Chapter 55: Sub-Tower (1)

After posting the information about the 4th Floor on the Communication Channel, I spent most of my time going in and out of it.

Because of the shop system, the 4th Floor was particularly difficult for the other Nightmare clearers to plan around. That was only natural.

In the end, everything came down to figuring out how to spend their points as efficiently as possible.

Using the information I had posted, Rhino devised one strategy after another and constantly consulted me, asking about every detail he wanted to clarify.

And Rhino was merely the most visible of them. Climbers from plenty of other countries came to me for advice as well.

As always, I helped them however I could.

This floor simply kept me busier than the others had.

There was no need to rush into the 5th Floor, so I decided I could enter it a little later.

[Time remaining until the first Sub-Tower appears: 5 minutes 29 seconds]

Before I knew it, an entire week had passed.

Only a few minutes remained before the Sub-Tower appeared.

“I’m scared. I’m seriously scared...”

I was terrified of whatever madness the Tower was about to unleash this time.

Would the world descend into chaos again, as it had with The Fallen?

Honestly, I was more worried that something even worse might happen.

Sitting at my desk, I silently watched the countdown.

Three seconds.

Two.

One.

The moment the timer reached zero—

[The first Sub-Tower has appeared.]

A message materialized before me.

[The Sub-Tower consists of 10 floors.]

[Once a Climber enters the Sub-Tower, they cannot leave until the final floor has been cleared.]

[If the Sub-Tower is not cleared within the time limit, the area within a 100-kilometer radius will be eroded by the Tower’s Curse.]

[The Erosion is permanent. Any human within the eroded zone will immediately die from the Tower’s Curse.]

[Climbers may enter the Sub-Tower from anywhere within a 100-kilometer radius.]

[Time limit for the first Sub-Tower: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds]

[Time remaining until the second Sub-Tower appears: 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds]

I calmly read through the messages as they appeared one after another.

By the time I reached the end, the conclusion was painfully simple.

“Haaah...”

This was insane.

What the hell was this bullshit now?

***

The first Sub-Tower appeared in China.

A colossal black tower erupted from the heart of Chongqing.

The instant it emerged, an earthquake shook the surrounding region, claiming countless lives.

But even more alarming than the destruction was the message delivered by the Tower.

[Phoenix: Erosion? So the Tower’s Curse is going to infect the land itself?]

[Jupiter: Meaning everyone within a 100km radius dies.]

[Turtle: Since they die from the Tower’s Curse, won’t they come back as The Fallen?]

[AverageHuman: Damn... so China’s screwed?]

[Wade: Can’t they just evacuate? A week should be plenty of time.]

[SteelSword: A 100km radius, and you think everyone can just leave within a week? Is your head only there for decoration?]

[CavalryCharge: The real problem is that the Erosion is permanent. It sounds like the whole area becomes a dead zone no one can ever enter again.]

[SongGyeong: I live in Chongqing, and it’s complete chaos. Every road out of the city is jammed. You can’t even drive anywhere.]

—The first Sub-Tower has appeared in Chongqing, China. The Chinese government has yet to issue an official statement, while Chongqing and Sichuan Province remain in a state of widespread chaos...

The entire world was in an uproar.

Inside China, the situation was even worse.

It was not only Chongqing. Nanchong, Suining, Guang’an, and several other cities in eastern Sichuan also fell within the projected 100-kilometer Erosion radius.

A mass exodus began throughout the threatened zone and the surrounding regions. Roads became completely gridlocked, while countless people attempted to escape on foot.

Despite the desperate appeals of its citizens, the Chinese government did little more than call for an orderly evacuation. For an entire day, it offered no further statement.

[MotherNature: Who’s going to clear that thing?]

[WalkerWacker: You can only enter from within the 100km radius. If anyone clears it, it’ll have to be a Chinese Climber.]

[Ultrasonic: But who’d be crazy enough to go in without any information? lol They have to clear ten whole floors.]

[Watangku: I wonder how difficult it is.]

[EggToast: If you’re that curious, go in yourself.]

On the second day after the Sub-Tower appeared, as the situation continued to deteriorate, a new message surfaced.

[The first Sub-Tower has been cleared to the final floor.]

The Sub-Tower had been cleared.

People were stunned that it had happened so quickly, and everyone immediately wanted to know who had accomplished it.

The answer soon came to light.

