Floor 6: The Lost World of the Contaminated (1)

Suhyeok opened his eyes and there was Dobby, sprawled out on the bed, gazing down at him. Must be nice, he thought. Some people racked their brains half a lifetime just to reach enlightenment, and this guy had simply claimed the mattress.

Dobby hopped down from the bed and peered up at him with anxious eyes.

"Kkiik! Human! You okay?! You suddenly, collapsed! Vanished!"

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Looks like you got plenty of rest while I was out, huh."

"Kkiik! Human! Told you! Rest! In bed!"

"...Right."

He had told the goblin to make use of the bed whenever he was left on his own again. Still, actually clearing the floor and coming back to find Dobby occupying it made him feel oddly shortchanged. Hadn't they promised to climb the Tower together?

"Kkiik! Human! Water! Bread!"

"Yeah, sure. I can manage that much. Thanks."

Dobby fetched a bottle of water and some bread. Suhyeok wasn't particularly hungry, so he waved off the bread and took only the bottle. As he drank, a notification bloomed into view a little slower than usual.

Exactly as Ha Heijeong had said. His status window could display information and nothing more. Honestly, it didn't sit well with him. This wasn't some free handout — it was the reward for completing the tutorial. Why did he get stuck with the worse version?

"Status Window."

Well, grumbling to himself wouldn't change anything. He invoked it with a flicker of anticipation, and a fresh notification unfolded before his eyes.

Title, affiliation, skills. He read it from top to bottom, slowly. It was his first time ever seeing one, and he had no idea what any of it meant. So the Essence of Lightning had gone under Skills — though he still had no clue how to actually use it. There was a strange power simmering inside his body, after all. Like in a game, was he supposed to shout the skill's name?

"Essence of Lightning!"

"Kkiik? Human?"

...Oh. So that wasn't it, then? He'd shouted the name at the top of his lungs and absolutely nothing had happened. Dobby was staring at him from the side, wearing an expression that plainly asked what on earth he was doing. The embarrassment burned. One look into those guileless eyes and he wanted to crawl into the nearest mousehole.

No, hold on. Now that he thought about it, Dobby shouted when he cast his healing spells too — 'Heal Wounds!' So shouting wasn't the problem. He had to move this power he could feel...?

"Kkiiik!"

The instant he willed the power into his hand, lightning crackled to life across his palm. It was a wondrous sight. Electricity crawled over his bare skin, yet he didn't feel the slightest pain. Dobby, startled by the sparks, recoiled two whole steps.

"Zap! Scary, huh?"

"Kkiik! Electric! Human!"

"...Uh, 'Electric Human' sounds kinda off, though?"

"Lightning! Human!"

Fine. Call me whatever you like. Leaving the goblin to his excitement, Suhyeok turned his attention back to the status window. The highest stat was Strength. 78.7 — how high was that, exactly? With nothing to compare it against, he couldn't help but wonder.

He was just about to message Ha Heijeong about his stats when the notifications refreshed again. Was it because he'd completed the tutorial? Ever since then, the alerts had been popping up a beat slower than on the previous floors.

What's a 5th-Grade Candidate Deity? When he'd traded messages with Ha Heijeong earlier, she had only ever talked about 5th-Grade Deities. This was the first he'd ever heard of a Candidate Deity.

As he watched the windows scroll past, a sense of wrongness crept over him. All the way up through Floor 4, 1st- and 2nd-Class deities had been a regular presence in his messages. Now the only names appearing were 5th-Grade Deities and Candidate Deities. What the hell is going on? Why had every deity from 1st through 4th Grade suddenly gone silent?

Eh. He'd just ask Ha Heijeong and put his mind at ease.

"Message."

But instead of his message window to her, the Tower's notifications updated.

Damn it — community and messaging restricted? Was the Tower cooking up something else behind the scenes? There was nothing for it. He would simply have to trust his own judgment. Ha Heijeong hadn't told him to avoid signing a contract, after all, and the Tower itself was insisting he 'must.'

—You see that farmer passing by over there? Contract with the shabbiest-looking god, someone like him. Got it?

He replayed Ha Heijeong's words in his head. Sign with the god that looked the worst. He had been planning to pick the shabbiest deity among the 5th-Grade ones when it hit him — Ha Heijeong had said the deities' grades shifted during the tutorial period. Like a sports draft. In that case, a 5th-Grade Candidate Deity ought to be the best of the lot...

The one snag was that he'd never once heard the term 'Candidate Deity' in his conversations with her. If, in truth, only the seated ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠deities' grades shuffled, and a Candidate Deity really was just a 'reserve' deity, then he'd be in serious trouble. Should I just play it safe and sign with an ordinary 5th-Grade Deity?

First things first — turn off the alerts. The swarm of windows crowding his vision was scrambling his brain.

