The world continued to buzz with talk of Person123.
[UpperHook: So is it actually a fact that Person123 is Korean?]
[Daybreak: Buddy, you’re really looking for facts in here?]
[BananaApple: Reminds of when the Person123-is-a-girl theory was going around a few years back. That was a full-on trolling festival]
[Galaxy: Well, at least one thing’s been confird now: he’s a guy]
[GwangCheuseu: I’m telling you, he’s Mongolian. He cleared the Sub-Tower in Mongolia first too.]
[Dragon’sBreath: All the others took a few dozen minutes, but Mongolia took days? Why would his own country be the slowest one]
[Wave: Maybe he stalled on purpose so people wouldn’t figure out he’s Mongolian]
[Charlotte: If he cared about that, he would’ve made all the other Sub-Towers take similar amounts of ti]
A handful of known facts buried under mountains of rumors, all spreading like wildfire: business as usual on the Communication Channel.
And while these empty conversations were going around and around and around…
An old video that had been posted long ago to a Korean internet community got dug back up.
[Arts Center situation is wild]
The Seoul Arts Center is total chaos right now. Cops are everywhere, people coming out covered in blood, no joke. So weird black pillar even shot up out of it…
November 12, 2028. The day The Fallen Incident broke out, one year ago.
A short video taken by a passerby walking near the Seoul Arts Center.
About halfway through the clip, a black pillar suddenly erupts from the middle of the Arts Center building.
It was evening, so the light was getting low, but the footage was clear enough to make it out plainly.
When the video had first been posted, the reactions had amounted to little more than “must be The Fallen” or “isn’t the video corrupted?” and the view count hadn’t been particularly high.
But combined with the rumors currently flying around about Person123, this one-minute clip set off massive ripples across the world.
[Gwangso: Didn’t they say Person123 killed Wang Kai by firing so kind of black beam…?]
[Frederic: And the video just happens to be from Korea. Wow, I have chills]
[Arju: This is insane lol]
[WalnutCookie: This is just locked in]
[Baeksun: So Person123 really was Korean…]
The story that Wang Kai had been wiped out without a trace by a black beam had already spread far and wide.
For rumors that had already been suggesting Person123 might be Korean, this was virtually conclusive evidence.
[Arrowhead: I looked into it, and apparently a bunch of people died in that building from The Fallen at the ti?]
[Roddy: So who handled it?]
[Ashes: Dunno. The reports just say the police and a Climber from the Korean Tower Climbing Special Agency.]
[WineAndCheese: I’ve combed through every Korean news source and there’s no further detail.]
[Rainwater: But from the video, isn’t it pretty clear from the circumstances that Person123 took care of it?]
The Communication Channel and the dia both lost their minds.
The Korean governnt was thrown into chaos as well.
That was because contacts from countries all over the world were pouring in through unofficial channels and hotlines.
The reason, of course, was Person123. They suspected the Korean governnt was hiding his identity.
No… we’re just as shocked as you are?
Hide Person123? Hide what? For a Korean governnt that had no possible way of knowing anything, this ca out of nowhere.
Until the video had surfaced, Korean Climbers had been keeping their excitent sowhat in check on the Communication Channel.
That was because earlier, when there had been a lot of chatter about Person123 being Japanese, the Japanese Climbers had run their mouths off on the Communication Channel, and the Koreans were being cautious not to end up in the sa boat.
But once the video ca out and the circumstances made it nearly certain, they could no longer hold back.
[Lefty: Damn! Person123 was actually Korean all along!]
[PersimmonTree: Honestly, there’s no denying it]
[CheeseBall: National pride at this level is 100,000% past lethal dose lmao]
[FineDust: But fr it doesn’t feel real. He’s actually one of us?]
[Throne: Sob sob, it wasn’t that we didn’t have a Nightmare clearer… the greatest Nightmare Climber was one of us all along…]
[GodGodGodGodGod: Forever grateful for your dedication. God, Jesus, Buddha, Person123, let’s gooo]
Person123, now indisputably the world’s greatest, strongest Climber and savior of humanity, was Korean?!
It was simply impossible to keep from gloating.
Sohow the playbook was similar to when Japan had jumped the gun, but this ti the evidence was far more decisive.
As always, of course, Person123 made no statent at all.
The Korean governnt, however, soon issued an official position.
“…We are aware that significant suspicion regarding the current situation has been directed at our governnt. However, we wish to make clear that our governnt has no connection of any kind with Person123, and has obtained no personal information about Person123 whatsoever.”
The governnt had agonized over how to respond, but they put out the statent first and figured the rest out afterward.
Whether the rest of the world believed it or not, no nation chose to push back.
What were they going to do, demand a clearer explanation because they didn’t buy it?
Whether or not Person123 was actually tied to the Korean governnt, this was his country. Picking a fight over it would be like poking a hornet’s nest.
The nations of the world settled for a “hmm… noted, for now” stance and quietly turned suspicious eyes toward Korea.
[Icicle: Is the Korean governnt really hiding stuff about Person123?]
[Sat: Looking at the Arts Center video, they have to be connected sohow at minimum, right?]
[WangDing: Maybe not. They say Person123 has the ability to suddenly appear and disappear, so maybe he just dealt with The Fallen that way and bailed?]
[Wingbeat: But why would the governnt hide it if they knew? Wouldn’t going public be more advantageous?]
[FabridB: Country that holds Person123, damn… that’s an absurd diplomatic card to play]
[Paris: It could be for personal protection]
[Herb: Maybe Person123 told the governnt to keep their mouths shut]
Speculation of all kinds circulated nonstop.
anwhile, Japan was deep in talks with the treaty nations, hashing out the terms of the agreent over the Mana Vein issue.
