Chapter 5: Nightmare, 1st Floor (4)

The White House Situation Room.

Every major figure in the United States government and military had gathered there, including the President himself.

A grave silence hung over the room as every eye remained fixed on the enormous screen.

[02:46:32]

As the countdown continued to tick downward, the shadows on their faces deepened with every passing second.

The Time Limit for the Tower’s Nightmare difficulty.

The countdown to humanity’s extinction.

“What is the current situation, Director Ban?”

The President was the first to break the silence.

Ban, director of the newly established Tower Climbing Management Bureau, answered while staring into the empty air before him.

“The rate of attrition is accelerating. We currently have around seventy-six thousand people remaining... but if the Time Limit falls any further, we may see a massive drop in numbers all at once.”

He felt no desire to blame them.

Tens of thousands had already died, yet not a single person had managed to clear the floor.

Human extinction might have been looming over them, but what person would willingly throw themselves into a death trap with a zero-percent survival rate?

If anything, the more than twenty thousand people who had challenged it thus far deserved admiration for their courage.

Who could have imagined any of this even a year ago?

The end of the world had not come through climate change, nuclear war, or an asteroid impact.

It had come in the form of a Tower.

The Tower had appeared.

Climbers had begun ascending it.

They returned carrying a new substance known as Magic Stones, and the world was transformed almost overnight.

It had not taken long for nations to realize that the future would be reshaped entirely around the Tower and its Climbers.

The United States had been among the first to prepare for the coming upheaval.

In the end, however, all those preparations had amounted to nothing.

Even Hard difficulty, which was considered brutally unforgiving in its own right, had already been cleared beyond the sixth floor.

So what made Nightmare difficulty so impossible that no one had managed to clear even its first floor?

Soon, the curse promised by the Tower would descend.

When the countdown reached zero, ninety-nine percent of humanity would die.

The very notion was absurd beyond belief.

And yet, how could anyone dismiss it?

The prophecy had been delivered by a transcendent being—one capable of raising an enormous Tower in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, selecting people at random across the world, and granting them supernatural powers.

If it possessed the power to accomplish all of that, then wiping out humanity in the blink of an eye would hardly be beyond its reach.

The only act of defiance left to them was to turn the full firepower of humanity’s accumulated technology against that incomprehensible Tower.

Preparations were already complete.

If no one cleared Nightmare difficulty before the Time Limit fell to thirty minutes, a nuclear bombardment of the Pacific Tower would begin.

That was the final line they had drawn.

It was a last-resort operation coordinated with China, Russia, and every other major world power.

Humanity’s final gamble.

But everyone in the room already understood the truth.

It would accomplish nothing.

They had long since concluded that the Pacific Tower—whose foundations were believed to extend all the way to the Earth’s inner core—could not be destroyed by any known means.

The unidentified energy barrier surrounding its surface seemed to exist beyond the laws of physics themselves, repelling every form of external physical force.

The nuclear assault would be nothing more than one final, desperate act of defiance.

“God help us...”

There was nothing left for them to do but pray.

Pray that someone among the remaining Climbers would succeed.

Pray that, somehow, a miracle would occur.

“If the Time Limit falls to one hour, I will enter the Tower myself. I’ll have someone else take over the status reports.”

Every gaze in the room turned toward Director Ban.

He, too, was a Climber assigned to Nightmare difficulty.

“Tens of thousands have already given their lives. As director of the Tower Climbing Management Bureau, shouldn’t I at least fulfill my final duty?”

“...Understood. Thank you for your dedication, Director Ban.”

The others responded with solemn nods.

Adding one more person to the challenge would do virtually nothing to change the odds.

Ban, his expression no less grave than theirs, turned to check the remaining numbers once more.

Then—

[All difficulties’ Floor 1 have been cleared.]

[The Tower calls for new Climbers.]

Messages materialized before his eyes.

Ban blinked.

Then his eyes flew open so wide that they looked ready to tear as he hurriedly checked the status of Nightmare difficulty.

[Nightmare]

Personnel: 175,837

Time Limit: 1 year, 2 hours, 39 minutes, 2 seconds

Reached Floor: 2

“It’s...”

His voice caught.

Then he forgot all restraint and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“It’s done!”

Everyone in the room stared at him in shock.

“Holy fucking shit! It’s done! Someone did it! Nightmare Floor 1 has been cleared!”

“...Is that true?!”

“A message just appeared saying that Floor 1 has been cleared on every difficulty! Nightmare’s Time Limit has been extended by one year—I’ve confirmed it! Hahaha!”

RAAAAAH—!

The room erupted.

People threw their arms around one another, shouting in joy. Some broke down in tears of relief.

Director Ban embraced his deputy director, Samuel, and burst into laughter.

“What a relief, Director!”

Humanity had survived.

It was only a one-year reprieve, but at that moment, no one cared.

“The personnel count for every difficulty has increased by one hundred thousand as well. It happened the moment the message announcing the Floor 1 clears appeared.”

“Really? Could the personnel limit increase every time an entire floor is cleared across all difficulties?”

Their celebration was short-lived.

There was work to be done.

Nightmare Floor 1 had been cleared, and one hundred thousand new Climbers had been called for each difficulty.

A new phase had begun, and it seemed they would not be given even a moment to catch their breath.

