Chapter 54
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Entering the 4th Floor
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Gonghyeok tried manipulating the helm of the falling ark.
But no matter how much he fiddled with it, the ark refused to obey.
It seemed the floating stones themselves had lost their power for some reason the moment they entered the 4th floor.
‘Perfect timing, since I was planning to collect them anyway. No one’s gonna bitch about not getting their share.’
With that thought, Gonghyeok closed his eyes.
[Clone Summon Cancelled]
[Mind Transfer - To Ju Gonghyeok (1) located in the Great Ark]
Gonghyeok’s body on the pirate ship vanished like smoke.
He quietly opened his eyes. The interior of the great ark came into view.
The wooden cabin was filled with flesh-colored flowers blooming like a field.
“Brother. You’re awake?”
Beside him, Yeonsi lay with her head pillowed on his arm.
“Hmm...”
Good thing no pig monster like Outer Mer had snuck in while he was away.
Gonghyeok’s honest impression was that the sight of the Flesh Mending Flowers fluttering about didn’t look beautiful—it looked like an extremely hazardous lab with a lethal virus leak.
Guuuuung—
A quiet thud echoed as the ark’s hull touched down on solid ground.
They had landed on the 4th floor.
Gonghyeok calmly helped Yeonsi into the pants she’d tossed aside in the corner, then scooped her up in his arms.
It was a consideration for her, since her feet were still tender and walking was uncomfortable.
“Boss! You’re up!”
“What the hell happened? We saw the arks that left first all landing the same way...”
They looked baffled, but it was only natural.
If the hunters who passed first arrived on the 4th floor ahead of everyone, the starting numbers for the mission wouldn’t match.
That was why the early arrivals had their time frozen until all hunters cleared the 3rd floor, then everyone was sent up to the 4th at once.
It was Babel’s time manipulation system to balance the starting roster, but the top hunters who’d cleared first—barely scraping by without even building arks—freaked out when these weaklings suddenly appeared en masse.
“I dunno... Let’s head out and check the situation.”
“Yes, sir!”
Gonghyeok gave a perfunctory reply before ascending to the great ark’s deck.
There, Soma stood at the bow, scanning the surroundings.
“You’re awake, Gonghyeok.”
“Yeah. But this...”
Gray skies and gray earth.
Beyond the horizon lurked only unfathomable darkness.
Gonghyeok shook Nathaniel awake from his inner pocket.
- Ow, my head... Hey, didn’t you call me earlier?
“Never mind that. Take a look around. Doesn’t this feel like an unfinished floor?”
- Pardon?
Nathaniel fluttered up above Gonghyeok’s head, surveying the area.
- Yeah, this world definitely feels half-baked. Like they rushed it.
“Right?”
- So where are we, anyway?
“4th floor.”
The summoned space here was, if anything, similar to that secret place in the 2nd floor’s Divine Beast Dungeon.
The hidden spot guarded by divine and demonic beasts, where Nathaniel’s and the devil’s tombs lay.
A place filled with nothing but transparent stairs and tombs, the entire world a void pierced by other dimensions and light.
Ding.
An alert window popped up before every hunter’s eyes with the chime.
[All hunters who have entered the 4th floor, please disembark from your arks and follow the arrow.]
Arrows appeared pointing to a distant open field.
The hunters hesitated, eyeing each other awkwardly, before finally stepping off their arks onto the 4th floor.
The sight of 130,000 hunters trudging across the gray sand in a line evoked images of an ant procession.
Gonghyeok paused in thought.
‘In an empty area like this with nothing around, the odds are higher for a straight-up battle royale where you fight to survive, rather than some dungeon raid or facility-based mission.
Even that 10:10 mission on the 2nd floor had a proper stone-paved arena floor.’
Gonghyeok quietly called out to the GM.
“GM. Predict the mission.”
[Analyzing based on current terrain and headcount for similar mission types.]
[Solo duel type: 24%, Objective clearance type: 9%, Group battle type: 27%, Monster battle type: 41%, Assassination type: 2%, Survival castaway type...]
‘After the 3rd floor, the angels’ authority ramped up, banning missions with heavy casualties like attrition wars. What are they thinking?’
Gonghyeok spawned masked clones to loot floating stones from the empty arks as he followed the arrow.
After about three hours of walking, they reached a massive open plaza where the arrows converged.
Hovering in midair was a vampire in medieval Baroque finery, legs crossed.
‘Ah. That bastard.’
There were about 900 Celestial Knights in Babel.
Even Gonghyeok hadn’t memorized all their faces.
But he knew this smug prick floating up there very well.
He’d died once by that guy’s hand.
“Soma. Fall back as far as possible.”
“Something bad coming?”
“Yeah. And take Yeonsi here.”
He handed Yeonsi, cradled like a princess, to Soma as they retreated to the rear of the crowd.
“Brother. Why the ridiculous face?”
Yeonsi asked in a languid tone. Gonghyeok flashed a weary grin.
“That guy... doesn’t look like just the host.”
In raw stats, hunters couldn’t even compare to Azazel or Lilianne— a gap of 700 or 800 points.
