SLASH─!
The sensation of cutting through bone and flesh traveled along the tip of the blade and into my fingertips.
The body split cleanly apart along the crimson trajectory.
Blood sprayed out like a fountain and washed over my face.
A warm, metallic sensation.
“Ptooey.”
The moment my feet touched the ground, I roughly wiped my face with the back of my hand.
[‘Garr, Leader of the Sandclaw Raiders’ defeated.]
Instant death. There was no need to look again.
It was the message I had expected.
The battlefield—and every livingGoblin on it—fell silent.
It seemed the shock of watching the leader they had trusted and followed die such a futile death had hit them hard.
They had lost their will to fight and merely stood there awkwardly, watching one another for cues.
It was exactly the reaction I had expected.
They already looked ready to cry.
There was no need to slap them here.
I only had to pretend I was going to hit them, and they would spill every last tear and drop of snot on their own.
‘Then just a little threat.’
I shook the blood roughly from my sword and drove it hard into the ground.
“So, what now? Want to keep going?”
I even added a smile.
I imitated a villain from a movie I had once seen.
I must have looked quite threatening, what with being drenched in blood.
‘Come on, then. Let’s see if you’ve got the guts.’
Fortunately, it seemed to work. I saw several of them flinch in terror.
However, not a single one stepped forward.
‘No more and no less. I only need one. If just one of them shoulders the rifle and goes first….’
One brave soul willing to become the first coward and deserter in front of countless comrades.
That was all I needed.
“KRRUK! SKREEK!”
The brave soul I had been waiting for soon appeared.
It spouted some shit in theGoblin language, then broke away from the formation as though fleeing.
“SKREEET!”
That was the beginning.
Once one of them started, the others shoved and trampled one another as they raced to flee.
The way they bolted made it seem as though the last one left would die by my hand.
“Yeah, go.”
I did not bother chasing them.
The truth was, I did not have the strength to chase them anyway.
I simply stood there in silence until they dwindled into tiny dots in the distance.
Eventually, every livingGoblin withdrew, leaving only the dead around me.
Only then did the tension leave my body, and I slumped heavily to the ground.
“Haaa… I barely survived.”
If I had not driven Nocturne into the ground and used it as a cane, I would have collapsed long ago.
“That was close.”
If they had seen me like this, I would have become the sacrifice that crowned their next leader.
After catching my breath for a moment, I searched for the bastard called the Gaze, who was slacking off.
“What are you doing? The egg’s fine, and I’m alive.”
Only then did the System messages appear.
[Special Mission ‘Gaze’s Trial’ complete.]
[Feat exceeding the projected clear parameters confirmed.]
[Recalculating rewards according to the Reward System.]
“Hmm? This is…!”
Exceeding the clear parameters. It was the same message I had seen during the Tower’s abduction stunt.
It seemed even the Gaze had not expected me to break through this horde ofGoblins and kill a boss that had not even been an objective.
‘Anyway, if it’s giving me another reward for that, I’ll happily say thank you.’
I waited for the next message, but the System messages were strangely slow to appear.
“….”
It felt exactly like putting money into a vending machine and getting no response.
‘Did this thing eat my money? It’s not like I can kick it….’
Had I waited around 10 seconds?
At last, the System broke its silence.
[Reward assessment complete.]
[Clear Evaluation: EX+]
“EX… plus?”
That was another unexpected result.
It was not EX, but EX+.
All the lower Grades had plus and minus variants, so there was no reason EX Grade alone could not have them.
‘If clearing a floor’s Basic Mission caps out at S+, and clearing a Trial earns EX… does completely reinterpreting the Trial and exceeding its objective earn EX+?’
I had exceeded the objective of the 2nd Floor Trial too, but I had not received EX+.
There seemed to be something else to it.
‘Do I have to… surprise the Gaze? I think I have a rough idea, even if I don’t know the exact conditions.’
While I briefly sank into thought, the System began pouring out messages.
[Special Mission completion and overachievement rewards issued.]
- Reward: D Grade Shadow Imprint Slot
- Only Skills of D Grade or lower may be Imprinted in this slot.
[Unique loot ‘Plunderer’s Red Breastplate’ acquired from ‘Garr, Leader of the Sandclaw Raiders’.]
[Outstanding performance recorded. Highest-Tier Performance Reward additionally issued.]
- Additional Reward: Strange Egg
The additional Shadow Imprint Slot could not have been better, and the breastplate was also an immediate addition to my combat strength.
I had already been wondering whether it was time to acquire some armor.
However, the final reward was strange.
“What, wasn’t I supposed to get this egg anyway?”
