Chapter 41: Normalization (1) |
“So, Section Chief Shin doesn’t know what happened either, is that it?”
“That’s correct.”
The Agency Director of the Tower Climbing Special Agency furrowed his brow as he listened to Shin Su-jin’s report, delivered upon her return from recovery.
“But was it really a Stage 5 Fallen? You’re sure you didn’t misidentify it or anything?”
“Now that I think about it, I suppose that’s possible. The situation was chaotic enough…”
“…Either way, there was one more monster, and it vanished into thin air.”
The Seoul Arts Center Disaster. One of the largest-scale incidents to occur in the Republic of Korea since the emergence of the Fallen.
The subsequent investigation of the site had turned up only a single Stage 3 Fallen corpse and a conspicuously enormous hole torn through the theater ceiling.
When the Stage 3 Fallen had gone on its rampage, the fiber-optic backbone inside the theater had been severed, meaning no internal CCTV footage existed from the moment the audience started dying onward.
Forced by circumstance at the time to report that she had witnessed a Stage 5 Fallen, Shin Su-jin had no choice but to dodge questions about the vanished Stage 5 by claiming she simply didn’t know.
The Fallen were an unprecedented catastrophe that had erupted without warning, so saying she didn’t know wasn’t particularly strange.
And right now, the Tower Climbing Special Agency didn’t have the bandwidth to worry about follow-up investigations.
“There’s a possibility the Fallen hid itself somewhere… I’ll pass word to the police to expand the search in that vicinity. Have you fully recovered, Section Chief Shin?”
“Yes. I’ll be heading back into the field immediately.”
“Good to hear. Keep up the good work.”
Once she left the Director’s office, Shin Su-jin began preparing to move out at once.
The subjugation of the Fallen was still ongoing.
*
After the dead Climbers turned into the Fallen.
As was only natural, a national state of emergency was declared and the military was mobilized in full force.
– The Fallen display varying degrees of aggression between individual specimens, but it has been confirmed that they are fundamentally hostile toward humans.
– Their behavioral patterns also appear to vary by individual, with some specimens exhibiting unusual behaviors. However, the fact that every last one of them has lost all human cognition and is no longer human is…
– The Fallen’s weak point has been identified as the head. Their inability to die unless the brain is destroyed is similar to the undead on the 3rd floor, and…
Stages 1 through 5 of the Fallen. Following the probabilities the Tower had announced, Stage 1 and Stage 2 together accounted for an overwhelming 99%.
Hundreds of Stage 1 and Stage 2 Fallen across the country were put down by the military or by Climbers.
These were within the killing range of rifle-armed soldiers, so subjugation proceeded quickly.
From Stage 3 on, however, it seemed gun firepower alone wasn’t quite enough.
0.9% of forty thousand, which worked out to roughly four hundred specimens worldwide.
Setting aside the Fallen I’d killed at the Seoul Arts Center, a total of two Stage 3 Fallen had emerged in Korea.
One in Ulsan, one in Gyeongju, and after those there’d been no news of any more. Those two had been handled by the Air Force.
Korea had gotten off relatively lucky, all things considered.
Not a single Stage 4 or Stage 5 Fallen had appeared in the country. Excluding, of course, the one I’d killed myself.
In a sense it had even been fortunate that a Stage 3 and a Stage 5 had swarmed the Seoul Arts Center on the same day, because I happened to be nearby and could take care of both at once.
Well, whether “fortunate” is really the right word when that many people died, I’m not sure…
For a while, the entire world was in chaos.
Every country poured everything they had into dealing with the disaster of the Fallen, which had come without any warning or preparation.
For the record, Stage 5 Fallen had apparently appeared once each in China and Canada as well.
Both countries had succeeded in subjugating theirs quickly, according to the news I saw.
In China’s case, Wang Kai, the Hard difficulty record holder, had dealt with it alongside the military. In Canada’s case, a joint military operation with the U.S. had brought theirs down.
At any rate, an enormous number of people died.
For a while, every news cycle was just Fallen subjugated, this many more people killed, some country in Africa in total state collapse… nothing but that.
Korea got its chaos under control relatively quickly, but the total death toll was still in the tens of thousands.
Eventually the Fallen crisis ran its course, more or less.
But once things settled down a bit, a new problem rose to the surface.
– Non-climbing Climbers require far more rigorous oversight and management! Never again can we allow a horror like this to…
The issue of how to handle the Non-climbing Climbers of the 1st floor.
In the public eye, they were now no different from ticking time bombs that would turn into monsters in another year.
The Nightmare Climbers were an especially pressing concern.
With the fire already at their feet, governments scrambled to put forward countermeasures.
Expanded compensation packages for Non-climbing Climbers, more aggressive climbing-support programs, legalization of euthanasia for Climbers who chose not to enter the Tower…
Proposals along those lines.
Whatever the case, they now had to either enter the Tower before their Time Limit ran out, or die beforehand.
For that to work, no Climber could be allowed to hide what they were, and every last one had to be officially registered with the state.
Every other country was in the same boat.
Governments would have to be far more thorough now, and both coercive and conciliatory measures toward Climbers were being tossed around.
In the process, conflict was, of course, unavoidable.
“What a mess.”
I muttered to myself as I watched footage of a protest somewhere overseas on the news.
If the Tower’s goal was to throw the world into chaos in one form or another.
Then the Tower was accomplishing its purpose with flying colors.
*
In the wake of the Fallen crisis, every nation found itself saddled with one unavoidable task.
Complete and thorough identification of every Non-climbing Climber.
Up until now, there had been many countries where Climber registration wasn’t mandatory.
The United States, for example, was a country where, due to concerns about infringing on individual rights, there weren’t even resident registration cards, and obtaining a photo ID wasn’t compulsory.
