The Encounter
Three days had passed since I witnessed Bong-gu's death.
To use Dying Message again, which had a three-day cooldown, I had no choice but to wait.
During that time, I gathered as much information as I possibly could.
Whether I was Loki's plaything or not, survival was my absolute priority.
"So..."
Lying on my bed, I began piecing together the information I had collected so far.
For starters, I had learned a lot more about this Tower.
"She said Loki built it..."
That crazy bitch probably built it just because she thought it would be fun.
I learned that the Tower was shaped like an inverted cone, growing narrower the further down you descended.
Of course, "narrower" in this context didn't mean small by any normal human standard.
After all, the 300th floor alone was said to be the size of two or three massive continents, divided into over ten thousand individual zones.
"The scale of this place... well, it's certainly god-sized..."
This was the realm of the gods, after all.
Thinking it made no sense was merely a limitation of human comprehension.
And then, there were the Points.
I opened my status window to check my remaining balance.
"Two hundred and ninety-eight points..."
Points served as the currency of this world.
They were used to buy equipment, consumables, and food, and could even be traded among the players participating in this twisted game.
"Whew... even just eating basic meals for three days drained nearly a hundred points. And I had to buy gear on top of that."
Apparently, points could be earned by completing trials in the Trial Zone, or through player-killing—something I had witnessed firsthand not too long ago.
Player-killing. If you murdered someone, you could plunder half of their remaining points.
"This place is completely out of its mind, probably because a lunatic god designed it... They really treat humans like mere chess pieces."
Then again, maybe that was just a human perspective.
The bottom line was that if I wanted to survive here, I had to enter the trials and earn points.
The Tower's layout resembled a circle within a circle. The outer ring was the Residential Area, where players and the Tower Residents lived, while the inner ring was the Trial Zone, where the actual trials took place.
The trials were essentially quests tailored to each floor.
"So the goal is to clear the quests for each floor and keep descending..."
According to the Tower Residents, the nature of these quests varied wildly from floor to floor.
And that was where my problem lay.
"My stats are absolutely trashed... and even putting that aside, if I want to raise them..."
I had to sleep with a woman...
Well, sure. If I were some ultra-charismatic alpha male, I wouldn't even need to worry about Dying Message. I could just seduce women, sleep with them, and get free stat boosts. It would be an incredibly broken skill...
But for a social outcast like me, whose only physical contact with a female back on Earth was holding hands during a kindergarten talent show, it was practically useless.
I was certain that crazy bitch Loki was watching me right now, laughing her head off.
"With these garbage stats and a skill that has absolutely nothing to do with combat... who in their right mind would party up with a trash character like me?"
In theory, the Tower's system only allowed a single victor. But system or not, humans naturally band together when their immediate survival is on the line.
Since no one had actually won the game in thousands of years, forming a party to tackle the trials was the logical choice if you wanted to stay alive and descend.
For the past three days, I had been wandering around the plaza where players gathered to recruit party members, but my efforts had yielded absolutely nothing.
"I heard you have to share your basic stats and skills to join a party... Yeah, I'm screwed..."
I could try lying to get into a party, but the aftermath would be disastrous.
Once the lie was exposed, word would spread instantly, and I'd be blacklisted by everyone.
Over the last three days, I had seen several players in similar situations lie about their stats and skills to join a trial, only to be found out and left in absolute ruin.
And those people...
"...naturally became prime targets for the newbie hunters."
Newbie hunting.
The veterans who had arrived here earlier could spot a newbie at a single glance.
Their behavior was just too clumsy. Those who had survived in this Tower for months had a completely different look in their eyes.
Only those who had fully adapted to this brutal world remained. Some veterans who were more than capable of clearing the floor's trials would intentionally delay their descent, staying for the full three-month limit just to hunt newbies.
Still, they didn't just hunt newbies indiscriminately.
For one, the points you could plunder on the 300th floor weren't that substantial, and the initial trials themselves weren't overly difficult.
