WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 24

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Fugitive (1)

- A prison break has occurred at Gangwon Northern Prison in Sokcho, Gangwon Province. The escaped inmate is presumed to be a Climber, and it has been confirmed that there are more than thirty casualties inside the prison. In response to this unprecedented emergency, the government has deployed the military to conduct a search...

I woke up on a bright Monday morning to insane news on TV.

"What the hell is this?"

A prison break? By a Climber?

The fugitive's face and personal details were already all over the internet. Seo Dong-woo.

The key point was that they still had not caught him.

Cases of Climbers committing major crimes happened overseas from time to time, but I never expected something like this to happen in Korea too. Seriously.

Thinking the world had truly gone nuts, I opened the Communication Window out of habit.

It was chaos there too.

[Soyeong: You people got this kind of power and still live like boring losers? Learn from me.]

[Soyeong: By the way, you're all searching hard for me right now, aren't you? Curious where I am? Not telling! Keep looking~]

"What is this now?"

Hard difficulty Communication Window.

Some lunatic was posting nonstop and drawing all the attention.

* * *

"He's completely insane. We need to find him fast."

Kang Ju-hyeok drove while forcing himself through the nausea still twisting his stomach.

He had just come from Gangwon Northern Prison, the place that had turned into a horrific bloodbath last night.

The stale smell of blood still lingering in the prison had not left his head yet.

Shin Su-jin sat in the passenger seat in silence, deep in thought. Kang Ju-hyeok spoke to her.

"What do you think, Team Leader? Around what level do you think he is?"

The guy had ripped the entire steel door off his cell and walked out like nothing. He was anything but normal.

Seo Dong-woo had been serving life for murder for ten years, which meant he had become a Climber while still in prison.

Until now, there had been three cases in Korea where inmates became Climbers. If they reported it, they could receive a pardon under special supervision, and all three had been released that way.

Yet Seo Dong-woo hid the fact that he had become a Climber, kept climbing the Tower in secret, and finally carried out a prison break. In the dumbest way possible.

The only conclusion was that he was simply a madman.

No one knew how he had entered the Tower all this time without getting caught, but for now they could only guess that he silenced his cellmates and entered at night.

The average clear time for Hard difficulty was about ten minutes. If the other inmates kept their mouths shut and he avoided the guards on patrol, sneaking in was not impossible. There was no way to verify it now, though, because Seo Dong-woo had killed all those inmates before escaping.

What they could not pin down was his level.

"Team Leader?"

"...Yes? What did you say?"

"Ah, nothing. I was just wondering how high Seo Dong-woo's level might be."

"Right. Maybe around level 20."

They had checked prison CCTV and testimony from guards who survived direct combat with him. Bullets barely worked on him.

That meant one thing. Either his level was very high, or he had durability-enhancing skills, or defensive skills.

With shocking physical ability, Seo Dong-woo broke through armed guards, scaled the prison wall, and fled.

He was believed to have escaped into the mountains, so the military was currently searching the Seoraksan area.

The Climber Surveillance Division of the Climber Special Affairs Office had also been deployed for this unprecedented crisis. There had been a few smaller violent incidents involving Climbers before, but never anything on this scale.

Still, there was little they could do right now. They were only moving to one predicted escape route while receiving shared intel from search units.

Predicted route was just a phrase, really. Even the search itself seemed to be hitting walls.

He might already be out of the mountain region. High-level Climbers had abilities that ordinary people could not reasonably judge. Terrain like that would be like his own backyard.

"Even if we find him, couldn't he just run into the Tower as long as he's not in Combat State? Damn, what is this mess..."

And that lunatic was still stirring chaos in the Communication Window.

A Climber using the nickname Soyeong had appeared in the Hard difficulty chat.

Find me quickly, Climbers should all go wild together, I will show you why murder is fun, he kept posting one insane line after another like a full-blown psychopath.

