WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 11

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Escape was only a few steps away.

Fifty paces... maybe a hundred?

But the final stretch would not be easy.

There were far too many hunter teams near the abandoned hospital.

It would have been nice if everyone had simply taken turns entering the exit.

The team in the basement clearly had no intention of doing that.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Gunfire rang out from the floor below.

The team occupying the basement was probably keeping the others from approaching recklessly.

At this point, ambushes were pointless anyway. Everyone would assume there was one and stay on guard.

One team in the basement, one team facing them, and one Korean team on the third floor.

The abandoned hospital was fairly large, but three whole teams had entered it.

This place was a perfect powder keg.

Bang! Bang!

The gunfire was cautious for a fight involving more than ten people.

They were still testing each other.

While they did that, I searched the hospital rooms and storage areas.

I was leaving soon, but more loot was always better.

Since this was an area where valuable loot dropped, I hit the jackpot.

'A Recovery Potion!'

A miracle drug that instantly healed any external injury.

With enough of it, it could even restore a severed hand.

How much would this sell for?

No, I should not sell it. I should keep one at home.

Like Tiger Balm.

There were also painkillers and antiseptics far better than the ones I had used on the seventh floor.

As expected, you had to enter dangerous areas to get good loot.

It was a rule that almost always held true in Tower Escape.

'Oh, an Enhancement Potion!'

There were potions that enhanced strength and endurance too.

They were powerful and expensive consumables in the game.

The side effects were severe, so you could not use them freely.

Just as I was getting absorbed in looting, a tremendous noise came from below, where the gunfire had finally stopped.

Beeep, beeeep!

'What now?'

It was not just an alarm clock.

It sounded like someone was trying to make as much noise as possible.

Like a noise grenade.

'Are they trying to draw in the zombies?'

There were still countless zombies around the hospital.

If they lured them in and shoved them into the basement, they could put serious pressure on the team down there.

From inside the storage room, I pushed Complete Senses to its limit.

An enormous number of zombies were rushing in.

A surging tide of them.

"Grrrk..."

"Gaaah!"

Luring monsters in was a little underhanded.

But it was even more underhanded to hold out in the basement and stop everyone else from escaping.

The team in the basement had their own answer, though.

Beeep!

Something shot up from beneath the basement stairs, making a similarly loud sound and drawing the monsters toward it.

Judging by the way the sound moved, it seemed able to move freely.

'Is that a Basic Skill?'

A skill that could lure monsters wherever you wanted would be pretty useful.

The problem was that it had come up the stairs to the second floor.

"Kyaaah!"

The zombies blindly followed the lure up the stairs.

Like bait on a fishing rod, it looked close enough to catch but never let them get hold of it.

'They're coming this way?'

I held my breath in the storage room.

There were too many zombies.

Even with Stealth, I would not be able to avoid them if I stepped outside now.

Just keep going up to the third floor.

There was another hunter team there. They would deal with them.

The bait seemed to have gone up to the third floor...

But there were so many zombies that they spilled into the second-floor corridor.

This abandoned hospital was big, so it had more than one staircase.

If one route was blocked, of course they would spill out through another.

Holding my gun, I aimed at the storage room entrance.

If they just passed by, that would be the end of it...

Sadly, I was not that lucky.

A zombie forced out of the hallway opened the storage room door.

"Kieek!"

The lock had broken long ago, so I could not even lock the door.

I was completely screwed.

Without hesitating, I pulled the trigger.

Pshht! Pshht!

The zombies fell without knowing what had hit them.

But more zombies kept pouring in.

They felt no fear and no hesitation.

Pshhht...

A fifty-round magazine ran dry in no time.

I was in such a rush that I fired on full auto.

Click!

I could not hold out any longer.

After swapping magazines, I slipped out through the window.

There was an old emergency staircase outside the storage room...

I could only pray it would not collapse immediately.

'Going down to the first floor is out of the question.'

The team that had initially lured the zombies would soon return to the first floor.

In the end, I took the emergency staircase up to the third floor.

The Korean team on the third floor already seemed to be fighting too. The gunfire had not stopped.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

I left the closed emergency door alone and entered through a window again.

A hospital room on the third floor.

The zombies had not reached it yet.

Then the gunfire started getting closer.

'Damn, they're coming!'

The Korean team seemed to want to set up here, close to the emergency staircase, just in case.

I hid with Shadow Walking, and only then did I get a proper look at the Korean team.

