Chapter 11: The Latecomers (2) |
Across communities, including the Climber Communication Channel, interest and rumors about the Nightmare clearer were always rampant.
What Level might they be? What rewards did they get from the first floor? What grade of Magic Stones drop on Nightmare difficulty?
People said the Nightmare strike teams each country was assembling were getting consulting from this person, that the clearer was actually a woman and not a man, that so-and-so from such-and-such place was actually the Nightmare clearer…
In the midst of all this, there were even people trying to determine what country the Nightmare clearer was from by analyzing every single word of their posts.
The Tower’s Communication Channel translated all languages to match each individual reader, but every country had its own distinctive nuances and unique proper nouns.
The thinking was that if they could find those telltale traces that translation couldn’t conceal, they could determine the clearer’s nationality. Some people even claimed they had figured it out.
Every country imaginable was thrown out as a guess, but the truth remained unknown to all.
Only one thing was certain.
That the clearer was an Unregistered Climber who had not revealed their identity, and this was now treated as all but established fact.
[Philip: Probably when the Time Limit’s almost up]
[PumpkinSoup: 2nd floor’s gonna be way worse though, can they even pull it off…]
All anyone could do was confirm survival by the (1) still displayed in the Nightmare Communication Channel.
[Nightmare(2)]
[TheoMax: The number changed!]
[Sun: Holy crap, for real]
[SturgeonRoe: Wow, a second one finally showed up?]
Then one day, when that number suddenly changed to 2.
Everyone’s attention turned to the long-awaited second Nightmare clearer.
It had been exactly 92 days since the first-ever Nightmare 1F clear.
The identity pointed to America. The clearer’s personal information wasn’t disclosed, of course, but the U.S. government didn’t bother denying the clear itself.
And as if that had opened the floodgates, more clearers followed in succession.
[Nightmare(6)]
With one month left on the Nightmare Time Limit.
The number of Nightmare 1F clearers had now reached six.
No, “reached” made it sound impressive.
Only six, while close to ten thousand people had vanished over nearly a year on Nightmare difficulty.
They were survivors of hell who had beaten the 0.05% survival rate.
Two from America, one from China, one from India, and the remaining one was presumed to be Russian.
[Cloud: So who’s gonna clear 2F now?]
[Ragpie: They’re all playing chicken, aren’t they]
[Easy]
Personnel: 180,645
Time Limit: 21 years, 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds
Highest Floor Reached: 23F
[Normal]
Personnel: 172,783
Time Limit: 14 years, 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds
Highest Floor Reached: 16F
[Hard]
Personnel: 166,219
Time Limit: 8 years, 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds
Highest Floor Reached: 10F
[Nightmare]
Personnel: 163,489
Time Limit: 29 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes, 31 seconds
Highest Floor Reached: 2F
Time continued to flow.
Someone had to attempt the 2nd floor.
*
Kiiaaak-!
The Goblin Knight charged.
I dodged the morningstar and drove my fist into the Goblin Knight’s torso.
Wham!
Its armor dented slightly as the creature was knocked backward.
It gagged and sputtered in pain, then flew into a frenzy, thrashing even more violently.
Whoosh! Hwooong!
I deliberately held back from counterattacking and simply dodged the morningstar left and right.
After raging for a while, the Goblin Knight ran out of steam before I did, gasping for breath.
“Tired already?”
Can’t even spar properly anymore.
At Level 15, I had long since reached the point where I could overpower the Goblin Knight barehanded.
Deciding to wrap things up, I cast Flame Strike.
Two fireballs rose into the air and flew off in different directions.
One obliterated the Goblin Knight, and the other blasted the Crossbow Goblin that had been about to spring from hiding.
[You have completed the Nightmare difficulty 1st floor.]
[Transferring to the Reward Room.]
Repeat Clearing yielded a Magic Stone about one out of every ten runs.
That was why Supreme Magic Stones were scattered all over my Reward Room. Every last one of them had come as clear rewards.
Once I learned they stayed put even if I didn’t take them out to reality, I’d just been piling them up in here.
[Would you like to exit the Tower?]
“Exit.”
I was back in my room.
The moment I returned, my door flew open.
“…Holy sh, you scared me!”
“Why are you so startled?”
It was my younger sibling.
I pressed a hand to my chest, steadying my racing heart.
“Why are you home so early? What about school?”
“Had a headache, left early.”
“You just barge in without knocking? You wanna die?”
“Oh, please. Since when have we ever done that.”
Maybe I’ll kill them.
My sibling looked me up and down, eyebrows knitting with suspicion.
“Why are you wearing shoes in your room? Are you insane?”
“Mind your own business. So what do you want?”
“Mom said we should order lunch for the two of us. I want chicken.”
“…If you’ve got the appetite to stuff your face with chicken, you’re clearly not that sick. Why’d you even leave school early?”
I waved a dismissive hand.
“Whatever. Order what you want and get out of my sight.”
The kid scrunched up their face and left.
