Chapter 43
#43. Origin
I had never even thought about which server Kim Jina was from.
No, to begin with, I had never thought about anywhere beyond the tower I was in.
What basis had I used to conclude that the Tower of Trials wasn't a lawless, might-makes-right zone?
What I knew about the tower's society came only from articles and rumors I heard outside, and from what I learned after entering the tower and browsing the community.
The former wasn't something to take at face value in the first place, because communication between the world of the Tower of Trials and the outside was extremely slow and inaccurate.
And the open community used a real-name system.
The poster's real name and even their server affiliation are displayed in the community exactly as they are. Come to think of it, that's a setup optimized for an in-person beatdown.
If the bastard badmouthing me belonged to the same tower, I could go find him myself and kill him.
Even if they weren't a challenger from the same tower, if they were tied to a major guild, they could still hurt me indirectly.
So even through the latter, it would be very hard to get negative information about a particular ranker or group.
Only challengers from the same server would know exactly what Choi Gilhyun had been up to on Server 1554, and what else he might do in the future.
If, as a low-floor ranker, his own combat power couldn't be underestimated, and on top of that he commanded a faction built on connections,
then it wouldn't be impossible for him to reign over Server 1554 as an untouchable tyrant no one could touch.
Then Kim Jina, who was on the same server as that bastard, probably had no choice.
Calling it betrayal is almost laughable. We weren't close enough to be risking our lives for each other in the first place.
“Do you get it now? You messed with the wrong person. Serves you right, you filthy beggar bastard for acting so cocky……”
Choi Gilhyun smirked, tapping my shoulder with the spear tip.
“So you're that bastard, huh? The solo-play bastard whining in the community that your mother was dead.”
He seemed dead certain that the paralyzing poison on the spear had left me unable to fight. Well, that made sense.
This guy was a ranker staying on the 25th floor, so he must have been able to use a high-grade poison I could never obtain while lingering on the lower floors.
In fact, the tip of my tongue had been going a little numb since a moment ago, so he'd definitely laced it with a very potent paralyzing poison.
[Paralysis Resistance Lv. 15]
[Poison Resistance Lv. 19]
If I couldn't resist the paralyzing poison with my dual resistances in the double digits, I'd have been unable to move a muscle.
In the meantime, Choi Gilhyun must have looked me up in the community, because he kept yapping away, bringing up my mother's name.
I answered Choi Gilhyun, who was exposing a glaring opening right behind me, by swinging the hand axe at my waist.
-CRUNCH!
The axe I had carelessly swung from where I sat lodged squarely into Choi Gilhyun's groin.
“Agh!”
Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, Choi Gilhyun couldn't even scream properly.
But he was just exaggerating.
Just from the fact that he could still keep yapping after getting pummeled for ages with a mithril wand, this bastard's defense was clearly very high.
Thanks to the protective effect based on HP, which was granted to all Tower of Trials challengers, he probably hadn't even been hurt much.
Because the level of that HP protection, which kept you from taking fatal wounds, varied depending on defense and damage.
-CRASH!
I kicked away the cafeteria chair and stood up, then drove a kick into the solar plexus of his younger brother in heavy armor.
Leaving the two of them, who'd been knocked away effortlessly, behind, I casually opened my inventory and switched gear.
How much had Choi Gilhyun been relying on the power of that paralyzing poison?
Maybe he thought it would be enough to weaken me, even if it couldn't completely immobilize me.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered bringing gear prepared for battle.
“You fucking idiot.”
I unequipped the armor and weapon I'd invested only in [Durability], then equipped the full set I'd left unused for a while.
Seems he never even imagined I was holding back.
**
He was an opponent so outclassed that I could easily overwhelm him even with a junk-item setup.
Against me, fully geared and with my stats boosted, Choi Gilhyun couldn't even nick me with his spear once and was beaten one-sidedly.
“Ghk, urgh……”
Choi Gilhyun lay face-down on the floor with his right arm and left leg severed, and the younger brother had been slammed into the wall in a similar state.
It had taken less than five minutes for this scene to be created. The result of me dropping all restraint.
“H-how, how did you get this strong……”
Kim Jina couldn't even get up from the spot where she had been talking to me; she just sat there trembling.
I shook the blood from my sword and walked slowly toward Kim Jina.
