The Underground 1st Floor Massacre Scales the Heavens! (7)
I instinctively took the Manse pose, pressing my arms and legs against the walls of the pit and shoving my body forward.
Then I realized that this was a pointless move.
I was still dangling from the harness I’d attached to the bunker ceiling.
After a quick descent, the view from the Centipede Cave down to the 1st Basement Level looked exactly the same as before.
Even with the dawn goggles, all I saw was an endless, pitch-black abyss.
I didn’t know what waited down there.
But right now, instead of letting curiosity or adventure steal my focus, I needed to clean up the mess I’d made.
I quickly ascended and climbed back to the ground of the 1st Basement Level.
The steel bunker was now completely buried in the soil I’d thrown out earlier, with the last 9th window fully filled in.
If anyone outside had looked at it, they’d probably have thought it was a giant grave.
Creak—creak—
Of course, the countless Rotters didn’t leave it alone for long.
They naturally crawled up and were now stomping on the lid of the steel bunker.
The situation was grim.
Above the steel lid was a space of 1.8 meters wide by 1.8 meters high.
It was completely packed with Rotters.
Thinking about the 1,350 kg load capacity of the 20-passenger elevator made it easy to picture the pressure.
And compared to the thousands of Rotters piled like sardines, the total weight was definitely approaching 2 tons, maybe even 3 tons.
Even a Level 50+ hunter wouldn’t be able to lift that much.
But I’d already planned for it, so I immediately activated my escape strategy.
I’d practiced it many times before.
I pulled out one sturdy auxiliary steel plate from my backpack and placed it across the 6th window from the ground, 110 cm high, spanning both sides.
Then I stuck a pole into the central groove and set up the Safety Operation Tent.
Ding-ding—ding-ding—ding-ding—
Ding-ding—ding-ding—ding-ding—
“Uwaaaaaah~”
“Aaah~”
“Hu-eok~”
Those were the sounds I’d expected.
This Safety Operation Tent wouldn’t affect the steel structure, but hostile lifeforms would be pushed out without injury.
I had created it based on the 6th window of the bunker, so all the Rotters standing on the lid were blasted away by the force of the tent that had risen over 1 meter from the bunker ceiling.
Of course, the Rotters soon rushed back toward the tent.
But they only left behind terrifying prints on the tent’s walls and couldn’t push inside.
I lifted the now-lightened bunker lid and gently slid it onto the ramp.
Then I stood tall, put on my respirator, and looked up.
My rope, lowered to the right height, was still gently swaying.
A jump from the Rotters wouldn’t reach it, but with my strength I could.
I took a deep breath, pulled out the pole of the Safety Operation Tent, and at the same time stepped on the auxiliary steel plate and leaped up.
I stomped once more on the edge of the bunker where the lid had been removed and rolled it, then leaped into the air.
Clang—
The rope wrapped securely around my hand.
Of course, five or six Rotters latched onto my legs during the process.
Their voices were always the same.
“Kill meeee~~~”
“You son of a bitch~~~ Kill me~”
I kicked them away and calmly drew the holy water pistol, aiming precisely and firing to knock their hands off.
Chiik—
Chiik—
When I climbed the rope again and reconnected the ring to my harness……
“Aaaaaaaaa!”
I couldn’t help shouting.
This was the grand finale of my life-or-death mission.
The sewer connecting the 1st Basement Level to the 2nd Basement Level had finally been opened.
Down below, a massive party was already in full swing.
I could see the Rotters rushing toward the bunker entrance like ants to a cake.
The moment I jumped, the green hemispherical barrier had already disappeared, and the five or six Rotters leaning against the tent lost balance and poured into the bunker.
And……
If my prediction was right, they would reach the boundary between the 1st and 2nd Basement Levels.
There they would turn into golden dust and return forever to the ‘absence’.
And soon my prediction was proven correct.
Because of the dozens and hundreds of Rotters that followed, I couldn’t see with my naked eye, but the status window had already told me the fate of the first ones to jump.
===
【I killed a Rotter.】
【Experience points obtained.】
【No gold dropped.】
===
【I killed a Rotter.】
【Experience points obtained.】
【No gold dropped.】
===
【I killed a Rotter.】
【Experience points obtained.】
【·】
【·】
【·】
===
The rest was obvious.
The Rotters of the 1st Basement Level, smelling the sweet scent of death, kept pushing forward and climbed onto the mound, then one by one hurled themselves into the bunker.
Lemming……
Moth to flame……
Suicide rush……
Whatever the case.
“I go first~~~”
“Me toooo~~”
“I can die~ I can die~”
It had started.
The ultimate sewer that would free these countless Rotters from suffering had opened!
But I couldn’t leave that place.
It wasn’t because of experience points.
All events in the Tower distributed experience according to the ‘guest theory’.
That meant if I drilled the sewer and left the Tower, the experience would still be entirely mine.
Then what about gold?
Actually, no.
Gold would fall to the ground anyway as gold coins.
In this case, the gold would simply fall to the 2nd Basement Level.
I would have to collect it later, but staying here and hoping for a sharp way to eat it wasn’t going to work.
I immediately began assembling the Portalet.
A Portalet was a kind of tent designed for climbers to sleep safely on walls or in empty space.
It was called a ‘foldable shelf’.
Sleeping on a hammock was comfortable, but the Portalet was safer and more convenient, so it was popular among many climbers these days.
The moment the Portalet finished assembling, I lay down on it and fell into a deep sleep like a rock.
* * *
“Huff.”
I woke up shivering.
The Rotters were making strange, unnatural noises.
