I caught the morning flight ho and ate lunch at the house.
– Last night, with the clearing of Nightmare difficulty Floor 4, the Tower’s 3-Year Rule has also been nullified. Climbers will no longer die even if they do not enter the Tower, nor will they be transford into the Fallen.
– Nightmare Climbers and their families in particular are directing an outpouring of praise and gratitude toward Person123, who chose the Penalty. The story of Ms. Choe Won-yeong, mother of a high-school-age Nightmare difficulty Climber, has drawn especially wide attention.
– My daughter has suffered from osteosarcoma since she was in elentary school, and then three years ago, on top of that, she was selected as a Nightmare Climber.
…I thought it was all over. Even when I saw the Tower’s ssage, my heart was praying, but deep down I never thought anyone would actually choose the Penalty. And then this miracle happened. Honestly, I still can hardly believe my daughter isn’t going to die anymore.
On the chance that Person123 might see this interview, I want to leave these words. Thank you. Truly, thank you. You saved my daughter’s life. I will never forget the kindness you’ve shown us, not for as long as I live, and from now on my daughter and I will cherish every single day together…
An interview with a woman who had a Nightmare Climber for a daughter was playing on the screen.
Watching it started to feel a little cringey, so I flipped to another channel.
“Hey, why’d you change it! I was watching.”
“Let’s watch sothing else. Every damn channel is wall-to-wall Person123.”
At that, my sister, sprawled on the couch, shot back like she couldn’t believe .
“Nightmare 4F got cleared yesterday, you know? Do you even care?”
“Happens every year.”
“Hey, the reason ‘every year’ even cos around is because that person keeps the world safe. If you’re a human being, you should feel so gratitude.”
Well, well. “That person”, she calls him.
My sister flashed a look of half-genuine disgust.
“Speaking of which, Oppa, seriously, cut it out. Why do you always go traveling around this ti every year? Mom and Dad don’t say anything, but honestly, they don’t like it either. You should be ho praying with the rest of us.”
“…”
The nerve of her… lecturing ?
Getting scolded in earnest by my own little sister for the first ti in my life put in a slightly bad mood, but
from the family’s perspective, I could see how my behavior might co across a little off.
What can I say, though. This is my routine now.
Personally, I’ve found that spending ti alone before a clear, taking in a bit of scenery, sits better with . And of course I was going next year too.
A fun idea suddenly ca to , and I spoke up.
“Hey.”
“What.”
“Anything you want to say to Person123, then? Pass along your thanks.”
“…? What are you on about. How?”
“I’m a Climber, rember? I can just Whisper him through the Communication Channel.”
Her eyes went round.
“You said he deserves gratitude, right? I’ll pass it along, so hurry up and say it.”
“…Why would he even bother reading a ssage from you, Oppa? Do you two know each other?”
“No. But the Communication Channel doesn’t have a Whisper-block feature. The way it’s built, the notification pops up whether he likes it or not.”
Which is honestly kind of annoying.
There’s no “submit feedback” button either. Get your act together, Tower.
“So there’s a chance he might see it, right? Sending a Whisper is no big deal. I bet every other Climber is Whispering him their thanks too.”
She looked flustered, but also tempted.
“You’d actually send it?”
“That’s what I said. I’ll relay it word-for-word, so if you’ve got sothing to say, say it. I’ve got the Channel open right now.”
“Uh… hold on. Ahem.”
My sister pulled herself up from the couch, cleared her throat, and then began, haltingly,
“Um, I’m soone who lives in South Korea… I’m always cheering you on from afar. Ah, no, I don’t actually know if it’s from afar or not, but anyway, I’m cheering you on.”
“…”
“Um, the fact that you chose the Penalty this ti, it really moved . I think your choice was just, really, really amazing. Thank you for protecting the world safely this year as well.”
“Pff.”
“…Send that. Hey, why are you laughing!”
I couldn’t hold back the laugh, and it slipped out.
“No, no, that was great. I’ll relay it faithfully.”
Ah, so fun. So much fun.
Having thoroughly amused myself at my sister’s expense, I handed over the remote and cleared away the empty plates.
*
[Ti until first Sub-Tower appearance: 6 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes, 16 seconds]
A tir that had been added to my field of view ever since I cleared Floor 4.
Since I had no idea what a Sub-Tower even was, there was nothing I could do to prepare until the ti ran out anyway.
I just had to get on with what I had to do.
[Entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 4.]
Once lunch had settled, I entered, as always, to tackle the Hidden.
– The golems within the Workshop are currently malfunctioning and running amoooook. All staff, upon sighting, please dispose of them imdiatelyyy…
The announcent rang out.
I moved to the entrance path.
Anyway, Floor 4… how the hell was I supposed to write the info post for this one…
It was kind of complicated.
If climbers diligently stacked their points and used the Shop strategically, I figured other Nightmare clearers could probably manage it too.
I’d effectively cleared it just by boosting magic damage five tis and still had plenty of room to spare.
Sure, everyone else’s base stats would be a lot weaker than mine, but they could just pour more points into upgrades to make up for it. And they wouldn’t bleed points on gimmicks they didn’t know about.
…Or would they? The more damage upgrades stacked, the steeper the point cost got, so it might be rough after all.
Pushing it to 200% would end up costing well over 15,000 points.
Either way, a solid strategy to use points as efficiently as possible would be essential.
And on top of that, there’s one more problem.
What really makes this Floor 4 a piece of shit is that at the end of the day, part of it cos down to pure luck. The goddamn gacha.
No matter how carefully the points were hoarded and the boss reached, if the Ability Nullification didn’t drop, it was ga over.
And it wasn’t like anyone else could pull off what I’d done, either. Hell, even I couldn’t do it a second ti.
