Chapter 43: The First Proposal (1)

“Seo-hyeon, since you’re up, bring back a plate of assorted sushi too.”

“Sure.”

Humming quietly to myself, I wandered between the counters, choosing whatever caught my eye and piling it onto my plate.

The buffet was packed wall to wall with weekend diners.

It had been a long time since our whole family had gone out to eat together.

“Eat something besides crab, Seo-a. Did you really come all the way to a buffet just to eat one thing?”

“Why not? I’m only eating the most expensive thing here.”

For some time now, my sister had stubbornly returned to the table with nothing but snow-crab legs, stacking them into a small mountain and steadily working her way through it.

“Is it really that good? Honestly, I can barely tell the difference between this and Krab S*icks.”

“That’s because you have cheap taste buds.”

“Then eat up, my refined little sister with her sophisticated palate.”

By then, I was starting to feel full, so I moved on to dessert and idly picked at it.

My father wiped his mouth before asking,

“By the way, Seo-hyeon, how has work been lately?”

“...Work? Same as always. I just keep running Repeat Clears on the first floor.”

“Right, right. Just make sure you’re careful. Come to think of it, didn’t they say Climbers would start receiving health-insurance benefits this year? Have you looked into that?”

“Yes. I’m taking care of it.”

My sister immediately cut in.

“Oppa, buy me a new phone for my birthday this year. It’s about time I upgraded.”

“Pipe down and eat your crab.”

My family had seemed somewhat uneasy when I first began entering the Tower, but these days, they hardly worried at all.

My parents had always been the anxious sort, but even they knew that repeatedly clearing the first floor on Easy was hardly something worth losing sleep over.

I entered the Tower, returned to reality, and slipped back into my ordinary life.

My days were always much the same.

I met up with friends, went on trips, and ate out with my family like this.

That was how I lived.

After all, wasn’t the whole reason I climbed the Tower so that I could keep living happily?

There was no guarantee that this happiness would still be here next year.

So I had to savor every last bit of it while I could.

Every year, I gambled my life simply for the right to remain alive.

And it wasn’t only my life hanging in the balance.

The fate of all humanity rested there with it.

Something so grotesquely abnormal that I could never have imagined it before had somehow become part of my everyday life.

As my thoughts drifted, the sheer absurdity of it struck me all over again, and a quiet laugh slipped out.

“Why are you suddenly laughing? Did you eat something weird?”

“Watching you eat reminded me of a cow chewing its cud.”

Ignoring my sister’s murderous glare, I took a sip of my drink.

At that point, six months remained before I would have to challenge the fourth floor.

***

Beginning with the incident involving the Fallen, one event after another came and went...

And then early autumn arrived, though September still clung stubbornly to the summer heat.

No matter how determined I was to live each day to the fullest, time continued to pass in the blink of an eye.

Before I knew it, only around two months remained on the Nightmare Time Limit.

Since I had to enter when only twenty days remained, however, my actual entry date would come twenty days sooner.

[Nightmare (21)]

The number of Nightmare Climbers had climbed, dropped by one or two, and fluctuated repeatedly until it finally settled at just over twenty.

The range of participating countries had grown more diverse as well.

Even so, the United States and China remained the most aggressive contenders on Nightmare.

Both countries had cleared the third floor this time and were now close on my heels.

—Sources indicate that the Nobel Committee is currently discussing whether to nominate Person123 for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

To my surprise, reports like that had begun circulating.

Well, well.

Me, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

The idea was ridiculous enough to make me laugh, but honestly, I did think I deserved it.

Pretending otherwise would have gone beyond humility and straight into dishonesty.

Still, how exactly were they planning to award it to someone whose identity they did not even know?

I assumed it was little more than empty talk and would eventually fade away...

—This year’s Nobel Peace Prize... has been awarded to the great hero who saved humanity. That hero is Person123.

The Committee acknowledges that this decision represents a departure from established convention. The recipient’s real name, nationality, and exact identity remain unknown.

Nevertheless, his accomplishments in preventing the destruction of the world on multiple occasions are known to all humanity. They are undeniable and beyond reasonable dispute. It is on this basis that the Committee has reached its decision.

The Committee believes that his extraordinary sacrifice and devotion, unprecedented in human history, warrant an equally unprecedented decision. Just as the Special Resolution Recommending Person123 for the Nobel Peace Prize was unanimously adopted at the recent United Nations General Assembly, it may be said that the entire world stands as the nominator for this award.

The medal and monetary prize for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize will be held in trust by the Nobel Foundation until the recipient presents himself in person. The award ceremony will be held at Oslo City Hall in Norway, where the Secretary-General of the United Nations will accept the prize on his behalf before the eyes of the world...

They had actually given it to me.

Woohoo!

I had won the Nobel Peace Prize!

Not that I could tell anyone about it.

