Chapter 155

Right after Choi Ji-won finished her roughly 30-minute call with the Association—

“So… there’s some stuff about the real world, and some stuff about the Tower. Which one do you want to hear first?”

“…The real world.”

“Got it.”

She cracked open a can of cola she’d just bought from the convenience store and handed it to me, then began speaking.

“First of all… the reason you had to wait eleven days up there? I think, technically, it was because of me.”

“…What?”

Turns out, the top-tier players were so shocked by Ji-won’s overwhelming performance that they made a mutual agreement—not to enter the Tower for two whole weeks. Which meant the people I ended up climbing the 12th floor with were only mid-to-upper rankers at best.

“And I wasn’t being excluded or anything. Apparently, there was this whole silent war going on between groups trying to recruit me.”

“…Like, America’s in awe, and China’s scrambling to keep up?”

“Pfft, yeah. That’s one way to put it.”

So that’s why we’d had such a hard time gathering intel—it wasn’t just the Tower’s complexity. It was the massive power struggle between all these groups. The world was already watching Choi Ji-won very closely.

“Oh, and you remember the Association president? Michael Jeter?”

“Yeah, of course. What about him?”

“They say… he hasn’t been seen in a while.”

“…What? Are you sure?”

“Yeah. They didn’t tell me everything, of course, but this part? It’s confirmed.”

Michael Jeter—the player who left that message back on the 2nd floor—had apparently gone completely off the grid.

Ji-won also mentioned she’d received a list of promising players and the factions they’d formed. And this—this was exactly the kind of information I needed most.

The Tower doesn’t change. The contents of each floor are fixed. There are no random elements. Meaning the only real variables… are the people. And now that I had a list of those people? That changes everything.

“Oh… and they mentioned you, too.”

“…Me? Kim Jun-ho?”

“Yeah. They didn’t seem to know we’re in a relationship, but… they guessed we were cooperating. They said we acted together on the 2nd floor, and both got elixirs on the 4th. So they’re assuming there’s a connection.”

The Association had apparently concluded that Ji-won and I were working together. And the reason I’d drawn attention? Naturally, it was the elixir.

Ji-won said it seemed like Yoon Jung-hyun hadn’t spilled the full story—maybe out of loyalty. Either way, what she heard lined up pretty closely with what the Reaper had told me.

Still, with the kind of information network the Association has… how could they not know we’re dating?

“Well… I guess there’s no way they could know.”

Yeah. Come to think of it, there really wasn’t. Every time I went on dates or hung out with Ji-won, I’d always regress before the end. And we kept our movements minimal before advancing to the next floor. No traces were left behind.

Spying on us? I’d bet my life there’s no one on Earth with better sensory awareness than Choi Ji-won. Trying to tail her would be laughable.

Anyway, that just about wrapped up the situation outside the Tower.

“So, shall we move on to the Tower stuff now?”

“Hmm…”

When it came time to talk about the Tower, Ji-won hesitated. Clearly, whatever she was about to say… wasn’t easy.

So I waited quietly, giving her the time she needed to speak.

“Whew… Okay. To get straight to the point—when I cleared the 12th floor, there weren’t any excess points added or anything. I climbed it with a group of Russian players, and everyone got exactly the points they claimed.”

“Which means…”

“Yeah. Someone in your 12th-floor group lied about their points.”

“…”

I’d already suspected it when my final score shot up by [20] in that last run, but hearing it confirmed from Ji-won’s own mouth still hit hard. So there really was a scumbag in the group.

“And the Association also put me in contact with someone who already cleared the 12th floor. According to them, the lowest possible reward for the second test was [5]. Just like you thought, it seems the difficulty of the next test is determined by whoever got the highest reward in the previous one.”

“…Haaah.”

Which meant someone had definitely chosen [10] during the first test. The difficulty spike made sense now.

My head started to throb. I had a rough idea of who the culprit might be. But I’d have to figure it out through future regressions…

“Did you hear of any cases where a player actually died during the test?”

“I asked about that too, but… apparently, no. Or if it did happen, they’re keeping it quiet.”

That’s the problem with Association intel. Since it functions as a semi-official international body, its affiliated players are careful about their image. Nobody’s going to openly admit, ‘Yeah, we had a fight during the test, and I killed one of the team.’

