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It was fun.
It was so immensely fun.
Once I was free from the fear of death, clearing the tower felt like a virtual game.
Hwoong
Thump
My hand looked endlessly tiny compared to the Magma Golem's ignorant rock fist.
However,
"Kuuuuaaaaaang!!"
Even while uttering strange, monstrous roars, the guy couldn't pull back the fist caught in my tiny hand.
Kwajijik
When I applied force lightly, it crumbled into powder and scattered like a sandcastle on a beach.
"Kuaaaaaaaa!!"
"Yeah, yeah, c'mon in... Oh, you come too, you too."
Unlike back with the goblins, whether it was because the golems' cognitive abilities were much lower,
even when their fellow golem got smashed to pieces and turned into powder, they ignorantly charged straight at me.
Of course,
even as those giant bodies leaped at me menacingly, I wasn't scared in the slightest.
"Hahahahahahaha. Right! C'mon in! Hahaha."
Swoosh
Bang
Kwajijijik
It was a relief that I was the only person in the tower.
If anyone else had seen this sight of me laughing like a madman while obliterating golems,
it would have been pretty embarrassing...
However,
how could I stop the laughter that kept leaking out?
The tower,
the tower that used to be my workplace and a place that could kill me at any moment,
had now turned into a playground.
<You have completed clearing the 27th floor of the Tower of Trials.>
Huh? Already?
I was so busy playing around that I didn't even realize I had killed all ten of them.
If I put just a bit of force into a leap, I soared as high as a high-rise apartment building,
and if I tapped them lightly, the golems burst like balloons poked with needles...
The last guy even broke when I just gave him a finger-flick...
"Of course it'll be SS rank, right? No... did it take too long because I played around too much? Haaah."
[Clear Rank: SS]
Kheu.
Fortunately, it seems my playing around didn't take that much time.
Clear rank can only be received during the first clear of each floor, so if SS rank didn't pop up again, I would've been a bit disappointed...
"Now, now, bring out the reward, reward. Hey Tower, you didn't forget the reward, right??"
It was a relief that there was no one around to look strangely at the crazy guy talking to the tower...
Soon after,
You have obtained 3 'X2 Potions' as a reward.
X2 Potion.
Snap
What kind of consumable is this...
"Haaah, what is this..."
The reward that came out was just a potion?
I couldn't hide my disappointment.
"Man, I worked my ass off doing hard labor, and you give me a damn potion as a reward? Dirty cheapskates, ptui."
After spitting phlegm onto the 27th floor, which I would never re-enter, I was kicked out of the tower.
"Sigh... I was trying to earn some money..."
Even though I was someone who had come out after excitedly playing around rather than doing labor... still, potions were a bit too much.
Haaah.
In an unpleasant mood, I opened my inventory, pulled out the potion, and read the description.
[X2 Potion]
- All stats increase by double for 30 minutes.
Huh?
Even as I read the overly simple one-line description, questions arose in my mind.
The Tower of Trials.
Items with special effects only activate those effects inside the Tower of Trials.
The player's stats are the same.
Therefore, no matter how extraordinary a player might be, outside the tower, they are just an ordinary civilian #1.
They can open their inventory to pull out items, but since the items' effects don't work, they are no different from ordinary deadly weapons or blunt objects.
However,
potions—or more accurately, potions.
Potions, and potions alone, were usable outside the tower as well.
That was precisely why the price of Healing Potions had skyrocketed through the roof,
and why I had eaten so many cold glares just for gulping down a few potions back then...
"But... a 2x Potion? What is this?"
It was a potion I had never seen before.
I thought potions were strictly Healing Potions, but a potion that doubles your stats?
"......Isn't this kind of broken?"
Let me think about it.
Suppose a national track and field athlete runs 100 meters in under 10 seconds; an ordinary adult male would run it in 14 seconds at best, right?
But... if you chug this potion, wouldn't an ordinary adult male be able to run it in 7 seconds for 30 minutes?
Of course, I'd have to check whether it's usable only by players or by ordinary civilians as well like the Healing Potion, but
this potion was an item with potentially infinite versatility beyond expectations.
Also,
Even the Sage's Necklace, which only had Mana attached to it, rented for such a high price,
so an ability that doubles all stats for 30 minutes?
"Maybe this... will sell for a fucking insane price...?"
My eyes began to glisten with greed.
"Director-nim!!!!!!"
"What is it again... Please, stop yelling."
"Floor 27! An SS-rank clear server-wide announcement just popped up!!"
"Haaah..."
Director Kim didn't even have the energy left to be surprised.
It was the third time.
Following Floor 25, then Floor 26 and 27...
