Retry (1)
The Tier 1 Tower, the Tier 2 Tower, the Tier 3 Tower, the Tier 4 Tower.
All of these towers together were called the 'Ascension Tower.' It wasn't a name anyone in particular came up with; the system messages had simply called it that from the very beginning.
Every challenger of the Ascension Tower could, whenever they weren't climbing, return to the 'Ascension Tower Lounge,' where they could meet other people and rest.
The Lounge. A place also known as the 'Integrated Server Waiting Room.'
The usable area of the Lounge was estimated to be roughly the size of Korea's Gyeonggi Province, and challengers from every floor of every difficulty gathered in that small space.
Considering that the challengers of all the towers were currently known to number around 22 million, that was quite a large population packed into the Lounge's area.
So most of the buildings were built like apartments, and people would jokingly call them 'towers within the Tower.'
But not every building was an apartment. As anywhere, the nobility came to prefer spacious buildings of their own, and most of those who owned such buildings were the ones clearing the upper floors of the 'Tier 4 Tower.'
“Smash it all! This is Yu Hyun-sung's mansion, that damn bastard!”
“His stats got reset, so he can't even come back to the Lounge now! He's as good as dead!”
“Right about now, he's probably trembling in the Apocalypse Tower's 0th-floor waiting room, right? Just let him try coming to the Lounge! I won't let him die nicely!”
Most of those clearing the top floors had plenty of grudges against them. This wasn't limited to Yu Hyun-sung. There were people who, simply because someone was clearing the upper floors, harbored vicious jealousy and suddenly carried out attacks, and there were others who hurled anonymous abuse in the community.
And Yu Hyun-sung, having lived like such a hooligan in the Lounge, had a great many enemies.
The moment the news broke that Yu Hyun-sung had dropped into the Apocalypse Tower, those who held grudges immediately flocked to the Lounge.
The point was to desecrate Yu Hyun-sung's mansion and let every resident of the Tower know that his glory had fallen to the ground.
On top of that, if they knocked down his residence and posted proof in the community, just how pissed off would Yu Hyun-sung himself be?
If things went well, they might even be able to lure him into the Lounge.
“Just try coming back, you goddamn mutt.”
Everyone gathered here was a ranker over level 200, challenging the Tier 3 or Tier 4 Tower, masters who would rank in the top 1 to 2% of the Hunter industry if they went back to Earth.
There were roughly 9.3 million Tower-graduate Hunters on Earth, but 86% of them were Tier 1 Tower graduates, so graduates of the Tier 3 Tower or above were treated not merely as nobility, but as absolute powerhouses.
“Wh-what's this? Let's back off.”
“Insane. They're all Tier 3 Tower challengers.”
“Some of them are Tier 4 Tower challengers, aren't they......?”
“We'll be in big trouble if we stay here.”
In other words, with dozens of absolute powerhouses, practically nobility even on Earth, gathered in one place, all the weaklings crowded nearby read the room and hurriedly fled.
“Ha. From now on, this place is our hideout. No complaints, right?”
“Of course! Let's go!”
“Greedy bastard. He built his mansion like a palace. Let's see what gold and treasure he's stashed away in there!”
The rankers, having shouted boldly, cheered and released their energy, about to storm in to seize Yu Hyun-sung's house, but.
“......”
“......!”
They froze.
A sudden silence descended.
No one gathered there could move. No one could even open their mouth. Had time stopped? No. “Ugh.......”
Everyone was breaking out in a cold sweat, struggling to turn their creaking necks.
Tap, tap-!
In the space where silence had fallen, only a single person's footsteps echoed.
The rankers who saw the back of the one who cut through the frozen rankers and advanced toward the main gate of Yu Hyun-sung's mansion drew in a sharp breath.
Tier 4 Tower, 99th-floor challenger.
The Divine Sword of Heavenly Righteousness , Ahn Ho-young.
The man who had written a legend of quelling all the chaos in the Tower with a single pure-white sword.
