Chapter 179 - [Tower of Lust, Floor 46] Enter the Knights of the Gold Sun, NTR, and Hypnosis

[Tower of Lust — Floor 45]

"…What's this about taking her in?"

"No, it's nothing. My mouth got ahead of me."

I swallowed the rest of what I'd been about to say—any further and it would have turned into me running down her own mother, Lee Soyeon. As if on cue, the subject changed itself; Ian jabbed a finger at our surroundings.

"Relax. This is a safe floor. Nobody's going to ambush us here like they did downstairs."

"This is a safe floor? Did your eyes get knocked crooked or something?"

"It's true. Even I have a hard time believing it, but there you have it."

Floor 45 was one colossal industrial complex. Pipes tangled overhead like a labyrinth, conveyor belts ran on past the edge of sight, and scrap metal and raw materials lay strewn at every turn.

Unarmed and dressed in nothing but V-slingshots, the Legion of Evil strutted about without a shred of shame, legs spread wide as they planted their front paws one after another.

"Heave-ho! Come on, everyone, put your backs into it!"

"No slacking! We've got today's quota to meet!"

"One, two! One, two!"

"Move those materials, haul those supplies—double time!!"

"The enemy has broken through!"

"For the Brainwashing Pussy Empire!"

"We have to work hard too, for the comrades fighting on the floors below!"

Beauties in pervert costumes were hard at labor, crates balanced across their shoulders. And the truly strange part? Every last one of them wore the exact same face.

"Anyone with eyes can see it's a staging ground built for invading the surface. That's not just my imagination, right?"

"I thought the same thing at first."

When I asked why we couldn't simply smash the whole place, Ian drew a document from her item pouch and read from it.

"According to the report, the goods produced here aren't used for war alone."

"Then what?"

"Daily necessities, home appliances, things like that—everything they manufacture here gets shipped out and distributed to the other safe floors."

My eyebrows rose at the unexpected piece of intelligence.

"Hold on. So floor 15, the one where Rhea lived—all the building materials, the beds, the furniture, everything and then some, came out of here!?"

"Yep. All of floor 45 doubles as the industrial zone, and every floor profits from the arrangement. As you know, we've signed agreements with each of the safe floors, so we do our best not to rub them the wrong way."

"Because if we attack this place, every floor takes the damage?"

"Damage wouldn't even begin to cover it. Without the goods that come out of here, no floor could go on living normally."

The two of us took to the sky once more. Rail lines and conveyor belts stretched in an endless procession toward the horizon—a world built of scrap iron and machinery, one for which the word "otherworld" might have been coined.

"Just how much land are we talking here?"

Don Quixote drew a survey map back when she was still active. She said it's roughly the size of an entire nation."

…What kind of nonsense was that?

"You're telling me they committed a landmass that size entirely to industrial facilities?"

"There's even a facility that generates energy in exchange for carnal desire. They're producing power beyond anything humanity would consider sane, so I'd rather leave the place alone if we can manage it."

Every industry imaginable, gathered together across a stretch of land measured in nations. And on top of that, new technology that converted lust itself into energy? When you considered that human beings spent their entire lives steeped in carnal appetite, there was no finer fuel source in existence.

"No wonder they'd call the thing a tower of gold—every time a floor opens, some new marvel of civilization comes spewing out. It's fucking ridiculous."

"Tell me about it. I can't even imagine how the world would change if we got our hands on all of this."

Still struggling to process the sheer, absurd scale of it, I floated along like an idiot until I dropped down where Ian did.

"There's no upside to lingering here. Even they don't want this place blown to pieces—they've parked the transfer point awfully close by. Let's move."

HOOOOOOOOONK!!!!!

The instant she finished speaking, a train came barreling in from the distance. How to put it… it had a certain classical charm, I suppose? An old-timey train entirely out of place in the modern age. I know nothing about locomotives, but even I could tell it was a steam engine—the kind a certain generation would get misty-eyed over.