Dinnng…
The entrance opened.
I called out Plli and set him to auto-hunt.
I’d worry about the info post later.
For now, it was ti to focus on clearing the Hidden.
Plli tore through the basic golems as they spawned, chewing, ripping, and smashing them apart.
[50P acquired.]
[50P acquired.]
[50P acquired.]
.
.
.
Cores all retrieved, Stages 1 through 3 cleared with ease.
Next up, Stages 4 to 6: Blue Golems, 99% immune to physical damage.
KRAAAASH!
[100P acquired.]
[100P acquired.]
[100P acquired.]
.
.
.
I smashed them all to bits with magic and cleared.
Stages 7 to 9: Red Golems, 99% immune to magic damage.
I stayed out of it and had Plli do the work.
[‘Physical Damage 10% (100P)’ purchased.]
[‘Physical Damage 10% (200P) purchased.’]
An experint I hadn’t been able to run on my first clear because every point mattered.
I boosted physical damage a few tis and watched to see whether Plli’s damage increased.
The answer was a clear yes.
So the damage boost wasn’t applied only to ; the chanism seed to amplify whatever damage was dealt to the golems, period.
[150P acquired.]
[150P acquired.]
[150P acquired.]
.
.
.
Stages 9 to 12: Black Golems, which ignored damage below a certain threshold.
I finally made my way down to the path myself and started crushing the golems in person.
I was at Level 55 now, and I had the physical damage buff on top of that.
Every ti I threw a punch, the golem’s body split open with loud cracks. Cleared in no ti.
From there on, I kept point consumption to the bare minimum while knocking out the remaining stages just as easily.
– Our Workshop’s finest masterpiece is malfunctioniiing… all staff are advised to respond with the utmost, utmost caution…
The final boss made its entrance.
I opened the Shop.
[Shop]
– Physical Damage 10% (500P)
– Magic Damage 10% (200P)
– Willpower 10% (100P)
– Attribute Conversion (500P)
– Force Field (50P)
– Slow (50P)
– Freeze (100P)
– Special Gacha! (5,000P)
Points Held: 35,500P
[Special Gacha! (5,000P)]
Initiating the Special Gacha. The prize list is as follows.(All probabilities are equal.)
– Skill Effect 300% Scroll
– Ability Nullification Part
– Grand Incineration Switch
After making it here without a single wasted point, I had enough points for a whopping seven rolls.
The odds of not getting it even once… maybe around 5%?
It was a Repeat Clear, so even if I didn’t pull Ability Nullification, I wouldn’t have to do that horrific self-immolation routine all over again.
But leaving ant losing a shot at the Hidden, so a bad pull would still be a pain.
Besides, shit, not getting it in seven rolls would be absurd.
“Go on then, try and screw over again.”
I’ve got seven bullets loaded.
I rolled the gacha right away.
[‘Special Gacha! (5,000P)’ purchased.]
Ti-ri-ri-riiing…
[‘Ability Nullification Part’ won!]
A fist-sized nut-like object plopped down in front of .
“…”
So it stubbornly refused to drop even once that first ti,
and now it pops up on the very first try.
“Seriously pisses off…”
What the hell is this bastard’s deal, really?
I let out a dry laugh and picked up the Part.
[Ability Nullification Part]
Nullifies all abilities of one golem. To use, bring the Part into contact with the golem.
I jumped up onto the shoulder of the boss as it trudged down the path.
CLANG!
Just as the description said, the mont I pressed the Part against it, it latched onto the boss’s body like a magnet.
A faint spark flashed.
The boss paused for a beat, then resud walking.
I took a hard swing at the boss’s head with my fist.
KABOOM!
A fine crack ran through the boss’s head.
Sure enough, the ability was nullified.
I leapt off the boss’s shoulder.
In midair, I stretched out a hand toward it.
“Farewell.”
We’d been incinerated together like old pals once, but business was business.
I froze ti, ran ntal Concentration, then fired off a fully charged Destruction Ray.
A pitch-black beam bored straight through the dead center of the boss’s torso.
The enormous boss tilted, then toppled.
With the 99% damage immunity gone, it went down in one shot, as expected.
Clunk.
With the boss dead, the entrance slamd shut.
The announcents stopped playing.
Well… they said to dispose of the golems, right? I did, didn’t I?
Shouldn’t I be getting so kind of special bonus for this?
Shelving the stupid thoughts, I got down to seriously hunting for the Hidden route.
“Entrance is sealed.”
That left only the exit.
All the golems were handled, so walking out through the exit shouldn’t trigger Grand Incineration, right?
Cautiously, I stepped out past the exit.
Sure enough, no announcent ca on.
Beyond the exit, a pitch-dark, unlit corridor stretched out ahead.
Thanks to Diul’s ability, visibility was no problem, and I pressed forward.
As I went, the path kept branching off in complicated ways, with staircases going up and down.
With no way to tell which way to go, I picked an upward staircase for the ti being.
I pricked up my ears.
From sowhere far off, faint voices drifted in.
So I hadn’t wandered onto a completely wrong path, had I?
‘A Workshop, huh…’
This place is a Workshop.
Where golems get manufactured, with a bit of a cyberpunk feel to it.
So what am I supposed to do in this Hidden?
Turning possibilities over in my head as I climbed the stairs, I ca upon an iron door at the top.
Creaaak…
It didn’t seem to be locked.
I quietly opened the iron door.
A brightly lit corridor opened up beyond it.
“…Has it all been dealt with? The announcent’s gone quiet.”
“Security probably handled it. More importantly, listen. About Experint DF-5, if we lower the mana tension a bit more and run the test again…”
People were about to co around the far corner of the corridor, so for the mont I activated Concealnt.
Figures in white lab coats, looking like researchers, ca into view.
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