Wanna Touch?
"Well. This is a shitshow."
That was my considered opinion, watching the live stream First Under Heaven — Wang Ryuhwa — had fired up with his friends the night before. I'd caused a much bigger disaster than I'd thought. A post I'd written out of what I'd considered goodwill had, from the other side, landed like a wrecking ball.
"Hrm. What do I do about this…"
All things considered, the fewer people who hated my guts, the better. Doubly so when the other party was a heavyweight who had the Chinese government's backing all to himself. For someone like me, climbing the Tower with no connections to speak of, an enemy with a government at his back was a little more than I wanted to deal with.
"I suppose I'll have to apologize later."
It was too late to try to clean up the mess now. Even if I explained that I'd written the post out of genuine respect, it would only look like I was twisting the knife. Best to stay quiet for now and apologize in private later. He was a top-tier ranker too, so we'd cross paths eventually. It wasn't as if I planned to hide my identity forever.
"Who is this wench?"
"An awakener from another country. He's rather pretty-faced, but this person is a man."
"Hrm. I think not."
"The Summoner's judgment is truth itself. How could I possibly dare to argue…"
Yeonbi and True Ancestor, whom I'd summoned in advance, struck up a conversation — perhaps out of boredom. Yeonbi, watching First Under Heaven through my phone, had come out with something odd. His face was androgynous enough that she'd apparently mistaken Wang Ryuhwa for a woman.
That aside, now that I'd summoned them ahead of time, they were gearing up to start fighting again. I needed to get into the Tower, and fast.
"Lady Yeonbi, True Ancestor. Let's get ready to enter the Tower."
"And thou wouldst not call Oksun as well?"
"Ah, right. I'd forgotten."
Wang Ryuhwa or not, clearing the next floor came first today. Today's objective: the fifth floor. The mid-boss floor.
"Fuck. Fuck! These goddamn bastards!!"
On the top floor of an ultra-luxury hotel — one that only hunters sponsored by the Chinese government were permitted to occupy — someone was roaring at the top of their lungs.
"I'm a genius too, dammit!"
The source of that howl was the Tower of Extremity's World Rank 2: First Under Heaven, Wang Ryuhwa. Even occupying that lofty seat — second only to one, above all others — First Under Heaven was not satisfied. Second place, not first, was a position of no value whatsoever. The world thought so, and so did she.
"It's impossible… There's no way anyone could clear it in under fifteen hours!"
The truth was, she had every right to feel cheated. Every last one of those extreme-difficulty boss monsters was an S-rank creature. A head-on fight with monsters like that was obviously impossible, so you had to weaken them with the items the Tower had arranged before you could even think about fighting. The whole thing was designed so that you could only clear it by following a kind of story quest.
"So how the hell is there a two-second clear!!"
And yet Shooting Star, as if none of that mattered in the slightest, had been posting times faster than Easy difficulty. On every single floor, from the first all the way to now. Unlike herself, who published her clear videos, his insistence on remaining a mystery only added to her irritation.
"No. Get a grip, Wang Ryuhwa. Think about how you climbed this far."
She was confident she worked harder than any hunter alive. Fourteen hours of training every day, her sword swinging without rest. The official events she had to attend for the sake of her country were extra. And she was maintaining this entire lifestyle while keeping her secret from the public.
Last time the bandages slipped from the sweat, I nearly had a heart attack…
Whenever Wang Ryuhwa stood in front of the public, she bound her chest with bandages and went out. Contrary to what people believed, she was not a man, but a woman. The reason was simple: her country simply wasn't fond of the image of a capable, assertive female hero.
But when she thought of her family struggling back home, a compression bandage was nothing. She could wear it as long as she had to. Which was all the more reason she had to take first place.
"The next floor is the mid-boss floor… Even Shooting Star won't get through that one easily."
The fifth floor was the one where a mid-boss appeared — a creature some eleven to thirteen times stronger than the floor bosses. Which also made it one of the few floors where team play with other hunters was allowed. Solo play resumed from the sixth floor onward, of course, but still — it was a chance to meet Shooting Star. This time, she swore, she would overtake him and claim the number one rank.
That was what Wang Ryuhwa was telling herself, right up until the first-clear notification for the fifth floor bloomed in front of her eyes.
1st:Shooting Star/ 00:03:30 /South Korea
The star of the congratulatory message was, as always, the same man.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!!"
Wang Ryuhwa's eyes welled up all over again.
