WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Climbing the Tower with Time-Stop Ability

Chapter 94

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Nightmare Floor 7 (1)

"-...Then please welcome him with a big round of applause. Groom, enter."

Clap clap clap clap...

I attended my cousin hyung's wedding.

After the ceremony, all the family and cousins gathered at a restaurant for a meal.

"Seo-hyeon, how have you been lately? Isn't your job dangerous?"

"What? Seo-hyeon became a Climber? What about med school?"

Some cousins knew I had become a Climber, and some didn't.

So while I ate, I had to endure a barrage of questions from the adults.

I also got a brief chance to talk with today's main character, my cousin hyung, who was busy greeting all the guests.

"Your face is glowing, hyung."

"Haha, isn't this the happiest day of my life? Of course it is."

He really did look happy.

I had heard wedding halls were completely packed these days as November got closer.

The reason was obviously the Nightmare time limit.

Maybe people were trying to do what they could now, because this year might be the end of the world.

He said he had barely managed to book a large wedding hall too.

"Seo-hyeon, you'll be twenty-six next year, right? You should hurry up and get married too."

"You should ask if I even have a girlfriend first, hyung."

"Sorry."

"Should I just become a civil servant after I graduate?"

My younger sister suddenly said that.

She hadn't even taken a leave of absence and had somehow pushed through all her credits.

"Where did that come from?"

"No, it's just... Su-yeon unni passed the civil service exam, so it suddenly popped into my head."

Mom let out a dry laugh, and Dad spoke.

"Take your time thinking about employment, Seo-a. Do what you want. Your mom and I don't care what it is."

I didn't really want to recommend it either.

Who knew when the world might end, and spending that time preparing for the civil service exam felt... wasteful.

If she was only saying it because she had nothing else to do, it would be better to just enjoy herself. It's not like our family was short on money.

My sister said,

"I'm saying this because it's what I want to do. What about working at the Climber Affairs Office?"

"...Why the Climber Affairs Office?"

"I don't know, I just feel drawn to it."

I said,

"I heard the workload there is insane. People call it a hell department. You know that, right?"

"I know that too."

Then why was she drawn to a place like that?

Well, she could figure it out herself...

I looked out the window and watched the scenery pass by.

At that point, there were less than two months left before the Nightmare time limit.

* * *

Time passed.

[Nightmare]

Population: 475,126

Time Limit: 30 days 1 hour 5 minutes 52 seconds

Reached Floor: Floor 7

The time for another challenge was getting close again.

Kwaaaaang!

A Fog Wraith that ambushed me through the mist took a Flame Strike and exploded together with its clone.

I continued hunting in Zone 5 and checked the gauge.

[Zone 5 (38%)]

There was still a long, long way to go.

At this rate, I might not even fill the gauge after clearing Floor 7.

The pace was much slower than in Zone 4, so it was only natural.

Zone 5 was covered in heavy fog, so it was hard to actively track down monsters.

And aside from me, there weren't any other Climbers hunting there.

Well, maybe not literally none, but still.

Also, at level 80, I wasn't confident I could beat the Zone 5 boss, which had to be at least level 100.

Even the Zone 4 boss had a head-destruction gimmick, so the easy one-tap Destruction Beam method didn't work. I had a feeling the Zone 5 boss might be the same...

[Difficulty: Nightmare]

[Floor: Floor 7]

[Level: 85]

[Willpower: 4,050]

[Skills: Destruction Beam (Epic+), Subspace (Epic), Sixth Sense (Rare+) (+3), Teleport (Rare+), Rapid Regeneration (Rare+), Searing Zone (Rare+), Lesser Flame Refinement (Rare+), Sword of Light (Rare+), Cavalry Charge (Rare+), Flame Strike (Rare) (+5), Thunder Strike (Rare) (+2), Blade Whirlwind (Rare), Heightening (Rare), Skin Hardening (Rare), Aura Reinforcement (Rare)...]

[Skill: Aura Reinforcement (Rare)]

Forms aura reinforcement to increase attack power. You can coat your body or a weapon you are touching with aura reinforcement.

Classification: Physical-Type

Willpower Cost: 10 per second

Cooldown: 10 seconds

The skills I got from Billon.

I managed to get Aura Reinforcement, a skill called top-tier among Rare Physical-Type skills.

Still, now that I had Sword of Light, it wasn't that essential for me anymore... but anyway, having it didn't hurt.

Billon also got me one Rare+ Skill Enhancement Stone, so I could enhance Sixth Sense to +3.

Other than that, I got miscellaneous Common+ or Common skill stones and enhancement stones.

For reference, the regular reward I got from the Zone 2 boss was a Rare Skill Enhancement Stone, and I used it to enhance Thunder Strike.

I finished hunting and returned to my room.

[Sorrow: The day of fate is coming again...]

[HanShow: At this rate, it wouldn't even be weird if I dropped dead of a heart attack one year lol]

[Dracula: Still, when the clear message pops, the dopamine goes crazy]

[Celira: He'll clear Floor 7 too, right? Please!]

[Lemur: Just trust and wait with a reverent heart. Person123 is a god]

I looked through the Communication Window out of habit, then closed it.

Still, how should I put this.

Compared to the early days, it felt like people weren't quite as anxious anymore even when the time limit got close.

I thought I'd seen stats saying that after I fixed my challenge date to the 20-day mark, crime rates and financial market panic dropped a lot too.

By now I'd steadily cleared through Floor 6, so that much trust had built up.

And that trust wasn't exactly a burden to me now...

But the result was still unknown.

Even after making it this far, Nightmare's brutal difficulty never let me feel even a little complacency or arrogance. It had always been a knife-edge walk.

Would Floor 7 be my last this time, or would we get another year?

