WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 105

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Floor 7 Hidden (4)

"How..."

I was truly stunned.

The Sage clearly understood exactly what kind of situation this was.

Up until now, the characters in hidden routes had all been no different from NPCs in a game, beings who knew nothing about the Tower...

And yet he even knew who I was.

Thrown badly off balance, I stopped time for the moment.

Was this another one of the Tower's tricks?

If not...

- It seems he's one like me.

The Demon King said that.

'...Like you? What do you mean?'

- Exactly what I said. I wasn't certain at first, but this human has escaped the Tower's influence.

What?

'Wait.'

I gathered my thoughts.

So if he had escaped the Tower's influence...

'Does that mean the Sage is a real person too?'

Wasn't this supposed to be a hidden floor inside the Tower?

No, I had vaguely suspected as much before, but still...

The Demon King gave me a definite answer.

- Had you not already sensed it? Every floor of the Tower was once a real world.

Then he followed it with something even more shocking.

- Worlds destroyed by the Tower.

...Worlds destroyed by the Tower?

I turned the Demon King's words over in my head, then released time again.

The Sage had asked if I wanted to know the Tower's true nature.

I needed to hear it from him directly.

"...What is going on here?"

If the Demon King was right...

Then this didn't seem to be the Tower pulling strings, but something beyond the Tower's control.

"How do you know about me?"

The Sage shrugged.

"I am the Sage."

"What?"

"It means there is nothing I do not know. There is no need to be surprised just because I know who you are."

"...Please explain properly. Are you a Climber too, Sage-nim? Then this world..."

The Sage said,

"It is my world, the one the Tower swallowed."

"...!"

"I too was a Nightmare Climber, just like you, and I failed. This is the fate of worlds that fail."

So the Sage really was a being like the Demon King.

More importantly, the fate of failed worlds?

"...What exactly is the Tower?"

There were too many things I wanted to ask.

But I started by asking again for the answer I hadn't gotten before.

The Sage glanced up at the ceiling once, then continued.

"There is no time, so you must choose now. Your reward for Floor 7."

"What? No..."

"As I said, every truth is contained within this Book of Omniscience. Including the truth about the Tower."

The Sage held out a book to me.

"If you wish to know the Tower's true nature, choose this book as your reward."

As if he had no intention of answering me directly.

Still confused, I stared down at the book in his hand.

I asked again,

"When you say choose... does that mean there are other rewards besides this?"

The Sage smiled.

"As for the other reward, I intend to use this Book of Omniscience and the little strength I have left as materials to give you the one thing you need most."

...The one thing I needed most?

"What is that?"

"Well. Your fate would know."

He was speaking in that vague, Sage-like way again.

"Could you explain that properly...?"

That was when it happened.

Craack!

At the sudden chilling sensation, I spun around in alarm.

Cracks were spreading through the space around us.

[◇%#■Error^$◇●%@&$...]

A lagging message floated before my eyes.

The sensation wasn't unfamiliar.

'...It's the Tower.'

It felt exactly like when the Tower had tried to remove the Demon King from inside my body.

That bastard was trying to do something again.

The Sage continued without a care.

"Did I not say there was no time? Make your choice quickly."

I stopped time again.

The chilling pressure of the Tower's presence vanished.

I couldn't make sense of any of this...

Too many things were happening at once.

Still, just as the Sage said, it didn't look like I had time to hesitate.

The moment I released time, I would have to choose my reward immediately.

The Sage had offered two rewards.

One was the Book of Omniscience, said to reveal every truth in the world.

The other was... an unknown reward, the one thing I needed most.

What should I choose?

Then the Demon King spoke.

- Choose the Book of Omniscience.

'...Why?'

- If what this human says is true, then it is a book containing every truth in the world. Must I really explain its value to you?

I knew that.

If the Sage was telling the truth, then the book before me really was an incredible treasure.

Most of all, it meant information about the Tower.

I would finally be able to learn about the Tower, something I had known nothing about until now.

What the Tower really was, and what its purpose was.

...Could it even contain information about the upper Nightmare floors I still had to climb?

The trials on each Nightmare floor should differ from world to world.

It sounded absurd, but hadn't he said it was a book containing every truth in the world?

I should ask him directly.

I released time and hurriedly asked the Sage,

"Does the Book of Omniscience also contain all the information about the Nightmare floors I still have to climb?"

The Sage nodded.

"Most likely. The Book of Omniscience is the record of the universe itself."

Craaaack!

The space split wide open again.

I stopped time once more.

The Sage hadn't given me a definite answer.

But if it really even contained information about the Nightmare floors...

Then this book was practically an invincible cheat code.

To know everything meant being able to prepare for everything in advance and respond to it all.

Why was Nightmare so difficult to clear?

Because of the lack of information.

If that lack of information disappeared, then climbing Nightmare from here on out would be no different from climbing Easy difficulty.

And that wasn't even counting the information about the Tower.

No matter how I looked at it, it would obviously help me tremendously.

He was saying I could know everything in the world.

Honestly, I could barely even imagine it.

