Bölüm 144: Gök Gürültülü Azarlama (1)

Bölüm 144: Gök Gürültülü Azarlama (1)

[Zone 10 Boss kill reward acquired.]

[Zone 10 Boss First-Kill Reward acquired.]

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[Contract Terms]

– The Tower shall, the instant the contract is formed, open all zones of Floor 5 up to Zone 10 and cause the bosses of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 to appear.

– ‘Person123’ shall slay every boss of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 within one hour of the moment the ‘Joint Battle’ concludes.

[Time remaining until contract fulfillment: 40 minutes 51 seconds]

[The contract has been fulfilled.]

Beyond the messages floating before my eyes, Seri’s crumpled body soon scattered and vanished. Just like the other Zone Bosses.

A sense of loss I can hardly put into words washed over me.

I looked up at the sky.

The contract had been fulfilled without incident.

Once again, the Tower had failed to finish me off.

It was all thanks to Seri’s help. I offered her my gratitude in my heart once more.

“What the hell are you, anyway.”

I threw the question into the empty air.

What exactly was it, and what was its purpose, that it brought tragedy down on so many worlds?

Of course, no answer came.

I dismissed the Sword of Light.

If there was one thing I wanted to consider a small mercy, it was that this hadn’t been a floor clear.

As long as no one filled Zone 10’s boss gauge, she would never be summoned again.

I had no idea how the Tower’s system actually worked, but I wanted to believe she had finally found the rest she’d longed for.

It was all over, so it was time to head back.

No, wait. Before that.

Maybe because I’d spent too long in the Mental World, reality felt strangely off as I stepped onto empty air with Air Walk.

Flying across the vast expanse of Zone 10, I retraced my memory and headed in one direction.

I was pretty sure it was that way...

It took quite a while before I found the scenery I was looking for.

The ruined imperial castle.

And the hill overlooking that whole view.

The place where the Seri of the real world had met her final death.

I landed on top of the hill.

I tried to use Subspace to pull out the sword I’d stolen from Seri, but...

‘It’s gone.’

It was gone.

Apparently, it had vanished from within Subspace along with her body when it disappeared.

Zone Bosses leave nothing behind when they die; everything vanishes without a trace.

I looked around, picked out a suitable slab of stone, and set it upright on the hill like a gravestone.

Then I carved letters into it with the Sword of Light.

– Seri rests here.

What meaning could this possibly have, inside this world within the Tower?

I just wanted to do it.

With everything in Zone 10 finished, I took out the Warp Device.

[0:01]

I warped back to Zone 0.

I was about to exit the Tower right away, when...

“Ah.”

Right. I should check my rewards.

I’d taken down every boss from Zone 6 through Zone 10 in a row.

When I moved to the Reward Room, the rewards were piled up waiting.

Epic-grade Skill Stones and Skill Enhancement Stones, five in all, lay strewn across the floor...

and there were five items that had to be the First-Kill Rewards.

I checked the items first.

[Item: Organism Destroyer’s Ultra-Powerful Photon Cannon]

A photon cannon crafted from the Organism Destroyer’s core components. On use, fires an ultra-powerful photon beam in a straight line. Can be reused 1 hour after each use.

So this must be the Zone 6 boss reward.

The item looked like a somewhat futuristic bazooka.

A photon cannon... it probably meant that red beam that seemed to be the Zone 6 boss’s finishing move...

Its power had been about on par with Destruction Ray, so I could think of it as a Destruction Ray I could fire once an hour.

A middling effect. Next.

[Item: Slime King’s Essence Jelly]

A jelly condensed from the Slime King’s power. On consumption, greatly increases resistance to all types of toxins. Increases the body’s regeneration and all regeneration effects the body receives.

Zone 7 boss reward. A purple jelly.

Its effects were increased toxin resistance and increased regeneration.

‘A consumable, like the Frozen Hydra’s Blood.’

The regeneration boost was similar to the Frozen Hydra’s Blood too.

But seeing how the toxin resistance rises “very greatly,” this must be the main effect. Is this supposed to make me impervious to all poisons or something?

