[ Breaking news. The Hunter Association has placed 28-year-old Yoo Da-huin, the prime suspect in the Gyeonggi Namyangju Tower No. 2 murder case, on the wanted list. ]
[ The suspect is known to be inside Namyangju Tower No. 2, and despite not possessing a Hunter license, he is reportedly climbing through unknown means.... ]
On the electronic billboards throughout the city, breaking news of Yoo Da-huin’s wanted status continued to flash.
“Tsk, is he really inside?”
The police waiting for Yoo Da-huin.
“Give him back! Give us back our son!”
“You fucking bastard! Come outside already!”
The bereaved families of the dead Hunters, also waiting for him.
“This is the tower, right?”
“Wow, look at all the people. There’s a huge crowd.”
Ordinary people who had simply come to see the murderer.
And so on.
The area around Namyangju Tower No. 2 became a place that was always packed with a sea of people.
The murder of three S-grade Hunters by an “ordinary person” was currently the hottest issue in Korea.
By what means, and for what reason, had he killed three S-grade Hunters?
As the most talked-about case, Namyangju Tower No. 2 had become the most talked-about place.
...Of course.
Yoo Da-huin, the person in question, knew none of this.
He was in the middle of climbing the tower.
Because....
***
I want to die.
Please, I want to die.
But....
[ Ding! ]
[ You have cleared the tower’s 3rd floor! ]
───────────────────
[ Floor: 3rd floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 1 hour 51 minutes 21 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 13 seconds ] (Shortest tower climb record)
───────────────────
[ Clear Conditions Met ]
▶ Acid Slime (Beginner) x3 defeated
[ Climb Ranking: Lowest ] (Current 151,123rd)
[ Ding! ]
[ Clear Time sets all-time longest record! ]
“Sigh.”
This time, too, I failed to die, and I ended up setting another longest record while clearing the tower’s 3rd floor.
[ Continue climbing to the next floor? ]
[ Yes / No ]
“......”
A notification window appeared, asking whether I would continue climbing to the next floor. I thought for a moment.
“...Status Window.”
Thinking it might appear, I decided to check my Status Window first.
And as if answering my expectation, the Status Window appeared immediately.
-Flash!
────────────────
Name: Yoo Da-huin
Job: ??? (Curse of Immortality)
Level: 1 (Level-up unavailable)
────────────────
Health: ∞
Attack Power: 8
Defense: 5
Mana: 0
────────────────
Trait: 『Curse of Immortality』 (Details available)
Skills:
[ Pain Numbness LV.5 (MAX) ]
[ Enhanced Regeneration Speed LV.2 ]
────────────────
Death Count: 7222
────────────────
Wow. Death Count, 7222?
They sure killed me a lot, those fucking bastards.
Anyway....
“...Level-up unavailable?”
Honestly, it did not matter.
It was not as if I was climbing to grow stronger, or to climb the tower and make a fortune.
If that were my goal, I would have packed up even the cores the slimes left behind as loot on the 2nd and 3rd floors before moving up.
After all, with a nationwide wanted notice out on me, I would not be able to sell this loot anywhere.
The only goal of my tower climb was death.
I did not need to level up.
“...And what is the Curse of Immortality?”
Come to think of it, this was the message the notification window kept showing me, and the curse the S-grade Hunters I had killed had told me about.
The Curse of Immortality.
To find out exactly what this was, I clicked that Trait.
[ Ding! ]
────────────────
▶ 『Curse of Immortality』 (Trait)
Description: Upon death, you immediately recover and revive.
Natural level-up is unavailable.
After a certain number of deaths, the chance of being affected by 『Curse of Immortality』 increases.
Status Window data changes as death experiences accumulate.
New Skills manifest when specific conditions are met.
────────────────
“...What the hell does that mean?”
So, the more I die, the stronger I become. Is that what it means? Again, I did not particularly need to become stronger.
I erased the window with an expressionless face, and this time, the Skill Window caught my eye.
[ Pain Numbness LV.5 (MAX) ]
[ Enhanced Regeneration Speed LV.2 ]
“?”
I could understand the regeneration speed, but this was saying my pain had become numb? And the Skill Level was maxed out?
“Or maybe it is true. When those bastards kept killing me....”
I had felt the shock, whether mental or physical, gradually dulling, and thanks to that, I had been able to kill those bastards.
Then did that mean I had wished for it so badly at the time, and it had taken form as a Skill? That I wished it would hurt less?
“......”
There was no point thinking about it.
I would not find an answer anyway.
“I don’t know. Let’s just keep doing what I was doing.”
-Press.
I pressed the “Yes” button that had been floating there for a while.
[ Moving to the tower’s 4th floor! ]
And I continued climbing the tower.
***
-SHRIIIIIIIP!
Along with the light came the sensation of the air being torn apart.
Feeling gravity, now somewhat familiar, vanish for a single instant before settling back down, I dropped to the floor.
-CRASH!
“Ghk....”
I was still not used to landing, so I lay sprawled on the floor, braced myself with one hand, and slowly stood.
[ You have reached the 4th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
[ Subjugation begins! ]
Unlike the previous floor, the ground was hard stone. The atmosphere was completely different from the damp 3rd floor.
What spread out before my eyes was none other than a ruined village.
“Things like this appear too?”
Knowing absolutely nothing about Hunters, I scratched the back of my head and muttered.
I had thought I would simply fight in caves or narrow spaces. I had never expected to be moved to a place like this.
Once again, I realized that towers truly were something like a disaster that human science could not possibly understand.
