WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 134: Nightmare Floor 10 (7)

──────

[Floor 10 has been cleared on all difficulties.]

[The Tower is calling new participants.]

[New rules have been added.]

['Joint Battle' will begin in 24 hours.]

[When the time comes, 100 Climbers who have cleared Floor 10 will be randomly summoned to Floor 5.]

[While 'Joint Battle' is underway, Climbers other than those summoned cannot enter Floor 5. Those already inside will be forcibly expelled.]

[Time Remaining: 23 hours 59 minutes 50 seconds]

I was moved to the Room of Rewards.

Letting out a sigh, I looked at the messages.

I'd cleared an even-numbered floor, so it was the Tower's turn to pull its usual bullshit again.

'Joint Battle?'

A random summons of 100 Climbers who had cleared Floor 10 to Floor 5...

Was it something where Climbers had to work together and fight?

I didn't bother speculating any further.

Based on everything so far, there was no point trying to predict what would come out.

I'd find out when the time came.

'Is it going to screw around with people's lives again?'

Come to think of it, every rule the Tower had introduced so far had been like that.

It held ordinary people's lives hostage and forced Climbers to make a choice.

I had a bad feeling this would be the same.

I checked the rewards first.

An Epic skill enhancement stone, and... an item.

It was a glossy black crown.

[Item: Pankera's Crown]

This is the crown of Dream Demon King Pankera, ruler of dreams and illusions. While wearing the crown, you may enter the Mindscape. Targets physically touching your body may also be brought into the Mindscape. Time passes at the same rate in reality and the Mindscape.

"Hm..."

What was this?

Mindscape sounded like it meant a world inside dreams.

So was it basically something that let me have lucid dreams?

'Would it even help much in combat...?'

I tilted my head.

It didn't seem like a particularly useful item.

I decided to try using it right away.

I placed the crown on my head.

Then, the moment I thought about entering the Mindscape...

"...!"

The scenery before me changed.

It was a pitch-black space where I couldn't see anything.

"Ah."

When I thought it would be nice if it were brighter, the space turned pure white instead.

Could I control it?

As I looked around...

"Oh? What's this now?"

A voice came from behind me.

I turned around and saw a man standing there.

I stared blankly at him for a moment before asking,

"Are you the Demon King?"

The Demon King answered in his arrogant voice.

"It is I."

...Why had the Demon King come in too?

The item description did say targets physically touching me could be pulled into the Mindscape...

Since we shared one body in the first place, maybe we automatically entered together as a set.

I looked at the Demon King with curiosity.

After all, this was the first time I'd seen his face.

From his voice alone, I'd expected an old man, but he looked like a young man.

Long snow-white hair, pale skin, and a towering height well over two meters.

"Is that what you originally looked like?"

He didn't look much like a Demon King, honestly.

He just looked like an ordinary human.

The Demon King didn't answer and simply looked around once.

Whoooosh-

The pure white space changed into a snowfield swept by a blizzard.

"Not bad, this space."

Was the Demon King changing the surroundings with his will?

The scenery kept shifting chaotically from moment to moment.

Maybe it really was like a dream world.

I left the Demon King alone and tried it myself.

When I imagined a sword, one appeared in my hand.

It seemed I could create whatever I wanted just by thinking of it...

Well, it was interesting, but that was all. What was I supposed to use this for in reality?

The moment I thought about leaving the Mindscape, I returned to reality.

- Why are you leaving already? Stay a little longer.

I lightly ignored the Demon King's grumbling and took off the crown.

I'd look into it more later.

'As for the skill enhancement stone...'

I used the Epic skill enhancement stone to strengthen Weak Point Insight.

That took care of the rewards.

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: 11]

[Level: 127]

[Willpower: 8,710/8,710]

[Skills: Radiant Incarnation (Legendary+), Destruction Beam (Epic+), Weak Point Insight (Epic) (+2), Hellfire Eruption (Epic) (+1), Subspace (Epic), Air Step (Epic)...]

[Nightmare]

Participants: 873,619

Time Limit: 2 years 361 days 9 hours 58 minutes 3 seconds

Highest Floor Reached: Floor 11

"I somehow managed to clear it again..."

I let out a long sigh.

Floor 10 had been very strange.

And it left a slightly bitter aftertaste too.

It felt like I'd witnessed one of a game's bad ending routes. Except I was the protagonist.

Had a world like that really existed...?

No.

Let's not think about that. It only made me feel worse.

Anyway, I had been able to clear it because the other me had ultimately cooperated.

'One thing became clear.'

After seeing Floor 10, accepting the Tower's proposal really was something no one should do.

And a world where the Ark had been deployed would probably not have a good ending either.

...Thinking about it that way, had I simply been extremely lucky when I accepted the Tower's proposal on Floor 4 and cleared it? Maybe.

[Would you like to exit the Tower?]

I left the Tower.

The moment I got out, my family welcomed me.

"...Seo-hyeon!"

I hugged my mother and father.

"You aren't hurt, are you? Are you okay?"

"Of course I am."

They knew all injuries were healed once a clear was over, yet they still looked me over anxiously.

I smiled.

"Floor 10 was way too easy too. I guess I've gotten so strong that even Nightmare can't handle me anymore."

After having lunch with my family, I returned to my room.

