WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 146: Before the 11th Floor
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"Yes, Person123 has announced that he'll personally punish Climbers who cause social unrest. What intention do you think lies behind this?"
"With the Round 6 majority-vote incident in the Joint Battle coinciding with Climbers gaining curse immunity, Person123 may have felt a sense of crisis. Climbers are becoming increasingly difficult to control."
"Then could we say Person123 has drawn his sword for the sake of non-Climbers?"
The news, the internet, and the Communication Window.
All day long, the only thing anyone talked about was Person123's warning.
The overwhelming majority of ordinary people supported and praised Person123 without question.
It was only natural, considering how lightly Climbers regarded the lives of ordinary people.
[Strike: Looks like he's seriously pissed because of the assholes who picked Round 6. Honestly, saying he'll kill them all is pretty shocking.]
[Plasma: That's brutal.]
[Wink: Thinking about how Person123 used that instant movement technique worldwide during the sub-tower incident, it feels like he really could hunt them all down and kill them...]
[Black Tower: Isn't it basically confirmed that Person123 has some ultra-long-range movement skill? Look at how he instantly wiped out the Zone 7, 8, and 9 bosses one after another.]
[Pepper: The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it is. I can't even imagine how strong he is anymore.]
[Srarang: I knew this would happen someday. People should listen when someone's still speaking nicely.]
[Ballista: He clears Nightmare, shares information, takes on penalties to solve the even-floor rules too. He does everything for us, yet these other Climbers lose their minds over rewards and go, who cares if 100 million people die lol fuck.]
[Ladder: For real. He's basically Buddha for putting up with this much. If it were me, I would've killed them all a long time ago.]
[Peace: Since Person123 does everything for them, people have definitely gotten complacent and lost their sense of danger lately.]
[Nuclear Explosion: That last part gives me chills... What exactly did he mean when he said he'd still be fine even if the world ended?]
[Prometheus: What else could it mean? If the world gets destroyed because Climbers pull this kind of crap, he'll kill them all.]
[Pulang-gyeol: Holy shit...]
[Hwangdo: Nightmare Floor 10 might really become reality.]
[Guan Yu: He needed to put his foot down like this. Now that Climbers have curse immunity, they'll be even harder to control.]
[Hedgehog: I support Person123 no matter what.]
[Great One: Worship him. Praise him. Glorify him. Then you shall be saved.]
The Climbers in the Communication Window also generally supported and defended Person123.
What else could they do?
Humanity's savior and a Climber beyond all others had told them not to do anything stupid.
His words had been somewhat extreme, but Person123 had more than enough reason to be angry. No Climber would dare voice a complaint. Even if they had one, they couldn't show it.
"It feels like one storm after another has been hitting us lately."
At a training facility of the U.S. Climber Management Bureau, Max handed Taylor a drink while she rested.
"I never imagined Person123 would come out this strongly. Don't you agree?"
"It was necessary."
Taylor replied as she looked through the Communication Window.
"This Joint Battle incident was so shameful that it made me blush. I can't believe there are so many idiot Climbers."
When the Tower's offer targeting Person123 had appeared again, her heart had pounded with fear that something might happen to him.
Person123 had ultimately rejected that absurd contract again, but at this point, it hardly seemed worth being surprised anymore.
"The Security Force is also expected to take action against the people identified as having selected Round 6."
Max nodded in agreement before continuing.
"More importantly, there's a rumor I've heard recently. They say Climbers from the Black Star Society have been disappearing one after another. The Climbers who chose Round 6, that is."
"...Climbers from the Black Star Society?"
"Could Person123 truly have begun punishing them? There's no way to know."
Max carefully trailed off.
The person who suddenly came to Taylor's mind was Ye Tianwei.
China's highest Nightmare Climber. A man who seemed to hold an unusual admiration for Person123, perhaps even greater than her own.
It seemed unlikely, but even if it were true, it wasn't something she needed to care about.
What truly bothered Taylor was something else.
[Person123: Humanity is currently standing closer to the edge than you realize. I do not have the time to worry about anything beyond clearing the Nightmare.]
Part of the post Person123 had uploaded.
Humanity was in more danger than people realized, and he had no time to spare.
It could have simply been something he said to make people more alert, but for some reason, it stayed on her mind.
Did Person123 know something more?
Or had some major problem occurred with the clear?
There was no way to know.
Taylor drained her drink and stood.
"Thank you for the drink."
There was nothing she could do for Person123 by worrying about something like that.
If she wanted to be even the slightest help, she had to act.
Still, Person123 had probably already received all the rewards from the Zone bosses.
Other than helping fill the Zone Gauge, what else could she do to be useful to him...?
Taylor resumed her training as she considered the question.
* * *
After posting the warning to the Climbers, I ignored all the noise outside and did what I needed to do.
I hunted monsters in Zones 6 through 10 while organizing the information I would post in the Communication Window.
Kwooooom!
The Fallen in Zone 10 were swept away by a barrage of magic arrows.
Elemental Arrow Barrage.
Just as I'd expected, it was a pretty good skill.
As stated in the skill description, I could assign each arrow one of four elements: fire, ice, lightning, or wind.
Fire caused explosions, ice froze targets, lightning shocked them, and wind arrows fired faster than the others.
Since I could boost the power of the fire element, it was more efficient for me to fire nothing but flaming arrows.
Compared to the fireballs from Flame Barrage, the flaming arrows were slightly weaker...
