The next day.
My climb up the Tower continued.
“Enter the Tower.”
[Entering <Tower Floor 18>.]
The journey from the 16th to the 19th floor of the Tower was a path toward the center of the pyramid, where the King’s Tomb lay.
Now that I had just entered the 18th floor, I was about halfway to my destination.
‘Shall I get going?’
I checked the mission overview.
[18th Floor Mission Overview]
-Defeat 12 Vampiric Mummies.
-Defeat 2 King’s Sentries.
-Defeat 1 Anubis Warrior.
-Proceed to the next floor toward the place where the king sleeps.
-Completion Condition: Defeat all Vampiric Mummies, King’s Sentries, and the Anubis Warrior
-Completion Condition: Reach the next floor
-Failure Condition: Death
‘An Anubis Warrior…….’
According to the strategy guide, it was supposed to be an extremely dangerous monster…….
It did not possess any particularly unusual abilities. Apparently, it was simply absurdly strong and fast for the floor on which it appeared.
In terms of raw strength, they said it was comparable to monsters that normally appeared beyond the 20th floor.
‘I will know once I fight one myself.’
I started walking toward the passage leading to the next floor.
The higher one climbed through the pyramid, the more complicated its interior became.
At least at this level, the route was still simple enough to memorize, but apparently, the mazes that began appearing after the 30th floor were impossible to memorize unless one was a genius.
I had even heard rumors that after the 50th floor, there were mazes whose layouts changed in real time, making conventional strategy guides completely useless…….
Well, that had nothing to do with me for the moment.
-GRUUUGH!
Once I began making my way through the pyramid in earnest, Vampiric Mummies rushed at me as though they had been waiting.
Unlike on the previous floors, where they had appeared only sporadically while I searched through the maze, there were more Vampiric Mummies here, so naturally, I encountered them much more often.
‘Not that it matters.’
Whether there were ten Vampiric Mummies or a hundred made little difference to me.
Creatures like these died from the slightest touch.
-GRAK─!
[You have defeated a Vampiric Mummy!]
[You have acquired Experience Points.]
[You have defeated a Vampiric Mummy!]
[You have acquired Experience Points.]
[You have defeated a Vampiric Mummy!]
[You have acquired Experience Points.]
.
.
.
[You have defeated a Vampiric Mummy!]
[You have acquired Experience Points.]
After sweeping through the Vampiric Mummies with unstoppable momentum and reaching the end of the maze-like network of passages, I found an enormous figure standing like a gatekeeper before the entrance to the next floor.
-GRAAAH!
A monster with the head of a dog.
Its appearance matched the description of the Anubis Warrior from the strategy guide perfectly.
“Summon Magic Sword.”
[Summoning Magic Sword.]
Let us see how strong you really are.
With that thought, I casually swung the Magic Sword.
[You have defeated an Anubis Warrior!]
[You have acquired Experience Points.]
Unable to withstand the Magic Power, the Anubis Warrior was torn to pieces and ground away like dust.
“Hmm…….”
I supposed the obvious answer was still the obvious one.
Although both the number and variety of monsters increased as I climbed higher, none of it meant much in front of me.
[You have cleared <Tower Floor 18>.]
[All Stats are ‘18’ or higher. You will receive additional Experience Points instead of a Stats increase.]
[You have achieved SSS-Rank.]
[A special reward for achieving the rank has been granted.]
[The clear record for <Tower Floor 18> has been updated.]
[Leaving the Tower.]
And then, the next day arrived again.
“Enter the Tower.”
[Entering <Tower Floor 19>.]
[19th Floor Mission Overview]
-Defeat 15 Vampiric Mummies.
-Defeat 5 King’s Sentries.
-Defeat 2 Anubis Warriors.
-Proceed to the next floor toward the place where the king sleeps.
-Completion Condition: Defeat all Vampiric Mummies, King’s Sentries, and Anubis Warriors
-Completion Condition: Reach the next floor
-Failure Condition: Death
The 19th floor was not particularly difficult either as long as I followed the strategy guide.
For me, finding my way through the passages was actually far more troublesome than dealing with the monsters.
[You have defeated an Anubis Warrior!]
[You have acquired Experience Points.]
.
.
.
[You have cleared <Tower Floor 19>.]
[All Stats are ‘19’ or higher. You will receive additional Experience Points instead of a Stats increase.]