Gulp.

[You have consumed ‘Item: Slime King’s Essence Jelly’.]

I ate it on the spot.

The taste was absolutely revolting. Next.

[Item: Sea Dragon’s Dragon Orb]

A dragon orb containing the Sea Dragon’s power. On use, consumes willpower to control water currents. While in contact with the item, physical ability underwater increases, and underwater breathing becomes possible.

Zone 8 boss reward. A blue dragon orb.

It had current control, enhanced underwater physical ability, and underwater breathing.

The current control consumed willpower, but since no duration or cooldown was listed, there apparently wasn’t one.

I’d have to test its power to know, but for someone like me with infinite willpower, it looked like a pretty good item...

Except these are all underwater effects.

Not once in all my Nightmare runs had water ever shown up as a battlefield.

Well, if it ever did, this would be a tremendous help.

Next.

[Item: Gatekeeper of Heaven’s Sword]

The sword wielded by the Gatekeeper of Heaven. Applying the Aura Blade skill to this item evolves Aura Blade into ‘Heavenly Aura Blade’. Heavenly Aura Blade carries ten times the power of Aura Blade.

The Zone 9 boss’s reward.

A sword with no ornamentation at all, its entire blade pure white.

Reading the description, I was a little surprised.

‘Ten times Aura Blade’s power?’

A tenfold power multiplier is kind of insane.

I tried it immediately.

Whoosh!

When I applied the Aura Blade skill to the sword, the skill, which should have been its usual blue, shone in dazzling iridescent light.

“Ooh...”

More to the point, with ten times Aura Blade’s power, is there anything I can’t cut?

I figured most things would get sliced apart like bundles of straw.

I like this.

I could sustain the Aura Blade skill indefinitely anyway; it felt like I’d finally gotten myself a proper weapon.

Next up...

The final reward, from the Zone 10 boss.

[Item: Corrupted Hero Beldihard’s Blessing Seal]

A seal containing the ‘Armor of Karma’, one of the Blessings held by the Hero Beldihard. Stamp it onto a part of the body to acquire the Blessing. The seal is destroyed after one use. The Armor of Karma blocks all external damage and harmful effects, and its backlash decreases according to the user’s Good Karma. Amplified backlash slowly dissipates while the Armor of Karma is deactivated.

It was a golden seal.

Looking at the stamping face, a shield emblem was engraved into it.

This... this was that.

The endurance skill Seri had used in her battle against the Demon King. That pure white armor.

I gazed at the seal for a moment, then decided to use it right away.

I pressed the seal firmly onto the back of my left hand, and...

Flash!

Light burst out, and the shield emblem was engraved directly onto the back of my hand.

According to the description, I could now use a technique called the Armor of Karma.

I had no idea what “backlash decreases according to Good Karma” was supposed to mean.

For now, I activated the Armor of Karma right away.

A brilliant flash!

Armor made of light enveloped my entire body.

“...!”

The instant I used it, I dropped to my knees.

Wh, what is this?

I can’t move.

An absurd pressure bore down on my whole body. So heavy I couldn’t even stand up.

It came back to me how Seri, too, knelt without budging an inch when she used this technique.

Now I understood; used normally, this was a technique that simply didn’t allow any movement.

Worse, the pressure was gradually growing.

I deactivated the Armor of Karma.

Ah... now I get what the description meant by backlash.

So, the greater the Good Karma, the weaker that pressure just now?

Which means the armor can be held that much longer.

Curious how long I could keep it up, I activated the Armor of Karma again.

“Nngh...”

About twenty minutes?

Around then, the pressure had grown until I was on the literal verge of dying, like the Golden Headband back on Floor 9.

My Sixth Sense was ringing alarm bells too.

This isn’t something I can tough out on sheer grit.

So this is a technique that can genuinely get me killed if I push it.

I deactivated the Armor of Karma again.

“Whew!”

The amplified backlash was supposed to slowly dissipate while deactivated, so the mechanism seemed to be that, given time, the pressure would return to its initial level.

