Chapter 107: Suspicion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 107: Suspicion
“...Therefore, we’ve concluded that clearing the 7th Floor is next to impossible.”
Max finished his presentation with that conclusion.
The officials from the Climbing Bureau and the government nodded with grim faces.
In truth, it didn't even require a deep analysis.
The 7th Floor information post Saram123 had uploaded was enough to make anyone think, Yikes, this is a bit much...
Climbing Bureau Director Liam glanced at Taylor, who was seated to one side.
Her expression was just as rigid and hardened.
The United States no longer had a reason to recklessly challenge the Nightmare Difficulty.
The Nightmare Project had begun with the grand objective of ensuring humanity's survival and having the US lead the way in climbing the Tower, but...
With the appearance of Saram123, that objective had long since changed.
Only Saram123 was capable of achieving the first clear of a Nightmare floor.
The only reason nations were climbing Nightmare now was purely for their own interests.
In fact, from the 4th Floor onward, the Climbing Bureau had been in a position where they couldn't simply welcome Taylor's continued attempts.
Still, Taylor had ultimately succeeded in climbing up to the 6th Floor...
But this time, for the 7th Floor, the probability of success looked far too low, no matter how you looked at it.
It was so bad that Saram123 had personally singled out the United States and China to leave a warning.
Was there any reason to keep trying?
The scales of risk and return had now tipped completely to one side.
Perhaps China wouldn't even attempt the 7th Floor.
If the US were to challenge it alone and lose Taylor... the thought alone was horrifying.
Wasn't it the wiser choice to know when to stop and for both sides to halt here?
“Taylor, what are your thoughts?”
All eyes focused on her.
Taylor opened her mouth.
“...I don't believe there's any reason to reach a conclusion right away.”
After the meeting ended.
Max walked alongside Taylor and asked, “Are you thinking of challenging it?”
Max knew.
He knew the conviction she held.
The answer he received was what he had expected.
“I have to try.”
“...Taylor, I don't want to be the one to say this, but that's truly insane.”
“Hasn't it always been?”
“You know it too, don't you? The 7th Floor is nothing like the others. Why else would Saram123 have even left a warning?”
The body's left-right reversal mechanic.
This wasn't something one could practice.
Not unless you could somehow rewire the neural networks of your left and right brain. Unfortunately, humanity didn't possess that kind of technology yet.
How could anyone possibly adapt to that sensory chaos on the fly, no matter how well they understood it intellectually?
He wondered how on earth Saram123 had managed it, but he was always in a league of his own.
Taylor shook her head.
“I don't plan on rushing into it, either. But... I will never completely give up on climbing Nightmare.”
After parting with Max, Taylor entered the 5th Floor.
She stopped by Drake Restaurant before heading to Zone 5 to hunt.
“Oh? You’re here alone today.”
The owner, Drake, greeted Taylor quietly upon seeing her face. She returned the nod.
As a Nightmare Climber, she didn't operate openly on the 5th Floor. In truth, she wasn't even an official member of the Security Force.
Still, as she frequently interacted with the Security Force, she often hung out with its members, and since this was their usual meeting spot, she was on familiar terms with the owner.
“Is there any Horned Deer Steak left?”
“You've got impeccable timing. There’s exactly one piece left.”
The Horned Deer Steak was the specialty of Drake Restaurant.
It was so delicious that eating it when stressed could make you forget your troubles for a while.
Taylor took a corner seat to avoid drawing attention and waited for her meal.
But then...
Her gaze suddenly fixed on the restaurant's entrance.
A man in a hat had just walked in.
His face was familiar.
The man spotted Taylor as well and showed a hint of surprise.
He approached and sat down in the opposite seat, his voice friendly.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
“...Hello.”
Ye Chenwei.
Although Drake Restaurant was practically the Security Force's territory, climbers from the Black Star Society also frequented the place.
Even so, it was strange for the head of the Black Star Society to visit here alone.
Ye Chenwei smiled and said, “Please, don't get the wrong idea. It's a coincidence. How would I know where you were to come looking for you?”
“I wasn't getting the wrong idea.”
“That's a relief. The Horned Deer Steak here is such a delicacy, I find myself sneaking in from time to time.”