- What is there to hesitate over? Choose the book.

The Demon King was also in favor of choosing the Book of Omniscience.

So compared to an unknown reward, choosing the Book of Omniscience should have been the right choice.

Logically, yes...

But after releasing time, I answered,

"Please give me the one thing I need most."

For the first time, the Sage looked slightly surprised.

"Why did you not choose the Book of Omniscience?"

Even he seemed taken aback by my choice.

But the reason I reached this conclusion was simple.

"You said it yourself. You failed too."

If it were truly possible to climb the Tower and protect the world through the Book of Omniscience...

Then why had the Sage, who said he had been a Nightmare Climber, failed?

Even if I obtained the Book of Omniscience, that would only put me under the same conditions as the Sage.

If someone far greater than me couldn't succeed, then could I?

In that case, wouldn't it be better to gamble on the other reward instead?

I didn't know whether this was the right choice...

But the one my heart leaned toward wasn't the Book of Omniscience.

The Sage smiled.

"Will you not regret it?"

"...How would I know? But didn't you say there wasn't time?"

I looked around uneasily.

The space had cracked like a spiderweb and looked ready to collapse at any moment.

The lagging message kept crackling before my eyes too...

Flash!

Then the Book of Omniscience shone.

Pure white light compressed into a single point...

And soon the book vanished.

What the Sage now held in his hand was a tiny gem, no bigger than a fingernail.

"Take it."

I accepted the gem the Sage handed me.

Then...

"...!"

The gem flared with light again and melted into my palm.

W-what?

It didn't hurt.

Startled, I looked down at my hand.

The gem was gone, and an unfamiliar pattern was glowing on my palm.

That pattern soon faded and disappeared as well.

"...What did you do?"

When I asked the Sage, he only answered without explaining,

"It is the reward you chose."

This was the thing I needed most?

Rumble-

The shaking of space grew even more violent.

The message before my eyes was slowly becoming clearer.

Realizing this was my last chance, I hurriedly asked,

"Why did you fail, Sage-nim? How far did you get in Nightmare?!"

The Sage smiled and said,

"I wish you luck, Kim Seo-hyeon."

[Error detected.]

[Correcting error.]

[You are being removed from the Tower.]

Along with the messages, my vision flipped.

* * *

Rumbleee...

Inside the collapsing library, the Sage strolled leisurely between the bookshelves.

This was a world with only its shell left behind.

The Sage recalled his own world, which had perished ages ago.

A world swallowed by the Tower became an eternal stage like this.

And the people became clowns, toyed with without ever realizing their own predicament.

The reason the stage of Floor 7 had become the Sage himself was likely because he had left that deep an impression on the Tower.

"Now I suppose I will return to being a clown again."

The Sage chuckled to himself.

When the Tower swallowed him, he had barely managed to preserve a trace of his ego.

Since then, without being noticed by the Tower, he had spent a span of time here that was close to eternity.

Countless Nightmare Climbers from countless worlds had passed through.

While playing the clown, the Sage searched for someone worth placing his hopes in.

Many had succeeded in the trials.

Some were geniuses worthy of being called once-in-a-century talents, and some were monsters from civilizations more advanced than his own.

Blinding talent. Overwhelming ability.

But those things alone were not enough.

If that was all they had, they would only end up broken by the Tower.

As meaningless time repeated itself over and over, the Sage finally encountered the moment he had long awaited.

A human with ordinary talent and nothing particularly exceptional in his abilities. Kim Seo-hyeon.

But the Sage had seen something special in him.

Not because a mighty being was entangled with his soul.

Though he had been defeated by the Tower, the Sage was still someone who had managed to glimpse the Tower's true nature.

Yet even the Sage's eyes found a part of Kim Seo-hyeon that he could not see through.

Because he couldn't see it, he didn't know what it was.

But it was enough to make him place his hopes there.

If there truly was a being capable of defeating the Tower, then it would have to be something beyond even the Sage's own understanding.

So the Sage handed over everything he had left.

In return, the Tower had noticed, which meant even the last of his remaining ego would now be erased completely.

Looking up at the ceiling of the collapsing library, the Sage let out a hollow laugh.

"I was never one to lose to anyone in curiosity, but when it came to you, I surrender completely."

Could there be any being more greedy than you?

Kwoooooom!

Soon the space collapsed completely.

The ruined library began rebuilding itself, as if winding up a spring.

* * *

My vision changed.

And the Tower's presence, which had felt like it was crushing my soul, vanished as cleanly as if it had been washed away.

"Phew..."

So many things had happened all at once that my head was spinning.

I caught my breath and looked around.

I was back in the motel room.

"...?"

What?

Why was I outside already instead of in the reward room?

What happened to the hidden route clear?

Then a message appeared.

[Due to an error, the Nightmare difficulty clear has been invalidated.]

[Due to an error, the hidden route of Nightmare difficulty has been closed.]

[You cannot proceed with the route until all errors have been corrected.]

"...Huh?"

What the heck was this?

I stared blankly at the messages.

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