Climbing the 35th Floor
“If I hadn’t taken that hundred billion, I wouldn’t be running around cleaning up messes like this, would I?”
─ Not quite.
Yu Junhyeok stated firmly.
─ This incident… feels connected to me somehow.
Yu Junhyeok rarely spoke at such length.
It was a conversation only Choi Junseok could hear.
─ You will understand when the time comes. However…… the tragedy of the Lyon Magic Tower cannot be stopped now.
‘Tragedy?’
─ It is the phenomenon of the Magic Tower that I tried so desperately to prevent.
‘The phenomenon Yu Junhyeok wanted to stop…?’
Choi Junseok could sense that something was unfolding.
─ Going to France will not change anything. In fact…… it would be better to go later.
Choi Junseok did not relay Yu Junhyeok’s cryptic words to the others.
“I never thought I’d be climbing a tower I didn’t even bother with back in Korea.”
Jo Insu and his group had already cleared twenty floors in just a day and a half.
With S-grade players and elites from around the world gathered, rushing through dozens of floors at once was nothing.
Jo Insu thrust his spear through two Lizardmen at once, then flicked the weapon clean.
The impaled Lizardmen tumbled across the ground.
‘None of them are ordinary, that’s for sure.’
Every single one of them had impressive ranks, from B+ all the way to S-grade.
When he factored in their levels, proficiency, combat sense, and equipment, they were even more formidable.
In Korea, they would have been called an elite raid team from one of the five major guilds.
“Jo Insu. If you’re tired, take a break. We’re pushing straight to the 40th floor without rest.”
“Tired from this? The flight left me stiff. This is perfect.”
Whoosh— Thud!
Jo Insu cleanly shook the blood from his spear shaft.
The light, agile movements he displayed inside the Magic Tower were impossible in reality.
Many top players climbed towers to earn money, but some also did it to avoid the stat penalty that came from returning to the real world.
There was also the adrenaline rush of slaughter that could never be experienced in daily life.
The thrill of blood-soaked battles where spears, swords, and magic clashed was one thing, but the sensation of becoming a superhuman whose body felt light and swift was another.
After experiencing that flood of dopamine and adrenaline, what happened if you suddenly had to return to reality?
Many suffered from severe depression in the real world.
‘The so-called Magic Tower addiction.’
The world saw players as heroes who earned magic stones from the towers, but once someone became deeply involved with the towers, the cause-and-effect relationship changed completely.
The players most prone to severe Magic Tower addiction were not the lower ranks, but those who reached the upper floors at hundreds of levels.
‘No different from drug addicts.’
And they usually carried both the pride of being chosen players and a sense of superiority that looked down on ordinary people.
In Jo Insu’s eyes, these people fit both descriptions.
Player supremacists addicted to the Magic Tower.
“At this point… shouldn’t you at least give us a hint? What’s waiting on the 68th floor?”
Yet they only spoke vaguely, as always.
“The world’s players will praise us as Dark Knights. A noble evil that society desperately needed.”
Jo Insu shook his head as if it no longer mattered.
From what he could roughly gather, there were three possibilities.
‘They said it would normalize the suppressed laws of the Magic Tower. Something about connecting the towers as well.’
One: The daily floor limit for players would be removed.
Two: Connection between Magic Towers would become possible, allowing players to travel freely between regions.
Three: Players would be able to use their tower abilities in reality.
‘If it’s the third case……’
Jo Insu pondered for a moment whether that would truly benefit him.
The emergence of superhumans appearing worldwide.
And the resulting reorganization of society around them.
The reason nations and societies had maintained control despite the anomaly of players and Magic Towers was because their powers were limited to inside the towers.
‘No matter which of the three it is… even if it’s none of them, the world will be turned upside down.’
And the aftermath would surely be good news for the SG Group, which dominated the player-related industries.
The SG Group’s explosive market share, which other nations, companies, and guilds had been chipping away at.
By the time he became the chairman, combined with his identity as an S-grade player, he could usher in a new golden age for the SG Group.
He had placed his bet.
“That’s the most welcome thing I’ve heard all day. Let’s give it a shot.”
They immediately accepted the prompt to enter the 21st floor and scattered into particles of light.
Choi Junseok decided to observe the situation for a while.
After all, there was no clear reason for him to go there, and moving without purpose would only invite danger.
Team Leader Kang had only floated the possibility that they might need to go to France.
─ Currently, he is missing. The French research players are being escorted by players from the SG Group’s French branch.
“In a way, that’s a breach of contract, isn’t it?”
It could even be grounds for expelling him from the guild.
