Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Fifth Trial Complete
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[You have completed the Fifth Trial.]
[Your level has increased.]
“Ugh, it’s finally over.”
Park Hae-jin stretched.
It had to be that way, since he’d been waiting for the Fifth Trial’s Arena to end all this time.
Of course, he’d spent the time sparring with his subordinates and such, but the Fifth Trial’s Arena showed no signs of ending, so in the end, he’d just lain around on the 100th floor of the Tower of Trials, killing time.
Now that the Fifth Trial’s Arena had finally concluded, he couldn’t help but feel exhausted.
After climbing to the 100th floor, Park Hae-jin finally received his rewards from Chaos.
Cue, Kiyo, and Terry Prisoner—the subordinates he’d gained from scaling the tower.
Chaos granted them their rewards and vanished.
Leaving only a final farewell.
『My liege, if we meet again, let us speak then.』
The electronic board announcing the end of the Fifth Trial’s Arena displayed a new system window.
[Fifth Trial complete.]
[Settling Fifth Trial results.]
[Announcing Fifth Trial results.]
[Fifth Trial Zone Ranking TOP 3]
1st: Park Hae-jin - 100th floor
2nd: Kang Jung-gu - 19th floor
3rd: Zen Master - 14th floor
As the Fifth Trial’s Arena rankings appeared, Park Hae-jin looked at them with interest.
“Hoo, they finally managed to climb to the 30th floor?”
Speller and Manager Kim.
The two were Lee Sang and Kim Seok-gi, respectively.
Seeing that both had successfully reached the 34th floor, Park Hae-jin wore a quite satisfied smile.
It had to be that way.
The reason was the “hidden trial.”
[You have completed the hidden trial.]
[Your level has increased.]
Park Hae-jin had also completed the hidden mission.
But the system window didn’t display that hidden mission now.
[Congratulations! You have achieved Zone Ranking 1st!]
[Reward has been placed in your inventory.]
A system window stating that the Zone Ranking 1st reward had been granted to Park Hae-jin.
Beyond that, the system window also displayed a single announcement to all Players.
[Fifth Trial's hidden trial has been completed.]
[Fifth Trial's hidden trial.]
- Goal: Climb to the 30th floor without dying once.
- Achieved by: Park Hae-jin, Speller, Manager Kim, Me, Anna.
Climb to the 30th floor without dying once.
As Park Hae-jin had explained to his party members, this Fifth Trial’s Arena was like a roguelike—die and you got another chance to climb the Tower of Trials from the 1st floor.
Dying while climbing the Tower of Trials and respawning allowed you to grow stronger, so you could climb again to raise your final floor count.
However, doing so meant you couldn’t complete the hidden trial.
Why?
Because the hidden trial required “without dying.”
The system only recognized the hidden trial condition as met if you broke through 30 floors or higher without dying.
Amid that, one name was notably absent from the list among his party members.
“Hmm, looks like Raffaello da Vinci failed.”
Raffaello da Vinci was the only one missing from the list of hidden mission achievers.
But Park Hae-jin thought it was understandable.
‘Originally, Raffaello da Vinci got stronger as things progressed later on. Well, from the next Trial’s Arena, he might end up the strongest?’
This time, Raffaello da Vinci was the only party member who hadn’t achieved the hidden trial, but the next Trial’s Arena would be different.
The reason was simple.
‘I farmed too much from the tower this time.’
Later on, Raffaello da Vinci would be called by the epithet “Sage,” because he could accomplish countless things with vast materials.
Of course, to do anything impressive required massive amounts of materials and equipment, so supplying them would normally have been a huge challenge.
But Park Hae-jin had gained so much from climbing to the 100th floor of the Tower of Trials this time.
Hand those over to Raffaello da Vinci, and he’d surely grow plenty strong.
‘Of course, with only a month until the Sixth Trial’s Arena, he won’t skyrocket overnight... but he’ll be much stronger than now.’
Having taken care of Raffaello da Vinci in his mind, Park Hae-jin sorted through the rest.
‘Anyway, Lee Sang and Manager Kim reached the same floor but have different rankings... so Lee Sang went up first. Then where did Na-ye and Anna stop?’
It wouldn’t take long to resolve that curiosity.
Soon, the Players who survived the Fifth Trial’s Arena would return to reality, and they’d meet up with the party members who had entered the Fifth Trial’s Arena from the same place.
And a system window appeared before Park Hae-jin.
[Hidden trial reward granted.]
[Choose one of the following three rewards.]
1. Divine Physique Enhancement Stone
2. Divine Guard Summon Scroll
3. Divine Teleport Scroll
The list presented as the reward for this hidden trial consisted of things no ordinary person could possibly know.
Without information, it was impossible to tell what they were even for.
Of course, for those who had cleared the hidden mission, that was no issue at all.
Park Hae-jin chose exactly what he’d told them to pick.
