As a precaution, Suho went to sleep in the subspace warehouse, and asked Ravi to adjust the time ratio to 1:1 with the outside.
He also opened the Gate in a portal-window form at an angle that gave him a clear view of the clan members’ camp, allowing him to keep watch over it at all times.
“Ravi, you said you don’t need to sleep, right?”
“I sleep very little.”
“Yeah... Then keep a close eye on our clan members’ camp over there... I’m going to get some sleep. If my alarm goes off and I don’t wake up, wake me.”
“...Understood.”
With the dependable warehouse keeper Ravi standing watch, and the enhanced androids on guard, the first day of camping in the Healing Tower came to an end,
and a new day dawned.
A brilliantly shining sun.
No, but was that really the sun?
Its appearance, and the way it illuminated the whole world, certainly made it seem like the sun, but this was undeniably inside a tower.
It was impossible to understand.
Having rejoined the clan members, Suho woke everyone up.
After waiting for everyone to fully arm themselves, he stored away the buildings and barbecue area they had set up as a base camp.
And so the assault on the 12th floor began again, with the enhanced androids leading the way.
Naturally, the higher they climbed, the more their speed decreased, but even so, the enhanced androids devastated the monsters and charged forward at a mad pace.
Over two days, they cleared up to the 20th floor,
and over three more days, they reached the 30th floor.
And the additional time it took to reach the 40th floor was only five days.
After running for another week from there, they reached the 50th floor.
In other words, it had taken only 18 days to go from the 1st floor to the 50th.
“This is insane...”
“Fifty floors in a little over two weeks...”
Since the appearance of towers on Earth, even if one tallied every tower and every clan in the entire world, this was an unprecedented speed.
What was even more astonishing was the fact that the S-rank Admitties had not participated in battle even once before reaching the 50th floor.
Suho had said that most of the monsters seemed to take physical damage well, making the matchup favorable, but that alone could not explain this speed.
For 18 days, depending on the terrain, they had followed the enhanced androids by buggy, ATV, or on foot.
At this point, it was practically no different from an upper-floor tower field trip.
They had already held more than six barbecue parties.
Perhaps because there was nothing to do, they could not digest all the meat.
They truly felt as though they were only getting plumper, to the point that everyone began to restrain themselves from partying.
And on the 19th day.
When they reached the 51st floor, the tower’s ecology and environment suddenly changed completely.
“Wow... Whoa, this is...”
The moment they climbed the tower, what greeted Ultimate Line’s assault team was an endless horizon.
Suho could not tear his eyes away from the unimaginable sight, his face blank with confusion.
“Haha, the Clan Leader is surprised again! Aww!”
“He’s adorable.”
“Ugh... It’s a lake field. I hate underwater fields the most...”
“They are annoying...”
“Looks like we’ll have to stretch our own limbs for the first time in a while.”
Grumbling, the clan members all got off their vehicles and asked Suho for diving equipment.
“Clan Leader, each of us has underwater gear among our basic equipment. The reason our baggage is so bulky is partly because we have to prepare for underwater combat. Anyway, please take those out. Oxygen tanks, flippers, and... Actually, I think you can just take out each of our carts.”
“Huh? Why? Do you all have to go in here yourselves?”
At Suho’s response, the assault team members looked at one another and shrugged.
“It’s water.”
“It’s underwater combat.”
“Mm... Then are the monsters here underwater?”
“That’s right. Though we don’t know what kind will be there.”
“Hmm... Then let’s leave it to the enhanced androids first this time as well.”
“Uh... Can they handle underwater combat too? I heard they’re waterproof, but to fight underwater, they basically need to be able to maneuver quickly in the water.”
“They can. I made them so they could handle ground combat, aerial combat, and underwater combat. They have thrusters all over their bodies, so they should be able to move quickly and freely underwater.”
“Awesome...”
“Whew... Now we’re not just avoiding getting sand on ourselves, we’ll be doing underwater combat without getting a single drop of water on us. Incredible.”
“Haha, then I’ll send them in.”
When Suho gave the order, the twenty or so enhanced androids leapt into the water in unison, maintaining their rows and columns.
The small propulsion devices installed at each joint of their four arms and two legs pushed away the current with tremendous force, allowing the enhanced androids to move freely and enabling sharp changes in direction and speed. Their high-performance sensors did not miss a single movement of the monsters approaching from afar.
Swoooooosh─── Swaaaaaash───
When unauthorized intruders entered the lake, the rulers of that area began to move.
The moment the enhanced androids entered the water, enormous lifeforms cut through the current and headed toward them.
They were “Black-armored Sharks,” mid-sized monster species that were normally 7 to 8 meters long. Their entire bodies were covered in black steel scales, and their long, protruding teeth boasted a distinctive sharpness. Swimming at tremendous speeds, they were monsters that hunted in packs by nature.
Boom....
Swa-swa-swaaaaa───
Heavy rumbles continued to echo from underwater, and from time to time, columns of water shot up into the sky as if bombs had gone off.
Before long, dark blue blood began to spread across the surface.
The torn-up corpses of Black-armored Sharks started floating up one after another.
