Chapter 6
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Title: Let's Start Trusting Floor 574 by Now!
Author: ㅇㅇ(431F)
Floor 574 is seriously so pitiful.
The unfair hate he's getting is fucking insane…
Has he even done anything wrong?
They push a newbie who'd only been possessed for one minute to climb to the upper floors.
They butt in while a natural-born member of the same race is explaining how to distribute her stats.
They scam the newbie by claiming a hero nobody has ever seen will be a pushover.
They play around with the newbie's life by telling her to bulldoze her way to Floor 50 with basic attacks.
She must feel so wronged ㅠㅠ
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(312F) : Is this supposed to be sarcastic? He got everything right except for the last part.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(429F) : The average brainless 574 mutt ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F)(Author) : I wrote this post as a variation on a variation of a classic question, though?
_______
Floor 574's claim that it was okay to climb all the way to Floor 50 had a tremendous impact.
It spawned all kinds of shitty posts and split the gallery in two.
Public opinion was about fifty-fifty.
Considering that he had initially been treated like a complete cultist, it was a huge boost to his reputation.
But.
My feelings were heading in the opposite direction from public opinion.
A vague thought had begun to take shape in my mind.
‘Do I really need to hurry upward?’
The reason I decided to stop climbing the floors and devote myself to training was not that I had become less afraid.
It was something I had been vaguely thinking about, and it had just become clear.
I wrote a post.
______
Title: I Realized Something After Making It to Floor 9…
Author: ㅇㅇ(9F)
I don't think increasing my floor number will do much to help me survive.
Whether the hero is weaker than me, about as strong as me, or stronger than me, the result is the same.
1. If the hero is weaker than me
There'd be no reason to run upward, since I'd win anyway.
2. If the hero is about as strong as me
Even if I level up while climbing, the hero will also kill the same monsters, grow just as strong, and climb after me.
In the end, we'd be matched at the same level no matter which floor we met on.
3. If the hero is stronger than me
Since the hero is stronger than me, there's no way they won't be able to reach whatever floor I've climbed to.
I'd die anyway.
So my conclusion is that training is the better option unless I can bolt straight past Floor 100.
_______
After waiting a little while, I hit refresh.
[Comments]
Fenrir : So we need some other variable that can make us stronger than others at the same level, besides the experience the tower gives us. Pretty clever.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(9F)(Author) : Exactly. Thanks for summarizing it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : Good analysis. I only ever thought about the hero not coming; I never considered it that way.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : But if there's more than one hero, wouldn't the experience get divided, meaning we wouldn't become much stronger even if we climbed the tower?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(9F)(Author) : If their experience gets combined, wouldn't we roughly break even?
ㄴㅇㅇ(654F) : That's an utterly unknowable area, though. One of us would have to have been in a party before ㅋㅋㅋ
There was a lot of back-and-forth, but no definite conclusion emerged.
My post was nothing more than speculation, too.
Fenrir : Whatever the case, I'm completely in favor of training for now.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(231F) : For real, let's take a break.
ㅇㅇ(541F) : But the hero might just never come at all, so don't worry about them too much.
ㄴㅇㅇ(145F) : Honestly, that's probably the most likely outcome.
‘The hero might never come…’
That had been said a lot from the very beginning.
But I thought those ideas had come from the fact that nobody in this gallery had ever seen a hero.
Here, heroes were treated like urban legends or ghost stories, so it was easy to understand.
But from my perspective down on the lower floors, a hero was less like a ghost and more like a murderer.
“I suppose our perceptions differ by as many floors as we're apart.”
Just then, one comment caught my eye.
ㅇㅇ(774F) : You can also earn money by climbing the tower, so there are ways to become stronger than others at the same level. You can gear up at the golden carriage.
Huh? Gear up with what?
“What is this, talk about buying guns at the PX…?”
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(9F)(Author) : Why are you only telling me that now? Did I write that long post for nothing?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(774F) : Nah, but there aren't many items that make you insanely strong. And even when there are, they're fucking expensive. There's no guarantee the golden carriage's inventory this time will have anything suited to you, either.
Was that how it was?
Should I be grateful that there was nothing that could make me stronger?
As I was bitterly smacking my lips, a comment from the Reaper registered user appeared.
ㄴ Captain Death Note : Creating a first circle is more important to you than anything else right now!
ㄴ Captain Death Note : With your original stats, it would have taken a week of meditation.
