The Heavenly Demon's Tower-Clearing Method (2)
Opinions were sharply divided, but most people believed it could be done.
That the clear was possible, that is.
Not a single soul believed a Legendary-grade achievement was.
But then—
Floor 48 of the Tower of the Republic of Korea has been cleared.
And then—
A Legendary-grade achievement has occurred on Floor 48 of the Tower of the Republic of Korea.
Rumors about the Legendary Awakener swirled thick as fog. Yet outside the staff of the Awakener Association's Strategic Headquarters, no one knew a thing.
Who the Legendary Awakener was. Where they lived. What they looked like. Not even their gender.
Professional hackers had even dug through the Korean Awakener Association's records — and found nothing.
The data had all been wiped clean.
Because Yu Jaewoo was officially an F-Class Awakener.
Daniel Jensen emerged from the Indonesian Tower's 47th floor.
"Puhah! Fucking tower designers. What is the deal with the deep sea, seriously?"
Daniel Jensen was one of the Twelve Apostles granted to humanity, a being on an entirely different plane from ordinary Awakeners. And yet even for him, the deep-sea environment was no joke.
Daniel looked down at the bowing Indonesian government officials and spoke.
"Next time, request help sooner. If you keep stalling your tower clears just because some shadowy organizations push you around, the United States won't stand for it."
"Understood… We'll keep that in mind."
Several nations had, little by little, buckled under pressure from the New World faction and begun deliberately concealing their tower-clearing progress. It had gotten so bad that top Awakeners like Daniel had to go verify things personally.
For him, the situation was utterly infuriating.
Daniel swallowed his anger and returned to his hotel, where Leni was waiting with a smile.
"Finished even faster this time, huh?"
"Yeah. I was sick of looking at those bastards' faces."
"When do you think Floor 48 will fall?"
"What are you talking about, Leni? We could clear it right now. The only problem is that America's 48th floor hasn't opened yet. Anyway — are the items all prepped?"
"Just finished securing everything."
"Good job, Leni."
Only then did Daniel break into a satisfied grin.
"You really think Yu Jaewoo and Cho Sanghyuk can clear Floor 48?"
At Leni's question, Daniel let out a booming laugh.
"Of course. Leni, out of everyone in the open, no one but me can stand against him."
"Then could he pull off a Legendary-grade on Floor 48 too?"
Daniel answered without a second of hesitation.
"Impossible."
"Why?"
"If he'd leveled up from the lower floors like everyone else, maybe. Skills, experience, accumulated strength — it all compounds. But a rookie who's only just cleared Floor 15, taking on Floor 48? Legendary rookie or not, it can't be done."
Daniel emphasized that the 48th floor's deep sea was a space of a completely different order from anything before it.
Even if one overcame the cold, the darkness, and the crushing water pressure, fighting monsters that moved freely underwater was a problem of an entirely different dimension.
"It's like a lion that can't fight a shark in the ocean, or a shark that can't fight a lion on land. If Yu Jaewoo trains for it, the clear is definitely achievable. But clearing it within ten seconds? Absolutely impossible."
Just then, a notification chimed.
A Legendary-grade achievement has occurred on Floor 48 of the Tower of the Republic of Korea.
"……?!"
Daniel and Leni froze in shock at the exact same moment.
"What-the-hell."
Naturally, the most shocked of all was Daniel.
"A Legendary-grade achievement on Floor 48? Yu Jaewoo was THIS strong?"
In that instant, cold sweat ran down Daniel's back.
The Colosseum battle flashed through his mind.
If we'd fought to the very end back then… would the one who died have been me? Other Apostles will start moving soon. Perhaps even the deities who govern the towers, and the Administrators.
Goosebumps prickled up and down his limbs.
Daniel turned to Leni.
"Leni. I'm afraid we'll have to revise our assessment of Yu Jaewoo."
Leni shook his head.
"The whole world's about to know anyway. What's there to revise?"
Five hundred highest-grade mana stones.
At a hundred million won apiece, that was a haul of fifty billion.
That about makes up for everything I've burned through lately.
Among the pile of highest-grade mana stones, a single transparent orb caught his eye.
"Ooh."
At a glance it looked simply clear — but look closer, and glittering motes of light shimmered within it, like stars floating in space.
◈ Description: A pearl obtained from a uniquely special individual among the Mega Sea Serpents. If fed to a water-attribute egg, a truly extraordinary creature may be born.
Oh ho?
A rare item. Now that was something he wanted to keep.
"Team Leader, sir — is it okay if I take this one too?"
"Ah, of course. It's just that…"
The Team Leader glanced nervously at his Master.
His Master had made exactly one demand.
Go to the next floor.
Team Leader Jo found himself in quite the bind. His expression said it all.
On Floor 49, we don't even know what the environment is, what monsters are there, or what we should prepare for. And you want to just walk in? Right after clearing Floor 48?
Of course he was rattled.
Jae-woo understood completely — but there was nothing to be done about it.
Team Leader Jo needed to learn who his Master was, too.
Jae-woo tapped the man on the shoulder.
"Team Leader, sir. We're going. Floor 49."
Team Leader Jo tilted his head, looking at him one more time.
"Are you quite sure about this?"
Jae-woo answered with an easy smile.
"Cheat keys don't come around every day, sir! Ask and double — let's move!"
"Understood. Then, entering the next floor."
