Chapter 61: Branch Tower (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61: Branch Tower (7)
[You have entered the 9th Floor.]
I stopped time the moment I arrived.
What greeted me... was a stone.
It was a rectangular prism about the size of a person, hovering just a span above the ground.
So, I’m supposed to fight a rock now?
Since this was the 9th floor, it was only natural to expect something unusual. I imagined it might start spinning and fly at me like a drill once I resumed time.
After focusing my mind, I opened with a Flame Strike.
Craaaaash!
The fireballs scored a direct hit.
When the flames subsided, however, the stone was gone.
Huh? Did I get it?
No.
Looking around, I found the stone hovering near the ceiling directly above my head.
“...?”
I hadn't sensed it moving at all. Did it teleport?
I fired another skill. Light Bullets trailed streaks of radiance as they flew toward the target.
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!
I only succeeded in peppering the innocent ceiling.
This time, I saw it clearly. The stone vanished the split second before the attack connected. It reappeared in the air to my left.
It really was teleporting.
“Phli.”
I ordered Phli to attack. With a great leap, Phli swung a heavy forepaw at the target.
As expected, the stone vanished. It reappeared near the ground to my right.
The moment I saw it, I stopped time. After focusing, I fired a Destruction Ray. Once the beam faded and I confirmed the stone wasn't there, I looked around.
“...”
I found the stone behind me. It had dodged the attack with teleportation, without fail.
Phli leaped around, chasing the teleporting stone, while I unleashed magic several more times. Not a single attack landed.
I paused for a moment to think.
A teleporting stone. It didn't attack or counter; it simply dodged by blinking away. There seemed to be no limit to its teleportation—no cooldown, no delay.
That was why I couldn't hit it. The key to the 9th floor was finding a way to land a hit on this cheeky rock.
Should I try attacking while stealthed?
“Diul.”
Using Diul’s ability, I approached the stone while hidden. But the moment I launched an attack, the stone teleported away as if mocking me. Failure.
Is there a pattern?
I considered another method. Could there be a pattern to its teleportation coordinates? If I could predict where it would appear, I could launch a simultaneous attack to catch it.
I began attacking the stone again.
It appeared on the left, then the right, then in front, then behind. It appeared high, then low, then at mid-height, then far away, then close, then right in front of my face...
After watching it teleport over a hundred times, I couldn't find a single pattern. No matter how I looked at it, the movements were entirely random.
I kept trying different tactics.
I fired skills blindly in all directions. Failure.
I set up a Scorching Zone in advance and kept attacking, hoping the stone would teleport into it. Failure.
I tried to simply sneak up and touch it instead of attacking. Failure.
Failure, failure, failure...
I tried every method I could think of, but they all ended the same way.
“Goddammit.”
I was starting to get pissed off. What the hell was I supposed to do?
I regained my composure and forced myself to think. Anger wouldn't help.
How is it dodging the attacks?
I wasn't talking about the teleportation itself. To dodge an attack, one must first 'perceive' it. How was that stone perceiving and dodging my moves? It didn't have eyes. Diul’s stealth hadn't worked either.
As I agonized with my arms crossed, an idea suddenly struck me.
Vrrr—
I fired a Light Bullet toward the stone, something I’d already done dozens of times. But this time, I didn't intend to hit it; I intended to stop it right before impact.
The flying Light Bullet stopped right in front of the stone. And...
“...!”
The stone didn't teleport.
The moment I tried to move the Light Bullet again, the stone vanished instantly.
“Ha.”
Now I got it. I finally understood how this pebble was dodging.
It was reading my intentions perfectly. In other words, it was reading my mind.
Then how am I supposed to hit it?
Attack without the intent to attack?
I fired another Light Bullet, trying to convince myself I wasn't targeting the stone. The stone teleported away.
Well... of course that wouldn't work. It’s not like I can just choose not to have an intention when I clearly do. If the stone was reading my thoughts perfectly, deceiving it was impossible.
Unless, of course, I could completely deceive myself.
Then, what if I attack with something truly, utterly unintentional?
A plausible method came to mind.
The stone was currently hovering near the ground at a distance. I closed my eyes. Then, I started spinning in place.
I spun like a madman for a long time, until I completely lost my sense of direction and had no idea where the stone was.
Alright, that’s it. I have no clue now.
Stopping my rotation, I began firing skills randomly in a 360-degree radius.
Craaaaash!
