Chapter 30
Chapter 30.
In a cafe in Seoul.
"Wow. Changseop, isn't this going too far?"
"I agree……."
Kim Changseop, who was working part-time at the cafe, watched as the boss pointed his finger at the monitor.
"Even if it's a time-limited trait, how can he do something like that? How can all the surrounding monsters explode just from hitting the ground?"
Inside the monitor, Lee Ganghan, known to possess the 'Heavenly Demon' trait, was conquering the 11th floor.
An Iron-grade player who could subdue monsters in a wide area with a single punch.
"Isn't this too unfair? Other E-grade players have such terrible abilities even after awakening that they quit being players, while he alone goes around catching everything like that."
"That's right……."
Come to think of it, didn't the boss say he was E-grade and quit too?
Kim Changseop responded to the boss's complaints with a soulless reaction while thinking to himself.
'If you have so many complaints, why don't you just not watch…… Why do you even keep up with the live stream?'
It wasn't like he entered because of an emergency notice this time.
The boss had been watching the Heavenly Demon channel from before, getting angry about what kind of thing that was.
Even while doing that, didn't he say he would watch until Heavenly Demon lost his trait?
His temperament was really twisted.
'It seems like he's acting like that more because business isn't going well due to the tower…….'
Kim Changseop let the boss's words go in one ear and out the other as he looked toward the front entrance of the cafe.
The cafe shrouded in shadows even in broad daylight.
In front of it stood a Tower of Infinity towering high.
The tower that blocked the cafe building, leaving only a gap wide enough for two or three people to barely pass through.
'Business completely stopped after that thing appeared.'
Except for the exploding giant towers and Towers of Light, other Towers of Infinity were still known to be harmless.
However, there were many other cafes, so would people go out of their way to drink coffee near that eyesore?
Customers drastically decreased.
The number of part-time workers also reduced, so there were many times when just the boss and Kim Changseop guarded this spacious cafe alone.
'This is physically comfortable but mentally uncomfortable.'
Being stuck together with the boss in this customer-less cafe, having to listen to gossip about Heavenly Demon.
Should I just quit too?
Just as Kim Changseop was seriously thinking about it.
"Wow, he's even destroying cores…… A-grade achievement? Ha. That Heavenly Demon bastard, at least he did something before getting his abilities stripped."
The boss, who had been constantly badmouthing Heavenly Demon, suddenly gave rare praise.
'What's this about?'
While Kim Changseop, who had been blankly staring outside, was also reading the notice, suddenly.
Kurururu……!
The ground suddenly shook as if an earthquake had occurred.
Thud……!
A loud sound came from outside.
"Wh-what is this!? An earthquake?"
The boss quickly covered his head and prostrated himself on the floor.
"Ch-Changseop! Something seems to have happened outside! Go out and check!"
While hiding under the counter himself, he ordered Kim Changseop, the part-time worker, to go check.
Wakururu……!
When vibrations occurred again.
"Qu-quickly!"
The boss urged him to hurry out.
'Damn, I'm really going to quit after getting this month's salary.'
Step, Step.
When Kim Changseop carefully went out to check the front door, there, the black tower that had been blocking the cafe's front entrance.
"Huh, huh……?"
Thud! Thud!
It was settling down vertically, gradually shrinking and collapsing.
"Bo-boss! Something big happened!"
"What! What's going on?!"
"The-the tower…… the tower is disappearing!"
When Kim Changseop pointed outside with a surprised face, the boss quickly got up from under the counter.
The tower is disappearing?
"What, really!?"
A cafe opened after being laid off, scraping together his soul.
Business was good for the first three months, but customers completely stopped coming due to the natural disaster of tower creation, and he was on the verge of closing down.
But now, that damn tower is disappearing?
The boss rushed over while.
[By clearing an A-grade achievement, humanity's score acquisition will increase by 20% for 6 months.]
[All towers belonging to No.4 will be destroyed.]
The message that had appeared as a notice earlier came to mind again.
'The towers belonging to No.4, could it be……!'
And when the boss hurriedly checked outside the door, kurururu…….
The tower that had been blocking the sunlight was crumbling down into the ground.
Cracks started from the bottom, and the tower was being destroyed and disappearing from the lower levels in order.