Back when the top rankers had dyed the ecosystem inside the Tower with the law of the jungle and then graduated and fled to Earth, the Ascension Tower and the Lounge had been an ecosystem filled with chaos.
The Spire Faith, the rise of a cult.
The Wiho Royalists, the rise of the nobility.
The Blood Hounds, the rise of the underworld.
Countless factions had sprung up, and slavery had flourished but would anyone believe that just two people had quelled all of it?
By the world's assessment, Ahn Ho-young was a master who could compete for the number-one spot in the world rankings even if he went out to Earth.
Even though the top vanguard had already monopolized every Celestial blessing and bonus, his overwhelming genius couldn't be hidden.
“A-Ahn Ho-young...... why are you.......”
His jet-black long coat billowing, Ahn Ho-young slowly looked around at the crowd.
The tall, handsome man, who looked to be only in his early twenties, wore a smile with the corners of his mouth turned up, giving an innocent impression at a glance, but everyone gathered here knew.
If you ran your mouth the wrong way.
Your head would come off, no excuses allowed. In a different sense from Yu Hyun-sung, he was called a psychopath within the Tower.
That's right, he was a psychopath.
Because of his existence, the Lounge, which had been a chaotic lawless zone, gained laws and gained order.
He had established law in a Tower where dozens, hundreds of people had died every day, and he had saved many people, but.
Everyone who had watched him up close would agree, as one, that they could never consider him righteous.
The reason Ahn Ho-young judged criminals wasn't to carry out justice.
Simply.
'Hey, Ho-young. Those assholes have been a pain lately, go clean them up for me.'
Anyone in the know knew that it had been carried out because of a single playful remark from someone Ahn Ho-young faithfully served as his Hyung-nim.
“Ahn Ho-young...... even you can't stop us alone without Yu Hyun-sung. You know that-”
Fft! The sound of flesh brushing against a blade rang out. Han Jae-woon, the Tier 3 99th-floor challenger who had gathered the rankers here, couldn't finish his sentence.
“Uh, ah, ah.”
No, the words wouldn't come out properly. He frantically raised both arms, trying to feel his own neck, but.
Slide...... THUD!
His head, cut clean through, fell to the floor just like that.
'......Han Jae-woon, in a single strike.'
Everyone shut their mouths in horror.
No one screamed.
Because they knew that if they did, they might be next.
They hadn't imagined it would be this bad. They'd expected Ahn Ho-young might be there, but they'd thought they could win if the mid-to-upper rankers of the Tier 4 Tower and the Tier 3 Tower challengers all jumped him together.
But...... a gap this wide.
It was unbelievable.
Flicking off a sword he'd drawn at some point no one could tell, Ahn Ho-young sheathed it and looked at Yu Hyun-sung's mansion.
“......”
[Apocalypse 1] Yu Hyun-sung: Whoa, fuck
[Apocalypse 1] Yu Hyun-sung: Hey Ho-young, this time your Hyung-nim seriously almost croaked.
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: Hyung-nim. You are safe. Congratulations on the first clear of the Apocalypse Tower's 1st floor.
[Apocalypse 1] Yu Hyun-sung: Obviously, punk, who do you think I am. But you're not pulling any dumb shit just because I'm not around, right?
Ahn Ho-young looked around at the crowd once, then waved his hand as if shooing away insects.
“Ugh.......”
“L-let's go back!”
A Tier 3 Tower 99th-floor challenger had died from a single, invisible strike.
Did that even make sense?
A graduate of the Tier 3 Tower's 99th floor was a powerhouse who could aim for the top 1,000 in the world rankings even after going outside.
A master like that, in a single strike.......
“Aaagh!”
“I-I had nothing to do with this!”
The rankers fled, pissing their pants. Ahn Ho-young calmly sent a chat.
[Tier 4 99] Ahn Ho-young: Nothing is going on, Hyung-nim. Just a bit of pest control.
[Apocalypse 1] Yu Hyun-sung: Yeah, yeah, behave yourself. See you later, yep
Click. Yu Hyun-sung coolly cut off contact. When no more chats came after a moment of waiting, Ahn Ho-young raised his head.