The Trial’s mission had made it feel as though the Strange Egg was part of the standard reward, but apparently that had not been the case.
‘I’m glad I got it. Wouldn’t I have felt seriously cheated if I hadn’t?’
That was the end of the special rewards.
The other miscellaneous crafting materials and equipment items that looked useful only as scrap metal were Auto-Stored as usual.
“RedGoblin’s Mane… This seems like it dropped from the boss. And a Wolf’s Broken Fang… 67 Green Hide Fragments?”
It drove home just how manyGoblins I had slaughtered.
Even the item guaranteed to drop once perGoblin had yielded this many.
‘Gaze’s Favor and the Unidentified Black Page are familiar….’
Naturally, this was what interested me most at the moment.
“Item information.”
[Plunderer’s Red Breastplate]
Grade: Rare
Classification: Leather Armor
Description: Armor worn by raiding party leader ‘Garr’ to flaunt his dominion.
This armor contains his two rules.
‘To those who dare oppose me, fear; from those who possess, plunder!’
Special Effect:
[The Boss Is Scary!]: When facing ‘Goblin’-type monsters, there is a low chance of inflicting the ‘Intimidated’ status on the target for 2 seconds.
- Targets in the ‘Intimidated’ status hesitate to attack, while their movement and attack speeds are temporarily greatly reduced.
[Sly Swipe]: When making a physical attack, there is a low chance of plundering and immediately acquiring one consumable or material item possessed by the target.
- If certain conditions are met, items that cannot be acquired through ordinary means may be obtained.
“Goblins will keep appearing through the 10th Floor, so this is good. No, maybe it’s more than good?”
I had been planning to equip myself with something, anything, as the Trials grew deadlier by the day, so this had come at the perfect time.
Its unique effects also seemed likely to prove quite useful.
But it still felt slightly lacking.
“Good. This is good, but… surely that’s not all, right?”
The moment I asked, thinking this felt a little underwhelming for EX+ rather than a mere EX.
[Global Notice: Tower of the Republic of Korea]
[The first EX+ Clear record has been confirmed on the ‘3rd Floor’ of the Tower of the Republic of Korea.]
[A Special Situation has occurred in the Tower of the Republic of Korea through the contribution of the Awakened who achieved this Feat.]
[The Ownerless Treasure Vault]
[Special Entity ‘Petty ThiefGoblin’ now appears.]
Just as I expected.
A broad grin spread across my face.
“Hmm, right. I had a feeling there’d be more.”
***
From my unexpected meeting with Shin Yu-seong to the Trial that had put my life on the line.
It had been an unusually long day.
“Haaa… I finally feel alive again.”
Only after returning home and taking a shower did everything finally begin to feel real.
I roughly dried my wet hair with a towel and settled comfortably onto my bedding.
My thoughts were a tangled mess.
‘I only chose that option because I hoped it might help, even a little….’
Yet I still could not wrap my head around the fact that those 7 days had averted the Tower Collapse.
If those words had not come from Shin Yu-seong, I would have dismissed them with a, ‘What kind of crazy bastard is this?’
‘This feels even more unreal than running into a horde ofGoblins on one floor and slaughtering more than a hundred of them.’
Shin Yu-seong’s business card, which I had kept safely tucked inside my pocket before taking it out again, reminded me once more that all of it had been real.
“Shin Yu-seong’s personal phone number… I’ve really made it.”
It was unlikely to happen, but I carefully saved it to my phone’s contacts in case I lost the card.
‘The name… SSS. That’ll do.’
Mr. Shin’s SSS.
Something about saving it under his actual name felt wrong, so I saved it that way.
‘This is the contact information of the most famous and most respected person in the Republic of Korea. You never know. Maybe I’ll lose my phone instead of the card.’
I was about to put my phone away when I suddenly remembered something I wanted to look up.
‘Something new appeared again, so the reaction should be intense.’
I was curious how everyone had reacted to this event.
‘Let’s start with the news.’
I did not even have to search. The portal site’s homepage was already plastered with related articles.
[Breaking News] Tower System Reveals New Grade ‘EX+’… First Record on Korea’s 3rd Floor Leaves the World ‘Stunned’
[Breaking News] ‘Bounty Lord’ Surpasses EX with New ‘EX+’ Record… ‘GoldenGoblin’ Special Entity Appears in the Tower of the Republic of Korea
[Tower Issue] ‘Guardian Deity’ Shin Yu-seong and ‘Reformer’ Bounty Lord… Does the Tower of the Republic of Korea Enter the Era of ‘Two Suns’?
‘Just as expected… but come to think of it, when did EX Lord disappear?’
