Chapter 162: Treasure Hunt (4)

‘Ughhh...’

It hurts.

But physical pain is nothing I can’t endure if I have to. My brain adapted to it a long time ago.

At that moment, Ye Cheon-wi hurriedly grabbed the hand holding my sword.

“W-W-Wait, why! Aaaah...!”

Ye Cheon-wi was practically screaming as if he had fallen into a panic.

Ah, did I not explain enough?

I spat out a bowlful of blood and said.

“I’m not going to die. I told you, I already have an immortality ability.”

“W-What do you mean...!”

“It’s not like I’d commit suicide. I’m fine, so let go, Mr. Ye Cheon-wi.”

When I continued speaking calmly, only then did Ye Cheon-wi let go with trembling eyes and step back.

Enduring the pain, I began extracting my own heart.

Slaaash-

I moved the blade around in a single circle.

That was it.

As if the swordsmanship I had honed all this time was shining even here, I cleanly carved out the entire left side of my chest in an instant.

“Urgh...”

Feeling dizzy and chilled, I collapsed to the ground. Ye Cheon-wi supported me.

I immediately used Rapid Regeneration.

It would regenerate even if I just left it alone, but without using the skill, I would probably have to lie down for dozens of minutes.

Bububububble-

My flesh bubbled and boiled as the gaping hole in my chest filled in within moments.

Rapid Regeneration’s performance had also improved tremendously compared to when I was low-level.

My body’s basic regenerative ability was already very high thanks to my high level, and the effects of Frozen Hydra Blood and Slime King’s Essence Jelly also amplified regeneration.

At this point, wouldn’t it probably be possible to regenerate my entire body even if only my head remained? I had never tested it, though.

“Whew.”

I stood up perfectly fine.

Ye Cheon-wi looked completely dumbfounded.

Guess I startled him a lot.

“See? I didn’t die.”

Ye Cheon-wi soon came back to his senses and muttered in a trembling voice.

“...As expected, there truly is no such thing as a limit for you.”

“No. I’m human too, so of course I have limits.”

“Please forgive me for daring to doubt you. I still have a long way to go...”

...I had no idea why he was even asking for forgiveness now.

I decided to ignore Ye Cheon-wi’s fussing and picked up the chunk of flesh I had cut out.

I roughly tore away the flesh attached around it and dug out the heart. Kind of disgusting.

But how exactly was I supposed to offer this?

“Here, take it.”

For now, I handed the heart to Ye Cheon-wi.

Since the treasure became bound to the person who released its seal anyway, Ye Cheon-wi probably had to offer it himself.

Ye Cheon-wi carefully accepted the heart with both hands and said.

“Are you truly certain you do not wish to obtain it yourself?”

“I told you, it’s completely useless to me anyway.”

I didn’t mention that I wanted to repay him for saving my sister’s life.

If I said that, he would probably refuse no matter what.

And even if I consumed it myself, this item actually carried more risk than reward for me.

I had no idea how the ruling would work if the Frozen Hydra Blood effect and the heart effect were applied at the same time.

“Even so, just in case, perhaps you should keep it even if you do not consume it immediately...”

“Mr. Ye Cheon-wi, could you please just eat it?”

“Yes!”

In the end, Ye Cheon-wi used my heart to release the treasure’s seal.

As for how he did it, when he brought my heart into contact with the treasure, the heart turned into something like smoke and was absorbed, then a message appeared.

[Offer the heart of a Level 50 or higher Climber (1/1)]

[The treasure’s seal has been released.]

[Item: Tekan’s Heart]

The heart of Beast King Tekan. Consuming it increases Physical Ability by 10%. The body’s regenerative ability and all regenerative effects received by the body are increased. You will not die as long as the heart is not destroyed.

The chains around the magic circle came undone.

A dark-red heart about the size of a human heart.

Wow, but having to eat that looked rough.

“Then I shall gratefully consume it.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Ye Cheon-wi began chewing the heart thoroughly and swallowing it.

