Chapter 164: Breakthrough

When I exited after finishing Treasure Hunt.

Thankfully, my family greeted me safe and sound.

The thing I had feared might happen—my family getting swept up in the Tower’s Curse—had not happened.

- The Stage 7 Fallen that had been rampaging through the city of Kalispell was killed by America’s representative Nightmare Climber.

- The U.S. Department of Defense announced that most of the Fallen that appeared in Whitefish and the surrounding area had been eliminated, and that they were currently searching for any remaining Fallen in cooperation with Climbers.

- The U.S. government expresses its deepest condolences to the victims and bereaved families affected by this Fallen disaster...

Unfortunately, the country where the Fallen had appeared was the United States.

The one fortunate thing amid the misfortune was that it had struck an area with low population density.

If the Tower’s Curse had descended right in the middle of a major city with hundreds of thousands or millions of people, just imagining it made my blood run cold.

‘...Though I guess it isn’t something I should call fortunate.’

Judging by the news, it seemed most of the Fallen had already been dealt with.

But it was estimated that at least tens of thousands of people had died because of this incident.

That included both the people who became Fallen and the people killed by the Fallen.

This time, even a Stage 7 Fallen had appeared.

If Taylor hadn’t dealt with it, far more people might have died.

When I looked through the Communication Channel, it was filled entirely with talk about Treasure Hunt.

Naturally, people had no choice but to realize that this Fallen incident was connected to Treasure Hunt.

On top of that, I occasionally saw people talking about Ye Cheon-wi as well.

Stories about some unidentified man other than Person123 forcibly making people exit, or speculation that maybe he had taken the treasures for himself.

[Person123: This is what happened during Treasure Hunt.]

I explained everything that had happened during Treasure Hunt in the Communication Channel.

The conditions for releasing the treasures’ seals, the fact that someone had released one of the treasures’ seals, how we found and executed him, and even the existence of the bomb that would blow away the island.

To prevent any unnecessary misunderstanding, I also explained that the man who had forced people to exit through another portal was a Climber who had helped me.

After organizing the post and uploading it, I expressed my condolences for the dead at the end.

[Cola: Person123 official statement is up!]

[Dizziness: Fucking hell, so in the end this happened again because some bastard refused to listen and pulled some troll bullshit?]

[TriangleHorn: Seriously incredible. All I can do is sigh lol]

[Pickle: But who the hell is that Climber who supposedly helped Person123?]

[Chaos: Dunno. But he just blew someone’s head off. Total fucking psycho.]

[DoReMiFaSol: I escaped because that guy helped me... Seriously, you should’ve just listened and exited quietly when he told you to.]

[Angel: What country was the bastard who released the treasure’s seal from? You could tell us that too.]

[David: Obviously some bastard from the Black Star Society.]

[Cobra: Average Security Corps, immediately jumping to conclusions.]

[Circus: But if Person123 hadn’t been there, all the guys who stayed behind looking for treasure would’ve nearly died ㄷㄷ]

[MachineWarrior: That’s not even the problem. If all the treasures had exploded, the world would’ve been truly fucked; just one caused this much damage.]

[Durangble: Person123 has once again saved humanity. Praise the Great One.]

Anyway, this Treasure Hunt incident left tens of thousands of casualties.

It was the greatest damage caused by the Tower’s rules since the Fallen incident on Floor 3.

If only I had found and dealt with the bastard who released the treasure’s seal just a little sooner...

That was the only regret I had.

“Kim Seo-ah.”

And then, my sister.

I looked at her sitting there with a visibly restless expression.

There were things you could hide and things you couldn’t. What was she thinking, hiding the fact that she had become a Climber?

I was about to say something angrily, but sighed and stopped.

Well... it was also ridiculous for me to lecture her when I had kept the fact that I was a Nightmare Climber hidden from my family for so long.

And I could more or less understand what she had been thinking when she hid it.

“If anything happens from now on, absolutely never hide it. Telling me everything is how you help me. Got it?”

“...Got it.”

Mom and Dad, who were sitting beside her, sighed as well.

Not only me, but my sister too had suddenly disappeared at the same time, so I could only imagine how shocked they must have been.

It seemed she hadn’t told our parents that she had nearly been killed by a monster.

There was nothing good to gain from telling them that, so I didn’t mention it either.

Mom said,

“Seo-ah, you weren’t really hiding it because you planned to climb the Tower without telling Mom and Dad, were you?”

“N-No, it wasn’t like that.”

For no reason, I felt a slight stab of guilt.

Dad spoke as well.

“You must never even think about entering the Tower. Understood? Promise us clearly, right here.”

Deep down, I had actually wanted a member of my family to become a Climber. Because then they would become immune to the Tower’s Curse.

Mom and Dad were probably relieved in one sense that my sister had become a Climber too.

Of course, there were worries as well.

Being dragged into danger by the Tower’s rules, like what had happened with Treasure Hunt.

This was even the first time Floor 1 Climbers, who were practically no different from ordinary people, had been dragged into something like this.

...And I had another source of unease.

Out of millions of Climbers, my sister just happened to get caught up in one of the rules immediately after becoming a Climber?

Surely that Tower bastard wasn’t targeting my family or something, right?

But then again, if the Tower could rig the selection of participants, I also wondered why it would have any reason to make me participate in Treasure Hunt.

If I hadn’t been there, the bomb would have exploded as it was, many Climbers would have died, and the world would have become a complete hellscape.

Or had it wanted to kill me with the bomb?

But the Tower obviously knew that I had obtained Armor of Karma.

Even if the bomb had exploded without me knowing anything, I would have sensed it with Sixth Sense and prepared myself, so it should also know that it couldn’t kill me that way.

