The floor-clearing missions in every tower around the world are identical.
So are the environments and monster types.
Floors 50 and above of the Black Tower are the flying monster section. From floor 56 to 60, wyverns of five different attributes appear.
Wyverns.
A diminished version of dragons.
Sky-sovereigns said to feed on ogres as their staple diet.
The Earth Wyvern with physical power and defense, the Flame Wyvern with its fire breath, the Frost Wyvern with its ice breath, the Lightning Wyvern discharging bolts from its body, and the Venom Wyvern brimming with toxic miasma.
Floor 57, where Yu Cheolmin entered from the broadcast station studio, was precisely where the Flame Wyverns appeared.
[Entering Floor 57 of the Black Tower of Japan (日本).]
[Physical abilities have been enhanced to match your level.]
[Traits and combat skills are available.]
“It’s been quite a while since I was here, too.”
He had the experience, his level was 66, plus a wide variety of equipment and countless skills.
A mission he couldn’t fail even if he wanted to.
[Floor 57 Mission: Defeat 15 Flame Wyverns.]
[Time Limit: Within 14 hours.]
[Failure Condition: Death or mission abandonment.]
The mission appeared.
Rugged mountain terrain.
Around towering peaks swarmed countless wyverns in dense packs.
There’s a prerequisite when tackling flying monsters.
Since you can’t fight in the sky, you absolutely must drag them down to the ground.
Magic traits and ranged traits are advantageous in that respect.
But what about melee?
What can you do?
You have to go in carrying a pocket-sized crossbow or pistol that passes the personal-items check.
But if your ranged weapon proficiency is sloppy and two wyverns come down at once?
Nothing for it.
You run.
Since tower clearing is fundamentally solo play, always maintaining a one-on-one situation is the most important thing.
The clearing begins.
He pulled a bow from his inventory and spotted a wyvern flying off on its own. Fweee-shoot!
“Kyarrak!”
A milky-white translucent mana bolt struck the Flame Wyvern in the belly.
“Good.”
Even as the wyvern descended, Yu Cheolmin didn’t move—standing in one spot, he fired mana bolts at the monster.
An archer-trait player would have to scramble frantically to keep distance, but…
“I’m an All-Weapon user.”
Even if the distance closed, all he had to do was swap to a melee weapon and slash or stab.
“In a word, it’s a piece of cake.”
Fwee-shushushushushoot!
He activated his rapid-fire skill and hammered the wyvern.
Dozens of mana bolts concentrated on that single wyvern.
If crits popped, he could kill it before it even landed. And yet…
‘Hmm.’
Strange.
Not a single critical hit.
‘By now, at least one should have landed.’
Even worse—
Ting!
One deflected mana bolt bounced off a wyvern’s claw and flew off in an absurd direction, hitting yet another wyvern.
“Haah.”
Aggro.
The other wyvern had its aggro pulled.
So now two wyverns were descending instead of one.
The first one was almost on the ground already.
“Phew.”
What choice did he have?
He had to kill two.
At level 66, two was doable, three if he pushed it.
Weapon swap.
The bow went back into his inventory.
He drew out sword and shield.
Block, dodge, stab, slash.
He barely dispatched the two.
‘This time…’
Carefully. No letting his guard down.
He waited a long while, picked his target, and was about to fire a mana bolt when—
“…Hahh.”
His nose suddenly tickled.
“HAAA-CHOO!”
The sneeze burst out in the end.
From the recoil, a mana bolt fired unintentionally.
Pshoot!
“Gah!”
By terrible luck, the mana bolt flew to where the wyverns had gathered in clusters.
“Kyak!”
“Krrak!”
“Kyakyak!”
Aggro, more aggro.
A full three wyverns came flying at once.
“This is insane.”
Three was rough… but he still had to kill them.
Because if he abandoned the mission, he’d simply be ejected from the tower.
And where would he be ejected to?
The live-broadcast studio.
Forget putting on a show—he’d be utterly humiliated.
‘Absolutely not.’
He threw out his ultimate, his finishing moves.
