Data Error

Red flames filled my vision.

BOOM—!!

“Kwooooh!! Kuhahak…!!”

The bastard thrashed against the ground, clawing at his own burning skin in agony as the fire seared through him.

“……”

I was in pain too.

The sensation of fire raging all the way down to my bones jabbed clearly at my brain.

The stench of something foul and burnt crawled into my nose, and every nerve in my body was twisting under the strain of it.

And yet—

“Kwoooohhh!!!”

“Kh… kh….”

I laughed.

It should’ve been hard enough just to speak, and in a little while I’d be dead too, but still.

“How is it? Pretty fucking hot, isn’t it?”

His eyes rolled back.

What, was his tolerance for fire just that low?

No—any ordinary living thing would’ve gone insane from this kind of pain.

Thanks to you, I’ve been through this more than five times already.

It wasn’t as if this moment didn’t hurt, but I had prepared myself in my own way.

I’d already braced myself for pain this bad.

Thud.

“Kuhhheuck….”

“Heh… heh….”

Dragging my body forward by force, I clung to the last thread of consciousness as I moved toward his face.

“Ghk… does it really… hurt that fucking bad…?”

I stared at the saliva pouring from his mouth, hissing the instant it hit the flames, and spoke right into his face.

“KAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

It was exhilarating.

I repeated it fourteen times. Fourteen times.

I felt like I was slowly becoming something that wasn’t me anymore, but once I managed to seize the ending I wanted, it was as if my skull itself were burning.

No, wait. It actually is burning.

How much time was left until I died?

One minute? Thirty seconds?

I had no idea. Either way, I was going to die.

And if I died, I’d probably die before this guy did.

Still, maybe dying first was better.

Better than suffering for even longer.

“……”

Whether he’d been yanked free while struggling or not, the iron sword I’d stabbed into his calf had fallen nearby.

I could’ve made him suffer more, sure, but I’d decided I wanted to finish this with my own hands.

What was the point of letting him suffer where I couldn’t see it?

Swish.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to pull this stunt again on the next try.

I’d done enough. Enjoyed myself enough.

I had learned exactly what repeated death was like, how painful it was, how consuming it could become.

And I understood now, in vivid detail, just how broken the Regression ability really was.

The other gallery users had probably climbed the tower like this too, using their own deaths as fuel.

Though honestly, I doubt there’s anyone else crazy enough to do this shit.

What I was doing had absolutely nothing to do with climbing the tower, but whatever. Close enough.

“Krrrgh… KUUHHHAAAAAAK—!!!”

“Yeah… why’d you go and laugh at me….”

I picked up the iron sword and stepped closer to his head.

I could barely even feel the sword in my hand anymore, but I forced strength into my grip all the same.

Watching him do nothing but scream, unable to even struggle.

Meeting the eyes that had mocked and belittled me as I raised the blade overhead.

……Weird. I don’t really have anything to say.

He wasn’t some mortal enemy I absolutely had to kill.

He’d just pissed me off, and I’d tried this because a bunch of things had lined up the right way.

Stab.

“Kh…uek….”

I drove the sword deep into the eye socket and down through his skull.

I didn’t know where his heart was, so I’d aimed to pierce his head straight through.

Thud.

“Ah….”

As I felt my mind wearing thin, I collapsed right onto the massive body beneath me.

Blink… blink….

The pain was gone now.

My vision swam. My body wouldn’t move.

Next time… I should just run straight to the escape route….

For a moment I stared blankly at the red-stained night sky, waiting for the death that was coming for me—

Blink.

The timer, which had been stuck the whole time, started counting down again, and my consciousness snapped off.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“……”

Fair enough.

I had clearly said I’d come back.

I’d told them not to worry.

Already one week….

It had been seven days since Wiki-sama had gone dark again.

This time he’d at least said he was disappearing first, but there’d still been no explanation, so I couldn’t help worrying.

“This really isn’t good….”

I couldn’t shake the fear that he really might do something like that.

There was no way I could get the image out of my head—Wiki-sama was absolutely the sort of person who’d pull some bizarre stunt again.

While other people could barely manage one floor a day, while they climbed through repeated deaths, learning patterns and strategies the hard way, this guy had been shooting up floor after floor without dying at all.

How he managed it was one thing, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but the moment someone like that realized death wasn’t a limitation, I couldn’t even begin to guess what he’d do.

Seriously, he can’t keep treating his life this lightly….

Death inside the tower wasn’t automatically a blessing just because it wasn’t the same as real death.

Because even death couldn’t get you out of this hell.

Even if you couldn’t take it anymore, even if you wanted to throw everything away, you couldn’t escape by dying.

The only end people here could ever reach was to go mad day by day while waiting for the End.

And without even knowing what that End was.

