Hard Mode Floor 1!

I was still buzzing with excitement at the thought of tackling Hard Mode when the staffer beside me stepped over and handed me a slim watch.

"Don't tell me this is...?"

"Yes. With this, you can enter the Tower from anywhere."

It was a Climber-exclusive watch: a fragment of the Tower set into the center of the face. Touch the fragment, and you could climb whenever you wanted.

"Please don't lose it, ma'am. We get so many lost-and-found reports every year that the Association barely has any spares left in stock."

"I'll treat it like a sacred heirloom. Promise."

Watching me, Section Chief Lee Gicheol spoke up.

"If you should need any other assistance, please don't hesitate to say so. The staffer over there will give you my contact information."

I remembered what Mother had said last Saturday when she came to visit.

You should change your name too, right? If you'd been born a girl, I was going to call you Doyeon!

"Ah—then would it be possible to request a name change as well?"

The Section Chief's expression went carefully awkward.

"Ah, that... that falls outside our jurisdiction. It's a matter for the judiciary. You would need to file a formal petition for a name change at family court..."

"Ah—right... Of course. Procedures must be followed...!"

Even for an S-Class Climber, the Republic of Korea's proper judicial and administrative process remained blunt and absolute.

After that, we exchanged a few trivial questions in an oddly strained atmosphere, then said our goodbyes. I carefully accepted the business card with the Section Chief's number from the staffer, then hurried out of the underground control room and headed for my studio apartment.

Even on the way home I still flew through the sky with the Aerial Void Step, and soon I arrived.

"Hmm. First I should pass the news along, right?"

Calling Mother directly would mean listening to a full lecture, so I left her a text: that I had become an S-Class Climber, and that—unfortunately—I would have to file the name-change petition myself.

After that, I called the Chief, who would be wondering how things had gone.

He picked up almost before it could ring.

"Hey, Hyundo. So? How'd it go?"

"Heh heh. This body has now become an S-Class Climber!"

Even with the boast in my voice, the Chief sounded completely unimpressed.

"Yeah, yeah, good for you. So what actually happened with you?"

"Ah—they're processing me for exemption this week through the system."

"Really? Kid, if you just show up through next week and burn the rest of your leave, you're discharged anyway. What's the point of that...?"

That had been bothering me too.

I had even considered simply telling them I wanted to discharge outright. But I wasn't enough of a brat to throw a tantrum and announce I'm just going to get discharged! at a Section Chief who, by the look of his Association rank alone, already had a mountain of work piled on his desk.

"Ahem. Anyway—exemption or otherwise—this body has been liberated."

"Got it. Come in tomorrow at least once. Say goodbye to the guys, and grab all that stuff you stashed, too!"

"Aww, of course! How cold do you think I am, saying something that hurtful? Don't you know our friendship?"

At my clear, high, almost crystalline tone—now mixed with an ultra-high pitch—the Chief shuddered.

"Yes, yes—I get it. Ugh, the higher your voice gets, the more exhausted I feel. I'm hanging up now."

"Yessir—thank you for your hard work!"

With that, I had roughly finished everything that needed doing.

At last—I could climb!

"First, fill the stomach a little."

I polished off three boiled eggs and a frozen chicken-breast fried rice from the freezer.

Fully ready.

"I just have to touch this, right?"

They had told me to press the climb signal on the side of the watch before ascending. Without hesitation, I laid my hand on the Tower fragment that held the second hand at the center of the face.

After I pressed it, a message appeared before my eyes.

"Hup—let's go."

I took a deep breath and chose yes.

In an instant my vision flipped, and I opened my eyes in the middle of a vast plain.

"So this is the inside of the Tower...?"

I had watched the occasional video uploaded by Tower-climbing YouTubers, but seeing it in person was something else entirely—beyond anything those clips had captured.

While I was looking around, another message appeared.

"Oho. So even the Tower recognizes how incredible I am?"

Reading the explanation, I saw that—just as the Section Chief had said—the Tower was offering me a choice.

Even if I couldn't eat it, I was going all-in...!

Minimized growth efficiency? In the gym, nothing loses you more than inefficient training.

And I had zero interest in boring rewards.

After clearing those orcs, I was starving to get even stronger.

On top of that, less time to reach the summit? Wasn't this basically a speedrun?

"I choose Hard Mode!"

I shouted it at the message hanging in midair with everything I had.

The brilliant light faded. When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the middle of a vast forest.

"Whoa. Escape from here...?"

All I could hear was the rustle of leaves in the wind—but I knew, with absolute clarity.

From every direction, a damp, smothering killing intent was closing in...

The Magi trapped inside my body sensed that murderous pressure and began to boil beyond endurance. As it surged all the way to the crown of my head, keeping my emotions in check became nearly impossible.

"Escape from a place like this...!"

Hard Mode Floor 1, no question.

This was a completely different difficulty from Normal, where you just smacked a few slimes.

So I threw my head back and roared.

"Come at me, all of you! You scraps of the Tower!"

