The Second Floor Is Too Suspicious (1)
The Second Floor Is Too Suspicious (1)
[You have entered Floor 2.]
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a stone fountain.
A large plaza. A fountain at the center. Countless alleys radiating from the plaza in a tight maze.
At the center of the circular fountain, two cute baby angels aimed their bows at each other. The streams of water shooting from the tips of their bows intersected in midair, creating a beautiful color.
Beside the fountain, an angel had set up a large wooden board and was speaking passionately. Three or four men in brown clothing were nodding along repeatedly as they listened.
"...Hm."
I shifted my gaze and looked around. A city in a medieval fantasy style came into view. Houses made of wood. Floors paved with stone. Small alleys. A blue sky, and countless people.
I had woken up in the middle of a medieval city.
"..."
I scanned the area with a slight sense of tension, but nobody paid me any attention—they were all busy going about their own business.
Come to think of it, the texture against my skin felt a bit odd.
"...My clothes changed?"
I was now wearing a full leather set—leather top and bottom, leather protective gear, and leather boots—rather than my familiar modern clothing. Visually, anyone would call it a 'beginner set.'
I'd been wearing jeans and a hoodie when I entered the portal, so it seemed my clothes had automatically changed when I came in.
My phone, which had been in my pocket, was also gone... meaning that when you enter Floor 2, all of your possessions seem to disappear.
"...But this is still here."
I take that back. Almost all of my possessions disappeared. The 'Berserker's Pill' I'd shoved in my pocket was still with me.
Items from Earth can't be brought in, apparently... but items obtained in the Tower can be carried to the next floor.
I was mulling over whether I could find a way to use this when I sensed someone behind me, and before I knew it, I'd dodged.
"...Huh?"
A large black man was frozen in place, his hand still positioned as if he'd been about to touch my shoulder. It didn't look like he'd intended to harm me, but I'd trained hard at dodging and my body had reacted on instinct.
"...Man, you've got some quick moves."
The black man scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Like me, he was wearing the full leather set. The people in front of the fountain—and plenty of others I spotted around us—were dressed the same way, so this gear seemed to be handed out to every player by default.
"Well, anyway."
The man stopped scratching his head and broke into a wide grin, showing off his bright white teeth.
"Hey, buddy—you just got summoned, right? I saw you appear out of thin air. I think I was about ten seconds ahead of you. My name's David Trout. Good to meet you."
"..."
He extended his hand for a handshake, but I didn't feel the need to take it.
If this black man suddenly decided to start a dominance contest and put some real force into his grip, I might regress. I mean, he looked like he was about two meters tall.
"Not into touching, huh? My bad, my bad. Should've been more considerate."
Even though I didn't shake his hand, David brushed it off with a cheerful laugh.
He was speaking to me in fluent Korean, but when I looked carefully, the shapes his mouth was making didn't match the voice. Probably some auto-translation magic, one of those convenient features the Tower has.
"Thing is... I was gonna suggest we team up for the time being. Has your stage objective popped up yet?"
"...No."
"Same here. You'd think they would've told us by now. If this were an online game, it would've shut down ages ago. Man, that's some serious lack of user-friendliness."
David shook his head and chattered on. Even from that brief conversation I could tell—this black man was an incredible social butterfly. And I'm the type of outsider who gets completely drained when I'm around social butterflies.
"Hey, buddy. Where you going?"
"...Away."
I left David, who kept trying to continue the conversation, and walked over to the angel who'd been speaking passionately beside the fountain.
"You understand, right? All you need to do is bring back a badge!"
The men who'd been listening to the angel had just finished receiving their explanations and were scattering off in different directions.
"Ah, welcome! Climber! Welcome!"
"..."
Just like David, the angel radiated insane energy and bounced excitedly on the spot.
"You've been through a lot, haven't you? Phew, I have no idea what the guy who designed Floor 0 was thinking. I mean, didn't they basically design it just to kill everyone? And that's coming from another angel, mind you!"
"..."
"But you can relax! Archangel Raphael, who oversees Floors 1 through 5, loves humans! We would never force you into a situation just to kill you!"
The angel beamed and clapped both hands together.
Immediately, a familiar message window appeared before my eyes.
<Floor 2>
-Clear Condition: Gain the acknowledgment of the city's Residents and bring back a badge proving that acknowledgment to clear the floor. However, you must not leave the city area. Climbers, get along well with each other!
-Clear Reward: Depends on the badge's grade.
"Ohh..."
The black man, David, who had come up behind me without my noticing, let out an exclamation. The only problem was that hearing his reaction only made the angel even more energetic.
"If you go to a Resident, each one will give you an appropriate task! In modern terms, you'd call it a quest! So anyway, just clear the quest and come back here with your badge, and—!"