Watching the current situation unfold, Japan’s calculations were growing complicated as well.
What Person123 had demanded in exchange for reactivating the Mana Vein was that all the involved nations co to terms on a new treaty. But naturally, each side wanted to squeeze out a little more for themselves, and the negotiations weren’t proceeding entirely smoothly.
And now Person123 was Korean?
Korea had suddenly beco impossible to ignore in the negotiations.
“Still, I suppose I should consider it fortunate…”
Pri Minister Yamaguchi, Japan’s new leader, sighed and muttered to himself.
Person123 had only said the treaty nations should reach an agreent among themselves; he hadn’t made a single demand that specifically benefited Korea.
He had cleared the Sub-Tower himself, he held ownership of the Mana Vein, and frankly, even if he had told Japan to hand over half of the Mana Vein to Korea, Japan would have had no choice but to accept.
True to his role as humanity’s savior, was Person123 the type to maintain pure neutrality regardless of his own country?
Newly impressed by such fairness, Pri Minister Yamaguchi mulled over how he ought to steer the rest of the negotiations going forward.
On another front, the United States was busy as well.
They threw everything they had into determining definitively whether Person123 was actually Korean, and just how much of his identity the Korean governnt had managed to figure out.
Analysis confird the black pillar video from the Arts Center was not AI-generated, and once they cross-referenced everything against the testimonies of the Security Corps mbers, including Alex, who had personally witnessed Person123.
The probability that Person123 was Korean ca out to a confident 99 percent or higher, just as expected.
So did the Korean governnt truly not know his identity?
After synthesizing all available intelligence, this too ca out to a confident 99 percent or higher likelihood that they genuinely did not.
The United States knew far more about its allies than most would assu, and through its agents was tracking far more in real ti than people imagined.
If anyone within the Korean governnt had truly identified Person123, there was no way Arica wouldn’t have caught even the slightest hint of it.
And so, Person123 was definitely Korean, and the Korean governnt had no idea who he was… That was the final conclusion.
“Foreign policy strategy will need to be revised. Urgently.”
From there, the U.S. State Departnt and various other agencies stayed busy.
Even if the Korean governnt had no connection to Person123, the fact remained that Person123 was Korean.
That single fact was reason enough to fully reexamine Arica’s foreign policy posture and strategy toward the nation of Korea.
And here.
There was one more person caught in a difficult position.
“Section Chief Shin, do you really know nothing…?”
Receiving the Agency Director’s skeptical gaze, Shin Su-jin answered.
“Yes, sir. I’ve told you everything.”
The Arts Center video that had clinched Person123’s identity as Korean.
The one who had been at the scene that day was none other than Shin Su-jin.
Her report on the Stage 5 Fallen from back then had now gotten tangled up with the current situation, drawing suspicion onto her.
With no intention of revealing anything about Person123, Shin Su-jin maintained complete ignorance throughout.
The Agency Director sighed and nodded.
“Understood. Get back to your work. The higher-ups have been hounding to dig deeper into sothing from a year ago, honestly…”
Shin Su-jin gave a polite bow of her head and stepped out of the Director’s office.
After the Wang Kai incident, even Shin Su-jin had been genuinely stunned. She hadn’t been on the scene that ti.
He was soone who had gone to such lengths to hide his identity, and yet he had apparently risked exposing himself to save the Security Corps mbers.
Truly… a person of boundless selflessness.
Even if it was only as part of her job, the Security Corps mbers were people Shin Su-jin could call colleagues.
Grateful to Person123 for saving those colleagues, she also found herself a little worried.
With everyone making such a fuss about Person123’s identity right now, what if he was feeling hurt by it all…
*
“Aw, fuckin’ hell.”
I muttered the curse under my breath as I watched the news on the TV.
– As you can see in this footage, a black beam piercing through the roof of the Seoul Arts Center…
Anyway, when the hell had that even been fild?
So bystander had captured my Destruction Ray casting at the most ridiculously perfect mont a year ago, and now that the footage had been dug back up, the fact that I was definitely Korean was preserved for all the world to see.
“Why are you cursing all of a sudden?”
“No reason.”
My sister glanced at , then looked back at the news on the screen.
“But this is seriously huge, though. To think Person123 is actually Korean…”
I tossed in a comnt of my own.
“Don’t believe it too easily. It’s no different from when the Japanese theory was going around.”
“What? No way. They’re saying it’s confird this ti.”
“There’s no official statent, so who exactly is calling it confird?”
“…Why do you keep raining on the parade? What if it’s actually true?”
My sister glared at as she said it.
What if it’s actually true, huh…
Honestly… yeah, it is.
“I’m gonna have to pray even harder from now on. And you’d better stay ho with us more this year too.”
“I’ll think about it.”
I let her words go in one ear and out the other and opened up the Communication Channel.
The Communication Channel: chaos. The dia: chaos.
I really wished they’d just lose interest in , but I guess this was unavoidable too.
Honestly, it didn’t bother all that much.
My nationality getting out wasn’t going to cause any real problems. I’d already resigned myself to putting up with at least this much.
From here on out, I just have to be careful. From here on out…
Anyway, I figured it was about ti to head back into Floor 5.
I went back to my room and entered Floor 5 right away.
[You have entered Floor 5.]
With Concealnt active, I headed straight for Zone 3.
[95.2%]
The Zone 3 Boss Gauge hadn’t budged since the Wang Kai incident.
That made sense, since hunting in Zone 3 had been at a complete standstill ever since.
Right. Ti to fill this thing up fast.
It was ti to take down the Zone 3 boss.
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