The Fluffy, Exploding Garden of Death
The climbers arrived on the second floor after riding the portal. There, hundreds of adorable rabbits were peacefully grazing on the grass.
“...Rabbits?”
It was a picture-perfect scene of tranquility. The sunlight was warm, and the rabbits were spending a leisurely time grazing or rolling around. Meanwhile, five climbers, dressed in gear that completely clashed with the scenery, stared at the newly appeared notification window.
2nd Floor: The Rabbit's Garden
📍 Clear Condition: Survive for 30 minutes.
“Looks like the second floor is a survival trial,” Kim Chunsik muttered.
“Survive... surely that means surviving against these rabbits, right?” Park Chunja replied, scanning her surroundings.
Rabbits, rabbits, and even more rabbits. On this vast field covered in fluffy white, there was absolutely nothing else besides the group of climbers and the hordes of rabbits.
“Hmm... from what I can see, these rabbits don't look dangerous like the Horned Rabbits or Electric Rabbits found in other towers,” Otaku noted, carefully observing them.
“I don't feel any hostility or bloodlust either. They just look like ordinary rabbits, don't they?” Elizabeth added.
“Whoa! This little guy isn't even running away! So cute!” Ban Huiyeol exclaimed.
In fact, he went so far as to scoop up a rabbit, cradling it in his arms and petting it...?
“Huiyeol! Don't just touch it! It might be a monster!” Park Chunja shrieked.
“What's the big deal? They're so docile, they don't even attack. Honestly, they feel kind of domesticated. Look at this. It absolutely loves it when I scratch its chin.”
Park Chunja yelled that it was dangerous, but just as Ban Huiyeol said, the rabbit in his arms surrendered itself completely, showing zero wariness. When he scratched its chin, it even closed its eyes and made contented little purring noises like a pampered pet.
At this point, even the most cautious climbers couldn't help but think:
Are they really just harmless rabbits...?
Eventually, one by one, the others let down their guard. They sat on the grassy field, watching the rabbits and passing the time. Sitting together on the vast meadow under the blue sky, petting rabbits and watching them nibble on grass, it felt less like a deadly trial and more like a pleasant picnic.
“An investigation of a newly discovered tower has turned into a spring picnic,” Kim Chunsik chuckled.
“Well, this isn't so bad, is it? This tower climb is incredibly easy,” another agreed.
Since the trial only required them to hold out for thirty minutes, the climbers chatted idly, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere to soothe their minds.
But had they forgotten? The universal law that whenever five people gather, at least one of them is bound to be an idiot!
“They say even the finest scenery is best enjoyed on a full stomach. I'm getting a bit peckish, so how about we catch a few rabbits and roast them? I'll be right back!”
Suddenly, Otaku stood up, dashed toward a nearby cluster of rabbits, drew his katana, and slashed.
In an instant, two rabbits were cleanly decapitated, their heads separating from their bodies.
At that exact moment, a blinding light erupted from the corpses of the slain rabbits—
Click!
“Huh?”
—BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
The rabbits exploded. No, 'exploded' didn't even do it justice. They detonated like high-grade military explosives.
Naturally, Otaku, who had been standing completely defenseless in his follow-through stance, was blown to smithereens. Flesh and blood rained from the sky, and the sweet scent of grass was instantly choked out by the thick, metallic stench of blood.
It was an instantaneous death by any metric. Otaku had officially become the first climber to die in this tower.
“Kyaaaah!!!”
Witnessing Otaku get vaporized in the blast, Park Chunja screamed and scrambled to her feet, only to trip over her own legs and tumble backward.
As she fell, she felt a soft, fluffy sensation press against her back. It was another rabbit.
Click!
—BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
Another explosion. The blast tore Park Chunja's upper and lower body apart, sending her remains flying through the air. The second casualty had claimed its victim.
Needless to say, the peaceful atmosphere shattered instantly, replaced by a suffocating, heavy dread.
The remaining three climbers froze solid on the spot.
“Kyu?”
