Those Devoured by the Tower
“Before that.”
Yujin looked over the 3 No. Everyone’s condition looked solid enough. If anything, Park Ji-hoo seemed the most worn out of the three—more so than Lee Sia or Vivian, who had been falling-down drunk not long ago. That was probably thanks to the boosters and Financial Healing [C].
Yujin spoke to the three of them staring blankly back at him.
“All of you, go outside.”
“Ah—!”
“I’d completely forgotten.”
From the moment they arrived in Unmonghyang they had been yanked from one mess into the next, and they had entirely forgotten that this was the twentieth floor. Forgetting about vacation—was there a bigger idiot alive? That was the look on Lee Sia’s face as she berated herself.
“If you’re going anyway, better get it done quick. We’ve got a fair amount to do here, so we’ll be sticking around for a while.”
“Things to do?”
Lee Sia, who had been clawing at her own hair, tilted her head as if she couldn’t parse the words. Until now they had always climbed the moment vacation ended. They had hunted a few times in between, sure, but never for long. And now there was a fair amount of work? They would be staying a while? This was a first. At twenty-one, with curiosity in full bloom, Lee Sia had no choice but to ask.
“Yeah. I’m not sure on the exact number, but we’ll be here a few months at least.”
Surprise flashed across every face at Yujin’s words. Even Vivian’s.
“Is that okay?”
Yujin had always climbed the Tower as if something were right on his heels. No laziness allowed—he had been obsessed with ascending at a manic pace. For someone like that to suddenly park himself here for months… of course they had questions.
“I was originally thinking half a year. Luckily it shrank a bit.”
All thanks to the two drunks. Because those two had kicked up such a storm, they had been able to clear the Underworld of Phantasm by a side route. One opportunity that would have eaten a mountain of time had been wrapped up in a snap—so they could climb faster than expected.
“What exactly are we doing…?”
Lee Sia eyed Yujin with a nervous look. Whenever Yujin said there was something that needed doing, it always meant pure hell. Nonstop hunting. Endless hunting. Hunting until you dropped. Hunting. Her whole body shuddered.
Yujin snorted a laugh at the sight.
“No need to look that terrified. Just go out and rest first. I’ll explain the details when you’re back.”
Lee Sia shot him a look full of suspicion, but Yujin only waved her off.
“Nuna, you’re not going out this time either?”
“I’m not.”
Vivian shook her head. Why refuse? It wasn’t hard to guess. Family was probably involved. The relationship didn’t seem good. Even so—even if she didn’t get along with her family—wasn’t a week outside better than staying in the Tower? Taste the modern world she had been cut off from, see friends, catch up on dramas and movies. Players were treated like royalty outside now. Give it a little more time and some of them would be outright stars. No matter how she turned it over, outside looked better than in.
Vivian refused vacation as if it weren’t even worth considering.
“Then see you when we’re back.”
Lee Sia didn’t press. She wasn’t close enough for that, and she had the uneasy sense that digging would only reopen a wound. She simply gave Vivian one pitying look.
“Let’s go, Ji-hoo.”
“We’ll be back.”
In the end, only the two of them were heading out on leave again.
“Ah—when you get out, pass a few things along to SID for me.”
“We only get a week of vacation as it is. Making us work is a bit much, don’t you think? Go yourself.”
“If you don’t like it, don’t go. Stay and hunt with me.”
“What should I convey?”
Yujin gave Lee Sia a rundown on the boosters and a few other points. All of it would be a massive help to the 3 No and other players going forward.
“And if you run into Kang Mu-hyun before you leave, swap contact info too.”
“Why that?”
“Having a way to reach people even outside isn’t a bad thing. If he needs help, we can pitch in.”
“…Uncle. Are you actually Uncle?”
The word help coming out of that mouth—! She stared at him in open disbelief.
“Quit the nonsense and just go already.”
“You’re the one who kept us standing here.”
Lee Sia glared at Yujin as if she might spit on him, then took Park Ji-hoo’s hand and left Chwiwolru.
“That backbone of hers just keeps growing.”
At this rate she wouldn’t be the Sword Empress anymore—they’d have to start calling her the Sword Demon. Somehow that felt like a better fit. Clicking his tongue, Yujin glanced sideways.
Vivian sat there blankly, her face giving nothing away about whatever she was thinking.
“Hey, Whitey.”
“Speak.”
“Going out or not is entirely up to you. But you should still head out every once in a while.”
“Why?”
If she was asking why…
“You’ll get eaten by the Tower.”
There had been people like that in the first timeline too. People who decided living in the Tower beat living in reality. Reasons varied, but the big one was scraping by. Outside you worried about every meal; in here a little hunting bought you a fairly comfortable life. Park yourself in Terra, hunt the weak monsters on the first floor, and real danger was rare—so some just planted roots and never left. Those types weren’t worth worrying about. And they had nothing to do with Vivian, who had been born with about ten diamond spoons in her mouth.