But my Good Karma should be fairly high, all things considered.

And I could only hold it for about twenty minutes.

“If you used this, Demon King, you’d die on the spot, wouldn’t you?”

– I have no need for such a thing.

In any case, I already knew just how formidable this armor’s effect was.

It had held out a long, long time against even the Demon King’s ultimate spell; its defense was beyond ridiculous.

– Had it been my true power, I would have shattered it instantly!

Yes, yes, of course.

At any rate, it had blocked not only that but even Diul’s Pitch-Black Fog, and I suspected that was because the fog counted as a harmful effect too.

I could think of it as a twenty-minute invincible defensive skill.

With the penalty of being unable to move, that is.

I’d have to check later how long it took for the amplified backlash to fully settle.

With all the first-kill rewards accounted for...

I moved on to the regular rewards.

Two Skill Stones and three Skill Enhancement Stones.

I checked the skill descriptions.

[Skill: Elemental Arrow Barrage (Epic+)]

Fires ten elemental arrows. Choose from fire, water, lightning, or wind to apply an individual elemental attribute to each arrow. Requires 2 minutes of Mental Concentration to cast.

Category: Magic

Willpower cost: 500

Cooldown: 10 seconds

[Skill: Finger Flick Art (Epic)]

Flicks a finger to fire condensed qi.

Category: Physical

Willpower cost: 50

Cooldown: 1 second

“Ooh.”

The magic skill... this one looked pretty solid, actually.

Ten arrows per volley, with a cooldown of only ten seconds.

Sure, each arrow would be weaker to match, but an overwhelming number of projectiles and an overwhelmingly short cooldown.

It seemed like a skill in the same vein as Fairy Light Bullet. Except now it was the super, super, super upgraded version.

A rapid-fire bombardment skill like this was every bit as good as a single heavy hitter.

And the next one, Finger Flick Art.

Physical skills sure lean toward martial-arts stuff a lot.

This one’s strength was its short cooldown too. Just one second.

Was it epic-grade because it was a physical skill with long range and a short cooldown?

This one seemed fine to test inside the Reward Room, so I gave it a try.

Crack!

A distant wall burst and crumbled apart.

The range seemed decent, and this was roughly its power.

Exactly the kind of thing that never hurt to have.

[You have learned ‘Skill: Elemental Arrow Barrage (Epic+)’.]

[You have learned ‘Skill: Finger Flick Art (Epic)’.]

The Skill Enhancement Stones were two epic+ grade and one epic grade.

So regular rewards never went up to legendary grade after all.

The epic one could go toward enhancing Weakness Insight, and I’d decide later what to enhance with the epic+ ones.

With that, I’d finished sorting through all the rewards.

‘How big of a power-up was that, anyway?’

Having devoured the rewards of five bosses at once, my growth was absurd.

On top of the techniques I’d honed to their limit under Seri’s teaching in the Mental World.

Crisis really is opportunity; the saying was dead on.

The Tower had thrown everything it had at screwing me over, but in the end I’d survived again, and come out this much stronger.

What can I say? My win again.

“Thanks for the rewards, they were delicious~ you son of a bitch.”

[Would you like to exit the Tower?]

At last, I exited the Tower.

Back in my room, the first thing I saw was my family’s faces.

“...Seo-hyeon!”

I couldn’t say how long it had been since I’d seen those welcome faces.

In real-world time, only a few hours would have passed since I entered Floor 5.

I stared blankly at my family for a moment, then smiled and greeted them.

“I’m home.”

*

[The Tower makes a proposal to ‘Person123’.]

[If ‘Person123’ accepts the following contract, they will immediately acquire the right to participate in the ‘Joint Battle’.]

[Contract Terms]

– The Tower shall, the instant the contract is formed, open all zones of Floor 5 up to Zone 10 and cause the bosses of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 to appear.

– ‘Person123’ shall slay every boss of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 within one hour of the moment the ‘Joint Battle’ concludes.

