Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 122

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 122

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Before Floor 9

My family wanted to know just how I'd managed to take down the boss.

Defeating a same-level boss with most of my abilities banned was obviously impossible. You didn't need to be a Climber to figure that out.

"I've got another power I can use besides skills and items. I told you, right? That I got some really good rewards."

Explaining the Demon King would just make things complicated.

So I left it at that.

I always made a point of showing off how strong and special I was to my family, putting on a confident front.

That way they could rest a little easier, even if just a bit.

Anyway, everyone seemed relieved that I'd made it back safe.

The Qualification Trial had ended.

The world found its peace again.

"Hah..."

Of course, there was no peace for me.

I just had to keep moving forward.

'I need to tell them I'm challenging Floor 9 again soon, too.'

How often should I be tackling the Tower from here on?

At minimum, every three days.

Because Radiant Incarnation, the skill I'd just gotten, had a 72-hour cooldown.

That ten-minute light-speed movement skill and invincibility trump card was my new secret weapon.

I was thinking through Floor 9's theme when...

First, I decided to finish writing up the Floor 8 info post.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 8.]

The desert.

I pushed through the Sandworms, reached the skeletal corpse, and picked up the compass.

[1]

I clicked my tongue without meaning to, staring at the number on the compass.

'Damn thing.'

If I'd shaved off just a few more minutes, I wouldn't have needed to burn my lifespan at all.

I went down through the Sandworm hole and made my way underground, following the path.

I reached the chamber with the puzzle.

Same as before, I froze all the holes the Sandworms burst out of, then solved the puzzle faster than last time.

I stopped time and memorized the puzzle-maze layout again...

Rumble rumble rumble—

The moment I released time, a massive tremor shook through everything.

This time I didn't escape outside. I waited.

Kwaaang!

The entire chamber flipped over.

My body floated for a moment, then dropped.

I activated Skin Hardening.

I fell for a good while, tumbling amid chunks of rock debris, and landed on the ground.

Was this inside the antlion boss's stomach?

Slimy chunks of flesh covered every surface, pulsing and writhing in a way that turned the stomach.

Small glowstone-like fragments embedded here and there gave off a dim, ghostly light.

I looked around and found a passage.

Aside from the space I'd fallen into, there was only one way forward.

I moved that way, and a tangled path unfolded ahead of me.

A grotesque maze made entirely of flesh.

Now I just had to follow the route I'd memorized.

When I'd cleared this the first time, I hadn't had time to spare, so I'd used the Demon King's power to take out the boss. But this still looked like the intended, proper route.

Left, left, right, straight for a while, take the second left, then straight ahead...

I pushed through the maze and reached the end point.

Thump. Thump.

A massive, beating heart appeared.

I immediately fired off a fully charged Destruction Beam.

The Destruction Beam pierced straight through the boss's heart.

Kreeeeeeeee...

A horrible screech followed, along with a huge tremor, and then it stopped after a moment.

Was it dead?

[0/32,768km]

I checked the compass and saw a unit had appeared.

I made my way back through the maze.

Returning to the starting point, I this time exited outside through the passage I'd been swallowed through...

The antlion boss lay dead, its enormous tongue lolling out.

Kill it like this, and all that was left was reaching the oasis. Done.

It took about thirty minutes.

I didn't bother pushing all the way to the end and left instead.

I went back and forth repeatedly and started writing up the info post.

Floor 8 didn't have any monsters that were especially hard to deal with.

Other Nightmare clearers just had to shave down their time as much as possible... maybe they could manage somewhere in the twenty-minute range?

Of course, it wouldn't be easy.

The puzzle and maze could just be memorized from what I laid out, but there had also been Sandworms interrupting while solving the puzzle.

Still, I figured it'd probably be less brutal than Floor 7.

Were the U.S. and China planning to finally take on Floor 7?

[Squirrel: This is Taylor Miller, Nightmare Climber from the United States. Person123, I'm grateful for your devotion. And I respect you.

Before I enter Floor 7, I'm leaving you this whisper, first and last. I hope you'll see this message after clearing Floor 8 and coming back out.]

Come to think of it, I'd gotten a whisper like this from the U.S. Nightmare clearer.

Looks like it had been sent while my Floor 8 clear was dragging on.

Since the Nightmare Communication Window headcount hadn't dropped, it seemed she hadn't entered yet, thankfully.

Whenever I gave clearing advice to the U.S. side, I only ever talked through Mr. Rhino, so I hadn't actually exchanged whispers directly with the U.S. Nightmare clearer until now.

'Taylor Miller...'

She was quite something too.

People risking their own lives to climb the Tower for the sake of the world.

After going through this isolation zone incident, that thought struck me even harder.

I sent a slightly late reply, then went back to finishing the Floor 8 info post.

* * *

After the isolation zone incident ended, the highest-floor climbers on each difficulty found it hard to escape public criticism.

[Elizabeth: They're just straight-up shameless bastards, all three of them]
[Ant: Millions of lives on the line and they just went ahead and picked 0, lmaooo]
[Vodka: Embarrassing that trash like that represents each difficulty, honestly]
[Coin: Didn't that Dmitri guy once say something about becoming the Person123 of Hard difficulty? What a joke]
[Wizard: lol tell him to try measuring up to even a fraction of Person123]

Of course, among all those mocking and cursing them, how many would actually have risked their own lives if they'd been in the same position?

Either way, the highest-floor climbers were busy keeping quiet and laying low.

Gabriel, the highest climber on Normal difficulty, even resigned from his board position at the Climber Association.

Regardless, this isolation zone incident once again drove home the gap between Person123 and every other climber.

Not just a difference in ability, but something far more fundamental, a difference in stature itself.

