A Gentleman's Revenge Is Never Too Late

I first checked the basic rewards.

The score seemed low for a boss stage, but it made sense once you subtracted the boss monster points. Everyone else’s scores included their contribution to the Kraken Lord hunt. I had only added up the points from everything except the Lord, so if anything my total felt suspiciously high.

The real prize for me was the latter half of the list.

Two and three are nice, but…

A million points and five hundred bonus stats were huge numbers, but the Tower’s rewards grew exponentially the higher you climbed.

Even the upper floors of Hard difficulty handed out a million points like pocket change. If I pushed another ten floors on Impossible, a million points would start to feel trivial.

Of course, taking the points now and snowballing them was also an option. Bonus stats were a rare resource even in the upper floors, yet the other two rewards had hooked my interest.

Inventory (F) and the Kraken Lord’s Soul (S).

Inventory? It actually exists?

Ever since the Gates and the Tower appeared, everyone knew Awakened society had taken on the shape of a game. Items, skills, status windows, NPCs—everything resembled a game. Everything except the inventory.

Urban legends about someone secretly possessing one had always circulated, but after working for the Cheongung Guild I knew they were all nonsense.

Just in case, I read the skill description again, but there was nothing special. At first glance one might wonder if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an inventory was even necessary, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but…

It should work, right? If not, I’ll just file a complaint with the Tower for false advertising.

On the lower floors it wasn’t obvious, but the deeper you went in the Tower the more items appeared. The problem was that items obtained inside the Tower could be used inside but could never be taken outside. The only things you could bring out were the clear rewards for each floor.

So would items stored in the inventory be reclaimed by the Tower?

“It’s supposed to be an unbelievable achievement reward. It can’t possibly do that, right? Isn’t that so, Tower?”

The lack of any response was as good as agreement. It might not be that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠useful right now, but if I could carry items from the Tower’s upper floors outside, the inventory’s potential would pierce the heavens.

“Wait a second. If I leave the items I got on the fifth floor outside, challenge the sixth floor, and bring another five out, does that mean I can get five items per floor?”

Then in theory, by climbing all the way to the hundredth floor I could obtain four hundred and seventy-five items from the Tower…

“Ah, real-time patches are bullshit.”

I’d been sniped by a patch, but even so the inventory’s potential still pierced the sky. Most items from the Tower’s upper floors outperformed anything you could get from Gates.

Being able to skip item rewards in the future and take something else instead was also broken. While others sacrificed points and stats to obtain good items, I alone had gained the ability to snatch them for free.

“A million points is a shame to pass up… but I guess I’ll have to grind like hell during the Expedition.”

The Expedition event lasted seven days. Since it was officially a Tower event, points could be spent inside it. And every night at midnight the system converted that day’s points in real time. I could easily earn well over a million points during the Expedition.

Next was the fourth option.

Items that granted wishes appeared fairly often. The wishes had to stay within common sense, and the Tower decided exactly where that line was drawn.

Asking for a hundred wishes or demanding the target become your slave for life would be rejected outright. You could simply use the wish tickets, but…

If a soul came in the form of an item, the first thing that came to mind was another hero monster like Poppy. Right now the limit was one, but raising the rank of the Swarm Lord skill would most likely increase that number.

Can I wish for it to join the Legion?

Using a wish to bind a powerful being as a summon was surprisingly possible. Of course the contract duration shortened depending on the difference in rank, and a permanent contract was impossible with a wish ticket.

Considering the gap between my current power and a lesser deity… about a year?

A year was more than enough time to climb a considerable distance in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tower. Even if I took the million points now, creating a Legion with the combat power of a lesser deity was still impossible.

In the worst case I wouldn’t lose anything, so I chose the Inventory and the Kraken Lord’s Soul.

I tested the inventory first. It was an invisible space that could only hold items. I took off the hoodie I was wearing and tried storing it. The moment I focused on storing it while holding it, the hoodie froze in midair.

After a minute it vanished. When I thought about taking it out again, my right hand froze instead. Another minute later, the hoodie reappeared in my right hand.

Can’t use it in combat.

With that restriction it would be unusable during fights, but even taking that into account the benefit was more than enough.

Next was the Kraken Lord’s Soul. An ostrich-egg-sized orb appeared before my eyes.

What should I do with this? If I keep hoarding it too long it’ll go to waste, won’t it?

After checking, the sacrifice needed to awaken the soul came to roughly a million points’ worth of Legion resources. That was enough to create ten thousand Void Insects, so it wasn’t a small amount, but it wasn’t an impossible number if I set my mind to it.

I’ll have to open it during the Expedition.

