WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 129

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Nightmare Floor 10 (2)

I took a moment to sort out the confusion in my head, then asked another question.

"What year is it right now, by any chance?"

"Uh, um... 2033, I think?"

"What month and day?"

"That much I don't really..."

2033.

Right now it was 2032.

This world seemed to run about a year ahead of the real world outside.

"How did Person123 end up getting the Ark? Did he get the Tower's proposal before clearing some floor?"

"...Floor 8, wasn't it?"

The men looked at me like they couldn't believe I'd ask something so obvious.

I ignored that and pushed for a more detailed explanation.

Summing up what the man said, it went something like this.

Before entering Floor 8, this world's Person123 had received the same Tower proposal I had.

The penalty: one item banned.

The reward in exchange: the Ark.

But unlike me, who'd turned the proposal down, this world's Person123 seemed to have accepted it.

So Person123 spread the Ark out over Seoul, then entered Floor 8.

In the end, though, he failed to clear Floor 8 within the 20-day time limit, and the Tower's Curse triggered, wiping out 99% of humanity.

In other words, this was the world after the Nightmare deadline had run out.

Put another way, this was the route where I hadn't managed to clear Floor 8 in time.

'A parallel world...?'

No, maybe I should call it a parallel future world.

Something along those lines, probably.

I'd finally gotten a decent grip on the situation, but...

['Kill' Me'.]

The message that had been floating in the corner of my vision like a quest marker since earlier.

I could understand the meaning of that line now too.

Was I supposed to find this world's Person123, this other me, and kill him?

Was that the clear condition for this Floor 10?

I stared at the Ark again and asked another question.

"So then, why are you two wandering around outside the Ark?"

"...Huh? Well, because we're not Ark residents..."

Frustrated, I said,

"I don't know anything. Let's just say I lost my memory."

"What?"

"Could you please explain everything, from the moment Person123 spread out the Ark up to now?"

The men seemed afraid of me, so they kept explaining without complaint.

And I was a little shocked by what I heard.

"...Person123 drove everyone out? Outside the Ark?"

When the Floor 8 clear had dragged on and the Nightmare deadline drew near.

The world had been in total chaos, apparently.

Since Person123 had entered Floor 8 with the Ark left completely open, anyone could get inside it.

People from all over the world had rushed toward the Ark in Seoul, elbowing each other out of the way.

Those who'd made it inside the Ark's range had survived the Tower's Curse...

But afterward, once Person123 finally came out from clearing Floor 8, he'd killed or driven out every single one of them.

Except for high-level climbers, skilled engineers, and a tiny handful of others, everyone else got thrown outside the Ark.

Climbers had mostly cleared out the Fallen inside Seoul by now, so the land outside the Ark wasn't uninhabitable exactly, they said.

But with most of humanity already wiped out, there was no way people could live anything like a normal life the way they used to.

Civilization had completely collapsed, leaving the place in an apocalyptic state.

That was also why the men didn't know the exact date, their sense of time had gone hazy from it all.

I couldn't make sense of it, so I asked.

"Why on earth would Person123 drive people out?"

"That, well... we wouldn't really know either..."

The man trailed off, like it was obvious they had no way of knowing that.

Why would he do something like that?

Was the me in this parallel world just a different person, morally?

No, that didn't add up either. From what they'd said, this world's me hadn't been any different, right up until he came out from clearing Floor 8...

"Do you know where I might be able to find Person123?"

The men answered, looking afraid.

"W-we don't know anything. He's probably inside the Ark."

Either way, I needed to meet this world's Person123.

...I'd have to, whether I ended up killing him or not.

I sent the two men off and headed toward the Ark.

'Ah.'

Come to think of it, my face.

Did that mean this world's version of me had a known face?

The men just now hadn't recognized me, though. Might've just been because it was dark.

I pulled a mask and a hat out of Subspace and put them on.

Better to keep my face covered for now, just in case.

I used Air Step to close in on the massive Ark.

Just like the Demon King said, Floor 10 really was strange.

People who could actually hold a conversation showing up, the whole structure feeling closer to a hidden route.

This world's version of me, who'd become a tyrant instead of humanity's savior.

Of course, this was still just a floor clear, but...

I couldn't just write this world off as some fake simulation cooked up by the Tower.

According to what the Sage had said before, the floors inside the Tower were worlds that had already been destroyed and swallowed up by the Tower.

...If that was true, then didn't that mean this parallel world had actually existed for real too?

- Interesting. So this is how you turned out.

The Demon King's voice reached me right then.

I asked the Demon King,

"What was your Floor 10 clear condition, Demon King? Tell me now."

- Mine was the past.

"...The past?"

- I had to kill my predecessor in a world from the past. The Tower had its usual dirty tricks mixed in, as always.

Predecessor... did he mean his father?

"So did you kill him?"

- It was quite the fierce battle, but of course, I won.

Hm.

Just like the Demon King, that was.

Well, if killing myself really was the only way to clear Floor 10, I supposed I had no choice but to go through with it too...

'Unsettling, though.'

Having to kill myself.

I reached the Ark.

I brought my hand close to the golden curtain of light.

It blocked me. I couldn't get through.

The Ark only let people in with the holder's permission.

Since I wasn't someone with that permission, I couldn't get in, it seemed.

This was awkward.

How was I supposed to meet Person123 like this?

If I couldn't get inside the Ark, there was only one other way.

Draw Person123 out from outside the Ark.

