After I posted the 4F info on the Communication Channel.
I spent the whole ti going back and forth into the 4F.
Because of the shop system, the 4F was a headache for other Nightmare clearers to strategize around. That was only to be expected.
In the end, figuring out how to spend points for maximum efficiency was what the 4F ca down to.
Rhino, working off the info I’d written, kept coming up with this strategy and that approach, and consulted nonstop. He asked about the details he wanted to pin down.
Rhino was just the most visible one; plenty of other countries were coming to for advice too.
And as always, I just gave them whatever help I could.
This floor was just especially busy compared to the others.
As for the 5F, there was no rush, so I figured I could head in a bit later.
[Ti remaining until first Sub-Tower appearance: 5 minutes 29 seconds]
Before I knew it, a whole week had slipped by.
Now there were only a few minutes left until the Sub-Tower appeared.
“I’m scared, I’m really scared…”
Scared of whatever nonsense the Tower is about to pull.
Will the world go to hell again like with The Fallen?
Honestly, what worried more was that sothing even worse than that might happen.
I sat at my desk and quietly waited for the ti to run down.
3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second…
The mont ti ran out.
[The first Sub-Tower appears.]
A ssage popped up.
[The Sub-Tower consists of 10 floors.]
[Once a Climber enters the Sub-Tower, they cannot leave until the final floor is cleared.]
[If the Sub-Tower is not cleared to the final floor within the ti limit, a 100-kiloter radius around the Sub-Tower will be eroded by the Tower’s Curse.]
[The Erosion is permanent, and any human within the eroded zone will imdiately die from the Tower’s Curse.]
[Climbers may enter the Sub-Tower from within a 100-kiloter radius of it.]
[First Sub-Tower ti limit: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds]
[Ti remaining until second Sub-Tower appearance: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds]
I calmly read through the ssages as they scrolled up one after another.
By the ti I finished, the conclusion was simple.
“Haaah…”
This is nuts.
What the hell is all this bullshit now?
*
The first Sub-Tower appeared in China.
A massive black tower erupted right in the middle of Chongqing.
The instant it appeared, an earthquake struck the surrounding area, and many lives were lost.
But even more serious was the ssage the Tower had delivered.
[Phoenix: Erosion? So this is saying the Tower’s Curse lands on the ground itself, right?]
[Jupiter: aning everyone in a 100km radius dies]
[Turtle: Since they die from the Tower’s Curse, they co back as The Fallen, right?]
[AverageHuman: Damn… so China’s fucked then?]
[Wade: Can’t they just leave the area? A week’s plenty of ti]
[SteelSword: 100km radius, and you think everyone in there can just get out in a week? Is your head just for decoration?]
[CavalryCharge: The problem is the Erosion is permanent. Sounds like it just becos a dead zone no one can enter]
[SongGyeong: I live in Chongqing and it’s absolute chaos. Every road out is jamd, can’t even drive out]
─ The first Sub-Tower has appeared in the city of Chongqing, China. The Chinese governnt has yet to release an official statent, and Chongqing and Sichuan Province are currently in a state of chaos…
The world was in an uproar, and inside China it was worse.
It wasn’t just Chongqing. Nanchong, Suining, Guang’an, and other cities in eastern Sichuan all fell within the 100km Erosion radius.
A mass exodus spread from the predicted Erosion zone and its surrounding areas. Roads were choked solid, and countless people were trying to flee on foot.
Despite the outcry of so many people, the Chinese governnt rely advised orderly evacuation and, for a full day, offered no further position.
[MotherNature: Who’s gonna clear that thing?]
[WalkerWacker: Entry’s only from within a 100km radius. If anyone’s clearing it, it’s gotta be Chinese climbers]
[Ultrasonic: But with zero info, who’s crazy enough to walk in… lol They’ve gotta clear 10 floors]
[Watangku: Curious what kind of difficulty it is]
[EggToast: Curious? Go in yourself]
Day two after the Sub-Tower appeared.
As the situation kept spiraling downward, a new ssage surfaced.
[The first Sub-Tower has been cleared to the final floor.]
A ssage saying the Sub-Tower had been cleared.
People were shocked that it had been cleared already, and everyone wanted to know who had done it.