Was the cooldown the problem?
And through it all, the crits still refused to land.
‘Is something cursed?’
Seriously, what was going on?
Just in case, he swapped out his weapons, but neither his basic attacks nor skill attacks landed a single crit—they had popped just fine before.
Spewing Flame Wyvern breath.
Three wyverns meant three directions.
Dodging was hard enough.
Fwoooosh! Fwoosh! Fwoooooosh!
“Kkuhk!”
Sizzle sizzle.
His flesh was cooking.
Even so—
‘Never abandon the mission.’
It was a desperate struggle.
Strike with melee weapons, create distance, fire off bow shots or thrown spears, block the breath with his shield, then throw more spears.
Two down, one left.
But the last remaining wyvern flicked away his thrown spear with its claw.
Shwaaaaaeng!
Ta-aeng!
The spear ricocheted off in yet another absurd direction.
Once again, straight to where the wyverns were densely gathered.
“Damn it! What is this?! Why does this keep happening?!”
He couldn’t have been more wretchedly unlucky.
Aggro after aggro.
In a line, like a train—five this time, no, there were more behind them.
How many were there in total?
Even level 66 wasn’t enough for this.
Level-gap bullying—a massacre of civilians.
In other words, high-level players farming weak monsters on low floors.
That was only possible against monsters on floor 30 and below.
By floor 40—where super-large monsters began appearing—or around floor 50, even a level 66 player had to be careful.
One slip and it was death inside the tower.
Yu Cheolmin gritted his teeth.
At the crossroads of choice—fight or flight?
There was nothing to think about.
‘Humiliation is better than dying.’
Face, dignity—forget it all.
‘…I’m bailing.’
Yu Cheolmin sprinted for the safe zone.
Being in the safe zone didn’t mean the monsters couldn’t chase him.
It was simply a zone where escape was possible.
“I abandon the mission!”
[You have declared mission abandonment.]
[You have failed the mission.]
[Exiting the Black Tower of Japan.]
Spot!
Yu Cheolmin appeared in the studio.
The live broadcast was still on.
The worst possible situation.
“Son of a—”
The announcer said something or other, but he wasn’t in the mood to answer.
He simply turned and walked out.
Tomoda, the Tower Climbing Administrator, waiting outside.
Thanks to the merit of bringing Yu Cheolmin over, he had been promoted to an executive post in the Cabinet.
“What happened? Why so early?”
“Can’t you see for yourself? You know perfectly well and still ask?”
Failed?
Truly failed?
After making such an enormous spectacle of it all.
“My condition wasn’t great. My luck was bad, and—”
He simply couldn’t believe it.
A level 66 abandoning the Floor 57 mission.
“I’ll rest and clear it next time.”
“….”
Tomoda could say nothing.
Only one thought: it’s all over.
How on earth was he supposed to clean this up?
※ ※ ※
Japan was thrown into an uproar.
A verified level 66 player.
A player they had gone so far as to naturalize, staking the nation’s face, had abandoned the mission on a mere floor 57 and been ejected.
Was he a fake all along?
Had they been scammed?
The criticism rained down.
The idiotic Japanese government.
The stupid, arrogant Yu Cheolmin.
His approval ratings plummeted with no floor in sight.
The flustered Kawaguchi Cabinet.
They hastily dispatched experts to analyze the cause of failure, secured fire-resistance items, and threw them into the attempt.
The second attempt was done quietly—
leaking nothing to the media about even attempting a clear—
and they set out on the re-attempt in total secrecy, but…
“Damn it, damn it, DAMN IIIIT!!!”
Yu Cheolmin was forced to abandon the mission yet again.
No—why on earth was this happening?
The battles with the wyverns refused to follow the tactics he had established.
Some unexpected situation erupted every single time.
Was he haunted?
How could critical hits fail to land even once?
Was Japan’s Black Tower different from other nations’ towers?
It was enough to drive him mad.
What if he couldn’t clear it at all at this rate?
Only the impatience grew.
