Chapter 61
Break through the wall and get out, huh.
It did seem like a radical idea.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : Oh…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : That's seriously fucking stupid, so ignore it and move on.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(721F) : As if Newbie would be fooled by something like that.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(397F) : The wall-breakers are about to come crawling out;
The next comment, as expected, was followed by a flood of gallery users pushing back.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(150F) : It's not bullshit…
ㄴ Insect King : Breaking through the tower really will let you get outside.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(166F) : Don't let public opinion manipulate you. Think for yourself. If we just break through the wall, we can escape, but the Demon King's Tower system has trapped and brainwashed us…
ㄴ Meowie : That's right, meow!!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(335F) : The wall has such high magic resistance that mages can't break it, so they're keeping us in check in case only the martial artists escape, yeah.
There seemed to be quite a few gallery users who genuinely believed they could physically break through the wall and escape the tower.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : What's the actual basis for that?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Whoa, don't pay attention to this.
ㄴ Insect King : I'll tell you. Think about it carefully. Can the Demon King create something more powerful than himself? The wall is greater than the Demon King? It's simple. Breaking through the wall and getting out has to be easier than killing the Demon King.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : That's right, go work hard breaking that wall, yeah.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(713F) : What a load of fucking bullshit LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(608F) : Do you really think the Demon King would make it possible to break through the tower?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(487F) : Even if it were possible, the moment you really tried, you'd probably get crushed to death like the Treasure Keeper.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(379F) : For real LMAO Newbie just made it even clearer that it's impossible.
‘So it's a minority opinion that's being ignored.’
That was how I understood it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : Hmm… I'm not sure yet.
It did sound like nonsense.
If we could escape by making a hole in the tower, it would make the entire Demon King's Tower system ridiculous.
Did Sword Venerable Jihee believe that too?
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : Don't misunderstand. I don't believe either side. I merely informed you of that possibility.
ㄴ Insect King : How could you…!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(239F) : Newbie's reaction was ambiguous, so she immediately cut ties LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(279F) : Wasn't she practically the vanguard of the wall-breakers back in the day?;;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Why does this person want to look good to Newbie too?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(432F) : Her credibility was about to take a massive hit, but she pulled off this drift LMAOOOOOOOOOO
I wasn't particularly interested in what she believed.
As long as I could receive her instruction, it didn't matter.
After the discussion about the wall came to an end, Sword Venerable Jihee spoke.
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : Even if you ultimately fail to complete the martial arts derived from Slash, merely following the process of breaking through the wall in the manner I teach you will help you use the instant-death skill Slash in actual combat.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : Look at her taking out an insurance policy LMAOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : It's not an insurance policy; this is the sensible approach. She's not even a Reaper, so how could she teach Slash's derivatives?
That was fine.
Learning the fundamentals of weapon handling—the feel of a weapon, how to distribute my strength, and so on.
Those were what I had wanted in the first place.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : Understood.
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : Good. First, strike the wall as deeply as possible with your scythe and try to break it. This is a test. Since your Strength stat has surpassed 100, you should be able to break through about two layers without using any techniques.
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : For reference, the marble right on the surface of the wall is called the outer cladding, while the first layer refers to the ten-meter-thick space beyond it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(150F) : Just break the wall first.
‘Two layers would be 20 meters…’
I nodded and rose to my feet.
I had already broken a wall before. Back then, I had made a crater with my bare hands.
Now that my Strength stat had surpassed 100, digging 20 meters into it with a scythe didn't seem impossible.
‘A scythe does look a bit like a pickaxe, after all…’
I stood facing one wall of the 100th-floor common area.
Sssshk-
I gripped the scythe tightly and twisted my waist.
I drew on my strength and swung with all my might.
KWA-AAAAAANG-!!!!
The tip of the scythe slammed into the wall with a sharp crack.
The recoil traveled through my bones.
“Ghk.”
I staggered back a couple of steps before regaining my stance.
Then I checked the spot I had struck.
A large crater had formed.
But.
In terms of depth, it had barely penetrated three meters.
I had only broken through the marble section.
‘Did I only break through the outer shell…’
The dark-colored section that seemed to mark the beginning of the first layer had not been damaged at all.
“…I'll try again.”
I raised the scythe.
KWA-AAAAAANG-!!!!
“…”
I tried several more times after that.
But I couldn't dig any deeper.
The dark-colored section hadn't even been scratched.
The wall was far harder than I had imagined.
“At this rate… if I compare it to circles, would this count as a 0-circle result…?”
I reported the situation to the gallery.
ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : I can't even break through one layer.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(322F) : Thank goodness. Looks like you're not talented in this area.
ㄴ SSS-Rank Item Abuser : Why the hell is that a good thing, you bastard.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Maybe the wall-breaking mindset just isn't suited to your temperament?
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : How disappointing. Show me exactly how much you broke.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : I'll upload a picture…
The moment I posted a picture of the broken wall,
surprised reactions began appearing.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(150F) : Huh? Why is the first layer that color?
ㄴ Insect King : Why is it so dark??
