“Status Window.”
[Status Window]
Seo Kang-yul. Lv.10
Unique Ability: Curse of Repose
Skills: Mana, Lesser Regeneration
Strength: 16
Agility: 7
Vitality: 14
Mana: 11
Free Stats: 15
“My growth seems kind of slow compared to the clear difficulty.”
Of course, my current growth rate wasn’t bad either.
The starting stats of ordinary players totaled around 15.
At level 10, around 42.
‘My total stats right now are 63. From here on, this gap will only widen.’
[Mana: 11→20]
[Vitality: 14→20]
“To get Aura on the 10th floor, I need to hit 100 in Mana.”
People said.
That you needed enlightenment to obtain Aura.
But that was all bullshit.
According to what I had uncovered over 999 runs, there were two conditions for generating Aura.
Enlightenment or whatever was entirely optional.
“I could awaken Aura right now if I wanted, but I should be thinking bigger.”
Once you awakened Aura, your Mana stat was converted into Aura.
And it could no longer be raised with Free Stats.
Awakening Aura was a matter of talent; growth after that was the domain of effort.
Zzzing—
“Hm?”
My phone vibrated.
This was a highly unusual occurrence.
‘Is there anyone other than the boss who’d contact me?’
The only saved contacts were Boss Lee and my landlord.
Other than them, no one.
Beep—
The source of the vibration was a message from the Association.
This, too, was something I had expected.
-An unauthorized climbing record for Mr. Seo Kang-yul has been confirmed. In accordance with the relevant laws, please report to the Association immediately.
Non-compliance may result in forced escort measures.
“Fast as ever. They can’t catch the bastards they should, but they catch weaklings like me.”
Once you Awakened as a player, you had to register with your country’s Association.
And I had not yet registered with the Association.
In other words, clearing the Tutorial yesterday had been illegal.
“Then and now, this rotten mindset is always the problem. Trying to control players.”
The Association tried to control players excessively.
Of course, some degree of control was necessary, but the Association’s current approach only stoked players’ anger.
The purpose was justified, but the method was wrong.
“Well, they called me, so I should go, right? There’s something I need to take care of anyway.”
***
The lobby of the Association in Cheongun-dong.
The interior of the building, towering like the Tower and polished to a silver shine, was quiet as always.
A hushed space. CCTV cameras moving as if keeping watch, people who avoided eye contact.
“Welcome. How may I help you?”
A young woman sitting at the information desk spoke to me kindly.
Swish—
I slowly took out my phone.
With the text message pulled up on the screen, I handed it to the receptionist.
“Ah….”
The woman’s smile warped slightly.
The corners of her mouth were still raised, but her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly.
“…One moment, please.”
She picked up the phone.
She lowered her voice so I couldn’t hear, but it was obvious where she was calling.
“Would you please have a seat and wait?”
“Yes.”
The Inspection Unit.
It might seem a bit excessive, but this was how this place had always operated.
‘The way she reacts, I already feel like a criminal.’
Ding—
-1st floor.
The elevator arrived.
As soon as the doors opened, four men in black suits walked out in unison.
Burly builds. Expressionless faces.
And the familiar smell of authority.
It was as if their faces were saying, ‘I’m an Association employee.’
“Mr. Seo Kang-yul. Please come with us.”
I nodded silently and stepped into the elevator.
The button was B3.
Basement Level 3 was the zone with the strictest restrictions on outsiders, even within the Association.
The closing doors, the narrow space, five men.
An uncomfortable atmosphere began to settle in.
“Kids these days are really something else.”
The man on the right muttered as if to himself.
Then he casually bumped my shoulder with a tap.
As if by accident. No. On purpose.
“Where the hell do they even get that kind of confidence, I swear.”
“Guess he thinks acting out will get him somewhere. Everything’s on record.”
“Clears one tutorial and thinks he’s somebody? Guys like that always think they own the world the moment they Awaken.”
Quietly, but clearly enough for me to hear.
That was the way these people operated.
Tap—
This time, an elbow jabbed my side.
‘Irritating.’
When I raised my head, my eyes met one of theirs.
A brief silence.
He stopped talking for a moment.
“What, is there a problem, sir?”
Honestly, I wanted to throw a punch right into that mug of his, but.
‘Hold it in. It’s not ripe enough yet.’
I lowered my head without a word.
Either way, I was currently the one who had committed a crime.
If I messed with them now, I wouldn’t just be at odds with these guys, but with the entire Association.
“Pfft! One look, and he’s too scared to say a word.”
“Quiet. We’re here.”
When the man at the front spoke up, the rest of them all shut their mouths.
Ding—
-Basement Level 3.
When the elevator doors opened, I followed them out,
and in silence, we arrived in front of a room.
Zzzing—
When the employee swiped his card, the door opened automatically.
“You may go in this way. Now, then….”
They gave a curt nod, turned around, and headed elsewhere.
‘Cha Seung-taek, Lim Dae-hyeon, Jo Hyeong-gu.’
I looked at their name tags and memorized their names.
Judging by the presence they gave off, they were players around level 20.
They probably hadn’t been Association employees for long.
‘That’s why they run their mouths so carelessly.’
Beep—
When I pressed the center of my phone, a sound rang out.
This was a habit I had picked up from experience gained through regression.
Step— Step—
Inside the room.
Exactly in the center of an unnecessarily wide space.
A single gray steel desk, and a chair across from it.
In that chair, a man in a white shirt was leaning back.
About two of his buttons were undone, and his tie had been loosened and hung sloppily.
One arm was draped over the back of the chair, and with his other hand, he was tapping the table with a ballpoint pen.