...I don’t know.

What was even the point of trying to understand the incomprehensible Tower?

Only after my sister promised Mom and Dad several times that she would absolutely never enter the Tower did the conversation finally come to an end.

She said she had been assigned Hard Difficulty...

Some time later, I went back to my sister’s room.

“...Why are you here again?”

“You’re really not going to secretly enter, right?”

“I-I told you I won’t. Why are even you freaking out so much, Seo-hyeon?”

I said with a serious expression.

“Because it’s genuinely dangerous. You absolutely cannot go in, no matter what. Got it? I’m already enough of a headache for Mom and Dad. Let’s not have you making them worry too.”

I had no intention of allowing my sister to climb the Tower either.

Hard Floor 1 consisted of two goblins armed with swords.

It couldn’t compare to Nightmare, but even Hard was a difficulty where plenty of people died.

This wasn’t a comic book, and no matter how thoroughly someone trained and prepared, fighting two opponents at once with swords was a fatally disadvantageous fight. At least with the physical limits of an ordinary human.

And needless to say, that was even more true for my sister, who was a woman.

Climbers who hadn’t unlocked their status window couldn’t use items, so it wasn’t even possible for me to give her my equipment.

Of course, I could train my sister’s swordsmanship in the Mental World and prepare her for Floor 1 to near perfection...

But that would only train her technique. Her real body wouldn’t become any stronger.

Anyway, whatever the case, I didn’t like it.

I didn’t want my sister to have to bear even the slightest danger or uncertainty. Not when it came to my family.

My sister stared at me for a while, then frowned and muttered.

“...If you understand that so well, you should listen to people too.”

“What?”

“During the Qualification incident, during the Joint Battle... You’re always throwing your life away to save people, aren’t you? Even when we tell you to care about your own life first, you never listen...! You don’t even know how terrified we are watching you do that!”

My sister shouted as though all the resentment she had built up finally burst out.

Her eyes turned red as she breathed heavily, then she suddenly made an expression as though realizing what she had done.

“S-Sorry. No. I know how hard things are for you...”

My sister wiped at her eyes and turned her head away.

Feeling complicated, I quietly comforted my sniffling sister.

“I’m sorry.”

Of course, it was the same for my family.

Watching me climb the Tower, they must have felt exactly the same way I felt about my sister...

I returned to my room.

But even if she didn’t climb the Tower, it was also true that danger existed for her as a Climber because of the rules.

There was no guarantee something like this wouldn’t happen again. Would it actually be right to raise my sister’s level in preparation for that?

...For now, I should wait and see what the next rule would be.

“Whew.”

I lay down on my bed.

I organized my chaotic feelings and thoughts.

The fact that many people had died in this incident and that my sister had become a Climber weren’t the only reasons I felt troubled.

‘The Tower’s influence is getting stronger and stronger.’

Back on Floor 3, there had only been Fallen up to Stage 5.

This time, there had been Fallen all the way up to Stage 7.

Since every difficulty had now been cleared through Floor 12, the Fallen’s level was probably increasing accordingly.

And it would probably keep happening the higher we climbed.

The Tower would present increasingly unreasonable rules capable of inflicting greater damage on the world.

I had already seen what kinds of rules had appeared in Seri’s world.

We had been lucky with Treasure Hunt too. If even one thing had gone wrong... Whew.

‘This is hopeless.’

Not that it had ever been easy.

But the farther things went, the more it felt like the answer was becoming increasingly unclear.

Could I really save the world just by climbing the Tower?

...Did the number of floors even mean anything in the first place?

That thought suddenly came to me.

Regardless of my lifespan, if things continued like this, in the end I would just keep dancing in the palm of the Tower’s hand.

“What do you think, Demon King?”

The Demon King said.

- What use is there in needlessly overcomplicating your thoughts? There is nothing else you can do besides climb the Tower.

“...That’s true.”

It was.

Still, the thought had simply occurred to me somewhere deep inside.

‘Something...’

I needed something more fundamental.

Something that would allow me to escape from this unreasonable framework imposed by the Tower itself.

More than raising my level or obtaining better skills and items, maybe that was what I truly needed.

...Even I had no idea what that something was.

***

Until Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown ended, I prepared to tackle Floor 13.

Well, that meant doing the same training I always did.

I sparred with the Demon King in the Mental World until I was sick of it, and sometimes entered Floor 2 to take Diul on a nighttime walk.

“Are you finally done being mad, Diul?”

Diul, who had been following right behind me, snorted.

Even Diul, who had been sulking ever since what happened on Floor 10, seemed to have more or less gotten over it now.

‘Come to think of °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° it...’

As I wandered through the forest on Floor 2, something suddenly occurred to me.

I took an item out of Subspace.

[Item: Ring of the Dafriya Family]

A ring engraved with the crest of the Dafriya Family. Proof that you have earned the gratitude of the Dafriya Family.

An item I had received after clearing the hidden objective on Floor 2.

I had a hell of a time escaping while dragging along that demon girl who refused to fucking listen to anything I said.

Well, looking back now, that didn’t even count as a difficult clear. Still, it was a memory in its own way.

What was her name again? Carlos something?

If I fought that Black Knight bastard now, I could make his head and body go their separate ways in one second.

‘But seriously, what the hell am I supposed to use this for?’

Was it really a completely useless item?

I had kept carrying it around because there was no reason to throw it away.

Time passed, and Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown finally ended.

I finished preparing to enter Floor 13.

As always, Mom and Dad saw me off with worried expressions, while my sister smiled and gave me an energetic cheer.

“I’ll be back.”

I stared into empty space.

[Would you like to enter Nightmare Difficulty Floor 13?]

All right, shall we go?

It was time for another challenge.