Those mountain-shattering, sky-splitting women didn’t intimidate hunters on sight because they weren’t here to threaten; they kept their power leashed.
But not this one.
He wasn’t hiding a shred of it—just lazily unleashing his full aura like it was no big deal.
That wasn’t ‘hosting’...
It was the vibe of someone here to ‘work’.
＊＊＊
‘Vampire Count Guardsand,’ who had descended to the 4th floor.
He was an outsider born in the fallen parallel dimension ‘Fezelon.’
Like humans abandoning Earth to side with devils, Guardsand had ditched Fezelon early to join the devils, sustaining his life—no, his undeath—for over 400 years.
Babel’s life, wielding dimensional power to manifest anything he desired.
No complaints there, but work was another story.
‘Count Fezelon. Can’t you handle your shit properly?’
‘Think slapping a Celestial Knight badge on makes you one of us? Act like the transplant trash you are.’
In Babel’s discriminatory work culture rife with cliques, the outsider Guardsand always got stuck with the crap jobs.
‘Damn it, my rank’s even two spots higher. How dare they...’
It stung, it pissed him off, but with all his blood ties, regional connections, and alma mater networks swallowed up on the other side of Babel, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and deal.
Not long ago, Archdemon Balbarus visited such a Guardsand.
“Count Guardsand. The higher-ups say Cluesti’s going overboard trying to spark a war among the Four Heavenly Kings.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You know about the recent incident? Two rebels crashed in, nearly wiping out the entire 3rd floor.”
“I heard. Quite a few humans profited unfairly from it.”
“Lately, incidents keep piling up. The 4th floor’s dimension is unstable—needs some maintenance time.”
Balbarus stroked his beard, glancing sideways at him.
“How about you temporarily run a different mission? Angels’ll get notified late, of course.”
Archdemon Balbarus was in Four Heavenly King Heinrich’s faction.
Likely Heinrich, overseeing the Machine God Clan, using this outsider to check Cluesti, who handled humans.
A lukewarm sweat beaded on Guardsand’s cold-blooded temple.
‘Smells like I’ll take the full blame if this goes south...’
Still, backing out now threatened his precarious 900th rank as Celestial Knight.
Swallowing tears, Guardsand asked in a trembling voice.
“I’ll need collateral.”
“Got it ready.”
With the deal sealed, the bearish Balbarus didn’t mince words and produced his prepared item.
From it emerged a silver circlet.
Guardsand’s jaw dropped.
“Th-that’s Four Heavenly King Hildegaard’s item!? How is it here...”
“You think I’ll answer that?”
“...”
“Heh, don’t look so grim. Truth is, even I don’t get how it ended up with me.”
Balbarus detached the gem at the circlet’s center ‘eye’ and handed it to Guardsand.
“This enough collateral?”
“More than enough!”
“You’ll get it back after your punishment ends. Guard it well.”
Guardsand hid the circlet like a sacred relic.
It was Heinrich’s way of saying he’d have Guardsand’s back, no matter the screw-up.
Guardsand also grasped why Heinrich took interest in him.
Babel natives—or demons from his distant homeland—were hyper-sensitive to Four Heavenly Kings’ relations.
Any whiff of weirdness, and they’d report straight to the Demon King or other kings.
So they’d pulled in a somewhat oblivious outsider like him, loyal only to interests.
Outsiders like him, lacking Demon King loyalty or cozy demon ties, lurked on power’s fringes.
They were reliable: use ’em, don’t discard ’em, align interests, and they’d serve their patron faithfully.
Murmur murmur
“Gathering this many people—what’s the plan?”
“Everyone’s here. When do we get the explanation?”
The preamble dragged on.
Guardsand narrowed his eyes, gazing down at the swarming vermin below.
“Mission, mission... yes, the mission.”
Kwaaaaaang!
Hundreds clustered right beneath him exploded at once.
Like bugs crushed under a metal slab they’d swarmed for sugar water.
“I’ll be the one killing you all. Try surviving.”
He extended fingers one by one, counting.
“Right. About five hours? Twenty thousand per hour. First off...”
Corpses’ blood rose against gravity, tracing a massive magic circle in the air.
“Let’s kick off grand with 30,000.”
The Blood of Dynasty - Spear Tsunami
A colossal blood tsunami reaching the clouds erupted from the circle.
It shattered into hundreds, thousands of spears raining on hunters.
Impaled hunters perished; the spears absorbed their blood, splitting into two, three more, piercing nearby hunters.
One flank of the hunter horde drowned in blood instantly.
30,000...
Easy to say, but in military terms, two divisions erased from the map in one strike.
A high school field feels packed with 2,000 students.
Fifteen times that, vomiting blood and dropping dead in a blink.
Rule 1 - Survive Vampire Count Guardsand.
Rule 2 - Time limit: 5 hours.
Remaining hunters - 104,739
“Once you hit the 4th floor, stats get restricted, see. Can’t spam big spells.”
He cracked his wrists a few times, then summoned and drew a razor-sharp red blade from the bloody muck.
