“So, Oh Yuk-il, you’re saying you failed to subjugate the 25th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2, which even a C-grade member of our guild successfully subjugated.”
Lee Cheol-heon smiled, arms crossed, tapping his arm with his finger. Tap, tap.
“What do you think? If you come in as a D-grade, it is not as though Typhon Guild could not accept you.”
“.......”
Oh Yuk-il listened quietly with his feet on the table.
“...Normally, I would have laughed off a low-level provocation like that from an old geezer....”
-FLASH!
Before anyone knew it, Oh Yuk-il appeared behind Lee Cheol-heon.
He brought his knife to Lee Cheol-heon’s neck and whispered into his ear.
“...But I’m in such a bad mood right now. Should I seriously just kill you here?”
-GRIND.
The sound of Oh Yuk-il grinding his teeth.
-TWITCH.
The sound of a vein rising on Lee Cheol-heon’s forehead.
-BOOM—!!!!
Soon, a massive fist and two knives collided, creating an enormous gust of wind and turning the conference room into chaos.
“Enough!!”
Then Bae Hyeong-seok’s furious voice rang out.
He stepped between the two and pushed them back by the chest with his hands.
“You truly do not know when to stop. What is this nonsense every single time?!”
“Hey.”
-TAP.
Oh Yuk-il knocked away Bae Hyeong-seok’s hand, which had been touching his chest.
-SHING!
Then he brought a knife to Bae Hyeong-seok’s neck and spoke.
“...I’m not joking this time, so you get out of my way too.”
“Is that so?”
Bae Hyeong-seok did not even look at the dagger touching his neck. He glared at Oh Yuk-il.
“Then shall I stop joking as well and throw a rampage like some brat?”
-WOOOO....
As he said that with veins rising on his forehead, a golden energy wrapped around the entire conference room.
Oh Yuk-il rolled his eyes and looked at that energy.
“...Fuck.”
-SLASH!
After leaving a shallow cut on Bae Hyeong-seok’s neck, he put the knife back into his pocket.
-SLIDE.
Bae Hyeong-seok raised a finger, wiped the blood from his neck, looked at it once, then clenched his fist and spoke to the conference room.
“All of us. Let us speak as rationally as possible. However....”
-THUD!
That enormous golden energy sank heavily to the floor and dispersed like creeping fog.
Then Bae Hyeong-seok spoke with a serious expression.
“If that method does not suit you, tell me directly next time. It is not as though I dislike rough methods either.”
Oh Yuk-il and Lee Cheol-heon returned to their seats.
Oh Yuk-il clicked his tongue and said,
“Tch. You sure love throwing your fucking SSS-grade weight around.”
Seeing that, Lee Cheol-heon smiled faintly again and said,
“I was merely pointing out the mistake of an SS-grade Hunter who failed a low-floor subjugation. It seems I offended you. I apologize.”
“...I’m telling you.”
-CRACK—!
At those words, Oh Yuk-il slammed the knife in his hand into the table.
The high-grade wooden table cracked exactly in half, centered around the knife.
“I told you, with a notification window saying ‘Error,’ some ‘Hidden Boss’ or whatever the fuck appeared, you fucking old geezer.”
Oh Yuk-il’s forehead vein twitched.
“Otherwise, there’s no way I couldn’t clear a floor that even the C-grade dregs of your guild, where any dog or cow can go, could clear.”
“...Fuck...?”
Lee Cheol-heon put strength into his arms once again at Oh Yuk-il’s words, but perhaps because of Bae Hyeong-seok’s warning just before, he did not rise from his seat.
“I don’t exactly pity Oh Yuk-il or feel attached to him either, but let’s think about this logically.”
The one who spoke next was Lee Chae-rin.
“An SS-grade Hunter fails a subjugation on the 25th floor? I’ve never heard of that.”
“You bitch...!”
“Shut up and listen to the end. I’m taking your side.”
Lee Chae-rin flipped off Oh Yuk-il as he erupted in anger again and continued speaking.
“In that case, logically, we should blame the tower’s difficulty. Everyone already knows, don’t they? What level of skill Oh Yuk-il has as a Hunter.”
