Even on the largest Korean 'Black Tower Conquest Gallery' site, the consecutive S++ clears were still a huge topic.
It's a site where plenty of players drop by too—of course, ordinary people are everywhere as well.
└ Fine, the orc section maybe, but the troll is going to be impossible.
└ I've tried it. It's no joke.
└ Kek kek, how are you supposed to deal with that terrifying regeneration? I gave up on ever clearing Floor 30.
└ Just cut off its head.
└ You think that's easy?
└ I think the comment above is right. The Floor 25 nationwide announcement came out three days ago, and still nothing.
└ Looks like it failed. Honestly, trolls are tough.
└ So disappointing. He collapsed at Floor 26.
└ What's with all the disappointment talk? Floor 25 is a great achievement. Has anyone ever even cleared Floor 1?
The reason the nationwide announcement hadn't sounded for three days was nothing special.
The hero of the conquest was busy moving house.
But who would know that?
Just then!
The comment section of the bulletin board suddenly grew noisy.
└ Huh?
└ Gasp!
└ Oh!
└ Whoa.
└ Hm?
└ Kr···,
└ Really?
└ He's insane. He's actually insane.
└ Oh my god! It's real. It's actually real.
The comments were streaming in.
Mostly from accounts with verified player status.
└ What? What happened?
└ It just went up. Floor 26, S++ rank clear.
└ So trolls are trash after all. Who said he'd collapsed? Reflect on yourselves.
└ Who is it for real? I'd love to at least see his face.
└ If his face gets out, he'd be more popular than Yu Cheolmin, no?
The rise of a new hero.
Republic of Korea's Black Tower, Floor 26, consecutive S++ rank clear.
The backlash grew louder by the moment.
People were drunk on national pride, and the media and broadcasters moved quickly.
Players whose faces were already known appeared on TV talk shows to spill their stories, using their own conquest experiences as a benchmark to preach just how incredible an S++ clear was.
The major corporations moved fast too.
Ilsung Group fired the first shot.
Floor 27 S++ clear means 26% off, Floor 28 S++ clear means 28% off—
Meaning they would run this promotion for two weeks.
The stock market was affected as well.
The value of Korean stocks soared dramatically.
The composite stock index shot up as if it would never stop.
※ ※ ※
Ding-dong!
The doorbell of the newly moved-in apartment rang.
Clack!
He opened the door.
"Player Bong Juhyeok, your delivery has arrived. That's ten whole fried chickens, correct?"
"Ah, s-sorry for the trouble."
Mild food for Kosak's sake.
Claiming he'd been promoted to SSR and could no longer remain a spice-wimp, he had boldly eaten tteokbokki, failed spectacularly, and come back from death's doorstep.
"By the way, that's an enormous amount of food."
"Mm, after I finish a conquest, I get unbelievably hungry···."
"Hahaha, you could be a mukbang YouTuber. Right here."
"···Thank you."
A custom service for residents of the player officetel.
Deliveries can only go as far as the first-floor security office.
Bringing it to each unit is handled by the officetel management staff.
They even do miscellaneous errands.
Dropping off and picking up laundry, dispatching cleaners if you need cleaning.
Living in an officetel where players gather, the perks were endless.
Every facility was inside the building.
A restaurant that handles three meals a day, a café, a gym, a coin karaoke, a laundromat—even a swimming pool.
'I should have moved in ages ago.'
Such luxury was a first in his twenty-five years of life.
'Getting caught doing an S++ clear during the awakening assessment was a stroke of genius.'
At first, he'd thought it was a disaster.
His goal had been an ordinary contract, so he'd planned to quietly do the conquest and leave—but he got caught doing that?
How much he had regretted it.
He should have done a repeat mission instead of conquering a new floor. Then he wouldn't have been caught.
And why does Kosak have to be such a chatterbox?
The damned Summoned One's Three Principles, Clause Three.
But that incident became the reason he signed with the Elite Team.
Originally, this kind of contract was absolutely impossible.
Bodycam footage is mandatory.
Because Elite contracts are decided based on conquest footage.
He was probably the only person to ever sign an Elite contract without filming.
'I thought Elite Players were so dangerously exposed that they'd die inside the tower in no time.'
Now it's wonderful.
Can a heart really change this fast?
Well, whatever?
That's how wimps are.
He had just finished the S++ clear of Floor 26.
The mission: exterminate 20 swamp trolls.
Floor 26 was famous as an extremely difficult mission.
Because of the swamp trolls' regeneration?
No.
The swamp environment drove people mad.
Of course, with the Shadow Step skill, he got through it relatively easily.
Juhyeok caught one too.
Under Savage Gobang's tanking and SSR Kosak's protection, he smashed in a swamp troll's skull.
Perhaps due to the power of Hunyuan Pilie, the swamp troll couldn't even regenerate.
"You've worked hard, so how about some chicke—"
In the living room, Kosak and Gobang knelt quietly, glued to the TV.
