WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 6

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Information Sharing (1)

Nightmare Floor 1 was cleared with only three hours left before the end. Humanity survived by the skin of its teeth.

I had slept like the dead since yesterday afternoon and only woke at dawn. Out of habit, I reached for my phone.

XTube news, portal articles, everything was saturated with the same story.

I tossed my phone beside my pillow and stretched.

"Ughhh..."

I felt pretty refreshed.

I had gotten past one huge crisis, so that was only natural.

Even if all it did was buy us one more year...

I did not die yesterday, and I got one more year to live. That had to count as good news, right? Hahaha.

It really was a day that made me realize how precious life was.

"Ha..."

Right. One year.

Did that mean I would have to challenge Floor 2 too?

Honestly, I felt it yesterday.

Probably no one could clear this.

Nightmare difficulty was not made for humans to clear.

Even I had only barely managed it through my ability and pure luck.

'Still, Floor 1 might be different now.'

I had cleared it, so Floor 1 was no longer a demon realm with zero information.

If I shared what I knew, maybe one or two more people would start succeeding.

Once the information got out, people would prepare for it properly, and more challengers would step up.

And if more people started climbing Nightmare difficulty like that?

Maybe someone exceptional would keep going and clear Floor 2, Floor 3, and beyond.

Once they cleared Floor 1, they would level up and gain access to skills.

Then I would not have to keep risking my life by entering the Tower.

I opened a feature I had not checked yesterday.

"Communication Window."

A Communication Window where Climbers could talk and make posts.

In short, it was a Climber-only community.

Since it was a reward for clearing Floor 1, maybe it was more accurate to call it a space for Climbers on Floor 2 and above.

[You have entered the Communication Window for the first time.]

[Please set the nickname you will use in the Communication Window.]

[Once set, your nickname cannot be changed.]

A nickname, huh.

I thought for a moment.

Even in games, I was the type to waste forever picking a character name.

Ah, this was going to take forever again.

I should just pick something and move on.

['Person' is already in use.]

['Person123' is available.]

[Would you like to set your nickname as 'Person123'?]

[Your nickname has been set to 'Person123'.]

[Easy(30,561)]

[Normal(21,194)]

[Hard(3,935)]

[Nightmare(1)]

There were four windows divided by difficulty.

The number next to each one was probably the number of Climbers who could access that Communication Window.

As expected, I was alone in Nightmare.

[You can only write posts in the Communication Window of your own difficulty.]

I entered the Easy Communication Window once.

Posting was limited to your own difficulty, but viewing did not seem restricted across difficulties.

[997/1,000]

[1,000/1,000]

[652/1,000]

Inside, even the Easy Communication Window was split into multiple channels.

The max per channel was one thousand, and those numbers were probably current online users.

I entered the channel with the most people.

Everyone was talking about the Nightmare Floor 1 clear.

[GrassLeaf: Still no reveal on who cleared Nightmare?]

[Macaron: Looks like a real unregistered Climber. If not, there would've been an announcement already.]

[Klestin: It hasn't even been a full day yet.]

[EggRice: The government might be hiding it for identity protection.]

[Peter3: True. If it gets out, things will blow up.]

[TowerWarrior: Still, shouldn't they release at least the Floor 1 info? For humanity's sake, at least.]

[RollingTwist: Watch your mouth. That's the savior who extended Earth's service by a year. "For humanity's sake?"]

[MrKim: fr, I just wanna know what the hell was in there that killed 40,000 people.]

[Piksquaktur: What I want to know most is what country he's from.]

[MountainRiverSea: Obviously Chinese.]

[BlackTea: Stop daydreaming.]

So this was how it worked.

It was a communication space where Climbers from all over the world could gather and talk.

Everything showed up in Korean for me, so the Tower was probably doing real-time translation, but that was not surprising.

Tower messages were already displayed in each person's own language anyway.

Still, people were seriously interested in me.

'Unregistered Climber...'

In this country, not reporting yourself as a Climber was illegal.

What if I came forward now, filed my Climber report, and told the government I was the Nightmare clearer?

There were benefits.

A Climber who cleared Floor 1 and awakened the Status Window could learn skills and enter the Tower carrying items.

Since every reward from the Tower could be brought outside, not just Mana Stones but also Skill Stones and items were naturally being traded.

If I told the government, I could probably get funding too. Skill Stones, items, whatever.

But there was no way that would be free.

In the end, it meant I would have to keep challenging Nightmare difficulty.

"Yeah, no."

I shook my head.

Once I revealed myself, there was no going back.

And the responsibility would be too heavy.

It was not like I had some grand mission.