Since I didn't know which direction the stone was in, I naturally didn't know which attack would hit. And if I didn't know, the stone wouldn't know either.
As I fired skills with a blank mind, a message soon appeared.
[You have successfully cleared the 9th Floor.]
I opened my eyes. Looking behind me, I saw the stone smashed against the floor after being hit by a Flame Strike.
Ha... Success! It went exactly as planned.
Now, only the 10th floor remained.
“It is quite difficult.”
That was my impression after clearing the 9th floor. With various gimmicks mixed in, it was certainly challenging. Though, of course, it still didn't compare to Nightmare difficulty.
[Would you like to move to the 10th Floor?]
I wondered what the final boss would be. Once I cleared the 10th floor, I could obtain the special reward the Tower mentioned.
After taking a sufficient rest and fully restoring my willpower, I entered the 10th floor.
* * *
Life on Easy Mode.
That was how I would describe my life. It was because I had a superpower. Not a metaphor, but a real superpower.
I didn't know it when I was a child, but as I grew older, I realized I was different from others. I had the ability to stop time.
It wasn't actually that grand. I couldn't move while time was stopped, either. But even that was enough to make life easy. Every second of other people's time could be used as fruitfully as an hour for me. It was a cheat code for studying.
Even during exams, I was the only one without a time limit. Thus, from elementary school onwards, my grades were always at the top of the school.
Besides that, there were endless minor uses for the ability in daily life. I thought I might be able to use it effectively in sports like soccer or baseball, but I wasn't interested in physical activity, so I didn't pursue that.
I simply grew up as a typical model student, and today was the day of the CSAT. As always, I took the exam with a light heart and returned home.
“I’m home.”
After dinner, I downloaded the answer key and graded my test. The result was as expected. A perfect score.
Of course, I worked hard too. Even without time pressure, you have to be capable of solving the problems to get a perfect score.
I hummed a tune and stretched.
“SNU Med, you’re nothing.”
Ah, easy, so easy.
Did my conscience prick me for using a cheat when everyone else worked so hard? Well, what can you do? Life is inherently unfair. Besides, there’s no reason not to use such a great ability when I was born with it.
Anyway, now I just had to have fun until it was time to prepare for the medical school interview. My life had been smooth sailing until now, and it would continue to be so.
I was about to open my door to share the good news with my family.
“...?”
Feeling a subtle sense of déjà vu, I hesitated with my hand on the doorknob.
What was this? I felt like this had happened once before. Next, an earthquake happens... and a message appears before my eyes like a game...
“The Tower?”
I muttered the word that suddenly came to mind and tilted my head.
The Tower? Why would a tower come up all of a sudden? And why would an earthquake suddenly happen in Korea? What was I talking about?
“...Did I have a dream last night?”
Ignoring the sense of dissonance that soon vanished, I went out into the living room. I proudly announced the news of my perfect CSAT score to my family.
“I graded it, and for now, it’s a perfect score.”
“Oh my! Really?!”
“Hahaha! Good job! That’s my son!”
“Haha, I still have the interview left. I have to prepare well.”
.
.
.
I got into medical school just like that and enjoyed a pleasant college life. I completed my mandatory military service as an active-duty soldier during my studies. I figured it was better since the service period was much shorter than serving as a military doctor after graduation.
After graduating, I worked as an internal medicine resident at a university hospital. I became a doctor without a hitch, and my life was smooth sailing, as always.
A good job, a good salary, a good work-life balance.
I treated my parents to nice things, teased my younger sibling—who still hadn't grown up—while handing over an allowance, and started dating a junior I’d known since my residency.
It was a daily life filled with a series of small happinesses. Wasn't it a wonderful life?
“...Oppa? What are you thinking about?”
While walking in Han River Park with my girlfriend, I spaced out for a moment.
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
I looked at the lush green grass. Sometimes, I would get a strange feeling. It felt as if my life wasn't a calm green like that field, but a spectacular, chaotic mix of all sorts of colors...
But there was no way my life, which had always been smooth, could be like that. I was satisfied with my current life, yet for some reason, my heart felt empty at times. It was very strange.
After several years of dating, we got married. We went to Italy for our honeymoon. We were busy marveling at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
“Wow~ How does that stay standing without collapsing? Don't you think so, Oppa?”
“I know, right? It’s really amazing.”
My girlfriend—no, my wife—tightly held my hand. I stared blankly at the towering structure for a long time before speaking.
