Proof of Conviction
Ragged breathing.
Hands and feet twitching, trembling beyond control.
Vision dimming, fading by the second.
Every one of those signs meant a human body that had long since crossed its absolute limit.
I can't…
Clang—!
The sword that had just cut down a zombie slammed into the ground and spat out a sharp metallic cry. She could no longer even keep her feet while holding Black Wing [C].
This can't be happening.
There were still so many zombies left. Honestly, too many to count. They stretched out like an ocean. No matter how many she killed, cut, or crushed, there was no end in sight.
Her sense of time had vanished long ago. Her mind was too frayed for anything resembling situational awareness. She simply swung at the nearest thing on pure instinct—and even that was no longer easy. The rotting flesh she had once shattered in a single stroke now refused to part cleanly under her blade. Even severed muscle and bone had become a struggle.
“Hah— hah—”
Her legs felt like lead. The ruined city clung to them as if the asphalt itself had turned into a swamp, dragging her down. Park Ji-hoo was no better. The boy who had been bursting zombies nonstop with savage punches that never matched his timid nature now only managed to shove them back while gasping for air that reached all the way to his throat. Even that was becoming impossible.
A few more minutes like this and—
We'll be swept away.
Exactly as Seong Yujin had warned before the battle began. They would be swallowed by the zombie tide and torn to shreds. Knowing that changed nothing. There was nothing left Lee Sia could do. No way to recover stamina. Nowhere to run.
Rather…
Rather…
Rather…
A thought flickered through her mind. She shuddered at the horrifying implication and violently shook her head. A sacrifice? She wanted to smash her own skull for even letting that idea surface.
Dying with regret was better than surviving with it. That had been her own declaration, her own vow. She would not take it back now. She had no intention of doing so. She was simply so exhausted that a tiny complaint had slipped out.
“Even if I die like this…”
A hundred innocent lives would be saved. That was enough. Her effort had kept those people alive. She would not regret her choice. She could say that even in death.
“Huuup—”
A shallow breath tore free from lungs that felt ready to burst. Even steadying her breathing had become nearly impossible.
At the very least… Ji-hoo…
She would save him. Everything she had left—even if it was her life force itself—she would burn it all to keep Park Ji-hoo alive. Whether that was even possible, she no longer knew.
Lee Sia forced her foot forward. Her body swayed; she nearly toppled flat. Still she did not stop. One step. Another. Somehow cutting down the zombies in her path, she inched closer to Park Ji-hoo.
But…
This was the real limit. She had not even managed a few steps before she could go no farther. The ground suddenly seemed to leap up at her. More accurately, Lee Sia was collapsing.
Thud—!
Hard asphalt kissed her nose. A sharp sting bloomed, yet her chest hurt far worse.
So this is the end.
She could feel the zombies approaching. The stench of rot. Soon their rough hands would tear her body apart. Fear took a long, deliberate step toward her. Even so, she did not regret her decision. Through fading eyes she watched the rotting legs draw near.
Even if I die here…
That madman would handle the rest. At the very least, the survivors hiding inside the safe zone would keep living—in place of the one who fell here. She comforted herself with that thought and managed a faint smile.
“Damn it. You’re still grinning in this mess?”
A familiar voice cut through the air. The madman himself—Seong Yujin. The moment he appeared, he shredded every zombie that had been closing in on Lee Sia.
Heavenly Thread Massacre [D]
A skill perfectly suited for slaughtering large numbers of weak enemies. The zombies never stood a chance of blocking the Heavenly Silk Thread [C]; they simply came apart.
“What the hell are you smiling about? Think you did something impressive?”
Seong Yujin asked. Lee Sia gave no answer. More precisely, she could not. Speaking was beyond her; even breathing properly was a struggle.
“Stubborn to the bone, as always. Well? Regretting that you didn’t listen to me?”
It sounded like mockery at first—but it wasn’t. For some reason, a note of something almost like pride colored his voice.
Must be my imagination.
Pride? From that lunatic? Impossible. Lee Sia rejected the fleeting thought and shook her head inside her mind.
“If you’d just listened, we would’ve finished this ages ago and been resting on the tenth floor by now.”
Had that much time really passed? She had no idea. While she tried, through a fogged mind, to measure the flow of time, Yujin continued.
“Still… you did good. I honestly never thought you’d last the full twenty-four hours.”
…What?
Strength returned to Lee Sia’s slowly closing eyes.
“My prediction that you’d fail completely was wrong. You kept the words you spat out yourself.”
At the same moment—
Quest Complete
You have successfully defended the safe zone for 24 hours.
◈ Quest Reward: Skill Sanctuary Declaration [C]
◈ Achievement Reward: Item Embers of Twilight [C]
◈ Achievement Reward: Item White Vow [C]
◈ Achievement Reward: Trait Unyielding Martial Spirit [C]
“…Holy shit.”