“Hmm…”

“…Just putting this out there—even if you find the liar, I don’t want you killing them.”

Ji-won spoke up before I could even say anything, cutting off my train of thought.

“I mean it. I think murder should really only be a last resort.”

“…Yeah, I agree.”

Of course, I knew full well the toll that killing takes on a regressor. But this floor was… different.

“You know how I’ve always tried to get all the possible rewards on each floor, right?”

“Yeah. I know.”

My goal was always a perfect clear. Sweep through the floor thoroughly, resolve every conflict, and walk away with every available reward before moving on to the next one.

“But unless I cut out the liar… that’s going to be pretty much impossible.”

The first and second tests were manageable. The other players weren’t completely incompetent—they could at least pull their own weight.

But the real problem… was the third test.

Since the short-haired girl and the guy with the mole both chose [20] in the second test, it was guaranteed that the third test would start at [20]. And once the liar picked [40] and dumped the burden on me…

“Just doing the math—if I want to claim the [40] reward in the last test, I’d have to handle [80] all by myself. That’s just… not realistic.”

I didn’t even know what the difficulty of [80] looked like. But with the regression penalty looming over me, there’s no way I could clear a challenge that brutal. It was simply impossible.

“I don’t know. I think it’s absolutely possible.”

But Ji-won completely shot down my conclusion.

“…You think [80] is doable?”

“At first I thought it was impossible, too. But after listening to everything you said, I think there’s a way.”

She tapped gently on my solar plexus with her fingertips.

“What if… You spent real time training? If you mastered cold mana, wouldn’t you become so much stronger than you are now?”

“…Cold mana?”

“Yeah. You told me before, right? That the more time you spend consciously aware of mana, the more naturally you can control it?”

“…I did.”

“And let’s be honest—you’ve lived longer with mana than anyone else, right? That makes you the most experienced person in terms of handling it. Doesn’t it?”

She wasn’t wrong. I might not be the most talented magic-user out there, but no one had spent more time exposed to mana than I had.

“Besides, whether you realize it or not, the 12th floor is kind of the perfect training environment, don’t you think? It’s quiet, clean, food comes regularly… And since you have to wait 11 days anyway, even if you regress during your training, you don’t lose anything.”

“…That’s true.”

To be honest, I still didn’t fully understand this power within me. For all I knew, it could turn out to be nothing. Or it could be something terrifying, something vast and untapped. But Ji-won looked at me like she believed, wholeheartedly, in my potential.

​“And if it ever gets too hard… You can just follow the same route you did this round. Come find me. Rest. If you’re suffering, take a break. But I really think this is your moment to grow stronger.”

“…”

“Jun-ho, I want you to get stronger. Strong enough that you won’t ever have to make painful decisions again.”

It’s like that old philosophical thought experiment—the trolley dilemma. One person is tied to one track, five on another. The only way to save everyone is to stop the train. What Ji-won wanted… was for me to gain the power to stop that train.

If I invested an absurd amount of time… could I really grow strong enough to take down a mannequin with an [80] difficulty rating? If I could master cold mana, make it my own—would it be possible? Would my talent even allow it? A vague fear crept in.

“You can do it. I believe in you.”

She wrapped her arms around me again, holding me tight.

“And more importantly… there’s one flaw in your logic.”

“…A flaw?”

“Yup.”

She pulled back from the hug, then vanished briefly through a portal. A moment later, she returned with a single sheet of bright blue paper in her hand.

“Here. Take it.”

“…What is it?”

“Just take it. It’s a gift.”

I reluctantly accepted the blue paper, turning it over in my hands with a puzzled look. Nothing seemed written on it, but the moment I looked closely, a message window blinked open in front of my eyes.

– A-Rank Trait Selection Ticket (Unique)

– Allows the user to choose and acquire one A-Rank Trait of their choice. Usable only once.

“…What is this?”

I recognized it immediately. It was the [40] reward from the final test…

Oh. Right.

I’d forgotten something so obvious.

“Jun-ho. The number you need to handle in the final test isn’t [80]—it’s [70].”

Right.

“I already claimed the [40] reward from the final test.”

Because Choi Ji-won… had already cleared the 12th floor at the highest difficulty.

– – End of Chapter ––

 

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