The Spiral's Whisper (4)
He took the book.
Information flooded his vision.
Name:Whisper of the Spiral
Type:Book
Grade:Unique
Trait:A book that exists within the Spiral Library.
Hmm.
Hyun Si-woon's brow furrowed deeply.
There's really nothing to it.
He had expected at least detailed options, usage instructions, or some kind of warning—but there was genuinely nothing.
After a cursory check of its appearance, Si-woon slid the book into his inventory.
"Alright. Good."
He would have to verify the authenticity back at the base, but given Ha-wol's reaction, Yoo Jin-hyeok didn't seem to be lying. The information fee had been paid in full.
"That's enough for today. Give me your UID. I'll add you as a friend—get in touch again once you've reunited with your teammates. I'll call you to our base soon."
Hyun Si-woon and Yoo Jin-hyeok added each other as friends.
Yoo Jin-hyeok bowed his head with a satisfied expression. Simply forging a connection with EndSeeker through a single bizarre book seemed like a massive gain to him.
— Hah. You absolute lunatic. Snatching up that disaster of a thing without a second thought… Doing something even Rankers refuse, and you a mere Climber. You've got some nerve.
"Sorry, sorry."
Ha-wol grumbled, but Si-woon let it slide past his ears. Every shred of his attention was fixed on the book.
A being that traded knowledge for Despair Stones.
And him?
He currently held eighty-six Despair Stones.
One each as a 7th-floor clear reward for every member, plus eighty from the Atla raid.
In the Tower of Despair, no opportunity is more valuable than information.
Honestly, Ha-wol's warning was not something he could brush off. It was frightening.
But alongside that fear, another emotion seethed in a corner of his chest.
The hunger for a challenge.
The same sensation from those sleepless nights spent before the wall past the 10th floor—the wall no one in Tower of Despair had ever broken—was surging back to life.
It was dangerous.
But flip that around?
It could also be a shortcut to the truth of this tower.
Upon arriving at Eden Camp, Hyun Si-woon went straight to his private space and locked the door.
Thud.
He pulled the book out and set it on the table.
It eats Despair Stones, right?
Si-woon took a steadying breath and drew a single Despair Stone from his inventory.
A crystal that glowed with a luminous sheen.
— You mean to start right away?
Ha-wol had already given up. She seemed to have decided from the start that she could never break Si-woon's stubborn streak.
Yeah. All-in or nothing.
Without hesitation, Si-woon placed the Despair Stone on the book.
In that instant—
Ssssss!
Something uncanny happened.
The Despair Stone melted away as if dissolving into water, vanishing soundlessly into the black cover.
The spiral pattern etched into the cover pulsed once, faintly, like a heartbeat.
"…!"
Si-woon held his breath.
A bone-deep chill raced down his spine.
And then—
— …More…
A whisper resonated not in his ears, but from the deepest recesses of his brain.
Si-woon swallowed dryly without meaning to.
Every nerve in his body stood on end. Like a herbivore facing an invisible predator in absolute darkness, his instincts screamed warnings at full volume.
Yoo Jin-hyeok never mentioned anything like this…
Moreover, he had said the voice only appeared after feeding it five stones.
Cold sweat trickled down Si-woon's back.
— …Give me more…
More?
Fine.
Si-woon dropped four additional Despair Stones onto the book.
Yoo Jin-hyeok had received information with five, so he was testing the waters the same way.
But—
— …More! More! More…!
— What is this two-bit scam artist?
Ha-wol cried out in disbelief.
— Using the cheapest trick in every third-rate conman's book! You already swallowed five Despair Stones and you want more? Boy, we should walk away right here. That thing clearly knows exactly how many Despair Stones you possess. Do not fall for such a vulgar ploy!
She was right.
The book was blatantly demanding every last Despair Stone Si-woon owned.
A completely different reaction from what Yoo Jin-hyeok had experienced.
— …Foolish. You thought a mere five would entitle you to my knowledge…? Offer everything you have…
Cut.
The whisper stopped there.
Silence.
The book showed no further reaction—having swallowed five Despair Stones, it simply shut its mouth.
"This thing's a real piece of work."
A hollow laugh escaped Si-woon's lips.
— See?! What did this lady tell you! A thoroughly rotten swindler! Trying to take my disciple for a fool!
Ha-wol's voice rang out, thick with fury.
But Si-woon's thoughts ran differently.
Might as well give it more.
Ha-wol understood the value of Despair Stones. To her, these eighty-six stones could feel precious.
But Si-woon?
He didn't even know what Despair Stones were for.
He could afford to be bold.
A mad glint entered Si-woon's eyes.
— You… you can't be serious.
I said all-in or nothing, didn't I?
If he got scammed, he could just regress and come back. Next time, he simply wouldn't pick up this book.
Si-woon opened his inventory and withdrew every remaining Despair Stone—all eighty-one of them.
Luminous violet crystals piled onto the table like a small mountain.
"All in."
— You absolute maniac…
"Take them all."
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
He dumped the mountain of Despair Stones onto the book.
Rumble…!
