God of Controls' One-Coin Clear: Tower of the Dead (2)
The synchronization rate of the virtual reality game Dantalion was 99%. Naturally, though, that didn't mean every single event inside the game was experienced with full 99% realism.
Given the game's concept, severed limbs were an everyday occurrence. If pain feedback weren't properly regulated, it would have caused absolute nightmares.
The developers had naturally created a system that would block sensations whenever an in-game impact was predicted to have a meaningful negative effect on the user.
The problem began right there.
Because Yoon Taeyang was exposed to every single one of those meaningful negative effects.
Hyeonhye was worried about it.
And Yoon Taeyang had dismissed her concern with a single blunt sentence.
Bam!
Yoon Taeyang's knee obliterated the skeleton's facial bones.
He didn't bask in the achievement. He moved instantly.
There were still plenty of skeletons waiting their turn.
"This feels like a championship fan meeting...!"
Yoon Taeyang ducked low.
Whoosh.
The heavy sound of a bone sword slicing through the air passed overhead.
While bent over, he rolled forward.
Boom!
Another skeleton's kick slammed into the spot he'd just vacated.
The aggressive movement created an opening in the skeleton formation.
Yoon Taeyang slipped through like a shadow.
Bam! Bam!
Two punches. Two skeletons crumbled into dust.
Hyeonhye's puzzled voice rang out from the stream.
"This is weird. This isn't how the game is supposed to go..."
It really was strange.
The way Yoon Taeyang played Dantalion looked absurdly easy.
"You know me, right? Didn't you believe in me? Seriously?"
Once he broke free of the tight formation, Yoon Taeyang went wild like a fish in water.
He deflected a diagonally slashing bone sword with the back of his hand, stepped in, and drove a straight punch into a jaw.
Without losing momentum, he advanced while lowering his upper body.
Whoosh.
Another skeleton's fist grazed past his head.
He straightened up and unleashed a powerful uppercut.
Hyeonhye clamped a hand over her own mouth, afraid her gasp might leak through the mic.
He shifted his center of gravity with a single step to evade a sword thrust aimed at his waist, smoothly parried the extended arm, and checked the next skeleton closing in from the opposite side.
The third-floor staircase, which had seemed so far away, was now right in front of him.
"Easier than I expected."
It wasn't that the Tower of the Dead was easy. Yoon Taeyang was simply a monster.
With room to breathe, he began weaving left and right, smashing skeleton jaws one after another.
Bam. Bam.
Normal players needed three people working together just to hold their own. Even users confident in their physical abilities couldn't relax when using an unadjusted basic character against these skeletons.
Yet under Yoon Taeyang's fists, that very same group of skeletons was crumbling like dry cookies.
About ten minutes later.
Bam.
The last skeleton fell.
"I'm finally getting a feel for it."
Having perfectly grasped the difference in character feel between King of Fist and Dantalion, Yoon Taeyang swept his hair back.
The back of his fist was glowing bright red from how many skulls he'd punched.
Amid the scattered remains of skeletons, Yoon Taeyang lifted his head with a cocky tilt.
Then he grinned.
"I told you I'd fly through this, didn't I?"
Hyeonhye didn't answer.
Yoon Taeyang could easily imagine her expression.
She was probably staring at the screen with her mouth wide open and eyes bulging in pure shock.
Ah, it was a shame he'd missed capturing that moment.
That kind of face was only fun when he could tease her in person.
When he climbed the stairs to the third floor, the Demon King Dantalion was waiting for him.
Three doors stood behind the demon.
Clap, clap, clap.
Dantalion applauded while holding a cigarette between his lips.
The red-covered book he'd been carrying floated gently in the air.
Seeing him like this, Dantalion really did belong in the fantasy genre.
True to his title of Ten Thousand Changes, Dantalion altered his appearance every time he manifested.
Sometimes a middle-aged gentleman, sometimes a beautiful young woman.
This time, it seemed he'd chosen one of the top-tier beautiful forms.
At least, that's what Hyeonhye's reaction suggested.
Hyeonhye had answered as if she were on her own stream before catching herself with a startled "Ah!" and covering her mouth.
Hyeonhye's popularity, Dantalion's trending status, and Yoon Taeyang's gameplay. The combination of these three factors had caused the viewer count to skyrocket exponentially.
Regardless of what the chat was doing, Yoon Taeyang frowned as he looked at Dantalion.
The way the demon was smirking slyly really got on his nerves.
"Player Taeyang. You continue to surprise me. None of the recent ascension ceremonies I've witnessed have left such a strong impression."
"Ah, well."
Despite Yoon Taeyang's obvious displeasure, Dantalion maintained his smile and continued.
"You have overcome the first floor of the Dimensional Labyrinth. As you can see, there are three doors before you. Each leads to a different trial. Which one will be easier or more difficult, even I cannot say."
They were a blue door, a green door, and a yellow door.
Thanks to his prep session with Hyeonhye, Yoon Taeyang already knew what each door meant, but he listened quietly.
"The blue light signifies reinforcement. Passing through that door will allow you to face the next trial with slightly enhanced physical stats. Of course, the reinforcement effect only lasts for the next floor."
As Hyeonhye had mentioned earlier, the numbers were quite meaningful.
Barring any major issues, this was the door most players chose.
"The green light signifies recovery. If you sustained injuries during the trial, entering the green door would be the wise choice. Though in your current state, having taken no damage, it would be a meaningless selection."
Without major issues, it usually meant injuries.
Large and small wounds were common during trials.
Because of that, the recovery door was chosen just as often as the reinforcement door.