“...How does it taste?”

“Like bloody raw meat.”

Anyway, with this, Ye Cheon-wi had also gained a semi-immortal body.

The moment Ye Cheon-wi finished swallowing the entire heart, he said.

“Let us return to the right passage.”

“...? Why?”

“I shall attempt to release the skull mask’s seal using my own head. Since I cannot die as long as my heart remains undamaged, it may be possible.”

For a moment, I wondered what the hell he was talking about.

Then I remembered what the condition for releasing the skull mask’s seal had been and nearly freaked out.

“...Are you out of your mind?”

Offer the heads of 50 Climbers.

What Ye Cheon-wi was saying right now was that since he wouldn’t die anyway, he wanted to cut off his own head 50 times and offer it.

What kind of creatively insane idea was that...!

“Stop saying weird shit and let’s go. We need to find out whether there are any Climbers left.”

The mask’s effect was a passive 20% reduction to the abilities of nearby enemies, plus a 50% increase to my Physical Ability and Willpower for 10 minutes, right?

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t an item worth doing something like that to obtain.

For starters, I didn’t even know whether all 50 Climber heads could belong to the same person, and even if they could, with Ye Cheon-wi’s regeneration, doing it would take forever.

Ye Cheon-wi followed behind me with a disappointed look.

Before leaving the cave, we entered the middle passage to check whether there was a treasure there too.

“...?”

A faint sound came from deeper inside the passage.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, like the sound of clock hands moving.

As we continued forward, a treasure magic circle soon appeared.

But the chains had already come undone.

Thinking someone had released the treasure’s seal, my expression hardened for a moment.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...

Then I spotted the object in the middle of the magic circle.

A black sphere about the size of a soccer ball.

A red clock pattern was engraved on its surface, and the clock hands were moving.

‘...What the hell?’

Was that the treasure?

Why were the chains already undone?

If someone had released the seal, why hadn’t they taken the treasure... No, in the first place, if the seal had been released, a global message should have appeared.

“I shall check it.”

Ye Cheon-wi stepped forward first and approached the clock sphere.

Sixth Sense wasn’t warning me about anything in particular, so I didn’t stop him.

Ye Cheon-wi touched the treasure and checked its information.

His face turned pale in an instant.

He urgently shouted toward me.

“You must get away immediately!”

...Why? What is it?

I hurried over too and checked the treasure’s information.

[Special Item: Superpowered Island-Destroying Bomb]

A bomb that explodes exactly 100 minutes after ‘Treasure Hunt’ begins. It will blow away the entirety of Treasure Island. If the bomb is destroyed, it will explode immediately. When the remaining time until the explosion drops to 5 minutes or less, all portals will temporarily be deactivated. Check the remaining time!

Time Remaining Until Explosion: 3 minutes 51 seconds

[If the treasure is sealed, its effect will not activate.]

[You may seal the treasure by fulfilling the following condition.]

[50 Climbers agree to the seal (0/50)]

...I immediately stopped time.

What the hell is this now?

‘A bomb...?’

Apparently it was a bomb that would blow away the entire island.

I calmly assessed the situation.

So, uh, fuck.

It seemed this bastard Tower had hidden a massive final fuck-you from the very beginning.

As if tempting people to release the treasures’ seals and ruin the real world wasn’t enough...

It had also planned to kill every Climber who got greedy for treasure and didn’t leave.

So leaving immediately really had been the correct answer.

‘The remaining time is...’

Only 3 minutes and 51 seconds.

It had been almost two hours since Treasure Hunt began.

Should I consider myself lucky that we found it even now?

We just had to return to the portal and leave immediately.

At maximum speed, getting from here to the portal would take 1 or 2 minutes at most.

For Ye Cheon-wi too.

...No, wait.

A chill suddenly ran down my spine.

[If the treasure is destroyed, one of the choices’ effects will be applied at random.]

The treasures in the forest.

If the bomb exploded, would the treasures be destroyed too?

‘We’re fucked.’

