Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 12

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 12

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Helper

The news I heard first thing in the morning after waking up put me in a bad mood.

- U.S. challenger fails Nightmare difficulty Floor 2? The challenger is believed to be the person who was the second to clear Nightmare difficulty Floor 1...

"...Haa."

So he failed.

The U.S. had not made an official statement yet, but it was not fake news.

You could see that one person was gone just by opening the Climber Communication Window.

I felt sorry.

Honestly, I was disappointed too.

At the same time, I felt a little guilty.

Because deep down, I knew too.

That I was probably the one most likely to clear Floor 2.

A Time-Stop Ability that made broken synergy with skills. Compared to the other Nightmare clearers, my ability was probably in a league of its own.

And even then, I still had not made up my mind, so I was stuck like this...

"What the hell is wrong with this world?"

I closed my eyes and blamed the world for no reason.

No, screw that, blaming the world made perfect sense.

A giant tower suddenly rose in the middle of the ocean, and now the world threatens to kill us all if we do not climb it every year. That is insane, right?

"..."

If it threatened us, then we had to obey. What else could we do?

If we did not want to die.

"I am going in."

Sitting back and watching the rest of the Nightmare clearers die off was not something I could keep doing either.

Man, since when did I become this selfless? Hahaha.

Once I made up my mind, I actually felt calmer.

When should I enter?

As soon as possible would be best.

Dying now or dying a month later was basically the same.

As the Time Limit got closer, the world would only get more chaotic anyway.

Tomorrow? Yeah. Should I go in at dawn tomorrow?

I went out for a walk to clear my head.

While I was getting some air and checking the Communication Window, one whisper caught my eye.

[Chicken Sandwich: ...The Skill Stone I currently own is a Common-grade skill called 'Leap.' It is a skill that boosts jumping power, so it may help with climbing Floor 2. If you do not already have this skill, please reply.]

[Chicken Sandwich: If you do not want to meet in person, you can just choose a location. Anywhere in the world is fine. If you tell me the place, I will leave only the Skill Stone there so you can pick it up.]

[Chicken Sandwich: I do not care at all who you are. The only thing I want is humanity's survival. You are our only hope. Please let me help, even a little.]

"This person..."

He had sent me whispers before.

And I knew who he was.

The richest man on Earth, and an eccentric businessman. Billon Must.

At first, I thought it was an impersonator, but it was not.

That guy, Chicken Sandwich, had even gone on a broadcast saying it was really him and asking me to reply. I saw it on the news. It was a while ago.

Billon Must was not a Climber himself, but I heard he kept a secretary who was one.

"He was quiet for a while, and now this again."

He stood out in my memory because he kept begging me to just take the Skill Stone, saying he wanted nothing else.

The offer was so absurd it almost felt sincere.

Normally, I would have ignored it, but this time I quietly read the whispers again.

"Leap..."

A skill that boosts jumping power.

The theme of Floor 2 was a jump map.

It definitely sounded useful.

Was he really making this offer just because he wanted me to clear Floor 2?

Then again, doubting his motives felt silly.

With humanity one month away from extinction again, who would not be desperate?

Now that I had decided to enter Floor 2, I felt myself waver a little.

"...What do I do?"

Reply? Or not?

I never thought I would be struggling with this kind of decision, but I was shaken.

Revealing my identity to someone else was irreversible... but with my life on the line, was it right to keep nitpicking everything?

If I died, I might regret it and think, I should have just accepted it then.

He said he did not care about my identity.

He even said I could just name a location if I wanted.

Of course, I was not going to blindly trust all that.

Even if he said he would only leave the item there, how could I know there were no people watching or hidden cameras nearby?

Still, I could feel that all he wanted was for someone to clear Floor 2 so humanity would not go extinct.

I wandered the streets for a long time, thinking it over.

* * *

Billon Must wanted to go to Mars.

Some people said he was just a money-crazed businessman pretending to be a revolutionary and fooling everyone.

But the core of his dream had never changed since childhood.

Go to Mars. Push farther into space. Make humanity a multi-planet species.

Then this damned mess happened.

One day, Earth was ruined.

Humanity was handed a death sentence. We had to climb the Tower every year just to stay alive.

He had no choice but to tear up huge parts of plans he had laid out decades ahead. Humanity had to survive first, or there would be no future in space at all.

He threw himself into building infrastructure for Climbers. He funded facilities, sponsored associations, and expanded into the Mana Stone industry, which was swelling at a frightening speed.

To be fair, the Tower had not given humanity only a stick.

Mana Stones from the Tower were truly a dream material. Billon Must saw the potential for technology powered by Mana Stone energy to pull his dream forward by decades.

That was assuming humanity still existed by then.

So his top priority was always Tower climbing. More precisely, Nightmare difficulty climbing.

"Damn it, we are completely screwed."

Billon Must felt the urge to launch a rocket straight at the Tower Climber Management Bureau headquarters.

Their all-in attempt to clear Nightmare Floor 2 had failed completely.

Jack Davis, the second clearer of Nightmare Floor 1, had failed. According to reports, he died within minutes of entering.

The government had helped Jack gather so many skills, but Billon Must had also played a major role. He had poured in funding without hesitation.

