Chapter 106: Warning
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 106: Warning
A message stating that the Hidden clear was invalidated due to an error.
I checked my Status Window.
[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[Floor: 7th Floor]
[Level: 95]
[Willpower: 5,000/5,000]
[Skills: Destruction Ray (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Hellfire Eruption (Epic), Sixth Sense (Rare+)(+2), Teleportation (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Scorching Zone (Rare+), Lesser Flame Formula Refinement (Rare+)...]
My level hadn't gone up.
And I hadn't received any other rewards.
In other words, I got absolutely nothing for clearing the 7th Floor Hidden Route.
“Are you kidding me...”
What kind of bullshit was this?
Was the error my fault? How could they just nullify the reward too?
[Due to an error, the Hidden Route for Nightmare Difficulty will be closed.]
[You will not be able to proceed through the Hidden Route until all errors have been corrected.]
On top of that, it said the Hidden Route was now closed.
So... this didn't just mean the 7th Floor was blocked, right?
Seeing as it said the Hidden Route for Nightmare Difficulty was closed, it must mean all the other floors were included too.
Did this mean I couldn't clear any more Hidden Routes? At least, not until the error was fixed?
I stared at the message, dumbfounded.
...Right, but there was the other reward.
Separate from the Tower's reward, the Sage did give me something.
I stared intently at the palm of my right hand.
‘...What the hell did he give me?’
He said it was the one thing I needed most.
But I had no idea what had changed.
A white, gem-like object had melted into my hand.
But nothing new was showing up in my Status Window.
“Demon King.”
I called out to him.
“What did the Sage do to me? Do you know?”
– I do not know.
For some reason, the Demon King sounded displeased.
– I told you to choose the book. Now you’ve gained no reward and look at the state of you.
Was he really acting like this just because I didn't pick the Book of Omniscience?
I protested.
“...I already told you. The Sage failed, so choosing the Book of Omniscience wouldn't have made a difference for me...”
That’s what I said, but honestly, I was starting to regret it a little.
Should I have chosen the Book of Omniscience after all?
It was too late to take back my choice now.
“Hap!”
I thrust my palm into the empty air, just to see.
Of course, nothing happened.
– Tsk, tsk.
I lowered my hand, embarrassed.
Sigh, I have no idea...
I flopped onto the bed to clear my head.
My thoughts were a jumbled mess.
More importantly, what exactly was the Sage?
‘...He called it the fate of failed worlds.’
Does that mean worlds destroyed by the Tower become its floors?
If I failed, would the same thing happen to Earth?
It wouldn't just end with humanity dying off from the Tower's Curse and people turning into monsters.
“...Demon King.”
– What is it?
“How was your world destroyed?”
I had asked once before but never received an answer.
Now, I thought I had a better idea of why the Demon King had been buried on the 5th Floor.
Perhaps the Demon King had also been swallowed by the Tower, his fate similar to the Sage's.
“We’re partners now, aren’t we? Please share some information with me.”
After a moment of silence.
– Once, I ruled over lands far more vast than this planet you call Earth.
The Demon King began his story.
– All of creation enjoyed a long peace under my reign. Until the Tower appeared.
...A Demon King, and peace?
The statement made me tilt my head, but I kept listening.
– My world was no different from this one. There were four difficulties, and we were warned that the world would end when the time limit expired. And as for Nightmare Difficulty, none save for myself could clear it. But that was not an issue, for even Nightmare Difficulty could not dare to halt my steps. I climbed past the 20th Floor without any particular hardship.
“...But then what happened?”
How did a Demon King that powerful end up failing?
After a long silence, the Demon King spoke.
– I do not know.
“What?”
– For some reason, I have no memory of the final moments. Of what end my world met.
No memory?
– I am certain the Tower made some sort of proposal, however...
A realization dawned on me.
“Is that why you wanted me to get the Book of Omniscience?”
The Demon King’s attitude had been strangely insistent.
Did he want to use the Book of Omniscience to recover his lost memories?
– That was part of it. But you, you fool, made a stupid choice.
“...So, in the end, you don’t know what the Tower’s identity is either.”
I had wanted to know exactly how the Tower brought an end to a world.
But since the Demon King had no memory of it, it seemed I wouldn't be getting an answer.
Well, it's not like knowing would change anything.
I glanced at my palm one last time, then pushed myself up.
The Hidden Route was blocked, and I had no clue what the Sage had given me.
My head was still a mess, but...
No matter what, I had to do what needed to be done.
I left the motel and went home.
[You have entered the 7th Floor of Nightmare Difficulty.]
Then I immediately re-entered the 7th Floor.
The entry process was normal.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Now that the Hidden clear was done, I needed to write the information post for the 7th Floor...
This one looked like it would take a lot of time.
I'd have to check every single one of the hundreds of arrows per gate.
‘Can anyone even clear this?’
A nagging doubt remained.
I couldn't help but wonder if the other Nightmare Clearers could actually beat the 7th Floor.
The second gate, the Dark Gate.
For that, you just needed a skill that let you see in the dark.
Or you could just shoot fire magic to relight the torches. I had confirmed that was possible.
The fourth gate, the Colored Arrows Gate.
That one would be extremely tough, but I didn't think it was impossible.
If you perfectly memorized the arrow patterns, you could manage it somehow.
The fifth gate, the Statue Gate, could be passed by just practicing archery until you could hit the dot.
