Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 87

Chapter 87: 6F Hidden (1)

TL: DDTL

As I followed the knights, I surveyed my surroundings.

A clean building interior.

It felt modern, so the civilization seemed to lean toward the developed end. Like the 4F Hidden.

For one thing, the knights’ armor wasn’t medieval but more of a mechanical-engineering design…

And above all, the knights weren’t human either.

The faces I glimpsed through the gaps in their helmets had three eyes, the same race as the noble man who’d spoken to me earlier.

I tried to piece things together.

For now, my current status was: slave.

And they’d called it a fine match.

…Slave gladiator? Colosseum? Was that the kind of setup?

The clean corridors gave way to mustier spaces the deeper underground we went.

Soon we arrived at what looked like a massive holding facility.

Only then did I see humans with the normal two eyes.

Bedraggled figures, countless people locked in cells with shackles on. All ages, both sexes.

I was dragged toward one of the cells.

Clack.

At the cell, a knight moved to clasp shackles on both my hands.

I wondered whether I should resist, even now, but decided to stay put for the moment.

It felt like I should just go along with the flow at first. I had too little information.

If things turned ugly, I could always just leave.

“What are you waiting for? Get in.”

Shackled, I stepped into the cell.

Eyes fixed on me.

The knight left, and only two guards remained outside the cell.

The people inside crowded over to me, all speaking at once.

“You’re alive, Tu-ro!”

“Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere…”

…Tu-ro?

That must be my name in this role.

People watching me with worried eyes. Some were on the verge of tears.

The reactions were friendly enough, so these people seemed to be allies, at least.

“You must be exhausted. Please rest, Tu-ro. There’s no telling when those bastards will haul you out again…”

A man said it, glaring at the alien guards outside the cell with hatred-filled eyes.

I let them lead me to one side of the cell, where I leaned my back against the wall and sat down.

I needed to get a handle on the setting…

The hostile faction was the three-eyed race; the allies were humans like me.

The three-eyed race was holding the humans captive, and I’d just come back from a match.

That was all I had so far.

“Um, would you like me to rub your shoulders, Tu-ro? Or you could rest your head on my lap. You really should get whatever rest you can…”

The woman who’d sat down next to me kept talking.

I glanced around and then whispered to her.

“Hey…”

“Yes, Tu-ro!”

“No, no. Lean in for a second, quietly.”

If I didn’t know, I had to just ask.

“I’m a little disoriented right now.”

“…Pardon?”

“I hit my head during the match. My memory’s all jumbled. Could you tell me what’s going on?”

The woman looked at me, startled.

“A, amnesia? Oh no…!”

“I’m just a bit confused. I think it’ll come back if you fill me in.”

Would that work?

After a beat, she nodded with a stiff expression.

“A, all right. What exactly don’t you remember?”

“How did we end up locked up here in the first place?”

“…Th, that far back? You don’t remember any of it…?”

“Quickly.”

When I pressed her, she started explaining.

She wasn’t great at it, but it wasn’t incomprehensible. To summarize:

We were a people called the ‘Panrop’, and the three-eyed race was an alien species from beyond the stars who had invaded this continent, called the ‘Kalundi’.

Countless nations and peoples had been brought to their knees by the overwhelming power of the Kalundi, and in no time they’d enslaved humanity and seized control of the world.

The matches were the Kalundi’s entertainment, their sport.

They forced human slaves to fight death matches and got their kicks watching.

This particular tournament involved rounding up scores of slaves, dividing them by ethnicity, and forcing them to kill each other with the fate of their respective peoples on the line.

And I happened to be the warrior who’d entered the games as the representative of this Turop Tribe.

In other words, the lives of every person locked up in this facility rested on me.

“Hmm…”

“W, well? Is any of it coming back?”

“Yeah, I think some of it is.”

After hearing her out, I sank into thought.

I’d more or less grasped the setting.

Which meant I now had to figure out what the Hidden’s clear conditions were…

‘They said it was the final round.’

That noble-looking man had said only the final round was left.

So one more match to go.

Would winning the final clear it?

It would be nice if it were that simple, but…

Based on everything I’d seen so far, Hiddens didn’t usually wrap up that easily.

For now, I’d wait until the final started.

Oh, but wait a sec…

‘How long is this going to take?’

A sinking feeling hit me.

Because the time passing in here was, of course, also passing on the outside.

I’d entered the Hidden from my room.

If I didn’t come out for a full day, my family would think something terrible had happened.

Hiddens had always unfolded right away up until now, so I hadn’t considered the possibility…

I might have to stupidly throw away one of my precious attempts.

Was I going to have to pretend I was heading off on a trip every time I went in to clear a Hidden, from now on?

‘Nothing I can do about it.’

If I had to wait too long, I’d just bust out and raise some hell. Probably not the right answer, but still.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait all that long.

Clank.

Maybe half a day had passed.

The knights came back to the cell.

“Out, 199.”

At that, someone shouted in protest.

“…Th, that’s outrageous! Tu-ro hasn’t even had a few hours’ rest!”