—Wang Kai, China’s Hard-difficulty record holder, has successfully cleared the first Sub-Tower.

Wang Kai.

China’s Hard-difficulty record holder and officially the highest-level Climber in the world.

He had entered the Sub-Tower and cleared it.

[When a Sub-Tower is cleared, the Tower’s power takes root in the surrounding land within a 100-kilometer radius, forming a Mana Vein.]

That message appeared immediately after the clear.

A Mana Vein would form throughout the entire 100-kilometer radius.

It did not take long for people to discover what that meant.

—A large-scale Magic Stone deposit has been discovered in the area surrounding the Chongqing Sub-Tower. Authorities believe its appearance is connected to the Mana Vein announced by the Tower...

Magic Stones began surfacing throughout the region, both aboveground and deep beneath the earth.

Even more astonishingly, the stones appeared in every grade.

Lowest.

Low.

Mid.

High.

Even Supreme.

The higher the grade, the rarer the stones were. Even so, the mere fact that Supreme-grade Magic Stones—previously obtainable only from Nightmare difficulty—could now be found in the real world was staggering.

The Chinese government immediately designated every area where Magic Stones had been discovered as restricted territory and prohibited civilian access.

Even though Climbers could bring Magic Stones out of the Tower through Repeat Clearing, the supply had never come close to meeting the overwhelming demand.

Repeat Clearing could be attempted indefinitely, but rewards appeared only once every ten runs or so, and even then, the number of Magic Stones obtained was small.

Furthermore, the Magic Stones awarded for clearing the Tower did not belong to the state. Governments ultimately had to purchase them from individual Climbers with real money.

For any country, the appearance of a Mana Vein was nothing short of an enormous windfall.

The Sub-Tower was not merely a threat.

If cleared, it offered a reward every bit as great as the danger it posed.

[Time remaining until the second Sub-Tower appears: 1 day 20 hours 16 minutes 48 seconds]

For a time, the world’s attention shifted toward the immense Mana Vein China had acquired.

Even so, no country wanted the next Sub-Tower to appear within its own borders.

As expected, Wang Kai shared nothing.

He revealed neither what he had encountered inside the Sub-Tower nor how difficult it had been.

With no information available, the possibility of failing to clear the tower overshadowed even the promise of a Mana Vein.

Countries across the world condemned China for refusing to share what it knew.

China, however, continued to repeat the same position: Wang Kai’s silence was his personal decision, and the government had no authority to force him to disclose anything.

It was an obvious lie.

Everyone knew that Wang Kai’s actions reflected the will of the Chinese government in all but name.

A chaotic week passed, and the time for the second Sub-Tower to appear drew near.

[The second Sub-Tower has appeared.]

This time, it was Mongolia.

A black Sub-Tower rose in the center of Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital.

The Mongolian government immediately requested China’s assistance.

They had no other choice.

Without knowing how difficult the Sub-Tower was, what Climber would willingly volunteer to enter it?

To make matters worse, Mongolia lagged far behind other countries when it came to Tower climbing.

A nation’s pool of talented Climbers generally reflected its overall national power, and Mongolia’s highest-level Climber was more than ten levels below Wang Kai.

China’s response to Mongolia’s request was simple.

Of course we will help.

But you will pay a price worthy of that help, won’t you?

For some time, the news was dominated by reports of negotiations between the Mongolian and Chinese governments.

***

Two weeks had passed since the first Sub-Tower appeared.

Wang Kai had cleared the tower [N O V E L I G H T] in China with astonishing speed.

The moment I heard the news, I was finally able to relax—if only slightly.

‘So the difficulty isn’t completely absurd.’

The second Sub-Tower had appeared in Mongolia.

Northeast Asia again.

Unsurprisingly, China refused to disclose any information about it.

Every day, the news reported on the ongoing negotiations between Mongolia and China.

China was making unreasonable demands. Mongolia had no choice but to accept them.

That was more or less the situation.

[Time remaining for the second Sub-Tower: 5 days 9 hours 28 minutes 36 seconds]

I made my decision quickly.

“Might as well go clear it myself.”

Ever since the first Sub-Tower appeared in China, I had been telling myself that I would step in if the situation became serious.

Wang Kai had revealed nothing, so I could not be certain, but I suspected that clearing a Sub-Tower granted the individual clearer a personal reward in addition to creating a Mana Vein.

More importantly, now that Wang Kai’s successful clear had been confirmed, I doubted the Sub-Tower posed any extraordinary danger.