If I gathered that many resources on Earth I would be noticed immediately. There wasn’t enough time to open it in a hidden stage or on the sixth floor. I stored the Kraken Lord’s egg in the inventory and turned my attention to the shop window.

Remaining points: 180,114.

Unfortunately the Inventory (F) skill couldn’t be upgraded with points. I started by raising the rank of Swarm Lord.

“Guess it’s a relief it’s not a million?”

The cost for the next rank was five hundred thousand. It wasn’t a small number, but it didn’t feel impossibly far either. I moved on to inspect the new friends that had been unlocked.

Resources required to produce Legion units:

Void Insect — 100

Void Hound — 200

Void Flower — 1,000

Void Shark — 5,000

Void Crocodile — 10,000

Observer — 20,000

The newly added units were quite expensive. A high price meant their base specs were that much higher, so this was actually good news.

“The Void Hounds and Void Flowers have low ceilings anyway.”

One might misunderstand after seeing the Void Flowers display overwhelming force on the lower floors, but the Void Flowers were even more extreme in their rock-paper-scissors matchups than the Hounds.

If the opponent’s senses and physical strength exceeded a certain threshold, the Void Flowers were no different from scarecrows.

Even if the enemy was only slightly stronger, they could be safely killed with ranged weapons from outside the flowers’ attack range.

The same went for the Void Hounds. They boasted overwhelming numbers and mobility, but they could do nothing against enemies with superior specs.

During the fight with the Kraken Lord, the Hounds couldn’t even get close. Without the help of the royal knights, approaching the Kraken Lord would have been far more difficult.

I first examined the special evolution for the Void Hounds.

“Obviously number three.”

The heavy assault type compensated for the Void Hounds’ inherently low specs, while the lightweight ambush type could still function as scouts even in the power-inflated upper floors of the Tower.

The Void Hound evolution was an essential part of the upcoming Expedition, so there was no room for hesitation. Now it was time to look at the newly unlocked friends.

Both special upgrades had excellent performance, so I bought them for both units. Points remaining: 30,114.

There was a predetermined place for the leftover points.

With the Void Insect’s special upgrade I had spent every last point. Finally I distributed the bonus stats and opened my status window.

I distributed the bonus stats gained from clearing the boss stage evenly across the board. Every Awakened had their main stat, but if any one stat fell too far behind, combat effectiveness would plummet.

“Stamina is fine since I can just ride Poppy most of the time…”

Suddenly I felt how empty my right hand was. At times like this I would always stroke Poppy’s head, but…

“Ah, she’s gotten so big now that I can’t reach anymore.”

Come to think of it, Poppy’s height had grown so much that I would have to raise my arm above my head just to pet her. Feeling a strange sense of loss, I pressed the button to enter the hidden stage.

I had considered waiting until Poppy returned from the Void after using emergency escape, but the Kraken Lord’s corpse kept flickering in my mind and I couldn’t hold back. The hidden stage had no particular goal, so it didn’t seem like anything dangerous would happen.

The safe zone disappeared and a wide plain appeared. When I had been fighting the Kraken Lord the sun had been high in the sky, but now the sun had set and night had arrived.

I turned my gaze from the system window to the colossal corpse in front of me. The Kraken Lord’s body was so enormous its scale was impossible to measure.

Before dismantling the corpse, I headed for the massive lake from which the Kraken Lord had emerged.

Since some Void Ponds had already been built in the city, I could only create eight more. After producing all eight and integrating them with the lake, I began dismantling the Kraken Lord’s corpse.

I fed not only the tentacles but also the heart, eyeballs, internal organs, and many other parts into the Void Ponds. Ridiculous abilities poured out.

Since these were shared skills that applied to the entire Legion rather than specific individuals, their efficiency was beyond words. After working diligently for a while, a new message appeared.

“Already? There’s still so much left…”

By my estimate I had used less than ten percent, yet extraction had already ended. I soothed my regret by evenly reserving Legion production, then started walking toward the city. Even after I left, the Void Insects would continue gathering resources.

Since I had obtained all of the Kraken Lord’s DNA, the only thing left to do with the remaining time was—

“Now that I’ve gone through the trouble of getting an inventory, shouldn’t I fill it?”

Bark!

Somewhere I thought I heard Poppy’s voice. This world was one where items were extremely rare. But since holy relics existed, it wasn’t completely devoid of them.

“They say a gentleman’s revenge is never too late even after ten years. At this rate, I’m actually early.”

The Tyrant King must have piled up plenty of good items in his palace. Twenty-two hours was more than enough time to get revenge for the children who had died on the fourth floor.