Chapter 3
Chapter 3.
Beginner's Tower 1st Floor.
This place was like stepping into a dark, gloomy cave.
Torches hung sporadically on the walls, illuminating the surrounding areas just enough to make things somewhat visible.
Where there were no torches, it was impossible to confirm what was there.
And from there.
Swish!
Goblins hiding in the darkness suddenly leaped out, targeting Lee Ganghan.
The ambush pattern that beginners hate the most.
-The castrated goblin bastard was already a problem when it first appeared, but what comes after is also fucking annoying
-For real, the goblin cave map is fucking terrible ㅡㅡ
-Was there a connection between the tutorial boss and the map?
-Yeah, the map changes depending on which boss appears
-If you go slowly being careful, you lose time
Among the maps that appear in the Beginner's Tower, there was a reason why the so-called 'Goblin Cave' map was rated as the most difficult.
But.
"I was wondering when you'd show up."
Bang!
As if he had been waiting, Lee Ganghan burst the goblin with his foot.
"Ah, my shoes got dirty."
Looking at his shoes stained with the goblin's green blood, he frowned.
Do these guys have soft skulls?
I kicked them, so why do they keep bursting and making a fuss?
'Well, they'll be clean when I return to reality. I'll have to put up with it for now.'
He thought so while.
Bang! Bang!
He smashed the goblins that came charging at him one by one.
How far had he advanced like this?
[Level increased by 1.]
[Physical abilities increase in proportion to stat values.]
Soon, a level-up message appeared.
'My body feels a bit lighter.'
Lee Ganghan opened his status window.
Name: Lee Ganghan
Level: 2
Trait: Heavenly Demon Constitution (Grade: F~SSS)
Strength: 10+
Agility: 10+
Stamina: 10+
Mana: 7
All abilities except mana were at 10.
Lee Ganghan's stats had a + attached after Strength, Agility, and Stamina.
He tried touching the +, but.
His abilities didn't increase.
Instead.
[This is a body that transcends the standards of the race 'Human'.]
When he pressed the +, this message appeared.
Except for mana.
Did this mean that Strength, Agility, and Stamina all transcended human standards?
'Am I at that level?'
Lee Ganghan tilted his head.
Player stat values.
Lee Ganghan also knew something about this.
-Ah shit, my strength, agility, stamina are all 5- lol I'm really trash
└Go exercise, you pig ㅡㅡ
└Fuck, I'm a twig though?
-Seeing another 5- loser here lol
└What's a 5- loser?
└Don't you know what 5- means? It means your body is trash
Stats that vary depending on the player's original physical condition.
People who never exercised and abused their bodies.
Often went beyond the lowest stat value of 5, with a - appearing next to it.
That's how the term "5- loser" became popular.
If you got 5-, it meant your body was extremely weak.
Players who became like this tried their best to escape this state.
That's why after the Tower of Infinity appeared, didn't a gym boom occur?
'But I heard that 9 or higher only appears if you're at athlete level.'
Lee Ganghan looked down at his body.
190cm tall, 82kg.
A body packed with muscle without an ounce of fat was objectively a good physique.
Even when he obtained the Heavenly Demon Constitution.
[You possess a body in the top 0.01% of humanity.]
This message did appear.
Still.
"It doesn't seem like 10+ level though."
Bang! Bang!
Lee Ganghan muttered while bursting more goblin heads.
If an athlete is 9.
To get 10, and furthermore a +, wouldn't you need to be an Olympic national representative in that field?
'The body changed by Tower Syndrome was healthy, but I wonder if it was to this extent.'
Could it be that it got even better after obtaining the Heavenly Demon Constitution?
Lee Ganghan speculated as he walked forward step by step.
Once he became level 2, the goblin heads exploded even better.
"Kee..."
"Kee, hiiit..."
Before long, the enemies couldn't dare approach Lee Ganghan.
They were hiding their bodies in the darkness.
You need to at least scratch your opponent to make attacking worthwhile.
But when they burst as soon as he approached, they couldn't muster the courage to attack.
'If only these guys could communicate, I'd make them bow.'
The Goblin Chief spoke well though.
These guys only made kee-kee sounds and couldn't communicate.
Even when he told them to bow, they couldn't understand what he was saying and just rolled their eyes.
'Should I just catch them all?'
Lee Ganghan was about to wipe out all the goblins hiding in the darkness.
He looked at the 1,524th place reflected in one corner of his vision.
'No. Let's just go to the next floor.'
The difficulty is too easy, so I should try aiming for the upper ranks once.
Lee Ganghan thought so and continued walking forward.
Soon after.
A blue portal came into view.
'If I enter here, it's the next floor, right?'
When he entered inside.
Shwoooooo...
['Beginner's Tower' 1st Floor cleared.]
[Advancing to the next stage.]
