5th Rank Ability User Promotion Ceremony? It's Not Some Kind of Favoritism, Right?
5th Rank Ability User Promotion Ceremony? It's Not Some Kind of Favoritism, Is It?
Still early dawn
After ultimately failing to defeat Seong-chan Oppa even with our combined efforts, Ju-ah Unnie and I left the host bar, promising to meet again another time, and returned to Daejeon.
"Well, I should get going to the assembly soon, so see you next time, Bo-rami~"
"Yes, Unnie. I'll message you on KeyTalk"
"Alright~"
Even though she must be tired too, since she drove me all the way to my place, I offered to have the driver drop by for some tea, but Ju-ah Unnie said she was entering the tower with her association colleagues in just 30 minutes and zoomed off.
"Will she be okay?...Sigh, why is a 5th-grader worrying about a 1st-class?"
Even by martial arts standards alone, she's a supreme master who has reached the pinnacle, and from what she says, it seems like she has special abilities beyond martial arts just like me. What's the point of a 5th-grader—who just became one yesterday—worrying about a 1st-class ability user?
"Anyway, I feel kinda lethargic...Ugh, this is so stuffy"
Whoosh-
After coming home and lying around blankly, the bra I was wearing felt stuffy, so while lying on the bed, I twisted my whole body and barely managed to take it off and throw it away.
"Women really have it annoying, how do they wear these things and go around..."
After throwing the bra into the corner of the room and lying down comfortably, a very important matter came to mind.
"Wait, more importantly, my internal energy! Un-gi Jo-sik!"
I hadn't converted any of the semen I received from the 4th-floor raid party members into internal energy at all.
"Aaaaah! What am I doing!"
On top of that, even though I temporarily turned back into a man to break the wooden staff Rio-nim gave me, I didn't even think about converting it into internal energy.
"Alright, first let's focus..."
If I delayed any longer, there was no telling when the absorbed semen might become growth resources for my female state, so I quickly turned back into a man, sat cross-legged right on the bed, and began Un-gi Jo-sik.
.
.
.
About 1 hour later
"It just feels like my battery capacity increased. It's not even comparable to Tyrone's time"
Even though it wasn't the first semen I received, on the last day I got large amounts from relatively high-ranking ability users, and even got semen from a new ability user named Seong-chan at the host bar last night, so I thought I'd feel some noticeable growth, but that wasn't the case at all.
'Did they call it a wall? They said it's a state that can't be reached simply by increasing internal energy'
"No, no"
After all that struggle, the thought that this was all the growth I achieved, and wondering when I might reach the pinnacle state, crossed my mind for just a brief moment, but even I thought that was quite shameless, so I shook my head to dismiss it.
"My stomach is full, it's definitely full"
Complaining about easily increasing internal energy that others would need to work their bones to the marrow for months, or even years, or consume incredibly valuable elixirs to barely raise—and most importantly...because I didn't think I struggled myself.
"Honestly, I enjoyed it...Sigh, what am I doing...no, what do I want to do..."
It was a morning where my thoughts deepened in various ways.
*
Seoul Tower vicinity, Korean Ability Users Association President's Office
Flutter-
"Hmm..."
Tap-
Flutter-
"Hmm..."
Tap-
Korean Ability Users Association President Go Taewook was alternately examining the 5th-grade ability user promotion documents in his hand while using his ability on himself several times.
"Strange. Really strange"
No, to be precise, it activated on its own.
'Feeling a sense of incongruity about the complete lack of incongruity...'
And the moment he sensed that, his ability 'Ability Nullification', which he had never failed to control even once in his entire life, activated on its own toward himself.
As if trying to protect him from some threat
"Just who is this woman..."
Tap-
"Just who is this man? Hmm..."
Kim Choi Han-gyeol, who was originally only meant to be a means to bind the special-class ability user candidate—and as expected, became a special-class ability user—Yoo Hye-eun to the association
Now renamed Yoo Han-gyeol, Go Taewook, who had been monitoring him with surprise since he entered the tower through a random entrance and became an ability user, couldn't help but be astonished to hear that he passed the 'Tower Climbing Permit Exam', effectively the 5th-grade ability user promotion exam, as an additional test.
'How did he coax that problem child into climbing the tower...'
He had deliberately appointed a supervisor who was obsessed with Yoo Han-gyeol's mentor and 1st-class ability user Shin Ju-ah, and even planted two landmines under the guise of exam helpers, yet he passed the exam, albeit with cutting it close—does that mean he has that much talent?
"Does he have that much..."
Tap-
"Does she have that much talent?"
No.