God damn, nearly gave me a heart attack.
This was exactly why I could never let my guard down.
I always timed my Tower visits for the dead of night when everyone was asleep, or for hours when nobody was home.
Entering the Tower outside the house just felt too risky. Well, the very first time I’d entered, I hadn’t exactly been in a position to worry about things like that.
– The Nightmare difficulty Time Limit has now broken the 30-day mark. As of now, the number of people who have cleared Nightmare difficulty 1st floor stands at six…
I ate chicken in the living room while watching TV.
The news was covering exactly the kind of story that killed an appetite.
My sibling picked at the chicken in silence and soon disappeared into their own room.
I turned off the TV and finished the rest of the chicken.
“…Who’s going to take the plunge?”
If someone does, please let them succeed.
As the Nightmare Time Limit shrank, my own anguish had been growing deeper lately.
Over the past year or so, the number of Nightmare clearers had grown to six, myself included.
That was a good thing, but now the real problem was staring me right in the face.
The 2nd floor.
What if nobody succeeds again, just like the 1st floor?
I still hadn’t made up my mind.
If it had to be me, when exactly would I go?
Should I watch everyone else die first and only enter at the very last moment?
One month left on the Nightmare Time Limit.
I believed I had prepared as well as I could in my own way.
I’d kept up steady Repeat Clearings to maintain my edge.
I’d used Flame Strike and Teleportation extensively, raising my skill proficiency.
I’d researched information on the 2nd floor and come up with my own tailored training regimen.
Sure, I’d done all that.
But entering a new floor was still terrifying.
Anyone who claimed otherwise would be out of their mind.
Just because I’d bet my life once didn’t make it any easier to bet it a second time.
The truth was, part of me still wanted to pin my hopes on someone else.
Back in my room, I lay down on my bed.
I opened the Communication Channel and lurked as usual.
Then I checked the Nightmare Communication Channel too, and…
“Hm?”
The Nightmare Communication Channel had always been empty aside from the info posts I’d written a while back.
It wasn’t that people had nothing to say to each other, exactly, but up until now, not a single person had ever struck up a conversation.
And yet, messages had appeared in the Nightmare Communication Channel.
[Jackal: Person123, you watching?]
[Jackal: I’m the second clearer. I’m going to attempt the 2nd floor soon.]
[Jackal: Before that, there’s something I wanted to say to you.]
[Jackal: If I had become a Nightmare clearer earlier, I would have been the one to achieve the first-ever clear of the 1st floor as well.]
[Jackal: I’ll prove it to you soon enough. I’ll be the one to share the 2nd floor intel with you.]
“What’s this about?”
The person claiming to be the second clearer was talking to me.
It was somewhat provocative in tone, but it didn’t particularly bother me.
Because what this person was saying happened to be exactly what I wanted.
Normally I ignored messages like these entirely.
But this was someone about to attempt the 2nd floor. The least I could do was offer a word of encouragement.
I typed a reply.
[Person123: Wishing you success.]
Please succeed.
I really don’t want to attempt the 2nd floor either.
*
The Nightmare Communication Channel was famously known as the silent room.
The roster had grown from one to six, yet still no one exchanged a word.
So when a conversation appeared out of nowhere one day, it was only natural that it drew everyone’s attention.
[Jackal: Person123, you watching?]
[Jackal: I’m the second clearer. I’m going to attempt the 2nd floor soon.]
[Jackal: Before that, there’s something I wanted to say to you.]
[Jackal: If I had become a Nightmare clearer earlier, I would have been the one to achieve the first-ever clear of the 1st floor as well.]
[Jackal: I’ll see to it that I prove it. I’ll be the one to share the 2nd floor intel with you.]
The second clearer had addressed the first.
And with somewhat provocative content, at that.
People waited eagerly for the first clearer’s response.
[Person123: Wishing you success.]
But the exchange ended there, anticlimactically.
A training facility operated by the U.S. Tower Climbing Management Bureau.
Max, visiting the facility for the first time in a while, exchanged greetings with the administrators and surveyed the countless structures spread out around him.
Towering pillars and oddly shaped drones hovering in midair.
The facility had originally been used as one of the training grounds for 2F Hard difficulty, then specially retrofitted.
A man and a woman were leaping through the air from pillar to pillar and drone to drone, using them as platforms.
As Max watched them, an administrator spoke.
“Compared to Hard difficulty, the distance between platforms has been increased by more than double, and the platform widths have been reduced to less than 50%.”
“I see. And those drones, are they meant to simulate moving platforms?”
“Yes, we added them recently. With Nightmare, you never know what’s coming.”
This facility existed solely for the purpose of clearing Nightmare 2F.
Max was still doing everything he could to develop 1F clearers, while the two who had already passed the 1st floor were here, preparing for the next trial.
After some time, the man descended from the structures and walked toward Max, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Busy man. What brings you here?”
“How’s your condition these days, Jack?”
He was the second clearer of Nightmare 1F.
