WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 172: Nightmare, Floor 15 (4)

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We passed both the first and second rounds.

Now, only the third round remained.

If we cleared the third round, both Kanyuk and I could successfully clear Floor 15.

“You must miss the outside. You’ve been here for nearly a year.”

“Kyak! That’s right. The others in my tribe might already believe I’m dead.”

“Do you have family waiting for you?”

Kanyuk answered.

“My entire tribe is waiting for me. Even if we aren’t related by blood, everyone in the Tunebalk tribe is family.”

“I see.”

“What about you, Hyun? Do you have people waiting for you?”

“I have family too.”

“Really? How many children do you have?”

“I don’t have any children.”

“You don’t? Why not? Haven’t you started a family, Hyun? Don’t you have a partner?”

“No.”

What was this? Was Kanyuk picking a fight with me?

Kanyuk looked at me as though that was strange, so I added,

“Where I’m from, it’s normal not to have any at my age yet.”

“Is that so? How old are you, Hyun?”

“Twenty-seven.”

By international age, I was still twenty-five, since my birthday hadn’t come around yet.

For some reason, Kanyuk looked shocked. Their eyes widened.

“Twenty-seven? You mean you’ve only lived for twenty-seven years since being born?”

“...More or less.”

“That’s incredible! And yet you’re this strong? I thought you had lived at least a hundred years. In our tribe, someone who is twenty-seven is little more than a child.”

I tilted my head at that odd admiration.

“That’s because I leveled up while climbing the Tower...”

“Kyak, I’m not talking about the Tower’s power. I mean your own power.”

“I don’t have anything like that. Before I became a Climber, I was ordinary and had no power at all.”

“What? Then you climbed Nightmare difficulty relying only on the rewards you gained from clearing Floors?”

“Yes.”

People on Earth didn’t use magic like in fantasy worlds, after all.

Of course, I did have the ability to stop time.

Kanyuk spoke with an astonished expression.

“You truly are remarkable. I naturally assumed you had always been an exceptional warrior.”

“How old are you, Kanyuk?”

“I’m over three hundred years old. Even then, I’m considered young in my tribe.”

...Just as expected of someone from another world.

Kanyuk laughed.

“When I clear Floor 15 and leave, there’ll surely be a grand festival. It’s a shame I can’t invite you, Hyun. I wish you could come to my world too.”

A festival.

I spoke.

“Then, would you show me your world?”

“Hm?”

“I can’t cross over there myself, but I can do something similar.”

If we entered the Mindscape, I could see Kanyuk’s world much more vividly.

I held out my hand to Kanyuk.

I took the confused Kanyuk into the Mindscape.

The scenery changed.

“Ooh? What is this?”

“This place is called the Mindscape.”

I gave Kanyuk a rough explanation as they looked around.

It was like a dream world where anything you wanted could be brought into existence.

Kanyuk understood quickly and asked me,

“I see. Did you use this ability to solve the second-round puzzle so quickly too?”

“...That’s right.”

They connected the dots that quickly?

Kanyuk really was perceptive.

Kanyuk began bringing objects into existence with curious fascination, then quickly transformed the surrounding scenery.

We were in the sky, and a mountain range stretched below us.

The scenery was vivid, barely any different from reality.

Was Kanyuk especially talented? Or was it because they were so powerful?

This was not the level of proficiency expected from someone entering the Mindscape for the first time.

“Our world consists of one vast continent called Volteron.”

Kanyuk began explaining.

“There are ten races on Volteron. Long ago, a great war broke out among them over the fertile land in the center of the continent. At that time, our Tunebalk tribe avoided the war and migrated to the far eastern edge of the continent.”

“Ah... Did you lose the war?”

“Kyakak! No! According to what has been passed down in our tribe, our ancestors gave up from the start before they even fought. But it made sense. We hate conflict that much!”

Kanyuk pointed at the scenery below.

“Look. This is the Hevan Mountain Range, the home of our tribe. We have no contact with the other races and live only among ourselves.”

A vast mountain range, its ridges stretching in the shape of a C.

At its center lay a lake so enormous it could have been called a sea. It was astonishingly clear and blue.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

Kanyuk smiled proudly.

“I don’t know how fertile the center of the continent may be, but the Hevan Mountain Range, our home, is also a wonderful paradise. Perhaps because they realized that, even after the great war ended, some races coveted our home and invaded this place.”

“Did everyone fight then?”

“Of course! The Tunebalk may love peace, but we cannot allow even our precious home to be taken from us.”

Kanyuk pointed at themself.

“So, to prepare for invasions from outside that could happen again at any time, our tribe performs a ritual every few hundred years. We gather the tribe’s power and bestow it upon the warrior with the greatest potential. And that warrior is me.”

Hm, so that was how it was?

Now that I knew Kanyuk was the tribe’s greatest warrior, I could understand their strength a little better.

It seemed Kanyuk was exceptionally strong even in their own world.

“But no one could have known. The power that should have been used to protect our homeland would instead be used to stop the destruction of the world. Kyakak!”

Kanyuk laughed, then asked,

“Hyun, do you know anything about the Tower’s true nature?”

“...No. What about you?”