The book began to pulse.
A wave of power incomparable to anything before. Space itself twisted, and every object in the room warped grotesquely.
— Interesting. A mortal who stakes everything he is to knock upon the door of the unknown. A type I have not seen in a very long time. I rather like it.
"Kh—!"
An overwhelming pressure crushed down on Si-woon's body.
And the whisper had grown far clearer than before.
— Hmm?
That was when the tone of the whisper shifted, ever so slightly.
No longer mechanical greed—now the intellectual curiosity of an ancient scholar who had stumbled upon a fascinating subject of study.
— From you… a strange scent. How is that possible? One who defies the Tower's laws… yes, one who has slipped free of the threads of causality? Hmmmm?
Si-woon held his breath.
His heart hammered.
He didn't fully understand the words, but he felt their meaning.
Is it seeing through my regression ability?
The ability that even Rankers like Ha-wol and Noe-je had failed to perceive at a glance.
Si-woon's unique privilege.
— Amusing. A most amusing scent. Originally I intended to bestow some modest knowledge and be done with it… but I have changed my mind. I shall specially grant you the opportunity to face me in person.
— What? Shut your filthy mouth, you bookworm bastard! How dare you try to seduce my disciple with that filthy maw of yours? If you don't stop this instant, I will reduce your entire library to ash with this blade!
— The Echo of the Moon Lord, once sealed by the Tower Lord? The clamor of fleeting things always grates upon the ear.
The voice sneered at Ha-wol.
Unlike other Rankers, it had seen her spiritual form.
Krrrgggghhh…!
At the same time, a black door formed upon the now-open pages.
Beyond the door, nothing was visible.
No sound, no light—an absolute void devoid of any sensation.
But Si-woon could feel it.
The presence beyond the door was calling him.
— That is the path to the Spiral Library! The Rankers I told you about! Every one of those fools who went blind for knowledge stepped through that path and never returned!
— Come to the Spiral Library. I feel you could make it. If you come, I will show you the truth you desire.
The whisper drove itself directly into his mind.
With those final words, the book fell silent once more.
Only the black door remained, open in ominous silence, beckoning Si-woon like a lure.
— Do not go.
Ha-wol was not angry.
She spoke with genuine, earnest plea.
— That is a space created by a being that ignores the Tower's laws. Just as this lady was sealed in the lower floors of the Tower of Despair by the Tower Lord's forces, you too could be trapped there forever. Unable even to use that pride and joy of yours!
That pride and joy?
Regression, of course.
"…"
— And from what this lady can see, that thing may be more dangerous than even the Tower Lord. The Tower Lord at least operates within rules we can comprehend. That thing does not. It is chaos itself. There is a reason the Moon Lord avoided it.
Si-woon closed his eyes for a moment.
His mind was a tangle.
On one side of his brain, reason blared emergency alarms of danger. On the other, his heart pounded wildly.
It was not fear.
It was anticipation.
One who has slipped free of the threads of causality.
That was what the presence had called him.
In a single contact, it had pierced through to his very essence.
Then what lay beyond that door? A place where the Tower's rules held no sway.
A forbidden domain that even a Ranker like Ha-wol feared.
Perhaps there—only there—lay the true face of this damned tower. The end of everything.
EndSeeker.
He was one who sought the end.
A hopeless veteran who could not rest until he confirmed what lay at the terminus of a path no one else had walked.
A gambler who found ecstasy not in the safe route that delivered 99% results, but in staking everything on a 1% chance and forging a result that surpassed 100%—that reached 120%.
That was the essence of the man named Hyun Si-woon.
"Ha-wol."
He finally spoke.
"Do you know why I trusted Yoo Jin-hyeok's information, unlike you?"
— …
"Because even knowing he might be wrong, I bet on the 1% chance it was true. And as a result, I gained information about the Server War and the Spiral Library that I never would have known otherwise."
That was the mindset of Hyun Si-woon, who had played Tower of Despair.
"This is the same. The odds of dying beyond that door might be 99%. But with a 1% chance, I might obtain the key that brings me closer to this tower's truth. If so, I'll bet on that 1%."
And if that 1% succeeded?
He might become something different from Ha-wol…
Something that stood above even Rankers!
— Hah.
Ha-wol let out a sigh.
— Fine, you brat. Do as you please. If you get trapped there, this lady will be trapped with you, but…
Then she smirked.
— If it weren't for you, I would still be stuck in some corner of the damned 2nd floor of the Tower anyway. What the hell—let's make a gamble of it.
"The greater the risk, the sweeter the reward, right?"
— Quiet. I want to ask if you somehow have two lives, but…
She couldn't.
In reality, he seemed to have far more than that.
"If you're scared, just hide inside the sword."
— Who said anything about being scared! How dare you—what do you take this lady for!
With even Ha-wol saying that much, there was no further need for deliberation.
Si-woon hesitated no longer.
Taht!
He kicked off the floor—
and in the next moment, his body was crossing the threshold of the door.
His vision blacked out. Every sense vanished into absolute void.
Hyun Si-woon willingly cast himself into that darkness.