1st Floor Gatekeeper (1)
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung: Ah, fuck.......
You know that feeling, right? It happens a lot.
Before doing something, you're sure you made a rational judgment, but once you've actually gone and done it, the post-nut clarity hits.
In a wretched state of mind, I peered at the community through slitted eyes.
Because I just couldn't bring myself to look at it with both eyes properly open.
Sure enough, the moment my level was reset, bastards raring to kill me were plastering the community with all kinds of posts.
America, China, Korea, Russia, Britain.
Regardless of nationality, they were scrawling filthy curses at me, saying I'd gotten what I deserved.
[Tier 4 40] Alex: Anyone up for Yu Hyun-sung's funeral? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
[Tier 4 34] Marco: Serves Yu Hyun-sung right, the son of a bitch, yep. Go croak.
[Tier 3 99] Kim Ji-woon: I've been hanging on in the Tower all this time just to watch you die.
[Tier 3 ★] Rion: What? That mad dog Yu Hyun-sung went up to the Apocalypse Tower? Wow, if I'd known this would happen, I should've stayed instead of graduating from the Tier 3 Tower. Came back to Earth for nothing.
“......”
Countless messages poured in through the 'Tower Community.'
People outside the Tower, that is, Earthlings, could see this community too, and every once in a while, some of them didn't understand the situation and felt sorry for me.
[Non-Challenger] Lo123: Whaat?? Isn't that guy in big trouble now? Korea's been in a festival mood since yesterday saying another Korean ranker's coming out;
└[Tier 3 99] Kim Ji-woon: Korea being in a festival mood because of that bastard already had my guts fucking twisted.
└[Tier 4 34] Marco: Honestly, that mad dog dying like that is just right.
The reactions of ordinary people outside the Tower and challengers inside it were worlds apart. Understandably. I had raised a whole lot of hell inside the Tower, after all.
The Tier 4 Tower currently had an estimated 8,000 or so challengers, but above the 90th floor, it was 'estimated' that there were only two: me and Ahn Ho-young.
There seemed to be more...... but there was no way to confirm whether they were alive or dead. Nobody had heard from them in a long time.
In other words, I, who had been staying on Tier 4's 99th floor, the topmost floor across all four towers, held authority close to that of a king inside the Ascension Tower.
King's just a word. Honestly, I kind of...... uh, lived however I pleased. Even so, a guy's about to die here, and they're snickering like that?
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung: I've made a note of every bastard who just talked. You're all dead. Got it?
[Tier 3 99] Kim Ji-woon: Oh, yes, sure lol Survival rate zero! Even the first rankers all wiped out on the 1st floor! How are you planning to make it out alive? Huh? lol
Grind! My teeth ground together. That bastard Kim Ji-woon used to be a loser who'd piss himself just from making eye contact with me, and watching him mouth off without knowing his place was pathetic.
I had 'educated' Kim Ji-woon especially often. His hand habits...... no, his dick habits were just that bad.
He was always hitting on the women who came up from the lower floors, and on top of that, he was a 99th-floor loiterer, so nobody in the Tier 3 Tower could stop him.
At least whenever I ran into him in the 'Lounge,' where people from all the towers gathered and lived, I'd teach him a real lesson, but.......
[Tier 3 99] Kim Ji-woon: Oh, right. Yu Hyun-sung, your level's been reset now, huh? You bastard, just try coming to the 'Lounge.' You're fucking dead.
“That son of a bitch.......”
The Lounge was a residential area that challengers living in the Tower absolutely had to stop by.
Because this shitty Ascension Tower had no space anywhere from the 1st floor to the 100th where you could live like a human being.
Every now and then, some bastards committed crimes, ran off, and never came back to the Lounge, so, well, if you were determined to live, you could manage somehow.......
It hit me all over again that I could no longer enjoy the comfy bed of the luxury mansion I'd been living in, the gourmet meals, the classical music, the big TV, or any of that luxury and extravagance.
It wasn't just that asshole, either. There was more than one or two bastards just itching to kill me.
The Ascension Tower Lounge was a lawless zone, and I was famous for never letting off people who lived disgracefully, crippling them half-paralyzed.
Uh...... I did bully a few innocent people along the way, too.