Their preferred method was to quietly eliminate a clueless newbie on their very first day—just like what happened to Bong-gu.
And the other method was...
"...to pick off the struggling, isolated newbies one by one."
Since they couldn't know what skills a newbie might possess, they were cautious; attacking blindly could backfire.
But those who were left behind and isolated clearly lacked strength. The hunters would observe them for a few days, confirm their weakness, and then strike.
It was an easy way to farm points outside of the trials, even if the payout was small.
"And soon, I'll become their target too..."
It was the natural progression of things.
I had been loitering around the plaza trying to find a party, and the newbie hunters had undoubtedly noticed my failure to secure one over the past few days.
"Sigh... Fuck. Forget about reaching the 1st floor, I can barely even survive the 300th. Dammit..."
I had to find a party tomorrow, no matter what.
Otherwise, I would end up as nothing more than prey.
"Fuck... I'll just have to pray that Dying Message triggers something tomorrow..."
My only remaining insurance policy was to save someone using Dying Message and hope they would carry me.
Praying that this gamble of a skill would hit the jackpot, I forced myself to sleep, despite my racing thoughts.
After choking down a quick breakfast, I headed out to the plaza.
The plaza was a chaotic clamor of voices, filled with players shouting to recruit party members.
Since I desperately needed to find a party, I wandered through the crowd, scanning the area.
"Ah, damn it... What am I supposed to do?"
My prospects looked bleak. Right now, lying to someone seemed like the only way to get into a party.
If I chose that route, I might survive today, but my future would be completely ruined.
"...Hey, we need to find a party fast..."
As I let out an irritated sigh, a faint whispering caught my attention from a nearby corner.
I walked toward the edge of the plaza to find the source of the barely audible voices.
"Sora, we really need to find a party..."
"I know! Ah, seriously..."
Standing there were two girls: one with long, pure-looking blue hair, and another with shoulder-length yellow hair.
It was at that exact moment.
A notification window flashed before my eyes, and the surrounding noise suddenly faded into a dead silence as the world around me plunged into darkness.
Dying Message
"Uh... Ah..."
Though I had experienced it once before, the disorienting sensation still caught me off guard as I watched the skill unfold.
In the vision, the yellow-haired girl I had just seen appeared before me.
Her body was covered in wounds, and she was panting heavily, gasping for breath.
"Go! Hurry! I'll hold them off!"
*Thud!*
As she screamed over her shoulder, she was suddenly struck by something, her head slamming violently into the ground.
Her figure dissolved, the darkness receded, and the noisy clamor of the plaza rushed back into my ears.
Cause of Death: Fatal blunt force trauma to the head
The silent notification lingered before my eyes, and I quickly opened her status window to inspect her details.
This... this is my last chance...
Current Floor:300th Floor - Sky Garden
Points Held:751
Tribute Paid:No (Tribute: 200 Points | Deadline: 26 Days)
Plasma Detonation (Active, B-Rank)
Triggers a plasma explosion in the surrounding area.
Requires Plasma Charge to activate. (Charge level is only visible to the caster.)
Charging is triggered by external stimulation to the caster.
The maximum charge capacity scales with the caster's Intelligence, and the explosion damage scales with the amount of charge consumed and the caster's Health.
My first impression of her skill was...
"It's so mediocre..."
"Mediocre" was the only word that came to mind.
Of course, it wasn't as utterly useless as my own skill, but it was highly impractical. If she couldn't charge it when she needed to, she was essentially powerless. Plus, there was no telling how long it would take to recharge for another use.
"But..."
My Dying Message only reacted to players with S-class skills or equivalent potential.
Which meant that this girl, despite her currently mediocre-looking skill, was destined to reach S-class as she descended the Tower.
Besides, I had no other path forward but to put my faith in Dying Message.
"Alright, let's do this."
I walked over to the two girls who were still bickering at the edge of the plaza.
"Excuse me..."
Gathering my courage, I spoke up. Hearing my voice, both of them turned to look at me at the same time.
The heroine makes her entrance!