For now, it was wiser to move decisively when the time was right rather than acting hastily.
What Choi Junseok had to do as a player was simple. Climb the tower.
“You’re going to climb?”
Lee Jiyu asked after seeing Choi Junseok arrive in a comfortable hoodie.
“Well… waiting while climbing seems like the best option. It might just pass as a false alarm.”
“You said the next floor is the 35th, right?”
Choi Junseok nodded.
“It’s by no means an easy floor. Stay alert. Rather than aiming for the fastest clear record, protecting the villagers is more important. Gathering everyone in one place would be ideal, but with just the three of you it won’t be easy…… There is actually a loophole. Want to hear it?”
“What is it?”
“Knock out ten villagers, gather them in one spot, and just……”
She couldn’t finish the sentence.
She only shrugged. After all, it was still a Magic Tower.
Lee Nayeon, who had been listening quietly, nodded.
“Hmm. It’s not ideal, but it would work as a last resort.”
“Only as a last resort.”
Black-clad martial artists invaded from all four directions, the sky, and the ground.
Wearing black bamboo hats and black robes, they reminded one of the demonic cult from martial arts novels, yet the system and the Magic Tower never labeled them as such.
You have entered the 35th floor.
Time Limit: 2 hours 35 minutes.
Clear Condition: Ensure at least ten villagers survive within the time limit.
The village was quite large, something Choi Junseok already knew.
It was also a floor that gave many players trouble.
The reason was simple.
Fires erupted everywhere, turning the village into chaos as the villagers were massacred.
No matter how quickly players launched preemptive attacks, there was a limit to how many enemies they could handle at once.
Watching people die meaninglessly before their eyes was never a pleasant experience for players.
However, Choi Junseok possessed Yu Junhyeok, the ultimate cheat key for climbing Magic Towers.
─ For floors like this, it may be faster to seek out and annihilate the enemies.
Choi Junseok also had no intention of clearing the floor exactly at the 2-hour-35-minute mark like other players.
“Entering the 35th floor.”
Then, as always, a warning appeared before Choi Junseok’s eyes.
Recommended party size not met. Enter anyway? (Y/N) Recommended party size: 15.
What was the point of asking? Choi Junseok pressed the enter button without hesitation.
“Well then. I’ll be back.”
Upon entering the 35th floor, a wide village came into view below.
Choi Junseok leaped onto the wall with his enhanced physical abilities, then jumped from the wall onto the tiled roof of a house.
Their levels had already reached 117.
Even with only the stat corrections from their levels, Choi Junseok could be called the strongest among F-grade players.
Combined with his growth, he could now match D-grade, C-grade, and even some A-grade awakeners in raw stats inside the tower.
Two beams of light appeared beside Choi Junseok. Lee Nayeon and Song Hana.
“Think you two can hold two directions?”
Song Hana said she could manage if she used long-range sniping, but Lee Nayeon looked uncertain.
“……They’re coming.”
Lee Nayeon’s senses were accurate.
From one of the four entrances at the village’s cardinal directions, dozens of black-clad figures were charging across the horizon.
“Over there too!”
In the direction Song Hana pointed, more black-clad riders approached, kicking up clouds of dust.
Drums echoed from the village hall.
Dong— Dong— Dong—
Mixed with the sound signaling evacuation came the screams of the villagers.
While ordinary players would have their command disrupted by the screams, the three who communicated mentally were unaffected by the 35th floor’s restrictions.
─ The direction facing away from the sun.
Following Yu Junhyeok’s guidance in his mind, Choi Junseok immediately launched himself forward.
“Then everyone to your positions!”
Song Hana leaped onto the village hall roof and immediately drew back the string of her bow of light.
Swish— Twang—!
The arrow of light sliced through the air toward the cavalry, but just as it seemed insufficient to wipe out dozens of them—
The arrow shattered in midair and split into dozens of arrows that rained down upon them all at once.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!
One entire group was annihilated in a single volley of light arrows.
Song Hana swallowed dryly as she watched another group charging at terrifying speed.
She shot out of the village and pierced through their ranks like a streak of light, cutting enemies down in a single stroke.
Meanwhile, Choi Junseok raced out of the village in the opposite direction of the sun.
With Song Hana’s blessing accelerating his steps, houses blurred past on either side.
In an instant, he left the village behind and sprinted across the plains.
Choi Junseok and the black-clad figures charging at maximum speed closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
Various polearms materialized above Choi Junseok’s head, spinning before launching forward in unison.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
After instantly mowing down dozens, Choi Junseok dashed past the falling corpses and kept running.