The moment he moved to dismiss them, one particular notification snagged his eye.

Every once in a while, life hands you a moment like this. A moment when something seizes you, and certainty blooms in your chest out of nowhere. Looking at that message, Suhyeok felt that this was one of those moments. He couldn't have explained why if he tried. Honestly, it was closer to a hunch — an instinct. The sure, quiet knowledge that he had to sign with that deity. Come to think of it, his status window did have a skill called Sixth Sense. If it was this strong, it had to be worth trusting. Didn't it?

"Yes."

And before he was even aware of it himself, the answer had slipped out of his mouth, smooth and natural.

The notifications streamed past one after another. One hour and fifty-nine minutes left. Not exactly a wealth of time. He was just about to lie down on the bed — not to sleep, just to rest his body a little — when a message arrived from Ha Heijeong.

Going by her reply, Ha Heijeong had no idea what a Candidate Deity was either. It was probably because he alone had run a different tutorial. Could Candidate Deities be one of the hidden pieces, too? Now that would be nice.

He walked a flabbergasted Ha Heijeong through his status window. The way she gasped 'What!?' every single time he mentioned another skill or stat was honestly pretty funny.

Talking it over with her, he came to understand just how absurd his stats were. According to Ha Heijeong, the average climber finished the tutorial with stats somewhere in the 15-to-20 range. Nearly four times the average, on paper alone. And since stats became progressively harder to raise the higher they climbed, she said, the true gap in power would only be wider than the numbers suggested. Ha Heijeong had been genuinely delighted, telling him that with stats like these, he could afford to skim every last benefit Floor 6 had to offer. He felt a flush of pride — and, if he was honest, a little smugness too — like he'd somehow lived up to what was expected of him.

He could have sworn the Floor 5 clear had paid out 5,000 points. Somewhere along ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the way, another 10,000 had slipped in without him noticing a thing. Ha Heijeong messaged back, sensing something was off.

Only after her explanation did it finally click. Not that it was bad news — quite the opposite. He'd gained 10,000 points free of charge without lifting a finger. It was like reaching into an old jacket pocket and finding money you'd stuffed in there and forgotten all about.

Just as she'd said, he opened the shop window and searched — and they really weren't that expensive. Top-Grade Climber's Suit: 500 points. High-Grade Leather Armor: 500 points as well. Or wait — was that expensive or not? After buying the 45,000-point 'Essence of Lightning' and the 3,000-point 'Physical Enhancement Elixir,' his sense of money seemed to have completely broken down.

The Top-Grade Climber's Suit looked like nothing more than a plain set of athletic wear that clung to the body — yet it was soft to the touch and didn't restrict his movement in the slightest. The High-Grade Leather Armor was the same story. The hide was tough as anything, but it never once got in his way. After weeks of living in jeans and a hoodie, pulling on proper equipment for the first time changed something in him — like his whole mindset had shifted a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gear. A feeling of quiet resolve? He couldn't have put it into words, but he felt ready. Like he could finally climb this Tower the way it deserved to be climbed.

While he'd been buried in his messages, less than three minutes had somehow slipped away. Dobby, bored stiff with him glued to the chat, had climbed onto the bed and taken to paddling his feet back and forth through the air. Dobby would be coming along to Floor 6 too, wouldn't he?

"Kkiik?"

When Suhyeok glanced over, Dobby peered up at him with those big, innocent eyes. He shook his head — it was nothing — and Dobby, apparently just because, plucked a bite of bread off the plate and munched on it. What a cute little guy.

And right about the time Dobby finally polished off the last of his loaf, the hour had come to move on to Floor 6.

The instant the notification appeared, he summoned Ha Heijeong's face to mind. Some kind of 'party' system, presumably? That would explain how she'd known they'd be able to meet on Floor 6.

A faint smile crossed Suhyeok's face as the notification scrolled up, just before his vision flooded with light. A 1st-Class God. His sponsor had listed as a 5th-Grade ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Candidate — which, by Ha Heijeong's logic, meant a high-tier deity even among the first class. As expected, his gut hadn't steered him wrong.

As his sight cleared, he took in a scruffy, open patch of ground. Five figures stood scattered across it — Ha Heijeong and four strangers, with Dobby behind him. Ha Heijeong spotted him at once and started to wave, then abruptly froze mid-motion. What was wrong?

"Kkiik! Human! Many!"

"Kyaaaaah! It's a goblin!"

"Aaaaagh! Fuck! Kid, what the hell!"

Suhyeok turned — and there was a white man with a bow, the drawstring pulled taut, aimed dead at Dobby. Oh. Right. None of the others knew that Dobby was with him...

Before he could so much as shout, the man loosed the string. The arrow tore through the air toward Dobby, swift as a lightning bolt.

"Ah, damn it."