Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 117

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 117

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Nightmare Floor 8 (5)

[Floor 8 has been cleared on all difficulties.]

[The Tower is calling new personnel.]

[A new rule has been added.]

[The 'Qualification Trial' will begin in 24 hours.]

[Climbers who have reached the highest floor on each difficulty are asked to prove their qualifications as humanity's vanguard.]

[If two or more climbers have reached the highest floor on a given difficulty, one will be selected at random.]

[Time Remaining: 23 hours 59 minutes 49 seconds]

I was moved to the reward room.

I stared at the string of messages floating up one after another.

'...Qualification Trial?'

Cleared an even-numbered floor, so of course something new had to pop up.

Some kind of event targeting the highest-floor climbers, apparently.

Which meant I was included.

I didn't have much headspace to worry about it right now.

Thinking about it wouldn't tell me anything, anyway.

I could deal with it once it started.

More pressing was the remaining lifespan on the broken scale. I checked it again.

Remaining Lifespan: 305 days 23 hours 16 minutes 25 seconds

Hah...

All I could do was sigh.

I had burned through 99% without hesitation, and in return I was left with less than a year to live.

I had expected it. Still.

'...Can't be helped.'

No regrets, though.

Going halfway might have let something slip through. I couldn't have known.

Even at 98%, whether the clear would have gone through was anyone's guess.

With nothing predictable, offering the maximum was the right call.

Yeah. No point regretting that part.

What I needed to think about was what came next.

Nightmare could only be cleared by me.

And I had just become someone with less than a year left.

Floor 8 was an emergency I had barely managed to put out.

The price was my future.

My own future, and the world's future too.

...With things as they were, there was only one answer.

Climbing the Tower once a year wasn't an option anymore.

With whatever time I had left, I had to push through Nightmare as fast as possible.

[Skill: Radiant Incarnation (Legendary+)]
Borrows the power of sacred radiance to transform the body into light. While the skill is active, no damage can be received, and omnidirectional movement at the speed of light becomes possible. Casting requires 1 hour of mental concentration. The skill can be maintained for up to 10 minutes.
Type: Magic
Willpower Cost: 5,000 per second
Cooldown: 72 hours

Well...

At least I got a Legendary+ skill out of it.

Spent every last drop of my lifespan, so the grade had better be this high.

I read through the skill description again.

Radiant Incarnation.

Not just movement at the speed of light, but complete invulnerability for the duration.

A ten-minute light-speed movement skill and an invincibility frame rolled into one.

The strange sensation of my body turning to light was still vivid.

Could I use other skills while maintaining Radiant Incarnation?

The description didn't say otherwise, so presumably yes.

There were plenty of ways I wanted to test it, but the 72-hour cooldown meant that would have to wait.

I let out a breath and checked the rest of the rewards.

An Epic-grade skill enhancement stone and an item.

[Item: Ring of Rebilus]
A ring imbued with the power of Rebilus, Archduke of Demons, who subjugated ten thousand spirits. The power of all familiars subjugated by the wearer grows in proportion to the wearer's strength.

I read through it.

So... the familiars I controlled would grow stronger in proportion to my own power.

I put the ring on and summoned Pli.

Shhhh.

Black smoke coiled together and Pli took shape.

Its body and claws were noticeably larger than before.

"Go touch that wall and come back, Pli."

Kwang!

Pli launched off the ground, shot across the reward room, smacked the wall, and was back in an instant.

Definitely much faster.

I stroked Pli's head.

Even as the floors went up, Pli's abilities had stayed the same, always falling further behind. With this ring, Pli would grow alongside my level.

Not a bad reward.

The Epic-grade skill enhancement stone I could use on Hellfire Eruption or something.

I held off on using it for now, though.

'Come to think of it, the hidden route didn't open.'

Normally, clearing a floor for the first time should have triggered a message about the hidden route becoming available.

No such message this time.

Last time, when the Sage was involved, they said it would remain closed until the error was corrected.

But then shouldn't they at least give me something else as compensation... Where's the conscience in that?

Of course, the Sage did seem to have given me something important, even if it broke things in the process.

If it had actually helped on Floor 8, I wouldn't have been so bitter about it.

But not only had it been no help at all, I still had no idea what it even was. I had every right to be furious.

Grumbling, I finished sorting through the rewards.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[Floor: 9]
[Level: 105]
[Willpower: 6,050/6,050]
[Skills: Destruction Beam (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Hellfire Eruption (Epic)(+1), Sixth Sense (Rare+)(+4), Teleportation (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+)...]

[Nightmare]
Participants: 476,805
Time Limit: 1 year 7 days 6 hours 10 minutes 11 seconds
Highest Floor Reached: Floor 9

[Do you want to exit the Tower?]

I checked the status window and the time limit, then stepped outside.

Coming back to the hotel room felt strange.

Thirteen days in the desert.

The time I had actually lived through felt vastly longer than that.

I checked my phone first.

"..."

Missed calls and texts from my family had piled up.

I scrolled through the messages and let out another sigh.

Buzz.

The phone rang.

It was Mother.

I thought about answering, hesitated, and in the end couldn't bring myself to pick up.

...I wasn't ready for what to say. My head was too tangled.

- I'm safe. I'll come straight home tomorrow.

I sent a text and dropped onto the bed.

Exhausted. On Floor 8, I hadn't slept properly once.

I closed my eyes and let the flood of sleep carry me under.

* * *

Thirteen days since Person123 entered Floor 8.

The world had grown more chaotic by the day.

