WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 106

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Warning

A message said the hidden clear had been nullified due to an error.

I checked my status window.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: Floor 7]

[Level: 95]

[Willpower: 5,000/5,000]

[Skills: Destruction Beam (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Hellfire Eruption (Epic), Sixth Sense (Rare+) (+2), Teleport (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Searing Zone (Rare+), Lesser Flame Refinement (Rare+)...]

My level hadn't gone up.

And there were no other rewards.

Which meant I hadn't gotten anything at all for the Floor 7 Hidden reward.

"No..."

What kind of bullshit was this?

Was the error my fault?

How was it fair to void the reward too, just because of an error?

[Due to an error, the Hidden Route of Nightmare difficulty will be closed.]

[Until all errors are corrected, you cannot proceed with the Hidden Route.]

It even said the Hidden Route had been closed.

So that meant... it wasn't just Floor 7 that was blocked, right?

Since it said the Hidden Route for Nightmare difficulty was blocked, it sounded like that included the other floors too.

Did that mean I wouldn't be able to do Hidden clears anymore? At least until the error was fixed?

Stunned, I stared at the message.

...Right, first, the other reward.

Separate from the Tower's reward, there was something the Sage had given me.

I stared at my right palm.

"...What the hell did the Sage give me?"

The Sage had said it was the one thing I needed most.

But I had no idea what had changed.

A white jewel-like thing had melted into my hand.

But nothing showed up in the status window.

"Demon King-nim."

I called for the Demon King.

"Do you know what the Sage did to me?"

- I don't.

For some reason, the Demon King sounded displeased.

- I told you to choose the book, didn't I? Look at you now. You got nothing.

Was he really acting like this because I hadn't chosen the Book of Omniscience?

I protested.

"...I told you. Even the Sage failed. So even if I picked the Book of Omniscience, I probably wouldn't have ended up any different..."

That was what I said, but...

Honestly, I was regretting it a little now.

Should I have picked the Book of Omniscience after all?

But I couldn't take back a choice I'd already made.

"Haaap!"

I stubbornly thrust my palm out into empty air.

Of course, nothing came out.

- Tsk tsk.

I awkwardly lowered my hand.

Whew, whatever...

I flopped down on the bed and tried to cool my head.

My thoughts were a mess.

More than that, what exactly had the Sage been?

"...The Sage said they were the ends of failed worlds."

Did worlds destroyed by the Tower become floors of the Tower?

If I failed, would Earth end up like that too?

And that wasn't all.

"...Demon King-nim."

- What.

"How was your world destroyed?"

I felt like I finally understood a little why the Demon King had been buried on Floor 5.

Had the Demon King also been swallowed by the Tower and ended up in a situation similar to the Sage's?

"We're working together now. Please share some information."

After a short silence, the Demon King began to speak.

- Once, I ruled over lands far vaster than this planet called Earth.

- All things in the world enjoyed a long peace under my reign. Until the Tower appeared.

...Peace, from a Demon King?

That made me tilt my head, but I listened anyway.

- My world was no different from this one. There were four difficulties, and we were told that once the time limit ran out, the world would come to an end.

- And in Nightmare difficulty, no one but I could clear it.

- But that was not the problem. Even Nightmare difficulty could not dare block my path. Even after climbing beyond Floor 20, nothing posed any real challenge to me.

"...Then what happened?"

How had someone that strong still failed?

The Demon King stayed silent for a long time before speaking.

- I don't know.

"What?"

- For some reason, I have no memory of the final moment.

No memory?

- I'm certain the Tower made some kind of proposal...

Realizing something, I asked,

"Is that why you wanted the Book of Omniscience?"

He had been strangely eager about it.

Had he wanted to recover the memories he'd lost through the Book of Omniscience?

- Partly. But didn't you make a stupid choice?

"...So in the end, Demon King-nim, you don't know what the Tower really is either."

I had wanted to know exactly how the Tower destroyed worlds.

But if even the Demon King had no memory, then it seemed hopeless to expect an answer from him.

Well, even if I knew, it probably wouldn't change anything.

I looked at my palm one more time, then got up.

The Hidden Route was blocked, and I still had no clue what the Sage had given me.

My head was still a mess, but...

One way or another, I had to do what I had to do.

I left the motel and went home.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 7.]

Then I immediately re-entered Floor 7.

Entry worked normally.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

This one looked like it was going to take a while.

I had to check every single arrow, hundreds of them for each gate.

'Can they really clear this?'

What kept bothering me was whether the other Nightmare clearers could really clear Floor 7.

The second gate, the Gate of Darkness.

That one was manageable as long as you had some kind of skill that let you see in the dark.

Or you could throw fire magic and relight the torches.

I'd confirmed it was possible.

The fourth gate, the colored arrow gate.

That one was definitely brutal, but I didn't think it was impossible.

If they memorized the arrow patterns perfectly, they could probably manage somehow.

The fifth statue gate only required enough archery practice to hit the dot and get through.

But even setting all the others aside, the third gate, the left-right reversal of the body, was just too harsh.

