WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 15

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On the way to the Tower Shop.

During the short walk from the Hunter Association to Gwanghwamun, a man in a suit approached us.

An Association employee called out to Go Jiho.

"Captain, do you have a moment?"

"What is it?"

"I think it's about time we reported the EX-rank Hunter matter to upper management."

"Report it?"

So it was about me.

Go Jiho frowned as soon as he heard that.

"Association upper management already knows, don't they?"

"Um... you mean the National Assembly."

"The National Assembly? Absolutely not. The moment politicians hear about it, it'll be in the news. They'll pester us for daily reports. Is that what you want?"

"N-no, of course not."

Go Jiho glanced at me, then spoke firmly.

"If that information leaks, Alpha Team will suspend tower raids indefinitely."

"What? No, you can't..."

"Obviously. How are we supposed to run operations if our team's confidential information gets out? We'll take a break until things have completely died down."

It was a very reasonable and elegant excuse.

The Association employee nodded nervously.

"I'll make sure upper management gets the message."

"Good. Add Kang Hyun as Alpha Team's newest member and prepare his support funds."

"Ah, Captain. I haven't been able to sleep at home because of my Complete Senses skill..."

"You heard him. Prepare accommodations too. Somewhere clean and quiet."

I'd brought it up at just the right time, so it was handled immediately.

Go Jiho and I passed through the guard post at Gwanghwamun Tower.

"Enter shop."

Flash!

This was the Tower Official Shop.

Not one of the Inter-Floor Shops I'd used inside the tower.

In a far wider, more luxurious space, goblins in suits welcomed us. Even the way they spoke sounded much more natural.

Comparing it to a pawnshop-grade Inter-Floor Shop would have been insulting.

"Welcome. What are you looking for?"

"New guy, what are you going to do about your rifle? Want to keep using the one from before?"

"No."

I'd grown attached to the worn-out Eastern Bloc AK rifle I'd been using...

Still, I didn't want to keep using it.

Go Jiho brought my rifle from the armory beside the guard post and handed it to the Goblin Merchant.

"Sell this."

"An AK-103 rifle. Some of its components, including the stock, weren't made by the tower, so we can't purchase those parts. Would you like us to dispose of them?"

"Sure."

Tower Shops basically only bought items made by the tower.

Otherwise, people would trade instead of risking their lives in the tower.

"They dispose of things too?"

"That's basic service."

Go Jiho's response gave me an idea.

"Then couldn't we bring all the garbage from the Seoul metropolitan area here? Things have been a mess lately."

"Wow, you really are... smart. Your brain works differently."

"Haha. You're too kind."

He lowered his voice slightly and spoke to the Goblin Merchant.

"Hey, pretend you didn't hear that. He doesn't know any better."

"The purchase price is 665 gold."

It had been well maintained and contained plenty of tower-made parts, so it fetched a decent price.

"Now we need to choose your main weapon. What do you want?"

"A rifle should be fine, right?"

"That's the safest choice."

"Can you recommend one?"

As if he'd been waiting, he ordered a firearm from the Goblin Merchant.

Apparently, we could test-fire it too.

"An MCX Spear LT, 11.5-inch 5.56 mm model."

When I received it, it looked like a slightly longer version of Go Jiho's rifle.

"A lot of special forces units around the world use it these days."

"Really?"

Click!

Maybe because it was brand new, everything moved smoothly.

After zeroing the sights, I test-fired it. Every shot hit the target.

Bang! Bang!

"Wow... What I used before wasn't even a real gun."

"Wait, every shot hit?"

"I use Complete Senses for shooting too."

"That works too?"

From what I heard, there was barely any data on upper skills.

"I'll take this."

"Show him the body armor too. Good. It fits perfectly."

I got fully outfitted in tower-made body armor and a ballistic helmet.

Surprisingly, they used regular military products for firearm accessories and night-vision goggles. It seemed they simply replaced them when they broke.

