Nightmare difficulty, Floor 1, cleared with only three hours to spare before the apocalypse! Humanity survives by the skin of its teeth!
I’d been dead asleep since yesterday afternoon and only woke up at dawn. Out of habit, I fumbled for my phone.
Whether it was XTube news or portal site articles, everything was plastered with the sa story.
I tossed my phone onto the pillow and stretched.
“Nnngh…”
I felt pretty refreshed, all things considered.
Of course I did. I’d just gotten past a massive hurdle.
Not that it amounted to anything more than buying one extra year, but still…
I an, I didn’t die yesterday and got a whole extra year to live, so that’s a good thing, right? Ha ha ha.
It really had been a day that made appreciate the value of being alive.
“Hah…”
Right. One year.
Don’t tell I’m going to have to take on Floor 2 as well.
Honestly, I’d felt it yesterday.
This thing, nobody’s going to be able to clear it.
Nightmare difficulty was not a difficulty designed for human beings to beat.
Even I had only barely cleared it thanks to my ability, plus a healthy dose of luck on top of that.
‘No, but then again, Floor 1 might be different now.’
Since I’d cleared it, Floor 1 was no longer a complete unknown with zero information.
If I shared what I knew, wouldn’t people start clearing it, one or two at a ti?
Once the information was out there, of course they’d prepare thoroughly based on it, and more challengers would step up too.
And if more people started climbing Nightmare difficulty that way?
So other talented person might go on to clear Floor 2, Floor 3, and beyond!
After all, once they cleared Floor 1, they’d level up and be able to use skills.
Then I wouldn’t have to risk my life entering the Tower anymore either.
I could get my old, peaceful life back.
I opened a feature I hadn’t checked yesterday.
“Communication Channel.”
The Communication Channel, where Climbers could talk to each other and write posts.
In short, it was a Climber-exclusive community.
Since it was a reward for clearing Floor 1, I suppose it was more accurate to call it exclusive to Climbers of Floor 2 and above.
[You have entered the Communication Channel for the first ti.]
[Please set the nickna you will use in the Communication Channel.]
[Once set, your nickna cannot be changed.]
A nickna, huh.
I sank into thought for a mont.
I was the type who spent forever just on the character nickna screen whenever I played gas.
Ah, here I go wasting ti on this again.
Let’s just pick sothing random.
[‘Person’ is a nickna already in use.]
[‘Person123’ is an available nickna.]
[Would you like to set your nickna as ‘Person123’?]
[Your nickna has been set to ‘Person123’.]
The mont I finished setting my nickna, a window appeared before my eyes.
[Easy (30,561)]
[Normal (21,194)]
[Hard (3,935)]
[Nightmare (1)]
Four windows, divided by difficulty.
The numbers beside them had to be the number of Climbers with access to the Communication Channel.
Nightmare was just , as expected.
[You may only write posts in the Communication Channel corresponding to your own difficulty.]
I popped into the Easy Communication Channel first.
Writing was restricted to your own difficulty’s channel, but it seed like there were no restrictions on entering other channels to read.
[997/1,000]
[1,000/1,000]
[652/1,000]
Once inside, the Easy Communication Channel was further divided into multiple sub-channels.
Each channel had a maximum capacity of a thousand, and those were the people currently online?
I joined the channel with the most people.
Everyone was talking about the Nightmare Floor 1 clear.
[GrassBlade: Still no ID on the Nightmare clearer?]
[Macaron: Must really be an Unregistered Climber nobody knows. Otherwise they would’ve announced it by now, right?]
[Celestine: It hasn’t even been a full day yet.]
[EggRice: Could be the governnt hiding them on purpose. To protect their identity.]
[Peter3: Fair point, it’d be absolute chaos if it got out.]
[WarriorOfTheTower: Still, shouldn’t they at least release the Floor 1 info? In good conscience, for the sake of the world?]
[RollingTwist: Did you seriously just say that to the savior who extended Earth’s subscription by a year? “In good conscience”?]
[MrKim: fr tho I’m dying to know what kind of monster pops out that 40,000 people couldn’t clear it]
[FoxQuartre: What I wanna know most is what country they’re from.]
[MountainRiverSea: Chinese, obviously.]
[BlackTea: Oh, quit dreaming.]
So this was how it worked.
It was a forum where Climbers from all over the world could gather and talk.
The fact that everything appeared in Korean seed to an the Tower was performing real-ti translation, but that wasn’t particularly surprising.
The Tower’s own ssages probably appeared in each person’s native language anyway.
In any case, everyone seed intensely interested in .
‘Unregistered Climber…’
In reality, failing to report as a Climber was illegal in Korea.
What would happen if I ca forward now and registered, if I told the governnt that I was the one who cleared Nightmare?
There were benefits.
A Climber who had cleared Floor 1 and awakened their Status Window could learn skills and enter the Tower with items.
Since all rewards from the Tower could be brought out, it went without saying that not only Magic Stones but Skill Stones and items were being traded.
If I reported to the governnt, I could receive investnt too. Skill Stones, items, whatever.
But there was no way any of that would co free.
It would an I’d have to keep challenging it. Nightmare difficulty.
“Yeah, no. That’s not happening.”
I shook my head.
Once I revealed myself, there would be no taking it back.
On top of that, the weight of responsibility would be crushing.