'...Should I just cause a scene?'

If I made a big enough ruckus outside, would Person123 show himself?

I thought it over, then decided to keep that option in reserve.

No telling how things might turn out, so I'd better be careful.

Better to try to set up a quiet one-on-one meeting with Person123 if I could manage it.

'But why would this guy...'

place the Ark right here?

Shouldn't he have centered it on Yeongdeungpo-gu, where our house was?

This spot was way off in Gangdong-gu instead, far from there.

Well, come to think of it, that house from earlier had looked like a completely different family's house too.

Maybe house locations were different too, since this was a parallel world.

Anyway... let's look around a bit more first.

I took to the sky again and scanned the area.

A pitch-black city without a single light on.

The only light source anywhere was the glow leaking off the Ark's curtain.

Of course, darkness wasn't a problem for me.

I spotted people here and there.

Some looked like vagrants, like the men from earlier. Others stood like sentries guarding buildings.

'A Fallen.'

Farther out from the Ark, I could see Fallen wandering around too.

I climbed up onto a rooftop and sat on the railing.

I was thinking about approaching people to dig up more information when...

A scene caught my eye.

A desperate chase unfolding in an alley far below.

Two people, being chased by a Fallen.

I moved right away.

Kicked off through the air and reached the ground in a single leap.

Right before the Fallen could ambush the two people cornered in a dead-end alley...

Crack!

I landed, stomping the Fallen's head in.

Its skull burst and it died instantly.

Was that a stage 1 Fallen?

No idea if the Fallen here were divided into stages 1 through 5 too, but it had been extremely weak.

"H-hiiik..."

I turned to look at the two people, who'd sunk to the ground.

A boy and a girl, looked like middle schoolers.

Their eyes stared up at me, thick with fear.

I took a step closer...

"P-please spare us! Climber, sir!"

They suddenly threw themselves flat on the ground, bowing.

Flustered, I said,

"Are you two okay?"

"Please, we're sorry...! We didn't mean it!"

"Calm down. I already took care of the Fallen."

But now I realized, the kids were just terrified of me.

I had to keep calming them down, over and over.

"Here, look at this."

I pulled a chocolate snack out of Subspace.

Both their eyes locked onto the chocolate.

"Eat this and calm down a little. I'm not a bad person, I promise."

The two of them couldn't tear their eyes away from the chocolate I held out, then cautiously took it.

"C-can we really eat it...?"

I nodded.

The boy went first, tearing off the wrapper and wolfing down the chocolate bar.

Then the girl ate too, after glancing around warily.

Both of them looked half-starved, like they hadn't eaten in days.

'Siblings, maybe?'

It didn't sit well with me at all.

I guess this was what happened when the world ended.

They ate so eagerly that I pulled out more snacks and gave them water too.

Only then did the fear in their eyes toward me start to fade a little.

I asked,

"What were you two doing out here?"

Looking around from earlier.

There didn't seem to be any Fallen in the cities close to the Ark, only farther out did they start showing up.

I wondered why these kids were wandering around out here, somewhere so dangerous.

The boy hesitated, then answered.

"Looking for... food..."

"Food?"

"Yeah. If you search through buildings, sometimes you get lucky and find some."

"There aren't any Fallen near the Ark. Why come all the way out here where it's dangerous?"

"E-even if it's dangerous, this is one of the only places left that hasn't been picked clean..."

I tilted my head, then asked again.

"Do all the people outside the Ark live like this?"

"Huh? Yeah..."

The same look as the men from before, like I'd just asked something bizarre.

I thought for a moment, then said,

"I came from somewhere far away. So I don't really know how things work around here."

"Oh..."

The boy glanced at me warily, then asked.

"Um, mister, you're a Climber, right?"

"Yeah."

A faint flicker of fear crossed both their faces again.

Come to think of it, the men from earlier too.

People seemed to be excessively afraid of Climbers.

"Do Climbers cause a lot of trouble around here?"

"...Did you really come from somewhere far away? You're not from Seoul?"

"That's right. I really don't know anything, so could you explain it to me?"

The boy continued.

"Around here, Climbers rule over everyone."

"...The Climbers inside the Ark?"

"Both inside and outside."

Not exactly a shocking fact.

In a world where civilization had completely collapsed, there was no way law could still function.

Naturally, Climbers with overwhelming power would end up on top.

"I heard the Climbers inside the Ark, the ones Person123 chose, are at the very top, and even the Climbers outside the Ark are basically just their lackeys. And the Climbers outside make people work like slaves."

"...Like slaves? How?"

"They make us farm, and if we don't listen, they beat us or kill us... they just make us do every hard, awful job there is."

"..."

"W-we used to farm too, but we ran away. They only gave us a tiny bit of food, we had to go hungry all the time, and we figured we'd rather dodge the Fallen looking for food than just starve to death like that..."

I let out a small sigh.

Listening to their story, the people of Seoul here were really living no better than slaves.

This world had...

Fallen about as low as a world possibly could.

Translator's note: A few of you flagged that the protagonist's familiar/mount had its name rendered inconsistently across some recent chapters — apologies for the confusion. To set it straight: the demon-realm predator he subjugated is Pligas, and its nickname is Pli. A glossary slip on our end briefly turned these into "Fleury"/"Fli" in a handful of chapters; those have been corrected and re-uploaded. Pligas and Pli are the canonical names going forward. Thanks for catching it!

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