'll request that anything posted on social media or in the news be deleted."
This was the moment Lee Do-hee's past was being laundered without her knowledge.
"Maybe she really pretended not to remember in order to survive...."
His intuition had told him that she was lying. He hadn't pressured her for no reason.
"Was she kidnapped as a child or something....?"
Assuming that she had been kidnapped without ever being registered, all he could do now was hope that she would forget everything and live happily.
***
Lee Do-hee's room.
"I can't see a way forward....."
It had seemed easy earlier, but the more information I learned, the more difficult it felt.
"I can't solve this by blindly climbing the Tower, can I?"
All six major guilds had put down roots throughout Korea.
The moment I attacked them, I would become a target for the entire nation.
"And what good is knowing all this if I can't use it?"
『Awakener Market』
I can't use it yet because I haven't entered the Tower, but I can window-shop.
[Hob Goblin's Inner Core] : 20 million won
[Blue Wolf's Heart] : 50 million won
[Mayer Family's Breathing Method] : 300 million won
...
..
.
Unlike in the past, when I climbed the Tower blindly, there were elixirs, equipment, and skills that were most effective when used on the lower floors. But I didn't have the money to buy them.
"Money... and I need a justification for revenge....."
No easy answer comes to mind.
There is no point pondering something I can't solve and expecting a conclusion.
First, I head outside to train my basic physical fitness so I can climb the Tower.
***
A month later.
"Whew..... Is this enough?”
Although I had gone from the world's strongest person to an ordinary woman, I spent the intervening time exercising to build a body that was at least usable, while gathering information about everything that had changed through the internet.
‘Honestly, climbing the Tower in this body is the worst possible situation…’
When I was a man, I was 185 centimeters tall and had a muscular body. Now I've shrunk to around 170 centimeters, and the martial arts I used before feel completely reset. On top of that, my center of gravity wobbles all over the place whenever I move because of my pointlessly huge breasts and hips.
No matter how much I try to build muscle, perhaps because of this body's constitution, these jiggling masses of flesh simply refuse to disappear.
Bluntly put, I'm an organism specialized for reproduction rather than combat.
‘Still, I won't give up.’
My sole goal is the Tower.
Revenge. Korea's glory. Wealth and honor. The origin of the Tower.
All of it is atop that Tower.
I have no intention of living like a stupid bitch, giggling mindlessly just because I've become a woman.
“Let's go.”
The first through tenth floors are tutorial floors, and all personal equipment is restricted there, so I don't need to prepare anything.
I tie my fluttering pink hair back and leave the house in a light tracksuit.
The house where I live is less than thirty minutes from the Seoul Tower.
The Seoul Tower appeared where Namsan Tower once stood, and since my house is directly beneath it, I can get to the Tower as conveniently as if I were commuting to work. It's in a perfect location, close enough to reach the Tower like taking a walk up the hill behind my neighborhood.
‘I really can't see the end.’
A colossal tower about one kilometer in diameter and twenty kilometers high.
From below, the massive Tower finally comes into view, its top invisible in the distance.
"Whew......"
To shake off my nervousness, I break into a light jog toward it.