Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Nightmare, 10th Floor (3)

TL: DDTL

What the hell is the me of this world even doing?

He hadn’t simply driven people out beyond the Ark.

The fact that the Climbers were inflicting this kind of cruelty on ordinary people…

Whether he’d ordered it directly or just let it happen, in the end it was as good as an act carrying the will of Person123, the one sitting at the very top.

This is basically him acting like an outright king, isn’t it?

The idea that I was doing something like this left me dumbfounded.

“Are all the Climbers like that? Isn’t there a single one who helps people?”

The girl cut in and asked.

“Yes, well, there used to be Climbers like that.”

“Used to be?”

“They’re all dead now. Ever since Person123 issued the threat that he’d kill any Climber who protected ordinary people…”

…Truly unbelievable.

“M, mister. Couldn’t we come with you?”

That was when the boy, who’d been reading my expression, spoke up.

“We’ll do whatever you tell us to. We, we won’t eat much of your food either.”

Having apparently decided I was at least not a bad person, he was asking me to become their guardian.

I shook my head.

“Sorry. I’ve got something I need to do.”

They were pitiful kids, but it wasn’t possible.

I needed to Clear this place and get out fast; I was in no position to be looking after them.

Disappointment flickered across both their faces.

I pulled more food and water out of my Subspace and handed it over.

None of it meant anything in the end, but it still sat badly with me.

To the children, whose faces had brightened a little as they took the food, I asked a question.

“Does Person123 ever come out of the Ark himself?”

“Huh? I, I’m not really sure…”

“I see. Then that farm you two ran away from, could you tell me which direction it’s in?”

“Over, over there.”

The boy pointed in one direction.

I saw the two of them safely as far as the building they said they lived in.

Then I cut straight across the sky toward the place. It was the direction of Gangseo District.

[Kill ‘me’.]

How to draw Person123 out of the Ark.

For now, my thinking went like this.

According to what I’d just heard, the Climbers outside the Ark were working people like slaves.

And the Climbers inside the Ark were essentially their superiors.

So if trouble broke out on the outside, wouldn’t they all come crawling out?

And if I dealt with every one of them who showed up, Person123 would have to appear eventually.

Or another method would be to have the Climbers relay my message to Person123.

Of course, if possible, I’d have preferred to approach quietly without causing a scene…

But I couldn’t think of any better way.

Or should I just wait until Person123 came out of the Ark on his own?

There didn’t seem to be any particular time limit on the Clear.

But if I just waited, there was no telling how long the Clear might drag on.

As I flew along, scanning the ground below…

‘…Is that it?’

A wide plain in the middle of the city center, catching my eye at once.

I could see crops growing across it.

I looked over the scene, then turned my gaze toward the buildings.

Because I’d heard voices.

“I’m sorry! Please, spare me…!”

A man was being dragged along by the hair, gripped in a Climber’s hand.

“So why’d you run in the first place? Should’ve just not gotten caught.”

The Climber clicked his tongue as he spoke.

“More than that, I really don’t get it. Where do you think you’d go and how do you think you’d live if you left here? Who do you think is protecting you lot from the Fallen?”

The Climber glanced back at the despairing man and let out a sneer.

“Well, whatever. You picked a bad time too, man. You know that pair of siblings bolted not long ago and pissed the boss off?”

“P, please…”

“Begging me to spare you? Sure, I’d like to spare you, but I doubt the boss will. You’ll probably get put up for a public execution, as an example.”

I looked down at the Climber saying such horrific things so casually.

Then I dropped down and blocked their path.

Seeing me fall from the sky, the Climber jerked to a startled halt.

“Wh, what the hell?”

I said,

“Let me see your boss’s face.”

The Climber glanced up at the sky once, then spoke with a tense expression.

“…And where might you be from? This is trespassing on our territory.”

“Let that man go.”

Judging, perhaps, that I was stronger than him.

The Climber only stared at me with a hardened face, on guard.

I closed the distance to right in front of him in a single step.

Startled, the Climber threw a punch.

I caught it and gave a light squeeze.

“Aaargh…!”

The Climber screamed in pain and collapsed to his knees.

I jerked my chin at the man.

Now a free man, he stood there with a dazed look before scrambling away.

“Let’s go. To your boss.”

“Ugh, uugh… Understood…”

Hand broken, the Climber offered no further resistance and led the way.

As we cut through a back alley,

I spotted one peculiar sight.

“…?”

The corpses of monsters that came from Floor 5’s Zone 1.

They were piled high off to one side of the street.

“Hey.”

“…Yes?”

“What’s that? Are those Zone 1 monster corpses?”

“Yes. We, we dressed them and threw out the rest.”

…Hold on.

Come to think of it, could the Climbers of this world still enter the Tower?

If so, then it’d be perfectly possible to hunt monsters on Floor 5 and get all the food they wanted.

Plenty of Floor 5’s monsters were more than edible. And no matter how many they hunted, the monsters would just respawn.

So it wasn’t even that they were short on food, and yet, far from helping people, they were pulling crap like this…

‘This is pissing me off.’

If this Parallel World had truly existed,

then the Person123 here was a version of me I could not possibly accept.

Setting the Clear aside, I found myself dying to ask what in the hell had been going through his head to leave things in this state.

I approached one high-rise building.

That building alone, unlike the ones around it, had a few lights on.

The two Climbers standing guard at the entrance were startled to see us.