Taylor didn't bother to mention that the steak had just run out because she had ordered the last one.
“Do you have business with me?”
“Ah, of course. I was just wondering what you were thinking.”
Ye Chenwei nodded and asked, “What are you going to do? About the 7th Floor.”
“...”
“To be honest, I was quite happy when I saw the post. It might have been a warning, but seeing Saram123 single us out made me feel like he was concerned for our well-being.”
Ye Chenwei spoke chattily, as if talking to a friend.
Taylor didn't reply, but she couldn't deny his words.
Frankly, she had felt something similar.
She continued to challenge Nightmare with the sole intention of being even the slightest bit of help to Saram123.
And behind that action was nothing but the conviction to help humanity.
But Taylor was only human.
It felt as if the person she was chasing to death had glanced back at her, and so while she was troubled, a part of her couldn't help but feel a little pleased.
“For the record, I'm going to challenge it.”
“...You don't think you'll fail?”
“That's not what's important, is it? If we stop climbing, our role is over anyway.”
Ye Chenwei smiled.
“Isn't that right? I thought you were the same as me. Did I even need to ask?”
Taylor didn't particularly appreciate the way Ye Chenwei's eyes seemed to peer right through her.
“Of course, we'll have to prepare more thoroughly than for the other floors.”
“I wish you luck,” Taylor retorted curtly.
Just then, the Horned Deer Steak she had ordered arrived.
“Here's the Horned Deer Steak you ordered.”
Ye Chenwei said, “I'll have the Horned Deer Steak as well, please.”
“Huh? We just ran out with this one.”
“Ah.”
Seeing Ye Chenwei turn toward her in surprise, Taylor let out a small smirk and began to cut into her steak.
* * *
After I posted the information about the 7th Floor, my daily life flowed by without any particular incidents.
My plan was to live diligently for a year until I challenged the 8th Floor.
...Though I spent most of that time hunting in Zone 5.
Crunch!
An ice shard pierced through the Bone Dinosaur's head.
The Demon King was the one controlling my body right now.
Whenever I handed over my body, all the Demon King ever did was reinforce the Ice Castle he'd built in Zone 4 or sit on his throne, spacing out.
Lately, however, he had occasionally been hunting monsters for me.
I had persuaded him.
I promised to let him fight the Zone 5 boss himself.
I also suggested we hurry up, defeat the boss, and expand the zone. Who knew what else might emerge, just like what had been buried in Zone 4?
The Demon King wasn't entirely uninterested and listened to me.
He roamed the Mist Forest, hunting monsters.
The Demon King's power put a strain on my body, but there was no need to use it to the point of strain against mere mobs like these.
Just flicking a few small ice shards was enough for an instant kill.
As I watched the Demon King hunt, I asked him something that had just occurred to me.
‘Your Majesty, is there any way I can learn magic?’
True magic, not the power of the Tower.
If I could use it, I too could spam magic without a cooldown.
The Demon King scoffed.
“Don't speak nonsense.”
‘Aw, come on. Please teach me.’
“I have no intention of teaching you, but you couldn't use it anyway. The very nature of your soul is completely hopeless.”
‘...The nature of my soul?’
The Demon King explained.
He said that the people from his world and the people from this world had fundamentally different soul and body compositions.
In other words, Earthlings were, by their very structure, incapable of using magic.
‘But you use it just fine in my body, don't you?’
“And what happens when I do?”
‘Ah.’
“The fact that your body is pathetic and cannot withstand my power is one reason, but it is also because your constitution is incompatible with magic.”
So that was it.
I wondered why there was no problem when I used Magic-Type skills...
But as the Demon King had said before, skills were just imitations of magic, not the real thing, so that was probably why.
In any case, it was a little disappointing that I couldn't learn it.
The Demon King's body rental time was up.
After getting my body back, I hunted a little more before leaving the Tower.
“It's already one in the morning.”
I took something out of my subspace.
A bag filled with Lowest-Grade and Lower-Grade Mana Stones.
These were the Mana Stones I had received from Villon's contact last time.
Whenever I received Mana Stones, I never went straight to the exchange to sell them. I always brought them home first and sold them later...
The reason I went to such lengths was for my family's sake.
