Tower of Despair 10th Floor (2)
"What the hell..."
Ha-wol, who had been watching, was equally stunned.
"What is this now? Why does this kind of absurd situation keep happening wherever you go, you brat?"
How the hell would I know?
Hyun Si-woon desperately wanted to know as well.
Ha-wol kept muttering after that. She claimed she had never heard of the Tower's difficulty changing according to the climbing party. But Hyun Si-woon paid it no mind. As absurd as it was, this was no time to dig into the cause.
— Krrroooooar!
Rex kicked off the ground and charged straight at Hyun Si-woon.
"W-What the—!"
"Hyung-nim!"
"Ugh?"
The members scrambled in panic. It was a first. For Hyun Si-woon's carefully laid plans to go so completely off the rails.
For starters, his speed feels way faster than before.
Hyun Si-woon's eyes were colder than they had ever been.
Trajectory is a straight line.
His brain sparked like fireworks. The primal sense from the days he used to play Tower of Despair was coming roaring back to life.
Now.
Moon Shadow Step. One Step. Swimming Step. New Moon Step.
His form melted into the darkness like a waning moon and slipped half a step to the side.
BOOOOOOM!
With a roar that tore at the eardrums, a massive fissure erupted where Hyun Si-woon had been standing a heartbeat earlier. The altar floor tore like paper, shards spraying in every direction. Even the mere brush of that force felt like it would peel the skin from his entire body.
Whoa.
As expected of the Tower's final boss. Its power stood on a completely different plane from the graded monsters. And thanks to that enhancement protocol or whatever it was, the force seemed more than doubled.
"Yeon-ho hyung!"
"I'm going!"
Baek Yeon-ho asked no questions. He simply clenched his teeth and charged. The leader had called for him, and he was the tank. That was enough.
CRAAAAASH!
Baek Yeon-ho hurled himself forward and caught Rex's second strike on his shield. The legendary Shield of the Earth's Cry screamed as if it would split apart. A thunderous boom shook the entire altar.
"Guh-hack!"
Even after blocking it, Baek Yeon-ho was driven dozens of meters back, coughing blood. Agony crashed through him as if every bone in his body had been pulverized by a single blow.
Crazy. That was a normal attack?
He could barely breathe. But he did not fall. Following Kenzo's teachings, he rooted himself into the ground like a tree and glared at Rex with eyes full of fury.
"Si-woon! Is this right?"
"Just hold on for now!"
Hyun Si-woon worked his lips.
First variable… it prioritizes the most threatening enemy instead of the close-range tank?
Even now—
— Krrrrr!
After shoving Baek Yeon-ho aside, Rex was already turning back toward Hyun Si-woon. Golden eyes blazing with murderous intent sent a chill down his spine.
Right.
In the end, the answer was set. He would have to face this Rex himself.
"Yeon-ho hyung!"
"Yeah!"
"Take my original role! Let's start by breaking the dissonance gimmick!"
"Got it!"
None of the members failed to understand what Hyun Si-woon's order meant. They had drilled it relentlessly during training.
Baek Yeon-ho gritted his teeth. Nothing in the Tower inspired greater terror than a situation that refused to follow the expected script.
"Si-woon's the main aggro! Everyone hit the resonance crystals!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Roger!"
The members struck the resonance crystals set into the outer walls.
Ding! Ting! Ting! Clang! Diing!
Discordant tones of different pitches rang through the entire altar. According to the original strategy, they had to find two crystals that produced the exact same note among the six and destroy them simultaneously. Then the carapace covering Rex's body would vanish for a short time. That was the extreme-damage window. After a set duration the carapace would regrow, and they would simply smash another matching pair. Infinite repetition until Phase 2. It looked simple, but it demanded serious teamwork. Especially for anyone without absolute pitch—confusion was inevitable.
"This one's Do!"
"Re#."
"Fa# here!"
"Sol!"
"Mi… then that means none of them match?"
The chromatic scale consisted of twelve notes: Do, Do#, Re, Re#, Mi, Fa, Fa#, Sol, Sol#, La, La#, Si. The members had hunted down an instrument and tested endlessly to nail them in one go. Mistakes were not allowed. Which meant—
"Yeon-ho! The last one!"
"I'll take it! Just listen to the sound!"
Kang Si-a instinctively raised her bow and aimed at the crystal at the one-o'clock position. Baek Yeon-ho sprinted, and she released the string in perfect timing.
Whoosh!
Tiiing!
"Si!"
Baek Yeon-ho shouted. The members froze. Do, Re#, Fa#, Sol, Mi, Si. Nothing overlapped. According to Hyun Si-woon there had to be matching notes…!
"What do we do?"
"There's no match!"
"I think someone got it wrong!"
"There's no way!"
Panic set in. Watching Hyun Si-woon barely dodging Rex's assaults only made it worse. It was one of two things: either Hyun Si-woon's strategy was wrong, or the members had misheard.
"Do it again!"
"Okay! Hit them!"
They repeated it. The result was identical. The notes kept coming out different.
Damn.
Hyun Si-woon had been watching the whole time.
They twisted the gimmick too?
His blood ran cold. The same despair he had felt in the Spiral Library rose again.
Fuck.
He clenched his teeth. Sparks flew as he parried Rex's claw with his sword; it felt like striking a giant iron sphere. His wrist screamed and his bones rang.
Should I give up?
