“...How did you know that?”
Lee Cheol-heon looked at Lee Chae-rin with a slightly uneasy gaze, and Lee Chae-rin snorted as she spoke.
“Ha, did you think only your side had information? You really take other Hunters for idiots. Complete fucking idiots.”
“Information? What information are you talking about?”
Lee Cheol-heon answered Lee Chae-rin.
“The fact that a jewel containing the ‘Curse of Immortality’ came out of Namyangju Tower No. 2 is something even the F-grade Hunter lackeys in the back alleys know by now. But....”
-BANG!
Lee Chae-rin kicked the desk this time as she spoke again.
“Now you’re outright pretending not to know on purpose? Do you not see the people gathered here? Do we look easy to you?”
“......”
-Clap, clap, clap!
“Finally, someone who agrees with me has shown up.”
Oh Yuk-il clapped as he backed her up.
“Shut up. I’m not taking your side, street bastard.”
“Kihihik.”
Even at Lee Chae-rin’s insult, Oh Yuk-il only kept laughing, as if he found something amusing.
“...Then since everyone seems to know, shall we move quickly to the main subject?”
Even Bae Hyeong-seok nodded and looked at Lee Cheol-heon.
“Yoo Da-huin, who is currently climbing the tower... is an ordinary person infected with the ‘Curse of Immortality,’ correct?”
“......”
Lee Cheol-heon remained silent for a moment.
“...That is correct.”
Then he nodded.
“Whoo! Jackpot.”
Oh Yuk-il was right.
When Lee Cheol-heon finally nodded and admitted it, a faint tension flowed through the meeting room.
“Three of our guild members discovered the ‘Curse of Immortality,’ and in the process of transporting it... they were killed.”
Since the Guild Master had shared the information he knew, that subject could no longer be hidden in this place.
The “Curse of Immortality.”
“Good. Then let us move on to the main point.”
Bae Hyeong-seok crossed his arms and looked around.
The other Hunters still hid their expressions or exchanged meaningful glances.
But the atmosphere was already moving toward a single conclusion.
“Yoo Da-huin. The infected individual with the ‘Curse of Immortality,’ whom not only Korea, but the entire world is currently watching.”
“Kikik, infected individual. What is this, some zombie virus?”
Oh Yuk-il gave a snide laugh and mocked him, but Bae Hyeong-seok ignored him and continued.
“This is not a simple personal matter. I am sure everyone knows what the four curses are.”
The space fell silent at once.
“Immortality, Reincarnation, Regression, and Infinity.”
Bae Hyeong-seok quietly recited the names of the four curses in a low voice.
Those names alone carried enough weight for the Hunters in this room.
Lee Chae-rin rested her chin on her hand and spoke intently.
“You’re saying one of those four curses went to Yoo Da-huin. And that curse was ‘Immortality.’”
“Correct.”
Lee Cheol-heon sighed with a weary face.
“...Their deaths are something we must mourn, but this is not a matter that can simply be compared to the deaths of three S-grade Hunters.”
He added quietly.
“...The laws of the tower are already breaking.”
In that instant, the meeting room stirred.
Only then did the Hunters begin to understand why Lee Cheol-heon had tried so hard to keep his mouth shut.
Bae Hyeong-seok asked calmly.
“Explain.”
Lee Cheol-heon tapped the table with his finger as he spoke.
“Those who die inside a tower cannot return alive. That was an immutable law we experienced for decades.”
“That is true.”
“But Yoo Da-huin? He has already died who knows how many times. Even so, he is alive, and he is climbing the tower.”
Lee Chae-rin clicked her tongue and spoke.
“That’s what immortality is. Why are you trying to make it sound so grand?”
“...The problem is not that he ‘does not die.’”
Lee Cheol-heon added quietly.
“The problem is that the human being with the Curse of Immortality... killed not mere monsters, but S-grade Hunters.”
At that moment, each of the Hunters failed to hide their bewilderment.
Bae Hyeong-seok furrowed his brow and muttered.
“You are saying the one who killed three S-grade Hunters... really was Yoo Da-huin?”
The mass media had singled out Yoo Da-huin as the killer of the S-grade Hunters, but most Hunters did not believe it.
They merely dismissed him as someone deeply connected to the incident, or perhaps a witness.
Naturally so.
Because it made no sense for a “mere ordinary person” to kill three S-grade Hunters.
“That is the problem.”
Lee Cheol-heon spoke.
“As we know, an S-grade Hunter is an existence on a completely different level from an ordinary human. And yet the fact that Yoo Da-huin could face them means this is not a simple matter of immortality.”
At those words, Lee Chae-rin laughed softly, as if intrigued.
“So? What does that mean?”
Lee Cheol-heon slowly exhaled, then looked down at the table as he spoke.
“...The Curse of Immortality is not simply an ‘ability that prevents death.’”
The Hunters’ gazes focused on him again.
“We thought curses were simply ‘powerful forces’ or ‘superpowers,’ but in reality, they seem to be more complicated.”
“Meaning?”
When Bae Hyeong-seok asked again, Lee Cheol-heon answered.
“The four curses are not simple abilities. They are powers operated by some System.”
In that instant, the expressions of every Hunter froze.
Bae Hyeong-seok quietly opened his mouth.
“...A ‘System,’ you say....”
Lee Chae-rin also crossed her arms and spoke.
“Then it does start to make sense. Why those four curses are treated as something this special.”
“And it also means there are bastards after them.”
Bae Hyeong-seok added.
When he finished speaking, the room fell into a heavy silence again.