He smiled crookedly and asked.
“......Do you still have business here?”
One ranker still hadn't left and was trembling all over. Terrified, he managed with difficulty to part his lips.
“Y-you...... you had a 'Divine Power' you were hiding.”
“......”
“How many, damn it? How many Divine Powers and blessings did you get? I can't believe it. Did you get more Divine Powers than those vanguard graduates? A human body shouldn't be able to withstand that.......”
Silence. He cleanly ignored him, as if it wasn't even worth answering.
“Does your Hyung-nim know? About what you really are?”
But when the ranker mentioned Yu Hyun-sung, Ahn Ho-young brought his hand back to the sword at his waist.
“Fuck.”
The ranker spat out a curse and took off running.
With a calm expression, he let out a sigh as if the man were pathetic, then folded his arms, leaned against the main gate of the mansion, and looked around.
At that, the presences that had been loitering nearby swiftly hid themselves.
“......”
It seemed he would need to teach the swarming pests their place for a while.
***
Ah. I'm dying.
Lying sprawled on the waiting room floor like the character, I looked at the system messages. They say your wounds get healed once you return to the waiting room, but in the old days, after a brutal fight like this, I'd come back to the waiting room and pass out.
These days my mental strength had become so monstrous that it rarely happened, though.
Honestly, just now it was only hard because of my weakened body; my mind was perfectly fine.
[Many Celestials cannot hide their astonishment at your impossible feat.]
[A minority of Celestials sneer at the many Celestials.]
[A minority of Celestials boast that they believed in you from the start.]
What're you bragging about, you bastards? I'm the one who went through all the hell.
[You have obtained the 'Box of Five Rings' as a 1st Floor Clear Reward.]
[You have obtained a 'Skill Selection Ticket' as a 1st Floor First Clear Reward.]
“Whoa, they're handing out the rewards generously.”
First, I checked the Skill Selection Ticket.
[You obtain 1 of the 1st Floor boss monster's main skills.]
[Only the first-clear player can obtain this reward.]
Yes, this is it. This was the first clear reward I had wanted and cried out for so badly. On top of that, the rewards from floors 1 through 5 were known to be extremely efficient, and I was getting a whole boss-exclusive skill.
1. [B] Accelerated Sprint
2. [B] Rapid Recovery
3. [C] Struggle of Rage
“......! Insane.”
I'd half-suspected it, but they were really giving me that?
Accelerated Sprint? It was a good skill, of course. It would help tremendously in both combat and escape.
But Rapid Recovery. That was different.
Its name might be humble right now, but once it evolved later on, it would awaken into [Super Regeneration], an ability so rare that only a tiny fraction of even Tier 4 Tower graduates had it.
Regenerative ability, along with superpowers like telekinesis, was practically impossible to acquire unless you were born with it the moment you entered the Tower.
“R-Rapid Recovery! Hand it over, quick.”
[You obtain the B-Rank skill 'Rapid Recovery.']
My heart was pounding. But I shouldn't get excited.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This one skill alone could be considered better than three of my skills from back when I was challenging the Tier 4 Tower.
Of course, my combat power was absurdly weak compared to back then.
......Stay calm and find the next thing to do.
First was calculating my TP. I'd been given a whopping 950, an unbelievably large amount to call a mere 1st-floor clear reward.
It was about three times the Tier 4 Tower's 1st floor, and about ten times the Tier 1 Tower's.
TP could buy food, potions, equipment, items, skills, and so on.
The higher the Tower's difficulty, the higher the grade of equipment and skills you could obtain, but the vanguard assholes had bought up every skill of S-Rank and above, so I'd never even gotten a look at one.
But now, things were different.
“Enter Shop.”
***
One who awaits the end.
That was how 'Aedric,' the merchant of the Apocalypse Tower, referred to himself.
Normally, the merchants of the Ascension Tower, from the Tier 1 Tower to the Tier 4 Tower, were all beings close to NPCs.
