Starlink 5
“No, I mean... it’s nice to see you smile, but... ”
“Huh...?”
I couldn’t quite bring myself to say what I was thinking. Her cheeks were red all the way up to her ears, and her eyes were shining.
“...Never mind.”
“O-okay!”
I’d never seen an expression like that in my life, so I had no idea how to read it.
Well... it doesn’t look bad, so I guess that’s a relief.
Better than crying, at least.
“Jutak, can you see that by any chance?”
“Uh... see what...?”
“So you can’t see it.”
I pointed at the empty air where the timer was floating, just in case, but it seemed like it was invisible to Jutak.
45 seconds.
It was about time to wrap things up.
For something that cost 5,000 TP, it was absurdly short, but confirming that I could meet someone like this, even in a form like this, was a huge gain.
The 100-use unlock is still there, too.
Maybe it wouldn’t just be inviting someone into this pocket dimension. Maybe there really was a chance of meeting in person.
Of course, if a five-minute hologram cost 5,000 TP, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how much a real meeting would cost...
“Um... Wiki-nim...?”
“Oh. Yeah?”
“Is there something there...?”
I turned toward the voice beside me and saw Jutak pointing at the empty space where the timer floated.
Seeing the puzzled look on her face, I checked the dwindling time again.
“There’s a timer. That’s how long I can stay here.”
“Ah...! How much time is left?!”
“Thirty-five seconds now.”
“Ah, 35 seconds... huh?!”
Her startled shout made me blink.
Maybe I should’ve told her sooner. I hadn’t expected her to be that shocked.
“I can only stay here for five minutes. I can invite you again, but... it’s pretty damn expensive.”
“Expensive...? How expensive are we talking?”
“Uh... if I had to estimate, about sixteen colas.”
“For, for just five minutes...?”
“You think that’s ridiculous too, right, Jutak?”
Her mouth fell open in shock.
But there was something even more shocking.
“For reference, that’s about sixteen colas by Jutak’s standards, but about one hundred and sixty by mine.”
“What?!”
“It’s ten times more expensive to gift something to someone else than to use it myself.”
“Ten times... Then the things Wiki-nim sends me and the other gallery users are...”
“I’m just sending them with the cost in mind, that’s all.”
“......”
Jutak blinked over and over.
You know the tariff is absurd too, right? I really am unfairly annoyed by it, but I keep shelling out anyway.
So praise me harder already.
“Thank you, Wiki-nim... I had no idea...”
“Forget that. More importantly, are you enjoying it?”
“Yes, yes...! Thanks to Wiki-nim, I’ve been so, so happy lately!!”
“Heh heh. Good, then.”
Her frantic nodding made me laugh out loud.
Honestly, I’d been a little worried right before I invited her to the Lounge. I’d been tense.
After all, it meant being trapped alone in a space with a woman.
I didn’t even know if there would be a way to cut it short and come back, and the Jutak I saw in person might’ve turned out totally different from the one I knew—her personality, too.
Well... that wasn’t the case at all.
Jutak was exactly the Jutak I knew.
A little timid, but kind and gentle to everyone.
Exactly as she’d looked in the photos.
She was much smaller than I’d imagined, but one look at how flustered she got, or how she smiled, told me I had no reason to fear this person.
“Uh... twenty seconds... nineteen seconds...”
“......”
Of course, she also had deeper wounds she never showed in the gallery.
“W-Wiki-nim...!”
“Yeah?”
“I really love cola. Where I used to live, cola was incredibly rare.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep sending it to you.”
“No...!”
I had no way of knowing what she’d gone through in the past, or how much pain fifteen hundred years must have held for her, but...
“I like talking to Wiki-nim more than cola.”
“......Huh?”
“I don’t know what kind of ability Wiki-nim has, or how you earn that money and use it to send gifts to me... ”
“......”
“But I don’t need cola, or chicken, or any of the other things. Talking like this with Wiki-nim is more fun.”
As the administrator of a gallery where people from all kinds of worlds gathered, she really did know how to say what was on her mind.
“O-of course, if Wiki-nim doesn’t like that, then I can’t help it, but...”
“......”
Even if she was timid and worried about everything—
“I think... I’d still like that better...”
She was still someone brave enough to speak honestly about what she liked.
“So—”
Whoosh—
“...Ah.”
The moment Jutak tried to continue, both our bodies floated up into the empty air at the same time.
Her hand, which had been overlapping mine all this time, slipped away.
I let out a hollow laugh at the sight of her with her eyes wide, mumbling something under her breath.
So when time’s up, I can’t even hear her voice anymore.
I couldn’t make out what she was trying to say. Her body was already starting to come apart like it had before, but since I’d experienced it once already, I wasn’t as flustered as I’d expected to be.
“I can’t hear you!!”
