Chapter 126: Zone 5 (1)

– Astonishing news: Nightmare difficulty Floor 9 has been cleared. Just four days after conquering Floor 8, Person123 has once again taken on the challenge of...

When Floor 9 was cleared, people completely lost their minds.

Until now, Person123 had followed one ironclad rule: he only challenged the next floor when roughly twenty days remained on the Nightmare Time Limit.

Of course, after everything that had happened during the Floor 8 clear, plenty of people had assumed his challenge schedule might change somehow, but...

Even so, this was far too extreme.

[Desire: Is this for real...? Two floors back to back?]

[Davidson: Whoa lolololol we’re guaranteed another year of living!]

[NightSky: I’m getting tired of being amazed. Is he actually human?]

[Musashi: You’re still asking that? He’s a god.]

[LightFootsteps: His Grace has now become a being who has utterly transcended humanity. Have faith in the Church of Person123.]

The Floor 8 clear, the Isolation Zone incident, the Floor 9 clear.

All of it had happened within the span of just a few days.

“What on earth is going on? Humanity hadn’t even finished celebrating the Floor 8 clear, and now Floor 9 has already been cleared as well!”

“It certainly seems that Person123 has had a change of heart. There’s a clear determination to clear floors while keeping the Time Limit safely secured...”

News broadcasts talked about nothing but him all day long.

Experts appeared one after another to analyze what his intentions might have been in challenging Floor 9 immediately.

“Person123! Person123! Wooooaaaah...!”

Once again, only a few days later, people poured into the streets to chant the name of their savior.

The entire world was stunned and overjoyed in equal measure.

For the first time since the Tower had appeared, the Nightmare Time Limit had surpassed the two-year mark, giving humanity a sense of hope and security greater than anything they could have asked for.

“...Haah.”

At Kim Seo-hyeon’s home.

Kim Seo-a had been scrolling through the news when she finally closed her laptop.

The Nightmare Time Limit had stretched all the way to two years, yet she couldn’t feel even the slightest bit of joy.

Person123’s true identity was Kim Seo-hyeon.

The family had only learned the truth a short while ago.

Honestly, it still didn’t feel real.

The highest-floor climber on Nightmare difficulty.

The greatest climber in the world.

The savior of humanity, who had rescued the world time and time again.

That was her brother.

Even as she watched all of humanity praise him, Kim Seo-a felt only a suffocating tightness in her chest.

She had always admired the hero known as Person123.

She had thought he was incredible—the way he threw his own life on the line without hesitation to save others, even when every circumstance was against him.

But now it was different.

She realized she had only been able to admire him that way because he had been a stranger.

Even during the Isolation Zone incident a few days earlier, she had been terrified that Kim Seo-hyeon might recklessly choose the Penalty.

In the end, he had chosen all nine and saved everyone anyway.

And even today, while waiting for him to return after clearing Floor 9, her entire body had trembled.

That was how terrifying it was.

Having to watch someone from your own family stake their life.

...After reading Kim Seo-hyeon’s will, the family had already talked about what they would do.

None of them wanted Kim Seo-hyeon to continue risking his life to clear Nightmare difficulty.

There was no telling how much their parents had cried while he was clearing Floor 8.

But how could they possibly stop him?

The lives of all humanity were at stake, and his letter had made painfully clear what was in Kim Seo-hyeon’s heart every time he took on another challenge...

And on top of that, out of nowhere, he was now saying that if he failed to climb the Tower at least once a week, he would die.

The only thing the family could do for Kim Seo-hyeon was support him.

And, as much as possible, keep him from seeing how much they were hurting.

Thankfully, the Floor 9 clear had ended sooner than expected.

When he came back earlier, Kim Seo-hyeon had smiled as though nothing had happened.

Had he said he fought monkey monsters?

Kim Seo-a opened her laptop again and searched for the Nightmare strategy guides.

The information posts Person123 had uploaded to the Communication Channel had been compiled online for anyone to read.

Of course, Kim Seo-a had already read them countless times.

The Goblins on Floor 1, the trap tiles on Floor 2, the Undead on Floor 3...

But now that she knew Kim Seo-hyeon was Person123, the Floor 4 strategy guide was especially difficult to read.

