WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability
Chapter 111
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Coup (4)
The main conference hall of the North Korean Seonmin Party's Central Committee headquarters.
Every key figure had gathered there — party committee members, military generals, and the rest of the inner circle.
They sat in silence, each face locked in the same tight, rigid expression.
Then the man at the head of the table, who had been drumming his fingers against it in a slow rhythm, spoke up.
"Relax, everyone. What are you all so scared of?"
Li Gang-ho — Park Gwang-jin's closest aide and the current de facto second-in-command.
At his words, the tense faces around the room broke into uneasy smiles.
Since Li Hyeok-chul's great revolution, the power structure of North Korea had changed completely from what it had been before the Tower appeared.
Climbers now held effective control over everything, and official titles and ranks were little more than formality.
Li Hyeok-chul had launched a sweeping campaign declaring that Climbers were the chosen ones, and in practice it was true — anyone with a decent level was a monster that bullets could no longer even touch.
It said everything that they had gone so far as to rename the party the Seonmin Party.
The absolute ruling class and elite of present-day North Korea were the Climbers.
Li Gang-ho swept his gaze across the room and continued.
"Our great Leader Park Gwang-jin will be back shortly after dealing with the traitor..."
Everyone gathered there already knew.
That Park Gwang-jin had no intention of honoring the agreement with South Korea and was going to kill Kang Tae-sung.
What worried them was that this affair had drawn in Person123 as well.
Openly defying the man regarded as humanity's savior.
No one could predict what kind of fallout that would bring.
"You people worry too much. This is our inauguration — a declaration to the world by the new Park Gwang-jin Seonmin Party that no one will dare tell us what to do. Isn't that right?"
"Absolutely right!"
Li Gang-ho smiled and clicked his tongue.
"Person123 or whoever — so what? It's absurd on its face for a South Korean to stick their nose into the internal affairs of the Republic. Being called a savior has gone straight to their head..."
Off to one side, one person sat quietly, working to keep the turmoil inside from showing.
...I'm sorry, Comrade Tae-sung.
Among the Climbers who had driven the revolution, there had been many like Kang Tae-sung who had genuinely carried the greater cause in their hearts.
But those who had refused to bend were all dead now.
Some had simply gone along with the tide, unable to do otherwise.
Kim Baek-pyeong was one of the latter.
The moment he grasped that the tide had turned, he had bent completely to Park Gwang-jin's will.
He had done what it took to survive, even if it was ugly.
As long as he stayed alive, another chance would come eventually.
But Kang Tae-sung would die today.
No matter how strong a Climber Kang Tae-sung was, there would not be a second miracle.
...Even in death, he would have no face to show him.
Kim Baek-pyeong only made himself a promise.
He would hide the knife inside this churning gut of his, and when the time came, he would finish the dream Kang Tae-sung could not. Hm?
Every Climber in the room turned toward the entrance at once.
A faint commotion was filtering in from outside.
"...What's that noise?"
Li Gang-ho frowned.
The sound drew closer until even ordinary people could hear it clearly.
The Climbers began to rise from their seats one by one, sensing something was wrong.
Bang!
The conference room door exploded open.
The room went wide-eyed with shock.
Because it was Kang Tae-sung.
His appearance was so stunning that no one even noticed the masked figure standing behind him.
What Kang Tae-sung held in his blood-soaked hand.
Park Gwang-jin's head.
Silence swallowed the room. No one could open their mouth.
"H... how..."
Li Gang-ho had gone completely white, barely able to get the words out.
To his eyes, Kang Tae-sung looked like a demon crawled back from hell.
Kang Tae-sung moved.
Li Gang-ho's body slammed into the conference room wall in an instant.
"Kgh...!"
Kang Tae-sung grabbed his thrashing neck and twisted it in one clean motion.
Li Gang-ho, a mere Level 28, couldn't even mount a proper resistance. He died on the spot.
"..."
Kang Tae-sung took the seat at the head of the table.
He looked over the stunned faces one by one before speaking.
"Park Gwang-jin is dead."
...It was a fact no one could have missed even without being told.
Park Gwang-jin's head was sitting right there on the table.
All that remained was the question of how Kang Tae-sung had come back alive, and how Park Gwang-jin — who had marched out with a full force of elite Climbers — had returned as nothing but a head.
"Traitors who abandoned our cause. Looks like two of you are still here."
Kang Tae-sung's gaze settled on two people.
Kim Chul-yong and Li Gyeong-tae.
Both shuddered, then bolted for the entrance at the same time.
One had his skull caved in by Kang Tae-sung on the spot.
Crack!
The other was stopped by Kim Baek-pyeong.
"Ugh..."
Kim Baek-pyeong pulled his hand free after driving it through Li Gyeong-tae's torso with an aura skill.
He turned and met Kang Tae-sung's eyes.
Then walked forward and dropped to his knees.
"Kill me, Comrade Tae-sung."
He had no idea what had happened out there, but...
Kang Tae-sung had come back alive.
That was enough. He could die gladly at his hands.
Because he had been a traitor who hadn't resisted Park Gwang-jin.
Kang Tae-sung looked down at Kim Baek-pyeong for a moment, then laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Baek-pyeong."
"..."
"You've had it hard. I know what you were carrying."
Kim Baek-pyeong's eyes went red.
"...Too many comrades died for nothing. Because of that bastard Park Gwang-jin."
Kang Tae-sung patted his shoulder, then turned to look at the other Climbers in the room.
Those who had followed Park Gwang-jin from the beginning were mostly dead now.
"Myeong-ho, Ju-gil, Seong-mi, Cheol... same goes for all of you, comrades."
"..."
