Chapter 2: Nightmare, 1st Floor (1)

Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

“Goblins. Estimated height between 150 and 160 centimeters, with physical strength roughly on par with or slightly below that of an average adult male. Unarmed Goblins on Easy and Normal difficulty attack primarily with teeth and nails, while on Hard difficulty they’re equipped with iron longswords, causing the threat level to spike dramatically…”

I’d told myself I would absolutely never enter the Tower.

But that didn’t mean I’d been sitting around doing nothing.

“…Hard difficulty is insane too. What kind of people even attempt that?”

Information about the Tower’s first floor was everywhere if I looked even a little online.

There were even full-blown clearing guides put together with the tagline that they were required reading for any Climber.

None of that applied to me, of course.

Not a single survivor had returned from Floor 1 on Nightmare difficulty. Nobody knew what awaited inside.

The more I dug for information, the more I arrived at the same conclusion: going in meant death.

Make obscene amounts of money from the Tower’s rewards?

Supposedly a lot of people were drawn in by those promises and challenging the Tower, and apparently some even envied the chosen Climbers.

So what. I only had one life.

I wasn’t the ambitious type, and I knew damn well how precious my life was. I was the exact opposite of those people.

Even if I’d been assigned Easy difficulty, I wouldn’t have given it a second glance.

I’d already been living a perfectly good life.

And Nightmare difficulty, with zero survivors?

Unless someone held a knife to my throat, I would never walk in of my own free will.

Still, I’d always believed that life was unpredictable.

Whenever I had a spare moment, I looked up and memorized information about Floor 1.

I was never going to enter the Tower, but hey, it wouldn’t hurt to get in shape while I was at it, so I started working out.

If I’d really wanted to prepare properly, there were training facilities specifically for Climbers, but going to one of those was basically volunteering as a Climber, so I wasn’t keen on that.

Kendo and boxing.

Boxing was a given, but I had a reason for choosing kendo too.

Apparently, the Tower didn’t allow anyone to bring in electronics, or any item classified as a weapon or piece of armor.

The only usable equipment was whatever the Tower provided, and reportedly, the weapon given to every Climber on Floor 1 was a sword.

I’d long suspected that my Time Stop ability could be applied to physical combat.

After spending over half a year training at the kendo and boxing gyms, the result was clear.

It was definitely useful enough to put to work.

If I’d known things would turn out like this, I would’ve trained harder. But well…

The enemy on Floor 1, from Easy through Hard, was always the Goblin.

Floor 1, Easy: one unarmed Goblin.

Floor 1, Normal: two unarmed Goblins.

Floor 1, Hard: two Goblins armed with swords.

So what in the world was waiting on Nightmare?

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty, Floor 1.]

I was about to find out firsthand.

The scenery before my eyes shifted in an instant.

The moment I entered, I stopped time.

Information floods my field of vision.

A vast, cave-like space.

Minerals embedded in the walls glow like lamps, brightly illuminating the area.

A straight corridor lies ahead, and no enemies are in immediate sight.

I toggled time on and off as I scanned in every direction: front, back, left, right.

The layout was exactly as described.

Every difficulty level involved fighting Goblins in a cave-like space.

…What do I do?

Now that I was actually here, regret hit like a truck.

No. I can’t do this.

‘Get it together.’

I was already inside. There was no room left for dwelling on negative thoughts.

I can do this.

I will clear this floor and walk out alive.

They say the one who clings to life will die, and the one who accepts death will live. To hell with it. I can do this too.

I took a deep breath… well, time was frozen, so I couldn’t actually breathe.

Having taken a mental deep breath to steady myself, I released time.

I picked up the blade resting on a cube-shaped boulder nearby.

A Western-style longsword.

I’d worried that Nightmare difficulty might not even provide a weapon, but thankfully it wasn’t that cruel.

Gripping the longsword with both hands, I faced the corridor ahead.

Any moment now, Goblins would emerge from there.

Goblins appearing from the corridor up ahead was reportedly the common flow across Easy through Hard.

I stood breathing in the stale air and waited.

They came walking out of the corridor.

I stopped time immediately.

