WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈

Chapter 57

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A morning with the team.

Today, we gathered in the operations room instead of the training grounds.

The Association headquarters had provided us with a building in the suburbs that we could use freely. It was one of the countless privileges given to a First-Tier Team.

Even if it was called an operations room, we didn't have to use it solely for planning operations.

We'd probably filmed more videos for the channel here than anything else.

Everyone was present today except Han Juwon.

Dragged out of his house, Sang Hajun let out a groan like he was about to die.

"Ughhh..."

"Are you getting an exorcism or something?"

"You know how viruses die when they're exposed to sunlight."

Kim Yuna said it casually.

It looked like she'd changed bags again. How much had that one cost?

Still, it was probably packed with emergency weapons and equipment.

Sang Hajun finally stopped groaning and asked in the conference room.

"So, what's today's agenda?"

"Good question."

I revealed the important reason I'd urgently gathered the team.

"What should our next YouTube content be?"

The moment he heard the agenda, Sang Hajun silently squeezed his eyes shut.

Kim Yuna urged him on.

"Think of something already. Last time's content got a terrible response."

"What did we do last time?"

"Hey! I told you to watch it all the way through, leave a like, and write a comment! You stay home all day anyway..."

"My eyes still aren't doing well."

He'd been landing every shot in training lately, yet he lied without hesitation.

For reference, our last video had been a reverse restaurant crawl.

We went to a restaurant infamous for being expensive and terrible...

It had been a complete failure.

"A reverse restaurant crawl?"

"It's surprisingly popular. There are too many videos of people going to good restaurants and enjoying delicious food... It's kind of like watching a horror movie."

To be exact, the views themselves had been good.

The reactions just hadn't been what we'd expected.

"Why did the response tank?"

"We went because we'd heard it was awful, but it was surprisingly edible."

Objectively speaking, the food quality had probably been awful.

But our taste buds couldn't be disappointed by food anymore.

Compared with what we'd eaten on the ninth floor, the restaurant's food might as well have been a Michelin course meal.

The viewers' reactions after seeing us clean even the side dishes had been brutal.

[5SecondsBeforeEscape: Everyone's eating well? Isn't this secretly a good restaurant?]

[MagicLawyer: No, I've been there too. Does that really look tasty to you?]

[ActualFistLaw: I'm telling you, these people live on hard mode. This might be their last meal on Earth, and they're still forcing themselves to do it for views...]

[SixthFloorGhost: We were wrong. We'll watch even if you just go to ordinary good restaurants, so please go somewhere normal.]

After briefly looking over the reactions, Sang Hajun answered without hesitation.

"Can't we just go to a good restaurant now?"

"We go to good restaurants all the time. We've already shown that a few times..."

"Are you not going to think about this seriously?"

When Kim Yuna scolded him, Sang Hajun looked like he wanted to shoot her.

"Take it easy... We're already getting huge royalties from overseas."

Royalties from the Infinite Dimensional Energy Reactor Technology.

Naturally, our team had decided to split them equally.

Production lines were running nonstop, but they supposedly still couldn't meet even ten percent of the demand.

They needed skilled technicians and rare materials, after all.

"But Team Leader, you went down to the Hwaseong Training Ground with Yuki yesterday. You said Foxtrot Team asked you to teach them how to clear the ninth floor? How did that go?"

"Oh, that? It was a day trip."

Foxtrot was another First-Tier Team in South Korea.

They had successfully cleared the eighth floor based on the strategy our team had taught them.

Once they defeated the eighth-floor boss, the Doll Alchemist, they would meet the requirements to challenge the ninth floor.

So they'd decided to learn how to clear the ninth floor in advance.

Yuki explained the rest for me.

She'd probably sound more neutral than I did.

"Even after the Team Leader went out of his way to teach them the strategy, maybe it's because they're such a pack of clingy followers..."

Never mind.

I covered her mouth and explained instead.

"First, we taught them about the ninth-floor ecosystem and how to build a shelter."

"Uh... how?"

"Obviously, we demonstrated it."

In a forest where we had permission to cut trees, we chopped them down with hand axes, shaped them on the spot, and showed them how to build a frame.

Maybe because we'd gained experience, we were much faster than we had been on the ninth floor.

We even demonstrated how to lay down the flooring.

Foxtrot Team's leader watched with a grim expression before asking,

"We have to do this in two days?"

"Yes. The Soul Giant comes on the second night... though there could be a difference of about a day."

"And we have to secure food and make weapons in that time too?"

"We have to. Enemies are coming."

"... While suffering from Soul Erosion too?"