Anyway, I had made a pretty big contribution to the Tower's peace, I'm telling you.
I wasn't someone who deserved this.
Public opinion in the Tower Community didn't change even after several hours had passed, but.......
Right around the time there was about a day left until the Tower Break.
The 'World Announcement' broadcast to every person on the entire Earth flipped public opinion in an instant.
***
[Notice. 24 hours remain until the Apocalypse-level Tower Break.]
[When the Apocalypse-level Tower Break activates, Earth will be destroyed.]
[Once again, notice.......]
A Tower Announcement. A system broadcast during global disasters, and each time one went out, a national disaster had followed.
But this time, the word 'destruction' had been used outright.
The whole world was thrown into an uproar.
[Korean challenger Yu Hyun-sung taking on the challenge to stop the 'Apocalypse Tower Break'?]
[Sacrificing himself to stop a foretold future catastrophe!]
[Only a single day left until the end!]
The expert opinion that over 10 years remained until a Tower Break had already been rendered meaningless.
And it wasn't even just a Tower Break. The words 'Earth's destruction' had been used outright, so what did you expect?
Financial markets collapsed, and people poured into the streets and began committing crimes. I could watch that news in real time too.
“......”
Thanks to that.
The whole world was full of talk about me.
Even if one more were added to the 100-plus SSS-Rank Awakeners, I wouldn't have gotten this much attention.
I needed to prepare myself mentally before jumping straight into the Apocalypse Tower too, so I'd been preparing in various ways, adapting to my physical abilities and such, but who knew an announcement like that would spread around the world.
“......Hm. Not bad?”
I had just come up here because I didn't want to die, but in an instant, I was being packaged as Earth's hero. Being a total attention seeker, the corners of my mouth twitched.
[Earth's Hope, Yu Hyun-sung!]
[In honor of his noble sacrifice.]
What. Noble sacrifice?
I'm not dead yet, you bastards.
“Haah.”
Was it the pressure? There was no way to vent the stress either, so I messed up my hair like crazy. Meanwhile, the Tower Community was still busy cursing me out.
Are those guys actually insane?
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: Hyung-nim. I will wreck every one of those bastards for you.
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung: Huh? Nah, that's kind of awkward. Getting all this help from my little bro.
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: Not at all. Considering the help I received from you, Hyung-nim, this is nothing.
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung: Nah. I'll get my levels back someday and wreck them all myself, so you stay put.
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: If that is your will, Hyung-nim, I shall do so.
Sniff, as expected, I was blessed with good people. That's right! Not everyone turns their back on me. Not after I lived so righteously.
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung: But didn't you finish grinding proficiency on those S-grade skills you got last time too? You said you'd go to the 100th floor right after me.
Actually, that guy had long since finished preparing to graduate from the 100th floor. But what was it he'd said?
Something about how he couldn't dare graduate from the Tower before his heaven-high Hyung-nim.
That punk probably had better skills wrapped around him than I did, and a better class too, so he was probably stronger than me, but I liked how courteous he was. Yes, of course.
Considering how much I'd done for him back in the day, no matter how successful he got, he ought to treat his heaven-high Hyung-nim with proper courtesy.
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: It does not matter. There is no one waiting for me even if I go back...... I will wait here until you have recovered your levels to a reasonable extent, Hyung-nim. Let us meet in the Lounge from time to time.
Ah, right. The Lounge would be crawling with bastards waiting to kill me, but with Ahn Ho-young's help, sneaking in would be possible.
Well. Even so, it was such a lawless zone that one slip and you were dead. Ahn Ho-young's protection wasn't all-powerful either. If someone quietly slit my throat and ran off to their own tower, even the great Ahn Ho-young couldn't do a thing.
Anyway, Korea must be in chaos too.
Honestly, before clearing the 100th floor, I had pulled some strings with the press.
The Republic of Korea! Finally produces its first Tier 4 Tower graduate!
Is Korea finally rising as an Awakener powerhouse?
That kind of press.
Just by going back like that, carving my name into a line of history for bringing glory to the nation would have been nothing, and I'd planned to publish about five volumes of autobiography with my face plastered big on the covers.
For the sake of all those plans of mine, Ahn Ho-young had deliberately delayed his graduation out of consideration for me. To give me the title of Korea's first Tier 4 Tower graduate.