The truth was, Billon had not wanted to pour that support into Jack.

From the start, he had only cared about the first Nightmare clearer. He kept reaching out through his secretary by whisper, but no response ever came, so he had no choice but to give up and choose an alternative.

Now that Plan B had collapsed, there was only one place left to cling to.

Why would that person not reply?

I will give you everything I have. Just please take this Skill Stone.

...Though "everything" was only one personally owned Leap Skill Stone.

Skill Stones were always impossible to find on the market. Even those had been swept up by the Tower Climber Management Bureau and fed to Jack, so there was no way to get more for now. Money alone could not solve it.

The U.S. still had one more Nightmare clearer left. Taylor.

Under normal circumstances, this Skill Stone should have gone to her, but no.

He could not bring himself to hope anymore.

In the end, there had only ever been one answer.

The first Nightmare clearer, the one who had conquered Nightmare Floor 1 with no prior information, was the only special one. The only person with a real chance to clear Floor 2 was that person.

Billon did not care if that person was a man or a woman, a child or an old man, a criminal or a terrorist. He truly did not care.

If they already had Leap, great. If not, then please take this and challenge Floor 2 with even a slightly better chance.

So please, just reply...

"...Chairman! We got a reply!"

Billon shot to his feet.

"It came? Really?!"

"Yes! They said they will accept the offer! They asked if we can come directly to where they live..."

Finally.

After ignoring him for so long, it seemed even the first Nightmare clearer had changed their mind.

Naturally. Even with every possible preparation, entering would still be dangerous. Going in while refusing an available skill made no sense.

That person could not do that. You are humanity's hope.

"Where is it? Tell them I will leave right now, even if it is the North Pole."

"Yes, well... they said Korea."

Billon blinked. Korea?

"...South, obviously?"

"Yes."

"Understood. We have to leave immediately."

He was a little surprised. Was the first Nightmare clearer Korean?

Billon did not care what country the person came from, so he arranged the trip to Korea as fast as possible.

The first Nightmare clearer's conditions were simple. This meeting had to remain secret, and they must never tell anyone. Of course, Billon had no intention of leaking it anyway.

Still, visiting another country for no visible reason would attract attention, and someone at Billon's level could not travel abroad in complete secrecy.

So he put forward a public reason for departure. He already had upcoming business with the chairman of a Korean company, so he moved it forward.

After clearing his entire schedule for the day of arrival, Billon moved quietly.

Unexpectedly, the first Nightmare clearer said they wanted to receive the Skill Stone face to face.

Billon dismissed all security personnel and headed to the meeting place with only Ellen, his Climber secretary and closest aide. Of course, he asked the other side first and received permission.

"Is this the place?"

"...The navigation is not working properly. Sorry."

Secretary Ellen struggled to find the route.

They drove into a run-down alley and parked by the roadside.

[Person123: Black car in front of the utility pole, right?]

A little later, a man approached and knocked on the rear window.

Billon opened the door. A man in a cap and mask climbed into the back seat.

Billon could not see his face clearly, but he got the sense he was fairly young.

"...Nice to meet you."

Billon offered a handshake.

In the driver's seat, Ellen stared at the rearview mirror, tense.

Billon was involved to some extent in the Climber Management Bureau's Nightmare clear project, and Ellen, as his close aide, also knew some related information. Including the Nightmare Floor 1 clearer's level.

Level 10. Put simply, a superhuman who could kill a bear bare-handed.

Ellen was also a Climber, but she had only cleared one Easy floor, so she was little more than a strong ordinary person.

If that man had bad intentions, she would not be able to protect Billon.

Even so, Billon had come here accepting that risk.

If this was only a handoff, he could have sent Ellen alone, but he wanted to meet the first Nightmare clearer himself at least once.

"Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming all this way."

The man who shook his hand spoke in English.

"...Your English is fluent."

"I can manage a little."

Even if they could not speak directly, it would still have been fine because of the Communication Window.

What surprised Billon was not the English, but that the man's voice sounded much younger than expected.

"Thank you for meeting me like this. I will hand over the item right away."

Billon got straight to the point. He took the Skill Stone out of the bag beside him.

The man accepted it and looked it over.

"Thank you. Is it okay if I learn it right here?"

"Of course."

The man used the Skill Stone immediately.

A cluster of light spread, and the Skill Stone scattered and vanished.

The man stared at empty air for a moment, as if checking his Status Window, then nodded.

"I learned it for sure. Thank you."

That was what Billon wanted to say.

That man had already saved humanity once.

The first Nightmare clearer was probably someone who was extremely unwilling to reveal their identity.

So Billon had planned to hand over only the Skill Stone, thinking useless chatter or questions would only breed resentment, but he could not resist and asked anyway.

"Do you have a timeline for when you will challenge Floor 2?"

The man answered like it was nothing.

"I plan to enter tomorrow."

"..."

"Oh, I got a new skill, so I should practice a little before entering. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon."

Billon swallowed hard.

Then he said the one thing he had desperately wanted to say.

"You are humanity's hope. Please clear Floor 2."

The man hesitated, then replied.

"...I will try. I do not want to die either."

He gave one final bow and got out of the car.

After the man disappeared fully into the alley, Billon started the car.