The Floating Prison, Asphodel
"Impressive brat."
While they waited, Ha-wol offered her praise.
"I'll grant you this much—the quick wit you show in moments of absolute crisis. Surviving yet again, are you?"
"......"
Hyun Si-woon saw no need to reply. He simply felt Baek Do-hee's hands tending to the wound on his back.
His name was Penlark, was it?
The fourth floor itself no longer mattered. What came after breaking through it was the real problem he would have to unravel going forward.
After a short wait, they stepped through the Tower's door.
You have entered Floor 4 of the Tower of Despair.
What met the members' eyes as they opened them was a landscape of pure astonishment.
"Whoa."
"This place is......"
The void.
Endless darkness.
Thousands of rock islands, bound by iron chains, floated upon it.
No floor. No sky. Only islands and islands, and the abyss stretching between them.
Privilege ability activates.
Save point set to the present moment.
Haa.
As Hyun Si-woon breathed a sigh of relief at the rising status window, Baek Yeon-ho murmured low.
"Floating Prison, Asphodel."
"That's another name for the fourth floor. Everyone stay sharp. One misstep here, and it's over."
He was right. The greatest enemy on this floor was not the monsters. It was gravity—and the fall that would kill you.
"We have to break out of here and deal with the warden at the center. Only then can we escape the prison."
Of course they had received a thorough explanation before coming. Intellectually they understood. But the sheer overwhelming presence of the vista before their eyes surpassed anything imagination could prepare them for.
Jang Cha-yul swallowed dryly without realizing it. Kang Si-a scanned their surroundings in silence, grip tightening on her bow.
And then...
"H-heh, hyeok. H-Hyeong-nim...!"
The one in the worst state was Hwang Dae-un. His face had gone deathly pale. His legs trembled, and his gaze wandered the void, unable to look down at his own feet.
"M-my feet just won't move..."
Acrophobia. To him this place was hell itself. A man who could not even ride the Viking at an amusement park now faced rock islands hanging in empty sky with no safety gear at all. It was as good as a death sentence.
But there's no helping it.
Hyun Si-woon was cold. The reason he had ridden Pungjo so hard earlier was precisely to prepare for the fourth floor. There was nothing more he could do for the man now. Dae-un would have to overcome this himself.
"Everyone gather up first."
Before they truly challenged the fourth floor, they needed a plan.
"You all remember that guy from earlier, right? Name's Penlark. Seems to be of the Hound race... one of the Rankers, I think."
Tension tightened across the members' faces. They had already heard of Rankers from Si-woon before—immortal beings who had climbed the Tower to its end.
"His goal is clear. Use the Lumi we have to rake in TC. He'll never give up. The moment we step outside the Tower, he'll show up again and try to hunt us down."
"Then what do we do?"
Jang Cha-yul asked, face uneasy.
"Two options."
Hyun Si-woon held up two fingers.
"First, we don't leave the Tower until we find a way to avoid him. Second..."
His eyes glinted coldly.
"We get strong enough to kill him ourselves."
"......!"
"......!"
The members swallowed hard. Kill a Ranker? That was a realm none of them had even dared to imagine.
Even Ha-wol, floating in the void above, shook her head back and forth. Judging by the shape of her mouth, she was mouthing something like "crazy bastard."
"Our real goal isn't just clearing this fourth floor. The fourth floor is a training ground to prepare for the threat that is Penlark. Here we either grow stronger, or we research a way to shake that Ranker or kill him—and only then do we leave."
Otherwise...
Gulp.
Hyun Si-woon swallowed dryly without meaning to. The future that unfolded if they left unprepared painted itself clearly in his mind.
Die to Penlark. Regress to the moment they cleared the fourth floor. Die to Penlark again. Regress to the fourth-floor clear. Infinite loop. Trapped forever in that same stretch of time, forced to scream "Dormammu" for eternity.
"We can't just keep standing here, so let's move."
"...Move how? The standard way?"
Yeon-ho hyung asked.
"No."
Hyun Si-woon shook his head.
The method Baek Yeon-ho and the top community users knew was to take the safe path. Among the thousands of rock islands there existed a specific route composed only of stable islands that would neither crumble nor tilt. Its name: the Safe Route.
The route twisted like a labyrinth, but veterans had memorized it through experience and shared information. Of course you still had to fight gargoyle patrols and various jailers, but compared to the dangerous paths the difficulty dropped sharply.
"The standard route is too safe. No chance to grow. More importantly, if we take that road we miss every hidden route we need to claim."
"Hidden route?"
Baek Yeon-ho's eyes widened.
"Th-there's a hidden route here too?"
"Of course."
Hyun Si-woon grinned.
"Every floor has hidden routes. There might even be ones I don't know about yet. On this fourth floor alone I know of two."
He left out the existence of the spear. Including that, it would be three.
"Follow me."
Without further explanation Hyun Si-woon took the lead. The direction he headed was the exact opposite of the Safe Route entrance Baek Yeon-ho knew.
A small rock island swaying precariously. Just looking at it made you feel it would crumble the moment you set foot on it.
"S-Si-woon? That way is..."
Baek Yeon-ho tried frantically to stop him.
"It's a trap! The second you step on it the floor tilts and—!"