Of course, when it came to climbing the tower, dying and coming back might be a blessing, but….

“Haah….”

The more you got used to death, the more it warped you.

I’d seen plenty of people get ruined that way.

There are even people who end up enjoying death….

In this cramped little space, unable to endure even the gallery—their only means of communication—some people began to chase death as a form of pleasure.

I didn’t think Wiki-sama would become like that, but still… still, I worried a little.

Swish.

Like always, I left a comment on Wiki-sama’s latest post.

Maybe he was watching. Maybe if he saw this, he’d at least feel a little better.

“……I should get back to climbing the tower too.”

I stared at the gallery posts for a while longer before standing up.

After leaving a comment on my usual announcement post saying I was going back to climbing, I was just about to head out of the Hideout slowly when—

BOOOOM—!!

“……!”

The roar I’d heard so many times before froze my body in place.

My eyes went wide, and after swallowing hard, I sprinted out toward the Lobby.

“Wiki-sama…?”

The rich smell of food filled the Lobby, and I blinked dazedly at it.

Rustle—

Sniffing like I was under some spell, I checked the bag and found a box I’d seen before tucked inside.

“……”

For some reason, my trembling hands opened it slowly, and when the food inside was revealed, I slumped down on the spot.

“Chicken…?”

The food I’d seen on the gallery two months ago.

The chicken Wiki-sama had described so vividly was sparkling right in front of me.

“Thank goodness…. Really….”

At least, thank God—Wiki-sama still seemed to be perfectly fine.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Hngh….”

I stretched out my stiff body, then lifted my head.

-1-

[Doom 295:20:34:51]

[Phase 0:20:34:51]

[ 199 / 70 ]

So it really cleared.

After I’d taken down Behemoth and passed out, I woke up in the Hideout.

I’d been thinking it was the fifteenth try when the TP alert from Starpang appeared.

The tower message I’d seen right before I collapsed onto Behemoth’s body.

I’d thought I’d hallucinated it, that I’d just misread it, but now I realized I hadn’t been wrong.

As soon as the Lord of the Forest died, the event ended, and I decided to think of it as having concluded that way.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had no way to enter Floor 50 again, and after searching around in every direction, nothing turned up.

Honestly, I didn’t feel much even after getting 5,000 TP, because I’d already spent a disgusting amount of TP just on Tower of Trials 50F….

Right after that, another bizarre alert came flying in.

“……So that weird anomaly was real after all.”

Wiki’s strategy—more precisely, the reason only the final fourth event had been breaking—must have been because of that.

I still didn’t know what this data error was, or what the (Restricted) part referred to that had apparently accessed wherever it shouldn’t have, but….

Hell yes, I struck gold.

Either way, this was nothing but good news for me.

I cleared Tower of Trials Floor 50 without another attempt.

Not only that, I’d also gained enough TP to spend until it practically rotted in my hands.

And the iron sword was already falling to pieces, too.

At the very least, I’d definitely been rewarded more than enough for my effort.

“Data error. Anomaly.”

I’d also gained more information about the tower.

It was now certain that the anomaly I’d been experiencing was tied to something in this tower.

And it was also certain that this tower wasn’t just some grindfest or a random fantasy world, but an artificial space created by someone.

There are beings managing this tower.

Probably the same people I’d seen on Tower of Destiny 50F.

The main office, or whatever… it was definitely connected to what I’d just found out.

Swish—

[Tower of Trials 50/50]

[Tower of Wisdom 50/50]

[Tower of Mind 49/50]

[Tower of Destiny 50/50]

So one Mind Tower floor is left.

Maybe I could get more information from the last remaining Mind Tower too.

Trial Tower, Wisdom Tower, Destiny Tower.

I’d learned something at Floor 50 of all three.

I wasn’t saying it would definitely happen, but there didn’t seem to be any reason to organize the information now.

There was only one floor left anyway, so it would be better to sort it out after that too.

Maybe it would even connect to whatever new function I was about to unlock.

The ??? is bothering me, and the contents of Mind Tower 50F are bothering me too—but──

Swish.

[Available TP: 103,056]

“This is real sex.”

Maybe I was allowed to enjoy this moment just a little.

My body should’ve been exhausted to hell and back, but even just looking at the TP made me smile.

It was the first time in my life I’d ever held this much money. If you converted it to cash, it was worth around ten million won.

Click—

I’d even sent chicken to the Jutak who’d worried about me every day, so maybe it was fine if I went and played around and ate and drank for a bit too.

This time I’m splashing out on chicken and beer, you punks.

They must’ve been waiting a long time, so I was really going to let you all feel some proper dopamine this time too.

The ones who don’t win just have to suck it up, I guess~

Ding-ding-ding-ding──

—