"How much was it?"

"About 3,000 gold."

"That's expensive."

"It's cheap when it's the price of your life. Don't you have anything else to sell?"

"...Should I sell the Snowfield Troll Hide?"

I had no intention of selling the Hood of Hell, the Instant-Death Dagger, or the Ever-Burning Heart.

"No. I heard it blocks the cold really well. Keep it and use it when you go to the sixth floor."

When we returned to the Association training grounds, the real training began.

Go Jiho thoroughly taught me how to move as a team and clear rooms.

"If a room is blocked off, use a grenade to open it."

"What if we don't have grenades?"

"Then don't force your way in. You'll really die."

I could use Complete Senses to know where enemies were...

But I had no way of knowing what dangerous traps or skills might be waiting inside the room.

Alpha Team's operating rule was simple.

"The first goal of every mission is survival. The one who stays alive to the end wins."

"You said we had to earn 20,000 gold every month."

"You need to live first if you want to do that. The secret behind Alpha Team ranking first three years in a row is having the fewest deaths. The moment a team member dies, life becomes hell."

"Wow... How many people died over those three years?"

"Three while I was captain. Usually, if someone looks like they're going to die, I kick them out before it happens."

Like Choi Ilhyuk.

Go Jiho also taught me all kinds of survival rules...

No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't knowledge an Air Force controller would have.

Even if he'd worked as a Hunter for a long time, he felt different at his core.

'No matter how I look at him, this guy used to be special forces...'

"Captain, weren't you a controller?"

"I was. I just controlled things from the middle of enemy territory."

"Ah..."

As it turned out, a Combat Controller was an Air Force special forces role.

"By the way, is the Tower Escape game really that realistic? Should we use it for training sometime?"

"It's such a garbage game that we'd die from stress before it helped with training."

"Oh, is that so? Haven't you been streaming lately?"

"Not for now. I can't record our training and upload it."

"Of course you can't. At least you knew that much. That's a relief."

My last stream had done so well that I made two videos and three shorts from it.

That was probably thanks to Kim Yuna joining me for the stream.

Now that I was an official Hunter, I needed to think of other content.

Maybe I could demonstrate items and skills.

Of course, I couldn't show my Basic Skill or the Instant-Death Dagger.

As training continued, the other team members arrived one by one.

Kim Yuna was the first to welcome me.

"Oh, Kang Hyun! So you decided to join our team after all?"

"Hello."

I'd thought she spent every day going out and having fun.

Apparently, she trained properly too.

Maybe because we'd streamed together last time, she acted pretty friendly around me.

"But why do you stream using your real name, Kang Hyun?"

"Ah, I used a nickname at first. But my real name kept slipping out on stream and getting revealed..."

"So you just combined them? That's impressive."

She suddenly started kneading my shoulders.

"Uh."

"Stay still. They're pretty tense."

After working on them for a bit, she sat down in front of me.

"All right, my turn now."

Had she worked on my shoulders first because she wanted a massage herself?

She was pretty shameless.

Still, this level of shamelessness was fine.

"I'll show you the power of Physical Technique Level 4."

"Mmph, thanks. I'm still Level 3."

She was a veteran, but she was still only Level 3.

Skill experience really was difficult to gain.

It wasn't like she'd done much physically demanding work to begin with.

As I massaged her shoulders and back, an Association employee approached us.

"...Excuse me. Captain Go Jiho?"

"What is it?"

"The police are here. They have a few questions for Alpha Team's new member, Kang Hyun... I think it's about the deceased person who entered the tower with him."

Ah, they were here because of Escape Life.

Maybe Escape Life's fans or family had reported it.

Someone had died, so they had to investigate.

Go Jiho thought for a moment before speaking.

"Find any CCTV or dashcam footage from when Kang Hyun entered the tower. If the police see that they went in together, they'll understand."

