Tower’s Curse Immunity.
It granted protection from death by the Tower’s Curse.
In other words, even if the Tower’s ti limit ran out, I’d be exempted from dying.
“It said it was a special reward…”
So this was what made it special?
I definitely hadn’t expected sothing like this to show up.
I checked the rest of the options.
[1. Tower’s Curse Immunity]
[2. 90% Skill Promotion Ticket]
[3. Scales of Life]
90% Skill Promotion Ticket…
And Scales of Life? What was this one?
I checked the description of the Skill Promotion Ticket first.
[Special Item: 90% Skill Promotion Ticket]
Select one skill and, with a 90% chance, promote it to a skill of the next-higher upper-tier variant. On failure, the skill’s grade is lowered by one. Single-use; consud upon activation.
The effect was exactly what the na suggested.
A 90% chance to promote a skill by one grade.
But on failure, the grade actually went down?
Hmm… this was kind of…
[Special Item: Scales of Life]
Sacrifice the user’s lifespan in exchange for a proportional reward. The user may sacrifice anywhere from a minimum of 1% to a maximum of 99% of their current remaining lifespan. Single-use; the scales break after activation, and the user’s remaining lifespan will be displayed.
The third and final option, the Scales of Life.
I read the description carefully.
So… if I sacrificed lifespan, I’d get a reward proportional to what I gave up?
I had no idea what exactly it would give in return, though.
“Hmmm…”
Having reviewed all the options, I crossed my arms and fell into thought.
Which one to pick?
I started by thinking about which option to rule out first, and…
It had to be number one. The Curse Immunity.
What was the point of being immune to the Curse?
So I could quit climbing Nightmare? Don’t make laugh.
For soone like , who would die anyway if I failed a clear, the effect was utterly aningless.
The one thing that nagged at , though, was that it could also be used on soone other than a climber…
…if it had given three immunity tokens, I might have considered it.
That way, even if I failed soday, at least my family wouldn’t die.
But on second thought, no, that wasn’t right either.
A world where 99% of humanity was dead. And the dead would all turn into the Fallen on top of that.
In an apocalypse like that, wouldn’t being unable to die and still being alive be the greater agony?
No, number one was out. Excluded.
A halfhearted insurance policy for failure wouldn’t amount to anything.
I had to think only about succeeding in the clear, and to do that, I needed to pick the reward that would help the most with clearing.
“Skill Promotion Ticket…”
Next, this one.
It promotes one skill into the next-higher upper-tier variant.
What if I used it on Destruction Ray?
My already overpowered Destruction Ray would evolve into a skill one grade higher. What was the grade above Epic ?
Since it specified an upper-tier variant of the sa skill, I didn’t have to worry too much about sothing completely off the wall popping out.
But!
“…why does it have to be another stupid probability gamble?”
Ninety percent. Sure, it’s a high chance.
But the sa thing had happened back on the fourth floor.
If I rolled into that 10% and failed, my precious Destruction Ray just evaporates.
Using it on a different rare grade skill, though… did I really need to? Sure, Epic was a high grade, too.
I couldn’t even tell myself the fourth floor had been my bad-luck offering for the year.
Right after that, during the hidden clear, I’d sohow pulled off the 300% scroll multi-roll like I was possessed.
[3. Scales of Life]
So should I pick this one?
This one wasn’t exactly comforting either.
For one, it required to sacrifice my lifespan, and on top of that, the effect was uncertain.
Aaah… what should I pick?
Was I really going to give up the chance at a skill above Epic because of a asly 10%?
[You have selected ‘Scales of Life’ as your reward.]
Yep, giving it up.
The PTSD from the fourth floor was etched deep into , and without much further deliberation, I chose the Scales of Life.
At least with this, there were no probability variables.
I’d be sacrificing my own lifespan, after all, so it had to give sothing decent in return, right?
Also, while the promotion ticket said it would promote into an upper-tier skill, there was no guarantee that sothing duller than my existing skill wouldn’t pop up.
