Chapter 112: The Third Proposal

“Huff, huff... I can’t go any higher...”

My father glanced back at my sister, who had already started whining, and chided her.

“That’s what happens when you never exercise. Times like these are exactly why you need to build up your stamina.”

“Ugh, I don’t care... Let’s just take a break...!”

“If even we can make it up this easily, a girl in the prime of her youth shouldn’t be struggling this much.”

It had been a long time since our entire family had gone hiking together.

My parents had come fully equipped—hiking clothes, trekking poles, the works.

The two of them exercised together on weekends fairly often, so they kept themselves in good shape.

My sister, the only one among us cursed with a hopeless constitution, was too busy whimpering to do much of anything else.

“Come on, come on. Just a little farther. We’re almost at the top.”

“Mom, how many times have you said that already...?”

I chimed in as well, half teasing her.

“That’s what you get for lazing around all day.”

“Tch, easy for a climber to say... If I were a climber, I’d be cruising up this mountain too, you know?”

“You still need the base stats to back it up. If you were level 1, you’d barely be on par with an average person.”

She grumbled, but kept trudging upward all the same.

Eventually, we reached the summit of Gwanaksan.

I let the breeze wash over me as I looked down at the panoramic view, the entire city spread out below, encircled by mountains.

My father, who had been drinking water and catching his breath, turned to me with a smile.

“You don’t look tired in the slightest. Is that because you’re a climber?”

“Something like that. Ha ha.”

For me, it had been little more than a stroll.

At my current level, I could have reached the summit in a minute without so much as a hair out of place.

“I suppose that makes sense. A climber ought to be good at climbing mountains too. Heh heh.”

“Ha ha...”

After chuckling at his own dad joke, my father soon let out a sigh and gazed up at the sky.

“The weather really is beautiful...”

There was something complicated in his expression, something difficult to read.

And there was only one reason for it.

The Day of Destiny was drawing near once again.

“Seo-hyeon.”

“Yes?”

“You know, something just occurred to me. It really is a blessing that the world is still here after all this time.”

My father spoke quietly.

I nodded and glanced back over my shoulder.

My mother and sister were taking pictures beside the summit marker.

“And that we get to spend time together like this so often now.”

I thought I understood what he was trying to say.

It was true that ever since the Tower appeared, our family had gone on outings together far more often than before.

After all, we lived in a world where it wouldn’t be strange for everything to end at any moment.

That made people try to live each day to the fullest.

You could call it the Tower’s one and only redeeming quality.

“I hope we can watch the sunrise again next New Year. All of us together.”

It was a wish carrying the hope that we would make it safely through another year.

“...Don’t worry, Father.”

I smiled as I spoke.

“Person123 has always managed somehow. He’ll make it through this year too.”

There was no such thing as failure for Person123.

I would pull it off this time as well.

No.

I had to.

“Seo-hyeon! Come over here. I’ll take your picture. You too, dear.”

Mom called us over, and my father and I joined them for a picture.

After coming down from the mountain, we had duck baeksuk before heading home.

There were two months left until the Floor 8 challenge.

***

Time flew by.

The world saw its share of events, both large and small.

And among them, the single biggest change on the international stage was, without question, North Korea.

– North Korean leadership undergoes sweeping reforms, fear-based rule easing... A transformation from the ground up?

– North Korean Chairman Kang Tae-seong pledges peace on the peninsula and cooperation with the international community... Large-scale food relief shipments arrive...

– Denuclearization of North Korea: Could it really become a reality?

From the very day the coup broke out, Kang Tae-seong began tearing down the old North Korea and rebuilding it, exactly as he had said he would.

He publicly declared his intention to cooperate actively with the international community from then on and to grant freedom to his people. He even hinted, albeit indirectly, at denuclearization.

Naturally, the international community enthusiastically welcomed North Korea’s complete reversal in policy.

The United States gradually began lifting its economic sanctions, while several countries started sending food and humanitarian aid.

There were undoubtedly all sorts of negotiations taking place behind the scenes beyond what appeared in the news, but none of that was really my concern anymore...

Except that Bilon and Kang Tae-seong kept sending me whispers, so I ended up hearing about it anyway.

[Kang Tae-seong: There is something I would like to ask, if I may.]

[Person123: Sure. What is it?]

[Kang Tae-seong: Do you, by any chance, wish for the reunification of North and South Korea?]

He would suddenly ask me questions like that out of nowhere.

