WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 100

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Boss Supervision (1)

As promised, I planned to give the Demon King two hours of free time each day.

After finishing the limit test, the Demon King moved to Floor 5.

While possessing my body, the Demon King could also use the Tower system, things like skills and entering or leaving the Tower.

'Don’t show yourself to other people.'

The Demon King had no interest in the Climbers on Floor 5.

He rose into the sky and headed to Zone 4, hidden as always.

For reference, even while handing over my body, I could still communicate with Diul.

Diul clearly hated the Demon King taking over my body, but if I asked, Diul still lent me power.

'Come to think of it, Demon King-nim, you use magic without concentration time.'

Watching the Demon King use his power made that obvious.

Was concentration time also just another restriction the Tower had slapped on?

"Do you think casting is needed for magic this lowly?"

Apparently not.

It seemed even the Demon King had to concentrate to use high-tier magic.

Though since the Demon King called all of this low-tier, there was no way to tell what counted as high-tier.

Whoooooosh-

We arrived in Zone 4, where blizzards raged.

The Demon King kept flying around Zone 4, then landed on top of a huge mountain.

'What are you going to do?'

I asked out of curiosity.

What exactly was the Demon King trying to do here?

The Demon King looked around and said,

"First, I should build at least a palace."

'What?'

The Demon King raised his hand.

Rumble-

Cold gathered, and massive ice began rising from the ground.

Seeing that, I understood what the Demon King was trying to do.

No way... was the Demon King really building an ice palace right now?

The ice rose from below and slowly took the shape of a structure.

And judging by the scale, this was no small palace.

'...Wait a second. You need to take it easy.'

I spoke in a rush.

If the Demon King used too much power, the body would collapse.

This was Floor 5, so even if my body took heavy strain, I couldn’t clear and recover it here.

The Demon King snorted.

"Stop making a fuss. I know what I’m doing."

Just like that, the Demon King began building a huge ice palace atop the snowy mountain.

'What are you even going to do with a palace here?'

I asked because none of this made sense.

"I am a king. A king must have a palace. Why ask something so obvious?"

The Demon King answered with utter nonsense.

I still cooperated, stopping time whenever Willpower dropped and refilling it.

From the outside, it looked less than five percent complete when the Demon King stopped using power.

The body was starting to hit its limit.

"Tch, this damned body..."

The Demon King muttered in dissatisfaction.

It looked like the Demon King planned to finish the palace little by little each time the body recovered.

It all felt pointless, but still...

A promise was a promise: free time, as long as the Demon King followed the conditions.

If the Demon King wanted to stay here quietly and build his castle, then fine.

As the strain in my body eased, the Demon King began building again, controlling his power more carefully this time.

* * *

A secret military facility in Virginia, USA.

Shhhhh...

Taylor stopped moving and caught her breath.

Various kinds of military equipment were arranged around her, and some had been damaged in the experiment that had just finished.

"Excellent work, Taylor."

Staff members came out from the observation room and approached her.

Military researchers, generals, and even the Director of the U.S. Climber Management Bureau had attended.

Under Department of Defense supervision, the purpose of this experiment was simple.

Extract deep, multi-angle data on a Climber, specifically one at the highest existing level.

Of course, everyone understood that highest existing level meant excluding Person123.

"As expected, this is remarkable... every category exceeded projections."

Raymond, Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, spoke with admiration.

Liam, director of the U.S. Climber Management Bureau, nodded, but swallowed his irritation.

When Taylor cleared Nightmare Floor 6 and hit level 60, the Pentagon had been the happiest of all.

The military was the agency most wary of the power of these superhuman Climbers, and what it always lacked was data.

In that situation, Taylor had climbed all the way to level 60 without giving up on Nightmare or failing out.

There were a few American Climbers around her level, including Alex, but they leaned more toward the association side and were not that cooperative with the government.

Taylor had originally been a soldier and an intelligence operative, and she was deeply patriotic. She actively cooperated with military requests.

That was also why Liam, watching all this, couldn’t feel good about it.

Climbers were originally under the U.S. Climber Management Bureau’s jurisdiction, and the military taking Climbers for experiments and making demands rubbed him the wrong way.

Of course, the intensity of the experiments had been set with Taylor’s safety as the top priority. She was a national treasure.

And Liam knew the military had its own position too.

This was an age of upheaval. Even now, many countries in Africa were unstable due to Climbers. State control could not handle Climber-level force.

That might have been a miniature preview of the global future.

It was not obvious yet, but the balance of power was already inching toward a dangerous point.

So they prepared: analyze Climber combat strength more deeply, and further develop technology and countermeasures that could respond to it.

"What do you think? With current military power, up to what level of Climber can we handle?"

In response to Liam’s question, Director Raymond answered,

"Looking at the rate of increase in physical durability by level, even if they’re over level 100, conventional forces could still kill them. It just wouldn’t mean much if we have to accept catastrophic damage to do it."

The U.S. military had already fought Stage 5 Fallen during the Fallen incident.

Based on that data, if they imagined a level-100 Climber, far stronger and smarter than a Stage 5 Fallen, with the added variable of skills, rampaging through a city...

That was a disaster. No different from war.

Unless they were prepared to erase an entire city, suppression would be difficult.

"It might cause less damage to just use a nuke."

Raymond laughed.