The knight drew his sword and moved toward the man who’d shouted.

That crazy bastard.

I got to my feet and stepped into his path.

“My apologies. I’ll come.”

The knight stared at me a moment, then sheathed his sword and jerked his chin.

Leaving the anxious faces behind me, I followed the knights out.

Out of the holding facility, we arrived in front of a portal.

Beside it stood a rack hung with various weapons.

The knight unlocked my shackles and said,

“Choose a weapon and enter.”

…So this was the final?

I deliberated between a sword and a mace for a moment, then picked the sword.

I stepped through the portal.

Fwoosh!

The scene changed…

I was standing in the middle of a massive arena that looked like a colosseum.

Whoaaaa!

Cheers poured down from every direction.

Every spectator in the stands was a three-eyed Kalundi alien.

[And now, the long-awaited final match!]

A voice came through as if amplified by a microphone.

Feeling like a monkey in a cage, I looked across at my opponent.

The announcer’s voice came again.

[The final is a one-on-one duel with no fussy rules! Number 199 and Number 21! The two finest warriors to survive out of more than three hundred contestants will now fight, with the fates of their peoples on the line!]

My opponent was a hulking man wielding an axe.

His stiff expression carried a grim resolve.

At each end of the arena stood a Nexus.

Behind me, a blue Nexus; behind him, a red one.

[Destroy your opponent’s Nexus first to win! After the match, all slaves on the losing side will be executed as the closing event, so we ask the audience to please remain in their seats until the very end!]

The cheering swelled even louder.

…It was just a clear, but it didn’t sit well with me.

[And now! Let the match begin!]

The match started.

The man let out a battle cry and charged at me.

Clang!

I caught the descending axe with my sword.

He pressed his attack with ferocious intensity.

I kept blocking and dodging.

He wasn’t weak, but at most he seemed to be around Level 50.

At Level 80, I could handle him with room to spare.

‘What to do…’

I could counterattack and put him down right now.

But the fact that it was this easy… yeah, winning the final clearly wasn’t going to end the clear.

Would something else start once the match was over? Maybe I should just finish it and see.

I made my call and counterattacked.

Crash!

One hard swing tore his grip apart and sent the axe flying.

Weaponless, the man froze in panic for a moment, and I grabbed his arm and flipped him over my shoulder.

“Gurk…!”

Leaving him slammed into the ground, I walked toward his Nexus.

The crowd fell silent for an instant, then erupted in cheers.

The fallen man scrambled to his feet and came at me again.

I grabbed him and threw him again, then started smashing the Nexus.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The man was desperate to stop me from breaking it.

I could read the despair on his face and guess at what he was feeling.

He couldn’t afford to give up either.

If he lost, every last one of his people would die.

But I couldn’t exactly throw the match for him.

I kept tossing him aside and finished off the red Nexus.

Crack!

In moments, his Nexus shattered.

[…And that’s the match! An overwhelming victory for Number 199!]

Maybe because the match had ended so anticlimactically, the crowd let out boos and cheers in the same breath.

The man, who’d kept popping back up like a tumbler doll to charge at me, finally dropped to his knees.

Then another voice rang out across the arena, as if amplified.

“Silence.”

On either side of the colosseum stands sat the two highest seats.

The Kalundi man seated in one of them had risen and spoken.

At his single word, the arena fell quiet.

He continued.

“I, Patoum, Third Prince of the Kalundi Empire, commend thee on thy victory.”

“…”

“Number 199. What is thy name?”

I answered.

“Tu-ro.”

“Tu-ro, as promised, all of thy people who were brought here shall be allowed to live. Furthermore, as champion of these games, thou shalt be released from slavery and granted Second-Class Citizenship of the Kalundi Empire.”

Cheers rang through the arena once more.

Citizenship, whatever…

I held my tongue and watched to see what would come next.

The so-called prince spoke again.

“Thou mayest take pride in this. Hast thou anything to say as the champion?”

…Anything to say?

I really didn’t.

“Thank you.”

So I just gave him a thank-you. But then:

[You have failed to clear the Nightmare difficulty 6F Hidden.(2/3)]

[Removed from the Tower.]

What?

Kicked out of the Tower, I was back in my room.

Stunned, I dropped into my chair.

“…What the hell?”

Why had I failed?

What had I even done?

I rewound the moment of failure in my head.

The prince had asked if I had anything to say, I’d said thank you…

And the failure message had popped up right after.

…Was that what was wrong?

Was I supposed to give some other answer?

– Did I not tell thee to simply kill them all? Yield thy body to me and I shall slay every last one of these Kalundi or whatever they be.

I let out a sigh of exasperation.

“Are you trying to wreck the clear? Why are you always on about killing everyone?”

This guy was supposedly a Nightmare Climber too, so how had he ever cleared a Hidden?

– Why should I trouble myself with such trifles? Cleared or no, I simply slew them all.

“…There’s a reward at stake.”

– Skills, items, such paltry things are of no use to me. My power hath already reached the rank of a demigod.