Perhaps Kang Tae-seong believed I had helped him for the sake of our country’s national interests...

[Person123: Don’t worry about what I want. Just do your best according to your own convictions.]

I had helped Kang Tae-seong purely because my conscience wouldn’t allow me to do otherwise, and everything else had simply snowballed from there.

I had no particularly strong feelings about the issue of North and South Korea.

Reunification?

Well, sure. It would be nice if things worked out that way.

But it wasn’t the sort of thing that would proceed smoothly simply because I wanted it to.

North Korea might be changing, but this was only the beginning. Even thinking about it for a moment made it obvious that enormous turmoil would follow.

The Tower already had the world’s doomsday clock ticking forward day by day.

If possible, I wanted the status quo preserved as much as it reasonably could be.

Maybe someday the Korean Peninsula really would be reunified.

But if that happened, it would happen in its own time.

All I had to do was focus on what was in front of me.

[Zone 5 (79.1%)]

Hunting in Zone 5.

I had been working at it diligently, but at this rate, it looked as though I still wouldn’t manage to fill the Zone 5 Boss Gauge before challenging Floor 8.

Given the nature of the field, the hunting pace was simply too slow.

Pakang!

An icicle pierced straight through a Stick Insect, and it collapsed, spilling bodily fluids.

I spoke to the Demon King occupying my body.

‘Your time’s up.’

“You’re just going to keep hunting anyway, aren’t you? Let me use it a little longer.”

‘Then I’ll give you another thirty minutes.’

These days, whenever the Demon King took control of my body, he had been surprisingly cooperative about helping with the hunt.

Apparently, after building the Ice Castle in Zone 4, he had lost all interest in it and simply abandoned the place.

Other climbers hunting in Zone 4 eventually discovered it, and the Communication Channel buzzed with speculation for quite some time afterward.

Apparently, both the Security Corps and the Black Star Society sent expeditions inside, but naturally, there was no hidden treasure for them to find.

I never bothered revealing that I was the one who had built it.

And so, to the other climbers, the Ice Castle remained one of Zone 4’s enduring mysteries.

By now, I also understood why the Demon King had spent so much time sitting blankly on that throne...

He had been trying to recover his memories.

The Demon King had told me that he remembered nothing from around the time his own world was destroyed.

Anyway.

The Demon King and I had now settled into a stable, cooperative relationship.

It was an enormous improvement over the days when he had been desperate to seize control of my body.

I had begun to sense it faintly around Floor 7.

Despite everything, the Demon King seemed to be placing at least a little hope in me.

“Don’t make me laugh. Hope, in the likes of you...”

The Demon King snorted.

He could deny it all he wanted, but with our souls intertwined, there was no hiding lies from each other.

In preparation for the floors ahead, I had also spent time learning the full extent of the Demon King’s abilities.

True to his title as the Frigid Demon King, every spell he possessed, without exception, belonged to the freezing attribute.

The sole exception was a flight spell he used for mobility.

It would have been convenient if he possessed a broader variety of magic.

That part was a little disappointing.

On the other hand, it also meant that when it came to freezing magic, his mastery was absolute.

Thanks to the Demon King’s presence, I actually felt more confident about clearing Floor 8 than I had about any of the previous floors.

And then there was... the Sage.

I still had no idea what exactly the Sage had given me.

Would I finally find out if I ran into some kind of crisis while clearing a floor?

Whatever it was, I could only hope it would prove useful when the time came...

Otherwise, I had a feeling I was going to deeply regret not choosing the Book of Omniscience instead.

[Nightmare]

People: 476,813

Time Limit: 23 days 1 hour 35 minutes 41 seconds

Floor Reached: Floor 8

Time continued to pass.

The twenty-day mark of the Nightmare time limit was now just around the corner.

Little by little, I steeled myself for what was coming.

[Skill: Frost Mist (Rare+)]

Spreads frost mist within a 10-meter radius around the caster. Targets entering the area are continuously subjected to a freezing effect. Casting requires 50 seconds of Mental Concentration.

Classification: Magic Type

Willpower Cost: 35 per second

Cooldown: 1 minute

From Bilon, I had obtained one Rare+ magic-type skill, one Rare+ Skill Enhancement Stone, and an assortment of common-grade skills and Enhancement Stones.

The unfortunate part was that the Rare+ skill had turned out to be a freezing spell of all things.

Still, I had used a Skill Enhancement Stone on Sixth Sense, bringing it up to +4.

