Chapter 115: Nightmare, 8th Floor (3) |
The Tower had made yet another offer to Person123, and the world was in an uproar.
Everyone argued over whether or not he should accept it.
[Blanc: He’ll probably take it, no? The penalty’s just a ban on a single item]
[Kiryu: It’s not even asking him to give up the challenge like on Floor 6, and a 10km-radius Ark at that, honestly seems worth a shot…]
[GreenPea: This looks hella sketchy to me; why’s the Tower suddenly handing out such a sweet offer?]
[EarthRunningWarrior: Yeah, fair point]
[Wrath: But thinking back to Floor 4, I kinda feel like Person123 might take it]
On the news, panelists came on to debate the matter as well.
– A ten-kilometer radius covers roughly half the area of Seoul. Even if the end does come someday, a substantial portion of humanity would be able to survive.
– The real question is what kind of decision Person123 will make…
Opinion was split evenly between accepting and declining.
Compared to everything up to now the penalty was mild, so it was inevitable that plenty of people thought, ‘Isn’t this worth a try?’
But in the end, the one who would choose was Person123.
People waited for his decision…
[The Tower’s offer has been voided.]
Person123 had declined the offer and entered.
[Weed: Ah… he didn’t take it after all]
[Plastic: It was obviously bait, glad he turned it down]
[YoYoYo: Gotta shut down every variable~ declining was the right call yep]
[Quingcolepri: Anyone whining that he passed it up can shut their mouths unless they wanna die]
[Lighter: Alright, everybody, let’s just pray now]
While there were some who were left disappointed.
Either way, humanity began to pray for his success on Floor 8.
All across the world, as they did every year, countless people came pouring out into the streets and squares.
The streets of Gwanghwamun, in Seoul, South Korea.
Around this time of year, people from all over the globe flooded into this place in particular.
Person123 was Korean, so they wanted to travel to his country and pray for his success there.
“…Yes! This year too, the streets of Gwanghwamun are packed shoulder to shoulder with an enormous crowd. Everyone here is praying for Person123 to succeed.”
It was a few minutes after Person123 had entered Floor 8.
Weaving through the crowd, a reporter interviewed members of the public.
“I have absolute faith he’ll pull it off. I mean, it’s Person123, right?”
“If he clears Floor 8, I’m buying drinks for all my friends tonight. Haha.”
“He has already shed his human skin and ascended to godhood. To so much as utter the word ‘failure’ is sacrilege in itself.”
Clusters of college students, young couples out holding their children’s hands, followers of the Person123 Church, and on and on…
Many of them wore hopeful faces, firmly convinced he would succeed.
Because that was what Person123 always did.
Because he was the one who always cleared the Nightmare difficulty as if it were nothing, and posted his clear guides as if it were nothing.
And given everything Person123 had shown during the Sub-Tower events and in the Floor 5 Common Zone, everyone now knew that his abilities were on a completely different level from any other Climber. They couldn’t help but believe in him with all their hearts.
In any case, people waited with bated breath for the news of his success to come.
Time passed.
Two hours had gone by since Person123 entered, but there was still no word.
“…He hasn’t cleared it yet?”
“The number in the Nightmare Communication Channel hasn’t changed, so it’s fine. He’ll do it soon.”
Little by little, tension and unease began to creep in.
But people still believed, and waited.
There had been times on the earlier floors when a clear took several hours, after all.
But three hours passed, and four hours passed…
And still, no news of success came.
People’s faces grew stiffer by the hour.
The reporters covering the scene, and the police directing traffic, could no longer keep their minds on their work.
A clear had never taken this long before.
The number in the Nightmare Communication Channel was still unchanged, yes, but people could no longer hide their dread.
They began to feel that something had gone wrong.
“Please…”
More and more people prayed with their eyes squeezed shut and their hands clasped tight.
Just like on Floor 4, when everyone had been at their most desperate.
Because it felt as though, if they did, Person123 would once again clear it triumphantly, just to prove them right.
But through the long, dark predawn hours and on until daybreak…
Floor 8 remained uncleared.
*
I tore across the endless desert.
Triggering the Warp Device one after another.
[943,856/134,217,728km]
Then I stopped running.
I stared blankly at the number on the Compass.
“Haaah…”
Fuck.
Fuck.
More than a full day had passed since I’d entered Floor 8.
I’d known there was no answer, but I’d thrown myself into moving anyway, like my life depended on it.
And there was still no answer.
A hundred and thirty-four million kilometers.
That’s a distance greater than a hundred round trips between the Earth and the Moon, easily.
In other words, it was a cosmic-scale distance that made no sense to begin with.
I could do it if I had to.
Charging the Warp Device to its maximum range every ten minutes and pushing on like that, over and over, would be nothing short of psychological torture, but if I just grit my teeth, I can manage it.
If it would only get me to the Oasis, I could do it as many times as it took.
Food and water aren’t a problem either.
I can top off my water with ice magic, and I’ve got food packed away in my Subspace.
It won’t be enough, sure, but if it runs out I can just gnaw on a cactus or a Sandworm or whatever.
Either way, as long as my head isn’t destroyed, this body of mine won’t die.
It would be a grueling journey, but it was well within my power.
But… the problem was that even if I went that far, I’d still come up nowhere near enough time.
No matter what I did.
There was no way I could cover more than a hundred million kilometers within the twenty days left on the Nightmare Time Limit.
“…Fuck!”
I irritably loosed a Destruction Ray at a Sandworm bursting up through the sand.
The Sandworm, its body severed, split in two and collapsed.
Thooom.
