– It has now been over two hours since Person123 entered. Reports indicate that the number on the Nightmare Communication Channel has not decreased, suggesting Person123 is still in the middle of the clear…
The Kim residence.
Kim Seo-a was watching the live news on TV, her hand clasped tightly with her mother’s.
Dad wasn’t ho, he was at work. Person123 had taken on the challenge in the early afternoon today instead of in the evening like all the previous tis.
It was a mont humanity had endured every year since the Tower appeared, but the heart-clenching tension never got any easier to bear.
Whether the world would end or not was being decided again today.
“Please…”
Person123’s clear was running even later than at Floor 4.
Kim Seo-a murmured the word, her voice trembling on the edge of tears. She wanted it so badly her stomach was turning.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
Choi Su-jin stroked her daughter’s back, but couldn’t hide the strain on her own face either.
As the anxious wait dragged on…
The news screen suddenly burst into activity, and the anchor’s voice rose in excitent.
– …we’ve just received word that Nightmare Floor 6 has been cleared! Person123 has succeeded!
In that instant, cheers erupted across the apartnt complexes, audible even through the closed veranda windows.
“Ah…!”
Kim Seo-a let out a gasp.
Maybe it was the sudden release of tension, but she burst into tears and threw herself into her mother’s arms. Mother and daughter shared the overwhelming relief together.
– Yes, this year too, Person123 has successfully cleared the Nightmare difficulty. With this, Nightmare difficulty has been cleared up through Floor 6, and the ti limit has been extended by another year. In particular, his decision to once again save all of humanity rather than choosing the Ark is nothing short of noble…
Choi Su-jin headed out to grocery shop, planning a hearty feast for that evening’s dinner.
Kim Seo-a, still riding the high of her emotions, kept flipping through the news channels.
Person123 had saved humanity once again.
At Floor 4, he had taken on the penalty for the sake of a small number of people, and this ti too, instead of accepting the Tower’s offer, he had chosen the path that saved everyone.
Incredible. And noble on top of that.
How could a person be so incredible?
From the bottom of her heart, Kim Seo-a sent her thanks to the man who had once again kept the world safe this year.
Beep beep beep,
The sound of the door lock.
Kim Seo-hyeon opened the front door and walked in.
He took one look at Kim Seo-a’s face and asked,
“…You been crying?”
“What? I have not.”
“Your eyes are all red. You cried.”
“I did not!”
Kim Seo-hyeon glanced at the news screen, then headed off into his room.
Kim Seo-a glared after him, then whipped her head away.
Does that guy not even care if the world ends? How can he be so unbothered?
And he should at least just stay ho, but no, he’s off doing god knows what and only now coming back…
“…?”
She tilted her head.
A thought suddenly struck Kim Seo-a.
Of all things, every ti Person123 was clearing a floor…?
Kim Seo-hyeon had been on a trip during the Floor 3 and Floor 4 clears.
What about for Floor 2?
She couldn’t rember, so she searched online for the ti Nightmare Floor 2 had been cleared. It had been the middle of the night, so she would have been asleep then.
‘For Floor 1…’
Now that she thought about it, Floor 1 too?
Just hours before the world was set to end.
When the whole family had been together in the living room, Kim Seo-hyeon had said he was stepping out for so air and gone outside.
And then, right after, Nightmare Floor 1 had been cleared. That one she rembered clearly. It wasn’t the kind of thing anyone could forget.
And Person123 was Korean… and a young man, supposedly… huh?
Once her train of thought reached that point, Kim Seo-a let out a snort.
“Yeah, right.”
My brother, Person123? That guy?
And he just got back from clearing Floor 6?
She felt absurd even thinking it.
To begin with, Kim Seo-hyeon was an Easy difficulty climber who made his living selling Magic Stones. There was no way he could be a Nightmare climber.
Brushing it off as a weird coincidence, Kim Seo-a flipped the TV channel.
*
After clearing Floor 6.
I ca ho, ate dinner, and went to bed early.
