Jutak’s Tower (3)
“That was no fun... so I let you go.”
“Phew...”
After a brief round of pleading—no, after a brief debate—I let Youngcha go.
He probably hadn’t meant it seriously in the first place. It must’ve just been a joke he threw out there.
...Probably.
“You can keep making accounts anyway, can’t you?”
“My main account feels different.”
“I don’t really get that...”
To think I’d have to throw away the post-and-comment count I’d poured my life into all at once. Wasn’t that way too unfair?
If they really hadn’t let me off the hook to the end, I would’ve just switched to an alt account...
“It was a joke, so you don’t need to worry about it too much.”
“I’ll think about it for now. Or maybe I should just make a separate account for Patak use?”
“Huh?”
“Nobody can tell who’s who in the gallery anyway, right?”
“??”
I looked at Jutak as she tilted her head, then spoke in a flat tone.
If I wanted to do a bit of cloning, that was easy enough. Hiding who was who was child’s play in Infinite Gallery.
“Basically, save some old verification photos of different runs, act friendly under a new nickname for a few days, and that’s it.”
“......”
“Find a photo from around run 700, post it, then one day say you got an Irregular and become a Patak. Done.”
There weren’t all that many fixed nicks in Infinite Gallery.
Strictly speaking, there were a lot, but most of them used names like “So-and-so Run” or “Nth Run” and the like.
Meaning nobody knows who’s who.
Even if some fixed-nick user suddenly popped up claiming to be on their thousandth or fifteen-hundredth run, no one would suspect much.
Especially if they had proof shots.
Though if things went sideways, I’d be stuck with a lifetime ban in a place where I couldn’t even make an alt account.
And?
I’d be scamming people with Jutak backing me up.
Even if other people got suspicious, all it would take was Jutak stepping in and saying, “Yeah, it’s real~”
Who would dare oppose an absolute ruler?
“Wiki-nim.”
“Why are you suddenly using my nickname—”
“Are you insane?”
“......Why, what’s wrong with it?”
“I’m the Jutak, okay...!! Identity theft, impersonation, stirring trouble!!”
“......”
No, seriously, it was a perfect plan.
Then I could become a Patak without anyone suspecting me of being an Irregular.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Rumble.
“Jutak.”
“......”
“Blanche.”
“Eek...!”
“Hungry?”
“......”
While we were chatting idly about this and that, the loud sound that answered me made me snort.
“When did you wake up? The fact that you were washing up makes it look like you’d only just gotten up.”
“...Please forget that.”
“Heh heh. So the Hideout reward doesn’t change meals?”
“No... The most basic stuff doesn’t change at all.”
So that was how it was.
They handed out only the things that made no real difference whether you had them or not, and called that a reward.
I didn’t know why, but maybe they thought that way they could wring people out even more.
“Okay, then I’m buying.”
“Huh?”
“It’s our first meal together. We should eat something good.”
“Ah, n-no...! But it’s really expensive...! Bread is more than enough for me, so Han Seol-nim can eat by himself.”
“Forget it. What, you think you need to be all ‘only eat it if someone offers it’?”
I smiled at Jutak as she shook her head furiously, trying to refuse.
I only had 200 TP, but if there was no customs fee, that was still enough for a solid meal.
Maybe buns would work too, or sandwiches, or pizza.
Swoosh—
“I saw it earlier too... but that really is a cellphone...”
“Hmm? Ah, is this too old-fashioned for Jutak?”
“This is my first time seeing one in real life...”
While I was looking through Starpang for the menu, her voice drifted over to me.
I gave a bitter smile, suddenly feeling like an old-timer. Compared to the state-of-the-art terminals that made your jaw drop just by looking at them, this was definitely different.
I wonder what fantasy-world people or people from the past would use, then.
I found myself oddly curious how other people used the gallery.
“Anything you want to eat?”
“No, anything is fine with me, so whatever Han Seol-nim wants is okay.”
“Then let’s do sandwiches. It’s morning, after all.”
“...Yes!”
At my light smile, she smiled back a beat later.
I quickly added two 50 TP sandwiches to the cart and hit purchase without hesitation.
Sandwiches - 50 TP x2
Total: 100 TP
Would you like to purchase?
