Chapter 69: Floor 5 (7)

The world continued to buzz with speculation about Person123.

[UpperHook: So is it actually confirmed that Person123 is Korean?]

[Daybreak: Buddy, are you seriously looking for confirmed facts in here?]

[BananaApple: This reminds me of when the “Person123 is a girl” theory was going around a few years ago. That turned into one giant trolling festival.]

[Galaxy: Well, at least one thing has been confirmed now. He’s a man.]

[GwangCheuseu: I’m telling you, he’s Mongolian. Mongolia was the first Sub-Tower he cleared, too.]

[Dragon’sBreath: Every other Sub-Tower only took him a few dozen minutes, but Mongolia took several days. Why would his own country take the longest?]

[Wave: Maybe he dragged it out on purpose so no one would figure out he was Mongolian.]

[Charlotte: If he cared that much, he would’ve made all the other Sub-Towers take roughly the same amount of time.]

A handful of facts lay buried beneath mountains of rumors, all spreading like wildfire.

It was business as usual on the Communication Channel.

And while the same empty conversations went around and around without end, an old video posted long ago on a Korean internet community was suddenly unearthed.

[The situation at the Arts Center is insane]

The Seoul Arts Center is total chaos right now. Cops everywhere, people coming out covered in blood—no joke. Some weird black pillar even shot up from inside the building...

November 12, 2028.

The day the Fallen Incident broke out, one year earlier.

It was a short video recorded by a passerby walking near the Seoul Arts Center.

About halfway through the clip, a black pillar suddenly erupted from the center of the building.

It was evening, and the light was already fading, but the footage was clear enough to make out what had happened.

When the video was first uploaded, most reactions had amounted to little more than “must be the Fallen” or “isn’t the footage corrupted?”

It hadn’t attracted many views.

But now, combined with the rumors surrounding Person123, that single minute of footage sent shockwaves across the world.

[Gwangso: Didn’t they say Person123 killed Wang Kai by firing some kind of black beam...?]

[Frederic: And this video just happens to be from Korea. Wow. I’ve got chills.]

[Arju: This is insane lol.]

[WalnutCookie: Yeah, this pretty much confirms it.]

[Baeksun: So Person123 really was Korean...]

The story of Wang Kai being erased without a trace by a black beam had already spread far and wide.

With rumors already suggesting that Person123 might be Korean, the newly discovered footage seemed almost conclusive.

[Arrowhead: I looked into it, and apparently a bunch of people died inside that building because of the Fallen.]

[Roddy: So who dealt with it?]

[Ashes: Dunno. The reports only mention the police and a Climber from the Korean Tower Climbing Special Agency.]

[WineAndCheese: I searched through every Korean news source I could find, but there’s nothing more detailed.]

[Rainwater: Judging from the video and the circumstances, isn’t it obvious that Person123 took care of it?]

The Communication Channel lost its collective mind.

So did the media.

The Korean government was thrown into chaos as well.

Unofficial inquiries and hotline calls began pouring in from countries around the world.

The reason, of course, was Person123.

Foreign governments suspected that Korea had been concealing his identity.

No...

We’re just as shocked as you are.

Hide Person123?

Hide what, exactly?

The Korean government had no way of knowing anything about him, so the sudden suspicion came completely out of nowhere.

Until the video surfaced, Korean Climbers had managed to restrain their excitement on the Communication Channel.

Earlier, when speculation that Person123 might be Japanese had spread, Japanese Climbers had loudly boasted about it.

The Koreans had been careful not to end up making the same mistake.

But once the video appeared and the evidence became nearly impossible to deny, they could no longer hold themselves back.

[Lefty: Damn! Person123 was Korean all along!]

[PersimmonTree: Honestly, there’s no denying it anymore.]

[CheeseBall: National pride at this level is like 100,000 percent past the lethal dose lmao.]

[FineDust: But seriously, it doesn’t feel real. He’s actually one of us?]

[Throne: Sob, sob. It wasn’t that we didn’t have a Nightmare clearer... The greatest Nightmare Climber had been one of us all along...]

[GodGodGodGodGod: Forever grateful for your devotion. God, Jesus, Buddha, Person123—let’s gooo!]

Person123, now indisputably the world’s greatest and strongest Climber—the savior of humanity—was Korean?

It was impossible not to feel proud.

The entire spectacle was somewhat reminiscent of Japan’s premature celebration, but this time the evidence was far more convincing.

As always, Person123 himself made no statement.

The Korean government, however, soon released an official position.

“...We are aware that considerable suspicion regarding the current situation has been directed toward our government. However, we wish to make it clear that the government has no connection whatsoever with Person123 and possesses no personal information concerning him.”

The government had agonized over how best to respond.

In the end, they issued a statement first and decided to deal with the consequences later.

Whether the rest of the world believed them or not, no country chose to challenge the statement openly.

What were they supposed to do?

Demand a more convincing explanation because they didn’t believe it?

Whether Person123 had ties to the Korean government or not, Korea was still his home country.

Picking a fight with them over the matter would be like striking a hornet’s nest.

The nations of the world settled on a cautious response of, “Hmm... noted, for now,” while quietly turning suspicious eyes toward Korea.

[Icicle: Is the Korean government really hiding something about Person123?]

[Sat: Judging by the Arts Center video, they have to be connected somehow, right?]

[WangDing: Maybe not. They say Person123 can suddenly appear and disappear, so maybe he just showed up, dealt with the Fallen, and left.]

[Wingbeat: But why would the government hide it if they knew? Wouldn’t revealing it be far more advantageous?]

[FabridB: A country that has Person123... Damn, that’s an absurd diplomatic card.]

[Paris: Maybe it’s for his personal protection.]

