Chapter 22: Decision (1)

The Republic of Korea’s Tower Climbing Special Agency—known simply as the Agency.

Established mere months after the Day of Upheaval two years ago, this central government body oversaw all climber-related affairs. Even now, it remained trapped in a perpetual state of chaos, overwork, and desperate improvisation.

And Korea was hardly alone. Every other country was in the same situation.

Humanity still knew painfully little about the Tower, and simply keeping pace with a world that changed by the hour was exhausting enough.

“So much work, drowning in blessings. Oh, how wonderful, oh, how happy~.”

One employee muttered to herself as she hammered away at her keyboard, her eyes hollow.

Perhaps she had developed her own psychological defense mechanism to cope with the extreme stress.

Or perhaps she had simply lost her mind.

The workload had already been mountainous, but after the second floor of Nightmare was cleared, the Agency’s responsibilities multiplied several times over.

This time, the situation was even worse than after the first floor had been cleared. In addition to the influx of new climbers, the Tower had announced a new rule.

Anyone who fails to climb the Tower within three years will die.

Climbers who had never intended to set foot inside the Tower suddenly found a fire lit beneath them—especially those assigned to Nightmare difficulty.

Naturally, sorting through the resulting chaos fell to the Agency.

Registering new climbers. Classifying them. Organizing records. Planning expansions and new training facilities. Drafting budgets. Responding to an endless flood of complaints...

No matter how much work they finished, why did the pile only continue to grow?

Was this some kind of bug?

Humanity’s lifeline being extended by another year was unquestionably good news, but the lifespans of the Agency’s employees seemed to be shrinking in real time.

There wasn’t a single department that wasn’t drowning.

“I’m seriously dying here. How is it possible that not one day out of all 365 is quiet?”

“Blame your fate for getting dragged into this place.”

A pair of employees stood in the hallway, savoring a fleeting moment of rest as they sipped instant coffee.

A handful of people had volunteered for their positions, but they were a small minority. Most of the Agency’s civil servants had been more or less forcibly transferred from other departments.

There simply hadn’t been any other choice.

“I’ve honestly been thinking about quitting lately. Like, seriously thinking about it.”

“Hang in there. It becomes a little more bearable if you tell yourself you’re doing it for the greater good.”

“Ha. The greater good... Oh.”

Just then, someone passed through the hallway, and the employees lowered their heads in greeting.

She was a woman with such composed features that her expression bordered on cold.

She acknowledged their greeting with a slight nod and continued on her way.

Watching her recede into the distance, one of the employees spoke.

“...Speaking of working for the greater good, isn’t she the real thing? If anyone here is actually driven by a sense of duty, it has to be her.”

There was one department within the Agency composed entirely of climbers.

The Tower Monitoring Division.

And the woman who had just passed them was Shin Su-jin, a section chief in that division.

Its duties included managing the Common Zone on the fifth floor and coordinating investigations into climber-related crimes. Because of the nature of its work, the division functioned almost like an isolated island within the Agency.

Even so, there was a reason Section Chief Shin Su-jin was a household name among Agency employees.

She was a level 20 climber who had reached the eleventh floor on Normal difficulty.

A high-level climber like her ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) could have lived in luxury simply by selling the Magic Stones she brought back from the Tower.

Yet here she was, working as a civil servant and shouldering the same thankless grunt work as everyone else.

By ordinary standards, it was difficult to understand.

“If I became a climber, I’d quit this job on the spot. I mean, the odds of becoming a climber are way better than winning the lottery, aren’t they?”

“Sure, but the difficulty matters. What would you do if you got Nightmare?”

“Well, then... I guess I’d jump. Heh heh.”

“Fair enough. Easy might be manageable, but even Normal is brutal these days. I heard the first floor of Normal is no joke anymore.”

The employees continued chatting for a little while before trudging off in different directions, returning to their desks.

Another night of overtime awaited them.