Entering Floor 49 of the Tower of the Republic of Korea.
Peing—
The instant his vision flipped, his entire sensory world was remade.
The bone-crushing water pressure vanished, replaced by a chill so profound it froze the soul. Every breath drew frost across the inside of his lungs. A snow-white hell where the boundary between sky and earth had been erased.
If the 48th floor was a sea of ink-black depths,
the 49th floor was a White Hell.
An endless snowfield of millennia-old glaciers. A frozen wasteland that rejected all living things.
Yet something else, something even before the cold, sent an icy shiver down his spine.
KUOOOOOO—!
The moment they entered, the sky went dark.
A colossal shadow had descended upon the snowfield.
Yu Jaewoo raised his head and looked up.
Against the blue sky stood a white bear.
Not, of course, anything resembling a beast of the natural world.
An overwhelming bulk standing ten meters tall.
What was truly bizarre were its shoulders.
Strangepiece machinery and mana reactor cores had been forcibly fused into living tissue.
Crackle!
Blue sparks spat and popped.
Vrrroooom—!
The roar of engines shook the snowfield.
The Mana Reactor Core — an energy device where mana fission took place. The blue mana surging from the core gave the White Bears wings, and the beasts lifted their massive bodies into the sky.
It looks like some kind of twisted war machine, force-fed power by someone's hand.
KWAAAAAA—
When the beast roared, snow mountains that had stood for thousands of years shrieked and collapsed. A presence that reshaped terrain with a single roar.
And there were a hundred of them.
High-density mana beams spewed from their mouths, and when they swung their forepaws, mana blades that seemed to tear space itself poured down like rain.
KWA-KWA-KWA-BOOM!
The title attached to monsters — Hero-grade.
The weight of those words sank into his skin.
"Khh…!"
Cho Sanghyuk's face had drained bone-white beside him. Reflexively, he stacked his S-rank defensive skills.
[Iron Shield Lv. 47]
[Diamond Skin Lv. 48]
[Mana Barrier Lv. 44]
Even so, cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
He knew.
He knew that the instant one of those attacks so much as grazed him, the damage would be beyond any recovery.
Yu Jaewoo turned to him.
"Team Leader, sir. We're still inside the safe zone."
"Ah… right."
He's clearly pretty tense. And the reason the Team Leader's nervous is almost certainly—
"Wouldn't hurt to grab some blankets for the journey."
—it's Master.
Cheonma remained perfectly indifferent.
Even watching the flying qi blades streak past, he merely clicked his tongue in disdain.
Yu Jaewoo asked him, "Master, will you manage on your own again this time?"
Cheonma let out a short scoff.
"Whom do you take This One for?"
"Heaven above the heavens! Founder of the Divine Cult! The absolute master for whom tower climbing is too easy! The Greatest Under Heaven!"
Jaewoo flattered him as habitually as breathing, and Cheonma waved his hand dismissively.
"Then watch closely."
Whoosh—
Cheonma stepped out of the safe zone.
Yu Jaewoo raised his inner sight once more.
So as not to miss a single movement of his Master's body.
Watch the way Master moves, and the path my own martial arts must follow becomes clear.
Cheonma's gaze settled on the bear's shoulder.
On the mana reactor core, to be precise.
"A technique I have never seen before."
Something hyper-scientific, absent from the world of Murim. Cheonma's assessment of it was cool and unsparing.
"And yet — crude."
Pah-at—
Cheonma strode across empty air as if it were solid ground, and in the blink of an eye he stood before the bear's snout.
GRAAAAHH!
The White Bear whipped its forepaw forward, a strike that seemed bent on ripping space itself apart.
But—
Cheonma was not within the path of that destruction.
He had not dodged it.
As if he had never been there at all, his form dissolved like a mirage — and re-formed right before the beast's eyes.
A footwork so untouchable that even violence of overwhelming mass and force could not reach it. A movement like a ghost's.
Cheonma flicked his finger toward the bear's brow, the way one brushes dust from a sleeve.
——TSEEEONG!
A crisp detonation of parted air rang out across the snowfield —
and the head of the beast that had threatened heaven and earth burst apart like a ripe watermelon.
Blood and brains mingled with the snow and scattered in every direction.
The headless mountain of flesh toppled lifelessly onto the white plain.
THUD—!
The other White Bears lunged toward Cheonma — then all of them stopped at once.
"Come as you please."
Cheonma now stood before every last White Bear simultaneously.
TSEONG—! THUD—!
TSEONG—! THUD—!
TSEONG—! THUD—!
A frigid silence descended upon the snowfield that the bears' roars had shaken.
Cho Sanghyuk stood frozen inside the safe zone, his mouth hanging wide open, while Yu Jaewoo quietly checked his system windows.
You have slain Mega White Bear (Hero-Grade).
An SSS-Grade Random Box has been granted.
You have cleared a floor matched to your level within 10 seconds.
You have achieved a Legendary-grade achievement.
Additional rewards have been granted.
A ?-Grade Random Box has been granted as a bonus.
Congratulations! You are the first in the world to clear Floor 49.
Additional rewards have been granted.
Reward: Random Skill Book granted.
Cheonma drifted down gracefully from the sky, and Yu Jaewoo called up to him.
"Master. That movement technique, and the Tanjigong too — teach them to me as well."
At that—
Cheonma curled the corner of his mouth into a smirk.
"Show me you can handle it first."