"There aren't many symptoms until around the second day. Even if your senses are more sensitive than most, you might only hear things or see hallucinations now and then..."

Foxtrot Team's leader made a quick decision.

"I'm sorry. Even though you've gone so far as to teach us your techniques, we'll postpone the ninth-floor clear indefinitely."

They gave up quickly.

But it was a wise choice.

The truth was, I'd finished it in two days only because I had God's Hand, a Transcendence skill...

Otherwise, it would have been quite difficult even with Sleight of Hand at level 10.

Unless they had two people with max-level Sleight of Hand.

Yuki huffed beside me.

"Team Leader and I even worked hard to demonstrate everything..."

"... It can't be helped. The ninth floor is structured so the first two people to enter have to bear the burden."

If they didn't have people capable of doing that, it might be better not to enter at all.

"There is a way, though."

"A way?"

"We still have spare Summoning Horns that we brought back from the ninth floor."

"Ah..."

The Summoning Horns hadn't disappeared after we left the ninth floor.

They were loot we'd earned fairly.

The Appraisal result hadn't said they could only be used on the ninth floor either.

"Wasn't that an exclusive item?"

"Not at all."

If they entered the ninth floor carrying a horn, they could start with three people.

I'd been thinking of giving them one if things looked promising this time...

But there was no need now.

Kim Yuna looked horrified when she heard me.

"Are you crazy? Why would you give them that?"

"Uh..."

Did she just call me crazy? I was the team leader.

But when I looked at the others, none of them seemed to think it was a good idea either.

I guess I really was in the wrong here.

"I didn't give it to them. Even if I was going to, I would've discussed it with everyone first."

"... Don't even think about it. Sorry for yelling."

"Team Leader, you're too soft on other hunters. Like when you lowered the Key of Snow rental fee last time."

Yuki complained too, so I had no choice but to explain myself.

"The key rental fee was 10,000 gold, right? I only knocked off 2,000 gold... It came out of my share."

"Oh, was that how it worked?"

Of course, I had no intention of causing trouble for the team.

If I wanted to be generous, I should use only my own share.

We finally returned to the important topic.

What should our next broadcast be?

Kim Yuna spoke up enthusiastically first.

"There's been a lot of horror or negative content lately, so let's do something more positive this time."

"Then should it just be the Team Leader and me again? Maybe we could go on a date outside..."

The moment Yuki said that, Sang Hajun instinctively replied without thinking.

"That's horror content."

"Eh..."

"He's right. The viewers would have heart attacks, so no."

"Let's go eat first."

I barely managed to settle everyone down.

After we ate and returned, the conversation naturally went off on another tangent.

"Team Leader. There's something I'm curious about."

"What is it?"

"I roughly understand the tenth and eleventh floors. I understand Dimensional Matching too. But if we're included in the matching pool, won't the monsters start carrying guns too?"

It had gone off topic, but it was a very good question.

I'd been concerned about it too.

Still, if I thought it through, the answer was already there.

"First, the Tower's first through tenth floors seem to get harder over time."

The tenth floor and below were effectively a tutorial.

A system designed to weed out races that were bound to fall behind in the competition.

So the difficulty of the tenth floor and below had been steadily rising with time.

The monsters were already carrying guns.

They were powerful conventional weapons that Kaellis, an elven hero who had climbed far higher, had never even seen.

"The Tower is probably absorbing technology from other dimensions."

"What about the eleventh floor?"

"Things are a little different from the eleventh floor onward."

They'd already put us through a tutorial so we wouldn't become punching bags for other races...

What if we stepped onto the eleventh floor and the monsters immediately came out carrying guns, causing the difficulty to shoot up?

That would be like kicking away the ladder.

It would make the earlier tutorial meaningless.

"We already lack information. If it gets harder than it used to be, we'd be dropping like flies."

"That's true."

So even if the eleventh floor's difficulty increased...

It probably wouldn't happen right after we entered.

It would conflict with the earlier system.

Sang Hajun spoke hopefully.

"Then wouldn't everything after the eleventh floor actually be easier than before?"

"It could be. At least the regular monsters would be much weaker."

Of course, we couldn't relax.

Other races had decades, even centuries, of accumulated know-how and artifacts.

Hunters were the greatest threat in the Tower to begin with.

Hadn't we struggled more against hunter teams than bosses so far?

There were about two weeks left before the re-entry restriction ended.

I planned to challenge the tenth floor as soon as the time was up.

There was no reason to delay it any longer.

Even at this moment, other races were advancing above the eleventh floor.

As we talked, today's content was decided.

"Should we pack our gear?"

"Let's do it."

Item Level Restriction.