They could not be absolutely certain it was Seo Dong-woo, but based on context, the odds were high.

Kang Ju-hyeok glanced at Shin Su-jin, who had been quiet for a while. She kept staring into empty space, so he asked,

"What is it? Did he post something else?"

"...No. Nothing."

Her mood was unnaturally cold and sunken, so Kang Ju-hyeok read the room and kept quiet.

Is she really angry?

More than twenty guards had died at his hands, so it made sense.

Kang Ju-hyeok had not worked with Shin Su-jin for very long, but he did know one thing. She hated evil people almost to the point of obsession.

One of the few level-20-plus high-level Climbers in Korea.

Now that international competition between Climbers was steadily intensifying, high-level Climbers were effectively national assets. Shin Su-jin was one of them.

Even though he was younger, Kang Ju-hyeok respected her.

If she wanted, she could have enjoyed much greater wealth and status, yet she still served in the always short-staffed Climber Special Affairs Office and took on public duty for the country.

"We're near a rest stop. Should we pull over for a bit?"

"Sure. You look sick. I'll drive after that."

"What? No, it's fine!"

Kang Ju-hyeok answered quickly.

She even looked after her subordinates, so he respected her all the more.

As his mood lifted a little, Shin Su-jin turned her eyes to the window.

Still staring at the Communication Window with icy eyes, she ground her teeth.

* * *

Kim Seong-ho had been uneasy lately.

After raising two kids, the only thing he had ever seriously worried about was his younger child. But now his first child, who had never caused his parents a single worry and always handled everything well, had suddenly become a Climber out of nowhere.

He hurried to look into it. People said Easy Floor 1 was not really dangerous. And with repeated clears, you could exit whenever you wanted.

Still, parents worried. That was just how it was.

He trusted his son. The boy had never once caused trouble and would handle himself well.

So Kim Seong-ho could not bring himself to oppose him.

His son always listened to his parents, yes, but once he made up his mind, he was stubborn and never changed it. Kim Seong-ho knew that too.

"Manager Park, your son is two years old now, right?"

"Yes, sir. Fifteen months."

"If your son became a Climber later, how do you think you'd feel?"

Manager Park tilted his head and answered.

"My heart would drop. It's dangerous, isn't it?"

"Right? Then what if it was Easy difficulty?"

"If it's Easy... maybe I'd worry less? People say hardly anyone dies on Easy unless they push to high floors."

Kim Seong-ho wanted to argue at once.

"No. When it actually happens to you, I think it feels different. That's how parents are."

"Ah, yes... maybe you're right."

Manager Park laughed awkwardly.

"Still, sir, I doubt you had to worry much about your kids. Isn't your son at Seoul National University College of Medicine? Haha."

"...Right. Anyway, it's time to head home. You should get going too."

Kim Seong-ho sighed inwardly and got ready to leave work.

A sudden craving for beer hit him, so he stopped by a convenience store before going home and had a can for the first time in a while. He sat on a plastic chair outside, drank, and scrolled through news on his phone.

- The whereabouts of fugitive Seo Dong-woo remain unknown at this time...

"Tsk, tsk. How have they still not caught him?"

Seo Dong-woo, the Climber who massacred prison guards and escaped.

They said even the military had joined the manhunt, but three days had passed and he was still not caught. Public anxiety was skyrocketing, and sentiment was turning ugly.

Thinking the world was truly falling apart, Kim Seong-ho drained the rest of his beer in one gulp.

A little drunk, he took a longer route home than usual to get some air.

Orange streetlights lit a quiet alley with almost no one around. A man walked toward him from the opposite side.

Cap, hood, and mask.

The man's build was so intimidating that Kim Seong-ho tried to keep a little distance and pass by.

"Sir."

The man called out to him.

Kim Seong-ho flinched and stopped.

"How do I get to Yeongdeungpo Station from here? Can I ask directions?"

"...Yeongdeungpo Station? That way..."