"I know none of you had a choice. Thank you for staying alive."
Some looked away or bowed their heads, unable to meet his gaze.
Kang Tae-sung declared, "There are no more obstacles. Let's start again — our cause."
* * *
By the time they reached the main headquarters building.
Kang Tae-sung had seized control of the room in moments and, just as he had promised, rallied the remaining Climbers around him.
There was no reason for me to step in. I just watched.
Things seemed to have settled for now, so I figured it was time to head home.
"Thank you."
Kang Tae-sung came to me one last time to express his gratitude.
"If not for you, I would have died today, and my homeland would have fallen back into a long darkness. I'll consider it the one miracle of my lifetime."
I gave a nod.
"I trust you'll keep your promises."
"Of course. I intend to tear this country apart from the roots and rebuild it."
His expression carried both sincerity and resolve.
Well, he'd manage it fine on his own.
But then the Demon King cut in.
- Nine out of ten men who seize power end up corrupted.
Kang Tae-sung didn't strike me as that kind of person.
- Nothing imprints as surely as fear.
'What are you even getting at.'
- You're always too soft. Hand me the body for a moment.
'Ugh, why again.'
He seemed to have something in mind, so I handed it over.
With the body in his control, the Demon King fixed his gaze on Kang Tae-sung.
Maybe Kang Tae-sung sensed the shift in atmosphere.
His expression slowly hardened, and then, beyond that hardness, something like terror crept in.
"Uh..."
Kang Tae-sung's body trembled as if seized by a chill.
"I will always be watching."
Kang Tae-sung managed to nod.
The Demon King handed the body back to me.
Released from the pressure, Kang Tae-sung drew a ragged breath.
Looked like the Demon King had done something similar to what he'd done with Park Gwang-jin.
Felt like overkill, but then again.
No matter how strong Kang Tae-sung's convictions were, the future was uncertain, as the Demon King said.
With a warning like this delivered, there was at least less chance of second thoughts creeping in, even one in ten thousand.
Kang Tae-sung stared at me, visibly shaken.
I felt a little bad. "I'm rooting for you, Kang Tae-sung-ssi. I'll be on my way then."
I took out the warp device I had set running earlier.
It was time to head back south.
* * *
Kang Tae-sung stared at the spot where Person123 had vanished.
They had pulled out something that looked like an item from thin air.
And just as they had appeared without warning, they disappeared the same way.
...Unbelievable.
The Tower had appeared and overturned the world's common sense a long time ago.
But even within that overturned common sense, Person123 was an enigma.
The top Nightmare Climber and savior of humanity, wielding abilities no ordinary Climber could even imagine — with complete command over all of them.
Kang Tae-sung had been saved too.
Why had they gone this far for him?
If they had simply helped someone in trouble — if that was the whole of the reason...
Then this person was truly someone no ordinary measure could take.
And yet also someone to be feared.
Kang Tae-sung thought back to that moment and felt the goosebumps rise again.
Person123, who had become something else entirely in an instant, delivering that warning.
Kang Tae-sung had never once felt fear in the moments his life had been in danger climbing the Tower, but...
That just now had been primal, instinctive terror — the kind a frog feels in front of a snake.
Even without the warning, of course, Kang Tae-sung would have thrown everything he had into it.
The dream he had long carried — to change this rotting country — was finally within reach.
"Please keep watching."
They had said they would always be watching. He would make sure to live up to that.
* * *
The South Korean government, which had been waiting to receive Kang Tae-sung at the Joint Security Area, was in an uproar.
South Korea's intelligence services had been monitoring the situation in North Korea by satellite as well.
They confirmed the appearance of a figure believed to be Person123, and the deaths of Park Gwang-jin and the other North Korean Climbers.
"...Bury this. Not a word gets out about this matter."
They decided to classify it.
Several other countries — the U.S., China, Russia — did the same. They all simply kept a close watch on developments in North Korea.
As expected, North Korea soon announced that its leadership had changed once again.
Kang Tae-sung, who had been about to be handed over to South Korea, had suddenly taken power in the North, and the public was caught off guard by the unexpected turn.
[Yeonjuja: Wait. Kang Tae-sung just took North Korea out of nowhere?]
[Patatu_2: How did he even do that lolololol]
[Bihaenggi: How many revolutions is this now? Never a quiet day over there]
What the news could actually report was limited, so only a handful of people knew the truth.
* * *
Billon reached out to me.
He asked whether I had been involved in the situation with Kang Tae-sung, so I told him what happened.
North Korea had broken their promise and tried to kill Kang Tae-sung, and one thing led to another.
Billon told me that the U.S. had also been watching by satellite and knew I had stepped in.
And that South Korea, China, Russia, and the rest probably all knew as well.
Hmm... figured as much.
I had come and gone by warp, so they couldn't trace my route. I didn't think there would be much of a problem.
--...The Seonmin Party of North Korea has announced it will be changing the party's name to the People's Peace Party, and has made a strong declaration of its commitment to prioritizing people's livelihoods and cooperation with the international community as its foremost goals...
Time passed, and news about North Korea kept coming.
Kang Tae-sung appeared to have consolidated power without incident.
He sometimes sent me whispers through the Communication Window, but...
I stopped paying attention to anything political and returned to my own daily life.
The U.S. and China came to me seeking advice on clearing Floor 7.
Their position was that regardless of whether they actually challenged it, they wanted to have a strategy prepared.
I went in and out of Floor 7, helped them out, and hunted in Zone 5.
I kept doing what I had to do, same as always.
Time kept moving forward.
[Nightmare]
Participants: 477,635
Time Remaining: 94 days 8 hours 2 minutes 1 second
Floors Reached: Floor 8
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