Chapter 71: Floor 5 (9)

The Zone 3 boss plummeted to the ground, its head gone.

Watching from the opposite side of the battlefield, the climbers of the Black Star Society were every bit as shaken as the Security Corps.

Those who had witnessed Wang Kai’s death in person finally understood.

Ah.

Wang Kai truly had never stood a chance.

What human being could possibly survive an attack capable of killing a Zone 3 boss in a single blow?

‘This is absurd...’

Li Zeyan swallowed hard.

A Hard difficulty climber who had reached Floor 14, he now served as the public face of the Black Star Society.

He had heard countless accounts of Wang Kai’s death. Yet even after witnessing the attack with his own eyes, he still could not comprehend how such an outrageously powerful skill could exist.

Were the rewards obtained by Nightmare difficulty climbers simply on an entirely different level from those of the other difficulties?

And judging by its appearance, the attack was unmistakably a Magic Type skill.

Yet Person123 had displayed no sign of Mental Concentration whatsoever.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The heavy silence was broken by the sound of applause.

Standing at the front of the group, Ye Tianwei had begun clapping quietly.

Li Zeyan and the other members of the Black Star Society exchanged uncertain glances before joining him.

Still facing away from them, Ye Tianwei spoke with a flushed smile.

“What a rare spectacle. Let us return.”

***

The message announcing the first-clear reward appeared.

Soon afterward, the boss’s corpse began to dissolve, scattering through the air like ash.

Unlike ordinary monsters, Zone Bosses apparently left behind no materials that could be harvested.

Not that I would have bothered gathering them even if they had.

“That was easy.”

The boss fight had ended far more anticlimactically than I had expected.

[1:51]

I checked the remaining time on the Warp Device.

There was no need to cancel the activation.

Now that the boss was dead, I could simply let the countdown finish and warp directly to Zone 0.

I glanced to either side.

Both the Security Corps and the Black Star Society were staring at me from a distance.

The combined weight of all those gazes was suffocating, so I activated Concealment.

[0:01]

The Warp Device’s countdown reached zero.

I warped to Zone 0.

From there, I went straight to the portal and entered the Reward Room to examine what I had received.

There were two rewards for defeating the boss.

The first-clear reward, which could be obtained by only one person, and the standard kill reward, which was granted individually to everyone who qualified.

The system message had made that distinction clear.

Naturally, the first-clear reward was the one I was most eager to see.

Now then...

What had the Zone 3 boss dropped?

“...A bracelet?”

The first item was, indeed, a bracelet.

I picked it up.

It appeared to be made from overlapping pieces of crimson, scale-like material.

[Flame Scale Bracelet]

A bracelet imbued with the power of the Red Wyvern. Increases the power of fire-type skills by 70%.

The description was simple and straightforward.

And the effect was simply, straightforwardly incredible.

Whoa...

A seventy-percent increase?

Since Flame Strike was one of my main skills, the bracelet suited me perfectly.

There was also Scorching Zone.

‘It just happened to boost exactly the right attribute.’

Imagine if I had received something that increased the power of electric-type skills when I didn’t possess a single electric ability.

Thank goodness Zone 3 had been based around lava and fire.

Rather than putting the bracelet away in Subspace, I slipped it onto the same wrist as Diul’s bracelet.

I would test its effect as soon as I returned.

Next came the standard reward.

Judging by the color of the stone, it appeared to be a rare-grade Skill Stone.

Hoping for a Magic Type skill, I checked its information.

[Skill: Fire-Type Low-Tier Mastery (Rare+)]

Organizes and enhances fire-type magic. Fire-type magic power increases by 10%, willpower consumption decreases by 10%, and cooldown duration decreases by 10%. If a higher-tier mastery skill is possessed, the effects do not stack, and only the effects of the higher-tier skill are applied.

Classification: Magic Type (Passive)

Willpower Cost: None

Cooldown: None

“Oh...?”

Huh?

Something I had never even considered appeared before me.

A passive Magic Type skill.

Then again, Physical Type skills could be passive, so there was no reason Magic Type skills could not be as well.