ㄴ Captain Death Note : However, if you invest all twelve of your remaining stat points into Intelligence, you will surpass the threshold of Intelligence 27, meaning three days will be more than enough to retrieve a circle. If you have talent, you may even manage it in a single day!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(321F) : The nagging barrage is real ㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : He's so anxious the newbie might run off that he keeps repeating the same thing ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴㅇㅇ(377F) : How did he come up with exactly 27ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Look at him lying so he can make the newbie put everything into Intelligence.
Yeah. Three days.
That should be fine.
The thought of the hero entering while my eyes were closed was frightening… but he'd even threatened to excommunicate me if I ignored him one more time, so I had no choice.
Time to begin training.
I checked the Reaper registered user's comment.
Captain Death Note : If you sink your mind through meditation, you will see something in the abyss.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(9F)(Author) : What am I supposed to see?
Captain Death Note : …The place where you can retrieve your circle. More precisely, you must see a black sea.
A black sea.
Would it look like a sea filled with petroleum instead of seawater?
But even without knowing what it looked like, it seemed like a strange place to make a circle.
Someone had a question.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(151F) : A sea? What do you mean, retrieve a circle? Aren't circles made inside your body?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : A transfer student just walked in.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : Magic and black magic are different. Black magic doesn't involve making your own circle.
I asked a question.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(9F)(Author) : So I just retrieve a circle from that sea?
ㄴ Captain Death Note : Correct. Sink your mind into that pitch-black, boundless sea, swim through it, and retrieve a circle.
ㄴ Macanong : Splish-splashing around sounds funnn ^ㅡ^
ㄴ Captain Death Note : The larger and heavier the circle you catch, the better, so remember that. However, even if it is small, you must not let go of a circle once you have grasped it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ9F(Author) : Understood.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(132F) : Why didn't you tell her about the sea sooner? You should've said that from the start.
ㄴ Captain Death Note : It is best not to announce the result of anything in advance. Doing so only makes the practitioner imagine the outcome. The black sea is not something you visualize. You will see it directly.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(132F) : Then you shouldn't have told her to look for a sea, either ㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(131F) : He probably said it because the instructions were so vague she might wander off down another path again.
‘A black sea… But I mustn't imagine it.’
If you try not to think of an elephant, an elephant is exactly what comes to mind.
‘This is going to be pretty difficult.’
First, I opened my stat window and slammed all twelve points into Intelligence.
[Intelligence has increased by 12.]
“Hmm…”
My head felt just a little clearer, but there was no noticeable change.
Before starting meditation, I checked the posts one last time.
_____
Title: Watching the Newbie Power-Level Like Crazy
Author: ㅇㅇ(432F)
I'm happy as hell, too.
Blasting all the way to Floor 9 in one day is seriously refreshing.
From my perspective on Floor 432, those stats and that floor number are adorable, but somehow they look cool.
Maybe it's because, in theory, she can take all the money and experience from Floor 1 to Floor 999.
It feels like her future is incredibly bright.
It'd be great if she could escape like this.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ(520F) : After saying all this, she's going to feel pretty weird when someone snipes her floor number ㅋㅋ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(432F) : Nah, I'd probably feel good. I bought the dip with this post.
ㅇㅇ(512F) : She's moving so fast I feel like throwing up.
ㅇㅇ(710F) : I want to see her use black magic already. I'm fucking excited to see her reaction the first time she uses an instant-death ability.
______
Everyone seemed proud to watch me growing stronger.
I was grateful.
But I was puzzled.
‘What does “buying the dip” mean?’
I wrote a post.
______
Title: Guys, It's Nice That You're Rooting for Me and All, But…
Author: ㅇㅇ(9F)
What does my climbing higher have to do with you guys?
___
It was a fundamental question.
The comments came pouring in soon after.
[Comments]
Macanong : Uwaa… You saying it has nothing to do with us… That hurts…
ㅇㅇ(418F) : Ah, you still don't know what reaching Floor 1000 means.
Fenrir : The Demon King is on Floor 1000.
ㄴ Fenrir : If you win the promotion match on Floor 999 and climb to Floor 1000, you become the new Demon King.
ㄴ Fenrir : Once you become the Demon King, you gain control of the tower. If you open the doors to the Demon King's Towers in every parallel universe, we should all be able to escape this tower, too.
‘The Demon King hands over the throne through a promotion match?’
So even the Demon King was subject to the law of the jungle.
It felt a little late, but I had learned something new.
‘So you're all rooting for me because if one person escapes, everyone can escape.’
Put another way, that meant nobody had escaped yet…
But I didn't let that bother me.
Because I would be that one person.
I set the scythe down on the floor and sank into a seated position.
“I should accomplish this first…”
Meditation, attempt two, begins.
