Chapter 20: 20

Choi Seung-hyun

‘I should get moving.’

It was dangerous to stay here. I hurried down the hill, grabbed a taxi, and called back the person who sent me the message. It had been a little over a week since I started my life as Seo Jin-wook, and there was only one person who would contact me directly.

“Yes, Secretary Kim. I got the message.”

“Huh? You woke up earlier than usual. Team Leader, I received the contents by secured email. If I leave for the company house now, I think I will arrive at around eight. Shall I go to the room right away?”

It seemed that as soon as he got up, he checked his email and contacted me. He was definitely diligent.

“I was calling in case you would do so. You don’t need to hurry, so let’s see each other around nine o’clock as usual. It’s not something to be discussed on the phone. We will talk about the rest when we meet.”

It seemed that it would take about that amount of time to get to the company house and secretly return to my room. After finishing the call, I looked at the terminal again. The message from Secretary Kim was as followed.

-The partial report you requested came in. I will head to work right now.

There were two things he requested from an external intelligence agency according to my instructions. These were Angelica Heard’s current location and the background check of those who attacked us the other day. Which information about those two could’ve come in first? I closed my eyes as I buried my head in the taxi seat. The momentary darkness that filled my eyelids was sweet.

*

Someone called out to me.

“Hey, grandpa.”

“···Huh? What?

“Grandpa! Choi Seung-Hyun! What are you doing, daydreaming like that?”

I opened my eyes. I got myself together and looked around. My senses felt awkward, but all the scenes that came into view were familiar. My head swiveled. Right, this was the 95th floor of the Tower of Choice. I could see my colleagues who had been together until here. On the floor, there laid the boss of the 95th floor, the Blood Lich, slain. My face full of wrinkles shone on the glossy black floor. From behind my back, Nate looked at me with a strange expression.

“···Nothing.”

“Are you tired? Do you need some support?”

Nate asked with a smile. Pah. I shook my head.

“It’s alright. I was thinking about something else for a second.”

Then he approached.

“Now, there are only five floors left. Keep it up for a while.”

After a brief silence, the weight could be felt in their voices.

“In the meantime…you all have worked hard.”

To others, it looked like a young man in his 20s and an elderly man in his 80s shoulder to shoulder. However, there was a deep sympathy between the comrades who had survived together against adversity for so long.

“When we go down the tower, leave the rest to us and go relax. Did we perhaps abuse you too much? I will stop the elderly abuse, so please spend the rest of your life comfortably.”

“···Shut up.”

Nate snickered, scratching his curly hair roughly. It sounded like a joke, but the weight behind his words was obvious. I turned my head and looked at my colleagues. All of them were youthful in appearance, full of life. I looked down at the back of my hand again. My skin looked like twisted bark. Unlike the guild members who climbed the tower together, the life left for me wasn’t long. Could it be about ten years left?

This was because it was impossible to slow aging and reconstruct the body with mana in my body like them. It was a fate that was already set upon Awakening. Still, thanks to my unique skills, I was able to contribute like this. I was able to come this far. I spoke to them while trying to suppress my emotions.

“It’s not over yet. Don’t let your guards down. Who’s going to solve the rest of the tricks?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

The guy shrugged whilst shaking his bone wand. Of course, I didn’t doubt his ability. It was all thanks to his skeleton soldiers that a hunter like me was protected. It allowed me to arrive up to the 95th floor without dying. Of course, it wasn’t that there were no close encounters with death. On average, it was roughly once per floor.

“By the way, isn’t this puzzle taking quite long?”

Hibiki, the great mage, worked hard to place patterns on the door, exhaling enormous mana and sweating. To see it from a 3rd person’s view, enough mana was pouring down that one might think a meteorite was heading toward us. Nate spoke to her.

“Are you lacking? Do you need some mana?”

“I don’t need it!”

Hibiki, who replied that way, again devoted herself to work. Randy, sitting on the floor, cautioned him.

“Nate, leave Hibiki alone.”

Randy was feeding the monster’s blood to the magic sword. Today, instead of stabbing the sword properly into the belly of the monster, as usual, he used a novel method. When the battle was over, saying he had to suppress the sword before going to the next floor, he inserted the sword into the Giant Chimera’s anus, which looked like a mix between a hippo and an anteater.

The sword faintly vibrated as if to speak the magic sword’s emotion while making a ‘woong-‘sound. It seemed like it would be pouring curses and profanities through telepathy, and I felt fortunate that I couldn’t hear them. Randy then spoke up, pointing at Hibiki with his chin.

“You know that she gets sensitive whenever she solves a puzzle.”

“It was solved by grandpa; I’m only moving the mana as told.”

“That’s not an easy task either.”

In the tower, the floor didn’t end with knocking down assigned bosses. After that, one had to solve a puzzle with mana. I didn’t know who designed this tower, but I couldn’t help but think of this as we went up… it made me question, ‘Was it made to check how humanity’s control of mana has evolved?’

It was as if someone was going to score the results of the tutorial and the grades. That, or I might be overthinking. At that moment, a person interrupted our conversation.

“Before entering the next level, we might need to gear up with electricity-immune items.”

The saint, who was concentrating with her hands together and eyes closed, stood up and turned to Randy, who was in charge of the supply.

“Did a prophecy come out? Is the next floor with ones that use electricity?”

“Yes.”

“Is there any more detailed information?”

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“That’s all for now. As soon as we enter, there will be an electric strike.”

