[Hermes’ Shoes]
Rank: Rare
Attributes: Movement, Concealment
Skill: Hermes’ Covert Step
Description: Hermes’ other shoe. It is extraordinarily light and produces no sound. It can completely erase the wearer’s presence and enable covert movement.
It was an unexpected windfall, but I could not simply celebrate.
‘There is no doubt about it. The towers have changed.’
These were no longer the towers I knew.
It should have been impossible for Rare-ranked skills and items to appear this frequently within the Tower of Beginnings.
It felt as though a game had received a stealth patch.
The probabilities had secretly been manipulated, except that they had risen dramatically rather than fallen.
Had this truly been a game, I might have celebrated it as an excellent patch.
Unfortunately, this was not a virtual world.
It would have been different if I alone could cover myself in absurdly powerful skills and items.
But if people equipped with Rare-ranked skills and items through outrageous luck began appearing everywhere, as they were now···
Then this would become a game where luck mattered more than anything else.
Skills and items of Rare rank or higher possessed overwhelming power during the early and middle stages.
The fact that a man with almost nothing else had nearly dominated everything alone with only two Rare abilities proved that well enough.
‘Then what the hell is happening in the higher towers?’
If Rare-ranked abilities were appearing freely within the Tower of Beginnings, then Legendary skills and items might already be running rampant in the higher towers.
Climbing the towers was not judged by an absolute standard.
It was relative.
The more people possessed absurd advantages, the more dangerous everything became, and the less useful my past experience was.
Even a moment ago, had that bastard been slightly luckier and possessed a single offensive skill, I might have been the one who died.
Had he distracted me with his illusion while his true body launched ranged attacks from behind or attempted an assassination, I would have been the victim.
I had been fortunate that Park Gilsu’s Sphinx of Thebes helped me.
Without it, I might have wandered without discovering the answer until the enemy turned the situation against me.
What if he had exhausted my Vitality with the illusion and approached with his true body only to deliver the final blow?
I had survived only because my luck had been better than his.
“We won, so that is enough. I obtained his equipment as well.”
As I finished organizing my thoughts, several people entered through the open Gate.
“…….”
One-armed Sledgehammer.
One-eyed E-Bolt.
And Kang Sujeong, stubbornly dragging two corpses behind her by herself.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
“Haaah- Haaah-.”
Kang Sujeong entered through the open Gate, half exhausted as she dragged two bodies behind her.
She resembled Jesus carrying the cross up Golgotha.
At the end of the rope slung over her shoulder was something wrapped in cloth.
The contents appeared to have been divided into several pieces, leaving a broken line of dark-red blood that nearly connected behind her.
Unable to endure the sight any longer, someone stepped forward to lighten her burden.
Kang Sujeong firmly shook her head.
The blood and sweat gathered across her forehead, along with her trembling limbs, made it clear that she had already reached her limit.
Nevertheless, her unwavering gaze remained fixed ahead.
The people who stepped back began shedding tears without realizing it.
Within an extraordinarily brief time, life and death had repeatedly crossed paths.
They had already spent the night wondering whether they might be next.
Beside each person who endured a sleepless night had been someone else doing the same, and they had passed those hours weeping silently together.
That was why they could share the oppressive pain weighing upon their hearts.
One person stepped onto the broken dark-red line Kang Sujeong was drawing behind her.
STEP. STEP.
Then another pair of feet followed.
Everyone walked along the dark-red trail and created new lines of their own.
Seen from nearby, the footprints left behind with every step were disorderly and complicated.
From a distance, however, they formed one enormous line.
Whenever she stopped, they stopped as well.
Whenever she paused to catch her breath, everyone breathed new strength into her.
Before long, they reached the area where the small burial mounds stood in a row.
Kang Sujeong lowered the rope she had gripped until her hands bled.
Those following her took hold of it and opened the cloth wrapped around its contents.
Blackened, scorched remains.
What should have been two bodies had become three or four separate masses, yet no one reacted with surprise.
They carefully lifted the remains and began creating new burial mounds with their bare hands.
Two mounds rose from the same patch of earth.
Kang Sujeong’s calm voice finally broke the prolonged silence.
“…I will not forget you.”
I said nothing as I watched the defeated Skirmisher Unit enter and the others follow behind them.
For a brief moment, an emotion passed through me like a trace of water left upon the surface of the moon—something I wondered whether I had ever truly possessed.
It would happen anyway.
Again.
Once more.
As always.
Death repeated endlessly.
It had become such an ordinary part of life that feeling anything at all seemed stranger.
Even though those two had once shared connections with me, their deaths left me indifferent.
Ah, what a shame.
They were useful people, yet they died here.
That was the extent of my thoughts.
Kang Sujeong, however, was different.
She mourned their deaths, accepted responsibility, and carried them back by herself.
It had been a very long time since I witnessed something like that.
Someone sincerely mourning the deaths of people who had little to do with them.
I thought I understood why she had acted this way.
She had led them.
And she had failed.
As the supreme commander, I could not entirely avoid responsibility either.
However, my plan had assumed from the beginning that sacrifices would be inevitable.
I had even considered the possibility that the entire Skirmisher Unit might be annihilated if their luck was poor.
Within my plan, the Skirmisher Unit had been insurance in case the Gate was breached and the main operation failed.
-STAGE.002
-All invaders have failed. Week 2 will end early.
-Great Success! All Guardian Stones were defended with minimal casualties.
-Calculating Contribution.
“Minimal casualties? A Great Success··· This?”
I simply could not understand it.
The System praised us and declared that we had performed exceptionally well, yet no one celebrated.
I understood why.
‘There is no such thing as a mission where no one dies.’
Death would undoubtedly return during the next battle.
I did not know whether it would claim me or someone else.