'What, it's not stopping?'

The locomotive showed zero intention of halting at the platform where we stood; it clattered straight past, whipping up a ferocious wind. Half-suspecting we'd picked the wrong ride, I glanced sideways to find Ian crouched low, legs spread in a sprinter's stance.

"Jump!"

"We're riding THAT!?"

"Yep! Do not miss!"

Ian leapt first and I followed, staking out a spot in the very last freight car of the train. It felt like stowing away aboard a cargo car in some escape movie, and my heart was pounding.

"Ten minutes or so on this and we'll be there."

Just as she promised, the train we'd boarded was charging toward the pillar of light on the far side of the map. So this was how they ferried goods to every floor.

'Honestly, the more I learn about this place the less I understand it. What on earth is its internal structure, that it advanced this far?'

The scenery beyond the car walls shifted by the second. Succubi in numbers that made the lower floors look deserted flashed past in a blur. This floor was leagues safer than any other, and it needed hands—vast numbers of them. I'd assumed everyone here would be a brainwashed soldier, but the overwhelming majority were laborer succubi trudging around looking a great deal like Brigitte.

"You know something?"

"What?"

"Just like floors 15 and 25, this floor is also structured so that humanity can claim it."

"So there's an administrator here too, like the safe zones below?"

"Obviously. It would be stranger if a floor like this didn't have one."

Fair point. If anything, there ought to be more of them than on the floors below.

"The chief administrator of floor 45 was originally the gatekeeper guarding the 50th floor gate. Take down that gatekeeper, and floor 45 fell into our hands—that was the design."

Was.

All of it, a story of the past.

Before any of that could happen, the tower had sealed itself shut, and the rankers who once made their names had been captured instead.

"And the one guarding that gate right now is your mother. Which means we only take floor 45 if we take down Lee Soyeon—that's what you're saying?"

"That's exactly why I told you I'm losing my mind. I'm not even sure I could clear her alone, but I can't let anyone else find out, either. And on top of that, I didn't want to hurt my mom."

"What about Natalia?"

"If she learned any of this, she'd blackmail me with it, wouldn't she?"

That woman would have had plenty of blackmail to spare, too.

Which was how, by process of elimination, I ended up as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the one who got called.

"It's not like you could just beat her down. How were you planning to handle it?"

"Did you bring potions?"

At the word "potions," I caught on to exactly how she intended to clear the floor.

"But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of course. Used the potions to wipe out every girl down there before heading up."

"Wait, how? You carried that many?"

"Well, that part wasn't me—"

Before the locomotive crossed into the next floor, I gave her a rapid rundown of what had happened on floor 41: how Eunyoung had the Mechanic guild's experts rig the potions up like a sprayer, and how they'd cleared the floor with it.

"So your potions can be used that way too!? That's insanely effective! At that rate we could put the same trick to work on other floors!!"

"It wasn't even the undiluted stuff—a fine spray was enough to do the job. Your mother should be fine as well."

I handed over the bulk-sized potion I'd stashed in my item pouch. Ian stared at it for a long, meaningful beat, then spoke up awkwardly.

"Still… what if it doesn't work on her?"

"Then the two of us pin her down however we can, or I bust out my trump card. One way or another, we deal with it."

"You have a trump card?"

It hardly deserved the name. If even a potion denser than mist couldn't break the brainwashing, then the next step was pouring out the pure, undiluted stock. I dipped my chin just enough to glance down at my own crotch, loading the gesture with exactly that meaning.

"………."

"I'm not trying to sexually harass you, all right? It's just… really, really, I'd like you to keep it in mind as the very last resort…."

I stole a glance at her, bracing for an explosion. Sure enough, her eyes narrowed and the anger began to climb—then she shook her head and reeled herself back in.

"It's fine. Why do you think we brought you into the tower in the first place? We called you here precisely to take on this tower with the skill hanging between your legs. Thanks to you, we made it all the way here, starting with the clearing of floor 10. So how could I, of all people, flip out over your crotch?"