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Upon hearing that, Randy opened his sub-space without a word and took out an item.

“I have enough stock. We can all endure a day.”

Currently, the stock was sufficient. However, there was no such thing as too much equipment. It wasn’t just because one couldn’t go down the tower and back up again, but also because the items we had right now were virtually all that humanity had. Randy’s words contained such a heavy meaning. We could endure it for about a day from now on, but we had no choice but to endure it with our bare bodies if we were to need this item again.

Everyone knew the meaning, but they didn’t dare speak about it. They carefully distributed the items. This was so that they could use it right before the door opened. Angelica’s expression stiffened.

“Sorry, if I could have more detailed prophecies…”

I interrupted.

“No, Angelica. It is because of you that we were able to come this far in the first place.”

That was right. Thanks to Angelica, we were prepared in advance and were able to climb the tower at high speed.

“It’s done!”

Hibiki came to us after completing the Mana pattern. Behind her, blue mana began to circulate through the tightly closed door. We were now ready to open said door. Sweating, Hibiki began to spit out profanities.

“Damn, I’m going to break the Dimensional Bird’s egg or whatever with my own hands! Why does it demand so much work?”

The gate opened, and the Earth tutorial ended when we reach the 100th floor. We had come all the way here to break the Dimensional Bird’s egg there. When the tutorial was over, the egg was broken, and the dimensional storm raged. Our dimension would be swept away from the connected dimensional group.

It was a phenomenon that occurred because there was no dimensional bird to guide our world. It was as if a ship hit by a storm without the captain was lost from the fleet and disappeared into the remote sea. As a result, all the ropes connecting our ship and other ships would be cut off.

‘In other words, all dungeons will be closed.’

That was humanity’s plan. After the collapse of the SSS-class dungeon, most of the world’s governments collapsed, and civilization retreated. The hunters were leading the human race, and among them, five had gathered here. We had chosen the distancing of Earth or ‘severance’ in our expression. Yes, since we had made that choice, we all had to go up to the 100th floor and find the Dimensional Bird’s egg.

“···”

Huh? Wait a minute. No, wait a minute. Stop! I froze in the position I stood in. The feeling of incongruity, driven like a cold wave, turned into a sense of crisis and then into fear. Something was wrong. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. Everything that I saw stopped like a paused video. Someone’s familiar voice in my head spoke in an unfamiliar tone.

‘Too many had died that time. That’s all.’

The landscape in front of me shook and collapsed, and new scenes passed by. She put the Dimensional Bird’s Egg, which must be broken, into a sub-space. She had said that she would never break it.

“What’s up, grandpa?”

Nate looked at me. The smile that floated on his pale face was fragile, like a piece of glass that would break at any time. There was an elongated wound just under his chin. His bone was visible between the deeply cut gaps — the trace left by his attack skill, Bone Blade. Nate’s half-cut throat oozed blood like a waterfall. It poured out as if it would never stop.

When I got myself together, the hall we were in became a sea of ​​blood. Everyone fell, the bodies of my colleagues quickly becoming immersed in blood. And in the middle, Angelica stood alone, looking at me.

“···You!”

She was laughing with cold, twisted lips. Our eyes met, and I screamed.

“Angelica!”

Then the world came crashing down around me.

*

“Customer, we are here.”

I opened my eyes.

Waiting for an answer, the taxi driver looked at me through the rear-view mirror. I breathed out quickly.

‘It was an unpleasant nightmare.’

I managed to get up, pay the fare, get out, and used Stealth again. I began thinking to myself as I returned home while hiding.

‘Am I mentally exhausted?’

On the very day of Awakening, I trained with my mana all day, immediately entered the dungeon, cleared it for the first time, and even fought with the Optimus Guild.

‘No, it must be both my body and mind.’

Even if I were a Hunter, there was no way I wouldn’t be tired of this level of a run. Currently, my active Mana box was only about 600. Through training and combat, the limit had increased by 200 compared to the moment where I Awakened, and thanks to the mana absorbed from the cores, it was more than the limit, but with this mana, I couldn’t rebuild my body to my satisfaction.

Compared to ordinary people, all hunters were like superhumans, but the level difference was remarkable, even when compared to other hunters. In particular, if it exceeded a 30,000 active Mana box, which was the minimum condition for SS-class promotion, the person became closer to something beyond human understanding. Compared to that, I was still far away.

‘I had a nightmare because I was tired.’

I tried to shake it off, but I couldn’t help but keep thinking. An unresolved question lingered in my mind.

‘Why did Angelica have to do that?’

Why had she been acting for such a long time, and at the last moment, why did she try to overturn everything and lead humanity to a path of destruction?

‘I can’t understand her motivation.’

Why did she kill her colleagues? It was probably because others wouldn’t support her choice not to break the Dimensional Bird’s egg. Since it was a violation of her colleagues’ strong beliefs and goals, she couldn’t have suppressed it even with her brainwashing skills. If so, the question came back.

‘What was she trying to achieve by continuously connecting the Earth to the dungeons without breaking the Dimensional Bird’s Egg?’

Perhaps today’s report may give out clues. Even if I didn’t get to know the answer forever, I would change history so that it didn’t repeat itself.

‘I have arrived.’

I quietly entered the house. I walked to the hallway in front of my room without being noticed by anyone. I tried to open the door.

‘······!’

I heard an unexpected sound over the door. I soon noticed what was happening in the room.

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