It would be better to understand it before it was too late.

I began taking artifacts out of my backpack one by one.

"You brought all of that again today?"

"You never know when I'll enter the Tower drunk and need them."

"There's an entry restriction..."

"Come to think of it, Team Leader's been sober for quite a while. I thought you'd definitely drink after coming back from the ninth floor."

I'd craved beer badly then...

But soft drinks tasted good enough, so it didn't matter.

First, I explained the Item Level Restriction.

"It counts each item individually, and it also counts the total."

"Like a weight limit?"

"That's right. The Item Level Restriction for the tenth and eleventh floors is 350 per person."

"350?"

There were five people on our team...

So including all artifacts, weapons, armor, and consumables like ammunition, we had to stay at or below 1,750.

"It looks like artifacts start at a minimum of around 50."

"A minimum of 50? Then what about good ones?"

"They go up to level 100."

I checked each one and explained as I went.

For reference, the Alchemist's Ammunition Box, one of our team's essential artifacts, was item level 100.

The total limit was 1,750, so at first glance it seemed incredibly generous...

But it wasn't.

Even a firearm was treated as an artifact if it had an Enchantment.

On top of that, our team had quite a few artifacts we absolutely needed to bring.

"I want to bring the Ever-Burning Heart (60) at least... Gale Boots (70), Monster’s Gauntlet (100), and Ghost’s Cartridge Necklace (50)."

"Monster’s Gauntlet is level 100?"

"It's a sixteenth-floor boss-tier item."

Its strength-enhancing effect was too useful to leave behind.

It also had a fear effect.

"What about subspace bags?"

"Of course, anything inside counts too. The Subspace Pouch itself is level 10, and the backpack is level 25."

We would obviously bring those too.

There was no weight limit anymore...

But the Subspace Backpack itself was too convenient.

On the ninth floor, it had been more inconvenient to handle Pipe Bombs without a Subspace Pouch.

They were improvised explosives that needed careful handling in the first place.

For reference, the Death Priest’s Dagger and Mask seemed to be considered part of me, so they weren't counted again this time.

That was a huge relief.

"We should have at least ten Subspace Pouches... We're already at 580 levels."

"We still have over 1,000 left."

"It's confusing when you keep calling it levels. Why don't we call them points?"

"That works too."

The problem was the level of firearms and armor...

Fortunately, we had more room than expected.

The Nightfall Custom, a weapon that was practically artifact-class due to its double Enchantment, was around level 40.

Of course, having to bring ammunition separately was painful.

"How much is ammunition?"

"For 9mm, around 15 levels for 50 rounds? Rifle rounds are much more expensive. Twenty-four levels for 30 rounds."

"That's expensive..."

Even 50 rounds disappeared in an instant during actual combat.

We had struggled with a lack of magazines and ammunition in the eighth-floor boss fight too.

But we could use the Alchemist's Ammunition Box to exchange loot for ammunition, so we only needed to focus on bringing magazines.

The loot we could obtain along the way probably wouldn't be as scarce as it had been on the ninth floor.

Even on the ninth floor, Soul Crystals had dropped fairly generously.

"If we Enchant our primary weapons, they'll be around level 40 to 60."

"So they're treated as low-grade artifacts. What about body armor?"

"Soft Armor is level 50. It gets more expensive if you add plates."

Armor really was expensive.

"How about we just bring Soft Armor? If the other side doesn't have guns, we might not need Hard Armor."

"That makes sense."

If we chose high-level bulletproof vests, our armor alone would use almost 500 levels in total.

So we decided on Soft Armor, which could at least stop fragments, and packed everything...

"... We have some left?"

"How much?"

"I did the math, and we have a lot left. Around 500."

"Huh! We brought one grenade each too, right?"

We still had 500 left after bringing everything worth bringing?

Those hunters from other races... they were total pushovers.

We'd have to show them some Earth-made firepower.

Of course, we couldn't simply celebrate.

The other races would definitely enter with their full 1,750 points.

That was how the Item Level Restriction worked.

But it also meant they had that much more for us to take.

I called Han Juwon.

[Hello? What's going on all of a sudden? Don't tell me you were hanging out without me?]

"Would you rather bring a P90 or a machine gun to the tenth floor?"

[Obviously the machine gun!]

An immediate answer without a moment of hesitation.

Han Juwon seemed to have a bit of a trigger-happy side.

That kind of personality was probably why Han Juwon had received a skill like Ghost Bullets.

[Why? Do you think we'll have room left under the Item Level Restriction?]

"Quite a lot. I think we need to apply more Enchantments."

We immediately headed to the workshop.

Footnotes:

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