Still, I had never heard of anyone obtaining one before.

Was it a special reward available only from bosses?

‘And the effects are... pretty good.’

Increased power.

Reduced willpower consumption.

Reduced cooldowns.

It was a complete three-part package.

The willpower reduction did not matter much to me, but the power increase and cooldown reduction were excellent.

Especially the cooldown reduction.

Sure, ten percent was not an enormous amount.

But skills could be enhanced.

And fortunately, this skill also applied to the fire attribute.

I had not expected much from the standard reward, yet it had turned out far better than I had hoped.

[‘Skill: Fire-Type Low-Tier Mastery (Rare+)’ has been acquired.]

The only question was whether the bracelet’s power increase and the skill’s power increase would stack multiplicatively.

I hoped they would.

Having finished examining the rewards, I returned to Floor 5.

Since the Zone 3 boss had been defeated, Zone 4 should now be open.

[Zone 1: 39.1%]

[Zone 2: 20.5%]

[Zone 3: 0%]

[Zone 4: 0%]

I checked the Boss Gauges.

As expected, Zone 4 had appeared.

I decided to head there immediately and test how much stronger my fire skills had become.

I climbed onto Plli and rode all the way to the entrance of Zone 4.

Whoooosh!

The moment I crossed the boundary, the blistering heat vanished, replaced by bitter cold.

A frozen wasteland stretched out before me, swept by icy winds that howled and cut through the air.

My clothes were rather thin, but at my current level, ordinary heat and cold barely affected me.

“Where are you, monsters?”

I entered Zone 4 and wandered through the deep snow, each step crunching beneath my feet.

It did not take long to find one.

A hulking, fur-covered creature that immediately brought the word yeti to mind.

The yeti noticed me as well.

It lunged forward like a starving lion that had just spotted a slab of fresh meat.

I extended one hand.

Whoosh!

The moment I cast Flame Strike, fireballs blossomed into existence in midair.

‘Oh.’

They were noticeably larger than before.

Five enormous fireballs streaked toward the yeti.

Boooom!

A tremendous explosion erupted.

The yeti was torn apart on the spot and swallowed by a vortex of flame.

Judging by the force of the blast, the skill appeared to be nearly twice as powerful as before.

The difference was unmistakable.

“Nice.”

I resumed my search for another monster.

This time, I found some sort of...

Spirit?

It looked like a floating mass of ice and gave off that kind of impression.

That was a monster too, right?

Not entirely certain, I stopped and observed it for a moment.

A faint blue glow flickered around the ice spirit.

My Sixth Sense gave me a warning.

Crrrash!

Sharp icicles suddenly erupted from the ground and surged toward the spot where I stood.

I leapt backward and avoided them.

This thing had a surprisingly flashy attack.

In any case, it was definitely a monster.

I immediately fired a Flame Strike and blew the ice spirit apart.

As I continued exploring Zone 4, I encountered several other types of monsters.

There were wolf-like creatures with fur as white as snow.

Unlike most of the monsters I had seen, they moved in relatively large packs.

They seemed to have identified me as prey and began circling, so I used Scorching Zone.

Several wolves caught within the area burst into flames at once.

Scorching Zone was clearly much stronger as well.

The creatures must have possessed at least some intelligence, because the moment a few of them died, the rest turned and fled.

Bzzzzzz!

After that, I encountered a giant hornet whose entire body was coated in something resembling ice crystals.

It charged toward me with a roar like a helicopter.

Its stinger in particular radiated danger.

It was probably venomous.

I did not give it a chance to close the distance and launched a Flame Strike.

However—

The hornet was surprisingly fast.

It performed a series of evasive maneuvers in the air and avoided several of the fireballs.

It could not dodge all of them, though.

The remaining projectiles struck, and the creature was blown to pieces.

Yetis.

Ice spirits.

Snow wolves.

Giant hornets.

Those appeared to be the main monsters inhabiting Zone 4.

As I had expected, they all seemed to be around level 40.

Levels aside, however, the overall difficulty of hunting them was noticeably higher than in Zone 3.

They did not pose a problem for me, of course.

But any climber who entered Zone 4 carelessly was likely to suffer.

‘Better post information about them too.’

For the sake of public safety, I decided to compile everything I had learned about the Zone 4 monsters and upload it to the Communication Channel.

I checked the Zone 4 gauge.

[Zone 4: 0.1%]

The monster density seemed even lower than it had been in Zone 3.

I wanted to challenge the Zone 4 boss before moving on to Floor 6, but...

‘Would that even be possible?’

The Zone 4 boss had to be at least level 80.

Could I defeat it in one shot with Destruction Ray?

No.

No matter how I looked at it, there was probably no chance of that happening against the Zone 4 boss.

I was currently level 60.

Expecting to effortlessly kill a boss at least twenty levels above me would be shameless even by my standards.

But before worrying about defeating it, there was another problem.

Would I even have enough time to fill the gauge before challenging Floor 6?

There was no way to know yet.

I would simply have to wait and see.

In any case, that concluded my first reconnaissance of Zone 4.

It was time to return.

***

Rumors that Person123 intended to challenge the Zone 3 boss had begun spreading long before the creature appeared.

[Toy: Is it true Person123 is really going to fight it alone?]

[Poison Bottle: Heard the Security Corps offered to help, but Person123 turned them down.]

[Spaghetti: Ugh, why fight it solo instead of teaming up with everyone?]

[Clock: Maybe Person123 doesn’t want to reveal their identity to more people.]

[France: I know they’re strong, but I’m still worried... It’s a boss, after all.]

Naturally, people were anxious.

By now, everyone knew Person123 was powerful enough to kill Wang Kai, a level 60 climber, in a single attack.

But a boss was a different matter.

Or so they believed.

As though mocking all of those fears—

[Fried Chicken: The Zone 3 boss is dead! The message just appeared!]

[Doctor: Wait, what happened? Person123 is all right, aren’t they?]

[Olcar: I heard from someone in the Security Corps that Person123 killed it in one hit...?]

[Lighter: Apparently, the boss was some kind of dragon. It even breathed fire.]

[Beer: I’m a member of the Black Star Society, and I saw it myself. Person123 really did kill it in one blow. That same black beam that killed Wang Kai tore the boss’s head off. It was unbelievable.]

[Geuboog: LOLOLOL, just how strong ARE you, Person123?!]

[Pill: But no matter how you look at it, that had to be a Magic Type skill. How is Person123 using something like that in the middle of combat?]

[Latilta: Maybe it’s an item effect instead of a skill. Either way, it’s absurdly overpowered.]

The rumor that Person123 had also killed the Zone 3 boss in a single strike spread like wildfire.

People were astonished.

At the same time, they were finally able to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The governments of the world, which had watched the situation with the same breathless tension, also relaxed.

Person123’s life was the life of the world.

Whenever Person123 took even the smallest action that might place them in danger, the nations of the world regarded it as a threat comparable to someone hovering a finger over the launch button of a nuclear weapon.

In any case, Person123 was even more absurdly powerful than anyone had imagined.

The Zone 3 boss raid had ended without a single casualty.

As an added bonus, Person123 soon uploaded information about the monsters of Zone 4.

[Bluebird: Damn, Zone 4 information already?]

[Yulu: Person123... how selfless can one person possibly beeeee?!]

[FightingWarrior: I’m always grateful. I used to bow in all four cardinal directions every day because I didn’t know where you were, but now I’ve started bowing toward Korea.]

For the highest-ranked climbers, who would soon become the first people to enter Zone 4, the information was invaluable.

Monster byproducts were every bit as important a resource as Magic Stones.

This was especially true of entirely new monsters whose anatomy, materials, and possible uses had yet to be studied.

On Floor 5, hunting activity in Zone 4 gradually began to increase.

And outside the Tower, the world continued to bustle as it always had.

***

[Nightmare]

Population: 279,561

Time Limit: 64 days, 2 hours, 33 minutes, 10 seconds

Floors Reached: Floor 5

Time passed quickly.

The Time Limit for Nightmare difficulty drew closer and closer.