Lee Ganghan who moved to the next floor.
'It's almost the same as before.'
The Beginner's Tower 2nd Floor just had a few more goblins, but the map itself was identical.
He just had to go straight in one direction.
['Beginner's Tower' 2nd Floor cleared.]
[Advancing to the next stage.]
['Beginner's Tower' 3rd Floor cleared.]
[Advancing to the next stage.]
As Lee Ganghan reached the 4th floor.
When going up to the 2nd floor, from 1,524th to 822nd place.
When going up to the 3rd floor, the ranking that vertically rose from 822nd to 101st place.
'8th place?'
On the 4th floor, it had changed to 8th place.
Even though he went through the tutorial and came up, he quickly caught up with the people ahead.
As Lee Ganghan was thinking this.
Ziiiiing...
[You've entered the top 10.]
[You've entered the 'Top 10 Prospects'.]
[Your gameplay will be live-streamed on the TowerTube channel.]
A message appeared from the system saying that live streaming would proceed.
***
TowerTube.
After the 'Tower of Infinity' appeared in capitals around the world.
A built-in streaming system that appeared simultaneously.
TowerTube, which demonstrated technology that humans could never imitate.
Was handling most Tower of Infinity-related content.
'But I know that not just anyone can stream on TowerTube... So they also provide live streaming if you're in the top 10.'
As Lee Ganghan looked at the message with curiosity.
Ziiiiing...
Next to his line of sight.
A window with a green background appeared.
And from there.
-Oh, suddenly 8th place popped up
-Ah, I was watching the 10th place sister well ㅡㅡ But because of this guy, she got pushed out and I can't watch the live stream anymore.
-T-shirt and running shoes, what is this, lol. Did he get dragged here while jogging?
Viewers' chat messages began flooding up.
"Oh... Chat comes up like this. Can you hear me talking too?"
-We can hear you well ㅇㅇ
-lol. The newbie is cute
-But why don't you have a weapon? Are you a mage?
-For a mage, it's a waste of that build
-For real, that physique is beyond Korean standards
It hadn't been long since the live stream started.
Above the chat window, the number 'Viewers: 621' was displayed.
'Is it because I'm being live-streamed as one of the Top 10 Prospects? This seems like quite a lot.'
And it didn't stop there.
The viewer count was rapidly increasing in real-time.
Lee Ganghan watched this for a moment, then answered the earlier question.
"A weapon? When I defeated the tutorial boss, the weapon disappeared."
-You defeated the boss?
-Don't start lying just because you're on broadcast ㅡㅡ
-The tutorial boss lol How did you defeat it lol
-ㄴㄴ There are occasional cases of defeating it, but such players are all running for 1st place in real-time
-I don't think there's been any player who defeated the castrated goblin because the difficulty is hard?
Viewers who didn't easily believe that he defeated the tutorial boss.
And for good reason.
Among tutorial bosses.
The 'Castrated Goblin Chief' was famous not only for viciously tormenting players.
But also for having the highest difficulty.
Moreover, even if he had somehow defeated the Goblin Chief.
With such skill, he should naturally be running for 1st place in the tutorial.
While no one expected that Lee Ganghan would have heard the tutorial.
-His build looks fine though...
-His face is a waste
-You don't need to exaggerate your self-PR like that, guilds will scout you if you just keep staying in the top 10
-For real, just reveal your trait quickly, we'll calculate your annual salary lol
'They don't believe me.'
The viewers treated it as a given fact that it was a lie.
They were asking Lee Ganghan to reveal his trait.
These people's perception began to change.
Starting from when Lee Ganghan walked toward the 'Goblin Defense Formation' that appeared from the Beginner's Tower 4th floor.
"Oh. From the 4th floor, it's changed a bit."
Until now, goblins had been ambushing from the darkness.
But from the 4th floor, they built small wooden camps at the passages.
They were blocking players from passing through.
Of course, to human eyes, it was a crudely made camp.
But still, logs blocked the passage.
And goblin archers were deployed behind the defense formation.
It didn't look easy to break through alone recklessly.
The standard strategy was to use long-range throwing methods.
Shoot arrows from afar or throw spears or at least stones.
They had to lure the goblins out of their defense formation.
However,
Step, Step.
As Lee Ganghan leisurely walked toward the front of the formation.
-What's this guy doing? There are goblins lined up but he's going to the front gate of the defense formation ㄷㄷ
-No, what do you do if you just walk there; You should lure them with ranged weapons
-ㄴㄴ He's going to use magic now. How else could he have gotten here without equipment?
-For real, lol. Let's see what magic he uses
Viewers thought he would use magic after closing the distance.
For Lee Ganghan who had no equipment, that method showed.
Seemed to be the only option.
Swish!
Lee Ganghan who jumped straight into the defense formation.
"Keeeeek...!"