“If you’re here, hurry up and sit. There’s no shortage of trash besides you, you see.”
His tone was bored and indifferent.
As if he didn’t care who was in front of him, he didn’t even bother to look at me properly.
He simply kept tapping his pen in rhythm.
Tap— Tap— Tap—
A monotonous sound, like a fixed beat.
But within it, a subtle attempt to gain the upper hand could be felt.
“I’m Kim Woo-yeol, in charge of your interrogation. From now on, answer the questions I ask without lying.”
I slowly walked over to the chair across from Kim Woo-yeol.
Thud—
I sat in the chair and leaned back.
Only then did he lift his head slightly.
He looked at my face as if looking down on it from slightly above.
The pen was still dancing at his fingertips.
“Entering the tutorial without even registering with the Association. Why do guys like this never decrease, huh?”
His words were light, but his expression wasn’t.
It was closer to an examination than a conversation.
“So, why didn’t you register?”
I didn’t bother answering.
I simply met his eyes.
Still, and deeply.
One beat.
Two beats.
Tak—
The pen stopped.
“Haa—, usually, you know. When people come here for the same reason as you, there are two kinds of reactions. The ones who get scared and don’t say a thing. Those are simple. They made a mistake because they didn’t know the law well, then got dragged to a place like this, so how scared must they be?”
He continued talking as he got up from his seat.
“And the second kind flies off the handle. They spit curses, asking what they did that was so wrong. Guys like that just have a lot of complaints about the Association. And that side’s simple too. You just beat them to death, and that’s the end of it.”
Then, slowly.
He walked around to my right.
“But you’re neither. You’re not scared, you’re not angry, and you’re not talking. This kind of thing is a special case, you see.”
BANG—!
Kim Woo-yeol slammed the desk and pushed his face in close.
And his eyes.
Unlike before, they had turned sharp.
“You. Are you an RP, by any chance?”
Red Player.
A criminal group that hunted players to obtain their items and such.
Those bastards had only one goal.
Getting stronger.
They were bastards who trampled the weak with the power they had gained and took pleasure in it.
“Pfft!”
I laughed.
As if mocking the current situation.
“You’re laughing?”
“Accusing a novice player who has cleared a single tutorial of being an RP seems like a rather excessive assumption, I’d say.”
“So? You’re saying you’re not?”
I understood Kim Woo-yeol’s sharp reaction.
After all, he had lost his entire family in the tragedy five years ago.
Because of that, whenever he sensed even the slightest suspicion, he never let it slide.
“If I say I’m not, will you actually believe me?”
Kim Woo-yeol’s lips trembled.
His brow was twitching slightly as well.
This was one of Kim Woo-yeol’s habits that showed whenever he moved his mana.
“Well? What should I do?”
The chair I was sitting in was no ordinary chair.
It was a lie detector made using mana stones.
Someone watching from beyond that glass window was surely relaying whether my words were true through Kim Woo-yeol’s in-ear.
“Do you know a man named Lee Do-gyeom?”
“If you mean the mastermind behind the tragedy five years ago, yes. I know of him.”
GULP—
“Have you met him?”
A brief silence.
Then I opened my mouth.
Grin—
“Yes.”
Hearing the answer, Kim Woo-yeol brought his hand up to his ear.
He nodded once and spoke quietly.
“Where is that bastard now?”
“I said I’ve met him. I never said I know him personally, did I?”
CRACK—!
The pen Kim Woo-yeol had been holding shattered to pieces.
His eyes grew increasingly bloodshot, and his hands began to tremble.
“Are you playing word games with me right now?”
“Of course not. I’ve only answered everything truthfully.”
A brief silence.
He let out a sigh and rose from his seat.
“…Everyone, get out of here.”
WHOOOOOSH—
In that instant.
Wind whirled through the room.
Kim Woo-yeol rose slightly into the air and looked down at me with a gaze that bore down coldly.
CRACK—!
The floor beneath my feet split.
His mana alone was enough to warp the entire interrogation room.
“If you spill everything you know right now, I’ll at least spare your life.”
His voice pierced in, sharp as a blade.
His red, bloodshot eyes curved cruelly.
“Spill everything. Where and how you met that bastard. That’s all I want.”
Surveillance Division Team Leader Kim Woo-yeol.
A genius player who had reached the ranks of the semi-rankers at the age of twenty-seven.
He had entered the Association faster than anyone else and served as one of the elites conquering the Tower’s upper floors.
‘If that incident hadn’t happened, he’d be a ranker by now.’
Five years ago.
A single incident had changed everything about him.
While Kim Woo-yeol was away climbing the Tower, a large-scale terrorist attack occurred at the Association’s main building.
In that incident, which claimed hundreds of lives, he lost his entire family.
His parents, and even his younger sister.
The mastermind behind the attack was Lee Do-gyeom, an anti-government player at the time.
Immediately after the incident, he swiftly vanished without a trace, and in the end, no one found him.
The case remained unsolved just like that.
After that, Kim Woo-yeol no longer climbed the Tower.
He transferred to the Association’s internal Inspection Unit.
And became a ‘hound’ chasing down Red Players.
One who carried out punishment on behalf of the dead.
That was the life he had chosen.
However.
‘It’s a waste to let him rot like that.’
I would need Kim Woo-yeol for the Tower Break that would occur a year from now.
Of course, not the wreck he was now, but the Kim Woo-yeol of his prime.
“I’ll leave your mouth intact.”
What he needed was my ‘mouth’, in other words, information about Lee Do-gyeom.
Meaning he didn’t care what happened to the rest of me.
‘Should I give him a little lesson now, to prepare for when that time comes?’