The Janitor's Last Meal
Janitors were among the strongest beings in the Tower.
That was an undeniable fact.
The requirements to become a janitor were simple yet brutally difficult. Only the most exceptional deliverymen or the elite powerhouses already residing in the upper floors could ever qualify.
Yeon Cheong himself had once been one of those cases. Through relentless training of his martial arts, he had accumulated countless achievements.
“This won’t be easy.”
Yeon Cheong finished off the hound’s throat and thought to himself. Facing a janitor might very well mean staking his own life. That was how powerful the janitors inside the Tower truly were.
Janitors were also trained to conceal their presence. Given that their primary work was usually assassination, it was only natural. Separate from Yeon Cheong’s own martial arts, they learned to walk without sound or even move in complete silence.
Still, it’s a relief my senses haven’t completely dulled.
Yeon Cheong felt reassured that he could still detect a janitor’s unique presence. If he could read their aura in everyday situations, he could prepare countermeasures.
“Some brat’s blocking my way. Do you even know who I am?”
The man glaring at Yeon Cheong sighed. Not only had someone dared to obstruct him, but the last remaining hound had also been eliminated, fueling his irritation.
Yeon Cheong wiped the hound’s blood from his hands and slowly approached. The man grabbed his weapon in response—a small mace lined with sharp spikes. It was highly effective against people.
As expected, information about both the weapon and the janitor appeared in Yeon Cheong’s mind like a text window. Through the weapon, he could gauge Romero’s level.
If it’s a rare-grade weapon, he must be a janitor assigned to the lower floors.
Weapon grade didn’t matter much when killing people. As long as the blade was sharp, it could sever a throat without issue. Still, most janitors received epic-grade weapons as standard precaution.
He must be a relatively new janitor.
Just as weapons had ranks, so did janitors. Lower-floor janitors were strong, but they weren’t among the absolute elites. In other words, Romero wasn’t a threat to the Tower like pre-regression Yeon Cheong or Lee Na-young had been. Their role was mainly carrying out assassinations and terrorism on the lower floors according to orders from above.
They received “missions suited to their rank” along with “equipment.”
I suppose I was like that once too.
Yeon Cheong had also worked as a lower-floor janitor, albeit for a very short time.
“Romero, is the janitor work going well for you?”
“?”
“I found it pretty tough.”
Yeon Cheong stopped spinning his knife and briefly sank into old memories. The sensation of killing a person for the first time. That horrific memory he could never forget. Even though both were acts of taking life, the difference between killing a person and a monster was far greater than expected. Killing a being he could face and converse with gradually wore away at his heart.
Of course, once murder became familiar and he rationalized it in his own way, it became somewhat easier. But he could never erase the memory of his very first cleanup.
“How do you know my name? Were you a janitor too?”
The man spoke in surprise. Yeon Cheong shook his head.
“Not anymore.”
“Not anymore…”
Yeon Cheong closed the distance to Romero in an instant. The man couldn’t even finish speaking before the ambush struck.
Whoosh!
Yeon Cheong’s knife sliced through the air. Romero twisted his body and launched a kick in response.
Thud!
Yeon Cheong blocked the counterattack with his arm and spun through the air before landing on the sandy ground. Even though he had successfully defended, the throbbing in his arm told him just how powerful Romero’s physical abilities were.
“You little bastard! Do you know who I am?!”
“Do I need to?”
Yeon Cheong charged forward immediately.
“Charging in like that! Do you have a death wish?”
Romero froze for a moment. He had intended to smash Yeon Cheong’s head with a powerful downward strike, but something in his vision made him stop.
“An artifact!”
Yeon Cheong was gripping the artifact in his hand. No matter how skilled he was, in his current state it was impossible to defeat a janitor. Outmatched in martial arts, equipment, and physical ability, Yeon Cheong’s trump card was the artifact.
I don’t know how to use it properly yet.
Simply possessing the artifact was enough to gain an advantage in psychological warfare. As expected, Romero, who had been aiming for Yeon Cheong’s head, was now visibly intimidated.
“An opening!”
Yeon Cheong struck again, exploiting the gap in the shaken man’s guard.
Thud!
Arashi’s knife pierced straight through the janitor’s thigh.
It worked.
Yeon Cheong prepared to follow up, but even a rotting fish was still a fish—janitors were still janitors. Romero launched a counterattack the moment he was struck.
Crash!
A blow landed on Yeon Cheong’s back. The spiked mace dug into his spine, sending waves of agony through him. Thanks to the Focus Talisman, the pain arrived slowly.
“Ugh.”
A single strike left his mind reeling. But Yeon Cheong couldn’t just take the hit. He gripped his knife tighter, spun his entire body, and yanked it free.
