Choi Ji-won Is Too Strong (1)
Choi Ji-won Is Too Strong (1)
The core of my current plan is to draw her attention.
I have to keep the City Master's head spinning. I need to create an environment where she can't focus.
And if I want to rattle a City Master whose answer to everything is "bring it on," there's no better way than actually fighting her.
Obviously, I can't be the one to do it. One lightning bolt, and I'd regress. Fighting her myself was never an option.
But they say the mark of a great leader isn't being good at everything—it's knowing how to put the right person in the right role.
If I can't fight, I just need to find someone who can fight in my place.
And as far as I know, the strongest human who hasn't yet reached Floor 2 is Choi Ji-won.
The heartfelt conversation we once shared in the clearing still lingers in a corner of my chest, so I'm a little reluctant to face her, but... I don't have a choice.
I've got no alternative. What else am I supposed to do?
You're asking how I can just wait around with no idea when Choi Ji-won will show up? I have my reasons.
First of all, Floor 2 is extremely easy to hold out on.
Silver-grade residents, due to the enforcement, are diligent in their duties.
And maybe because there's nowhere to spend money, or because they lack the free will to spend it, they have little interest in wealth. The vast majority provide every service free of charge.
I've never been outside the city, but they say resources are staggeringly abundant... so I can understand why they feel no drive to demand payment.
What does that mean? It means you can eat for free.
Food? Just walk into any restaurant and eat.
Clothes? Walk into any clothing store, and they'll let you take whatever catches your eye.
Sleep? The city has an inn. Of course, with no transient population, no one comes or goes—the place is collecting dust—but it's there. If you want to sleep, you can sleep.
The whole environment is optimized for waiting it out. If this were a life-threatening hellhole like the Tutorial, I wouldn't have dared to sit around waiting for Choi Ji-won either.
As I ran the plan through my head, it felt flawless.
Two months from now, Choi Ji-won would succeed in climbing to Floor 10.
That meant, at the very latest, she'd enter Floor 2 within a month. I wasn't looking at a years-long wait.
"Alright, then..."
I settled into a corner of the clearing, crouched down, and began watching the people being summoned.
When are you coming, Choi Ji-won?
If possible... I'd really appreciate it if you hurried.
"..."
The sun was starting to set.
There was still no sign of Choi Ji-won. The only useless information I'd gleaned was that mostly East Asians were summoned during the daytime, and the proportion of Westerners increased as the hours passed.
Probably because time zones are different depending on where you live on Earth, while the Tower has a fixed time. That's my guess, anyway.
"Time to get some sleep."
As darkness fell and drowsiness crept in, I headed for the inn. I had no intention of sleeping long. Unlikely as it seemed for Choi Ji-won to reach Floor 2 during the Korean early-morning hours... you never know.
My waiting game was just getting started.
"Hey, boss. What's with that asshole over there?"
"Dunno. He's just there every day, doing whatever. Forget about it and keep your eyes peeled. Just watch for anyone bringing a Gold Badge. Ugh, fuck. I heard the dawn shift is easy money."
"The dawn shift?"
"If you had a Gold Badge, would you show up in the daytime or in the middle of the night? Hit rate's way better at dawn, apparently."
A week had passed.
Choi Ji-won had still not arrived.
The biggest problem with doing nothing was fighting off the boredom.
The work of scanning the faces of everyone arriving on Floor 2 and checking for Choi Ji-won was mind-numbingly dull.
"But does a Gold Badge actually mean anything? I can't really tell if the rewards are that different..."
"Dude. You seriously don't know shit? Word's already all over the underground about 'magic potions.' I only just found out they come from the Tower, but... anyway, it's insane right now. You know rich old bastards are buying up every single item coming out of the Tower these days?"
"...It's that big?"
"I'm from Detroit, alright? Potions are the hottest thing right now. Especially the low-grade ones—you can't even buy 'em with cash. You think I came to Floor 2 for nothing? You score one of these, your life is made. You could buy a truckload of women. Can't make women on Floor 1, you know."
"True..."
But the punks blocking the alley were just as bored, apparently—their mouths never stopped moving.
