Chapter 6: Sharing Information (1)

Nightmare difficulty’s first floor cleared with only three hours remaining before the apocalypse! Humanity narrowly escapes extinction!

I had been sleeping like the dead since yesterday afternoon and didn’t wake until dawn.

Out of habit, I fumbled around for my phone.

Whether it was XTube news or articles on the major portal sites, every screen was plastered with the same story.

I tossed the phone onto my pillow and stretched.

“Nnngh...”

All things considered, I felt surprisingly refreshed.

Of course I did.

I had just overcome an enormous crisis.

Granted, all I had accomplished was buying humanity one more year, but still...

I hadn’t died yesterday, and now I had another full year to live.

That was a good thing, wasn’t it?

Ha ha ha.

It had certainly been the kind of day that made a person appreciate the value of being alive.

“Hah...”

Right.

One year.

Don’t tell me I’m going to have to challenge Floor 2 as well.

Honestly, I had felt it yesterday.

No one was going to be able to clear this.

Nightmare difficulty had never been designed for human beings to conquer.

Even I had only barely survived thanks to my ability—and a considerable amount of luck on top of that.

‘No, wait. Floor 1 might be different now.’

Now that I had cleared it, Floor 1 was no longer a completely unknown place with absolutely no information available.

If I shared what I knew, wouldn’t other people begin clearing it, one or two at a time?

Once the information became public, people would naturally prepare themselves thoroughly, and more challengers would step forward.

And if more people began climbing Nightmare difficulty that way?

Some other exceptionally talented person might go on to clear Floor 2, Floor 3, and everything beyond them!

After all, once someone cleared Floor 1, they would level up and gain access to skills.

Then I wouldn’t have to risk my life by entering the Tower again.

I could return to my old, peaceful life.

I opened the feature I hadn’t checked yesterday.

“Communication Channel.”

The Communication Channel was a place where Climbers could speak to one another and create posts.

In other words, it was an online community exclusively for Climbers.

Since it was a reward granted for clearing Floor 1, I supposed it would be more accurate to say it was exclusive to Climbers who had reached Floor 2 or higher.

[You have entered the Communication Channel for the first time.]

[Please set the nickname you will use in the Communication Channel.]

[Once set, your nickname cannot be changed.]

A nickname, huh?

I sank into thought for a moment.

Whenever I played games, I was the kind of person who could spend an eternity staring at the character-naming screen.

Ah, great.

Here I go wasting time on this again.

Let’s just choose something at random.

[‘Person’ is a nickname already in use.]

[‘Person123’ is an available nickname.]

[Would you like to set your nickname as ‘Person123’?]

[Your nickname has been set to ‘Person123’.]

The moment I finished setting my nickname, a window appeared before my eyes.

[Easy (30,561)]

[Normal (21,194)]

[Hard (3,935)]

[Nightmare (1)]

There were four separate windows, one for each difficulty.

The numbers beside them presumably represented the number of Climbers who had access to each Communication Channel.

As expected, I was the only person in Nightmare.

[You may only write posts in the Communication Channel corresponding to your own difficulty.]

I entered the Easy Communication Channel first.

Writing was restricted to the channel corresponding to one’s own difficulty, but there didn’t appear to be any restriction on entering other channels merely to read them.

[997/1,000]

[1,000/1,000]

[652/1,000]

Once I entered the Easy Communication Channel, I discovered that it was divided into several smaller sub-channels.

Each one had a maximum capacity of one thousand.

Were those numbers showing how many people were currently online?

I entered the channel with the largest number of users.

Everyone was discussing the person who had cleared Nightmare Floor 1.

[GrassBlade: Still no ID on the Nightmare clearer?]

[Macaron: Must really be an Unregistered Climber nobody knows about. Otherwise, they would’ve announced it by now, right?]

[Celestine: It hasn’t even been a full day yet.]

[EggRice: The government could be deliberately hiding them to protect their identity.]

[Peter3: Fair point. It’d be absolute chaos if their identity got out.]

[WarriorOfTheTower: Still, shouldn’t they at least release the information on Floor 1? In good conscience, for the sake of the world?]

[RollingTwist: Did you seriously just say “in good conscience” to the savior who extended Earth’s subscription by an entire year?]

[MrKim: fr tho I’m dying to know what kind of monster showed up that 40,000 people couldn’t clear it]

[FoxQuartre: What I wanna know most is what country they’re from.]

[MountainRiverSea: Chinese, obviously.]

[BlackTea: Oh, stop dreaming.]

So this was how it worked.

It was a forum where Climbers from all over the world could gather and communicate.

The fact that everything appeared in Korean presumably meant that the Tower was translating every message in real time, but that wasn’t especially surprising.

The Tower’s system messages probably appeared in each individual’s native language as well.

In any case, everyone seemed intensely interested in me.

‘An Unregistered Climber...’

Strictly speaking, failing to register as a Climber was illegal in Korea.

What would happen if I stepped forward now and registered?

What if I told the government that I was the person who had cleared Nightmare?

There would certainly be benefits.

A Climber who had cleared Floor 1 and awakened their Status Window could learn skills and bring items into the Tower.

Since every reward obtained from the Tower could also be brought back outside, it went without saying that not only Magic Stones, but also Skill Stones and various items, were actively traded.

If I reported myself to the government, I could probably receive considerable investment as well.

Skill Stones, equipment, whatever I needed.

But there was no chance any of it would come without conditions.

It would mean that I had to keep challenging Nightmare difficulty.

“Yeah, no. That’s not happening.”

I shook my head.

Once I revealed my identity, there would be no taking it back.

And beyond that, the burden of responsibility would be crushing.

