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Chapter 1:
[ Main Title 95% Off! ]
[ New DLC 90% Off! ]
At first glance, it's the kind of massive discount sale that gamers absolutely love.
But when a game offering this level of discount is a trash game, everyone would say the same thing I would.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk… The developer has finally gotten down on their hands and knees and begged."
It was a game that had drawn enormous anticipation with its concept of traveling across countless worlds with a single character.
But not only was the entire game system completely broken, the story was nonexistent on top of that.
And then there was that god-awful dream sequence—the kind even acclaimed games struggle to pull off.
They'd gone and made nothing but sad and bad endings: enslavement, infinite regression.
In the end, the screams and cries of the early players sent gamers all over the world running for the hills.
Whether it had become something only game reviewers and streamers specializing in garbage games would touch, a news article went up reporting that sales were abysmally low.
And yet the developer, with their bloated ego, went ahead and sold DLC under the name of paid patches.
[ New Game Plus Added! ]
[ Balance Patch Between Classes Complete! ]
[ New Region Added! ]
[ Happy Ending (Tower Conquest) Added! ]
It was like a restaurant charging extra for sanitized chopsticks, wet towels, and card payment support.
Stuff that should've been standard post-launch support, packaged as DLC and marketed like it was something remarkable….
Anyway, since neither the DLC nor the base game was selling anymore, the developer was practically screaming, begging people to play.
I had bought the base game during an 80% off sale and gave it a go.
And now I could watch the developer grovel for the price of two packets of instant noodles?
Who could possibly resist!
Not that I had any intention of using paid time off from work for a game like this.
Or of starting over from scratch.
I was just going to watch—so I'd take my Max Level character I'd already built and use the mode that lets you start from the beginning with everything intact.
I clicked New Game Plus────
────Whirrrrrr!!
"Huh?"
The monitor suddenly exploded with a blinding light.
***
When I came to my senses, I was the Supporter I had raised inside the game.
I stood in a desert of swirling black sand, having become a monk.
At first I was quite disoriented.
But before long, a massive boulder covered in countless tally marks came into view.
"Nearly ten years…."
Was it the influence of having become a game character?
Not only the knowledge the monk had possessed.
Even his peculiar manner of speaking had been layered over me.
But this place didn't seem to be inside The Tower, as the Status Window and Inventory wouldn't open.
Faced with the reality of having been stuck here for ten whole years, I stood there in a half-dazed stupor—and that's when strange sounds began reaching my ears.
"Grrrk?!"
"Kieeeeeek!"
"Shaaaaaak!"
It was the Black Desert, where grotesque and alien monsters respawned endlessly.
And since this entire dimension was nothing but desert, I had spent all this time locked in a constant brawl with those monsters.
"But this suffering now draws to a close!!"
At the end of endless slaughter, I had attained enlightenment.
The very core of Sacred Energy!!!
The moment I silently recited the sutras within my mind, a vast light erupted from my body and my physical abilities rose without limit.
The immense power compressed in the palm of my hand—compressed again and again—until it became a single point of light.
I thrust my arm sharply forward, and the flash advanced endlessly, obliterating everything in its path.
Kwaaaaaaaang!!!
Not only were the surging monsters swept away entirely, but a massive palm print was carved deep and clear into a distant mountain range.
I had now obtained power that far surpassed the original abilities of the game character!!
And at some point, I had begun to faintly perceive a strange and alien flow of power.
After tracking this force—pouring out from somewhere—for days on end.
'Tsk… So that's why I couldn't find it.'
I discovered an enormous black gate hidden several kilometers beneath the desert floor.
A fierce intuition told me that passing through this gate would bring me to The Tower, the space within the game.
As the suffering I had endured all this time flashed through my mind, a single objective formed naturally.
"You little developer bastard… I will kill you without fail!!"
Why had the existing game's endings turned out so disastrously?
It was precisely because the final boss was the developer's self-insert Mary Sue character.
Given the circumstances, the one who had thrown me into this place also appeared to be that developer.
Then wasn't what I had to do perfectly obvious!
"I will take the head of the final boss—the one crammed full of your bloated ego—without fail!!"