“Impressive. Then why couldn’t you make it to the top of Nightmare?”

Ignoring the Demon King’s outburst, I sank back into thought.

The failure message had appeared the instant I gave my answer, so the answer itself had to be the key, but…

What was I even supposed to say there?

After a long while brooding, I sorted out my thoughts and headed out.

“Where are you off to?”

“Drinks with friends. I might be back late.”

[Enter the Nightmare difficulty 6th Floor?]

I went out, got a motel room, and entered again.

All right, attempt two.

Clear the 6th Floor, get hauled to the cell by the knights, come back out, enter the final arena.

Same as before, beat down the poor guy and smash his Nexus.

“…I, Patoum, Third Prince of the Kalundi Empire, commend thee on thy victory.”

I was back at the conversation with the prince.

“Hast thou anything to say as the champion?”

The same question.

I answered.

“…Would it be possible to grant me a different reward in place of the citizenship?”

A stir went through the audience.

The prince smiled as if intrigued and asked,

“A different reward? What is it thou desirest? Thy people’s survival is assured regardless of any reward.”

I glanced at the man on the other side of the arena, kneeling there in despair, and answered.

“I would ask that you show mercy and allow the people on the opposing side to live as well. That is the reward I ask for in place of citizenship.”

What were the 6th Floor’s clear conditions?

I’d thought about it a lot.

The only background I’d been given was a match with each people’s survival at stake, that was it…

So maybe the answer was right there?

Maybe the condition was saving not just my own side but the opposing side too… that thought had come to me.

There was no way the condition could be wiping out all of these aliens, like the Demon King kept insisting. It wouldn’t even be possible.

“…Thou wouldst have the opposing people survive as well?”

The prince stroked his chin.

“A trifling reward next to citizenship, but it does run counter to the central premise of these games, that only one people shall survive… Hmm, a difficult question.”

“…”

“What thinkst thou, my sister?”

The seat on the opposite side of the arena.

At the prince’s question, the Kalundi woman seated there rose.

She looked down toward me, gave a small smile, and answered.

“I rather like this slave’s spirit, making demands so boldly. Are you handing the choice to me, dear brother?”

“If it pleases thee, then so be it.”

“Then I shall render my decision by tomorrow. Until then, perhaps you might stay the slaves’ executions.”

The prince nodded.

“Very well. Tu-ro, my sister Princess Ratium shall decide by this hour tomorrow whether to grant thy request. Until then, the executions of the losing side’s slaves shall be deferred.”

No failure message appeared.

Inwardly, I cheered.

‘Got it…?’

So this was the right answer after all.

I turned my head and met eyes with the man on the other side.

The man who’d been despairing only moments before was now staring at me with wide, astonished eyes.

He bowed his head to me as if in gratitude. I gave him a small nod back.

In the bustle of spectators filing out of the arena…

The knights came up to me and said,

“Come with us.”

I was led off somewhere by the knights, just like that.

– If thou wouldst save both sides, there is yet the option of slaughtering these three-eyed wretches to a man, yet thou choosest to make work for thyself.

I answered the Demon King’s voice.

‘This is how you clear Hiddens, Demon King. By using your head. You can’t just go in swinging like a brute.’

– Silence.

‘Then quit raining on my parade. Can’t you see things are going perfectly smoothly?’

But where were they taking me now?

We entered what looked like a palace, and soon arrived in front of an ornate door.

The knight who’d led me knocked on the door and stepped back.

The door swung open.

A lavish, spacious chamber decorated with every kind of glittering jewel.

Inside the room was… the princess.

“Enter.”

The princess, who was lounging sideways in her chair, spoke.

The knight who’d opened the door circled around behind her and stood like an attendant.

Hmm… what was this?

Had the princess been the one to summon me?

I stepped inside. The door closed behind me.

“Come closer.”

At her command, I approached.

She blinked her three eyes, looked me up and down, and let out a small laugh.

“Slave. Thy name was Tu-ro, was it not?”

“Yes.”

“I found thy spirit pleasing. And thy face is rather to my liking as well.”

“…”

“If thou canst satisfy me, Tu-ro, I shall show mercy and grant thy request.”

…Satisfy? How, exactly?

Persuading the princess here was probably the key to finishing the clear, I was thinking, when:

“Strip.”

“…Pardon?”

The princess gave a seductive smile and ran her tongue over her lips.

“Did I not say to satisfy me? Strip everything off and come hither.”

With that, she rose from her chair, crossed to the bed on one side of the room, and lay down.

Uh…

For a moment, my brain shut down.

– Puhahahahaha…!

The Demon King’s laughter rang out in my head.

Oh, fuck…

I’d been braced for a life-or-death crisis, but a chastity crisis I never saw coming.

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TL Note:

We’ve caught up with the latest chapter of the original release. Going forward, new chapters will be posted Monday through Friday, matching the original’s release rate of five chapters per week. I’ll do my best to keep pace and get each new chapter out to you as soon as it’s available.

Thanks for your patience and support!

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