[Should the contract go unfulfilled, ‘Person123’ will be permanently barred from Nightmare difficulty.]

[‘Person123’, if you accept this proposal, signal your consent.]

The message that had appeared before everyone’s eyes in the middle of the Joint Battle.

The world turned upside down.

[‘Person123’ has accepted the Tower’s proposal, and the contract is established.]

Because the moment the message appeared, Person123 had gone and accepted it.

[Peter: insane, the Tower’s making another proposal and it’s not even a Nightmare run?]

[Potato Chip: oh my god. Person123 just accepted it instantly]

[White Paper: no seriously why did he take that without even thinking about it]

[Universe: probably took it right away so no more people would die. if it fails completely that’s 100 million dead...]

[Roruroruro: kill everything up to the Zone 10 boss in one hour...? is that for real? is that even possible?]

The Tower’s outrageous contract terms.

Only up to Zone 6 was currently open, and now it suddenly skipped several stages straight to Zone 10.

And on top of that, defeating the bosses of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 all within one hour. The condition was truly absurd.

[Round 6 Results: 99,999,891/100,000,000]

[A total of 0 Non-Climbers will die at random.]

[The ‘Joint Battle’ has ended.]

Thankfully, thanks to Person123’s intervention, the Joint Battle ended with no further deaths.

But what remained was the contract with the Tower.

If Person123 failed to keep the contract, Nightmare difficulty could never be attempted again.

That was as good as sealing the world’s destruction.

People waited for news, trembling with anxiety and dread. And then...

[The Zone 6 Boss has been slain.]

[The Zone 7 Boss has been slain.]

[The Zone 8 Boss has been slain.]

[The Zone 9 Boss has been slain.]

Boss kill notifications, pouring in one after another.

The Zone 7, 8, and 9 bosses had even died in an instant, mere seconds apart.

[Extreme: ???]

[Grain: holy... what is...?]

[Emperor: is this a bug?]

A situation that defied all common sense.

And then, about ten minutes after that.

[The Zone 10 Boss has been slain.]

The final notification, the Zone 10 boss kill, appeared as well.

Total time taken to defeat every boss from Zone 6 through 10, just twenty minutes.

[Congratulations: LMAOOOO that’s insane lolololololol]

[Archmage: Person123, is he a god? Person123, is he a god? Person123, is he a god? Person123, is he a god? Person123, is he a god?...]

[Whistle: seriously how...? no like, it genuinely makes no sense]

[Tiri: when did it ever make sense? he IS a god!]

[Blade of Grass: it’s honestly awe-inspiring... just what level is Person123 at right now?]

People went wild, shivers of awe running through them.

A capability beyond comprehension, one they couldn’t even begin to guess how it was possible.

And someone like that was humanity’s savior.

[The ‘Curse Immunity for All Climbers’ reward has been granted.]

The Climbers were going even more wild with excitement.

Person123 was one thing, but the Joint Battle’s reward had granted Curse Immunity to every Climber.

From now on, Climbers were no longer bound by the Tower’s Time Limits.

The bare-minimum insurance of surviving even if the world ended!

Naturally, they couldn’t help but rejoice.

[Gluttony: ohhh yeah! so now we really don’t die even when the Time Limit runs out?!]

[Daniel: jackpot lmaooooo]

[Tree: so from now on Climbers lose nothing even if they don’t climb?]

[Dice: fr it’s a Climbers’ world now. honestly we’ve been sacrificing ourselves for the Non-Climbers all this time]

[Ruler: sacrificing, sure. like YOU’RE the one clearing the top floors lol]

[Mustard: just enjoy it~ we got ourselves some insurance now~]

[Glass: honestly the guys who picked Round 6 are total scumbags but hey, look how it turned out lol]

[Lightning Bolt: it all worked out in the end, cheers~]

[Ruwabidsyeong: you all know this is thanks to our Person123, right? shall we all give him a round of praise?]

The Communication Channel was running wild.

What froze it dead cold was a single post that suddenly appeared.

[Person123: This is my first and final warning to all Climbers.]