[Ti Remaining: 12 hours 56 minutes 51 seconds]
“Hwaaah…”
I woke up in the early hours before dawn and checked the ti.
There were 12 hours left until this Masked Auction thing was set to begin.
I scrolled through the Communication Channel.
Everyone else was buzzing about the auction, sa as .
Whatever it was, it was a Tower rule, so it definitely wasn’t going to be anything good…
After browsing the Channel for a bit, I closed it.
Normally I’d take a full day to rest after clearing the Tower.
But since I had to find out what would happen when the tir ran down, I wasn’t really in the mood to relax.
Diving straight into the hidden floor felt… like rushing things a bit too much.
So I thought about how to put together the strategy guide, and whether other people would be able to clear Floor 6.
‘If the boss is taken out of the equation, it shouldn’t be that hard.’
Knowing the order to destroy the Nexuses ant the Ogre count wouldn’t go above three.
Even leaving one lane undefended while clearing the other two, our side’s push would still be faster.
Even with the First Turret getting pushed back a bit, the Second Turrets ca in pairs, so three Ogres would take ages to break through.
The real problem was the boss.
I’d one-shot it with Destruction Ray, but other people would probably have a tough ti.
I’d have to co back in later and check exactly how strong the boss was and what abilities it used.
Diul ca to mind, so I summoned it out.
“You good, Diul?”
Diul drifted out of the bracelet and floated around my head.
It seed to have made a full recovery, looking like it was back in good shape.
“Floor 6 was rough on us too, huh? But, are you evolving? Your form keeps changing.”
I tried striking up a conversation with Diul.
But all I got back was a vague sense of indifference, no actual reply.
And here it had been goofing off in the Reward Room earlier.
“Want to go for a Floor 2 night walk?”
Still no reply, but I could feel a faint hint of pleasure from it.
I cracked a small smile and entered Floor 2.
[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 2.]
The floating platforms above the lava.
With my body now at level 80, I didn’t need the platforms anymore.
Thud!
I used the Leap skill and jumped straight to the main ground in one go.
I made my way out of the Tower and ran along the night forest path.
Sure enough, these regular walks really had been paying off.
It had now unlocked even a third ability.
Even though it grumbled every ti, with Floor 3 being one example, I’d cleared multiple floors thanks to Diul. There was really no way I couldn’t feel reassured by it.
After a decent Floor 2 stroll, I headed back out and entered Floor 3.
“Want to use that ability again, Diul?”
I’d decided to get a proper handle on Diul’s new ability.
Maybe the walk had put it in a better mood, because Diul used the ability without any visible complaint.
Whoooosh.
Black mist spread out around us.
It spread out across a narrower area than it had on Floor 6.
The Undead that had been swarming toward stepped into the Darkness Zone.
And just like the Ogres, they lost their balance, collapsed, and started flailing about.
So it really wasn’t just a matter of not being able to see ahead.
Since it had no effect on , I couldn’t get an exact read on what state the enemies were in.
“Could you make it affect too, Diul?”
And in that very mont.
…everything in front of suddenly went black.
Not only could I not see, I couldn’t hear either. The reek of corpses stinging my nose vanished too.
The sense of my own body was gone too. I had no idea whether I was moving or not.
It was utter, total darkness.
The unfamiliar sensation of having no senses at all left genuinely shaken for a mont.
Soon enough, my five senses returned to normal.
And when they did, I found myself flailing on the ground just like the rest of the Undead.
‘Pfft.’
Diul was watching , snickering playfully.
I let out a slightly stunned laugh of my own and got up.
Right… so that’s the kind of ability it is?
I could see why it took so much out of it.
This thing was basically turning the enemy into a complete idiot.
The Darkness Zone lifted, and the Undead ca back to their senses.
I settled on a na for the technique.
“Since it’s like fog, let’s call it Pitch-Black Fog. What do you think, Diul?”
Diul couldn’t have looked more uninterested, like, you do you~.
