WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 38

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Fallen (1)

“I'm Kim Dae-ung, assigned to the Climbing Surveillance Division starting today! I look forward to working with you!”

With his heart pounding, Kim Dae-ung stepped into the division office and greeted everyone at full volume.

The team members blinked at him, then gave him a small round of applause.

“Wow, a rookie. A real rookie.”

“Welcome. What level are you, Dae-ung-ssi?”

“I-I'm level 2! Easy difficulty, Floor 3!”

“Just sit and relax for now. The manager should be back soon.”

Kim Dae-ung took a seat in the corner and glanced around, still tense.

The head of the Climbing Surveillance Division was one of the most famous people among Korean Climbers.

Shin Su-jin. A level 30 Climber on Normal Floor 16.

She was incredible, blasting through five floors this year alone and setting the top domestic record for Normal difficulty. Just yesterday, after she cleared Floor 15, it was all over the news.

Kim Dae-ung had been inspired by her too, and that was one reason he came to the Surveillance Division, a place other Climbers called insane if you joined it.

Then people suddenly appeared in the middle of the office.

“Ah, Manager. You're back?”

Everyone greeted her casually. Only Kim Dae-ung jumped in surprise.

Of the two, the woman noticed Kim Dae-ung and looked at him.

One team member introduced him right away.

“Manager, this is the new hire we told you about.”

“H-hello! I'm Kim Dae-ung! My difficulty is Easy, flo...!”

Shin Su-jin held out her hand.

“Welcome. I'm Manager Shin Su-jin.”

“Y-yes. It's an honor...!”

“...An honor?”

“No, I mean, not like that, I mean I'll work hard from now on!”

People around them burst out laughing.

Kim Dae-ung looked at the two of them, his face a little red.

He had heard about this before. Even inside the Surveillance Division, there was a team that handled work in the Floor 5 shared zone. Which meant the man was also a Climber above Floor 5.

“Yes, let's work well together.”

Shin Su-jin soon left again for somewhere else.

Kim Dae-ung stared blankly at her as she walked off, and the man spoke to him.

“You said Dae-ung-ssi, right? How old are you?”

“Ah, I was born in '98.”

“Mm, why'd you come to the Surveillance Division? Didn't everyone around you call you crazy?”

“Ah, yes. I heard that a lot.”

Kang Ju-hyeok chuckled.

If you were a Climber who could live comfortably just by selling magic stones, why would you come here and grind away at a government office? That was the normal reaction.

Kim Dae-ung answered a little shyly.

“Well, I personally respect Manager Shin Su-jin, and honestly, my goal is to climb up to the Floor 5 shared zone too.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. So I wanted to help out on that side too, something like that.”

Kang Ju-hyeok nodded with an exaggerated look of admiration.

“That's impressive. But Floor 5 work is harder than you'd think. People die left and right.”

“...Sorry?”

“Well, it's basically half a lawless zone. Daily life is posturing against Climbers from other countries. And if things go a little wrong, people really do fight.”

Kim Dae-ung's expression kept getting worse. Kang Ju-hyeok laughed and waved a hand.

“I'm kidding, kidding. Still, there are people around, so it's not that extreme.”

“Ah...”

“Anyway, if Floor 5 is your goal, we'll work together later. Ah, of course we're on the same team now too, but I mean the dedicated Floor 5 team.”

Kang Ju-hyeok patted his shoulder.

“Respect. You gave up the easy life and came in here. Looking forward to working with you.”

“Ah, yes! Me too...!”

Watching Kang Ju-hyeok follow after Shin Su-jin, Kim Dae-ung felt his heart pound.

His resolve to work hard from now on grew even stronger.

* * *

As soon as she returned from Floor 5, Shin Su-jin had to deal with annoying people.

“Congratulations, Manager Shin. You're now the best Normal-difficulty Climber in Korea. Heh heh.”

After briefly dealing with high-ranking government officials from some ministry who had shown up with no warning, Shin Su-jin made herself a cup of coffee in the break room.

“Say a word to the Director for me, Team Leader. If they keep letting people like that come by, I'm quitting.”

Kang Ju-hyeok came over and joked, and Shin Su-jin smirked.

As he mixed his instant coffee, he asked casually,

“But... are you planning to challenge Floor 16 too?”

Shin Su-jin shook her head.

“No. I don't plan to challenge any further for now.”

“Whew, figures. Watching you climb, Team Leader, I started wondering if you were aiming for the all-time record.”

