"The Giant's Rest..."
Someone muttered as they faced the altar that rose from somewhere after felling the final boss.
On the massive altar, something was written in an unknown language, and when it was decoded using a decoder, the content read 'Giant's Rest.'
Recalling that most of the monsters encountered in the upper floors—such as the Fire Spirit and the Earth Spirit—had been spirits, Suho fell into thought.
Ignis Pla and Karnoas too; spirit-type monsters were very tricky opponents.
Not only did the physical damage of the super-strengthened android, which enabled so-called 'auto-hunting,' barely work on them, but unlike golems, spirit types could not be stored in subspace either.
Moreover, every single boss was powerful enough that if it had not been for Suho, they would have surely caused tremendous casualties.
He needed a countermeasure that would enable auto-hunting no matter what enemy they faced.
Krrrrr.... Rumble...
Suho had already recovered the forty-trillion-ton chunk of Oberon he had dropped, but the shattered floor of the 96th floor was still collapsing, having sunken over one hundred meters.
Though no one knew the principle behind it, fortunately, the moment the boss fell, an altar standing tall like a tower in the center of the 96th floor was erected clearly where everyone could see it.
All team members flew over wearing Wings and surrounded the altar.
"Clan Leader, you break it."
"Oh, well, anyone can..."
Suho declined, but everyone insisted.
"Breaking the final altar that lets us return home belongs to the person who contributed the most. It may not be an important rule, but it is an implicit rule of tower raids. It is the same for any raid party."
At Danbi's explanation, everyone nodded.
Suho had not known such a thing existed. It was his first time formally participating in a tower raid.
"Well... if that is the case. Do I just break it?"
"Yes, just break it somehow."
The massive altar.
The altar had an unsightly, simple shape.
It was made of stone, but having withstood long ages, it bore traces of weathering and moss here and there, making it look like an ancient relic.
Somehow, it felt like an enlarged version of the exchange counter atop a Tower Random Box.
Thinking that, a sudden question came to mind.
"Do we really have to break it?"
At Suho's question, all team members looked at him with expressions that said, 'What a strange doubt to have.'
"Of course. Breaking it ends everything. The tower disappears, too."
"The portal to the 1st-floor waiting room only opens if we break it."
"Hmm... is that so... fascinating. What principle could it be?"
"That has not been figured out yet. Many people have researched this final altar..."
"Then, hypothetically, if someone stealthily hid from the 1st floor without catching any monsters and just broke this final altar at the top floor, would the tower still disappear?"
At Suho's question, the team members chuckled.
"That is impossible. If you do not defeat the master of each floor, the portal to the upper floors does not open."
"Aha, that is true..."
"The only fact humanity has discovered about the final altar after conquering countless towers is that. The tower disappears only when the final altar is broken, and the path to exit to the 1st floor opens. Just that one thing."
"I see."
Curiosity was merely curiosity.
Thinking that he would be climbing many high-level towers in the future too, Suho drew the Aether Railgun from the forearm portion of his powered armor.
Wheeeeeee....
After a brief charge, it spun, and soon a Black Steel bullet fired with tremendous speed and power,
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa───
Shattered the towering altar into pieces.
Tssswaaaaang─
The moment the final altar broke, a portal formed beside it.
Since all team members were hovering in the air awaiting orders, Suho spoke.
"Let us go. You have all worked hard for a long time. Let us go home and rest."
"Yes-!"
"Home sweet home!"
"Great work!"
Not wanting to remain in the tower a moment longer, all clan members rushed into the portal.
* * *
Not only was it the largest tower in the Republic of Korea, but as the tallest tower ever in all of Asia, the command center of the on-site base camp anxiously awaiting news of the Ultimate Line clan raid party lived in continuous tension day after day.
The one who waited for their safe return and successful conquest more than anyone was Director Kim Gyusik, who had appointed himself head of the command center.
Praying earnestly every day for Ultimate Line's safety and successful tower conquest, he felt as though his blood was drying up day by day.