[Herb: Or maybe Person123 told the government to keep quiet.]

Speculation of every kind continued without pause.

Meanwhile, Japan remained deep in negotiations with the treaty nations over the Mana Vein issue.

As the situation developed, Japan’s calculations grew increasingly complicated.

In exchange for reactivating the Mana Vein, Person123 had demanded that all the countries involved negotiate a new treaty.

Naturally, every side wanted to extract a little more benefit for itself, and the talks were not proceeding smoothly.

And now Person123 was Korean?

Korea had suddenly become impossible to ignore in the negotiations.

“Still, I suppose I should consider this fortunate...”

Prime Minister Yamaguchi, Japan’s newly appointed leader, sighed and muttered to himself.

Person123 had only instructed the treaty nations to reach an agreement among themselves.

He had not made a single demand intended specifically to benefit Korea.

He had cleared the Sub-Tower himself.

He held ownership of the Mana Vein.

Frankly, even if he had ordered Japan to hand half of it over to Korea, Japan would have had no choice but to comply.

True to his role as humanity’s savior, perhaps Person123 was someone who maintained perfect neutrality even where his own country was concerned.

Newly impressed by his fairness, Prime Minister Yamaguchi considered how best to guide the remaining negotiations.

The United States was also busy.

It mobilized every resource available to determine conclusively whether Person123 was truly Korean and how much of his identity the Korean government had managed to uncover.

Analysis confirmed that the black pillar footage from the Arts Center was not AI-generated.

Investigators then cross-referenced the footage with the testimony of Alex and the other members of the Security Corps who had personally witnessed Person123.

As expected, the probability that Person123 was Korean exceeded ninety-nine percent.

But did the Korean government truly not know his identity?

After all available intelligence had been compiled and analyzed, the answer to that question also came with more than ninety-nine percent confidence.

They genuinely had no idea.

The United States knew far more about its allies than most people would ever imagine.

Through its agents, it monitored far more in real time than the public realized.

If anyone within the Korean government had truly identified Person123, there was no possibility that America would have failed to detect even the slightest trace of it.

And so the final conclusion was reached.

Person123 was almost certainly Korean.

The Korean government had no idea who he was.

“Foreign policy strategy must be revised. Urgently.”

From that moment onward, the U.S. State Department and numerous other agencies were kept extremely busy.

Even if the Korean government had no connection to Person123, the fact remained that he was Korean.

That fact alone was enough to justify a complete reassessment of America’s diplomatic policy and strategy toward Korea.

And elsewhere, one more person found herself in a difficult position.

“Section Chief Shin, do you truly know nothing about this?”

Under the Agency Director’s suspicious gaze, Shin Su-jin answered calmly.

“Yes, sir. I’ve already told you everything I know.”

The Arts Center video that had all but confirmed Person123’s nationality had been recorded during an incident Shin Su-jin had personally attended.

Her report concerning the Stage 5 Fallen from that day had now become entangled with the current situation, drawing suspicion toward her.

With no intention of revealing anything about Person123, Shin Su-jin continued to insist that she knew nothing.

The Agency Director sighed and nodded.

“Understood. Return to your work. The higher-ups have been pressuring me to investigate every detail of an incident from a full year ago...”

Shin Su-jin bowed politely and left the Director’s office.

Even she had been genuinely shocked by the Wang Kai incident.

She hadn’t been present at the scene that time.

Person123 had gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal his identity.

Yet despite that, he had apparently risked exposing himself in order to save the members of the Security Corps.

Truly...

He was a man of boundless selflessness.

Even if their connection existed only through work, Shin Su-jin still regarded the members of the Security Corps as colleagues.

She felt deeply grateful to Person123 for saving them.

At the same time, she couldn’t help feeling a little worried.

With the entire world making such a commotion over his identity, what if he was feeling hurt by it all?

***

“Ah, fucking hell.”

I muttered the curse under my breath while watching the news on television.

— As you can see in this footage, a black beam can be seen piercing through the roof of the Seoul Arts Center...

Seriously, when the hell had someone filmed that?

A random bystander had somehow captured the exact moment I cast Destruction Ray one year ago.

And now that the footage had resurfaced, the fact that I was Korean had been broadcast for the entire world to see.

“Why are you swearing all of a sudden?”

“No reason.”

My sister glanced at me before turning her attention back to the television.

“But this is seriously huge. To think Person123 is actually Korean...”

I threw in a casual comment.

“Don’t believe it too easily. It’s no different from when everyone thought he was Japanese.”

“What? No way. They’re saying it’s confirmed this time.”

“There hasn’t been any official statement, so who exactly is calling it confirmed?”

“...Why do you keep trying to ruin the mood? What if it’s actually true?”

My sister glared at me as she spoke.

What if it’s actually true?

Well...

It is.

“I’m going to have to pray even harder from now on. And you’d better spend more time at home with us this year, too.”

“I’ll think about it.”

I let her words pass in one ear and out the other, then opened the Communication Channel.

The Communication Channel was chaos.

The media was chaos.

I really wished everyone would lose interest in me, but this was probably unavoidable.

Honestly, it didn’t bother me all that much.

My nationality becoming public wasn’t going to cause any serious problems.

I had already accepted that I would have to tolerate at least this much.

From now on, I simply needed to be careful.

From now on...

In any case, it was probably time to return to Floor 5.

I went back to my room and entered immediately.

[You have entered Floor 5.]

With Concealment active, I headed straight toward Zone 3.

[95.2%]

The Zone 3 Boss Gauge had not moved at all since the Wang Kai incident.

That made sense.

Hunting in Zone 3 had come to a complete halt ever since.

All right.

Time to fill the Gauge as quickly as possible.

It was finally time to take down the Zone 3 boss.