But even setting the others aside, the third gate, the Body Left-Right Reversal, was just too brutal.
It wasn't something you could overcome just by knowing about it...
I passed through the gates one by one until I reached the boss room.
Kwoooaaaaar!
After easily taking out the boss with my Hellfire Eruption skill...
[You have successfully cleared the 7th Floor of Nightmare Difficulty.]
[Moving to the Reward Room.]
The normal message appeared, and I was transported to the Reward Room.
I looked around.
I had hoped there might be some kind of 7th Floor Hidden reward waiting for me, but... there was nothing.
So it was really and truly nullified.
“So cheap.”
Time to organize the info post.
I exited the Tower.
I figured I would do repeat clears, taking notes on the arrow patterns for one gate at a time.
“...Shit.”
That startled me.
When I returned to my room, my younger sister was sitting at my desk, using my computer.
“What are you doing?”
“I have to print something.”
“What about your laptop?”
“It's broken. I need to get it repaired anyway.”
My sister glanced at me and asked, “Took you a while, though, huh?”
“...Huh?”
“I mean, clearing the floor and coming out. I've been on the computer for over 30 minutes. I thought you weren't home.”
I was speechless for a moment before answering.
“That's because I was doing repeat clears.”
There was no reason to take several minutes to kill a single goblin on the 1st Floor of Easy Difficulty.
But it was possible to immediately re-challenge a floor from the Reward Room without leaving the Tower.
So there was nothing particularly strange about me being in the Tower for a long time.
“Oh, right. But what about the Mana Stones?”
“They're in the Reward Room. Why all the questions?”
“Just curious. Can't I even ask?”
My sister grumbled and turned back to the computer screen.
I tilted my head.
Why was my sister, who'd never shown any interest before, suddenly asking these things?
‘...Are they suspicious?’
Nah, no way.
My sister finished using the computer and left.
I put it out of my mind and entered the 7th Floor again.
Anyway, I was genuinely worried about the other Nightmare Clearers for this 7th Floor...
I thought of the two people I had seen during the Zone 3 boss fight.
The US and China will definitely try, won't they?
To be honest, at this point, there was no reason for nations to actively challenge Nightmare anymore.
I was already preventing the end of the world, and without that reason, the challenge was all risk and no return.
The only reason the US and China were still attempting Nightmare was probably... their own private competition. The need to not fall behind the other.
The representative Nightmare Clearer from the US.
I'd heard a few things about her from Villon and Rhino.
Although the nations were investing in their Nightmare Clearers for their own benefit, I heard she was someone who was definitely challenging Nightmare for the greater good.
Especially regarding the identities of the people who were filling the gauge in Zone 5 besides me.
Rhino had hinted at that before.
That, separate from the US Climbing Bureau, she was acting on her own to help our cause.
I didn't know much about the representative Nightmare Clearer from China.
But I had heard from Villon that he was the one who had orchestrated the coup in China and was rumored to be the real power behind the current Communist Party.
I didn't know why a person like that would challenge Nightmare...
But for him to challenge it himself instead of training another Nightmare Clearer, could it be that he also had a sense of duty to protect humanity?
In any case, if these two, who were following my lead more diligently than anyone, were to fail and die, I knew I wouldn't feel good about it at all.
And this 7th Floor was especially difficult. Far, far too difficult.
Honestly, I hoped no one would even try it.
But I had no right to stop other climbers from taking on a challenge.
Instead, I decided to include a clear warning in this information post.
If they still chose to challenge it, there was nothing I could do, but I wrote it with the hope that they would choose not to.
* * *
Right after the 7th Floor clear, the Zone 3 boss fight also concluded.
People now eagerly awaited Saram123's 7th Floor information post.
[Saram123: Nightmare 7th Floor Clear Information.]
And then, the post appeared on the Communication Window.
[Saram123: ...The 7th Floor is composed of six gates. The first gate requires you to evade a total of 305 arrows flying from all directions. Using the entrance to the next gate as 12 o'clock, the first arrow comes from the ceiling at 1 o'clock, the second from the front at 6 o'clock, the third from...]
The guide was incredibly long, much longer than for any other floor.
This was because he had written down the trajectory of every single arrow.
But most of all, there was one thing that stood out about this guide.
[Saram123: ...This 7th Floor is truly dangerous. I hope the two Nightmare Clearers from the US and China will not attempt it, but if you still choose to challenge it, I implore you to be extremely careful.]
Saram123 had added his personal opinion at the end.
The Communication Window erupted.
[Pony: An arrow over 3 meters long is basically a missile, isn't it?]
[Orchestra: It's Nightmare, so that's not even surprising. But looking at the guide, the arrow size isn't the real problem.]
[Flame Sword: The themes of these gates are ridiculously hard...]
[Shushu: What the hell is a Body Left-Right Reversal; how did Saram123 even beat that?]
[Watson: That's what he's saying. That it's really dangerous.]
[EyeOfTheTyphoon: Whoa, isn't this the first time Saram123 has given a warning like that?]
[Destructive Power: The US and China Nightmare Clearers got a shout-out from Saram123, damn ㄷㄷ]
The US Climbing Bureau was in an uproar.
It was unprecedented for Saram123 to leave such a specific warning.
Experts began analyzing the information post Saram123 had uploaded, and an emergency meeting was called.