“...What am I sitting here analyzing this for?”
Do not forget.
I was climbing the tower for my own end. Instead of thinking useless thoughts, I decided to check what kind of monster this time would be.
“Are there... no monsters?”
Among the small huts, swaying trees, and dark corners, I sensed something stirring.
“!”
But it was already too late.
-SQUELCH!
“...Ghk?!”
An arrow flew into my side and lodged itself deep. The pain was duller than I expected, but it was still enough to make me grimace.
“What...!”
The moment I reflexively turned to check who had shot that arrow.
“Krrk!”
-THUD!
“Guh!”
Someone’s foot kicked me squarely in the abdomen.
My body flew into the air, spun several times, and crashed into the debris of a building in the ruins.
-CRASH!
“Gack... guhk!”
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, I turned my head from where it had slammed into the floor and looked at the bastard who had kicked me.
“Krrk, krrrk....”
“Krrk, krrk.”
Goblins.
And not just one.
Green eyes shining in the dark.
Small bodies with lithe, muscular builds.
They lowered their waists like beasts and circled around me, aiming for me.
There were five.
This time, my opponents were five goblins.
“Krrrk, krrrk.”
A thin, irritating laugh.
One of them bared its teeth, gripped a dagger, and charged at me.
“Good.... Let’s try dying.”
I barely raised myself, spread my arms, and closed my eyes.
-Whoosh!
One goblin leaped up and swung its dagger.
“Krrk!”
-SLASH!
With that single strike, my neck was cut through far too easily, and my vision sharply tipped backward.
-SLASH! SLASH!
The goblin finished cutting through the back of my neck, which had been left dangling.
My head fell to the ground and rolled several times, while my body knelt there, swaying as it sprayed blood.
Did it work? Is this death?
...But.
-Wriggle, wriggle....
“K-Krrk?!”
My body, which had lost its head, began to move, and new flesh slowly sprouted from the severed neck.
And a few seconds later.
-SHLURP.
A new head grew out.
“...Fuck, I knew this would happen.”
I ground my teeth and touched my newly grown head. Even my hair had been restored perfectly.
This was another failure.
These goblins could not kill me.
“Krrrk, krrrrk!”
The goblins were shocked for only a moment when they saw me come back to life. Then they looked at me with gazes that seemed almost intrigued.
“...One more time.”
This time, let’s make sure I die.
-DASH!
I deliberately charged toward the goblin holding the dagger.
Immediately,
“Krrk, krrk, krrk!”
“Kreeeek!”
-SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH!
The goblins swarmed me all at once and drove their daggers in.
“Guh! Gack! Guh!”
Sharp blades stabbed into my stomach, pierced my neck, and shattered my ribs.
-FWEEEEEP!
One of them even pulled out a bow and planted an arrow right in the middle of my forehead.
“...Gack.”
My head snapped back, and my eyes grew blurry.
Finally. Was I finally going?
But.
-Wriggle, wriggle....
“...Fuck!”
My stomach, where my intestines had spilled out, closed back up. The bleeding stopped, and my shattered bones fitted themselves back together.
I came back to life again.
I could not die.
Another failure.
“...Goddamn it.”
As I stood again, spilling blood onto the floor, the goblins looked at me with even greater delight.
They were like children who had found a toy.
“Krrrrk!”
“Kreeeek!”
The goblins wore expressions of rapture as they attacked me even more brutally this time.
“You sons of bitches...!”
They were not simple hunters.
They were hunters who enjoyed torture.
Nasty, vicious, filthy bastards.
“Ghk, huff, hah!”
I did not resist at all and was stabbed over and over again.
-SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH!
Blades pierced my eye, cut my neck, and skewered my heart.
My brain burst, and my vision vanished....
“Ghk!”
Then I came back to life.
“Krrk, krrk, krrk....”
At that, the goblin with the bow shot an arrow and struck my head with perfect accuracy.
-THWACK!
But had I not experienced this dozens, hundreds of times already?
Even if my head burst, I came back to life.
“...Haaah.”
-...Pull!
I swallowed a breath and pulled the arrow out of my forehead.
“Ghk!”
-Crack!
Then I crushed it in my hand.
“Keeheehee! Krrk, krrk, krrk!”
“Krrk! Krrrrk!”
-SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH!
The goblins still clinging to me cackled as they kept stabbing me.
This was not simple hunting.
For fun.
They were killing me simply for fun.
In that case....
-GRAB.
I had no more business with them either.
“Krrk?”
I grabbed the back of the head of one of the goblin bastards gleefully stabbing my body.
“Sorry, but I’m... not trying to die for fun.”
-CRACK!
“...Krrk!”
I forced myself up with all my strength and smashed my head into the bastard’s skull, driving him backward.
Then I picked up a stone that had fallen nearby.
And I swung it at the goblin, who had stumbled back and was clutching his nose.
-SMASH!
The side of the bastard’s head burst open, and green blood sprayed in every direction.
“Krrk?! Hack, hack!”
The bastard clutched the side of his head and retreated several steps, while the other goblins went on alert as well.
“If you can’t kill me....”
I slowly stood.
I pulled out the arrows lodged in my body.
The stab wounds left by the daggers in my body healed.
My arm had been severed, but it grew back.
“...Then I have no business on this floor.”
“Kreeeek?!”
“Krrk, krrk!”
The goblins flinched and retreated.
The prey they had been playing with like a toy until a moment ago had now become the hunter.
I cracked my fingers and muttered.
“I’m going to the next floor.”
Now, it was my turn.