All-time record.

At the moment, the highest record on Normal difficulty was Floor 20.

And no matter the difficulty, the higher floors either had no properly disclosed information or no information at all.

Except Nightmare difficulty, Climbers at the top floors of other difficulties never shared information freely. That information was also a reward they had won by risking their lives.

Even for Normal difficulty, information from Floor 16 onward was not properly disclosed.

So for Shin Su-jin, if she tried it, the pressure would be on a completely different level from all her challenges so far. Fear of the unknown was that great.

Facing it directly made her realize again how incredible Person123 was.

He had endured this kind of pressure and still cleared three Nightmare floors. Then he gave all that information away for free.

Shin Su-jin was not someone who cared much about other people, but thoughts of him came to her often anyway.

Of course they did. He was humanity's hero, and someone she was personally deeply grateful to.

After killing Seo Dong-woo, she had stopped having nightmares.

Honestly, she wanted to see him again and thank him properly face to face, but whenever they spoke in the Communication Window, she could feel him drawing a line, so she had never done it.

All she could do was hope she got that chance someday.

“Ah, anyway, it's almost time now. One hour left.”

Kang Ju-hyeok changed the subject. He did not name what he meant, but Shin Su-jin understood right away.

The Tower's 3-year rule. Today was the day first-wave Climbers who still had not entered the Tower would die.

On Easy and Normal, of course almost everyone had already challenged. For Hard, statistics said around 5% had given up.

More than anything, on Nightmare, far more than half had given up challenging.

The current number of registered Nightmare Climbers in Korea was a little over 300.

When Nightmare Floor 1 was first cleared, the survivor count had been about 70,000. By population ratio, it was estimated there should be at least 100 or more additional first-wave Nightmare Climbers.

The government had offered various rewards and benefits to identify and support first-wave Nightmare Climbers in the country, but there were still quite a few who had not reported. And all of them were effectively considered to have given up.

It was tragic, but there was no way to help them.

After finishing their coffee, Shin Su-jin and Kang Ju-hyeok headed back out for work.

“You know that murder case I mentioned last time? We got a cooperation request from that side. Looks like the suspect really is a Climber after all, but I can go alone, Team Leader. You should rest a bit.”

“I just rested. Let's go together.”

“Yep, then let's move.”

* * *

As soon as I solved the cube, I slammed it into the slot with a bang.

29 seconds. My record had improved a lot.

“I'll break it soon.”

The reason I was trying to cut time on a Floor 3 cube I'd already cleared?

Simple. I got a request from Mr. Rhino.

He wanted exact info on whether the boss really got weaker if you cut the sun emblem activation time to under 3 minutes.

It had been bugging me too, so I decided to check.

After some practice, I got the feel for it.

And since I could stop time in the middle of solving cubes, cutting time was easier for me.

I didn't need to obsess over sub-20 seconds anyway, so after shaving my cube time a bit and dropping sun emblem activation below 3 minutes, I had already confirmed the boss got weaker.

Still, for precise data, I kept trying for a 20-second cube. I could probably do it soon.

“Move, move~.”

I shoved past the undead in the corridor that only partially led to the cavern.

I activated the sun emblem, went back up, and wiped out the boss too.

For reference, after I cleared Hidden, the temple disappeared.

Only plains spread in every direction. Just like the other floors, there was nothing more worth doing.

I exited Floor 3.

Then I entered again. Floor 2.

“Come on, let's run.”

I rode on Pli's back and sprinted through the night forest path with Diul.

My quest to raise affinity with my Diul was always ongoing, so night walks were a steady routine.

I muttered loud enough for him to hear, and Diul snorted.

No need to mock me, you little punk.

Well, I had only gotten Stealth recently, so wanting a higher stage already was pretty shameless.

I had already tested Diul's stealth ability in various ways.

First, maximum stealth duration was about 10 minutes.

That seemed likely to increase as my connection with Diul got stronger.

Second, while stealthed, all sound and presence I made got blocked.

It didn't just make me invisible, it felt like it erased my very presence.

And third, stealth broke if I took impact over a certain threshold, moved too fast, or used a skill.

In short, keeping it up continuously during combat was impossible.

Still, even if stealth broke, I could reactivate it quickly.

That alone made its uses almost endless.

“Don't you have any separate ability of your own, Pli?”

I asked Pli while he ran with me on his back.

Of course there was no answer. He just kept running happily.

Yeah, for this guy, level-50 physical stats were his ability.

