“There is one piece of good news.”
Typhon Guild.
One of its B-grade guild members was making a report to Lee Cheol-heon in the office.
Lee Cheol-heon, who had been busy forming a reconnaissance team for Gyeonggi Namyangju Tower No. 2, was buried in the documents he had been writing and answered without even looking at him.
“What is it?”
“There is a high chance that Yoo Da-huin, who is currently climbing the tower, will be unable to conquer the 15th Floor.”
-Pause.
That single sentence alone made Lee Cheol-heon’s hand stop.
He raised his head and looked at the guild member.
“…What do you mean?”
“Gyeonggi Namyangju Tower No. 2 has a somewhat special structure.”
“Explain in detail.”
Lee Cheol-heon put his pen down completely and turned his chair and body toward the guild member.
“Er, in Gyeonggi Namyangju Tower No. 2, wraith-type monsters appear quite early, starting from the 15th Floor.”
“…Wraith-type?”
“Yes. Therefore, accompanying a Hunter who can use magic is essential. Because of that, most low-ranking Hunter parties abandon it en masse from the 15th Floor….”
Lee Cheol-heon cut off the guild member’s words.
“That means Yoo Da-huin, who came from an ordinary civilian background and therefore cannot use magic, will be unable to pass that floor. Is that what you are saying?”
“…Ah, yes. That is correct.”
“Ha.”
-CRUMPLE!
Lee Cheol-heon crumpled the document he had been writing with one hand, pushed it to the corner of the desk, and laughed.
“Search parties and reconnaissance parties have become meaningless, have they not?”
Then he looked at the guild member and said, “Contact Hunter Bae Hyeong-seok. Tell him Yoo Da-huin will eventually be unable to climb any farther on the 15th Floor and will come out of the tower.”
***
I don’t die.
By now, that was an all-too-obvious fact.
But.
“…They don’t die.”
I snickered.
With my fingertips trembling, I took one step forward.
And then.
“You can’t die either!”
I stood up with a broad smile and shouted.
The soldiers standing before my eyes.
They were things that were already dead.
They were the same as me.
These were not the ordinary small fry I had seen on the lower floors.
These things did not die.
“…….”
But the bastards said nothing.
-SHING!
They drew their swords.
Without a single trace of hesitation, they trudged toward me.
I raised the corners of my mouth.
“Now, that’s it. I’ll prove it to you. Kill me! Try killing me!”
I spread both arms.
-SLASH!
“Kuhuk!”
First.
My chest was cut clean through and split apart,
and my vision slowly tilted.
-SPLAT.
My upper body touched the floor,
then soon disappeared as my vision recovered.
“Haha! Look! Look at me!”
I did not stop laughing as I spread both arms toward them again.
Then the bastards did not stop either.
-SQUELCH!
Second.
My heart was pierced.
“Gurgle…!”
It hurts.
But it’s fun.
I’m not dying.
I’m not hurting myself.
I’m proving my ‘Immortality’ to them.
“Haha, hahahahahahahahaha!”
I opened my mouth wide and laughed.
-SLICE!
Third.
My neck was sliced, I rolled across the floor,
and even while my head tumbled, my laughter would not stop.
“Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!”
-SPRING!
It did not even take a few seconds for me to stand again.
-WHOOSH!
The moment I opened my eyes, a sword flew at me again.
-GRAB!
When I grabbed it to block the sword’s path, all my fingers were cut off.
I barely blocked it with my remaining palm and looked into something that resembled the bastard’s eyes.
“Look, look. Look! I don’t die either.”
-SLASH!
But the bastard did not care. It swung its sword, cutting through the rest of my palm.
“I don’t die either! I’m the same as you!”
With only my wrist left, I spilled blood everywhere, and with my face coated in blood, I smiled brightly and spoke to the bastards.
It felt like I had found comrades.
I grinned wide enough to bare my teeth.
How many days has it been? Since I smiled like this?
