The Yellow Crystal
Do-yun could not hide his bewilderment as he stared at the notification floating before his eyes.
He had never heard of an item latching onto a user of its own free will.
It's not like some cursed magic sword.
The fact that it never sought the user's consent made one thing clear: the nano machines came with thoroughly wicked functions as well. There was even a hidden effect that forced absolute loyalty to the Company.
Click. Clack.
Do-yun frantically shook his hands, trying to fling the nano machines off, but they had already vanished like a mirage. From the circumstances, it seemed they had burrowed straight into his body.
"What the hell is this crap?!"
He had never imagined a trap of this kind even existed. Just as Do-yun was about to drag out every method he knew to neutralize the nano machines—
Something dropped from his fingertips with a soft plop.
"Huh?"
It was none other than the nano machines he had thought had just invaded his body. Do-yun immediately put distance between himself and the floor, wary they might leap at him again, yet even as time passed the tiny devices simply rolled there with no reaction at all.
What?
He could not understand why nano machines that had seemed so intent on dominating his body had suddenly stopped. Then, belatedly, a notification appeared before the eyes of the still-wary Do-yun.
Error occurred. The user's body structure cannot be altered.
Use of Nano Machine Alpha (F) has been cancelled.
Only then did Do-yun grasp the full picture of the incident and let out a quiet sound of realization.
The health system.
That was precisely why the nano machines had been nullified.
My body never takes damage no matter what happens.
From the moment he entered the tower, Do-yun's body had been completely locked in the state it held at entry. Impacts that would shatter bone, heat fierce enough to melt a person alive, poisons that brought unspeakable agony—all of it registered only as a reduction in his health value. His actual body remained untouched. And nano machines were no exception.
"In effect they're nothing more than foreign matter."
They had clearly tried to break into microscopic particles and seep into him, but the system had blocked the attempt at the source.
"Do-yun-nim? What's wrong?"
Ciel floated there staring blankly, unable to make sense of what she was seeing. From her perspective Do-yun had suddenly shaken his hands at empty air and then looked as if he were sighing in relief. The nano machines were simply that small. The fingernail-sized device was so tiny that without deliberate focus it would have been almost impossible to spot. Even Do-yun would never have given them a second glance if the system notification had not floated above the item.
"It's fine. Everything's resolved."
He gave Ciel a rough explanation of what had happened while examining the nano machines. Residual unease still clung to him and the things felt thoroughly repulsive, yet used properly they might become a rather effective tool.
Isn't this basically an instant-kill technique?
Small and stealthy. Fast enough to invade a target's body in the blink of an eye. On top of that, forcibly changing someone's race was no different from delivering a massive systemic shock. Even the strongest opponent would have to freeze for a second. If he struck in that opening, dealing a fatal wound would not be difficult.
"I'll keep it for now."
Do-yun carefully wrapped the nano machines in a research gown that had been lying nearby. Cloth should keep them from activating at every opportunity. With the package stowed against his body, he slowly turned around.
He had obtained an unexpected harvest, but the original reason he had come here was something else entirely: information gathering.
"I've pretty much gotten everything useful, though."
He had finally found the answer to the question that had bothered him most—the true identity of the Sentinel. The cyborg had once been a climber of the Tower of Trials. The reason he could use only a single skill was that the cyborgization procedure had stripped him of most of his former power.
Dissecting this man is probably what made Destroyer and Protector possible.
Cyborgs so close to human that the Tower of Ascension itself granted them challenger qualifications. Their existence almost certainly rested on the prior sacrifice of the first returnee—the Sentinel.
How high had he originally climbed?
Judging by the remaining records, the Company had struggled badly to subdue him. At that level he had to have been a high-floor climber who had cleared at least the fiftieth floor. Even for a returnee, holding out against a fully armed military force was no simple feat.
So why would a powerhouse of that caliber recklessly try to assassinate a Company executive?