Though it was hard to see clearly, it seemed the enhanced androids were properly fighting the enemies underwater.
“Whew... That’s brutal. Those Black-armored Sharks are pretty tricky.”
Watching the underwater battle, the assault team clicked their tongues in amazement.
Suho, who had no knowledge of monsters, asked with a curious expression.
“Are those things strong?”
“They’re quite threatening. You could call them giant great white sharks wearing steel armor. Though honestly, in terms of size and strength, it’s almost insulting to compare them to great whites...”
“Oh...”
“Their armor is quite tough, but they tore through it so easily...”
“Well, they have Ethereal Blades as standard weapons.”
After fighting underwater for dozens of minutes, the enhanced androids began to surface one by one, then formed a wide formation and started moving toward the far end of the lake again.
“Looks like they caught all the Black-armored Sharks. Let’s go too.”
Suho stored away everyone’s land vehicles, then took out a large yacht.
It was about 40 meters long, a luxury yacht equipped with various amenities.
The model had several floors, with numerous bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a lounge, an exterior deck, a jacuzzi, and even beds.
It was a model capable of autonomous navigation even without a professional crew. However, yachts were slow, so in reality, it was not something they used often.
The yacht was set down among the monsters that had now become well-behaved and were floating on the surface, and everyone boarded after Suho.
The luxurious yacht cut across the surface of the lake, where only dead things remained, heading toward the opposite side of the horizon.
Since the lake region continued all the way to the 60th floor, the team members spent nearly ten days on the yacht.
The enhanced androids fought the monsters without distinction between day and night, so they were left in auto-hunting mode. The assault team took turns standing guard around the yacht in groups of about three, just in case monsters climbed aboard.
And the rest spent a peaceful stretch of underwater combat by sleeping, resting, or eating.
At last, on the 30th day, the 61st floor they reached was land again.
It was a field whose main backdrop was a ruined ancient castle zone.
There, Suho discovered something strange.
A large box attached to the wall. In a way, it also looked like a giant cocoon. Rather than being placed there, it seemed embedded as part of the wall.
It was a large box that looked as though it could fit four adult men inside, and on top of it was something like an altar with a peculiar shape.
“Huh? This... What is this?”
“Ah...”
“It’s a Tower Random Box.”
“Oh, a Lotto Box. Haven’t seen one in a while.”
“A Tower Random Box? A Lotto Box?”
Unlike Suho, who showed curiosity toward the strange box he had never seen before, the rest of the clan members clearly just found it bothersome.
Their gazes were like those of people looking at a stone on the roadside.
That was exactly the extent of it.
Still, for Suho, whose curiosity had not been satisfied, Bak Seoyeon and several of the team members kindly explained.
The Tower Random Box was an item gacha system that could be seen fairly commonly inside the tower, especially above the 50th floor.
The box was completely fixed to the wall of the tower like part of a building, and moving it after detaching it was utterly impossible. In other words, it was literally part of the tower.
At the top of the box was something resembling an altar, obviously designed for placing something on it. In reality, it was an “exchange platform.” If one placed something imbued with ether on it, the box would absorb and devour it, then randomly spit out an item.
The item obtained that way could be taken outside the tower, and once a Tower Random Box spat out an item, it would have a cooldown period of several days.
“Wow... So that’s why this is my first time seeing one... There wasn’t anything like this in the auction house. It was the same at places like Arcane Arsenal.”
“Well, it’s part of a building that can’t be removed.”
Unable to hide his surprise, Suho touched the Random Box and examined it closely. Then a question came to him.
“No, but why don’t Admitties use this to procure items? If it gives random items, there could be some amazing jackpots, couldn’t there?”
At those words, everyone chuckled.
“It’s easy to expect that. But the problem is that this box is fundamentally useless.”
“Why?”
“Because the efficiency is the absolute worst...”
“First of all, the chance of getting a good item is atrocious. No matter what you put in, you can basically consider the chance of getting a higher-grade item compared to your investment to be almost nonexistent. If you put in A-rank Etherium or A-rank equipment, on average you get C- or D-rank equipment.”
“Whoa...?”
“Well, among Admitties who attack towers, there probably aren’t any who haven’t tried using this at least once. It’s just that it reliably gives you trash... Since the rumors about it are so bad, people usually only try putting in C-rank Etherium at best, and then you get an E-rank item on average, or else an unranked item.”
“That’s right. Among the junk that gets listed in the auction house, most of the shoddy items that aren’t rewards for destroying top-floor altars were probably obtained from here.”
“So compared to the Etherium you put in, it reliably gives you a lower-tier item...”
“That’s why its nickname is Lotto Box. Because good things almost never come out.”
“Hahaha...”
“It’s also called things like the Dud Factory or the Trash Maker. Anyway, it’s just throwing money into thin air.”
But Suho thought differently.
Compared to the Etherium inserted, it almost certainly produced an item two or three tiers lower?
Then if he put in EX-rank Etherium, it would give SS-rank items on average, and even in the worst case, S-rank items?
Well, well...
What a sweet Lotto Box this was.