Chapter 11: The Latecomers (2)

Across online communities, including the Climber Communication Channel, interest in the Nightmare clearer—and rumors surrounding them—had never died down.

What level were they? What rewards had they received for clearing the first floor? What grade of Magic Stones dropped on Nightmare difficulty?

Some claimed that the Nightmare strike teams being assembled by various countries were receiving advice from this mysterious person. Others insisted that the clearer was actually a woman rather than a man, or that some famous Climber from some particular country was secretly the Nightmare clearer.

There were even people who analyzed every word in the clearer’s posts in an attempt to determine which country they came from.

The Tower’s Communication Channel translated every language to suit the individual reader, but each country still had its own distinctive turns of phrase and unique proper nouns.

The theory was that if they could identify traces the translation failed to conceal, they would be able to determine the clearer’s nationality. Some even claimed to have succeeded.

Every country imaginable had been suggested, yet the truth remained unknown.

Only one thing was certain.

The clearer was an Unregistered Climber who had never revealed their identity, and by now, that was treated as an established fact.

[Polaris: When do you think the Nightmare clearer will attempt the 2nd floor?]

[Philip: Probably when the Time Limit’s almost up.]

[PumpkinSoup: The 2nd floor’s gonna be way worse, though. Can they even pull it off...?]

The only way anyone could confirm that the clearer was still alive was by checking that the number (1) remained beside the Nightmare Communication Channel.

[Nightmare (2)]

[TheoMax: The number changed!]

[Sun: Holy crap, it really did.]

[SturgeonRoe: Wow, a second one finally appeared?]

Then, one day, the number suddenly changed to two.

Everyone’s attention immediately turned to the long-awaited second Nightmare clearer.

Exactly ninety-two days had passed since the first-ever clear of Nightmare Floor 1.

All indications pointed to the United States. The clearer’s personal information was not disclosed, of course, but the U.S. government made no attempt to deny that the clear had occurred.

And as though that achievement had opened the floodgates, more clearers began to emerge one after another.

[Nightmare (6)]

With only one month remaining on the Nightmare Time Limit, the number of people who had cleared Nightmare Floor 1 had reached six.

No.

“Reached” made it sound far more impressive than it was.

Only six people had survived, while nearly ten thousand had vanished over the course of almost a year on Nightmare difficulty.

They were survivors of hell who had overcome a survival rate of just 0.05 percent.

Two were from the United States, one from China, one from India, and another was believed to be Russian.

[Cloud: So who’s gonna clear 2F now?]

[Ragpie: They’re all playing chicken, aren’t they?]

[Easy]

Personnel: 180,645

Time Limit: 21 years, 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds

Highest Floor Reached: 23F

[Normal]

Personnel: 172,783

Time Limit: 14 years, 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds

Highest Floor Reached: 16F

[Hard]

Personnel: 166,219

Time Limit: 8 years, 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds

Highest Floor Reached: 10F

[Nightmare]

Personnel: 163,489

Time Limit: 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds

Highest Floor Reached: 2F

Time continued to pass.

Someone had to attempt the second floor.

***

Kiiaaak—!

The Goblin Knight charged at me.

I slipped past its morningstar and drove my fist into its torso.

Wham!

Its armor caved in slightly as the creature was sent staggering backward.

It gagged and sputtered in pain before flying into a frenzy, swinging its weapon with even greater violence.

Whoosh! Hwooong!

Rather than counterattack, I deliberately held back and simply dodged the morningstar as it swept from side to side.

After raging for a while, the Goblin Knight ran out of stamina before I did and began gasping for breath.

“Tired already?”

It couldn’t even serve as a proper sparring partner anymore.

Now that I had reached Level 15, I was more than capable of overpowering the Goblin Knight with my bare hands.

Deciding to finish things, I cast Flame Strike.

Two fireballs rose into the air before shooting off in different directions.

One obliterated the Goblin Knight, while the other struck the Crossbow Goblin just as it was about to leap out of hiding.

[You have completed the Nightmare difficulty 1st floor.]

[Transferring to the Reward Room.]

Repeat Clearings produced a Magic Stone roughly once every ten runs.

That was why Supreme Magic Stones were now scattered all over my Reward Room. Every last one had come from a clear reward.

Once I discovered that they remained here even if I didn’t take them back to reality, I simply began piling them up.

[Would you like to exit the Tower?]

“Exit.”

I returned to my room.

The instant I appeared, the door flew open.

“...Holy sh—! You scared me!”

“Why are you so startled?”

It was my younger sibling.

I pressed a hand to my chest and tried to calm my pounding heart.

“Why are you home so early? What happened to school?”

“I had a headache, so I left early.”

“And you just barge in without knocking? Do you want to die?”

“Oh, please. Since when have we ever knocked?”

Maybe I should kill them.

My sibling looked me up and down, their brows knitting suspiciously.

“Why are you wearing shoes in your room? Are you insane?”

“Mind your own business. What do you want?”

“Mom said we should order lunch for the two of us. I want chicken.”

“...If you have enough of an appetite to stuff yourself with chicken, you’re obviously not that sick. Why did you even leave school early?”

I waved them away.