One more enhancement, and I would be able to obtain the Epic-grade skill in the tier above Sixth Sense.

I had also enhanced Hellfire Eruption with the Epic-grade Skill Enhancement Stone I had received as a previous reward and kept in reserve.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: Floor 8]

[Level: 95]

[Willpower: 5,000/5,000]

[Skills: Destruction Ray (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Hellfire Eruption (Epic) (+1), Sixth Sense (Rare+) (+4), Teleportation (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)...]

“Hmm...”

Sitting at my desk with my will spread out before me, I paused with my pen in hand.

I wrote one every year, but somehow I always found myself getting stuck like this.

Even though the contents were mostly the same each time, once I started thinking, one thought led to another, and I inevitably ended up adding all sorts of things.

Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Someday—perhaps even this very year—my family might actually read this will.

What would my mother and father be thinking then?

Well...

They certainly wouldn’t take it well.

Still, I hoped they wouldn’t grieve for too long.

Even if the beginning had been half-forced upon me, I had come this far because of my own sense of duty.

There had been plenty of times when I had wondered why it had to be me.

But now...

Truthfully, I was glad that, if someone had to do it, I was at least capable of being that person.

Of °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° course, I would do everything in my power to make sure my family never, ever had to read this.

That went for Floor 8 too.

There were 22 days remaining on the Nightmare time limit.

I packed my things.

For Floors 6 and 7, I had stayed home out of consideration for my family, but this time I had decided to travel again.

To Jeju Island.

There was no particular reason.

I simply felt like going.

“Seo-hyeon, you haven’t secretly gotten yourself a girlfriend, have you?”

“...What? No. Nothing like that.”

“If not, then never mind. I was just asking.”

My father had suddenly voiced that bizarre suspicion out of nowhere, but anyway.

When the day came, I left the house before dawn.

“Have a safe trip. And always be careful, all right?”

My mother and father came to the front door to see me off.

As always, their eyes were filled with worry.

After all, choosing to go traveling at this particular time of year was hardly ideal.

“Yes. I’ll be careful. Don’t worry too much.”

I smiled as I said goodbye.

“I’ll be going, then.”

***

I spent the whole day eating good food and enjoying myself.

That evening, after returning to the hotel, I relaxed with a beer.

I also had the Celestial Music Box playing—the one whose melody alone could soothe the mind.

[Patrasche: 5 minutes left until day 21!]

[Pine Tree: I believe, I believe... I believe in Person123, savior of humanity...]

[Karo: Ha, I’m starting to get freaking nervous]

[Steamed Crab: Tsk tsk. That guy’s faith is still lacking]

[Frenzy: Just believe and wait, like I keep telling you lol]

When I checked the Communication Channel, the atmosphere was surprisingly upbeat.

Some people were even talking as though Floor 8 had already been cleared.

Well.

That was better than everyone panicking.

I turned the Communication Channel off again.

[Nightmare]

People: 476,805

Time Limit: 21 days 59 seconds

Floor Reached: Floor 8

Day 21 was about to begin.

It was the point at which the Tower had always made its proposals.

Except that on Floor 7, no proposal had come at all.

I wondered what it would do this time.

As I waited quietly, watching the remaining time tick down...

[The Tower makes a proposal to ‘Person123’.]

...the message appeared.

I calmly read through its contents.

[Should ‘Person123’ accept the following Penalty, a special reward shall be granted in exchange.]

[Penalty: While ‘Person123’ is making the first clear of Floor 8, one of the items in his possession is randomly prohibited from use.]

[Reward: ‘Person123’ acquires ‘Skill: Ark (?)’.]

[Skill: Ark (?)]

Sets a 10-kilometer radius as the Ark’s domain. The Ark completely blocks external threats, including the Fallen, and humans within the Ark’s domain are immune to the Tower’s Curse. Only humans permitted by the skill’s caster may enter the Ark’s domain. The skill can be used in an activated or deactivated state, and an activated Ark lasts forever.

Classification: Special Type

Willpower Cost: None

Cooldown: None

[If Floor 8 is entered before the proposal is accepted, the proposal is voided.]

[If ‘Person123’ wishes to accept the proposal, please indicate acceptance.]

“...”

After reading both the penalty and reward in full, I frowned.

The reward was Ark—the same reward that had been offered for Floor 6.

Its radius had even increased dramatically, all the way to 10 kilometers.

But...

That penalty.

...What kind of underhanded trick was this supposed to be?