It described how he had cleared the floor by burning away his entire body and blowing himself up together with the boss.

Feeling tears threatening to rise again for no reason, Kim Seo-a closed the page.

Just then, she heard the refrigerator door open in the kitchen.

Kim Seo-a quietly cracked open her bedroom door.

Kim Seo-hyeon, who had taken out some water to drink, turned toward her.

“What is it? What’s up?”

He looked so composed that no one would have believed he had just returned from clearing yet another floor of Nightmare difficulty.

But Kim Seo-a knew better.

After living under the same roof for years, how could she not?

Kim Seo-hyeon was putting on that calm front for the sake of his family.

How had he managed to hide how difficult all of this was for so long?

Carrying everything alone...

How much must he have suffered by himself?

Kim Seo-hyeon rummaged through the refrigerator and pulled out the ice cream Kim Seo-a had bought.

“Mind if I have some of this?”

“Y-yeah, go ahead...”

Kim Seo-hyeon headed back to his room.

Kim Seo-a closed her door as well and sat on the edge of her bed.

“...”

By now, there were plenty of people who revered Kim Seo-hyeon as though he truly had become a god.

But Kim Seo-hyeon was nothing like a god.

He was just a person.

Someone who hurt and suffered like anyone else.

Kim Seo-a prayed.

If there truly was a god, then please...

protect her brother.

Protect their family.

And if the only way to bring this Nightmare to an end was to climb the Tower all the way to the top...

then please,

let Kim Seo-hyeon be the one to make it there.

***

After clearing Floor 9 and leaving the Tower,

I rested for only a short while before getting back to everything I still had to do.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 9.]

First, I needed to put together the strategy guide.

I immediately went back into Floor 9 and pushed the boulder all the way to the summit.

Flash!

The boulder shattered, and I obtained the Golden Headband.

I’d tried moving away before the boulder broke, hoping I could avoid having the Golden Headband placed on me, but...

as expected, that kind of cheap trick didn’t work.

The moment the Golden Headband went on, monkeys began swarming up from the base of the mountain.

Instead of fighting them, I bounded through the air in search of the Golden Monkey.

There it was.

Screech-!

The instant it saw me charging toward it, the Golden Monkey bolted at that same absurd speed as before.

I caught up without much trouble and subdued it by breaking all four of its limbs.

Freezing it in place would have been easier, but there was a reason I chose this method.

The whole point was to write a strategy guide.

I needed to test methods that the other Nightmare climbers could realistically reproduce.

Dragging the thrashing Golden Monkey with me, I headed toward the rocky mountain.

There were flat stretches scattered throughout the mountain course, so with a carefully planned route, dealing with the landslides shouldn’t be impossible.

I had already confirmed while pushing the boulder uphill that a little damage to it didn’t matter, so breaking part of the bottom to adjust its center of gravity or something similar should work as well.

Capturing the Golden Monkey, however, looked like it would be a serious obstacle for the other challengers.

They would have to catch this thing, drag it all the way to the Magic Circle, and fend off all the other monkeys attacking them along the way.

Of course, the US and China still hadn’t even cleared Floors 7 and 8...

Forcing my way through the interfering monkeys, I hauled the Golden Monkey all the way to the Magic Circle inside the cave.

The Gourd Bottle absorbed the Golden Monkey’s energy.

This time, it was golden.

I peered inside the Gourd Bottle.

Sure enough, a golden liquid had filled it.

This was the Golden Essence.

I gulped it down immediately.

Then I felt the Golden Headband loosen around my head.

I pulled it off and looked toward the monkeys outside the Magic Circle.

The same monkeys that had been viciously ready to tear me apart only moments ago had suddenly become docile.

[If you earn the Golden Headband’s recognition, the Stone Monkeys will crown you as their king.]

Even after I stepped out of the Magic Circle, the monkeys didn’t attack me.

So it really had played out exactly as the scroll said.

That aside...

what was going to happen with the boss?

Rumble, rumble...

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the ground began to tremble.

I quickly left the cave.

The monkeys followed me outside.

Before long, the rocky mountain split in half, and the same enormous boss monkey burst out from within.

Groaaaaaaah-!

So I still had to fight the boss after all.