“By the way, who could it have been? The hero who cleared Nightmare difficulty.”

“That is what we’ll have to find out.”

It was the first-ever clear of Nightmare difficulty—a place from which not a single person had returned alive until now.

Whoever the Climber was, and whatever country they came from, news of their identity would most likely surface soon.

Unless, of course, they were an Unregistered Climber who had never reported themselves to their government.

Regardless, one thing was certain.

For this moment, at least, that person had saved humanity from the brink of extinction.

My eyes opened.

I sat up and looked around.

“...?”

I’m alive?

I immediately checked my body.

The bolt that had pierced straight through my stomach was gone without a trace. My abdomen was completely intact.

So was my neck.

There were no bloodstains, and even my torn clothes had been restored.

It was as though everything had been returned to perfect condition.

Right before I lost consciousness, I thought I saw a message saying that I had cleared the floor...

Did I really manage it?

If clearing the floor had healed my body, then yes.

It had worked.

I checked Nightmare difficulty’s status and confirmed it.

[Nightmare]

Personnel: 175,830

Time Limit: 1 year, 2 hours, 38 minutes, 31 seconds

Reached Floor: 2

The highest reached floor had changed to Floor 2, and an entire year had been added to the Time Limit.

For some reason, the first thing that escaped me was a hollow laugh.

“Haha...”

I actually did it.

The world isn’t ending after all.

Joy, relief, disbelief—countless emotions tangled together inside me.

It felt as though I had won a wager in which I had staked absolutely everything.

Which, in truth, was exactly what had happened.

...But what’s with the increase in personnel?

It wasn’t only Nightmare difficulty.

The personnel count for every difficulty had risen by one hundred thousand.

I tilted my head in confusion before looking around once more.

I was inside a wide, circular chamber, much like the cavern from before.

I had a fairly good idea of where I was.

The Reward Room, perhaps.

Climbers did not immediately leave the Tower after successfully clearing a floor.

First, they were taken to a place known as the Reward Room, where they received what they had earned.

Ah.

The messages that had appeared just before I lost consciousness were beginning to return to me.

I murmured quietly.

“Status Window.”

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 2]

[Level: 10]

[Willpower: 100]

[Skills: – ]

A simple window materialized before my eyes.

So this is the Status Window.

It was the universal reward granted to Climbers when they cleared the Tower’s first floor for the first time.

Through the Status Window, Climbers grew stronger as they ascended, eventually surpassing ordinary human limits.

There was also something called the Communication Channel...

I could check that later.

I rose to my feet.

For some time now, I had felt energy surging through my body, so I decided to test it by jumping straight upward.

My body shot several meters into the air with almost no effort.

“Whoa.”

These must be the physical enhancements from leveling up.

I bounced around the chamber and threw a few punches, testing a body that now felt entirely different from the one I had known.

This is seriously insane.

But why is my level so high?

Level 10?

I knew that higher difficulties awarded greater level gains.

Was this because I had cleared Nightmare?

I decided to stop testing my body and inspect the actual rewards.

Two stones lay on the ground nearby, each radiating a different color of light.

I approached the one glowing gold first.

[Supreme Magic Stone]

A Magic Stone of supreme quality.

Information surfaced in my mind the moment I picked it up.

“So this is a Magic Stone.”

It was one of the rewards obtainable from the Tower.

Climbers supposedly made fortunes by selling them.

People regarded Magic Stones as an extraordinary resource capable of advancing human civilization by leaps and bounds, though I did not know the specific details.

I placed it back on the ground and examined the other stone.

It was shaped like a teardrop and radiated a soft green light.

[Skill Stone: Flame Strike (Rare)]

Using this will grant ‘Skill: Flame Strike (Rare).’

[Would you like to use ‘Skill Stone: Flame Strike (Rare)’?]

Ah, a Skill Stone.

A stone that granted its user a skill.

But as far as I knew, Skill Stones were not supposed to appear as early as the first floor.

And this one was Rare grade on top of that?

“Flame Strike... Does it shoot fire?”

The name alone gave me a rough idea of what the skill did.

I chose to acquire it immediately.

[‘Skill: Flame Strike (Rare)’ has been acquired.]

The Skill Stone dissolved in my hand, scattering into particles of light that sank into my body.

[Skill: Flame Strike °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° (Rare)]

Launches a concentrated blast of flame that explodes upon impact. Requires 20 seconds of Mental Concentration to cast.

Classification: Magic Type

Willpower Cost: 100

Cooldown: 30 seconds

I read through the description.

Can I test it here?

“Oh.”

Then it struck me.

The outside world.

I shouldn’t be wasting time in here.

I needed to get home as quickly as possible.

Judging by the Time Limit, more than thirty minutes had passed since I entered the Tower.

[Would you like to exit the Tower?]

The message appeared the moment the thought crossed my mind.

“Exit.”

The scenery before my eyes shifted.

I found myself back in the same alley where I had entered the Tower, standing exactly where I had been before.

I slipped the Magic Stone into my pocket, stepped out of the alley, and headed home.

When I get back, will my family be sighing in relief too?

The alarm I had set probably had not gone off yet, so they likely had not discovered the letter I had left behind.

Yeah.

For now...

I just need to rest.

All I wanted was to get home and collapse into bed.