"···Heh."
"···."
A music chart program.
A video of cheerful girl-group girls dancing and singing—
"Um, hello?"
They didn't even register it.
Well, of course.
Old Juhyeok's one-room apartment had a worn-out 27-inch TV.
The TV in the newly moved-in officetel was 85 inches.
In both picture quality and size, there was no comparison.
It was like experiencing a whole new world, so he understood.
"···Not having the chicken?"
Ahh!
No different from three-year-olds obsessed with children's cartoons.
Juhyeok set the chicken down in a corner and watched TV with them.
'Pretty, they are.'
Cheerful teens and twenty-somethings in stylish outfits performing lively dances and songs—was a lousy chicken going to catch his eye?
But once the girl groups finished and it was the boy groups' turn.
The two men's interest vanished as if by magic.
"Oh! Fried chicken, is it?"
"I'm having more."
Now the chicken catches their eye?
"Mr. Kosak?"
"Yesaam?"
"Do you happen to have a girlfriend? I mean, did you ever?"
"Couldn't date one···, I mean, never did, I didn't."
He's hilarious.
"Ah, anyway, romance isn't for me. ··I-if I date, the sharply maintained tension gets disturbed. It's an assassin's fate, it is."
"Yes, yes."
Sharply maintained tension?
I have no idea who he's talking about.
"But why doesn't Summoner Bong-nim have a girlfriend, then?"
A counterattack?
Fine, I'll parry.
"···Because it's the fate of an Elite Player. I-if I date, my indomitable willpower might weaken—"
"Ohh! Just like me, then! People who do great things never have time for romance, they don't."
"R-right? If only I hadn't awakened as a Player, I'd have a girlfriend by now."
"Hehehehe!"
"Hahahaha!"
A true wimp always wins through his own rationalization.
Spiritual victory, that is.
"By the way, I'm sorry, I am."
"About what?"
"It's your housewarming, and I couldn't even buy you toilet paper, I couldn't."
"Toilet paper, really···."
"Oh! Right! Should we get right to work on Floor 27 tomorrow, we should?"
"Since we've touched Floor 26 anyway, let's go straight through to Floor 29."
"Yesir!"
Floor 30 is on hold.
Because the random summon's cooldown is drawing ever closer.
Thirteen days from now.
If we finish up to Floor 29, we'll have ten days left.
Floor 30's eighty trolls and the Twin-Head Troll—he'll summon one more person and clear it together.
Then for those ten days?
Repeat easy, comfortable floors and work on skill mastery.
※ ※ ※
Juhyeok's mother, Hong Geumja, shook hands with attorney Lee Changseok and expressed her gratitude.
"Thank you for your hard work, Attorney. Thanks to you, we won."
"Hahaha! I should have gotten you more in damages, but it's barely 1 billion won···,"
"No. This is plenty. I'm donating it all anyway."
"Are you sure?"
"I intended to donate it from the start."
"Then I won't take my retainer fee either."
It never even went to trial.
Public sentiment wasn't favorable either.
And decisively, when the whole nation's government offices announced they were switching their water purifiers to another company, Jinsaemmul Co. raised both hands and surrendered.
"Oh! Right! Shall I look into a suitable place for the donation?"
"Please do. Preferably centered on orphanages, and put our son's name down as the donor."
"Your son's name is···,"
"Juhyeok. Bong Juhyeok."
"Yes! I'll process it immediately."
She'd gotten the compensation, the apology from the abusive customer and the head office—
It should have been something to be happy about, but Hong Geumja's expression was far from good.
Her son Juhyeok was active as a player. How could she not worry?
All she could do was hope, earnestly.
That nothing would happen, that he'd stay safe.
His father, Bong Cheolsu, was hospitalized in a VIP room at Ilsung Hospital.
It was a luxurious hospital room.
A reception room, premium sofa, guardian bed, spacious bathroom.
That was probably why the second son, Bong Minhyeok, came straight to the hospital after school.
"Son?"
"Yep!"
"Is this your house now? Should I stamp your commute card?"
"Hah! It's so comfortable, almost too comfortable. Plus, guardian meals are free. And the food is incredibly good."
"You'll be moving out soon."
"I'll stay until then."
The little rascal.
Not for caregiving purposes, but for his own comfort, he commutes to the hospital?
Doesn't the guy have any friends?
I understand.
Whose son is he, after all.
A while ago, he'd gotten a call from his eldest son.
He seemed safe, so he was relieved.
Honestly, no matter how he thought about it, it was a mystery.
How on earth did he end up doing player activities?
If it were Minhyeok, that rascal, he wouldn't have given it a second thought.
"Father. You can stop worrying about Hyung. I looked it up. Elite Players' mortality rate is way lower than regular players'."
"Is that so?"
"They get dedicated support teams. They even provide items essential for conquests."
Still, worry was worry. Nothing to be done about it.
