─ The Nightmare difficulty Ti Limit has fallen to under three months. Floor 3 remains uncleared…
Ti passes so damn fast.
The season had co when the weight started pressing down on again.
This was the third ti now, but the pressure was never sothing I could get used to.
If I fail, the world ends. I die.
I was just an ordinary person at the end of the day, and honestly, the thing that frightened more was my own death.
The sensation of dying on the first floor was still vivid, even years later.
In the end, all I could do was prepare as hard as I could.
I went in and out of the Tower, raising my proficiency with my newly acquired skills.
Blade Storm didn’t really need much practice, but Fairy Light Bullet was a different story.
Freely controlling and firing multiple light orbs definitely required training.
[Skill: Fairy Light Bullet (Normal )( 1)]
Fires small light bullets imbued with the power of light. Up to five orbs can be generated, with Willpower cost stacking by 5 for each additional orb. Requires 10 seconds of ntal Concentration to cast.
Classification: Magic Type
Willpower Cost: 20, 45, 75, 110, 150
Cooldown: 5 seconds
I used the Normal Skill Enhancent Stone Bilon gave on Fairy Light Bullet.
I did have Minor Poison Resistance as another Normal skill, but obviously a Magic Type skill took priority.
After enhancing it, the maximum number of orbs increased to five.
And the Willpower cost went up accordingly.
Fla Strike’s cost hadn’t increased when I enhanced it, though.
The enhancent efficiency felt a bit lousy, but Willpower was never an issue for anyway.
Bang bang bang!
I spent a good while sparring with the Minotaur and raised my Fairy Light Bullet proficiency considerably.
I could now control all five orbs fairly freely.
Moooooo…!
The Minotaur staggered after taking a barrage of light orbs.
I finished it off with Fla Strike.
BOOM!
For the record, Fla Strike had also grown more powerful compared to when I first obtained it.
Separate from skill enhancent, Magic Type skills seed to scale with my Level to so degree, growing stronger as I leveled up. Not dramatically, though.
Physical Type skills mostly scaled proportionally with the Climber’s physical abilities too, so it was fair when I thought about it.
[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 2.]
I finished the Repeat Clearing and ca back outside.
I opened the Communication Channel.
[Hondo: Is the world actually ending this ti? Are we done for?]
[SunAndMoon: Person123! When are you going to clear Floor 3 already!]
[Dalikanwas: Calm down with the panic. Last year they cleared Floor 2 with like 20 days left on the Ti Limit]
[FryingPan: I believe in Person123. They’ll clear it again this ti]
[PadThai: But what if they already failed and died…?]
[FatesBelief: Then we’d be screwed, that’s what]
[Hera: That drop in Nightmare headcount last month, wasn’t that India?]
[GreatWhite: Well, sothing would have to actually get posted in the Nightmare Channel for us to know. That place is a 365-day vow-of-silence room]
[SnailHorn: Yeah the world can end lol I’m gonna be in the surviving 1% lmao]
[Specter: This one’s lost his mind]
The current Nightmare difficulty Ti Limit had fallen to under three months.
Right around this point, an uneasy atmosphere always started spreading through the Communication Channel.
[Nightmare (11)]
For the record, the current number of Nightmare Climbers had grown to eleven.
It had actually reached twelve at one point, but soone died clearing Floor 2 last month, bringing it back down by one.
And two Climbers had cleared Floor 2 as well.
How did I know? Because the U.S. and China had announced their successes directly.
That ant three people now, including .
Three people qualified to attempt Nightmare Floor 3.
The human heart is a fickle thing. Despite all my resolve, the mont I saw a glimr of hope, a part of couldn’t help wondering, “What if…?”
No. Stop that. I wasn’t going to rely on anyone else anymore.
I’d already decided I would be the one to go first.
My plan was to enter with exactly 20 days left on the Ti Limit.
And now I was thinking it was ti to make that clear to everyone.
What I an is, I was considering making an announcent through the Communication Channel: “From now on, I’ll attempt the next floor whenever the Ti Limit reaches exactly 20 days.”
There were two reasons I’d started thinking this way.
The first was for the other Nightmare Climbers.
I was going to challenge it anyway, so there was a risk of soone else jumping in before and dying for nothing.
The idea was to kindly let them know they could wait until after I failed before making their own attempt.
The second was for the world.
