Obituary

“Sandworm.... has died.”

[Huh....]

The black mage suddenly fell silent.

The guy suddenly closed his eyes and made the sign of the cross with his tentacles.

[How unfortunate. He was a cheeky brat, but he was loyal. He'd also been building up rank, so he might even have become a divine beast later.]

“That's unusual. I thought you two didn't get along. You know how to feel sad, too.”

I asked, sounding surprised.

At my words, the black mage narrowed his eyes.

[Who said I was sad? Pity and sorrow are different things.]

“Really?”

[What about you? You seem even calmer than I do.]

“Do I look like I have a talent for black magic?”

[No way. Those kinds of guys don't last long. The one who succeeds is the one who feels death's weight more keenly than anyone else.]

The black mage answered quite seriously.

I could no longer hold back my laughter and said,

“Pfft, he's not dead. I'm kidding. He'll be back in 24 hours.”

[…I see.]

“Why are you even feeling sorry? You were the one who killed him yourself.”

[Come to think of it, that's true. He was definitely dead back then, but later he was wrapped around your hand as if nothing had happened.... I was completely fooled.]

In the boss fight on the 40th Floor, this guy had not only wrecked Sandworm but also Chohogi.

It was surprising that he was worrying about it now.

“Did you get attached to him after all?”

[Hmph.... If you die, I'll revive you with necromancy for sure. Let's see whether you can still say the same then.]

“Sure, sure.”

[You little brat, do you think I'm joking?]

The black mage thumped his own torso with his tentacles to vent his frustration, but even a sea urchin doing that would only look funny.

I snickered and turned on the computer as usual.

It was time to report today's results in the Mage Gallery.

[Title: 49th Floor Difficulty Went Completely Off the Rails;;]

[Author: ㅇㅇ(22G.2G2)]

[This time it was seriously no joke.]

[I nearly started out with the whole team dead.]

ㄴPkkatju: It's solo play, so who would die?

“Ah.”

My hand froze for a moment.

Come to think of it, Shin Seha had said her party had been wiped out too.

If I explained what had happened in detail, it might trigger her trauma.

“I should try to patch this up somehow....”

It was while I was hesitating, not knowing how to explain it.

Noticing the silence, Pkkatju was the first to reply.

ㄴPkkatju: You can just say it, y'know.

ㄴPkkatju: It may have been different before, but I've gotten a lot better about it now too, y'know.

ㄴPkkatju: So you don't need to worry about me, y'know.

Indeed, there was no trace of her old dejection anywhere in that tone.

Whenever she really cracked, that persona would disappear first.

Of course, I couldn't know whether she'd truly overcome it completely.

But one thing was certain: she now had room to breathe.

Enough that she could try to reassure me in return, just like this.

I felt a ticklish sensation in one corner of my chest.

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: What are you talking about?

ㄴPkkatju: It's a secret between just the two of us.

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: Should we adopt the fine tradition of shutting down cliques too?

ㄴFridge: Start with the 49th Floor story.

At their request, I told the story of the 49th Floor.

The ancient city. That ruin.

And above all, that vicious tattoo, plus the tax collection, too.

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: That absurd forced pattern is insane. If you hadn't removed the tattoo, you'd have been insta-killed, right?

ㄴBeetle: Every time this happens, I wonder how you manage to enter the tower every single time.

ㄴBeetle: Aren't you seriously way too fearless?

ㄴㅇㅇ(99U.9U9): There is only one thing to fear: becoming a warrior who knows no fear.

ㄴBeetle: (speechless emote)

ㄴPkkatju: That's gonna give me trauma, y'know.

ㄴPkkatju: You're okay mentally, right?

ㄴㅇㅇ(99U.9U9): I was a little shaken at first, but I'm fine now.

ㄴㅇㅇ(99U.9U9): It's as peaceful as an afternoon coffee break.

ㄴFridge: The tattoo structure is kind of interesting. In the end, the people who entered the city to hunt were just tools for reclaiming the power they'd collected, right? So leveling up was all an illusion?

ㄴㅇㅇ(99U.9U9): Exactly

ㄴFridge: Doesn't that structure feel familiar from somewhere?

ㄴBeetle: Huh?

ㄴFridge: It's similar to hunters, isn't it?

At Fridge's words, my fingers stopped typing.

ㄴFridge: You go into the tower, hunt, and your level goes up. The System gives you skills and experience.

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: Like the city did? Hunter awakening is the process of engraving that tattoo?

ㄴFridge: Just think of this as a fun hypothesis.

ㄴFridge: There have been various theories about whether hunters are granted this power or whether it's simply awakening the power already within us. Of course, nobody knew the answer for sure.

ㄴFridge: Besides, nobody knows why the tower was created or what its purpose is, right? But this hypothesis explains a lot.

ㄴPkkatju: That's kind of scary, yikes.