- The difficulty time limit has reached one day before the 20-day mark. Person123's Floor 7 challenge is now just ahead...

The Nightmare time limit had come all the way down to exactly one day before 20 days.

This year too, I didn't go on a trip. I just got some air around home.

When I went to Gwanghwamun, I could already see people out there praying.

[Nightmare]

Population: 475,093

Time Limit: 21 days 1 minute 6 seconds

Reached Floor: Floor 7

Evening.

I sat on my bed and waited for the time limit to hit exactly 21 days.

On Floor 4 and Floor 6, the Tower made its proposal at exactly the 21-day point.

I needed to see whether it would make another proposal this time too.

"Did the Tower make you an offer?"

The Demon King suddenly spoke.

"Yes."

"...What offer was it? Did you accept it?"

I told him every proposal the Tower had made so far.

The Floor 4 penalty, the Floor 6 Ark, and even what happened at the Masked Auction.

"It could make another proposal this time too. That's why I'm waiting right now."

The Demon King let out a bitter, regretful laugh.

"You cannot deal with the Tower. Whatever it offers, do not accept it."

...Was he giving me advice for once?

"Pointless words anyway. You'll fail soon enough."

The moment I thought he was acting unusual, he cursed me again.

Of course, I already knew the Tower was a petty, filthy bastard.

I had no intention of accepting anything from it unless I absolutely had to.

"Did the Tower scam you or something?"

The Demon King didn't answer.

Then the Nightmare time limit reached 21 days.

"..."

Nothing happened.

Was it not making a proposal this time?

I felt slight relief and pointless unease at the same time.

When something that always pulled dirty tricks suddenly went quiet, that was unsettling too.

I lay down early and fell asleep.

Either way, all that remained now was to challenge Floor 7 in top condition.

Before my family was even awake, I finished a quick meal with energy bars and warmed up.

"Let's go."

There was still plenty of time before the 20-day limit hit exactly.

But I planned to challenge right away.

[Would you like to enter Nightmare difficulty Floor 7?]

"Hoo..."

I took a deep breath, steadied my mind one last time, and entered Floor 7.

* * *

The theme of Floor 7.

Simple: dodge.

If I dodged the arrows pouring in from all directions and survived for the set time, I cleared it.

Of course, a Climber who reached around Floor 7 was already a superhuman far beyond normal people.

Naturally, the incoming arrows weren't ordinary arrows either.

Arrow size, speed, power, quantity, and duration all differed by difficulty.

In Hard difficulty, I heard you had to dodge about 300 iron arrows over roughly five minutes, about one arrow per second.

[You have entered Nightmare difficulty Floor 7.]

The moment I entered, I stopped time and checked the environment.

A cavern like Floor 1, but wider.

Torches lit up the space.

And one more thing I saw... countless holes drilled into the walls on every side.

Arrows would fire from there.

I heard that on other difficulties, arrows only fired from the front.

In Nightmare, every direction across a full 360 degrees was full of holes, enough to trigger trypophobia. Even the ceiling.

Arrows from all sides?

That was well within expectations.

And there was one more difference.

"A door?"

There was a door in front of me.

Why was there a door?

...Check first.

I resumed time.

I'd heard it started exactly 10 seconds after entry.

And just like the terrain on Floor 4, the wall sections that fired arrows were supposed to be indestructible, so attacking them would be useless.

In short, I had to focus only on dodging.

Honestly, compared to other floors, I had just a tiny bit more confidence here...

Because if dodging was the theme, I had plenty of options.

I had Sixth Sense, and Teleport.

I had even drunk Frozen Hydra blood, so unless my head was destroyed, I wouldn't die.

Though since this was Nightmare, there was no telling what insane nonsense it might pull.

"Then let's see..."

Kwaang!

With Sixth Sense ringing an alarm,

I twisted my body aside and dodged.

A shockwave swept past, and the explosion roared after the projectile had already arrived.

Calling it an arrow at all felt wrong.

I looked at the shattered ground.

It only looked like an arrow.

Something twice as long as a person and as thick as a log wasn't what you'd call a normal arrow.

"This is a missile, damn it."

Speed... a bit faster than sound?

No matter that I was past level 80, if one of those hit me, my body would definitely explode apart.

But as long as I didn't get hit, it was fine.

A cold chill ran down the back of my neck, and Sixth Sense rang again.

I twisted and dodged the second arrow that came from behind.

Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!

I ran all over the cavern, dodging the arrows pouring down.

I did have the option of knocking arrows away with magic skills, but dodging was simpler, so I didn't bother.

For a level 85 body, this was comfortably dodgeable with raw speed and reflexes. Heightening was activating more and more too.

I could dodge by sight alone, and I even had Sixth Sense on top of that.

The more Sixth Sense was enhanced, the finer its danger warnings became.

At +3, honestly, I could roughly sense incoming directions even with my eyes closed.

In other words, even with arrows flying from every direction, I had no blind spot.

The firing intervals kept getting shorter, and I kept dodging.

How many minutes had passed? A few?

"...!"

Sixth Sense rang alarms from all sides except the ceiling.

I jumped upward.

Arrows flying in from every direction crashed into each other and shattered.

I landed on top of the debris.

The arrow bombardment had blasted apart the whole cavern floor.

No more arrows were flying in.

It felt like about five minutes had passed.

Of course, no clear completion message appeared.

I walked up to the door.

I looked at the tightly shut stone door, wondering if I had to break it.

Kugugugugu-

With a heavy rumble, the stone door began to open slowly.

I stepped aside.

Kwaang!

Before the door even fully opened, an arrow shot out through the gap.

Sixth Sense warned me, so I'd already dodged.

Cheap tricks like this didn't work on me anymore.

"Hoo."

I caught my breath for a moment, then moved inside the door.

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