At first, he was worried it might tilt this way, but.
'It's being sucked into the ground……?'
The tower caused no damage to the surroundings and was being dismantled in an orderly manner, being absorbed into the ground.
"Wow, what's this all of a sudden? Why is the tower disappearing?"
"This needs to be filmed, right?"
Passersby on the street all stood dumbfounded, filming this scene.
"Hey, the tower in front of the mega cafe here is disappearing! What? Heavenly Demon? What did Heavenly Demon do? Who is Heavenly Demon?"
"Wow, towers can disappear too……."
Some were making phone calls telling people to come this way.
And.
'Bright…… it's bright.'
As the tower disappeared and the blocked sunlight entered the cafe, thud, the boss sat down on the spot.
He thought he wouldn't make it through this year and would have to close down.
He had already half-given up on everything, but the tower is being destroyed…….
"I-I'm saved……."
The boss, with this sudden stroke of luck, just muttered 'I'm saved' over and over while blankly watching the tower collapse.
And this collapse of towers was happening simultaneously all over the world.
***
Meanwhile,
[Opening clear rewards.]
[Level increases by 4.]
[You gain 135,000 TP.]
Lee Ganghan, who had entered the portal, was surprised to see the clear rewards that followed.
"What? Why are they giving so much?"
Much more generous rewards than the usual SSS+.
Even if the level up was 2 more than usual, the TP was 100,000 more than expected.
'Is it because I cleared the 11th floor?'
Well, I did eliminate a lot of Orcs back then too.
As Lee Ganghan was recalling when he used Earth Severing Heaven Collapse, brrrr…….
His phone vibrated.
The name on the phone was Kim Juyeong.
"Yeah."
When Lee Ganghan answered the phone as usual.
[Yayayaya! You crazy bastard……! How did you do it, exactly?!]
Kim Juyeong shouted in an extremely excited voice.
"What do you mean how, I just destroyed a core."
[It's complete chaos right now! The towers actually got destroyed!]
"Yeah. I also saw that chat, so I came out to check. Did they really get destroyed?"
To Lee Ganghan's question.
[Yeah. The count isn't completely finished yet…… but they say one tower each got destroyed in every country around the world! In our country too, the tower at Dapsimni Station got destroyed and videos are spreading like crazy right now!]
"Oh. Really? I should take a look too."
[You crazy bastard, you're insane. I thought I should focus on the channel blowing up with the Elf, but you're destroying towers…… The Heavenly Demon channel is going to be a mega hit, isn't it?]
"Well, it doesn't feel real yet? I should go take a look too, see how the tower got destroyed."
As Lee Ganghan was turning on his computer while on the phone.
[Hey, Manager Kim. Who are you talking to right now? During work hours.]
A third party's voice could be heard faintly through the phone.
[Huh, what?]
[I heard that the person you're talking to, could it be that Heavenly Demon player?]
[Uh, ah, no sir, Section Chief! It's not that…….]
[Let me also…….]
Click!
The phone suddenly got cut off.
'What's that about.'
Did he get caught secretly making a call from somewhere like the bathroom?
Lee Ganghan chuckled and looked at the monitor screen.
'The news is completely plastered with this.'
The portal site's main page was in much more chaos than when he got 1st place in the tutorial.
That made sense because while tutorial 1st place happens every time, events like clearing A-grade achievements, increasing score acquisition by 20%, and tower collapses had never happened even once until now.
"Oh…… it really got destroyed."
Lee Ganghan watched the video of the tower that collapsed at Dapsimni Station and entered a community to see what other countries' tower collapse videos there were.
[Heavenly Demon destroyed a tower ㄷㄷㄷ]
Starting with the video of Lee Ganghan destroying the core.
[Let's find out how economically valuable the 20% score acquisition increase is]
[Dapsimni Station Tower destruction scene.AVI]
└Wow the tower really got destroyed...
└The tower collapses without damaging the surroundings ㅋㅋ
└What's with the person crying there?
└They say it's a cafe owner ㅋㅋㅋ
└A tower appeared in front of the cafe and it was on the verge of going bankrupt
└ㅅㅂ I'd cry too if I were them ㅋㅋㅋ
Along with Korea's tower collapse video.