“…What the, Lee Su-chan? Who’s this guy?”

“Ge, get word to the boss. Tell him a guest has arrived.”

These Climbers had grasped the situation too, it seemed, and didn’t come at me.

One of them hurried inside the building.

A moment later came the sense of several people rushing over, and a few more Climbers appeared.

“What the hell’s all this racket in the middle of the night?”

The strongest man among them glared at me and asked.

“Where’d you crawl out of, you punk? Do you have any idea whose territory this is…”

“You the boss?”

“That’s right, you son of a bitch. I’m Kang Cheol-jin, one of the Five Powers of Gangseo District.”

Five Powers of Gangseo District, my ass.

Thwack-thwack-thwack!

I took out all the Climbers in an instant and left only Kang Cheol-jin.

“…!”

Kang Cheol-jin activated Skin Hardening and desperately attacked me.

I grabbed him by the forehead and slammed him down onto the ground.

“Guh!”

The floor shattered and Kang Cheol-jin writhed.

He looked up at me with terrified eyes and barely managed to open his mouth.

“Krgh… Wh, who on earth are you…?”

“Go bring your head honcho.”

I said, looking down at him.

“Bring the Climbers from inside the Ark. You lot take orders from them, don’t you?”

Kang Cheol-jin wore a blank expression, then answered.

“Um… I don’t actually take orders from those people?”

“You wanna die?”

“I, it’s the truth! It’s not me, there’s one more boss above me! He should have a connection with the people in the Ark…!”

“Is that so?”

I hauled Kang Cheol-jin up by the scruff of his neck.

Boom!

Holding Kang Cheol-jin in one hand, I shot straight up into the sky.

“Uwaaaaagh…!”

“Let’s go to your boss. Tell me where he is.”

I slapped the cheek of an ashen-faced Kang Cheol-jin, again and again.

Clinging to his wits, he pointed in one direction.

“O, over thereeeee…!”

I raced through the air, striking one Air Walk step after another.

The place I arrived at, guided by Kang Cheol-jin, was a building that looked like a club.

‘What is this?’

Music drifted faintly from inside the building.

I descended.

A single Climber stood guarding the entrance.

Dragging a half-senseless Kang Cheol-jin along, I approached the entrance.

“What the? You…”

I flung aside the Climber blocking my way.

Going inside the building and down to the basement, I found the place flashing with light.

A space where lights of every gaudy color scattered and blared music echoed all around.

On a stage, two people were fighting each other.

What kind of situation is this now?

“That’s it, that’s the one! Kill him!”

“I’ve got ten packs of cigarettes riding on this! You lose, I’ll really kill you!”

And the Climbers sitting in a ring around the stage, shouting.

The two men fighting were both ordinary people.

The two of them were locked in what could only be called a death match, blood pouring off them.

As if the whole point was to actually kill each other.

Don’t tell me…

Are they dragging in ordinary people and making them fight for fun? Like fighting dogs?

“These are some absolute pieces of garbage.”

I flung Kang Cheol-jin, still in my grip, up onto the stage.

At that, the fighting men flinched to a stop.

The cheering died away, and the Climbers’ eyes all snapped toward me at once.

I looked at the strongest Climber among them.

Seated in the highest seat of all, he was, at a glance, clearly the boss.

Though for all that, he was only around Level 30.

The man, who’d been putting on a big front, set down the drink he’d been sipping and opened his mouth.

“Who are you?”

I stamped my foot and stood before the man in an instant.

The woman standing beside him like a bodyguard immediately drew a sword and swung it.

A blade cloaked in the Aura Blade skill.

Clang!

I caught it with my hand and snapped it.

I grabbed the wrist of the stunned woman and flung her aside like sweeping her out of the way.

The man watched the sight without lunging at me, sitting still in his place.

He glanced around and said,

“Nobody move.”

The other Climbers, who’d been inching forward, flinched at his words and stopped.

The man asked me again, his tone shifted to something courteous.

“Who are you?”

He seemed like the quick sort when it came to reading a situation.

I stated only my business.

“Is your higher-up a Climber inside the Ark?”

“That is correct.”

“Can you call him here right now, or not?”

The man gave no answer.

“If you can’t call him, you die right now.”

“…If you wish to meet my higher-up, I can relay a message.”

“Then relay it. Tell him to crawl out here before all his underlings get killed off.”

Beating this one down probably won’t make Person123 show up in person.

But once I beat down a few of the Climbers who come out of the Ark, Person123 will surely appear.

“May I ask the reason you’re doing this?”

“There isn’t one.”

“…”

“But you don’t need a reason to beat down things that are barely human, do you?”

His face hardening, the man ordered a nearby underling to relay my message.

The noisy club fell silent.

The man asked me,

“Might you be someone from outside Seoul?”

“None of your business.”

“I understand your Level is high enough that I couldn’t dare take you on, but I believe you’re making a mistake right now.”

“What mistake?”

“The Climbers of the Ark are strong beyond any comparison to the likes of me.”

The man wore a barely perceptible sneer as he spoke.

“Even supposing you’re stronger than them as well, if you lay a hand on them, Person123 himself will step in. Will you be able to handle that?”

That’s exactly what I’m doing this for.

I sat down beside the man.

“I’m a little curious about that myself.”

Just how strong the me of the Parallel World would be.

I’d find out once I saw it for myself.

****

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