A Delta Force legend, and the person Max had pinned his highest expectations on from the very beginning.
“Peak, as always. I could walk into the 2nd floor right now and be fine.”
“Good to hear. But about that post you made in the Communication Channel.”
Jack tossed the towel he’d been using to wipe his sweat.
“That why you came?”
“He’s helped us a great deal. Did you really need to provoke him?”
Max was well aware of Jack’s competitive streak.
He was a man who always craved being the best, which was precisely why he had his sights set on achieving the first clear of the 2nd floor.
“I wouldn’t call it provocation. I just said what I wanted to say.”
“That’s exactly what provocation is, Jack.”
Taylor had walked over to join them.
She was the fifth clearer of Nightmare 1F. Max exchanged a brief nod of greeting with her.
Among Climbers, men vastly outnumber women.
Once Levels increase, gender becomes meaningless, but the Tower’s 1st floor is firmly the domain of ordinary people.
It is a floor that must be cleared on pure personal ability alone, with no powers yet gained, so innate physical differences naturally play a significant role.
That was why Max had never even imagined a female Nightmare clearer would emerge.
Not that Taylor was ordinary by any stretch. She was ex-military, formerly an agent with the CIA’s Special Activities Center.
“That person is a benefactor. There’s absolutely no need to indulge petty competitive urges against them.”
To Taylor’s words, Jack replied.
“Competition is the very engine that drives humanity forward. A catalyst that pushes us past our limits. Oh, is that something you can’t relate to?”
“It’s not applicable to this situation. Have you not considered that your trivial little stunt could damage relations with a critical asset?”
Jack smirked.
“He’s not the type to get bent out of shape over something that petty. He wished me success, didn’t you see?”
The first Nightmare clearer, Person123.
More Nightmare clearers had emerged since, but the achievement of being first remained unmatched.
And that was exactly why Jack wanted to prove himself. To show that he was better.
Jack believed that if he had been a first-wave Climber, he too would have cleared Nightmare 1F without any information to guide him.
This was a conclusion he’d reached after experiencing the 1st floor firsthand, and he possessed the kind of skill that made it impossible to dismiss as mere arrogance.
The provocative words in the Communication Channel had been a casual greeting.
He had simply wanted to draw a reaction from someone who had never once replied to anything unrelated to 1F clearing strategies.
The fact that a response came back at all, rather than silence, was something Jack found satisfying in its own way.
Max shook his head and said, “Anyway, keep your conditioning tight. You’ll get approval for the date you want. That’s what I came to tell you.”
“Yeah? Good.”
“Are you sure about this? You could take a bit more time before entering…”
“Preparations were finished long ago. In the end, you can only know by going in yourself.”
Someone had to be the first to go in, but nobody was eager for Jack to be the one volunteering for it.
The brass wanted to wait and see a little longer, but Jack’s resolve was unwavering.
“I’m clearing the 2nd floor. Just like you wanted, I’ll put this country at the front of the Nightmare race.”
Time passed, and D-Day arrived.
[Nightmare]
[Personnel: 163,367]
[Floor: 2F]
[Time Limit: 22 days, 14 hours, 28 minutes, 6 seconds]
A closed-door gathering inside the Tower Climbing Management Bureau headquarters.
Surrounded by a crowd of people, Jack performed one final check on his body.
[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[Floor: 2F]
[Level: 10]
[Willpower: 150]
[Skills: Feather Step (Rare)(+1), Hunting Time (Rare), Skin Hardening (Rare), Charge (Normal+), Leap (Normal)(+1), Deflect (Normal), Fortitude (Normal)…]
A Status Window that seemed impossible for someone who had only cleared the 1st floor.
The 2nd floor was a different situation from the 1st entirely.
A Climber who had awakened their Status Window could receive as many skills and items in support as were available, and Jack had received virtually every investment there was to give.
Numerous Skill Stones and Skill Enhancement Stones, plus an item that boosted Willpower by 50.
In particular, Feather Step, a Rare-grade passive skill that lightened the body, and Leap, a skill that momentarily amplified jumping power, had been procured at the national level specifically with the 2nd floor’s theme in mind.
Of America’s two Nightmare 1F clearers, they had poured every resource into the one judged to have the higher chance.
A better choice than splitting things half-heartedly, it could be called. Now it was time to see the results.
“Godspeed, Sergeant Jack Davis.”
After receiving a final salute, Jack returned it and turned his gaze to the empty air.
[Would you like to enter Nightmare difficulty 2nd floor?]
A moment later, Jack’s figure vanished.
Those left behind held their silence, tension coiling in the room.
Had about a minute passed?
Taylor, who had been monitoring the Communication Channel, let out a faint, ashen-faced groan.
“Ah…”
Seeing her expression, Max asked with a note of concern.
“Taylor? Is everything all right?”
A moment later, he too sensed something wrong and checked the Communication Channel.
And his face, too, could only crumble into the same hollow look.
[Nightmare(5)]
The Nightmare headcount had dropped by one.
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