As far as they knew, I was earning Mana Stones by clearing the 1st Floor on Easy Difficulty.
It would be strange if I didn't show myself periodically going out to sell Mana Stones.
“I'm heading out.”
“Okay. Are you going to the exchange?”
“Yeah.”
I was about to head out the door with the bag full of Mana Stones.
But I heard a door open, and my younger sister rushed out.
“I wanna go too!”
“What?”
“I want to see the Mana Stone Exchange at least once. Can I come with you?”
Without even waiting for an answer, she told me to wait ten minutes and dashed back into her room.
...What was that all of a sudden?
* * *
She knew it was absurd.
But lately, Kim Seo-ah couldn't help but have strange thoughts.
Her older brother, Kim Seo-hyun.
Why was it that he was nowhere to be seen at the exact moment a Nightmare Difficulty floor was cleared each year?
When the 1st Floor was cleared, he had gone out.
When the 2nd Floor was cleared, it was in the dead of night when everyone was asleep.
The 3rd and 4th Floors, he was traveling...
The 6th Floor happened to be cleared during the day when Kim Seo-hyun was out.
And now, the 7th Floor was also cleared in the early morning.
Her brother always reacted with indifference whenever a Nightmare floor was cleared.
On top of that, Saram123 was a Korean man.
Could all of this really be a coincidence?
...Of course it was a coincidence. She knew that.
Otherwise, was he saying her brother was Saram123? Her brother? That guy?
She'd sooner believe the Earth was flat.
A savior who risked his life on the front lines, climbing Nightmare for all of humanity.
A hero who took on a penalty himself just to save every last person, even the few.
As his own flesh and blood, Kim Seo-ah knew him well.
Kim Seo-hyun's personality was far too removed from something like that.
He was a cautious person who hated standing out and would never do anything even slightly dangerous...
Anyway, her head knew it was ridiculous and just a coincidence.
But it still bothered her, so she wanted to confirm something, anything.
She followed Kim Seo-hyun as he went to the exchange to sell his Mana Stones.
They took a car and arrived at the Mana Stone Exchange.
Kim Seo-hyun had his ID checked by an employee and handed over the bag of Mana Stones.
The employee took out the stones and measured their weight.
Kim Seo-ah stood next to her brother, watching the scene intently.
She had looked it up online.
The Lowest-Grade and Lower-Grade Mana Stones from Easy Difficulty were a pale blue.
The Mid-Grade and High-Grade Mana Stones from Normal and Hard difficulties were a darker blue, and only the Highest-Grade Mana Stones from Nightmare Difficulty were a special golden color.
The Mana Stones Kim Seo-hyun had brought were all pale blue.
“11.91kg of Lowest-Grade Mana Stones, and 9.7kg of Lower-Grade Mana Stones.”
The employee also said they were Lowest-Grade and Lower-Grade.
If Kim Seo-hyun were a Nightmare Climber, this would be impossible.
Because it was said that only Highest-Grade Mana Stones dropped in Nightmare Difficulty.
He received the payment via bank transfer, and they left the exchange.
“Did you get a good look?”
“Yeah. It's fascinating.”
“What got into you all of a sudden...”
Kim Seo-ah shook her head, finding her own thoughts ridiculous.
...What kind of absurd suspicion had she been harboring?
There was no way her brother could be Saram123.
* * *
After finishing the Mana Stone transaction, we went out for lunch at a nearby restaurant since we were already out.
Watching my sister devour the beef, I thought to myself, Is she actually suspicious of me?
She'd never shown any interest before, so her suddenly tagging along to sell Mana Stones was strange.
Did she want to check if I was really selling them properly?
“Is it good?”
“Delicious.”
Or maybe not. Maybe it was just a whim.
Either way, it was making me needlessly paranoid.
As I ate my own share of meat, I scrolled through my phone.
I was casually browsing news articles when...
– Unusual Activity Detected in Pyongyang, Surveillance of North Korea Strengthened...
“...?”
One article caught my eye.
It was breaking news related to North Korea.
But something about it felt off.
I searched for more related news.
– This is a breaking news report. It is now considered highly likely that the unusual currents within the North Korean military are a move toward a power shift. Our government is...
...What is this?
Was a coup happening in North Korea?