Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Before Floor 7

TL: DDTL

“Yeah, that’s a relief, hyung. Tell Noona I said hi.”

I hung up the call with Ju-won hyung.

Thankfully, Jiu noona had made it home safely and seemed to have come back to her senses.

– Assemblyman Baek Gyu-ho has announced his voluntary resignation from the National Assembly. Assemblyman Baek currently faces multiple charges including bribery and aiding and abetting in connection with the Religion of the Heavenly One, and prosecutors have stated that they are pursuing investigations after determining that he gravely compromised national security as well…

When I stepped out into the living room, the news was playing on the TV.

Ever since I’d posted that callout on the Communication Channel.

Our country was still in an uproar over the Religion of the Heavenly One scandal.

From the news coverage lately, it looked like everyone involved was being investigated and punished without exception.

“End of days, I’m telling you.”

My sister was sprawled out on the couch, muttering at the news.

I spoke up.

“Hey.”

“…Huh?”

“You watch out for cults like that too.”

Maybe it was because I’d seen what happened to Jiu noona.

From where I was standing, this kid looked a little shaky too.

My sister shot me a sideways glance and fired back.

“Do I look stupid? Falling for crap like that.”

“You are stupid, though.”

“Oh come on, why are you picking a fight again.”

– …In an unusual move, Person123 personally stepped in to disband the Religion of the Heavenly One and posted on the Communication Channel, which analysts say indicates the depth of his regret over this incident.

– The government has stated that it will actively investigate the current state of religious organizations connected to Person123 and put measures in place to prevent a second Religion of the Heavenly One incident…

My sister tipped the remote toward the TV.

“See? Person123 even posted on it himself. Who’s gonna fall for that now?”

I wasn’t so sure…

It would stay quiet for a while, but as time went on, wouldn’t the effect wear off again?

And it wasn’t like I could go track down every cult leader and beat the snot out of them the way I had with the Religion of the Heavenly One.

Well, I didn’t have the bandwidth to worry about that kind of thing anyway.

In any case, I figured I’d done about as much as I could on this one.

“Anyway, just be careful. I’m only saying this because a college senior I know got pulled into the Religion of the Heavenly One.”

“…Really? Then did she actually see Person123 in person?”

“No idea.”

*

At present, there were several dozen Nightmare Clearers worldwide.

But only two nations were consistently right on Person123’s heels. The United States and China.

The U.S. and China had bet everything on this Nightmare Floor 6 climb.

Well, they always bet everything, but Floor 6 was unavoidably far more important than the floors before it.

Clearing it granted not 10 but 20 levels in a single stroke.

Which meant Level 60.

Setting aside the unique status of being a Nightmare Clearer, that put them at the very top of the Climber rankings across every difficulty.

This time, the U.S. went first.

The attempt came far earlier than it had for previous floors.

They had consulted Person123 and prepared their strategy with meticulous care, but ordinarily they wouldn’t have moved this quickly.

But Taylor’s will had been the decisive factor.

She wanted to make the attempt as soon as possible, and in the end she pulled it off safely once again.

Not long after, China also took on Floor 6. The outcome was the same as the U.S.’s.

Both countries now had a Climber who, aside from Person123, held the top record on Nightmare difficulty and stood at Level 60.

Slash!

Taylor swung her sword.

The leg of a Stick Insect that had ambushed her through the mist from atop a tree was sheared clean off by her Sword Aura-wreathed blade.

Hisss…

The Stick Insect thrashed, flailing its remaining legs.

Taylor calmly pruned each leg away as though trimming branches, then finally chopped its torso in two.

Spilling green fluids, the Stick Insect dropped dead on the spot.

Taylor wiped the blood from her blade with a cloth and tied that cloth to a nearby branch.

Then she pressed on through the mist in search of her next quarry.

Zone 5 was a dangerous area. Dangerous enough that Person123 had even issued a warning about it.

Of course, all of the monster intel had been provided by Person123. The high-durability Bone Dinosaurs, the Stick Insects that disguised themselves as trees, the Mist Ghosts that conjured fake doubles, and so on…

But the fog-drenched field made it hard to pick up on a monster’s presence.

And while she was leaving cloth markers along the way as she moved, a single lapse in attention could leave her lost and wandering the forest.

Even so, the reason Taylor was hunting in Zone 5.

It wasn’t for monster drops. It was to fill the gauge.

The Zone 5 boss would be at least Level 100 strong, so why was she filling the Boss Gauge for a boss she had no hope of killing?

It was for Person123.

Of course, the Climbing Bureau had vehemently opposed Taylor hunting in Zone 5. Because it was dangerous. Even what she was doing right now was acting on her own authority.

But Taylor had already firmly settled on her own role.

If all she was ever going to do was dutifully climb Nightmare with the information Person123 fed her, then what meaning did her existence even have?

To be next in line if he failed?

Taylor knew. There was no one, herself included, who could replace him.

If he failed, no one would be climbing Nightmare difficulty anyway.

So what she had to do was be useful in any way she could. Holding back because of the danger would be putting the cart before the horse.

Zone 5 was, as it stood, a zone where no one else was currently hunting.

The Climbers at a level high enough to even take on those monsters were vanishingly few, and they had no reason to take on Zone 5’s risks.

To be even a speck of help to Person123, who had to fill the Zone 5 gauge all on his own, Taylor was struggling away again today.

As she pushed through the mist…

“…!”

Taylor sensed something behind her and whipped around.

But what she saw wasn’t a monster.

A man raised both hands with a smile, as if to signal he meant no harm.

“I’m human.”

An Asian man with black hair.

Taylor lowered the sword she had been leveling at him.

‘Ye Tianwei…?’

China’s top Nightmare record holder.

