Chapter 96
Chapter 96.
"Universe 101?"
"This… wasn't this shown during the arena?"
Universe 101.
People who watched Lee Ganghan's TowerTube.
The title he wore in the arena.
[Universe 101 - Record Breaker] - viewers knew about the existence of Universe 101 itself after seeing this.
"That's right. When achievements are completed, it mentions something about belonging to a universe. But formal admission… wasn't he formally entered until now?"
"Right. And it says the protection period has ended, which feels rather ominous…"
"We were under protection all this time? But the Mogadishu incident and other casualties were no joke."
Shin Dongseok grumbled while looking at the message saying humanity's protection period had ended.
After Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, was destroyed by the Tower of Light.
Humanity had managed to survive 10 years without major incidents through worldwide cooperation.
But that process was never easy.
Especially recently, score-risk countries were appearing here and there.
In August, Lee Ganghan had cleared multiple achievements, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.
But now in September, suddenly the protection period had ended.
"I hope nothing bad happens…"
"They sent a message to all of humanity, so something's bound to happen, right? Ah, we're here."
While everyone was having serious conversations about this matter.
The car had already arrived in front of the new house in Hannam-dong.
"The security guards are already deployed."
"The reporters are really quick with information. That camera has already photographed this car several times."
"It would be difficult to hide it completely, I suppose."
Under the control of security personnel sent by the government.
Lee Ganghan arrived at his new house.
As he took his suitcase from the car trunk.
Shin Dongseok, who got out of the car, said to Lee Ganghan.
"Can I take a look around the house too?"
"Of course."
"Great. Wow. This is better than our house~ A Bronze house is better than Diamond~"
While Shin Dongseok was touring the house with admiration.
"Heavenly Demon Lord, I'll explain the house systems to you."
Shin Yuri briefly explained the locations and usage of the already top-grade furnished furniture.
And the latest home appliances.
'Everything's really all set up.'
Good thing I just brought clothes.
Lee Ganghan listened to Shin Yuri's briefing.
As he moved from the first floor to the upper floors.
"If you need anything else besides this, please let me know anytime. I'll prepare it right away."
"This should be sufficient."
What's prepared now is already excessive.
What more could be needed?
Lee Ganghan scanned the room once.
A luxurious space incomparable to the detached house in Yongin.
He definitely felt the change in living environment.
Then.
"Oh. Hey, Universe 101, some information has been released."
Shin Dongseok, who seemed to have gotten tired of touring the house.
Opened his mouth while looking at his phone.
"Really?"
"Yeah. They say a league ranking section has been created on TowerTube?"
"Let's watch it on the living room TV then."
Going down to the first floor living room, turning on the TV, and entering TowerTube.
"Oh… the UI has changed a bit?"
The TowerTube main screen had been slightly modified compared to before.
A new icon that didn't exist before was created at the bottom left of the screen.
"Is that it?"
When Shin Dongseok pointed to the icon.
Shin Yuri operated the remote control and selected this icon.
Then.
[Universe 101 League Rankings]
Jiiiing…
Two league tables appeared on the screen.
"Prime League and Reserve League… they're divided into two."
"First and second division?"
At the top of the screen was Prime League.
At the bottom was Reserve League.
A league ranking table divided into two sections.
However,
[Prime League]
1st place - ***
2nd place - ***
.
.
.
10th place - ***
In the Prime League section.
From 1st to 10th place, all species names were hidden.
And in the Reserve League too.
[Reserve League]
1st place - ***
2nd place - ***
.
.
.
10th place - Humanity
Except for humanity in 10th place.
All species names were hidden.
"What, they won't tell us any names? They said it was formal admission."
Shin Dongseok grumbled about being petty with species names.
Shin Yuri also tilted her head with a puzzled expression.
"The elves and giants that Heavenly Demon Lord encountered before… and species like beastmen and dwarves should be from the same universe, right? But I wonder why their names don't appear."
"That's what I'm saying. And why are we last? If we're last even in the second division, it's somewhat unsettling."
"Prime League, Reserve League… are these leagues with promotion and relegation?"
"I wonder. But if there's promotion and relegation, what happens if you get relegated from last place in the second division?"
"Hmm… Right. It feels unpleasant."
Species hidden with ***.
And humanity in last place in the Reserve League.
While everyone was looking at this ranking table with uncomfortable expressions.
Ttiring.
[Notice: Prime League 2nd place species '***' makes an 'occupation reservation' for humanity's towers.]
.
.
.
[Notice: Prime League 10th place species '***' makes an 'occupation reservation' for humanity's towers.]
Messages appeared saying species from 2nd to 10th place in Prime League were making occupation reservations for towers.
[Notice: Reserve League 1st place species '***' makes an 'occupation reservation' for humanity's towers.]
.
.
.
[Notice: Reserve League 9th place species '***' makes an 'occupation reservation' for humanity's towers.]
This time, all of Reserve League from 1st to 9th place.
Started making occupation reservations for humanity's towers.
***
"…Occupation reservation? What's that?"
Occupation reservation.
Shin Dongseok frowned at the unfriendly-sounding term.
"It's as if they were waiting for humanity to come up and applied. Should we be thankful that the Prime League 1st place didn't apply?"