Even with Floor 1, I only challenged it because everyone was about to die and I was grabbing at straws.

If possible, I did not want to keep climbing the Tower.

But if I revealed I was the Nightmare clearer, then no matter what I wanted, there would be no way back to a normal life.

Considering everything, it was better not to report myself at all.

[Tulip: Hey, the Nightmare Communication Window shows 1 now.]

[Frigg: ?]

[Cheesecake: Holy crap, it's real?]

[BlueWolf: Looks like our Nightmare clearer finally logged into the Communication Window.]

[GrassLeaf: Still no post yet.]

The chat suddenly sped up like crazy.

I closed the Communication Window.

By the time I was done looking around, morning had already come.

When I came out of my room, my father was watching TV in the living room, and my mother was preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. Sleep okay?"

"Yes. I think I was just tired yesterday."

Father looked like he was in a good mood.

The morning news was on TV.

As expected, it was about the Nightmare clear.

"Jeez, what is this world even coming to..."

Father clicked his tongue.

A world where humanity's lifespan got extended one year at a time by clearing each floor of the Tower.

What a ridiculous world this had become.

"As all first floors across all Tower difficulties have now been cleared, a new group of people has once again received the Tower's Summons. Just like the Day of Upheaval one year ago, a total of 400,000 people were summoned this time as well..."

While watching TV, Father asked me,

"Seo-hyeon, you didn't get summoned, right?"

"Huh? No, I didn't."

"Good. Even if you somehow become a Climber, never think about climbing the Tower."

"Come on, no way. What's the point of making money if one wrong step gets you killed?"

I answered casually.

"Right. Good. Nothing in this world is more precious than a human life."

I felt exactly the same way, Dad.

But well, this was how things had turned out.

That was why I could never tell my family. It was obvious how much they would worry.

"Are you going to work today?"

"Of course. I'm the boss. I have to."

After breakfast, Father left for work, and my younger sibling went to school since classes were not canceled.

The world had almost ended yesterday, but now it looked like nothing had happened. Seriously, this country was something else.

"Seo-hyeon, aren't you going to school today?"

"I'm heading out at one."

I had an afternoon class too.

I sat at my desk and logged into the Communication Window again.

[Nightmare(1)]

The Nightmare Communication Window, where I was alone, felt completely empty.

Before heading out, I planned to upload information about Nightmare Floor 1.

Please read this, and let more Nightmare clearers start appearing.

'...Is that a weird thing to hope for?'

Honestly, what I went through yesterday was not something anyone should have to go through.

But whether I wished for it or not, people would challenge it anyway, right? The number of selected people had increased this time too.

I had just been lucky.

How was I supposed to carry this burden alone?

If the world was going to survive, we absolutely needed more Nightmare difficulty clearers.

This information was for them.

I organized everything in my head and started writing.

* * *

After Nightmare difficulty Floor 1 was cleared, the whole world was busy trying to contain the chaos.

The world had not ended, but the fear people felt before Floor 1 was cleared was no different from a pandemic.

Financial markets were a complete mess, and plenty of people ran wild in panic, so society had fallen into total chaos.

South Korea had held up relatively well.

The threat of apocalypse had not disappeared. It had only been pushed back by one year.

"We stood at a critical crossroads. In the face of the unknown threat called the Tower, humanity's fate was no better than a candle in the wind, and all of us prayed for a miracle. And that miracle truly happened.

As President of the United States of America, I offer inexpressible gratitude and respect to the hero who succeeded in clearing Nightmare difficulty Floor 1. We now see hope. One year is a long time. To ensure this kind of crisis never happens again, our government will work harder and more desperately than ever before to clear Nightmare difficulty."

At the same time, everyone was desperate to find out who had cleared Nightmare Floor 1.

"Still no official announcement?"

"What about China or India?"

"Both are quiet. Is this really an unregistered Climber?"

"They said the person logged into the Climber Communication Window, right? No post yet?"

It was the only person in history to clear Nightmare Floor 1, a figure wrapped in mystery until now.

That person stood at the very front line of humanity's hope.

And the Nightmare Floor 1 information in that person's hands was so valuable that nothing could measure it.

What if some country planned to hide the Nightmare clearer's identity completely? Or what if it was an unregistered Climber with no intention of revealing anything? Whatever the reason, what if they planned to monopolize the information?

Only one day had passed, but of course everyone was already getting desperate.

Then, around noon.

"I-it's up!"

"They released Nightmare Floor 1 info just like that? Really?"

A post suddenly appeared in the Nightmare Communication Window that had been empty.

[Person123: This is Nightmare Floor 1 clear information.]

It began with that short sentence, without a single unnecessary word.

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