WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 23

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The reason I went to the training center was simple.

Was it because hearing the bad news about Beta Team suddenly made me want to train?

No.

It was because that was where the most hunters usually gathered.

Maybe it was because there was a lounge right next to the training center.

After arriving and doing a light warm-up, I naturally started hearing the news.

“Wow, Alpha Team’s rookie is tough... He returned yesterday and came straight to training.”

“What happened to Beta Team?”

“From what I heard, everyone except the team leader died. The team leader says they’re retiring for good.”

Did the team leader feel responsible?

If all the teammates were dead, normal activity would be impossible.

Who would follow that leader’s commands from now on?

“But didn’t Beta Team’s team leader use the Body Modification Drug?”

The Body Modification Drug.

The moment I heard the name, it felt as if I had been struck in the back of the head.

It existed in Tower Escape too, but the system’s limitations had kept it from being properly implemented.

Even among the Tower’s countless spoils, it was an especially dangerous item.

It optimized the user’s body for magic power, didn’t it?

Every bodily function was enhanced, but there was one serious problem.

“If you take the drug and stay out of the Tower for more than three months, you die, right? And they’re still retiring?”

An optimized body could not function properly without a high concentration of magic power.

If someone stayed out of the Tower for too long, their physical abilities would gradually deteriorate...

Until they eventually died.

Even three months was practically the absolute limit.

After only two months, they would be wasting away like a critically ill patient.

“They’ll probably enter a lower floor or something. Maybe the second or third floor...?”

“The magic power concentration on lower floors is too weak to do much. They’d have to go to at least the fourth floor...”

“Well, they’ll figure it out. They might change their mind once they start wasting away.”

“To think Beta Team ended up like that... Even a First-Tier Team can fall when its time comes.”

“Enough. Let’s get started too. It’s not like we have time to worry about other people.”

That was true.

After finishing my warm-up, I started stamina training when a message arrived from Team Leader Go Jiho.

Beep!

[I have to go to a funeral today, so I can’t make it. Why don’t you take the day off too?]

[Okay!]

It looked like he was going to Beta Team’s funeral.

I was planning to finish my stamina training when a Hunter Association employee in a suit came to find me.

He waited until I took a break, then showed me several documents.

“Hunter Kang Hyun, we have a few things to go over. Do you have a moment?”

“What kind of information?”

We moved to a seminar room.

“First, this is Hunter Kang Hyun’s annual salary. It’s the base amount paid regardless of performance...”

I could tell he was trying to explain it in a way I would understand.

The annual salary was in the hundreds of millions of won.

Not just one or two hundred million, either.

It was nearly one billion won.

Still, I accepted it without complaint.

I had already heard about it over drinks the day before.

This was money meant to keep me from going to another country.

It also meant I could receive at least this much if I did leave.

Three or four hundred million won was only natural for an A-rank hunter.

Since I was actually an EX-rank hunter, I could honestly receive even more.

‘It’s more than I was told. Did they give me extra because I’m EX-rank?’

I had heard about it beforehand...

But actually receiving it felt different.

“Is it really okay to give me this much?”

When I asked, the employee gave a bitter smile and explained.

“The equipment issued to Hunter Kang Hyun alone is worth over a hundred million won. That excludes all the weapons and ballistic plates purchased with coins.”

“What? H-how did it get that high?”

Was Team Leader Go Jiho serious when he warned me the equipment was expensive?

“The Quad-Tube Night Vision Goggles you used in the last operation alone cost sixty million won for the base model. Add the dedicated accessories, and they come to one hundred million won...”

They were that expensive?

No wonder I could see so widely and clearly.

Optical equipment was incredibly costly.

As it turned out, the association was investing generously in its hunters.

Of course, I had to consider that I belonged to a First-Tier Team.

“Then... is that all for the salary paperwork?”

“Yes, thank you very much for signing. We’ll continue supporting you in every way we can.”

The employee bowed, then handed me a new set of documents.

“And this is the payment for the gold from the last expedition. You turned over a total of twenty thousand gold to the association, of which four thousand gold was your share. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

We had given the association twenty thousand gold, then divided the remaining twenty-five thousand among the team members...

I currently had about five thousand gold.

With slightly trembling fingers, I checked the number of zeroes.