Pitch-Black Fog it is, then.
I’d gotten myself a pretty solid ability.
*
Ti passed and afternoon ca around.
[Ti Remaining: 1 minute 29 seconds]
Almost no ti left now.
I was pacing back and forth across my room, arms crossed, waiting.
It said 100 people would be invited at random…
Naturally, I didn’t really want to be one of them.
The number of climbers who had cleared up to Floor 6 was small, but had to be at least several thousand.
The odds of being picked were less than 10 percent.
‘No way I get picked.’
[Ti Remaining: 1 second]
Snap.
The scenery in front of flipped.
…Ah.
Did I just jinx myself?
I’d hit the jackpot.
“Whuh?”
“Uh…”
The space around was packed with people in masks.
A narrow field of vision. I felt at my face.
There was a mask on my face too.
The other people were also looking around in bewildernt, eyeing each other. They had to all be people who’d been picked, like .
And every one of them had a numbered tag on their chest. I tilted my head down to check, and mine read 15.
Looking around, the place was like a dim theater.
There were rows of seats, with a stage visible at the front.
[1,000,000 people]
And in one corner of my vision, that number.
A million people? What’s that supposed to an.
Tap. Tap.
The sound of dress shoes echoed through the hall.
The murmur of the crowd died down, and all eyes turned toward the stage.
What is that…
A figure in a suit, wearing a mask.
But the visible hand didn’t look human. The being held up a microphone and spoke.
“Congratulations on being invited to the Masked Auction, ladies and gentlen. Please take your seats wherever is most comfortable.”
A dry, businesslike voice.
Still bewildered, everyone went ahead and picked seats. There was no telling what would happen if I didn’t comply, so I took a seat sowhere near the back.
Snap!
The stage lights ca on.
The being on the stage spoke again.
“I am the Auctioneer, the host of this auction. There are two rules you must observe during the proceedings.
The first is that you must not attack the Auctioneer. The second is that you must not damage or attempt to steal any of the auction items. As long as you observe these two rules, you may enjoy the auction to its conclusion and return to where you were before.”
Hmm…
What is this, really?
All the Tower rules that had co up so far had been about ruining the world and killing people.
But now, all of a sudden, it was running an auction… I had no idea what it was trying to do.
“Now then, the auction will begin imdiately. The first item up for auction.”
An object suddenly appeared on the platform at the center of the stage.
It was a Skill Stone. Glowing green.
[Skill: Formation Collapse (Rare )]
Leap high into the air, then descend with force to unleash a powerful shockwave. The greater the height, the greater the power.
Type: Physical Type
Willpower Cost: 100
Cooldown: 1 minute
Even though I hadn’t touched it, the skill description appeared in front of my eyes.
The other people seed to be seeing it too, judging by their surprised reactions. After all, it was a Rare grade skill, no less.
“The number visible to you is the currency you may use to participate in the bidding. I would like to inform you that every one of you has been allotted exactly one million each.”
At the Auctioneer’s words, I looked again at the number in the corner of my vision.
[1,000,000 people]
So this was the money I could use at the auction.
…but why is the unit like that?
It wasn’t ‘points’ or anything like that, so why was the unit ‘people,’ the word for counting humans?
“What does one million people an…?”
Soone, evidently with the sa question on their mind, raised a hand to ask.
The Auctioneer answered, casually delivering a shocking reply.
“The lives of Non-Climbers. For every unit of currency you spend, that many Non-Climbers will die at random.”
“…wh, what?”
“It is a special reward for those of you who have cleared up through Floor 6. Also, please be inford that those who die as currency in this auction do not beco the Fallen, since their deaths are not caused by the Tower’s Curse.
You may use all one million, or you may use none at all. The choice is entirely up to you, so please feel free to enjoy the auction without any reservations.”
…what the hell kind of crazy bullshit is this?
The Auctioneer continued.
“The starting bid for the first item is 1,000 people. Anyone wishing to bid, please raise your hand and call out a price.”
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