There were five of them, and they were handling the situation more calmly than I expected.

"Reloading! How much ammo does everyone have left?"

"I've got two magazines!"

"I have three extended magazines left."

'I have about a hundred rounds.'

As I answered in my head, the man who looked like the team leader nodded.

He was a muscular man who looked like he could bench five hundred without breaking a sweat.

The military uniform suited him too well. He was probably former military.

He held a large tactical shield in his left hand...

It was covered in zombie blood.

The shield clearly was not ordinary.

It was also wrapped in a strange aura.

'Was it enhanced by a Basic Skill?'

It could probably block hunter bullets too.

Otherwise, there would be no reason to carry something that huge around.

He held a submachine gun in his other hand.

"Wait, the gunfire on the second floor stopped."

"What?"

The team's only female hunter spoke.

She was a striking beauty... and I was sure I had seen her somewhere before.

'Ah, the ad model I saw when I worked at the cafe.'

I had seen her face so often on ad materials and cup sleeves that I remembered it.

She was also easier on the eyes than the male models.

But I had no idea what her name was.

I had really spent my whole life doing nothing but Tower Escape.

There was something more important than reflecting on my life choices right now.

"You mean the team on the second floor moved?"

"It wasn't a team. From the gunfire, it was one person."

Her senses were sharp, just like a veteran's.

"Then where are they now?"

One of the men asked irritably, and the leader answered.

"... On the third floor."

They could not have gone down to the first floor.

It was the obvious conclusion.

I quietly prepared to escape through the emergency staircase...

But the zombies from the second-floor storage room had spilled out through the window, and the emergency staircase was screaming.

Creeeak...

In the end, the staircase could not hold any longer and collapsed.

Crash!

My escape route was cut off.

The team leader, firing his submachine gun over the shield, shouted.

"Hunter from the second floor, come out! If you don't attack first, we won't hurt you!"

His voice carried over the gunfire and groans without losing any force.

If a man like that sneezed once, he could probably scare a pregnant woman into miscarrying.

After thinking it over, I released Stealth and revealed myself.

The area connected to the emergency staircase was obvious.

If they started searching properly, I would get caught anyway.

They spotted me late and jumped in surprise.

"Gah! Lower your gun!"

"When the hell did you get up here?"

Instead of answering, I pulled the pin from a grenade.

Ting!

"Ah?"

It was a Tower Grenade that could leave even a boss at death's door in one hit.

I had the safety lever clamped tight...

But if they shot me now, we would all die together.

Crash!

In the meantime, the leader knocked over nearby furniture to block the corridor, then calmly picked off the zombies one by one with aimed shots.

He left his position to a teammate, approached me while changing magazines, and acted completely natural despite this being the most dangerous area on the third floor.

"Take off your mask."

"... Why?"

"You might be a wanted hunter traveling alone."

Hunters could be wanted criminals too?

Then again, they shot guns, killed people, and stole things all the time. It would be stranger if they were not.

"Then who are you, Hunter?"

"I'm Go Jiho, a Korean hunter. The leader of Alpha Team."

He really answered without hesitation.

Since this was the third floor, I did not need to worry about Toxic fumes.

I slowly took off my mask and showed them my face.

Their reaction to seeing it was a little different from what I expected.

"... You're young."

"Wait, are you Korean?"

"Yes."

If I could avoid fighting, there was nothing better.

The leader with the shield studied my face closely.

"I don't remember seeing you in the hunter roster. Unregistered... no, if you're traveling alone, are you a rookie?"

"Do you have every hunter in the country memorized?"

"Of course."

The leader answered his subordinate's question as if it were obvious.

After thinking it over, I told them the truth.

This seemed better than being suspected of being an unregistered illegal hunter, in other words, a criminal.

"... I entered the tower recently. This is my first escape."

"You couldn't have entered alone. Where are your teammates?"

"There was one, but he killed himself."

It was a bit of an extreme summary, but it was not wrong.

Thinking of that bastard Escape Life made me clench my teeth.

"What floor did you start on?"

"... The fifth floor."

I could not tell them the seventh floor. They would not believe me, so I gave them something more believable.

Sure enough.

The idiot hunter with the half-broken mask spoke.

"That's obviously a lie! How could a rookie come down from the fifth floor with equipment like that? Anyone who enters the tower in the first place isn't normal!"

Was that bastard condemning himself right now?

