Filling Out the Numbers
Back in the Tower, Seong Yujin's eyes took in the several figures waiting for him.
Lee Sia, Park Ji-hoo, Vivian, Kang Mu-hyun, and two women whose names he had already forgotten.
Everyone made it back.
Judging by their faces, nothing much had gone wrong. Made sense—aside from one of them, they were all Korean. Vivian was American, but she hadn't even left the Tower. Odds of getting tangled in some incident had been low.
"What are you all doing clustered here?"
"We were waiting for you, mister."
"Why me?"
What a ridiculous thing to hear. Sia made an "eh?" face and couldn't even answer. There really was no reason to stand out here baking in the hot sand-wind just to wait for him.
"Tsk tsk."
Yujin clicked his tongue like they were hopeless and started walking—straight for Ruv al-Kamal, the inn in Ezhara that boasted the best beer in the city.
"She's right. Why was I waiting for that old man out here?"
Sia muttered the self-reproach under her breath as she and the others fell in behind him.
"Welcome back."
The innkeeper greeted them with a smile.
"Beer for everyone. Food too."
"Understood."
A bulk order after a week of quiet had him grinning as he headed into the back.
"Nobody caused any trouble?"
Yujin asked as he claimed a seat at the table. Sia nodded.
"The only one of us who ever causes trouble is you, mister."
She wasn't wrong. Two leaves, two incidents. His personal accident rate sat at a clean hundred percent. Of course, he himself had zero self-awareness about that fact.
"Heard you met Director Lee Ki-seok."
"Ah, yes."
Sia gave a quick rundown of the meeting she and Ji-hoo had with him—roughly that they had agreed to help with public order and would be receiving support from SID.
"Ah. We received a similar offer."
Kang Mu-hyun cut in.
"Oh, is that so?"
"Most of the players who went outside probably heard the same pitch."
Fair enough. From a government's point of view, the mere existence of players was a headache. You couldn't ignore them, and you couldn't put a leash on them either. So this was the only half-measure left—some thin thread of control.
"They also gave us these."
Mu-hyun set down the pack he had been carrying and pulled out a few items: paper, a knife, a syringe. All things Lee Ki-seok had produced.
"Looked fairly useful."
Yujin nodded at that.
"Used right, they'll help."
For him and the 3 No, the stuff was basically unnecessary. For Mu-hyun's group it was different. Their levels were still low, they had no special skills or traits to speak of, and—most importantly—they had no healer. Vivian could cover them on the 16th Floor, but after that the existence of Bursters would start looking pretty desperate.
Yujin's gaze slid from the syringe to the black straight sword.
"So you really could bring that in."
He had heard it from Ki-seok—that one player had carried it inside. Seeing it with his own eyes still felt fresh.
"Ah, yes. I don't need it thanks to the gift from you, Seong Yujin-ssi, but it's more than enough for my companions."
"Yeah, probably. Done right, it should rate around D-grade."
At this point in time, weapons of that caliber would be hard to come by.
"Still won't last long, though. Better start looking for other gear."
"I see."
"You'll probably find something decent on the 16th Floor. Treat it as temporary."
"…?"
Mu-hyun tilted his head at that. Talking like he already knew a floor none of them had even set foot on yet was strange. But nobody else looked surprised, so he didn't ask. He just filed the question away inside.
"Anyway, three left, right?"
Three more until they hit ten.
"How big a gap between you and the ones coming up behind?"
"Not that large. On the 13th Floor we ran into them now and then."
"Oh? That close?"
Yujin looked satisfied. At that pace they could fill the roster inside a week at the latest—assuming the stragglers actually survived the climb. Noctibar on the 13th and the banshees on the 14th were nasty enough that casualties happened often. He still wasn't particularly worried. The ones who were going to make it would make it.
"Then let's rest until the rest of them show."
"Huh? For real?"
Sia's eyes went round. She had fully expected to be thrown straight back into endless hunting hell, and now he was saying rest? She looked like she had just heard something physically impossible.
"Hunting efficiency drops off here. If you still want to grind, I won't stop you."
"No no no. If you say rest, we rest. That makes sense."
Since when did she listen to him so well? Yujin snorted a short laugh and looked at Mu-hyun.
"You lot should keep hunting. You're not us."
"I know."
Even just the level gap was nearly double. Raising their levels as high as possible before the 16th Floor was the smart move.
"Then grab a beer and scatter however you like."
The drinks and food arrived right on cue. Yujin lifted his mug.
"Oh yeah!"
Sia cheered. Ji-hoo glanced around nervously and took a tiny sip. Watching them, Yujin reached out and gave Chunbae a single stroke. The little thing was only a bit bigger than his palm—yet the amount of cargo stuffed inside it was staggering. Just thinking about it made his own stomach feel full.
Heh heh heh.