I settled into position.
The frilled skirt spilled over my knees and covered my legs, while my eyelids descended and completely cut off my vision.
‘Oh…’
It happened the moment I began.
This was when I truly felt the effect of the Intelligence that the Reaper teacher had sung such high praises of.
“How calm…”
My mind had originally been a complete mess.
It wasn't a problem with my concentration.
The situation I was in had turned me into someone with an anxiety disorder.
There was no need to explain why.
Ever since becoming a ‘female Reaper,’ everything had been going completely insane.
But now my head was clear, as if I had taken ADHD medication.
The fog lifted.
My distracting thoughts faded, and my breathing slowed.
“Hoo…”
Only the sensations in my body remained distinct.
The lower abdomen.
The danjeon.
I felt a heavy energy deep in my lower belly.
That unpleasant thing he had said about it being easier because I ought to have a uterus had been true.
I focused my consciousness there.
And so.
Several minutes passed…
Then several hours…
I lost track of how much time had passed.
And without knowing when it had started,
I began to vaguely see something.
“…!”
It was ecstatic.
It felt as though I had been blind all my life and was opening my eyes for the first time.
This was not a metaphor. It really was my first time opening my eyes inside myself.
A new eye had formed.
But my vision was still poor.
Everything was blurry, as if frost had formed across my field of vision.
There was something I had to find with this unfamiliar visual organ.
The black sea.
I sank deeper, expecting to see a splash.
Slowly.
Little by little.
Deeper still.
More time passed.
Then it happened.
“…!”
Something made contact.
Even my sense of touch synchronized with it.
It felt as if I had acquired a new body.
Soon, the scenery came into view.
“…?”
My vision was blurry, but one glance told me it was not a sea.
What I felt beneath my feet was…
Solid ground.
Land cracked as if scorched by drought.
“It's fucking dry…”
A wasteland without a single drop of moisture.
It seemed like it would be fitting to call it a reverse sea.
And scattered across that parched, cracked earth were several black rings.
“They look like olive toppings on a pizza.”
…
“This must be a circle… right?”
Given the context, it was probably a circle rather than an olive.
He had said I would retrieve it from the sea, but it looked like I could just pick one up from here.
‘He said bigger was better… right?’
Thinking of that, I looked over the circles.
‘They're all more or less the same…’
They were all about the same size.
There seemed to be some difference between them, but it was subtle.
‘I guess I should walk around and choose one.’
Clomp, clomp.
I walked for a long time.
But I found nothing worthwhile.
“Should I just go with one that looks reasonably big…?”
It felt like I had been walking for several hours.
By the usual rule for places like this, time either passed several times faster or several times slower than it did outside.
If it was the latter, I could take a nap, but if it was the former, I was in serious trouble.
I grew impatient and was just about to give up and pick up anything when—
“What the hell is that?”
I spotted something conspicuously enormous in the distance.
It was so huge that I thought it might be an optical illusion.
I approached it.
“Why is this one alone so weird?”
It was an exceptionally gigantic circle.
The other rings were about the size of earrings, but this one was the size of a large tire all by itself.
“Jackpot.” Just as I hoisted the overgrown baby up,
the theory that the circles were like pizza olives gained surprising support.
Stretch—
The ground where the ring had been lying stretched out long like pizza cheese.
Curious to see how far it would stretch, I raised it over my head.
That was when it happened.
Zzzzzzzzzzt!!!!!!!!!!!
The sound of cheese being torn apart rang out loudly.
And as if it had become part of someone's body…
Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!! Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!
A scream followed.
“It's not even a mandrake…”
Whiiiiiiir—!
The ring began to spin, so I let go of it.
It spun so fast that it stirred up wind.
My hair fluttered.
I narrowed my eyes.
It was gradually drawing closer to me.
“Uh-oh…”
It touched my lower abdomen.
I was a little frightened, but I stayed still.
Soon, it burrowed inside.
And then it was engraved within me.
There was a slight pain.
“Ah!”
The moment I cried out in surprise, my eyes opened.
“Gasp…”
I was back inside the tower.
It wasn't my rented room in Seoul.
The situation where everything had been a dream had not occurred.
Could that parched land have been a dream, after all?
…
I flipped up my skirt and checked my abdomen, but there was nothing there.
Just as I closed my eyes pointlessly in disappointment,
I realized that something had changed.
Whiiiiiiir—!
A gigantic circle revealed its presence inside me.
I had become a first-circle mage.
“How much time has passed?”
I checked the hologram's clock.
It was astonishing.
It was an unbelievable amount of time.