“You know, this might sound a bit strange, but do you want to hear it?”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Sometimes I imagine things like... a tower suddenly appearing in the world...”
“A tower? What kind of tower? Like that one?”
“Yeah. Anyway, a giant tower appears, and people climb it. If they don't, the world will end. They go inside, fight monsters, dodge traps...”
My wife giggled.
“What is that? Oppa, are you playing games like that lately?”
“What’s even funnier is that I’m the only one who climbs the most difficult tower that no one else can. Risking my life.”
“You? The guy who takes several supplement pills a day just to stay healthy?”
“I’m serious. Anyway...”
As I tried to say more, my wife suddenly turned serious.
“Alright, that’s enough. We’re on a trip, why are you talking about such weird things? Learn to separate reality from games.”
“...”
What was this? Suddenly, the world felt strange. I looked at the tower again and asked.
“Hey, what was the age gap between us again?”
“What? It’s three years. Did you even forget that now?”
That was really strange... I had a very firm preference for older women. I only ever dated seniors in high school and college. How did I end up meeting and marrying this woman?
Wait, who was this person?
I looked at the mysterious woman whose name I couldn't even remember anymore and let out a weak laugh.
“Hahaha...”
Son of a bitch. I remembered everything.
“...Oppa? Why are you laughing all of a sudden?”
What happened? How do I get out of here? This was a dream. And the simplest way to wake up from a dream was...
“Hey, where are you going! Oppa!”
I ran toward the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Security guards blocked my way, but I narrowly avoided them and shook them off. I entered the tower and sprinted up the stairs.
Wait, were there even stairs inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa? I didn't know; I just ran.
“Huff... huff...”
I reached the top. Catching my breath, I stood on the railing. Below, people were looking up and whispering, and the guards who had followed me hurriedly tried to stop me.
“Please calm down and come down! It’s dangerous!”
Right before jumping, my feet hesitated. What if I was the one who was crazy? Which one was reality? That strange world where a tower rose in the Pacific, or this place?
Common sense said it was this place. Look, even my senses were as vivid as reality.
Just as confusion began to rise again, a faint resonance echoed in my head.
...Stop joking around and get out of there! You stupid master!
That sensation—as if my soul was connected to something else. It was a strangely familiar connection.
“Ah...”
Because of that, I regained my certainty and let out a laugh of relief. Right, reality was over there. And I was in the middle of clearing the 10th floor of the fifth Branch Tower.
“What kind of trick did this bastard pull?”
Let’s just wake up first. I spread my arms wide and leaned my body forward. With a dizzying sense of falling, my body hurtled toward the earth. And then...
Crunch!
* * *
I opened my eyes.
I saw a pitch-black ceiling. As I sat up, I felt something foreign on my head. I tore the thing off with my hand.
“...What the.”
It was a strange creature that looked like a bioluminescent jellyfish, its tentacles wriggling disgustingly. This guy was the culprit. Had I been caught the moment I entered the 10th floor? I had no memory of how it happened.
“Nice sleep, you bastard.”
I slammed the jellyfish onto the floor, crushing it.
Squish!
[You have successfully cleared the 10th Floor.]
A message appeared. I looked at Diul, who was floating in the air beside me.
“Thanks, Diul. You kept talking to me.”
I finally remembered that Diul had been constantly telling me to wake up. I was glad I noticed it at the last moment. I might have really never woken up.
Diul circled my head as if grumbling before returning to the bracelet. I let out a long sigh. A boss that traps you in a dream... what a creepy fellow.
The time spent in the dream felt like a mere flash, as if my life had flashed before my eyes. It was the kind of life I probably would have lived if the Tower hadn't appeared.
[The fifth Branch Tower has been cleared to the final floor.]
Anyway, this was the end. I had successfully cleared the fifth Branch Tower. I stood up and looked at the messages appearing one after another.
[A special reward will be given.]
[Please select one of the following as your reward.]
More messages followed. Right, the reward. I worked hard, so I should get paid. I wondered what the special reward would be.
“Drumroll, please...”
I made my own sound effects as I looked at the options. And then...
“...Huh?”
I couldn't help but be shocked when I saw one of the options.
[1. Tower's Curse Immunity Ticket]
[Special Item: Tower's Curse Immunity Ticket]
Permanently grants immunity to death caused by the Tower's Curse. Can be used on others who are not Climbers. Disappears after one use.