My reaction amounted to little more than, Huh. All right, then.

[Chicken Sandwich: One could hardly say their intentions are entirely pure. They’re afraid Mr. Kim might change his mind at any moment. By emphasizing your responsibility as humanity’s hero, they’re trying to bind you a little more tightly to your role.]

[Person123: I see.]

[Chicken Sandwich: Are you disappointed?]

[Person123: No. It’s only natural for them to be anxious.]

In the end, I was climbing the Tower for my own sake as well.

If I refused to climb, both my family and I would die.

I was not carrying some noble, selfless cause on my shoulders, so I had no reason to concern myself with what other people might be thinking.

.

.

.

[Nightmare]

Participants: 184,386

Time Limit: 25 days 23 hours 35 minutes 17 seconds

Floor Reached: 4F

Could I clear the fourth floor?

Would I truly make it out alive again?

The flood of idle doubts that came whenever the Time Limit drew near had become familiar by now.

I calmed my mind and focused on training.

Though, in practice, “training” mostly meant grinding my skill proficiency.

Whooosh!

A red point of light appeared in the air just above the ground, and a spherical field expanded around it.

The Undead that wandered into the field burst into flames and collapsed.

[Skill: Scorching Zone (Rare+)]

Creates a Scorching Zone with a five-meter radius at a location within ten meters. Targets that enter the area continuously suffer burn damage. Requires fifty seconds of Mental Concentration to cast.

Classification: Magic Type

Willpower Consumption: 30 per second

Cooldown: 1 minute

It was a newly acquired Rare+ grade Magic Type skill.

A ground-based area skill that continuously damaged anything within its range.

Its power was solid, and the area it covered was impressively wide.

For the record, this was not one of the skills I had received from Bilon.

I had acquired it after enhancing Flame Strike from +2 all the way to +5.

Apparently, when a skill reached +5, the final enhancement did not improve the original skill’s effect.

Instead, it granted a random skill from a similar category, one grade higher.

One Skill Enhancement Stone had come from my reward for clearing the third floor.

Bilon had generously secured the other two.

I poured all three into Flame Strike, and Scorching Zone was what emerged.

Who would have guessed the system had been hiding a mechanic like that?

The only thing I could not understand was why no one had discovered it before.

Enhancement Stones were rarer than Skill Stones, certainly, but had no one ever enhanced even a single Normal-grade skill all the way to +5?

Perhaps not.

Or perhaps someone had already discovered the secret and chosen to keep it to themselves.

[Person123: Enhancing a skill to +5 grants a random skill one grade higher from a similar category.]

So I posted the information in the Communication Channel.

There was no need to thank me.

In any case, choosing to pour all my resources into Flame Strike instead of spreading the enhancements across several skills had clearly been the correct decision.

Flame Strike now launched five fireballs, and since +5 was the maximum, it could not be enhanced any further.

More importantly, however, was Scorching Zone.

It was my first-ever sustained magic skill.

As long as my Willpower did not run out, I could maintain it for as long as I wished.

Which meant that, for me, it could remain active indefinitely.

Considering the theme of the fourth floor, I would say I had drawn a very good hand.

[Skill: Skin Hardening (Rare)]

Hardens the skin to reinforce defense.

Classification: Physical Type

Willpower Consumption: 5 per second

Cooldown: 10 seconds

[Skill: Minor Burn Resistance (Normal+)]

Grants slight resistance to burns.

Classification: Physical Type (Passive)

Willpower Consumption: None

Cooldown: None

[Skill: Frost Shot (Normal)]

Launches a blast of cold energy that freezes the point of impact. Requires ten seconds of Mental Concentration to cast.

Classification: Magic Type

Willpower Consumption: 50

Cooldown: 10 seconds

[Item: Rupadupa’s Ring]

A ring imbued with the will of the clumsy shaman Rupadupa. Increases Willpower recovery speed by 10%.

Of course, Bilon had also passed several other things on to me in the meantime.

First was Skin Hardening, a skill I had been trying to obtain for quite a while.

It was another sustained skill that consumed Willpower per second, which made it exceptionally efficient for me.

The fourth floor probably would not place much emphasis on defense, so the timing was somewhat disappointing.

Next came the Normal+ passive skill Minor Burn Resistance and the Normal-grade skill Frost Shot.

Neither was particularly remarkable.

Finally, I had obtained an item as well—one that increased the rate at which Willpower recovered.

Naturally, I did not especially need it.

Still, it was better than nothing.

At the very least, it would allow me to recover Willpower a little faster while time was stopped.

Three skills, two Enhancement Stones, and one item in total.