I studied the Goblins that had appeared.

Three in total.

Two were armed with swords similar to mine; one carried a spear.

…And I had to fight those things.

I’d steeled myself to some degree, but my resolve kept threatening to crumble.

Get a grip, you idiot.

Time was infinite, so I thought through my strategy calmly.

Obviously, fighting all three at once would be suicide.

The sword-wielding one at the front stood closest, with the other two a short distance behind.

‘They’ll charge straight in to attack. That’s what the info said.’

The space was wide enough.

Could I pick them off one at a time with hit-and-run tactics?

‘As long as I don’t get surrounded…’

If I made full use of my ability, it seemed manageable.

I’d spent months honing my feel for how to use this power in combat through boxing and kendo.

But this was the real thing.

One tiny slip and it would be fatal.

‘I can do this.’

I forced down the fear, steeled myself one last time.

And released time.

Kreeeeh-!

The Goblins charged.

The sword Goblin at the front closed in fastest.

Wait, this was an opportunity, right there.

I might be able to take one out and pull back.

When it was almost right on top of me,

I began actively using my ability.

Toggling time on and off in rapid bursts.

Like pausing a video, then tapping play-pause twice in quick succession.

The Goblin moved in tiny, sluggish increments.

I’d named this technique myself: Time Slicing.

The fastest I could release and re-freeze time was roughly 0.02 seconds.

In other words, I could split a single second into up to fifty slices.

Time Stop was not invincibility.

My body and reflexes were still those of an ordinary human, after all.

What good was freezing time if a blade had already reached my gut?

I couldn’t dodge it.

The moment time resumed, the sword would run me through.

That was why Time Slicing was the best method available to someone like me.

‘…God, their faces are disgusting.’

I realized that the Goblins typically depicted in games and comics were heavily prettified versions.

The Goblin crept toward me in slow motion.

My own body moved just as sluggishly.

But I had more than enough to predict how it would attack and prepare accordingly.

‘A thrust.’

The Goblin drew its sword hilt back.

The blade’s tip was angling toward me.

This was a thrust, without question.

I began shifting my back foot and torso to the side, starting my evasion.

At the same time, I extended my sword in a counter.

In this crawling flow of time, both of us moved as though skipping between frames.

Moving by releasing and freezing time in split-second bursts was a strange sensation, but I’d practiced until it felt natural, so there was no stutter in my movements.

‘Good.’

Evasion, successful.

By the time the Goblin fully extended its blade, my body was already clear of the thrust’s path.

My sword tip, on the other hand, was driving straight for the Goblin’s throat.

I would run it through.

I did.

The sharpness of a real blade pierced through living hide far more smoothly than I’d imagined.

Hurk-

With my sword buried in the Goblin’s neck, I froze time again.

…I actually did it.

A stab through the throat. This one was done.

I stayed calm and thought about what came next.

Time to pull the sword out and retreat. Plenty of time.

I finished preparing my next move and released time.

“…!”

Froze it again immediately.

The embedded blade didn’t come out as easily as I’d expected. Damn.

What now?

Twist the sword while kicking the Goblin’s body away.

Thwack!

Mercifully, the blade came free this time.

The Goblin, skewered through the neck, crumpled to the ground.

I spun around and ran.

The remaining two Goblins gave chase, shrieking their unpleasant cries.

I was faster than them.

Pause again.

I froze mid-stride.

Wait… this is doable?

The ability was working perfectly well in actual combat.

My confidence grew.

I just had to handle the remaining two the same way.

The sword Goblin was closer, gaining on me.

Sword Goblin on the left, spear Goblin on the right, with the spear Goblin falling further behind.

If I veered left, the gap between them would widen.

I released time and sprinted again.

Curving left in a wide arc, the distance between the two Goblins grew while the sword Goblin and I drew closer together.

Now. This was the moment.

I slammed to a halt.

The charging sword Goblin, apparently incapable of grasping the concept of coordinated attacks, didn’t stop its rush.

Even better. Come at me.

When it was almost on top of me, I began Time Slicing again.

On, off, on, off.

Watching the Goblin’s movements unfold in slow motion, I predicted the coming attack.

