Chapter 126: Zone 5 (1) |
TL: DDTL
– Astonishing news that Nightmare difficulty Floor 9 has been cleared. Just four days after Floor 8 fell, Person123 has once again taken on the challenge of…
When Floor 9 was cleared, people completely lost their minds.
Challenging a floor with roughly twenty days left on the Nightmare Time Limit had been Person123’s ironclad rule up to now.
Of course, after everything that had happened during the Floor 8 clear, plenty of people had guessed that his challenge cycle might change somehow, but…
Even so, this was far too extreme.
[Desire: Is this for real… Two floors climbed back to back?]
[Davidson: Whoa lolololol we’re guaranteed another year of living!]
[NightSky: I’m getting worn out from being amazed. Is he actually human?]
[LightFootsteps: His Grace has now become a being that has utterly transcended humanity. Believe in the Church of Person123.]
The Floor 8 clear, the Isolation Zone incident, the Floor 9 clear.
All of it had happened within the span of a few days.
“What on earth is going on? Humanity hadn’t even finished savoring the joy of the Floor 8 clear, and now Floor 9 has been cleared too!”
“It certainly seems that Person123 has had a change of heart. There’s a visible determination to clear floors while keeping the Time Limit safely secured…”
The news broadcasts ran nothing but stories about him all day long.
Experts appeared to analyze what his intentions might have been in challenging Floor 9 right away.
“Person123! Person123! Wooooaaaah…!”
Once again, only a few days later, people had to pour out into the streets to chant the name of their savior.
The whole world was stunned and overjoyed at the same time.
For the first time since the Tower appeared, the Nightmare Time Limit had crossed the two-year mark, giving people a sense of hope and security beyond anything they could have asked for.
“…Haah.”
At Kim Seo-hyeon’s home.
Kim Seo-a had been scanning through the news when she closed her laptop.
The Nightmare Time Limit had stretched all the way to two years, but she couldn’t feel the slightest bit of joy.
Person123’s true identity was Kim Seo-hyeon.
It had only been a short while ago that the family found out.
Honestly, it still didn’t feel real.
The highest-floor climber of Nightmare, the greatest climber in the world.
The savior of humanity who had rescued the world time and time again.
That was her brother.
Even watching all of humanity praise him, Kim Seo-a only felt a suffocating tightness in her chest.
She had always looked up to the hero known as Person123.
She had thought he was truly amazing, the way he threw his own life away without a second thought to save people even against every possible disadvantage.
Now it was different.
She realized she had only been able to feel that way because he had been a stranger.
Even during the Isolation Zone incident a few days ago, how terrified and afraid she had been that Kim Seo-hyeon might recklessly choose the Penalty.
In the end he chose all nine and saved everyone, though.
Even today, waiting for him to come out after clearing Floor 9, her whole body had trembled.
It was that terrifying. Having to watch her own family stake their life.
…After reading Kim Seo-hyeon’s will, the family had already talked through what they would do.
Kim Seo-hyeon risking his life to clear Nightmare was something the entire family truly did not want.
There was no telling how much their parents had cried while he cleared Floor 8.
But how could they possibly stop him?
The lives of all humanity were on the line, and the letter had spelled out exactly what had been in Kim Seo-hyeon’s heart every time he took on a challenge…
On top of that, in some bolt from the blue, he was now saying that if he didn’t climb the Tower at least once a week, he would die.
The only thing the family could do for Kim Seo-hyeon was cheer him on. And, as much as possible, not let their grief show.
The Floor 9 clear had, thankfully, ended earlier than expected.
Earlier, when he came back out, Kim Seo-hyeon had smiled as if it were nothing. Had he said he fought monkey monsters?
Opening the laptop again, Kim Seo-a searched for the Nightmare strategy guides and read them.
The info posts Person123 uploaded to the Communication Channel had been compiled online for anyone to see.
Of course, Kim Seo-a had already read them many number of times.
The fight against the Goblins on Floor 1, the trap tiles on Floor 2, the Undead on Floor 3…
Now that she knew Kim Seo-hyeon was Person123, the Floor 4 strategy guide was especially hard to read.
