Chapter 176: Great Invasion (1)

[Floor 16 has been cleared on all difficulties.]

[The Tower is summoning new participants.]

[A new rule has been added.] ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

[The ‘Great Invasion’ will begin 24 hours from now.]

[When the time comes, a battlefield where a dimensional rift will be opened will be selected through a vote.]

[Time remaining: 23 hours 59 minutes 50 seconds]

I was moved to the Reward Room.

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the message.

'Great Invasion...?'

A dimensional rift?

Something ominous-looking had appeared again.

I picked up the skill stone that had appeared as a reward.

[Skill: Ultra-Compressed Plasma Bomb (Epic+)]

Fires an extremely compressed sphere of plasma forward. Requires 200 seconds of Mental Concentration to cast.

Classification: Magic

Willpower Cost: 1,000

Cooldown: 5 minutes

It was a Magic-type skill.

Reading the description, it seemed to be the same kind of extremely high-powered skill as Destruction Ray.

[You have learned ‘Skill: Ultra-Compressed Plasma Bomb (Epic+)’.]

[Floor: 17]

[Level: 197]

[Willpower: 20,400/20,400]

[Skills: Radiant Incarnation (Legendary+), Elemental Arrow Barrage (Epic+)(+3) Destruction Ray (Epic+), Blood Frenzy (Epic+), Weakness Insight (Epic)(+4), Hellfire Eruption (Epic)(+1), Subspace (Epic), Air Walk (Epic)...]

[Nightmare]

Participants: 1,473,610

Time Limit: 8 years 335 days 12 hours 1 minute 43 seconds

Highest Floor Reached: 17

I had also cleared Floor 16 without much difficulty.

Now the problem was the rule again...

[Would you like to leave the Tower?]

I left the Tower.

My family welcomed me with relief.

After resting for a while, I entered Floor 9 and immediately tested the newly obtained Plasma Bomb skill.

When I cast the skill, blue lightning gathered into a sphere only about the size of a grain of millet.

When I fired it forward...

ZZZZZZZZZZZAP-!

The lightning caused a massive explosion and sent electric currents branching out in every direction.

The rocks at the center of the explosion were completely annihilated, and even the rocks within a radius of several dozen meters were shattered into tiny pieces. Along with the monkeys inside them.

Having been slightly caught in it myself, I shook off the tingling sensation running through my body.

I didn’t know it was such a wide-area skill.

As expected of an Epic+ skill, the power was truly considerable.

Though I would need to make sure to use it from far enough away.

After finishing the skill test, I re-entered Floor 16 this time.

It was to immediately organize and post the Floor 16 information.

[Person123: This is information on clearing Nightmare Floor 16.]

After posting the Floor 16 information in the Communication Channel.

I checked the remaining time.

[Time remaining: 18 hours 9 minutes 15 seconds]

The news and Communication Channel were already in an uproar over what would happen with Floor 16’s rule, the Great Invasion.

“Whew...”

I waited while preparing myself mentally.

This time, I hoped we could get through it safely.

...Though I couldn’t suppress the ominous feeling creeping up from one corner of my mind.

***

Nightmare Floor 16 had been cleared.

Since Person123 cleared a new floor every few days, Nightmare clears no longer felt like something that determined humanity’s fate to people, but almost like an everyday occurrence.

[Lemon: He’s a runaway train, a runaway train]

[Farmer: Is he seriously going to clear all the way to the final floor at this rate?]

[Chariwing: How many floors is the final floor anyway? 100?]

[Captain: Who knows. More than that, I’m curious what’s waiting at the very end if he clears all of them]

[SharpSword: Maybe you become a god or something?]

[Sun: Person123 is already a god though?]

[Dubaya: I’m seriously so relaxed these days~ Nightmare’s time limit has piled up that much too]

[ChocoFlavor: fr lol I don’t know how we used to live while worrying every year that the world might end lolol]

Nightmare’s time limit was now close to 10 years, almost catching up to Hard Difficulty.

On top of that, Climbers even had Curse Immunity as insurance, so things had become completely livable.

Compared to the time when people trembled in fear that the world might end every year, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the present was, in its own way, an era of peace and prosperity.

Of course, there were still many people who worried about humanity’s future and viewed it pessimistically.

As long as the incomprehensible existence known as the Tower continued to exist, none of the fundamental problems had been solved.

Broadcasts that had spent the past several days talking about Kanyuk and the existence of other worlds besides Earth shifted their focus to the Great Invasion that would soon begin once Nightmare Floor 16 was cleared.

“Don’t you feel like the Tower’s influence is gradually getting stronger and stronger?”

The podcast show The Jude Noise.

Harry, an influencer who analyzed various things about the Tower, appeared as a guest.

The host, Jude, asked.

“When you say its influence is getting stronger, what exactly do you mean?”

“Let’s think about it. What was the first Tower rule that appeared when Floor 2 was cleared?”

“Climbers who didn’t enter the Tower within three years would die.”

“That’s right. The rule Person123 rendered invalid. It was a rule that caused no harm at all to Climbers who had cleared Floor 2 or higher, and even Floor 1 Climbers only had to climb one floor. They were given plenty of time too. Of course, Nightmare Difficulty was an exception.”

Harry held up four fingers.

“What about Floor 4 next? It was the Branch Tower. The Floor 4 rule also caused no harm as long as the Branch Tower was cleared, and even if they failed to clear it, people were given enough time to escape from the curse.”