And then the second attempt’s failure leaked to the media after all.
Koreans, hearing the news, flocked to Japan’s largest community site—
└ Yeah, thanks for taking Cheolmin off our hands.
└ No refunds due to change of mind, you bastards!
└ What are you gonna do? Your tower sits on an earthquake fault line.
└ I’m mocking you, but honestly I don’t wish for your tower to collapse either. So hang in there!
Was it only Koreans?
The Japanese too vented self-deprecating mockery all over the boards.
Meanwhile, news drifted over from Korea—
And that wasn’t all—
Next door, a festival; over here, a funeral.
The difference was far too stark.
And in the midst of it all, Yu Cheolmin failed his third consecutive attempt.
His mentality finally collapsed.
The Japanese government had no way to handle it either.
The fear of tower collapse began to slowly creep across all of Japan.
※ ※ ※
Ju Hyeok saw the news too.
Watching him keep failing on a floor far below his own level—that was some seriously entrenched karma (業).
‘Not just Yu Cheolmin—Japan’s in trouble too.’
Naturalization is an individual’s freedom.
But abandoning the Korean Black Tower to its fate and absconding in the night—that wasn’t right.
If he’d judged it too hard, he should have at least spat back everything he’d received from the Awakening Management Agency.
His achievements were worthy of recognition.
But that, too, was give and take—a relationship of exchange under contract.
Then he should have honored that contract to the end.
Does he think he grew that strong on his own merit?
Why doesn’t he know how many people’s sacrifices and material support went into it?
If he doesn’t know that, getting burned is too good for him.
Even a bottom-feeder loser like me knows that.
“Is that going to last forever?”
he asked Gyeondalrae, whom he’d summoned for the Floor 32 clear.
“I regret to say it will not last eternally. When the balance of karma evens out, it shall return to normal.”
“Really?”
Well, they’ll manage somehow.
Leave Japan’s tower to the Japanese; let Koreans climb the Korean tower.
He cleared Floor 31 the day before yesterday.
One day of rest—
and today was Floor 32.
[Entering Floor 32 of the Black Tower of South Korea.]
The monster to clear was, of course, the Minotaur.
The peculiarity was that the monster type and tower environment were all exactly identical.
The only difference between Floors 31 and 32 was the Minotaur’s size—just that one thing.
Back on Floor 31, the beast had already been bigger than a barbarian ogre.
Around 4 meters, give or take?
Floor 32 was a whole 4 meters 50.
How big was the Floor 35 boss supposed to be, then?
“The Minotaur King, ye mean? He’ll be about 6 meters. Twice as big as an ogre.”
A true king-god, a king-god.
That’s why the S++ clear was so hard.
‘This is giving me pause.’
On Floor 31, he’d slipped behind the Minotaur with Shadow Steps and cracked it across the back of the skull for a one-shot kill.
But the higher the floor, the bigger the Minotaurs got, they said.
If it were moderately sized, fine—but if it were a horrifying size, the kind where you had to tilt your head back just to look up at it?
Ugh!
He’d gone to all the trouble of coaxing Gyeondalrae over.
If he backed out now, she’d laugh at him, wouldn’t she?
“Ah! I want beef.”
“Hrrmm, I be wantin’ some too. Marbled tenderloin and ribs be shimmerin’ before me eyes. Hot seolleongtang beef-bone soup as well.”
“Don’t they give out tower rewards like 10 kilos of flower-grade sirloin or somethin’?”
“Would they be givin’ such a thing? Premium beef at that.”
Gyeondalrae chimed in—
“One must not be buyin’ beef for just anyone, sire. Best not be bestowin’ too much upon the young ones, lest they be learnin’ bad habits… A slice of cheesecake or a macaron would be about right, methinks.”
It’s not like she wanted some herself, right?
Decided.
He’d pick a day and go eat beef.
But a beef party in an officetel was a no-go.
Beef only tastes right at a proper BBQ joint.
‘Taking Kozak out is no problem.’
Assassin class.
He could stealth, and he could change his appearance too.
