Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 102

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 102

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Floor 7 Hidden (1)

The Zone 3 boss had fallen.

Of course, I'd already obtained both the first-clear reward and the normal reward, so no reward message appeared for me.

Watching everyone celebrate, I thought,

'Did I hit it too hard?'

There was someone dangerous in the mix, so I had stepped in at the end.

Still, it felt like I'd failed to control my strength a little.

I might have taken a pretty large share of the boss contribution.

Well, as long as nobody died, that was what mattered.

'More importantly...'

I looked at the man and woman.

It wasn't as if I'd seen their faces before, but after watching them fight, I could tell instinctively.

Those two had to be the representative Nightmare clearers of the United States and China.

Since it was a flying boss, I'd thought it might be troublesome to deal with.

But the Chinese Nightmare clearer stepped up first, pierced its wing, and dragged the boss down to the ground.

By cutting off its ability to fly first, he'd probably made the whole fight go much more smoothly.

The American Nightmare clearer had been impressive too.

Those two had probably taken the highest contribution.

I moved to Zone 0.

* * *

"Are you all right?"

Li Zeyan approached Ye Tianwei, who was standing there blankly, and asked.

Still staring at the boss's corpse, Ye Tianwei muttered regretfully,

"I should've shown a bit more..."

"Excuse me?"

Because one idiot had caused trouble, that person had ended up stepping in personally.

"Don't worry about me. Take care of the injured first."

"Ah, yes. Understood."

Ye Tianwei turned toward the Peacekeeping Corps, and his eyes suddenly met Taylor's.

He gave her a small smile and a nod, and she awkwardly nodded back.

"Phew..."

Taylor let out a breath and looked around.

She tried to find Person123, but he was nowhere in sight. Had he already left?

Peacekeeping Corps Captain Alex was walking around, checking on his members to see whether anyone was hurt.

Deputy Captain Justin was chewing out Vince, who was sitting on the ground.

"You crazy bastard, you know you almost died, right?"

He'd been warned that many times, yet he'd still gone and caused trouble again.

If Person123 hadn't stepped in and saved him, he would have taken that breath attack head-on and been reduced to ashes.

"...I'm sorry. I thought I could do it too."

Vince stared blankly at the boss's corpse, but for some reason his eyes were shining.

"But Deputy Captain."

"What?"

"He's seriously insane. You saw it, right? He knocked that monster down with one punch...!"

Vince said excitedly.

Justin clicked his tongue. This idiot had nearly died and still hadn't come to his senses.

"You worked hard. How many injured are there?"

Taylor walked up to Alex and asked.

Alex answered,

"There are two, but both are minor."

"Did you get the reward?"

"Yes. What about the others?"

"I think more people than expected failed to get it."

Person123 stepping in must have pulled a lot of the contribution over to his side.

Taylor and Alex looked at the boss's corpse.

Its body was covered in countless wounds, but the most striking thing by far was its caved-in snout.

The mark left by Person123's punch.

Alex muttered in awe,

"I'm getting tired of being surprised."

Taylor agreed.

Of course, Person123 already had a record of one-shotting the Zone 3 boss.

But that had been with a skill.

As the holder of the top Nightmare record, they could at least somewhat understand it by thinking that he'd received an incredible skill as a reward.

But this really...

Even when the best Climbers all rushed in and focused their attacks, its head hadn't budged. Yet he'd smashed half of it in with a single punch. It didn't even look like he'd used a skill.

Even his physical ability was on a completely different level.

Soon, the boss's corpse disappeared.

And Alex felt it again.

Person123 now seemed to be turning into a completely different kind of being all on his own.

* * *

[Kaive: Is it true Person123 killed the boss with one punch?]

[Rude: He didn't kill it, just knocked it out for a bit. They said he stepped in because one person almost died.]

[Sparrow: Just how strong is he, damn...]

It was about time to enter Floor 7 Hidden.

Floor 7 was, well...

Compared to the other floors, it tested pure ability to an extreme degree.

Especially the left-right reversal of the body.

I could deal with it using time stop, but everyone else had to handle it entirely with their own ability.

And this wasn't something you could manage just because you understood it in your head.

It was a gimmick that was almost impossible to adapt to on the spot.

It wasn't like there was any way to practice it outside, either... Maybe mental training or something?

Even if they knew the information, I had my doubts whether the other Nightmare clearers could actually pull it off.

Still, I should post the information anyway.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 7.]

A cavern riddled with holes welcomed me.

Bang! Bang!

I dodged the arrows flying at me like missiles.

'32, 33, 34...'

This time, I made sure to count the arrows properly.

I still remembered every question the final statue had asked.

Three hundred five arrows in total.

The second gate's question had been the number of arrows fired at the end.

I'd guessed 25 and gotten it right.

Just in case, I stopped time and counted one more time. It really was 25.

Paaat.

The pattern glowed, and that damned left-right reversal activated.

I shifted into four-legged beast mode again and dodged arrows while stopping time.

Hmm... yeah, this really was awful.

If the other Nightmare clearers wanted to beat this place, they'd probably need to memorize even the arrow patterns perfectly just to have a chance.