He didn't know how much more he'd have to hear this news, but Kang Seojin... that guy was already a star player receiving the entire nation's attention.
Of course, the fact that Kang Seojin was the SS-rank clearer was a secret known only to a few inside the Bureau, but
the fact that a tremendous player had emerged had become a known fact not just to domestic players, but to the entire public.
_Domestic Player Gallery
(Breaking News) Floor 27 SS-Rank Clear server-wide announcement popped up
└ Is this real life...
└ Holy shit, now I'm starting to get scared
└ No, like, he stayed quiet from Floor 1, then what the hell happened starting from Floor 25?
└ Wasn't he originally a total scrub? Did he get some insanely awesome item somewhere? kekeke
└ I'm telling you, a single item can't do that all of a sudden... Civilians' logic is seriously something else...
└ "Civilians" my ass. What, are you a player? How many actual players do you think are in the Player Gallery? kekeke
└ Everyone, that's not what's important. 21 hours and 30 minutes have elapsed since Player Kang Taeseok entered Floor 63... South Korea might not have a next year at this rate...
"Five-Spice Beef is served!"
Instead of a part-time server, the chef himself came out to set down the food.
The man grinning ear to ear with a wide smile was likely not a hired chef, but the owner.
"Is this Five-Spice Beef?"
"Yes, customer! Is something wrong? The smell? Ah, should I remake it for you right away?"
"No, no! It's not that... It's my first time ordering it, so I was just asking because I didn't know it looked like this."
Why is he offering to remake it without even asking questions or arguing...
Looking at the overly polite chef-owner, I glanced down at the food set out on the table before me.
He explained something about the most expensive baijiu, but I couldn't even remember its name,
and the Chinese dishes laid out so heavily that the table legs were buckling were hard to even count.
It might actually be harder for him not to be polite.
A tiny neighborhood Chinese restaurant with only two tables had seemingly never taken a customer ordering this many luxury dishes before.
"By the way, customer... are you dining alone?"
The chef-owner asked carefully so as not to offend me.
"No, one more person is coming."
Hardly had I finished speaking
when the small entrance door opened, and a small-statured male wearing a black hat and a black mask walked in.
"Hello."
"Yes, hello."
This man.
He was the guide who had led me to the black market after running into me previously at the Player Management Bureau's trading center.
Sharp eyes that didn't match his small physique.
He was someone who gave off a somewhat rough vibe.
"Why so much..."
Looking at the food spread out before me, I could see those sharp eyes widen for a split second.
"Ah, I'm practicing spending money. Have some."
"I'm... fine... slurp..."
Eyes don't lie; though the mouth said it was fine, both eyes were scanning the magnificent spread of food laid out on the table.
"We might be working together often in the future, so a meal together is fine, right?"
I had judged that requesting item listings directly at the black market every time was a dangerous act that could expose my identity.
I was just about to request item sales through this man, whom I had at least become acquainted with through the Sage's Necklace affair, when—
"Ahem... then I won't stand on ceremony."
Uh...
She's a woman...
The moment the mask came off, the revealed face was a youthful face that didn't match those sharp eyes at all. Moreover, a woman.
She was definitely a woman.
No wonder the voice had sounded so strange.
I felt guilty for making wild assumptions that maybe her voice box was injured during puberty.
Ahem...
Since black market work was back-alley business after all, hiding the fact that she was a young woman was probably for the best.
However, in front of me, whom she already recognized as quite a big shot due to the Sage's Necklace incident,
she seemed to have gathered the courage to take off that mask.
"Hmm... Ahem..."
She seemed to nibble tentatively while reading the room, but soon made up her mind and began inhaling the dishes like a storm.
"Mmm... Uh, listen while eating. I think I'll have many items to request in the future, so you just need to get the best possible conditions and price for the items I request. Whether to sell or not after hearing the price and terms is something I'll decide each time... Are you listening to me?"
Chewing food so hard her cheeks looked ready to burst like a squirrel's, she nodded her head.
"Ahem... Anyway! The most important thing is that my identity isn't revealed, and mmm... contacting like this is only with you... No, listen comfortably. Let's talk after you finish eating..."
Watching her sweep through the food frantically like someone who had starved for days, no, weeks, I turned my head to watch the TV.
—This is a breaking news report. Player Kang Taeseok, the number one ranked player who entered the tower to clear Floor 63, has not come out for 23 hours. Player Kang Taeseok, as the sole player who cleared Floor 62 of South Korea's Tower of Trials, in order to delay the collapse timeframe of the Tower of Trials by another 6 months...
Huh? It seems like some big trouble has broken out...
"Munch munch munch Mmm...! Smack... Nom!"
Because of the woman's food fight sitting across from me, the news didn't register well in my ears.