“────”
Jutak looked like she was desperately trying to say something, but I didn’t have time to care about that.
“I said I can’t hear you!”
“───!!”
Even though she couldn’t hear my voice, and even though she must’ve realized I wouldn’t be able to hear hers either, she kept talking anyway.
With her small frame, with her thin arms and legs, she kept gesturing frantically as she tried to tell me something.
It’s gone.
Jutak kept speaking with a tearful face until she disappeared before my eyes.
“Heh heh heh...”
Thud.
Back in my hideout, I slumped down and laughed into the empty air.
For some reason, it felt fun.
I wasn’t even sure why.
Maybe it was because I’d come back from the Tower of Hearts after throwing away all my trauma.
Maybe my friend had really managed to give me a little courage.
I wasn’t sure, but—
[Not an Eraser]
“......”
I grinned.
I’m gonna have to earn TP like crazy.
For some reason, it felt like I’d just gained another reason to climb the tower.
I didn’t get to check mine, so I guess it was the same?
I frowned as I looked over the message Jutak had sent.
In the end, I’d spent all my time calming her down and couldn’t verify anything myself, but thankfully she’d checked it for me.
Of course, it might be a little different on my side, but even just knowing it was impossible for the other party was enough information.
Star Voice is just a regular phone call. Star Lounge is a space where you can talk face to face.
The price difference was basically just double.
Considering Starpang’s tariff was ten times the normal cost because of my regression count, that price might drop as I regressed more.
Or maybe the amount of TP earned per regression would increase.
Physical contact is impossible.
I hadn’t confirmed it, but in the Star Lounge I’d probably been able to speak normally even about censored words like “anomaly.”
Since it was an extra Starlink feature, it was probably the same mechanism.
Which meant one thing—
“Starlink isn’t affected by the tower.”
That was why Jutak’s terminal had gone dead.
If one of the tower’s original purposes was to keep everyone from meeting anyone else, then Starlink was essentially a system designed to flat-out deny the tower’s authority.
I’d have to test that later with the Philosopher’s Stone, one point at a time.
If we kept discussing things from different angles, maybe we’d reach some kind of conclusion.
“Now all that’s left is...”
The final Starlink feature unlock.
After leaving Star Lounge, I’d explained all sorts of things to Jutak, so the count had piled up pretty well.
Now I only needed to spend 2,200 more TP to unlock the last feature... or so I thought.
But...
[TP Owned: 5,306]
Holy shit, this is way too murderous.
Messages, Star Voice, Star Lounge—just talking for about ten minutes had burned through 15,000 TP.
No, seriously. I’d spent 150,000 won just talking to a busty beauty for ten minutes.
“Hoo...”
It wasn’t like spending another 2,200 TP here would make or break me, but I still wanted to keep at least 5,000 in reserve.
For a while, I was only planning to use it once or twice a day, just to check in.
I didn’t know how hard things would get starting from Floor 51.
Of course, I wanted to talk to Jutak more the more I enjoyed it, but if I got too used to this life, I felt like I’d keep overspending from here on out, too.
Besides, Jutak had already said she was going to sleep.
I could’ve forcibly filled up the remaining 22 uses by myself, sure, but I didn’t want to waste them like that.
“...It’ll probably unlock in about a week anyway.”
There was no need to act in a hurry.
Even if I unlocked it now, I wouldn’t have the TP to use the new feature, and I wouldn’t have enough to spend on talking with the Philosopher’s Stone either.
Maybe I should go check out the stuff I bought earlier.
I wasn’t ready for bed like Jutak was.
I had plenty to check, from the Steel Sword to swordsmanship to fire magic, so it was about time to turn my attention there.
I’d planned to train a bit longer before climbing, but...
Just the TP alone made it feel like I’d need to speed things up.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—
“......”
I was going crazy.
I couldn’t sleep.
Because I now knew exactly how expensive a single message was, I’d told Wiki-nim that I was going to bed for today.
In case I kept talking and didn’t know what I’d end up saying.
Because I felt like I’d said something way too embarrassing, and if I kept talking I wouldn’t be able to stay sane.
“Hah...”
So I’d practically run away and said I was going to sleep.
Wiki-nim seemed like he wanted to talk a little more, but...
Our goals are way too different...!!
I couldn’t keep acting all confident when my own feelings were so different from Wiki-nim’s, who was just trying to casually check out the new ability he’d gotten.
Smack! Smack! Thwack—!!
“Grrrrrgh!!”
I kicked the blanket wildly.
I didn’t care if dust flew everywhere or if the blanket turned all floppy; I’d pulled it up over my head and still kicked at it with all my might.
It would all disappear tomorrow anyway, so I might as well be ruthless about it.
I’m insane. I’ve gone insane...!