When you think about it, they've got a point. Who knows when some bastard with a Gold Badge is going to show up, and yet here they are, waiting endlessly.
Same for me. Same for the punks. Everyone had to win the battle against themselves.
At least the guys blocking the road near me were chatty, so I wasn't bored for a while—but that had its limits too.
This might actually be harder than fighting for my life against goblins.
Choi Ji-won. When are you coming...
Two weeks had passed.
Yesterday evening, David, a black guy who'd been acting friendly with me, cleared Floor 2 with a Gold Badge.
How'd he deal with the road-blockers?
"Alright, move aside. I brought four badges, see? We're all about helping each other out, right?"
"Oh, ohhh..."
He bribed them with badges. My guess is it took him about two weeks because he spent extra time scraping together enough Gold Badges to keep the road-blockers' mouths shut.
"The NPC bastards slowed me down a little, but... I was on the football team. When you're in the game, you play to win, right?"
David wore the smug expression of a running back who'd just scored a touchdown.
I considered saying something, but... it felt meaningless, so I let it go.
Choi Ji-won. When are you coming? I'm seriously going to lose my mind at this rate.
Two and a half weeks had passed.
I spotted Koreans now and then, but still no familiar faces.
Driven by sheer boredom, I ended up getting acquainted with the punks blocking the alley near my spot. (The loudmouths from before had already shaken down someone for a Gold Badge and cleared the floor. They called it 'graduating.')
I asked them something I'd been curious about for a while.
The bastard who made the Tower had declared he would judge humanity, and the Tutorial had demonstrated exactly that.
So why, despite all that, were people still going around committing evil acts?
The answer was more shocking than I expected.
"Well... someone else will take care of that judgment thing. No one expects me to clear Floor 66 anyway. What's the harm if one guy like me lives like a piece of shit? It's not like I'm the only one doing it."
One guy with a "just me" mentality.
"That judgment thing's over, right? So I already paid the price. What? What if they judge us again later? Well then... they'll take some stats, whatever. If you pay the price, it's fine, right?"
One guy with a "I'll pay the price later, so I'll do evil now" mentality.
"I just don't think about it. My life's already fucked... might as well all go down together, right?"
One guy who just didn't think about anything at all.
"..."
The world is large.
On a global scale, are there more good people or more bad people?
More who've learned, or more who haven't?
It struck me that it was only natural crime never stops anywhere on Earth.
When people are handed too much power, things inevitably go to shit.
I really do need to climb the Tower fast.
Three weeks had passed.
After the long wait... I finally saw a face I knew.
"It's been a while... I suppose I should say."
Yes.
The person everyone had been waiting for.
If this world were a novel and I were the reader, the person whose return I would have anticipated.
A person who carries a righteous heart.
A person who walks toward me with dignified strides and offers a handshake.
"Good to see you. Do you remember me, by any chance?"
It was the middle-aged firefighter, Park Cheol-jin.
"I was grateful for your help in the Tutorial. I owe you my life..."
"..."
"At first I wondered if I'd dreamed it all, but... I wasn't the only one who experienced the same thing. And the fact that I could open a portal to Floor 1 at any time... I've come to accept it, more or less."
"..."
"To go through the Tutorial together, and now Floor 2 together... at this point I'd almost call it fate. Ah, by the way—how long have you been on Floor 2? There's no visible threat at first glance, but... the mission objective hasn't appeared yet, you see."
I was glad to see him.
Glad, sure... but I would have preferred a face I was even happier to see.
I felt so deflated that I clamped my mouth shut.
"Forgive me—I have many questions and many things to tell you, but... there's someone else coming. Ah, there she is."
Firefighter Park Cheol-jin turned, looking toward the center of the plaza.
Step. Step.
From the direction he was facing, a woman was walking this way.
"...What are you doing here? Looking like that."
A swaying ponytail. A sword of familiar design.
As I slowly turned my head, the face from my memories was staring straight at me.
Those cold eyes were fixed on me.
"...Thank you. For the Tutorial, I mean."
Choi Ji-won.
She had finally reached Floor 2.