The identity ca to light quickly.
─ Wang Kai, China’s Hard difficulty record holder, has successfully cleared the first Sub-Tower.
Wang Kai. Hard difficulty record holder, and officially the world’s highest-level Climber.
He was the one who had taken on the Sub-Tower and cleared it.
[When a Sub-Tower is cleared, the Tower’s power takes root in the land within a 100-kiloter radius, forming a Mana Vein.]
That ssage surfaced after the Sub-Tower was cleared.
A Mana Vein forming within a 100-kiloter radius.
People soon learned what that ant.
─ A large-scale Magic Stone mine has been discovered in the area around the Chongqing Sub-Tower. This appears to be related to the Mana Vein formation announced by the Tower…
Magic Stones began surfacing on the ground, and from underground, all around the Sub-Tower.
What was even more astonishing was that the Magic Stones appeared in every grade.
Lowest, Low, Mid, High, even Supre.
The higher the grade, the rarer they were, but the fact that Supre Magic Stones, which until now had only been obtainable at Nightmare difficulty, were turning up at all was staggering on its own.
The Chinese governnt imdiately designated the areas where Magic Stones were found as restricted zones and cut off civilian access.
Even with Climbers bringing back Magic Stones from the Tower via Repeat Clearing, supply still couldn’t keep up with the overwhelming demand.
Repeat Clearing had no limit on attempts, but rewards dropped roughly once every ten runs, and the amount of Magic Stones per drop was small.
On top of that, the Magic Stones obtained as Tower clearing rewards weren’t state-owned; they were a resource governnts ultimately had to buy from Climbers for cash.
So the arrival of a Mana Vein was nothing less than a massive jackpot for a nation.
The Sub-Tower wasn’t all stick. Clear it, and it handed out just as much carrot.
[Ti remaining until second Sub-Tower appearance: 1 day 20 hours 16 minutes 48 seconds]
The world’s attention briefly turned to the enormous Mana Vein China had acquired.
Still, no country actually wanted the next Sub-Tower to appear on their own soil.
Wang Kai, as expected, shared no information. Nothing about what appeared in the Sub-Tower, nothing about the difficulty.
With zero information about the Sub-Tower available, even with a Mana Vein on the line, the risk of not being able to clear it lood larger.
The world condemned China for refusing to share information.
But China simply kept repeating its stance: this was Wang Kai’s personal choice, and the governnt couldn’t force him to share anything.
It was a transparent lie. Who didn’t know that Wang Kai’s actions were China’s will in all but na?
A chaotic week passed, and the ti for the second Sub-Tower to appear drew near.
[The second Sub-Tower appears.]
This ti it was Mongolia.
A black Sub-Tower appeared in downtown Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital.
The Mongolian governnt imdiately requested help from China.
They had no other choice. With no idea what the Sub-Tower’s difficulty was, what Climber was going to volunteer?
On top of that, Mongolia was a backward country when it ca to Tower climbing.
A nation’s Climber talent pool generally tracked its national power, and Mongolia’s top-level Climber was more than ten levels below Wang Kai.
China’s position on Mongolia’s request for help was simple.
Of course we’ll help. But you’ll pay a price worth the help, won’t you?
For a while, the news was consud by coverage of the negotiations between the Mongolian and Chinese governnts.
*
Two weeks since the Sub-Tower appeared.
Wang Kai had cleared the first Sub-Tower, which appeared in China, astonishingly fast.
The mont I heard the news, I could relax, just a little.
‘So the difficulty isn’t completely absurd.’
The second Sub-Tower appeared in Mongolia. Northeast Asia again.
Unsurprisingly, China shared no information about the Sub-Tower.
Every day, the news reported that Mongolia was in the middle of negotiations with China.
China was making unreasonable demands of Mongolia, Mongolia had no choice but to accept, roughly that kind of thing.
[Second Sub-Tower ti limit: 5 days 9 hours 28 minutes 36 seconds]
I made my decision quickly.
“Might as well go clear it.”
From the mont the first Sub-Tower showed up in China, I’d been telling myself that if things looked bad I’d handle it.