Because it described how he had cleared it by burning his whole body away and blowing himself up along with the boss.
Feeling like the tears would come again for no reason, Kim Seo-a shut off what she was reading.
Just then she heard the refrigerator door open in the kitchen.
Kim Seo-a quietly cracked open her bedroom door.
Kim Seo-hyeon, who had taken out some water to drink, turned to look at her.
“What is it? What’s up?”
A composure that made it impossible to believe he’d just come out from clearing yet another floor of Nightmare.
But Kim Seo-a knew.
After living under the same roof for years, how could she not? Kim Seo-hyeon was feigning that composure for the sake of the family.
How had he managed never once to let it show how hard it was, over all that long time?
Carrying everything on his own, how much must he have suffered, alone.
Kim Seo-hyeon rummaged through the fridge and pulled out the ice cream Kim Seo-a had bought.
“Mind if I have some of this?”
“Y-yeah, go ahead…”
Kim Seo-hyeon headed back to his room.
Kim Seo-a closed her door too and perched on the edge of her bed.
“…”
By now there were plenty of people who revered Kim Seo-hyeon as if he really had become a god.
But Kim Seo-hyeon was nothing like a god.
He was just a person who hurt and suffered like anyone else.
Kim Seo-a prayed.
That if there really was a god, please, protect her brother, protect the family.
And if the only way to end this Nightmare was to climb the Tower all the way to the top…
then please, let Kim Seo-hyeon be the one to do it.
*
After clearing Floor 9 and coming out.
I rested for just a moment, then started back in on the things I had to do.
[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 9.]
First up, sorting out the strategy guide.
I went right back into Floor 9 and pushed the boulder up to the summit.
Flash!
The boulder shattered and I obtained the Golden Headband.
I’d tried backing off before the boulder broke to dodge having the Golden Headband placed on me, but.
As expected, that kind of cheap trick didn’t work.
Once I put on the Golden Headband, the monkeys came swarming up from the base of the mountain.
Instead of fighting, I bounded across empty air searching for the Golden Monkey. There it is.
Screech-!
Spotting me charging in, the Golden Monkey bolted off at that unfailingly blinding speed.
I caught up without much trouble and subdued it by snapping all four of its limbs.
Freezing it to pin it down would have been simpler, but the whole reason I did it this way was that the point was to write the strategy guide.
I was trying it out with methods the other Nightmare climbers could actually manage.
I dragged the flailing Golden Monkey along, heading for the rocky mountain.
The rocky-mountain course had flat stretches here and there, so with a well-planned route dealing with the landslides wouldn’t be impossible.
I’d already confirmed that when pushing the boulder to the top, a bit of it breaking didn’t matter, so cracking the bottom to balance the center of gravity or something like that would work.
Capturing the Golden Monkey looked like it would be a considerable hurdle for the other challengers.
Catching this thing, dragging it all the way to the Magic Circle, and on top of that having to fight off the other monkeys lunging at you while you move.
Of course, the US and China still hadn’t even cleared Floors 7 and 8…
Punching through the monkeys’ interference, I hauled the Golden Monkey all the way to the Magic Circle inside the cave.
The Gourd Bottle drank in the Golden Monkey’s energy. It was golden.
Peering into the Gourd Bottle, sure enough, there was a golden liquid inside.
This was the Golden Essence.
I gulped it straight down.
And then I felt the Golden Headband loosen its grip on my head.
I pulled the Golden Headband off and looked at the monkeys outside the Magic Circle.
The monkeys, who a moment ago had been vicious, ready to pounce at any second, suddenly went docile.
[If you earn the Golden Headband’s recognition, the Stone Monkeys will crown you as their king.]
Even after I stepped outside the Magic Circle, the monkeys didn’t lunge at me.
So it had turned out just as the scroll said?
That aside, what was going to happen with the boss?
Rumble, rumble…
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than a tremor rolled through.
I quickly slipped out of the cave. The monkeys followed after me too.
Before long the rocky mountain split in half, and out burst that same boss monkey.
Groaaaaaaah-!
