The Dawn Wager
What the hell is this monkey?
Eliyah’s eyes darted between Yujin, Kang Mu-hyun, and the spear in Yujin’s hand—Dawn [C]. The weapon was so far beyond the Spear of Beginning [D] he carried that his own looked like a cheap toy by comparison. And the monkey was just… handing it over.
Was he an idiot? A sucker? Nothing else made sense.
Why?
A weapon like that would let a man cut down most monsters without breaking a sweat. Which meant safety. Real safety. Eliyah had never once imagined anyone would shove something that valuable into the hands of a complete stranger and tell him to take it.
And come to think of it…
He hadn’t paid attention earlier, but the rest of the monkey’s gear was no joke either.
That cloak…
It didn’t look the least bit inferior to Dawn [C]. The fabric was a pure, dazzling black, as if someone had cut a piece out of the night sky and stitched it into a mantle. Eliyah was almost annoyed he hadn’t noticed it sooner.
In that instant he understood exactly who the sucker monkey was.
The tenth floor.
The one who had climbed there at a speed no one else could touch. It had to be him. Nothing else explained gear of that caliber.
The realization pulled Eliyah forward a step before he even noticed he was moving.
“A wager, is it? I’ve always been fond of those myself. Mind if I join in?”
If he played this right, he might just bleed the sucker dry.
That was Eliyah’s mistake.
Yujin simply put a little more distance between them and gave him a flat, unimpressed look.
“You. Don’t I know you?”
No honorifics. Nothing like the polite tone he’d used with Kang Mu-hyun.
Eliyah’s teeth ground together.
Have we met before?
The second they’d laid eyes on each other the monkey had dry-heaved in his face, then radiated open hostility for no reason Eliyah could name. The atmosphere alone made him wonder if they’d crossed paths under ugly circumstances sometime in the past.
He didn’t let it show. Even if they had, it didn’t matter.
The items.
For gear this good he was prepared to smile while someone spat in his face—never mind a little fake gagging.
“You saw me earlier, didn’t you? We never properly introduced ourselves, but… well, this seems like as good a time as any.”
He put on his friendliest smile and swept a glance around them. NPCs and players alike were watching with open interest. Plenty of eyes. In a situation like this, even a rude monkey would have to mind his manners.
That was what Eliyah believed—because he had no idea what kind of person Yujin actually was.
“Forget it. Get lost. I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
Yujin turned his head and focused entirely on Kang Mu-hyun, as if Eliyah had already ceased to exist.
This son of a bitch…
Murderous intent surged up his throat. He wanted to tear the man’s head off right then and there—exactly the way the monkey had once promised to do to him.
Hold it in.
He forced himself to swallow it. There were too many witnesses, but that wasn’t the real reason.
They said he reached the tenth floor.
Which meant the bastard was far stronger than Eliyah was right now. He had no idea how that was even possible, but nothing else explained the climbing speed.
If I pick a fight carelessly, I’m the one who dies.
So he waited.
But…
Just you wait. I’ll chew you up, bones and all, soon enough.
The wait wouldn’t be long.
Fusion [C].
With that skill he could catch up to anyone. This wasn’t baseless confidence. On the first floor, Terra, the master of the Alchemists Guild had told him so herself.
Use it well, and you can become stronger than any other player inside this Tower.
He’d heard those words after completing a quest and receiving his reward. The woman who called herself Cupiditas was a transcendent being, so far beyond ordinary monsters that she might even stand on the same level as Didascalia from the Tutorial Floor. If someone like that had given him her absolute assurance, then a monkey like the one in front of him was nothing.
All I need is time. And prey.
He would catch up. No matter what.
Eliyah began rewriting his plans—bolder, faster—while he stood alone, eyes locked on the monkey who was already walking away with Kang Mu-hyun.
“…Are you certain this is wise?”
Kang Mu-hyun asked, worry plain on his face.
“About what?”
“Eliyah. You may not know this, Yujin-ssi, but he is an extremely famous player.”
He was famous in the first timeline too. So what?
“He was almost certainly the first to arrive here as well. No one climbs faster. I’ve pushed myself as hard as I can, yet I’ve never once overtaken him.”
“Is that so?”
Yujin answered as if it were the least interesting fact in the world.
“If you make an enemy of him needlessly, it could become… problematic.”
The Tower had once been pure chaos. But humans adapt. Order of a sort was forming—simple, brutal order.
The law of the jungle.
The weak were meat. The strong ate that meat. Power was the only justice left. There were no laws to restrain anyone, no police, no remaining conscience. A passing player could beat someone to death for looking at him wrong and face zero consequences.
In that world, Eliyah was clearly one of the strong.
Kang Mu-hyun couldn’t help fretting that the Korean he’d finally met after so long might end up on the receiving end of something ugly.
Yujin only snorted.
“I hope he does take offense. Then I wouldn’t have to hesitate.”
He’d been deliberately needling Eliyah, hoping the man would start something. If that happened he could simply beat him to death without worrying about proof or justification.