A silence of agreement settled over the conference room.
“...Otherwise, someone who pulls that kind of fucking unpleasant shit would never hold a seat here.”
Another silence of agreement settled over them.
“I agree. And furthermore.”
Bae Hyeong-seok broke that silence.
“Is there even one Hunter here who has heard of ‘Error’ or ‘Hidden Boss’?”
He asked everyone,
but this time, a silence of denial spread through the room.
“There would not be. This is my first time as well.”
Bae Hyeong-seok nodded.
“That means the bearer of the Curse of Immortality, ‘Yoo Da-huin,’ is interfering with and affecting even the tower’s System. This is extremely dangerous.”
The surface-level reason of simply catching the bearer of the Curse of Immortality, restoring the Hunters’ dignity, and having him face legal punishment no longer existed in this conference room.
An encounter with an unknown they had never met.
That became their task.
“...Typhon Guild and Lotus Guild. Up to what floor has each of you succeeded in subjugating?”
“Our guild is at the 18th floor.”
“15th floor.”
Lee Cheol-heon and Lee Chae-rin spoke.
Bae Hyeong-seok nodded and said,
“Then let both advance teams make sure to take Emergency Escape Kits and reach the 25th floor first to determine whether the same phenomenon appears.”
“What if it does?”
When Lee Chae-rin asked back,
Bae Hyeong-seok looked at her and said,
“We go personally.”
“We?”
“Yes.”
The conference room was made up of SS-grade and SSS-grade Hunters.
Bae Hyeong-seok swept his gaze over every one of them and muttered,
“If there is someone tampering with the tower’s ‘System,’ it would only make sense for all of us here to mobilize.”
Or.
“...Anyone else we can bring as well.”
***
[ Ring! ]
[ Reached the 26th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
Bones were scattered here and there.
A bleak atmosphere and smell, and graves.
That was the scenery of the 26th floor.
[ Subjugation begins! ]
By the way.
This Skill called ‘Blood Absorption.’
Putting everything else aside, what did it mean that my bioenergy and recovery speed had risen sharply?
I didn’t even need to think deeply about it. I found out the moment I entered this floor.
-SLASH!
A Skeleton Warrior cut my body.
“...?”
But I was not cut.
What did that mean?
-SLASH!
Even I had trouble understanding at first.
“?”
“?”
Apparently, the Skeleton Warrior had trouble understanding too. It tilted its head and swung its sword once more.
-SLASH!
I was not cut this time either.
No.
To be precise, I recovered ‘immediately after being cut.’
-SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
That was right.
The sword touched my right shoulder
and followed a trajectory that should have split me down to my left waist.
Before that trajectory could complete its line,
the portion the sword had already passed through restored itself and had already joined back together.
Put simply, the instant I was cut by the sword, I recovered and stuck back together.
In other words.
“...My recovery speed has risen this much?”
In another sense, ‘I no longer die.’
-CRACK—!
I smashed the head of the bastard that had been diligently swinging its sword in front of me, then shifted my gaze toward the remaining Skeleton Warriors.
“Now, let’s move quickly.”
-CRACK—! CRUNCH—! CRUNCH—!
[ Ring! ]
[ Cleared the 26th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
───────────────────
[ Floor: 26th Floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 12 minutes 18 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 4 minutes 21 seconds ]
───────────────────
[ Clear Condition Met ]
▶ Defeat 10 Skeleton Warriors (Intermediate) complete
[ Climb Ranking: Upper ] (Currently 122nd)
“Oh.”
Surprised by my much higher ranking, I looked at the notification window.
It didn’t feel bad.
At this rate, I would reach the top of this tower in no time.
...Though I had no idea how many floors that would be.
In any case, after the 25th floor, it was clear that I was on a bamboo-splitting advance, as if I had awakened to something.
[ Ring! ]
[ Reached the 27th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
The 27th floor was full of sticky mucous membranes, like the inside of some creature’s womb.
[ Subjugation begins! ]
A Giant Centipede I had encountered before and insect-type monsters appeared.