ㄴFridge: Didn't I say this before? The tower tries to create as many hunters as possible. The System is encouraging that. Why would it do that?

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: Ah, no way. So you're saying that after we eventually kill all the monsters, the tower will blow us up and reclaim us all?

ㄴFridge: As a scientist, that's a pretty far-fetched inference, but the structural similarity can't be ignored.

ㄴBeetle: So should we stop climbing the tower?

ㄴFridge: ㄴㄴ Don't take me too seriously.... I was just saying whatever came to mind—not even proper speculation.

ㄴFridge: Besides, humanity has no options anyway. We can't just wait for the tower to collapse.

ㄴFridge: Even if my hypothesis were true—really true—that would be a story for the 100th Floor. So we have no choice but to keep climbing.

“Hmm....”

It was a chilling hypothesis.

What if the tower really was nothing more than a giant workshop?

What if the levels and skills we'd desperately built up were destined to become someone else's meal in the end?

But I shook my head.

“That's going too far.”

Of course, it wasn't impossible, but this wasn't the kind of problem that could be solved by worrying about it now.

ㄴPkkatju: Anyway, if it's a newbie, they'll find a way somehow.

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: Didn't we just smash through that kind of structure anyway? No worries.

I felt the same.

Honestly, right now it still didn't feel real.

If anything, it felt more likely I'd suddenly keel over from a heart attack tomorrow.

ㄴBeetle: Anyway, we should really gear up for the 50th Floor. If the 49th Floor was that kind of difficulty...

ㄴMagicIsFirepower: Wouldn't this be the time to go in decked out in gear? Or maybe do some training.

ㄴㅇㅇ(99U.9U9): That's exactly what I'm thinking.

I took the attack-reflecting mirror I'd received from Japan out of my pocket.

It was something I'd received under the pretense of keeping China in check or whatever.

But if I needed it for climbing the 50th Floor, I planned to use it without hesitation.

From the start, I'd obtained this through a legitimate deal, and there was no rule saying I couldn't use it myself.

Honestly, how would anyone even know whether I used it or not?

That wasn't all.

I also looked at the whale core set into my staff.

A mana-storage pouch.

This time, I hadn't used the grand spell that drew on that mana. I hadn't even used an incantation.

I even still had five potions left that could reattach a severed arm.

There were still so many things left that I couldn't say I'd used my full power.

“No matter how I look at it, I don't think I'm going to lose.”

The lingering unease was gone, and I felt completely at ease.

I naturally closed the Mage Gallery tab and moved over to Hunter Gallery.

It was my usual routine.

After talking about things only possible in Mage Gallery, I'd move on to Hunter Gallery and enjoy my secret pastime.

“Let's check the gallery gossip first.”

While I was in the tower, I needed to see what else had happened in the gallery.

That way, I could make sense of every bit of gossip and chatter floating around there.

I had to figure out every bit of gossip that had been circulating throughout the day, or else I couldn't rest easy.

After all, when your friends are laughing about something you don't know, you naturally want to ask, “What is it? What are you talking about?”

I scrolled down quickly.

[Haaah...♡Haaah........♡Can you feel it...♡]

[We are accepting reports of fixed-nick Soju's stories.]

[Hunter-bro just took a massive dump after ages (proof included)]

Provocative titles.

On a normal day, these would have been clicked by my finger reflexively, without even passing through my brain.

“Huh....?”

But today was a little strange.

My finger wouldn't move.

No, to be exact, I didn't even feel the urge to click.

A strange feeling, as if the distance between this post and me had suddenly become enormous.

“What is this?”

I forced myself to click on one of the posts.

Sure enough, it was a bait post.

On the screen, an animated GIF of a character spewing fire from its butt along with poop flashed by frantically.

“Hmm.”

I was strangely unfazed.

Of course, it was true that I had some tolerance for all sorts of gross images.

Just as one builds tolerance by eating poison over many years, I too had built up resistance to disgusting images and crap posts.

But even I couldn't help but frown a little at them.

At least, that had been the case until yesterday.

Right now, with the GIF playing wildly in front of me, I felt nothing.

My heart was extraordinarily calm.

“It's just a picture, after all.”

Whether it was spewing poop or spewing fire.

Everything felt so trivial.

After all, it's just a drawing meant to make you feel gross.

No, to be honest, even if this were a photo, I don't think I'd feel especially disgusted.

Poop is something humans see every day, so there was no reason to feel bad about it.

Of course, I hadn't sat on a toilet since getting this body.

Click.

I calmly moved my finger and closed the window.

Even after that, I forced myself to keep browsing the gallery.

But I gave up before long.

“It's not fun.”

I muttered without realizing it.

Browsing the gallery and wandering around looking for provocative posts.

None of this was giving my brain any stimulation.

It was far too strange.

But I still didn't think it was that serious.