Chapter 165
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Floor 6. Martial King Heavenly Demon
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The highest confirmed level among current humanity is Christopher Garcia at Level 72, so anything from Level 80 onward can just be treated as fiction.
It's all just stuff people imagined with a casual "Eh, it's probably something like this...?"
Since it was mostly Westerners who were the pioneers of such imaginations, most of the unverified info came from abroad.
But info below Level 70 is pretty reliable.
Among the Tower trial survivors, there are quite a few show-offs. Especially for Hard difficulty, which has now been proven to be around Level 50 survivors, there are a decent number on a global scale.
Those folks can't help but flaunt it to each other, so they upload tons of related videos on YouTube or TikTok.
Thanks to that, foreign experts in various fields start analyzing those videos and produce more specific, detailed info. Then people fluent in foreign languages translate it and post it in Korean on the internet.
After that, someone mixes the translated info with videos or music to make simplistic summary YouTube vids to rack up views, and then others process it second- or third-hand and put out their own versions.
That's when people like me see those posts or videos and go, "Oh..."
'Hmm, now that I have Japanese fluency, I can check out info posts in Japanese right away if someone puts one up.'
Such random thoughts about Japanese fluency popped into my head amid all this.
'Anyway, what to do about this. To hit Level 20 in Geomingeomachematongjeong excluding Magic Power by grinding points on Floor 1 or 2... how many points do I need...?'
A rough calculation showed I needed 260,000 points.
Based on points earned on Floor 1, that's about 26,000 zombies? Way too many.
"First, I'll clear Floor 6 and get a feel. If it's no good, I'll climb straight to Floor 7, 8, 9, 10 and find a floor where I can farm points easily or get stronger. There has to be some total cakewalk where I can power up effortlessly. Ideally a world with spirit herbs or something..."
According to an info post I'd seen online before, "Occasionally, if you're lucky enough to get a spirit herb or evolution that boosts potential, your survivor level rises too."
If I can snag and eat spirit herbs, my survivor level—which is currently Level 0—will go up.
That'd be a huge help.
Of course, the idea of grinding levels honestly through long-term training didn't appeal even if I came back from the dead.
Why bother training when I could smash zombie heads on Floor 1, farm points, buy stats and skills, and get buffs instead...?
I told the system I wanted to challenge Floor 6.
Will you challenge the 6th Floor trial?
"Yeah."
Please select the type of trial.
Examples for selection are provided.
(Game) Martial King Heavenly Demon - Infinite Coin Version
(Game) Princess Making 2 - Undress Version
(Web Drama) Endless Twists of Birth Secrets and Adulterous Soap Opera
(Fairy Tale) Snow White
(Anime) Spy Family
(Community) Story of Girlfriend Studying Abroad Suddenly Breaking Up
"Huh? Martial King Heavenly Demon? Perfect one popped up first. That's the one."
A great worldview appeared right at the top.
Martial King Heavenly Demon was an ill-fated arcade masterpiece set in a Korean-style wuxia world.
It was like those old Romance of the Three Kingdoms arcade games or Dungeon & Dragon-style arcade games I'd played before.
Some Korean company poured a ton of money into it, shouting, "We can make something better, bigger, and more fun than foreign arcade games!" It was their pride and joy.
But it launched right when StarCraft was booming and PC bangs were popping up everywhere.
On top of that, someone illegally made a pirated PC version CD that spread like wildfire.
The new company must've been weak on security, because everyone played it on home PCs—which were becoming common by then—instead of arcades.
So what happened? It flopped. Hard.
I first encountered it on my home computer too.
As a kid, I didn't know it was a pirated copy; I begged Mom for money to buy a cheap one at the five-day market, installed it, and played.
'I thought I'd bought a legit game, but was shocked later to learn it was bootleg.'
It wasn't until much later that YouTubers and Twitch streamers rediscovered it, multi-run players emerged, and it gained popularity.
But so what? The game company had gone bust ages ago.
'Eh, not my problem anyway.'
Anyway, since Martial King Heavenly Demon was a wuxia world, it had martial arts and spirit herbs.
Exactly what I wanted.
I skimmed the trial conditions for Martial King Heavenly Demon.
(Game) Martial King Heavenly Demon - Infinite Coin Version
= Win in martial duels.
= You won't die permanently in this trial.
= Infinite revives possible for 100 points charged.
= 1 point per duel win. 5 points for life-or-death duels or battles.
= Higher bonus points for defeating or killing stronger foes in duels or battles.
= Additional reward items based on rising 'Reputation' or 'Infamy' in the martial world.
= 'Conscience' rises with righteous acts or slaying villains; rewards accordingly.
= 'Unrighteousness' rises with slaying the good or evil deeds; penalties if higher than Conscience.
'Infinite Coin version, huh? No perma-death like Floor 2. Jackpot.'
The Infinite Coin version was a name given when someone modded the arcade game into a specific PC port.
In the arcade original, you had to insert coins each death to retry or revive. This auto-revived like infinite coins, hence the name.
Naturally, the hassle-free PC version was the most popular.
"I'll go with Martial King Heavenly Demon."
The trial begins.
My vision went dark.
I felt myself moving somewhere.
The 6th Floor trial begins.
The 6th Floor trial is 'Win in a martial duel.' Just challenge and beat someone.
'First trial's easy again, huh. Just beat someone? Even a baby would count. Total cakewalk.'
When I came to, I was in a dim space deep inside a stone cave.
It was a massive natural cavern, artificially carved further—the final survival test site for new recruits of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
"Hmm, the game's tutorial spot... Seeing this brings back fond memories. ...Ah, no BGM? The soundtrack was great too. The tutorial BGM was almost like a classic game tune."
For a pirated PC port of an arcade game, it boasted huge volume—3 install CDs plus 2 play CDs for Parts 1 and 2, totaling 5—and the BGM was top-notch.
In cruder adult terms, they splurged on the soundtrack too.
"It teaches direction keys, attack, throw, grab, tackle one by one, then sends you outside for the real story. What a massive ill-fated masterpiece. Rare for an arcade game to have such a detailed tutorial."
Wonder how pissed the creators and CEO were. They made a banger and it tanked.
A hyped domestic arcade game that got big investment during the PC bang boom.
Company folded, reevaluated much later.
I followed the cave path out, dodging simple traps and grabbing hidden rewards.
Tutorial cave rewards were minor: throwing darts, oil, sorghum liquor, etc.
Darts for ranged attacks, oil to slip floors or ignite (or for scenarios), liquor to restore stamina.
All went into my Subspace Storage.
Nostalgia meant no need for wikis or guides, but since it'd been ages, I watched strategy streams in reality to double-check everything.
"Light leaking there. Cave exit in sight."
The end of the tutorial cave appeared—a short journey's close, heralding the real game's start with its light.