The identity of the Nightmare 2F clearer had been revealed.
Person123.
Once again, he had disclosed his accomplishnt simply by posting floor 2 information on the Communication Channel.
[Polarm: So it was Person123 again after all]
[PartyTi: Hahaha I knew it was gonna be that guy!]
[Devic: Is there just sothing different about the first clearer?]
The floor 2 information that was made public was more than enough to leave people stunned.
[Asparagus: Is that a typo? The gaps between platforms are 8 to 9 ters?]
[Hanguru: Hard is around 5 ters so it’s not impossible]
[Androda: It’s not the distance that’s insane, it’s the platform size. 25cm on each side ans you can barely fit both feet on it.]
[Pullup: But how many inches is 25cm?]
[Songkyeong: Look it up yourself you fucking Arican]
Climbers who had attempted floor 2, especially those on Hard difficulty, understood just how absurd this was.
And it wasn’t just the platforms. There were traps too: Illusion Platforms, glowing platforms, floors that shot upward.
And that wasn’t even the end of it. Breaking down doors, the Infinite Staircase, scaling the Tower’s outer wall, the boss monster Minotaur, and finally surviving the collapsing summit of the Tower…
How in the world did anyone clear that? It was the one thought everyone shared.
Floor 1 had been the sa way, but even compared to Hard difficulty, Nightmare truly was on another level entirely.
“He’s done it again.”
Max’s expression grew darker as he read the floor 2 information post on the Communication Channel.
He had always known floor 2 would be unimaginably difficult.
But this was beyond even unimaginable. He never expected it to be this brutally punishing.
In hindsight, Jack’s failure had been an inevitable outco. Clearing sothing like this with zero information was simply impossible.
…And yet Person123 had cleared it.
What the hell was he, exactly?
“If I’d attempted it, I would have died without a doubt. I got lucky.”
Taylor said this while reading the post, her face pale.
She had originally planned to challenge Nightmare floor 2 herself, but the floor was cleared before she could enter, narrowly sparing her from going in.
Person123 had organized the information even more ticulously than he had for floor 1, down to the finest details. It was a thoughtful gesture, clearly written with other challengers in mind.
Now they could use this information to thoroughly prepare for their own floor 2 attempt, but… even with the information, it would be plenty difficult. Taylor let out a sigh.
“Max, at the very least, I don’t have what it takes to be the Nightmare Front Runner. I don’t think I can surpass this person no matter what I do.”
Max nodded in silence.
The project had been launched with the goal of saving humanity and establishing the United States as the leader in Nightmare difficulty.
In that mont, both Max and Taylor ca to the sa realization. It wasn’t going to happen.
It would be fair to say their fighting spirit had been broken.
If floor 2 was like this, what would floors 3 and 4 be like?
They had no choice but to admit it. The first Nightmare clearer possessed sothing special.
‘Is he really an Unregistered Climber?’
That was the question nagging at Max.
If Person123 was truly a climber who hid his identity and operated without the backing of any nation, then how could he possibly be this far ahead of everyone else? It defied common sense. Unless, perhaps, he had received sothing extraordinary as the first-clear reward on floor 1.
Whatever the case, if they couldn’t surpass him, the only option was to follow in his footsteps as closely as they could.
Every other nation running Nightmare programs was probably thinking the sa thing.
*
After finishing the Hidden Route clear of floor 2 and posting the information write-up, I spent a while enjoying a leisurely routine.
─ Hard difficulty record holder Wang Kai clears floor 10…
─ Another clash between Climbers in the floor 5 Common Zone…
─ Updated compilation of Normal-grade skill charts…
I sit on the subway with my earbuds in, scrolling through posts.
It’s a community site called “Babel,” where most of the content revolves around the Tower.
The Communication Channel exists too, but this place is also great for keeping up with the latest news, so I browse it whenever I have ti to kill.
─ Guns don’t even work on high-level Climbers lol
A post with an eye-catching title. I clicked on it.
The linked video was titled “How Dangerous Are Climbers?” It was an interview with a foreign professor.
─ …So, Professor, you believe that Climbers will pose a significant threat to our society going forward?
─ Rather than saying they will necessarily beco a threat, I’d like to say they carry the potential to beco one. This is an entirely reasonable concern. They are already superhumans who have exceeded the limits of ordinary human beings.