The real problem was a different case. A lawless zone. Inside the Tower, human-made law had zero force. You could steal from the weak, enslave them, even take their lives—and there was no such thing as punishment. Some people simply never left once they got drunk on that pleasure. The Ten Evils were the prime examples. But among tens of thousands of players, were there really only ten villains? No. Human nature was uglier than people liked to admit, and those types were surprisingly common. Even people who hadn’t started that way grew numb to killing while hunting monsters; their morals dulled. Eventually some of them handed themselves over to greed and instinct rather than reason. Yujin called people like that eaten by the Tower.
Vivian was no different. She isn’t that kind of person? That argument didn’t hold. Who blackened, under what circumstances, and how—no one could ever know.
“So even if you don’t feel like it, go out once in a while.”
She didn’t need to leave every five floors, but every so often was necessary. Just that much could air out a mind that was starting to rot.
Vivian watched Yujin speak with complete seriousness. She still couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but one thing was clear.
At least she didn’t let it go in one ear and out the other.
She didn’t look ready to leave anytime soon, but she seemed to be filing his words away. That was enough. He had no intention of forcing her anyway.
“But.”
Vivian’s mouth opened.
“What.”
“You? Why don’t you go out?”
“I do, every now and then. I went out on the fifteenth floor too. Don’t you remember? That’s how I was able to use the Chunbae Cannon.”
Yujin smiled as he said it, but Vivian’s expression didn’t change.
“It’s different. From other people.”
Rest? Mental recovery? When Yujin went outside, it was only so he could climb the Tower faster and more easily. An extension of a player’s work. In other words, not a vacation—more like a business trip. Vivian understood that difference perfectly.
Sharp as a blade, nothing like that face of hers would suggest.
He’d known her insight and situational awareness were excellent, but not quite to this degree.
“You need rest too.”
“Well. Yeah, I do.”
Yujin scratched the bridge of his nose with a finger.
Rest, huh.
A laugh rose in him. He had nodded along, but he already knew the truth.
I’m already too late.
Someone eaten by the Tower. No phrase fit him better. In the deepest place of his eyes, where no one else could see—that was where Yujin’s madness hid.
A plain far from Unmonghyang. A flower garden of every rare and exquisite bloom, so lavish it was the height of splendor. At its center, the grotesque, twisted angel Didascalia appeared.
He wrinkled his brow and waved a hand, as if the floral scent tickling his nose displeased him. But there was no erasing the perfume of millions of flowers—not without burning the lot of them. Giving up at last, Didascalia turned his head and spoke.
“Come out.”
Tsssk—, tsssstssts—.
Space began to split. Crude, like a blunt knife forcing a sheet of paper apart.
Kraaaaaaaaaak—!
The rippling space finally failed to hold and tore wide open.
Layer Leap [A]
A skill usable only by Administrators.
Beyond the rent in space, a ruined city could be glimpsed. A world drowning in corpse-reek so thick it felt endless. From that place, something approached the gap.
Thud—, thud—.
At most, a large adult man. Yet every footfall was a giant’s. Each step left spiderweb cracks racing across the ground.
“Could you hurry? The smell here is so vile it’s getting on my nerves.”
When Didascalia prodded him impatiently, the figure’s pace quickened.
Thudthudthudthudthud—!
Fast. He was only walking, yet it looked like a speed skill. In an instant the unknown being slipped through the tear in space.
Psssssssssssssssss—!
At the same moment the surroundings bled black. The once-brilliant flower garden began to fill with dead blooms, spreading outward in a widening circle. A land of death, growing by the second.
Didascalia wore a twisted smile of pure satisfaction.
“I’m so glad I found a player like you.”
Amazingly, this was no monster. This was a player.
“Without you, things would have gotten quite bothersome for me.”
Didascalia fluttered those short wings and circled the player.
“Wonderful. You’ve aged so nicely. At this level, we can actually give it a real try, don’t you think?”
He looked thoroughly pleased.
“Him?”
Then the man’s mouth opened. A voice that seemed to have crawled up from the bottom of hell. With that single word, the stench of rotting corpses flooded everything around them.
“He’ll be in the city you can see over there.”
Didascalia pointed a finger toward Unmonghyang. The player’s gaze followed. A beautiful city standing at the heart of the Dream Garden.
“You can handle it, yes?”
“Of course.”
At Didascalia’s question he nodded. Every time he did, more flowers died. The aura was so foul there was nothing else to say.
“Don’t worry about anyone watching. Do as you please. If you want to kill, kill. If you want to eat, eat.”
Didascalia’s smile turned cruel.
“From this moment on, you are my proxy—Player Eliyah.”
Eliyah Ventrick. The man Yujin had torn to shreds and left for dead stepped into the open air.