At first, people had alternated between the names EX Lord and Bounty Lord, but at some point one of them had vanished. It seemed everyone had more or less settled on Bounty Lord.
‘Hmm, Bounty Lord definitely rolls off the tongue better. Koreans should use Korean.’
Next, I visited the Awakened community.
“It already feels like a festival in here.”
【General】 Wow, holy shit, is it GoldenGoblins this time?
Did you see the notice just now?
Bounty Lord released GoldenGoblins into the Tower this time LOL LOL LOL
- Comments
Anonymous1: HOLY SHIT. I’m an aspiring Awakened who hasn’t Awakened yet, so I thought the Awakened were screwing with people again. Why is this actually real?
Anonymous2: Bounty Lord scored EX again on the 3rd Floor. He racks up EX ratings as casually as eating a meal.
└ Anonymous (Original Poster): No, no. Get it right. It’s EX+ this time.
Anonymous3: GoldenGoblin? OK, bring it on. The god of farming for cash is coming, LOL LOL
【Information】 The Board’s First GoldenGoblin Kill Report
I was hunting on the 3rd Floor just now when someGoblin carrying a bundle suddenly popped out and scared the fuck out of me.
It looks exactly like an ordinaryGoblin. But this thing is fucking fast. For real, seriously—if you don’t commit to catching it, it’ll disappear in an instant.
But when I caught it, it dropped an equipment item and Rare ore. LOL LOL, sweet. I’m having beef for dinner with this, hehe.
- Comments
Anonymous1: Wow, I’m so fucking jealous. I lost mine the moment I saw it, fuck.
└ Anonymous (Original Poster): Here’s a tip. It drops items while it runs, but don’t pick them up. You’ll lose it while you’re doing that.
└ Anonymous2: It’s trying to survive too, LOL LOL. Pick some up for it, LOL LOL
Anonymous3: Bounty… and now GoldenGoblins too? Bounty Lord… is he a god?
└ Anonymous4: Yeah, Bounty Lord is just a god. Look at the blessings he bestows on us.
└ Anonymous5: Thanks to Bounty Lord, I picked up one piece of High Grade equipment and paid off all my loans. From now on, I’m bowing toward Bounty Lord every morning.
└ Anonymous2: You don’t know which direction he is, idiot LOL LOL LOL LOL
└ Anonymous5: If I bow north, south, east, and west, one of them will reach him.
A chuckle escaped me.
“Everyone’s excited. But I’m a little jealous. The fast ones have already caught one.”
Meanwhile, the very person responsible for causing this ‘Special Situation’ could not even see a GoldenGoblin until tomorrow because I had reached my Tower-climbing limit.
Putting my disappointment aside, I put away my phone.
“I’ll find out tomorrow anyway. What matters now is… this.”
I opened my Inventory and took out the Strange Egg.
It was a hard, black egg with a smooth surface.
Its size fell between a chicken egg and an ostrich egg. If I had to choose, it looked somewhat closer to the latter.
It had been the culprit behind the 3rd Floor Trial and might also be its greatest prize.
“A Highest-Tier Performance Reward….”
Judging by the Tower’s treatment of it, it was on the same level as ‘Endless Hunger.’
If so, it would not be strange for anything at all to emerge from it.
“What are you, exactly?”
I gently tapped the egg twice with the tip of my finger.
There was no response from inside.
‘What will come out? An eagle? No, since it came from the Tower, it’ll probably be something like a Dragon or a Phoenix.’
Anything was fine, as long as it was not an ostrich.
‘No, after everything it put me through, at the very least, something useful for climbing the Tower has to come out.’
TAP, TAP.
“Huh?”
Then I heard a sound.
It was exactly the same sound I had made when I tapped the egg moments ago, except I had not tapped it this time.
“Uh, uh…!”
I was not imagining it.
Something inside was clearly tapping on the shell by itself.
“I-Is it hatching…?”
I gulped and focused my gaze.
‘Please, a Dragon, a Griffin, a Phoenix…! No, just anything but an ostrich!’
No sooner had that desperate prayer ended.
CRACK.
A hairline fracture appeared on the egg’s surface.
The cracks soon spread across the entire egg with a series of sharp CRACKS.
“Yes, yes. Just a little more…!”
At that moment, a large piece of shell broke off and fell away.
Through the gap, my eyes met a pair of strangely glowing purple eyes.
‘Ohhh, something incredible…!’
The shell then crumbled away in a rush.
The creature soon revealed itself in full.
“Mew?”
A black ball of fluff with perked ears and gleaming violet eyes.
It was a creature I knew well.
“…A cat?”
A cat had suddenly hatched from the egg.
And it had wings.