So I do have to deal with the boss after all.
As I stood there watching the boss for a moment…
all at once the monkeys around me charged at it in unison.
“Oh.”
So that was how it worked?
I roughly got the idea.
I’d been puzzled about whether I was supposed to take on a boss even bigger than the Floor 8 Antlion, alone, with no gimmick.
Turned out I was supposed to release the Golden Headband and then team up with the monkeys to fight.
The monkeys bursting out as the rocks cracked open kept charging at the boss.
Not all one million monkeys came out, but there were easily thousands of them, pouring out one after another.
Of course, the monkeys alone weren’t enough to take the boss on.
Every time the boss swung a fist or its tail, dozens of them died at once.
While the monkeys drew its attention, my role seemed to be landing blows on the boss.
Using Air Walk, I bounded across the sky and looked down at the boss.
This thing was so enormous too that killing it looked like it would take an eternity, but…
‘Huh?’
Something caught my eye.
On its head, a single white hair jutting up out of the boss’s black fur.
It gave me the feeling that it might be a weak point, like a dragon’s reverse scale.
Kwaaaaaah-!
A dark red beam the boss fired swept across the monkeys on the ground.
I stopped time.
After finishing my Mental Concentration, I aimed at the boss’s stray hair and fired a fully charged Destruction Ray.
And then.
Kreeeeeeee…!
Unlike the heavy roar from before, the boss let out a tremendous high-pitched shriek.
Kuwoooong!
And then, moments later, it collapsed.
So it really had been the weak point after all.
[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 9.]
The clear message.
I went in and out of Floor 9 a few more times and got to work writing the strategy guide.
[Person123: Here’s the strategy info for Nightmare Floor 9.]
I had it all sorted and posted within a day.
[Person123: From now on I plan to climb Nightmare difficulty quickly rather than sticking to the 20-day Time Limit.]
I put up an announcement on top of that.
[Marlin: The Floor 9 strategy guide is up!]
[Nebula: Cleared it and dropped the guide the same day, jeez]
[Blade: Huh? An official announcement went up too]
[Galapagos: So he really is planning to climb fast from now on]
[Leviathan: Don’t tell me he’s saying he’ll challenge the next floor again in just a few days…? Why does it feel like Person123 is rushing so much?]
[Muffin: Don’t second-guess Person123’s judgment. He knows what he’s doing.]
After posting the strategy guide, I entered Floor 5 and started hunting in Zone 5.
[Zone 5 (83.9%)]
The Zone 5 Boss Gauge had passed 80 percent too.
And I was confident I could take it down easily, of course.
My Level was over 100 now, so even without the Demon King’s power it would be a breeze.
The problem was that I no longer had time.
Even climbing the Tower a floor a week, at my current pace I’d probably hit the Time Limit right around when I reached Floor 30 or so.
Crack!
Having killed one Bone Dinosaur, I paused.
Because a thought suddenly flashed into my head.
‘What if I try using Radiant Incarnation…?’
Up to now, the reason filling the Zone 5 gauge had been so slow came down to two things, aside from the fact that other climbers hardly hunted there.
One was that Zone 5 was simply too vast.
And because it was so vast, the monsters were scattered thinly across it.
And the other was the fog.
With no wide field of vision, searching out monsters was, naturally, hopelessly slow.
But what if I used Radiant Incarnation?
However vast Zone 5 was, at the speed of light even ten laps around it would be over in the blink of an eye.
If I circled from the inner part of Zone 5 outward, sweeping away every monster along my path?
In ten minutes, wiping out every monster spawned in Zone 5 seemed more than possible.
That would fill the gauge quite a lot, wouldn’t it?
Whether it would be enough to fill the remaining 16 percent all at once, I couldn’t say… but either way it would be substantial.
I’d originally planned to challenge Floor 10 the moment Radiant Incarnation’s cooldown was up, but.
‘I’ll have to change my plan.’
Let me try a Zone 5 clean sweep first.
It wasn’t as though I had a lot of time to spare.
But if it filled the gauge by a lot, it would be worth taking the Zone 5 boss reward first, then challenging Floor 10.
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