What do you mean, you like talking to me more than cola?
What gave me the nerve to say something like, “Could you keep talking to me from now on?”
“......”
I still couldn’t forget the expression on Wiki-nim’s face at the end.
He’d been smiling so broadly... like he found it amusing, like he was having fun.
How stupid must I have looked?
Why had I suddenly gotten so flustered and yelled when he couldn’t even hear me?
I regret it so much...
Why had I said it, when I was just going to come back and send him a message anyway?
I should’ve just waved goodbye quietly and left...
But his smile really was nice to see...
It had been a long time since I’d realized that just seeing someone smile could make me feel happy, too.
I’d always thought that way, always wanted to be someone who could feel happiness together with other people’s happiness.
But seeing a smile with my own two eyes really did feel more joyful than usual.
And... holding hands, too...
No—no, it wasn’t exactly holding hands, but...!!
Anyway, anyway, it wasn’t all that bad of a feeling....
“Looks like I’m not sleeping tonight...”
Honestly, I’d probably have to take tomorrow off from climbing the tower, too.
If I tried to do anything in this state, I’d definitely cause some kind of accident.
“......”
Rustle.
“......Hee.”
I hoped the next time would come soon.
“Hoo...”
I snorted softly as I looked at the message Jutak had just sent.
I’d only just come out of the tower, and the timing was good enough that I could reply right away today.
You hang in there too today, Jutak...
Rustle.
-1-
[Doom: 284:02:12:20]
[Interval 4:02:12:20]
[220 / 77]
Ten days had passed since the Starlink feature was unlocked.
For the first week, I spent my time getting used to the Steel Sword and learning new swordsmanship.
Two days ago, I pushed the Tower of Fortune all the way to Floor 60 in a single day, and today I’d just cleared Floor 60 of the Tower of Trials.
The difficulty had risen overall, but it was still something I could bulldoze through with Wiki.
Even the boss rooms every ten floors didn’t have the complexity or difficulty of Floor 50.
And there were no anomalies.
[TP Owned: 15,301]
The TP I’d gathered after clearing Floor 60 of the Tower of Fortune and the Tower of Trials.
Jutak and I had been sending each other messages once a day.
It wasn’t so much that we were having grand conversations as that we were confirming each other existed.
I’d wondered if it really meant anything, but the sense of presence was bigger than I’d expected.
It was like a kind of closeness I couldn’t feel through gallery comments alone. It was a surprisingly satisfying thing, something that made her feel more real.
[98/100]
I’m just going to do the last two today.
I’d earned more TP after clearing Floor 60 of the Tower of Trials anyway.
I should post one thing to the gallery and ask Jutak if there’s anything she wants so I can fill the count.
[Author: KingGodWiki]
(Verification photo of clearing Floor 60 of the Tower of Trials)
(Photo of numbers and a timer floating in the air)
What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger...
You say nobody dies in the tower no matter what?
I’m going to become endlessly stronger, yep.
“Ha... this is why I climb the tower.”
Even by my own standards, I’d climbed a little fast this time.
At Floor 50, the pace had definitely been slower, but both the Tower of Fortune and the Tower of Trials were clearly speeding up now.
Of course, that was thanks to the Steel Sword and the swordsmanship I’d just learned—but—
Yep, it’s my gear now~ My skill now~
It’s mine, so it’s my power. Simple as that.
No matter how much they screamed asking how I did it, and no matter what speculation about my identity was flying around in the gallery, it was all just cheers aimed at me.
Ping—!
“Look at that typo.”
Every little thing she did was lovable.
I didn’t know if that was because someone starts looking different once they seem pretty to you, or if she was just genuinely a cute person.
Watching her made me smile without even trying.
She was earnest but clumsy, timid but proud...
Whenever Jutak’s tiny form overlapped with the image in my head, she felt like a little animal putting on a show.
...Though she does have some big parts, too.
At the thought, I checked the selfie she’d sent me again.
Even now, I still couldn’t believe that such a small frame could be carrying such big boobs—no, breasts.
Rustle.
Ignoring Jutak’s refusal, I sent her the cola anyway.
She’d said cola was her favorite. When she didn’t ask for anything else, it was probably the best option.
I wasn’t going to sit there and tell her I was sending it, either.
Ping—!
Starlink’s additional feature has been unlocked.
After sending the cola to Jutak and coming back to Starlink, I checked the new feature that had opened up.
I pressed the + button and looked at the new feature that had appeared beside the old ones.
“Wait, could this be...?”
Click.
A temporary gate is created, connected to the target’s current location.
Two-way travel is possible; the gate will be destroyed once one side moves twice.
Consumes 50,000 TP, with a usage-based modifier applied (separately to each target).
...Hah.
There was so much shocking information packed into that one line that all I could do for a while was blink.