Knowing about it in your head wasn't enough to deal with it...

I pushed through the gates one after another and reached the boss room.

Kwoooooom!

Once I casually took down the boss with Hellfire Eruption,

[You have successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty Floor 7.]

[Moving to the Reward Room.]

I was moved to the Reward Room along with the normal messages.

I looked around the Reward Room.

Maybe there would still be some kind of Floor 7 Hidden reward after all...

There wasn't.

So it really had been completely nullified.

"Seriously, that's just cheap."

I should at least organize the info post.

I exited.

As I repeated the clears, I figured I should write down the arrow patterns gate by gate in my notes.

"...Shit."

That startled me.

When I got back to my room, my little sister was sitting at my desk using the computer.

"What are you doing?"

"I had something I needed to print."

"Where's your laptop?"

"It's broken. I was going to take it in for repairs anyway."

She glanced back at me and asked,

"But you're taking a while."

"...Huh?"

"I mean, going in and coming back out. I've been using the computer for over thirty minutes now. I thought you weren't home."

I was briefly speechless, then answered,

"...Because I'm doing repeated clears."

There was no reason it should take several minutes to kill a single goblin on Easy difficulty Floor 1.

But it was also possible to re-enter right away from the Reward Room without leaving the Tower.

So even if I stayed inside the Tower for a long time, there was nothing especially strange about it.

"I see. But what about the magic stones?"

"They're in the Reward Room. Why do you keep asking?"

"Just curious. Can I not ask?"

My sister grumbled and turned her gaze back to the monitor.

I tilted my head.

Why was she suddenly asking about things she'd never cared about before?

'...Is she suspicious?'

Hmm, no way.

My sister finished using the computer and left.

I put it out of my mind and entered Floor 7 again.

Still, this Floor 7 really did make me worry about the other Nightmare clearers...

I thought of the two people I'd seen during the Zone 3 boss fight.

The U.S. and China would probably challenge it anyway, right?

Honestly, at this point, countries no longer had much reason to actively challenge Nightmare.

I was already preventing humanity's end, and aside from that, the risk was far too high compared to the return.

Even so, the U.S. and China kept challenging Nightmare because, well... maybe it was their own competition. The need not to fall behind the other side.

As for the representative Nightmare clearer from the U.S.,

I'd heard a little about her from Billon and Mr. Rhinoceros.

The countries might be investing in their Nightmare clearers for their own national interests.

But I'd heard she was definitely someone challenging Nightmare for the greater good.

Especially when it came to the identities of the people filling the Zone 5 gauge besides me.

Mr. Rhinoceros had hinted at that once too.

Separate from the U.S. Climber Management Bureau, she'd been acting on her own to help this side.

I didn't know much about the representative Nightmare clearer from China.

But Billon had once told me that he was the one who caused China's coup and was probably the hidden power behind the current Communist Party.

I didn't know why someone like that would challenge Nightmare, but...

If he was going in personally instead of raising other Nightmare clearers, maybe he had his own greater cause too, wanting to protect humanity.

Anyway, if the two people following behind me more diligently than anyone else ended up failing and dying,

I didn't think I'd feel very good about that either.

And this Floor 7 was especially hard. Too hard.

Honestly, I wished no one would challenge it.

But I had no right to stop other Climbers from trying.

Still, if they insisted on challenging it, there was nothing I could do. Even so, I hoped they wouldn't if possible.

* * *

After the Nightmare Floor 7 clear, the Zone 3 boss fight followed immediately.

People were now waiting for Person123 to post the Floor 7 information.

[Person123: Here is the clear information for Nightmare Floor 7.]

And then a post went up in the Communication Window.

[Person123: ...Floor 7 consists of a total of six gates.

At the first gate, you must dodge a total of 305 arrows flying in from all directions. Taking the entrance to the next gate as 12 o'clock, the first arrow comes from the ceiling at 1 o'clock, the second arrow comes straight ahead from 6 o'clock, the third arrow...]

The clear guide was far longer than for any other floor.

That was because it listed the path of every single arrow one by one.

More than anything, there was one thing that stood out in this guide.

[Person123: ...This Floor 7 is truly dangerous. I hope the U.S. and Chinese Nightmare clearers will not challenge it, but if you do, please be careful.]

Person123 had added a personal opinion at the end.

The Communication Window stirred.

[Pony: If the arrows are over 3 meters long, doesn't that basically make them missiles?]

[Orchestra: It's Nightmare, so that's not even surprising. Looking at it, the arrow size isn't the real issue.]

[Flame Sword: The gate themes really are absurdly hard...]

[Shushu: What the hell is the body left-right reversal? How did Person123 even beat that?]

[Watson: That's exactly what he's saying. It's really dangerous.]

[Destructive Power: The U.S. and Chinese Nightmare clearers got a direct shout-out from Person123, damn.]

The U.S. Climber Management Bureau also went into an uproar.

Person123 had never left such a specific message before.

Experts analyzed the information post Person123 had uploaded, and an emergency meeting was called.

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