Their reactions made it seem as though something had gone wrong.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(322F) : Isn't that color the fourth layer?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(324F) : Now we know why you couldn't break it LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(150F) : Why is the first layer fourth-stage???
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(503F) : Is Newbie's tower different again?
Apparently, this wall wasn't supposed to have that material in its first layer.
The gallery erupted over that fact.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : Then I'm not weak, right…?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(324F) : I don't think that's the important part right now LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : How strange…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(234F) : No, why is there a fourth layer right away???
ㄴ Fenrir : I told you, Newbie seems to be in a different tower from us…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(503F) : No, is it really…
The hypothesis that the tower I was in differed from everyone else's in the gallery.
The color inside the wall had brought up that fact from last time again.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(356F) : Isn't it just because it's a treasure room?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(269F) : For real. It has artifacts and gold coins, so the Demon King paid more attention to it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : Yeah, this seems the most plausible?
“Hmm...”
If those opinions were right, this floor might simply be special because it was a treasure room. The 100th floor had all sorts of strange things, after all.
…Or.
The entire tower might be special only for me.
There was a way to determine which of the two it was right away.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : …I'll go up to the 101st floor and check.
The 101st floor, where the monsters from the walkthrough guide first appeared.
If a monster different from the one described in the gallery's information appeared, it would confirm that my tower alone was special.
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : …Do so. If the first layer is a fourth-stage wall, ordinary training will be impossible as well.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(369F) : You're finally going to meet a gallery-user clone LMAO.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(150F) : It's probably because the 100th floor is a special room, right? Go to the 101st floor and train on first-stage walls.
There was something I had to do before going up to the 101st floor.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : For now, I've stationed the Blood Knight on the 100th floor.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Good.
Making an alarm device for intruders.
That was precisely why I had learned necromancy in the first place.
Until now, I had taken the Blood Knight along as a climbing partner because the Blood Knight's physical abilities were superior to mine, but now I vastly outclassed it.
That meant it was time to use the Blood Knight as originally intended.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(312F) : The Blood Knight? Wouldn't it be better to leave Barang behind?
ㄴ Fenrir : Barang is cute. You can even ride Barang.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : I think the Blood Knight would get caught up in Wrath of the Sun God. Barang will be fine as long as Barang is flying.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(312F) : Ohh.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : You'll finally be able to relax a little.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : So that's why you didn't sleep during this vacation…
As the last comment said, I could now sleep even when it wasn't vacation time.
Even while asleep, I could detect the moment the Blood Knight's Blood Spirit Ritual was interrupted, but Persona Divide made that even more certain.
One half of my consciousness would always remain awake, ready to detect the moment something happened to the Blood Knight.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : You said you'd learn for 30 minutes. Is it okay to start climbing like this?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : I'm not starting the climb. I'm just going to check the 101st-floor monster and the wall material for now. I can't climb any farther anyway because of fatigue.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(351F) : Ohh.
I spoke to Sword Venerable Jihee.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : I'll tell you right away if the wall is normal when I go up to the 101st floor.
ㄴ Sword Venerable Jihee : …Understood.
“All right, then…”
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(Author) : Can someone link me the 101st-floor monster information?
ㄴ Fenrir : Don't just look at the 101st floor. Familiarize yourself with the floors above it too… Just in case, you should look over everything up to the 150th floor before climbing.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : Up to the 150th floor is excessive.
‘Up to the 150th floor…’
According to the gallery, the monsters on the 100th floor would be instantly killed by my current stats.
That was because the level advantage I'd gained from the intruders' experience outweighed the disadvantage of having spread my points across several stats.
SSS-Rank Item Abuser had said that, with only Wrath of the Sun God, I could probably push as far as the 300th floor.
And since the system displayed a monster's name when I opened the door anyway, I could check later even if a monster different from the one in the gallery's information appeared.
But, more than anything.
‘I am curious what kind of monsters the gallery users are.’
For that reason.
I decided to heed Fenrir's advice and familiarize myself with everything up to the 150th floor.
When I clicked the link Fenrir sent me,
the first post by the gallery's assistant moderator that I had seen since the first day appeared.
______
Title: 101F~110F Defender Information and Strategy Guide
Author: (Sub-Mod) Tried Being a Legion Commander, Relieved of Duty
______
I clicked the post and began reading it closely.
“Reading has gotten easier too.”
Two consciousnesses split by Persona Divide.
I divided the page in two, having one consciousness scan the upper lines from the 101st through the 105th floors and the other scan the 106th through the 110th floors.
I quickly finished familiarizing myself with the contents.
‘They definitely aren't that threatening…’
That was what I thought, but a fresh chill ran down my spine.
It reminded me once again that most of the gallery users were such grotesque monsters.
I turned my head toward the Blood Knight beside me.
“Blood Knight… thank you for everything up to now. Guard the 100th floor here.”
<…As you command…>
After saying my final farewell, I climbed onto Barang's back.
And then.
[Apply for Promotion Match]
I climbed the stairs and entered the 101st floor.
Would it really be the same as the gallery's information?
According to the gallery's information guide, the monster on the 101st floor was a gigantic centipede-like monster.
I opened the door to the 101st floor.