Wang Kai wasn’t releasing info so I couldn’t be sure, but I suspected that clearing a Sub-Tower might co with a personal reward for the clearer on top of the Mana Vein.
More than anything, with Wang Kai’s successful clear confird, I didn’t think the Sub-Tower would be especially dangerous.
Surely no other Climber had cleared sothing that even I couldn’t handle.
Wang Kai was currently at Hard difficulty, floor 15 cleared, level 60.
In other words, the sa level as .
But even at the sa level… I could still use my Ti Stop Ability, couldn’t I?
It wasn’t arrogance. It was just a fact that my specs far outclassed any other Climber at the sa level.
Of course, it was possible difficulty varied from Sub-Tower to Sub-Tower.
But if it was sothing I couldn’t clear, then no one else could either.
With the sa mindset I always brought to Nightmare, I decided I was going to clear the Sub-Tower.
The catch was that entering the Sub-Tower required being within a 100-kiloter radius of it.
Which ant I had to physically go to Mongolia.
“No flights, of course…”
The second the Sub-Tower appeared in Mongolia, our governnt had slapped down a top-level travel ban, fast as ever.
Still, there was a way.
I’d just happened to get exactly the right thing as a hidden 4F reward.
[Item: Premium Warp Device]
A warp device that represents the pinnacle of the Dateian Empire’s magitech. Activated by charging it with Willpower; moves the user 10 ters per 1 Willpower. Can move to a saved point or in a chosen direction. Up to one point may be saved. However, it cannot move the user between the Tower’s interior and exterior. Activation takes 10 minutes.
Current charge: 100/1,000,000
I looked it up: the distance from Seoul to Ulaanbaatar was about 2,000km.
The warp device could handle that easily.
But about three problems ca to mind.
First, the distance was pretty long, so what about the margin of error?
Hmm… I didn’t think this one mattered much.
The warp device didn’t really have a cooldown.
If I ended up in the wrong place, I could just recalibrate and warp again. All I needed was a decent GPS unit.
And since I just needed to get within 100km of the Sub-Tower, a little error was fine.
Next problem: what if soone saw warping?
That one was easy too.
I’d just use Concealnt and warp.
Concealnt broke when I used a skill, not when I used an item. And the warp device was an item.
Final problem.
This is actually the real problem.
Distance to Mongolia: roughly 2,000km.
Willpower required to charge the warp device: roughly 200,000.
…how long is this going to take to fill?
My current Willpower was 2,100, so I’d have to refill a hundred tis over to charge it. A hundred hours’ worth.
Basically a repeat of what I’d done firing the cannon during the 3F hidden reward.
And I’d have to do it a second ti for the trip back.
…nothing for it but to do it.
I couldn’t just sit here and let Mongolia’s capital turn into a dead land because I couldn’t handle this much.
Strike while the iron’s hot, as the saying goes. I got started on charging the warp device right away.
Roughly 160 hours of self-tistop and Room of Mind. Starting now.
Charge the warp device, stop ti, refill Willpower, charge, refill…
When I stepped out to the kitchen for a water break, my mother asked,
“Tired, Seo-hyeon? Why do you look like that?”
“…Guess I’m a little tired.”
Halfway there.
I went back to my room to fill the remaining 50 hours.
Charge, refill, charge, refill, chargerefillchargerefill…
Current charge: 210,100/1,000,000
“…Haah.”
Finally, fully charged.
I changed clothes and got ready to leave the house.
‘Should I write a will?’
Honestly, it didn’t seem like I’d fail the clear…
But just in case, I wrote one, the way I did before Nightmare clears.
“Heading out.”
“Where to?”
“eting up with a friend. Might be back kind of late.”
I looked up where to go online, headed to an electronics store, bought a high-end brand GPS unit, and got a rough feel for how it worked.
With that, the prep was done.
[Would you like to save the current location as a point?]
I booked a motel room and set the point to my current location.
Then, using a map app and a compass app, I aid myself northwest, toward Ulaanbaatar.
Activated the warp device and waited ten minutes.
[0:05]
“Here we go.”
Just before ti ran out, I activated Concealnt.
The warp kicked in, and the space in front of warped and buckled.
The Mongolian Sub-Tower.
Now… I’m coming to clear it.
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