Poppy, Did You Deceive Me?

Poppy, did you deceive me?

I spent the entire time racing through the city in search of monster corpses. Before I knew it, my time had completely run out.

I skipped the now-familiar reward messages and waited. Soon the final tally appeared.

It was the first time anyone had broken the hundred-thousand-point barrier.

“Tsk. Stingy. Way too stingy. My stomach actually hurts.”

“Arf?”

But when I considered that the number of enemies Poppy and I had killed reached the hundreds of thousands, the score felt bitterly insufficient. I had expected something like this, of course.

The higher you climbed in the Tower, the fewer points the same monsters gave. A single ocean monster that had been worth twenty points on the second floor might not even grant one point on the fourth.

The reason was obvious: I had grown absurdly strong. On the second floor I had struggled to handle twenty ocean monsters alone.

On the fourth, I could slaughter hundreds by myself. If I had poured every point into my own growth instead of the legion, I might have become as powerful as Poppy in her gigantified state.

“Arf!”

“You want me to take back the part about being as strong as you? That’s the level you’re at, Poppy?”

“Arf arf arf!!!”

“Fine, I take it back.”

“Grrroar!”

At any rate, since my power had increased so dramatically, it was only natural that trash mobs no longer gave decent experience.

Most of the current score had probably come from killing the humanoid whale and saving the residents. Even so, the disappointment still left a sour taste in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my mouth.

“Ugh… Does this mean I should challenge the fifth floor? Or head to the expedition first?”

I had expected at least 150,000 points. My remaining points sat at 119,272. Even adding what I had saved from the fourth floor, I still fell short of 120,000. With that total I would have to choose between raising Swarm Lord or strengthening Poppy.

Swarm Lord at E-rank cost 100,000 points. Raising Poppy to level 20 required 40,000. It was a moment that demanded choice and focus.

“Think about it. I only hunted ocean monsters the whole time. Wouldn’t the new friend be an ocean monster too?”

“Arf?”

“It’ll probably end up amphibious… but it still won’t be very useful in a fifth-floor boss fight, right?”

“Arf!”

“What kind of bonus would I get from upgrading Swarm Lord? It can’t just be adding another new kid, can it?”

“Grrroar!”

Poppy howled, demanding I strengthen her instead. It was a decision that required careful thought. I logged into the Transcendent Gallery, where the residents ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had apparently been reduced to cold leftovers.

Maybe I had visited the gallery less often lately, but the transcendents were all having meltdowns. It made sense. There had been almost no room for them to shine while I cleared the Tower.

The information they gave me about dealing with the Abyss Legion and the Forgotten Swordmaster’s sword lessons had been useful, but I already knew the rest of the strategies in more detail than they did.

“Still, I did give regular situation reports.”

Since the information they provided had helped me clear the fourth floor, I decided to tell them everything about the process. But in the short time since my last visit, it looked like they had spiraled again.

“Kind of cute…”

“Arf?”

“Never mind.”

At first I had wondered if I should be wary of them, but I eventually chose to be completely honest and ask for their help. The gap between us was larger than that between an ant and an elephant.

Even the Empress, a Hard difficulty 92nd-floor user, was on a completely different level from me. The transcendents who had fully cleared Extreme difficulty were on another plane entirely.

“Besides, there’s no way they could reach me in another dimension. And if they could, there would be even less reason to hide anything.”

“Arf!”

“You think you could win? Even if there were hundreds of millions of Poppies, you wouldn’t even scratch them.”

“Arf arf arf!!!”

If they had reached a realm where dimensional travel was possible, hiding information would be as pointless as an ant trying to hide its claws from an elephant.

I stroked the pride-wounded Poppy’s head and began typing a post in the Transcendent Gallery.

“…Did I write too much?”

“Arf.”

The Tower strategy guides I had written back at the Cheongung Guild had been published under the guild’s name rather than my own. A guide written by a non-awakened person simply lacked credibility.

My close acquaintances and important government officials knew the truth, but most ordinary people and awakened individuals did not. It seemed the desire to be properly recognized had been quietly building up inside me.

My lips curved into a satisfied smile at their reactions. Still, the expedition wasn’t an opportunity that came often, so it was better to aim high when I did go. That left the question of where to invest my points…

All the transcendents had reached the same conclusion. To be honest, I had already been leaning toward strengthening Poppy. Even if a new legion member appeared, it would start at level 1.

Upgrading Swarm Lord would leave me with only ten thousand points, so investing in Poppy and then spending the rest elsewhere made more sense.

“Poppy! You can do it, right?”

“Arf!”

My choice between trusting the legion or trusting Poppy fell on Poppy.

Poppy, who had already been large, grew even bigger. She now stood over two meters tall at the shoulder without using gigantification.

“Not bad. If she uses gigantification from this size, she’ll be even stronger.”

The larger Poppy’s base form, the stronger her gigantified form became. Just this change promised an enormous increase in combat power.

But the most important part was the special upgrade. I opened Poppy’s special upgrade window with a pounding heart.

“Poppy, did you deceive me?”

“Keng?”

Even Poppy seemed flustered; her voice jumped an octave.

“An area-wide buff… I knew something like this would appear eventually, but still…”

Boss stages required quality over quantity. An area buff wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I needed right now. I turned my attention back to the system window.

The points needed for Poppy’s next special skill were 80,000. I didn’t have enough to roll the special upgrade gacha again. I sighed.

“Can’t be helped. Guess I’ll have to carry the team myself.”

“Arf?”

