Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability - Chapter 69

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 69: Floor 5 (7)

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The world was still ablaze with talk about Person123.

[Upperhook: So is it actually confirmed, like fact confirmed, that Person123 is Korean?]

[NightOwl: Bro, are you really looking for facts in here right now]

[BananaApple: This reminds me of when that Person123-is-a-woman theory was everywhere a few years ago. It was pure bait chaos back then.]

[Galaxy: At least now one thing is certain, he's a man.]

[Gwangtseus: I'm telling you, he's Mongolian. He cleared the sub-towers starting with Mongolia.]

[DragonBreath: Everything else took a few dozen minutes, but Mongolia took days. Why was his own country the slowest?]

[Wave: Maybe he cleared it late on purpose so people wouldn't figure out he was Mongolian?]

[Charlotte: If he cared about that, he would've matched the clear times on all the other sub-towers too.]

As always, the Communication Window was full of rumors piled on top of a few known facts.

While those pointless conversations kept going in circles, an old video resurfaced from a Korean online community.

[Seoul Arts Center situation, holy shit]

The Seoul Arts Center is total chaos right now. Cops are everywhere, people are coming out covered in blood, it's insane. Some weird black pillar shot up too...

It had been filmed on November 12, 2028, when the Fallen crisis broke out a year earlier.

A passerby had recorded a short clip while walking near the Seoul Arts Center.

Around the middle of the video, a black pillar suddenly rose from the center of the building.

It was evening and a bit dark, but still clear enough to see.

When it was first uploaded, people only said things like, "Is that the Fallen?" or "Is the video glitched?" It didn't get many views.

Now, mixed with all the rumors about Person123, that one-minute clip exploded worldwide.

[Cackler: Didn't they say Person123 fired some kind of black beam and killed Wang Kai...?]

[Frelic: And the video just happens to be from Korea. Damn, I got chills.]

[Arju: No way lol]

[WalnutPastry: This pretty much seals it.]

[Baeksun: So Person123 really was Korean...]

By then, the story that Wang Kai had vanished without a trace from a black beam had already spread everywhere.

For the rumors that Person123 might be Korean, this was treated as near-conclusive evidence.

[Arrowhead: I checked, and apparently Fallen appeared inside that building then, and a lot of people died?]

[Rody: So who handled it?]

[Ashpile: No idea. It just says police and Climbers from the Korean Climber Affairs Office handled it.]

[WineAndCheese: I'm digging through all the Korean news, but there's no detailed follow-up.]

[Rainwater: But looking at the clip, wasn't it obviously Person123?]

The Communication Window went crazy. The media went crazy too.

The Korean government was thrown into chaos as well.

Unofficial channels and hotline calls poured in from all kinds of countries.

The reason was Person123, of course. They suspected the Korean government was hiding his identity.

No... they were blindsided too.

How could they hide Person123? They knew nothing. For the Korean government, this came completely out of nowhere.

Before the video came out, Korean Climbers had actually been trying not to get too worked up in the Communication Window.

When rumors once claimed Person123 was Japanese, Japanese Climbers had jumped the gun hard. Koreans were trying not to end up looking the same way.

But once the video came out and the circumstances looked almost certain, they couldn't hold back anymore.

[LeftHanded: Kya! Person123 was really Korean!]

[PersimmonTree: Honestly, this is airtight.]

[CheeseBall: At this level, national hype is a 100,000% lethal dose lol]

[FineDust: But seriously, this doesn't even feel real. Is he really from our country?]

[Throne: Sob... so our country really did have a Nightmare clearer... the best Nightmare Climber in the world was one of ours...]

[GodGodGodGodGod: Thank you always for your devotion. God, Jesus, Buddha, Person123 let's go]

Now Person123 was openly acknowledged as the world's strongest Climber and humanity's savior, and he was Korean?

There was no way they could stop strutting.

Sure, the pattern looked similar to when Japan had jumped the gun, but this time the evidence was much clearer.

Person123, as always, made no statement.

The Korean government did release an official one soon after.

"...We are aware that many suspicions regarding the current situation are being directed at our government. But we clearly state that our government has no connection of any kind with Person123, and we have not identified any personal information about Person123."

The government had a lot to consider, but they put out a statement first.

Believe it or not, no country openly pushed back.

What were they supposed to do, say they didn't believe it and demand a clearer explanation?

Connected or not, it was still his country. Picking a fight would be like kicking a hornet's nest.

Countries around the world mostly kept a quiet stance of, "Hmm... noted for now," and simply watched Korea with suspicion.

