Chapter 138: Joint Battle (4)

The climbers stared at the masked man.

After the message that had just appeared, there was no way anyone could fail to realize who he was.

“...It’s Person123!”

Someone shouted.

In the hand that had just [N O V E L I G H T] scattered fireballs among the surrounding monsters, Person123 conjured a sword made of light.

He swept his gaze across the battlefield once, then moved.

A violent gust tore through the air, and several monsters were cleaved cleanly in half.

Person123 began bounding through empty space at a speed the eye could barely follow, cutting down monsters one after another.

Everything in his path was swept away like straw before a storm.

Fireballs, lightning, and bullets of light rained down around Person123 as he swung the Sword of Light.

Monsters burst apart wherever he passed.

Even Shin Su-jin, who had finally pulled herself together and returned to the fight, froze again for a moment.

It was an unbelievable sight.

The suffocating tide of monsters was shrinking quite literally in the blink of an eye.

There had always been plenty of speculation that Person123 could use magic-type skills without restriction.

Now, seeing it with her own eyes, Shin Su-jin knew those rumors had been true.

There was no room left for doubt.

But as she continued staring at him, her expression gradually darkened.

[Should ‘Person123’ accept the following contract, they will immediately gain the right to participate in the ‘Joint Battle.’]

[Contract Terms]

– The Tower shall, the instant the contract is formed, open all zones of Floor 5 up to Zone 10 and cause the bosses of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 to appear.

– ‘Person123’ shall slay every boss of Zones 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 within one hour of the moment the ‘Joint Battle’ concludes.

[Should the contract go unfulfilled, ‘Person123’ will be permanently barred from entering Nightmare difficulty.]

He had accepted the Tower’s offer and been forced to enter Floor 5.

Because of a group of stupid, selfish people.

To save a hundred million lives.

Before long, the monsters were completely annihilated.

[Round 3 has ended.]

[Round 3 result: 99,999,891/100,000,000]

[A total of 0 Non-Climbers will die at random.]

[Round 4 will begin shortly.]

***

I let out a quiet sigh as I looked at the message.

Silence had fallen all around me.

Every pair of eyes was fixed in my direction.

Then several people cautiously edged closer.

“Um... Person123...?”

I opened my mouth.

“Shut up and get ready for the next round.”

The atmosphere froze instantly.

The crowd fell silent.

No one said another word.

...For now, we just had to get through the remaining rounds.

Round 3 had ended without the Nexus losing so much as a single point of HP.

Three rounds left.

I had no idea how sharply the difficulty would rise from one round to the next.

Still, judging from Round 3 alone, it didn’t look like it would be much of a problem.

And if things really got out of hand, I could always borrow the Demon King’s power.

‘Anyway...’

I glanced to one side.

Section Chief Shin Su-jin.

The Masked Auction, and now this.

She kept getting caught up in these incidents.

I found myself thinking that I ran into her awfully often.

[Round 4 will begin.]

Time passed in silence, and the next round began.

Every imaginable variety of monster came pouring out of the forest in Zone 1.

The climbers had arranged themselves in formation around the Nexus, remaining within the Portal’s range.

I placed a Scorching Zone just outside the Portal on one side and Frost Mist on the other.

Then I summoned Plli.

The climbers around me flinched and instinctively backed away at Plli’s sudden appearance.

“Go on. Rampage as much as you want.”

Before the monsters could reach the Portal,

Plli sprang over the climbers in one enormous leap and charged straight into them.

Several monsters struck by Plli’s charge burst apart on the spot.

Then Plli began running wild.

There were far more monsters than there had been in Round 3.

The difficulty spike was steeper than I had expected.

If Round 4 was already this bad, and there were still Rounds 5 and 6 after it...

Just as I’d thought.

This was never something the other climbers could have cleared.

Forget Round 6.

The Nexus would almost certainly have been destroyed in Round 4 or 5.

What kind of insane confidence had made these lunatics choose Round 6 in the first place?

Whatever.

I summoned the Sword of Light again and joined the fight.

Impossible for the others, sure.

But not for me.

‘This takes me back to that run on Floor 6.’

Holding back the endless waves of ogres back then had been practically a nightmare.

But there was one enormous difference between then and now.

I had become far too strong.

Bang!

I launched myself high into the air and stepped on empty space with Air Walk as I swung the Sword of Light.

Monsters were torn apart in great chunks.

I scattered Flame Strikes and bullets of light in every direction, while the Scorching Zone and Frost Mist I had laid down on either side continued hunting monsters on their own.

Plli was rampaging through them as well, sweeping whole groups away.

No matter how many poured in, even the strongest among them were only around level 40 or 50 at best.

My current level was already well above 120.

To me, this was no different from crushing ants.

Just as in Round 3, the number of monsters rapidly dwindled...

The other climbers were fighting too, of course.

Though in reality, I had already wiped out most of the monsters before they ever entered the Portal’s range.

[Round 4 has ended.]

[Round 4 result: 99,999,891/100,000,000]

[A total of 0 Non-Climbers will die at random.]

[Round 5 will begin shortly.]

Round 4 also ended with zero deaths.

[Round 5 will begin.]