With that resolve firmly set, I immediately threw a punch at the gate.
And hurled myself inside without a moment's hesitation.
***
Just as my instincts had told me, the inside of the gate was a passage leading to The Tower.
In a free fall through the rift between dimensions, shimmering with every color imaginable, countless landscapes swept past me.
A medieval European-style castle and city.
Ancient Chinese-style buildings.
A modern city.
A futuristic city, and more.
Familiar dimensions I had seen within the game came into view.
Just as the relief of finally escaping the desert was sinking in, a sigh escaping my lips—
A jet-black darkness swallowed my vision, and a brilliant light rose up from below.
That light quietly wrapped itself around me.
Then a refreshing breeze swept in, and a vast blue sky welcomed me.
Whooooooosh!!
'A natural landscape—for the first time in nearly ten years….'
Finally returning to the embrace of open nature, it seemed as though the pain of all that time might dissolve even just a little.
But the moment I caught sight of the window that had suddenly appeared before my eyes—
Anger surged up in me once more.
[ Tutorial Floor ]
[ Objective: Meet the 4 people on the current floor and form a party. ]
"So it really was the Tutorial!!"
Below stretched a vast forest.
Then it was time to begin!
I kicked off the empty air and plunged downward at greater speed.
Just before impact with the ground, I threw a hard punch.
Kwaaang!!!
Along with a tremendous blast, a crater formed as though a meteorite had struck—
But when a commotion this large breaks out, naturally people nearby would come rushing to investigate.
And just as planned, before long I sensed presences drawing near from the surroundings.
"Seems like something fell here?"
"B-both of you, wait just a moment!"
"No, let's just move fast."
Other climbers who had been displayed in the message window emerged from the forest.
A swordsman who looked like he'd leapt straight out of a martial arts novel.
A middle-aged man carrying a wooden shield and spear, looking as though he'd come straight from a jog.
And a delinquent-looking blonde girl who appeared to be a magic-wielding student.
Add me to the mix, and we had a full set—damage dealer, tank, magic damage dealer, and supporter.
Just as I was thinking how closely this matched the very opening of the game—
The climbers spotted me and paused briefly, then the middle-aged man was the first to speak.
"Are you… a monk? Either way, can you tell me what happened here?"
"Nothing happened."
"Y-you're speaking informally…?!"
The middle-aged man looked momentarily flushed with irritation.
But given how imposing my build was at the moment, he managed to keep his temper well in check.
Anyway, my reason for exchanging words with the climbers was very simple.
'So there's no Level Scaling or anything like that in New Game Plus?'
A Max Level character was restarting from the very beginning.
Normally in other games, New Game Plus means tougher enemies deployed from the start.
But not only the climbers I had just encountered—
Even the energy emanating from the monsters in the vicinity felt far too feeble.
Just as I was finding it genuinely interesting—
Something suddenly burst out of thin air.
Pop!!!
"Looks like all four are finally together!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
While the climbers stood flustered, the creature grinned widely and introduced itself.
"I'm the Tutorial Fairy! Nice to meet you all!"
So it had appeared after all.
Anticipating what was about to unfold, I immediately began loosening up my body.
***
The Tutorial Fairy appeared before me and the climbers.
Before the others could get a word in, she immediately brought something up.
"A message will appear now—go ahead and enter your name!"
Ding!
[ Please enter your name. ]
[ You may roll randomly, but it is not recommended! ]
"You'll need to enter your name correctly to use the Status Window properly—keep that in mind!"
Entering your name here would allow full use of the Status Window, as the fairy said.
But rolling randomly would trigger a kind of self-imposed hard mode—stats gained while climbing would be allocated automatically, and so on.
Why set it up that way?
Quite remarkably, it's because this was an ending branch point.
The final boss uses the name entered here to apply a powerful Debuff.
So without doing the hard mode, there was no way to take that bastard's head.
Of course, I was already a Max Level character with every stat filled.
[ Your name will be chosen randomly. ]
[ Name: Samjang ]
Beep!!!
Well… if that's the name you get from a random roll, I suppose it could be worse….
And finally, my packed Inventory opened!