[Icicle: Is the Korean government really hiding things about Person123?]

[Sat: Looking at the Seoul Arts Center video, at minimum isn't there some kind of link?]

[Wangding: Maybe not. They said Person123 can appear and disappear suddenly, right? He might've just handled the Fallen then left.]

[Wingbeat: But if the government knew, would they even hide it? Wouldn't public disclosure help more?]

[Fabridvi: A country that possesses Person123, damn. That's an absurd diplomatic card.]

[Paris: Maybe it's for his personal protection.]

[Herb: Maybe Person123 told the government to keep quiet.]

Talk like that never stopped.

Meanwhile, Japan was still negotiating treaty terms with partner countries over the mana vein issue.

Watching this situation unfold made things complicated for Japan too.

What Person123 had demanded for mana vein reactivation was agreement from every country on a new treaty. Naturally, everyone wanted even a little more advantage, so the talks were far from smooth.

And now Person123 might be Korean?

That made Korea impossible to ignore in negotiations.

"Still... I suppose this is a relief."

Japan's new prime minister, Yamaguchi, sighed and muttered.

Person123 had only said for the treaty countries to reach an agreement. He had not made a single demand that benefited Korea specifically.

He was the one who cleared the sub-towers. He held ownership of the mana veins. Frankly, if he demanded Japan hand half the mana veins to Korea, Japan would have no choice but to accept it.

As expected of humanity's savior, maybe Person123 really stayed strictly neutral, regardless of home country.

Impressed again by that fairness, Prime Minister Yamaguchi thought through how to handle the remaining negotiations.

The United States was busy too.

They poured full effort into confirming whether Person123 was truly Korean and how much of his identity the Korean government actually knew.

Analysis confirmed that the Seoul Arts Center black-pillar video was not AI-generated. They also cross-verified all testimony about Person123 from Security Force personnel, including Alex.

The probability that Person123 was Korean came out at over 99%.

Then what about the Korean government? Did they really not know his identity?

After combining all intelligence, their conclusion was again above 99%: the Korean government truly did not know.

The U.S. knew much more about allied countries than most people realized, and through intelligence agents, it tracked far more information in real time than most expected.

If the Korean government had truly identified Person123, there was no way the U.S. would have missed even signs of it.

So the final conclusion was this: Person123 was definitely Korean, and the Korean government had no grasp of his identity at all.

"We urgently need to revise our external strategy."

After that, the State Department and other U.S. agencies stayed in constant motion.

Even if the Korean government had nothing to do with Person123, he was still Korean.

That fact alone was enough reason to fully review policy direction and strategic posture toward Korea.

And here too, there was one more person in a difficult spot.

"Manager Shin, you truly don't know anything...?"

Under the suspicious stare of the Director of the Climber Affairs Office, Shin Su-jin answered.

"Yes, that's everything I've told you."

The Seoul Arts Center video was now the key evidence that nailed down Person123 as Korean.

Shin Su-jin had been on-site that day.

The report she had filed then on the Stage 5 Fallen was now tangled into this situation and raising doubts.

Shin Su-jin had no intention of saying anything about Person123, so she continued to feign ignorance.

The director sighed and nodded.

"Understood. You may go back to work. The higher-ups keep hounding me to dig deeper into what happened a year ago."

Shin Su-jin bowed lightly and left the director's office.

She had been genuinely shocked too after the Wang Kai incident. She had not been at that scene herself.

He had hidden his identity that thoroughly, yet he still took the risk of exposing himself to save the Security Force members.

Really... he was endlessly selfless.

Even if it was part of her job, those Security Force members were colleagues to Shin Su-jin too.

She felt grateful to Person123 for saving them, and at the same time she worried a little.

Now that the world was this loud with nothing but talk about his identity, maybe he was hurting because of it...

* * *

"Fu-uck."

Watching the news on TV, I muttered a curse.

- If you look at this footage, a black beam pierces through the roof of the Seoul Arts Center...

Seriously, when did they even film that?

Somebody had caught perfect timing a year ago, and now that video of me casting Destruction Beam got dug up, stamping my nationality in front of the whole world.

"Why are you cursing all of a sudden?"

"Nothing."

My sister glanced at me, then looked back at the news.

"But this is seriously huge. Person123 is actually Korean..."

I threw in a comment.

"Don't be too sure. It's no different from when the Japanese theory was trending."

"What? No. This time it's confirmed."

"There's no official statement, so who exactly confirmed it?"

"...Why do you keep killing the mood? What if it's true?"

She glared at me.

What if it's true...

Well, she wasn't wrong.