Even here, with SS-grade Hunters gathered in one place, no one could easily open their mouth. That was how serious this matter was.
Then Lee Cheol-heon rose from his seat and spoke.
“In any case, there is only one conclusion.”
He slowly looked around the meeting room and declared.
“We cannot simply leave Yoo Da-huin alone.”
Bae Hyeong-seok slowly nodded as well.
“Correct. But simply killing him will not solve the problem either.”
He placed his hand on the table and spoke.
“For now, we must make Yoo Da-huin come out of the tower.”
Lee Chae-rin tilted her head.
“But how?”
Bae Hyeong-seok spoke quietly.
“There is only one way. We kill the tower boss before he does.”
Lee Chae-rin narrowed her eyes and muttered.
“...The boss, before him?”
“Yes.”
Bae Hyeong-seok nodded.
“If the tower closes, Yoo Da-huin will be forcibly ejected as well.”
Then he addressed everyone.
“Yoo Da-huin is somehow climbing the tower, but it is known that he is still on the early floors and climbing at an extremely slow pace.”
Yoo Da-huin was climbing while setting the all-time longest record on every floor.
“If the high-ranking Hunters here join forces, then of course we can subjugate the tower boss faster than he can.”
When he finished, the Hunters in the room sank into deep thought once again.
“...I will make him pay dearly for killing my guild members.”
Some for revenge.
“...Hmm, the ‘curse’ of immortality, is it....”
Some out of interest.
“Kikik, kikikik....”
Some for intentions unknown.
In any case, one thing was clear.
Yoo Da-huin was no longer the only one climbing Namyangju Tower No. 2.
***
[ Ding! ]
[ You have cleared the tower’s 9th floor! ]
───────────────────
[ Floor: 9th floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 4 hours 11 minutes 54 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 2 minutes 12 seconds ] (Shortest tower climb record)
───────────────────
[ Clear Conditions Met ]
▶ Skeleton (Normal) x7 defeated
[ Climb Ranking: Lowest ] (Current 113,982nd)
[ Ding! ]
[ Clear Time sets all-time longest record! ]
The 9th floor.
Before I knew it, the 9th floor.
Once again setting the all-time longest record,
I had cleared the 9th floor.
The 9th floor was a floor where five skeletons armed with swords and two skeletons armed with bows appeared.
“Ugh, they’re definitely hard. I feel like I’ve lost all feeling in my fists.”
The biggest difference between this floor and the goblins, snakes, and wolves I had fought on lower floors was the “high durability of the enemy.”
For someone like me, with no magic or equipment whatsoever, beating those bastards to death took ages.
...Of course, I died a lot during that time too.
“Phaah.”
I wiped off the places soaked in blood again and shook the entrails stuck in my hair away.
After reaching the 9th floor of the tower, I had come to learn that the parts of my body that fell off would vanish soon anyway.
Still, leaving bits of entrails sitting in my hair felt far too unpleasant.
How many times had I died now, and how many days had passed?
It was difficult even to guess, but my body, at least, remained perfectly lively with no signs of fatigue, even after repeating death who knew how many times.
My mind, however, was different.
“...I’m dizzy.”
Dazed, hungry, and exhausted. Even though I knew those sensations were no longer necessary to keep me alive, they kept screaming at me as if out of habit.
Even so, nothing changed.
Because I had something to do.
[ Continue climbing to the next floor? ]
[ Yes / No ]
Finally, the 10th floor.
-Press.
I pressed Yes.
***
-Tap!
[ You have reached the 10th floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2! ]
[ Subjugation begins! ]
The moment I stepped onto the tower’s 10th floor, the air changed completely.
A damp, heavy smell.
A foul stench mixed with blood and rotting flesh stabbed my nose.
“Ghk....”
I rubbed my nose with my arm. But the smell seemed to pierce through my clothes and seep into my lungs.
Beneath my feet were massive footprints.
They looked like traces left by something enormous trampling through this place.
That was when it happened.
-THUD...!
An overwhelming weight pressed down from above my head.
Something... was flying toward me.
The moment I instinctively tried to dodge—
-CRAAASH!!!
A fist that looked like a giant boulder slammed into the ground right in front of me.
“W-What the...?!”
The impact split the ground and sent stone fragments flying in every direction.
I barely retreated backward and instinctively took a stance.
And then I saw it.
Dark red skin.
Bulging muscles.
A beast-like killing intent flashing in its small eyes.
It was qualitatively different from every monster so far.
Its very existence was alien.
This was not an ordinary monster.
It was simply....
[ Ding! ]
[ 10th-floor boss – Ogre has appeared! ]
Destruction itself.
“B-Boss?!”
-THUD. THUD.
The ogre slowly approached me again, swaying its enormous bulk.
“Fuck....”
The curse slipped out on its own.
But I steadied my mind.
I just needed to do what I had done until now.
Read the pattern, dig into an opening, and aim for a vital point—.
-WHOOOOOSH—!!
At that moment, I heard the sound of wind being torn apart.
“Ah—.”
Before my thoughts could even finish.
-CRASH!!
The impact came.
No, to be precise, I did not even feel the impact.
In the next instant, the world tilted.
My vision spun.
-Thump—
Something rolled across the floor.
An unfamiliar yet familiar sensation.
Something was strange about my body.
—What is this?
Why is my body over there?
Is that me? Why are there several visions....
Ah.
Only then did I understand.
My head was rolling across the floor in pieces.
One instant. A single attack.
The ogre’s massive fist had completely smashed my head apart.
With the sight of my body collapsing as it sprayed blood as the last thing I saw, my vision was dyed completely black.