[ Ring! ]
[ Cleared the 27th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
I cleared the floor without much difficulty.
[ Floor: 27th Floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 15 minutes 9 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 8 minutes 21 seconds ]
───────────────────
[ Clear Condition Met ]
▶ Defeat 1 Giant Centipede (Normal) complete
▶ Defeat 5 Vampiric Moths (Normal) complete
▶ Defeat 2 Giant Tarantulas (Normal) complete
[ Climb Ranking: Upper ] (Currently 101st)
On top of that, my ranking kept rising.
[ Ring! ]
[ Reached the 28th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
The 28th floor was a cave, which I had seen quite often while climbing floors.
No, to be precise, it had a concept like a mine.
[ Subjugation begins! ]
A kind of monster I was seeing for the first time, called ‘Kobolds,’ appeared, and small Golem-like ‘Rock Predators’ emerged.
Of course.
[ Ring! ]
[ Cleared the 28th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
This time as well, I cleared the floor without much difficulty.
[ Floor: 27th Floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 5 minutes 9 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 3 minutes 21 seconds ]
───────────────────
[ Clear Condition Met ]
▶ Defeat 12 Miner Kobolds (Normal) complete
▶ Defeat 5 Rock Predators (Normal) complete
[ Climb Ranking: Top ] (Currently 71st)
“Oh.”
My Climb Ranking had even risen from ‘Upper’ to ‘Top.’
I let out an exclamation and headed to the next floor.
[ Ring! ]
[ Reached the 29th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
The scenery of the 29th floor was a swamp.
I could see red eyes staring at me from far away.
[ Subjugation begins! ]
Of course, what did I care whether they stared or not?
I smashed apart every one that approached.
No.
I charged at them myself and smashed them to pieces.
[ Ring! ]
[ Cleared the 29th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
This time, I truly cleared the floor in the blink of an eye.
Sure enough.
[ Floor: 29th Floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 4 minutes 29 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 4 minutes 1 second ]
───────────────────
[ Clear Condition Met ]
▶ Defeat 12 Swamp Lizards (Normal) complete
▶ Defeat 10 Vampiric Frogs (Normal) complete
[ Climb Ranking: Top ] (Currently 5th)
“Wow. 5th?”
My Climb Ranking had climbed all the way up to 5th.
At this rate, wasn’t I going to hit 1st place?
Thinking that,
[ Continue climbing to the next floor? ]
[ Yes / No ]
-PRESS.
I continued climbing toward the 30th floor, the ten-floor mark where a boss had always been.
***
[ Ring! ]
[ Reached the 30th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
The place I reached was a dark forest.
As if it were a living ecosystem, the scent of grass and the cries of insects sounded from everywhere.
When I looked up, the sky was covered by endless branches and leaves, and a dark, damp energy lingered around me the entire time.
“...Hmm.”
This place was quite damp, and I wanted to get out even a moment sooner, so I looked around for where the monster was.
My stats were stronger, and my recovery speed was even faster.
There was nothing to fear.
Let’s hurry up, deal with it quickly, and go up.
-CREEP.
At that moment.
-CREEP....
I felt the roots beneath my feet move.
-CRACK—!
As if the roots had come alive, they seized my ankle in an instant.
“Ha.”
I snorted and watched the sight.
So I just have to follow this root, right?
Then the boss or whatever must be there.
Thinking that, I looked toward where the root led.
-WOOOO....
Sure enough, something like an enormous tree was emitting an ominous energy, stretching high and wide into the sky.
“Now, shall we go?”
I bent down to rip apart the root holding my ankle.
At that moment—
[ Ring! ]
[ You have not died for a certain period of time! ]
“...?”
A notification window suddenly appeared.
[ Stats increased by Overcoming Death will be adjusted to their original state! ]
[ You leave the ‘Blood King’ state after a certain period of time! ]
“What is this—”
-SLIDE.
The tree root lifted me into the sky.
“...Well, would you look at that?”
-CRACK—!
Then I was slammed straight into the ground, and my skull burst open.