“How are you still alive after that?”
Romero was shocked to see Yeon Cheong still moving and counterattacking despite taking the blow. Even if he hadn’t aimed for the head, the mace strike should have been enough to shatter Yeon Cheong’s back.
This is getting dangerous. Even the Focus Talisman couldn’t fully cover it.
Yeon Cheong grimaced at the pain seeping through him. At that moment, a text message surfaced in his mind.
“?”
The artifact emitted light, and Yeon Cheong’s body returned to an earlier point in time.
“What the…?”
Yeon Cheong, who had been bleeding out from his back just moments ago, suddenly vanished.
“Huh?”
Yeon Cheong looked down at his own stance. He checked the time the artifact was pointing to. The hands that had been at three o’clock had reversed several seconds.
“So the clock shows the time I possess.”
It had been the same when he stopped time before, and again when he reversed it now—the time had decreased. The artifact consumed its unique resource: time. As time passed, the resource would replenish, and using the artifact’s abilities would deplete it.
Since the artifact had been unlocked, all that remained was figuring out its functions.
“Quit spacing out!”
Romero limped forward and charged at Yeon Cheong. Yeon Cheong noticed a small text window floating beside the approaching man. The tiny selection window displayed how to use the artifact.
Yeon Cheong immediately pressed the “Stop” button displayed on the window. Romero froze instantly.
“Ah, so that’s how it works.”
Yeon Cheong was satisfied with how simple the controls were.
“But…”
The numbers were steadily decreasing. He realized the number next to the information represented how long he could affect the target. As if to confirm this, the artifact’s clock hands raced toward twelve o’clock at high speed.
“I have to spend more time against stronger opponents.”
Using the artifact on someone stronger than himself consumed more of the unique resource.
“Being able to neutralize the opponent right away is nice.”
Yeon Cheong slashed the tendons in Romero’s arms and legs with his knife, then pressed the restore button to release him.
“Kuhak!”
Blood gushed from his limbs as Romero collapsed onto the sand. Yeon Cheong stepped on the back of his head.
“Feeling like talking now?”
He dragged Romero over to the hound’s corpse and threw him down.
Thud.
“Why did you do this?”
Romero remained silent. Yeon Cheong cut off one of his arms with the knife.
Shhhk!
Agony tore through him as Romero thrashed, but Yeon Cheong pinned him down and asked again.
“Why?”
“…”
His silence was understandable. Speaking would be the same as betraying the Tower. Even if he survived now, death wasn’t guaranteed to spare him later.
He’s probably more afraid of the higher-ups than me.
If he wouldn’t talk, more pain would do the trick.
“Reverse.”
Yeon Cheong activated the artifact. Romero’s severed arm began reattaching.
“!”
“Let’s try cutting it off again.”
Romero’s face went pale with terror.
“Wait! Wait!”
Yeon Cheong could inflict pain worse than death.
“Why? Changed your mind about talking?”
“If you just spare my life…”
Left with no choice, Romero the janitor had to negotiate.
“I won’t tell anyone about the artifact or your identity…”
“Talk first. Why did you release the hounds?”
Yeon Cheong listened as Romero explained. It was a means to suppress the rebellion on the first floor. That had been Romero’s mission.
“They wanted to reduce the excess population on the first floor. Since we needed to eliminate a large number, we had to stage it as an accident… a terrorist attack.”
Yeon Cheong’s expression soured as he listened. The first floor’s population had indeed been growing. With more mouths to feed, those above had chosen to cull the excess through death.
“The hounds were still in the domestication phase… To do something like this.”
“The higher-ups are always impatient. They figured releasing them now to reduce the population was better than waiting for domestication.”
Yeon Cheong thought of the people living on the first floor. No matter how wretched the place was, it was still where people lived. The fact that the Tower, which claimed to represent human civilization, would commit such cruel slaughter was unacceptable to him.
“Even one hound would cause enough damage on the first floor.”
The residents had no means to deal with hounds. Their only weapons were old knives used for cutting food. If a single hellhound rampaged there, the casualties would be devastating.
“I didn’t kill them, did I? The hound did.”
At his final words, Yeon Cheong decided Romero was no longer worth keeping alive. He lowered his head and waved his hand. The fallen hound’s corpse rose with a low growl.
“Want one last piece of advice as a fellow janitor?”
“Wait! You said you’d spare me…”
“I will spare you.”
“That’s not what we agreed on!”
“I’m not the one killing you. The hound is.”
Yeon Cheong raised his head and walked away. Behind him came the sound of bones crunching as the hound began its meal. He waited until the unpleasant noise ended, then reversed the hound’s time once more. As a result, Romero was devoured by the hound.