‘Of course, not anymore.’
CLACK.
Before long, both earthenware bowls had been emptied clean.
“H-Haha, I got a little carried away eating, didn’t I?”
“If that wasn’t enough, order more.”
“No, this is plenty.”
Mincheol waved his hands.
Then his expression turned serious as he looked directly at Yugeon.
“May I ask you one thing?”
“Sure.”
“Why did you help me? We don’t even know each other….”
“There are two reasons.”
“Two?”
“First, I was already planning to deal with the Guseong Gang.”
“Ah….”
“Awakened like you and me can never stray far from death. We either kill monsters or kill Awakened who come after us.”
“That’s true….”
“Even if that’s how we climb the Tower, there’s still a line that shouldn’t be crossed.”
“You’re right.”
Mincheol nodded at Yugeon’s words.
He himself had fought countless battles while growing to Level 50.
He had also clashed with many Awakened.
But not even once—had he ever abandoned his humanity.
“The second reason is that I wanted to recruit you.”
“Me…?”
Mincheol flinched.
Only a few hours earlier, Lee Hyeoksu had done all those things precisely because he had wanted to recruit him.
“You….”
“Han Yugeon.”
“Pardon?”
“My name is Han Yugeon.”
“Ah…. Yes. I’m Cha Mincheol. You’re older than me, right?”
Nod.
Yugeon nodded.
“Why do you want to recruit me, Yugeon hyung?”
Mincheol knew.
He knew this man was different from Lee Hyeoksu.
Still, he wanted to know why someone strong enough to kill Lee Hyeoksu and several Level-30 Awakened in an instant would want to recruit him.
“To save the world.”
“Pardon…?”
“I’m going to clear the 100th floor of the Tower and rid this world of both monsters and the Towers. That’s my goal. And I can’t accomplish it with my strength alone.”
Of course, with One Sword to Annihilate Heaven, he could cut down any enemy.
Nothing and no one can stop your sword.
Even if that being is an immortal, undying, regenerating god.
‘But that alone won’t stop the world from being destroyed.’
Preventing the destruction of the world involved far more than simply fighting enemies.
That was why he needed companions he could trust.
“And if you help me, I’ll grant your wish.”
“My wish…?”
“The reason you climb the Tower. It’s because of your mother, isn’t it?”
“How did you….”
“I looked into you while gathering information to deal with Lee Hyeoksu.”
“Ah…. But how are you going to grant my wish?”
“Your mother’s illness. I can cure it.”
Mana Poisoning.
It was a disease that afflicted ordinary people who were not Awakened.
Even now, no proper cure existed, leaving no option but to slow the disease’s progression.
The reason Cha Mincheol climbed the Tower was to find a way to cure that Mana Poisoning.
‘A cure will eventually be discovered.’
But by then, less than half of humanity would remain.
Cha Mincheol’s mother would already have been dead for a long time.
“You can really…. You can really cure her…?”
Cha Mincheol stared at Yugeon in disbelief.
Even the world’s most renowned doctors and Awakened had yet to discover a proper treatment.
Yet this man claimed he could cure it?
“Don’t worry. I don’t lie. And that isn’t the only benefit.”
“?”
“Your growth. You’re stuck at Level 50 right now, aren’t you?”
“…….”
The dreaded bottleneck for Awakened.
Level 50.
Cha Mincheol was stuck there as well.
“I can help you break through it.”
STEP. STEP.
An empty park.
Yugeon was walking through it when he suddenly stopped and turned to look somewhere behind him.
After exchanging contact information with Cha Mincheol and parting ways—he had been heading somewhere to take care of some business.
“You can come out now.”
“…….”
RUSTLE.
“Hmm…. My Stealth Skill is supposed to be pretty good, yet you spotted me just like that?”
A long-haired man stepped out from behind the restroom building, brushing off his shoulders.
Long black hair reaching down to his shoulders.
A man in his late twenties.
Hwang Mungi walked toward Yugeon.
“Nice to meet you. My name is—”
“Shadow Guild Master, Hwang Mungi.”
“…….”
Hwang Mungi’s eyes narrowed.
The fact that he was the master of the Shadow Guild had not yet been made public.
Even among the guild members, only a handful knew the master’s face.
Yet a man he had just met knew that fact.
“I suppose asking how you know…… wouldn’t get me an answer.”
“You catch on quickly.”
Yugeon gave a faint smile as he looked at Hwang Mungi.
Hwang Mungi.
An Awakened he had fought alongside in his previous life.
Calling him a companion would have been a stretch.
They had been closer to business partners.
He was the sort of man who operated strictly according to contracts.
Once the agreed payment came in, he always fulfilled his end of the deal.
And if he sensed that someone intended to stab him in the back, he would notice first and betray them before they had the chance.
‘Damn it, I don’t even know why I’m doing this when there’s no money in it…. I’ll save you guys, so if we make it out alive, hand over one item each.’