I could see just from watching the news how things fell apart as the Nightmare Ti Limit drew closer.
Cri rates were skyrocketing, the stock market was on a rollercoaster…
It was a wonder the world was still functioning at all.
But if I set a definite ti for my attempt and announced it, wouldn’t that reduce the chaos at least a little, at least until then?
After all, it was the uncertainty of the world possibly ending that made people anxious.
By establishing my challenge ti as a fixed reference point, people could live with so asure of peace until 20 days remained on the Ti Limit.
Of course, if I failed, the 20 days after that could beco even worse.
But I was in a position where I could only afford to think about success. Planning for what ca after my failure was a luxury I didn’t have.
I asked Bilon for his opinion, and he replied that it seed like a solid idea.
[Person123: From now on, I will attempt the next floor each ti the Nightmare difficulty Ti Limit reaches exactly 20 days. The sa applies to Floor 3 this ti.]
[Person123: If for unavoidable reasons I am unable to make the attempt at the 20-day mark, I will provide advance notice through the Communication Channel.]
That should do it.
I finished writing the brief post and closed the Communication Channel.
*
The U.S. Climbing Bureau had constructed a training facility that replicated the conditions of Floor 2 almost exactly, based on Person123’s information posts, all for the sake of clearing Nightmare Floor 2.
Taylor trained and trained again there, ran through hundreds, thousands of simulations, received extensive support from the Climbing Bureau, and finally succeeded in clearing Nightmare Floor 2.
But that success also beca the occasion for her to feel her limits once more.
Even knowing every piece of information about Floor 2 and preparing that thoroughly, she had only barely scraped through.
The final boss, the Minotaur. It had been nothing short of hopeless.
She’d used every skill she had until her Willpower bottod out, yet the thing showed no signs of going down, its endurance utterly overwhelming.
If it had had the strength for even one more charge, she probably would have died and the attempt would have failed.
Taylor had admitted it to herself long ago. She could not stand at the vanguard of Nightmare difficulty.
“It sounds like the Bureau’s policy is going to shift now, too. They won’t be aiming for first clears anymore.”
Drinking coffee with Max, Taylor nodded.
Even though she had successfully cleared Floor 2, the original objective of the Nightmare project had already grown dim.
The United States had originally set out to cultivate a Climber who would lead the very front of Nightmare, not chase after soone else’s trail. Perhaps it had been an impossible goal from the start.
More than that, what concerned them now was China.
Shortly after Taylor cleared Nightmare Floor 2, China had announced its own Floor 2 clear, as if refusing to be outdone.
The competition between the two nations’ Climbers was intensifying with each passing year.
China had already achieved the highest record in Hard difficulty. The U.S. governnt seed unwilling to accept falling behind China in Nightmare as well.
Well, even that was ultimately a race for second place.
“Are you still in contact with Person123?”
At Taylor’s question, Max nodded.
“We exchange ssages from ti to ti. Last ti, they actually reached out first to ask whether we’d produced a Floor 2 clearer.”
“…Is that so?”
Was Person123 also hoping the other Nightmare Climbers would hurry up and climb to the higher floors?
Of course they would be. That was why they kept posting information guides on the Communication Channel without asking for anything in return.
Taylor herself had lost much of her confidence, so she felt ashad, as if she were betraying those expectations.
She happened to check the Communication Channel and saw a new post in the Nightmare section.
Her eyes widened in surprise.
“Person123 posted sothing.”
“What?”
[Person123: From now on, I will attempt the next floor each ti the Nightmare difficulty Ti Limit reaches exactly 20 days. The sa applies to Floor 3 this ti.]
With several months still remaining on the Nightmare Ti Limit, Person123 had posted a new ssage.
The world erupted once again at the news.
[Kram: Phew, so they are going to make another attempt at least]
[OneInch: Hang in there Person123! You’re humanity’s hope!]
[rcuryMan: But they’ve been challenging without a word until now, and this ti they’re giving advance notice? What changed?]
[Humanist: Isn’t it like saying “first clear is mine, so don’t even try”?]
[Panda: It’s the opposite, idiot. They’re worried other Nightmare Climbers might jump in first and die for nothing. If that were the kind of person they are, why would they have been writing info guides this whole ti?]
[PotatoPancake: “You’re all useless so I’ll just do it myself,” official declaration damn]
Person123 officially announced their Nightmare challenge! That was how people took it.