But I could fire ten of them at once with only a ten-second cooldown.
And as I enhanced the skill, wouldn't the number of arrows probably increase by ten each time?
"Nice."
It might not be a bad idea to enhance this instead of Destruction Beam with an Epic+ skill enhancement stone.
Well, I'd think about it some more.
I continued moving outward across Zone 10.
"Hmm..."
At the very edge of Zone 10, I looked beyond the transparent barrier.
There was only pitch-black darkness, like an expanse of space without stars.
Zone 10 really did seem to be the final zone of Floor 5. There were no more zones beyond it.
It felt like looking beyond the edge of a game map that hadn't been rendered.
'Should I consider Floor 5 completely finished?'
In a way, that made things easier.
I no longer had to invest time in Floor 5.
There was no need to hunt monsters to fill the Zone Gauge either.
Now I could focus entirely on clearing Nightmare.
Once I was back outside, I checked the Communication Window.
[Chicken Sandwich: The United States is preparing to submit an agenda to the UN concerning the Climber Punishment Act. It seems governments see this as the perfect chance, with the Association and Climbers unable to say a word after Mr. Kim's statement. It will take some time, but a supranational treaty will be established.]
Billon gave me a rough idea of how things were going.
Honestly, I really hated posting something that threatened people like that.
But it couldn't be helped.
I had no other suitable way to restrain Climbers who crossed the line.
Even this was only the minimum measure.
Of course, it wasn't just an empty warning.
If a Climber still couldn't come to their senses after all this...
Then I'd do exactly what I'd warned them I would.
I could only hope Climbers would handle themselves properly from now on.
If they weren't going to help, they should at least stop causing trouble.
"Seohyeon, are you there?"
"Yes."
"Come out quickly. Lunch is ready."
I closed the Communication Window and left my room.
I ate lunch with my family in the living room.
As I enjoyed the braised beef ribs, my father suddenly spoke.
"Seohyeon, are you all right?"
My father looked at me with concern.
My mother and sibling had the same look in their eyes.
I swallowed the food in my mouth and answered.
"Yes, I'm fine."
Honestly, I felt a little uncomfortable looking at my family.
They didn't say it, but they obviously knew everything I was doing.
Even if it couldn't be helped, I had killed people and threatened to kill every Climber who didn't listen.
I'd already killed people during the Wang Kai incident and the Mask incident, but this had happened recently.
I'd already become numb to such things, but I didn't know what my family thought.
Then my father spoke.
"Your dad is always on your side."
"Huh?"
"I'll never think that you did something wrong, Seohyeon. I just wanted you to know that."
My father let out a sigh.
"What worries me more is whether your heart has become worn out."
I stared at him for a moment before shaking my head.
"...Don't worry. I'm really fine."
That part truly didn't bother me.
I'd realized long ago that being disappointed in people would only lead to what the Tower wanted.
My sibling, who had been watching for an opening, joined in.
"...Honestly, I think you were right to kill that bastard."
"Hey."
"Oh, why~ If it weren't for you, how many people would have died? Those who chose Round 6 are pretty much all mass murderers. Right?"
My sibling looked at me as if asking for agreement.
I ended up letting out a small laugh.
I was just grateful.
For my family, who would understand me and take my side no matter what happened.
* * *
Until I attempted to clear the 11th Floor, I continued training in the Mindscape.
Clangclangclangclang!
I swung my sword and blocked the incoming icicles.
I deflected every icicle in the barrage by shifting their trajectories at just the right moments...
Then the number of icicles doubled again.
Even then, I blocked and dodged every last one.
In the past, something like this would have been absolutely impossible through pure physical combat alone.
"What do you think, Demon King?"
I asked during a brief lull in the attacks.
The Demon King snorted and summoned a mass of glaciers like meteors.
"Ah."
My body shattered into pieces when they hit me.
After reviving, I dismissed my sword.
"Why are you being so mean? The training was going well."
"Shouldn't you at least be able to block that as well?"
"That's not a problem with technique. It's an issue of raw physical ability."
The Demon King was the one helping me train in the Mindscape.
Training here with the Demon King's help was incomparably more efficient than repeatedly clearing floors.
If I wanted to, I could train almost endlessly.
Whoooooosh.
The scenery changed, and a snowstorm began to rage.
I followed the Demon King up to the top of the ice palace, as I had grown used to doing.
I knew why the Demon King always summoned the same scenery in the Mindscape.
"You still don't remember anything?"
"No."
The Demon King's lost memories.
He had no memory of how his world had been destroyed.
Like Seri, I thought he might be able to recover his memories here, but there still seemed to be no progress.
The only thing he remembered was what he had told me before: that it seemed the Tower had offered him something.
I stood beside the Demon King and looked down at the snow-covered city.
Then I muttered something that suddenly came to mind.
"Why didn't the Tower ever make an offer to Seri?"
Unlike with me.
The Tower had made Seri no special offers. It had simply broken her down little by little.
Maybe it differed from world to world, but the question still lingered in my mind.
Then the Demon King spoke.
"You are an unusual case."
"Huh?"
"Even while I climbed Nightmare, I don't remember the Tower making me offers except at the very end."
I tilted my head.
Then why did the Tower keep making offers to me every other day?
The Demon King stared at me for a moment before continuing.
"A thought just occurred to me, but perhaps the Tower fears things beyond its own understanding as well."
Footnotes:
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