…Surely not, but I still couldn’t fully trust the Tower not to rig the odds.
Click.
I reached out and grasped the silver scales that had appeared in midair. They were about the size of my face.
Naturally, I wasn’t going to use it right away.
I’d save it for when I was truly cornered, grasping at straws.
I tucked the scales into my Subspace.
[You have acquired ownership of the fifth Sub-Tower.]
Overall verdict on the fifth Sub-Tower.
The final boss had been pretty unsettling, but on the whole… maybe a 5.5 out of 10?
Of course, the criteria for the rating was just how absolutely brutal the difficulty was.
There had been a lot of gimmicks, but the core structure, that beating the enemy cleared the floor, hadn’t really changed.
Aside from the eighth floor, every floor had given enough ti to clear it.
I couldn’t say I’d felt the sa sticky, deliberate malice as Nightmare, the kind that scread “I’m gonna fuck you up no matter what.”
So, 5.5 points for you, sir.
Joking aside, that was the end of it.
The Tower had said only five Sub-Towers would appear, so there were none left.
Thank god the world hadn’t descended into the kind of pandemonium it had with the Fallen.
[Do you wish to exit the Tower?]
“Exit.”
Just thinking about charging the Warp Device again made sick of it.
Right, before that, I needed to do another Repeat Clearing.
I had to figure out what kind of abilities those monsters on floors 3 and 4 had, since I’d killed them with Destruction Ray the mont I entered. I had to write up the info post.
Telling myself I’d hurry up, finish, and get so rest, I stepped back into the Tower.
*
The fifth Sub-Tower had appeared in Tajikistan.
The mont it surfaced, Wang Kai and the Party moved at once.
Tajikistan was a country closely tied to China geographically, politically, economically, and militarily; aside from China itself, it was just about the most ideal location the tower could have appeared in.
This ti, they were going to mobilize a fighter jet outright. With any other country, no, but with Tajikistan, it was doable. Get it in the air first, then secure airspace clearance.
“Takeoff prep will be complete within five minutes.”
A military base in Beijing.
Wang Kai waited for the maintenance crews in the hangar to finish servicing the fighter.
Once it was ready, the jet would carry him at maximum speed straight to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.
The Tower had even officially announced that the fifth Sub-Tower would offer a special reward.
This ti, there was no way he could let Person123 beat him to the clear.
He could write off Japan and Brazil as coincidences, but the Sub-Tower in Tajikistan absolutely had to be his. As long as Person123 wasn’t actually using clone jutsu or teleportation, of course.
“Prep complete…!”
[The fifth Sub-Tower has been cleared to its final floor.]
Just as the chanics inspecting the jet were about to shout the words.
Wang Kai saw the ssage floating in front of his eyes, and his self-control snapped.
“…Fuck! That goddamn son of a biiiitch!”
CRASH!
Japan, then Brazil, and now the final Sub-Tower. Three in a row.
He stomped down on the bare ground, and the surface cracked outward in a spider-web pattern. The soldiers standing beside him toppled over and scrambled to their feet, hurrying to back away.
The people around him watched, faces drained of color, as he kept stamping his foot in a frenzy.
*
The fifth and final Sub-Tower had been markedly different from the others.
But, as ever, it was cleared less than an hour after appearing.
[Rapito: What, that was nothing?]
[FantasyBeast: Right, guess we freaked out for nothing]
[Soldier: Looks like he didn’t even struggle much]
It had taken slightly longer than Japan or Brazil, but not by much.
People assud it just hadn’t been any harder than the other Sub-Towers, and they waited for Person123’s post to go up.
[Person123: Information on the fifth Sub-Tower clear.]
And then the info post on the fifth Sub-Tower went up.
People were stunned by content that didn’t quite match their expectations.