─ This can also be interpreted as an effort to reduce societal unrest. If they set a definitive ti for their attempt, it establishes a clear benchmark for the public. Until 20 days remain on the Ti Limit, there is still hope, so to speak.
─ From now on, the fate of the world may be decided at each 20-day mark. If Person123 fails, then among the remaining Nightmare Climbers, is there truly anyone who could take their place…
Ti continued to flow.
The eyes of the entire world focused solely on that one challenge.
*
The day of reckoning was drawing close.
Since last picking up Blade Storm and Fairy Light Bullet, I’d received one more Skill Stone and one more Skill Enhancent Stone from Bilon.
[Skill: Thrust (Normal)]
Montarily amplifies the power of a thrusting attack.
Classification: Physical Type
Willpower Cost: 10
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Thrust, a Normal-grade skill. It felt like a matching set with Swing.
And the Skill Enhancent Stone was Normal-grade as well.
Not exactly a aningful boost to my combat power, but more was always better.
I used the Normal Enhancent Stone to enhance Leap.
And then there was the Rare Skill Enhancent Stone I’d earned as a reward for clearing Floor 2 and still hadn’t used.
This one had torn.
Fla Strike or Blade Storm.
Enhancing Fla Strike would add another fireball, bringing it to three.
Enhancing Blade Storm would probably increase its range.
Information on enhancing Rare-grade skills, especially Magic Type skills, was practically nonexistent, so there was no way to know the exact outco until I actually did it.
After mulling it over, I decided to enhance Fla Strike.
My reasoning was that Fla Strike, with its shorter cooldown, offered better efficiency.
[Skill: Fla Strike (Rare)( 2)]
Fires three concentrated flas that explode on impact. Requires 20 seconds of ntal Concentration to cast.
Classification: Magic Type
Willpower Cost: 100
Cooldown: 30 seconds
[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[Floor: 3]
[Level: 30]
[Willpower: 600]
[Skills: Teleportation (Rare ), Sixth Sense (Rare ), Fla Strike (Rare)( 2), Blade Storm (Rare), Exaltation (Rare), Fairy Light Bullet (Normal )( 1), Minor Poison Resistance (Normal ), Leap (Normal)( 1), Swing (Normal), Thrust (Normal)]
With one day left until the 20-day mark on the Nightmare Ti Limit, my stat upgrades were complete.
This was the third ti I’d written a will.
Honestly, there wasn’t much to change, so it was practically a copy-paste of the one I’d written before entering Floor 2.
“I’m heading out, then.”
“Alright. Be careful, and co back safe.”
I’d left on a solo trip the day before.
I felt like I wanted one last refresh before challenging Floor 3.
I went down to Busan, looked out at the ocean, ate a lot of good food.
Two days of having a blast, and then, the hotel room that evening.
I rummaged through my bag and pulled out the items I’d brought, equipping them one by one.
The bracelet housing Diul. In the end, I hadn’t managed to unlock a new ability.
Maybe my approach to raising the affinity had been wrong from the start.
“Diul, if I die, no more nightti walks. You know that, right?”
Diul seed to scoff. Co on.
A sha, but nothing I could do about it.
Next, the ice dagger I’d taken from Seo Dong-woo.
With a 24-hour cooldown, its freezing range and power were fairly decent.
It would co in handy at least once in a pinch.
[Item: Plligas’s Blood Necklace]
A necklace infused with the blood of Plligas, a predator of the demon realm. Summoning Plligas into the mortal world and defeating it will form a Master-Servant Contract. The necklace is destroyed upon failure. (Level 50 recomnded)
Lastly, the necklace.
I still hadn’t been able to attempt the contract, but I packed it anyway.
Well, who knows, maybe I’d find so way to make use of it.
Finally, I set a scheduled text ssage for my parents telling them to find and read the will I’d hidden in my room.
If I failed to clear Floor 3, it would be sent.
[Nightmare]
Personnel: 250,161
Ti Limit: 20 days, 1 hour, 1 minute, 25 seconds
Floor Reached: 3
With all preparations complete, I stood in the center of the spacious room.
[Would you like to enter Nightmare difficulty Floor 3?]
Alright… let’s go.
I’ll survive this one too, damn it.
“Enter.”
The scenery around shifted.
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