It wasn’t as though I had some grand mission driving me forward.

I had only challenged Floor 1 out of sheer desperation, clutching at the smallest possibility because everyone was about to die anyway.

I had no desire to continue climbing the Tower if I could avoid it.

But if I revealed myself as the person who had cleared Nightmare, then regardless of my own wishes, I would never be able to return to an ordinary life.

One way or another.

All things considered, remaining unregistered was the better choice.

[Tulip: Hey, the number beside the Nightmare channel just changed to 1.]

[Frigg: ?]

[Cheesecake: Oh my god, it really did.]

[BlueWolf: Looks like our dear Nightmare clearer has finally entered the Communication Channel?]

[GrassBlade: No posts yet, though.]

The chat suddenly erupted.

I closed the Communication Channel.

I had become so absorbed in reading that the sun had risen before I even noticed.

When I stepped out of my room, my father was watching television in the living room while my mother prepared breakfast in the kitchen.

“Good morning.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah. I must’ve been exhausted yesterday.”

My father appeared to be in a fairly good mood.

The morning news was playing on the television.

Naturally, the leading story was the clearing of Nightmare difficulty.

“Good grief. What is this world coming to...?”

My father clicked his tongue.

Humanity now lived in a world where clearing each floor of the Tower extended its remaining lifespan by one year.

The world had become a joke that wasn’t even funny.

─ Following the successful clearing of Floor 1 across all difficulties of the Tower, another wave of individuals is reported to have received the Tower’s summons. As on the Day of Upheaval one year ago, a total of four hundred thousand people have been summoned this time as well...

My father looked away from the television and turned to me.

“Seo-hyeon, you weren’t summoned, were you?”

“Huh? No, of course not.”

“Good. Even if you ever do become a Climber, don’t you dare think about entering that Tower.”

“Come on, Dad. As if I would. What’s the point of making a fortune if one wrong step gets you killed?”

I brushed the subject aside as casually as I could.

“Exactly. That’s a relief, then. Nothing in this world is more precious than a person’s life.”

My thoughts exactly, Dad.

But, well...

Things had somehow ended up this way.

This was precisely why I could never tell my family the truth.

It was obvious how much they would worry.

“Are you going to work today?”

“Of course. I’m the boss, aren’t I? I have to go.”

After breakfast, my father left for work, and my younger sibling headed to school since classes had not been suspended.

The world had nearly ended just yesterday, yet today everyone was carrying on as though nothing had happened.

What an extraordinary country.

“Seo-hyeon, aren’t you going to school today?”

“I’m leaving at one.”

I had afternoon lectures.

I sat down at the desk in my room and opened the Communication Channel again.

[Nightmare (1)]

The Nightmare channel, containing no one but me, was completely empty.

Before leaving, I intended to post everything I knew about Nightmare Floor 1.

Please.

I hoped that after reading it, people capable of clearing Nightmare would begin appearing one after another.

‘...Is it kind of messed up to wish for that?’

Honestly, what I had experienced yesterday wasn’t something any sane person should ever have to endure.

But whether I wished for it or not wouldn’t change anything.

People were going to challenge Nightmare regardless.

Especially now that the number of eligible Climbers had increased.

I had simply been fortunate.

How was I supposed to carry such an enormous burden alone?

If the world was going to survive, more Climbers capable of clearing Nightmare were absolutely necessary.

This information was for them.

I gathered my thoughts and began to write.

***

In the aftermath of the successful clearing of Nightmare difficulty’s first floor, the entire world was scrambling to recover.

Humanity had avoided extinction, but the terror of annihilation that had swept across the globe before Floor 1 was cleared had been nothing short of a pandemic in its own right.

Financial markets everywhere were in ruins.

No small number of people had gone on violent rampages while screaming that the end was coming, throwing society into chaos.

All things considered, South Korea had actually endured the crisis remarkably well.

But what had happened was already in the past.

Now they had to prepare for what came next.

The threat of extinction had not vanished.

It had merely been postponed for a single year.

“We stood at a critical crossroads. In the face of the unknown threat represented by the Tower, the fate of humanity flickered like a candle in the wind, and every one of us prayed for a miracle. And a miracle truly occurred.

“As President of the United States, I wish to express my immeasurable gratitude and deepest respect to the hero who cleared Floor 1 of Nightmare difficulty. We now see hope before us. One year is a significant amount of time. To ensure that such a crisis never happens again, our administration will devote itself to the clearing of Nightmare difficulty with even greater resolve and determination than ever before.”

Meanwhile, the entire world was searching with desperate urgency for the identity of the Climber who had cleared Nightmare Floor 1.

“Still no announcement?”

“What about China or India?”

“Nothing. Could it really have been an Unregistered Climber?”

“They apparently entered the Climber Communication Channel. Have they posted anything?”

This was the only person in the world to have cleared Nightmare Floor 1, and their identity remained shrouded in mystery.

That individual now stood at the very forefront of humanity’s hope.

And the information they possessed about Nightmare Floor 1 was valuable beyond measure.

What if a particular nation was concealing the Nightmare clearer’s identity?

Or what if the clearer was an Unregistered Climber with no intention of revealing themselves?

In either case, what if someone intended to monopolize the information?

Only a single day had passed, but it was only natural that everyone was growing anxious.

Then, around noon—

“It’s... it’s up!”

“They released the information on Nightmare Floor 1? Just like that? Seriously?”

Without warning, a post appeared in the previously empty Nightmare Communication Channel.

[Person123: Information on clearing Nightmare Floor 1.]

It began with that single, straightforward sentence.

There was not even a word of introduction.