Bang! Bang!
Kicked goblin heads with his feet to burst them.
Crack!
Grabbing spear-swords with his hands and breaking them.
No one could have imagined this.
-???
-What is this?
-Why is he so strong? Wasn't he a newbie?
-Were goblin heads always this fragile?;
-ㄴㄴ I'm watching together with the 7th place guy, but he couldn't burst them even with a mace...
-Oh, I thought his shoes were just a bit dirty, but it was from bursting goblin heads ㄷㄷ
As viewers doubted their eyes watching Lee Ganghan tear through the goblin defense formation.
"Hieek. Hieek...!"
"Keeeeee!!!"
The goblins who had launched a full offensive.
Seeing their comrades helplessly burst, they abandoned the defense formation and began to flee.
-The goblins are running away on their own;
-They were always like that, but it's rare to see them run in the tutorial lol
-If they're getting smashed like that, they would run ㅇㅇ
-Still, wouldn't it be better to use a weapon? At least use the goblin weapons
"A weapon. Theirs are too small..."
Lee Ganghan smiled and briefly looked around.
A defense formation full of goblin corpses.
At the entrance of this place, he could see a large wooden stick with a tribal flag.
'That size should be manageable.'
When he grasped it in his hand.
Swoosh!
The wooden flagpole was immediately pulled out.
Crack!
After breaking off only the flag part and placing it on his shoulder.
He was able to obtain a reasonably usable wooden club.
"This should be enough, right?"
Having obtained a weapon like this.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
His advance speed became even faster.
Goblin defense formations still existed at the next passages.
But much faster than when he used his feet, they burst helplessly.
-This person seems to be playing a different game alone...
-How does he burst them so easily like bang bang lol
-Wow... What's your Strength stat?
"Strength? It's 10."
Looking at the chat asking about Strength.
Lee Ganghan answered, omitting the +.
-10???
-Wow really 10?
-Are you an athlete? Isn't 10 national representative level? ㄷㄷ
Viewers immediately asked if he was an athlete.
"No. I'm unemployed. Ah. When living expenses run low, I go to the logistics center."
-How does an unemployed person have 10 Strength lol
-If I hadn't seen him bursting goblin heads, I would have switched channels lol
-Even if you're not an athlete... what kind of exercise do you do?
"I sleep a lot."
At Lee Ganghan's answer.
-No fucking way, that body was made just from sleeping?
-Those muscles are insane, are you joking? ㅡㅡ
-I saw abs under his shirt earlier, they were fucking amazing lol
-Why do you pretend not to exercise when you've built your body like that? I don't understand;
The chat started going even more crazy.
'Even if I talk about Tower Syndrome, hardly anyone would believe it.'
Cases of gaining or losing weight by sleeping 12 hours due to Tower Syndrome were quite well-known in the world.
But becoming muscular like this had no known cases other than Lee Ganghan.
'But by now I should be getting sleepy... I'm not sleepy though?'
12-hour sleep.
Lee Ganghan's sleeping time was fixed from 8 PM to 8 AM.
But in actual life, he started getting drowsy around 5 PM.
But now, perhaps because he was inside the Tower of Infinity.
Both his body and mind were perfectly alert.
'There's definitely a connection between the tower and Tower Syndrome.'
Didn't the system also acknowledge it in the tutorial?
Before that, patients other than Lee Ganghan had actually recovered on their own at some point.
Except for the timing of the disease's appearance.
There was no evidence proving direct correlation with the tower.
But after becoming a player today.
He definitely felt different from before.
'Now that I know there's a connection with the tower, I need to find a solution here.'
Lee Ganghan resolved while.
Massacring goblins like before.
As he broke through with overwhelming force, whether there were defense formations or not.
-He's really fucking strong lol Just pushing through
-Somehow I think this person will get 1st place
-1st place is certain. I'm currently watching 10 live streams simultaneously, and he's playing a different game alone
-Is Korea finally getting a promising candidate after a long time?
The viewer count began to increase noticeably.
Apparently, among the 10 Korean prospects being live-streamed.
Lee Ganghan was showing the most overwhelming performance.
-So what's this person's trait?
-He hasn't revealed it yet
-Only fucking lies lol Says muscles grow just from sleeping
-He also lied about defeating the castrated goblin lol
He had only told the truth.
But Lee Ganghan already had a strong image as a liar.
'This is quite unfair.'
Should he tell a white lie from now on, saying he does 3 hours of fitness daily?
Lee Ganghan thought so while.
Bang!
He broke through the last goblin defense formation.
Then.
[Level increased by 1.]
[Physical abilities increase in proportion to stat values.]
[You have reached level 5.]
A message appeared saying he had reached level 5.
[You can use functions related to Ten Thousand Demon Battle.]
Following that, the Ten Thousand Demon Battle function was unlocked.