[You have achieved SSS-Rank.]
[A special reward for achieving the rank has been granted.]
[The clear record for <Tower Floor 19> has been updated.]
[Leaving the Tower.]
***
After clearing the 19th floor.
I returned home and, as usual, placed the Mysterious Egg in the pocket of my tracksuit before going about my daily life.
Not that there was much to call a daily life. The clones handled all the housework, so all I really did was eat, relax, and laze around.
‘Clone really is a great Skill.’
Clone was an extremely versatile Skill, but strangely enough, I felt as though I used it for purposes other than fighting inside the Tower far more often.
It was almost like a Skill for handling miscellaneous chores.
Of course, the higher I climbed, the sooner I would eventually reach a level of difficulty that would be too much to handle alone, so there was no reason to rush into using it in combat just yet.
Besides, the prevailing opinion was that Clone’s true value lay outside the Tower rather than inside it.
‘Not that I have any intention of going back to the front lines.’
Unless a Tower that directly affected my life, such as the Seoul Tower or the Busan Tower, collapsed, I probably would never voluntarily seek out the front lines again.
The memories of that time were truly… like a nightmare to me.
‘More importantly, I went through all that hell and got nothing in return.’
Frankly, there was no way I could have any patriotism left for this country.
While I was enjoying my peaceful life—
SHIVER—
The egg in my pocket trembled.
“Oh, it moved again.”
For some reason, however, its movements seemed much more violent than usual.
[The ‘Mysterious Egg’ is being influenced by its nurturer’s Trait.]
[The identity of the ‘Mysterious Egg’ has been established.]
[The ‘Mysterious Egg’ has been named the ‘Seed of Calamity’.]
“…What?”
What was that supposed to mean?
Seed of Calamity?
The name alone sounded ominous enough to make me think that something very unpleasant would happen once the egg hatched.
Of all the names it could have been given, why did it have to be Seed of Calamity?
[The ‘Seed of Calamity’ will soon germinate!]
“…….”
Should I crack it open right now and fry it?
I seriously considered it.
***
Over the past several days, news of Strongest’s Tower climbs had continued to pour in.
Unlike the previous occasion, when he had disappeared for about a week, this time he was climbing the Tower with unstoppable momentum, setting an SSS-Rank record once every day.
-He got another SSS-Rank?
-How many days in a row has it been now?
-This is insane.
-Is Strongest actually a god?
Never before had any Hunter climbed the Tower with such extraordinary momentum.
What kind of place was the Tower?
No matter how powerful a Hunter’s Traits and Skills were, even a moment of carelessness or a single mistake could lead to critical injury or death.
Yet Strongest was not merely repeating the same floor.
He was consecutively challenging and clearing entirely new floors.
It was clearly beyond common sense.
-No matter how you look at it, this is a little strange.
-Hmm...
-At this point, it is starting to look suspicious.
As Strongest continued to climb at such an unprecedented speed, a particular theory naturally began to spread among Hunters.
No matter how extraordinary they assumed Strongest’s Trait was, what he was doing still made no sense.
-Does he have some kind of fixed-Stats Trait? One of those Traits that is absurdly strong in the early stages.
-Considering his current climbing speed, that seems entirely possible.
-Is that not almost certainly it? At this rate, nearly all his Stats might be fixed.
A fixed-Stats Trait.
As the name suggested, it was a Trait that permanently fixed one’s Stats at predetermined values.
The name of the Trait, the Stats it affected, and the exact values varied depending on the Trait, but any Trait that permanently fixed Stats was collectively categorized as a fixed-Stats Trait.
An Awakened’s Stats were fundamentally proportional to the highest Tower floor they had cleared.
However, an Awakened with a fixed-Stats Trait possessed comparatively powerful Stats on the lower floors, while those Stats would no longer increase even if they cleared floors beyond the fixed values.
Their Stats were literally fixed.
Because of that, Hunters with fixed-Stats Traits usually displayed overwhelming strength on the early lower floors.
In fact, many rookies who made headlines possessed fixed-Stats Traits.
There was, however, a problem.
Just as the name implied, their Stats were permanently fixed, which meant that once they reached a certain floor, their growth inevitably came to a halt.
Even in South Korea, people with fixed-Stats Traits occasionally appeared.