“From here on, I’ll get my hands dirty the barbaric way. Gonna need a full day’s scrubbing when I get home.”
“Fuck! Son of a bitch! Only feeding us bullshit like this!”
“Damn, don’t wanna die. Should I just off myself?”
“Don’t talk crap! Scatter! Something’ll turn up if we run!”
The hunters spewed curses, fleeing every which way.
＊＊＊
Gonghyeok searched for clues from a safe distance.
No matter how surprise a mission, even demons had limits.
For example, the real Guardsand could slaughter 100,000 in a blink, but here stats dropped two or three tiers, neutering his massacre spells.
Yet no matter how he analyzed, this zone was just unfinished gray sand world.
In the hour he spent scouting, 20,000 hunters already fell to the count’s blade.
‘Missions this scale are rare, and here they kick off the 4th with a massacre fest.’
Gonghyeok gave a bitter smile, assessing.
‘Leave it be, everyone here dies.’
He stared across at the blood-sprayed opposite side, facing reality.
“Run! Run! Damn it!”
“What the hell are we supposed to do about that guy!”
130,000 vs. 1.
Pure power math—maybe Babel’s system allowed it.
Problem was, equal total combat power split among 130,000 versus one holder? Worlds apart.
Angels wouldn’t miss that; protests should’ve hit.
Azazel was MIA, and calling ops angel Sandalphon just gave access denied.
‘Full angel exclusion, then. About five hours like he said, angels show. After that...’
Gonghyeok smirked.
“I die too?”
- Ugh... seriously looks like it ends here for you.
Nathaniel muttered, face drained at the carnage.
Stats nerfed or not, Celestial Knight was Celestial Knight.
Skill grades, traits, unique items—all intact.
No way 4th-floor hunters coped.
Gonghyeok regretted wrecking his pipe earlier, fishing out his last cigarette.
“Guess I croak here?”
- Sob. Promised archangel spot, and bam—despair city. My angelic trials are...
“Nathaniel.”
Gonghyeok strode into the slaughterfield strewn with tens of thousands of corpses.
“You hit Second Order angel, now you’re bottom-tier Ninth?”
- Y-yeah. Wait, how’d you know I reached Second Order?
“Dead and reborn, starting from scratch as lowest seraph slave. How’s that feel?”
- You call that a question? Worst of the worst, obviously.
“Right? Same here.”
Gonghyeok slurped up countless coins scattered in the blood.
[Acquired 3,339 purple coins]
[Acquired 4 navy coins]
[Acquired 2,581 purple coins]
[Acquired 1,993 purple coins]
[Acquired 11 navy coins]
[...Acquired] [...Acquired] [...Acquired]
...
- You’re still coin-greedy in this shitshow?
“Game Master. Point shop.”
[Updating list.]
Countless items scrolled before his eyes. Gonghyeok jabbed the top.
“From here to here.”
His finger swept from top to bottom.
“Apply every buff on the list.”
[Converting remaining coins.]
[Master’s current stats: C, C, D, B, D, C, C rank. Coins weighted by rank.]
“Shut up. Hurry. Apply.”
Like a swamp gator crawling corpses, Gonghyeok endlessly devoured coins and blood.
[Consumed 5 navy coins to apply buff ‘Unyielding Advance’!]
[Debuff/bind resistance up, endurance +100 points!]
[Feel no pain for 5 min. Maintain combat power barring dismemberment.]
[Consumed 6,870 purple coins to apply buff ‘Enlightened Warrior’!]
[Trait ‘Unrealistic Martial Arts Intro (B)’ → ‘Unrealistic Martial Arts Master (A)’]
[Agility/strength/will +25, technique +100]
[Consumed 3,391 purple coins to apply buff ‘Sleepless’!]
[Reinforced resistance to all status ailments! Charm, brainwash, blood control, remote curses...]
[Consumed 10,624 purple coins to apply buff ‘Immortal March’!]
[Choose moment to sustain life even if heart/brain destroyed.]
[Special trait ‘Dead Man’s Rage (B+)’ generated...]
[Consumed 17 navy coins to apply buff ‘Lightning Incarnate’!]
[Agility +100, special skill ‘Thunder Reflex’ generated...]
[Consumed 8,043 purple coins to apply buff ‘Hellgate Opened’!]
[Mana +100, all demon magic...]
[Consumed 12 navy coins to apply buff ‘Warrior’s Soul’...]
[Consumed 7,723 purple coins to apply buff ‘Vengeful Craver’...]
[Consumed 21 navy coins to apply buff ‘Holy Called One’...]
[Consumed 9 navy coins...]
[Consumed 5,538 purple coins...]
[Consumed 13,325 purple coins...]
...
Crunch crunch crunch
Swallowing countless coins.
‘Me? One more restart here, I’d lose it.’
So...
“Fuck, don’t wanna die—so I’ll just kill that bastard.”
Dozens of buffs detonated in prismatic light, bathing Gonghyeok in blinding radiance.
- My god... you sure you’re human?
Dazzled by the glow, Nathaniel’s lips quivered as he muttered.
[Chapter 54 - Entering the 4th Floor] End