Last time, he’d gone alone to Yu Cheolmin’s penthouse and brought back goods.
The problem was Gobang and Gyeondalrae.
Those two were the hang-up.
Himself included.
…Should I just try asking?
“Lady Dalrae?”
“Speak, and I shall answer.”
“Is there, by any chance, a spell that completely changes a person’s appearance?”
“Among talisman arts, such a thing doth exist. Yet it changes nothing in truth—it merely deceives the senses of humankind.”
“Oh! Can you do it too, Lady Dalrae?”
“Only give the command. I carry the Gwhangji talisman and Gyeongmyeonju elixir upon me at all times.”
Perfect.
After the clear, he’d have to try it once.
‘Come to think of it, the place is kind of cramped too.’
Kozak and Gobang were fine, but there was Gyeondalrae, a different sex and all.
‘I do need a bigger place.’
Like, say, the penthouse Yu Cheolmin used to live in—
“…Ugh.”
They say the heart is different sitting down than lying down.
No greed.
Greed leads to overexertion, and overexertion leads to disaster.
[Floor 32 Mission: Defeat 20 Stage-2 Minotaurs.]
Massive Stage-2 Minotaurs appearing from all directions.
However, before the three-person party of the summoned, it was nothing more than a trivial cow's head.
Geon Dallae turned on her speaker.
Doom, doodoong, doomdoong!
Ding-ding-ding!
Tstststststs!
A three-part harmony of drum, bell, and blade.
Whoosh!
The mirror blazed with brilliant light as Geon Dallae's buffs and debuffs took effect simultaneously.
Strength surged through him.
Meanwhile, the Minotaur herd descended into confusion.
Mooing, they ran here, then there—like they'd stumbled into the Secret Cow Level from a video game.
"Kiyahaha!"
Kosak charged out first.
Go Bang darted after them, belatedly. 'Me too...' Any decent target around?
Found one.
A Minotaur spinning in place like a top, as if it had lost its way.
Vmmm!
Energy shield activated.
Mace and shield raised.
But it was big. Really big.
Up close, his anxiety only grew.
The difference in weight class could not be ignored.
They said axe swings were slow, but if he took a proper hit, his energy shield would shatter in an instant.
Honestly, he was scared.
Once again, the nature of a cowardly man quietly blossomed. 'How am I supposed to catch this thing?'
In that moment!
As Ju-hyuk joined the battlefield, Go Bang, Kosak, and Geon Dallae subtly moved to his side.
Close enough to immediately assist if danger arose.
It seemed like excessive overprotectiveness, yet his heart quickly grew steady.
Someday they would truly become strong—strong enough to no longer worry about him. 'Well, they'll probably be exactly the same even then.'
The fear subsided.
Feeling like a fox with a tiger at his back, Swat! Swat! Ju-hyuk sank down as if plunging deep, right in front of the Stage 2 Minotaur.
The massive axe came flying, but it merely struck the afterimage Ju-hyuk left behind—a meaningless attack.
Before anyone knew it, Ju-hyuk was behind the Minotaur.
To crush its skull, he needed a powerful leap.
Through his repeated mission clearances, the final three forms of the Hunwon Beast-Thunder Staff (Hunwon Pilrykgon) had been unlocked. 'Falling Thunder Flash (Nakrae Seomgwang).'
A technique of extreme speed.
Its power matched its speed, a single-strike-kill ultimate skill with a cooldown.
Swat!
Ju-hyuk leaped.
The mace drawn back as far as it could go.
It fell like a bolt of lightning.
Flash!
Crash!
The Minotaur's head vanished without a trace.
"Ohh!"
The thrilling sensation of the Falling Thunder Flash technique. 'I could get addicted to this.'
As promised, he took down three.
And so Ju-hyuk's conquest of the 32nd floor of Korea's Black Tower ended—
[Notice: You have achieved an S++ rating for clearing the 32nd floor of the Black Tower (Korea).]
[S++ Clear Reward: A Platinum Badge has been awarded.]
Exactly as expected.