***

More than a month had passed since I cleared the second floor.

Lately, I had been pursuing a quest of my own: befriending the dark spirit Bandiul.

“Diul, what I’m trying to say is that we’re best friends. One of a kind. Soulmates, even. I’m not the only one who thinks that, right?”

I was in the forest outside the Tower on the second floor.

Normally, completing a Repeat Clearing would automatically transport me to the Reward Room. However, if I descended from the castle without defeating the Minotaur, the clearing sequence simply wouldn’t activate.

I continued trying to bond with Diul as I walked through the dark forest.

I had even given it a nickname.

Treating “Ban” as a surname and “Diul” as a given name, I had simply started calling it Diul.

The problem was that no matter what I said, the little thing remained utterly indifferent.

Nothing I tried seemed to have any effect.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just go for a walk. Want to run for a bit?”

I headed deeper into the forest, where the undergrowth grew thicker.

The moonlight vanished behind the canopy, and the darkness of the night deepened.

Yet I could see my surroundings perfectly.

This was Dark Vision, Diul’s innate ability to see through darkness.

More precisely, it wasn’t like looking through night-vision goggles.

Instead, every object appeared as though it had been sketched in white chalk across a blackboard.

It was a rather peculiar way of seeing the world.

All things considered, it wasn’t exactly a groundbreaking ability.

Still, darkness was no longer an obstacle for me.

I sprinted along the forest path, letting the cool night breeze sweep across my body.

Diul floated beside my head, bobbing gently as it followed me.

Even this perpetually listless little creature occasionally displayed a faint trace of contentment.

That happened whenever it was surrounded by darkness.

More specifically, it seemed to enjoy natural darkness.

Perhaps that was because it was a spirit.

Whenever I simply sat in my room with the lights turned off, it didn’t seem particularly pleased.

That was why I had been coming to the second floor so often for evening walks.

Apparently, I needed to increase our affinity before I could unlock any new abilities.

The problem was that I had no idea how to do that.

My plan amounted to little more than doing whatever Diul seemed to enjoy and hoping the number would eventually rise.

That should work, right?

The connection between us did feel ever so slightly stronger than it had in the beginning.

Then again, that might have been nothing more than my imagination.

For the record, Heilin no longer appeared on the second floor.

Unlike the old man on the hidden route of the first floor, I hadn’t killed her, so I had wondered whether that might change anything.

It hadn’t.

Even when I returned to the bridge where I had escaped from the Black Knight, all I found was the same collapsed bridge.

I considered crossing to the other side and even tried climbing down the cliff.

But the bottom never came into view, so I eventually gave up.

After spending quite a while running through the forest, I returned to my room.

I flopped down onto the bed and opened the Communication Channel out of habit.

“Hm?”

There was a new Whisper waiting for me.

The sender was Chicken Sandwich.

Bilon Must.

We had exchanged a few short messages after I cleared the second floor, but this was the first time he had contacted me in over a month.

[Chicken Sandwich: How have you been? I’m contacting you because I’ve managed to acquire several new Skill Stones.]

[Chicken Sandwich: The skills are ‘Swing,’ a Normal-tier skill, and ‘Minor Poison Resistance,’ a Normal+ tier skill. Swing is an active skill that enhances the power of swinging attacks, while Minor Poison Resistance is a passive skill that grants slight resistance to poison.]

[Chicken Sandwich: If you do not already possess these skills, I would like to give you the Skill Stones, as I did before. Of course, if you would rather not meet in person, we can arrange another method of delivery.]

Oh...

Well, how about that.

He was offering me Skill Stones again.

Two of them this time.

I had already met him once, so there was no particular reason to refuse.

“If he’s offering them, then sure. I’m grateful, but...”

The thing was, although Swing was a relatively common skill, resistance-type passive skills were supposedly quite rare.

Was it really all right for me to keep accepting things like this?

Some people felt uncomfortable receiving anything for free.

