Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Director - 3
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The Director held a significant stake in the growth of the Crimson Flame Guild.
Popularity breeds followers, and followers become power.
Seo Jiwoo was the only adventurer capable of turning a single person into a celebrity.
That was also why Seo Jiwoo, lacking any notable faction, faced no major threats amid the fierce competition within the Tower.
No guild master hungry for expansion would ever turn away her help.
The camera's authority was that formidable.
It was true that Amelia possessed exceptional skill as a magician and genuine insight for.
But growing the guild wasn't solely her doing.
Rankers would bend over backward just to appear on her camera once more.
The Sword Saint was the exception—he utterly despised leaking information that could aid others.
"Do you have any idea how much time I've poured into building that image?!"
"Ugh, that's true, but..."
"What do you mean you suddenly don't want to climb the Tower anymore?!"
And Seo Jiwoo had gone to extremes herself to capture those rankers on camera.
Every message she broadcast outside through her footage was crafted to provoke envy.
There's magic here, quests, and monsters.
Stuff that's easily devoured in novels, comics, and animations.
We live the fantasies you only imagine.
While you repeat the same drudgery every day, we adventure in the Tower.
We're happier than you.
The Tower is happier than reality.
All of it stemmed from a kind of inferiority complex.
We hadn't been happy in reality.
In truth, countless adventurers died climbing the Tower, and most survivors barely scraped by after near-death ordeals.
But scenes of suffering? Just don't air them.
"You don't know a damn thing!"
"And what do you know?"
"I know! This guy's..."
Park Sua hesitated, glancing my way.
She'd blurted it out in frustration over getting smacked by Seo Jiwoo, but now realized it was info she shouldn't spill carelessly.
As Park Sua flapped her mouth without words, Seo Jiwoo struck first.
"What, that he's a regressor?"
"Huh? How'd you...?"
"I knew that much, which is how I found you easily. You think I'd scour the Tower floor by floor?"
Seo Jiwoo's gaze turned to me.
I'd hung back a step during their exchange, but even that was no longer feasible.
"Just as I thought—this mess is your fault, huh?"
"I won't deny being the cause, but it wasn't intentional. I didn't coax her."
"Right! I eavesdropped on my own!"
Still, she stepped up to lighten my load.
Made me want to tear up with gratitude.
"It's ridiculous, honestly.ing floor 60 was grueling enough—how do you clear over 700? And who knows how much more lies ahead?"
"...700 floors?"
"What, you didn't know? She didn't tell you that part either."
"I never told her about the regression in the first place. She figured it out herself."
She knew about the Trait's regression effect, but not that I'd set records up to floor 714.
As I recalled, her longest survival was around floor 400—and even that loop hadn't let the camera function properly.
If she'd reviewed all footage from prior loops, she'd have known the Tower spanned hundreds of floors at least.
Clearly, Seo Jiwoo's knowledge had gaping holes.
"Even if the Tower has a thousand floors, what difference does it make?"
But her reaction to the new info was nonchalant.
"Of course it matters! It took half a year to clear floor 60! Difficulty skyrockets per floor—I figured it'd end around 100."
"End? That's funny."
Seo Jiwoo couldn't grasp her mindset.
"You hope the Tower has an end? Seriously?"
"What's wrong with that? If the goal isn't reaching the top, why climb?"
"Is there a reward waiting at the top? We didn't enter the Tower chasing some prize. No one's guaranteed it anyway."
As she put it, we'd chosen escape from reality.
Biased by tropes from fiction, they'd assumed the Tower had a finish line.
A Tower you climb anyway—clear goals fueled motivation best.
"Actually, it's better this way. No need to fear whatever's at the end."
What if we reached the end?
Would the Tower boot us back to reality, saying "that's all we prepared"?
Or turn us into godlike beings as a reward for our toil?
Either way, it wouldn't satisfy the Director's cravings.
And no amount of wanting would make it attainable.
"I get why you suddenly holed up on floor 1."
It'd mean leaving Park Sua behind, but she wouldn't quit that easily.
"But we don't age here, and we don't truly die. You planning to spend eternity in a village with zero change?"
"The village isn't that big, but there are still spots I haven't seen."
"You'll exhaust those quick. Eventually, every corner'll be familiar, and you'll get bored stiff."
As her relentless persuasion left me speechless,
Park Sua found the perfect counterexample.
"But he's living just fine here."
Pointing at me.
"True. Aren't you... bored?"
"I get by enjoyably enough. Unexpected stuff happens more than you'd think. Can't agree it's a changeless village."
"The village looks exactly as I remember—no differences."
"Not the buildings, but the insides change."
Small as different shop displays.
Large as people shifting personalities or relationships deepening.
"Hear that? It's fine."
"You really have zero intention of going back? Not even a little?"
"Might change later, but not now."
"Sigh..."
I'd lost count of her sighs today.
"You shouldn't have decided so rashly. This leaves no room for damage control."
"Are outside gazes that crucial? You started filming for Trait fodder, right?"
"That's a byproduct. My purpose for the camera never changed."
Seo Jiwoo shut off the camera, which had been running as backup till now.
"The day I upload the next video, everyone'll know the adventurer poster child has crumbled."
No more dialogue worth saving.
The room's mood chilled over.
In the Director's words, videos needed proper staging.
For the public to accept why Amelia—the face of adventurers—was quitting, they needed a positive spin.
Park Sua's decision had been far too hasty for that.
Even with time, packaging her retirement nicely would've been tough.
'Trait fodder, huh...'
Park Sua hadn't budged an inch to the Director's pleas.
She lacked the drive to chase an unreachable end by crafting her own hardships.
From her reaction, even Park Sua hadn't grasped Seo Jiwoo's inferiority complex toward the outside world.
She might've suspected, but not that filming focused more on flaunting adventurer life.
The Director stormed out, leaving the retired guild master and one Earthbound Spirit stuck on floor 1.
"How much do you know about Seo Jiwoo's Trait? You must've overheard stuff while filming."
"It's incredibly versatile. Just what I've confirmed—"
Traits don't always map to one ability.
That's why they're named but lack descriptions.
Adventurers uncover them by climbing.
Park Sua had discovered the Director's Trait packed multiple powers.
Some I already knew.
First, the ability to transmit footage data from the camera.
No clue how it uploaded to private video platforms, but Traits defy normal logic anyway.
Plus, like any platform, she could check reactions like comments.
So Seo Jiwoo's Trait wasn't just a pipeline for Tower intel outward—it enabled two-way communication, the only human link.
Considering her disdain for her original world, positive chit-chat probably wasn't her vibe.
"And the better the reactions to her videos, the more mana she gains."
No telling when she figured out the Trait's mechanics and started filming, but given adventurer influx, its ripple effect was huge.
How much mana had Seo Jiwoo stockpiled?