Do-yun started to sink into thought, then quickly shook his head. The question was not worth the time. The Company was an organization that refused even basic human rights to returnees and treated them like lab rats. It had never been a clean outfit, even before the Tower of Trials appeared. The Sentinel must have been trying to tear the whole structure down from the top.
"The problem is that his confidence in his own strength seems to have overflowed a little too much."
Returnees grew by facing endless hardships inside the Tower of Trials, and in that process they obtained power incomparable to their former selves. But power was not the same as invincibility. Once they left the tower, the protection of the health system vanished with them. Even the strongest returnee could die from a single moment of carelessness. Do-yun had watched far too many famous names fall that way, and that was exactly why he always chose the safest path available.
Death is the end.
Except in situations where failing to act now would clearly produce a far worse outcome later, Do-yun preferred not to carry unnecessary risk.
"Time to move."
He glanced at the remaining time and turned away. Plenty of documents still littered the place, but there was no leisure left to read them calmly. The early-entry ticket's advantage had already expired. Some of the quicker challengers might already be sweeping through the Company interior.
Science can control mana. I'll just keep that much in mind.
As soon as Do-yun showed signs of leaving, Ciel—who had been diligently searching the surroundings—darted over to him.
"Are you leaving now?"
"Yeah. Find anything?"
The space was essentially a laboratory; he had not really expected anything of value to be hidden here. The question had been idle, yet Ciel's answer was unexpectedly bright.
"Yes! I found a crystal!"
Proudly extended in both her small hands was a yellow crystal that glowed with a clear, luminous light.
Clear Crystal acquired!
Return to the Sanctuary Room?
The notification left no room for doubt. This was no look-alike trinket. It was a genuine Clear Crystal—and a colored one that granted special rewards.
Do-yun stared down at Ciel, momentarily lost for words.
"Well? Did I do good?"
He roughly ruffled her hair until it stuck out in every direction. Ciel protested the sudden assault with indignant chatter, but none of it reached Do-yun's ears.
A Yellow Crystal… that one adds the reward that lets you itemize a single object.
Clear Crystals came in different colors, each attaching a different bonus. Yellow was the color that granted exactly the reward he needed most.
—As everyone knows, Floor 9 is set in a world more advanced than ours.
—There are quite a few useful things because of that. Enough that there are objects you'd want to take back into the tower.
—But to do that, there's something you absolutely have to obtain first.
Not every returnee was a combat specialist. Plenty had originally been researchers and engineers, and Floor 9's setting had given them endless inspiration. Their constant complaint, however, was always the same: no matter how thoroughly they dismantled and analyzed the machines, they only had the twenty-four-hour time limit. Anything not treated as a system item could not be carried beyond the Tower of Trials.
Then someone discovered the Yellow Crystal for the first time.
Possessing a Yellow Crystal allowed the user to itemize one object they were currently touching. Even things that could never have been taken before could now be brought out. He had never expected to find one here.
"That makes two Yellow Crystals I've secured already."
There was no limit on how many Clear Crystals a person could hold. Adding the second one whose location he already knew for certain, Do-yun could effectively itemize two separate objects.
This isn't the time to stand around celebrating.
Joy had made him forget the clock. He released Ciel—whom he had unconsciously been hugging—and hurriedly prepared to move. Straightening her clothes, Ciel asked in a slightly sulky voice,
"Where are we going now?"
"The armory."
The Company was a megacorporation that ruled an entire city and effectively performed the role of government. Naturally it also possessed weapons for maintaining public order.
"The armory? There won't be anything useful there, will there?"
Ciel only looked at him with puzzled eyes. Ordinary weapons, after all, could not inflict meaningful damage on returnees. The reason returnees found armies troublesome was purely a matter of numbers; modern firearms themselves simply lacked the deterrent power people assumed.
"It's fine. What I'm after isn't ordinary weapons."
Not personal firearms standardized so that any civilian could use them, but defensive turrets of brutal firepower designed from the start to be mounted on walls and floors. Do-yun intended to extract one specific component from those turrets.