Thinking about it, if it was Yoo Bo-ram who uses Seduction Art, it would be fair, but under the supervisor—who says he likes Shin Ju-ah yet has constant woman problems—turning a blind eye, she might have skillfully seduced the other two with her beauty and cleared the 4th floor.
"...Hmm? Knowing that, why did I specifically assign 2nd-grade Cha Jin-wook..."
Tap-
"Haa~ I'm going to go crazy with this"
Feeling slight dizziness from his ability continuously activating on its own, Go Taewook unknowingly put down the documents that kept changing due to cognitive shifts and swept his hair back.
"Well, I can make as many excuses as I want"
Originally, he planned to use the retest failure as an opportunity to meet that...
Tap-
...that woman, pretending to show kindness by personally supervising the retest on another floor and meeting face-to-face, but he changed his mind.
"5th floor, right, anyway before going to other floors, I'll stop by the 5th floor first, so if she fails to clear it and comes out, I can meet her then to comfort her or something"
Tower 5th floor, which no one in the entire world has ever cleared
Although only single entry is allowed, despite there being no particularly dangerous elements anywhere, that floor remains uncleared, causing many of the tower's functions to be paralyzed.
One of the representative functions is the warp elevator that operates every 10 floors, which even ordinary people can use, not just the floor access points exclusive to ability users
'It's also why even now, ordinary people can't use any of the convenient facilities that operate every 10 floors'
Because of this, there was a past where Chinese ability users couldn't even climb the tower until one Chinese ability user long ago found the 6th floor through a random entrance.
This is also precisely why the Chinese Ability Users Association, whose overall ability user level still remains significantly low, holds considerable speaking power in the World Ability Users Association and maintains their own independent ranking system.
"If by any chance she clears the 5th floor, then I won't even need to make excuses to meet her—I'll have to go find her myself! Hahaha!"
Now that you've become 5th-grade, go up to the 5th floor and try to clear it
Just that level of meaning, the usual custom
Following what kids these days say, it's like the usual WWE thing, and Go Taewook also had no expectations whatsoever.
It was natural since it hadn't been cleared since the tower was erected.
Because naturally, no one would expect clearance of this absurd floor from an ability user who just became 5th-grade.
However...
***
"Ung...8 o'clock? Morning? No, it's evening..."
Eventually, after thinking too much and getting tired, I fell asleep until evening and only just woke up.
"...Should I just order something? Huh? Wow, what's with all these KeyTalk notifications?"
I still had plenty of money left from selling the hidden floor rewards, so when I opened my smartphone to order delivery food instead of cooking, there were tons of notifications on KeyTalk that had been quiet until recently.
[07:58] Ju-a Noona: Hey hey Han-gyeol
[07:58] Ju-a Noona: You asleep?
[07:59] Ju-a Noona: I'm in briefing but I'm bored
[07:59] Ju-a Noona: Play with me~~~ I'll show you my breasts if you play with me♡
[08:43] Ju-a Noona: What, are you really asleep?
[08:43] Ju-a Noona: Sleep well, dream of me! Noona is going to the tower!
Since I didn't turn them off, there were tons of notifications, but the sender was only one person: Ju-a Noona.
"Isn't she tired? Anyway, it automatically corrected to Noona...Huh?"
While about to reply to Ju-a Noona since I was hungry and checking her KeyTalk for a moment, one particular message caught my eye.
[16:12] Ju-a Noona: Whew~ Done for today too! As expected of me! Strong! Amazing!
[16:13] Ju-a Noona: Ah but Han-gyeol, when are you going to the 5th floor?
[16:13] Ju-a Noona: You are going, right?
"Ah right. Now that I'm 5th-grade, I guess I can experience the 5th-floor custom I've only heard about in rumors?"
[20:07] Yoo Han-gyeol: Sorry Noona, I just woke up
[20:08] Yoo Han-gyeol: And I'll go try the 5th floor tomorrow
After replying, I casually threw my smartphone on the bed and turned on the computer in the living room to immediately start gathering information.
"Tower 5th floor that no one has cleared—of course it'll be difficult for me too, but the challenge itself has meaning!"
Maybe it's because I've been feeling slightly disillusioned since becoming an ability user, as almost everything I've done involved turning into a woman and getting caught up in trouble?
Even though it hasn't been long since I became an ability user, my heart was pounding with excitement that I hadn't felt in what seemed like a very long time.
"It probably won't be much help, but I should research everything I can and save it on my smartphone to take with me"
And the information gathered through internet search sites consisted of hundreds of thousands, millions of riddles and the wrong answer sheets of people who had been to the 5th floor so far
Because Tower 5th floor was a floor that could only be cleared by solving riddles.