If only I’d shaved off a little more time…
If I’d cut it down by just six more minutes, I could’ve cleared it without any trouble.
…But regret was pointless now.
“…Demon King, is there really no way?”
The Demon King gave no answer.
I’d already asked dozens of times, yet I kept asking anyway.
No matter how fast I flew by borrowing the Demon King’s power… there’s no chance it could match the efficiency of warping.
The strain would catch up with me, and I’d have to recover, so there was a limit to it.
I let out a hollow laugh and looked off into the distance.
The Oasis was still right there, exactly where it had been.
I flopped down onto the sand.
Even after all the hardships I’d been through.
This hopeless, dead-end situation was more than enough to fill me with despair and helplessness.
What do I do?
How am I even… supposed to handle this…
I just stared up blankly at the blazing sun.
*
[Nightmare]
Personnel: 476,805
Time Limit: 18 days 5 minutes 16 seconds
Floor Reached: Floor 8
Two days had passed since Person123 entered Floor 8.
Floor 8 still hadn’t been cleared.
The world was thrown into turmoil by the unprecedented turn of events.
– …The number in the Nightmare Communication Channel reportedly remains unchanged so far. Person123 appears to still be in the middle of clearing Floor 8…
[Pepper: Please… please, just put up the clear notification, please…]
[Katana: Let’s keep hope. Person123 is still in there clearing it.]
[Pipe: Can a clear even take this long? Maybe we should brace ourselves…]
The whole world trembled with anxiety and fear.
A clear dragging on for days was a situation far outside the bounds of anything normal.
Kim Seo-hyeon’s house.
Kim Seo-hyeon’s family, too, sat watching the news in the living room with grim faces.
– The call could not be connected. After the tone, you will be forwarded to voicemail…
Choi Su-jin, his mother, set down her phone and let out a sigh, her insides burning with worry.
“Haa… what on earth has gotten into Seo-hyeon…”
At an already chaotic time.
In the midst of it all, Kim Seo-hyeon, who had gone off traveling alone, had been out of contact for a second day now.
Terrified that something awful had happened, the family was sick with worry. They had even gone so far as to file a report with the police.
“…He’ll be fine. He could’ve just lost his phone, right?”
His father, Kim Seong-ho, said it as if to reassure them, though inwardly he thought that couldn’t possibly be it.
Because knowing Kim Seo-hyeon’s nature, if something like that had happened, he would have found some way to reach out first, fretting that his family might worry.
Kim Seo-a, sitting on the sofa, had her face buried in her knees.
Floor 8 wasn’t getting cleared, and Kim Seo-hyeon was unreachable for who knew what reason, and the anxiety and stress of it all were almost too much to bear.
Bzzz.
At that moment, all three of their phones went off at once.
– Please check the bottom drawer of the desk in my room. There’s a letter under the books. This is a scheduled message.
It was a text from Kim Seo-hyeon.
“What is he…?”
Startled, the three of them looked at one another.
Kim Seong-ho immediately called Kim Seo-hyeon, but he didn’t pick up.
With no other choice, they went into Kim Seo-hyeon’s room.
Following the text, they opened the bottom drawer and cleared away the books, and there beneath them lay a single letter.
Gripped by an inexplicable dread, Kim Seong-ho unfolded the letter with trembling hands.
The family read it together.
– To my beloved Mother, Father, and my little sister Seo-a.
This is a letter I wrote before going in to clear Floor 8 of the Nightmare difficulty.
You must be pretty shocked right now. It’s hard to even know where to begin.
I’m Person123.
The part about me being an Easy difficulty Climber was a lie. The truth is, I was chosen for the Nightmare difficulty from the very start. From the very day the Tower first appeared in this world.
I’m sorry for hiding it all this time. I just didn’t want to worry you.
If I can finally explain how it all came to be…
The first time I entered the Tower, it was out of pure desperation, grasping at straws.
Back then, no one could clear Floor 1 and the world was right on the brink of ending, remember? I figured I was going to die either way, so I might as well give it a shot, and I entered Floor 1. And I cleared it.
After that, I just kept on climbing the Nightmare difficulty.
No one else could clear it, so I had no choice but to do it myself. I never once imagined I’d be capable of something like this, but I guess I had a talent I didn’t even know about. Haha.
If you’re reading this now, it probably means I failed to clear Floor 8.
I’m sorry. For leaving behind nothing but this one little letter.
But there’s one thing I want you to know.
I have no regrets.
That first time, I went in because I had no other option, but climbing the Tower again and again was something I chose to do. It wasn’t out of any sense of responsibility or obligation. It was entirely my own will, my wish to protect my family, and the world.
So please, don’t grieve too much, don’t let it break your hearts, and instead be proud of me. Proud that your son, Kim Seo-hyeon, was a hero who saved the world again and again.
Seo-a, you get it now, right? Your big brother was someone this amazing all along. It’s a little late, but how about you finally start showing your brother some respect now, hm? lol
…Normally you’d wrap up something like this by saying “take care of yourselves,” but sadly, that wouldn’t quite fit the moment right now.
I don’t know what the world will look like after I’ve failed, but it’s probably in a lot of chaos.
I’ll be here, praying that a miracle happens one more time. But if the world really does end after all, then let’s all meet again as a family.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be there with you for the final moment.
I love you all.
– From, Kim Seo-hyeon
“…”
Kim Seong-ho’s eyes shook with shock as he finished the letter.
Choi Su-jin clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes red and bloodshot, and Kim Seo-a could only stare blankly at the letter as well.
For a long while the three of them remained unable to shake off the shock, none of them able to bring out a single word.
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