Round 5 started.

The difficulty surged upward again.

There were more monsters, and the proportion of powerful ones had increased considerably.

Even so, it still wasn’t enough to make me use the Demon King’s power.

I had no intention of wasting any of my long-cooldown items or skills either.

The real battle would begin after the Joint Battle ended.

I pushed my physical abilities even higher and cut loose.

I grabbed a greatsword, wielding the Sword of Light in one hand and the greatsword wrapped in Aura Blade in the other, and tore the monsters to pieces.

It was far tougher than Round 4.

Still, it was within what I could handle.

[Round 5 has ended.]

[Round 5 result: 99,999,891/100,000,000]

[A total of 0 Non-Climbers will die at random.]

[Round 6 will begin shortly.]

And just like that, Round 5 ended as well.

The final round.

Round 6.

[Round 6 will begin.]

Rrrrmble...

The ground began to shake.

I stared at the forest, dumbfounded by what was pouring out of it.

An army of monsters.

There was no other way to describe it.

A staggering horde, incomparably larger than anything in Round 5, surged forward like a black tide.

***

“In... insane...”

Someone muttered.

Every single climber had gone deathly pale as they watched the approaching tide of monsters.

There had to be several thousand of them at the very least.

This...

was Round 6?

The instant they saw it, everyone understood.

Clearing Round 6 had been impossible from the very beginning.

This was absurd.

Shin Su-jin swallowed hard and instinctively turned toward Person123.

Throughout Rounds 4 and 5, the power he had displayed had been almost transcendent.

But even for him, this was...

“E-everyone, snap out of it!”

Though terror filled their eyes, the climbers hurriedly braced themselves for battle.

Some prepared to Exit.

The monsters were almost upon them.

Then, all at once, Person123 shot high into the air.

And—

Shhhhhhhh-!

A vast wave of cold swept outward.

In a single instant, thousands of monsters froze solid.

“...”

The trembling ground stopped.

The monsters’ roars vanished.

Everything fell into an eerie, frozen silence.

The climbers stared blankly at the surreal sight...

Then, one by one, they raised their heads toward the sky.

Toward Person123, standing in midair like a god descended from heaven.

***

Even for me, keeping the Nexus from losing a single point of HP against all this would be difficult.

‘Demon King.’

So I switched places with the Demon King.

‘You don’t need to kill them. Just freeze as wide an area as possible.’

Once the Joint Battle ended,

I would have to head straight into a Boss Rush against the Zone Bosses.

I would inevitably have to use Radiant Incarnation then, but I still needed to minimize the burden as much as possible.

If I wanted to save even a single second of Radiant Incarnation’s duration, I had to kill as many of the lower-zone bosses myself as I could.

Shhhhhh...

Just as I’d asked, the Demon King reduced the lethality and spread his freezing power over an enormous area.

Every monster froze solid.

Completely immobilized.

Now all I had to do was finish them off, and Round 6 would be over.

“Whew...”

All I could do was sigh.

Once I regained control of my body, I descended to the ground.

The climbers stared up at me with their mouths hanging open.

Then, a moment later, they erupted into cheers.

“Whoaaaaa...!”

Were these people out of their minds?

Once something becomes absurd enough, anger stops coming altogether.

I raised my head and let out a dry laugh.

The climbers’ cheers gradually faded, one voice after another.

For a while, only the sound of my laughter remained.

Sensing the mood, the crowd fell silent once again.

I cut off my laughter and spoke.

“Looks like everyone’s having a great time.”

“...”

“Didn’t I warn you clearly? No matter what the Tower tempts you with, don’t fall for it...”

All at once, the faces of the people staring at me seemed unbearably repulsive.

...Disgusting.

Their selfishness.

“How could you do something this unbelievably stupid with a hundred million lives at stake? I genuinely don’t understand, so would someone—anyone—care to explain it to me?”

In the silence, someone raised a hand.

It was the woman standing beside Shin Su-jin.

“...Fifty-one people voted for Round 6. If some idiot hadn’t stirred everyone up from the beginning, I don’t think it would have gotten a majority.”

Every gaze turned toward a single man.

Finding himself suddenly at the center of everyone’s attention, the man’s face twisted in dismay.

When I looked at him as well, he hurriedly began making excuses.

“I-I did it for the future of humanity...”

The future of humanity?

The man started spewing bullshit.

“Y-you understand too, don’t you? The world as it is now is hanging by a thread! Humanity can’t keep relying on you forever. What I mean is, we have to prepare for the end.

“If the climbers gain Curse Immunity, they’ll be freed from the Tower’s Time Limit. At least a few million people would survive, and even without an Ark, humanity could continue, couldn’t it?”

I answered.

“So did it work?”

“...”

“Well, sure. I suppose it worked.”

I gave him a cold look.

“Because I got dragged here after falling into the Tower’s trap all over again. Otherwise, this would have ended with a hundred million people dead.”

I slowly looked around at everyone.

“Good for you.”

“Now you’ll get the Curse Immunity you wanted so badly.”

“How wonderful. The future of humanity.”

“As long as the climbers get to survive, I suppose a hundred million other lives mean nothing to you.”