Full Speed Ahead
Player Headquarters. The Director's office.
Lately, the director — a man well advanced in years — had been racking his brain something fierce.
Baek Jinwoo.
Some deity who had appeared out of nowhere had steamrolled his way through the low-tier weekday dungeons, then the mid-tier record dungeons on top of them — and now, word was, he had conquered even the first floor of the Tower of Ordeal.
At a blistering pace, no less.
"Secretary."
"Yes, sir!"
"Why is there still no news? You still haven't gotten through to Baek Jinwoo?"
"W-well, you see..."
"If it can't be done, you make it done. You don't know that much? You clawed your way up to the director's secretary on the strength of your ability, and you can't handle one little thing like this?"
The secretary pulled an aggrieved face.
That old lecher. Sitting there without lifting a finger himself. And besides — how was anyone supposed to make the impossible possible in the first place?
She had tried every trick in the book since paying a visit to Baek Jinwoo in person last time. She'd reached out to Yubaek directly, and she'd even swallowed her pride and asked Park Chang-seok for help.
The answers that came back were all more or less the same.
"I'm sorry. He is a player under our banner, but we can't control him a hundred percent."
"Why'd you have to go and get on his bad side, hm? Back when he was offering to help, you people ignored him. It's out of my hands now — he's beyond anyone's control. There's an old saying, you know. Treat people well while you still have them."
Yoo Jia and Park Chang-seok. Both had made their refusal clear, each as tactfully as they could — and Assemblyman Park, in particular, had laced his refusal with a generous helping of sarcasm.
Left with no other option, she had gone back to Baek Jinwoo himself several more times.
"I'm sorry."
"Didn't I tell you last time? Go through Yubaek."
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry."
And then, eventually, no answer at all — just a raised hand and a soft whoosh, and he was gone.
Every time that happened, the pride she took in serving at the headquarters of the nation's most elite public corporation crumbled away a little more, like paint flaking off a wall.
What on earth did I ever do wrong?!
If she had done a single thing wrong, it was simply being the director's secretary. That one thing alone was steadily demolishing the self-esteem she had once held so high.
And in the middle of all this, the man had nothing better to offer than "if it can't be done, make it done." Good grief!
"There's something I'm curious about."
"Hmm? From you?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"Why do you keep obsessing over Player Baek Jinwoo? I'll grant he's the hottest name around at the moment, but he isn't a Ranker yet, nor is he a national team player. His weekday dungeon records are impressive, to be sure — but a player's true skill can't be judged on that alone."
It was a fair point. Just as there were players who specialized in dungeons, there were those who specialized in player-versus-player combat.
But the director shook his head and grinned.
"Kid, that's not what matters."
"Then what does?"
"He's handsome, that's what."
"...I beg your pardon?"
The secretary doubted her own two ears.
That was the whole reason? Player Baek Jinwoo was... ahem, certainly a rather fine-looking man, but even so. How on earth did that qualify as a reason to recruit him to headquarters?!
"A player, above all else, needs star quality. That's how the public comes to recognize his face — and the assemblyman standing beside him sees his own name value climb right along with it."
"...Hah."
So. In the end, it all came down to his own vote count, did it?
Typical. The National Assembly, the headquarters — these politician types were all cut from the same cloth.
"Shame the fellow's so heavy in the seat, though. Doesn't budge for anything."
"Are you finally giving up?"
It was just as the secretary's eyes began to gleam—
"Director!"
Bang! An employee threw open the door and hurried inside — one of the Tower of Ordeal administrative staff reporting directly to the director, and specifically one of the officers in charge of privacy-related information.
"What is it now?"
The employee shot a sideways glance at the secretary.
"She's fine. She's covered by the contract too."
Only those who had properly signed the confidentiality contract were permitted to share such information. Blab it to anyone else?
You would answer for it to the System's curse.
"W-well... Player Baek Jinwoo has conquered the Tower of Ordeal again."
"Oh, is that so? And here I thought it was something."
The director nodded, the very picture of a man who had seen it coming.