She had thought she could not speak another word. She was wrong. Faced with the cascade of notifications from the Akasha System, Lee Sia let out an involuntary gasp of pure astonishment.
Yujin shut his mouth, eyes heavy and dark.
What the hell is this?
The rewards made no sense. The difficulty had certainly been high. This eighth-floor quest was infamous for producing the highest early-Tower body count, so the corresponding rewards were naturally substantial. But nowhere near this level. The rewards he had received in the first timeline had not even reached half of what they were getting now.
Why the difference?
He asked himself, though he already knew the answer. Lee Sia’s stubbornness. Or her conviction. She had held for a full twenty-four hours without offering a single sacrifice, relying solely on her own strength. That was the only real difference between the first-timeline Yujin and the present.
“Haha.”
Yujin let out a hollow laugh. He had dismissed it as useless righteousness—an obsession that would never help anyone climb the Tower. People with the Sword Empress’s temperament, he had always believed, were nothing more than suckers who got used and discarded. There had never been a single exception. Only the Yujin who cared for no one but himself had reached the end of the Tower and ripped the apocalypse to pieces. That alone had seemed proof that the Sword Empress’s meddling was worthless.
But he had been wrong.
“I was wrong, and that girl was right.”
At least the Akasha System had judged it so. The rewards alone made the verdict obvious.
A spear forged by a master artisan who captured the light of dawn itself. A blade of considerable quality.
A long robe the color of the night sky. Defense rises sharply when infused with mana. Grants a stealth effect at night that grows stronger the darker the surroundings become.
Those two alone were already absurd. Two extra C-grade items. Below the tenth floor, even D-grade gear was rare. Yujin only possessed decent equipment because he had climbed faster than anyone and swept up every achievement and opportunity along the way. Under normal circumstances you could barely catch a glimpse of C-grade gear before the fiftieth floor. And yet clearing a single quest had dumped two of them on them?
The hollow laughter kept coming. Both he and Lee Sia had chosen sacrifice. The only difference was that he had sacrificed others as offerings while she had sacrificed herself. The results could not have been more different.
Yujin still believed the efficient method was the correct one. Yet he found himself wondering, just maybe, whether reckless righteousness might sometimes be the better answer.
“Tch.”
He clicked his tongue. The foul taste of zombie blood lingered; he spat it out.
“Yeah. This time you were right.”
He looked down at Lee Sia, who lay unconscious and sprawled across the ground.
“Just thinking about how smug you’re gonna be is already pissing me off.”
How much would she needle him once she woke up? The mere imagination made his head ache.
“You holding up okay?”
No point dwelling on the headache any longer. He turned to Park Ji-hoo, who was still catching his breath behind them.
“Ah— y-yes, hyeong.”
The boy was a wreck. Unlike Lee Sia, who at least swung a sword, he had been fighting hand-to-hand with nothing but a cheap gauntlet. His body had no chance of coming through intact. Skin all over him was torn and split. If the zombies here had carried an infection the way they did in movies, Park Ji-hoo would already have joined their ranks long ago.
“You got some decent rewards too, right?”
“Y-yes, I did.”
Park Ji-hoo nodded quickly.
“Any weapons?”
The gauntlet he was using looked utterly pathetic—lowest grade, no special options, nothing but a bit of extra hardness. Yujin asked just in case.
“No. There weren’t any weapon items.”
“Tsk.”
Even one D-grade gauntlet would have skyrocketed Park Ji-hoo’s combat power.
“You’ve got no luck either.”
“I-instead I got armor.”
“Hm? Armor?”
“Yes. Something called Dragon Combat Armor [C].”
“Oh!”
Yujin’s eyes widened slightly. He had heard of that item in the first timeline—not worn by the Fighting Demon, but by someone else.
Gideon, wasn’t it?
One of the Ten Evils, the Mad Dragon Emperor. The armor that deranged pleasure-killer had worn until the day the Sword Empress’s blade finally cut him down. And now it had fallen into Park Ji-hoo’s hands.
“That’s a solid piece. Use it well and it’ll serve you.”
He was not just saying empty words. Among heavy-armor users, Dragon Combat Armor [C] was widely considered the best C-grade defensive gear available—nothing comparable until the fiftieth floor.
Once he gets a proper weapon…
They would not have to worry about equipment for a good while.
“Good.”
Yujin nodded with open satisfaction. Thanks to the choices Lee Sia and Park Ji-hoo had made, they had obtained far more than he originally expected. Everything ahead would be easier. Especially the third quest.
“This one’s a freebie.”
With Yujin’s quiet murmur, the final quest was issued.