Chapter 4: 0th Floor (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 4: 0th Floor (2)
“MVP.”
Kang Jun-hyeok muttered the word as he stared at the quest completion window.
In his past life, no such thing had appeared. Back then, the Mantises had simply vanished along with a cold message stating the quest had ended. He was seeing something now that he hadn't seen before. A satisfied smile played on his lips.
The Mantises were dead. The quest completion window had appeared. The 0th Floor Quest was over.
As the realization dawned on them, the survivors stared blankly at Kang Jun-hyeok.
To them, the Mantises were monsters—foes they couldn't possibly resist. No one had even dreamed of fighting back. They thought running away was the only solution, turning their backs on one another, pushing and shoving as they fled in terror.
To them, the Mantises were akin to absolute beings.
Yet, Kang Jun-hyeok had slaughtered every single one of those "absolute beings."
They still couldn't fully grasp the situation, but one thing was certain: the man standing before them was a different kind of existence entirely.
“Uh, um…”
The crowd hesitated, then began to edge toward him. One of the braver individuals asked cautiously, “Excuse me, that…”
But the moment he tried to speak—
Sssshhh.
Space itself split open. The people recoiled in terror, fearing another monster like the Mantises was about to emerge. However, it wasn't a monster that appeared, but a young girl.
“Ah…”
For a moment, the crowd gasped, momentarily forgetting their dire situation.
The girl was breathtakingly beautiful. Her features were sharp and flawless, perfect in every way. Her long, flowing black hair trailed on the ground, yet not a single speck of dust clung to it.
While everyone else was entranced by her beauty, Kang Jun-hyeok remained composed.
It’s been a while.
The girl who managed Earth and coordinated its events. They called her the Administrator.
The Administrator’s expression was one of profound boredom. She looked like someone who had repeated the same task tens of thousands of times and expected this time to be no different. But as she stepped forward and surveyed her surroundings, her expression shifted.
“Oh?” She tilted her head. “Why are so many of you still alive?”
Those were her first words.
* * *
The girl was an Administrator.
Her role was to manage the Players who entered the Tower. Her job was to guide and brief the survivors once the 0th Floor Quest ended, so she naturally knew everything that had transpired.
That was why she couldn't help but be bewildered.
“Eighty out of a hundred survived?”
In all the 0th Floor Quests she had overseen, the survival rate was usually around 50%. Even at its highest, it never exceeded 60%. An 80% survival rate was freakishly high. As she looked around in confusion, her eyes widened when she spotted the carcasses of the Mantises.
“What? You killed them? This is a first.”
Baffled, the Administrator looked at Kang Jun-hyeok, who stood before the corpses.
“Did you do this?”
“Yes,” Jun-hyeok replied calmly.
Confusion deepened on the Administrator’s face. “…Wait a second. It doesn't look like anyone else interfered. You killed them all by yourself?”
“I did.”
“…Really?”
The Administrator was genuinely shocked.
It wasn't just the fact that the Mantises were dead. Objectively speaking, the Mantises weren't unkillable. In fact, while no one on the Earth she managed had ever succeeded, she knew they had been killed a few times in "other places." That alone wouldn't have surprised her this much.
What shocked her was that he had killed three of them alone.
The 0th Floor wasn't designed that way. The intent was for a hundred people to cooperate or for individuals to take on one Mantis each. It wasn't built for one person to handle three.
No, more importantly, is it even possible to take down three alone?
The Administrator knew the Mantises had stats equivalent to those on the 3rd Floor. They weren't opponents someone on the 0th Floor, lacking proper equipment, should be able to face. For a moment, she suspected he was lying, but she was an Administrator. She could detect a lie instantly. Kang Jun-hyeok was telling the truth.
“What are you?”
The Administrator stared at him, looking utterly perplexed. Instead of answering, Jun-hyeok changed the subject.
“I assume you came here for a purpose. Is it alright for you to focus all your attention on me?”
“Ah, right. Yeah.”
The Administrator finally remembered her duty. Scratching her head awkwardly, she gave an elegant greeting.
“Hello. I am the being tasked with managing your planet. You can just call me the Administrator. If you manage to survive, we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other.”
The Administrator clapped her hands.
“Now then! To all you surviving humans! Congratulations! You have now earned the right to challenge the Tower. You can now proudly call yourselves Players!”
With those words, the System appeared.
[Congratulations! You have successfully survived the 0th Floor Quest.]
[The right to challenge the Tower has been unlocked. You may now ascend the Tower.]
[The Laws of the Tower are now applied to you.]
[Various functions are now available through the System.]
[The Status Window is now available.]
[The Skill Window is now available.]
[The Title Window is now available.]
[The Community function has been unlocked.]
[Various other functions have been unlocked.]
“I hope you ascend the Tower and meet the Master’s expectations! Most of you will die before then, but anyway, good luck!”
The Administrator waved her hand with a bright smile.
“Then, farewell! Goodbye!”
“W-Wait! Hold on!”
The people were startled by her sudden departure.
“P-Please explain! What are we supposed to do now?”
“It’s a hassle. You guys are on the late side anyway, aren't you? Just hear it from the people around you.”
“B-But at least give us some advice!”
The people clung to the Administrator desperately. They were about to enter a hellish Tower, and the situation was beyond bleak. But this girl had called herself the Administrator of Earth. That meant she knew everything.