If they blocked the path—

I would simply crush them all.

I slammed off the ground and shot into the sky.

"Let's start with a greeting."

Crimson-black Magi bloomed up both arms. I hurled masses of it in every direction where I felt a presence.

BOOM!

BOOM!

The Magi that tore outward carved enormous craters and reduced the surroundings to scorched earth. As I dropped from the air, through the billowing dust and dirt, a pack emerged from the forest—red eyes gleaming.

"Oh, wolves? Hey there, puppies—"

Wait. Were wolves supposed to walk around on two legs?

Nearly three-meter hulks charged ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in one after another.

"Haha, you brats think you can bite a person...!"

To me, though, they were nothing but day-old puppies.

I lifted one foot high and drove it down, drawing out one of the Heavenly Demon's secret arts.

I forcibly wrenched free the mana floating in the air and poured the oppressive majesty of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art into it. Toward the charging pack, a vast tide of mana steeped in my dominance crashed down like pure violence.

"In the Heavenly Demon's footsteps, there must always be a weight that sets the entire world beneath her feet."

THOOM—

THOOM—

Brutal pressure blanketed the area. With every step I took, the bipedal beasts sank lower and lower, forced onto all fours, heads bowed. In the end, the creatures that had charged me could barely twist their necks up to look at me.

"Much better."

I stretched Magi drawn razor-sharp from my fingertips into a long, fine line.

"Hmm... this should be enough, right?"

I flicked my fingertips lightly toward the monsters lying helpless and groaning.

Shhhk—

The Magi that swept along my fingertips split the forest into countless channels. At the same time, every wolf caught between those trajectories was shredded to pieces and collapsed.

Absurd slaughtering power.

Blood sprayed in every direction, and a thick crimson fog rose into my vision.

"Wow! At this level, I could name it the Heavenly Demon Blood Dance."

I flicked the Magi lightly from my fingertips and muttered to myself—

THUD— THUD—

The blood-scent had drawn a bigger fish.

"Good. If that had been the end, I was about to yawn from boredom."

With the sound of massive footfalls, giant trees snapped like dried stalks. A giant appeared, a huge bludgeon clenched in each hand.

"KRAAAAAH!!!"

A frame that nearly scraped four meters. A swollen gut, and the grotesquely oversized muscles needed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠support that bulk. A face twisted beyond recognition—and a choking stench of rot.

"A troll?"

A monster once infamous as a mid-boss on Floor 15 and a notorious obstacle to Tower clears—thanks to that body and its overwhelming regeneration—had shown up on Hard Mode Floor 1.

Apparently deciding I was just a lump of meat, the troll, drunk on the surrounding blood-scent, tightened its grip on its bludgeons, smashed everything around it with sweeping arms, and charged.

I clasped my hands behind my back and summoned a Magi-spirit at my rear. Then I caught the bludgeon head-on.

"What, is that all you've got?"

Pretty dull compared to the reputation I'd heard.

Taking my puzzled voice as mockery, it swung the club in its other hand, straining to turn me into pulp—

"Hmm. This is boring..."

My footwork had already left the level of some stupid troll far behind.

"Let's put a little more into it."

On purpose, I withdrew the Magi-spirit from my back. Then I drove my fist straight into the descending bludgeon.

KRA—ANG!

Puhah—!

With a detonation too vast to believe for a fist meeting a club, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bludgeon shattered into flying shards. Drawing on last time's experience, I had prepared perfectly—my body-guarding aura, already wrapped in Magi, took not so much as a scratch.

In the same breath I seized both of the troll's arms, which were bleeding where the shards had pierced them. Still holding them, I wrenched both arms the wrong way, smashed its face in with my knee, then hauled the whole bulk up and hurled it into the ground with everything I had.

KU—UNG!

"Is that all, big guy?"

The force of the throw plus the troll's own weight made the earth scream; the ground shook violently.

"KRAAAH!"

Enraged at being toyed with, the troll bellowed. True to a creature famous for its regeneration, the ruined face writhed and snapped back into place almost instantly.

I offered that impressive recovery a silent round of applause and loosened my wrists.

"Let's take this all the way, then."

I clenched my fists and this time I was the one who rushed it like the wind.

What followed was a pure beatdown. Its sluggish attacks never properly reached me—only my one-sided abuse.

CRACK—

"KRRAAAAGH!"

SNAP—

Every time a strike landed, the sound of muscle and bone rupturing rolled through the forest. It felt like punching a water balloon that refused to burst.

"Kraaah..."

But even regeneration has a limit. In the end, even a troll that had boasted monstrous vitality went to its knees before overwhelming violence.

Standing with one foot on the blood-caked, no-longer-breathing troll, in the middle of a forest reduced to ruin for dozens of meters around, I felt the high of victory and shouted at the top of my lungs.

"I am the Heavenly Demon!"

The strong. The invincible. The strongest being of all.

The Heavenly Demon's declaration of war rang out across Hard Mode Floor 1.