Starting from the cloaking goblins on floor 1, to orcs that used a paralyzing fear effect, then on the upper floors, attack reflection, invincibility, underwater combat, mind-reading rocks that teleported, and on the final tenth floor, having to escape from a dream…
Person123 warned at the end of the info post that he especially recomnded not challenging the fifth Sub-Tower. Not that anyone would bother trying when there was no reward to be had anyway.
[Marlin: He cleared all of that in one go…? In under an hour?]
[ShortVision: Like, how though lol]
[Shusan: Anyone with subpar intelligence couldn’t even clear it]
[Phoenix: What’s everyone surprised about. It’s Person123]
[Pipe: Hahah, fair]
[Udibu: Just having stats like Nightmare wouldn’t cut it. Only Person123 could’ve cleared this one]
[Ragurangbate: It honestly feels like an extra Nightmare-difficulty floor was added]
[Sword Saint: If Wang Kai had taken that one on, he would’ve died for sure]
[Ragurangbate: So what’s actually behind the lightning-speed clears? Is he really using intercontinental teleportation or sothing?]
[DeathRoll: Truth is, Person1, Person2, and Person3 each exist separately, and that’s why he’s Person123]
[ButterCake: Got a point there]
People marveled, as always, and wondered just how on earth Person123 was traversing the entire globe to clear the Sub-Towers.
Since Person123 wouldn’t say a word about it, all manner of speculation just kept going around and around, a truth they would never know in the end.
[Pruha: But this ans Person123 owns every Mana Vein except China’s, huh]
[BearTrap: Isn’t that a relief, though? Imagine if China had swept all of them up]
[Sunfish: Yeah, that would’ve been terrifying;]
[Eclipse: Person123 doesn’t even seem interested in using the Mana Veins for anything. He just threatened to shut them off if anyone fought over them]
[Plus: If Person123 hadn’t stepped up this ti too, the world economy probably would’ve gone to hell]
There wasn’t a hint of public concern over Person123 holding ownership of all four Sub-Towers. His track record so far was reason enough for trust.
The Sub-Tower crisis that had had everyone in an uproar for over a month finally began to settle as the last Sub-Tower was cleared.
*
After all five Sub-Towers had been safely cleared.
I went back to focusing on what I’d been doing before the Sub-Towers started appearing.
I worked on other countries’ Nightmare clears, especially helping the U.S. and China prepare for floor 4 by going in and out of it. So far, only those two countries had cleared up to floor 3 of Nightmare.
– Japan has stated that it is actively pursuing discussions with South Korea, as well as Magic Stone Accord nations such as Thailand and Vietnam…
Looking at the recent news on the Sendai Sub-Tower’s Mana Vein situation, it seed I could probably switch it back on before long.
Once the talks were fully concluded, the news would announce as much, and I could activate it then.
On top of that, Japan’s Pri Minister Sato had resigned, and a new pri minister had quickly been chosen. The public outrage must have been more than he could weather.
“The world keeps changing every year without a mont’s rest. Now it’s Mana Veins or whatever… ugh.”
My father sighed as he watched TV.
He wasn’t wrong; the world was in constant upheaval.
Father ran a company too, so he probably had no shortage of worries. He couldn’t afford to fall behind the current.
“Seo-a, are you studying hard these days?”
“Yeah.”
“Mom told you got an F in one of your classes.”
“…”
Suddenly invoking her right to silence, my sister picked at her food.
Father sighed again.
How exactly soone managed to get an F as a grade was beyond .
Couldn’t anyone just play around all they wanted and still pull a B with the bare minimum?
Then again… yeah, sure, play hard.
In a world that could end any day, what did college or studying matter, anyway~.
Honestly, I wanted my family to do whatever they wanted, to their heart’s content. I wished my parents would enjoy more leisurely things, too.
After lunch, I went back to my room and opened the Communication Channel.
I watched people chatter for a bit, then closed it before long.
“Should I head in soon?”
Requests for clearing advice had started to thin out lately, leaving with so breathing room.
The fifth-floor Common Zone.
It was about ti I made my way in.
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