The physical capabilities of high-level Climbers surpass our imagination. Based on the combined results of physical testing conducted by the U.S. Climber Bureau and various other institutions, we can now establish certain benchmarks.
For example, a 9mm handgun round cannot inflict aningful damage on a Climber above Level 20. The bullet either ricochets off or lodges shallowly without even penetrating the dermis. Their skin’s enhanced toughness and elasticity, strengthened beyond natural limits, make this possible.
─ So you’re saying guns don’t work on Climbers above Level 20?
─ At the level of handguns used by police, no. A more powerful firearm would yield different results, but this is strictly at the Level 20 benchmark. Climbers continue to grow stronger and gain Levels as they ascend floors. And the highest officially recorded Level for any Climber is currently 36.
─ Yes, you’re referring to Wang Kai, the Hard difficulty record holder.
─ If Level 20 is already at that point, can you imagine how resilient the body of a Level 30-plus Climber would be? What about Level 40? And then there are skills, essentially superpowers. Frankly, it frightens . Of course, as of now, the number of Climbers who have reached Level 20 or above is extrely small, but their ranks will continue to grow.
Throughout the vast span of history, humanity has advanced its technology and acquired great power, but looking solely at the human species itself, there has never been an imbalance of power within it. I’m not talking about the kind of disparity where n are stronger than won or adults are stronger than children.
No matter how powerful an ancient warrior was, he could not defeat ten soldiers alone. No matter how skilled a modern fighter is, he cannot overco bullets and artillery shells. And yet that level of severe imbalance is exactly what is happening right now. Can you imagine what society will look like going forward?
─ …That does sound quite precarious.
─ Of course, Climbers are essential to the continued survival of humanity. If no one ascends the Tower, the world will end, and only the chosen Climbers can ascend it. Which is precisely why the imbalance grows even larger. If one day a Climber decides to exploit that imbalance and overturn the very foundations of our social order, how exactly would we stop them?
Even now, Climbers maintain their own communities, and they are steadily raising their voices through associations and similar organizations. We need to give serious thought to this before it is too late. Assuming Nightmare difficulty continues to be cleared and the world survives, we must consider the future that awaits us…
The content was interesting.
This professor seed to take the social upheaval that increasingly powerful Climbers could cause quite seriously.
Then again, all of that only mattered if the world didn’t end first.
What was more interesting was the part about Climbers above Level 20 being able to withstand gunfire.
Hmm… so that’s about the threshold?
I stretched the skin on the back of my hand and pulled at it experintally.
Given what my body could do now, it didn’t seem all that surprising, actually.
─ This station is Sillim. Sillim Station.
I got off the subway and headed to the eting spot.
I had dinner plans with friends tonight.
“Oh, Seo-hyeon’s here.”
“Sorry. I’m a bit late.”
“No worries. Sangcheol, that bastard, said five minutes a while ago and he’s still not here.”
While I t up with my friends and waited for today’s man of the hour, a foreign car pulled up nearby and stopped.
The driver’s side window rolled down and Sangcheol’s face popped out.
Everyone stared in surprise.
“Damn… what’s going on with you?”
“Wait, you bought a car?”
Sangcheol grinned with a slightly smug look and said,
“Let go park real quick. Hang on.”
As they watched the foreign car glide down the road, my friends each had sothing to say.
“That guy’s really made it, huh?”
“They say Climbers make a lot of money.”
“But hasn’t he only been a Climber for a few months?”
Our dear Sangcheol, who had ultimately taken a leave of absence from school to beco a Climber, was thankfully still alive.
Today, Sangcheol had offered to treat everyone to a al, which was why we’d all gathered.
We moved to an expensive Korean beef restaurant and happily gorged ourselves on at.
“How’s being a Climber? Is it manageable?”
“Totally manageable. I’m actually thinking about trying Easy floor 2.”
“Hey, hey, don’t do that. Isn’t floor 1 alone enough to make good money?”
The largest group of Climbers were those who never even entered the Tower at all, and the next largest were those who cleared only floor 1 and fard Magic Stones through Repeat Clearing, if I rembered correctly.
Sangcheol had also cleared Easy floor 1 and was making money by selling the Magic Stones he earned there.
“Goblins aren’t weak monsters either. Let tell you what it was like when I first went in…”
Sangcheol was busy talking and showing off about everything under the sun.
Since he was buying expensive food as the price of listening to his bragging, it was only right to play along, so I gave appropriate reactions while happily stuffing my face with at.