“Whatever. Order what you want and get out of my sight.”

The kid pulled a face and left.

God damn it. They nearly gave me a heart attack.

This was exactly why I could never afford to lower my guard.

I always entered the Tower either in the dead of night, when everyone was asleep, or during hours when no one else was home.

Entering the Tower anywhere outside the house felt far too risky.

Well, during my very first entry, I hadn’t exactly been in a position to worry about that.

—The Time Limit for Nightmare difficulty has now fallen below thirty days. As of this moment, the number of people who have cleared the first floor on Nightmare difficulty stands at six...

I ate chicken in the living room while watching television.

Naturally, the news was covering exactly the kind of story that ruined a person’s appetite.

My sibling silently picked at the chicken for a while before retreating to their room.

I switched off the television and finished the rest by myself.

“...Who’s going to take the plunge?”

Whoever does, please let them succeed.

As the Nightmare Time Limit continued to shrink, my own anxiety had grown steadily worse.

Over the past year or so, the number of Nightmare clearers had risen to six, including me.

That was good news.

But now the real problem was staring me directly in the face.

The second floor.

What if no one succeeded, just like before?

I still hadn’t made up my mind.

If I truly had no choice but to go, when should I enter?

Should I wait until everyone else had died and only step inside at the very last possible moment?

One month remained on the Nightmare Time Limit.

I believed I had prepared as thoroughly as I could.

I had continued performing Repeat Clearings to keep my combat instincts sharp.

I had used Flame Strike and Teleportation extensively, steadily increasing my proficiency with both skills.

I had gathered every scrap of information I could find about the second floor and created a training regimen specifically tailored to it.

Yes, I had done all of that.

But entering an unknown floor was still terrifying.

Anyone who claimed otherwise had to be out of their mind.

Betting my life once did not make betting it a second time any easier.

The truth was, a part of me still wanted to place my hopes in someone else.

Back in my room, I lay down on the bed.

I opened the Communication Channel and lurked as usual.

Then I checked the Nightmare Communication Channel as well, and...

“Hm?”

The Nightmare Communication Channel had always been empty apart from the information posts I had written some time ago.

It wasn’t that the clearers had nothing to say to one another, exactly.

But until now, not a single person had ever attempted to start a conversation.

And yet, new messages had appeared.

[Jackal: Person123, are you watching?]

[Jackal: I’m the second clearer. I’ll be attempting the 2nd floor soon.]

[Jackal: Before that, there’s something I wanted to say to you.]

[Jackal: If I had become a Nightmare clearer sooner, I would have achieved the first-ever clear of the 1st floor too.]

[Jackal: I’ll prove that soon enough. I’ll be the one to share the 2nd floor intel with you.]

“What’s this about?”

The person claiming to be the second clearer was addressing me directly.

The tone was somewhat provocative, but it didn’t particularly bother me.

Because what they were saying was exactly what I wanted to hear.

Normally, I ignored messages like these without hesitation.

But this person was preparing to attempt the second floor.

The least I could do was offer a few words of encouragement.

I typed out a reply.

[Person123: Wishing you success.]

Please succeed.

I really don’t want to attempt the second floor either.

***

The Nightmare Communication Channel was famously known as the silent room.

Its roster had grown from one person to six, yet no one had exchanged so much as a single word.

So when a conversation suddenly appeared one day, it was only natural that everyone took notice.

[Jackal: Person123, are you watching?]

[Jackal: I’m the second clearer. I’ll be attempting the 2nd floor soon.]

[Jackal: Before that, there’s something I wanted to say to you.]

[Jackal: If I had become a Nightmare clearer sooner, I would have achieved the first-ever clear of the 1st floor too.]

[Jackal: I’ll prove that soon enough. I’ll be the one to share the 2nd floor intel with you.]

The second clearer had directly addressed the first.

And in a rather provocative manner, at that.

People waited eagerly for the first clearer’s response.

[Person123: Wishing you success.]

But the exchange ended there with surprising anticlimax.

At a training facility operated by the U.S. Tower Climbing Management Bureau, Max had come for his first visit in some time.

After exchanging greetings with the administrators, he surveyed the countless structures spread across the grounds.

Towering pillars rose into the air, while strangely shaped drones hovered between them.

The facility had originally been used as a training ground for the second floor on Hard difficulty, but had since been specially modified.

A man and a woman were leaping through the air, using the pillars and drones as platforms.

As Max watched, one of the administrators spoke.

“Compared to Hard difficulty, we’ve increased the distance between platforms by more than twofold and reduced their width to less than fifty percent.”

“I see. And the drones are meant to simulate moving platforms?”

“Yes. We added them recently. With Nightmare difficulty, there’s no telling what might appear.”

The entire facility existed for one purpose alone: clearing Nightmare Floor 2.

Max was still doing everything in his power to produce more first-floor clearers, while the two people who had already passed the first floor were here preparing for the next trial.

After some time, the man descended from the structures and walked toward Max, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“You’re a busy man. What brings you here?”

“How have you been feeling lately, Jack?”

He was the second person to clear Nightmare Floor 1.

A legendary Delta Force soldier, and the individual Max had placed the greatest expectations on from the very beginning.

