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Chapter 122 - Before Floor 9
Chapter 122: Before Floor 9
TL: Enuma Novel
My family wanted to know exactly how I’d managed to beat the boss.
That clearing a boss of the same level with most of one’s abilities banned was an absurd, impossible feat, that was something anyone could grasp, climber or not.
“I’ve got other powers I can use besides skills and items. I told you, didn’t I? That I got a lot of good rewards.”
Wеb ǹȯ_v̀ е l̆ Ē n̂u̇ m̀ а
Explaining the Demon King would’ve been too complicated.
So I just left it at that.
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With my family, I always made a point of laying it on thick about how strong and special I was, putting on this air of overflowing confidence.
It was the only way they’d feel even a little more at ease.
Either way, they all just seemed relieved that I’d come back safe.
And so the Proof of Qualification ended.
Е ň u mа̄. і̄ ḋ
The world found its peace again.
“Hah…”
For me, of course, there is no peace.
There’s only pressing forward.
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‘I still need to tell them I’ll be challenging Floor 9 again soon.’
How often should I be challenging the Tower, exactly?
Ѐn̂ ů ṁ а
Three days, at minimum, for now.
Because the cooldown on my newly acquired skill, Radiant Incarnation, was seventy-two hours.
This ten-minute light-speed movement and invincibility skill was my new ace in the hole.
I was thinking about the theme of Floor 9, when…
I decided to wrap up my Floor 8 strategy guide first.
[You have entered Nightmare Difficulty Floor 8.]
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A desert.
After punching through the sandworms and reaching the skeletal corpse, I grabbed the Compass.
[1]
Looking at the number on the Compass, I clicked my tongue without meaning to.
‘This piece of crap.’
If I’d just shaved off a few more minutes, I never would’ve had to dip into my own lifespan.
W е̂b̃ ň о̆ v еl̂ Ӗ n̆ü m ӑ
Going underground through the sandworm’s burrow, I made my way along, searching for the path.
Reaching the cavern with the puzzle.
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Same as before, I froze all the holes the sandworms came bursting out of, then completed the puzzle faster than last time.
I stopped time and memorized the puzzle’s maze all over again, and…
Rrrrrumble-
When I unfroze time, a massive tremor rolled through.
Е̌nû m а
This time I didn’t escape outside. I waited.
Crash!
Before long, the whole cavern flipped over.
For an instant my body floated, then dropped.
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I activated Skin Hardening.
I plummeted for a good while, tumbling among the debris and chunks of stone, before landing on solid ground.
Ẁ еb n ò v́_el Е̂ǹǔ m̆ а̌
Was this the inside of the Antlion boss’s belly?
The slick, mucus-coated walls of flesh covering every direction writhe and pulse, grotesque.
Little flecks embedded throughout, like glow-stones, lit the space in a dim haze.
I looked around and found a passage.
Apart from the chamber I’d fallen into, there was only one way out.
Heading that direction, a maze of tangled paths unfolded one after another.
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A grotesque labyrinth made entirely of flesh.
Now I just had to follow the route I’d memorized.
When I’d cleared this the first time, I’d had no time, so I’d used the Demon King’s power to take the boss down, but this was clearly the intended route.
Left, left, right, straight ahead and then the second left, then straight on…
When I pushed through the maze and reached the destination.
Thud- Thud-
Е̃n ù m̄а̄. id̂_
A massive, beating heart appeared.
I fired off a fully charged Destruction Ray right away.
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The Destruction Ray punched clean through the boss’s heart.
Kweeeeeeegh…
A horrific shriek followed, and a great tremor rumbled on for a moment before going still.
Was it dead?
Е̇ n̊ um̂ ã
[0/32,768km]
When I checked the Compass, the unit had appeared.
I backtracked through the maze.
Returning to the starting point, I climbed out this time through the passage that had swallowed me, and…
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The Antlion boss lay dead, its enormous tongue lolling out.
Take it down like this, then reach the Oasis, and it’d be over.
Е n̊ ŭm a.i̊d
It had taken about thirty minutes.
I didn’t bother clearing all the way to the end, and just left.
I started writing the strategy guide, going in and out of the floor over and over.
Floor 8 didn’t have any monsters that were hard to deal with.
For the other Nightmare clearers, all they had to do was shave off as much time as possible… twenty-something minutes was definitely doable, wasn’t it?
It wouldn’t be easy, of course.
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The puzzle and the maze could be memorized from what I told them, but while assembling the puzzle there was also the interference from the sandworms.
Still, I figured it was less brutal than Floor 7.
Were the US and China actually planning to challenge Floor 7?
[Squirrel: This is Taylor Miller, the United States’ Nightmare climber. I was grateful for your devotion, Person123. And I admired you.