He let out an internal laugh that would have made Sia shudder if she had heard it, then took a long pull of beer.
Time passed like that.
"F-finally!"
"Holy shit. We actually made it here?"
"The 15th Floor! We're on the 15th Floor!"
Five players arrived in Ezhara and shed tears of pure joy. A mixed party of Black and white climbers. They flopped flat onto the sand without caring about the blistering sun, laughing "wahaha!" at the heat toasting their backs.
"What place are we, you think?"
"First? Gotta be first, right?"
"No way. We heard plenty of times there were people ahead of us."
"I'd believe that if I could actually believe it."
"You don't? We saw them in Pine Breeze. How many players were already there?"
They had carried the pride of being the fastest clearers of the Tower. That pride had shattered the moment they hit the 5th Floor. Players were already waiting. Quite a few of them. So they had gritted their teeth and poured everything into the climb—enough that they had even overtaken some of the ones who used to be ahead.
"Anyway, we definitely beat the crazy arsonist and the sword ghost."
Their biggest rivals. Both Asian, both solo, both climbing at a completely insane speed. Whatever skills and traits they had picked up, it was hard to believe. Naturally they were strong beyond reason. And yet even those two had been overtaken. That much, at least, was certain.
"Who cares what place we are? I just want ice cream."
"You ate a ton of it outside and you still want more?"
"They don't sell it in the Tower? I'd pay any number of credits if they did."
While three of the men burned with competitive fire, the couple among them showed almost no fighting spirit. They just whined about wanting ice cream and made idle chat. Nobody called them on it. The only reason the party had made it this far was that couple.
Jane—so fast they called her Ray—and her boyfriend, the buffer Overclock, Logan. The two of them operated on a completely different level from everyone else. Honestly, even without the rest of the party, the pair alone could have reached the 15th Floor. So no one was about to start nitpicking their childish talk. They just read the room and slowly pushed themselves upright.
"It's hot. Should we head into the city? Who knows—maybe they sell ice cream. It's a desert, so there's a chance, right?"
"Oh! Right! Let's go check."
At one person's suggestion Jane's face lit up and she bounced to her feet.
"Logan, hurry. Use a buff."
"We're right in front of it—what buff? I'm out of mana."
Logan grumbled and dragged his feet.
"Then at least get up already!"
Under his girlfriend's prodding he had no choice but to move. The five of them entered the desert city of Ezhara.
"This place is unique too."
Jane looked around, impressed. They had visited four cities so far—Terra, Pine Breeze, Viridgrave, and now Ezhara. Every one of them had its own character and beauty… Viridgrave excluded.
"Feels like Israel, right?"
"Yeah. Kind of similar."
Still admiring the view of Ezhara, Jane suddenly spotted a building. A red structure with an inn sign: Ruv al-Kamal.
"That one looks good. Let's go."
Without waiting for anyone's opinion she headed straight for it.
"Hope they sell ice cream. Or at least iced coffee."
Muttering her wish list, she reached the inn and pushed the door open.
"…Huh?"
Her eyes went round. She had expected a handful of NPC guests at most. Instead the place was packed with people who were unmistakably players.
"Players?"
Jane said it, and the ones following her behind froze as well. They hadn't thought they would be first, but they also hadn't imagined this many climbers would already be waiting.
"Oh, mister!"
"Hyung, people are here."
"One, two, three… five."
"That puts us over ten total. Is that still alright?"
"Ten is the minimum. Going over is fine. Difficulty ticks up a bit, that's all."
The players inside the inn looked completely at ease—so relaxed it was hard to believe this was the same hellish Tower.
"That guy…"
Logan frowned and pointed. An East Asian man holding a golden spear.
"I've seen him before."
He couldn't pin down exactly where, but he was sure. The way that spear had carved through monsters had left a deep impression.
"Hey!"
One of the women sitting at a table called out, snapping Logan out of his thoughts.
"Don't just stand there—come sit. Looks like we'll be moving together for a while, so we should at least introduce ourselves."
Jane reacted at once.
"Together? Why should we?"
A challenge. For all her earlier talk about not caring who was ahead, she had a fierce pride. If the others had stayed out of sight she might have let it go—but when they were sitting right there in front of her…
With Jane's personality, there's no way she just walks past this.
Logan smirked. Her attitude was guaranteed to start something, but he didn't care. The idea that they might lose never even crossed his mind. The other side had arrived first and had the numbers—but that didn't matter.
Instant Acceleration [D] and Skill Enhancement [D] are invincible.
The synergy between their two skills was beyond imagination. Not once on the entire climb to the 15th Floor had they felt real danger. If they had simply had enough mana, they would have reached this floor ages ago. There was no reason to feel inferior.
"…Why should we?"
The woman who had spoken tilted her head at a crooked angle.