“My na is Kim Dae-woong, and as of today, I’ll be working in the Tower Monitoring Division! I look forward to working with all of you!”
Heart pounding, Kim Dae-woong stepped into the Tower Monitoring Division office and called out his greeting at full volu.
The team mbers blinked at him for a mont, then gave a light round of applause.
“Oh, a newbie. A real newbie.”
“Welco. What level are you, Kim ssi?”
“I, I’m Level 2! Easy difficulty, Floor 3!”
“Just take a seat and relax for now. The Section Chief should be returning any minute.”
Kim Dae-woong sat down in a corner seat and fidgeted nervously, glancing around the room.
The Section Chief of the Tower Monitoring Division was a well-known figure, famous even among Korea’s climbers.
Shin Su-jin. Normal difficulty, Floor 16, Level 30.
She had cleared five floors this year alone, rising to beco the nation’s highest Normal difficulty record holder. The news coverage of her breaking through Floor 15 had been just yesterday.
Kim Dae-woong had been inspired by her, which was part of why he’d co to the Tower Monitoring Division, a unit that other climbers called insane for even wanting to join.
Then, without warning, a group of people appeared right in the middle of the office.
“Ah, Section Chief. Welco back.”
Everyone greeted them casually. Kim Dae-woong was the only one startled.
Of the two, a man and a woman, the woman spotted Kim Dae-woong and looked at him.
One of the team mbers imdiately made introductions.
“Section Chief, this is the new recruit we were told was starting today.”
“Ah, hello! My na is Kim Dae-woong! My difficulty is Easy, Floor 2…!”
Shin Su-jin extended her hand in greeting.
“Welco. I’m Section Chief Shin Su-jin.”
“Y-yes. It’s an honor…!”
“…An honor?”
“Oh, no, that’s not what I, I an, I’ll work hard from now on!”
The people around them burst out laughing.
Kim Dae-woong’s face flushed slightly as he looked at the man and woman.
He’d heard about it before. That within the Tower Monitoring Division, there was a team dedicated to operations in the Floor 5 Common Zone. Which ant the man was also a climber who’d cleared Floor 5 or above.
“Sure. Looking forward to working with you.”
Shin Su-jin soon left for sowhere else.
As Kim Dae-woong stared blankly after her, the man sidled up and spoke to him.
“Kim ssi, was it? How old are you?”
“Oh, I was born in ’98.”
“Hmm~ So why’d you co to the Tower Monitoring Division? Didn’t the people around you say you were crazy for coming here?”
“Oh, yes. I heard plenty of that.”
Kang Ju-hyeok chuckled.
Why would a climber who could live comfortably selling mana stones bother rolling into the Tower Climbing Special Agency? That was usually the natural reaction.
Kim Dae-woong spoke in a slightly sheepish tone.
“Well, I personally admire Section Chief Shin Su-jin, and honestly, my goal is to climb all the way to the Floor 5 Common Zone.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. So I wanted to contribute on that front, if I could.”
Kang Ju-hyeok nodded, making an exaggerated show of being impressed.
“That’s admirable. But the Floor 5 work is way tougher than you’d think, you know? People drop dead left and right.”
“…What?”
“Well, it’s practically a lawless zone. Butting heads with climbers from other countries is just daily life. And if things go sideways, it turns into actual fighting.”
Kim Dae-woong’s expression grew increasingly uneasy. Kang Ju-hyeok laughed and waved his hand.
“I’m kidding, kidding. It’s still a place full of people, so it’s not that bad.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, if you’re aiming for Floor 5, we’ll end up working together eventually. Oh, I an, we’re already on the sa team, but I’m talking about the Floor 5 dedicated unit.”
Kang Ju-hyeok patted him on the shoulder.
“It’s cool, you know. Choosing to co here when you could’ve taken the easy road. Looking forward to working with you.”
“Oh, yes! too…!”
Watching Kang Ju-hyeok leave to follow Shin Su-jin, Kim Dae-woong felt his heart race.
His resolve to work hard from here on only grew stronger.
*
The mont Shin Su-jin returned from Floor 5, she had to deal with annoying people.
“Congratulations, Section Chief Shin. You’re now the nation’s top Normal difficulty climber. Ha ha.”
After half-heartedly entertaining so governnt officials from so ministry who had shown up without notice, Shin Su-jin brewed herself a cup of coffee in the break room.
“Why don’t you tell the Agency Director, Team Leader? If they keep letting people like that waltz in, I’m quitting.”
Shin Su-jin smirked at Kang Ju-hyeok as he ca over and cracked the joke.
Kang Ju-hyeok grabbed a stick of instant coffee for himself and casually asked,
“By the way, are you… thinking of attempting Floor 16?”
Shin Su-jin shook her head.
“No. I’m not planning to push further for a while.”
“Phew, I figured. Watching the way you climb, Team Leader, I was starting to wonder if you were gunning for the top record.”