I was one of them.

Of course, strictly speaking, these weren’t gifts.

Bilon Must was investing in me.

In return, I was climbing through Nightmare and extending humanity’s Time Limit.

Right.

There was no reason not to accept what he was offering.

Besides, I had already made up my mind by then.

I sent him a reply.

***

We arranged to meet in the same manner as before.

When the appointed day arrived, I concealed my face beneath three separate layers—a hood, a cap, and a mask—then headed toward the designated location.

An ordinary black sedan was parked beside the curb in an alley.

After confirming everything once more through the Communication Channel, I approached the car and knocked on the window.

Then I opened the rear door and climbed inside.

This was only the second time I had met him, but the man sitting in the seat beside me still looked strangely unreal.

Bilon Must.

“Hello.”

“Good to see you. It’s been a while.”

We exchanged a brief handshake, skipped the small talk, and went straight to business.

Bilon reached into a bag, took out two Skill Stones, and handed them to me.

“Thank you.”

I acquired both skills immediately.

[You have acquired ‘Skill: Swing (Normal).’]

[You have acquired ‘Skill: Minor Poison Resistance (Normal+).’]

[Skill: Swing (Normal)]

Momentarily amplifies the power of swinging attacks.

Type: Physical

Willpower Cost: 10

Cooldown: 10 seconds

[Skill: Minor Poison Resistance (Normal+)]

Grants slight resistance to poison.

Type: Physical (Passive)

Willpower Cost: None

Cooldown: None

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 3]

[Level: 30]

[Willpower: 600]

[Skills: Teleportation (Rare+), Sixth Sense (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+1), Exaltation (Rare), Minor Poison Resistance (Normal+), Leap (Normal), Swing (Normal)]

My Status Window was starting to look rather crowded.

Once I had finished acquiring the skills, I looked up and met Bilon’s gaze.

He had been staring directly at me.

Well.

This was awkward.

I was about to say something, but Bilon spoke first.

“I would like to continue giving you Skill Stones and other items whenever I acquire them. What do you think?”

So he wanted to continue these strange, clandestine meetings.

I asked him a question.

“Can I ask you something?”

“By all means.”

“Why are you going this far for me? Do you truly believe I can continue climbing through Nightmare?”

Bilon nodded.

“I believe you are the only person capable of saving humanity.”

“But why...”

“You achieved the world’s first clear of both the first and second floors of Nightmare. You did so without possessing any information whatsoever. America’s Nightmare climber received the full support of the state and still failed. You succeeded. When one considers only the facts, isn’t the answer obvious?”

Bilon spoke as though he were stating an indisputable truth.

“That is why, Person123, I want to invest everything I have in you. I believe doing so offers humanity the greatest chance of survival. All you need to do is use me in whatever manner you consider necessary to clear Nightmare.”

I fell silent, lost in thought.

When the silence stretched on, Bilon added in a gentler voice.

“Of course, your own wishes matter more than anything else.”

“There’s something I realized while clearing the second floor.”

“...Yes? What was it?”

“That no one else can take the lead in clearing this insane difficulty.”

In other words, I had reached the same conclusion as Bilon.

It wasn’t that I wanted to flatter myself or pretend I was someone extraordinary.

I didn’t possess even the slightest confidence that I could continue clearing Nightmare. ℴℴ𝘮

Even so, I was still the person with the highest chance of succeeding.

However slim that chance might be.

No matter how desperately I wanted to turn away from reality and place this burden on someone else, that was the truth.

“Honestly, I’m not confident. I was lucky on both the first and second floors, and I have no idea how far I’ll be able to go. But in the end, someone has to do it, so...”

I nodded.

“Screw it. I’ll give it a shot. Fine. Invest everything in me, Bilon.”

For a moment, Bilon simply stared at me.

Then a brilliant smile spread across his face, and he extended his hand.

As though sealing a formal agreement, we shook hands once again.