Pop! Pop!
The angel smacked the wooden board beside them with an open palm.
"That's this floor cleared! And as a bonus, you can choose one reward for each grade! What's more, the rewards are delivered safely after you move to Floor 1! No risk of them getting stolen, either! Truly, you get both the goose and the golden egg!"
"...?"
Was that actually a proverb?
In any case, the wooden board listed four Badge Grades—Bronze / Silver / Gold / Platinum—but I decided I'd read the details later.
"Archangel Raphael loves you humans! You only need to do one thing! Effort! Unending self-improvement! To envision a better future—that is the very essence of humanity! Show us what you're capable of!"
"Oooohhh!!!"
Clapclapclapclapclap!
Leaving behind the angel, now completely carried away by a passionate speech, and David, the black man clapping wildly with exaggerated emotion, I decided to explore the plaza around the fountain a bit more.
For starters... just as the angel had said, if the Archangel truly loved humans, there were no signs of any direct threat. The thing I was most wary of was a situation where I couldn't leave the entrance and would be stuck in an infinite regression loop... but that didn't seem like it would happen here.
Of course, I couldn't afford to get complacent. For all I knew, if I went into an inn and tried to sleep, people might suddenly transform at night.
And... looking around, I could see potential ways to exploit the rules if someone were so inclined.
I could feel eyes on me from every direction.
I did my best to ignore the stares and picked up my pace.
The place I was heading was the same spot the men who'd just received the angel's explanation had gone. They were reading a large poster plastered onto one side of the plaza. Even though the text was in English, I could read it without any trouble.
<We recommend you obtain a Bronze or Silver badge and then exchange it for a potion. On Floor 1, it is possible to duplicate items you already possess. Naturally, consumables are far more valuable. If you gain the ability to heal infinitely, you will be able to train far more aggressively. Please make good use of Floor 1. —M.Z.>
"I see... So this is the rumored M.Z..."
"As expected of M.Z..."
"...?"
The men chatting as they looked at the poster were all white. At first I thought I'd misheard what they were saying.
But when I saw the scrawled signature at the bottom of the poster, it clicked. Who else could M.Z. be? ...Michael Jeter?
"...Michael Jeter?"
It was unmistakably Michael Jeter, the man who would later be lauded as America's greatest player. This was the guy who held the fate of my coin in his hands, so I remembered his name clearly.
"Oh, you know him too? I thought he was only known in the American community... You Eastern folks are quick on the uptake."
A middle-aged white man turned his head to look at me.
"...There's already a community?"
"Hm? Of course. It's not an official community, but... ordinary people can't hear what we're saying anyway, can they?"
America already had an unofficial climber community in place, he said. Actually, now that I thought about it, Korea probably already had one, too. The precursor to PlayerNet was likely already up somewhere on the web.
"...He's telling us to stock up on potions."
Michael Jeter was advising people to acquire potions first—which meant he'd probably run the same experiment I had.
What Michael Jeter was recommending was a 'potion training method.' Train like crazy until the muscles all over your body are torn, then gulp down potions and heal. That was the method he laid out.
"...Smart guy."
If I didn't have a body that regressed whenever I got hurt, I would've trained the same way Michael Jeter had. Muscles get significantly tougher as they repair the tears.
But to me right now, it was nothing more than useless advice. When my muscles get torn too badly in the first place, I regress. What's the point of super-regeneration? My fate was to grow stronger purely by raising my stats.
"Well, time to..."
I was just about to explore the city to get a feel for the quests.
"Hah, hah..."
"...?"
A woman with a large golden symbol floating above her head was sprinting madly toward the plaza from inside a narrow alleyway.
"Huff, huff!"
Her stats must have been decent, because she was running at a fairly fast pace.
"And where are you off to?"
Three men who'd been waiting nearby blocked the alley entrance with their bodies, forcing her to stop.
"..."
There wasn't any violence. She didn't seem to be using an ability, either.
They were simply blocking the alleyway with their bodies.
What's more, the men blocking the path... had incredibly sloppy stances. They definitely weren't strong fighters.
Judging from the performance the woman had just shown, it looked like she could simply jump over the men with a high leap or push her way through by force, but...
"...What do you want."
Instead of using violence, the woman started negotiating.
Watching that little farce play out, I was certain of one thing.
<Floor 2>
-Clear Condition: Gain the acknowledgment of the city's Residents and bring back a badge proving that acknowledgment to clear the floor. However, you must not leave the city area. Climbers, get along well with each other!
-Clear Reward: Depends on the badge's grade.
Climbers, get along well with each other.
On Floor 2, violence is prohibited.