Chapter 105: 7F Hidden (4)

“How...”

I was genuinely stunned.

The Sage understood exactly what kind of situation this was.

Until now, every character I had encountered on a Hidden Route had been little more than an NPC in a game—a being completely unaware of the Tower’s existence.

And yet this man had seen straight through me.

Thoroughly shaken, I stopped time.

Was this another one of the Tower’s tricks?

Or...

– It appears he is the same as me after all.

The Demon King spoke.

‘...The same? What do you mean?’

– Exactly what I said. I wasn’t certain at first, but this human exists beyond the Tower’s influence.

What?

‘Wait a second.’

I gathered my thoughts.

Existing beyond the Tower’s influence meant...

‘Are you saying the Sage is a real person too?’

But this was a Hidden floor inside the Tower.

No.

I had vaguely suspected something like this for some time, but...

The Demon King gave me a definitive answer.

– You sensed it yourself, however faintly. Every floor of the Tower is a world that once truly existed.

Then came something even more shocking.

– Worlds destroyed by the Tower.

...Worlds destroyed by the Tower?

I considered the Demon King’s words for a moment, then allowed time to flow again.

The Sage had asked whether I wished to know the Tower’s true nature.

I wanted to hear the answer directly from him.

“...What exactly is happening here?”

If the Demon King was telling the truth, then this was not some scheme devised by the Tower.

This situation had slipped beyond the Tower’s control.

“How do you know who I am?”

The Sage shrugged.

“I am the Sage.”

“What?”

“It means there is nothing I do not know. There is no reason to be surprised that I know who you are.”

“...Please explain properly. Are you also a Climber, Sage? Then this world...”

The Sage answered,

“This is a world the Tower swallowed whole.”

He paused.

“My world.”

“...!”

“I too was a Nightmare Climber, just like you. And I failed. This is the fate that awaits worlds whose Climbers fail.”

So the Sage truly was the same kind of being as the Demon King.

But more importantly...

The fate of worlds whose Climbers failed?

“...Then what in the world is the Tower?”

There were countless things I wanted to ask.

But I began with the question he had left unanswered.

The Sage glanced up at the ceiling before continuing.

“There is no time. Make your choice now—the reward for clearing the seventh floor.”

“What? No, wait...”

“As I told you, every truth is contained within this Book of Omniscience. That includes everything concerning the Tower.”

The Sage held the book out to me.

“If you wish to learn the Tower’s true nature, choose this book as your reward.”

It seemed he had no intention of answering me directly.

Still bewildered, I looked down at the book in his hands.

Then I asked,

“When you say I must choose... does that mean there is another reward besides the book?”

The Sage smiled.

“For the other reward, I will use the Book of Omniscience and what remains of my power as materials.”

He looked directly at me.

“And I will grant you the one thing you need most.”

...The one thing I needed most?

“What is that?”

“Who can say? Only your fate would know.”

He was speaking in riddles, exactly as one would expect from a sage.

“Could you explain that a little more clearly...?”

That was when it happened.

Crack!

A sudden chill ran through me.

I whipped my head around.

The space surrounding us was splitting apart.

[◇%#■Error^$◇●%@&$...]

A glitched message flickered before my eyes.

The sensation was familiar.

‘...The Tower.’

It was exactly the same as when the Tower had attempted to purge the Demon King from my body.

It was about to intervene again.

The Sage continued as though nothing were happening.

“Did I not tell you there was no time? Make your choice quickly.”

For the moment, I stopped time.

The chilling sensation of the Tower’s presence vanished.

I couldn’t make sense of any of this.

Too many things were happening at once.

Still, just as the Sage had said, there was no time to waste.

The instant I released Time Stop, I would have to choose my reward.

The Sage had offered me two options.

The first was the Book of Omniscience, said to contain every truth in the world.

The second was...

An unknown reward that would supposedly be the one thing I needed most.

Which should I choose?

The Demon King spoke.

– Choose the Book of Omniscience.

‘...Why?’

– If this human speaks the truth, then it is a book containing every truth in the world. Must I explain its value to you?

Of course I understood.

If the Sage was telling the truth, then the book before me was an unimaginable treasure.

Above all, it contained information about the Tower.

Until now, I had known virtually nothing about it.

I would finally be able to learn what the Tower was and what purpose it served.

...Could the book even contain information about the Nightmare floors I had yet to climb?

The trials on each Nightmare floor would surely differ from one world to another.

The idea seemed absurd.

And yet the Sage had said that the book contained every truth in the world.

I decided to ask him directly.

I released time and hurriedly said,

“Does the Book of Omniscience also contain information about every Nightmare floor I have yet to climb?”

The Sage nodded.

“It likely does. The Book of Omniscience is, after all, a record of the universe.”

Crack, crack!

The surrounding space split apart once more, more violently than before.

I stopped time again.

The Sage had not given me a definite answer.

But if the book truly contained information about the Nightmare floors...

Then it would be nothing short of an unbeatable cheat.

Knowing everything meant being able to prepare for everything in advance.

Why was Nightmare difficulty so difficult?

Because I lacked information.

If that disadvantage disappeared, climbing Nightmare floors from now on would be no different from climbing on Easy difficulty.

And that was merely the value of the information about the Tower.

The book would undoubtedly help me in countless other ways as well.

After all, hadn’t the Sage said that it could reveal every truth in the world?

Honestly, I could hardly even imagine what that meant.

– Why are you hesitating? Choose the book.

The Demon King also supported choosing the Book of Omniscience.