Floor 81, [Boiling Lava River].
Before Yugeon’s regression, Hwang Mungi had taken the attacks meant for their companions and lost his life.
“What business do you have with me?”
“By the way, how old are you? You look younger than me, yet you keep speaking informally.”
“Twenty-five.”
“You said you know me, right? Then you should know my age too.”
“I don’t remember exactly, but at this point in time, you should be twenty-eight or twenty-nine.”
“At this point in time? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means something. Don’t worry about it.”
“Haa…. Fine. At least you know my age. But you’re still talking to me like—”
Hwang Mungi ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh.
Fine.
Whatever.
What did it matter if the guy spoke informally?
“Fine, do whatever you want. You asked why I came looking for you, right? I need to collect something.”
“What?”
“Compensation for damages?”
“?”
Yugeon furrowed his brow.
Compensation for damages?
“The Guseong Gang. You killed their boss, didn’t you? So I came to collect compensation.”
“….”
This was the first Yugeon had heard of it.
Had Hwang Mungi been backing the Guseong Gang?
Before his regression, they had never been close enough to have serious conversations about such things, so Yugeon had not known.
“Were you backing the Guseong Gang?”
“I know what you’re thinking, but I wasn’t their backer. They still owed me payment for a job.”
“So Lee Hyeoksu hired you for something.”
“That’s right.”
“Then why not clean out his safe? You should be able to recover your payment that way.”
“I actually just came from doing exactly that.”
“And if you still came looking for me, then there must be quite a large outstanding balance.”
“Wow, you catch on pretty fast.”
Hwang Mungi snapped his fingers at Yugeon’s words.
Ignoring the man’s arrogant attitude, he was quick-witted enough that talking to him was easy.
“How much is left?”
“Five hundred million won.”
“He must’ve asked something difficult of you. If there’s still that much left even after you emptied his safe.”
“He asked me to retrieve something from Floor 22.”
Area 3, Floor 22, [Cracked Earth].
It was a desert inhabited by Sand Worms, a place where simply walking around for a short while would cause enormous monsters to burst out of the ground and harass you.
“You moved around unnoticed with your Stealth. Going to Floor 22 alone would naturally make the fee expensive.”
“….”
Hwang Mungi’s eyebrow twitched slightly at Yugeon’s words.
He had figured out even that much from only a few remarks.
“And I assume mentioning Floor 22 specifically was deliberate too.”
It was a warning.
He was strong enough to travel alone through Floor 22, so Yugeon should not make the situation unnecessarily difficult.
He really had not changed at all.
“I owe you a debt, so I could give you something valuable. But I don’t appreciate you showing off your strength.”
“A debt? What are you talking ab—”
DING!
You have activated 【Transcendent Eye】.
WHOOOOM!
While dealing with Lee Hyeoksu, Yugeon had figured out how to use Transcendent Eye.
‘Transcendent Eye isn’t just for checking levels.’
Through his gaze, he could directly project his intent into another person.
Transcendent Eye amplified the user’s intent and engraved it directly into the mind of whoever his gaze touched.
Just like now.
“Ghk?!!”
An overwhelming killing intent suddenly crushed down on Hwang Mungi, forcing him to his knees as his entire body trembled.
The primal fear of death consumed him from head to toe.
“Y-You… what the hell is this…?”
Unable even to raise his head, Hwang Mungi clenched his teeth and trembled violently.
He wanted to look at the man before him, but his head simply would not rise.
Just what the hell was this bastard?!
DING—!
[Accumulated growth has been reflected in your stats.]
Senses +1
‘Huh? Even doing something like this raises my stats?’
When his Senses stat unexpectedly increased, Yugeon gave a faint smile.
FSSSH.
SPRING!
The tremendous pressure weighing down on him disappeared, and Hwang Mungi, who had been straining against it, sprang to his feet.
“Now you understand, right? Don’t try showing off your strength in front of me.”
“…….”
Hwang Mungi could not say a word.
The man before him had just displayed such overwhelming power, yet his expression had not changed in the slightest.
He remained perfectly calm.
Which meant that what he had just displayed was nowhere near his full strength.
“Of course, don’t worry about the outstanding balance. I’ll pay it.”
“You’ll pay the balance…?”
Why?
Someone this strong could simply ignore everything Hwang Mungi had said.
If anything, Hwang Mungi should have been grateful beyond words that the man had not killed him on the spot.
“I told you. I owe you a debt.”
A debt from his previous life.
The debt of having saved Yugeon’s life.
Now that they had met again, Yugeon intended to repay it.
He wanted to, and Hwang Mungi was worth doing so for.
“I also have a job for you. I’ll pay you for my request along with the outstanding balance. And I’ll repay that debt too.”
“What debt have you been talking about this whole time? This is the first time I’ve ever met you.”
“There is one. Leave it at that.”
“Ugh…. I’ve got a bad feeling I’ve gotten myself tangled up with the wrong guy.”