Unfortunately Eliyah hadn’t taken the bait. Whether his mask was simply that thick or he’d sensed something wrong, the result was the same: he had just walked away from a death sentence.
“…Strange.”
Kang Mu-hyun looked at Yujin with a complicated expression. From the moment they met until now, Yujin had treated him with nothing but goodwill. His true personality didn’t seem especially kind—the way he dealt with Eliyah proved that much. So why the generosity?
“Nothing strange about it. I’m just offering a simple wager, and this is the prize.”
Dawn [C] still rested in Yujin’s hand. Kang Mu-hyun had refused to take it.
Unexplained kindness was dangerous enough outside the Tower. Inside it was downright lethal. Accept something like this too quickly and you never knew what disaster would come knocking later. Kang Mu-hyun had seen that story play out far too many times—had lived it himself, more than once. Suspicion was only natural.
“May I hear the terms of this wager first?”
The easygoing air faded, replaced by quiet gravity. This was the same man who had once climbed the Tower with nothing but a single spear and sheer stubborn will—the man known as Chiyou.
Yujin clicked his tongue.
What a pain.
Just take the damn thing and say thank you. Between the Sword Empress and now Chiyou, everyone was so full of suspicion it made simple generosity exhausting. At least this one hadn’t run away. Some woman had cursed him out and bolted the second he tried to give her something.
He almost laughed under his breath, then answered.
“Reach the sixteenth floor faster than that bastard. How’s that sound?”
“The… sixteenth floor?”
They were standing on the fifth. It had taken more than two months after the summoning just to crawl this far. The sixteenth floor was so far ahead he couldn’t even begin to estimate the time.
“Don’t worry too much. It’s faster than you’d think—once you’re past the lower floors, anyway.”
Kang Mu-hyun’s eyes went wide again. The way Yujin spoke…
“You sound as if you’ve already been there.”
As if he were speaking from experience.
“Ah, right—I never mentioned it. I’m currently on the fifteenth floor. You can use those stone pillars to drop down to lower floors whenever you want. I just came down for a little visit.”
“Ha!”
Kang Mu-hyun let out a disbelieving laugh before he could stop himself. It didn’t sound like a lie. The tone was far too casual—exactly the same way someone might say they’d had kimchi stew for breakfast. Hard to believe, yet it felt true.
“How is that even possible?”
Astonishment crashed into him, followed hard by self-reproach. What had he been doing all this time? His little rivalry with Eliyah suddenly felt pathetic. The real monster had already climbed into the heavens while the two of them were still measuring their pride over who reached the fifth floor first. The shame burned.
“Because I’m just that good. The people with me are still a bit lacking, but lately they’ve started pulling their own weight. Raising them is half the fun of climbing, honestly.”
That single answer gave Kang Mu-hyun several new pieces of information. Yujin was not alone—he had companions, just as Kang Mu-hyun did. And Yujin was clearly their leader.
A quiet envy stirred in Kang Mu-hyun’s chest. Not envy of the companions… envy of Yujin himself.
I wanted to climb that fast with my own people. I wanted to escape this damned hell before anyone else.
Watching someone already living that dream made the longing almost painful.
“Anyway—deal? If you reach the sixteenth floor before that bastard, the spear is yours for keeps.”
Dawn [C]. The beautiful golden spear caught the light and sank deep into Kang Mu-hyun’s eyes.
“And if I’m late?”
“Then you give it back.”
Yujin dug at his ear with a pinky as he answered. Kang Mu-hyun’s mouth pressed into a hard line. The internal struggle was obvious—and equally obvious that the answer had already been decided.
“Very well. I accept the wager.”
He needed a better weapon. He needed a powerful reason to keep moving. He needed the strength to protect the people who followed him. Dawn [C] and this wager could give him all three.
“Deal. See you on the sixteenth floor, then.”
Without the slightest hesitation Yujin held out the spear. This time Kang Mu-hyun took it.
At that exact moment the morning sun crested the horizon and began to drive the darkness from Pine Breeze.
Dawn.
“We’re going up.”
“What? Already?”
The moment his companions returned from the real world, Eliyah made the proposal.
“We’ve rested enough.”
“Yeah, but still… we don’t know what’s waiting above. We should make every preparation first—”
The short-haired woman spoke carefully. The week-long vacation had been sweet. After crawling out of a hell of constant killing, they had finally tasted ordinary peace again. The last thing any of them wanted was to step straight back into a place soaked in blood and meat.
“We’re prepared enough. We move now.”
Eliyah’s voice was iron. Completely different from the man they usually knew. His companions looked startled, but no one argued. They trusted him. If he was this urgent, there had to be a reason.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
“Sitting around here is just wasting time. Better to move now than get overtaken by someone else.”
They forced the words out and left Pine Breeze behind—heading for the fifth-floor boss, the Green Dragon.
And when it was over…
Only one person reached the sixth floor.
Eliyah. Alone.