I was contentedly looking over the items I had diligently accumulated all this time, when the Tutorial Fairy spoke up.
"Alright! Looks like everyone's finished entering! Check your Status Window later when you're alone!"
"T-this is the famed Status Window!"
"Finally, even I can grow─!!"
The martial artist and the girl student were practically dying of excitement at receiving the Status Window, which was as good as a growth booster—
But the still-sour middle-aged man, full of grievances as ever, kept demanding something.
"Hey, fairy—is there a skip or something?"
"Uh… did you just say skip?"
"This is the Tutorial, isn't it~? So let's be flexible about it."
The middle-aged man didn't care about the Status Window or anything else—he just wanted to get to the next floor as fast as possible.
But his bossy, grating way of speaking had rubbed the little demon the wrong way.
"Ahahaha! It's been so long since I've had a climber like this. Alright!! I'll let you out right away!"
"Ha~ See, this is exactly why you have to keep pushing until they listen."
Watching him feel proud of his conduct—no different from that of an insufferable complainer—he truly was a pitiful soul.
What was about to happen was perfectly obvious, so I immediately drew on my Sacred Energy.
And gradually, everything around me except myself began to slow.
Then the little demon smiled and pointed a finger at the middle-aged man───
────Kwaaaaaaaang!!
"Huh?"
"Isn't it a bit much to try and kill that poor soul on the spot?"
"Huh, HUAAAAAAAK?!"
I swatted away the transparent projectile aimed at the middle-aged man with my hand.
I could have chosen not to save that unlikable middle-aged man.
'Right now I need to confirm whether the Full Survival Reward triggers.'
There was a chance to grow even further here.
And I'd be able to find out whether the in-game reward system worked the same way.
On top of that, this was the perfect opportunity to take down the Hidden Boss—one that would be difficult to catch any other time.
So I picked up where that poor soul had so helpfully gotten things started.
"How many of these meaningless killings have you carried out up until now?"
"Do you count every single piece of bread you've ever eaten while eating it? Besides, I don't know what you just did, but don't go challenging my authority."
"If killing people because you feel like it is your authority, then you must be living quite the pitiful life."
"What? Are you done talking?!"
The fairy's face twisted into something monstrous.
Whether she liked it or not, I walked forward.
Sacred Energy began to gradually flow from my body.
"I know a fair amount about this Tower. And about you as well."
"You, you're…?"
What am I?
The bastard who came here to tear this Tower apart!!!
***
The Tutorial Fairy flinched more and more with each step Samjang took toward her.
'Why is such a presence coming from what looks like an ordinary being?!'
To the fairy's eyes, he appeared to be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill monk.
And yet something inexplicable continued to pour from Samjang's body.
At that moment, the martial artist seemed to realize something and cried out loudly.
"Could it be—The Realm of Concealed Mastery?!"
"W-what's that?"
"It is a legendary state in which an absolute master who has reached the very highest level appears to others as an ordinary person!"
Whether or not the martial artist was moved, Samjang waved a hand toward the climbers.
As a torrent of Sacred Energy surged, the climbers were thrown into a panic—
But something truly astonishing happened.
Hooooooong!!
"Th-the power!!"
"Uwoaaaaaaak!"
"What is this!!"
Power flooded through every inch of the climbers' bodies.
No—it was as though they had become several times stronger.
"That Buff will last for exactly one hour."
"""!!!!"""
Samjang pointed in a direction and spoke.
"If you keep running that way, there will be a Portal—get out of here at once."
"Thank you so much! Benefactor!!!"
"See you on Floor Zero!!"
"Th-thank you!!"
Having received the overwhelming Buff of a Max Level Supporter, the climbers expressed their gratitude to Samjang and sprinted away.
Left in that place were only the Fallen Monk and the little demon.
The fairy could have fled at this point.
But unable to gauge Samjang's power—
And perhaps with her pride deeply wounded—she instead drew out her weapon: a scythe.
"You dare disrupt my game? I don't know how strong you are, but that arrogance ends here."
"Arrogance and confidence are just two sides of the same coin. Stop running your mouth and come at me."
And so the Tutorial Floor's administrator and Hidden Boss.
The fairy and Samjang came face to face.