The 10th Floor Residential Zone (Part 2)
I skimmed through the post written by Agent K on the community board. It started with a warning not to trust anything, but the information Agent K provided seemed quite useful. Of course, I’d still have to take it with a grain of salt, just like they—or she—had suggested.
After returning to the Tower 10th Floor, I immediately left the cathedral. The city on the 10th floor consisted of two- or three-story buildings with a distinct European flair. The people wandering around, who appeared to be First Settlers, wore clothing that looked straight out of the Renaissance era.
Following the map in the guidebook, I headed toward a blacksmith and weapon shop to sell the now-useless daggers and hand axes. According to Agent K’s advice, weapon shops evaluated items based on their worth as weapons, while blacksmiths bought them by weight as scrap iron. Therefore, selling the chipped and rusted daggers and hand axes at a blacksmith that also dealt in general metal goods would net a slightly better price.
Following Agent K’s general principle of never fully trusting community posts, I decided to verify the information myself rather than take their word for it.
“Hmm. The blacksmith offers 60 credits each, while the weapon shop only gives 50 credits.”
Since the blacksmith and weapon shop were close to each other, checking the prices wasn’t difficult. A new hand axe of similar size at the weapon shop cost 130 credits, so it made sense that a worn-out used one would be worth about half. I sold everything to the blacksmith except for the jungle knife I planned to keep as a spare and three hand axes to use as secondary weapons. Including the eleven weapons and the remains of the iron shield, I received 660 credits in total. Roughly 66,000 won.
That wouldn’t even cover staying here for a single day.
“Guess I should buy some clothes first.”
My digital camouflage combat uniform was drawing quite a few stares. Among the onlookers, there were probably other climbers too. It must have been strange to see someone wearing military fatigues in the Tower. For reference, regular enlisted soldiers who weren’t career military were ordered by the Minister of National Defense to leave the Tower immediately upon receiving an invitation. Refusing would only extend their mandatory service.
When I entered the clothing store following the guidebook, the middle-aged woman who seemed to be the owner looked at me with curious eyes.
“Welcome. Feel free to look around.”
The clothes hanging in the store were more expensive than I’d expected. The cheapest top was 500 credits, pants 600 credits. That came to 1,100 credits total. Pants would probably draw less attention than a top, right? I was debating whether to at least buy a top when the shop owner spoke to me.
“Are you short on money?”
“Yes… a little?”
It wasn’t a big problem. I could always buy credits with points or sell potions at the potion shop.
“Then would you like to sell the clothes you’re wearing? I’ll give you 1,500 credits for them.”
It seemed my outfit looked different from what typical climbers wore, so it had caught her interest. Dyeing digital camouflage patterns was indeed difficult. Rarity meant value, after all.
For a moment I thought I’d hit the jackpot, but I pretended to hesitate. Honestly, I wanted to rip off these annoying clothes right away. Besides, if I created a new avatar, it would come with fresh clothes too.
Wait a second.
What happens to the clothes when my avatar disappears? If they vanish along with it, I can’t sell them. That could be considered fraud.
“How about 2,000 credits?”
When I didn’t respond, the shop owner raised the price, clearly eager to get her hands on my uniform.
“Just a moment. May I use the restroom?”
“Of course, go ahead.”
I followed the owner’s directions and entered the restroom. To my surprise, it had a ceramic toilet. There was even running water. Despite the city’s Renaissance appearance, its water and sewage systems seemed thoroughly modern.
Inside the restroom, I took off my clothes, placed them on top of the toilet, and stepped back. Wearing only my underwear, I created a new avatar. The new avatar appeared wearing the exact same combat uniform as my main body, and the clothes I’d placed on the toilet remained there as well.
“As expected. When separated from the body, they become independent objects.”
There was no sign of the clothes disappearing. Observing the avatar creation process more closely might reveal more details, but a person can’t even see their own face without a mirror.
I stuffed the combat uniform into my bag and left the restroom.
“I’ll sell it for 2,000 credits as you suggested. But I’ll be removing the name tag.”
“Hmm… very well.”
The shop owner accepted my proposal. After buying the clothes I wanted, I received 900 credits in change. My total funds now stood at 1,580 credits.
If I ever run out of money, I could just make more clothes like this and sell them.
With that thought in mind, I left the clothing store and headed to a restaurant. Creating the new avatar had reset my body’s condition, so the hunger had lessened somewhat, but I was still hungry. My main body had only been inside the Tower for about ten minutes. Come to think of it, my real body needed to eat too. That way, when I created a new avatar, it wouldn’t start out starving. Or would eating with my main body carry over to the avatar’s state since it was based on the moment I entered the Tower? I wasn’t sure. Still, the fact remained that I couldn’t let my main body starve, so eating was necessary.
The clock tower in the city center showed it was already close to 3 p.m. The maze on the 6th floor and the puzzle on the 8th floor had taken up a lot of time.
“Are you still serving food?”