I touched the notification window the moment it appeared.
Order completed.
Remaining delivery time: 5 minutes.
“Just wait five minutes.”
“Wow... it really works like that?”
“Yeah. Once you order, that’s it.”
“So simple...”
Maybe she thought it was ridiculous, because her shoulders slumped with a weary look that made me smile wryly.
She’d been living on bread for fifteen hundred years, and now food was being delivered with a click right in front of her. Of course it’d feel bitter.
If the customs fee drops a little more, I could buy her anything.
Abilities had appeared, all sorts of strange phenomena had happened, and I’d even actually met Jutak.
But in the end, what I had to do was still just climb the tower.
“You said we earn money by climbing the tower, right?”
“Yeah. More precisely, TP. Tower Points, probably.”
“Ah...”
I watched Jutak nod as if she were under a spell.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the way she swayed up and down with the motion of her head, like a slime wobbling about.
She’s seriously insanely cute.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“...No, uh. You’re just pretty, Jutak.”
“Ah... wha—?!”
That had almost gone very badly.
I really hadn’t been thinking anything strange, but I’d just ended up staring blankly. It wasn’t that I was having weird thoughts or anything, but there was some kind of magnetic pull that drew my eyes in.
“H-Han Seol-nim is... handsome too......”
“......”
Seeing her murmur that in a small voice, her cheeks faintly red, made me feel strangely guilty.
I hadn’t meant to create this kind of atmosphere.
She was still swaying, too.
Ding-!
Order delivered.
Delivery location: outside the door.
“It’s here.”
At the alert, I casually announced it and got to my feet.
It must’ve arrived at the central lobby. There was no need to make the homeowner fetch it, and I figured I should at least have decent manners here.
“...Huh? It’s here?”
“Yeah. Why, is there a problem?”
“No... not exactly...”
I blinked at the wide-eyed look on Jutak’s face, puzzled.
She tilted her head at my reaction, then frowned slightly as if lost in thought.
“I’ll be back.”
“Ah, I...”
“It’s fine.”
Leaving behind Jutak as she belatedly started to rise, I headed straight for the lobby.
I still didn’t know what I’d do after we ate, but I walked out with the thought that I wanted Jutak to enjoy it happily.
Creak.
“......?”
I blinked at the sandwich that was nowhere to be seen anywhere in the lobby.
Swoosh.
Order delivered.
Delivery location: outside the door.
The completion notice was definitely there, so what on earth was wrong?
I’d never had a wrong delivery before, so I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
Step.
“Um... Han Seol-nim?”
“...Yeah?”
“So it didn’t come, right?”
“‘Right’? What do you mean, right...”
“It’s just that whenever Han Seol-nim sends me something, I can hear this thud! sound...”
“......”
Was that some kind of arrival notification... or something similar?
It had never happened to me, so I just nodded vaguely.
No, wait a second.
Then what Jutak was saying now meant it hadn’t arrived, right?
“The thing is, um...”
“...Don’t tell me this is—”
“Maybe it went to where Han Seol-nim originally was...?”
“......”
What, it does this because I didn’t change the delivery location?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Sandwiches - 50 TP x2
Total: 100 TP
Would you like to purchase?
Press.
“......?”
“What’s wrong?”
“H-Haha. Hahaha.”
“Han Seol-nim...?”
Back in the Hideout, with a terrible feeling creeping up on me, I hit the gift button for Jutak.
I pressed it, but...
You do not have enough TP.
“...It says I’m short on money.”
“Huh?”
“...Looks like customs apply.”
“Customs??”
“...Didn’t I say it takes ten times the price when you gift something? Since I’m in Jutak’s tower right now, I guess it’s calculating that way.”
“Ah...”
That was just wrong.
This was seriously way too unfair.
“T-Then if you subtract mine...!”
“Even if I did, it still wouldn’t be enough.”
“Ah...”
No, if I’d known this in advance, I would’ve brought it with me when I came over.
If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve sent fewer messages.
“Haah...”
“I-It’s fine...! I didn’t really want to eat that much anyway, so you don’t need to worry—”
Rumble!!
“......”
“......Really?”
“I-I can just eat bread...! It’ll be even more fun if we eat together...!”
“......”
Jutak, you’re seriously an angel.