The easiest, most familiar option was right there. Regression. Just die. The ninth-floor clear was right around the corner; he could keep trying until he cracked the gimmick. Or he could head to the Spiral Library and reach the Moon Strong realm. Not a bad choice either.
Wait.
It was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. His mind snapped clear.
What the hell am I thinking right now?
It had not even been long since he made the promise with Ha-wol. And he had promised himself as well. That he would not throw away this life, this single chance, so easily. That he would treasure each regression as if it were a real life.
And after all that, what were you about to do?
The easiest path. The refuge called regression. He had almost surrendered to that sweet temptation again. The wall in front of him looked high, so before even trying to smash into it he was already turning around to fetch a taller ladder.
Hyun Si-woon clenched his teeth harder. He tightened his grip on the sword.
I have to fight with everything I have.
By any means necessary, he had to crack this gimmick in this very regression. Instinct told him this was a growth threshold. If he fled this hardship now, he would end up parasitizing the privilege of regression. Growth would naturally slow. But if he slammed into it and won here? Only then could he truly ascend to a higher stage. He could not take the shortcut when the long, brutal road stretched right in front of him.
CLAAANG!
Hyun Si-woon dodged with footwork and struck Rex's claw again with pure white sword aura. The members, after several fruitless attempts, seemed to realize there was no answer and rushed Rex instead.
Think again.
He forcibly calmed the chaos in his head. Even while dodging and parrying Rex's attacks, his thoughts never stopped.
Why would the Tower suddenly throw this kind of trial at us?
While playing Tower of Despair, Hyun Si-woon had felt it countless times. This damned Tower was viciously malicious, yet a way to clear it always existed. There was no such thing as a no-win situation. Even on the most extreme floors, a clear chance—even if only a decimal point—always existed. The same had to be true now.
Rex is only targeting me right now.
Meaning?
The measured combat power of the climbing party exceeds the allowed range.
This message most likely pointed at Hyun Si-woon himself.
Because I'm strong.
Why? Because he had reached the Realm of Form Refinement? Because his stats were abnormally high? Because of the Thunder Dragon Spear? Either way, the conclusion was the same.
I have to be the breakthrough.
Hyun Si-woon's eyes blazed. They were the eyes of the gamer who once stayed up for days in front of a monitor—the eyes of EndSeeker. An unexplored floor no one had ever set foot on. A despairing boss with zero strategies. Even when the screen turned red with hundreds, thousands of deaths, the tenacity that never broke. The madness of a veteran who dug into the system's loopholes, mocked the developer's intentions, and clawed out that 0.001% chance no matter what. Right now he saw neither the members' safety nor the possibility of regression. Only the giant puzzle named Rex standing before him—the unsolved problem that would not let him rest until it was cracked.
Every cell in his body trembled. His brain burned. This was not a struggle for survival. It was a challenge. Hyun Si-woon felt pure exhilaration.
Start with the altar.
His gaze swept the entire map. He even drew up his qi. The flow of air, the waves of mana, the members' faint presence, and even the killing intent in Rex's golden eyes—all of it flooded into his mind like a torrent. In that whirlpool of information he focused desperately to seize even a single clue. And at last something snagged on his senses.
Vibration?
Hyun Si-woon furrowed his brow. Not sound. Vibration. And an extremely faint one at that…
Thud! Thud!
Every time Rex moved, every time he roared, the entire altar trembled ever so slightly.
No way.
CLAAANG!
This time Hyun Si-woon did not block the claw. Baek Yeon-ho cut in at an angle and body-checked Rex. Whistles of arrows, spears, and blunt weapons slammed into the boss. But the current Rex was nearly invincible.
— Krrroooooar!
One sweep of a claw sent all four members flying in different directions.
No.
Fighting Rex head-on was not the answer right now.
"Everyone back to your positions!"
The members were confused, but they obeyed. Absolute rule number one when climbing: absolute obedience to Hyun Si-woon's commands.
"Hit them again!"
"Okay!"
Baek Yeon-ho shouted.
"Sending the signal! Three! Two! One!"
With Baek Yeon-ho's booming voice, five weapons smashed the crystals at the same instant. This time Kang Si-a loosed an arrow as well.
Clang! Clang! Ting! Ting!
As expected. Discordant notes rang through the altar once more. Disappointment flickered across the members' faces—
No.
Only Hyun Si-woon kept concentrating. He was not listening to the sound. He focused on a different sense. The sensing of qi—feeling the flow of energy! Within that flow, Hyun Si-woon finally found them. Two crystals whose waves most closely matched the altar's fundamental vibration.
A full-body shudder ran through him.
This is it.
His intuition was screaming.
"Twelve o'clock! Six o'clock! Smash them!"
As if they had choreographed it, every member sprinted for the indicated crystals and began hammering them like madmen. The ringing continued without pause. The durability was high enough that it would take dozens of hits to break them. Hyun Si-woon kept drawing Rex's attention while using spirits to chip away damage.
And then—
CRACK!
The moment the two crystals shattered—
— Kyaaaaaaah!
A horrific scream tore from Rex's throat. Crack-crack-crack! Part of the invincible carapace wrapping his body shattered and rained down onto the floor.
"We did it!"
"H-How…!"
"It actually worked!"
The members' eyes flew wide with shock. They had no idea how, but Phase 1 was clearly progressing.
"Now!"
Hyun Si-woon roared. At last the extreme-damage window had arrived.
"Fuck him up!"
The members charged.