"Understood. Kang Hyun, may we check your bank records? We want to search near the restaurant where you ate last that day..."

"Ah, I'll open the app right now."

I liked how quickly the Association handled things.

"New guy, they found it."

"Really?"

I hurried over and peeked at the footage...

It showed Escape Life and me with our arms around each other's shoulders, drunkenly singing at the top of our lungs before vanishing into the tower.

"..."

That was enough for the police investigation to end on the spot.

I received pistol shooting training from the team's sniper.

It was a German-made pistol I'd bought at the Tower Shop earlier.

Sang Hajun, the sniper, was a quiet-looking man.

"Draw it and fire right away."

"Yes."

Pfft!

The suppressed pistol was fairly heavy, but it fit comfortably in my hand.

Sang Hajun didn't seem satisfied, even though I hit every shot.

"Draw, don't aim, and fire immediately. At the range where you'd use a pistol, whoever hits first wins."

"I'll try again."

Pfft! Pfft!

I missed a few shots this time, but he didn't scold me.

"...Good. Even special forces miss two or three shots out of ten when quick-drawing."

"I see."

I really was learning a lot.

During a break, I asked Go Jiho a question.

"What floor will we enter after a month?"

"I like that enthusiasm. But since it's your first time, let's start around the fifth floor so we can get used to working together."

"The fifth floor?"

"Yeah. We enter through the fifth floor, then escape from the third. That route should work."

A three-floor raid sounded about right.

"Will we actively use the Interfloor Merchant?"

"Oh, you have experience, so that makes this quick."

Go Jiho grinned.

He didn't seem like someone who usually smiled this much.

Alpha Team's quota was roughly 20,000 gold.

Accounting for consumables and other costs, we needed to earn 30,000 gold to be safe.

We needed money left over if we wanted to buy better equipment.

The loot itself was quite plentiful if we went to popular farming spots.

Last time, I'd deliberately gone to places with lousy loot.

But Hunters could only carry so much loot.

So first, we would gather everything we could...

Then we would sell any loot with a low value-to-weight ratio to the Interfloor Merchant.

If you turned it into gold, its weight and volume dropped dramatically.

I remembered something he'd said last time.

"But are there really Hunters from North Korea and Somalia?"

"Of course. They lack technology and capital but have too many people. What else would they do? Some of the gold you used to buy your equipment earlier was probably North Korean."

"What? Really? They sell gold to us?"

"Not directly. We buy what's released on the market indirectly. They don't spend gold to prevent monster summons."

"Gasp! Then how do people there live?"

"They get exploited their whole lives, then get eaten if they're unlucky enough to have a monster summoned nearby."

Third World countries were almost living hells.

Come to think of it, dictators wouldn't spend expensive gold to stop monsters.

At most, they'd protect the area around their own homes.

It wasn't as if Hunters were strong enough to overthrow dictators either...

And even if they did, they might become another dictator themselves.

"It's been a long time since I felt this grateful to have been born in Korea."

"Captain, what are we eating today?"

Training was almost over, so Kim Yuna asked.

While staying at the Association, I'd learned that every Hunter took food seriously.

I'd never seen one try to save money at a restaurant.

"Kang Hyun, how about bossam today? I know a place that's great at both the meat and fresh kimchi."

"Sounds good!"

Sang Hajun, the sniper, immediately packed his things and stood up.

Seeing him reminded me of something.

"I guess a lot of Hunters used to be soldiers?"

"Not necessarily. There are a lot of former soldiers and police officers, but there are plenty from other jobs too."

"Ah, really?"

"A lot of people go into the civil service looking for a stable job, but you never know what's ahead inside the tower. In the end, finding people who can keep doing this job is the hardest part."

Over the next month, I ate, listened, and learned many things.

Then, exactly one month later, we entered the tower again.

[You have entered the 5th floor of the tower. Upon successfully escaping, you will receive a gold bonus and skill experience.]

Footnotes:

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