“I don’t either. From the conversations in the Communication Window, it seems the mages of our world have been researching it diligently, but I don’t think they’ve discovered anything in particular.”

The Tower had appeared without warning, reason, or cause, and was destroying the world.

Even in the face of that despair and absurdity, Kanyuk seemed quite optimistic.

“There are about ten years left until the Nightmare deadline in our world. How much time do you have left, Hyun?”

“About seven years.”

Well, the bigger problem for me was that I didn’t have much lifespan left, regardless of the deadline...

I didn’t bring that up.

Kanyuk firmly patted my shoulder.

“I don’t know whether we’ll see each other again after clearing Floor 15, but you’re a good person. I hope you live for a very long time.”

I looked at Kanyuk, then nodded.

“You’re a really good person too, Kanyuk. I hope you keep succeeding from now on, without ever failing.”

“Of course I will! I won’t die either. I’ll live for a long, long time! Kyak!”

We were getting ahead of ourselves when Floor 15 hadn’t even been cleared yet...

Still, we looked at each other and smiled.

“Hyun, can you show me your world too? I’m curious what it looks like.”

Kanyuk said.

I created various scenes from Earth and showed them to Kanyuk.

After we finished seeing each other’s worlds, we returned to reality.

[3:32]

The final third round.

It would begin soon.

I steeled myself and prepared.

Hoping that both of us would safely clear Floor 15.

[0:01]

[The third round begins.]

A message appeared.

I stopped time and read it.

[Golden Orbs will be summoned at random locations.]

[Destroying a Golden Orb earns 1 point.]

[Each challenger must earn at least 10 points within the allotted time.]

[If both challengers earn at least 10 points, the challenger with the higher score will pass the round.]

‘...’

A contest of points.

The rules were simple.

One point for each Golden Orb.

Each of us had to earn at least ten points.

And if both of us earned at least ten points, the one with the higher score would pass.

It felt as though my heart had gone cold.

...The one with the higher score would pass.

In other words,

the one with the lower score would not pass the round.

Unlike the first and second rounds, we could not both pass.

The rules required a winner and a loser.

‘Fuck.’

So this was really happening...

- So it has come to this in the end. I told you to prepare yourself.

The Demon King’s voice rang out.

‘...Did you know this would happen?’

- Didn’t you expect it too, deep down?

That was right.

Ever since I learned Floor 15 was multiplayer rather than single-player.

The Tower’s malice was endless.

It did not seem like it would permit an ending where two people cooperated and succeeded in clearing it together.

The ominous feeling I had tried to ignore had finally become reality in the last round.

- The circumstances were different, but I faced something similar. One person had to fail.

‘So what did you do?’

- Hmph. Why ask such a meaningless question when you know what to expect? The other person died, and I succeeded in clearing it.

...There was no need to ask. The result was obvious.

I felt sick to my stomach.

[Both challengers will simultaneously undertake a total of three rounds.]

[If all three rounds are passed, Floor 15 will be successfully cleared.]

[If a round is failed, clearing Floor 15 will fail, and there will be no chance to retry.]

[If one challenger dies, the remaining challenger will immediately clear Floor 15.]

If I could not pass the round, clearing Floor 15 would fail.

And there would be no chance to retry.

I did not know whether that meant being trapped on Floor 15 forever or death.

Either way, it was still the end.

One person would certainly meet their end in this third round.

- End this now. There is no need to proceed with the third round. Use Radiant Incarnation, and I will deal with them immediately.

...I remained with time stopped for a long while.

Whether I earned more points or killed Kanyuk as the Demon King suggested,

I had to end Kanyuk somehow.

In a sense, that was no different from personally ending an entire world.

Kanyuk was the highest-floor Nightmare Climber of their world, just as I was of mine.

Still, I had to do it.

Otherwise, I and my world would be the ones destroyed.

There was no other way.

Kanyuk was a good person, and we had formed no small bond in that short time.

But that did not mean I could place Kanyuk’s world before Earth.

That was only natural. Kanyuk would feel the same way.

For now, I resumed time.

The terrain around us began to change.

In the endless space, platforms rose endlessly in every direction.

Then several faint lights flashed in the distance.

The Golden Orbs had likely been summoned.

[10:00]

[0:0]

A score window appeared along with a ten-minute timer.

I watched Kanyuk’s reaction.

...If Kanyuk showed hostility first, it would make things much easier for me. That cowardly thought crossed my mind.

Kanyuk stared into empty space, then soon turned toward me.

Their expression was difficult to read as they opened their mouth.

“Hyun.”

“...”

“Let’s make it a tie.”

“...What?”

It was the last thing I expected to hear.

Kanyuk continued calmly.

“Let’s both stop at ten points. If we tie, perhaps we can both pass the round.”

...What were they talking about?

There was no way that would work.

There was no explanation of what would happen if we tied, but there was no way the Tower would give us such a convenient ruling. Kanyuk had to know that too.

And now, we were no longer in a situation where we could trust each other.

“There’s no way that’ll work.”

“Even so, I want to try.”

Before I could say anything else, Kanyuk spoke again.

“Once we each earn ten points, let’s return here when the time is up, Hyun. On my honor as a warrior, I will keep my word. Let’s not give up like this. Let’s place our hopes on it once.”

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