[Came to Kyoto for travel, saw tower collapse scene]
[New York tower destruction video ㄷㄷ]
[It's also getting destroyed in Beijing]
Tower collapse videos from around the world began to be uploaded rapidly.
'Looking at this, did one get destroyed in each country?'
Not concentrated in one place, but No.4 towers were fairly destroyed one each.
Considering the current situation where tower proliferation speed has increased, the 20% increase in score acquisition might be more effective than one tower being destroyed.
Of course.
'The symbolism of tower collapse is bigger though.'
The immediately visible tower collapse was more eye-catching than the 20% increase in score acquisition that doesn't feel immediate.
Lee Ganghan watched a few more tower collapse videos in the community.
'They all collapse the same way.'
Thinking there was no need to watch more, he turned off the videos.
"Hmm……."
It's good that he cleared the achievement and benefited the entire world, but.
'Is a core fragment whose effects I don't know all I got?'
For achieving humanity's first achievement, the benefits Lee Ganghan personally received didn't seem very practically impactful.
Of course, he did greatly imprint the existence of Heavenly Demon on people worldwide, but this wasn't something that translated to substantial ability improvements or tremendous TP returns.
'Well, the TowerTube channel will grow.'
Lee Ganghan thought this way and started his day as usual.
He sent today's filmed video to Kim Juyeong.
"In the beginning, there were Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic……."
He recited the true manual of Heavenly Demon Divine Art once more.
While the world was turned upside down outside due to the achievement he accomplished, the person in question didn't feel much impact and was thinking 'I should sleep today.'
He was thinking he should sleep at a reasonable time.
After finishing reading through Heavenly Demon Divine Art once, the time was already 5 PM.
Just when he thought he should start preparing dinner, brrrr…….
Lee Ganghan's phone vibrated and a call came from agent representative Shin Yuri.
'I need to exchange TP, so this is perfect.'
Since a lot of TP came in today, it was about time to benefit from the exchange rate.
When Lee Ganghan answered the phone.
[Heavenly Demon, is it alright to call now?]
"Yes. It's fine."
[I watched the broadcast. I truly congratulate you on being the first in humanity to clear an achievement.]
"Thank you."
While praising Lee Ganghan, saying he was truly amazing, Shin Yuri brought up the main topic.
[I checked earlier and confirmed that there are more proposals than usual on Heavenly Demon's channel.]
"Proposals?"
[Yes. There are many companies that want to contact you in the comments of the video you uploaded…… did you perhaps not check?]
"Ah, no. I don't usually look at comments."
Until now, well, he was busy sleeping.
Besides, Lee Ganghan had a personality that didn't pay much attention to what comments were posted on videos he uploaded once, so he didn't know proposals had come.
[I contacted you to ask if I could proceed with negotiations with them on behalf of Heavenly Demon. And to clearly announce that Heavenly Demon belongs to our agency.]
"Ah, that's good. Please do that."
[Yes, understood. And…….]
When Lee Ganghan readily agreed to this matter, Shin Yuri paused for a moment before bringing up another matter.
[Father…… I mean, Management Director Shin Gyeongcheol said he really wants to meet Heavenly Demon once. When would be a good time for you?]
"The Management Director?"
[Yes. Because of the achievement Lee Ganghan-nim accomplished this time, FIPA contacted us. They mentioned rewards at the federation level.]
FIPA?
Wasn't FIPA the International Player Federation?
[They said it's not a formal form like taking pictures or giving certificates of commendation. They said they prepared practically effective rewards for climbing towers…….]
"Then I should receive it."
[Ah. Is that alright? Then when would be a good time for you…….]
"Even tomorrow would be fine."
It's better to handle this kind of thing quickly.
When Lee Ganghan said that.
[Then would 10 AM tomorrow be possible?]
"Yes. That's possible."
[Yes. Then I'll come to escort you at that time.]
Shin Yuri confirmed the time.
And the next day.
"Director!"
"Yu-Yuri?"
"As an agent, I absolutely cannot accept those words."
Lee Ganghan, who was invited to the Management Office, watched as Shin Gyeongcheol and Shin Yuri, the father and daughter, were having an argument with him in between.
'……Why did things turn out like this?'
He blinked and quietly observed this.