"Finally, the yellow door signifies gold coins. If you are overflowing with confidence and require no reinforcement, and have sustained no injuries whatsoever, it becomes a viable option."
The gold coin door was one players avoided like the plague.
"Gold coins are currency used in the Dimensional Labyrinth's rest areas. They are also widely accepted across all dimensions. You can give gold coins to the bartenders or merchants residing in the rest areas to purchase 'cards.' Oh! You can also trade with other players."
Listening to Dantalion, gold coins sounded incredibly useful.
In reality, buying 'cards' allowed players to create 'synergies.'
However, the reason people avoided the gold coin door was simple.
The amount of gold coins obtained from the gold door was pathetically small.
While bartenders and merchants in the rest areas sold cards in 100-gold increments, the gold coin room only gave around 10 gold.
Even if someone diligently chose the gold coin door every time, they would only be able to buy a single card by the tenth floor.
In that case, veterans judged that entering the reinforcement door for stable stats and aiming for performance rewards and achievements was far more efficient.
Yoon Taeyang nodded indifferently.
Dantalion revealed a charming smile.
"Reinforcement, recovery, or gold coins. Which door will you choose?"
Creak!
The doorknob Yoon Taeyang grabbed was yellow.
The reason was simple.
Reinforcement and recovery disappeared, but gold coins remained.
Thud!
The golden door closed, and letters were engraved on the opposite side.
[1-1 Tower of the Dead: Defeat the skeletons and reach the top of the Tower of the Dead. - Pass]
The text engraved on the stone slab appeared identically in Yoon Taeyang's system window.
"Whoa! Three achievements!"
Achievements.
Dantalion did not support a stat system.
Instead, a character's physical abilities improved by the number of achievements earned.
Here, physical abilities referred to strength, agility, stamina, and mana manipulation.
There wasn't a meaningful difference between one and two achievements, or one and three.
But once the numbers stacked up to ten or twenty, the story changed completely.
By the latter half of the twentieth floor, the gap between players with many achievements and those without was like the difference between an adult and a child.
"Is that a lot?"
On top of that, of the three who had achieved three accomplishments on the first floor, two of them currently held the highest floor records in Dantalion.
In the mid-game, rankers would occasionally pull three or more achievements on a given floor.
That was only after their growth had gotten on track and the situation on that floor supported it.
Yoon Taeyang simply smirked.
Having pulled such a record on his first game and first stage without even realizing how good it was, Hyeonhye and the viewers were the ones losing their minds.
Whoosh.
Yoon Taeyang rolled his shoulders in circles.
The feeling of mysterious power settling into his body wasn't bad at all.
As he walked forward with steady steps, the surroundings brightened and a system window appeared.
[1-2 Maze, Prison: Find the key, unlock the door, and enter.]
[Time Limit: 30:00]
Waaaaaaaaah!
Uwaaaaaaaaaah!
Yoon Taeyang's first impression.
It was an incredibly noisy place.
The disgusting stench of sweat and blood mixed together assaulted his nose.
Hyeonhye sounded devastated.
Among the 1-2 stages, the Maze, Prison was one of the most notoriously difficult.
Yoon Taeyang looked around.
Centered around a straight corridor, iron bars lined both sides densely, and inside them countless prisoners were screaming.
Keys were scattered all over the corridor floor.
There were so many that it was impossible to tell which key belonged to which cell.
Rumble!
The dark corridor Yoon Taeyang had walked through disappeared, and guards appeared.
"An escaped prisoner! Catch him!"
[1-2 Maze, Prison: Find the key, unlock the door, and enter.]
[Time Limit: 29:54]
Yoon Taeyang asked while running.
"The keys on the floor?"
Yoon Taeyang ran frantically.
True to its name as a maze-like prison, there were many branching paths, allowing him to easily shake off the guards.
"First, pick up the keys on the floor. You can't stay in one place too long."
The prisoners were not basically on the player's side.
They loudly informed the guards of the player's location.
Among the 1-2 stages, the one with the worst reputation was precisely this 'Maze, Prison' stage.
With limited time and constant interference, razor-sharp judgment was essential.
The clear strategy for the 'Maze, Prison' stage was simple.
Find a friendly NPC among the prisoners, free them, and while they fight the guards, collect keys and search for the correct door.
The problem was that this stage was also designed with the assumption that multiple users would be progressing together.
Hyeonhye bit her lip.
In this part, she had no choice but to trust Yoon Taeyang.
At that moment, a man appeared on screen.
Unlike the other prisoners, he wasn't shouting, and his eyes looked calm.
Most importantly, there were red lines across his body as if he'd been whipped recently.
Evidence that he'd recently clashed with the guards.
The probability that he was a friendly NPC was high.
Hyeonhye grabbed her mic.
"Gather all the keys on the floor right now and free the prisoner at the three o'clock position. One of them should work."
Clatter clatter.
There were five or six cells nearby. About ten keys in total.
Clank. Clank.
When Yoon Taeyang unlocked a door, the prisoners screamed.
"Over here! Over here! This bastard is freeing prisoners! He's only freeing everyone but me!"
"Shut up! I'll free you if you wait!"
Yoon Taeyang frowned and shouted back, but the prisoners only screamed even louder.
Clank. Clank.
The fifth key was also a failure.
Click.
"It's that side!"
Along with the guard's appearance, the door opened.
The scene of yet another prisoner escaping was pure pandemonium.
"Die!"
Flash.
The moment the prisoner with the red lines opened his eyes,
a guard thrust a spear toward Yoon Taeyang.