Without Destruction Beam, he was still a monster I wasn't confident I could beat.

Ah, still, Pli could communicate mentally too, like Diul. If that counted, telepathy was an ability.

After an exciting run and my Floor 2 night walk, I returned to my room.

I had to head out soon. Today was the day I received magic stones.

“Should I buy a car?”

That thought suddenly hit me.

I had never really felt the need, so I only used public transportation. I still didn't even have a driver's license.

Maybe I could go out and drive sometimes as a hobby, like riding Pli in the Tower.

I once saw a documentary on YouXube saying it was dangerous if Climbers got too absorbed in the Tower.

Being a Climber meant betting your own life, and killing things with your own hands.

I didn't think I had changed that much, but mental health was still something to watch carefully.

Now that I thought about it, I really had done nothing lately but go in and out of the Tower unless I had to do something else.

I decided that since I was going out today, I would take a long walk around before coming back.

[ShootingStar: It's almost time now. 1 hour left.]

[SweetPotatoPotato: What are Nightmare difficulty Climbers supposed to do;]

[Kedi: But if it were me and I got Nightmare, I'd probably just not challenge and die]

Out of habit, I glanced through the Communication Window for a moment and closed it.

A full 20 days had passed since the Floor 3 clear, and today was the day the 3-year rule had warned about.

Among the first-wave Climbers who received the Tower's call at the very beginning, those who never climbed would soon die.

I heard they could actually see a separate timer.

In their eyes, a timer with about one hour left was ticking down.

[Nightmare]

Population: 333,585

Time Limit: 1 year 1 hour 1 minute 39 seconds

Reached Floor: Floor 4

[Nightmare(15)]

For reference, a few more people had recently succeeded in Nightmare clears, so the total was now fifteen.

Looking at the reduced population, it seemed quite a lot of first-wave Climbers had challenged after all, but the survival rate was despairingly bad as always.

There was still one hour left, so more people would probably try.

Still, there seemed to be many people choosing not to challenge even while accepting death.

Nothing to be done about that.

Hoping they could at least face a peaceful death, I got ready to go out.

* * *

On the way by car to Seoul Seocho Police Station, Shin Su-jin and Kang Ju-hyeok spotted a crowd gathered on the street.

“Get the hell back! All of you! Come closer and I'll really kill her!”

Both were startled, pulled over immediately, and got out.

A man was taking a woman hostage with a knife to her neck.

“Fuck, why am I the one who has to die! Somebody save me, please...!”

“Please calm down! Calm down and put the knife down!”

Kang Ju-hyeok stepped forward and tried to calm him.

The man, clearly not in his right mind, screamed like he was breaking down.

“You think I'd calm down if I were you?! I'm a Nightmare Climber! I only have 3 minutes left! Aaaagh!”

Shin Su-jin checked Nightmare's Time Limit.

[Nightmare]

Population: 330,982

Time Limit: 1 year 2 minutes 59 seconds

Reached Floor: Floor 4

Just like the man said, only around 3 minutes remained.

The 3-year rule would trigger the moment the remaining Time Limit became exactly 1 year.

Someone pushed that far into a corner could really kill. Blood was already running down the woman's neck.

Shin Su-jin was agonizing over whether to force a rescue attempt.

Clang.

The man suddenly dropped the knife and collapsed to the ground.

Shin Su-jin moved at once and secured the panicked woman.

Maybe he had given up; the man let out a hollow laugh and muttered.

Kang Ju-hyeok stepped close. There was only one thing he could say to him.

“I'm truly sorry.”

10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds...

Time drew near.

Shin Su-jin and Kang Ju-hyeok could only stand still and watch the man's condition.

And then...

[3 years have elapsed.]

[A total of 43,456 Climbers have died for not entering the Tower.]

Along with the messages, the man suddenly collapsed with no warning at all.

The people watching held their breath.

Kang Ju-hyeok checked the fallen man's pulse and muttered,

“...So this is how they die.”

Shin Su-jin also let out a sigh and moved in closer to the man's body.

That was when,

[Climbers who die by the Tower's Curse will revive as 'Fallen'.]

[There is a 90% chance that a Stage 1 Fallen will occur.]

[There is a 9% chance that a Stage 2 Fallen will occur.]

[There is a 0.9% chance that a Stage 3 Fallen will occur.]

[There is a 0.09% chance that a Stage 4 Fallen will occur.]

[There is a 0.01% chance that a Stage 5 Fallen will occur.]

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