Bilon had managed to gather quite a haul over the past year.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 4F]

[Level: 45]

[Willpower: 1,250]

[Skills: Destruction Ray (Epic+), Teleportation (Rare+), Sixth Sense (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Scorching Zone (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+5), Blade Storm (Rare), Exaltation (Rare), Skin Hardening (Rare), Fairy Light Bullet (Normal+) (+1), Minor Poison Resistance (Normal+), Minor Burn Resistance (Normal+), Leap (Normal) (+1), Swing (Normal), Thrust (Normal), Frost Shot (Normal)]

“Diul, you’re going to unlock another ability when I’m in danger this time too, right? Right?”

I looked up at Diul as I asked.

Diul responded with his usual indifference.

His third ability still had not been unlocked.

And that was despite the fact that I had taken him on a walk nearly every night for an entire year without missing a single day.

I had to admit, it hurt a little.

Still, through continued use, Concealment’s duration had increased to around fifteen minutes.

I believed that when the situation became truly dangerous, Diul would awaken another ability.

After running a Repeat Clear of the third floor and defeating the Undead boss, I summoned Plli.

“All right. Time to spar.”

I scrambled aside as Plli lunged at me.

In addition to practicing my skills, I regularly fought the fully enhanced third-floor boss and Plli without relying on them.

My body’s instincts mattered too.

Once training was over, I left the Tower.

When I came out of my room to get a glass of water, I found my family gathered in the living room, watching television.

—Massive crowds are expected to gather at Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul on October 23rd. Similar gatherings are anticipated in Times Square in New York and St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, where people will take to the streets to pray for Person123’s successful clear...

My sister spoke while watching the report.

“Should we go out there too?”

Mom immediately rejected the idea.

“Absolutely not. It’ll be dangerous with that many people packed together. We can pray from home.”

She had a point.

There was no telling what kind of chaos might erupt in a crowd that size.

Especially if so many people gathered in one place and I actually failed...

My sister turned toward me as I drank my water.

“Oppa, why don’t you stay home like everyone else? Why are you going on another trip?”

“None of your business.”

“Just make sure you pray properly while you’re away, okay? Seriously.”

I already prayed for myself every single day.

O Lord, grant me the strength to survive that wicked Tower, and so on.

This time, as always, I would leave on my trip two days before the twenty-day mark.

It would be one final opportunity to clear my head and steady my nerves before challenging the fourth floor.

—The government will begin processing Non-climbing Climbers on November 10th, and...

Another report followed.

This one concerned the Non-climbing Climbers.

I had entered the first floor with approximately three hours remaining on the Time Limit.

That meant their deaths would not fall exactly one year after the previous deadline, but three hours earlier.

Not that it made much difference.

The government had offered substantial settlements to unregistered Climbers.

The payments also served as compensation for agreeing either to enter the Tower voluntarily or to undergo euthanasia, after which their bodies would be cremated until not even a corpse remained.

There was no way to know whether someone who died before the deadline might still become one of the Fallen.

And even with all those precautions in place, no one could say where the next monsters might emerge.

There was nothing else to be done, I supposed.

Not that dwelling on it now would accomplish anything.

I had my own clear to worry about.

“I’m heading out.”

Several days passed, and the day of my trip finally arrived.

Following my yearly ritual, I hid the will I had written somewhere in my room, slung my backpack over my shoulder, and stepped outside.

***

October 22nd.

Another year had already passed.

Now, only a single day remained before the fateful moment when Person123 would challenge the fourth floor.

It was the kind of day when no one could keep their mind on their work.

By tomorrow, the world would once again learn whether it would survive or fall.

“...Huh?”

“Hm?”

People walking through the streets suddenly stopped and turned toward the empty air.

Confused, they stared at the message floating before their eyes.

It was a message that had appeared not only before the Climbers, but before every person in the world.

***

I had flown to Jeju Island for my trip, spent the entire day enjoying myself, and returned to the hotel.

[Nightmare]

Participants: 183,160

Time Limit: 21 days 1 minute 25 seconds

Floor Reached: 4F

Only one day remained.

Tomorrow, I planned to climb Hallasan during the day.

That would be the final stop on my trip.

Afterward, I would return to the hotel and begin preparing to enter the Tower.

I was sipping a beer and enjoying the quiet, leisurely evening when it happened.

[The Tower is making a proposal to ‘Person123’.]

I froze with the can halfway to my lips.

Slowly, I lowered it and stared at the message hovering before me.

“...What?”

What the hell was this?

[If ‘Person123’ selects one of the following penalties and enters Floor 4, the rule ‘Climbers who fail to enter the Tower within 3 years will die’ shall be nullified.]

[1. Physical abilities reduced by 50%]

[2. Skill cooldowns doubled]

[3. Three random skills prohibited from use]

[4. Highest-grade skill prohibited from use]

[5. Items prohibited from use]

[The penalty will remain in effect only during the first conquest of Floor 4.]

[‘Person123’, if you accept the proposal, select a penalty and enter.]