The top record.
The current highest record for Normal difficulty was Floor 20.
And for every difficulty, the higher the floor, the less information was publicly available, if any was available at all.
Except for Nightmare difficulty, climbers at the top floors of every difficulty refused to share their intel freely. That information was a reward they’d earned by risking their lives, after all.
For Normal difficulty too, reliable information dried up from Floor 16 onward.
So if Shin Su-jin wanted to attempt it, the pressure would be on a completely different level from anything she’d faced before. The fear of the unknown was that imnse.
Having confronted it firsthand, she felt anew just how incredible Person123 really was.
That person had endured this kind of pressure and cleared three floors of Nightmare difficulty, no less. And then released all that information without asking for a single thing in return.
Shin Su-jin wasn’t normally the type to take much interest in others, but she found her thoughts drifting to him from ti to ti.
After all, he was a hero of humanity, and soone she was deeply grateful to on a personal level.
Ever since Seo Dong-woo’s death, the nightmares had stopped.
She honestly wanted to see him face to face at least once and express her gratitude properly, but whenever they exchanged ssages on the Communication Channel, she could sense him drawing a line, so she hadn’t been able to.
She simply hoped that soday, the opportunity would co.
“Oh, by the way, it’s almost ti. One hour left.”
Kang Ju-hyeok changed the subject. There was no stated subject, but Shin Su-jin understood imdiately.
The Tower’s 3-Year Rule. Today was the day that first-wave climbers who still hadn’t entered the Tower would die.
For Easy and Normal, the vast majority had already attempted the climb, of course. For Hard, statistics showed roughly 5% had given up on challenging it.
Above all, for Nightmare, far more than half had given up.
The number of registered Nightmare climbers currently in South Korea was just over three hundred.
Given that roughly 70,000 people had survived the Nightmare Floor 1 clear, and accounting for population ratios, it was estimated that at least a hundred more first-wave Nightmare climbers existed beyond those registered.
The governnt had offered various rewards and benefits to identify and support dostic first-wave Nightmare climbers, but a significant number had never reported in. And those people could all be considered to have given up.
It was a tragic situation, but there was no way to help them.
Having finished their coffee, Shin Su-jin and Kang Ju-hyeok moved on to their next task.
“Rember that case I ntioned before, the murder? They sent a cooperation request saying the perpetrator is likely a climber after all. I can handle it alone, Team Leader. Why don’t you rest?”
“I just rested. Let’s go together.”
“Roger that, let’s head out.”
*
I finished the cube and imdiately slamd it into its slot.
29 seconds. My ti had improved significantly.
“I’ll crack it soon.”
The reason I was trying to shave down my record on a Floor 3 cube I’d already cleared:
It was because Rhino had made a request.
He wanted to know, with precise data, whether reducing the Sun Emblem activation ti to under three minutes would weaken the boss proportionally.
It had been nagging at too, so I’d decided to look into it.
Well, after practicing for a while, I was getting a feel for it.
On top of that, I could stop ti mid-solve, which made cutting down my ti even easier.
I didn’t need to obsess over getting under 20 seconds, so after trimming the cube ti a bit more and getting the Sun Emblem activation under three minutes, I’d already confird that the boss did weaken. But for the sake of accurate data, I kept attempting the 20-second mark. Probably wouldn’t be long now.
“Out of the way, out of the way~.”
I shoved past the undead clogging the passage on my way to the Common Zone.
I activated the Sun Emblem, headed up to the surface, and wiped out the boss along with everything else.
For the record, the temple had disappeared after I’d cleared the hidden quest.
Nothing stretched in any direction but endless plains. Sa as the other floors, there was nothing more to do.
I exited Floor 3.
And entered again. Floor 2 this ti.
“Alright, let’s run.”
I climbed onto Plli’s back and charged through the midnight forest paths with Diul.
The quest to raise Diul’s affinity was a constant work in progress, so I’d been keeping up the nightti walks without fail.
“Ahh~ I wish the next ability after Concealnt would unlock already.”
I muttered it loudly enough for Diul to hear, and Diul scoffed.
You don’t have to make fun of , you brat.
Well, it was a bit shaless to already be looking for the next stage when I’d only just unlocked Concealnt.
I’d already run various tests on Diul’s Concealnt ability.
First, the maximum duration of Concealnt was about 10 minutes.
This seed likely to increase as the bond with Diul grew stronger.
Second, while Concealed, every sound and trace of presence I produced was completely blocked.
Rather than simply making invisible to the eye, it seed to erase my very presence.
And third, taking a certain level of impact, moving at high speed, or using a skill would break Concealnt.
In other words, maintaining it continuously during combat was impossible.
However, even if Concealnt broke, I could reactivate it again almost imdiately.
Even at just this level, the applications for this ability were practically limitless.
“You don’t have any special abilities of your own, do you, Plli?”