"Turn on the TV. Let's see if there's anything about your mother in the news."
"The news channel?"
"Yes."
Just then, a breaking report aired.
"Incredible, incredible. How is that 26 in a row?"
"At school, the kids talk about nothing else all day."
"Oh! Right! What floor did Juhyeok say he was clearing again?"
"On the phone yesterday, he said the 20s. He didn't know the exact floor."
"Hmm."
Bong Su-cheol tilted his head for a moment.
"That record holder of the S++ clear—it's not your older brother, is it?"
"Aigoo, Dad, there you go again. Just eat your food. At least say things that are possible."
So Juhyeok signing an Elite contract is possible, but that?
""
Huh? Wait, true. Now that you mention it. ···Still, how could it be Hyung? He's one of the most famous players in the world.
""
Right? I was just asking, that's all.
Neither of them knew much about the Black Tower,
but they knew at least how incredible an S++ rank was.
The conditions by which a player's talent is measured.
Valor and fighting spirit, unyielding grit, an unbreakable heart···,
Unfortunately, not a single one of those applied to his son Juhyeok.
A "real man," my foot.
He's a textbook wimp.
※ ※ ※
Black Tower, Floor 27.
The mission: kill 20 ice trolls within 4 hours.
Just like the swamp troll mission, the environment was the problem here too.
They had to hunt ice trolls on rugged peaks covered in year-round snow.
He had performed a mission in a similar environment before.
The cold had pierced right through even his padding, and it had terrified him.
The thing that gave players the most trouble when first conquering ice trolls was the cold.
Later, items were developed, and it became relatively easier.
Ding-dong!
He opened the door at the doorbell.
"Player Bong, I've brought what you requested."
It was Team Leader Jeon Gwangil.
He'd come to deliver the items Juhyeok had requested on loan.
"I can't thank you enough for always taking such good care of me."
"Not at all. Supporting Elite Players so they can conquer the tower is our job."
"I'll use them well and return them."
"Then, good luck on Floor 27 as well."
What Jeon Gwangil had brought was an all-in-one leather armor set made from Volcano Oak leather, complete with shoes and a hat.
Nothing was better for blocking the cold.
Volcano Oak leather occasionally came as a reward when clearing Floor 24.
'But why do I never get reward items?'
Day in and day out, mana stones; once in a while, tower-exclusive healing potions.
The energy shield had been a special perk, too.
Let's go.
He called Gobang and Kosak.
[Entering Black Tower Floor 26, Republic of Korea.]
—wait, no.
[Entering Black Tower Floor 27, Republic of Korea.]
Whooshhh···,
The instant they entered, a frigid wind whipped around them.
Even in the safe zone, it was cold enough to feel the chill.
But he wasn't cold.
The gentle warmth emanating from the Volcano Oak leather made him almost feel hot instead.
"Aren't you cold, Mr. Gobang?"
"A warrior does not feel the cold."
"And you, Mr. Kosak?"
"Mmm, I'm SSR, SSR! Tataratak, c-c-cold and such, tatarataratak, ···I d-drive it away with mana, tatarataratak."
His teeth chattering mercilessly, it seemed he was quite cold.
"···Want me to take it off?"
"Gah! N-no, it's fine. Tataratak, if I move, tataratak, it'll get better, it will."
Better finish this quickly.
He accepted the mission.
Boom boom boom boom!
Gobang climbed the snowy mountain without a care.
If only brains were the requirement, Gobang would be the true SSR.
Kosak was going wild.
An assassin's frenzy, Kosak dashing around madly as if trying to beat the cold.
'Ooh, this is warm.'
Like lying under a blanket in a warm ondol room.
He could almost fall asleep.
Good items were certainly worth their price.
'Should I start moving soon?'
He ought to catch at least one.
That was when it happened.
[Ice Trolls Slain 20/20]
[You have succeeded in the Floor 27 mission.]
[Level up!]
[Reward: Mana Stone 2.7kg]
[Reward: Tower-Exclusive Roland Holy Kingdom Paladin Commander's Holy Sword]
"Uhh?"
Already?
No, wait, I haven't even warmed up.
[Notice: You have achieved an S++ rating for the clear of Floor 27 of the Black Tower (Korea).]
[S++ Clear Reward: You are granted a Platinum Badge.]
Kosak, cheeks turned red, snot streaming down.
"Hehehe,"
Snnnrk!
The dangling snot slurped right back up into his nostrils.
"···."
I suppose he wanted to finish fast because of the cold.
How cold must it have been.
'That aside···,'
An item had finally dropped.
A weapon item, no less.
[Reward: Tower-Exclusive Roland Holy Kingdom Paladin Commander's Holy Sword]
It was a black sword—
'A two-hander.'
Heavy even to hold in one hand.
'It's all mindless stabbing and slashing, isn't it.'
And you'd have to get blood on your hands up close.
"Hmm,"
He had a sturdy mace already; no need.
He'd dispose of it later.
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