It wasn’t like I had so grand mission or anything.
I’d only challenged Floor 1 out of sheer desperation, clutching at straws when everyone was about to die anyway.
I did not want to keep climbing the Tower if I could help it.
But if I revealed myself as the Nightmare clearer, regardless of what I wanted, I’d never be able to return to a normal life. One way or another.
All things considered, staying unregistered was the better choice.
[Tulip: Hey, the number on the Nightmare channel just went to 1.]
[Frigg: ?]
[Cheesecake: Oh my god, it really did?]
[BlueWolf: Looks like our dear Nightmare clearer has finally logged into the Communication Channel?]
[GrassBlade: No posts yet though.]
The chat suddenly exploded.
I closed the Communication Channel.
I’d gotten so absorbed in browsing that the sun had co up before I knew it.
When I ca out of my room, my father was watching TV in the living room and my mother was in the kitchen preparing breakfast.
“Good morning.”
“Sleep well?”
“Yeah. I must’ve been really tired yesterday.”
My father seed to be in a decent mood.
The morning news was playing on the TV.
The story was, of course, about the Nightmare clear.
“Good grief, what’s the world coming to…”
My father clicked his tongue.
A world where humanity’s lifeline extended by one year with every floor of the Tower that was cleared.
The world had beco a joke that wasn’t even funny.
─ With the clearing of Floor 1 across all difficulties of the Tower, a new wave of individuals has reportedly received the Tower’s summons. As with the Day of Upheaval one year ago, a total of 400,000 people have been summoned this ti as well…
My father looked up from the TV and asked.
“Seo-hyeon, you didn’t get summoned, did you?”
“Huh? No, of course not.”
“Good. Even if you ever did beco a Climber, don’t you dare think about entering that Tower.”
“Co on, Dad. As if. What’s the point of making tons of money if one wrong step ans you’re dead?”
I played it off easily.
“Right. That’s a relief, then. Nothing in this world is more precious than a person’s life.”
My thoughts exactly, Dad.
But, well… things just sort of turned out this way.
This was exactly why I could never tell my family. It was obvious how much they’d worry.
“Are you going to work today?”
“Of course. I’m the boss, aren’t I? Got to.”
After breakfast, my father left for work and my younger sibling headed off to school since classes weren’t suspended.
The world had nearly ended just yesterday, and yet it was like nothing had happened. What a country.
“Seo-hyeon, aren’t you going to school today?”
“I’m heading out at one.”
I had afternoon lectures as well.
I sat down at the desk in my room and logged back into the Communication Channel.
[Nightmare (1)]
The Nightmare channel, with no one but , was empty and bare.
I planned to post information about Nightmare Floor 1 before I left.
Please, I hoped that after reading this, Nightmare clearers would start popping up left and right.
‘…Is it kind of ssed up to hope for that?’
Honestly, what I went through yesterday was not sothing any sane person should have to do.
But it wasn’t like my hoping or not hoping would change anything. People were going to challenge it regardless. Especially now that the numbers had grown.
I had simply been lucky.
How was I supposed to carry this enormous burden all by myself?
If the world wasn’t going to end, more Nightmare difficulty clearers were absolutely necessary.
This information was for them.
I organized my thoughts and began to write.
*
In the wake of the Nightmare difficulty Floor 1 clear, the entire world was scrambling to pick up the pieces.
The world hadn’t ended, but the terror of annihilation people had felt before Floor 1 was cleared had been nothing short of a pandemic in its own right.
Financial markets were in shambles across the board, and no small number of people had gone on rampages screaming that the end was nigh, plunging society into total chaos. South Korea had actually fared remarkably well, all things considered.
But that was that, and they had to prepare for what ca next.
The threat of extinction hadn’t disappeared. It had rely been postponed by a single year.
“We stood at a critical crossroads. In the face of the unknown threat that is the Tower, the fate of humanity was a candle flickering in the wind, and all of us prayed for a miracle. And a miracle truly did occur.
As President of the United States, I wish to express my imasurable gratitude and deepest respect to the hero who cleared Floor 1 of Nightmare difficulty. We now see hope before us. One year is a long ti. To ensure a crisis like this never happens again, our administration will devote itself to the clearing of Nightmare difficulty with even greater commitnt and determination than ever before.”
anwhile, everyone was searching with desperate urgency for the identity of the Climber who had cleared Nightmare Floor 1.
“Still no announcent?”
“What about China or India?”
“All quiet. Could it really be an Unregistered Climber?”
“They apparently logged into the Climber Communication Channel. Any posts?”
This was the sole individual to have cleared Nightmare Floor 1, shrouded in mystery until now.
That person stood at the very front line of humanity’s hope.
And the information on Nightmare Floor 1 that person held was worth more than anyone could begin to put a price on.
What if a specific nation was hiding the Nightmare clearer’s identity? Or what if it was an Unregistered Climber with no intention of coming forward? Either way, what if soone was planning to monopolize the information?
Only a single day had passed, but it was only natural that everyone was on edge.
Then, around noon.
“It’s, it’s up!”
“They just released the Nightmare Floor 1 information? Just like that? Seriously?”
A post had appeared without warning in the empty Nightmare Communication Channel.
[Person123: Information on clearing Nightmare Floor 1.]
A post that began with that simple sentence, without a single word of preamble.
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