I stood there watching it for a moment...

and suddenly, every monkey around me charged toward it at once.

“Oh.”

So that was how it worked?

I more or less understood the gimmick now.

I’d wondered whether the floor really expected me to fight a boss even larger than the Floor 8 Antlion completely alone, without any special mechanic.

Apparently, the intended method was to remove the Golden Headband, then fight alongside the monkeys.

As more rocks cracked open, the newly emerged monkeys immediately rushed the boss as well.

Not all one million monkeys came out, but there were still thousands of them, pouring forth one after another.

Of course, the monkeys alone weren’t enough to defeat the boss.

Every time it swung a fist or swept its tail, dozens of them were killed at once.

While the monkeys occupied its attention, my role seemed to be dealing damage to the boss itself.

Using Air Walk, I bounded across the sky and looked down at the massive creature.

It was so enormous that killing it still looked like it would take forever, but...

‘Huh?’

Something caught my eye.

On top of its head, a single white hair protruded from the otherwise black fur.

For some reason, it gave me the impression of being a weak point.

Like a dragon’s reverse scale.

Kwaaaaaah-!

A dark red beam fired from the boss’s mouth and swept through the monkeys on the ground.

I stopped time.

After completing Mental Concentration, I aimed directly at the lone white hair and fired a fully charged Destruction Ray.

And then—

Kreeeeeeee...!

Instead of the deep, thunderous roar it had made before, the boss let out an ear-splitting, high-pitched shriek.

Kuwoooong!

A moment later, its enormous body collapsed.

So that really had been the weak point.

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 9.]

The clear message appeared.

I entered and exited Floor 9 several more times, testing everything I needed before getting to work on the strategy guide.

[Person123: Here’s the strategy info for Nightmare Floor 9.]

I had everything organized and posted within a single day.

[Person123: From now on I plan to climb Nightmare difficulty quickly rather than sticking to the 20-day Time Limit.]

I posted an announcement along with it.

[Marlin: The Floor 9 strategy guide is up!]

[Nebula: Cleared it and dropped the guide the same day, jeez]

[Blade: Huh? An official announcement went up too] ℯℯ𝑙.

[Galapagos: So he really is planning to climb fast from now on]

[Leviathan: Don’t tell me he’s saying he’ll challenge the next floor again in just a few days...? Why does it feel like Person123 is rushing so much?]

[Muffin: Don’t second-guess Person123’s judgment. He knows what he’s doing.]

After posting the strategy guide, I entered Floor 5 and started hunting in Zone 5.

[Zone 5 (83.9%)]

The Zone 5 Boss Gauge had already passed eighty percent.

And naturally, I was confident I could defeat the boss without much trouble.

My Level was over 100 now.

Even without relying on the Demon King’s power, it should be easy.

The problem was that I was running out of time.

Even if I climbed the Tower at a rate of one floor per week, at my current pace I would probably run into the Time Limit somewhere around Floor 30.

Crack!

After killing another Bone Dinosaur, I stopped.

A thought had suddenly occurred to me.

‘What if I use Radiant Incarnation...?’

Until now, there had been two main reasons the Zone 5 gauge filled so slowly, aside from the fact that almost no other climbers hunted there.

The first was simply how enormous Zone 5 was.

And because it covered such a vast area, the monsters were scattered thinly throughout it.

The second problem was the fog.

Without any meaningful field of vision, searching for monsters was naturally and painfully slow.

But what if I used Radiant Incarnation?

No matter how vast Zone 5 was, at the speed of light I could circle the entire place ten times over in the blink of an eye.

What if I started from the inner reaches of Zone 5 and swept outward, killing every monster along my path?

In ten minutes, wiping out every monster spawned throughout Zone 5 seemed entirely possible.

That should raise the gauge by quite a bit, shouldn’t it?

I couldn’t say whether it would be enough to fill the remaining sixteen percent all at once...

but either way, the increase should be substantial.

Originally, I had planned to challenge Floor 10 the moment Radiant Incarnation came off Cooldown, but...

‘I’ll have to change my plan.’

I’d clear out Zone 5 first.

It wasn’t as though I had much time to spare.

But if this raised the gauge significantly, then taking the Zone 5 boss reward before challenging Floor 10 would be well worth it.