Surely no other Climber had managed to clear something beyond my ability.

Wang Kai was currently on the 15th Floor of Hard difficulty.

He was level 60.

In other words, he was the same level as me.

But even at the same level...

I had the Time Stop Ability.

It was not arrogance.

It was simply a fact that my overall capabilities far surpassed those of any other Climber at the same level.

Of course, it was possible that the difficulty varied from one Sub-Tower to another.

Even so, if I could not clear it, no one else would stand a chance either.

With the same resolve I always carried into Nightmare difficulty, I decided to clear the Sub-Tower.

There was only one complication.

To enter the Sub-Tower, I had to be physically present within a 100-kilometer radius.

Which meant I needed to travel to Mongolia.

“No flights, obviously...”

The moment the Sub-Tower appeared in Mongolia, our government had immediately imposed the highest-level travel ban.

They certainly worked fast when they wanted to.

Still, I had another way.

By sheer coincidence, I had obtained exactly the item I needed as a hidden reward from the 4th Floor.

[Item: Premium Warp Device]

[A warp device representing the pinnacle of the Dateian Empire’s magitech. It is charged using Willpower and transports the user 10 meters for every 1 point of Willpower consumed. The user may travel either to a saved location or in a chosen direction. A maximum of one location may be saved. The device cannot transport the user between the interior and exterior of the Tower. Activation requires 10 minutes.]

[Current charge: 100/1,000,000]

I looked it up.

The distance from Seoul to Ulaanbaatar was approximately two thousand kilometers.

The warp device could easily cover that distance.

However, three potential problems came to mind.

First, the distance was considerable.

How large would the margin of error be?

Hmm...

I did not think that would be much of an issue.

The warp device had no meaningful cooldown.

If I arrived in the wrong place, I could simply recalibrate and warp again. All I needed was a reliable GPS device.

Besides, I only had to get within a hundred kilometers of the Sub-Tower.

A small error would not matter.

The second problem was the possibility of someone seeing me warp.

That one was easy to solve as well.

I would activate Concealment before using the device.

Concealment was broken when I used a skill, not when I used an item.

And the warp device was an item.

Then came the final problem.

The real problem.

Distance to Mongolia: approximately 2,000 kilometers.

Willpower required to charge the warp device: approximately 200,000.

...How long was it going to take me to fill this thing?

My current Willpower was 2,100.

That meant I would need to exhaust and restore my entire supply nearly a hundred times.

One hundred hours of charging.

It would essentially be a repeat of what I had done while firing the cannon during the 3rd Floor’s hidden reward.

And I would have to do it all over again for the return journey.

...There was nothing else I could do.

I could not simply sit at home and allow Mongolia’s capital to be transformed into a lifeless wasteland because I was unwilling to endure a little hardship.

Strike while the iron is hot, as they say.

I immediately began charging the warp device.

Approximately 160 hours using Self-Time Stop and the Room of Mind.

Starting now.

Charge the warp device.

Stop time.

Restore my Willpower.

Charge it again.

Restore it again.

When I stepped into the kitchen to get some water, my mother looked at me and asked,

“Are you tired, Seo-hyeon? Why do you look like that?”

“...I guess I’m a little tired.”

I was only halfway finished.

I returned to my room and began the remaining fifty hours.

Charge.

Restore.

Charge.

Restore.

Chargerestorechargerestore—

[Current charge: 210,100/1,000,000]

“...Haaah.”

Finally.

It was fully charged.

I changed my clothes and prepared to leave the house.

‘Should I write a will?’

Honestly, I did not think I would fail to clear the tower.

Still, just in case, I wrote one—as I always did before entering Nightmare difficulty.

“I’m heading out.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m meeting a friend. I might be back pretty late.”

After searching online for what I needed, I went to an electronics store and purchased a high-end GPS unit from a reputable brand.

I spent some time familiarizing myself with its controls.

With that, my preparations were complete.

[Would you like to save your current location as a point?]

I rented a motel room and saved my current position.

Then, using a map application and a compass application, I oriented myself northwest toward Ulaanbaatar.

I activated the warp device and waited ten minutes.

[0:05]

“Here we go.”

Just before the countdown reached zero, I activated Concealment.

The warp device engaged.

The space before me twisted and buckled.

The Mongolian Sub-Tower.

Now...

I was coming to clear it.