“This is the one, as expected.”
Flash!
Various lights burst out in Park Hae-jin’s house.
Those who had just finished the Fifth Trial’s Arena had returned to reality.
Once everyone was back, they checked on each other.
From the hidden mission achiever list, they already knew most party members had survived.
But since everyone had noticed one missing name, they confirmed it.
The party member whose name was absent from the hidden mission: Raffaello da Vinci.
Kwon Na-ye spotted him first.
Seeing Raffaello da Vinci back in reality, she sighed in relief.
“Phew, you survived.”
“Me?”
Raffaello da Vinci pointed at his own face with his index finger.
Manager Kim spoke to him.
“We were quite shocked to see your name missing from the hidden mission achiever list, Raffaello.”
The others nodded as if sharing the sentiment.
Raffaello da Vinci scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“Haha! It’s because I fell short. Still, everyone else—brothers and sisters—cleared the hidden mission without me? Impressive!”
Kwon Na-ye spoke as Raffaello da Vinci gave them double thumbs up, praising them.
“Impressive? It’s all because Leader Hae-jin explained it well so we could do it.”
“Right.”
Anna Fascia chimed in agreement.
Meanwhile, Lee Sang cut in and called to Park Hae-jin.
“Leader.”
“Speak.”
“We picked the ‘Divine Teleport Scroll’ as the hidden trial reward, just as you instructed... but what’s it for?”
It was one of the rewards you could choose upon clearing the hidden trial in the Fifth Trial’s Arena.
Normally, Park Hae-jin would explain after clearing the month’s Trial’s Arena and gathering the survivors.
So he’d only told them which hidden trial reward to pick and said nothing about the next Sixth Trial—which was why it was natural for Lee Sang to be curious about the ‘Divine Teleport Scroll’ he’d chosen as the hidden trial reward.
Park Hae-jin addressed the curious Lee Sang.
“First, let me explain about the Sixth Trial’s Arena.”
“Yes, I’m listening.”
Park Hae-jin explained the Sixth Trial’s Arena to his party members.
“The Sixth Trial’s Arena is an ‘AOS.’”
Two reactions emerged at Park Hae-jin’s words describing the Sixth Trial’s Arena format.
“AOS...”
“AOS?”
Lee Sang and Kwon Na-ye reacted as if they knew what AOS was, while Anna Fascia looked puzzled about what it meant.
It had to be that way.
Lee Sang was, no matter what anyone said, a living legend in the current AOS scene.
AOS.
Short for Aeon of Strife, it referred to the real-time strategy and tactical siege game genre where Players selected a single character, grew it, and destroyed the enemy base.
Naturally, Lee Sang knew it well as a living legend in that genre, and Kwon Na-ye had been with him in the national team training camp, so she knew too.
On the other hand, it was natural for those uninterested in games not to know.
With some knowing and some not, Park Hae-jin explained.
“Think of it as picking one of two factions and surviving on the winning side.”
The words were simple.
But considering it, for Players whose goal in the Trial’s Arena was survival, what they had to do was set.
“Then we pick the faction that’ll win?”
“If you want to survive normally, yes, that’s right.”
“Normally?”
Everyone reacted, noticing the oddity in Park Hae-jin’s words.
Normally survive.
Survival was the Players’ goal in itself, so it was important.
But for Park Hae-jin’s party members, there was something more important.
Namely...
“The hidden mission requires going to the losing faction?”
The quick-witted Lee Sang posed the question to Park Hae-jin.
“Exactly. Only one can survive from the losing faction, and that’s the hidden mission clearer.”
“The one who survives the losing faction is the one who killed the most enemy troops?”
“Correct.”
Lee Sang asked Park Hae-jin, who was pondering that.
“If we give up the hidden mission for stable survival and must go to the winning faction, do you know which one wins?”
Lee Sang asked if Park Hae-jin knew which faction would win in the Sixth Trial’s Arena.
But Park Hae-jin couldn’t tell him that.
He only knew the winning faction from the zone he was in.
“No? I can’t advise on that. But I can give one piece of advice.”
Park Hae-jin said he didn’t know which faction each party member would win in.
But he said advice was possible.
Lee Sang tilted his head at Park Hae-jin’s words.
“What advice?”
“Wherever you are becomes the winning faction.”
“Ah...?”
Park Hae-jin said that wherever they were would be the victorious faction.
It was impossible not to accept that logic.
The people Park Hae-jin had gathered as party members were producing overwhelming results in their respective factions.
In other words, whichever faction they were in was bound to win.
Seeing Lee Sang seemed to understand, Park Hae-jin continued.
“If you just want a safe survival guarantee, make the faction you’ve joined win.”
Make your joined faction win for survival.
But for Players who could obtain hidden trial info, that alone wasn’t satisfying enough.
Lee Sang asked Park Hae-jin.
“What if I need to achieve the hidden trial?”