“Uwaaaaaah~”
“I can’t die~~ I can’t dieee~~~”
“Why only me~ Why~~”
I came to my senses and looked down.
The entrance to the bunker was completely blocked by Rotters who couldn’t move.
It seemed the Rotters falling from somewhere below the pit had tangled with each other and formed a jam.
The reason I hadn’t left my spot was that I had predicted this.
I grabbed a bottle of water and poured it into the holy spade, sending it down, expecting the instant holy water to act like a ‘hole puncher’.
And……
After pouring 3,000 ml of water, the change finally came.
The holy water melted the bodies of the Rotters blocking the entrance, shifting the center of gravity, and as the weight changed, the pile of Rotters slowly began to slide downward.
And at some point.
Warrurrrrr~
Uddang-tang-tang~
The Rotters started falling down again.
===
【I killed a Rotter.】
【Experience points obtained.】
【No gold dropped.】
===
【I killed a Rotter.】
【Experience points obtained.】
【1,242 gold dropped.】
===
【I killed a Rotter.】
【Experience points obtained.】
【.】
【.】
===
I fell back asleep.
* * *
In the end, I spent 8 hours and 40 minutes hanging on the Portalet, waking and sleeping repeatedly.
The jamming and the Rotters’ noises continued even after that.
Later I had to use the last of the 10 bottles of water I had prepared and spray the holy water I carried in the pistol.
And……
As far as I could see with my own eyes, the last Rotter I could see jumped into the sewer.
It was a Rotter with a ‘9’ carved into its forehead.
Probably that meant only the bodies of hunters who died between floors 0 and 9 would appear in this 1st Basement Level.
And after it jumped into the sewer and about 10 seconds passed……
The status window finally popped up and marked the end of the long unit of this operation.
===
【★ Achievement achieved! ★】
【One-Floor Massacre World Record】
【World’s first: 32,614 monsters killed in one floor only.】
【New Rune Stone slot opened.】
【1 Skill Point obtained.】
===
【★ Achievement achieved! ★】
【One-Floor Devourer World Record】
【World’s first: Killed all monsters in one floor alone.】
【New Rune Stone slot opened.】
【1 Skill Point obtained.】
===
【★ Achievement achieved! ★】
【12-Hour Massacre World Record】
【World’s first: 32,614 monsters killed in 12 hours.】
【New Rune Stone slot opened.】
【1 Skill Point obtained.】
===
Ooh.
Right now my Rune Stone slots were full.
My Skill Points were also exhausted.
Having three additional slots for each felt like breathing room.
But the reward had only just begun.
===
【★ Hidden Quest completed. ★】
【Conqueror of the 1st Basement Level】
【Killed all monsters in the 1st Basement Level alone.】
【Master Key: 1st Basement Level obtained.】
===
【★ Hidden Quest completed. ★】
【Rotter Liberator】
【Freed 30,000 Rotters.】
【Rotten Legion Banner obtained.】
===
【★ Hidden Quest completed. ★】
【Rotter Expert】
【Defeated 30,000 Rotters in a row.】
【Degree: Nobel Prize in Rot Virus obtained.】
===
Ooh-la.
A key.
And suspicious items called ‘banners’ and ‘degrees’……
Plus ‘Master Key’, ‘Rotten Legion’, ‘Rot Virus’……
Just the names alone sent off waves of a grand event.
A ‘key’ was normally used to open chests found in the Tower, from junk ones to high-priced ones worth hundreds of billions.
But I had never heard of a ‘floor Master Key’.
The concepts of ‘banner’ and ‘degree’ were also new to me.
I’d have to learn them one by one.
And I opened the status window to check how much my level had risen.
“……!”
I couldn’t suppress my shock the moment I looked at the status window.
===
【Level up!】
【Level 15 reached.】
【Invest 28 Ability Points.】
===
Of course I had expected a rather sharp jump in level.
But from 8 to 15……
A super leap of 7 levels was more than I could have imagined.
An unimaginable grand event!
Thinking about it, it made sense.
Even if a Rotter was slow and weak, it required a sacred-class weapon or magic to kill, so it was quite difficult to kill.
But that day I had slaughtered 300, not 3,000, but a staggering 32,614 of them.
If I had killed 100 a day, it would have taken a year of hard labor to match that.
Depending on the rank, it was common knowledge that the 8–15 level range required 1–2 years of Tower grinding to reach.
Which roughly matched my calculation.
But I had jumped over it in just one day.
Kyak-kyak-kyak.
But I restrained my excitement.
Because today’s grand event was far from over.
Gold.
A gold mound piled by 32,614 Rotters.
I folded the Portalet and descended to the 1st Basement Level bunker.
I picked up the lid of the nearby bunker and jumped into it, closing the lid.
Thud—
Next, I connected my harness to the lid and immediately descended into the pit.
Soon the pit ended, and the massive rock I had seen 8 hours earlier greeted me.
The air of the 2nd Basement Level!
I turned on the scope function of the dawn goggles and looked down.
Because the image quality wasn’t great, I couldn’t see anything.
Charrrrr~
I rode the rope and slowly descended.
A mysterious 2nd Basement Level with no information.
And tremendous gold had just fallen there.
What was down there?
More Rotters?
Or other monsters?
Or structures?
If there was lava or a swamp, it would be tough.
At that moment……
It started appearing in the scope.
A huge pile of gold!
A gold coin grave!
Uhehehe!
“……!”
The next scene shocked me so much my heart felt like it was about to fall out.
A huge hand.
It scooped up a handful of gold coins……
Ugek- ugek- kkuul-kkuk~