“Easy floor 1 would make you Level 1, right? So how much stronger did you get?”
“Heh heh, quite a bit stronger. Even Level 1 is way beyond a normal person.”
“Hey, let’s arm wrestle then.”
One friend, a gym-obsessed muscle freak, boldly challenged Sangcheol.
The result was predictable, of course. Sangcheol grinned and pushed his arm down with ease.
“Holy shit, he’s seriously strong.”
“Hey, do next!”
“Co at , all of you. Want to do it gripping just the wrist?”
Once the alcohol kicked in, everyone got rowdy and loud.
I asked Sangcheol while grilling at.
“Hey, Sangcheol. Climbers talk on the Communication Channel and stuff, right?”
“Hm? Yeah.”
“What na do you use?”
“? Cheolsang. Sangcheol backwards. Why the random question?”
“No reason.”
I just figured it’d be nice to spot him if I ever ca across him on the Communication Channel.
After stuffing ourselves with beef until we were about to burst, we went out and wandered around the entertainnt district.
“Wanna do the punching machine? Bet on scores?”
“Bet. But isn’t it unfair with Sangcheol?”
“Fine, I’ll take a hundred-point handicap.”
We were in the middle of our punching machine contest.
BANG!
Suddenly, sothing erupted from right next to us.
We all flinched, and passersby stopped and stared.
There was another group using a different punching machine nearby, and their machine was completely destroyed.
“Shit, what? I barely even hit it and it broke.”
The man who’d punched it shook his hand out and laughed. His friends snickered along with him.
A startled arcade employee ca out and stared slack-jawed, eyes darting between the group and the wrecked machine.
“Um… did you do this, sir?”
The man answered with a shaless shrug.
“Yeah. So?”
“Well… you can’t just break the machine…”
“I just punched it. A punching machine is there to be punched, isn’t it? Not my fault it broke.”
The man was no ordinary person.
Obviously not, because that wasn’t human strength. A Climber?
When the n brazenly tried to just walk away, the employee frantically blocked their path.
“Y-you can’t just leave!”
“What? Then what the fuck do you want to do? Pay for that thing?”
The man snarled.
“Get lost before I hit you. I’m a Climber. If I hit soone wrong, I could kill them.”
A Climber, just as I’d thought. What the hell was wrong with this guy?
The employee went white at the blatant threat of death right to his face.
“S-still, you can’t just go…”
“God damn it. You want to just…”
The man raised his hand as if genuinely about to strike.
I was about to shout to stop him, but Sangcheol beat to it.
“Excuse !”
The man turned to look this way.
Sangcheol spoke up, visibly shrinking as he did.
“Y-you can’t just wreck a machine and go on a rampage like that.”
“Who the hell are you? Wanna die?”
“Don’t curse at … you’re not the only Climber here. I’m one too.”
The man tilted his head, then laughed.
“Oh, yeah? What’s your difficulty and floor? I’m Normal floor 4.”
Normal floor 4 would make him around Level 6.
Having stepped forward so bravely, Sangcheol couldn’t say anything more and clamped his mouth shut.
“Hey, asshole, I asked what you are. What Level?”
I stepped in.
“Quit it before I call the police. You seem like you’ve had too much to drink.”
The man stared at like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“The hell is with these little shits mouthing off? You really wanna die?”
I’d even pulled out my phone in plain view, but the man ca striding right up to .
Fortunately, his friends held him back.
“Hey, hey, knock it off, Min-seong. This is gonna turn into a real problem.”
Onlookers murmured around them.
The man looked around and clicked his tongue.
“Yeah, I’ll see you again.”
He shot one last glare before leaving with his friends. See again, my ass.
I walked over to the employee, who still looked shaken.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-yes. Thank you…”
“Want to file a police report for you? So real nutcase, that guy.”
It was the first ti I’d seen a Climber causing trouble like this out on the street.
The employee still looked too flustered, so I did my civic duty and called the police for them.
“Hey, you did good. No point fighting with a psycho like that. You’d only lose out.”
Sangcheol had probably taken a hit to his pride, so our friends quietly tried to make him feel better.
“But Seo-hyeon, you’ve got so serious balls too. Stepping up to a Climber and saying all that.”
“For real. New level of respect for you, man.”
“Honestly, I was terrified inside.”
My friends laughed at that.
No joke, I’d been genuinely on edge the whole ti.