Emotionless AI made for customer service.
Well-made programs that only repeated set actions and set lines.
However.
Everything in the Apocalypse Tower was 'true.'
Naturally, the merchant who kept watch over the Apocalypse Tower had no choice but to be true as well.
Aedric stared blankly at the ceiling in a space that could be called a crumbling shop, or a warehouse.
His slender hand held a huge bottle of liquor, and his shaggy beard and the deep dark circles under his eyes seemed to prove he had been living like a wreck.
'It's been over 1,500 days since I last welcomed a challenger.'
It was bitter. No challengers were appearing in the Apocalypse Tower of the 'Earth Server' anymore.
That meant only one thing.
'Earth...... will collapse before long.'
There was no hope. Climbing the Apocalypse Tower was the only way to protect this world, yet Earth's players feared the Apocalypse Tower, and not a single one of them chose to challenge it.
The First Vanguard Ten, was it? Because guys like that, of all people, set foot in the Apocalypse Tower first, all of humanity had come to fear the Apocalypse Tower.
Scraps of calendars he'd given up counting days on were strewn all over Aedric's room. Along with a ledger recording zero challengers, and even systems for a few challengers whose runs had already ended.
The merchant of the Apocalypse Tower was a kind of guide. But due to the nature of the Ascension Tower, where you could only enter the Shop after clearing the 1st floor, Aedric had never once fulfilled his role since being given this noble duty.
Because not a single Earthling had ever reached Aedric.
The system message he had last checked kept sounding a warning tone at him.
[Time Remaining Until Break]
[16:57:00]
A mere day. In a day, the Apocalypse Tower's 'Tower Break' would open on Earth. Earth, with a mere 100 Tier 4 Tower graduates, wouldn't be able to withstand the beings of the Apocalypse Tower.
Earth would be wiped out before long, without even being given a chance at revival.
Glug, glug!
He gulped down the liquor.
He didn't know anymore. He didn't want to be involved with Earth any longer.
It had been a planet he loved, a world he loved, but there was no hope, so.......
“Hey, excuse me?”
He flinched. At the voice that came just then, Aedric's shoulders trembled for a moment.
But having endured here alone for 10 long years, he had already heard auditory hallucinations hundreds of times.
“Excuse me. Hey, you wreck of a bastard.”
He wouldn't listen. Rather than harbor false hope anyway.......
WHACK-!
“Gack!”
Stars spun before his eyes. When he hurriedly looked over, some young man was standing there holding an ashtray.
“Answer.”
“Uh, huh?”
“I said, are you the merchant? Why aren't you answering, you bastard? You're not doing business?”
“Uh......?”
It was a person. He'd heard plenty of auditory hallucinations until now, but he'd never seen a visual one.
“Wh-what are you? Don't tell me.......”
He hurriedly checked the countdown.
[Break Countdown]
[A challenger has succeeded in clearing the Apocalypse Tower's 1st Floor; the countdown has been 'paused.']
When a challenger succeeded in challenging an uncleared upper floor, the Tower Break was temporarily stopped like this. But for the past 4 years, that countdown would never once have stopped.
Aedric checked something with another system authority.
[Apocalypse Tower Challengers: 1]
The moment he saw that number, Aedric's hand stopped.
And then.
“...Ha, haha.”
He suddenly burst out laughing.
“What. I guess he's a crazy person.”
Yu Hyun-sung, of all people, broke into a cold sweat and backed away.
Shaking off his dazed emptiness, Aedric set the liquor bottle down on the floor.
“I see.......”
Before he knew it, a gleam began to flow in Aedric's eyes.
He covered his face with his big hands, bowed his head deeply, and murmured.
“It seems...... it's not yet time for Earth to end.”
[Attention, all Earthlings.]
[Time Remaining Until the End of Earth]
[16 hours 57 minutes]
[Challenger Yu Hyun-sung has succeeded in the first clear of the Apocalypse Tower's 1st Floor.]
[Tower Break paused.]
[The end of Earth has been deferred.]