“And there was a generous reward for clearing it too. It gave humanity mana veins.”

“Exactly. Floors 6, 8, 10, and 12 were all like that too. Of course, the difficulty gradually increased, but in the end, there was always a way to avoid the damage. They were all rules that could have ended without any harm if Climbers hadn’t given in to the temptation of rewards.”

Harry shook his head.

“But what about the recent Floor 14 rule, Sacrificial Lamb? It was structured so that either the highest-floor Climber, or all the other Climbers excluding that person, had to bear a penalty no matter what.”

“That... definitely is different from the previous rules.”

“Exactly! The important point is that there was no way out. Regardless of the rule’s difficulty, this was the first time the Tower presented an unreasonable rule that was impossible to avoid.

And what about the Nightmare Floor 15 clear? It proved that clearing the Tower could affect external reality itself. If Kanyuk hadn’t sacrificed himself, Earth would have suffered damage that would have been difficult to endure. Just as Person123 said, humanity might even have been wiped out entirely.”

Harry, who had been speaking passionately, paused to catch his breath.

“If that isn’t evidence that the Tower’s influence is getting stronger, then what is? The higher we climb, the more I can’t shake the feeling that the Tower is tightening its grip around humanity.”

“I see. Person123, a once-in-an-age hero, is holding up the world, but ultimately the ruler of this game is still the Tower.”

Jude asked.

“What do you think will happen in the Great Invasion that’s about to begin?”

“No one can know that. But as I said, an even more absurd disaster than the previous rules might occur. Great Invasion. Doesn’t the name alone sound ominous?”

“It certainly does. We also got the meaningless phrase ‘dimensional rift.’ Could it mean that something is actually going to invade Earth...?”

“But one thing is certain. It seems that something will once again be decided through a vote, and it will probably cause conflict among people yet again. Every Tower vote so far has been like that.”

Jude nodded as though agreeing.

“How long does humanity have to live under the threat of the Tower? Do you think we have any means of fighting back?”

At Jude’s question, Harry spoke jokingly.

“A means of fighting back... I don’t know. Does something like that even exist? Isn’t the best we can do simply live each day with gratitude? Humanity would have gone extinct long ago if it weren’t for Person123 anyway.”

“Haha, that’s true.”

“The most recent plan that became a topic of discussion was escaping into space. Bilon Must tested whether the Tower’s power still worked on Mars, didn’t he?”

“Yes, the Communication Channel worked perfectly fine even on Mars.”

“I think escaping beyond Earth is no longer a meaningful option. Didn’t Kanyuk’s existence reveal that worlds besides Earth exist? If the Tower can extend its influence even into worlds in other dimensions, I doubt it would fail to follow us simply because we left Earth. No matter how far humanity migrated to another planet by rocket.”

Harry and Jude let out slightly self-deprecating laughs.

After the laughter subsided, Harry said.

“If there is anyone who can find a way out of the Tower’s grasp, it would be Person123. We have no choice but to believe in and support humanity’s one and only hope.”

Time passed.

[Time remaining: 10 seconds]

And with the eyes and attention of the entire world focused on it.

The Floor 16 rule, the Great Invasion, began.

CRACK-

Gangneung, Gangwon Province, South Korea.

A rift suddenly appeared in midair as though space itself had cracked.

Pedestrians walking along the street screamed.

And it wasn’t only South Korea.

Mumbai in India, Bangkok in Thailand, Abuja in Nigeria, and Munich in Germany.

Unidentified rifts appeared in major cities in each of the five countries.

[The ‘Great Invasion’ has begun.]

[A total of five ‘Dimensional Rifts’ will appear in random locations.]

[A ‘Battlefield’ with a radius of 1,000 kilometers will be established around each Dimensional Rift.]

[The ‘Battlefield’ will completely block all entry and exit between the outside and inside until the Great Invasion ends.]

And around the rifts, enormous barriers appeared like during the Quarantine Zone, blocking entry and exit.

However, this time, the radius was a full 1,000 kilometers.

It was an enormous area large enough to include multiple countries at once.

Also, just like during the Quarantine Zone, enormous numbers appeared above the barriers.

The number that appeared above South Korea’s barrier was ‘3.’

[Battlefield 1 Population: 735,788,130]

[Battlefield 2 Population: 519,143,236]

[Battlefield 3 Population: 371,608,735]

[Battlefield 4 Population: 360,581,243]

[Battlefield 5 Population: 263,057,291]

[The Climbers included in each Battlefield may vote on whether to open the Dimensional Rift.]

[Once a Dimensional Rift to be opened is selected, the vote will immediately end, and an invasion of monsters will begin through the Dimensional Rift of that Battlefield.]

[A total of 10,000,000 monsters will pour out of the Dimensional Rift over 72 hours.]

[The monsters’ levels will be randomized from a minimum of Level 10 to a maximum of Level 100.]

[The Great Invasion will end when either every person in that Battlefield dies, or every monster dies.]

[If all monsters are eliminated, every Climber of Floor 2 or higher in that Battlefield will receive a special reward.]

[Voting will begin with Battlefield 1.]

[If no Dimensional Rift has been opened by the time voting for Battlefield 4 ends, the Dimensional Rift in Battlefield 5 will automatically open.]

[Battlefield 1 is currently voting.]

[Remaining voting time: 59 minutes 50 seconds]