Kim Seong-ho politely explained the route. The man gave off a dangerous vibe, and tension filled the air.

"Ah, it was that way. I was going the exact opposite direction. Thanks."

Thankfully, the man listened and started walking away.

Kim Seong-ho thought to himself that the young guy's tone was rude and moved to leave too.

"Ah, hold on a second, sir."

Kim Seong-ho turned toward him. At that same moment, the streetlight flickered.

Kim Seong-ho glanced up at the uneasy flicker, then looked back at the man.

"W-why? What is it?"

The man stepped closer and looked over Kim Seong-ho's face from side to side.

"...You look like him."

"W-what...?"

"You look like my old man who beat the hell out of me and ran off when I was ten. You're not my father, are you? Hehe."

The man's eyes were dangerous. His words made no sense. He looked out of his mind.

Kim Seong-ho felt his heart pounding and shook his head in panic.

"I-I'm a married man with a proper family. You've got the wrong person."

"Yeah, I know. I was joking. But you really do look like him. Makes me feel like shit."

The man grinned and waved the hand he had just pulled out of his pocket.

"So let me hit you just once. You gave me directions nicely, so I'll go easy, okay? If you die, too bad."

Bang!

Kim Seong-ho's body flew, slammed into the alley wall, and dropped limp. His consciousness cut out.

Whistling, the man walked away with light steps.

* * *

"...What did you just say?"

Late at night, a call came from my father's number like a bolt from the blue.

My family and I threw on clothes and rushed to the severe trauma center.

"If you'd been even a little later, it could have been very serious, but his life is not in danger now, so please don't worry."

"T-thank you, doctor. Thank you..."

My mother was nearly collapsing as she cried. My younger sibling broke down too, and I had to steady both of them.

Emergency surgery finished, and my father lay in a hospital bed with his eyes closed.

I stared down at him with a stiff face.

They said his ribs were shattered as if he'd been hit by a truck.

By a miracle, there was almost no internal organ damage, so the operation had not been difficult.

"Are you the patient's family?"

A police officer came and explained what happened.

My father had not been in a traffic accident. He had been assaulted.

"Assault? He's this badly injured, so who the hell did this...!"

"...You know Seo Dong-woo, right? The Climber who escaped prison recently. Nothing is fully confirmed yet, but we believe he is involved."

The fugitive? Seo Dong-woo?

My family and I could only stand there stunned.

"We have CCTV footage. We can show it to you if you want, but..."

We watched the recording the police brought.

An alley. My father was walking and seemed to exchange a few words with a man approaching from the opposite direction.

They started to go their separate ways, then the man walked back to my father.

What happened next was shocking. My mother and sibling both gasped.

The man suddenly swung his fist. My father's body flew into the wall and collapsed.

"..."

The moment I saw it, something in my head seemed to snap.

"Now that he's exposed his position, we will probably catch him soon. Even now we're mobilizing all police resources to trace his route..."

If he were that easy to catch, they would have caught him already.

That thought came to mind, but the police finished their explanation and left.

It was late, almost dawn, when my mother spoke to us.

"You two should go home now. Mom can stay with Dad alone."

"I'll stay too."

"Where will you even sleep here? It's okay, go home and sleep. You have school tomorrow."

I took my stubborn sibling and went home.

Even after getting back, my head still felt hot.

Because I was furious.

I did not think I had ever been this angry in my life.

"Hoo."

I sat at my desk and opened the Communication Window.

That bastard had been spewing endless garbage in the Hard chat for days.

He was probably Seo Dong-woo.

[Soyeong: The world is so beautiful. That's why I want to kill everyone.]

[Soyeong: Anyone want to start a revolution with me? Climbers should rule this world. Wouldn't it be great to live killing whoever you want, as much as you want!]

[Soyeong: You're slaves, you slaves. Pathetic slaves with no freedom.]

I found the messages he had left and stared at his nickname for a long time.

Then I sent him a whisper.

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