When Ban Huiyeol's soothing hand suddenly stopped petting, the rabbit cradled in his arms tilted its head, looking up at him with an innocent, questioning expression.
Ban Huiyeol's eyes locked with the rabbit's.
“A-Aaaaargh!!!”
Terrified out of his wits, Ban Huiyeol threw the rabbit as hard as he could. The rabbit spun through the air and, the moment it hit the ground, detonated with a deafening roar.
At that, every single rabbit in the garden raised its head. Their ruby-red eyes, now burning with a sinister, hostile glare, locked onto Ban Huiyeol.
“Dammit! What the hell is wrong with these rabbits?! Why are they suddenly exploding like crazy?!”
“Calm down, Ban Huiyeol! We let our guard down! This was the nature of the trial from the very beginning!” Kim Chunsik shouted, already dropping into a combat stance.
“But Otaku and Chunja are—!”
“They'll be fine! We received the resurrection buff, remember? They'll definitely come back to life!” Elizabeth yelled back, trying to reassure him. Despite her flashy, bleached-blonde appearance, she was deeply protective of her comrades.
And then—dozens of rabbits lunged at Ban Huiyeol simultaneously.
Their bodies were small and light, but there weren't just one or two; there were dozens. In the blink of an eye, Ban Huiyeol was completely swarmed.
“Urgh?! Get off—”
Desperate to shake them off, he grabbed a rabbit that had latched onto his head and yanked it hard.
Click!
—BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
With a violent explosion, Ban Huiyeol's head vanished along with the rabbit.
Now, the rabbits turned their collective gaze toward Kim Chunsik and Elizabeth, who were standing in combat-ready stances.
“...Elizabeth, I will draw their attention. Use your [Exit Tower] skill immediately, get out of here, and report the situation to the guild.”
“What? But we can resurrect, so there's no need to go that far...”
“Our comrades' bodies are still lying there. There might be a delay on the resurrection, or perhaps there are other conditions we don't know about. In the worst-case scenario, the resurrection itself might have failed! So please, at least you must escape and inform the guild!”
“...Understood.”
The moment their split-second plan was set, Kim Chunsik threw a smoke grenade to blind the rabbits and began firing warning shots to draw their aggro.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Elizabeth activated her [Stealth] skill to slip away from their line of sight, then triggered her escape skill.
“[Exit Tower]!”
[Exit Tower] is unavailable on this floor.
“...?”
Are you kidding me?! Elizabeth cursed inwardly. She had never imagined they would be trapped on a floor where [Exit Tower] was disabled.
Meanwhile, Kim Chunsik, who was busy kiting the rabbits...
“Tsk, there are too many of them!”
He used his gun to snipe and detonate the rabbits at a distance, while actively avoiding attacking the ones close to him, running to maintain a gap. With the physical stats he had built up as a veteran Climber, he could easily outrun any normal rabbit. Under normal circumstances, he would have escaped without a scratch.
Unfortunately, the creatures here were anything but normal rabbits.
“They're too fast...!”
Before he knew it, Kim Chunsik was completely encircled by a ring of over thirty rabbits.
His tactical mind worked rapidly.
If I don't attack them first, they might not explode. And I doubt these rabbits have the physical strength to pierce my armor. In that case, my best bet is to curl up and endure!
Protecting his vital areas—his neck and head—he curled into a tight ball, intending to tank the damage and survive until the thirty-minute mark.
But he was wrong.
One rabbit hopped right up to him, glared with wide, bloodshot eyes, and—
Click!
—BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
The rabbit manually triggered its own detonation. The blast sent Kim Chunsik flying through the air.
The sheer force of the explosion should have killed him instantly. However, thanks to his superior armor, his defensive posture protecting his vitals, and the 25% damage reduction buff from the Grace of the Angel, he barely managed to cling to life.
Yet... for Kim Chunsik, this survival was a far more horrific fate.
“Cough! *Ack!*”
More than half of his limbs were gone, and his internal organs were shredded. Kim Chunsik coughed up torrents of blood, dying in agonizing pain.
“Leader!!”