I asked because it was an awkward time for a meal, but the restaurant owner said it was fine and pointed to the menu. I ordered the chicken leg set meal. It must have been pre-made because they simply reheated it, and it came out quickly. The meal included one chicken leg with a golden-brown, salt-seasoned thigh, a piece of bread slightly larger than my fist, some pickled vegetables, and a clear stew.
“You’re carrying weapons and wearing a strange bag. Are you a climber?”
The restaurant owner showed interest in me. I answered while eating.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I see. They say in your world, lumps of iron fly through the sky. Is that true?”
It seemed the owner was more interested in the world I came from than in me personally.
“Yes, we have vehicles called airplanes.”
“Wow! How can lumps of iron fly in the sky? Is it magic?”
“I’m not sure about that myself.”
Just as the restaurant owner was curious about my world, I had many questions about the Tower. I asked several of them.
“Climbers must earn good money, yet the cost of living here doesn’t seem that high?”
“Well, the Tower controls things to some extent, so there’s no helping it. If we don’t follow the guidelines, they restrict the supplies coming into the city. We don’t have much choice. Besides, high prices would make things difficult for us as well.”
So the Tower really did function like a nation, with an actual ruling power behind it.
The restaurant owner asked me more questions about our world, and I answered them sincerely.
“By the way, I’ve noticed that people living in the Tower are called First Settlers rather than natives. Why is that?”
The priest had referred to them as First Settlers as well. Some returnees called them natives, but more people seemed to use the term First Settlers.
“Ah, that? I don’t know either.”
“Really?”
“My father called them that, and his father before him, and his father before that. It just became natural.”
He paused as if something had occurred to him and added, “Now that I think about it, my ancestors—or rather, the ancestors of everyone in this city—are said to have come from other worlds, just like you climbers. Maybe that’s why we call ourselves that. Or maybe we’re just choosing to believe the story.”
People who had migrated to the Tower from another world. Did that mean the residents of this city were descendants of climbers from distant past eras?
We exchanged a few more questions and answers after that, but the restaurant owner didn’t know much, so I couldn’t learn anything particularly useful.
“Thank you for the meal. How much is it?”
“70 credits.”
The prices really were cheap compared to what climbers could earn.
After finishing my meal, I transferred the bag I’d bought at a noticeable military supply store into my inventory and sent it to my main body. Then I wandered around the city as if taking a stroll, familiarizing myself with its layout. I had no idea how long it would take to reach the 20th floor, but until then, this place would serve as both a supply base and a resting point.
If Agent K’s information was correct, time in the Tower accelerated by about 10 percent with each floor climbed. That meant I could afford to take things easy for now. If Earth time was ‘1’, then time on the Tower’s 10th floor was ‘1.1 to the power of 10.’ That worked out to roughly 2.59 times faster than on Earth.
That meant that now, ten years after the Tower’s appearance on Earth, approximately twenty-five years had passed on the 10th floor. The Tower had appeared ten years ago by calendar count, but not quite ten full years had passed yet.
“It’s 3:20 p.m. here, so it must still be morning on Earth.”
Unlike the First Settlers, climbers supposedly didn’t age while inside the Tower. There were ridiculous ghost stories on the community boards about climbers who had lived seven thousand years in the Tower, but I couldn’t trust any of that. If you’re going to spout nonsense, at least keep it reasonable. Seven thousand years? What, were they elves from a Tolkien novel?
Still, there were quite a few people claiming they had maintained their youth for over thirty years while living in the Tower. It might not be complete nonsense after all. Of course, in a community where you couldn’t upload photos, such claims were still hard to believe.
While walking down the street, I approached an old woman dressed like a suspicious witch.
“Is this the place that expands your inventory?”
The guidebook had mentioned her. The old woman, who had been dozing, answered with a yawn.
“That’s right. Those people from that world-whatever organization actually do their jobs properly. I used to have to sit in that boring cathedral all day, but now I just have to sit here during certain hours.”
The guidebook said she appeared between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. It seemed they had made some agreement with the WPTO.
“It says I can expand my inventory through a quest. Is that correct?”
“Yes. It’s written in the booklet. On the 10th floor, you just need to pay 10 shop points. From the 20th floor onward there are annoying errands involved, but I don’t expect that from some fresh trash who just arrived on the 10th floor.”
Trash? That was a bit harsh.
“How do I transfer it?”
“Shake my hand.”
I took the old woman’s outstretched hand. A trade window appeared.
One of the shop’s functions. Teaching you this much is part of my job.
I placed 10 points in the trade window. A message confirming the trade appeared, followed by a notification window.
Common Ability 'Inventory' has been expanded to 1 kilogram.
“Now that you’re done, get lost. You’re blocking the sunlight.”
The old woman waved her hand as if telling me to scram. I still had questions for her, but she drove me away with some invisible force, clearly annoyed by my presence.
“Tsk. I guess I should visit the library after all.”
According to Agent K, the library was where all the information inside the Tower gathered. There was probably some exaggeration involved, but it seemed worth checking out at least once.
(To be continued in the next chapter)