WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 13

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The day after I escaped the tower.

I woke up in a hotel room.

Of course, I hadn't paid for it myself.

There were still a few procedures left, so the Hunter Association wouldn't let me go home yet.

"Ugh..."

It had been a while since I'd overeaten. I was satisfied, but I also felt like I was dying.

Even while groaning in bed, I instinctively checked my backpack first.

'It's all here.'

Come to think of it, how was I supposed to sell this stuff?

I wasn't ever going back into a tower again.

I knew there were stores hunters could use outside the towers...

But they probably traded in gold, not cash.

I'd risked my life escaping a tower.

Yet after taking more than a week off from streaming, my bank account was hurting even more.

'Ah, I need to post an announcement.'

I checked my video channel on my fully charged phone.

My livestream subscriber count had definitely dropped a little. There were also quite a few comments asking whether something had happened to me.

When your average viewer count was only a hundred or two, losing even one or two subscribers hurt.

This was pretty fatal, wasn't it?

The moment I thought that, a laugh slipped out.

I'd come back alive from a tower, and here I was calling this fatal.

I wrote a brief announcement.

[Sorry for the delay. I really entered a tower, escaped, and became a hunter. I'll talk about it during today's stream.]

When I checked later...

Escape Life's channel had naturally gone silent too, since he'd entered the tower with me.

It seemed the streamers we'd drunk with had given people a rough explanation. They apparently thought he'd broken up with his girlfriend and gone off traveling somewhere.

After I washed up and got ready to leave, the guys I'd drunk with contacted me.

Brrring!

"Hello?"

[Kang Hyun! Why did you disappear? Becoming a hunter was a joke, right? What happened to Escape Life?]

As expected, they didn't know anything.

Anger suddenly welled up inside me, but...

We were all grown adults. It was my fault for drinking too much.

I couldn't blame them for not taking me home.

"I'll explain it on stream later."

[Wow, you're really hard-hearted. Fine.]

You try going into the seventh floor and coming back out.

See if you don't become hard-hearted too.

I left the hotel and headed to the Hunter Association.

Captain Go Jiho was already waiting for me.

"Our new teammate is here?"

"You don't have a hangover, Captain? You drank quite a bit yesterday."

"You think I'd be laid out from that much? Come this way."

He led me down to an underground training room.

Since yesterday, he'd been incredibly eager to make me a team member.

Enough to make me feel pressured.

"Our Alpha Team is Korea's best hunter team. Since I became the leader, we've never lost first place in annual gold earnings for three years."

Was a team considered the best just because it brought in the most gold?

This was like the Tower Escape game.

"But I don't plan to enter another tower from now on..."

I figured I shouldn't wait too long to say it, so I hurriedly told him.

Captain Go Jiho stared at me like he was going to eat me alive.

"What? Why?"

"What do you mean, why? You could die at any moment."

"People die anyway."

He tried to persuade me with something I'd heard somewhere before.

"You escaped the seventh floor alone. You're a genius at escaping. Are you really going to let that talent rot?"

"Wouldn't I be able to live comfortably forever if I just sold the items I got this time?"

"Items? Sure, you have items. But those aren't the real reward you got this time."

"... What?"

He slung an arm around my shoulders.

"You fought like hell to escape the seventh floor alone and got an EX-rank Basic Skill. You need to put it to proper use."

"Ah..."

When I heard it that way, he had a point.

The greatest reward I'd gained in the tower was my EX-rank Basic Skill.

There would be no reason to use it while streaming games from now on.

Go Jiho spoke when he saw me hesitate.

"I won't push you anymore. You still have one month before you can enter a tower again anyway. Learn a few things about being a hunter and give it some serious thought."

"What? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Once you escape a tower, you can't enter one again for at least a month. If you could go in whenever you wanted, everyone would keep going in and out around the third floor."

Now that I thought about it, that made sense.

I hadn't expected there to be a restriction like that.

Captain Go Jiho took me to a special room in the training area.

There were cameras and barrier walls, along with something that looked like a huge punching machine.

"Try using your Basic Skill here. Honestly, you're curious too, aren't you?"