Every one of them displayed tremendous strength on the lower floors, only to eventually reach their limits. Some became Scavengers, while others continued challenging the Tower until they were eventually declared missing.
In that sense, it was only natural for people to suspect that Strongest possessed a fixed-Stats Trait.
Unless he had such a Trait, it simply made no sense for him to achieve records like these while climbing a new floor every single day.
-Honestly, I think the possibility is pretty high... Still, we should hope that is not the case.
-If Strongest has a fixed-Stats Trait, Korea is seriously doomed.
└Time to go all in on KOSDAQ 2x inverse futures.
└I already shorted it.
-I do not think he is fixed-Stats. Something about him feels different from the fixed-Stats Hunters we have seen before.
└And what exactly does your feeling being different prove?
└Exactly.
-You fools. Our Lord Strongest is on an entirely different level from those pathetic fixed-Stats Hunters. Can you not tell just by looking?
└Your joke is not funny.
└Go to sleep.
Was Strongest the possessor of a fixed-Stats Trait or not?
The Hunter community grew heated with debate over the question.
-Well... we will find out eventually.
-Yes. If Strongest has a fixed-Stats Trait, he will struggle once he gets past the 35th floor. Maybe he could reach the 40th floor at best? Anything beyond that would be impossible.
-We just have to hope that is not the case.
There was one opinion they all shared.
They would know once he reached the 35th floor.
Would Strongest still be able to climb the Tower the same way after the 35th floor?
No, before that, would he even be able to reach the 35th floor?
Everyone was watching to find out.
***
Korean Awakened Management Agency.
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Lately, the director’s laughter had become a constant presence throughout the Agency.
Only a short while ago, he had always worn the expression of a man headed for his own funeral.
“Well, well. Who do we have here? Is that not our exceptionally capable deputy director?”
“…Please stop, Director. People are watching.”
“What did I do? Ha ha ha!”
Even with Park Gi-yong trying to restrain him, the director could not stop laughing.
Of course, Park Gi-yong could understand why he was so delighted.
Until recently, the Agency had been under immense pressure from the government, the National Assembly, public opinion, and practically every other direction.
There was little time left before the deadline for renewing the Seoul Tower’s highest-floor record, yet Flying Sword, South Korea’s greatest Hunter, had been showing disappointingly poor results.
But what about now?
If Strongest continued climbing the Tower at this pace, there was a chance they could clear the 46th floor without taking the risk of hiring foreign mercenaries at all.
“Director, I have something to report.”
“Yes, yes. What is it?”
“We have detected signs that the United States government is quietly attempting to investigate Strongest. Considering the intelligence capabilities of the United States, it seems only a matter of time before they uncover Strongest’s identity.”
“…The United States? Why are they interested?”
“What other reason could there be? Strongest appears to be an exceptional Hunter, so they are probably considering recruiting him.”
Since the beginning of the age of Towers and Hunters, the United States had been the most aggressive nation when it came to recruiting Hunters from other countries.
Using its overwhelming economic power, the United States had rapidly absorbed Hunters from abroad, maintaining the world’s strongest Hunter force just as it maintained the world’s strongest military.
China was pursuing it closely in second place, but frankly, it still had a long way to go before it could truly catch up.
That was because the United States, after establishing itself as the world’s leading Hunter power, had continuously restrained China through economic sanctions and other forms of pressure.
“Ugh… I told you before. It does not matter if another guild takes him, but we absolutely cannot let him leave the country. You understand?”
“Of course. I am paying particular attention to that matter. Hunter Choi Kang Hyuk will not leave for the United States or any other foreign country.”
Under South Korean law, it was clearly illegal for a Hunter to defect to another country.
But in international politics, there were few things more meaningless than insisting on the laws of one’s own nation.
International politics was a wilderness governed entirely by power.
And that was all the more true in an era like the present, when physical force truly could accomplish nearly anything.
The United States in particular would find some way to contact Choi Kang Hyuk no matter what.
The power of the United States intelligence agencies was already beyond what the Awakened Management Agency of a single nation could stop.
And if Choi Kang Hyuk chose to defect at that point?
‘Frankly, there would be nothing we could do.’
Even so, Park Gi-yong trusted the man named Choi Kang Hyuk.
Or rather, he wanted to trust him.
The great Hunter who had once risked his life for the country.