"Right. Are we some kind of popular restaurant? Everyone's making reservations."
18 species that rushed to make occupation reservations.
The messages felt unsettling.
But there was no immediate noticeable change.
"On the day Heavenly Demon Lord moves in, this kind of thing happens so coincidentally…"
"I know."
"Father wanted to invite Heavenly Demon Lord to celebrate becoming neighbors, but today seems difficult because of this incident."
Since he moved next door.
Chairman Shin Gyeongcheol originally wanted to have dinner together.
"That can happen anytime. This seems more urgent right now."
"Right. Let's have a drink together later, but for now let's go back and investigate this problem."
"Let's do that, Uncle. Heavenly Demon Lord, if I obtain any important information, I'll inform you immediately."
"Understood."
Due to the sudden notice.
When Shin Dongseok and Shin Yuri left the house with serious expressions.
'I should watch the news.'
Lee Ganghan also fixed the TV channel on news.
And with his phone, he entered internet communities related to the Tower of Infinity.
Then.
[Species candidates presumed to be *** - Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen?]
[The 'Universe 101' that already showed signs in the Heavenly Demon channel.]
There were several information posts with details Lee Ganghan was already speculating about.
[Tower of Infinity changing shape in real-time ㄷㄷ - Busan]
[Tower of Infinity changing in Beijing.GIF]
[Neighborhood twin towers changing simultaneously ㄷㄷ]
But the posts that caught Lee Ganghan's attention were different.
'The towers are changing?'
The only tower changes that had appeared so far.
Were the 'Towers of Light' created in countries where more than 100 Towers of Infinity were generated.
Now that the protection period has ended, are there more changes from here?
Lee Ganghan clicked on a forum post.
Then.
Squirm, Squirm.
Wrapped in black energy.
A regular tower undulating with an ominous appearance.
If regular towers were just eyesores until now.
Now they were completely consumed by black energy and squirming like living creatures.
Giving viewers an ominous feeling.
-Ew what is this ㄷㄷ
-Why is it squirming like that;
-Ah damn, the tower near our house is doing that too ㅡㅡ
-Something strange isn't going to come out, is it?
-I thought I could live peacefully now that Heavenly Demon cleared achievements, but suddenly what is this
-Really the score results were good this time too, so many countries didn't get towers
For the month of August.
Thanks to the achievements Lee Ganghan cleared, humanity's score situation improved significantly.
The Tower of Light charging stopped.
With many high-scoring elements like increased score acquisition and Accessory Slot +1.
When the scores came out, people were cheering that the tower increase had stopped and they could breathe easy.
But that was only temporary.
With the sudden admission to Universe 101.
Due to the 'occupation reservations' that appeared as notices all at once.
People's anxiety rose greatly.
-But that thing isn't related to occupation reservations, is it?
-Ah, is that currently being reserved...?
-Are they all crawling into the popular restaurant 'Humanity'?
-Ah, what is all this about...
People speculating that this phenomenon occurred.
Because of the 'occupation reservations' that appeared in the notices.
'The timing is perfect indeed…'
Right now it looks like this because it's being reserved.
Will the towers change more when the occupation is complete?
Nothing is certain yet.
Currently, everything remains at the stage of 'speculation'.
'Ah. Right. Should I ask the Ten Thousand Demon Battle kids once?'
Thinking about how the Goblin Chief got cut off before.
It seemed like there were restrictions on summoned creatures providing tower-related information.
But couldn't I at least get hints?
'Especially since I can't enter towers today.'
Month-end when tower entry isn't allowed due to grade settlement period.
There's still some time left before September.
I decided to enter Ten Thousand Demon Battle during that time and resolve my curiosity.
Moreover.
'I need to retrieve the items from the Black Market warehouse.'
A week ago, I gave the Goblin Chief 100,000 TP and told him to purchase goods.
Hasn't he purchased some items by now?
Lee Ganghan opened the guild function.
Then.
[The Heavenly Demon Divine Sect's outer hall is designated at a location far from your current position.]
[Would you like to move the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect's outer hall to your current location?]
A message asking if he wanted to move the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect's outer hall that was installed at his previous house.
'Ah. Come to think of it, the outer hall was installed at the previous house.'
If there wasn't a moving function, I would have had to go to Yongin after moving here.
When Lee Ganghan pressed yes.
[The Heavenly Demon Divine Sect's outer hall has been designated at your current location.]
The new house's living room was set as the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect's outer hall.
'Entry appears when I click the Sacred Fire in the Ten Thousand Demon Battle function.'
When I opened Ten Thousand Demon Battle and clicked the Sacred Fire.
[Would you like to enter the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect?]
[Currently, Heavenly Demon Lord can stay for 30 minutes.]
'Oh?'
30 minutes.
The time suddenly increased a lot.
If it's a week's change…
'Is it related to Heavenly Demon Divine Art upgrading by 2 stars and the demon mark engraved on my chest?'
The time limit used to be about 10 minutes.
This tripled in just a week, probably due to that influence.
Paaaat…!
As a red portal appeared in the center of the living room.
Lee Ganghan stepped into it.
And upon entering Ten Thousand Demon Battle.
"Ooh…"
The scenery at the center of Ten Thousand Demon Battle.
Had noticeably changed compared to a week ago.