"Of course I am."

Just how strong was an EX-rank Basic Skill?

"There are medical staff outside, and we have emergency Recovery Potions here. There's no safer place to test skills."

Captain Go Jiho's gaze made me a little uneasy, but...

He was someone who had been looking after me in various ways.

Showing him this much should be fine.

I should have kept more distance from him.

But after craving human warmth so badly in the tower, I couldn't bring myself to do that.

If my skill turned out to be disappointing, he might give up on recruiting me.

"My Basic Skill is Transcendence."

"Transcendence?"

"It says I can strengthen one of my skills and use it."

Apparently, I could choose a different skill each time.

It wasn't like I had to pick one and strengthen it permanently.

"Oh? That's more versatile than I expected. It has a lot of room to grow too."

"Then... should I test it with my highest-level skill?"

"No."

His expression turned serious as he stopped me.

"Skills with strong effects also have strong backlash. What's the lowest-level skill you have?"

Was it like guns?

I looked through my skill list and answered.

"Physical Technique, level 4."

"What? Level 4 is your lowest?"

"Regeneration is level 6, and Sleight of Hand is level 6 too."

"... That's ridiculous. Even hunters who have escaped three or more times barely get their main skill to level 4... Fine. Try it with Physical Technique."

First, I hit the punching machine without using Transcendence.

Boom!

My punch was much stronger than I'd expected.

Strong enough that I felt like it could kill someone in one hit.

That was one more reason not to drink.

[383]

"Hmm."

I didn't know what the number meant, but...

Captain Go Jiho looked slightly surprised too.

"I'll use my Basic Skill this time."

"All right."

I activated Transcendence.

The instant I selected Physical Technique, I felt a response.

[Physical Technique Skill Transcendence, Inhuman Strength skill activated]

My heart pounded wildly, pumping vitality through my entire body.

My fist moved much faster and more precisely than I intended.

Booom!

[1475]

"Huh..."

It had been strengthened to roughly four times its original level.

Go Jiho wrote something down and asked me.

"Are you okay? Your wrist isn't broken?"

"I think it's fine."

"That's on a completely different level from the original skill... Sit down and rest for now."

As I rested and drank water, I heard other hunters talking outside the training room.

Even without trying, I could hear everything clearly because of Complete Senses.

"Who's using the measurement room right now? I saw Alpha Team Captain Go Jiho."

"No idea. Apparently it's some new recruit. They said they only escaped yesterday."

"What? Then isn't that an EX-rank rookie?"

"Come on. You think an EX-rank would show up in Korea?"

"But Choi Ilhyuk joined Alpha Team not long ago. What about him?"

So Choi Ilhyuk was the guy whose mask had broken.

The guy who'd been kicked out yesterday.

I thought it had been a little harsh to treat him like that at a team dinner.

But listening to this, maybe it wasn't.

"Choi Ilhyuk? He acted up because he was supposed to be an A-rank prospect, then caused a huge accident in the tower. His seniors worked themselves to death getting him out from the fifth floor, so he started thinking he was something special."

"So he got kicked out?"

"Do you think Captain Go Jiho is the kind of person who'd let that slide? No way he'd keep him around."

"Ah, so the new recruit took his place. Choi Ilhyuk was acting so smug after joining Alpha Team. What will he do now?"

"He still has an A-rank Basic Skill, so someone will probably take him. Maybe Gamma Team or Bravo Team?"

Gossiping about others really was the most fun thing in the world.

I got too caught up in it, drank, and ended up entering the seventh floor.

But then...

Thump, thump.

My heartbeat started slowing down.

At the same time, strength drained out of my body.

Had the enhancement effect from Transcendence lasted this long?

The duration was longer than I'd expected.

The aftereffects were just as strong.

"Ugh..."

"Are you okay? Looks like there is some backlash after all. You won't be able to use it casually."

It was a good thing I'd tested it with the lower-level Physical Technique skill.

If I'd tested it with Complete Senses or Shadow Walking, I would have suffered quite a bit.

"Should I test Sleight of Hand later too?"

"No. Rest well and take it easy for at least a day. The skill's performance itself is absurd."