“Please!”
“Tell us what to do!”
They clamored and begged. Kang Jun-hyeok watched with a look of surprise.
This didn't happen in my past life.
Back then, everyone had just nodded blankly at her words. They hadn't swarmed her like this. And the reason for this change was entirely because of Kang Jun-hyeok.
He had killed the Mantises before the majority of the people could be slaughtered. While many had died, it wasn't the total despair of his previous life. Most importantly, in his past life, the Administrator had simply delivered her explanation with a bored face and vanished. There had been no opening for them to speak.
But this time, the Administrator had been flustered by an unprecedented event and had engaged in conversation with Jun-hyeok. Seeing her act so human had stripped away much of her mystique. She felt more like an ordinary, beautiful girl. Because of that, the people were emboldened to pester her.
However, they were making one grave mistake. The Administrator was not a kind being.
She picked her ear as if they were a nuisance. “And why should I?”
The space, which had been as noisy as a marketplace, fell silent instantly. The people’s faces turned pale.
“Ugh… ah.”
“Gah… kgh.”
A mere manifestation of her emotion—that alone was enough to choke the breath out of them. An overwhelming pressure crashed down, and the stench of urine began to waft from several spots. They realized instinctively: the beautiful girl before them was an existence incomparable to the Mantises they had faced.
Kang Jun-hyeok looked like he had expected this.
Administrators have such nasty tempers.
She was less a living being and more like a manufactured doll. She was capricious and viewed them as nothing more than toys. She wasn't the type to kindly soothe those who annoyed her. In his past life, he had suffered quite a bit from her whims and irritability.
While everyone else had collapsed in panic, only Kang Jun-hyeok remained standing. Seeing this, the Administrator looked even more intrigued.
“Even if I only applied a little pressure, you’re perfectly fine. What are you, really? Some kind of serial killer who’s murdered hundreds? No, even guys like that usually piss themselves in front of me.”
“We’re going to keep seeing each other anyway. Let’s get to know each other gradually,” Jun-hyeok said calmly.
The Administrator smirked. “True. I thought this planet was a dud… but I’ve found someone interesting.”
With those words, she closed the distance in an instant. Her face was so close he could feel her breath as she tilted her head.
“What are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“…I feel like I smell something familiar. No, is it just my imagination?”
The Administrator shook her head and stepped back. The world began to flicker like television static. The 0th Floor was closing, and they were being sent back to Earth. Until the very last moment, the Administrator kept her eyes on Kang Jun-hyeok.
“Kang Jun-hyeok. I’ll be expecting things from you. I’ll be watching.”
With that low voice, Jun-hyeok found himself back in his studio apartment.
“It’s over.”
The tension left his body. He let out a short breath and sat on the edge of his bed.
* * *
Naturally, Kang Jun-hyeok had been extremely focused.
The immense power he possessed in his past life was gone. Currently, he was just an ordinary human. A single mistake could have cost him his life. The Mantis was a foe he shouldn't have been able to handle yet. He couldn't afford even a momentary lapse. His head throbbed from the intense concentration.
“Whew.”
He drank some cold water and rested for a bit, letting his brain cool down. It had been incredibly difficult and dangerous. But the results were clear. He had gained things he hadn't in his past life—not just power, but in terms of relationships as well.
The Administrator’s final words.
The emotion behind them was interest and curiosity. The Administrator was favorably disposed toward him. That was a very good thing. Though she viewed living beings as toys, she cherished and favored the toys she liked. Consequently, she treated those she favored with a level of bias that bordered on unfairness.
Considering the events to come, gaining the Administrator’s favor was of immeasurable value. And there was one more thing he had confirmed.
She didn't seem to know about me.
An Administrator’s authority was vast. Tasked by the new Master of the Universe to manage a planet, she could shake the world with a single word. She was powerful enough to create massive events on a whim. Yet even she hadn't realized that Kang Jun-hyeok had returned from the future. She mentioned a "familiar smell," but she didn't seem to have a precise grasp of the truth.
…I wonder where they even found something like this.
At least the 90th Floor or higher. And among the floors above the 90th, the one where such an item could be obtained was…
Jun-hyeok’s eyes darkened. But only for a moment. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. The 90th Floor was a long way off. There was no point in thinking about it now.
For now, more importantly…
It was time to check what he had accomplished and what he had gained. As if the final tally was complete, the System window appeared before his eyes.
I wonder how much I’ll get.
Jun-hyeok looked up with anticipation.
The 0th Floor. Most people thought the rewards for the Tutorial Quest were just the System unlock and the right to challenge the Tower. But was that really it? The rewards appearing before him now proved that such a thought was nothing more than a misconception.
[Accumulated rewards are being issued following the System unlock.]
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
[Level Up.]
[Health +60]
[Strength +4]
[Speed +4]
[Passive Skill: You have acquired Dagger Technique.]
[0th Floor Quest concluded.]
[Rewards are determined based on your performance.]
[Time remaining until conclusion: 1 minute 25 seconds.]
[Person with the highest contribution in killing monsters: You.]
[Person who killed the most monsters: You.]
[MVP: You.]
[This is a magnificent achievement!]
[The Administrator is showing interest in you.]
[Additional settlement is being processed.]
[Processing…]
[Settlement complete.]
[You have acquired the MVP reward: [Infinite Inventory].]
[1,212 Gold has been issued.]