Ghosts or My Fist?
Each floor of the Tower formed a complete world unto itself.
One floor might be a city.
Another, a jungle.
Yet another, a desert.
Sometimes the shift was merely environmental. Other times, the entire genre of the world changed outright.
The first such genre shift players ever encountered ran from the sixth floor through the tenth.
The vaguely fantasy atmosphere vanished completely, and an entirely new genre came roaring in to take its place.
"You scared of stuff?"
Yujin looked at Lee Sia as he asked.
"Why the sudden question?"
She tilted her head at the completely out-of-nowhere inquiry.
"Because it matters. You're not the type who can't even watch horror movies, right?"
"I can't watch them. I seriously don't get why people pay money to see that crap."
Yujin's brow furrowed at her answer.
"Aigoo. We're screwed."
"Why? What is it?"
She asked again, uneasy, but instead of answering, Yujin turned to Park Ji-hoo this time.
"What about you?"
"I don't think I'm particularly scared of them."
Fair enough. Considering Ji-hoo's guts, it was hard to imagine him being afraid of something like a horror movie.
"Ah, just tell me already!"
Sia finally exploded.
An ominous feeling had been crawling up her spine the whole time, and being ignored on top of it was more than she could take.
"It's nothing major."
Yujin shrugged and continued.
"Starting from the sixth floor, the theme changes a bit."
"The theme?"
"Yeah. Think of it as turning into a completely different genre of game."
The more he spoke, the paler Sia's face became.
Anyone who wasn't a complete idiot could put the pieces together by now.
The theme that changed from the sixth floor onward.
It was—
"Horror. The kind of floors so terrifying that weak-hearted bastards can barely even set foot on them."
Just as she thought!
Sia's face had gone so ashen it looked like she might collapse on the spot.
"I'm not going. No—I refuse to go."
She started backing away.
The distance between her and the Deer Dragon they absolutely had to kill to reach the sixth floor steadily grew.
"If you don't go? You planning to live here forever?"
Yujin eyed her sideways as he asked.
"That'd be better, honestly."
Cold sweat poured down her face; her fear had clearly hit its peak.
"Good grief."
Yujin scratched his head.
He'd half expected something like this might happen.
In the first timeline, countless players had never even dared attempt the sixth floor and simply settled down on the fifth instead.
Men and women alike—it made no difference.
The Tower wasn't a horror movie that ended when the credits rolled. It was a real, tangible threat.
So even the ones who swaggered their way up usually came crawling back to the fifth floor just barely alive.
Only after hunting monsters here and growing far stronger would they finally challenge the sixth floor again.
But.
"It's fine. You can do this."
Yujin believed in Sia.
More precisely, he believed in what she had already done.
This kid reached the tenth floor faster than almost anyone.
As far as he knew, she had been among the top three fastest climbers to ever hit the tenth floor.
That was probably when it started—when people began calling her the Sword Empress and looking at her with awe.
"No, I said I can't! Who decided I can do this?"
She dug her heels in stubbornly.
Apparently her terror of horror had finally overpowered her fear of Yujin.
Looking at her, Yujin bared his teeth in a grin.
"That so?"
Sia flinched.
That pure evil smile.
She had experienced more times than she could count that nothing good ever followed when Yujin made that face.
"Let's find out, then. Whether ghosts are scarier—or my fist."
With a sickening crack of bone, Yujin raised his fist.
Ghosts versus fists.
Sia couldn't answer.
Vague, formless dread versus concrete, immediate violence.
Which one was truly more terrifying?
"Still… ghosts are more—"
Just as Sia finished her brief deliberation and carefully began to answer—
Kyaaaaaaaaaaah—!
The Deer Dragon suddenly roared.
It seemed thoroughly displeased that the humans standing right in front of it were busy with something else entirely.
Its deer-like head swung heavily, and it advanced on the three of them.
The mana pouring off it was more powerful than any boss monster they had faced so far.
Even Sia, who had reached level thirty, couldn't even think of standing in its way. The sheer presence was overwhelming.
"Dodge!"
Sia instinctively shouted at Park Ji-hoo.
If they met that thing head-on, it wouldn't end with a simple loss.
She grabbed Ji-hoo's hand and kicked off the ground.
The two of them had risen maybe three centimeters into the air when—
The fist Yujin had been so proudly displaying shot straight at the Deer Dragon.
KWA-DU-DU-DU-DU-DU-DUK—!
The pair of proudly glowing red antlers snapped. Scales shattered. Flesh burst open. And finally, the skull itself split apart.
Yujin's fist didn't stop there.
Like sinking into soft tofu, his arm buried itself into the Deer Dragon's head all the way to the shoulder.
And then—
KWA-AAAAAANG—!
A massive explosion tore the creature's lower body clean off.
It looked less like a punch and more like a direct hit from a self-propelled howitzer.
Shattered bone and chunks of flesh rained down like a storm.
Still floating in midair, Sia stared blankly at the sight.
"Huh? What was that? Ghosts are scarier, you said?"
With his arm still buried in the Deer Dragon's head, Yujin asked with an innocent expression.