Before he knew it, seventy-six days had passed since the team entered the tower.
About one-quarter of the total conquest period.
"They must have passed the 40th floor by now... No, since they are an outstanding team, maybe they have passed the 45th floor. Yes, surely..."
At a point about two and a half months later.
Thinking this would be the normal climbing speed, Director Kim Gyusik marked another X on the calendar.
That was when.
Outside the base camp, it grew incredibly noisy, and through the window, he could see many people busily running about.
There were only a few reasons such a thing would happen here. Just as he was about to pick up the intercom to ask what was going on, a team leader already burst through the door and ran in.
"D-Director!!"
"What is it?"
"U-Ultimate Line has exited!"
"What?"
Exiting on the seventy-sixth day was far too early.
In cases where teams stopped climbing and exited halfway through a conquest, it was mostly due to a lack of supplies.
After all, exiting from the floor one was conquering all the way to the 1st-floor waiting room was too long a distance to travel for mere rest, a change of pace, or other reasons, making it too much of a waste of time.
Therefore, it was a basic tenet of tower raids not to exit unless absolutely necessary.
Moreover, this was a super-elite team composed solely of S-ranks, and had not Jeong Suho, who possessed subspace abilities, accompanied them?
They could not possibly lack supplies.
'Th-then...?'
A problem had occurred. Someone was severely injured or dead.
Enough to necessitate slamming the brakes on the conquest.
Suppressing his ominous premonition, Kim Gyusik urged the employee.
"Let us go!!"
Without asking anything further, Kim Gyusik threw on his jacket in a hurry and followed the employee, running toward the tower's entrance.
"Great work!!"
"Here is a drink and a wet towel!"
"We will guide you to the lounge right away."
Countless staff members guarding the base camp flocked to care for Ultimate Line's raid party, like pit crew members swarming a car for rapid maintenance during an F1 race.
"Huh...?"
"Uh...?"
But all members of Ultimate Line's raid party were in pristine condition.
It was almost as if they had done no fighting at all and had simply been sitting around in the 1st-floor waiting room before coming out.
Normally, those who emerged after entering the tower for dozens of days were in rough shape after enduring the elements without properly washing or resting, making the raid team usually look terrible... but this team showed no sign of needing care whatsoever.
They looked like people who had eaten well, washed well, and rested well.
As if aware of their own condition themselves, they declined the base camp staff's care.
"We are fine. We are really fine. Thank you for your concern."
Just as those who had approached with various items awkwardly stepped back, Director Kim Gyusik, who had run over in haste, finally arrived before the exited team.
"M-Master Jeong Suho! Are you safe?!"
"Oh, hello. Director, it has been a while."
"Goodness... you have had it hard. How... why did you exit so early... was there a reason... did someone..."
Hesitating to ask the difficult question, Kim Gyusik scanned the team members with his eyes, and they went wide.
All nineteen were present. And perfectly intact.
They even had better complexions than he, who had stayed behind at the base camp.
"Huh... H-how?"
Struggling to deduce the incomprehensible situation, the director finally found one question to ask.
"W-which floor did you conquer before exiting...? Ah, no, that is not important. Until you climb again, we will provide the maximum support from the Tower Administration Bureau so that you can properly resupply..."
"No, Director. It is all over. You can dismantle the base camp now and disband."
Over? What was over?
Director Kim, still unable to comprehend, blinked his eyes,
"Wawawawaack!"
"Huuuuup!"
and in the far distance behind the nineteen-member raid party, the tower's form flickered and vanished, causing those who witnessed it to gasp.
* * *
A week had passed since Executive Kim Seonu had started dating CEO Jeong Suji.
The moment they started dating, Jeong Suji stuck to Seonu like glue with a happy face as if she had the whole world, but Seonu was still dazed by everything.
Come to think of it, he did not really know much about CEO Jeong Suji personally or as a person.
Perhaps that was why he had not realized before that she had such an impatient personality when it came to private matters.