His heart was truly commendable, but this Hyung-nim!
Ended up like this.......
I'll hand the title of first Korean Tier 4 Tower graduate down to you.
“Ah, I'm seriously losing it.”
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: Hyung-nim. Will you be all right? Even the first rankers could not get past the 1st floor.
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung: What're you on about? You think those water-rocket bastards and I are the same?
The first rankers? Sounds nice to call them that, but actually, those bastards graduated even the Tier 4 Tower on the strength of skills and blessings.
First Clear Rewards, First Quest Rewards, First Job Change Rewards, First Breathing Rewards, First Shitting Rewards!
They had gobbled up every single first reward there was and armed themselves with dazzling S-grade skills and blessings, so if they couldn't pass the 100th floor with stats like that, they'd be morons.
Bastards who fought on nothing but skills, blessings, and Divine Powers got dropped into the Apocalypse Tower and had all their skills reset, so wasn't their combat power obvious without even looking?
I was a latecomer who had been chasing right on those bastards' tails, and my era had the worst luck.
The vanguard bastards kept their clear methods locked up tight, so I had to figure out everything one by one myself, and on top of that, they had taken all the first rewards, so I climbed the Tower the hardest way possible.
My generation was probably the one that climbed in the worst conditions.
Even anything worth calling a guidebook only started being written around my time.
“Haah, damn it. Looks like I'm crawling up the Tower without a single guide again.”
In a wretched state of mind, I opened my status window.
[Apocalypse 0] Yu Hyun-sung Lv. 10
▣ Stats
[Strength: 12] [Intelligence: 15]
[Agility: 13] [Stamina: 14]
▣ Skills
A wretched status window that brought nothing but tears. Just look at the 'Stats,' for starters. Even at the same level, it was common for geniuses to be more than 10 stat points ahead of ordinary people.
Leveling up was the same.
Geniuses gained like 5 stat points per level-up all the time, but for an ordinary guy like me, 4 was the max. There were even plenty of times I only got 3 when my clear contribution was low.
In the end, this world had a gap called talent in every respect.
Even when you challenged the next difficulty and your skills and levels were reset, one or two or more techniques would remain.
Divine Powers and blessings obtained through Celestial contracts, and bonus skills earned by achieving special feats, were typical examples.
Of course, their performance dropped sharply along with the level reset too...... but the difference between having nothing and having at least something was huge.
I, who had climbed the Tower without being chosen by a single Celestial, had nothing.
To be precise, early on in the Tower, the Celestials had simply poured Divine Powers and blessings onto the top rankers. First bonuses this, first bonuses that. They had treated the rankers like they were holding them up on a pedestal.
A single Celestial typically granted Divine Power to only one player.
In other words, latecomers barely received any of those benefits.
At least Ahn Ho-young, that guy, seemed to have gotten on the good side of the few Celestials who were left, because he'd received several S-grade skills and Divine Powers.
[Many Celestials watch you with anxious expressions.]
[The Girl Riding the Crescent Moon Swing silently gazes at you.]
That crescent moon whatever was the only Celestial who had been observing me. For years, at that.
“Hey. Crescent Moon what's-your-name. You've been ogling me for years now, isn't it about time you gave me something?”
Other Celestials rushed to hand out Divine Powers, blessings, or whatever as soon as there was a player they were even a little interested in.
[The Girl Riding the Crescent Moon Swing sighs that she does not have the authority to do so.]
“What. You were a nobody? Then forget it.”
[The Girl Riding the Crescent Moon Swing is greatly shocked by your words.]
Whatever she felt about it, I decided to get on with what I had to do.
First...... it was time to claim the reward the Tower Master had promised me.
“Select special reward. Stat creation.”
[The stat 'Mana' is created.]
[Mana: 1]
Mana. A 'resource' absolutely required to use most skills.
Also a completely useless stat for now, when I didn't even have any skills.
On top of that, since the stat had just been created, the amount was pathetic.
[Many Celestials harbor deep doubts about your choice.]
[A minority of Celestials kindly explain that even with 'Mana,' it is useless without skills.]
I know that much. Who do they take me for, a kindergartener?
There was a reason I'd taken this. Because there was a special way to clear the Tower that only I could pull off.