Elizabeth, unable to escape, rushed over and poured a high-grade potion down his throat. Thanks to the potion, his internal injuries were barely patched up. Kim Chunsik wheezed out with great difficulty.
“Why... didn't you escape...?”
“[Exit Tower] was blocked. The portal we used to enter the second floor has vanished too. If that's the case... the only way out is death.”
“...”
Kim Chunsik stared at Elizabeth with a hollow expression, then slowly turned his head.
The surrounding rabbits were already swarming toward them.
As if to signal that all hope was lost, four rabbits with glowing crimson eyes took up positions around Kim Chunsik and Elizabeth.
Click! Click! Click! Click!
“...Dammit.”
—BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
With a spectacular explosion, they were blown to pieces, leaving nothing behind but scattered ash.
All climbers have died.
“...They're all dead already?”
Tricia stared at the climbers' remains through her crystal ball, looking utterly bewildered.
Originally, the Grace of the Angel she provided was a skill that allowed resurrection on the spot. However, by setting this resurrection buff as a tower reward, an additional option was unlocked that allowed them to resurrect outside the tower. Thanks to this, she could send the climbers safely outside without permanently killing a single one.
Technically, she was killing them first and then bringing them back, but let's not sweat the details.
She hadn't disabled [Exit Tower] on purpose; it was just an accidental oversight while she was rushing to set up the trials. Since the second floor happened to be the breeding ground for her Bomb Rabbits, she had simply set up a thirty-minute survival trial to buy herself some time to design the next floor's trial...
She never imagined they would get completely wiped out by the Bomb Rabbits.
“I mean, they're common enough for us to use as food, but I guess they'd be pretty terrifying to people seeing them for the first time.”
To Tricia and her companions, the Bomb Rabbits on the second floor were merely livestock destined for the dinner table. They simply possessed a natural instinct to detonate and kill anyone who threatened them. To prevent any accidental chain reactions, Tricia had raised them with an active [Explosive Damage Immunity] buff applied to all of them.
To safely capture these rabbits, one had to lower their guard, then firmly press the seventh joint behind their neck to disable their 'detonation trigger.' Alternatively, flash-freezing them worked too.
Of course, there was no way the climbers could have known any of this.
◈ Additional Tower Coins calculated based on the strength of the deceased climbers.
◈ Calculating...
◈ Calculation Complete: +1,740 Tower Coins
“Oh, they give way more Tower Coins than I expected,” Tricia murmured.
According to the system, the amount of Tower Coins rewarded scaled with the strength of the deceased climbers. It seemed the five who had just died were actually quite formidable in their own right.
Tower maintenance fee automatically deducted. (-100 Tower Coins)
Tower Collapse Countdown terminated.
“Phew! That takes care of the immediate crisis!”
Tricia finally let out a sigh of relief. She had been utterly overwhelmed after suddenly being dimensionally transported back to Earth and forced to become the administrator of this tower. On top of that, she had been desperately needing to earn Tower Coins to prevent the tower from collapsing. Fortunately, a group of climbers had wandered in at the perfect time, allowing her to rake in a massive haul of Tower Coins!
Now that she had bought herself some breathing room...
“Butler!”
“You called, Lady Tricia!”
This was her ultra-competent butler, who had just heard about the situation from the bartender, informed all their companions that their entire residence had turned into a tower, and successfully evacuated all the residents living from the first to the tenth floors! His name was... Jibsa.
“Jibsa, there is something incredibly important I must do right now,” Tricia said, her expression dead serious.
What was a butler? A true butler's greatest virtue was anticipating and understanding their master's wishes before they were even uttered! Thus, Jibsa replied with sheer delight.
“At last! The grand, historic proclamation of Lady Tricia, the new Lord of the Tower—”
“I'm going to a PC bang. Watch the house for me.”
“...?”
“...?”
Tricia had finally returned to Earth after several decades. Returning to Earth meant one glorious thing: the internet! Now that she knew it was waiting just outside... Tricia could no longer resist the sweet, sweet temptation of modern civilization!