-SLASH!
I was cut through at the waist, and my upper body crashed into the floor again.
“Gurgle, cough! Haha! Hahahahahahaha!”
But I laughed as I spewed blood.
-RIP! SLICE! SLASH! SHUNK!
My entire body was torn apart.
And yet, I was alive.
And yet, I was alive.
“Haha, hahahahahahahaha!!”
Bleeding profusely, I crawled across the floor.
The sight of myself was so ridiculous that I laughed even louder once again.
“When did it start for you? Were you unable to die from the moment you were born?”
-SLASH!
“It hasn’t been long for me. At most, has it been about a week now?”
-SQUELCH!
“Ha, hahahaha! Let’s talk, please! Do you even understand what I’m saying?”
-SLICE!
As I was cut down, collapsed, and fell over and over again,
I smiled brightly as if I had met friends and spoke to the bastards.
For the first time since being cursed.
I was feeling ‘alive.’
“Phew, hah.”
I raised my hand and wiped the blood from my face.
Hundreds of times, thousands of times, finally ten thousand times, I had died.
I died, and I killed my opponent.
That was the natural law of battle.
But what about them?
I could not inflict any harm on them.
They simply still stood before my eyes.
“…….”
It was the first time.
The first sense of kinship I had felt while climbing the tower.
Just as I did not die, the bastards did not die either.
And so.
“Haha, ha! Fu…ck…!!!”
I bared my teeth and laughed.
The same kind of existence as me was right before my eyes.
For some reason, that realization felt so joyful.
I bit my lower lip and snickered.
Blood seeped from lips already drenched in blood.
“…Yeah, this is it, this is it! This is what I mean!”
I faced the Wraith Soldier again.
The bastard stood there without any emotion.
That made me happy.
I had never once been understood.
This pain of being unable to die, this endless repetition, no one knew it.
But.
“You know!”
The bastard would be different.
They were the same as me.
Now, for the first time,
“What it means to be unable to die! The pain of being unable to die!”
I had met beings who would understand me.
I took one step forward.
[ Ding! ]
[ ‘Intimidation’ activates! ]
Along with the notification window, they reacted with a flinch.
“Fuck! Don’t activate!”
I shouted at the notification window.
-SLASH!
As if reacting to that shout, the enemy’s sword drove down toward me once again.
“I’m talking right now, you fucking bastard of a skill!”
I kept spitting curses at the blameless skill window.
-SLASH!
And even in the middle of that, I was dying again and again.
My neck was cut off.
My body collapsed.
But what of it?
-FLASH!
I came back to life again.
And I took another step.
-CRASH—!
This time, my heart was pierced.
My blood vessels burst, and my organs were shredded to pieces.
But what of it?
-FLASH!
I came back to life again.
So what of it?
I smiled.
“Yeah… yeah…!! Look! Look!!”
I charged in.
“I’m the same as you!”
-GRAB!
And then I threw my whole body forward and hugged the enemy.
“Hahahahahahaha!!!”
The chill of this cold armor simply felt warm. I held back the emotion that made it feel as if tears would pour out, and hugged it even tighter, as if I were embracing a friend.
-SLASH!
Their blades cut open my stomach, severed my spine, and tore my flesh apart.
But I did not care.
I shouted into the bastard’s helmet.
“You don’t die either! You! You can’t die either!”
However.
[ Ding! ]
[ Death continues. Stronger ‘Intimidation’ activates! ]
Intimidation automatically activated once more, and the bastards flinched again.
“You fu…cking…!”
The veins on my forehead bulged.
“I told you not to interrupt me!!!!!”
-CLANK….
At my furious shout toward the skill window, the bastards took another step back.
“Ah, no.”
As if making excuses to precious beings, I said,
“No, I didn’t mean you. I, I just saw something strange for a moment….”
I slowly walked over and hugged the bastard tightly again.
Then I whispered by its ear once more.
“We’re the same.”