Gulp.
Sia swallowed dryly without meaning to.
I must've been out of my mind.
She was a coward.
A world-class coward who couldn't even watch horror movies.
But real ghosts versus Yujin's fist?
If someone asked which was scarier, the answer was obviously the latter.
From this moment on, that was the official ranking.
"Fine, let's go. Ugh, this is so gross."
And just like that, the three of them decided to climb.
"I told you it's not like that."
Sia scrunched up her face in denial.
"Sure it isn't. It's written all over your face."
"What's written? Nothing's written!"
"'I'm currently in the middle of a crush.' Just like that."
Her friend burst out laughing.
It was the kind of laugh that was pure teasing.
Sia's face flushed red on its own.
How did she even know?
Was it really written on her face or something?
She almost lifted a hand without thinking, then forced herself to stop.
If she actually touched her face, her friend would just mock her again.
"So? Who is it? You can at least tell me."
Her friend asked with a sly look.
Christmas carols drifting through the busy shopping district mixed with the question and made her heart flutter for no good reason.
"Ah, seriously, it's not. I don't have anyone I like."
She did.
Someone incredibly handsome, tall, and gentle-natured.
An older guy who made her heart warm just from watching him from the side.
"You gonna keep lying? Is that all our friendship is worth?"
Her friend pretended to pout, putting on a sulky face.
Sia's closest friend.
She had always thought she could tell this girl any secret—but not this time.
She wanted to keep it to herself, something private and embarrassing that no one else needed to know.
"Sorry. But I really don't have anyone I like."
Sia shook her head as seriously as she could manage.
"Hmmm, that so?"
Her friend gave her a suspicious look, but thankfully didn't push any further.
She must have figured that if she kept going, Sia might actually get mad.
"Okay, teasing time's over!"
Her friend linked arms with her and, as if nothing had happened, launched into a completely different topic to lighten the mood.
Whew. That was close.
She let out a quiet sigh of relief inside.
I managed to get through it somehow.
She had successfully hidden the true nature of the feelings that had taken root in her heart lately.
"So what should we do now?"
"Hmm. How about a café first?"
Seongsu-dong was packed with trendy cafés.
Given the day, the popular ones would be swarming with people, but she still wanted to visit at least one.
"Even on Christmas it feels the same as usual."
"Can't be helped. We're both single, after all."
When Sia said it with a gloomy face, her friend burst out laughing again.
"I actually prefer it this way? Christmas presents, date courses—do you know how many things you'd have to worry about? Hanging out with a friend like this is way more comfortable. Well, a pure single like you wouldn't get it."
"I know plenty, okay?"
She pouted at the teasing.
"Yes, yes, of course you do. Anyway, café it is?"
Her friend pulled out her smartphone, searched for something, then shoved the screen toward Sia.
"How about this place? Doesn't it look fun?"
"…Café Napolitan?"
Napolitan—wasn't that the Japanese spaghetti dish?
"Is that even a café? Sounds more like a Japanese restaurant."
"It is a café. The reviews aren't bad, and it looks pretty famous."
There were over 999 reviews.
And still a 4.9 rating!
Calling it a hot spot wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Then why have I never heard of it?
Sia treated Seongsu-dong like her own backyard.
She came here with friends every week and had visited every place that was even remotely well-known.
She'd been doing it since middle school.
But Café Napolitan was a first.
Even with that many reviews.
"Well? Sound good?"
"Yeah, sure. Somewhere new is better than the usual places."
Sia nodded.
Christmas Day.
Rather than wandering streets packed with couples no matter where you went, checking out a place she'd never been sounded better.
"Which way?"
"Not far. Just follow me."
Sia trailed after her friend, who took the lead.
The "not far" part was true.
It took less than ten minutes to reach their destination.
Café Napolitan
A sign decorated in every color imaginable came into view.
Rather than hip, the first word that came to mind was childish—gaudy to the point of looking like a kid's scribble.
"…This is the place?"
It was hard to believe somewhere like this was actually popular.
Honestly, even she didn't feel like going in.
Yet so many people had visited and left good reviews.
Maybe it was different once you got inside?
"Yep, yep. Hurry up and go in."
Her friend beamed and pushed Sia forward.
"Hey, don't push. I can walk in myself."
With reluctant steps, she moved inside.
It wasn't the first floor or the second.
They had to go down to the basement.
Unlike the sign, the place felt dark and damp—an oddly humid atmosphere.
Everyone else is out on dates, and here I am. With a friend, in a creepy place like this…
That far into the thought, Sia suddenly tilted her head.
What was it again?
The friend currently pushing her from behind.
Her closest friend, the one she'd spent her entire twenty years with, the person she cherished more than anyone.
And yet…
What was her name?
She couldn't remember.
No—not just the name.
She couldn't recall a single thing they had done together.
Only the vague sense that they had, nothing more.
No concrete memories. No specific moments.
"Hey…"
Sia swallowed dryly and slowly turned around.
And she saw it.
Her friend's face, both corners of the mouth torn all the way up to the ears, stretched into a bright, radiant smile.