I’d stepped in, sure, but if it had actually turned into a fight, things could have gotten extrely awkward.
It was getting late, and the mood wasn’t right for more fun, so we called it a night.
The friends heading in Sangcheol’s direction rode in his car, while the rest of us, myself included, headed for the subway station.
“…?”
What’s this now?
I glanced subtly to one side, then said to my friends,
“Guys, I think I left sothing at the restaurant. Go on ahead.”
“Yeah? Let’s go together.”
“No, no, it’s fine. Just go.”
I split off from my friends and ducked into a secluded alley nearby.
A mont later, a man followed in.
It was that bastard from earlier.
“What, you knew I was following you?”
The Climber grinned, an ugly sneer. Hostility radiated off him in waves, all aid at .
Strangely, I’d felt that hostility from a distance, which was how I’d noticed his tail and led him here on purpose.
Was this also an effect of Sixth Sense?
A skill that detects danger. It made sense that it could pick up on killing intent directed at , too.
“What’s the matter, asshole? Cat got your tongue all of a sudden? You were running your mouth just fine earlier.”
I ignored the man and looked around.
No one passing by. No CCTV in sight either.
“Looking for sothing? Soone to help you?”
“Why do you live like that?”
“What?”
“Why do you go around acting like a thug? Is being a Climber really sothing you want to show off that badly?”
The fact that he’d followed just because I’d bruised his ego told everything I needed to know. This guy was seriously unhinged.
The man approached , his face flushing red with anger.
“…I was gonna let you off if you got on your knees and begged real nice, but forget it. You’re actually dying today.”
His fist ca flying.
I caught the punch, so slow it could’ve made yawn.
The man tried to wrench free. But when his hand didn’t budge an inch, confusion spread across his face.
“Th-this little… AAAGH! AGH!”
I squeezed just a little, and the man twisted his entire body, screaming.
I hadn’t even gripped that hard. What a drama queen.
The mont I let go, the man scrambled backward.
“Sh-shit. You’re a Climber too? You piece of shit, you lied?”
“I never said I wasn’t.”
“Shut the fuck up! I’ll kill you!”
The hostility rolling off him intensified and turned viscous, clinging.
I narrowed my eyes.
Because this was no longer re hostility. It felt closer to genuine murderous intent.
The man pulled a knife from his back pocket and charged at , accelerating.
He seed to have used so kind of burst-speed skill, but to he was still slow as a turtle.
I caught the wrist of the hand swinging the knife at .
Crack!
“AAAAAGH…!”
This ti, I broke it.
The man collapsed to his knees with a graceless shriek.
He had just genuinely tried to kill , so I didn’t feel the slightest pang of guilt about going too far.
What do I do with this lunatic?
I couldn’t exactly drag him to a police station myself, but I couldn’t just leave either. A real pain in the ass.
‘Still, this is pissing off.’
So people were out here losing sleep, scared the world might end, grinding their way up a Tower they didn’t even want to climb.
And this idiot’s idea of being a Climber was picking fights and throwing his weight around.
I crouched down in front of the man, who still hadn’t co to his senses, and locked eyes with him.
The killing intent I’d been sensing through Sixth Sense.
I had a vague feeling that I could do it too, if I tried.
Recalling the sensations from every life-or-death mont inside the Tower, I dredged up every ounce of intent to kill and fixed my gaze on him.
“H-hiiih…”
The man’s face went white and he trembled like a leaf.
I glanced down at his pants. A dark stain was spreading. He’d pissed himself. Disgusting.
“P-please, spare . I’m sorry. Please, spare …”
I spoke to the man as he repeated his apologies like a broken record.
“Go to a police station and turn yourself in. For the punching machine.”
“Y-yes. Yes, I’ll turn myself in.”
“And don’t tell anyone about what happened between us here.”
“Yes, I-I won’t say anything.”
I noticed his wallet lying on the ground nearby and picked it up.
“Kim Min-seong, born ’95, Seocho-gu, Gangnam-daero, Seoul…”
I read the information from his ID card aloud, then delivered one final warning.
“If I catch you pulling this shit anywhere else, I will find you and I will kill you. Understood?”
The man hiccupped and nodded frantically.
I left him there and walked out of the alley.
Had a good al and now this shit in the middle of the night.
Still, my understanding of the Sixth Sense skill had deepened, so I suppose I’d gained sothing out of it.
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