There were so many that it was confusing.

“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand... One billion?”

Over one billion won.

It made the annual salary I had received earlier seem insignificant.

‘Maybe I can spend twenty million won a month...’

Had Kim Yuna actually been frugal all along?

As I entertained such a crazy thought, the employee continued talking eagerly.

“Alpha Team is truly incredible. Other teams only bring back ten thousand gold once in a while...”

Tower raids had steady fixed expenses, like consumables.

The more you earned, the more you had left over.

If you earned fifty thousand gold and spent five thousand on expenses, you had forty-five thousand left.

If you earned ten thousand gold and spent five thousand on expenses, you had five thousand left.

That was how it worked.

“For your reference, the payment for gold is tax-deductible. Also, the rate improves with additional sales.”

“What?”

“So please make sure to go through the association when selling gold...”

Ah.

They wanted me to sell it to them instead of another country.

As long as the prices were roughly similar, I had no reason to go out of my way to sell gold overseas.

“This account for the deposit is fine, correct? Yes, the transfer just went through.”

“...Really?”

“Yes. It was deposited under the association’s name, so the bank should not bother you about it. Oh, and there’s one more allowance.”

Why were so many people trying to give me things lately?

Was I being scammed?

No, if that were the case, they would have to ask me for something...

“What is it this time?”

“An honorarium for cooperating with new product testing...”

Ah, that.

The things Team Leader Go Jiho had tested when we entered the fifth floor.

“All but one of them were duds, right?”

“Yes. Still, you’ll receive the full honorarium for all of them.”

That was only natural.

We had been risking our lives to test them.

It was not our fault their products had been poorly made.

“We have high expectations for the one that succeeded. Now that we’ve found the right direction, improving it should be easier as well.”

If radios or drones could be used in the Tower, it would practically be a revolution.

“The honorarium has been deposited as well... If you need anything else, please let me know at any time. I’m assigned exclusively to Alpha Team.”

“Thank you!”

Now I could even buy Häagen-Dazs at the convenience store.

Was that going too far?

A few days later, Kim Yuna and I headed down to Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province ahead of the others.

We were going to film a video at a hunter training center Team Leader Go Jiho had specially arranged.

As I packed the pistol I had received as a gift, I sent a message through my smartphone.

Hunters were specially permitted to carry combat equipment.

I figured I should receive live ammunition at the site, but...

Since it could be bought in the shop anyway, there was little point in regulating it.

[Yuna, how are we getting there?]

[I already have a vehicle ready.]

Did Kim Yuna drive too?

I did not think I had ever seen her do it.

A little later, I found a large bus.

It was a premium bus that looked quite comfortable.

The association’s emblem was stamped on its side.

“W-what is this?”

“The crew helping us film has to come too.”

“Hello, Hunter!”

When I boarded the bus, the association’s entire public relations team had come along.

This was practically using them for free.

I was a YouTuber too, so I knew.

It had to cost a fortune to employ this many people.

‘So this is where the twenty million goes...’

Even so, her spending was fairly low for a channel that size.

“Once everyone’s ready, please leave right away.”

Kim Yuna said that as she led me to the seats in the back.

When we arrived at the training center, we looked around the new facilities.

At Go Jiho’s request, they had recreated the Tower’s interior buildings as accurately as possible.

It would be especially helpful for indoor and urban combat training.

“They’ve condensed the routes appropriately. The landmark locations are still roughly accurate, though. It looks like they used the Tower Escape game data as-is.”

“Wow, look at this. Even the rust is similar.”

They had even recreated the sixth floor’s underground section with enormous pipes.

There had originally been a training facility like this, but it looked like it had been upgraded this time.

“Should we start the review right away? Let’s film over there. Set up the cameras.”

“Hunter Kang Hyun, would you like makeup for the broadcast?”

One of the association’s public relations employees asked.

“...No. I think it’s better not to.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ll just show myself as I am.”

We were filming a firearms demonstration video in South Korea.

Everyone would be looking at the guns and Kim Yuna anyway.

I would too.

“All the props are ready, right? Then let’s begin.”

“Yes.”

“Hello, viewers who are alive thanks to us! It’s Yuna Devotees Channel, back with Kang Hyun after a long time! We survived the Tower again this time!”