"I didn't know I'd end up in a place like this either, you asshole."

Maybe my sincerity got through.

Go Jiho stepped in to mediate.

"You're Korean. If you're not a criminal, that's enough. Let's escape first and talk afterward."

They had roughly pushed back the zombies, but things below did not look good.

They did not seem to have time to fight me here.

"Try to understand. Sometimes imprisoned criminals enter the tower."

The ad model and female hunter spoke to me.

Her tone was friendly...

But she had a tight grip on her gun.

Still gripping the safety lever, I asked.

"Criminals enter the tower?"

"Hunters can enter the tower anytime, anywhere. But their exit location is fixed, so they're caught again as soon as they get out."

If you entered the tower in Korea and escaped, you came out in front of Gwanghwamun Tower.

There would naturally be plenty of guards stationed there.

It sounded like a warning not to attack recklessly.

"..."

I finally pushed the grenade pin back in.

The leader nodded at what I did.

"We'll break through the basement now. The rookie takes the rearmost position."

"Who knows what that guy might do from the rear?"

The hunter with the broken mask protested furiously.

The leader simply ignored him.

"We'll clear the path. Keep a ten-pace gap until we say it's safe. If you get too close, we'll treat it as an attack. Yuna, you handle the rear."

"Got it."

The female hunter nodded and stood in front of me.

Only then did I remember.

Her name was Kim Yuna.

If they were going to clear a path for me, that was great for me.

"Seo Jun, push down from the eastern staircase. If it doesn't work, you can pull back. The rest of you, same as always."

"Yes."

After giving simple orders, Go Jiho pulled his mask back on and set off.

He really intended to lead from the front and clear the way.

"Hnnngh!"

The guy with the broken mask held his breath as hard as he could.

We broke through the zombie horde and advanced from the third floor to the second.

Boom!

They spared no explosives and pushed forward with overwhelming firepower.

After pouring out bullets and grenades, they finally cleared out most of the zombies.

"I'm going in!"

Go Jiho raised his shield and charged into the basement.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Explosive gunfire and blasts erupted.

But instead of retreating, he pushed even deeper inside.

Shouts of surprised hunters came from the basement.

"Aaargh!"

"T-they're coming from the side too!"

He was forcing his way through them that easily.

The shield's performance must have been beyond imagination.

Or maybe it was Go Jiho's Basic Skill.

All we had to do now was escape in order...

But this damned tower did not seem willing to let me go so easily.

The second team that had brought the zombie horde earlier was starting to approach.

"Those guys are trying to get in!"

"Chase them!"

Every one of them.

Instead of steadily gathering loot, they were all hoping to hit it big in one shot.

I wanted to run straight for the Direct Exit in the basement morgue right away...

But if I got too close, they might attack me.

Ting!

I pulled out a smoke grenade and threw it into the first-floor corridor.

Whoosh!

Smoke spread thickly in an instant.

Inside it, I pushed Complete Senses to its limit.

Pshht! Pshht!

"Agh!"

"Ah, I got hit!"

But even with Complete Senses, I could not hit their vital spots accurately in a situation like this.

Why were they not getting inside already?

Just as I was growing anxious, Go Jiho shouted to his teammate.

"Yuna! Bring the rookie!"

"Come here!"

Kim Yuna grabbed my wrist.

The next moment.

Flash!

She teleported us into the passageway.

"Gah!"

Was this Kim Yuna's Basic Skill?

Short-range teleportation with a teammate?

That was completely broken.

She definitely had what it took to be an ad model.

"Get in!"

After passing through the long, dark underground passageway, I finally escaped the tower.

Flash!

Countless messages filled my vision in an instant.

[Escape Complete]

[World first: Complete clear of the seventh floor while possessing no skills.]

[Achievement Reward: Reacher trait acquired.]

[As a first-clear reward, you have acquired the EX-rank Basic Skill, 'Transcendence'.]

[Global Announcement: A hunter has been confirmed to have completely escaped the seventh floor without possessing a Basic Skill. The eighth floor has been unlocked.]

Beyond the tunnel was Gwanghwamun Plaza.

I had survived.

Before I could properly savor that fact, the team members who had escaped with me stared at me.

The silence stretched on before someone finally broke it.

"You said you started on the fifth floor?"

"Maybe the timing just happened to work out?"

"... You really expect us to believe that?"

Go Jiho suddenly grabbed me.

Footnotes:

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