A player who had cleared floor 1 going on to clear floor 2 was hardly front-page news. The early floors of the tower were said to be much of a muchness, difficulty-wise, even if the later ones were not.
"Cleared floor 2, did he? How long did it take this time?"
"I-if it were only that, it would have come as a written report. I wouldn't have run all the way here myself."
"Hm? Then what?"
"H-he's cleared up to floor 9... And that was with less than an hour having passed since he entered. That's a speed that makes no sense — not just in this country, but anywhere in the world..."
"Huh?"
The secretary's jaw dropped.
"WHAT?!"
The director shot up out of his chair.
"Is that for real? He was still on floor 1 until yesterday!"
"We couldn't believe it either. When he came out after first entering floor 2, we naturally assumed he'd cleared floor 2 and saw him off — but when we checked the record room... there were entries of him clearing the floors all the way up through 9, one after another."
The Tower of Ordeal kept a record room on the outskirts of its first floor. Any user who cleared a floor left a record behind there.
"He'd smashed through floors 2 through 9 back to back. Without even stepping outside once."
"He's a complete madman."
The director's face flushed hot with excitement.
Floor 9 of the Tower of Ordeal? By the standards of Korea's Rankers, not even half of them had made it that far. Ranker standings were only tallied at the point the world league wrapped up early each year, which was the sole reason he wasn't on the list yet — but going by that record alone, Baek Jinwoo had, for all intents and purposes, already stepped into the Rankers' ranks.
"Hoo. So there was a reason he sat so heavy in that seat, hm?"
"...He's a remarkable man."
"Baek Jinwoo, that fellow... Now I want him all the more."
The secretary shook her head. Impossible was impossible, no matter how you went at it — and some things simply had to be admitted. Like the fact that they had held a raw gem in their hands and, failing to recognize it, treated it with disdain. If anything, Yoo Jia — the one who had seen its worth — was the impressive one.
There's only one move left.
Cast Lim Hee-su aside, and extend a hand to Park Chang-seok.
Not that she knew whether that old fossil had figured it out yet...
He probably has. A seat in the National Assembly wasn't some prize you won at a children's game.
But then again.
Flip the question around — would Assemblyman Park Chang-seok actually bother to take that hand?
Hard to say.
Her gut told her it would be a hard sell.
"Whew."
Baek Jinwoo stretched as he arrived home, and at the same time called out his summons — only the elite of the elite, his EX-rank trio: Ramba, Hungyo, and Pokryongi.
"Good work out there. You all take it easy today too. I'm running on empty."
With that, he flopped onto the sofa, spread-eagled, and was out like a light.
He'd pushed himself harder than he had in a long while. Floors 2 through 9 — he had blasted through them like a whirlwind, straight along the routes he already knew by heart.
Floor 2 was the mission to rescue a chief researcher who had fallen into danger after leaving the metropolis of Krom. Floor 3, escorting that same researcher to the outskirts of another metropolis, Helios. Floor 4, opening the hidden door that led down into the laboratory. Floor 5, purging the ghouls that had overrun the lab's interior.
Floor 6 was moving to the power plant to fix the blackout that had plunged the laboratory into darkness. Floor 7, sorting out the plant and reconnecting the severed lines. Floor 8, returning to the laboratory to assist the chief researcher's work. And floor 9 — learning of the existence of the ghouls' king, One-Eye (S-grade), reaching the conclusion that only by erasing that being could the massive ghoul outbreak be resolved, and fighting his way to One-Eye's very doorstep.
For a Baek Jinwoo who had already lived through every last bit of it, his advance had known no obstacles. He put every scrap of remembered information to use and ran without a second's rest.
And now only the finale remained. The battle with the final boss, One-Eye, waited just ahead.
And yet. One-Eye was nowhere within reach at his current strength. The runes, too, would need to be high-grade or better with their options properly stacked, and Pokryongi would have to grow further still. She needed to raise her Intelligence to shore up her damage output — and ideally, she'd master even the Byeon (Transformation) stage of Pokryongsul.