It said it would blow away the entire island, so all the treasures on the island would obviously get caught in it too.

And if a treasure was destroyed, one of the seal-release choices would activate at random.

Non-Climbers would die, the Tower’s Time Limits would decrease...

All of those effects would activate one by one.

Feeling dizzy, I tried to think of a solution.

What should I do?

To stop the explosion, it said we had to seal the bomb again.

The condition was the agreement of 50 Climbers.

Which meant 50 Climbers had to gather here, and that was obviously impossible right now.

The remaining option was to end Treasure Hunt itself.

If there were no other Climbers left on the island, then Ye Cheon-wi and I only had to leave...

[When the remaining time until the explosion drops to 5 minutes or less, all portals will temporarily be deactivated.]

I released Time Stop.

“...Person123!”

For now, I picked up the bomb and left the cave.

Using Air Walk at maximum speed, I returned to the place where the portal was.

The portal’s light was gone.

‘Seriously, fucking hell...’

So it was going to keep the portals blocked until the bomb exploded?

I tried using Subspace.

[This item cannot be stored.]

A message appeared.

Muttering curses, I stopped time again.

[Time Remaining Until Explosion: 2 minutes 39 seconds]

The absurdly malicious bullshit was enough to make me lose my mind, but I forced myself to calm down.

The fact that I couldn’t leave wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that if the bomb exploded, all the treasures on the island—not just the ones I had found, but however many more there might be—would all be destroyed.

The world would become hell.

I had to stop the explosion somehow.

‘With the Demon King’s power...’

If the Demon King used his full power, it felt like it might somehow be possible.

But I had used Radiant Incarnation on Floor 12, so it was still on cooldown.

This is driving me fucking insane.

[Special Item: Hourglass of Acceleration]

Choose one of the following effects and apply it permanently. Once an effect has been chosen, it cannot be changed.

1. Reduce the cooldown of all possessed skills by 70%

2. Fix the cooldown of one random skill at 0 seconds

The hourglass I had received as the Extraordinary Clear reward for Floor 9.

What if I used that?

If I applied effect 1, Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown would drop to less than a day.

More than a day had already passed since clearing Floor 12, so the cooldown should disappear entirely.

But what made me uneasy was how exactly the hourglass’s effect would be applied.

What if the cooldown reduction didn’t immediately apply to the remaining cooldown of a skill that had already been used?

I couldn’t know.

‘...’

After spending a long time thinking through various methods,

I released Time Stop again.

Booooom!

Hugging the bomb against myself, I shot high into the sky again.

‘Let’s fucking do this.’

Treasure Island.

Seen from the sky, it was such a vast island that its diameter looked like it had to be several dozen kilometers.

And since it was an island, there was nothing but sea all around it.

If the bomb had enough power to blow away an island this huge in its entirety, then I had to assume it was at least more powerful than a nuclear bomb.

I immediately handed control of my body over to the Demon King and flew at maximum speed.

Toward the sea outside the island.

The method I came up with was simple.

Get as far away from the island as possible, and detonate the bomb as deep in the ocean as possible.

Whoooooooosh-!

At a speed of several Mach, I rapidly moved away from the island.

After flying until the island was far in the distance, I dove into the sea.

Using the Sea Dragon’s Orb to control the current as well, I descended into the deep, deep ocean.

[Time Remaining Until Explosion: 5 seconds]

Until only 5 seconds remained, I carried the bomb as far away from the island as I possibly could.

Sixth Sense began screaming warnings like crazy.

I placed the bomb on the seafloor and froze everything around it solid.

Then I hurriedly put distance between myself and the bomb.

And just before the bomb exploded, I used Armor of Karma.

The strongest defensive ability, which had even endured the Demon King’s strongest magic at full power.

If, even after going this far, the explosion still reached the island...

There was nothing more I could do.

I had done everything I could.

I prayed inwardly and prepared myself.

...FLASH!!!

The entire sea turned pure white as an enormous explosion erupted.