I shut my eyes tight as she kept nodding furiously, forcing herself to smile brightly.
And even now, the fact that I was only noticing everything else was what made me the trash one.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“...This is a problem too.”
“Huh?”
“If we’re staying together for a week... then we won’t even have enough bread.”
“Ah, I’m fine with just a little.”
After quietly chewing and swallowing the hard bread, she muttered under her breath.
Three pieces of bread were handed out per day. If the two of us split that, it came to one and a half each.
If we lived on that amount every day for a week, we’d definitely end up starving.
I didn’t mind, but because I’d suddenly barged in, I didn’t want Jutak going hungry.
“If I’d saved a little more TP...”
“......”
It was a relief that I’d been able to meet Jutak quickly, but maybe I’d rushed too much.
If I’d pushed even ten more floors of any old tower, none of this would’ve happened.
If I’d just cleared one more floor of the 80th run, I’d have 8,000 TP...
Then by now we’d be enjoying sandwiches, and by dinner we could’ve had chicken together too.
There was a lot left to regret, in more ways than one.
“Um... so...”
“Yeah...?”
“If we climb the tower, TP goes up, right...?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
At Jutak’s somewhat fidgety question, I forced myself to nod.
What was she so worried about? We could just bring more next time.
Bread costs 10 TP, so I can have it delivered. We’ll survive on that.
I was just grateful that I still had 100 TP left.
“Then... do you want to go together...?”
“...Huh?”
“M-Maybe I can get something called TP from my tower too...?”
“......”
At Jutak’s words, I stared at her blankly.
Sure... sure, I had been planning to enter the tower together.
I’d wanted to check whether we could clear it as a team, whether someone else could clear it on my behalf, and so on.
But I hadn’t even considered the possibility that we might get TP from that process.
If, if that was possible...
“Blanche really is the best.”
“Eep...!”
“If you’re okay with it, want to climb with me?”
“Y-Yes... yes...”
I didn’t know how the tower’s difficulty would change, but as long as it wasn’t the Tower of Trials, it didn’t really matter.
Even if her run count was absurdly high, the underlying structure wouldn’t have changed.
Tower of Wisdom, Tower of Mind, Tower of Destiny.
In the end, as long as it didn’t require brute force like the Tower of Trials, there was no reason a first-run newbie like me couldn’t climb it.
Swoosh.
“Come on, let’s go!”
“H-H-Hands...? A-Are you just suddenly taking my hand...!!”
“I’ll feed you steak for dinner tonight, Jutak.”
“U-Um... y-yes, yesss...!!”
If all the systems applied the same way even after moving to someone else’s tower...
If everything stayed the same except that I’d moved, just like the customs fee on gifts was calculated the same way...
It’s possible.
By my estimate, I could definitely give Jutak an amazing experience.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Kugugugugung—!!
“...Han Seol-nim. I’ll protect you, so you have to stay right behind me.”
“No, come on, it’s the Tower of Destiny.”
“You’re a first-run newbie. This place is on a whole different level from that.”
“......”
The moment we entered the tower, Jutak stepped in front of me, and I gave a bitter smile.
She wasn’t wrong. Compared to a 1535th-run Jutak, I was basically a newborn baby.
Especially since someone with that much experience in the Tower of Trials could probably kill me with a single flick of her hand.
...Thinking about it like that is pretty scary.
Maybe I should’ve asked her ability in advance.
“It’s the Tower of Destiny to begin with. No need to be that scared—it’s a low floor too.”
“That’s... true, but...”
It was the 15th floor of the Tower of Destiny.
What was there to be afraid of?
Even if the difficulty went up, this place was still ultimately a game of luck.
And... if I was right, then surely—
Ding-!!
“Heh... heh heh heh...”
“Han Seol-nim?”
“Ha... yeah, that’s more like it.”
“??”
When Jutak turned around and tilted her head, I grinned at her.
Just as I’d thought. So this really was possible.
“Blanche.”
“Y-Yes...?”
“I’ll protect you, so don’t worry.”
“Y-Yes...?”
1535th run? So what. What was that to me?
StarWiki
Tower of Destiny
- 15th Floor Clear Guide for 1535th Run:
What did it matter, when I had a cheat code?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