"How on earth did Person123 defeat the boss while carrying nine penalties?"
"There might be some third factor at play, something beyond skills and items that hasn't come to light yet. Among the Nightmare difficulty rewards..."

People were busy speculating about how Person123 could have possibly withstood nine penalties.

Some said there had to be some special reward exclusive to Nightmare difficulty.

Others speculated that Person123 wasn't human at all, but some kind of divine being.

Person123 Church pushed the latter theory especially hard.

Since Person123 hadn't clarified anything, no one knew the truth.

[Tree: I was a permanent Floor 2 climber and today I cleared straight to Floor 4]
[Doberman: I'm finally making it to Floor 5 too lol don't even bother talking to us Floor 5-and-under scrubs anymore]
[Durandal: Should I give it a shot too...? Still kind of scared though]
[Milkyway: What's there to be scared of. Just be a little careful on the Floor 2 platforms and it's a straight shot to Floor 4]
[Superhuman: Easy really is nothing special. If you can't even clear this, why are you even a Climber lol]
[Jet: Alright, shall we all say a little prayer to Person123-nim for blessing us with 2 levels?]
[Cerberus: Nothing but worship, worship. The greatest GOAT in human history]

Meanwhile, with Person123 choosing the Level +2 special reward,

Climbers on Easy and Normal difficulty especially were in an uproar.

On Easy and Normal, 2 levels was worth a floor's or two floors' worth of rewards.

With that much of a boost to physical ability, clearing the not-so-difficult low floors became something almost anyone could manage, barring extreme incompetence.

Of course, since the reward only applied to existing climbers on Floor 2 or higher, not every climber got the 2-level boost.

Still, people could expect the climbing pace of the other difficulties to accelerate going forward.

[Person123: Nightmare Floor 8 clearing information.]

Amid all this, the Floor 8 clear post went up.

The compass and puzzle, the antlion boss, the maze, the oasis distance doubling every two minutes.

Only then did people understand why the Floor 8 clear had taken so unbelievably long.

[Owner: A cube on Floor 3, and now a puzzle this time huh, wow]
[Boatman: Ugh, seriously, just reading the difficulty makes me want to throw up...]
[Robelon: If it doubles every 2 minutes, even after just an hour the distance stops making sense, right? That's over a billion kilometers]
[Blue: A billion, what the hell lmaooo is that an interstellar crossing]
[Crane: How many kilometers did Person123 actually travel? He didn't tell us that part]
[Pegasus: Still, I'd guess he probably cut it under 40 minutes. Past that the numbers stop making any sense]
[Vicious: A 100-piece puzzle and a maze that sounds insanely complicated from the description... if he cut that under 40 minutes on the first try, he's genuinely not human]

People chattered away eagerly over the merciless difficulty, as expected.

"Taylor, something good happen?"

Max, visiting the training grounds, spotted Taylor smiling at the Communication Window.

Taylor glanced over.

"No. It's nothing."
"Did you see the Floor 8 clear post? Sounds like the conditions are better than Floor 7, if you prepare for it."

Taylor nodded.

"I should hurry up and finish Floor 7 first."

Max spoke, sounding concerned.

"Don't rush this, Taylor. DARPA is still researching the training system as we speak..."
"Yeah, I don't plan on rushing. I just need to squeeze out every last bit of success probability I can."

After finishing the conversation with Max,

Taylor checked the whisper in the Communication Window again.

[Person123: Thank you. Glad to hear you're safe.]

A whisper from Person123.

A reply to the message she'd sent right before entering Floor 7.

A sense of fullness, maybe that was the word for it.

Getting a reply like that from him gave her a strange feeling.

One thing was certain: it gave her strength.

Taylor got back to training.

To be even a little more help on the path ahead of her.

* * *

A few more days passed after the isolation zone incident ended.

Radiant Incarnation's cooldown had run its course.

I started getting ready to enter Floor 9.

But before that, I had to tell them. My family.

That I'd be climbing the Tower a lot faster from here on.

I couldn't keep entering without saying anything anymore.

"From now on, I'll need to clear a floor about once every three or four days."

Hearing that, my family looked like they'd been struck by lightning out of a clear sky.

"...What do you mean by that?"

I couldn't tell them about the lifespan.

And claiming I was clearing floors early just in case things dragged on like Floor 8 wouldn't hold up as an excuse either.

They'd never accept me suddenly needing to clear a floor every few days, not without a reason.

So I decided to make up a new excuse.

"Actually, I made a separate deal with the Tower."

I told them I'd made a separate deal with the Tower because it looked like I wouldn't be able to clear Floor 8 within the time limit.

In exchange for what I needed to clear Floor 8, I'd taken on a penalty requiring me to clear at least one floor a week going forward. Otherwise, I'd die.

The fact that the Tower made proposals to me specifically was already known to the whole world, so there was nothing strange about this story.

Honestly, this wasn't all that different from actually being on a countdown...

But it still felt like the better option.

"You don't need to worry too much. The Tower makes me offers all the time, right? Maybe there'll be some way to cancel this out too, as I keep climbing... Yeah? Don't cry, come on."

Mom ended up in tears again. So did my sister.

I really was an undutiful son, through and through. But what else could I do.

Once the family calmed down, my father spoke.

"Just promise me one thing, Seo-hyeon. Never enter without telling the family."

I told him I would.

That was the whole point of telling them this in the first place.

'A way to extend my lifespan...'

I really hoped something like that would come out of a higher floor's rewards.

Or maybe another special reward like the one from this isolation zone incident.

Special rewards seemed to throw out all kinds of strange things.

I'd told Billon about my situation too.

With Billon, I probably could've just told him the whole truth outright... but for now I gave him roughly the same story I'd given my family.