I boldly invested the remaining stats into Strength and Agility. Then…

There was a minor annoyance of having to take off the hoodie to upgrade Mental Barrier, but I successfully strengthened all the skills. The hoodie the brainwashed girl possessed could raise B-rank skills to A-rank.

Considering an A-rank skill normally cost 100,000 points, the effect was incredible. I wondered what the true limit of this hoodie might be.

“Let’s see, remaining points…”

40,272 points remained. Saving points before a boss stage was foolish. I examined the special upgrades I hadn’t checked before.

“Void water shooter? What the hell, it’s just a big fish.”

The void water shooter had an impressive name, but it was simply a two-meter-long archerfish that lived in the void pond.

Shooting fifty milliliters of highly acidic water was a decent attack, but once per minute was far too slow to be useful. The newly available Two Hearts and the Flight of the Ants I hadn’t purchased before were equally ambiguous.

“Better than nothing… but they’re all pretty mediocre…”

With no better options, I turned back to Poppy.

“Poppy, you can do this, right?”

“Arf!”

“Sigh… why do I have so few things I can actually trust…”

“Arf arf arf!!!”

“Guess I’ll roll the gacha one more time!”

“Grrroar!”

“Again?”

“King!”

“Poppy, are you laughing at me right now?”

I had wanted to see the new special upgrade for the void hounds, but unfortunately none appeared. In the end I purchased Two Hearts and Call of the Mountain Lord.

Remaining points: 272.

I had agonized and spent every last point, yet the aftertaste was bitter. Still, this was the best I could do. To manage my condition, I left the Tower, lay down in bed, and tried to sleep.

At the same time, inside the S-class gate in Daejeon.

Black bats flew through the sky while orcs with bulging dark-red veins approached the Empress. She gave a light wave of her hand and a massive gust of wind erupted, sending the orcs flying.

“Hmm, that building over there must be where the gate core is…”

More than twenty people followed behind the Empress. Gates were treasure troves that produced mana stones—the new-era energy source—and items vital to awakened people.

But if they couldn’t be cleared regularly, they were no different from time bombs that could explode at any moment.

Korea lacked the awakened manpower to clear every gate, so they had asked the Empress for help in permanently closing the S-class gate in Daejeon.

The Empress was not the type to turn down a request for aid. After a thirty-hour raid, they had located what appeared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to be a massive mansion containing the gate core. All that remained was to destroy the boss monster inside and the core itself.

“Empress! Cheongung Guild Team 2 is retreating!”

A masked man following the Empress shouted. Team 2 of the Cheongung Guild had been supposed to clear monsters on the left rear and secure a retreat path. If they pulled back, the Empress’s main raid party at the front risked being isolated.

“Already?”

The man held a communication item resembling a smartphone. It displayed coded messages requesting retreat and support.

“Strange. That team should have that man with them…”

“What are your orders? If you command it, we will ignore the support request and aim for the gate core.”

The permanent closure of an S-class gate was right before their eyes. If they pushed forward without retreating, they might succeed. But the Empress shook her head.

“No. We’ve located the target. We can try again next time.”

“But—!”

Countless casualties would be unavoidable in that process. The Empress turned her team around and moved to support the retreating Cheongung Guild Team 2.

At the temporary command center after the retreat operation ended.

Thanks to the Empress’s swift decision, they had withdrawn without a single casualty. It was an incredibly successful retreat for a failed S-class gate raid, but the consumable items and resources used in the operation would not return. A heavy silence hung over the command center despite the successful withdrawal.

“Why the long faces? We found the gate core’s location. We can simply try again next time.”

The Empress tried to comfort the others, but their expressions remained dark. The Daejeon S-class gate closure had been a do-or-die project for both the Cheongung Guild and the Korean government.

The value of the consumables used alone reached trillions of won, and top-tier awakened had rearranged their schedules to match the raid window.

When opportunity costs and social costs were factored in, the national loss could easily reach the quadrillions.

—Click.

The command center door opened and a pink-haired woman entered. Her body was wrapped in bandages from the treatment she had just received. Cheon Seoah, leader of Cheongung Guild Team 2 and vice-guild master, bowed her head.

“I’m sorry. I ruined everything.”

“Raise your head. There are simply too many variables inside a gate. No one can control them all.”

The Empress placed a hand on Cheon Seoah’s shoulder.

“I will cover half the value of the consumables used this time from my own palace.”

“No, we can’t possibly accept—”

Cheon Seoah, who knew the exact loss amount from this failed S-class gate closure, stopped mid-sentence.

“You are not parasites interested only in power. You have earned the right to receive it. If I could, I would give more, but…”

The Empress, who always took the lead in clearing S-class gates, had obtained countless items and resources, but she was always short on supplies because she distributed them this way to others.

“This is more than enough. Thank you so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠much.”

The Empress asked lightly as Cheon Seoah bowed her head.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t see that little brat this time. Where did that sassy kid who thinks she’s the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang run off to?”

Cheon Seoah’s shoulders trembled at the question. Two days ago she had been standing in a daze inside Haram’s house.

After receiving a belated call from the personnel team leader, she had switched with another team member and joined the S-class gate raid. She had no idea whether Haram had come out of the Tower or had disappeared.

“That kid was on Team 2, right? Failing an operation after so long must have wounded his pride badly.”

“That is…”

The people raiding the S-class gate had no way of knowing, but three hours earlier, important items such as an ID card and cell phone had been discovered at the last known location.

Based on that evidence, he had been classified as deceased while climbing the Tower.

To prevent social unrest he had been officially listed as missing, but in the gate era, missing persons were commonplace.

With even the slightest circumstantial evidence, the state readily gave up searching for the missing.