"Today? Already...?"
"Yes, today is perfect..."
"B-but we have only been dating..."
"I know, I know, but... sigh, my family is all busy. It is hard to see each other even once a month. It just so happens everyone is available today... I am sorry. I should have told you sooner..."
"Ah, no. It is fine. If that is..."
Since it was a day her family was gathering after a long time, Suji wanted to quickly show Seonu to her parents and introduce him.
'Right... chaebol families are probably busy.'
It was not something he could not understand.
Still, he wondered if this was right when they had only been dating a week...? But pushed aside by pride and emotion at how much she must like him to want to show him to her parents right away, the discomfort of 'only a week' was buried.
"Okay. I will go."
"Really! Kyaa—thank you."
Seeing Suji's happy face, he felt it was the right choice.
It was a dinner invitation, an evening banquet at a chaebol house—he was so nervous he could not focus on work all day.
So he had fiddled with his phone all day.
Fortunately, the phone kept showing breaking news, so he was not bored.
Korea's and Asia's tallest tower, the 96-floor tower, conquered in seventy-six days.
A miraculous speed unprecedented in history.
The S-rank raid party Ultimate Line led by Clan Leader Jeong Suho was confirmed to have all members safe and sound...
"Krr... amazing. Ultimate Line, amazing, Jeong Suho."
Seonu was not one to usually indulge in nationalistic fervor, but with the whole world broadcasting this news on a massive scale, he felt good enough to think it was okay to get drunk on it today, just for today.
The successful conquest of the 96-floor tower was enough to excite the entire nation immediately, and indeed the country was abuzz with joy as if liberation had come.
That pleasant excitement greatly alleviated Seonu's burden and tension about the evening appointment.
Emboldened by this, he casually asked about CEO Suji's family background, something he had not been able to ask until now.
She definitely looked like a third-generation chaebol—was he finally going to confirm it with his own eyes?
He should at least know a bit before going. To avoid mistakes...
"CEO."
"CEO again, I told you to call me by name. We only use titles at the company."
"Yes, Su... ji-nim."
"Pfft. Oppa, before we go to my house, we need to practice and decide on what to call me."
"..."
"But what is it?"
"Ah, hm, ahem... I have something to ask."
"Yes, ask away."
"Which... group is it? Your family...?"
"Huh? Group? We are not any group?"
At Suji's reaction as if asking what he was talking about, Seonu was dumbfounded.
"Ah, no, then... uh...?"
Then how was such lavish spending possible?
Suji, who commuted in a different car almost every day.
But none of those cars were ordinary. All were foreign cars, ultra-high-end lines, limited-production lines.
Just the cars Seonu had seen Suji in until now were easily worth hundreds of billions of won.
And yet she said they were not a chaebol family...?
Not understanding at all, he blinked his eyes, and Suji's gaze turned playful.
"Aha, I know what you were thinking. Hehe, you will see when we get there. You will know if you go with me."
That day, the two left the company building a little early and headed to the parking lot escorted by androids.
But the direction the autonomous driving car carrying them took was somehow strange.
Passing Jamsil and heading toward Garak-dong.
"Huh... this way is... this way..."
Flustered, Seonu stammered.
Glancing at Suji, she wore a meaningful smile, beaming.
Only one thing came to mind upon guessing the car's direction.
Seonu's doubt gradually turned to certainty.
The wealthiest building on Earth,
The car kept heading toward the Elysium Heights site.
Thump. Thud. Thump. Thud...
'N-no, no, no, no way...'
Right, Jeong, it is Jeong. The surname is the same.
Come to think of it, S-rank Jeong Suho's Admitti and Jeong Suji looked strangely alike.
'...Why am I only realizing this now...?'
A group? To think he had imagined merely some group.
You fool, you idiot...
The assets of the world's number one group were but the dirt under the toenails compared to the master of this Elysium Heights.
As Elysium Heights came into full view, Seonu's mind went completely blank.