By the same logic, registering as a Climber wasn’t required either.
There had been a brief period back on the 1st floor, when the Day of Destruction was looming, when the U.S. had made it mandatory, but after Nightmare 1st floor was cleared, public backlash had quickly reversed that.
Now, however, even those countries had no choice but to take some kind of action.
Otherwise, the catastrophe of rampaging Fallen would only repeat itself.
Of course, making registration mandatory wouldn’t stop anyone determined to hide, so what really mattered weren’t compulsory measures but practical ones like compensation plans.
That aside, there was no reason not to pass such laws.
Governments had always wanted a tighter grip on the leashes around their Climbers’ necks.
With Climber power growing at a frightening pace year after year, they posed an enormous threat. The pretext was more than sufficient.
“We need to use this opportunity to put Climbers in their place.”
“Agreed. If we miss this chance, it’ll only get harder to control them from here on out.”
The spark was lit in America.
The U.S. government was looking to use this opening to lock down a whole slate of legislation, including mandatory Climber registration.
Citizens who had lived through the Fallen crisis were, for once, passionately behind the government, giving them enormous public-opinion tailwind.
“These sons of bitches, a Social Safety Contribution Act? What the hell is this? Are they saying they might mobilize Climbers in wartime if it comes to it?”
“We can’t just sit and take this. They’re using this moment to tighten the noose around our necks.”
The Climbers, however, weren’t having it.
“This is a violation of our civil liberties! Protect Climber rights!”
The International Climber Association.
A private international organization headquartered in the United States with branches in many countries.
Led by an Association President who was himself a Normal difficulty floor 17 Climber, the organization’s stated mission was the protection and advancement of Climbers’ rights.
To put it bluntly, it was a coalition whose sole purpose was expanding Climber interests as far as they could go.
They fiercely opposed every piece of legislation restricting Climber freedoms, mandatory registration chief among them.
Because if they gave the government even an inch, it could be used as the thin end of the wedge to chip away at their rights bit by bit going forward.
The situation wasn’t limited to the U.S. It was the same everywhere.
“You refuse to accept mandatory registration? Are you hearing yourselves? Your selfishness is dragging the entire world toward disaster!”
“And who knows what you people will do once you’ve got every Climber’s identity in a database! Are you saying if we don’t off ourselves voluntarily, you’ll hunt us down and do it for us?!”
Government versus Association.
The standoff naturally spilled over into friction and hostility between Climbers and ordinary citizens.
The whole thing only grew bigger.
*
Lately the world really was a mess.
I could tell just from the Communication Channel.
[Skull: People have some nerve. Who the hell are they to badmouth us?]
[Laksa: who do they think is keeping the world from ending right now lol]
[Apple Juice: Isn’t it about time we organized ourselves for real?]
Climbers versus civilians.
I knew why the mood had gotten like this.
Every single news broadcast was about the Association butting heads with one government or another.
I’d thought it would blow over quickly, but it only seemed to be getting worse.
– The only reason this world is still holding together is because we Climbers are risking our lives to climb that Tower! The Nightmare Climber Person123 saves humanity every single year! And yet you dare oppress Climbers like this? Does any of this make sense!
– Person123’s ascents of the Tower are a noble sacrifice made for the sake of humanity. Are you really trying to put that on the same level as yourselves, who, even after a catastrophe like this, care zero about citizen safety and are only desperate to protect your interests? All of you should be learning from Person123.
I’d seen the Association and the government people throwing my name around too.
Lately a lot of Whispers had been coming in through the Communication Channel.
Aren’t you on the Climbers’ side? Can’t you speak up and take our side for once? That kind of thing.
What sides. There aren’t any sides.
It wasn’t my place to declare that one camp was unconditionally in the right.
It was true that the government had to take some kind of action, and it was also true that Climbers’ rights shouldn’t be trampled.
Times were hard enough as it was, and watching everyone tear at each other was just suffocating.
[Chicken Sandwich: The government is using this opportunity to whip up public sentiment in order to suppress Climbers, and the Association is whipping up Climbers in turn so they don’t cede the initiative to the government. Neither side is willing to back down, so, well, for the time being…]
From what Bilon was telling me, there didn’t seem to be any sign of resolution.
The government had the weight of public opinion on its side, but the Association held its own cards too.
At the end of the day, the ones who climbed the Tower and extended the Time Limit were the Climbers, and the ones who supplied the world with Magic Stones were the Climbers.
The Association President had actually floated the threat that Climbers would stop entering the Tower altogether going forward.
Normally I never paid any attention to political matters.
But if this kept spiraling the way it was, I had to wonder whether something genuinely catastrophic wouldn’t break loose.
Whispers keep pouring in every single day, this is seriously getting on my nerves…
All I needed to do was extend the Nightmare Time Limit, so why the hell was I supposed to worry about this too?
I opened the Communication Channel.
[Person123: I’m not on anyone’s side, so please stop bringing me up. My role is to climb Nightmare difficulty, and that is all I intend to focus on. I sincerely hope that an amicable agreement between the Association and the governments can be reached as soon as possible.]
I started to post, then stopped.
It was obvious, dull, pretentious.
Would anyone actually listen to something that toothless?
…If I’m going to step in, I might as well step all the way in.
I deleted the text and rewrote it.
[Person123: I am not on the Climbers’ side, nor am I on the governments’ side. I ask both parties to make small concessions and come to an agreement.]
[Person123: If an agreement is not reached in the near future, I will not attempt floor 4.]
I’m not climbing this Tower just to watch this circus.
If you’re going to keep at it, I’m done too.
We can all just die together for all I care.
*
The post Person123 put up turned the world upside down.
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