“P-please, spare me.”
Sensing what the price of betrayal would be, Kim Jina clasped her hands and began to beg, pleading for me to spare her and promising she'd do anything.
But from the start, I had never intended to kill Kim Jina. Same for Choi Gilhyun and his younger brother lying sprawled over there.
I understood Kim Jina's position. It was an unavoidable situation, and expecting loyalty from her was foolish.
Yeah, I know that too. It was only a one-day relationship. I know she had no choice but to betray me.
But it still feels bad.
“Why?”
I asked myself why I was feeling bad.
Spending time with Kim Jina had made me feel at ease. I got a taste of the serotonin I'd forgotten about.
Even though I'd resolved never to stop, I got swept up in the festival atmosphere and spent my time idly.
But I'd been pulled into the festival mood the moment I stepped into the event map. That had nothing to do with Kim Jina.
The conclusion came quickly. I just wanted to rest.
I wanted to interact with other people and build some kind of relationship. I wanted to form a party and take it easy like ordinary challengers.
And what I had wanted, I found in the first person who came up to me—Kim Jina.
“P-please, Jinhyuk-ssi……please save me, please, please.”
But this was the result.
Kim Jina had no choice but to betray me, and I had no choice but to be betrayed like this. The reason was obvious.
Because I fought Choi Gilhyun? Because Kim Jina just happened to be from the same tower as Choi Gilhyun? Because Choi Gilhyun had backing?
No. It was because I was a solo player.
Because I was a solo player, I was ignorant of the circumstances of other towers, and because I was a solo player, I was bound to run into conflict like this someday.
Even if I hadn't formed a party with Kim Jina, even if I hadn't crossed paths with Choi Gilhyun, it would have turned out like this someday.
What was so strange about a solo player ending up alone? It was only natural.
[Friends List]
I sheathed my sword and opened the system, then deleted the three people registered on my friends list.
And I put Kim Jina and the other two names on my block list. Now I had nothing to do with them.
I left Choi Gilhyun, his brother, and Kim Jina lying there in a near-death state and walked out of the cafeteria alone.
They say top-grade potions can reattach severed limbs.
With the strong backing he had, Choi Gilhyun wouldn't die or end up crippled even if I left him like that; he'd recover on his own just fine.
And then, Kim Jina would probably be killed by Choi Gilhyun.
Still, Kim Jina should be able to kill even someone like Choi Gilhyun, sprawled there with his limbs cut off, on her own.
One of the two would definitely die, but once I'd blocked them in the system, I would never learn how it ended.
What did I, a solo player, have to do with another challenger's problems?
One death to be responsible for was enough.
**
Once I left the festival map, the gloomy atmosphere of the 6th floor welcomed me.
It was a complete contrast to the festival map, where the smell of delicious food from the stalls hung in the air.
I never thought the scent of blood, corpses, and poison would feel so welcome.
It felt as if I'd returned to where I was supposed to be all along—almost like home.
I changed gear again and advanced toward the labyrinth. Before the event began, the 6th floor had already been cleared down to just the boss.
-CREAK!
As the massive iron door opened, the full view of the boss room came into sight. Seated on the throne in the darkness was a single rotting skeleton.
[Blood and corpses are his servants, and only the crows that peck at corpses are his friends.]
[For one who has returned from beyond death, only death is fitting.]
A strangely relatable system message appeared, and black energy began surging around the skeleton.
[BOSS - Master of the Dungeon, Lich Wight]
A monster mage who overcame death and still lives on in a dead body: a lich.
-RUMBLE!
At the lich's gesture, skeletons—soldiers made of bone—began rising from the floor.
The skeletons charged at me all at once, and I swung my sword and shield, smashing every last one of them.
While doing so, the lich chanted a spell enveloped in black energy, and I knew what that spell would bring forth.
Having completed the spell without any interruption while I was taking down the swarm of skeletons, the lich finally summoned a knight clad entirely in jet black.
The strongest elite monster on the 6th floor: a Death Knight.
The death knight broke through the wall of skeletons and rushed at me. Its greatsword clashed with my straight sword.
“Yeah, this is it.”
My face, faintly reflected in the colliding blades, no longer looked unfamiliar.
[Congratulations. You have become the first to clear the 6th floor of the Tower of Trials.]