It was her first time seeing him in person, but she recognized him on the spot.

He was a figure the United States kept a very close eye on, so she’d committed his face to memory through photographs.

“I didn’t expect to run into you in a place like this. A pleasure, Taylor.”

Naturally, Ye Tianwei had recognized Taylor immediately as well.

“…Likewise.”

Taylor had lowered her sword, but her guard remained up.

Since the Wang Kai incident, China and the Black Star Society had been keeping a relatively low profile, and there hadn’t been any notable clashes between the two sides on Floor 5 so far.

Even so, the U.S. and China were rivals.

And right now, this place was Zone 5.

There was no one who would know what happened here. Not even if someone dropped dead on the spot.

On top of that, why on earth was Ye Tianwei here? With what purpose?

“I don’t think you need to be quite so on edge.”

Taylor kept her eyes locked on him as she answered.

“My apologies. My nerves are on edge.”

“Understood. Given the kind of place this is.”

Ye Tianwei’s gaze traced the monster blood splattered across her clothes.

“Hunting monsters alone in Zone 5, though… that’s a surprise. I doubt the U.S. Tower Climbing Management Bureau is happy about it.”

“I wouldn’t know. What about you?”

Ye Tianwei equally had no reason to be wandering Zone 5 alone in such a dangerous place.

He held her gaze for a moment, then broke into a grin.

“I’ve been curious about you for a while now…”

“…”

“Looks like we are cut from the same cloth after all.”

Taylor’s brow furrowed slightly. What was he talking about?

Just then, a monster suddenly burst out of the mist from the side.

Taylor moved to react and raise her sword.

But Ye Tianwei’s hand moved faster.

Bang!

Something shot through the air at high speed and shattered the Bone Dinosaur’s skull to pieces.

Taylor stilled and stared at Ye Tianwei.

…What skill was that just now?

She thought it might be a Normal+ grade Throwing Skill, but it was far too fast for one.

Ye Tianwei dusted off his hand and gave her a small bow.

“It was a pleasure.”

“…It was a pleasure.”

“Let’s both hunt hard for his sake. The two of us.”

Smiling, Ye Tianwei vanished back into the mist.

Taylor stared at the spot where he’d disappeared, and only then was she finally able to release her tension.

‘…For his sake?’

What had he meant by that last line?

Could it be that Ye Tianwei was also hunting in Zone 5 for Person123’s sake?

Taylor found that she could no longer pin down the kind of person Ye Tianwei was.

*

My days followed the same monotonous pattern as ever.

Going in and out of Floor 6 to advise the Nightmare Clearers on strategy, then hunting in Zone 5.

The U.S. and China had attempted it fairly early this time. And both succeeded.

And lately, for some reason, the Zone 5 Boss Gauge was filling little by little even when I wasn’t out hunting monsters.

Was somebody else hunting in Zone 5 besides me?

I’d said it was dangerous, too.

Anyway, thanks to that, the gauge was filling just a touch faster.

Even so, summoning the Zone 5 boss before attempting Floor 7 was a long way off.

– News just in that the U.S. firm Universe Z’s second crewed exploration vessel is about to arrive at Mars. This expedition is particularly notable for including a Climber among the crew, with CEO Bilon Must stating that he intends to test the range of the Tower’s influence…

The other news making the rounds these days.

Following his first crewed expedition a while back, Bilon’s Universe Z had sent a second exploration vessel to Mars.

Apparently the technology had been refined further, and the speed was much faster as well.

More to the point, this time a Climber was among the crew.

Just as Bilon had stated his ambitions back then, he meant to use this opportunity to run at least a rough test of how far the Tower’s power reached.

[Chicken Sandwich: If the Tower’s abilities function normally on Mars as well, then we have to assume there’s a very high probability the Curse applies the same way too.]

[Person123: Then what will you do next?]

[Chicken Sandwich: We keep pushing out into the wider universe. The solar system, our galaxy, and beyond…]

Whether humanity would last until then was anyone’s guess, but Bilon’s dream was grand all the same.

I was rooting for Bilon, of course.

But honestly, it was getting hard to hold out hope by this point.

Because thanks to the Demon King, I now knew there were other worlds out there.

This Tower wiped out other worlds too. No matter how far we got from Earth, was it really possible to slip out from under the Tower’s claws?

– …The crew members are emerging now. We’re told they will shortly attempt entry into the Tower.

It was being broadcast live in real time.

The second exploration vessel had reached Mars safely.

And the cameras were also capturing Bilon, watching the situation from the control center back on Earth.

The Climber was supposed to attempt posting on the Communication Channel first and then enter the Tower, in that order.

I kept switching between the news and the Easy Communication Channel where the post was supposed to appear…

[Waffle: Post from the first Martian.]

Soon enough, the Mars Climber’s post went up.

[Palm Tree: Goes through just fine huh]

[Advertisement: lolololol]

[Black Pepper: Got my hopes up for nothing… so the humanity-escapes-to-Mars plan is dead now?]

[Cardravolk: still got the Tower entry test left]

A wave of disappointment from the crowd.

Next was Tower entry.

The Climber appears on the screen, smiling and waving from inside the spacecraft.

– Will entry into the Tower really be possible from Mars as well? Right now… Ah! He’s entered.

The Climber had vanished into thin air.

The anchor covering the live broadcast spoke as though letting out a sigh.

Along with the sighs of the control center staff, the camera zoomed in on Bilon’s face, jaw set hard as he stroked his chin.

…Of course it would work.

I let out a sigh and set my phone down.

Even if we got off Earth, the Tower was never going to let humanity go.

In the end, there was only one thing left to do.

Climb the Tower.

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TL Note: Sorry, it seems this didn’t get posted due to some error.

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