I had once asked her about that signature line, “viewers who are alive thanks to us.”

Kim Yuna had smiled bitterly and said, “People forget if I don’t keep saying it.”

The public relations team’s filming support was nearly flawless.

“Just turn that light off. Okay.”

“There was a huge incident on the second floor this time! Our team’s rookie, Kang Hyun, received a wonderful gift from an American hunter...”

HTT. Hunter Tactical Technology, was it?

It was the fairly large custom firearms company run by the family of the American hunter who had given me the gun.

“Now, I’ll show you something special. It’s hard to see something like this in Korea, so everyone, hit subscribe and like. Leave comments too.”

The video was a comparison review.

We were going to properly compare it with the H&K Mark.23 Pistol I had been using.

I greeted the camera and stepped up to the pistols.

“First, the H&K Mark.23 Pistol. I think there might be a difference in sound suppression, so I’ll fire this one first.”

Pshht, pshht!

We even used equipment to measure and display the decibel level.

“It’s incredibly quiet, right? It was designed from the start to be used with a suppressor. Next is HTT’s 2011 custom! Its product name is the 2011 Nightfall!”

This was a full-fledged promotional broadcast.

I had received a pistol worth over ten million won, so I had to do a proper job.

Pshht, pshht!

Its sound suppression was unexpectedly excellent too.

Maybe it was because it used 9mm subsonic ammunition.

I liked its distinctive grip and smooth operation.

It was much lighter, appropriately sized, and had a more reassuring magazine capacity.

The H&K Mark.23 Pistol was an excellent pistol, but it was old and could not quite compare to a top-of-the-line custom pistol.

The only area where it had an edge was probably durability.

Still, I kept it safely in a holster or Small Subspace Pouch, so it was unlikely to break.

After filming, I checked the video and its reactions from my hotel room in Hwaseong.

The editing was quick, perhaps because the public relations team handled it directly.

[Yuki: Kang Hyun’s shooting stance is so cool! Forget the guns, give us more screen time for Kang Hyun...]

[Yuna Devotees: This person acts like this even on other people’s channels...]

[HTT official: Hello Koreans, we HTT. We sell best pistols at cheap price. Our works receive good response from experts. But some consumers complain? Little dicks...]

[Fog Lake Swimming Club: The moment he picked up the new pistol, he was grinning from ear to ear.]

[Milduck: Never thought I’d live to see a custom pistol shooting video filmed in South Korea...]

The response was not bad.

This was content I had high hopes for, so it needed to do well.

Kim Yuna and I had uploaded it jointly.

[Kang Hyun, let’s go eat. I heard the hotel restaurant is good.]

A message came from Kim Yuna.

At some point, she had started calling me less formally.

I guessed we had gotten closer in her own way.

As we headed to the restaurant, I asked her a question.

“Yuna, why does Han Juwon work as a hunter?”

“Is it finally Juwon’s turn? Juwon is the last one. They have a lot of mouths to feed.”

“Mouths?”

“They’re married with three children, and they support both sets of parents, plus two younger sisters.”

“That’s a huge family!”

Hunter salaries really were incredible.

They fed all those mouths.

They were effectively responsible for around four households.

Still, as a teammate, I was worried.

“Then isn’t Juwon’s family basically freeloading off Juwon because Juwon is a hunter?”

“I thought so at first too, but it seems like Juwon openly enjoys it.”

“R-really?”

“I heard everyone treats Juwon like a king at home. They properly support the family, but I guess they enjoy the authority they have within the household?”

That was an unexpected type.

I flinched for a moment.

If Juwon enjoyed authority, would they resent me for pushing them aside and taking the deputy team leader position?

“...Can I resign as deputy team leader even now?”

“Don’t worry. Juwon is good at recognizing opponents they can’t beat at all.”

“An opponent they can’t beat? Me?”

“You’re incredible, so you can walk around with your head held a little higher. Even if it’s for business, Team Leader Go Jiho doesn’t give empty praise. You really are a genius at escaping the Tower.”

After all, someone had to survive the Tower before they could wield authority or do anything else.

Kim Yuna said that and took a seat in the restaurant.

Real training would begin tomorrow.

I decided to eat a lot while I could.

Footnotes:

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