“At my peak, as always. I could enter the second floor right now and be perfectly fine.”

“Glad to hear it. But I wanted to ask about that post you made in the Communication Channel.”

Jack tossed aside the towel he had been using.

“That’s why you came?”

“He’s helped us a great deal. Was there really any need to provoke him?”

Max knew Jack’s competitive nature all too well.

He was a man who always needed to be the best.

That was precisely why he had set his sights on achieving the first clear of the second floor.

“I wouldn’t call it provocation. I simply said what I wanted to say.”

“That is exactly what provocation is, Jack.”

Taylor had approached while they were speaking.

She was the fifth person to clear Nightmare Floor 1.

Max greeted her with a brief nod.

Among Climbers, men vastly outnumbered women.

Once levels increased, gender became largely irrelevant, but the Tower’s first floor was still firmly the domain of ordinary human beings.

It had to be cleared using one’s natural abilities alone, before any powers had been acquired, so innate physical differences inevitably played a significant role.

For that reason, Max had never imagined that a woman would emerge as a Nightmare clearer.

Not that Taylor could be called ordinary by any measure.

She was former military and had once served as an operative in the CIA’s Special Activities Center.

“That person is our benefactor,” Taylor said. “There is absolutely no reason to indulge in petty rivalry with them.”

Jack answered without hesitation.

“Competition is the engine that drives humanity forward. It is the catalyst that pushes us beyond our limits. Or is that something you can’t understand?”

“That principle does not apply here. Have you considered that your childish stunt might damage our relationship with a critically important asset?”

Jack smirked.

“He’s not the type to get upset over something so trivial. He wished me success, didn’t he?”

The first Nightmare clearer.

Person123.

More Nightmare clearers had appeared since then, but no achievement could rival being the first.

And that was exactly why Jack wanted to prove himself.

He wanted to demonstrate that he was better.

Jack genuinely believed that, had he been part of the first wave of Climbers, he too would have cleared Nightmare Floor 1 without any information to guide him.

It was a conclusion he had reached after experiencing the first floor for himself.

And he possessed enough skill that his confidence could not simply be dismissed as empty arrogance.

The words he had posted in the Communication Channel had been little more than a casual greeting.

He had merely wanted to draw a response from someone who had never once replied to anything unrelated to clearing strategies for Floor 1.

The fact that Person123 had answered rather than ignoring him entirely was satisfying in its own way.

Max shook his head.

“Anyway, keep yourself in peak condition. You’ll be granted approval for the date you requested. That’s what I came here to tell you.”

“Yeah? Good.”

“Are you certain about this? You could take a little more time before entering.”

“My preparations were finished a long time ago. In the end, there are some things you can only learn by going in yourself.”

Someone had to be the first to enter.

But no one was particularly eager for Jack to be the volunteer.

The higher-ups wanted to wait a little longer and observe the situation, but Jack’s resolve remained unshaken.

“I’m going to clear the second floor. Just as you wanted, I’ll put this country at the forefront of the Nightmare race.”

Time passed, and D-Day arrived.

[Nightmare]

[Personnel: 163,367]

[Floor: 2F]

[Time Limit: 22 days, 14 hours, 28 minutes, 6 seconds]

A closed-door gathering was held inside the headquarters of the Tower Climbing Management Bureau.

Surrounded by a crowd of officials, Jack performed one final check of his condition.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 2F]

[Level: 10]

[Willpower: 150]

[Skills: Feather Step (Rare) (+1), Hunting Time (Rare), Skin Hardening (Rare), Charge (Normal+), Leap (Normal) (+1), Deflect (Normal), Fortitude (Normal)...]

It was a Status Window that seemed almost impossible for someone who had only cleared the first floor.

But the second floor was entirely different from the first.

Once a Climber awakened their Status Window, they could receive as many skills and items in support as their backers were capable of providing.

And Jack had received virtually every investment the nation could offer.

Numerous Skill Stones and Skill Enhancement Stones had been supplied to him, along with an item that increased his Willpower by fifty.

In particular, Feather Step—a Rare-grade passive skill that lightened the user’s body—and Leap—a skill that temporarily amplified jumping power—had been procured at the national level specifically with the second floor’s theme in mind.

Of America’s two Nightmare Floor 1 clearers, every available resource had been concentrated on the one considered more likely to succeed.

It was arguably a better choice than dividing their support between both Climbers and leaving each only half-prepared.

Now it was time to see whether that investment would bear fruit.

“Godspeed, Sergeant Jack Davis.”

After receiving one final salute, Jack returned it and turned his gaze toward the empty air before him.

[Would you like to enter Nightmare difficulty 2nd floor?]

A moment later, Jack vanished.

Those left behind remained silent, tension coiling tightly throughout the room.

Had a minute passed?

Taylor, who had been monitoring the Communication Channel, let out a faint groan, her face turning deathly pale.

“Ah...”

Seeing her expression, Max asked anxiously,

“Taylor? Is something wrong?”

A moment later, he too sensed that something had happened and opened the Communication Channel.

His face crumpled into the same hollow expression.

[Nightmare (5)]

The Nightmare headcount had decreased by one.