I’m leaving you a Whisper for the first and last time before I enter Floor 7. I truly hope you clear Floor 8, come out, and see this message.]
Now that I thought about it, the US Nightmare clearer had sent me a Whisper like this too.
W е b ń ӧ v е l E nüm̊а
Looked like it had been sent while my Floor 8 clear was dragging on.
The Nightmare Communication Channel’s member count hadn’t gone down, so thankfully it seemed she hadn’t entered yet.
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When I’d been advising the US side on strategy, I’d only ever spoken through Rhino, so I’d never actually exchanged Whispers directly with the US Nightmare clearer until now.
‘Taylor Miller…’
This person really was something.
People who staked their own lives climbing the Tower for the sake of the world.
Е ǹ úm̂а̌
After going through this whole Isolation Zone ordeal, that thought hit me all the harder.
I sent a slightly late reply, then finished writing up the Floor 8 strategy guide.
*
After the Isolation Zone incident ended, the top-floor climbers of each difficulty found it hard to escape public condemnation.
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[Elizabeth: They’re just shameless bastards with zero conscience. All three of them]
[Ant: Tens of millions of lives on the line and they just go and pick zero to save their own skins lmaooooo]
Enu m̆ а̊. ï ḋ
[Vodka: Honestly embarrassing that trash like that represents each difficulty]
[Coin: That Dmitri guy used to go around saying he’d be like the Person123 of Hard difficulty or whatever. What an absolute load of garbage]
[Wizard: lol someone tell him to at least try to be worth the dirt under Person123’s toenail]
Of course, even among the ones cursing and mocking them, how many would actually have staked their own lives if they’d been in the same position?
Anyway, the top-floor climbers were busy keeping their heads down and lying low.
Gabriel, the top Normal climber, even resigned from his post as director of the Climber Association.
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In any case, this Isolation Zone incident was one more event that drove home the difference between Person123 and the other climbers.
Not merely a difference in ability, but a more fundamental difference in caliber.
“How on earth did Person123 take down the boss while carrying nine Penalties?”
“Maybe there’s a third factor beyond skills and items that hasn’t come to light yet. Among the Nightmare difficulty rewards…”
People were busy speculating about how Person123 had withstood nine Penalties.
Some said there had to be a special reward unique to Nightmare difficulty.
É n̄ ûm̀ а
Some even speculated that Person123 wasn’t human at all, but truly some kind of divine being.
The Person123 Church, in particular, pushed the latter fiercely.
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Since Person123 never said anything either way, the truth was something no one could know.
[Tree: I was a forever-Floor-2 climber and I just cleared all the way to Floor 4 today]
[Doberman: I’m finally setting foot on Floor 5 too lol from now on you Floor 5-and-under peasants don’t even try talking to me]
[Durandal: Maybe I’ll give it a shot too…? Still kinda nervous though]
W̌ еb́nо́v е̊l Е ń ŭ m̃ а
[Milky Way: What’s there to be nervous about. Just watch the Floor 2 platforms a bit and it’s a straight shot to Floor 4]
[Superhuman: Easy is seriously nothing. Why are you even a climber if you can’t do this much lol]
[Jet: Alright, shall we all hold a service for Person123, who blessed us with 2 Levels?]
[Cerberus: I just worship and worship. The greatest GOAT in human history]
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And on the other hand, with Person123 having chosen the 2 Levels Special Reward.
The Easy and Normal difficulty climbers in particular went wild.
Е.ñ ū m̂а
2 Levels in Easy and Normal meant one or two floors’ worth of reward.
That much physical power boost, and there was no way they couldn’t clear the not-so-hard lower floors short of being utterly hopeless.
Of course, since it was a reward that only applied to existing Floor 2-and-above climbers, not every climber gained two levels.
One could expect the climbing pace in the other difficulties to accelerate even further from here.
[Person123: Here’s the strategy info for Nightmare Floor 8.]
In the middle of all that, the Floor 8 strategy guide went up too.
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The Compass and the puzzle, the Antlion boss, the maze, the Oasis distance that doubled every two minutes, all of it.
Only then did people understand why the Floor 8 clear had taken so long.
[Owner: It was a cube on Floor 3 and now a puzzle pops up, yikes]
[Boatman: Ugh, the difficulty makes me want to puke just looking at it…]
[Lovelon: Doubling every two minutes means even after just an hour the distance is insane? It’s over a billion kilometers]
[Blue: A billion, holy shit lmaooooo is this interstellar travel]
È.ń u.m̂å
[Crane: How many kilometers did Person123 travel? He didn’t tell us that part]
[Pegasus: Still, I bet he cut it under forty minutes. Past that the number stops making sense]
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[Atrocity: A 100-piece puzzle plus a maze that looks insanely complicated from the explanation… if he cut that under forty minutes on his first try, he’s seriously beyond human]
Sure enough, faced with a horrific clearing difficulty, people were busy chattering away in delight.