Kwaaang!

The number of the final arrows.

When I counted, there were 26 in total.

The question had been the color of the tenth colored arrow.

I knocked away the colored arrows with my swords while checking the color of the tenth one.

It was green.

"See? I told you it was green."

the Demon King said.

I was a little dumbfounded.

This guy still remembered that.

A red dot appeared on the statue.

I gave up trying to hit it with arrows and just fired them all into the air.

After I wasted all my chances, the statue aimed its bow at me.

Just like I had during the previous clear, I timed my teleport so the arrows touched my body at that exact moment, letting all of them slide off.

The statue collapsed, and I moved on to the final boss room.

[What was the total number of arrows fired in the first gate?]

The monument's question.

Of course, it hadn't changed from before.

"305."

[O]

I answered them one by one.

Circle marks appeared in succession, and the numbers on the monument didn't appear.

Craaack!

The monument crumbled, and the boss revealed itself.

Maybe because I'd gotten all the answers right, no arrows flew at me.

I immediately fired Destruction Beam at the boss.

Hit directly, the boss fell with its upper and lower body split apart.

Since the monument's time hadn't been extended, it hadn't received the invincibility buff either.

Boss defeated too.

I looked around.

Now it was time to find the hidden route, but...

'Where am I supposed to go?'

Other than the path back to the gate, the cavern was sealed off on all sides.

Rumble-

Then the vibration rang out again.

One wall of the cavern collapsed, and a single entrance appeared.

...That had to be it.

I waited for Destruction Beam's cooldown to finish.

Then I moved into the newly appeared entrance.

A long, straight corridor stretched ahead.

Keeping a slight sense of tension, I walked forward step by step, and then...

"...?"

Another wide cavern appeared.

And there were people there. Three of them.

Their gazes also turned to me.

"So there's one more now."

A middle-aged man in splendid golden armor spoke with his arms crossed.

"Welcome. You passed the Sage's Gate and made it all the way here too, right?"

There was also a woman who looked like a mage, wearing a red robe and holding a staff.

"Ha, why do more people keep showing up? Three were already too many."

And a man dressed like a free-spirited wanderer, with a whole bunch of dagger-like weapons hanging from his waist.

The three of them each said something while looking at me.

For now... this seemed to be a medieval-style setting.

'The Sage's Gate?'

I looked around the cavern. Including the entrance I'd just come through, there was one entrance in each of the four directions.

Had these people also passed through gates like I had and come here?

And...

'They're strong.'

From what my sixth sense told me, all three of them were no ordinary fighters.

I didn't know whether they were allies or enemies...

Still, for now, they only seemed wary, not hostile.

Understanding the setting came first.

I walked toward the three of them so we could talk.

"Hello. Did all of you get through the arrow traps too?"

The mage woman, who at least had the friendliest tone, answered me.

"That's right. We all ended up meeting here after passing through the gates."

Judging by the atmosphere, the three of them didn't know each other either.

Like me, they all seemed wary of one another.

The woman looked around and said,

"Four passageways, and four people... Could it be that everyone's gathered now? How about we at least introduce ourselves?"

Introductions sounded fine.

But the wanderer replied bluntly,

"Introductions, my ass. Aren't we all competitors right now? You all came this far because you want the Sage's treasure too."

The woman snorted and said,

"I'm not particularly interested in the treasure. I only came here to investigate the dungeon built by the Sage."

"Really? Even so, if the legend is true, your eyes would still light up too, wouldn't they?"

The wanderer clenched his fist and shouted,

"Whoever obtains the Sage's treasure can learn every truth in the world!"

...Listening to them, I tried to grasp the setting.

For now, the keyword Sage kept coming up over and over.

This place was a dungeon built by the Sage.

And the Sage's treasure could reveal every truth in the world.

Was finding the Sage's treasure the condition for clearing this place?

"People like you mages are the ones obsessed with truth most of all, aren't you? So drop the ridiculous act."

At the wanderer's words, the woman frowned in displeasure, then shot back sarcastically,

"On the other hand, the Sage's treasure doesn't seem especially useful to someone like you. You don't look remotely like the type to pursue the world's knowledge."

The man grinned as if the remark hadn't affected him at all.

"How did you know? Yeah, I don't care about that crap at all. I just need to get the Sage's treasure and sell it for a huge price to some rich bastard, emperor or whoever."

The woman clicked her tongue as if he were pathetic, while the knight remained silent with his arms still crossed, not joining their conversation.

Rumble-

Then suddenly, a violent tremor shook the cavern.

The four entrances in the four directions.

In an instant, the walls filled in, and the entrances vanished without a trace.

Kwaaang!

The knight immediately drew his sword and swung it.

A massive blade aura flew out and struck the sealed wall, but it left no mark at all. He clicked his tongue.

"...How interesting. It was filled in completely without leaving a trace. What kind of magic is this?"

The woman looked at the blocked entrance with interest.

"Is this really the time to be curious about that? Every exit is blocked. We're trapped."

The wanderer walked up to the sealed entrance and ran his hand over the wall.