I asked Plli as he ran with on his back.
No answer, of course. He was too busy running excitedly.
Right. For this guy, his Level 50 physical prowess is the ability.
Without the Destruction Ray skill, even I’m still not confident I could beat him easily. A genuine monster.
Ah, but Plli could communicate ntally just like Diul. If telepathy counted as an ability, then that was one.
After a spirited run and a night stroll through Floor 2, I returned to my room.
I’d need to head out soon. Today was the day I received my mana stone delivery.
“Should I buy a car?”
The thought occurred to suddenly.
I’d never really felt the need for one and had been using public transit, and I still didn’t even have a driver’s license.
Like riding Plli around in the Tower, maybe I could go out for drives as a hobby?
I’d seen a docuntary on YouXube once about how climbers who got too absorbed in the Tower were at risk.
Being a climber ant putting your life on the line, and also killing things with your own hands, after all.
I didn’t think I’d changed much from who I used to be, but ntal health was sothing that needed attention too.
Now that I thought about it, I’d been going in and out of the Tower so much that lately I hadn’t gone outside unless I had to.
I decided that since I was heading out today anyway, I’d take a long walk around here and there before coming ho.
[Shooting Star: It’s almost ti. One hour left]
[SweetPotato: What’s gonna happen to the Nightmare climbers;]
[Kedi: Honestly if I got Nightmare I wouldn’t even try, I’d just die]
I scrolled through the Communication Channel out of habit for a mont, then closed it.
Twenty days had passed since the Floor 3 clear, and today was the day the 3-Year Rule had foretold.
Among the first-wave climbers, those who were first called by the Tower and had never climbed, they would die soon.
I’d heard they could actually see a tir.
In their eyes, a countdown with roughly one hour remaining was ticking away.
[Nightmare]
Personnel: 233,585
Ti Limit: 1 year, 1 hour, 1 minute, 39 seconds
Floors Reached: 4
[Nightmare (15)]
For reference, a few more people had recently cleared Nightmare, bringing the total to fifteen.
Looking at the reduced numbers, it seed like a considerable portion of first-wave climbers had attempted it, but the survival rate was as hopelessly dismal as ever.
There was still an hour left, so there might be more who would try.
But it seed that just as many had accepted death and chosen not to challenge it.
Nothing could be done about that.
I hoped they would at least find a peaceful death, and started getting ready to go out.
*
While driving to the Seoul Seocho Police Station, Shin Su-jin and Kang Ju-hyeok noticed a crowd of people huddled together on the street.
“Get the fuck back, all of you! Co any closer and I’ll kill her for real!”
The two were so startled they imdiately pulled over and got out.
A man was holding a knife to a woman’s throat, staging a hostage situation.
“Goddammit, why the hell do I have to die! Sobody save , please…!”
“Calm down! Calm down and put the knife down!”
Kang Ju-hyeok stepped forward to try and calm the man.
The man, clearly in no sane state of mind, scread as if tearing the words from his throat.
“Would you calm down if you were ?! I’m a Nightmare climber! I’ve got three minutes left! Aaaagh!”
Shin Su-jin checked the Nightmare ti limit.
[Nightmare]
Personnel: 230,982
Ti Limit: 1 year, 2 minutes, 59 seconds
Floors Reached: 4
Just as the man said, only about three minutes remained.
The mont the remaining ti hit exactly one year, the 3-Year Rule would activate.
A person pushed that far into a corner might actually kill. Blood was already running from the woman’s neck.
Shin Su-jin was agonizing over whether to attempt a rescue even at the risk of things going wrong.
Clang.
The man suddenly dropped the knife and crumpled to the ground.
Shin Su-jin moved in imdiately and secured the woman, who was in a state of panic.
“It’s over… It’s done… Heh heh heh…”
Whether out of sheer resignation, the man let out a hollow laugh and muttered.
Kang Ju-hyeok approached him. There was only one thing he could say.
“I’m truly sorry.”
10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds…
The mont drew near.
Neither Shin Su-jin nor Kang Ju-hyeok did anything but watch the man in silence.
And then…
[3 years have been exceeded.]
[A total of 43,456 climbers who did not enter the Tower will die.]
Along with the ssage, the man collapsed without any warning, without a single sign.
The onlookers held their breath.
Kang Ju-hyeok checked the pulse of the fallen man and murmured,
“…So this is how they die.”
Shin Su-jin let out a sigh and was about to approach the man’s body when it appeared.
[Climbers who died by the Tower’s Curse will be reanimated as ‘The Fallen’.]
[There is a 90% chance of a Stage 1 Fallen appearing.]
[There is a 9% chance of a Stage 2 Fallen appearing.]
[There is a 0.9% chance of a Stage 3 Fallen appearing.]
[There is a 0.09% chance of a Stage 4 Fallen appearing.]
[There is a 0.01% chance of a Stage 5 Fallen appearing.]
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