Before the words finished, Si-woon stepped onto the chain bridge and slid across in one fluid motion.
The members' hearts plummeted.
Sure enough—
Rrrrumble!
The instant his foot touched down, the entire island roared and began to tilt sharply to the left.
"H-Hyeong-nim!"
Hwang Dae-un screamed.
Yet Hyun Si-woon showed not a flicker of panic. As if he had been waiting for exactly this, he used the growing incline of the island as naturally as if he were riding a skateboard.
Sssshhk!
His body slid down the slope, gathering tremendous speed. And at the island's edge—the split second before he was flung into empty air—
Taat!
Hyun Si-woon's body soared like a bird. His target was not the distant island across the void. It was the iron chain of another island right in front of him, swaying gently in the air.
Tak!
His hand closed precisely around the chain. At the same moment—
Kuuuurrrnnng!
The island connected to the chain he had seized now began to tilt in the opposite direction like a seesaw. As the chain pulled taut, Hyun Si-woon's body swung through the void in a great arc, as if hanging from a giant swing.
"......!"
"L-like that?"
"But that island will eventually flip a full three-sixty...! Don't tell me—!"
Only then did the third island enter Baek Yeon-ho's view. Yet the distance between the second and third was considerable...
"Hup!"
At the peak of the swing Hyun Si-woon launched his body. The momentum the chain had given him carried him almost effortlessly across the gap, and he landed lightly atop the third, stable rock island.
That island did not move.
"......"
The members left behind stared, mouths hanging open, at the spectacle that had just unfolded before their eyes. Baek Yeon-ho's jaw was equally slack.
There was a path like that?
He had thought of it only as a trap. He had never imagined using the trap itself to create another path.
"Crazy bastard... A real crazy bastard."
Was this the difference between a veteran and a rotten one? While he had only obsessed over ways to avoid the trap, Hyun Si-woon understood the trap's principle and turned it against itself. An entirely different dimension of thinking.
"Hey! What are you all standing around for?!"
Hyun Si-woon's shout carried from the far island.
"You saw it, right? That's the counter for this section. Just time it right and grab the chain. Nothing hard about it. Si-a, you first."
His voice was utterly casual.
Nothing hard?
Hwang Dae-un wanted to cry. How was that not hard?
But Si-woon's next words silenced everyone.
"Now you get why I made you climb stairs and drill footwork until you were sick of it? These are things even a game character can do. Just keep your head and leave it to your body! Don't be afraid!"
"I'll go right now."
Kang Si-a stepped forward without hesitation. Their leader had already shown both the answer and his trust. Proving themselves was now their job.
Kang Si-a's movements flowed like water. She recreated the sequence Hyun Si-woon had demonstrated almost perfectly. She never lost her balance on the tilting island, seized the chain at the exact moment, and flew through the void.
Tak!
With a light landing she stood at Si-woon's side.
"Not easy... but it's fun."
Instead of fear, a thrilling excitement colored her face.
Next was Jang Cha-yul. True to her background as a sports climber, her movements were even bolder and more precarious. The instant she grabbed the chain she performed something close to acrobatics.
Baek Yeon-ho and Baek Do-hee both hesitated a little, yet their bodies tempered by countless drills and their trust in their leader carried them safely across as well.
Only one remained.
Hwang Dae-un.
"......"
He stood at the edge of the starting island, unable to take the step. Sweat poured like rain. His legs shook so hard the sensation had already gone numb.
The yawning void. The endless abyss spread below seemed to mock him like a giant maw.
"Dae-un, are you okay?"
Baek Do-hee's worried voice rode the wind, but it never reached Hwang Dae-un's ears.
I can't.
I really can't.
His mind was already flooded with terror. The fighting spirit that had slammed countless strong opponents onto the judo mat was nowhere to be found. Right now he was nothing but a small beast standing before a vast fear.
"Hyeong-nim..."
He looked at Hyun Si-woon as if begging.
"I—I really don't think I can do it. Can't I just take a different path alone? I'll somehow manage the standard route by myself."
His voice was desperate. He did not want to become a burden to the team, yet he had even less confidence that he could conquer this terror.
Hyun Si-woon watched him in silence. There was no pity or urgency in his eyes—only a calm, deep gaze fixed on Hwang Dae-un.
I'm sorry, but you have to overcome this.
He could drag the man along for now, but the higher they climbed the Tower the more serious the problem would become. The tenth floor, the twentieth... The trials ahead would be dizzyingly more dangerous than anything here. They might have to ride the back of a giant dragon through the sky, or climb endless cliffs bare-handed. Would he freeze and refuse then as well? Then he would truly become dead weight.
A single moment of hesitation that wiped out the entire party—that was the Tower of Despair.
I want a strong team.
Not simply a team with high stats and polished techniques. A team with the steel will to face their own limits in any hopeless situation and smash them to pieces. That was the true face of the comrades Hyun Si-woon desired.
This fourth floor was the first trial given to Hwang Dae-un. Forcing him across or allowing another path would be nothing more than a temporary bandage. It would be the leader shirking responsibility—and with his own hands snapping the man's potential for growth.
Stand up on your own, Hwang Dae-un.
Hyun Si-woon murmured inwardly.
Fight the fear inside you and win. If you don't... you won't be able to stay with me from the fifth floor onward.