But they did not respond.
-SLASH! SLASH! SQUELCH!
They merely drove their swords down again and again, ripping me apart.
“Haha, hahahahahaha!”
It was so lovable.
But.
[ Ding! ]
[ ‘Intimidation’ activates at maximum value! ]
[ Skill: Death Detection level has reached maximum! ]
The notification windows continued to ruin my mood.
-GRIND!
Grinding my teeth hard enough to break them,
I said,
“Just, shut up…!”
The moment I was about to unleash another torrent of curses.
[ Ding! ]
Something absurd.
[ The enemy’s weakness has been identified due to numerous deaths! ]
Something that should not exist.
[ Wraith Knight: Holy Magic is its weakness, and magic of most attributes is effective! ]
Something impossible.
[ User has no available magic! ]
[ Switching to a system that allows the ‘Immortal’ to win! ]
[ All attacks temporarily convert to the ‘Holy Magic’ attribute! ]
A wretched Status Window appeared, trying to make me alone again.
“…What?”
And at that moment, something spread out from my hand.
“What is this…?”
There was not even time to grasp what it was.
A sacred, golden energy flowed through the body of the bastard I was embracing.
The bastard, no.
-Creeeeep…
The ‘Wraith Soldier’s’ body slowly grew faint.
“…Ah.”
Only then did I realize it.
“Ah, no.”
With this, I could kill the bastard.
I could erase its existence.
I could annihilate it completely.
I could leave nothing behind.
“No! Don’t go! Don’t die!”
But only my cry echoed hollowly through the space.
-Sssssss….
The golden energy completely wrapped around the Wraith Soldier’s body.
Until finally.
-CLANG, CLANG CLANG….
One Wraith Soldier disappeared.
The armor it had been wearing fell to the ground.
“…Ha.”
At that realization, I let out a hollow laugh.
“Haha, hahaha….”
And.
I was disappointed.
“…It was this easy?”
I muttered.
I looked at the fallen armor.
This energy spreading from my fingertips had erased the bastard completely.
In the end, the bastard could die.
Unlike me.
“…So in the end, you could die too.”
I smiled bitterly and looked at the remaining bastards.
-CLANK….
They had been completely conquered by my ‘Intimidation,’ and their bodies flinched and trembled as they stepped back.
“…Yeah. Die.”
I walked slowly.
-WHOOSH!
And I calmly took the sword of the Wraith Soldier as it swung at me in terror.
-SLASH!
After resurrecting.
-GRAB.
I placed my hand against the bastard’s body.
-Sssssss… CLANG-CLATTER….
That alone erased the existence of one Wraith Soldier, and another suit of armor was left alone on the floor.
I slowly walked toward the bastards
I had thought were my comrades,
the bastards I had thought were my friends.
-CLANG-CLATTER.
One.
-CLANG-CLATTER….
Two.
-…CLANG-CLATTER….
Three.
“…….”
They vanished completely.
And then….
[ Ding! ]
[ You have cleared the 15th Floor of the tower! ]
I was left alone.
Once again.
No.
Perhaps,
no, certainly.
I had never had anyone with me.
I was alone.
“…Ah.”
Realizing that fact, I took a step back.
Then I looked down at the floor,
where only five sets of armor lay abandoned.
“…In the end, I’m the only one left.”
I snickered to myself.
“Ha.”
This time, too.
I did not die.
───────────────────
[ Floor: 15th Floor ]
[ Climber: Yoo Da-huin ]
[ Clear Time: 121 hours 52 minutes 12 seconds ]
[ Previous Best Record: 8 minutes 28 seconds ] (Shortest tower climb record)
───────────────────
[ Clear Conditions Met ]
▶ Wraith Soldier (Normal) x5 defeated
[ Climb Ranking: Last Place ] (Current: 9,982nd)
[ Ding! ]
[ Clear Time has set the all-time longest record! ]
…I, will remain forever.