[Absurd: It's over. The world's actually ending.]
[Haruku: Stop talking nonsense. Can't you see Person123 is still clearing it?]
[ChickenLeg: It's been thirteen days. This doesn't make sense.]
[Cloud: Everyone hold onto hope. There are still seven days left on the time limit.]
[Thomas1: It's only seven days LEFT, you mean.]
[MalayBear: It's done, you idiots. Hope can go to hell.]

People lamenting that the end had come.

People trying to hold onto hope because the Nightmare Communication Window count hadn't dropped yet.

Either way, despair ran through all of them.

With things having reached this point, something had clearly gone wrong with the clear attempt, and now, regardless of whether Person123 was alive or dead, whether Floor 8 would be cleared within the remaining seven days was anyone's guess.

It was like Floor 1 all over again.

Crime rates surged around the world and governments declared states of emergency.

- Person123 is still clearing Floor 8. Citizens, please do not lose hope...

Presidents from various countries gave addresses.

But the atmosphere hurtling toward the end of days refused to settle. It only got worse.

"...I should prepare."

Billon sat in his office scanning the news, then closed his eyes.

His secretary Ellen stood beside him, expression set and rigid.

Thirteen days without a Nightmare clear. An unprecedented situation.

Billon still believed in Person123's success, but he couldn't help bracing himself.

Bracing for the possibility of the end.

Person123. Kim Seo-hyeon.

He knew that reaching this point had itself been a miracle.

Even if the world ended, thanks to his sacrifice, humanity had been granted a few more years of life.

If only he could have left some final words of gratitude for that devotion...

"Ellen."
"Yes."
"Would Mr. Kim even want this?"

If the time limit dropped below one day without Floor 8 being cleared, Billon intended to reveal Person123's true identity to the world.

The greatest hero in history, who had saved humanity time and again.

Even if time ran out and that history crumbled to dust along with everything else...

"No, I should still do it."

It was the last thing he could do for a hero like that.

Billon could only wish with everything he had.

That it would never come to that. That Kim Seo-hyeon would work one more miracle.

U.S. Climber Management Bureau headquarters.

"I'll be entering now."

Taylor was preparing to enter Floor 7.

Max and Director Liam, along with the Bureau staff, watched her with rigid faces.

Originally, the plan had been to challenge Floor 7 only after a long preparation window, but that no longer meant anything.

The Nightmare time limit was nearly up and Floor 8 still hadn't been cleared.

The Bureau's position was to wait a little longer.

Taylor had decided there was no more time to hesitate.

She had to clear Floor 7, recover fully, and then challenge Floor 8.

The odds of even clearing Floor 7 were slim, of course, but she intended to fulfill her duty as a Nightmare climber until the very end.

[Squirrel: This is Taylor Miller, a Nightmare climber from the United States. Thank you for your devotion, Person123. And I admired you deeply.

Before I enter Floor 7, I'm leaving you this first and last whisper. I hope you clear Floor 8 and come back out to see this message.]

She sent Person123 a whisper through the Communication Window.

There was still a chance he could clear it and come out within the remaining seven days.

"Best of luck, Taylor."

Taylor finished her final check and took a deep breath.

Just as she was about to enter Floor 7, a message appeared before her.

"...!"

Taylor froze and stared at it, startled.

* * *

Gwanghwamun, Seoul.

An enormous crowd packed the street shoulder to shoulder, all of them praying.

Thirteen days of continuous rallies, led by members of the Person123 Church.

Even as they turned despair and fear over and over inside themselves, everyone was still praying for Floor 8 to be cleared.

"Savior, please, for humanity...!"

They cried out until their voices broke, calling his name.

Not just in Korea. The entire world was doing the same.

All of humanity came to understand again, viscerally, what they had forgotten: that each prior clear had been no guarantee, that humanity was no different from a candle flame in the wind.

They wished, with everything they had, for one more miracle.

And then.

[Floor 8 has been cleared on all difficulties.]

The miracle actually happened.

With 7 days, 6 hours, 16 minutes, and 50 seconds remaining on the Nightmare time limit.

The message appeared.

A roar of celebration louder than any before it swept across every street on earth.

A brush with death, in the most literal sense.

- They did it! Person123 did it! After thirteen days of struggle, Nightmare Floor 8 has been cleared...

People erupted in joy again and again, the way you do when you've been hauled back from the edge of hell.

Families, friends, lovers, and strangers grabbed each other and wept and cheered together.

[BearTrap: We're alive! We're alive!]
[Fighter: God I seriously thought we were dying this time lolololol AAAAAAHHH]
[ToYou: Person123 is a god! Person123 is a god! Person123 is a god! Person123 is a god! Person123 is a god! Person123 is a god!]
[Chameleon: I told you! I said they'd pull it off in the end!]
[Flurrevig: My heart is pounding so fast right now. I think I might die]
[KimCheolsu: What in the world happened in there that it took thirteen days...]
[KnightOfTheSky: Person123 is just Person123 after all]
[CheonMa: I was foolish to have doubted. I simply worship them.]

Person123! Person123! Person123...!

All of humanity cheered, crying out the name of their triumphant hero.

The world had been given the precious gift of one more year.

* * *

I stood in front of the door.

Tense, I pressed the code into the door lock and stepped inside.

The first thing I saw was my family's startled faces.

All three of them were standing right there in the entryway.

"...I'm back."

I started to say something more but faltered.

The words wouldn't come. I didn't know where to begin.

Then Mother walked forward.