Compared to an unknown reward whose nature I could not even guess, the book was surely the correct choice.

That was the sensible conclusion.

But...

After agonizing over it for a long time, I released time and gave my answer.

“Give me the one thing I need most.”

For the first time, surprise flickered across the Sage’s face.

“Why have you chosen not to take the Book of Omniscience?”

Even he appeared to find my decision unexpected.

But the reason I had reached that conclusion was simple.

“You said it yourself.”

I looked at him.

“You failed too, Sage.”

If the Book of Omniscience truly held everything one needed to climb the Tower and save one’s world...

Then why had the Sage, who had once been a Nightmare Climber, failed?

Even if I obtained the Book of Omniscience, I would merely be standing in the same position he once had.

If someone far greater than I was had still failed, then how could I expect to succeed?

In that case, wouldn’t it be better to gamble on the other reward?

I had no way of knowing whether this was the correct choice.

But either way, my heart had never truly been drawn to the Book of Omniscience.

The Sage smiled.

“Will you not regret it?”

“...Who knows?”

I glanced anxiously at our surroundings.

“But didn’t you say there was no time?”

The space around us had fractured like a spiderweb and looked ready to collapse at any moment.

The corrupted message continued to crackle and flicker before my eyes.

Flash!

At that moment, the Book of Omniscience began to shine.

Pure white light gathered into a single point, compressing itself more and more tightly.

Then the book disappeared.

All that remained in the Sage’s hand was a tiny gemstone no larger than a fingernail.

“Take it.”

I accepted the gem he offered me.

Then—

“...!”

The gemstone shone once more and melted into my palm.

Wh-what?

There was no pain.

Startled, I stared down at my hand.

The gemstone had vanished without a trace.

In its place, a strange pattern glowed across my palm.

A moment later, the pattern faded and disappeared as well.

“...What did you do?”

“That is the reward you chose.”

When I questioned him, the Sage offered no further explanation.

This was the thing I needed most?

Rumble, rumble...

The shaking of the surrounding space intensified.

The glitched message before my eyes was gradually becoming clearer.

Realizing that this was my last chance, I shouted,

“Sage, why did you fail? How far did you climb through the Nightmare floors?”

The Sage smiled.

“I wish you the best of luck, Kim Seo-hyeon.”

[Error detected.]

[Correcting error.]

[Exiting the Tower.]

The scene before my eyes changed together with the messages.

***

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

Inside the collapsing library, the Sage strolled leisurely between the bookshelves.

This world was now nothing more than an empty shell.

The Sage remembered his own world, which had perished long, long ago.

Any world swallowed by the Tower was transformed into an eternal stage like this one.

Its people became clowns, endlessly toyed with, never once understanding the truth of their circumstances.

The fact that the seventh floor had been modeled around the Sage himself was likely because he had left such a deep impression upon the Tower.

“So now I will be turned back into a clown once more.”

The Sage chuckled.

When the Tower had swallowed his world, he had somehow managed to preserve a fragment of his true self.

He had remained here for something close to eternity, hidden from the Tower’s notice.

Countless Nightmare Climbers from countless worlds had passed through this place.

While playing the fool, the Sage had searched among them.

He was looking for someone upon whom he could place his hopes.

Many had passed his trials.

Some had possessed the brilliance to be hailed as the greatest geniuses of their age.

Others had been monsters born from civilizations far more advanced than his own.

Dazzling talent.

Overwhelming power.

But those qualities alone were not enough.

Anyone who possessed nothing beyond them would eventually be crushed by the Tower.

Through an age in which meaningless hours repeated without end, the Sage continued waiting.

At last, the moment he had longed for arrived.

A human with ordinary talent and no particularly extraordinary abilities.

Kim Seo-hyeon.

And yet the Sage had seen something special within him.

It was not because of the powerful being entangled with his soul.

Though the Sage had ultimately been defeated by the Tower, he had once managed to glimpse something of its true nature.

And yet even the Sage’s eyes could not perceive a certain part of Kim Seo-hyeon.

Because he could not see it, he had no way of knowing what it was.

But that alone was enough for him to place his hopes upon it.

If there truly existed someone capable of bringing down the Tower, then surely that person would possess something beyond even the Sage’s understanding.

And so the Sage gave Kim Seo-hyeon everything he had left.

The price was that the Tower noticed him.

Now even the final fragment of his true self would be erased completely.

With this, everything was over.

The Sage looked up at the ceiling of the crumbling library and let out a hollow laugh.

“When it came to the pursuit of knowledge, I yielded to no one.”

His smile deepened.

“But before you, I can only admit defeat.”

Was there any being greedier than you?

Kwaaaaaaa—!

The space collapsed completely.

The ruined library began reconstructing itself, as though the spring of a clock were being wound backward.

***

My field of vision shifted.

The overwhelming presence of the Tower—the pressure that had seemed capable of crushing my very soul—vanished as though it had been washed away.

“Phew...”

So much had happened at once that my head was spinning.

I caught my breath and looked around.

I was back in the motel room.

“...?”

What?

Why had I been sent directly outside instead of to the Reward Room?

What had happened to the Hidden clear?

A message appeared.

[Due to an error, the Nightmare-difficulty 7th-floor Hidden clear has been invalidated.]

[Due to an error, the Nightmare-difficulty Hidden Route has been closed.]

[The Hidden Route cannot be attempted until all errors have been corrected.]

“...Huh?”

What in the world was this?

I stared blankly at the messages.