It sounded like a bad joke, but the Pentagon had probably already run those simulations too.

"That’s why we need to make sure that kind of disaster never happens in the first place."

Liam said.

If the Department of Defense’s role was preparing for war against Climbers,

then the Climber bureau’s role was to absorb, persuade, and recruit more Climbers in a direction friendly to the state.

Raymond shook his head.

"I don’t know. Personally, I think that future is inevitable. Human desire to wield power eventually erupts."

"Maybe."

Liam ended that unpleasant conversation and approached Taylor.

"Excellent work, Taylor."

She seemed to be checking her Communication Window. Then she said,

"I need to step into Floor 5 for a bit. Alex is calling me."

Liam nodded.

Taylor was so busy she could have used multiple bodies, juggling military requests while entering and leaving the Tower nonstop.

Liam also knew she had been secretly hunting in Floor 5, Zone 5.

Either way, Taylor’s will was firm, there was no way to stop her, and the Climber bureau could only worry and let it continue, afraid of pushing her the wrong way.

"Is this about the Zone 3 boss?"

"Yes."

A more important event was right around the corner.

The Zone 3 boss.

Person123 had solo-killed the Zone 3 boss, so at the moment no other Climbers had obtained the normal reward.

After almost two years, the gauge was finally almost full and the chance had come back.

It had also been delayed because hunting spread out after Zone 4 opened.

Taylor would participate in the boss fight too.

She needed the reward.

Liam silently prayed that this boss fight would end safely.

* * *

[Cheetah99: Zone 3 boss is coming up soon]

[Prohid: Wonder how this goes. Any official stance from the Peacekeeping Corps and Black Star Society?]

[Arrow: Looks like everyone’s in a cooperation mood this time]

Person123 had solo-first-cleared both the Zone 3 and Zone 4 bosses, so things had felt anticlimactic.

But boss fights were originally massive events for Climbers.

This returning Zone 3 boss fight was basically an all-star match with all top-level Climbers gathered to fight.

[Zone 3 (99.0%)]

With 1 percent left on Zone 3’s gauge, both the Peacekeeping Corps and Black Star Society held a final meeting at Drake’s Diner on Floor 5.

All prior negotiation was already complete.

No clashing, no interference, just cooperate and kill the boss.

With many people watching, Peacekeeping Corps Captain Alex and Black Star Society leader Li Zeyan shook hands.

After the Black Star Society Climbers left, Peacekeeping Corps members talked among themselves.

"Can we trust those Black Star Society bastards?"

Even after all this time, those involved still remembered the Wang Kai incident.

Of course, Black Star Society’s stance had changed completely lately, but it was still hard not to feel uneasy.

Alex said,

"We should stay on guard, but no need to worry too much. Black Star Society has no reason to make reckless moves."

Person123 had already taken the first-clear reward anyway, and for the normal reward, all they had to do was hit a certain contribution threshold.

So this boss fight was not a competition.

There was no reason to fight each other.

More than that, Alex was thinking about Ye Tianwei.

The true hidden head holding China and Black Star Society in his grip.

Even at this meeting, he had sent Li Zeyan, basically a front man, but Ye Tianwei also needed rewards, so he would have to join the boss fight in person.

Alex was personally curious about him too.

Still, before that, they first had to worry about whether they could kill the boss safely...

Alex sighed.

"...Will Person123 help us?"

"Still no reply?"

The Peacekeeping Corps had already sent Person123 a whisper asking him to help with this boss fight.

Compared to two years ago, overall Climber strength had risen, but the Zone 3 boss was still at least level-60 class.

And the only known info was that it was a flying monster that used fire-breath attacks.

Because Person123 had one-shot it.

Even if it felt shameless, if they could get help from Person123, and by help they did not mean direct combat, just oversight.

Like when Peacekeeping Corps officers supervised lower-level Climbers taking down Zone 1 and Zone 2 bosses.

If Person123 simply watched this Zone 3 boss fight and only stepped in during danger, their anxiety would drop a lot.

"He’ll definitely help."

Shin Su-jin said with confidence.

The Person123 she knew was not someone who would refuse this kind of request.

He might already have planned to help.

"But is Person123 really that strong?"

One of the Peacekeeping Corps members asked with a grin.

Vince had recently joined the corps.

A level-48 Climber from Hard Floor 13, young, talented, and skilled enough to quickly earn an officer position.

Deputy Captain Justin said,

"Strong doesn’t even begin to cover it. He’s just on a different dimension."

"I’ve only heard stories. I’ve never seen him myself. He’s still human, so aren’t people exaggerating a little too much?"

Justin shook his head. Explaining would not help.

"More importantly, Vince, be careful. Don’t get hyped and run wild again. This isn’t regular hunting, it’s a boss fight. One wrong step and you die."

"Come on, I know, Deputy Captain. I’ll be careful."

Justin clicked his tongue at Vince’s half-hearted response.

He was very talented and very skilled, but maybe because he was still young, he lacked maturity. Even during normal hunts, he often broke position.

Anyway, the decisive day was the day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow, according to the agreement, both the Peacekeeping Corps and Black Star Society would hunt Zone 3 and fill the gauge to 99.9%.

Then they would fill the remaining 0.1%, regroup immediately, and start the battle.

Alex prayed every Peacekeeping Corps member joining the boss fight would make it back alive.

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