Was it?

It felt a little underwhelming compared to what I'd expected.

Maybe that was because Physical Technique was a relatively simple skill.

It definitely wasn't something I could use freely whenever I wanted.

"Um, you know the Basic Skill that hunter used in the basement of the abandoned hospital on the third floor? The one that lured the zombies upstairs. What skill was that?"

"That's a skill called [Lure]. It was probably around C-rank."

"What? That's C-rank?"

"It can only be used to bait monsters. Even then, intelligent monsters don't fall for it easily."

Basic Skills were much stronger than I'd thought.

That bastard's offensive skill when he ambushed me at the Descent Exit on the sixth floor.

If it had hit me wrong, I would have died on the spot.

"But why did you have Soviet-made weapons? Are those the kind of guns you like?"

"No. They were the only things I could get."

Naturally, I didn't properly tell him that I'd killed a hunter on the sixth floor.

Killing someone wasn't something to brag about.

But Go Jiho already seemed to have figured it out.

"Don't worry. You can't be punished for things that happen in a tower."

"I heard there are hunters with bounties on them."

"Why, did a witness survive?"

"That's not it."

"This guy takes care of business. I'm liking you more and more."

Far from giving up on recruiting me, it felt like the situation had gotten worse.

Since things had turned out this way, I asked him everything I'd been curious about.

"By the way, the gun you used, Captain..."

"My gun? You mean the Rattler?"

"What? Wasn't it an MCX?"

"What, do you know a lot about guns?"

I'd seen it in Tower Escape.

Tower Escape didn't care much about gun licenses or copyrights, so it was a game that openly used things like that.

"Ah, the one you saw was the first generation. Mine is the latest third-generation MCX Rattler LT."

"Ah... So it was the latest model."

"The first-generation MCX was discontinued a long time ago, but Tower Escape sure did use it."

They even supplied the latest firearms?

Hunters seemed to get quite a lot of support.

Just then, Kim Yuna walked into the training room and scolded him.

Unlike in the tower, she was dressed extravagantly enough to draw the eye.

"It's your day off. Why are you in the training room bothering the new recruit? Leave him alone already."

Go Jiho pulled her aside and said, "What do you mean, leave him alone? That guy is a complete monster of a rookie, but he says he doesn't plan to continue being a hunter. I need to work hard to win him over."

"... You're terrible at persuading people."

Go Jiho couldn't say a word after Kim Yuna scolded him.

Was this really the same guy who'd said the Association staff were terrible at interrogations yesterday?

'They must divide up work really well.'

They clearly understood the areas each of them was terrible at.

Kim Yuna said, "He streams online, so leave him to me."

"Ah, since you're a streamer too, do you have something that might work on him?"

"Exactly. Did you see his EX-rank skill?"

"I did. It's versatile. He says his lowest-level skill is Physical Technique, level 4."

"What?"

She quickly came over to me.

Sorry, but I'd already heard everything, so this wouldn't work.

I was bracing myself when...

"Kang Hyun, you're doing a comeback stream today, right?"

"Ah. Of course."

I'd already been thinking about doing a stream that evening.

What should I even do?

Playing games or chatting like usual wouldn't be enough to prove what I'd achieved.

Would the Association issue some kind of hunter certificate?

Kim Yuna got straight to the point.

"Do you have any content planned?"

"I thought I'd show off some of the items I got in the tower."

"Come on. That's not impactful enough. Want to do a collaboration stream with me?"

"... What?"

Kim Yuna was both a streamer and an advertising model, so her rates had to be incredible.

A collaboration stream with someone that big?

"For free?"

"Of course. We're teammates, aren't we?"

The mental defenses I'd so firmly built collapsed in an instant.

At this point, it was only polite to let myself fall for it even though I knew what was happening.

I could decide after a month anyway.

"I look forward to working with you."

"Good. Then let's go get something delicious for lunch."

"... What are we eating today?"

"Crab. We know every good restaurant around here, so don't worry."

Crab for lunch?

These people were completely insane.

I shot to my feet and followed the two of them.

Footnotes:

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