‘An overhead swing.’

The sword rose above its head.

A perfectly straightforward downward slash.

I timed my own swing and deflected the descending blade to the side. The impact rang through my hands.

Froze time again and calmly prepared my counter.

The advantage I possessed was that even in the heat of battle, I had infinite time to think about my next move.

The Goblin’s reactions could never keep up with that.

Thunk!

My sword pierced the Goblin’s exposed throat.

Second kill.

More composed this time, I withdrew the blade and stepped back.

The spear Goblin, which had been chasing behind, faltered at the sight of the sword Goblin collapsing.

Was this one more cowardly than its friends?

No, maybe “smarter” was the right word.

The spear Goblin didn’t rush in recklessly. It hung back, pacing in place.

“Hoo…”

I steadied my breathing, keeping my eyes locked on it.

…Hold on.

This wasn’t the time to celebrate having only one left.

That spear, pointed straight at me.

Its reach was far longer than my sword.

This… the pressure from the reach difference was no joke.

If I carelessly closed the distance, it would skewer me.

Dodging while holding ground and dodging while advancing were two completely different levels of difficulty.

Honestly, it would’ve been easier if this one charged mindlessly like the others, but this Goblin was annoyingly cautious.

The dodge or block > counter pattern that had worked so well against the first two was going to be much harder to pull off.

‘Going on the offensive is risky…’

I maintained my distance and slowly circled the Goblin, face to face.

Right. There was no reason to attack first.

Are we really going to keep doing this?

You come to me.

I focused every nerve on freezing time the instant I saw an opening.

We circled each other for a long while, locked in a stare.

Then the Goblin, apparently frustrated, let out an angry screech.

Kreeh-! Kreeeeh-!

Their cries were grating, like metal scraping against metal.

Wait, maybe I should try provoking it?

Given how agitated it looked, a little needling might push it into charging first.

“Heheh. Pfft.”

I put on the most obnoxious expression I could manage and let out the most obnoxious laugh I could muster. Stuck my tongue out for good measure.

Fortunately, the Goblin seemed to understand that it was being mocked.

The instant I noticed its weight shift forward, I froze time.

Here it comes.

Time Slicing. On, off. The spear crept toward me in slow motion.

I read the trajectory of the thrust and began twisting my body to evade.

Dodge, close in, stab.

Two prior engagements had sharpened my instincts.

I executed a flawless counter, just as I’d envisioned.

I drove my sword into the Goblin’s neck, then kicked the body away to free the blade.

Its twitching on the ground soon went still.

I looked around.

The Goblins I’d taken down earlier had long since become corpses.

All three killed cleanly, each in a single exchange.

It was over.

“…”

Or not.

Floor 1 was supposed to be cleared once all the Goblins were eliminated.

But no message about a successful clear had appeared.

Which meant something more remained.

“Yeah, didn’t expect it to be that easy.”

Three Goblins.

Certainly difficult enough on its own, but there was no way Nightmare difficulty ended with just that.

This couldn’t be what had killed every single person who’d tried…

“Heh.”

For now, rest.

I sat down and let my body recover.

[Nightmare]

Personnel: 76,526

Time Limit: 3 hours, 1 minute, 42 seconds

Reached Floor: 1

I checked the Nightmare tier’s Time Limit to gauge the passage of time.

Less than five minutes had elapsed since I’d entered.

Fighting while freezing time made it feel far, far longer, but still.

“Alright… this is doable.”

I muttered, glancing over the Goblin corpses.

But did I really just pull that off?

Even by my own assessment, I’d fought brilliantly.

See? I can do this when I try. Right?

My spirits soared. Hope blossomed.

Hope that I could conquer this Nightmare difficulty, the one that had swallowed tens of thousands of lives.

Grrreek-

A Goblin’s cry echoed through the cave.

I scrambled to my feet.

Goddammit, they weren’t even going to let me rest.

More Goblins were pouring out of the corridor.

I froze time.

Three again.

But the loadout was different this time.

One had a sword. One had a shield and a sword.

And… oh, shit.

I went pale.

One of them was carrying a bow.