However, the towers and death had been inseparable from the very beginning.
There was an incomparable difference between devising a strategy to minimize allied deaths and devising one intended to reduce them to zero.
That was why I had never dared to aim for zero deaths.
“…Should I try?”
The thought simply occurred to me.
Perhaps a single cycle would be acceptable.
“You insane bastard.”
The answer escaped my mouth naturally.
Despite everything I had suffered, my innately weak nature was showing itself again.
Moments like this were the most dangerous.
Cycles like these left the deepest scars and carried the greatest probability of death.
Therefore···
I had to forget everything.
The thought that had just occurred to me.
The desire behind it.
After distancing myself from the others—
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!
I struck myself across the face with both hands.
Hard enough to split the inside of my mouth.
Then I shook the thought away.
The sight I had witnessed after so long must have driven me temporarily insane.
Zero deaths?
What was this, zero-sugar soda?
‘Lee Hojun, you lunatic. Pull yourself together. You suffered all of that, and you are still thinking such insane things?’
There was no world where everyone smiled.
I shook my head and barely forced the foolish thought away before turning around.
At that moment, a familiar voice cut sharply through torn vocal cords and reached me.
“Leader.”
Ha. I could not hear anything.
“Lee Hojun-!”
I said I could not hear you.
THUDTHUDTHUD-
BUMP!
Someone ran up from behind and lightly struck my shoulder with their head.
“…What are you doing?”
The head belonged to Kang Sujeong, who had left the mourners behind and approached me.
“…I wanted to thank you. For saving me. And for winning.”
“Nonsense.”
I should not listen to the ramblings of an insane woman.
Thank me?
Had they not followed my plan, Yonghyeok and Seongwon would undoubtedly still be alive.
I had seen countless times that neither of them possessed so little ability that they should die within the Tower of Beginnings.
“Next time… From now on, I will become stronger. I will never allow someone else to die in my place again like they did today. Watch me.”
“…Who are you even saying that to?”
Kang Sujeong’s tearful voice rang out like a solemn declaration.
I shook my head and left.
I was already busy trying to preserve my own life.
When would I have time to concern myself with saving anyone else?
They could handle that themselves.
‘There will be no companions during this cycle.’
Renewing that resolution, I went to prepare for Stage 3.
‘Still… does the reward change if everyone survives?’
The damned Great Success message had merely made me curious.
I climbed atop the Fortification Wall and looked down at the others.
As though they had grown accustomed to the routine, everyone moved busily and found work to complete on their own.
They were so noisy and energetic that no trace of their earlier gloom remained.
It was remarkable whenever I saw it.
Humans truly had to be creatures of forgetfulness or creatures of adaptation.
[Time until Stage 3 opens: 12:01:05]
There was still plenty of time.
Everyone rested sufficiently, then rapidly began the repairs.
They refined the Fortification Wall, reinforced the Gate, and prepared the Anti-Aircraft Gun.
‘We have passed the stage where I can defend everything alone.’
Stages 1 and 2 had been little more than a warm-up.
Stage 3 was where the true battle began.
A greater number of stronger Raiders would invade.
The Guardian Stone room, where Sharp Matte Thread had been woven in every direction, was now so densely covered that merely entering it would require reenacting Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible.
The threads were sharp enough to cut someone with the slightest touch, making them practically a physical Magic Barrier.
“The maze will no longer be enough.”
I would not remove it, but the maze alone would be insufficient.
If I remembered correctly, nearly a hundred people would invade simultaneously.
Traps and a maze could not stop a force of that size.
We had to prepare for an actual siege.
“The problem is me.”
I released a long sigh as I looked at my remaining Points.
[Remaining Points: 7,200]
I had far too many Points.
Seven thousand two hundred Points during the early stages.
It was an excessive amount—enough to purchase almost any ordinary skill.
The problem was that I had nowhere suitable to spend them.
“Investing them into Stats would be too inefficient, and I cannot purchase items because the Shop is unavailable.”
What if I saved them?
They would become worthless.
I could not guarantee that I would survive the immediate future.
If I hoarded the Points and died, I would go insane regretting that I had not at least spent them on Stats.
The reason I had accumulated so many was the Great Success reward.
Great Success and minimal casualties.
The two bonuses had stacked and multiplied the reward again.
The multipliers had compounded until the total reached this absurd amount.
“My Points were multiplied? That has never happened before. Good grief.”
It was not as though I had never seen a Great Success evaluation.
However, I had never seen it multiply the Point reward like this.
I had already realized that these were no longer the towers I knew, but I had not expected even the structure of the rewards to change.
“At this rate, even the mission formats might chan— Cancel that. Cancel, cancel. Spit, spit.”
I had said something insane again.
People said careless words invited disaster.
If an already brutal mission changed in some unknown direction···
It would amount to being told to die.
Cursing myself for voicing such an ominous thought, I considered the best possible choice.
Investing in Stats immediately would offer little benefit.
Seven thousand two hundred Points could certainly raise many values, but increases below certain thresholds did not produce dramatic changes.
Stats only improved significantly after crossing specific stages.
Until then, it was more like accumulating mileage.
To use Stats most effectively, I needed at least one decent Active Skill.
I possessed practically none.
In other words, raising my Stats would not significantly change my fighting style.
Moreover, I already possessed a Mana Gun capable of obliterating a person’s skull with a single shot.
There was no reason to raise my offensive power unnecessarily.
I needed somewhere more efficient to spend the Points.
“Efficiency… Something efficient…?”
At that moment, I saw Sledgehammer moving stones below the wall while waving his single remaining arm.
E-Bolt, now missing one eye, followed behind him.
At the same time, I remembered a Sentinel Active that no one used because of its Point cost.