Survive for 10 minutes after encountering the Bone Dragon Lord
"Bone Dragon Lord, huh. That's a little scary."
"So long as ye remain behind me, there shall be no cause for concern."
"This maiden shall remain behind Lady Yeonbi as well!"
The moment we entered the fifth floor — the mid-boss floor — a message a little different from the usual was there to greet me. A higher being currently in residence? I'd never seen a notice like that before. Whatever the story was, so long as we focused on the clear, it probably wouldn't matter. For now, I studied the clear condition with some care.
"Does anyone know what a Bone Dragon Lord is?"
The clear conditions on the floors so far had been extremely straightforward. Kill the boss monster. That was it. This time, though, it was survive the Bone Dragon Lord for ten minutes — which had the distinct look of a roundabout way of saying this was a being no ordinary hunter could ever hope to kill.
"I know a little, actually."
"Oh yeah?"
"The Bone Dragon Lord is a Dragon Lord brought back through necromancy."
"…That's it?"
"That is all I know."
I let True Ancestor's useless commentary wash over me and surveyed the surroundings. Blighted earth and crumbling structures — up to this point, it was the same ordinary Tower scenery as the previous floors. I was looking around for any unusual clue when I spotted a building that resembled a temple. It had collapsed so thoroughly that its original form was unrecognizable.
"I've got a feeling there's something in there. Shall we take a look?"
"A most proper decision."
And so it was decided by unanimous vote that we would investigate the ruined temple. Not that anyone else had a vote. The decision was mine alone, as the summoner. I approached the temple with some care and looked it over, and there, stamped into the ground, were footprints so obvious that anyone could tell someone had passed through.
"It's as if they're telling us to follow."
"To this maiden's eyes, it looks as though a trap has been laid."
"Trap or no, I need only burn it to cinders."
"Hold up a second."
I stopped walking and thought it over. A trap? No — if it were, they wouldn't have left footprints this blatant. An invitation, then. That seemed the more reasonable read.
"Let's go in."
I decided to just man up and walk straight in. I had two 5-star summons with me; if it came to a fight, we could handle it.
"It's cleaner inside than I expected?"
"Ah-ah, Oksun. You don't just say things like that."
Oksun wasn't wrong. The interior of the temple was surprisingly tidy. It was still a collapsed, weathered building, but someone had kept it relatively in order. We followed the footprints, and in the distance, a silhouette came into view.
…A person?
From the shadow alone, the shape was unmistakably human. I slowed my pace. Someone was sitting on the temple floor. As I closed the distance, the unidentified woman turned her gaze toward me and offered a greeting in a lively voice.
"Welcome, little squirt."
Two-tone hair, white mixed with black. A qipao tailored from luxurious silk. The white horns rising from her head were a distinctive touch as well — but what seized my eyes was something else entirely.
"Oh."
They were huge. By far the biggest I had ever seen on a woman. Not even close.
"Wanna have a drink? Sorry there's nothing but teacups in a place like this."
"No, I'm fine."
"Yeah? I'll just drink by myself, then…"
Already looking a little flushed from a drink, she offered me the liquor poured into a teacup. I had no intention of getting drunk in the middle of a raid, so I declined. Looking faintly disappointed, she set the teacup down and spoke.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Sawol."
"Yes, it's a tremendous pleasure to meet you as well."
"Haha! I like how honest you are."
She seemed well aware of where my eyes had gone. But this was a force of nature. The only man who could look at those and not stare was a gay man.
"Summoner. Mind thy dignity."
"Ahem. Anyway. Ms. Sawol, what business do you have with me?"
"Mm. Yeah, I've got business."
Yeonbi's scolding snapped me back to my senses, and I put the question to Sawol. Anyone sitting on a Tower floor was not going to be an ordinary person. At that, Sawol flashed a grin, stepped closer, and said:
The mid-boss of the Tower, offering to become my summon.
"…Come again?"
"It's not a bad offer for you either, right? I'm pretty strong."
Sawol went on as if she couldn't see what the problem was. I had plenty of questions — how she knew about Celestial Summoning, whether it was even possible to take a floor boss as a summon — but none of that was the real issue. The real issue was why I should form a contract with a dangerous boss monster in the first place.
The summons I pulled through Celestial Summoning were all well-disposed toward me. But a direct contract like this? No telling what might happen. In short, there was no reason to take the risk.
"…And why exactly should I accept you?"
"If I become your summon, I might let you touch them once a day?"
"For real?"
"For real."
"…I look forward to working with you."
And just like that, the family grew by one.