"Feels rich coming from me, but you're her daughter, Ian. Don't you think you're being a little too okay with this?"

"I know that. It's not like I don't understand your situation. You only got dragged into this because of our mess—Seongyeon practically forced you to come. And I know full well you hate having to say that kind of thing. How could I turn around and bite the hand after all that?"

Even with all of that factored in, her reaction was so magnanimous it startled me.

"You realize that if I screw this up right now, I've just announced I'm going to rape your mother, right?"

"I know. So you'd better engrave this on your brain, too."

"Engrave what?"

"That if anyone other than you had said the exact same words just now, I would have killed them on the spot."

……….

…And then she snickered.

For someone my own age, Ian was a genuinely patient, remarkably level-headed woman.

[Tower of Lust — Floor 46]

While we traded that sort of idle chatter, the train had, at some point, begun racing across a wilderness. We had reached the upper floor at a speed neither of us registered. Defensive lines stood scattered here and there across the wasteland, built to hold hunters back—and the sight of them made something pop into my head.

"That train just keeps climbing, right? So if we'd stowed away aboard it, couldn't we have ridden easy all the way to floor 50?"

"Nah, that won't fly~?"

"Huh?"

SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!

GROOOOOAAAN~!

"See? The second we leave a safe floor, this is what happens."

The train ground to a halt, the shriek of metal shredding our eardrums. The cargo stacked up front couldn't survive the sudden braking; it spilled, shattered, and raised all manner of hell.

But the commotion outside dwarfed whatever was happening in here, and I had the distinct premonition that enemies would come pouring in at any moment.

"What's the play?"

"Play? We just take to the sky again like before and shell them from above—"

That sentence was never going to reach its ending.

"Dieeeeee!!"

"You lackey of evilllll!!!!"

Someone outside flung the freight car door wide open and drove a blade straight at us. Watching that edge lunge in, I figured this was what the star of some lethal game of pirate roulette must feel like.

"Ghk!"

SHINK!

'Holy fuck, that scared me!'

Luckily, I managed to snatch the blade out of the air with my bare palm.

"Reloading! [Intermediate Alchemy (D)], twenty rounds! —Fire!!"

Through her skill, Ian transmuted the entire freight car into copper, liquefied the mass, and dumped it forward.

"GWAAAAAAH!!!"

"Damn it, so the ambush failed!"

"HOT, IT'S HOOOOT~!!"

Furiously boiling copper came pouring down over whoever had just planted a blade in our direction, gifting them a fresh scream. Whoever it was, the voice was male. For all the recklessness of the skill, it didn't seem to have dealt any meaningful damage.

"Changki!"

At Ian's command I leapt high, putting distance between us and the train. A blade out of nowhere—that wasn't how succubi came at you. Wondering what the hell had just crashed the party, I glared toward where the copper had been dumped.

"An alchemy skill, is it!"

"What a petty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠trick!"

"…Tch."

A hulking chunk of black iron emerged from the swamp of copper. Just as expected, not a single scratch on it.

"…Knights?"

"Black knights… so those are the ones from the reports!"

"What do you mean, reports!?"

"That's right. You had no idea these guys were going to show up, did you?"

Ian plainly knew something; I was nothing but bewildered. Full plate armor straight out of the Middle Ages. It was the exact same make of armor as the knights we'd met at every gate, but the black finish—and the fact that they were openly hostile toward us—promised nothing good.

"Wait, those guys are constellations!?"

"That's what I heard. Are they ones you know?"

I shook my head and answered that I had no idea who they were. While I stood there flustered, they came walking toward us, shaking the copper from their bodies, each drawing a blade and snapping into a crisp en garde.

And then, as a warning….

"…You're pretty popular, huh?"

"WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME, OF ALL PEOPLE!!!!!"

The knights' unfiltered feelings, broadcast straight through the system window. And with their inexplicable loathing, the commotion of the constellations had begun.