Still. Their growth rate had been nothing to sneeze at. Compared to the pace Jinugod had set back in Battle of Summoners?
Faster, obviously — not even a comparison.
Information and experience really were an absolute cheat code. If before it had felt like gingerly picking his way along a thorn-strewn path, now it was like tearing full-tilt down a smooth, open trail.
"Yaaawn! So we get to rest today? Hehe."
Stretching as she spoke, Ramba plopped herself down square on the chest of the sprawled-out Baek Jinwoo —
"And what, exactly, do you think you are doing?"
Hungyo's eyes flashed, cold and lethal.
"Eep?"
Startled out of her wits, Ramba carefully peeled herself off Jinwoo's chest and flitted up into the air.
"My Lord, my apologies. The training was never the problem — I should have started by teaching her manners."
"Ah, come on. I'm fine, really."
He genuinely was. It wasn't as if Ramba weighed anything — having her perched on his chest felt no different from a pet dog clambering up for a cuddle.
"No, My Lord. You have worked hard today. Please rest well. However — we cannot rest yet."
"Hyeeek?! What kind of bolt-from-the-blue nonsense is that?!"
Ramba flew into a fit.
On the other sofa, Pokryongi — until that moment resting in perfect comfort — felt her hands begin to tremble.
Oh, come on. Surely not. We just cleared that hardcore dungeon... back to back, no less — and now they want more training?
"Didn't you hear Jinwoo? He said we get to rest today too!"
"Ramba."
"What!"
"Floor seven. The power plant. When you were bringing down the giant ghoul, the size of your attack speed boost dipped a little. Why was that?"
"Ah, that was..."
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Ramba's back.
"And on floor eight, when you were finishing off the Ghoul Lord — three times, mid-fight, you stopped swinging your staff and rested. Didn't you?"
"Th-that's — why would you even keep track of that?!"
Ramba was flabbergasted.
Seriously, what the—! We were fighting for our lives out there, and he was tallying every single slip-up the whole time? What is he, a weirdo?!
"That's going too far! How is a fairy supposed to swing her staff all day long?!"
"Have you not considered that your selfish little thoughts could cost My Lord his life?"
"That's pure speculation! We could've taken down a Ghoul Lord even without my buffs!"
"My Lord will keep climbing the tower. The difficulty ahead will become harder by a whole different dimension. Will you be making these same mistakes then?"
Ramba had nothing. When your mistakes had been pinpointed that precisely, what argument was there left to make?
"And Pokryongi."
Hic!
Pokryongi, who had been dreading exactly this, jolted.
"Twice in the floor-five laboratory, once at the floor-seven power plant, twice along the roadside on floor nine. Your Pokryongpa missed, didn't it?"
"...Yes. I'm sorry."
Pokryongi bowed her head low, and she looked so heartbreakingly forlorn that Baek Jinwoo hardly knew where to put himself.
"Naturally, anyone can make a mistake. But to be aware of a mistake and still try to let it slide — that is a serious problem."
Two summons stood with their heads bowed, unable to offer a single word of protest.
"Hey, come on, all of you — that's enough."
In the end, it was Baek Jinwoo who stepped in.
"Hungyo. You're a problem too."
"...!"
"I told you to rest first, didn't I? Which matters more — training, or my orders?"
"Th-that... Naturally, My Lord's command comes first. I failed to think it through. My apologies."
Slightly flustered, Hungyo took a step back and bowed his head.
"That said, Hungyo isn't wrong either."
This time, Baek Jinwoo looked back and forth between Ramba and Pokryongi.
"Mistakes obviously have to be caught and dealt with. So rest today. Starting tomorrow, we'll focus on reinforcing all of it together."
They were already running fast enough. Try to boost beyond that, and the odds of something going wrong only climbed. A little relaxation was in order.
First things first. His body was fine, but mentally, things had been a grind lately. Get some sleep. Then, once he was up, he'd sort through the rewards. Floors 2 through 9 — eight rewards in total! He'd check them out tomorrow, while the kids trained.