S-Class Beauty (3)

The post was titled S-Class Beauty Sword Hee's 1st Floor Clear Proof.

I went in with some Cheonhwa Guild members, but they were all so damn weak. They almost died on the first floor even while wearing the Lion's Roar set and the Frozen Claw set. Good thing I was there with them. I saved all the guild members, so you should be thanking me, ajumma.

“…”

A vein throbbed on Cheon Hwaryen's forehead. Even so, as a decent human being, she couldn't avoid sending a thank you.

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“…Sigh.”

Cheon Hwaryen let out a long breath as she stared at the exact same post that had just flown into her messages.

The boy with the absurd unique ability she'd just recruited. The bus drivers she'd sent with him to help him grow quickly had all nearly died. On the first floor, no less.

All because of an Extreme Difficulty mission—one that had never been discovered before.

She had almost lost both the promising rookie she'd poured guild resources into recruiting and two combat personnel at the same time.

The photo sent via message showed one of the first-floor dungeon fields: the Barren Desert.

And scattered across that desert were ten orc corpses, torn limb from limb.

Cheon Hwaryen's eyes widened in shock.

“…Ten orcs spawning on the first floor? And some newbie who only just cleared the tutorial took them all out?”

She really was an absurd girl.

She immediately opened her messaging app and interrogated the guild member who had sent the report.

— You, do you have any photos of the Heavenly Demon Sword Beauty?

The reply came instantly.

— Myung-hwan tried to take one but his phone got smashed.

“…”

It was the kind of line that left her speechless.

— She said you shouldn't carelessly take photos of a beautiful girl… It happened in the blink of an eye. She's wearing a mask so we don't even know what her face looks like.

— She was wearing a mask?

…This girl knew her own value far too well.

Well, it would be stranger if someone who hung out in the community didn't know that.

Other guilds.

Especially before the Ares Guild found her, they had to secure her first.

— Then organize and send me any other distinguishing features. Include the abilities she used too.

— Yes, understood.

— And you two, don't go on any missions for a while. Only go where there are lots of people. You know what I mean?

— Ah, yes…! Understood.

With that, she closed her phone.

“I can't let lives that barely survived get thrown away again…”

If the Ares Guild kidnapped those two, they would extract the information through unimaginable torture and pain.

Still, as long as they didn't enter the tower, even they couldn't ignore the Association's influence and act freely.

She slipped her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out a cigarette.

The tip of the pure white stick glowed red as it began to release smoke.

“Huu… Hooo…”

As the smoke filled her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lungs and flowed back out, her complicated thoughts cleared.

“…I really want to see her face just once.”

Her murmur was swallowed by the darkness filling the room and disappeared.

Ding—

“Oh, she actually sent them.”

The message from Cheon Hwaryen contained three chicken gift cards—half seasoned, half fried—along with cola and cheese balls.

“But I already ordered with my own money.”

The room was filled with the savory aroma of fried chicken.

I reached out toward the steaming chicken sitting in front of me.

The hot heat against my fingertips and the crisp texture of the batter.

“This is the first proper meal I've had in weeks…”

I was about to take a big bite out of the plump drumstick when I suddenly glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was 1 AM.

“Oh…”

In that case, there was something I absolutely had to do. Without hesitation, I logged into the Tower Climber Gallery.

Author: ㅇㅇ(123.123)

Title: I'll be handing out S-Class beauty freeze tags.

A title designed to make anyone click at least once. But the content was something else entirely.

After hitting the post button, I unconsciously let out a stupid laugh.

“…Hehe.”

Also known as food pic terrorism.

It was a time-honored tradition among gallery users, usually carried out in the early morning hours.

Most of the people browsing the gallery at this time had their day and night schedules completely flipped.

It was sure to deal a serious blow to their mentality.

Just in case, I had only sold one for now. Thanks to that, my current balance was 6.97 million won.

The Tower of Trials had better cost-efficiency than any game currently in existence.

I brought the fruits of that cost-efficiency to my lips.

Crunch—

The moment I bit into the juicy drumstick, I let out another stupid laugh without realizing it.

“Ehehe…”

With just one bite, I felt like all my worries had flown away.

“Phew, that was fun.”

After confirming that the bait had worked well, I closed the post. The comment notifications kept buzzing, but that wasn't my problem.

The spark had already become a flame. It would keep burning without rest until the firewood turned to white ash.

What I needed to find now was something else.

There were three routes for selling loot from the tower. The first was selling to the Association.

It was the easiest and fastest since you only needed to verify your Awakener registration, but the pricing was a bit stingy.

The second was selling to guilds.

To trade with guilds, you had to go through slightly more complicated verification.

It was also a measure for guilds to collect player information. Since they couldn't freely access the information of players registered with the Association.

And the last, third option was… using black market dealers.

“Hmm…”

I scrolled past various shitposts.

— 3rd Floor Restaurant Recommendations (3)

— Recommend some dating spots inside the tower (41)

— Am I trash for this? (4)

— Tips for Awakening (12)

“Strange, I swear I saw one earlier.”

After scrolling past who knows how many garbage posts, I finally found the one I was looking for.

This post has locked comments.

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“Oh, found it.”

Trading with black market dealers was obviously illegal. However, they offered the highest prices and made no identity requests whatsoever.

It was a bit risky, but if they really stole the goods and buried them somewhere, they would be tracked by the Association.

So there was no need to worry about being kidnapped or killed…

“…I can't expose my identity to a guild.”

I immediately contacted them through the listed Telegram and set up a meeting place.

— Sir, I have something to sell.

— How much?

— 10 gold accessories. [Photo of pure gold accessories lined up on the bed]

— ..? Hmm. Okay.

— And I want to buy something too. Just one weapon from around the 30th floor, please.

— A weapon? Any conditions?

“Hmm…”

Conditions. There was only one thing I wanted.

It had to look pretty when I swung it.

But what weapons were like that?

“Umm…”

This was the time for collective intelligence.

Tap-tap—

The sound of my nails tapping the screen echoed.

Author: ㅇㅇ(123.123)

Title: Weapon recommendations please.

As light as possible, something a beautiful girl would use.

If you recommend something brutish like battle axes or spears that only macho men would use, I'll block you.

“…What the hell?”

Yeom Cheon-woo, a black market dealer working under the Ares Guild, doubted his own eyes.

The guild master of the Ares Guild. No one knew his real name; he was only known as [eternity], the strongest climber ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in South Korea.

He was currently going crazy trying to find the Heavenly Demon Sword Beauty.

He had even promised that whoever found her would receive 50th-floor equipment, two legendary skill books, and a year of paid vacation.

When he saw the gold accessories lined up on the bed, he had thought it was too good to be true. He never imagined such luck would fall into his lap.

But the post that had just gone up…

“…”

Still unable to believe it, his fingers trembled as he typed a comment.

Yeom Cheon-woo swallowed hard. And then, a reply immediately flew into his Telegram.

— Sir. I'll take the sword.

“…”

Unable to speak, he pulled out his phone with trembling hands and began dialing his superior.