“Taylor, did something good happen?”
Max, having come by the training ground, found Taylor smiling at her Communication Channel.
Еñ u̇ m̌ а̌.і́ d́
Taylor turned her gaze.
“No. It’s nothing.”
“Did you see the Floor 8 strategy guide? If we prepare, the conditions look better than Floor 7, at least.”
Taylor nodded.
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“We’ll have to get Floor 7 done first.”
Max spoke as though concerned.
Ẇѐbn̆о̌ v̈ël Еnum̀ а̌
“You mustn’t rush, Taylor. They say DARPA is still researching the training system as we speak…”
“Yes, I don’t intend to rush. We have to raise the success rate, even by a hair.”
Finishing her conversation with Max.
Taylor checked the Whisper on her Communication Channel again.
[Person123: Thank you. I’m glad you seem to be safe.]
A Whisper from Person123.
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It was the reply to the message she’d sent right before entering Floor 7 last time.
A fullness in her heart, was that the word for it.
Getting a reply like this from him left her with a strange feeling.
What was certain was that it had given her strength.
Taylor began training again.
To be of even a little more help to the road he was walking ahead of them.
W̌e bn о v̈е l̀ E ń uṁ а̇
*
A few more days passed after the Isolation Zone incident ended.
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The cooldown on Radiant Incarnation had fully cycled.
I was slowly getting ready to enter Floor 9.
But first I had to tell them. My family.
The fact that I’d have to climb the Tower a good deal faster from now on.
W̊ е̇ b.n о v̄е l Е n̈ ŭ.mä
I couldn’t keep entering without saying a word any longer.
“From now on, I’ll have to clear a floor every three or four days.”
Hearing my words, my family looked like they’d been struck by a bolt from the blue.
“…What do you mean by that?”
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I couldn’t tell them about the lifespan thing.
And clearing early because it might drag on like Floor 8 was too flimsy an excuse.
W ӗ b̄n о̆ v̌e̊l Еn um̈_а
There was no way they’d accept “I’m going to clear a floor every few days” on its own, either.
So I decided to make up a new excuse.
“The truth is, I made a separate contract with the Tower.”
I’d made a separate contract with the Tower because it looked like I wouldn’t be able to clear Floor 8 within the Time Limit.
In exchange for getting what I needed to clear Floor 8, I’d taken on a Penalty requiring me to clear at least one floor a week from now on. Otherwise I’d die.
The Tower making proposals only to me was a fact the whole world knew, so it wasn’t a strange story.
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Honestly, was this really all that different from having a terminal diagnosis…
Still, I figured this was the better option, all things considered.
“You really don’t need to worry too much. The Tower makes me proposals all the time, right? As I climb, there’ll be a way to cancel this too… Hm? Please don’t cry.”
Mom ended up showing tears again. My sister too.
There really was no greater ingratitude than this. But what could I do.
Once they’d calmed down, my father spoke.
En u̇ m̃ а. і d
“Promise me one thing, Seo-hyeon. Never enter without telling your family. Not ever.”
I told him I would.
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That was the whole reason I’d brought it up.
‘A way to extend my lifespan…’
Maybe something would actually turn up in the upper-floor rewards.
Or maybe a Special Reward would yield something again, like with this Isolation Zone business.
Eǹum_а . і̊.d
Special Rewards seemed to produce all kinds of unusual things.
I’d told Bilon about my situation too.
With Bilon, I figured it’d be fine to come completely clean… but for now I gave Bilon more or less the same account I’d given my family.
[Chicken Sandwich: Good heavens…]
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Bilon seemed quite shocked, but took it calmly all the same.
Having finished all my preparations.
Ê n̆ u̇ m̃ å . іd
“I’ll be off, then.”
I shared an embrace with my family in the living room.
Coming clean did have one good thing about it, at least.
It was that I could receive a proper final send-off from my family like this.
“Take care. Be careful.”
“Go get ’em, big bro!”
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I could feel my family working to wear bright expressions as they saw me off.
I smiled too and waved my hand.
“I’ll wrap it up easy before lunch and be back.”
Come to think of it, was the Tower not going to make a proposal this time?
Well, the item ban on Floor 8 last time had ultimately been aimed at the Scales of Life anyway.
Whatever the Tower proposed now, I had pretty much no intention of accepting it.
W̃ e bṅ о vе̄ l Е̊ numâ
No proposal from the Tower came, right up until I entered.
[Will you enter Nightmare Difficulty Floor 9?]
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Alright… shall we?
As I entered, my vision shifted.
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