Then, remembering something, I took out the Broken Scale of Life.

[Special Item: Broken Scale of Life]

Sacrifice your lifespan to receive an equivalent reward. You may sacrifice a minimum of 1% and a maximum of 99% of your current remaining lifespan. Once used, the scale will break, and the user's remaining lifespan

Remaining Lifespan: 295 days 2 hours 10 minutes 31 seconds

"...Hm."

I'd wondered if dying and coming back to life might have reset my remaining lifespan too.

But after checking, nothing had changed.

That had been wishful thinking.

'Still... maybe I found a possibility?'

Resurrection.

I'd learned that there was even a skill that could bring the dead back to life.

There had to be all kinds of ways to solve the lifespan problem, if I kept climbing the Tower...

Huh? Wait a second.

What if I repeatedly cleared Floor 10 and got Resurrection for free?

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 10.]

Without resting, I immediately entered Floor 10 again.

Because Floor 10 was unusual, I had wondered whether it might not allow repeated clears...

But that didn't seem to be the case.

The same beginning. A pitch-black Seoul and the massive Ark.

I flew into the sky and immediately went looking for Person123.

I headed down toward Busan and searched the area.

There was a time difference from my first clear, so he wasn't in the exact same place as before.

After searching around for a while...

I soon found Person123 hunting Fallen alone.

Boom!

I landed forcefully in front of him.

"Hi."

"...?!"

He stared at me, someone with the exact same face, in shock.

Tch. We'd just opened up and talked honestly about everything...

Seeing him reset just like in repeated clears of other floors left a bitter feeling in my mouth.

"I'm you."

I already knew how to clear the floor.

Still, I had no idea how he'd react, so I planned to do the same thing as before.

After explaining that this was actually Nightmare Floor 10 and that I wanted to talk with him...

"If what you're saying is true, why should I cooperate with you?"

He said the same thing again before attacking me.

Everything afterward went the same too.

I subdued him without much trouble, asked what had happened to his family, heard his story, and went to the graves.

"...So the clear condition is that I have to kill you."

"Then kill me. I don't care."

After hearing the full explanation, Person123 took out a Resurrection skill stone from Subspace.

I accepted it and immediately tried to acquire the skill stone.

But...

[You cannot acquire this skill.]

A message appeared.

'Tsk...'

So it didn't work after all?

Honestly, I had thought it probably wouldn't.

If it did, Floor 10 would basically be a skill stone and skill enhancement stone farming ground for me. There was no way the Tower would allow that.

I exited Floor 10.

With my arms crossed, I sank into thought.

But wait, even if I couldn't acquire it...

Person123 could still use Resurrection on me, right?

Then couldn't I enter Floor 10 right before my lifespan ran out and ask him to revive me after I died?!

Just as I thought I'd come up with a genius idea, the Demon King cut in.

- That won't work.

"...What? Why?"

- Your death is not simply caused by your lifespan running out. It is a death that has been decided.

What was that supposed to mean?

The Demon King explained.

- How do you think lifespan is decided in the first place? Even a lowly creature can slow its aging by training its body and reaching a higher realm. Its lifespan increases.

If that were the case, then your remaining lifespan should have increased at least a little whenever your level rose. But did it?

I answered.

"It didn't."

I'd already confirmed that even if my level increased, my remaining lifespan didn't increase by even a minute.

- That is why it is an unavoidable death. That scale did not simply take away your lifespan. It fixed your remaining lifespan. Would you understand if I said your death in 295 days has been set as your fate?

"...I get the general idea."

In other words, because it was a death that had been definitively decided, Resurrection probably couldn't bring me back either.

The hope that had just begun to bloom was crushed, but I still argued back.

"But your guess could be wrong, Demon King-nim. It might work, right?"

The Demon King spoke as if he pitied me.

- At my level, I can vaguely read fate as well. Unfortunately, from the moment you used that scale, your death was set in stone.

Fuck...

I could feel through our souls that the Demon King wasn't lying.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

- I did tell you. I said that since you had burned even your lifespan, you should stop worrying about trivial things and climb.

"What the..."

Still, deep down, I'd thought there might be a way to get my lifespan back if I kept climbing the Tower.

What the Demon King had just said completely shattered that hope.

So I was definitely going to die once the time ran out.

- Who knows. The Tower might offer to change your fate.

"...Didn't you say I should never accept the Tower's proposals?"

- Or you could twist fate yourself.

Twist fate myself?

How?

- Become a god. Then you can cast off the shackles of fate.

What kind of nonsense was that now...?

But the Demon King didn't seem to be saying it casually.

"...Is that really possible? How do I become a god?"

The Demon King sneered.

- Impossible. How could a mere lowly creature reach divinity? Even I could only barely set one foot into it. That was my limit.

"Are you making fun of me?"

- Well, there is one thing that catches my attention. Your ti... No.

The Demon King stopped speaking halfway through.

I asked something that suddenly came to mind.

"Is the Tower a god too?"

The Demon King was silent for a moment before answering.

- I do not know. It is simply an incomprehensible being.

Groaning, I lay down on my bed.

God or whatever... I just wanted someone to save me...

"...Stop whining."

After talking to myself like a lunatic, I quickly got back up.

Let's do what I had to do.

Either way, the only thing I could do was keep climbing the Tower.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried